Chapter Text
Soulmates. A very real phenomenon. And a source of much debate.
What godly (or ungodly) system exists that can magically (or mundanely) ensure that two (or more) people are destined to be happy together? It was weird. It was neat. It was terrifying. It was glorious.
Thank God (or Goddess, or gods, or whatever) that they were also exceedingly rare.
Maybe.
What constitutes rarity with a world population of 7.1 billion people, anyway?
Eh, whatever. Soulmates definitely weren't common, in any case.
All anyone knew for certain was that once you met your soulmate, a mark would appear on your body sometime later. A Permanent mark. And yes, that was Permanent with a capital "P." Those who actually bore a soulmark had explained that it wouldn't wash off, couldn't be cut or burned or damaged, rejected the ink of a tattoo, and was impossible to remove, surgically or otherwise. Not that anyone would try removing one. No one sane, anyway. But, wasn't there a news article way back when about some deranged couple who attempted to remove each other's marks to gift them to each other?
It was enough to give anyone the willies.
Typically, it was in an obvious place. Better for soulmates to identify each other, probably. The size of the mark varied as did the shape, though color would only appear once the mark was kissed by the joining soulmate. But whatever the image was, it was supposed to be significant in some way to the bearers.
Chloe ran her thumb over the black butterfly that adorned the inside of her left wrist and wondered what significance, if any, it held for her supposed other. Who wasn't Rachel. And that fact alone really, really pissed her off.
Last night was so fucked up. One moment, nothing. The next, soulmark. Chloe had been driving at the time and when she noticed its sudden appearance and was so shocked by it, she nearly ran a red light. The second she was able, she made a U-turn and hauled ass back to Blackwell to find her girlfriend. Because if Chloe got her mark, and Rachel got a matching mark, then...
Her excitement was short-lived. A mark did, in fact, appear on Rachel's wrist, same place as hers, but it was a star and not a butterfly. It was a crushing moment for the two of them to realize that yes, as rare as soulmates were and as unexpected as it was for the two of them to get marks, they didn't actually match. That meant they were going to be paired up with someone else, someone who would absolutely, completely break them apart. Because that's what soulmates did, right? Shatter established relationships because of destiny or whatever-the-fuck, right?
Fuck that.
Chloe spent the night over at Rachel's dorm room that evening, the two reassuring one another that they'd always have each other and would never, ever leave. They even briefly entertained the thought of eloping to prevent each other's soulmate from breaking them apart but ran into a logistical problem: would anyone actually marry them if they clearly had non-matching soulmate marks? Neither knew. It wasn't anything that had ever come up before. A quick Google search pulled up nothing and it was pretty late in the night to ask anyone else. So, the pair, still very much loving girlfriends, and still very much nude (they really wanted to reassure each other), pulled the covers over themselves and held each other close, promising that they'd always be together, forever and ever, until finally, they fell asleep.
It was while Rachel was in the bathroom the next morning that life got... weird.
She had finished her shower and was standing in front of the mirror, wrapping a towel around her hair, when Juliet entered, groggy, wrapped in a robe, shower caddy in hand. Rachel smiled and nodded her head slightly as her hands were still busy. "Morning."
"Hey," was the sleepy reply accompanied by a short wave of Juliet's free hand.
Her left hand.
Rachel blinked and forgot all about her towel. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.
"Hmm?" Juliet glanced down. "My caddy?"
"No, other hand."
Juliet raised her hand and spread her fingers. "Huh. Yeah, color's chipping a bit. I'll have to redo them soon."
Rachel let out an annoyed huff. "No, not your nails." She stepped up to Juliet, took a hold of her left hand, and turned it over. "This," she stated, pointing to the mark she knew for a fact wasn't there the previous night. "What's this?"
Blinking, Juliet stared down at the black mark on the inside of her wrist that looked like a pocket-sized notepad and a short pencil. "I suppose that's my soulmark."
This time, it was Rachel's turn to blink. "You're surprisingly unexcited about it."
"I was last night," Juliet replied, "but when I checked and found out Zach doesn't have one and Dana's didn't match, the excitement kind of died off. I'll figure it out eventually so why worry about it now?"
"Wait." Rachel let go of Juliet's wrist and took a step back. "Dana got a mark, too?"
Juliet nodded as she covered her mouth. "Uh-huh," she said as she yawned mightily. "Sorry. I was up late last night with her, trying to find out if her symbol had any deeper significance or not."
Gears began spinning in Rachel's mind. "And about what time did this happen?"
The bathroom door opening interrupted the conversation. The two turned to see Dana walk in, who gave the pair a friendly wave. "Morning."
"Hey, D," Rachel greeted her with a smile. "I was just asking Juliet about your soulmarks."
"Oh, it was so exciting!" Dana's face lit up as she stepped forward. "Juliet and I were hanging out and suddenly, both our wrists had the marks. Here, check it out!" She thrust out her left arm towards Rachel, who examined Dana's mark. It was, appropriately enough, a pair of pom-poms, though, like Juliet's, a lot of the detail was lost due to the mark being completely black.
"I'm so happy for you!" Rachel stated as she looked back at Dana. And she genuinely was. Dana was such a romantic at heart. But the excitement she'd normally feel on behalf of her friend was tempered by a healthy dose of curiosity. "And about what time did the mark show up?"
"I'd say between 12 and 12:15?" she replied, looking towards Juliet for confirmation.
Who nodded even as she yawned again. "Uh-huh."
Dana turned back to Rachel. "Why do you ask?"
"Well..." Rachel mentally shrugged and lifted her left arm, exposing her own mark to the pair. "That's about the same time Chloe and I got ours."
That finally woke Juliet up.
A couple of hurried showers later, and both Dana and Juliet joined Rachel and Chloe in Rachel's dorm, all of whom were discussing the sheer improbability of four students at the same school getting their soulmarks at exactly the same time. "And here I thought they were rare," Juliet stated with a shake of her head.
"Okay, seriously, what percentage of 7.1 billion would constitute 'rare?' 'Cause I've been asking myself that and haven't come up with an answer."
Juliet looked at Chloe and realized she had no idea. "Huh. I'll have to look that up later."
"Back to the important thing, babe," Rachel said. "Four marks, one school. All different shapes but all in the same location." She looked around the room. "That has to means something, right?"
"But none of them match," Dana pointed out. "If they did, or if we were all carrying a blend of each other's marks, that would make more sense, even though the chances of that happening is bordering on ridiculous."
"Whatever the statistical chances are, what we're looking at is 100%," Chloe said with a shrug. "But mark or no, I'm already committed to Rachel. Anyone comes in to break that up is going to get my boot up his ass."
Rachel beamed at that while Juliet nodded. Dana, though, looked a bit scandalized. "But, they'd be soulmates."
Chloe waved that aside. "Whatever. I love Rachel, she loves me. And any soulmate worth his salt had damn well understand that. And the last time I checked, someone having a soulmark doesn't give them the right to just claim his other out of the clear blue sky."
"Just out of curiosity, when was the last time you checked?" Juliet asked.
"Last night," Chloe replied without missing a beat, "because nothing and no one is going to get in the way of our relationship."
The sound of someone clearing her throat interrupted any response from the others. The four turned to see Victoria, clad in loose-fitting pajamas and matching slippers, standing right outside Rachel's open door, hands on her hips. "I could hear you Power Rangers down the hall," she stated with a slight scowl. "What's got your collective panties in a wad so damn early on a Saturday?"
"If we're the Power Rangers," Chloe stated with a smirk, "does that make you Vicky Repulsa?"
Victoria's scowl deepened as the other three girls giggled. "What-the-fuck ever," she stated with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Just keep it down--"
"Wait!" Juliet shot from her seat and approached Victoria. "What's that on your wrist?"
Victoria stopped and immediately jerked her hand behind her back. "None of your fucking business, Watson."
Normally, Juliet would be miffed at Victoria's shit attitude. But not this time. Instead, she simply exposed her left wrist to Victoria, showing off her soulmark, then glanced over her shoulder to see the others do the same.
Everyone watched as Victoria went from overly defensive to stunned. "No way..." Slowly, she exposed her own wrist to the room, which looked like a black disc. "No fucking way."
"Appeared around 12 to 12:15 last night?" Rachel asked.
Victoria nodded. "Yeah, about that time. I was relaxing in my room by myself when it suddenly popped up."
Dana motioned her inside. "You don't sound too excited about it."
"I'm not," Victoria stated simply as she stepped inside. "I was more shocked than anything. I already know what I want to do with my life, my career, my future. A soulmate is a complete unknown."
"Believe it or not, Chloe and I are kind of in the same boat," Rachel explained. "We're committed to each other and have no idea how having a soulmate is going to affect that."
"It isn't," Chloe stated quite firmly. "Period."
Victoria, to everyone's surprise, nodded in agreement. But before anyone could bring attention to it, there was the sound of scurrying feet down the hall, followed by a pounding on someone's door. Everyone blinked. Being closest to the exit, Victoria and Juliet both walked over and poked their heads out.
There, right outside of Victoria's room, stood Taylor and Courtney. Well, "stood" was probably inaccurate. Bounced up and down like overly excitable puppies on crack would be how Victoria would describe the pair. She very loudly cleared her throat, catching their attention. "Problem?"
"Victoria!" The two scrambled down the hall and nearly crashed into each other trying to stop at Rachel's door. "Looklooklooklook!!" And with Taylor's near-frantic sentence complete, the two thrust out their left arms towards Victoria, each bearing a soulmark. Courtney's looked like a dream catcher while Taylor's looked like stretched out diamond.
Victoria looked at the marks, up to their excited faces, turned to Juliet, glanced at the room's occupants, then shot a look towards the heavens at whatever god (or gods) that had thoroughly and completely shafted her weekend plans. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!"
It wasn't exactly a war council but it was damn close. All the girls had drifted over to the common room (Rachel's room was starting to get a little cramped) to discuss their brand new marks. Some, like Dana, Taylor, and Courtney, were as excited as can be. Others, like Victoria and Chloe, were less than thrilled. In fact, Rachel found it fascinating that the two normally combative girls were actually getting along, commiserating about their lack of joy over the recent revelation while enjoying a smoke (completely against the rules but neither particularly cared at the moment). Juliet was doing research while likely drafting a front page article for the Totem on her phone. Seriously, how fucked up was it that not one, not two, but seven girls got a soulmark at precisely the same time and exactly in the same place?
Rachel noticed movement right outside the doorway and turned her attention to it. Then smiled. "Kate! Come on in!"
Kate entered the common room, looking at bit overwhelmed. "I saw the sign someone posted on the bathroom door," she said as she turned over her left arm, revealing her soulmark. "So I wanted to find out what was happening?"
"You too? Ugh." Victoria flicked the ash from her cigarette out of the open window. "Is there anyone on this floor who didn't get a soulmark last night?"
"Ignore her," Rachel said, giving Kate a brief hug. "She's less than excited about this."
"I'm just confused," Kate admitted as she let Rachel lead her into the room. "I mean, the sign said made it seem like everyone had one. I thought they were really rare?"
"Same," Rachel replied, sitting on a couch, tugging on Kate's arm so she joined her. "The sheer number of marks that have showed up last night is super weird. Not to mention we all have them in the same place. Eight different marks all in the same place all at the same time?" She shook her head. "If that's not a world record, I don't know what is."
"Here's a bit more info," Juliet stated, eyes still glued to her phone. Everyone fell silent and turned their attention to her, who continued. "There's an article dated way back to '89 that theorizes that it's proximity to your soulmate that triggers the generation of a mark, not an actual meeting. And there is apparently a delay between that proximity and the mark actually showing up. It references a couple of cases where people had a soulmark appear while travelling on vacation, then had to backtrack to find one another."
"How the hell did they manage that?" Chloe asked. "If they were travelling by plane, they could be thousands of miles apart by the time the marks showed up."
"Apparently, the marks can act as a kind of homing signal after a certain amount of distance increases between bearers," Juliet replied, eyes still scanning the article. "Even if the marks aren't reciprocated, soulmates will get vague impressions to the location of their other until one or the other passes away."
"And if they are?" Dana asked. "Reciprocated, I mean."
"Then, that sense of location strengthens and gets more and more detailed until eventually, you could find each other in a darkened maze, blindfolded, at night, while wearing a bucket over your head." Juliet snorted. "It actually says that. I guess the editor of the article was really bored."
Taylor shifted in her seat. "Okay, so, this means it may not have been someone we all met but just someone close by, like in class or maybe the cafeteria."
"Maybe," Courtney replied, her brow furrowed in thought. "But if that were the case, wouldn't the marks have shown up before today? Class has been going on for three weeks and there hasn't been any unusual visitors or transfer students that I'm aware of."
"Good point," Dana said, then turned when a couple more people entered the room. "Stella, Alyssa, come on in! I take it your the newest members of the Soul Club?" she asked, waving her left arm in the air.
Both girls glanced to each other, then raised their left arms, exposing the inside of their wrist to the room. And lo and behold, both were sporting marks.
Chloe blew out a puff of smoke out of the open window. "'Rare' my ass," she muttered aloud while Victoria snorted in agreement.
Stella blinked as most everyone else raised their left arms to show off their marks. "Seriously? ALL of us?"
"Yep!" Rachel showed off her mark with a wide grin. "Anyone want to bet that Brooke and Steph have one, too?"
"No bet," Alyssa said as she came into the room and plopped down onto the sofa opposite of Rachel. "Brooke found hers this morning and was last seen racing downstairs to see if Warren has a matching mark."
"You really think he's sporting one, too?"
"No," Taylor said with a shake of her head. "He's been hanging around Brooke a while now. If they were going to sport matching marks, it would've happened by now."
"But that's just it." Victoria jammed her cigarette in the general direction of the room. "Like Courtney just said, we've all been around each other for nearly a month now. If we were actually connected, these marks would have showed up the first day of class, not last night. That has to mean we're connected to different people."
"Not necessarily," Juliet stated, still reading. "Just got confirmation that soulmarks involving more than two people won't necessarily match but will show up in the same place on their bodies." She looked up and scanned the room. "Hate to say it but that's pretty good evidence we are connected to each other."
"But not guaranteed," Chloe pointed out, though she didn't sound convinced.
"No, not guaranteed. But at this point, the odds are so low that we're not I don't think even Steph could calculate it."
"Someone mention my name?"
Everyone turned to face Steph, who just showed up. "I didn't get here sooner because I was researching soulmates," she offered as explanation as she entered, then exchanged fist-bumps with Chloe.
"What's yours?" Victoria asked.
Steph turned her left wrist up and showed it to the smoking pair. "It's a twenty-sider. Detail's lacking but trust me, I know this shape by heart."
"I believe it, nerd," Chloe said with a smile.
Steph jammed a finger into Chloe's stomach, who flinched away with a grin. "Better watch it or your character's going to fall into another spike trap when we play again."
The sound of stomping caught everyone's attention. A moment later, Brooke stormed into the room, looking extremely put out. "He doesn't have one," she declared to the room at large.
Alyssa turned to Stella and slapped a $5 bill into her waiting hand. "Dammit."
"Always a pleasure."
"Shut it," Brooke stated as she leaned against one of the walls and crossed his arms over her chest. "Warren's already dumped me since I now have a soulmate and he doesn't want to interfere with fate or whatever. I tried arguing but he's pretty adamant." She scrubbed at her wrist with her other hand. "Stupid mark."
Victoria shook her head. "This is beyond unbelievable," she said with a shake of her head. "It's like we're a fucking harem here. This is the entire girls' floor!"
"Except Max."
Everyone turned to Kate, who shifted uncomfortably at the attention. "I just noticed she's not here."
"Huh." Juliet glanced around the room, as did several others. "You're right. I don't know how I missed that."
"No way she could've missed the sign," Dana stated.
"Yeah, she could've," Chloe said, crushing out her cigarette on the outside brick. "She's probably still asleep. She loves to sleep in on the weekends."
Victoria snorted. "All the beauty sleep in the world won't help that one."
Chloe's eyes narrowed at the insult. "Watch it or I'll knock your ass right out of this window."
Surprisingly, Victoria declined to trade barbs with Chloe and instead ran her free hand through her hair. "Fine, fine. I'm just fucking stressing out here. I figure even you can get that."
Chloe raised her eyebrow at the lack of confrontation but rolled with it. "Yeah, I do, which is why I'm letting you bum cigs offa me in the first place."
Steph pushed off the wall and stretched a bit. "Well, now that you two are done with your cancer sticks, why don't we pay Max a visit, see if she's sporting a mark?"
"But she's still sleeping," Kate pointed out. "I don't know if we should disturb her."
Rachel gave Kate's hand a squeeze, drawing her attention. "Normally, I'd be in firm agreement with you but twelve soulmarks all at once? I think this is important enough to wake her up a bit early."
Kate shifted again. "Still..."
"Then let's make this fair and vote on it," Dana stated. "All in favor of waking Max up now, raise your hands." She, along with most of the room, did so. "And all oppose?" Kate and Stella raised theirs.
"What can I say?" Stella said as she lowered her hand. "I like sleeping in, too."
"Well, majority rules." Brooke uncrossed her arms. "And I can't wait to solve this mystery."
The group made their way down the hall and in short order, found themselves outside of Max's room. Chloe placed herself in the front and gave the door a couple of sharp knocks. "Yo! Super Max! Wake up call!"
A long groan sounded from beyond the door, followed by some faint shifting. Everyone fell silent as they waited with anticipation for Max to open her door. A few moments later, she did. And there she was. Max Caulfield, in all of her sleepy glory, clad in her sleep shorts, her three chicks t-shirt, hair sticking out every which way, rubbing at her eyes with her right hand as her left held her door open.
"What's up, Chloe?" She blinked. "And everyone...?"
Everyone's eyes zeroed in on Max's left wrist.
And collectively deflated.
It was blank.
Max didn't have a soulmark.
They all looked to one another, blinking in confusion.
Now what?