Disclaimer, etc.: Refer back to previous chapters
Author's Note: The background for this segment is a little messed up. At some point, I lost track of the differences between the first book and the first tv show episode so there are elements of both in Vicki, even though she's dominantly from the tv show (considering Asteroth was rather minor in the books...). Just FYI, that's why some of her memories might seem a little screwy. It's not her, it's me. XD
Chapter 3: The Enemy of my Enemy is...Myself?
Fading away was a lot less painful than being dragged away, Vicki realized. Not so much a horrible burning pain as an electric tingle.
Distantly, she could feel Asteroth's enraged presence but he hadn't found her yet so she took a minute to rest.
And to realize she couldn't sense Norman.
Suddenly, her brands began to burn.
He knows where I am!
She knew Asteroth had found her; she didn't know how she knew but she did. He could not be allowed to kill her.
As his horrible presence drew closer, she cast around desperately, searching for a way out.
Come on…come on! There's got to be a summoning I can crash somewhere! A vague recollection of when Norman had summoned Asteroth began to form in her mind.
Then there was a light tug on her wrists, a spin of vertigo, and she was falling to her knees, tangible again and somewhere else. She could almost hear Asteroth's snarl of anger.
Yes! Now where am I?
She didn't' get any further than opening her eyes.
"What the f*ck?"
Vicki Nelson met Vicki Nelson's gaze across the pentagram's boundary.
"What, not even the demon knows what's going on?" the other Vicki snarked. Belatedly, Vicki realized her doppelganger was bound hand and foot and missing her glasses. If her vision was anything like Vicki's own, then she couldn't see anything.
"Yes!" the sudden, high pitched shriek made both women jump.
"Norman." Vicki snarled and turned towards his voice then froze, mouth dropping open in shock.
Norman…was not Norman. His hair was bleached blond for one and he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt rather than that ridiculous leather get up he'd been in last time. And he was hugging a grimoire to his body like a baby.
"What the hell is going on?" she growled after a moment.
"I summoned a demon! I DID it!" he began to dance in short, jerky steps. It would have been comical if he wasn't so obviously and dangerously insane. His actions put Vicki on edge, so much so that she stopped watching her doppelganger completely and backed to the furthest edge of the pentagram, ready to fight but instinctively avoiding him.
"Yeah? Doesn't sound demonic." Her own voice sounded strange coming from someone else.
"Shut up!" Without stopping, Norman directed a vicious kick into his captive's midriff and Vicki winced in empathy at the sound.
"Now, demon, do as I command! Make me Master of all!"
"Wh-."
"Norman, No! You don't have to do this!" her doppelganger again, sounding a bit worse for wear.
"You shut up! This is my fate, my DESTINY!" he was growing more hysterical by the second. "I WILL get what I deserve! I WILL-.!"
"SHUT UP!" Vicki snarled at the room in general, deepening her voice to make herself heard over the yelling.
Both figures outside the pentagram instantly froze.
Huh. They really think I'm a demon.
"Now, what the HELL is going on?"
"I have summoned you, demon!" sounding less hysterical but just as insane, Norman came forward, clutching the grimoire. Almost as an afterthought, he grabbed the doppelganger by the back of her shirt and jerked her forward with him, forcing her to wobble on her bound legs. "And I have a sacrifice to cement your place in this dimension as my demonic servant!"
"Norman, no!"
Vicki ignored her doppelganger this time.
A different…dimension?
"Dimension, huh?" Might as well play along. "What's in it for me?"
"I-! Huh?"
"Why should I help you be the ruler of this…dimension? Doesn't sound so interesting to me. And 'Master of All'? What is this, a Disney movie?"
"You…you…NO! The spell said you would do as I said!"
The doppelganger snickered, staring at where she knew the pentagram was but unable to see it.
"Do demons EVER keep their word?" it was directed towards the room in general. The next statement was not. "You're an idiot if you think you can pull this off, Norman."
"Shut up, SHUT UP!" he shrieked, looking at her with clear intent to kill. She must have realized because she started struggling anew but all that accomplished was making her lose her shaky balance and fall over. Norman was instantly standing over her with a knife.
"It will obey me after the sacrifice!" the eyes of both women widened as the knife began to slowly descend; Norman was obviously savoring the moment.
"Norman, you don't have to do this!" his sacrifice was growing desperate. Norman's grin widened.
"He can't do it." He looked at his summoned 'demon' with something akin to betrayal.
"I will finish! You will obey me!"
"THAT won't finish it."
"…What?"
The doppelganger bucked, trying to throw him off, but couldn't get enough leverage. Norman ignored her, still staring at Vicki.
"The book said she's supposed to die!"
"Well, yeah, but…" Vicki thought desperately for something to say. "…but I have to kill her. Since I'm, y'know, the demon?" The other Vicki was watching her suspiciously, obviously having picked up on the lie. Thankfully, Norman was not so observant.
"…Oh."
"Yeah. So she needs to be in here where I can…kill her…and you…uh…"
He was watching her expectantly.
"You…uh…need to light more candles!"
"More candles?"
"Yes." This is ridiculous. "You need to make another pentagram in a different room to…er…connect me to the ambient energy." That sounded like something Coreen would say, didn't it?
"The book doesn't say-."
"Who's the demon, me or the book?" she snapped.
He looked at the grimoire uncertainly but nodded and left the room.
Once he was gone, the two women looked at each other.
"So…demon?"
"According to him."
"But not really."
"Not exactly. What's going on?"
"You don't know?"
"How the hell would I know? I just got here a few minutes ago!"
"When he summoned you."
"Apparently."
An awkward silence fell for a moment, one full of questions and suspicions.
"So he could summon you even though you're not a demon."
"Yep." The tone would have deflected a lesser person.
"What are you then?"
"None of your business."
"You're about to kill me! It damn well is my business!"
"Oh, right. Put our hands in the pentagram."
"Like hell."
"I'm not going to kill you." The "you idiot" was strongly implied. "I don't even want to be here."
"Yeah?" the doppelganger squinted up at her "Then what was with those instructions you gave Norman?"
"Did those even make sense?"
"Sounded good to me."
"Hopefully they sounded good to him too. Would you hurry up? It'll be better if we finish this before he gets back.
"Finish what?"
"Letting you go so you can send me back home." The bound woman looked suspicious but like she was considering it.
"It's me or Norman."
She grimaced. "Right."
There was no reaction when she stuck her hands through the pentagram boundary, to Vicki's relief. Vicki made quick work of the ropes and her alternate instantly pulled out and untied her legs on her own.
Free, she stood up and stretched, tenderly rubbing the circulation back into her limbs and squinting suspiciously at her double.
"…Thank you."
"Don't get mushy." Vicki snarled. "Just break the pentagram so I can go."
The doppelganger scowled as she wrapped a small throw rug around her arm to use as a sponge.
"Is there any particular reason you sound like me?"
"I am you."
"What?"
"Alternate universe, remember?"
She scowled. "Of course. I suppose you look like me too. You don't see my glasses anywhere, do you?"
"Nope."
"Damn it."
This time, there was no in-between-dimensions time, just a funny fading sensation, spinning vertigo, and a meter high drop out of thin air onto a wooden floor in a candlelit room that, once again, she could barely see.
I'm going to have seriously bad knees when this bullshit is over. And worse eyes.
"Well now…this is…unexpected." A familiar voice but in an alien tone; never before had it been so darkly seductive, so dangerous, so…evil.
Shit.
A rush of cold panic drove Vicki to scramble upright, ignoring her bruised palms and knees in favor of shoving her glasses into place. She still couldn't see very well but her new…captor? Summoner?...was making no effort to stay hidden. He was standing just outside the pentagram, watching her intently. The figure he cut was handsome and haughty but his eyes…oh, his eyes.
"Mike?"
A/N:
So...that's it
That's the last chapter I wrote for this story and I don't plan to write any more. I did have a huge outline, one for a crossover fic and the other staying within the Blood Ties fandom, but branching off into AUs.
If you'd like to see this outline (one or the other or both), send me a review or a pm. If I get enough people that want to read it (say...five?), I'll put it on my livejournal account. However, I don't really want to go through the hassle of finding, formatting, and proofreading if no one is interested so...it's your call.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this little foray into my imagination.
Happy Holidays!
