the beginning

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Who| Hyperion | cutshort and Ruby | grandmas_gurl
What| The beginning of the fall of Hyperion! Round 1: Hyperion vs Ruby.
Where| Fantasyland.
When| Week 8.
Warnings/Notes| Violence, Hyperion being psychotic, etc etc.


His breath is slow, shallow.

He remembers being here before. He remembers what happened. His throat still pumps blood with the memory of the hand around his neck and the threat on his life. For once, he thinks he was actually... afraid. A strange emotion to have after so many months - even years - with barely a scrape of sentiment in his veins. A cold killer with a tendency for quick and sharp sadism is the shadow of a human he's become, fueled by the virus, fueled by the hunger to destroy and make way for the machines.

But there are no machines here. There is only the game, telling him to do exactly the same. Destroy, kill, don't stop until you're the only one left.

His steps take him back to familiar grounds. For a flicker of a moment his right leg almost fails him, foot dragging on the ground, grip tight around the apple container. He still has his knife. He has the poison. He can win.

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[grandmas_gurl]

Ruby has the pitchfork. Just a pitchfork… She doesn't really get it. Despite her friendship with Belle, the connection really doesn't leap into her mind.

Hyperion, though... she remembers him: the intruder. She hadn't really wanted to kill him, particularly back then. She still didn't really want to kill anyone, now. Or at least the rational part of her doesn't.

It's the irrational part of her mind that's shooting off sparks when she sees that apple, though. Apple. Snow White. Disneyland. Is that poison in it? She can smell it... and already she's growling, flashing forward.

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He can hear her. Not too distant at first, and suddenly very close, a sound no human should produce, much less a woman who once looked so harmless to him. The memory of her hand around his neck returns, of the color of her teeth, the intensity of her eyes, and Hyperion braces himself.

[grandmas_gurl]

For just a moment, her eyes are those of a wolf: Yellow in the light, then brown again. She's flying toward him, the growl deep in her throat belaying the human in there with that wolf. Her teeth are still human, still white, and yet they might as well be fangs.

She's not thinking about him, even as her hand reaches for him. There's a pitch fork in her hands, but she's not attacking with it - just holding it, as she reaches forward, like she's forgotten that it's there. She no longer feels the cold metal in her hands, any more than she does the hunger or the fear.

The same thoughts keep running through her mind; have been going through her mind since the dragon attacked.

Snow's dead. Her friend is dead; gone; her body stolen while Ruby tried to bury her. Her friend is dead. She's failed. Snow's gone, and no amount of kissing will ever bring her back. It wasn't a curse. It was death. She was dead. Snow's dead.

There's something broken inside of her. She'd been bouncing between anger and grief and despondence since. But that apple has her locked on anger now. It's the apple that she's going for, drawing the pitchfork closer to Hyperion's chest in the process. That apple shouldn't exist.

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He thinks he's prepared, but there's no way to escape the attack, no way to stop her in her tracks without getting himself even more damaged. He still tries, however, bringing up his hands, ready to smash the contained in the girl's head if he has to.

Sorry. Upcoming graduation temporarily buried me...

[grandmas_gurl]

Her hand shifts direction, still reaching for that apple. She doesn't care about the rest. She just wants that sick joke to be gone. Obliterated. Whatever game the capitol is playing, it's not alright.

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The struggle begins. Hyperion wants to speak, ask her if that's what she wants, why she wants it, if it'll help her get ahead in any way. It shouldn't - Hyperion isn't here to let anyone escape what should be coming to them. A nice, clean death.

Hyperion is not nice. He is certainly far from clean.

"Let it go."

[grandmas_gurl]

She spoke at last, half growling still. She wasn't letting go. She wasn't ever letting go - not so long as that... thing... still existed. "Why do you have this?" she asked - demanded. She didn't understand.

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"It was given to me," And that's all the explanation she gets. His grimace shows teeth. "Why - want one?"

[grandmas_gurl]

"It shouldn't exist," she said, fingers continuing to tug at it - other hand, still armed with pitchfork, moving to try and press him away. Why wouldn't he let it go? She had to get rid of it.

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With a little struggle, Hyperion shifts back to kick the woman off him, foot against her stomach.

"Shouldn't exist? You'll have to explain that one."

[grandmas_gurl]

She backs off, taking a breath - but moves forward again a mere moment later.

"Get rid of it."

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He tips up his chin, defiant and mad, breath shallow. "Come and get it, sweetheart."

[grandmas_gurl]

No hesitation. Just reckless anger as she moved forward, trying t take it from him again. She was still gripping the rod, but again she wasn't paying real attention to it. Or him.

Her eyes were only on that apple. That thing that shouldn't have existed.

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The sound that escapes Hyperion's throat is something close to a growl, bracing for her attack, trying to shove her back, foot settled deep into the dirt beneath them, flashing teeth at her. There is no real reason to hold on to the apple - dropping it and letting the poison seep in somewhere in the cut of a crack would be simple, but Hyperion's rationality has been increasingly absent in the course of these last days.

[grandmas_gurl]

She presses, unflinching. She uses all her strength, not holding back. Lashes forward with fingernails, as if they're talons, or claws, meant to rip through him.

Let go of the apple, Hyperion. Let her destroy that thing. Let it be gone. That stupid tainted teasing item.

[cutshort]

Pain gnashes its teeth in him, and eventually the struggle results in the faltering of Hyperion's grasp. The apple falls, but it doesn't simply end there. Hyperion lunges at her, aiming his forehead towards hers.

[grandmas_gurl]

Her eyes follow the apple, and she's surprised by his attack. She stumbles back, reaching for him and trying to throw him down. Now that the apple is free of his hands, she only cares that he get gone.

She wants to grieve alone. Try and put herself back together.