Endgame

Entropy
It couldn't have been more than five minutes since Pan, Serafine, Justin and Annie had left to confront John Brogan and his cabal.  Since Jim had limped slowly into the woods to meditate and assist his friends from a distance.  Only a few minutes, but the time stretched unbearably long when one was waiting to find out if people they knew might live or die, and the woods around the cabin were so quiet tonight.  The kind of eerie not-right quiet that meant the animals had all gone to ground.
Inside the cabin, Leah sat on the sofa in the living area with her legs crossed beneath her light frame, turning an as-yet uneaten apple over and over in her hands.  She didn't look hungry.  More likely, it was an attempted safety precaution (so many things died around her.)  Sid and Shoshannah sat nearby - maybe on the sofa beside her, maybe on one of the nearby chairs.  Or maybe they stood and paced by the window, watching for signs of danger in the blackened forest beyond the porch.  Lena was with them, hanging back a little out of courtesy.  Of the three, she was the least familiar with the recent events that had brought them all here, but no less prepared to help.
Leah wasn't talking.  She was looking at the apple with an intense expression, like a part of her wanted to dig into its flesh and tear it to pieces.  Previously, she'd exhibited signs of normal behavior.  She'd spoken to them all, said hello, seemed glad to have them with her.  But now it was like they weren't even there.
Five minutes.  And then...
Darkness.
Some rushed in like a ghost and swept over them - something (someone) foreign and powerful.  The three women would barely even have a moment to register what was happening - to feel the invasion of an alien Will entering their thoughts - before everything went dark and their bodies slumped unconscious.
The darkness stretched for a long moment as they slept.  Who knew how long it actually was, but then they opened their eyes and found themselves in a place that was real and unreal at the same time.  Asleep, but conscious.  In the middle of a charred and blackened landscape where there was nothing around for what seemed like miles.  A small amount of muted light lit spilled down from the flat grey sky, illuminating the dangerous crags of the broken and rock-strewn ground.  There was no sun.  No moon.  No stars.
In the distance ahead, the outline of a great black mountain rose up.

Entropy
[Edit: "Something rushed in" - rrgh.]

Lena Reilly
Lena was happy to be the one hanging back and seeing to anything else that needed to be handled while Sid and Shoshanna stayed close to Leah.  She's not uncomfortable around the girl by any remote stretch of the imagination; she just recognizes that there are a lot of people who may be uncomfortable with a newcomer.  The only one who knows her is Sid, and she isn't the most sociable person herself.  So she took to keeping them within eyesight but also keeping her attention fixed on the windows, lest they get snuck up on.
Which, of course, makes sense that the sneak-up would come from within.
Lena is far from a Master in any discpline, or even a Disciple.  Of all of magick's areas of influence, Mind is one of her most experienced.  Her own specialty focus is directed there, after all, so she spends a lot of time idly sensing about as she works with her music.  But as we covered, she's not an expert compared to many others and is caught unawares (she also wasn't trying to infringe on anyone's thoughts...again, new person).  Her eyes widen slightly, pupils dialate in panic and her mouth just slightly cracks before her senses flee.
And then she's coming too what seems to be a post-apocalyptic world.  She groans a little as sits up, looking around and rubbing at her temple.  "God damn it."  It's said wearily, without any vitriol.  She's too concerned to be angry.  She climbs to her feet slowly, looking over at Sid and Soshanna for a moment.  "Are you guys okay?"
She listens for her answer but looks around, taking a lay of the land and looking for clues.  She's guessing that they're either Umbral or, more likely to Lena's mind, in a nindscape of some kind.  Neither is good, but specifics should still be metered out.

Lena Reilly
[[Per+Aware, Specialty Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

Rhodes
Sid was standing by a window, arms folded - well, not so much folded as wrapped tightly around her body, her hands gripping her upper arms so tight the she dug indentations into her skin.  Five minutes, just five minutes.  Five minutes since the others left.  It wasn't even time enough to start to really worry.  Not about the others.
About them.  These three alone with that girl.
There is a question that Sid has been digging at, turning over in her mind like a stone for days.  Why?  She's never seen John Brogan, not even in the form of a vision of the past, or the future, or whatever.  But she knows from the others that he's dangerous.  Stronger than Pan, Sera said.  And he let them take Leah one night, after they talked her down from a ledge.
Why?
She had intended, while the others were off running through the woods, calling down bolts from the sky or shooting or wielding a fucking katana, to keep an eye on Leah.  She wanted to believe in Jim and Pan and Sera, a part of her yearned to trust them and their belief that this girl could be saved from whatever dark fate awated her.  But wanting a thing is not the same as the thing, and Sid has lived a long time without trust.
She is just turning away from the window, looking over her shoulder first, the rest of her body turning after, when the darkness hits.  A second later and Sid's body hits the floor as a foreign entity steals her consciousness.
Moments or an eternity of neverending darkness later, and her awareness returns.  She's up on her feet as quick as she can, turning in a quick circle to take in the surroundings, then the women with her.
Lena asks a question, and Sid answers with one of her own.
"Where's Leah?"
[percept+aware, spec: paranoia]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

Mitchell
[Per + Aware]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 8, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )

Entropy
The question of Leah's whereabouts was perhaps a moot point, because as the three women got to their feet and took in their surroundings, the overwhelming sensation they would become aware of was that of Decay.  It was everywhere, brushing against their skin like Death himself was breathing down their necks.
Leah was quite literally all around them.
And something else, too.  They'd felt it when he'd entered their minds moments (eons) before.  Strong enough to shatter the defenses of even another student of Mind and drag them all to this imagined landscape.  Enticing, Inspired, Commanding and Revolutionary.
A mind that would change (or unmake) the world.

Mitchell
It's instinct, perhaps, that has Shoshannah pulling a very specific item (a flash of well patina-ed copper, largely hidden before it's turned into a pick on the guitar - it's a seeking chord that she plays, a testing, questioning one.  It's also defensive, and holds more than a little bit of betrayal in it.  Shoshannah doesn't make friends, after all - she may tentatively like people now and then, but that's about it.
Leah, she'd opened up to.  A bit.
(We're so close to the same, you and I.  Bring us home, Leah, please.)
[Rote beginning: Perfect Defense.  Corr, Entropy, Mind 1]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Mitchell
And, when the effect fizzles?  (Or, rather, simply doesn't do anything, as such things happen in dreams.)  Well, then it's a matter of clawing for the edges.  They're all strong, after all.
And the pained, betrayed thought stands, all but shouted at the owner of the Innerspace in which they've found themselves.
"Should have known," she mutters.  "If this follows any kind of pattern - questionable, I know - heading for the mountain is probably both the best and worst idea.  Let's stay together, yeah?"
She's sullen and disgruntled at the best of times, even Lena's come to know in the time they've spent together.  Now, it's ratcheted up a few notches.

Entropy
Shoshannah attempted to work her Will, but quickly found that the threads of weaving would not come to her.  Not in this place, where someone else's mind controlled the laws of reality.
Are you guys okay?
Where's Leah?
Bring us home, please.
There was no answer for them but their own voices.
Shoshannah suggested that they continue towards the mountain, which indeed seemed to be just about their only course of action at this point.  But before the others could respond, the ground beneath them heaved and shook - and a deep crack opened up about ten feet to the right.
In the distance, inside the mountain, something shrieked.  It was not a human sound.

Lena Reilly
Yeah, that's what she was afraid off.  She frowned a little bit, looking back at the other two.  "Okay, you guys gotta be the guides here.  This is her mind, and that means the better we know her, the better road map we're going to have."
Mental note: next time you're standing guard over a widderslainte, get to know her.
The good news is at the moment, they're in a relative semblance of reality.  While they're playing in Leah's headspace and playing by her rules, nothing drastic appears to have changed in terms of the laws of the universe.  So she pulls her iTouch out of her pocket and slips an earbud in her right ear, thumbing through the touch screen to bring on a specific track: Black Eyed Peas' "Meet Me Halfway," remixed by will.i.am himself.  Hopefully that'll be inspiring.
Will you meet me halfway/right on the borderline is where I'm gonna wait...for you...
Leah is God in this realm.  She hopes that God is willing to find common ground.
"C'mon, hon...meet us off the mountain," she says quietly, then looks to the others.  "Lead the way."

Rhodes
Of the three of them, Sid and Lena have the least connection to the girl.  Sid only learned she'd been found a few days ago, the same day she learned just how much had happened, how much had changed in the weeks since she had seen the other Awakened.  Even so, she recognizes this resonance from the warehouse.
This landscape looks a little like that dead place, only worse.
Sid frowns, and she takes a moment to really examine the surroundings.  There is nothing, nothing but the charred ground around them, grey sky above them, and that ominous mountain in the distance.  When she hears music she whips around to find its source only to see Shoshannah, attempting to Work something.  Sid's frown deepens and she looks back toward the mountain.
It looks far.  It'd take ages to walk there.  But, if they're in the mind of Leah, maybe they can affect it, like living components of a lucid dream.  Not that Sid remembers those much, but really, could it be any harder than working magic?
Before she can think of something to try, the ground shakes and cracks open.  Her heart jumps clear up into her throat, and she herself scrambles back, away from the opening.  Her heart well and truly thumping in her chest now, she closes her eyes and just breathes for a moment.  Calming herself, her body, her mind.
They're guides here, Lena said.  When Sid opened her eyes, she looks to Shoshannah, the other teen.  She hasn't been in their company at the cabin long, but anyone with eyes could see there had been a connection between those girls.  The only things Sid knows are bad things, little anecdotes of the life Leah had to leave behind.
"Shoshannah?"

Mitchell
In truth, Shoshannah knows less than Sid and wonders, now, how much of what she did know was true.  Scars are easily faked, after all, and lies . . . well.  the Dreamspeaker's known more lies than truths in her relatively short life, and she's angrier at herself for believing maybe Leah was different than she is at the Widderslainte for being exactly. the. damned. same. as everyone else she's ever known.
"It's a dream, yeah?  All I know about Leah is she tried to kill herself and got scared, so quit.  But dreams . . . well.  Not to be all kumbaya or anything, but let's hold hands and see if we can focus on getting where we're going, yeah?  But we have to agree, and think the same thing.  My bet is mountain.  You guys good with that?"
There'd been an opening through which Sid had seen not that long ago.  Right now, any crack in Shoshannah's I-don't-care-stay-away attitude is well and truly sealed.  But as soon as the others agree, she's taking their hands (prickly, clammy, icy death - a messenger, a guide indeed) and closing her eyes, doing her best.
[WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Entropy
[WP]
Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )

Entropy
Lena went for what was familiar to her, imagining the sound of the Black Eyed Peas as the music played in her ear.  And she spoke into the grey air around them, hoping that Leah would hear and meet them halfway.
But there was no response.  And no one came to meet them.
Then a tiny spark singed the inside of Lena's ear, and the bud fell away - useless.  (The other appeared to still be working.)  Whatever had caused it, it wasn't Leah.  At least, it didn't feel like it.  It was that same commanding Will that was hovering invisible beyond their comprehension.  Almost as though he were watching them.  And waiting.
Shoshannah attempted to gather them all together to cross the distance through sheer force of belief, reaching out to take the others' hands.  The ground shook again.  Harder, almost knocking them down.  And another crack formed.

Lena Reilly
She hisses at the little spark, her head jerking to the side as the earbud falls out.  Sure, it's only her mind's body and not her body but the pain is still quite real to her.  She would be irritated at the headphone being lost (she has a particular affinity to these ones; probably why they're the ones that she imagined she has) but they're not the actual headphones, so...
Besides, she has something more significant to worry about.  Leah calls for them to do a little teleportation and Lena pauses, waiting to see if there's any response.  The ground rumbling under them, cracks forming...that's a response, all right.  She teeters, hands out to steady her, and reaches to help steady the others.  "Jesus..."
Once they've stabilized, she looks between them.  "Her past incarnation?  Or am I missing something here?"  She's talking about the Other, obviously.  "They don't seem to want us to take shortcuts...probably because that's Their territory.  Which means that's probably where Leah is.  And I'm thinking this might be a rescue mission."

Rhodes
Lena tries to entice Leah to them, to meet them halfway.  Shoshannah suggests they go to her, that they join hands and work together to get to the mountain.  And that inhuman shriek.
Sid, her panic at the ground shaking controlled, was already moving toward the Dreamspeaker.  It's true, one day a few weeks back she'd looked through the girl's fuck-off-world-you're-not-my-real-dad exterior.  Even now, with that crack firmly sealed up, the older woman is fairly certain it's still there.  It's the armor of teenagers everywhere, if a little tougher and more durable than most.  She didn't reach for her hand, though, not immediately, at least not in a way meant to bring the girl comfort.  So far the only people who have felt the Orphan's touch have been Jim and Sera.  As protective as she feels toward the teen, she's just not there with her.
But she does come closer, one arm crossed beneath her chest to hold the opposite arm, her chin lowered.
Nothing happens, at least not the thing Lena hoped would happen.  Instead of Leah coming closer to them, the ground shakes and breaks again.  Sid, sidles a little closer to the other two, looks over her shoulder at the mountain, then back to them.
She shakes her head at Lena, gives a little shrug, I don't know.  She knows what John Brogan looks like, as described by Sera, but she doesn't know what he feels like.  "I think...I think we should try it, anyway," she says.  "They can break the ground all the want if we're not here."  As she says it, she's reaching out for their hands.

Rhodes
[WP hrrnnggh!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Lena Reilly
[[Our powers (of will) combined; We Are Captain Planet!]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 1 )

Mitchell
"I'm not making assumptions.  And I'm also running out of patience.  You coming or not?"
Sid finally reaches out and gets that chill feeling (it's all mental, metaphorical) intensified; Shoshannah is the eerie, otherworldly version of nails on the chalkboard, and clearly she doesn't expect the contact to happen for long if it happens at all.  The only reason she's suggested it is that contact makes it easier to sync thought - to focus on each other's various rhythms.  And now?  Now, she closes her eyes and imagines with all her might that the mountain will be right in front of her when she opens them.
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 4, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Entropy
The three linked hands and focused, concentrating with all their will to see the mountain standing before them.  Perhaps if they believed strongly enough that it was there, it would indeed be there.
And then they opened their eyes.  And it was.
Up close, it was much more terrifying than it had been from a distance.  Towering and steep, with black obsidian shards jutting out at dangerous angles.  There was no way they'd be able to climb it if they tried.  Not without tearing their hands to pieces.
But there was an opening - dark and cave-like - just before them at the mountain's base.  And an eerie pale glow that illuminated a passage leading into the ground.

Rhodes
[claustrophobia]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )

Lena Reilly
Her instinct is to get defensive with Shoshanna, try to explain that she was trying to figure things out before they leapt ahead.  The frustration passes over her face, briefly, but she pushes it back.  Now is not the place for them to start arguing, so she just nods and takes Sid's hand, focusing.
It is perhaps that frustration that distracts her.  But Soshanna and Sid are her betters there and they get to the mountain.  She looks up and shivers, arms wrapping around herself.  Yeah, this looked...ominous, to say the least.  She looks ahead to the cave and starts venturing forward, humming a very different tune than her last effort.  It's a tune from her childhood, one her mother used to sing.  It's not for magic or anyone but herself, to set herself at ease.

Rhodes
Shoshannah's touch is creepy, sure, for most people.  Just being near the girl gives people a sense of someone walking over their graves.  Sid hasn't minded it much.  When you're level of discomfort is already at 10, it really can't get much worse than that (unless it goes to 11, but Sid has already met her quota for that this week).  Holding her hand gives her the same feeling.  And the thing about Sid's hands is, they're warm.  They're warm like hearthstones left before a cheery fire.  Her touch is comforting even when she herself has no idea how to give comfort.
So they hold hands, and they close their eyes, and they concentrate, and when they open them again it's to a scene from a nightmare.  A dark cave, close and tight, leading down into more darkness with only a little bit of light.  For a second, Sid's hand squeezes Shoshannah's tighter, but for whatever reason the old terror doesn't grip her chest, squeezing the life from her lungs.  Maybe it's the hand she holds.  Maybe it's the knowledge that this is all a dream - someone else's dream, sure, but still.  They've already proven they can have an affect on this place, that they can exert their Wills to help themselves.
Looking at that tunnel, though, Sid still feels uncomfortable.  She relaxes her grip on the Dreamspeaker - but doesn't let go - and she closes her eyes again.  Little does she know, she and the girl at her side are thinking exactly the same thing.
[let there be LIGHT: WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Mitchell
Almost the same thing, really.  Shoshannah's neither claustrophobic nor afraid of the dark (there is, in fact, little if anything of which she's afraid - these things happen when one rises from the ashes - or a puddle of one's own blood, as the case may be), but she doesn't particularly like the thought of being lost without a guide.
It's an amusing aversion, perhaps, for a ferryman to hold.
[And let that light show us where we need to go!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )

Entropy
Sid and Shoshannah wished for light, and once again the thing they wished for appeared before them.  This time it was in the form of two floating balls of glowing energy, one green like phosphorescence and one white like a ghost.
The beacons floated into the passage ahead of them as they moved, lighting the way into the mountain.  Slick obsidian steps led them down the long, narrow passage.  Sid was able to confront her fear, but would her determination last?  It seemed as though the passage went on forever - winding its way down and down, as though they were descending into the bowels of Hell.
And the walls... surely they were getting tighter?  Where once they had room to move freely, now their elbows cracked against black glass.
No - yes.  The walls were definitely closing in.  Tighter.  Tighter.

Lena Reilly
[[WILLPOWER!!]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 6) ( fail )

Mitchell
[WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Rhodes
[WP DIFF 10????????]
Dice: 5 d10 TN10 (2, 2, 4, 4, 6) ( fail )

Entropy
[Lena loses 3 WP.  Lena and Sid must spend a WP to continue on.  Shoshannah is a-okay.]

Lena Reilly
She doesn't expect to be freaked out when things start getting claustrophobic.  She's been in tight places before.  (No, that's not a euphemism; have you ever seen club bathrooms, especially when crowded?)  But as it starts closing in around her, she finds her breath getting a bit short, and for some reason that registers as physical ailment.  For a moment, she forgets she's not in her body.  And her body comes with certain ailments that strike at her core.
And that's when, for a moment, she completely panics.  She starts gasping for breath that she doesn't need, flails and scrapes the skin of her arms against black obsidian.  She feels like she's about to have a seizure, and things get foggy; she backs up suddenly, bumping into Sid (and possibly setting her off; she'll apologize for that later.)  And when she feels herself bump into Sid, she springs forward in panic.
Luckily, that spring forward shakes her a bit and gives her the focus to try and continue.  She steels her will, not even half as strong as it was moments earlier, and fights the scream trying to burst out of her throat.  She lets out a shaky, gasping breath and pushes herself further ahead.

Rhodes
They descend into the darkness, Sid and Shoshannah's little balls of light guiding them.  Down and down and down they went.  Sid remembers a book that went kind of like this.  A girl with red hair had to climb a mountain (after fighting a dragon and generally being kind of a badass).  Up and up she went, forever.
Sid doesn't think she's that flame-haired dragonslayer, not by a longshot.  But the thought gives her some comfort as they go down deeper, toward the pit of this hellscape.
Which is good.  Perhaps that comfort is what keeps her from completely losing her shit when she realizes the walls are getting too close.  Close enough that she and Shoshannah, still linked by their hands, start to crowd together.  Closer, to where they need to start thinking about walking one in front of the other.  That...that is when Sid realizes what's going on.
The walls are closing in on them, trapping them.  I don't like to be trapped, she said in a tiny motel room late one night a hundred years before this moment.  Trapped can mean so many things.  This time, at least, it doesn't mean the root of her fears.  The walls are close and getting closer.  Just when Sid does start to remember -
No!  Nononononononono!
- Lena bumps into her, knocking her back into an encroaching wall.  The collision doesn't set her off so much as bring her back here, to this moment, this tiny little cramped space, these people.  This mission.
Gritting her teeth, she lets out a grunt, a feral, terrified animal sound, and she shakes her head.  She has to do this, she just has to.
"M-maybe," she stammers, her body shaking all over, "maybe we can stop it."  She places her hand on the wall of black, the other continues to squeeze Shoshannah's in almost a death grip.
[-1WP to resist running]

Mitchell
(Focus.  We're almost at the end and there's plenty of room.)
Shoshannah doesn't speak.  She doesn't particularly listen, either, just stays in her place at the front of the line, following her glowing ball of light.  This is a dream, right?  Or a nightmare, whatever.  Being pulled into someone else's 'scape doesn't matter, it's still fluid and malleable.
(Help us, Leah.  Help me.)
Whether the tunnel shortens, stops shrinking, or does nothing at all, Shoshannah's not stopping.  Nor is she letting go of Sid's hand - the Orphan doesn't have much choice, for the moment.
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 5) ( fail )

Entropy
For a long, suffocating moment it truly did seem as though the mountain would trap them in coffin of glass.  But just when Shoshannah began to plead mentally for Leah to help them, the tunnel grew still once more.  Perhaps it was indeed the girl's will, or perhaps the moment had been a lucky coincidence.
Either way, the trio moved on.  And finally, the tunnel emptied out into a small cavern.  The twin orbs of light that Sid and Shoshannah had created floated up to illuminate the craggy ceiling with a soft green and white glow.  As the last of them stepped into the cave, the stairs winked out of existence behind them, leaving them no path but the one that lay ahead.
There was another opening at the other side of the cavern, and the three began to walk toward it.  Their footsteps echoed around the glass walls as though magnified.
Something hissed.  A gust of wind blew past them that carried with it the stench of death and decay, dry and cloying like leathered skin and bleached bones.  And shadows came on the breeze.  Ghosts or phantoms - dark, writhing creatures with hollow eyes and skeletal fingers.  They swam through the air and breezed past the three magi, floating around them in tight circles.  The ghosts whispered in a tongue they did not recognize but somehow understood.  (All but Shoshannah - who might very well feel as though she'd heard this tongue before.)
We are death.  We are inescapable.  And we will wear at you until there is nothing left but dust.
One of them clung to Lena in particular, trailing its sharp fingers over her arm.  It is already inside you.  Breaking down.  Wearing you away.  Stay.  Stay with us.

Mitchell
[WP!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (5, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Lena Reilly
[[Willpower.  DO BETTER OR I'LL MAKE YOU REMIX REBECCA BLACK, LENA!]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN10 (3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6) ( fail )

Rhodes
[WP HRGHH!!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (3, 5, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Entropy
[Lena must burn a WP point to shake off the ghost and keep going.  Sid and Shoshannah are ok.]

Lena Reilly
Stay with us.  It is already inside you.
That's something that the Cultist lives with every day.  She hasn't told anyone in this city (except her new pharmacist), but that's why she suggested she would be poor for a combat situation.  Nothing like "I'm bleeding, stay away from me" to complicate a fight.  She puts up a friendly front...and to be honest, it isn't a front.  She celebrates life because she knows how quickly it could end.  Most days, she just takes her medical regiment and moves on. Clearly, today is not one of those days.
And to be truthful, there's something tempting in that plea to stay.  It would be easy to give up and surrender.  And she finds it very difficult, in this moment, already worn down, to say no.  She's paused for far too long at that moment, weaving a bit to each side, not moving forward.  It takes all she has to take one step forward.  Then another.  Then one more.
Quietly...not with conviction, but it's still there, she banishes it with a couple words.  "Blow me."

Rhodes
She'd told someone only a few days ago that she wasn't afraid of death, and it was as true then as it is now.  There is a hiss, and then the smell of death is all around them, followed by phantoms trying to lure them like some Greek tragedy.
Stay with us they whisper, one of them clinging to Lena.  Sid slows her steps, allowing Shoshannah to get just a bit ahead of her before their linked hands force the teen to stop.  Sid is turned a little, looking back over her shoulder.  Something shifts in her pale features when she hears those two quiet words.  The corners of her mouth twitch like they want to go upward, like she wants to smile, only they don't quite make it.  Something keeps them down.
Still.  She watches Lena take those steps, one.  Then another.  Then another.  When she's close enough, the Orphan turns a little more and holds out her hand to the Cultist.  Sticking together, standing hand in hand, it worked so much better than any of them being separate, after all.

Mitchell
"Don't let her go."
It's the first thing Shoshannah's said in awhile, likely since she asked if Lena was in or out - but for someone with that fuck off world attitude, she's pretty dead set on moving forward, on seeing this through.  Already, she's getting a feeling for where the weak link is, but she knows, "It's not her time.  Not yet."  It's spoken with a subconscious sort of authority, and maybe the spirits listen, or maybe they don't.
Maybe they know Shoshannah as one of their own, where Lena is just someone they could take.
Maybe the teenager is just that much of a stubborn bitch.
"Keep moving, but if someone needs to stop, we all will."
There's no asking if anyone's alright - Shoshannah can already tell she's the most alright one here.  She doesn't like the feeling of being herded, of there being only one path (easily caught, easily trapped, difficult to fight one's way out of), but it is what it is.  And they will all get out, maybe with Leah (who has some 'splainin' to do) in tow.

Entropy
Once again, they made it through - though in Lena's case, barely.  At her and Shoshannah's words, the wraiths uttered a high, unearthly wail and fled back into the shadows from whence they came.
When it was quiet once more, the magi resumed their forward momentum, moving as one toward the next room. When they reached the archway, the orbs floated ahead and lit the path.
It was a labyrinth.
Here the obsidian walls were sleek like marble, and they towered up into oblivion.  There was no choice.  Forward, into the twisting maze, or back into the cave with the ghosts.
As they surveyed the view before them, people began to appear from around the bend of the labyrinth's entrance.  And if the three willworkers turned, they would see more coming at them from the room they'd just walked through.  More and more and more, crowding around them and chanting prayers in latin.  They held up wooden crosses as they drew close, raising their voices into a fervent call as they pointed at the mages with vengeful and accusing fingers.
"Witches, children of the devil!  Go!  Find your kind!  There is no place for you among the living."
And as Shoshannah looked into the crowd, she would see the faces of her family looking back at her.  Her mother and father.  Her grandmother.  Cousins.  And they looked at her with expressions of fear and disgust.
"You and that girl, you're the same," they hissed.  "And you know it."

Lena Reilly
[[Willpower?  *Crosses fingers and prays*]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Mitchell
[WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN10 (2, 4, 6, 7, 8) ( fail )

Rhodes
[WP!  HRGHGHBLRGH!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (4, 6, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )

Entropy
[Edit: Pretend that said grandFATHER. >_>]

Entropy
[Lena and Sid are ok, Shoshannah must spend a WP to move through the crowd.]

Lena Reilly
Maybe she's just so worn down that she just isn't focusing on the new horrors unleashed on them anymore.  Maybe she's found inner reserves.  Maybe she's just sick of being called dead or dying.  In fact, it's probably that last one, because even though she's exhausted (mentally and spiritually) to the point of dizziness, being told to 'find your kind' makes her..angry.
Cultists are taught that all Passions are sacred.  There is no emotion that is truly negative.  Thus, when followers of Ananda feel their passions, they feel them in unrestrained ways.  That's why they seek the ones they do so fervently.  Some outside the Cult call that weakness, call the Ecstatics burnouts.  Those within the tradition know differently...it's a strength.  And it is that strength, feuled by the spark of anger, that lets Lena push onward.
"We're trying to find our kind," she half-mutters, half-growls.  "She's in here somewhere.  Now get the fuck out our way so that we can."
She keeps hold of Sid's hand with one hand.  Unity.  Strength.  The other hand pushes forward, sweeping and elbowing to clear a path for the three of them that they can pass through.

Rhodes
They all have their trials, their tests of mental strength.  They all fail, but fight on anyway, and isn't that a better test of strength?  Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to feel fear and not succumb to it.
They enter a new room with a new challenge, a maze this time.  Sid looks up and up, following the walls until they disappear overhead.  So like that book.  Maybe she is Aeryn Firehair, after all (hah, Sid, brave in any way, that's a laugh, right?).
Except, the figures appear from around a bend.  They come from behind, a whole crowd of them.  These people mutter prayers in a language Sid recognizes but doesn't know.  They hiss at Shoshannah, and this time.  This time it's Sid who steps to the fore.  No, not the fore, because she knows that this is Shoshannah's test this time.  And she won't get through it if other people push her back.  Sid doesn't think of her as a child to be coddled, or stuffed in a closet to be protected.  Still, Shoshannah is important.  Sid moves forward to stand with the girl, her warm hand gripping hers tightly.
Lena mutter-growls, We're trying to find our kind.  Sid spares a glance for the tired, exhausted Cultist, who she pulls forward to join them as she turns her attention back to them.  The crowd.  She sucks in a shaky breath, lifts her chin, and she glares at them.  It's not the most terrifying thing anyone has seen all day, it's rather like being glared at by an angry kitten.  She looks over at Shoshannah, and gives the girl's hand a squeeze.  For whatever it may be worth, Sid stands with her.  Another of her kind that Shoshannah has already found.

Mitchell
What Sid had witnessed in the young Dreamspeaker before was curtains accidentally left open, a door left inadvertently ajar.  Even then, with her swirling anger and defensiveness, Shoshannah had been strong, ready to take just about anything head on and, if appearances could be believed, send it packing with its ass in hand.  Now, though, this is different - it's a crumpling, bordering on breaking.  It starts with a loosening of her grip on Sid's hand until if the Orphan wants to keep her hold she's going to have to be proactive about it, and continues into a shrinking, a cooling.
Shoshannah, the girl who is the bastard love child of Xtina and Kelly Clarkson songs, quickly begins to feel like a newborn Dementor as she shrinks in on herself, as she gets smaller and smaller (shoulders round, slump, arms suck in as close to her sides as they can get, hands draw up closer to her chest) until she simply has to stop.
"Maybe we are the same," comes not quite whispered, not quite sobbed, only barely audible.  "But that doesn't mean we're bad.  We can choose, can be what we want, do what we want."
(ohgodohgodohgod i know i'm not yours know i'm a mistake Leah Padre help)
[-1WP]

Entropy
If they thought that was the last test - if they thought they were nearly at their goal, they were mistaken.  These passages were merely a prelude.
(Did you think, children.  Did you think it would be that easy?)
But what choice did they have?  They entered the labyrinth, hand in hand - as one.  Fighting back their fear to face the threats that lay ahead, even against possibly overwhelming odds.  (And yes, that is the definition of courage.)  For a moment there, it seemed as though they might lose Shoshannah, but no, even after her voice grew shaky and small, that spark of her heart remained.
Perhaps they would make it through after all.
But Padre, he did not come.  Elsewhere, in the waking world, he was fighting a battle of his own.  And Leah... perhaps it was she more than any who needed help, or perhaps all of this was her Will and she was not the girl they'd thought she was - but the beast the world wanted her to be.  (Or maybe, like many things, the truth was more ephemeral than simple right and wrong.)
They pushed through the crowd and entered the labyrinth, and as they turned the first corner the voices died away.
And the world was silent.
They followed the lights for another... it was difficult to tell.  Time passed strangely in dreams.  Perhaps it was only moments.  But then the lights went out, and the black walls were bathed in a dark red glow.  And from that moment forward, no matter how hard they might try to force their own Wills upon the dream, their wishes held no more power.
The ground shook again.  Pieces of the walls chipped and shattered.
They kept going.
The air around them grew cold and clammy.  It reeked of rotten flesh.  As they wound further into the labyrinth (were they even getting anywhere?  It was impossible to tell) they began to hear the sounds of creatures moving about, their claws and tails scratching and slithering up and down the walls.  Sometimes when they looked, they caught sight of black eyes and strange, twisted demonic features with melting flesh and exposed bone.
They kept going.
And that was when the hallucinations started (could one hallucinate in a dream?)  Flashing jolts of silent images - horrible things, scenes from the most graphic horror films imaginable: of people being tortured, of bloody sprays and dismembered body parts crawling with maggots, of cowled men chanting in inverted Latin.  Echoing screams that came from nowhere, and a low, sickening buzzing sound that resonated into the marrow of their bones.
Maybe they stopped at this point.  Maybe they thought they couldn't go further.  That whatever was ahead was worse than they could imagine and more than they could stand to look at.  But it wouldn't matter, because the skittering creatures chased them ever onward, and there was nowhere to go but forward.
So they kept.  Going.
And then, when it seemed as though they'd been walking for weeks, the labyrinth finally ended.  And they found themselves looking upon the mountain's core, where a girl with curly black hair and grey eyes sat rocking back and forth with her knees clutched tightly to her chest.  And behind her - some vast statue of death incarnate, a massive black shape embedded into the far wall with folded feathered wings that dipped into the glow of the red light.

Lena Reilly
There are a couple of moments where Lena honestly wonders if they've just been tricked into walking into Cauls.  She doesn't know a lot about it, of course, but she's heard stories (that she would admit are probably not at all accurate) about them, about how someone knew someone whose mentor went to the other side and Fell and tormented the student with in-depth descriptions of what it was like.  It would be stupid to think that this was what it was like.  The truth is probably far worse.
And yet, as they travel on and find their senses assaulted by fetid smells and screams of torment and flashes of gore, she can't help but wonder.  And fear.  Fear is as much a Passion as any, perhaps even more so.  The Cult has a law relating just to it.  Lena's never done that one so well, and she lets her Fear creep up.
She never says a word of it though.  And she manages, twitchy and paranoid and OHMYGODITSRIGHTBEHINDUS as it all is, to avoid being shackled by Fear.  Just this once.
And finally, they come through to the core of the mountain.  Light by an evil, angry red glow was the girl and the statue behind her.  Lena looks at one, then at the other.  So many Passions to choose from.  Joy for them being so close; hate toward the creature who has put Leah and them through this.  Fear at the likelihood that, despite all this, they may fail.  Rage to keep her going and fight the statue (yes, fight the STATUE) that looms dark and malicious.
Her jawline softens, and her posture calms.  She chooses Empathy.
"Leah, honey.  Come here to us."

Rhodes
Sid never let go of either hand.  For days, weeks, an eternity they walk through to the heart of the mountain.  Sometimes they stop, and one of them has to urge them forward.  Through the Labyrinth, through the silence and the darkness, through the visions of inflicted pain, they keep going.  They have to, there's no stopping now.  They've come to far to turn back, and there's no point thinking of what will happen if they give up.
So they press on, with nightmare creatures on their heels.  And all the while Sid holds onto the others.  She almost couldn't let go if she wanted to, now.  They are united, they will only get through this together, and also.  Sid's will is not so strong.  The defiance she showed to that mob in the Labyrinth, it bled out of her pretty quickly.  She leans on the others - mentally not physically, physically she still can't bring herself to go beyond the hold of a hand, no matter how much a part of her wanted to wrap Shoshannah up in her arms and hold her close - she borrows their strength when she needs it.  She gives back when she can, too.
At last they reach their goal.  There, Sid finally lets her grip on the others go slack, lets them let go of her if they want.  Part of it's the awe that overtakes her at the sight of that statue, huge and looming above all of them.  Part of it is a feeling that it's time.
Her attention jerks to the girl in the center of the room only when Lena calls to her.  Then it's right back up to that statue.  Sid keeps alert for the inevitable signs of danger.

Mitchell
Shoshannah doesn't call.  She doesn't linger, trying to decide what to do.  She simply goes to Leah, kneels beside her, shoulder to shoulder with only a whisper of air between them.  For a long moment, there's only quiet, only a shared presence, and maybe Leah recognizes it (couldn't help but, really, as no one feels just like the Dreamspeaker does) or pushes the familiarity away or who knows what, but there they are together.  They're close enough in age to be mistaken as the same -
You're the same as that girl, you know it . . .
- and they have so many similar scars.  "Leah, this isn't what you want, you know it and I do too.  It doesn't have to be this way, I told you.  You can choose . . . and you can change your mind.  You've done that before, if what you told me is true."

Entropy
Leah, honey.  Come here to us.
The girl looked up at the sound of Lena's voice, but it was like she didn't understand the words.  There was no sense of comprehension on her face.  Then Shoshannah's presence settled beside her, and a tiny spark of life seemed to return to Leah's eyes.  She flinched away as though Shoshannah's warmth burned her, but didn't tell her to go.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.  "I tried to stop it.  I tried to keep them from hurting you.  But I can't.  I can't leave.  You shouldn't be here."
At that moment, the click of expensive boots sounded on the cavern's floor, and a man walked out of the shadows.  He was maybe late 40's, with slicked back hair and bright, intelligent eyes.  Handsome in a certain way, though perhaps not traditionally so.  When he smiled, it was silk and honey and fangs.
This was the Other that they had been feeling all that time.  But if this was a rescue mission, it wasn't the kind that Lena had supposed.
"Leah," he said softly, and the girl's eyes snapped toward him.  "Do you see what I brought for you?"
Leah swallowed thickly.  Behind her, the statue's wings... rustled.

Lena Reilly
Lena's the person here who knows the least.  It's not that she didn't want to know, she just came into the situation late.  It's entirely possible that the others know who this man, who smiles with the sweetness of a viper, is.  It's possible that this man is a friend who is just a little bit off, but still a good person who honestly wants to help.  Maybe when he says "do you see what I've brought you," he means the three of them as a rescue and not as some sort of sacrifice.
All that is completely possible.
Lena has proven to have her weak points along this journey.  She nearly failed not once, but twice while traveling through the cave to get to here.  She wanted to hold off from teleporting to the base of the mountain when that was the right course.  She hasn't made all the right choices.  And she may be making the wrong one here.  But she is also someone who knows enough to know that you don't ignore the little things in a dream.  She sees the wings of death rustle in response to the man's arrival.  She hears the way his smooth words have a forked flicker to them.  Those are the things you don't ignore.  In a dream, they are not insignificant details the way that they may be in the "real" world.
It's funny how quickly one Passion can be traded for another.  Empathy flies away to make way for boiling Rage.  Shoshanna is with Leah, and she can talk the girl out of whatever the man means if anyone can.  Sid is focused on the statue, which Lena is sure will try something (never look away from statues and never blink!).  And the one who wanted to think before she acted when they were far from the mountain now acts without thought as she rushes the man, arms outstretched to grab, smash against walls, do anything to defend the others.
"GET. AWAY."

Rhodes
Shoshannah went to her maybe-friend without hesitation.  Sid is not so quick to follow.  Her eyes are on that statue.  If they're inside of Leah's mind, that means that nothing in here exists without a reason.  Not the monsters in the halls, not the tortured souls.  Not that statue.  She only looks away when she hears the sound of footsteps on the hard flooring.  Sid doesn't know that man, she has never seen him before in her life, but she would know him.  Even without Sera's description ringing in her ears, she would know him for the mastermind behind all of this.  Who else would be here in Leah's mind with them but the maestro himself?
That's not to say that her heart doesn't sink right down through the floor when she sees him there.  He's stronger than Pan.  Sid doesn't know how strong Pan is, but she knows his resonance is powerful, and it's hard to imagine a man that steady wouldn't be strong.  This man is stronger.  This man left that man a bloody mess - healed by the time Sid saw him, but still bloody, and a mess.  Her chest tightens and her heartbeat kicks up and she swallows back a wave of panic.
She drags her gaze away from him and back to the statue, looking from the danger she (sort of) knows to the one she definitely doesn't.  Listening to the quiet voices of the girls, watching that thing, she, too, sees the rustling of the feathers.  Unlike Lena, she doesn't shout at it, all anger and defiance.
Slowly, one step before the other, Sid moves to where Leah and Shoshannah are in the center of the room.  Without turning back, she holds her arm out to Lena, gesturing her to come with.  Stay together.  When she's there with them she crouches down beside the Dreamspeaker, close but not close enough to bump her.  And she certainly doesn't try to touch Leah.
"Leah," she says quietly.  "Leah, if-" she starts, but stops.  She lowers her gaze to look down at the girl, curled up in front of her friend.  Sid's eyes behind her glasses are very, very afraid.  For them, but also for her.  Whatever that man's plots and schemes, whatever worry she might have had about this girl's place in them, she was just a girl.  She was just a piece that was played like all the others.  Something in her expression softens a little.
"It's not your fault.  Okay?"

Mitchell
The words come fast, low, but still with all the delivery of a trained, practiced (natural) storyteller.  It's not the first Shoshannah-story Leah's (and by extent, those who've spent time with her while the Dreamspeaker was there) heard, but it's the one given with the most urgency, the most earnestness.  For this, she shifts, alters her position until she's sitting in front of Leah cross legged (with the guitar adjusted as necessary, or possibly just inconsequential in the dream world?  Who knows), as close as she can possibly be without making the younger girl flinch away.  If she can manage it, skin-to-skin contact is forged, held.
"There was a garden in the middle of a desert, once, full of promise and flora and fauna and not much else until one day, a woman - we'll call her Lilith - appeared.  She was fair, though her hair was dark, and her eyes were the sort that could cut to the bone, the soul.  She loved the garden and its beasts; it gave her everything she needed and more, and it was good.  And then one day, after she'd begun to long for someone with whom to share the garden, she happened upon a man who named himself Adam.  There was no shame or awkwardness between them despite their nakedness; they fell together and loved the garden, its beasts and each other, and it was good.
"One day, the man decided that he was better than the woman - he was larger, stronger, smarter, all those things that men tend to think of themselves when in the presence of women.  He came home from what it was he did in that garden that provided everything they could possibly need and demanded that Lilith kneel before him as her superior.  Lilith, who had been pleased to be at Adam's side, his equal, who had loved this man and reproduced with him, felt in herself the first stirrings of shame, the first feelings of weakness she'd ever harbored.  Who was this Adam, and how dare he?  She tried reason first - did she not bring home as many fruits as he did, did she not see to it, just as much as he did, that they were well fed and their home well kept? - and then she tried anger to similar avail.
"Ultimately, Adam gave her an ultimatum.  'You must bow to me, or you must leave.  You will be no wife of mine when you stand as tall as I.'  I'm sure you can imagine how Lilith must have felt, presented with such an impossible choice - to leave the garden and man she loved, everything she knew, or to give what was wanted of her, to lose herself?  It's a jade's game, a trick.  There is no winner in such a choice, but in the end Lilith made the only one she could.
"She left the garden, and oh, such hardship she faced - it was so terribly difficult to walk on her own where once she'd had a partner, to be hated and feared for what she was.  But it was her choice, you see?  And regardless of what they said of her, no matter what signs or stones were thrown, she knew who she was.  She made her own choice."
There's quiet for a moment, and whenever Sid's words came - before Shoshannah started or somewhere in the middle - the Dreamspeaker doesn't seem to hear them.  Nor does she appear to hear the smooth operator over there somewhere, but that doesn't mean his presence is precisely ignored.
"Look at me, Leah.  I know it's hard - we're the same, you and I."  No 'might be', no 'what if', just an admission.  "I made my choice.  I can't make yours for you, but I can stay by your side, and we can make this good.  That man over there, Adam - he's not the boss of you."
[Manip + Perf]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Entropy
The fact that the man did nothing to stop their efforts to save the girl may have been an indication either of his own hubris or of the utter futility of their endeavor.  Perhaps both.  (And in fact, at that precise moment, he was facing down his own death in the physical realm with a kind of peace one would not have expected of someone like him.)  There was nothing to make them think they had any hope of helping Leah.  Nothing but a story in a book of myths.
Lena ran at Brogan, but when she reached him, she'd find that he wasn't there.  And there he would be, suddenly, across the room.  If she tried again, this action would repeat, until she chose to resign herself to another tactic.  Perhaps, once Shoshannah began her story, she might calm her anger and sit with them.  Or perhaps she would continue to rail against a Will more powerful than all of them combined.
It was a very human response, given all they'd gone through.  And no one would blame her for trying.
Sid told Leah not to blame herself, and the girl flinched as if the words hurt her.  "Some of it is," she said, almost too softly for the others to hear.  "You don't know what I've done."
And then Shoshannah began her story.  And everyone around her grew quiet - even the statue.  Even Brogan, who stood apart from the circle and folded his arms over his chest as if he found the whole thing amusing.
When she was done, there was silence.
"That was a lovely story," Brogan said.  "But I think you have me miscast.  I've never claimed to be her superior.  She knows that.  Such a thing is impossible.  None are her superior.  She is the bringer of death.  I am only the harbinger."
He looked at Leah and stepped forward.  "This is the story of a woman with great power who accepted who she was, and would let no one be her master.  Leah, they do not know what you've done, but I do.  And I do not fear or hate you.  It is you who fears and hates yourself.  If you wish your nightmares and your pain to end, you have only to become your true self.  If you do not, you will die.  Those boys... they should have been the ones to die for what they did to you.  But not from poison.  From the wrath of unmaking that you carry within your heart.  I know who you are, Leah.  And I love you for it.  All you have to do is turn around and look yourself in the eye."
And then, just like that, the man vanished.  Not the way he'd done when Lena had run toward him.  This was different.  This was... like having a parasite pulled free from your skin.  His overwhelming presence ripped away from the dreamscape, leaving in its wake only Leah.  And the three weakened but enduring wills beside her.
And the statue.
But it wasn't a statue at all.  And they would see that now, as it's massive bulk slowly and ominously unfolded itself and stepped away from the wall, opening up its terrifying wingspan to reveal... what had it once been?  Something other than what it was now.  Some great bird, perhaps.  But now it was a carcass, half skeleton and half slippery, rotting flesh covered in sharp black feathers.  It was terrible to look at.  And when it opened its hooked beak, it uttered another of those horrible shrieks they'd heard from so far away.  But this time it deafened them as the sound echoed around the cavern, sending huge chunks of obsidian crashing down around them.
As it shrieked, Leah turned and looked at it silently.

Lena Reilly
She's not such an idiot that she's going to comically chase Brogan around the cave like a hapless Looney Tunes character.  Once is enough for her.  So instead, she walks over and stands--doesn't sit, but stands--next to the others.  Standing guard.  She doesn't care if it's pointless, it's the intent that matters.
She has no idea what Brogan is talking about, about boys who died and shouldn't have.  She knows Love.  She knows when someone is using it as a perversion of the term to use someone.  That, she knows well.  The nice little DJ who is so gentle and kind as a rule boils over with Hate, black and seeping up from the place she keeps it until its needed.  With a curl of her lip, she glares.
Impotently, but she does glare.
And then there's the statue.  Or the not-statue.  She doesn't shy away from it when it rises up, extends its wings.  She reaches down and rests a hand on Leah's shoulder.  She's there to support.  That's all she can do.
And, probably, pass out.  She'll probably do that too.  [1 WP to Leah]]

Rhodes
You dont' know what I've done, said Leah, and Sid, she frowns that worried, concerned frown of hers.  It's true, she doesn't know.  All she knows are a handful of good things that Sera told her.  Brothers, she said Leah had, a dog that she loved.  That sort of thing.  She doesn't know the bad things, she doensn't even fully understand what Leah is.
"I saw the warehouse," is all she says to those words, not knowing that the girl means something else.
And anyway, Shoshannah settles in close and tells her story.  Sid listens.  She doesn't sit down, doesn't curl in close to the girls, she stays crouched, arms looped around her knees.  As she listens she watches Lena.  Lena who runs across at Brogan.  Sid's head comes up, her mouth opens to say something, to yell to her to stop, but it's too late and then
nothing.  He disappears from one place, appears in another.  Lena is...she's okay.  Sid watches this as she listens.  She watches the angel as she listens.
And when it's over?  Honestly, she's a little surprised the sound of a slow clap doesn't fill the chamber.  Brogan just talks.  A man of many words, that one.  He says a lot of things about Leah, a lot of things that yeah, Sid knows by now those are definite possibilities.  She's seen a little of the destruction she's left in her wake.  But the words that stand out for the Orphan are
Those boys and what they did to you.
Sid makes a strangled, choking sound.  Her attention diverts immediately to Leah's face, searching it for signs of...well, Sid doesn't really know what she's looking for exactly.  Kinship, maybe.
The statue moves, reveals itself, screeches into the room.  Sid watches Leah watching it.  Coming out of her crouch, she reaches for the girl's hand.  This probably is a bad idea, for her not for Leah.  But what else can she do?
What strength she has remaning, Sid wills it to Leah.  [4WP to Leah]

Mitchell
"And I'm the ferryman and Leah, now is not the time.  We all have good and we all have bad and that may be a part of you, but it is not you."
The stranger is gone, and to so many (though probably none here) it would seem such a simple, small thing - when Leah turns to face the statue-that's-really-something-else, Shoshannah moves to slip a hand into the younger girl's, to give it a small squeeze - of support, of understanding.  There's nothing of fear or hatred there, just strength flowing from one flawed woman of power to another.
[4 WP to Leah]

Entropy
They did what they could, three people standing in the face of this overwhelming darkness.  They did what they could with what little they had left, because they believed that there was a chance, despite all the evidence to the contrary.  They believed that a sixteen year old girl could face down death and come out the other side with her soul intact.  Or perhaps they only knew that they had to try.
They didn't know that only a mile away, Brogan and the other Nephandus were already dead.  They didn't know whether their friends yet lived.  This moment - this was bigger than all of them.  And yet... they still mattered.  Their voices and their warmth and their anger and their living, beating hearts... even in someone else's dream, they mattered.  Perhaps even enough to change the course of fate.
Leah did not look at them, but she felt them, and she took in what they offered her.  And where the three stood nearby - where they touched her - she reached out to touch them each in turn.  And still without looking away from the beast, she said, "Thank you."
And then she broke away from them and walked toward the great, decayed bird.  The twisted thing that had once been something else - something whole and hale and beautiful (something golden.)  And the bird shrieked again, and more of the mountain fell around them.  But Leah - she didn't flinch or turn away.  She walked right up the beast and looked it in the eye.  Just as Brogan had said she would do.
"I know you," she said to the beast.  "I've been running from you for so long, but I see you now.  And I'm sorry."
The creature gave a rough, agitated beat of its wings, sending gusts of wind so strong across the cavern that Sid, Lena and Shoshannah would be sent sliding across the floor.
But not Leah.  She stood firm as the wind blew around her, and as she spoke, tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"I don't hate you.  I hate the thing that did this to you, but I can't hate you.  We're the same."  She gave a harsh, bitter laugh.  "That man, he was right.  He was right about everything.  But I saw something that he didn't see.  So long ago, in a dream.  You were life, not death.  I..." she choked softly on the words.  "I am here, and I will never leave you again.  So show me.  Show me all of it.  And I won't look away."
And the bird screamed, and its great talons gouged furrows in the floor, and Leah reached out to grab hold of its head as it lowered to the ground.
Whatever it showed her, the others didn't see.  But they saw Leah shudder, and they heard her utter a broken cry, and they saw her eyes turn white.
But she didn't let go, and she didn't look away.
And then she sobbed and called out against the force of the creature's wings as it beat the air.  "That isn't all of it!  There's more!  There has to be more for us!  We are not broken!"
The ceiling of the mountain caved in, sending showers of glass around them.  Pieces of it stabbed and sliced into Sid and Lena and Shoshannah's skin as they tried to avoid the worst of the damage.  At the end of the room, the bird gave a thunderous beat of its wings and rose into the air.
The red light around them died, and they were plunged into darkness.
Then... gold.  Fire.  It started as a tiny flame beneath Leah's hands.  And she screamed where it burned her and ate away her flesh, but she held on.  And then the fire spread, and the bird screamed its own unearthly, shattering sound, and the two voices joined until they were one.  And it became something beautiful and brilliant.
A phoenix can only rise from ashes.
And then the light went out, and the world dimmed.
-----------------------
Slowly, they opened their eyes.
They were there - on the floor or in chairs - wherever they'd fallen.  Awake and inside the cabin.  Everything was the same as they'd left it.
But in truth, nothing was.
Leah was sitting on the couch, staring at her fist.  Where once she'd held an apple, now the fruit's ashes lay scattered at her feet.  And when she opened her fingers, there was a seed, and from it a single sprout of green.
Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.