Ombra, Part Four
By Chornyi
Not mine.. Not even Ian, unfortunately. You know whose they are.
Danny, Sara and Ian must confront the one enemy who could beat them all...
....................................................................................
'Look, Nottingham,' Danny says finally.
None of his other words have made a dent in the other man's silence on who killed David Summers and Keith Tollman. But he can't give up. Not with more lives at stake.
He wonders if appealing to Nttingham's better nature will do any good.
Does Nottingham have a better nature? Danny thinks he does.
'Two people have already died.' Danny says. He doesn't try to keep the emotion out of his voice. 'Two men who didn't deserve to die. Two families destroyed. This monster WILL kill again if we don't stop him. All I'm asking- all WE'RE is asking- is for a name and where to find him. We'll do the rest.'
At first, he thinks these words have had no effect, either.
Then Nottingham speaks. Danny can hardly make out the softly whispered word.
'Monster...' Nottingham looks up at him suddenly, and his eyes seem deeper, their golden brown color swallowed by darkness. 'Do you truly think the one who does this is a monster?'
'Yes,' Danny says flatly. 'I do.'
'Monster.' Nottingham repeats the word again, and there is something in his voice that tells Danny, this is it.
He is right.
'I will tell you how to find this monster.' Nottingham says quietly.
Danny doesn't know how he did it, but he's grateful for whatever hand guided him into this cell tonight.
'Okay.' he answers, keeping his voice level, waiting for a name, a place.
He gets neither.
'The man you seek... Is a replicant.' Nottingham says, as if the words are self-explanatory.
'A.. what?' Danny wonders if he heard wrong. But he knows he didn't.
'What the hell is a replicant?' For the first time, his voice rises, his calm evaporating.
'A replica. A copy. An alternative version.' Nottingham tells him. He doesn't seem to register Danny's anger.
'A replica of what?' Danny asks, forcing his voice down, forcing his fists out of their clench. Calm, calm, he must remain calm. Beating Nottingham bloody in this cell will not get him the true name if the other man doesn't wish it, but it might take away his badge.
The other man's words fall into a silence of their own making.
'Of me.'
They take a minute to register. Then Danny shakes his head. His eyes narrow and fill with disgust.
'Of.. Forget it. I should have known you wouldn't tell me anything useful. You're a monster, too, aren't you?'
Nottingham closed his eyes while Danny was speaking.
He opens them now, meeting Danny's accusing gaze. 'Yes, I am.' he answers. 'But not the one you seek. What I told you was the truth. And.. useful. But you can believe whatever you want.'
He lies down on his bunk, his back to Danny, and pulls his legs up, curling himself small again.
The interview is over.
Danny stands for a few minutes, watching Nottingham's perfect stillness.
Finally he speaks. 'If I believed you... Where could I find this replicant?'
At first he thinks Nottingham isn't going to answer.
But he does. 'He will be in the abandoned dojo near the Candleflame bar at 12:00 am tonight... He likes to practice before each kill. To calm himself. To prepare. But I do not recommend a meeting between you and he.'
'Why not?'
'Because he can kill you as easily as I could.'
Danny wonders at the flat words, but doesn't contest them. Inside, he knows he will confront the killer anyway. 'Thank you for your help.' he says softly.
'It was not a help for you.' Nottingham tells him. 'Goodbye, Detective Woo.'
Danny nods to the man's still back, even though Nottingham can't see him. 'See you later.'
'Not in this case, I don't think.' Nottingham says without moving.
'Thanks for the vote of confidence.' Danny lets himself out of the cell, locking the door behind him. 'When I bring him down, you'll be released. Especially if there is a resemblance.'
Nottingham doesn't answer. His stillness has consumed him. He is empty.
Danny turns and walks away.
---
When Sara enters the cell, Ian is curled up small on his bunk, his back to her. His knees are drawn up to his chest, his arms tucked under his body. His thick wavy hair hides his face. He is so still that for an instant she thinks he's dead.
Then she sees him take one slow breath and lets out hers. 'Nottingham.. Ian. It's me.'
'I know.' He doesn't move. 'I knew the instant you walked into this cell.'
'Umm.. Okay.'
She ignores that. 'Anyway, I need to talk to you.'
'We already talked.'
'Well, we need to talk again.'
'And will you be satisfied with the same answers, Sara?'
That little singsong lilt on her name. Only he ever says it like that.
'No.' she answers, no lilt in her voice. 'Tell me about clones, Ian. Tell me about 'replicants'.'
He sits up at that, faces her, his brown eyes wide. Then he gives her the slightest little smile, as if she's passed some sort of test. 'What do you want to know?'
'Is the killer a replicant?'
'Yes.'
'Of you?'
'Yes.'
'Oh, my God.'
Ian bows his head at her words, as if her horror is his fault. 'He had nothing to do with it. If you must thank someone, thank Kenneth Irons.'
'Thank him? If he wasn't dead, I'd kill him again.'
He raises his eyes to hers. That dark, lost look in them, the one that touches her even though she knows it shouldn't. 'Sometimes I feel the same way, Sara.'
She has no reply to that.
'Where can I find him, Ian? Where can I find the replicant?' she asks gently instead.
Ian lowers his head again. Speaking with head bowed, he answers her. 'He will be in the abandoned dojo near the Candleflame bar at 12:00 am tonight... But I do not recommend a meeting between he you and he.'
'Why not?'
'I have already had this conversation before, with your partner, Detective Woo. Will you take my advice any better then he did, Sara?'
Instantly, whatever slight connection there was between them is gone. Sara's breath catches, and she feels a shock of pure terror. 'Oh my God.. Danny?' she asks, knowing the answer already.
'If that is his name.'
'What did you tell him?' Her voice is fierce.
'What he asked for.' Ian answers flatly.
'Oh, my God.' Sara turns to leave.
Ian is off the bunk so fast she doesn't even see him move. But suddenly he is in front of her, blocking her way. 'I told you what you wanted to know, Sara.'
'Ian, I don't have time to get you out of here. I have to get to Danny!'
He doesn't move, and she doesn't want to go through him.
'Fine.' She spits it out. 'Just go. I'm sure you can make it out of here without being seen. I'll worry about it later, just get out of my way.'
'Thank you, Sara.' He steps aside, letting her go.
'Danny, Danny.. Please let me be in time..'
She is almost running when she leaves the precinct.
---
The dojo looks like it has been abandoned for a long time. Paint is peeling on the rearing black dragon on the door. The windows are boarded up in the huge, two story building.
Sara listens and hears only silence. But Danny is in there. She sees his car parked in front of the building, with no one inside.
Dismounting from the bike, she starts toward the door of the building.
Then she freezes.
Ian has stepped around the side of the dojo and stands near the door. His wrists are crossed in front of him, as in the picture in his room. His sleeves are pushed up and she sees the dragon tattoo on his wrist. It matches the dragon on the dojo door.
Sar looks down at the Witchblade on her wrist, and the stone glows red.
'Don't move.' she tells Ian.
'You still have time,' is all he says.
'Waht do you mean? Time for what?'
'Time to save your partner. But you have to hurry.' He looks toward the dojo.
Sara recognizes her own Ian, the good Ian, if there is such a thing. It's not the replicant.
'Stay here,' she tells him. 'Don't move until I come back.'
He bows his head, and she walks past him, opening the door of the dojo and entering the building.
Inside the first floor is where business must have been handled in the dojo. There is a desk and chair, empty spaces where a book case filled with books might have stood, a brass pot with no plant in it.
Looking around the empty, echoing floor, Sara spots a set of stairs. Upstairs must be where the training went on. That's where he'll be.
When she comes up the stairs half way, she hears a voice. The rustle of feet on matting.
They are here.
Sara bounds up the last few stairs.
When she reaches the top, what she sees freezes her in her tracks.
Danny is kneeling. Standing over him is a man dressed all in black, holding a sword. As she watches in horror, he lifts the sword in a graceful upswing. The downswing will take off Danny's head.
'Stop!' Sara screams.
The man turns.
It is Ian.
'Oh, my God...' Sara breathes.
He wears a black tunic with a rearing silver dragon on the front and baggy black pants tied at the ankles. His hair is perfectly straight, pulled up sleekly on the back of his skull and bound in a short tail.
He has no beard, just a small v of black hair beaneath his lower lip. But the face, the eyes, are Ian.
He smiles, a small, satisfied smile with lips that seem fuller without mustache and beard, and lowers the sword. With one booted foot, he pushes Danny over on his side, and Sara sees Danny's hands and feet are bound.
'Hello, Sara,' the replicant says in Ian's voice. 'I've been waiting a long time to meet you.'
She smiles back, but it's more of a baring of teeth. 'So I can kill you?'
'No.' He takes a slow, careful step tward her, the sword in his left hand. 'You know, it didn't seem fair to me that he's had you for so long. He really is inferior. As you will find out.'
His eyes seem darker then the real Ian's, more brilliant. His voice is silkier, without Ian's hesitation.
But in every other way, they are identical.
'I don't think so,' Sara says. She raises her right hand and the Witchblade morphs to gauntlet form. 'All I'm going to find out is what you look like when you're dead.'
The blade extends, then retracts. Sara looks at it in dismay.
The replicant's smile widens a bit and he takes another step. 'And maybe I will find out something, too.'
'And what would that be?' Sara asks, bringing the gauntlet up in front of her, blocking him.
'Whether you taste as good as you look...'
When he moves, he moves so fast that she has no time to guard herself., He is behind her, with one arm around her neck. She feels the cold metal of his sword blade against the side of her neck, just beneath the ear. His breath touches her throat.
Then she feels his tongue.
She jerks in his grasp, trying to wrench loose, but he is too strong for her. He licks the side of her face, a long, slow caress of his tongue. He chuckles low in his throat. 'You do,' he whispers.
It is too much.
'Eat this.' Twisting in his grasp, Sara punches him in the face with the gauntlet. He grunts and lets go of her, and she backs away from him, fast. 'Stay away from me!'
'Sara, Sara.. even the Witchblade doesn't want to help you. Why fight your destiny?' He steps toward her, ignoring her warning.
'Maybe the Witchblade doesn't, but this does.'
She pulls her gun. 'You are under arrest for the murders of David Summers and Keith Tollman, and for the kidnapping and assault of an NYPD Dtective. Put your hands on top of your head.'
The replicant looks down at his gloved hands, spreads the fingers. 'I'd rather put them on you.'
'Stay right there, and don't move! I am warning you, one more step and your brains are going to be on that wall.'
'I don't think so. How are you going to shoot me.. with that?'
He looks at the gun.
Sara looks too, and sees... A snake.
A small, black snake. It raises its narrow, shiny head and flicks out a thread of scarlet tongue at her. She feels it curled around her fingers, warm and alive.
'Jesus!' She drops the snake, and it slithers across the matting. 'How did you..?' she looks up at him and he smiles. 'I did nothing. Look again.'
Sara looks toward the snake and sees her pistol lying on the matting several feet away. She looks up at him, her face twisted with disbelief. Then she starts toward the gun and he steps in front of her. 'I don't think so.'
He raises the sword and holds it crosswise to his body, blade up. For the first time, Sara recognizes Ian's katana. 'First we fight, if we must. Then you will see how much better I am then he is. How we belong together.'
'In your dreams, buddy.'
'Yes. Definitely in my dreams. But now, in real life, too.'
---
By Chornyi
Not mine.. Not even Ian, unfortunately. You know whose they are.
Danny, Sara and Ian must confront the one enemy who could beat them all...
....................................................................................
'Look, Nottingham,' Danny says finally.
None of his other words have made a dent in the other man's silence on who killed David Summers and Keith Tollman. But he can't give up. Not with more lives at stake.
He wonders if appealing to Nttingham's better nature will do any good.
Does Nottingham have a better nature? Danny thinks he does.
'Two people have already died.' Danny says. He doesn't try to keep the emotion out of his voice. 'Two men who didn't deserve to die. Two families destroyed. This monster WILL kill again if we don't stop him. All I'm asking- all WE'RE is asking- is for a name and where to find him. We'll do the rest.'
At first, he thinks these words have had no effect, either.
Then Nottingham speaks. Danny can hardly make out the softly whispered word.
'Monster...' Nottingham looks up at him suddenly, and his eyes seem deeper, their golden brown color swallowed by darkness. 'Do you truly think the one who does this is a monster?'
'Yes,' Danny says flatly. 'I do.'
'Monster.' Nottingham repeats the word again, and there is something in his voice that tells Danny, this is it.
He is right.
'I will tell you how to find this monster.' Nottingham says quietly.
Danny doesn't know how he did it, but he's grateful for whatever hand guided him into this cell tonight.
'Okay.' he answers, keeping his voice level, waiting for a name, a place.
He gets neither.
'The man you seek... Is a replicant.' Nottingham says, as if the words are self-explanatory.
'A.. what?' Danny wonders if he heard wrong. But he knows he didn't.
'What the hell is a replicant?' For the first time, his voice rises, his calm evaporating.
'A replica. A copy. An alternative version.' Nottingham tells him. He doesn't seem to register Danny's anger.
'A replica of what?' Danny asks, forcing his voice down, forcing his fists out of their clench. Calm, calm, he must remain calm. Beating Nottingham bloody in this cell will not get him the true name if the other man doesn't wish it, but it might take away his badge.
The other man's words fall into a silence of their own making.
'Of me.'
They take a minute to register. Then Danny shakes his head. His eyes narrow and fill with disgust.
'Of.. Forget it. I should have known you wouldn't tell me anything useful. You're a monster, too, aren't you?'
Nottingham closed his eyes while Danny was speaking.
He opens them now, meeting Danny's accusing gaze. 'Yes, I am.' he answers. 'But not the one you seek. What I told you was the truth. And.. useful. But you can believe whatever you want.'
He lies down on his bunk, his back to Danny, and pulls his legs up, curling himself small again.
The interview is over.
Danny stands for a few minutes, watching Nottingham's perfect stillness.
Finally he speaks. 'If I believed you... Where could I find this replicant?'
At first he thinks Nottingham isn't going to answer.
But he does. 'He will be in the abandoned dojo near the Candleflame bar at 12:00 am tonight... He likes to practice before each kill. To calm himself. To prepare. But I do not recommend a meeting between you and he.'
'Why not?'
'Because he can kill you as easily as I could.'
Danny wonders at the flat words, but doesn't contest them. Inside, he knows he will confront the killer anyway. 'Thank you for your help.' he says softly.
'It was not a help for you.' Nottingham tells him. 'Goodbye, Detective Woo.'
Danny nods to the man's still back, even though Nottingham can't see him. 'See you later.'
'Not in this case, I don't think.' Nottingham says without moving.
'Thanks for the vote of confidence.' Danny lets himself out of the cell, locking the door behind him. 'When I bring him down, you'll be released. Especially if there is a resemblance.'
Nottingham doesn't answer. His stillness has consumed him. He is empty.
Danny turns and walks away.
---
When Sara enters the cell, Ian is curled up small on his bunk, his back to her. His knees are drawn up to his chest, his arms tucked under his body. His thick wavy hair hides his face. He is so still that for an instant she thinks he's dead.
Then she sees him take one slow breath and lets out hers. 'Nottingham.. Ian. It's me.'
'I know.' He doesn't move. 'I knew the instant you walked into this cell.'
'Umm.. Okay.'
She ignores that. 'Anyway, I need to talk to you.'
'We already talked.'
'Well, we need to talk again.'
'And will you be satisfied with the same answers, Sara?'
That little singsong lilt on her name. Only he ever says it like that.
'No.' she answers, no lilt in her voice. 'Tell me about clones, Ian. Tell me about 'replicants'.'
He sits up at that, faces her, his brown eyes wide. Then he gives her the slightest little smile, as if she's passed some sort of test. 'What do you want to know?'
'Is the killer a replicant?'
'Yes.'
'Of you?'
'Yes.'
'Oh, my God.'
Ian bows his head at her words, as if her horror is his fault. 'He had nothing to do with it. If you must thank someone, thank Kenneth Irons.'
'Thank him? If he wasn't dead, I'd kill him again.'
He raises his eyes to hers. That dark, lost look in them, the one that touches her even though she knows it shouldn't. 'Sometimes I feel the same way, Sara.'
She has no reply to that.
'Where can I find him, Ian? Where can I find the replicant?' she asks gently instead.
Ian lowers his head again. Speaking with head bowed, he answers her. 'He will be in the abandoned dojo near the Candleflame bar at 12:00 am tonight... But I do not recommend a meeting between he you and he.'
'Why not?'
'I have already had this conversation before, with your partner, Detective Woo. Will you take my advice any better then he did, Sara?'
Instantly, whatever slight connection there was between them is gone. Sara's breath catches, and she feels a shock of pure terror. 'Oh my God.. Danny?' she asks, knowing the answer already.
'If that is his name.'
'What did you tell him?' Her voice is fierce.
'What he asked for.' Ian answers flatly.
'Oh, my God.' Sara turns to leave.
Ian is off the bunk so fast she doesn't even see him move. But suddenly he is in front of her, blocking her way. 'I told you what you wanted to know, Sara.'
'Ian, I don't have time to get you out of here. I have to get to Danny!'
He doesn't move, and she doesn't want to go through him.
'Fine.' She spits it out. 'Just go. I'm sure you can make it out of here without being seen. I'll worry about it later, just get out of my way.'
'Thank you, Sara.' He steps aside, letting her go.
'Danny, Danny.. Please let me be in time..'
She is almost running when she leaves the precinct.
---
The dojo looks like it has been abandoned for a long time. Paint is peeling on the rearing black dragon on the door. The windows are boarded up in the huge, two story building.
Sara listens and hears only silence. But Danny is in there. She sees his car parked in front of the building, with no one inside.
Dismounting from the bike, she starts toward the door of the building.
Then she freezes.
Ian has stepped around the side of the dojo and stands near the door. His wrists are crossed in front of him, as in the picture in his room. His sleeves are pushed up and she sees the dragon tattoo on his wrist. It matches the dragon on the dojo door.
Sar looks down at the Witchblade on her wrist, and the stone glows red.
'Don't move.' she tells Ian.
'You still have time,' is all he says.
'Waht do you mean? Time for what?'
'Time to save your partner. But you have to hurry.' He looks toward the dojo.
Sara recognizes her own Ian, the good Ian, if there is such a thing. It's not the replicant.
'Stay here,' she tells him. 'Don't move until I come back.'
He bows his head, and she walks past him, opening the door of the dojo and entering the building.
Inside the first floor is where business must have been handled in the dojo. There is a desk and chair, empty spaces where a book case filled with books might have stood, a brass pot with no plant in it.
Looking around the empty, echoing floor, Sara spots a set of stairs. Upstairs must be where the training went on. That's where he'll be.
When she comes up the stairs half way, she hears a voice. The rustle of feet on matting.
They are here.
Sara bounds up the last few stairs.
When she reaches the top, what she sees freezes her in her tracks.
Danny is kneeling. Standing over him is a man dressed all in black, holding a sword. As she watches in horror, he lifts the sword in a graceful upswing. The downswing will take off Danny's head.
'Stop!' Sara screams.
The man turns.
It is Ian.
'Oh, my God...' Sara breathes.
He wears a black tunic with a rearing silver dragon on the front and baggy black pants tied at the ankles. His hair is perfectly straight, pulled up sleekly on the back of his skull and bound in a short tail.
He has no beard, just a small v of black hair beaneath his lower lip. But the face, the eyes, are Ian.
He smiles, a small, satisfied smile with lips that seem fuller without mustache and beard, and lowers the sword. With one booted foot, he pushes Danny over on his side, and Sara sees Danny's hands and feet are bound.
'Hello, Sara,' the replicant says in Ian's voice. 'I've been waiting a long time to meet you.'
She smiles back, but it's more of a baring of teeth. 'So I can kill you?'
'No.' He takes a slow, careful step tward her, the sword in his left hand. 'You know, it didn't seem fair to me that he's had you for so long. He really is inferior. As you will find out.'
His eyes seem darker then the real Ian's, more brilliant. His voice is silkier, without Ian's hesitation.
But in every other way, they are identical.
'I don't think so,' Sara says. She raises her right hand and the Witchblade morphs to gauntlet form. 'All I'm going to find out is what you look like when you're dead.'
The blade extends, then retracts. Sara looks at it in dismay.
The replicant's smile widens a bit and he takes another step. 'And maybe I will find out something, too.'
'And what would that be?' Sara asks, bringing the gauntlet up in front of her, blocking him.
'Whether you taste as good as you look...'
When he moves, he moves so fast that she has no time to guard herself., He is behind her, with one arm around her neck. She feels the cold metal of his sword blade against the side of her neck, just beneath the ear. His breath touches her throat.
Then she feels his tongue.
She jerks in his grasp, trying to wrench loose, but he is too strong for her. He licks the side of her face, a long, slow caress of his tongue. He chuckles low in his throat. 'You do,' he whispers.
It is too much.
'Eat this.' Twisting in his grasp, Sara punches him in the face with the gauntlet. He grunts and lets go of her, and she backs away from him, fast. 'Stay away from me!'
'Sara, Sara.. even the Witchblade doesn't want to help you. Why fight your destiny?' He steps toward her, ignoring her warning.
'Maybe the Witchblade doesn't, but this does.'
She pulls her gun. 'You are under arrest for the murders of David Summers and Keith Tollman, and for the kidnapping and assault of an NYPD Dtective. Put your hands on top of your head.'
The replicant looks down at his gloved hands, spreads the fingers. 'I'd rather put them on you.'
'Stay right there, and don't move! I am warning you, one more step and your brains are going to be on that wall.'
'I don't think so. How are you going to shoot me.. with that?'
He looks at the gun.
Sara looks too, and sees... A snake.
A small, black snake. It raises its narrow, shiny head and flicks out a thread of scarlet tongue at her. She feels it curled around her fingers, warm and alive.
'Jesus!' She drops the snake, and it slithers across the matting. 'How did you..?' she looks up at him and he smiles. 'I did nothing. Look again.'
Sara looks toward the snake and sees her pistol lying on the matting several feet away. She looks up at him, her face twisted with disbelief. Then she starts toward the gun and he steps in front of her. 'I don't think so.'
He raises the sword and holds it crosswise to his body, blade up. For the first time, Sara recognizes Ian's katana. 'First we fight, if we must. Then you will see how much better I am then he is. How we belong together.'
'In your dreams, buddy.'
'Yes. Definitely in my dreams. But now, in real life, too.'
---