Notes: Aw, okay, I took pity on those of you begging for the sequel and
sat down to write it right away. I hope you enjoy it!
This story takes place ten months after the events of "And the Sword". I highly, highly recommend you read it before reading this story, as I'm going to jump into the story without much introduction to the characters of "And the Sword," so please read it first! That said, this story will be rated R for language, because I just don't like having to "censor" myself. None of the characters from Pitch Black (Imam, Jack, Riddick) are mine but all the others are. Please, please review, as this is only my second fan fiction and I like to have feedback!
Chapter 1
She ran in the darkness, in the rain, her heart pounding. She could see nothing around her but an endless night. Pure terror ran through her body. She fumbled at her side, but she had nothing. Nothing to defend herself with. The mud pulled at her feet as she ran, something behind her. She could hear it. And she did not know where she was going.
Pain lanced through her arm. She felt herself being pulled backwards, and looking down saw a gray, taloned hand grasping her forearm. She turned her head to see a creature behind her, pulling her towards its T-shaped head, talons cutting into her flesh.
It stopped, and for a moment she only heard clicking and sonar as it looked at her. She could not move. The grip on her arm held her, and was joined by another on her other arm. She was caught as much by it as by her frozen body, paralyzed by fear.
And now, I will die, she thought.
The creature raised its head back and opened its mouth, exposing teeth. The head began to descend.
She screamed.
**
Alex awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in the bed, her eyes darting about the small room illuminated by the light outside the window. Her entire body was covered in sweat and her heart hammered against the walls of her chest.
A dream. Only a dream. She pushed the damp, tangled sheets off of her body and brought her hands up to her skull. She breathed in deeply, and ran her fingers through her short black hair. Swinging her legs over the bed, she slowed her breathing. She looked at the green numbers of the clock on her bedside table. A little after 3am. She brought her hands down to the edge of the bed and sat there a moment, looking around the room to get her mind onto something else.
It was a small room, with very little in the way of personal possessions in it. Alex simply didn't have much. A closet unit for the little clothing she had contained little else but black military-style pants, loose black long-sleeved shirts, and her boots. A set of shelves held numerous electronic books, mostly on the history and technology of the last few hundred years. Alex was trying to catch up. On the opposite wall of her bed was her metal weapons rack. The sword lay in its leather sheath, resting on two brackets. The remainder of her knives were also in their appropriate places, all except for the one she kept on the table. There were two doors in the room. One, leading to the rest of the apartment, had three locks on it, all in their sockets every night. The second door she had put in herself. It was never locked. It led to Jack's bedroom, which itself had three locks on the door. Neither of them, especially Alex, was overly trusting of the surrounding neighborhood.
The only light in the room filtered in through the shade covering the window. Even though they were ten floors up, enough light got through to faintly illuminate Alex's room. They were in the largest city on Moltai, in the Loku district. Moltai was one quarter desert, one quarter irrigated land, and one half cities, and an Earth-like atmosphere. Alex had chosen Moltai, after reviewing the planets, because it was a major hub, large enough to disappear into, form a life. The city they were in, Kanda, was larger than New York and Los Angeles put together. Or at least how she remembered them. Not that she was hiding from anyone, but that it had a lot of opportunity for someone like herself, not looking to attract a lot of attention. But it had its downsides. Street thieves were the least of the problems one could encounter in the alleys and streets of Loku.
Loku had seemed the obvious choice, however, when they had first come there. Imam, Jack, and Alex, fresh off the transport ship, had all wanted somewhere where they could start over and not be asked any questions. Jack had never come out and said it, but as a runaway from who knows where she would probably have at least one person on her tail. Alex never pressed her about it, though. Not yet. So they lived in essential anonymity in a small apartment. Imam had left a few months ago, his yearning to be in a peaceful place overcoming his want to stay with them. He had seen that Alex was capable of taking care of a thirteen year old on her own, but had stayed out of what Alex thought was his purpose. But slowly she saw him dying on the inside in this cramped, dirty city. So she said he should go, and eventually he did. That was two months ago.
A siren sounded somewhere distant in the city. Not in Loku, though. The law barely made their presence known in this district, preferring instead to root out petty burglars and white-collar crime in the upscale areas. It was the price they paid for secrecy, for the no questions asked. Often Alex wondered if this was what the inner cities had been like on old Earth, which sometimes faded to no more than sensations. But in a sense, the price they paid left them freer than in the expensive parts of the city. During the day, at least, they could move around in relative safety. A mass transport took Jack to school, every day she muttered about having to leave her knives at home. Jack had two, now. One that Alex had given her, and one that she had bought on the street. When Alex found out about that she had given Jack one hell of a lecture, but afterwards, started teaching her to use them to the best of her knowledge. While Jack was at school, Alex walked to the library and to the combat training facility in the next district over. She still had so much to learn about today.
Her heart had finally stilled, her mind calmed. She brought her legs back up onto the bed and lay down again, staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come to her. The nightmares had been less frequent, of late, but still left her shaking and terrified in her own bed. But she was not the only one who had nightmares. Just as she started drifting off to sleep she heard whimpering coming through the thin wall between her and Jack's room. After a minute, it came back again, louder. Alex sprang out of bed and pushed open the door.
Jack's room was painted a dark blue in contrast to Alex's gray. Posters and drawings covered one wall, of various landscapes, or people. The computational unit took up one corner. Jack lay in the bed curled into a fetal position under her sheets, her cries getting louder in her sleep. The look upon her face was of unbridled fear.
As she had done many times before, Alex sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. She put one gentle hand on Jack's shoulder and rubbed it. "Jack," she said softly, "wake up, it's okay."
Jack's eyes flew open and she snapped her head around to see Alex in the soft light from her small lamp she left on all the time. Jack closed her eyes again and turned her body around, then sat up. Alex could see tears glistening on her cheeks as Jack rubbed her eyes. Jack moved over to grasp Alex in a little hug, which Alex returned, moving one hand to smooth Jack's short brown hair.
"Was it real bad again?" Alex murmured. Jack's dreams came and went. They had woken her screaming for weeks after they arrived. It must have been the normalcy of their life, now, versus the harrowing experience that she had before.
Jack nodded slowly, then pushed herself away to look into Alex's eyes with her tired brown ones. "I wish I could stop them. You don't have them anymore, do you? I wish I could be brave like that," she said sleepily.
Alex smiled at her. "I still have them, too. Don't worry about it. We're safe." She put her hand to Jack's cheek in a gesture that her mother had done to her when she was a child. "Go back to sleep."
At first Alex had been wary about taking care of a child. Unwilling, even. Yes, she had promised Carolyn that she would take care of them, but to have Jack living with her, she wasn't sure that it would work out. But the soft spot she had for Jack developed into a genuine fondness for the girl as she found herself comforting Jack after her nightmares and the day-to- day taking care of things. It was the last thing that she would have ever wanted when she set off on her trip on the Hunter-Grazner, but the intense experience she had on that planet had changed things. Changed her. She and Jack, and Imam, had become a little family in a way. Maternal instinct, she had thought once, but she knew that she had opened up to them. They were the only people that she had done that for.
Jack lay back down on the bed and Alex pulled the sheets over her. "I'll see you in the morning," Alex said, pushing herself up off the bed. Jack smiled sleepily and closed her eyes. As Alex walked towards the connecting door, she paused to look back at her in the soft light, then smiled to herself and made her way back into her bedroom and fell asleep. For the first time in awhile, she was happy.
That night the bar where Alex worked was especially busy. When they had moved into Loku, there was no way she could get any sort of a job correlating with her degree. Who would believe the dates on it? So she thanked her lucky stars that she still remembered a few tricks of the trade from before, when she had worked as a bartender during college. Josef, the owner, had told her it was a rough place, nowhere for a woman. She had just raised an eyebrow and told him she could take care of herself. He had been skeptical, but it took a demonstration with her sword and knives to let him to give her a chance. The one disadvantage was that she had to leave her sword in the locker, and her knives couldn't be visible. Which was all right, as the two in her boots were never seen by the clientele, and the ones at her back and wrist weren't visible anyways. Josef openly wore a stunner, as did Ty, the bouncer. Moltai law didn't ask questions or require weapon registration of those in Loku district. It had taken a few months for her to gain a reputation of being dangerous in her own right, and most of the regulars no longer tried jumping her in the streets after work.
Tonight it was a slightly rowdy crowd at the Black Orchid, and she was hard- pressed to get their drinks out on time.
"Heya sweets," a middle-aged man slurred from the other end of the bar, "howzabout gettin' me my drink and then spendin' some time out back?!"
Alex sighed. This was by far not the first proposition she'd received from the assholes that frequented the Orchid. She went over to him and leaned over the bar slightly, an innocent smile on her lips. The guy neglected to notice the green fire in her eyes. Two of the regulars on his right, grins on their faces, backed away a little bit.
"You see him?" she asked, pointing to Ty at the entrance. As the man turned, she continued, "He's got a stunner that he'll use if you try anything." He turned back to her, she was still smiling. She suddenly reached across the bar and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him down so his face was pressed against the bar's surface, her smile gone. "And me? Well I've got a few more things that I will use, if you ask me for anything but a drink again," she said, her voice icy. She threw him back from the bar and he overbalanced on his stool, falling to the ground. The regulars around him burst out in loud guffaws, at the fool who'd tried to get some from her. It'd taken awhile before they had learned, too, but now they just steered clear of her.
"Alex, another over here!" someone called at the opposite end of the bar. As she got him another, she erased the look of disgust from her face so she'd put on a good face for the next customer. After the first few "incidents" like that, Josef had looked on, frowning, until the incidents for the most part stopped. He understood that it was a rough place, and that she had to be rough.
Normally she was able to check out anyone who came through the door, to see what kind of a threat they posed, but tonight she was too busy to do that. All sorts of characters came through the door, not quite the scum of the city, but close. While she worked the bar she was unable to see a big man, broad across the shoulders, walk into the bar and take a seat in the darkest corner alone. He sat with his back in the corner, and scanned the crowd through the sunglasses he wore. When the floor waiter came by, he ordered a drink and the waiter nervously brought it to him. He downed it in one go and set the glass down, and then sat there, exuding an air of danger and silently glaring at anyone who attempted to engage him in conversation. He seemed to glance at the bartender more than anything else, and stayed until shortly before they closed.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief that they were closed to closing. As she cleaned the glasses under the bar, she watched the patrons go out the door, some stumbling and leaning on their friends for support. Feeling her pockets and remembering what the cash drawer had looked like, she knew it had been a good night. As she glanced up at the door again she saw the receding back of a large guy exiting into the darkness. He seemed familiar, somehow. She shook her head. Probably somebody who came in a lot, that's all.
Josef bid her goodbye and Ty locked the doors behind her as she left for the night, her vest pockets discretely full of her cash-out. She stepped into a dark shadow for a second and belted on her sword, finally feeling comfortable now that it lay at her hip. Alex scanned the street around her. Good, mostly empty. That made it easier for her to get home, instead of skulking from the shadows if the streets were crowded. Jack would hopefully be asleep by now, but Alex had a sneaking suspicion she stayed up late playing on the computer unit until she got home. It was a Friday night, after all, she could have a few lapses now and then.
She was about halfway home when she heard the soft noise of footsteps behind her. She tensed, but kept walking, trying to listen and see how many. She was able to puzzle out about six, all of them walking surely to avoid detection. Bastards! The flame flared to life in her minds eye, her anger feeding it until she was coldly able to analyze the situation. She would not run. Not and lead them to where she and Jack lived in relative peace. These idiots never learned, not even after the first few fights she had with the locals. Those fights had steeled her, given her real hand-to- hand experience. The first one was almost disastrous but she had gotten better since then.
She ducked into a side street and turned around, her hand on her sword. Six men came around the corner. As one of them passed through a beam of light, she saw it was the middle-aged shithead from the bar, probably out to get his revenge. Only thing that worried Alex was that he looked stone sober. Only a little worried, though. Most of the louts on this planet thought a fight was seeing who could punch the other into insensibility.
"Hiya boys," she said drily, crouched, her entire body ready.
"Hiya sweets," the guy said, an enormous smile on his face, like the cat who has caught a mouse. Well she was no mouse, and they were about to find out. His smile faded. "Nobody, nobody refuses me, embarrasses me like that an' gets away with it." He was angry. Good. They were easier when they were angry.
"Well looks like I did, asshole," Alex said, her mind totally clear and already judging what moves she would make. The sword almost vibrated in her hand. Not yet, she thought, not yet. It was a last resort, she didn't want to kill.
His face contorted with fury, and he rushed towards her. Alex neatly sidestepped his advance, and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling on the concrete. Instantly she saw the rest of them tense. They hadn't expected this. She managed to make her face into a mask of scorn, and watched them as they moved into a circle around her. Number one, a bearded guy looking to be in his thirties, dashed at her. She faced him head on, and ducked the punch he threw, then hit him in the side with her closed fist. He gasped in pain, but she had already moved to the side of him to kick his legs out from underneath him. Two down. She hopped back into a figher's crouch. Number two was more wary, approaching her slowly, sizing her up and down.
"Ain't gonna be nothin' left of you when I'm done, honey," he sneered.
She was silent, but her eyes blazed at him. She fed the anger into the flame, it was dangerous to feel too much when facing an opponent. He surprised her by jump kicking at her face, but she was able to block it with her arm, then grabbed the leg as it was still outstretched and gave him a hard front kick to his groin. He screamed like a little girl. Men.
Number three had managed to circle behind her and grabbed her from behind. A momentary panic flashed through her, then she bent at the waist and threw him to the ground. She immediately moved away from him and faced number four, who had pulled out a knife. Oh, stupid man. He dove at her midsection with it, and as she swerved to avoid it she slapped his hand away, then did a crescent kick which almost caught his hand, but he moved away quickly. Probably wasn't as intoxicated as his friends. She jumped back, avoiding the knife. He came towards her again, and this time she spun close to him, out of the range of the knife, while grabbing his wrist. She clamped down on the pressure point, hard, and his face went white as he dropped the knife. He pulled a knife on her and that just pissed her off, so she brought both hands up to slap the sides of his head, stunning him, and then she kicked him in the chest, causing him to double over.
Number five was the only one left standing, at the moment, and she saw him glancing at his companions. She smiled at him, it didn't reach her eyes. He swallowed, then faced off with her. He made like he was going to rush at her, but instead his hand went behind him to his back. Alarm bells went off in Alex's head, and she swiftly spun to the side. Her quick thinking got her away from him in time, he pulled out a gun and pointed it to where she had been, and hesitated for a split second, which was all she needed. One kick to his hand knocked the gun out of it, and she spun on one knee to knock his legs out from under him.
Her attention had been on the stunner-carrying fifth man, not on the original man who had slowly been getting up from the sidewalk. He had come up behind her and kicked into the back of her knee, knocking her to the ground. Thinking quickly, she somersaulted to get away from him and then flipped up back on her feet. He snarled at her, half of his face in the shadows of the sidestreet.
"Bitch," he growled, and lunged at her. Time to finish this, Alex thought to herself. She moved in closer to him and hit him four times in rapid succession, then ducked out of his enclosing arms and hit him in the side, hard. She could almost feel the ribs breaking. Skipping away, she decided she had enough and drew her sword. She held it in front of her, shiny in the light. That certainly brought him up short.
Foolishly, he tried lunging at her, each time stopped by the swordpoint coming dangerously close to his throat. She only wanted to frighten him off, so she kept it under the utmost control. He made the mistake of giving himself away when she saw the glint of a knife in his hand, ready to throw. She scowled, and as he brought his hand up she moved towards him, making a very shallow cut down his leg, then with her other free hand slapped the knife out of his hand, and ending with her sword blade at his throat, resting on the skin. He stopped moving.
"Leave. Now. Don't fucking bother me again or I'll finish it," she said, finally letting her anger get some sort of a hold on her. His face's expression had quickly turned from one of anger to that of fear, and he looked at her with wide eyes for a second. She lifted the blade two inches away and he turned, running down the street.
She turned around to see his companions still down on the sidewalk, moaning in pain. Suddenly she heard a rustling behind her, and snapped her head and sword around to see a figure coming out of the shadows of the street. She dropped her confident expression to replace it with one of bare surprise.
"It's you!"
This story takes place ten months after the events of "And the Sword". I highly, highly recommend you read it before reading this story, as I'm going to jump into the story without much introduction to the characters of "And the Sword," so please read it first! That said, this story will be rated R for language, because I just don't like having to "censor" myself. None of the characters from Pitch Black (Imam, Jack, Riddick) are mine but all the others are. Please, please review, as this is only my second fan fiction and I like to have feedback!
Chapter 1
She ran in the darkness, in the rain, her heart pounding. She could see nothing around her but an endless night. Pure terror ran through her body. She fumbled at her side, but she had nothing. Nothing to defend herself with. The mud pulled at her feet as she ran, something behind her. She could hear it. And she did not know where she was going.
Pain lanced through her arm. She felt herself being pulled backwards, and looking down saw a gray, taloned hand grasping her forearm. She turned her head to see a creature behind her, pulling her towards its T-shaped head, talons cutting into her flesh.
It stopped, and for a moment she only heard clicking and sonar as it looked at her. She could not move. The grip on her arm held her, and was joined by another on her other arm. She was caught as much by it as by her frozen body, paralyzed by fear.
And now, I will die, she thought.
The creature raised its head back and opened its mouth, exposing teeth. The head began to descend.
She screamed.
**
Alex awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in the bed, her eyes darting about the small room illuminated by the light outside the window. Her entire body was covered in sweat and her heart hammered against the walls of her chest.
A dream. Only a dream. She pushed the damp, tangled sheets off of her body and brought her hands up to her skull. She breathed in deeply, and ran her fingers through her short black hair. Swinging her legs over the bed, she slowed her breathing. She looked at the green numbers of the clock on her bedside table. A little after 3am. She brought her hands down to the edge of the bed and sat there a moment, looking around the room to get her mind onto something else.
It was a small room, with very little in the way of personal possessions in it. Alex simply didn't have much. A closet unit for the little clothing she had contained little else but black military-style pants, loose black long-sleeved shirts, and her boots. A set of shelves held numerous electronic books, mostly on the history and technology of the last few hundred years. Alex was trying to catch up. On the opposite wall of her bed was her metal weapons rack. The sword lay in its leather sheath, resting on two brackets. The remainder of her knives were also in their appropriate places, all except for the one she kept on the table. There were two doors in the room. One, leading to the rest of the apartment, had three locks on it, all in their sockets every night. The second door she had put in herself. It was never locked. It led to Jack's bedroom, which itself had three locks on the door. Neither of them, especially Alex, was overly trusting of the surrounding neighborhood.
The only light in the room filtered in through the shade covering the window. Even though they were ten floors up, enough light got through to faintly illuminate Alex's room. They were in the largest city on Moltai, in the Loku district. Moltai was one quarter desert, one quarter irrigated land, and one half cities, and an Earth-like atmosphere. Alex had chosen Moltai, after reviewing the planets, because it was a major hub, large enough to disappear into, form a life. The city they were in, Kanda, was larger than New York and Los Angeles put together. Or at least how she remembered them. Not that she was hiding from anyone, but that it had a lot of opportunity for someone like herself, not looking to attract a lot of attention. But it had its downsides. Street thieves were the least of the problems one could encounter in the alleys and streets of Loku.
Loku had seemed the obvious choice, however, when they had first come there. Imam, Jack, and Alex, fresh off the transport ship, had all wanted somewhere where they could start over and not be asked any questions. Jack had never come out and said it, but as a runaway from who knows where she would probably have at least one person on her tail. Alex never pressed her about it, though. Not yet. So they lived in essential anonymity in a small apartment. Imam had left a few months ago, his yearning to be in a peaceful place overcoming his want to stay with them. He had seen that Alex was capable of taking care of a thirteen year old on her own, but had stayed out of what Alex thought was his purpose. But slowly she saw him dying on the inside in this cramped, dirty city. So she said he should go, and eventually he did. That was two months ago.
A siren sounded somewhere distant in the city. Not in Loku, though. The law barely made their presence known in this district, preferring instead to root out petty burglars and white-collar crime in the upscale areas. It was the price they paid for secrecy, for the no questions asked. Often Alex wondered if this was what the inner cities had been like on old Earth, which sometimes faded to no more than sensations. But in a sense, the price they paid left them freer than in the expensive parts of the city. During the day, at least, they could move around in relative safety. A mass transport took Jack to school, every day she muttered about having to leave her knives at home. Jack had two, now. One that Alex had given her, and one that she had bought on the street. When Alex found out about that she had given Jack one hell of a lecture, but afterwards, started teaching her to use them to the best of her knowledge. While Jack was at school, Alex walked to the library and to the combat training facility in the next district over. She still had so much to learn about today.
Her heart had finally stilled, her mind calmed. She brought her legs back up onto the bed and lay down again, staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come to her. The nightmares had been less frequent, of late, but still left her shaking and terrified in her own bed. But she was not the only one who had nightmares. Just as she started drifting off to sleep she heard whimpering coming through the thin wall between her and Jack's room. After a minute, it came back again, louder. Alex sprang out of bed and pushed open the door.
Jack's room was painted a dark blue in contrast to Alex's gray. Posters and drawings covered one wall, of various landscapes, or people. The computational unit took up one corner. Jack lay in the bed curled into a fetal position under her sheets, her cries getting louder in her sleep. The look upon her face was of unbridled fear.
As she had done many times before, Alex sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. She put one gentle hand on Jack's shoulder and rubbed it. "Jack," she said softly, "wake up, it's okay."
Jack's eyes flew open and she snapped her head around to see Alex in the soft light from her small lamp she left on all the time. Jack closed her eyes again and turned her body around, then sat up. Alex could see tears glistening on her cheeks as Jack rubbed her eyes. Jack moved over to grasp Alex in a little hug, which Alex returned, moving one hand to smooth Jack's short brown hair.
"Was it real bad again?" Alex murmured. Jack's dreams came and went. They had woken her screaming for weeks after they arrived. It must have been the normalcy of their life, now, versus the harrowing experience that she had before.
Jack nodded slowly, then pushed herself away to look into Alex's eyes with her tired brown ones. "I wish I could stop them. You don't have them anymore, do you? I wish I could be brave like that," she said sleepily.
Alex smiled at her. "I still have them, too. Don't worry about it. We're safe." She put her hand to Jack's cheek in a gesture that her mother had done to her when she was a child. "Go back to sleep."
At first Alex had been wary about taking care of a child. Unwilling, even. Yes, she had promised Carolyn that she would take care of them, but to have Jack living with her, she wasn't sure that it would work out. But the soft spot she had for Jack developed into a genuine fondness for the girl as she found herself comforting Jack after her nightmares and the day-to- day taking care of things. It was the last thing that she would have ever wanted when she set off on her trip on the Hunter-Grazner, but the intense experience she had on that planet had changed things. Changed her. She and Jack, and Imam, had become a little family in a way. Maternal instinct, she had thought once, but she knew that she had opened up to them. They were the only people that she had done that for.
Jack lay back down on the bed and Alex pulled the sheets over her. "I'll see you in the morning," Alex said, pushing herself up off the bed. Jack smiled sleepily and closed her eyes. As Alex walked towards the connecting door, she paused to look back at her in the soft light, then smiled to herself and made her way back into her bedroom and fell asleep. For the first time in awhile, she was happy.
That night the bar where Alex worked was especially busy. When they had moved into Loku, there was no way she could get any sort of a job correlating with her degree. Who would believe the dates on it? So she thanked her lucky stars that she still remembered a few tricks of the trade from before, when she had worked as a bartender during college. Josef, the owner, had told her it was a rough place, nowhere for a woman. She had just raised an eyebrow and told him she could take care of herself. He had been skeptical, but it took a demonstration with her sword and knives to let him to give her a chance. The one disadvantage was that she had to leave her sword in the locker, and her knives couldn't be visible. Which was all right, as the two in her boots were never seen by the clientele, and the ones at her back and wrist weren't visible anyways. Josef openly wore a stunner, as did Ty, the bouncer. Moltai law didn't ask questions or require weapon registration of those in Loku district. It had taken a few months for her to gain a reputation of being dangerous in her own right, and most of the regulars no longer tried jumping her in the streets after work.
Tonight it was a slightly rowdy crowd at the Black Orchid, and she was hard- pressed to get their drinks out on time.
"Heya sweets," a middle-aged man slurred from the other end of the bar, "howzabout gettin' me my drink and then spendin' some time out back?!"
Alex sighed. This was by far not the first proposition she'd received from the assholes that frequented the Orchid. She went over to him and leaned over the bar slightly, an innocent smile on her lips. The guy neglected to notice the green fire in her eyes. Two of the regulars on his right, grins on their faces, backed away a little bit.
"You see him?" she asked, pointing to Ty at the entrance. As the man turned, she continued, "He's got a stunner that he'll use if you try anything." He turned back to her, she was still smiling. She suddenly reached across the bar and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him down so his face was pressed against the bar's surface, her smile gone. "And me? Well I've got a few more things that I will use, if you ask me for anything but a drink again," she said, her voice icy. She threw him back from the bar and he overbalanced on his stool, falling to the ground. The regulars around him burst out in loud guffaws, at the fool who'd tried to get some from her. It'd taken awhile before they had learned, too, but now they just steered clear of her.
"Alex, another over here!" someone called at the opposite end of the bar. As she got him another, she erased the look of disgust from her face so she'd put on a good face for the next customer. After the first few "incidents" like that, Josef had looked on, frowning, until the incidents for the most part stopped. He understood that it was a rough place, and that she had to be rough.
Normally she was able to check out anyone who came through the door, to see what kind of a threat they posed, but tonight she was too busy to do that. All sorts of characters came through the door, not quite the scum of the city, but close. While she worked the bar she was unable to see a big man, broad across the shoulders, walk into the bar and take a seat in the darkest corner alone. He sat with his back in the corner, and scanned the crowd through the sunglasses he wore. When the floor waiter came by, he ordered a drink and the waiter nervously brought it to him. He downed it in one go and set the glass down, and then sat there, exuding an air of danger and silently glaring at anyone who attempted to engage him in conversation. He seemed to glance at the bartender more than anything else, and stayed until shortly before they closed.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief that they were closed to closing. As she cleaned the glasses under the bar, she watched the patrons go out the door, some stumbling and leaning on their friends for support. Feeling her pockets and remembering what the cash drawer had looked like, she knew it had been a good night. As she glanced up at the door again she saw the receding back of a large guy exiting into the darkness. He seemed familiar, somehow. She shook her head. Probably somebody who came in a lot, that's all.
Josef bid her goodbye and Ty locked the doors behind her as she left for the night, her vest pockets discretely full of her cash-out. She stepped into a dark shadow for a second and belted on her sword, finally feeling comfortable now that it lay at her hip. Alex scanned the street around her. Good, mostly empty. That made it easier for her to get home, instead of skulking from the shadows if the streets were crowded. Jack would hopefully be asleep by now, but Alex had a sneaking suspicion she stayed up late playing on the computer unit until she got home. It was a Friday night, after all, she could have a few lapses now and then.
She was about halfway home when she heard the soft noise of footsteps behind her. She tensed, but kept walking, trying to listen and see how many. She was able to puzzle out about six, all of them walking surely to avoid detection. Bastards! The flame flared to life in her minds eye, her anger feeding it until she was coldly able to analyze the situation. She would not run. Not and lead them to where she and Jack lived in relative peace. These idiots never learned, not even after the first few fights she had with the locals. Those fights had steeled her, given her real hand-to- hand experience. The first one was almost disastrous but she had gotten better since then.
She ducked into a side street and turned around, her hand on her sword. Six men came around the corner. As one of them passed through a beam of light, she saw it was the middle-aged shithead from the bar, probably out to get his revenge. Only thing that worried Alex was that he looked stone sober. Only a little worried, though. Most of the louts on this planet thought a fight was seeing who could punch the other into insensibility.
"Hiya boys," she said drily, crouched, her entire body ready.
"Hiya sweets," the guy said, an enormous smile on his face, like the cat who has caught a mouse. Well she was no mouse, and they were about to find out. His smile faded. "Nobody, nobody refuses me, embarrasses me like that an' gets away with it." He was angry. Good. They were easier when they were angry.
"Well looks like I did, asshole," Alex said, her mind totally clear and already judging what moves she would make. The sword almost vibrated in her hand. Not yet, she thought, not yet. It was a last resort, she didn't want to kill.
His face contorted with fury, and he rushed towards her. Alex neatly sidestepped his advance, and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling on the concrete. Instantly she saw the rest of them tense. They hadn't expected this. She managed to make her face into a mask of scorn, and watched them as they moved into a circle around her. Number one, a bearded guy looking to be in his thirties, dashed at her. She faced him head on, and ducked the punch he threw, then hit him in the side with her closed fist. He gasped in pain, but she had already moved to the side of him to kick his legs out from underneath him. Two down. She hopped back into a figher's crouch. Number two was more wary, approaching her slowly, sizing her up and down.
"Ain't gonna be nothin' left of you when I'm done, honey," he sneered.
She was silent, but her eyes blazed at him. She fed the anger into the flame, it was dangerous to feel too much when facing an opponent. He surprised her by jump kicking at her face, but she was able to block it with her arm, then grabbed the leg as it was still outstretched and gave him a hard front kick to his groin. He screamed like a little girl. Men.
Number three had managed to circle behind her and grabbed her from behind. A momentary panic flashed through her, then she bent at the waist and threw him to the ground. She immediately moved away from him and faced number four, who had pulled out a knife. Oh, stupid man. He dove at her midsection with it, and as she swerved to avoid it she slapped his hand away, then did a crescent kick which almost caught his hand, but he moved away quickly. Probably wasn't as intoxicated as his friends. She jumped back, avoiding the knife. He came towards her again, and this time she spun close to him, out of the range of the knife, while grabbing his wrist. She clamped down on the pressure point, hard, and his face went white as he dropped the knife. He pulled a knife on her and that just pissed her off, so she brought both hands up to slap the sides of his head, stunning him, and then she kicked him in the chest, causing him to double over.
Number five was the only one left standing, at the moment, and she saw him glancing at his companions. She smiled at him, it didn't reach her eyes. He swallowed, then faced off with her. He made like he was going to rush at her, but instead his hand went behind him to his back. Alarm bells went off in Alex's head, and she swiftly spun to the side. Her quick thinking got her away from him in time, he pulled out a gun and pointed it to where she had been, and hesitated for a split second, which was all she needed. One kick to his hand knocked the gun out of it, and she spun on one knee to knock his legs out from under him.
Her attention had been on the stunner-carrying fifth man, not on the original man who had slowly been getting up from the sidewalk. He had come up behind her and kicked into the back of her knee, knocking her to the ground. Thinking quickly, she somersaulted to get away from him and then flipped up back on her feet. He snarled at her, half of his face in the shadows of the sidestreet.
"Bitch," he growled, and lunged at her. Time to finish this, Alex thought to herself. She moved in closer to him and hit him four times in rapid succession, then ducked out of his enclosing arms and hit him in the side, hard. She could almost feel the ribs breaking. Skipping away, she decided she had enough and drew her sword. She held it in front of her, shiny in the light. That certainly brought him up short.
Foolishly, he tried lunging at her, each time stopped by the swordpoint coming dangerously close to his throat. She only wanted to frighten him off, so she kept it under the utmost control. He made the mistake of giving himself away when she saw the glint of a knife in his hand, ready to throw. She scowled, and as he brought his hand up she moved towards him, making a very shallow cut down his leg, then with her other free hand slapped the knife out of his hand, and ending with her sword blade at his throat, resting on the skin. He stopped moving.
"Leave. Now. Don't fucking bother me again or I'll finish it," she said, finally letting her anger get some sort of a hold on her. His face's expression had quickly turned from one of anger to that of fear, and he looked at her with wide eyes for a second. She lifted the blade two inches away and he turned, running down the street.
She turned around to see his companions still down on the sidewalk, moaning in pain. Suddenly she heard a rustling behind her, and snapped her head and sword around to see a figure coming out of the shadows of the street. She dropped her confident expression to replace it with one of bare surprise.
"It's you!"