Disclaimer:
"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable."

Rona stretched out all the kinks from working on the stupid English report as the other girls took off to meet friends, do some shopping and other things, except for the short break at lunch and to walk Ruth to her counseling session, she'd been stuck in the library and now she was ready for some R&R. About the only good thing she had to say about the English class was that she wasn't behind in it. She'd been studying Hamlet in her old class and while they went into more detail here, it wasn't too hard to get up to speed. Math, history and Spanish was about the same, she actually had an advantage in Spanish coming from California, she'd picked up a basic understanding over the years. It was the strange classes like Costume Shop and Survival that were kicking her ass.

Her phone beeped, there was a message from Mrs. Horton, asking her to pick up some things from Dr. Bellows when she was free. Walking through the tunnel to avoid the cold, Rona tried to remember where the nearest stairway to Doyle was. She could take the elevator, but really didn't want to. However after wandering around for fifteen minutes looking for some stairs, she came up with nothing. Stiffening her spine she headed for the elevator leading directly into Doyle.

Stepping into the fairly roomy elevator, she jabbed the button and stood in the middle of the space, closing her eyes. Rattling her hair to have some noise, she tapped her foot waiting for the door to open. She didn't mind the closed in space, it was not having a way out that brought up unpleasant memories. So as soon as the door opened, she was out like a shot.

Dr. Bellows office was straight ahead, she knew it fairly well, having been there five times in two weeks. Knocking on the door, she waited until he called her in, and then left the door open a crack. “Hi Dr. Bellows, I have to pick up something?”

“Yes, thank you for coming. Your roommate left a few things here after our session,” he said. Reaching behind his desk he handed over Ruth's long coat and purse.

“What happened?” she asked, thinking about how cold it had to be walking between Doyle and Poe without a coat.

“I pushed her a little too hard,” he said with a grimace. “Tell me, from what you've seen of her is she capable of making decisions on her own?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “When we've eaten, she'll get the exact same thing I get. At breakfast she came late and stood at the buffet for about five minutes just staring at the food, before she seemed to latch onto a girl and followed her every step. Ruth did decide to explore the campus on her own when we gave her the choice of coming to library with us or exploring. She seemed pretty proud of herself.”

“That is good news,” he said, looking a little relieved. “If you can, keep giving her little choices like that. Not all at once and if she can't decide help her make the decision but gentle pushes will help her. She's gone for quite a while without having any real choices, she needs to learn how to do it again.”

Dr. Bellows, tapped his empty pipe, as if he really wanted to light it. “How are you doing with the extra responsibilities?”

Rona shrugged. “It's not too hard. She doesn't argue, or really cause any problems. Last night was kind of rough after we saw her tattoos, but all the girls helped with that. So I guess the strangest thing is how she doesn't talk much, just follows along with those wide eyes.”

“That's to be expected for a while, but it sounds like you and everyone else is doing a great job. Has she shown any hints of violence?”

She snorted in surprise. “No way. My mom would say she wouldn't say sh- poop if her mouth was full of it.”

He nodded as if it fit his own ideas. “If you see anyone getting bullied, get her as far away from there as possible. Tell her to go with you to security, get a teacher, or some concrete task that will make her feel useful. If she hesitates, drag her away, make it an order if you have to.”

She wasn't stupid, something was very wrong. “I thought you guys didn't want me to order her around, you pretty much told me to never do it. What happened?”

Dr. Bellows took something that looked like a knife hilt from his desk drawer. Flicking a button a twelve inch gout of plasma shot out. “When she was walking to breakfast, she saw a boy getting kicked and taunted by another student. She attacked the bully, barehanded at first, thankfully. Then she pulled this out, and according to her diary she was ready to make him stop one way or another. Both boys ran away, and after a minor panic attack, she acted completely normally.”

“Jesus,” Rona whispered.

“You don't know a fraction of what she went through, and I'm not going to give you nightmares about it. But suffice it to say, Sadist lived up to his name, finding every chance to punish others for any sign of rebellion or complacency from Ruth. She watched him torture and kill people, blaming her for causing it every step of the way. She'll likely accept almost any punishment or torment against herself, but if someone else is being hurt, she will react.” He carefully placed the weapon back in the drawer with a look of disgust. “I told Mrs. Horton to order her not to carry a weapon, so we shouldn't have to worry about her causing any lasting damage. But you can imagine how getting in the middle of a fight could lead to her and others getting injured.”

“Right, keep her as far from bullies as possible, got it. Anything else?”

“No that's enough for now. And thank you for everything you're doing, it's a great help to Ruth, the school, and ultimately yourself.”

“Yeah, no problem,” she said, heading for the door.

Taking the stairs down, Rona headed back to Poe to get in some quality relaxing time. And she wanted to call her Mom in Vancouver, the three hour time difference made a morning phone call impossible, but at least with her Mom not having a job yet, and basically laying as low as possible so the police and MCO wouldn't notice her, calling anytime in the afternoon or evening was fine.

Saying hello to some of the kids in Poe, she went to her room to get a book. Ruth was there working on something with a little toolbox open beside her. The girl was smiling and humming to herself lost in her own little world, so Rona just put her things on the bed, took off her own coat, grabbed her book and quietly left, heading to the common room.

Settling into the comfiest chair, she realized that amazingly no one was there, everyone was probably enjoying one of the bigger rooms with a tv or something. Pulling out her phone she dialed a number she'd only just memorized. When the other end picked up she said, “Hey Mom, how ya doing?”

**

“Hey Ruth, do you want to see a movie?” Rona asked her roommate.

“What?” Ruth asked, looking up from her project.

“The changelings are having a movie tonight, some romantic comedy, I thought you might like the chance to meet some others. Are you interested?”

She watched the tall girl, bite her lip and fix her bandanna, looking at the door and whatever she was working on.

“It's going to be fun. We have popcorn and pop,” Rona said, after about a minute of silence.

Ruth closed her eyes, stood up and grabbed her hand. “Yes, I want to see the movie,” she said in a very firm whisper.

“Great. What's your favourite movie?” she asked as they headed for the stairs.

“I never watched a movie before.”

“Never watched a movie!”

Ruth shook her head. “No, we didn't have a tv. I was going to watch one after I turned sixteen. But... things happened.”

“Well now's your chance.”

They came to a larger common room with a big screen tv, a table had refreshments on it, and almost every chair and couch, along with some larger cushions on the ground, were all full. No one made a big deal when they came in, but within the first ten minutes everyone had said hello to Ruth, giving her a smile or a pat on the arm, an older girl called Belle gave her a bowl of popcorn and a drink, telling her to sit wherever she wanted.

Ruth picked a chair off to the side, where her back was against a wall and there was a little space between her and everyone else. A few moments after sitting, a cabbit jumped onto her lap nuzzling her hand and making little mews to get petted, a green fairy flew up landing on her shoulder and began playing with her long hair. The momentary surprise quickly vanished as the girl leaned back and enjoyed the attention.

Rona sat near the back, close to the door, which she opened just a little. The movie didn't really interest her, she'd have preferred something with a bit more action, but it was ok. She tried to figure out if she'd prefer watching it with a boy or a girl. Looking around the room at the beauties like Fey, Chou and Kayda, and then at Lancer, who even she had to admit was really good looking, she couldn't decide. She felt a little bit of tingling down there when she looked at them, but nothing that left her really hot and bothered, or made her heart start beating.

She wasn't sure how she'd feel if Lancer made her panties wet, but it would be nice to have some kind of clue. Pouting she ate her popcorn and tried to get into the movie.

**

It was Monday morning and everyone was getting ready for classes. Belle came down the stairs, a mischievous smile on her face, Mega-girl walked alongside her, not looking as happy. “Are you sure about this, we were told to go easy on her?”

“Come on, it's just a little prank. Everyone has to be welcomed into Poe properly. I haven't gotten Rona yet, so this is two birds with one stone,” Belle said breezily.

They saw the two new girls head into their room, all bright and shiny after the morning bathing rituals. The door became thicker, backed by a brick wall made out of ectoplasm. It would disappear after twenty minutes or so, leaving them just enough time to get a quick breakfast and reach class if they hurried a little.

Giggling they left Poe.

**

Absinthe rushed down the hallway, she was one of the last ones in the wing thanks to sleeping in, and she still had to give Ruth her fairy. She reached their door, and saw a brick wall where the door should be.

“Great, thanks a lot Belle,” she muttered. How was she suppose to give the girl her fairy now?

She was about to take off, making a fairy and having it fly in through the window would be easy enough, when she heard someone pounding on the other side.

“Hey, you guys ok in there?”

There was a loud sob, and someone, it sounded a little like Rona, yelled to be let out.

“Just wait! It will come down in few minutes!” she shouted through the wall.

The hammering got louder.

Swearing, she looked through her fairies trying to find Belle. She found her quickly enough almost at Crystal Hall. Her fairy flew down grabbing Belle's coat and jerking her back towards Poe, pointing frantically. The prankster realized something was wrong and started jogging back.

“Rona! Belle is coming back, just wait we'll get the wall down,” she called out.

The sobbing and the hitting didn't stop.

Grabbing control of her nearest fairy, she sent it flying to the girls window. From the window she saw Rona on her knees, hitting the brick wall with her fist. Ruth looked calm, extremely calm. She was carefully putting on a padded suit, strapping some kind of backpack on, double checking everything. The tall girl heard the fairy tapping on the window, and turned to look, her face was utterly expressionless, except for her eyes. Instead of the usual wide eyed, bewildered look that seemed a little lost, the eyes were narrowed, and as hard as stone.

Turning her attention back to Belle, she saw the prankster had reached Poe.

“Belle! Get the damn wall down NOW!” Absinthe yelled towards the stairs.

“What's wrong?” Belle yelled back.

“LOSE THE WALL!”

The fake wall started to fade away, but it was too late. Three feet to the right of the door, the real wall exploded as if hit by a battering ram, Ruth stepped out, completely shrouded by dust.

“Bloody hell, what happened?!” Belle shouted, staring at the destruction.

Absinthe was knocked into the far wall, as Rona threw herself out of the room crying and gasping. Clutching the girl, she looked over at Belle and Ruth.

The senior was still staring in disbelief when Ruth punched her in the breast, sending Belle flying backwards with a scream of pain. The tall girl, who everyone had agreed wouldn't hurt a fly, snarled like an animal and walked towards Belle, dragging a hand along the wall, leaving a deep gouge in the plaster, slicing a door in half.

Absinthe summoned her fairies.