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[tooprettytodie]

It was time to stop hiding. That didn't mean she was going to fully integrate herself into island society again. She still wasn't going to go to her dance classes, especially not with Percy there, but she had decided to go ahead and live in her own place again. As grateful as she was to Charlie and Edmund for letting her crash at their place, she wanted to be back home.

She had left notes in the mailboxes of everyone that had gone home with everyone. They simply said I'm sorry. -Valkyrie

She wasn't sure what could be said beyond that. She hated herself for what she had done to them, even if becoming Darquesse had been to save them. In the end, she hadn't been strong enough to save her friends, not from herself. Not only that, but each time she became Darquesse, it was harder and harder to find her way back. If it hadn't been for the ending of the dream, she wasn't sure if she would have come back from that.

Then there was the fact that all of her closest friends now knew her secret. It wouldn't have been so bad except that her secret was that she had the potential to become some sort of crazy-powerful nut job without any conscience. Go her.

Sighing, Valkyrie curled up on her couch and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd just sit here for a while and try not to obsess over what happened. Later, much, much later tonight she would head to the ring and take out some anger on one of the bags and maybe go for a run along the beach.

[This can be set for any time between the 1st of June and now.]

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[kinesicist]

Her fingers twitched, palm opening and extending as she wiggled her fingers, a quiet wave of greeting to Valkyrie as she lurked in the shadows of a nearby tree. She had been following her now for more than a mile, quiet and lurking as she watched her. Her face was a blanket of calm as she approached Valkyrie. Other people would have been angry at her but Cass? Cass understood.

The creature, woman, who attacked her was not Valkyrie. The creature who took away her choice, her conscience and turned her against everything she believed in? Was not Valkyrie. And yet Valkyrie was still not present, she felt... guilty perhaps? Nervous. Hn, she would find out. She would talk and Cassandra hated talking.

[tooprettytodie]

Out of all the people that had gone with her on the dream, she was worried about seeing Cass the most. Out of everyone, she had hurt her the most. Not physically, but with what she'd done to her. For all she had known, Cass could have returned to the island like that where no one could easily undo what Valkyrie had done.

Also, Cass could totally kick her ass if she wanted to and Valkyrie couldn't even deny that she had it coming. She also knew though that Cass was a good person, and probably wouldn't do that. Probably.

"Hey," Valkyrie said. She was ashamed of what she had done. Ashamed and so sorry and so sad for what she put Cass through and if she could do anything to make it up to her she would.

[kinesicist]

Cassandra turned her head, looking at her shoulders and the way she read. She read like Cassandra. The guilt, the shame, the sadness but not quite the same, it wasn't her blood that Valkyrie had on her hands. But Cassandra's were covered in them. She would never erase what she had done, she could only control who she was now.

"You've been hiding. Why?" Cass asked quietly, cutting away the quiet greetings in exchange for direct words.

[tooprettytodie]

Well, no beating around the bush here, which she could respect. Sort of. It also meant that there was no dodging the situation either, although she owed it to Cassandra of all people not to do that.

"Because I just couldn't face all of you. I was ashed of what I became and what I did to you all. I'm sorry, Cass, for doing that to you."

[kinesicist]

Her shoulders lifted in a light shrug. Her control was who she was, it was the thing that kept her from becoming like her father, like her mother and moving from job to job. It was the thing that kept her from killing. She had taken that away from her, not Valkyrie. Her.

"It wasn't you, she was not you. You can't be blamed for what she did." Cass replied simply as if it was easy as that. "You did not do that to me. She did. Not you."

[tooprettytodie]

"It was though. Everyone keeps saying that, but it was me. I wasn't watching from inside my head, there was no me screaming at her to stop. It was me, just without a conscience."

That was the worst part, that it was some version of her, that it was exactly what she would be like if she didn't have a conscience. And one day it could all slip away permanently.

"But I don't want to be like that. I don't want to hurt the people I care about. And I made you hurt others and I'm sorry I did."

[kinesicist]

"Then not you," Cass replied simply. Her conscience was a part of Valkyrie, it was who she was just as Cassandra's control was a part of who she was. The girl, the creature, whatever she was that had been Valkyrie without that was not the same. They weren't the same person. "You are your conscience, you don't want to hurt me. You didn't, she did. I... read people. That wasn't you."

Cass shrugged, lifting her shoulders. "It was nothing my father hasn't already made me do. And he has a conscience, he choses not to listen to it." Sometimes. Sometimes he looked at her though and Cass wasn't angry anymore. He made her weak, he had made her weak. She couldn't forgive him for that.

[tooprettytodie]

"But we aren't those people," Valkyrie said. She could hardly disagree with Cass now that Cass was admitting to something similar in her own life. If their positions were reversed, Valkyrie would probably be giving similar advice.

"We're better."

[kinesicist]

"Not anymore. That was who I was... before." Cass murmured. Before Gotham, before Barbara and Bruce and the mission he had given her. She could be that again, she chose not to be. She chose to be stronger than that, she chose not to kill. "I'm not better. Steph is better, Jessica... others. Not me."

[tooprettytodie]

"You're better," Valkyrie said firmly. That was not something she would back down on, not for someone that had so much faith in her, that was such a good person deep down. Actually, you didn't even have to go that deep down to find it.

"You had to fight through all that. You're better."

[kinesicist]

It was the faith, the hope, that she was better that made Cassandra's lips soften. Not quite a smile or perhaps too sad a smile. She knew who she was, she knew what she was. She judged herself harshly because she knew she could never be forgiven. She was a murderer.

"I will always be that person, I will always be a killer. I chose not to be but it will always be there within me. I cannot run from it ever, it is who I am." Cass replied simply. "Not better. Just... I understand now. That it is wrong."

[tooprettytodie]

"We'll just have to agree to disagree," Valkyrie said with a nod. "Because in my book, choosing not to be that makes you better."

There were probably a lot of people, more than was nice to think about, who would kill if they thought they were physically able or could get away with it. Cass could do both, but she chose not to.

"It's our choices that make us what we are. I mean, 'no killing' isn't even a rule that I have."