The new order comes (part 2)
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine, but most belong to Showcase™.
"Bo? Where are we retreating to?" Kenzie carefully asked, as they left Lauren and the other Fay behind them.
"Retreating?" Bo raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah – I mean, the other word would be fleeing with our tails between our legs, but that's not us, is it?"
"No," Bo shook her head. "I would rather retreat somewhere to think it all over and figure out what to do, but..."
"But?" Kenzie carefully repeated the last word.
"But I doubt that on our own we'll be able to come up with anything. With Dyson missing and Trick... well," Bo shook her head. "Hale right now is our best source of information. We'll need to talk to him about... well, just talk!"
"And since Hale works in the police – including the Fay police," Kenzie added, catching on.
"Exactly," Bo nodded, and the two went to catch up to Vex. Apparently, the Morrigan's threat to have him eaten (probably not by her personally, but still), was very effective in spurring him into action – they were able to catch up to him only at the parking lot.
"So, you two decided to come?" he said, looking not any happier about this development than Bo and Kenzie. "About time. Here's the address. Follow the leader or do your independent thing – I don't care."
Bo opened her mouth to retort, when she noticed that Kenzie had noticeably stiffened besides her. "What," she asked carefully, "is wrong?"
"I know this house," Kenzie had almost snarled. "This is my cousin's house. This means my cousin is in... trouble." She shifted her stance and looked at Bo in a way that was very serious and not really like her at all. "Bo, my cousin and I, we don't get along. But family's family-"
"Let's go," Bo just nodded in reply. Vex – though he wasn't asked about anything – also opened his mouth to say something, but Bo and Kenzie just looked at him, and he fell silent.
(It wasn't that he was afraid of some succubus and her human friend, but their looks brought back memories of earlier times, when he and the Morrigan were just working out their professional relationship, and he had no intent of reliving these memories any time soon.)
"Let's go," was all that Kenzie said, tensely. "Now."
The jezinka was getting nervous. She has contacted the Morrigan, but a completely different, unknown person has picked up the phone! This was not according to her plan! This meant that something was wrong! As far as the Fay went, the jezinkas were not particularly good at thinking on their feet, so now she felt a strong urge to retreat, taking her newfound 'friend' with her.
But then the memory of her previous defeat by the Morrigan came back. This was unacceptable; the Morrigan was too young, too weak to have succeeded her so completely. No, this infamy had to be erased, and if this was the right way to do it, she was going to take it!
One of the humans that she had stunned started to recover. The jezinka looked outside and frowned. The light Fay. What were they doing here?"
"So, Kenzie, is there anything you want to tell me?" Bo carefully said, as they drove through the city streets.
"Less than you would think," the latter admitted. "Me and my cousin... we don't talk much. He's older than I, is safely married, and has a son and daughters – triplets. My nephew and nieces, essentially."
"Aunt Kenzie. Sounds interesting," Bo slowly said. "My step-parents didn't have any parents other than me. I was so jealous of the other kids in my school."
"Yeah? Well, believe me, it's a lot less fun than it sounds, especially when you have to babysit several stinking bundles of diapers and drool," Kenzie sighed. "Oh, whom am I kidding? I always found them adorable. If that – whatever it is – has hurt them, I'm going to make it eat its own throat, not to mention the rest of its body's parts. And as for you being an only child...well, your mom's a succubus too, maybe she has other kids."
There was a pause as Kenzie and Bo thought over the concept of Eva having other children. "Okay, that's kind of scary, actually," Kenzie admitted. "Your mom... I'm sure she has her good qualities, but she was also kind of intimidating – creepy, even. If any of your sisters or brothers have inherited her temper, things could get tricky."
"In Trick's book, succubae can only have daughters," Bo shook her head. "Well, mostly daughters. When it came to the incubi, things were a bit vague."
"So, you may have some big sisters," Kenzie shrugged. "That might still be fun. They'll you Bo-Pip, and tweak your nose, and-"
"Your cousin, Kenzie, will be okay, just as the rest of his family," Bo exclaimed with more certainty than how she felt. "I promise."
"They'd better!" Kenzie replied, fiercely. "Or else there's going to be a lynching... hey, who are all of those people?"
"Kenzie," Bo said slowly, as she felt that their rescue just gotten even worse, "I think that that's Hale. This means that there are two answers to your question, and we won't like either of them."
Kenzie twitched.
For a long time – ever since he began to work in the police force as Dyson's partner – Hale didn't feel miserable or concerned regarding what the future would bring to him. He was now. The Ash – who once looked so solid and unshakable just like his tree namesake – was practically gone, and so was Dyson, leaving Hale on his own. And Hale did not fare well on his own, he needed friends.
What Hale got instead – at least for the moment – was Sabrina. Well, Sabrina and the rest of the posse. Hale did not get along all that well with the Ash's chief enforcer, not since he had broken up with her and began to date Yolanda... who was the Morrigan's secretary. Hmm. Maybe he was more like his relatives that he cared to think, but now so was not time to think that...
"This is ridiculous," Sabrina, meanwhile, was steadily picking on steam. "This Lauren, she calls us just when we were about to resolve this matter personally, by ourselves and tells us that the dark are sending their own people to handle it. Well, where are they?"
Hale kept quiet. Personally, he liked Lauren more than Sabrina (but that wasn't telling – if given the chance he probably would've liked Bo's insane mother more than Sabrina), but if Sabrina would take the Ash's place and eventually challenge the Morrigan for this city, then confronting her will be useless and disastrous.
Some thought began to move in the depths of Hale's mental process, but he didn't have time to figure it out, for the dark Fay have finally appeared on the scene – and Bo with Kenzie were with them.
"Where are they?" Kenzie asked as soon as she and Bo were out of their car. "Where are the people? You know, us humans without any super powers?" Her voice was tense and tingling, like a violin string wound-up too tightly.
Hale didn't have to speak-up at all, but he had started this whole thing, in a matter of speaking, when he had reported it to his superiors, rather than tried to do anything else, so he decided to continue in this vein – just because. "Yes, they're all alright," he said, finally. "At least there's no smell of blood-"
"That's good," Kenzie said tensely, as she made her way past him towards the door. "Then maybe we'll be able to a lynching." With these words she moved towards the door, flanked by Bo.
"And where do you think you're going?" Sabrina spoke at a very wrong time, in Hale's opinion. "This is Fay business, little human."
Kenzie half-shifted around. "I remember you," she spoke in a voice that promised nothing good. "You were the cast-iron nutcase that wanted to burn us down with that spider thing. We're not talking to you. Bo, please?"
"Coming," Bo quickly replied and followed Kenzie into the house.
The door behind them slammed with a bang.
"Well, I don't see any blood, or hear any flies, or see anything wrong," Kenzie said in a shaky voice as she and Bo surveyed the room they found themselves in. "Maybe everything is better than what we've thought?"
"That depends," somebody else replied, as they began to emerge from an upstairs room, "if my daughter is with me."
Bo and Kenzie stared. The woman was dressed rather bizarrely, in a mix of practical, outdoors garb and clearly impractical pink clothing, but this wasn't important – her companion, however, was.
"Dyson," Bo whispered, seeing her (well, it wasn't quite clear, who Dyson was to her, the important thing here that he was hers), "what have happened to you?"
"Someone has explicitly gutted his mind and soul," the stranger helpfully supplied. "Fortunately, he was able to run into me, for I was able to calm him down, using my...skills."
"Of course you have," Bo said flatly. "Now what is your feud with the Morrigan?"
"You don't know? Are you not a dark Fay?" the stranger asked.
"No, I'm neither light nor dark. I'm Bo," Bo said flatly. "The Morrigan isn't willing to negotiate – she sent Vex to take care of you officially, and if he'll mess up, he'll get eaten."
"Vex?" the stranger snorted. "His kind is inferior to mine, believe it! I'm the oldest, the strongest of my kind in this land-"
"Which is why you're hiding behind Dyson and other thralls?" Kenzie snapped. In response, the stranger's green eyes flashed, and the young woman stiffened, apparently paralyzed.
"There," the stranger sniffed, "now that that vermin has been put in its' place, we can now-"
With an almost supernatural burst of speed, Bo got into their adversary's face. "Fix this now," she hissed.
"Silly young succubus," was the disdainful reply, and a sea of bright green floated into Bo through her eyes, began to spread through her body, reaching into her heart and soul...
"Silly young succubus," came the whisper through the greenery, "silly young..."
'I'm not silly,' Bo's thoughts stirred sluggishly in her head. 'I have done lots! And this thing is beating me with, with-'
Chakra, was the initial reply. This is what Bo herself, and her mother, tended to do with their kisses and physical contact. And under her mother's influence, Bo learned to exert chakra, as opposed to absorb it. Physical contact was required, but right now Bo's hands were still grasping the other Fay, so...
Bo exhaled. At first it was hard – as if an immense weight was lying on her chest, but then that weight became energy of some sort and it poured from her into the other Fay. And then the other Fay began to scream.
A sudden flare-up of heat caused Bo to stagger away. "You," the dark Fay was hissing, "you dared to fight me with your succubus tricks? Me, Rogana, the eldest of jezinkas? For that I will squash you like a fly!" Her body began to distort – talons sprouted on her hands and feet, goat-like horns on her head and moth-like wings on her back.
"You," the jezinka snarled through a completely inhuman mouth...and then a burst of foam from a fire extinguisher struck her right there.
"Bo, catch!" Kenzie, who had completely recovered from the jezinka's attack, threw Bo a small fire extinguisher.
As Rogana was clearing her eyes and mouth from the foam, Bo caught the missile, and with a word of gratitude to Kenzie slammed the fire extinguisher right on top of their adversary's horned head. The fire extinguisher fell apart in several large pieces. Rogana's head remained whole, but her taloned legs buckled, and she fell – first on her knees and then on her face.
Bo and Kenzie exchanged looks, and then Bo grabbed the jezinka's arms and began to drag her out of the house, with Kenzie gently prodding Dyson along as well.
"Kneel!" was the first word that Bo heard as she emerged from the house, and this word startled her so much, that she didn't respond to it – and that was good, for Vex wasn't talking to her, but to Sabrina, his hands clenched in particular gestures.
For her part, Sabrina wasn't kneeling – not yet. Her body was shuddering from the effort of resistance, sweat was pouring down her face, blood – from her nose, but she wasn't yet kneeling.
"Vex!" Bo yelled loudly. "I got whom you came for!"
This startled Vex long enough for him to break his concentration on the light Fay, and whirl to face Bo – and the jezinka.
"Rogana," he snarled, his own face distorted and inhuman. "Long time no see. The Morrigan will be so pleased to see you – again. Bo, good to see that we got along so well."
"Yes, well, here," Bo thrust Rogana into Vex's grasp and forgot all about the dark Fay. "Hale-"
"Yes," the latter carefully said. "What about me..." he trailed away as Kenzie led Dyson out of the house as well. "Dy! What's wrong with you?"
"We need to get him to Lauren now," Bo said matter-of-factly.
"Of course," Hale nodded, as he took the unresisting Dyson from Kenzie and began to lead him to his car.
"Kenzie," Bo turned to the younger woman. "Me and Hale will be bringing to Dyson to Lauren's – once you're finished with your relatives, can you come there as well?"
Kenzie turned to face Bo, nodded once, and then began to wail, as she hugged the elder female tightly across her midsection.
"Change of plans," Bo said, slowly. "Come on, Kenzie, I'll help."
To be concluded...