"Avast! Proud and insolent youth!" A cutlass clattered on the floor next to him. Nick looked up in surprise. Standing before him was a tall man in a pirate captain's costume, holding a cutlass himself in his left hand—while flourishing an iron hook in place of his right. Nick looked again at the cutlass, then back to the waiting captain.
"You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered, "Right?"
"Stand up and fight me, you scum!" Hook dared him.
Nick raised his hands, "No, I don't fight; but you look like you have a story to tell." A smile played about his lips, "Tell me you—"
"Silence, dog!" Hook roared, swinging his hook dangerously close to Nick's throat. "Will you not fight, coward? The time for talk is over. On your guard." He kept his hook at Nick's throat and slowly raised it, forcing Nick to stand.
Nick decided it might be a good idea to pick up the cutlass on his way. Once he was on his feet, Hook swung his cutlass. Nick brought his sword up and blocked the blow. He jumped back to deliver a blow himself. The two blades clashed, and the duel commenced in earnest.
Hook proved a formidable left-handed swordsman. The fact that his free hand was also a weapon complicated Nick's ability to defend himself. Nick couldn't help thinking that even knowing the story didn't help him much, because Hook's opponents either did not defend themselves, or—like Peter Pan himself—they could fly. He forced himself to remember the sword-fighting skills he had acquired as a Grimm. As they fought around pillars and bookshelves, Nick noticed that Hook seemed particularly fascinated with the amulet on his wrist—fascinated in the sense that he desperately wanted to separate it from Nick's body.
"How would it feel if I cut off your hand to match mine?" Hook snarled, crossing swords and flourishing his namesake dangerously.
"Oh, I don't know," Nick returned in a rather breathless attempt at cavalier, "I think it might ruin my chances at baseball. Or any sport, for that matter."
Hook used the butt of his sword to knock Nick down the aisle. He paused in contemplation.
"Baseball..." he mused, "I seem to recall such a thing—"
"Do you?" Nick struggled to his feet, "Tell me more."
Hook looked up quickly, but before he could react, his form dissipated in a cloud of smoke.
"NOOO!" A bloodcurdling scream rent the air.
Mariana the Silvertongue sprang at him over several shelves. "You've diverted your last tale!" She growled. With a grating screech, she stretched out her body, and Nick watched, rooted in horror, as she expanded to the same large, terrible form as in the Wesenkinder comic book. The silver-blue aura wavered around her, till she was nearly three times his size.
"How will you fight now?" she thundered, flicking him away down the hall like an annoying bug. "Your amulet is no protection when there is no story, now, is it?" Blue crackling sparks flickered out of her mouth as she tromped toward him, heedless of the books and shelves tumbling around her. Nick could see cracks forming in the walls above him. He scrambled to his feet and ran back toward the main lobby.
"You can't hide from me forever, Grimm!" Mariana called after him. "I'll find you, and I will crush you!"
Nick reached the empty, darkened lobby. Here was most likely where Mariana started out; it was where he had found her. He knew that last time, the key to defeating her had been destroying her means of absorbing power and protection, her typewriter; what could she be using now?
Nick ducked behind the front desk. There was a woman on the floor, with blood seeping from her ears. Nick had seen the same kind of thing before; he knew what had killed her. The woman clutched something in her hand: a pen. At first glance, Nick took it to be a normal gel pen—then he noticed something odd about the ink cartridge inside. The one remaining light in the front hall glinted off some kind of reflective material mixed with the black ink. It reminded him of the silver streaks on Mariana's tongue. Could it be?
Nick took the pen in both hands and snapped it in half. A massive cloud of blue smoke erupted from the break and threw him backwards, jerking the pen from his hands. He heard Mariana howl, and the light outside the room diminished. It did not disappear altogether, however.
Nick looked up as Mariana came through the door, only half-woged. She looked drained, exhausted—and seething with hatred.
"You cannot defeat me so easily this time!" she rasped, "I will prevail!" She gathered herself and gave one last mighty heave toward him.
Nick was ready. In his hand, he still held the sword he'd used to duel Captain Hook. When Mariana leaped toward him, he held his ground and held the sword pointed toward the advancing Wesen. Mariana took the whole blade into her chest before she realized what she had done. She tried to claw at his face, but her body had already reverted to human form. She gave one last shudder and died. The sword in Nick's hand disappeared, as did most of the damage caused by the battle. All that remained was the smell of smoke and the scattered books—and one dead woman. Nick took the key from around her neck and returned it to it's rightful place around his own neck. He trudged slowly to the door as the fatigue of several hours of fighting descended over him. Hank met him just outside.
"Juliette called hours ago, wondering where you were," he informed Nick, "Rosalee said you'd be here, but when we arrived, there was no way in. I had to do some fast thinking to keep Wu and Franco from calling someone else to try to break into the building. Luckily they got other calls to answer, so the captain said I could wait out here for either you, or—" he stopped. Both men knew the end of that sentence. "So," Hank continued, supporting Nick as the two friends walked to Hank's patrol car, "Juliette told me about the fight you had. Did you get the key back?"
Nick nodded, but then winced, surprised at how much effort such a small movement apparently took.
"And the... Creature?"
Nick sank gratefully into the seat. Hank closed the door after him and climbed into the driver's seat.
"Dead," Nick answered. "I'd let the captain know; he'll know what to do with the body."
"It's still in there?" Hank glanced back toward the library as they pulled away. "Dang, I still can't believe it's the same girl we saw last fall. It just seems so..." he shook his head.
Nick rode the rest of the way back to his house in silence.
Juliette was waiting for him on the porch. Her eyes were very red and swollen, but they shone with love and compassion when she saw Nick.
"Oh my gosh! Nick are you okay? You've been gone all day! I didn't know where you went after the fight, and I've just been worried sick!"
She hugged him, and he found the strength to hug her back.
"I'm fine," he said as they kissed repeatedly. "Everything's fine. I love you so much!"
"I love you too," Juliette murmured. "Promise me you won't ever go off like that again."
Nick sighed as the two of them trudged into the house. "No," he affirmed, "I don't think anything like that will ever happen again."
Clippings from The Oregonian
"LIBRARY VANDALIZED" [Front Page]
"An unknown catastrophe struck the Multnomah County Library late Thursday night. Reports say that library employees unlocked the building on Friday morning and found shelves collapsed, cases overturned, and books scattered all over the building. Initial rumors suggest that it might have been a violent, localized earthquake that caused the damage. No word yet if any books are missing. Library officials say it will take weeks to clean up the mess and sort all the books. Multnomah Library will remain closed until they can get the aisles and shelves cleaned up, at which time they will reopen to the public. There has been no word on the part of local law enforcement participating in the cleanup."
[O! Section, under "Weddings"]
"Nicholas Burkhart and Juliette Silverton were reportedly married sometime within the last week, on a clear day, in an intimate ceremony attended by some local friends and a whole host of neighbors from Nick's block. They departed soon after the festivities for an unspecified honeymoon destination. Congratulations, Mr. And Mrs. Nick Burkhart. May you live happily ever after."