Xaviers!

It took time to get a damage crew to check the metal she'd super frozen, take the ice block to deep storage, account for the missing men, and then put an operational update into the ship's old system. Finally Siberia retires to her quarters to sit and contemplate what had happened. She briefly contemplates vodka to aid in her contemplations, but she decides she doesn't want to be fuzzy headed right now. She leans back in her chair and takes a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair with a sigh.

As if to answer her sigh there's the faintest whispering drifting through the air. Hard to tell from where and even harder to make out the words it's like the constant feeling of hearing someone talk just out of reach the next room over.

Considering the thick construction of the ship, hearing whispers is unusual and Siberia turns her attention to them, closing her eyes to shut out other distractions.

Closing her eyes definitely brings the whispers into focus but doesn't seem to make them any easier to understand. If anything it adds more layers to it until they sound like a room full of people talking over one another.

Siberia frowns, mentally analyzing the whispers and scrutinizing them as she would any of her troops up for inspection.

Making out individual voices is hard, they seem to slip back into the crowd like a floater in your field of vision and instantly become muted and indecipherable again. She manages to catch a couple words here and there but even then they don't seem to make much sense.

Well, that's singularly unhelpful, she thinks at the words she does pick up. She changes tactics, focusing on blocking out the whispers, first by covering her ears and then mentally.

Covering her ears does precisely nothing. Mentally works a little better but shutting them out completely is hard, just like focusing on one it feels like something that slips away the harder you try, like attempting to not think of a specific thing.

Siberia takes several deep breaths, calming herself and sinking into meditation. It wasn't something she normally did, but she was at least familiar with the concept. All things come back to control. Ice, super strength, it's all about control. This is no different.

Meditation seems to help, the voices beginning to fade into the background. It takes some mental discipline but after a while she gets used to the ebb and flow of the voices in tune with her breathing. It's almost tranquil in a way, like listening to the waves crashing on the beach. Or against the hull of a several thousand ton ship. Which makes it all the more startling when it is interrupted by the dissonant screech of a seagull. Or the voice of a woman in this case.

"Boo!"

Siberia startles and her eyes snap open. "No," she says out loud before retreating back into her mind, "You shouldn't be awake. I'm just imagining it."

When Siberia's eyes snap open she can see Cailleach sitting next to her, clear as day. Of course she's surely not really there. All the more reason to pull the blanket over your head close your eyes again.

"As I lay sleeping, is it me or you who is dreaming? All that matters is the closet door is open and you thought you saw a monster."

"An intriguing question." Her mind touched that core of ice, emotions shedding for the cruel, cold impassivity of winter. Which isn't exactly healthy at the best of times, "This is certainly something new. It is possible we could both be dreaming."

"And still she refuses to see." she chuckles. "It doesn't matter! I could be dead and burned and scattered to the winds and you would sit here, wondering if you're imagining things. Stealing my powers just makes it easier for your mind to wander."

"Only to fulfill my purpose. There are those who would have the audacity to defy me but you are too wrapped up in your battle with the one who cannot die to confront your own sins. Your strange passengers are right you know. Not for the reasons they think, but you are no better than the one who cannot die."

"Oh but they are. Not that I expect you to care or atone. Those things are meaningless. I only seek to set things right."

"Oh of course, now you wish to make a pact. I'm not sure I want to. After all, you've already ushered me into your frozen catacombs..."

"Very well. I shall find something else to do with my time. Maybe I'll parley with your sister instead. She's somewhere in your frozen abyss, is she not?"

"Then why do I feel her spark calling out, even now? No no no, you do not deny your sins. Death cannot claim her where she resides. You may be able to draw on my spark through the seat of your power but you did not inherit my dominion. How pompous to presume as such. Did you not heed my warnings?" the surely imagined image of Cailleach smirks.

"Oh I can see that. But the price you so willingly pay violates what is right and wrong. People die. I will make sure of that, even if you refuse to let go of her."

Cailleach bursts out laughing, not even in a particularly sinister way.

"Oh how the mighty always promise to relinquish their power when the time has come. You refuse to accept the tolling of the bell now and you will forever. But everything has a price and some roads lead both ways." she smirks. Whether Siberia notices at the time or not, red slowly spreads through her hair from the roots down, curling the strands slightly as it does.