CHAPTER 49
I do not own Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures and I am making no profit off of this.
Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.
OUT-TRICKING THE TRICKSTER
"You've sunken to some all new depths today, Trickster. It's bad enough to attack me but when you attack my kids on what should have been the happiest day of their lives you've gone way too far," Sarah Jane said in a furious voice as she confronted her old enemy while all of the wedding guests raced out of her yard in a mindless panic.
"And there is one of the fundamental differences between us, Sarah Jane. You think that there are limits to how far someone should go in pursuit of a goal. I however have no such qualms and never will. Everything and everyone is fair play in this war between us. Nothing in your life is or ever will be safe from me. Perhaps one of these days you'll finally understand that," The Trickster said with a malicious laugh.
"Yes, I got that message loud and clear when I found out what you did to Peter. You killed him because of me," Sarah Jane said in a voice filled with absolute loathing as her body began to glow with energy.
"Yes, and if I get the chance to I'll kill him again . . . because of you. Now you finally see the full price for daring to stand against me, Sarah Jane Smith. Do you still wish to continue to side with Rose Tyler or do you want to wait and see who I'll kill next in your life instead? Even your good friend Rose might not be able to bring them back the next time after I'm finished with them," The Trickster said in a voice laced with venom.
"Stop this. Leave her alone or I swear I'll . . ." Fee threatened.
"Or you'll do what? You'd never do anything to hurt me and we both know it because you're in love with me. That's a fact that I plan to use to my full advantage just as I use everything else," The Trickster said with mocking laughter.
"Monster," Fee said in a voice filled with pain.
"You really are cruel. Does the fact that she cares about you mean nothing to you?" Sarah Jane said as she gave the clearly upset and deeply hurt Fee a sympathetic look.
"Why should it? I have no such feelings for her so I really don't care how she feels," The Trickster said in a completely emotionless tone.
"Why did I ever have to fall for him? Why?" Fee said as tears now started to openly fall down her cheeks.
"Are you going to stand there and cry all day or are you actually going to do something? I would like to kill Sarah Jane and her little extended family sometime today if you don't mind too terribly much," The Trickster said in an annoyed tone.
"You really don't think that I will do you? Well, you're wrong," Fee said in a voice filled with hatred as her hands began to glow with power.
The Trickster looked at her in amusement as he said, "Maybe you will and maybe you won't. I really don't have the time to find out right now though. I have a bargain to keep after all and I fully intend to follow through on it as quickly as possible."
"Bargain?" Sarah Jane asked as her ears perked up with sudden interest.
The Trickster laughed as he said, "And there's our intrepid reporter already digging for clues. Sorry, Sarah Jane, but you won't get any this time. Not from me. This time all that you're going to get from me is a swift and sudden death. First things first though."
He immediately turned towards Fee and fired an enormous blast of energy at her that made her briefly cry out in a mixture of surprise and betrayal before she quickly fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
The Trickster then looked at Sarah Jane with a malicious smile as he said, "Well, we couldn't very well have a proper fight with her standing around crying her eyes out of the time, could we? It's far too distracting."
"You really are completely heartless, aren't you? I've met some truly despicable beings in my life, but I think you may actually be the worst one of them all," Sarah Jane said with disgust even as she subtlety signaled Sky and Maria to check on Fee while she kept the Trickster distracted.
The Trickster smiled with no sense of shame or concern on display whatsoever as he said, "I feel quite honored then. I will remember that once you're gone. I shall always tell everyone that I was the worst foe that you ever came across. That kind of adds to my mystique don't you think to be considered worse than a Dalek?"
"That's enough with the pointless small talk, Trickster. Where did you suddenly get so much power? You've always been afraid of Fee before and now you're suddenly defeating her with a single attack. This obviously has something to do with this bargain of yours whatever it is and so does your sudden return to life I'll wager," Sarah Jane said even as she watched Maria and Sky slowly approach the now motionless Fee out of the corner of her eye.
The Trickster laughed in amusement as he said, "You just can't resist trying to piece everything together can you? You're simply dying to know what's really happening. I'm not about to give you any information to use against me though so you might as well give up on that score. Let's just say that I now have access to a source of power that even Fee has a far more limited defense against than she normally would against most attacks and leave it at that. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, you won't fare any better than she did against me. Not this time. Let me show you exactly what I mean."
Then he immediately proceeded to fire a destructive burst of energy directly at Sarah Jane which caused her to scream out in pain as she suddenly felt as if every cell in her body were on fire at once. Even as she wailed in absolute agony, she couldn't help but wonder exactly what was going on here. The Trickster had never been this powerful before.
Where was he getting this kind of power . . . and from whom?
"Sarah Jane!" Peter cried out in fear as he started to rush towards her.
"No. That's just what he wants you to do," Rani said as she suddenly blocked his path.
"I don't care. I'm not about to just stand here and do nothing while he kills her," Peter protested as he tried in vain to get past the far stronger Time Lady who simply refused to be moved.
"He's not going to kill her. Not yet. He's going to brag about it for a while first. It's what he always does because he's such a huge drama queen. He just can't help putting on a show first before he does anything. He wants Sarah Jane to be suitably impressed by how big and bad that he is now before he finally kills her," Clyde reassured him as he joined Rani along with Luke.
"Yes, and that gives us just enough time to come up with a plan to stop him," Luke added in a hopeful tone.
"Is this how it usually works then? It seems to be from my memories of the other timeline, but I'm still not used to all of this yet. All I know is that she's in pain, and I can't do a thing to help her," Peter said in despair.
"You can't help her. You'll just wind up getting yourself killed as soon as you try. Besides that, Sarah Jane gave me a signal not to interfere. She doesn't want any of us to join in until she's ready for us to. She must have some kind of plan in mind," Rani said.
"Or maybe she just doesn't want us all being killed too," Clyde suggested.
"I don't care what happens to me. I'm supposed to be dead anyway. I just want her to be safe," Peter protested.
"It's going to be okay, Peter. You'll see. Sarah Jane knows what she's doing. Trust me," Maria reassured him as she and Sky now joined the group as well along with Maria's mother, Chrissie.
As soon as Maria appeared, Luke immediately hid his eyes making Maria look at him as if he'd completely lost his mind as she said, "Why on Earth are you doing that for, Luke?"
"Clyde said that it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding," Luke explained while continuing to keep his eyes covered.
"We have far more important things to worry about than some silly superstition. Our wedding's just been crashed by a seemingly all-powerful Trickster. I don't think that we could possibly get any worse luck, Luke. I think I'll risk it," Maria said with a sigh.
Luke reluctantly removed his hands as he said, "This is our usual kind of luck though. Just remember that you're the one who told me to do it when we suddenly have some actual bad luck."
Maria shook her head and kissed him as she said with a brief smile, "You know sometimes you're a complete idiot, Luke Smith. You're my idiot though."
"So is Fee still alive? I assume that she is since you didn't say anything about it earlier," Rani asked.
"Yes, or at least she is so far anyway. I don't know if she's badly injured or not though since I didn't exactly study the physiology of other-dimensional entities at UNIT. I'm not even sure she has a body like ours," Maria replied.
"Did you manage to let Sarah Jane know that?" Rani asked.
"Yes, at least I tried to anyway. I gave her a quick thumbs up sign that I hope that she was still able to comprehend in her current state with as much pain as she seems to be in. I'm not exactly sure what good knowing that does either her or us now though," Maria admitted.
"Oh, my! You really weren't kidding when you said that she was in even worse danger now than before were you?" Chrissie said in a voice filled with disbelief as she finally seemed to regain the power of speech while watching the brutal spectacle currently unfolding before her.
"Kind of makes you want to speak a little better to her in the future, doesn't it?" Sky said in a worried voice as she watched her mother closely for a signal from her that she finally wanted the rest of them to join in the fight.
"How can you all be so nonchalant about this especially you, Maria? You deliberately put yourself right in that hideous creature's path just now when you went to check on your friend. He could have easily killed you if he hadn't been so busy torturing Sarah Jane. This is exactly why I never wanted you to come back here!" Chrissie protested.
"I knew that he wasn't going to bother me, Mum. I'm completely beneath his notice at the moment and so are the rest of us. He came here to kill Sarah Jane and that's all that he's worried about right now. Besides Sarah Jane asked me to do it so it must be important," Maria said.
"You'd risk your life just because Sarah Jane asked you to do it?" Chrissie asked in disbelief.
"I've done the exact same thing on my missions with UNIT, but I didn't see you complaining about that," Maria noted.
"Maybe I didn't but that doesn't necessarily mean that I wanted you to do that either. I don't want you to do any of this, Maria. Can't you understand that? I don't want anything to happen to you. You're my entire world," Chrissie admitted.
"This is my life and my decision and this is what I want to do with it whether you like it or not. I'm an adult now and you can't tell me what to do anymore," Maria protested.
"I know that. Believe me I know. I also know that you love Sarah Jane and that she and the others here are like a second family to you but look at her. Just look. Even now she's being brutally attacked right in front of us. Her whole life is like this. She's constantly surrounded by death and destruction on a daily basis and so is UNIT. I wanted so much more than this for you. What kind of life is this, Maria? From what I can see, it's nothing but a short one guaranteed to end in tears and heartbreak for everyone. I've already lost your father after the divorce. I don't want to lose you too," Chrissie admitted in tears.
Maria smiled at her as she said, "I know that you love me and just want me to be safe. I appreciate that. I really do. This is what I want though. This is how I can make a difference in the world, Mum, and I'm good at it. I've saved people's lives and even the entire planet a couple of times. My life is simply being wasted if I'm doing anything else."
"I know that too, Maria, and I'm so proud of you for it whether you want to believe that or not. That doesn't mean that I have to like it though and I don't like it. I don't like any of this. I only thought that you were in danger before, Maria, but this is far worse. Just listen to her screams. I don't . . . I don't want anything to happen to you too, Maria. I wouldn't be able to take that," Chrissie said as she started to break down.
"I'm sorry for putting you through this, Mum. I really am. Sarah Jane needs me though and the human race needs me too. Now more than ever it seems to need all of the help that it can get against an ever more powerful set of enemies that are all out to destroy us. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't at least try to help defend it." Maria pleaded.
"Oh, do please shut up. I can't enjoy Sarah Jane's final, completely agonizing defeat with you two arguing in the background. Besides which, I think that Maria rather eloquently made her point already," The Trickster suddenly said in an extremely annoyed voice.
"You stay out of this. It's bad enough that you're endangering her life. Don't even think about giving me parenting advice too," Chrissie in anger.
"Oh, I'm really going to enjoy killing you first right after I finish with Sarah Jane here. That is if she'd just hurry up and die already. She's taking far longer than even I thought that she would. Some people! They have absolutely no consideration for others whatsoever," The Trickster said as he rolled his eyes.
"Let her go and take me instead! Do you hear me? Let her go!" Peter shouted as he desperately tried yet again to reach Sarah Jane despite Rani blocking him.
"Guys, I don't think that Sarah Jane's going to get out of this one unless we do something right now. Maybe we should intervene whether she wants us to or not and by 'we' I mean you, Rani, since you're the only other Guardian here," Clyde said.
Rani frowned at him as she said, "I love how you don't mind putting me right in the line of fire, Mr. Langer. You're so romantic."
"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you're the only one of us who stands a chance against him," Clyde protested.
Sky loudly cleared her throat as she said, "Oh, I wouldn't say that."
"You're still just a kid, Sky. You're staying right here," Clyde said.
"Shouldn't that be my line, Clyde? I am her brother not you after all. Besides I think she could actually help. She's a lot more powerful than she used to be. I think she's actually back up to her original power level when she was going to be used as a weapon of mass destruction," Luke said.
"I still think that she should stay here. She's way too young to fight someone like the Trickster," Clyde said unconvinced.
"No younger than you lot were when you all first started out. Oh, and I love the way that you talk about me like I'm not even here. Thanks oh so much for that," Sky said in anger.
"Will all of you please shut up? It's making the pounding in my head even worse. So is that horrible screaming. What is going on?" Fee said as she suddenly sat up with a painful grimace.
At that very moment, Sarah Jane suddenly stopped screaming and began to smile instead as she said, "So I was right."
"What?" The Trickster asked in shock.
Sarah Jane looked at him in triumph now as she said, "I wanted to see if you really cared about her or not and you do. I knew that you did. Otherwise you would have killed her when you had the chance. You do love her after all it seems."
"So what if I do?" The Trickster said even as Fee looked at him in surprise.
"So I finally have a way to stop you . . . by threatening her," Sarah Jane said as Kali suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind Fee and held a glowing hand to her head.
"What are you doing?" The Trickster said in a completely terrified voice.
"I'm doing what you always do: winning by any means necessary. I guess I finally decided to wise up and listen to you for once, Trickster. Maybe it helps that you just threatened to kill the person that I love . . . again! If you don't give up right now, Kali will kill her while she's still in a weakened state," Sarah Jane said in a cold voice.
The others all looked at one another in stunned silence now. Surely she was only bluffing. She would never actually go through with it.
Right?
The Trickster was asking himself the exact same question at that moment even as he studied Sarah Jane's face closely for any hint of what she had planned. She seemed to have the perfect poker face however because he could tell absolutely nothing from it.
"No, I don't believe it. You'd never hurt Fee. She's a complete innocent in all of this. That's not your way at all," The Trickster finally said.
"She's not the one currently about to kill her though. I am. I've killed innocent people before so you definitely can't say that about me," Kali said with a grim look on her face.
The Trickster studied her and silently shuddered as he said to Kali, "Fine. I'll leave. Just don't hurt her. This isn't her fault."
Then he turned to Sarah Jane and said in confusion, "So my power didn't affect you in the slightest then? That was all just pretend?"
"Not all of it. I was just overdoing it a bit while I waited to see if Fee woke up or not. The best way to keep you from guessing what I was really doing was to put on a little show in order to distract you that appealed to your twisted sense of revenge," Sarah Jane said with a frown.
"After the way that you just behaved, you have absolutely no right to ever judge me again. I will be back, Sarah Jane. You can count on that. And if you do anything to her, you'll think that today was just a warm-up by comparison!" The Trickster screamed as he suddenly vanished leaving the extremely confused and scared wedding guest who had been his temporary host behind.
Sarah Jane and Kali both immediately breathed a sigh of relief at the same time as Kali said to Fee in an apologetic tone, "I was just bluffing. I never would have actually gone through with it."
"I know. Sarah Jane's not that kind of person and I know that you're not either anymore," Fee said with a reassuring smile.
"Well, I'm glad that someone knew it because even I wasn't sure for a minute there. Sarah Jane was putting on a little too good of an act for me," Clyde admitted with a relieved look on his face.
"Mum would never do something like that and you know it," Luke said.
"Oh, come off. You were just as scared that she would as I was because he threatened Peter. You know how she feels about him," Clyde said.
"I know but I know that she wouldn't," Luke said in a tone filled with faith.
"Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt, Luke. You too, Fee. I had to try to be as convincing as I could though because the Trickster has almost unimaginable power now. He very nearly killed me with it, but I couldn't let him know that. Threatening you was the only way that I could think of to make him back off this time so I mentally contacted Kali and got her to go along with my bluff. I never would have done something like that otherwise. I know that doesn't even begin to excuse it though. I'm very sorry, Fee," Sarah Jane said in an extremely guilty tone.
"It's alright. I understand. I was scared by his power too. I'd really like to know where he got it from and how it could possibly hurt a Guardian as much as it obviously did. Are you okay?" Fee said as she looked at Sarah Jane with concern.
Sarah Jane smiled as she said, "That's exactly what kind of person that you are in a nutshell, Fee. I threaten you and yet you still ask me how I am. I'm fine. His attack wasn't to the point where it was life-threatening just yet, but it would have gotten there soon enough."
"You don't look fine to me. It was tearing me apart just to stand there and watch it all," Peter said with a worried look as he finally got to put his arms around her at last.
"That's exactly what I wanted you to do though, Peter, because if he was doing that to me he would definitely have killed you. I'd rather suffer through a whole lifetime of that kind of pain rather than let him do that to you again," Sarah Jane said in a completely serious voice.
Peter just shook his head at her as he said, "You have an extremely skewed set of priorities, Sarah Jane."
"Well, that's where we'll just have to agree to disagree then won't we, Mr. Dalton?" Sarah Jane said with a smile as she kissed him.
"I suppose so, the future Mrs. Dalton," Peter said as he returned her kiss.
"Well, I suppose we should go ahead and have the wedding now then. Of course it's going to be an extremely small ceremony. Most of the guests just ran out of here in a complete panic," Luke said with a sheepish grin.
"I don't care. I have the only attendee that I care about right here," Maria said with a grin as she kissed him.
Chrissie cleared her throat behind her as Maria quickly added, "And Mum and Dad too of course."
That was when Chrissie immediately looked around in concern as she said, "Where is Alan anyway? I haven't seen him since this all started."
"I was . . . I was actually knocked out cold for most of the fight. I was nearly trampled on when the wedding guests all fled. I still fell a bit dizzy and more than a bit embarrassed. I was actually hoping that no one would notice until I could recover," Alan's voice said from behind an overturned chair.
"Dad, are you okay?" Maria asked as she rushed to his side to help him up.
"I've been better. It could have been worse though. At least I wasn't turned to stone this time," Alan said with a smile.
Everyone laughed then including an obviously still worried Chrissie. Even she needed a good laugh after a day like they had just had.
"Come on, everyone. Let's go ahead and carry out the ceremony. Everyone's here who really matters anyway," Sarah Jane said with a warm smile.
"Yeah, and we'd better hurry too before the Trickster decides to have another go at ruining it again. Luke did look at the bride before the wedding after all so he's still due some major bad luck," Clyde added.
Everyone looked at him as if he had just dropped out of the sky then as he said, "What? It's true. It's bad luck."
"You only think that you're marrying an idiot, Maria. Mine's definitely the real thing though," Rani said with a grin as she kissed an obviously insulted Clyde.
That look on his face didn't last for very long however.
That was when Sarah Jane noticed Chrissie still looking very upset despite how the others seemed to have recovered and immediately took her aside for a private conversation.
"I don't know how they can do it. They all act like it's nothing," Chrissie admitted.
"Listen, Chrissie. If you still don't want Maria to help me anymore, I'll do everything in my power to convince her to go back to UNIT full-time," Sarah Jane offered.
Chrissie smiled at her with immense gratitude now as she said, "Thank you. There's really no need for that though. I want her to stay even if I am completely terrified for her."
"What?" Sarah Jane said in surprise because she definitely hadn't expected that response.
"Well, the Trickster was right as it turns out. She did make a very good argument. Even I couldn't disagree with it. You . . . You'll still watch out for her though won't you?" Chrissie asked with a hesitant smile.
"Of course I will. You may not believe this but I'm just as terrified for her as you are," Sarah Jane admitted.
"After what you just did, I most certainly would believe you. I could tell that you really didn't want to try to talk her into leaving, but you would have anyway for her sake . . . and mine. You'd better watch out, Sarah Jane. If you keep that sort of thing up, I might actually start liking you," Chrissie said with a mischievous smile as she walked away from her.
Sarah Jane groaned and shook her head just as Peter joined her.
"What is it?" Peter asked as he looked at her in undisguised amusement.
"That woman really does know how to push all of my buttons, Peter. Even when she's nice to me, she still drives me completely mad," Sarah Jane admitted with a chuckle.
Peter smiled at her and kissed her. He was so happy that the day was finally going back to at least some form of normalcy once more.
They still all had a wedding to go to after all. What could be more normal than that?
Next: You can definitely tell that Peter's still new around here. This is a Guardian Who wedding after all. Normal is a foreign concept when it comes to weddings in this universe. Next time we celebrate the 50th chapter of this story in style when we finally have the wedding of Luke and Maria at last . . . with yet another uninvited guest. Don't worry though. This one won't be anywhere near as bad as the Trickster. That's not to say that they'll necessarily be welcome either though.
Oh, and the question of how the Trickster got his new power and what this mysterious bargain of his is will definitely be completely answered in time. Sarah Jane will definitely find herself wishing that it wasn't though before everything is said and done.
