Many thanks to BeaconHill and GlassGirlCeci for betareading.

Interlude 10d: Dinah

Dinah woke to a pounding headache and little else. Her tiny room was pitch-black and silent as a tomb.

She licked dry lips and closed her eyes, trying to shut out the throbbing of her head, the itching of her eyes, the burning in her throat.

She was tempted to ask her power the chances of going to sleep again, but it wasn't worth it. Coil wouldn't be happy with her wasting a use, and it wasn't as though she didn't already know the approximate answer.

She sat up and groped for her water bottle. Her fingers found it, pulled it towards her.

It didn't move. She blinked. Her head turned.

There was a faint green light, like a dim, twinkling star, where the bottle's lid should be.

"Please don't scream," the girl's voice was low, gentle. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Dinah froze. Before she could think twice, the question was out. Odds that this person is going to hurt me?

8.24%. The answer came with a twinge of pain in her already aching head, making her flinch, but the answer itself was good news. I'll bet on those odds.

She cleared her throat. "Can I have the water bottle?" she asked, keeping her voice low and calm.

The shimmering green light moved and the bottle came free. Dinah unscrewed the cap and drank deep.

"Who are you?" the voice asked. "Why are you down here?"

Dinah took her time swallowing and screwing the cap back on before answering. "Who's asking?" she returned. The more information she could gain without using her powers, the better.

"Shadow Stalker," said the voice. "I'm here to take down Coil."

Dinah closed her eyes and prayed that the desperate hope wasn't showing on her face. "How'd you get in here?"

"Powers," said Shadow Stalker simply. "Your turn. Who are you?"

Dinah licked her lips. They still felt dry, somehow. Probability that this girl will beat Coil, if I help her?

85.76%.

Dinah gritted her teeth the pain. She only had maybe two more questions in her. If she burned one on Probability that I'll be able to go home afterward? she wouldn't be much help. So she buried her uncertainty, her fear, and her hope, and cleared her throat. "Dinah Alcott," she said.

"You're the precog, aren't you?" Shadow Stalker asked, something soft and unidentifiable in her voice.

"That's me," said Dinah, trying to inject some levity into her voice. It didn't work.

A gloved hand touched her arm gently. "It's over now," said Shadow Stalker. "We're getting you out of here."

"Who's 'we'?" Dinah asked. "Not the Protectorate."

"No," Shadow Stalker said, and her voice was sad. "Not this time. But we're heroes, all the same. Or we try to be."

"Better than the Protectorate, then," Dinah said, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. "Do you have a plan?"

"Do you know where Coil is?"

"I know where his office is. But if I just take you there—"

"I don't want you to take me there," Shadow Stalker interrupted. "Can you give me directions, from this room?"

Dinah did. "Now what?"

"Now we wait," said Shadow Stalker. "Until the alarm goes off."

"What alarm—"

A siren began to blare. A red klaxon flared in the ceiling, lighting the room up like a flickering fire. In the glow Dinah at last saw Shadow Stalker. The red light cast her metal mask in ghastly shadows under the hood of her costume.

"That alarm," said Shadow Stalker. "Give me a sec."

The klaxon spun. The red light crossed over the hooded hero, and passed away. When it shone again over the place where she'd stood, she was gone.

Dinah clasped her hands together, squeezing nervously. There was nothing to do now but wait.

After a few moments, the soundproofed door to her cell slid open silently. Shadow Stalker stood framed in the opening, the red light sliding off her like water on oil. There was a thud as she dropped the unconscious guard in her grip. "Come on," she said. "And stay behind me."

Dinah huddled close to her savior as she led the way down the concrete corridor. "Where are we going?" she said, having to shout over the blaring alarm.

"Coil's office."

"Alone?"

"No."

Gunfire rattled somewhere nearby. Dinah jumped, but Shadow Stalker put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy," said the hero. "Everything's fine."

"How do you know?" Dinah found herself asking.

Shadow Stalker looked down at her. "Just gotta have faith," she said. "Come on."

They turned a corner and were faced with three of Coil's men, guns at the ready. "On the ground!" one shouted. "Hands where I can see them!"

Shadow Stalker didn't hesitate. With one hand, she pushed Dinah back behind the wall as the other raised a crossbow. The machine guns burst with deafening sound, but the bullets passed through the space where Shadow Stalker had been, now occupied only by a wisp of darkness. The darkness surged forward like smoke and passed out of Dinah's vision.

There was a scuffling. The gunfire ceased, and someone made a gurgling sound with their throat. A moment later, Shadow Stalker called, "Dinah, come out! It's safe."

Dinah poked her head out. Shadow Stalker was standing in the middle of the three men, all of them with darts in their necks, carefully reloading her crossbows. "Not much further," she said. "The rest of his people are probably busy elsewhere." She didn't even sound out of breath.

"Busy with what?" Dinah asked, jogging to keep up with the hero.

"The others," Shadow Stalker said absently, cautiously peering down another corner before gesturing for Dinah to follow her. "First door on the left, you said?"

"Yes. But—"

Shadow Stalker opened the door, and then turned into a wisp of shadow just in time to avoid the bullet going through her brain. When she reformed, her bow was out and pointed into the room. Dinah peered around the doorframe.

Coil was standing behind his desk, a handgun in his hand. In his spandex bodysuit, he looked like a dark mannequin around which coiled a silver snake.

All this, Dinah had seen before. What had her stopping and staring in awe and horror was the way the snake was moving, slithering along his dark form like a thing alive. Her eyes seemed to slide off of it, and she couldn't be sure whether the motion was real or just a trick of the light.

The snake's beady eyes seemed to fix themselves on Dinah's savior. Its mouth seemed to open. "Shadow Stalker," it said, in a voice that was both a sibilant hiss and the same aristocratic cadence Dinah had come to associate with Coil. "I might have known."

"Surrender," said Shadow Stalker. Her voice was low, and a green light seemed to flicker across her costume, shimmering around her like a halo.

The snake laughed. "Surrender? I? When I have you in the heart of my territory, in the very seat of my power?" The room grew darker. The alarm still blared, the red warning light still shone, but Coil's shadow filled the room, dimming light and sound, leaving the percussive gunfire from elsewhere in the base sounding somehow muted. "I don't think so. You surrender, and I will deliver you to Annatar unharmed."

"Not an option." Shadow Stalker stood unyielding, and the shadow could not touch the light which surrounded her. "I'm taking Dinah out of here, and I'm taking you in."

The snake's head turned. Its red eyes fixed on Dinah's own, and it was as though all the blood in her body had frozen at once. "Oh, Dinah," it said, its voice soft and pitying. "Did you really think you could escape me? Did you think this traitor would help you?"

Dinah tried to move, to speak, to hide, to run, to scream. All that came out was a faint whimper. Her eyes remained fixed on the snake's.

"You will never be rid of me," the serpent hissed. "You are mine, little one."

Then Shadow Stalker was in front of her, and the spell was broken. Dinah fell back, gasping and clinging to the wall like a lifeline. Her whole body was sticky with sweat.

"No, she isn't." Shadow Stalker's voice was hard. "And nor is that Ring on your finger. Time's up, Coil. You've had your fun."

"I keep the Ring with the blessing of its Maker," hissed Coil, and from where she stood behind Shadow Stalker, bathed in the warm green light that seemed to radiate off of her, the voice was only a man's. "The same cannot be said for you."

"If you hadn't stolen that Ring, none of this might have happened," said Shadow Stalker. "Maybe I can't set it right. Maybe no one can. But I can try—and it begins here." Her left hand clenched into a fist, and the green light burst like a curtain around her, a pristine aurora of color. "Give up the Ring, and come quietly. This is your last chance."

Coil laughed. It wasn't a happy sound; it was maddened and frenzied, barely human. "Do you think you could be parted from your Ring?" he screeched. "Do you think that you could give it up, put it aside, and not break? Don't make me laugh!" He spread his arms. "You'll have to kill—"

There was a thud as the crossbow bolt impacted his chest. The second sank into his neck.

Without another word, with barely a sound, Coil toppled forward. He fell into his desk and slid along it, scattering papers and sending his laptop crashing to the tiled floor with a resounding crunch. Then he followed it down, ending in a crumpled heap surrounded by the remains of his work. The shadow receded, and suddenly Dinah was merely standing behind a girl in a costume, looking in at a man's office.

Shadow Stalker holstered her crossbows and strode forward. Dinah hurried to follow her. "Is he dead?" she asked.

"No," said Shadow Stalker. "Tranquilized. We may not have that long." She knelt beside the body. Her hands closed around his left hand. Her fingers reached for his, and she pulled.

Dinah blinked, and when her eyes opened there was a small gold Ring in Shadow Stalker's hand. A single ruby seemed to glow in the band, flickering firelike against the black of the hero's glove. It was beautiful.

She only had a momentary glimpse of it before Shadow Stalker was tucking it away in a pouch in her belt. Then she was hoisting the man onto her shoulder. "Come on," she said. "Let's get out of here."

"How?" Dinah asked. The gunfire was still sounding somewhere in the base. "Coil's mercenaries are still everywhere!"

"That's the easy part," said Shadow Stalker. She reached down, picked up Coil's handgun, and put it to the man's head. "Stay behind me, and keep quiet. With luck, we'll get out of here without having to fight."

Dinah found that she was shaking, but whether in fear or relief, she didn't know. "Okay."

Shadow Stalker led the way back down the corridor, past the three unconscious men. They came to a barricade, but instead of a squad of Coil's men manning it, they were faced with one man in blue power armor.

"You got him?" Armsmaster asked.

Shadow Stalker nodded. "Narwhal and Chevalier are keeping the Travelers busy?"

"Yes. The way out is clear from here." Armsmaster turned. His metal boots clanked as he led them up a flight of stairs.

Dinah's hand reached out unbidden and gripped the fabric of Shadow Stalker's costume. The hero shifted her grip on the gun so that it was in the same hand that was holding up Coil, and her other hand came down to squeeze Dinah's own.

"It's over now," she said. "We're getting you home."

As they passed out of the base into the street, as the stars shone above her for the first time in months, she looked up at her savior, proud and tall in the night, under the stars.

Then she looked past her, and froze. She felt the blood draining out of her face. Shadow Stalker stopped too, looking down at her.

"Dinah?" she asked. "What is it?"

With a shaking hand, Dinah pointed at the rooftop across the street. Shadow Stalker turned and followed her gaze.

There, framed against the moon, her mace held low and ready, was Annatar.