I'm not sure if I was dreaming or awake, but I felt someone kiss me.
I came to, some time into the morning. I sat up, still a bit tired but no more than I had been on some of my easier cases. I could still feel the tingle of the kiss on my lips, and when I looked over at the side-table, Zoe wasn't there.
Mouse got to his feet, from his usual dogasaurus rex rug impersonation, and licked at my hands. I smiled, just petting the dog for a few minutes; I was glad that he'd come after me, that he was here with me.
"He's happy to be here with you too." a voice said from the door.
"Gah!" I jumped, while Mouse just rolled his eyes at me and went to greet River. "We need to get you a bell." She rolled her eyes at me, in a way that showed me that she might have taught it to Mouse.
"I came down to tell you that breakfast is ready. We'd better get up there soon, or Jayne will eat it all."
"Thanks, grasshopper." She took my hand and walked up to the galley with me; no transfer of emotions or images this time, just simple human comfort.
They were sitting around the table, chatting and eating, as though we hadn't just been attacked by these...Blue Hands? As though I hadn't just blown a hole in a man with magic.
"Morning, Harry." Zoe smiled, as I sat next to her, at the only open spot. Inara smirked at our shared glance, and went back to her food. Mal gave me an irritated glance, but it softened when he saw Zoe's grin.
"So, think we can follow that Blue-Handed fella today?" Mal asked.
"Sure as hell can. I've just got to get a few things together. I can put together a tracking spell, and we should be going in a few hours. I guess it depends on where he is now; if he's still on the planet, we can pin him down, but if he's on a ship, we may not be able to. I haven't been able to try a spell like that in the Black yet."
"Well, it's worth a try. He's probably got a call out already, but nothin' we can do 'bout that."
"No call. No message. No ship." River said quietly, her eyes flickering to Jayne every few seconds.
"Then we might be able to get him. I've been trying to figure out what to do with my tracking spell. It's only designed for 2 dimensions."
Bob piped up from his semi-permanent position in the wall alcove over the little crash circle off the galley. "Simplest thing would be a gyroscope, boss."
"Suppose it would. Kaylee, we got anything that could work for that?"
"I just took apart a grav stabilizer and replaced the part; should work perfectly!" she beamed.
"Great. Then I just need..." Lash, think you can put together a tracking spell for spherical navigation?
Of course. I just may have something useful.
"Okay. We're set." The others gave me a strange look, as I seemed to answer my own question, but River just smirked, then returned her attention to slyly watching Jayne as he put away his food. Wouldn't have imagined that pair I thought, loudly. She stuck her tongue out at me, and I heard Lash laughing delightfully in my head again. The others laughed at what they assumed to be a joke between the two of us.
Inara shot me a look too; one that I thought I recognized from the past. I made a mental note to have a chat alone with Inara soon.
Mal and the others watched from the doors and ladders of the bridge with astonishment as Harry prepared for this spell. He drew a near-perfect circle around him with chalk on the metal floor plating, and they saw the slight sparkle as he closed the circle about him. The others didn't have the sensitivity, but River did; with her eyes closed, she could perceive the magical power and the will of the circular construct as Harry saw it in his own mind.
They saw him muttering quietly to himself, saw the gyroscopic element in his hand flare with sudden light, and then it dimmed again. Mal watched him deliberately smudge the chalk line, and the gyroscope suddenly spun about, focusing on a specific point. River moved at once to the navigation console, and began checking the coordinates.
"He's on the planet. Has to be. Nowhere else fits."
Mal got a little predatory look; That huen dahn was after my people.
"I'd say we should go pay him a friendly little visit." Dresden said, standing up from the chalk circle now. His face said that it would be anything but friendly.
River smiled now, an evil little smile; even Mal was disturbed by the intensity of it.
Serenity set down on the night side of Santo, at the passenger docks; after a walkabout in the city, Harry's little tracking gyroscope had aimed unerringly at one of the taller buildings; the schematics River had pulled up indicated that the building was owned by Blue Sun.
"Okay. How the hell are we gonna get in?" Mal asked, put off by the quality of the security that seemed to be watching the place.
"Well, I'm not my apprentice, but I think I can get us veiled and get maybe 3 of us into the building, especially if one of you can break through security systems. Time was I could just blow them out without even thinking, but I think a hex would be pretty hard to pull off now, considering that my presence hasn't blown out anything on Serenity yet.
"The others would probably have to be our getaway outside; wait in the shuttle, maybe."
"Hearin' a lotta if offa this." Jayne muttered. "Do we really gotta get this piece o' go se?"
"He hasn't sent a message yet. If he does, they know where we are, where Harry is. They'll follow us. We need to silence him." River intoned coldly; everyone shuddered a bit at the look in her eyes, Harry saw. Everyone except Jayne. He grinned slightly, then seemed to agree to the plan.
"Alright. Let's saddle up, folks. Needta hit this place and be gone before the dawn."
Zoe and River were accompanying Harry into the building; River, because her silence and stealth were needed, along with her deadly skills, and Zoe, because she was nearly as quiet as River, and almost as deadly. Harry was the only one who could take on the Hands face to face; if not toe-to-toe, at least at the end of a staff.
Mal and Jayne were the backup on the shuttle; if something went south, they'd try to land on the building and get their people out.
Inara, Simon, and Kaylee were keeping Serenity ready to lift.
River's eyes were alight with excitement as we ghosted through the corridors of the tall building; she'd already knocked out the two guards at the elevators, and had fixed the elevators so that we wouldn't need entry codes.
I could keep us actively veiled; although not a simple spell, and one that required considerable effort on my part, the two women with me were helping by moving quietly and stealthily, requiring me to compensate only slightly.
We found the right floor; the little gyroscope in Zoe's hand continued to point unerringly at our target, although I could feel the spell fading. It would be gone in 15 minutes or less.
The doors opened, and with an effort, I managed to hex the lights overhead; they fizzled and shattered, pitching the room into darkness.
Zoe apparently had excellent night vision, as she had no trouble moving forward. I suspected that River could feel with her mind, to some extent, and let her move as though watching with her eyes.
Me? I had somebody draw me a picture of the room ahead. Lash pulled a trick that she'd done before, where I'd needed awareness of a darkened room; she created illusions in my vision that allowed me to see where the walls were, so I could avoid them easily. It didn't show things I couldn't see, but it was a hell of a lot better than walking blindly.
We rushed to the next door, and River kicked it down with a power that didn't seem possible for her slight frame. There were emergency lights on here, and the man in the suit turned about quickly; a little too quickly, as the wound on his leg caused him to stumble. He started reaching his hand into his coat, but the whizzing click of Zoe's Mare's Leg stopped his motion.
"Take out yer piece and you die." Zoe snarled.
"See, mister, we were having a conversation earlier. You interrupted it. I figure we should finish it right now."
"I have the authority of the Alliance behind me. If they catch you, do you know what will happen? I know she does." the Hand pointed at River.
"So that's why you're following us. Because she's psychic, and I'm...special."
"She's a living weapon, not just a psychic."
"Doesn't really explain anything. She's a human being, not a lab rat.
"Who is giving you your orders?" I bellowed. River nodded, and touched my arm.
I've got it.
"Well then. Doesn't look like I've got much use for you anymore."
"What now, then? Are you going to use your pyrokinesis?"
"Nah, that'd betray the purpose of what I can do. I figured I'd just let Zoe have you."
Zoe's Mare's Leg barked once, twice, then three times; the Hand's head exploded from the shots, and he dropped like a doll with its strings cut.
We managed to reach Serenity and take off before alarms began going off in the city; thankfully, two other ships had taken off about the same time as us, so their attention was divided.
I'd collapsed on the couch in the common room, and in a few minutes, when we were in the Black, Zoe set herself down beside me. My arm slipped easily around her shoulders, and we talked tiredly; well, I talked tiredly.
"What was that about betraying the purpose of what you can do?"
I smiled tightly. "Magic is a living force. It comes from life, from people living. It can be used for all sorts of things, and all sorts of purposes, but in the end, there wouldn't be magic without life."
"So...by taking a life with magic, what happens?"
"Nothing. It's not like karma, or anything like that, although I believe karma actually works. It's simpler than that, actually; I believe that killing with magic is wrong, because it violates the First Law and because it's a betrayal of the life that magic requires to thrive. It's certainly not a popular belief, even among wizards of my time; most just follow the Law because it keeps them from losing a head."
"Ebenezar taught you that, didn't he?"
"Yea. He taught me that. Then I found out years later that of all the people on the Council to have taught me that, he was also the Council's secret assassin. The only one who was authorized to break any of the laws at any time he saw fit."
Zoe winced, and leaned her head on my shoulder. "It's hard to learn that your heroes are human too, with human failings."
"Yea. I forgave him, finally. It was when I saved Molly, my apprentice. I finally understood what it had taken for someone to stand up for me at my trial. I never would have survived if he hadn't."
She smiled now, and crossed one leg over mine.
Mal walked by just then, and scowled mightily, until Zoe scared him off with a scowl of her own.
I fell asleep there, beautiful woman in my arms, safe and warm aboard a place of family.
"Agent. The retrieval team sent to bring in Subject X and Subject Tam is missing. Although they were under a standing order for radio silence, they should have returned with their cargo by now."
"Hmm. What could explain their lateness?"
"We're not sure. Their ship last left them on Santo; they had expected to find the ship X and Tam were traveling on there. We've just received word of a breakin at one of our controlled buildings there; there were random power failures and security system failures. Reports are to follow."
"Find out what happened there."
Chicago, IL - 2008
There was a knock on Sergeant Karrin Murphy's door. She walked carefully to the steel security door, peeking through the fish-eye lens she'd installed, one hand on her gun; she eased up when she saw who was at the door.
She threw back the 3 deadbolts and opened the door, waving the visitors in.
"Hi Molly, Charity." The two blonde women embraced Murphy in turn.
"Hello, Sergeant." the young Latino man said.
"Carlos. Good to see you again." she went to shake his hand, and he pulled her into a brief hug.
"It's nice to meet you under different circumstances." Not better circumstances, he thought.
"Come on in, all of you. Have a seat. Have anything to drink?"
"Just a water, if it's not too much trouble. I've got to drive to the train station soon." Carlos said.
Molly saw Murphy's red-rimmed eyes and correctly deduced the reason.
"He's not dead, Karrin."
Karrin shot a glare at her now, as she sat down in the embroidered seat her grandmother had left her with the house. "How do you know that?"
"Michael checked." Charity said, a wan smile on her face. "We're not sure where he is, but we know he's not dead, or in danger at the moment."
"That's good news, I guess. I figured after a month he'd have found a way to get back to us."
"They haven't found Mouse either, and the other Wardens have been searching for weeks. The Ways can be dangerous, but together, Harry and Mouse could have taken on anything they encountered there, barring a Sidhe Queen or something on the same level." Carlos said seriously, the usual cocky grin conspicuously absent from his face.
"So what am I supposed to do, just sit on my butt and wait for him to call?"
"I don't think so. I think we'll all need to just move on as best we can. We'll be moving a Warden into Chicago to cover the area; Harry's held down the fort for years now, and his absence might provoke some of the smaller fry to action."
"I guess. I just hate waiting."
"Yea, I do too. We gotta get goin', Molls. Train to catch."
"Where are you going?"
"Molly is going back to L.A. with me. Harry asked me when he first became her Master, that if he disappeared or anything happened to him, I'd take care of Molly with the Council."
Karrin looked speculatively at Carlos, but saw that Charity had taken it in stride.
"Karrin, Harry told Michael and I the same thing. Carlos still lives at home with a large family; it'll be quite a bit like home, if I'm not mistaken."
"Karrin, you don't gotta worry about me here. I'm just keeping my promise to Harry. We did have a favor to ask of you though. There was a box in his lab with instructions; he wants you to take care of Mister. And he said there's two other items of interest you should hold onto, for the time being."
Murphy nodded; she knew exactly what he had been referring to.