Those Left Behind
Disclaimer: Gargoyles belong to Buena Vista, Highlander belongs to Rysher, and Earth: Final Conflict belongs to Tribune Entertainment. I make no money from this.
Liam and Da'an stood side by side, oddly alike in their stances. Both shocked, both confused.
"What just happened?" they heard a voice say from behind them.
They turned, to find Deirdre Cooley striding toward them.
"Who says anything happened? What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Liam.
"I went for a walk this evening, and saw something strange leave, coming from the embassy. As security is one of my jobs, I thought it best to come and investigate."
"It was nothing to concern you with," said Da'an, his serenity back in place.
"Are you certain?" she replied.
"Yes," the pale alien told her, turning back to his chair, and sitting. He reactivated the energy stream, cutting off any further conversation.
Liam smiled at the Companions tactics. They didn't need the newest implant to be nosing around were she was not wanted.
"Do you want me to take you back to your apartment?" Liam asked.
"No, I got here on my own feet, and that will be sufficient to get me back," Deirdre replied.
Liam grunted. "Good," he said under his breath, as the tall security chief left his presence. He wanted to go to Augur's and see if he could get any information on gargoyles, and some on Sergeant Deirdre Cooley.
"Sergeant Cooley, did you say?" Augur asked, sounding incredulous.
"Sergeant Deirdre Cooley. She was supposed to be-" was saying Liam, before he was cut off.
"Co-second with the real Liam Kincaid in the SI wars. I know. I knew the lady. In fact, she was the person who introduced Boone and me. Long story, which includes me, a stripper, and a large keg of beer. Anyway, this was before I had become the great genius that I am today."
"Modest, too," said Lili, who was sitting on stool by the computer console.
Augur gave her a dirty look. "As I was saying, I knew the lady. Only thing is, she died with Liam Kincaid, and the rest of Boone's platoon."
Upon arriving at Augur's, Liam had told his ally about the recent developments along the Taelon front. He had taken it all with his characteristic nonchalance when they got to the new implant's name. Then, the master hacker almost had stroke.
"The thing is, she can't be the real thing. Boone got drunk one evening when he came home from the wars. He told me about how most of his men died. He had a front row view of her death. She took maybe fifty rounds to the chest. He said that you could see through her. She looked like hamburger. This person could not be her," he ended emphatically.
"Then how could she have known that I wasn't Liam Kincaid?" Liam asked.
That got Augur. When he had created Liam's identity, he had made sure that there could be no one to identify him. In fact, the only person who could have was dead, and that person was William Boone. It was a given that everyone else from that doomed mission was deceased.
"In fact," Augur continued, "I'll prove it." He walked briskly over to the console.
"Computer, bring up everything on Sergeant Deirdre Cooley."
On the blank screen, there flashed to life a picture. Granted, the woman on the screen looked a little younger, but that was only the result of life experience. For all intents and purposes, however, it was the same woman.
Liam choked.
"That's her, all right," Lili whispered, like saying it quietly would keep it from being real.
"Augur, are you sure that there was no way that this file could have been tampered with?" Liam said urgently.
Augur just gave him a look.
"Sorry."
Lili had started to scan the content of the file. "It's pretty much the same as the one that Cooley gave the Companions, except for the death part. This one states that she died along the platoon. There's nothing after that."
"So, since people don't come back from the dead, we can only assume that this new woman had to have had plastic surgery to change her appearance, then altered the files of the original, and poof you have a new identity. Ironic. The original may have been able to have pulled it off," stated Augur.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Liam, sounding like he wasn't tracking.
"She was no where as good as me, of course, but she was a talented hack, none the less. In fact, by payment of a really strange debt, of another, really, long boring story, I showed her how to change her personal files. She needed to create a life history to be able to get into college. Apparently, she didn't have one until then."
"You're saying that Deirdre Cooley didn't have any kind of background until you two met?" asked Lili, her voice rising.
"No. Most of what anybody knew about her was a clever forgery."
Well, that shot all their hopes that she was an innocent woman. Looks like they would have to kill her after all. Liam snorted, and looked back at the picture on the screen. "But someone already beat me to it," he mumbled.
Deirdre stood before Zo'or, on the bridge of the mother ship.
"You have something to report to me?"
She nodded. "A large creature, much like what the one already being held, was sighted leaving from the vicinity of Da'an's embassy. I went to ask what had happened, but Da'an said that it was none of my concern."
"I would like you to further your investigation of Da'an's activities. If I could bring this before the Synod, I would have more than enough evidence to expel Da'an from the Commonality."
"Why do you have such hatred toward Da'an?" she couldn't help herself from asking.
Zo'or gave her a look that could have scorched stone. It was full of a sly knowledge, overlying a bitter resentment.
"That is none of your concern," said the pale alien. His usual mask was back in place. Smug, full of superiority, and none too kind, but before it went back up, Deirdre thought that she had seen a flash of pain. It was a fleeting thing, and she couldn't be sure that she wasn't imagining it.
"Leave me now. I wish to think on this," he dismissed her with a wave.
Bowing, she left.
She walked the halls of the massive ship, until she came to the cell that contained her sister.
She gazed into the room, willing herself numb. It went against all her instincts, not to go in, wreck the room, kill all those that would hurt her Clan...
With a wrench, she pulled herself together. That was a different person, she told herself. I'm not a killer; that was a lifetime ago.
Deirdre's CVI played back all that had happened.
She had been with the rest of her platoon. They had gotten a few vague reports of the enemy in the area, but those had been denied later. Too bad they hadn't listened.
She put her hand to her chest, as pain remembered blasted phantom holes through her, again, and again, and again....
There is no pain after death, she thought clinically, later, only later. After waking up, in a mass grave of her comrades, then crawling out, in the rain. The smell, oh Dragon, did she remember the smell, the sewer stench that comes from the empty bowels after dying, and it was on herself.
Deirdre had been found, later, by the enemy, and put into a cell. Then she had suffered her second death, by gang rape.
It had driven her mad. She had returned to her gargoyle shape as darkness had fallen, and she had gone berserk. She could feel the slippery, slimy feel of a human's entrails as her talons had speared through his abdomen, and reached to the spine, and snapped it.
In the end, that had been the only reason Boone, and maybe some others, had survived after being captured. She had killed them all. For so long afterwards she had wandered...
A hand touched her arm, snapping her free of the memory.
Turning, she saw Da'an, looking at her with an expression that might have been called concern.
Bowing her head, she made the formal hand gestures.
The Companion gently placed his hand on her face. When he pulled his delicate fingers away, they were wet.
"Why do you cry?" Da'an asked, sounding oddly curious.
"I was trapped in a memory of the war, Da'an," she covered, grateful that she didn't have to lie. "It was of my platoon's death. I fear that I have not fully mastered my CVI yet."
"Then, it would be well indeed if you were to practice."
"Yes, Da'an," she replied, and beat a hasty retreat.
Da'an looked back into the room housing the young creature. The young gargoyle, he corrected himself. No living being should have to go through the things that this child was being subjected to now.
Glancing toward Cooley's back, he wondered if his kind would ever be called to account for their actions. Da'an thought of Morrigan, and he wondered who would do the accounting.
It was the next day, and Da'an had a special meeting at the UN to discuss a new breakthrough that the Companions had made in the field of aerospace. It was a hybrid of human technology and Taelon, and would apply mainly to the portal project.
Deirdre was in charge of security. Liam thought his teeth ached at the thought.
To his surprise, everything went smoothly. He felt greatly relieved at that. Despite not knowing who this person was, at least she knew her business.
Liam and Deirdre were escorting Da'an out of the building to Lili's shuttle, when he noticed her jerk like she had been shocked. He saw her make surreptitious glances all around, like she was waiting for someone to appear. He wasn't surprised, then, when a tall blond man walked out of the shadows.
"Da'an, I need to speak to you," the nameless person stated firmly, like he had every right to say such.
Da'an stopped, and gave him the look he reserved only for Zo'or on a bad day.
Liam glanced back, and saw that Deirdre's hand was edging into her coat, and the look on her face was a twisted mask of loathing.
"My name is Jon Castaway," said the handsome, tall man. "You need to know about the demons, Da'an. The whole world needs to know about them."
Castaway reached out, trying to take the Companion's arm, when Cooley interceded. Blocking the man, she said in a cold voice," Then you're going to have to make an appointment, Mr…" She finished the last sentence in a hiss, which Liam couldn't make out. Whatever it was she said, though, it turned the blond man pale. He flinched, and looked like he wanted to try for something under his own long coat.
Stand off.
"I agree with Sergeant Cooley,' Da'an said finally, breaking the tense silence. "If you wish to speak to me, it would be prudent to speak first to my attache. Liam would set up an appropriate time for us to meet."
Smiling tightly, the man bowed, and gave a look of pure hatred to Deirdre.
"Yes," he said, sounding very calm. "We will meet again."
After boarding the shuttle, Liam grabbed Deirdre's arm.
"What the hell was that about?"
Her lips had pinched together when she responded with, "How the hell should I know?"
They glared at each other.
"I, too, would like to know the meaning of that encounter," interjected Da'an.
"He was some quack that I heard about a few years ago," Deirdre mumbled. "I don't know why he's out of the mental institution."
"I've never heard of him," Liam said suspiciously.
"He blew up some buildings a few decades ago. It's better for all of us that he be forgotten."
"He almost seemed to have known you," the Companion probed.
"My life closed twice, before its close, and yet remains to see, if immortality unveil a third event to me," she answered him.
At Da'an's blank look, she said, "Emily Dickinson. Maybe we met in a past life, I don't know. I hadn't met him in this one until then."
"That was hardly a satisfactory explanation."
Deirdre sighed. "It's the only one I have to give."
After returning to her loft, Deirdre wondered about the newest complication in her life.
In her travels, she had heard about the Hunter, but there had been nothing to suggest that he was an immortal. Deirdre shivered, thinking that she would have to fight him eventually.
"But not tonight," she said aloud, and picked up her coat. Suddenly the walls of her apartment seemed much too confining. She needed to get out, maybe get something to eat. With a longing look out her window, she decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to stretch her wings. She needed all her energy for what would happen later.
Augur was in his usual booth at the Flat Planet café. He was alone, and was looking into his latest art theft, er, deal.
He was therefore caught flat footed when Deirdre strode through the door.
"Oh, boy," he mumbled, getting a good look at her. Even though he knew that it was impossible for her to be the real thing, the resemblance was uncanny. He followed her with his eyes to the bar, where she ordered the soup of the day. That was even more unnerving to the techno-wizard, because that was something he would have expected the real Deirdre to do. She also didn't order any alcohol, another thing that was distressingly in character. So, this fraud had done her homework.
Interest piqued, he decided to go and speak to her. It would be refreshing to talk to a con artist as talented as himself.
Walking up behind her, he tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey, beautiful," he said in his best pick up voice.
The implant turned her head, her mouth full of soup, saw who it was, and inhaled, choking.
Pounding her on the back, Augur replied, chuckling, "Sorry, but you looked like you had seen a ghost."
Taking a gulp of what Augur thought was milk, (milk? Who went to the Flat Planet and ordered milk?) Deirdre stopped her coughing fit, her eyes wide as plates, mouth working soundlessly.
"Augur?" she finally said, softly. She wiped her mouth with a napkin, and swiveled her stool around. Trying very hard to come up with something pithy, the best she could do was, "What in the blazes are you doing here? Pretending to be a neon sign?"
"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Augur answered, wondering how far this charade would go on. He knew she wasn't the real Deirdre. She couldn't be.
Giving him one of her frightening familiar half-smiles, he started to doubt his conviction that there were no such things as ghosts.
"Yes, I am supposed to be dead, but I've never been all that good at doing what I was supposed to do, remember?"
It had been an old joke between them at MIT. While in class Augur, who had been a far different person then, had argued by the book physics, Deirdre had always had a mystical bend to her. She would say that so long as people refused to use their imaginations, they wouldn't be able to discover anything new. It had been one of the greatest irritations that either of them had ever had, but one of the most fun.
Anger rushed into Augur's mind, as the thought of someone using his old friend's identity came back to him.
"Who are you really," he demanded.
Deirdre sighed. "The undying. The death that comes on the wings of night."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he called after her, as she drained the rest of her soup, and left.
After leaving the Flat Planet cafe, Deirdre sneaked into the embassy. She would need access to the Companions databases if the plan she had was going to be pulled off.
It was later that night, when she boarded the mother ship.
"So, you are certain that Da'an is blatantly helping Liberation?"
"Yes, Zo'or," Deirdre replied, face bland.
"And what proof do you have of this?"
In actuality, she had no idea if he was helping the Liberation or not. She had promised not to harm the Taelon, but she needed some form of distraction. This would do quite nicely.
She handed him a disk that had Da'an and Liam talking. It had been child's play to redo it with magic and her limited computer abilities, into something marginally incriminating. When she was done with her night's mischief, it would revert to something completely innocuous.
The gloating on the Companion's face was disgusting as he took the disk from her hand. For a few seconds, Deirdre felt the wild urge to swipe her talons across that superior smirk of his.
Then rip out his throat, sink her hind claws into his belly, and shred his innards to bits…
No, she told herself. That isn't me. I am not a monster that kills for the shear joy of it!
Swallowing convulsively, she regained control of the beast that still lived within her. I am a civilized being. I will not loose control.
Who am I kidding?
Deirdre must have blanked out, because she didn't remember being dismissed, and she found herself walking down the miles of corridors to the cell that was holding Bridget.
The little gargoyle was in a loosing battle. While they had not tried to implant her, yet, to get her to talk, they were slowly extracting all the information that they could get from her frail body. She had lost more than a talon, now. One of her wings had been so bisected that it was well nigh unusable. Her left eye was also gone, the result of the many scientists' attempts to discover why they glowed.
Deirdre could hear a soft whimper, and thought it came from inside the cell.
No, she realized. It's coming from me.
Liam had set up the appointment with the reputed madman, Jon Castaway. He had tried to find prior information on the man, but none had been forthcoming.
It was with little regret, that he chose to put off the meeting.
He heard a persistent beeping. It was his global.
Pulling it from his pocket, he slung it open. "Kincaid here."
It was Da'an.
"Liam, I have urgent news," the North American Companion said without preamble.
Liam's eyebrows went up at the Companion's tone. It was worried.
"Apparently, our fears have been correct, and Sergeant Cooley has found evidence proving our involvement with the Resistance."
Liam choked. "What has she got?"
"A recording of us speaking about the activities of Jonathan Doors."
"What was the date on the recording?"
"This afternoon."
"But-" thoughts of what they had actually been doing drifted into his mind. He had in fact been getting security arrangements together for a conference between Da'an and several companies negotiating for a hybrid technology contract together. He hadn't even seen the Companion until his call.
Just them, he heard Sandoval call out, "Kincaid!"
Whirling around, he turned to run. Still speaking to Da'an, he shouted," It had to be a set up! We didn't even have time to talk, let alone do anything with the Liberation!" Gritting his teeth, he knew he needed to get Augur. If anyone could prove that the recording of whatever it was had been a fraud, he would.
"Contact Lili, I need to get some help. Get her out of the way."
Back on board the ship, Deirdre had been waiting in one of the many alcoves that organic technology seemed to want to produce. She smiled, as one of the many little disasters she had begun started to play themselves out.
Zo'or smirked, his favorite expression, and looked at a humiliated Da'an.
"I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, Da'an. I now have the evidence I need to have you stripped of your position as North American Companion, and to destroy all those humans that would dare defy-
Then, various sirens started going off.
Looking more disappointed about not being able to give his speech than whatever disaster might me unfolding, Zo'or snapped "What is happening?"
"It appears that several shuttles have appeared out of ID drive…" the duty implanted began calmly enough, but his voice gained pitch and volume as he continued- "They aren't of Taelon make- Son of a!"
"It's the Jaridians!"
The whole ship went into full-blown panic at that.
Liam, Lili and Augur had just arrived on board before the hysteria hit. They were running flat out to the bridge by the time they got there.
"Da'an, what's happening?"
"It would appear that the Jaridians had gotten access to interdimensional drive sooner than anticipated." Even the serene Da'an sounded frightened.
The alarms, which were already blaring, took on a more intense note.
"What?" Liam shouted, and sprang for the console.
"The ship's ID drive is going critical!"
Deirdre nodded to herself. Now, it was time to get to business. Her computer hexes wouldn't last under much scrutiny.
She quickly jogged to the cell holding Bridget. A blast with her skrill knocked out the usual guards, before they even saw that she was there.
Unlocking Bridget's restraints, she pulled out a vial of smelling salts. Waving them under Bridget's nose, the female gargoyle quickly came awake.
"Wha-"
"It's okay, Bridget," Deirdre reassured her. "It's-"
"Yer one o' them!" croaked the prone female. "Yer gonna, yer gonna'"
"I'm a friend o' yur sister's," Deirdre covered, seeing that she had forgotten that Bridget wouldn't recognize her.
The poor girl was so out of it that she didn't question it.
She carefully de-tangled the various monitors and lifted Bridget into her arms. It took barely a moment, in which she gave the young one the hug she had ached to give her.
"Little 'un," she whispered, smoothing Bridget's night-dark hair, "I am so, so sorry."
Augur had ran to the engine room, intent on trying to repair the drive, but when he got there, he was brought up short.
The room was completely quiet.
No one there had noticed anything wrong, and the drive was in perfect condition.
Liam and Lili, who had been right behind, slammed into his back.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, as he nearly fell on his nose.
Liam ignored Augur, with his eyes bugging out when he looked at the engine.
"Nothing's wrong."
Augur then went over to one of the many consoles, rudely pushing the normal operator, who with the rest of the engineers, had been staring at the new arrivals.
Augur easily hacked into the Taelon system. While he thought that the computer was operating normally, he started to run a debugging program. The alarms immediately ceased.
"It was all a hoax," Augur said in amazement.
"Well, save the back patting until we get to the bridge. We need to stop the Taelons from exiling Da'an!" shouted back Liam, as he turned and left.
"I hate this part," Deirdre mumbled softly, as she hid her little sister. Bridget had again fallen unconscious, and was slumbering deeply.
Carefully pulling out a small pinch of salt and herbs, she tossed them into the air, and chanted softy, this time in Gaelic. It was an illusion spell, one that extended to all the senses, and should hide her while.
Further narrowing her concentration, Deirdre stared at her left hand, and it blurred into gargoyle shape. With all the force she could put into it, she rammed it into her own chest.
Her lungs tried desperately to sob in air, resulting in a horrific sucking noise. Trying to stay on her feet, she stumbled away, to tell the rest of the crew that the creature had escaped.
Liam was made haste to the bridge, and was in time to see Zo'or try again to redirect attention to the accusations of Da'an.
"He didn't do anything," Liam stated quickly.
No one paid him any mind. The general chaos had not in the least abated, and humans and Taelons were running around like mad.
Some of the drones had just figured out that it was all some sort of computer glitch, and were trying to restore order. Many of their Companion counter parts were not as quick to catch on.
"We're all going to die!"
No one knew which Taelon said that, when Liam bellowed, "IT WAS ALL A COMPUTER MALFUNCTION!"
Silence.
"What are you talking about?" said Zo'or, who was trying to regain control of the situation.
"I mean, as soon as a debugging program was run, the alarms in the engine room ceased. I'm betting that if you try it on the bridge sensors, these ghosts that have everyone so scared will turn out to be nothing."
Looking greatly annoyed, Zo'or directed one of the drones to do so, and immediately, all became calm.
Stunned, but able to bring back some of his old arrogance, Zo'or stated, "Now that this sham has been uncovered, and we will find out who is responsible, we will examine the evidence that has been uncovered."
Whipping out the recording that Sergeant Cooley had given him, he connected it to the data stream, the Synod and all present watching intently.
All it contained was a Da'an and Liam discussing the days security arrangements. From last week.
Everyone present gaped.
"You would bring us here to incriminate Da'an with something as mundane as his security?" said one of the anonymous figures of the Synod, with a note of mockery in his voice.
"I, what happened?" the Synod leader garbled out, not really believing what he was seeing. He had just seen the evidence against Da'an with this own eyes! How did his implant get such falsified information?
Humiliated, Zo'or stood, and left the room.
Lili and Augur were on their way to the shuttle bay, to get Augur out of the way. Augur was still more than a little in trouble from his last stay aboard the mother ship, so getting him out ASAP was Lili's priority at the moment.
Hearing her global bleep, she whipped it out. It was Liam.
"Marquette, go."
"Everything's seemed to calm down, but we don't know who or what caused the malfunction. Da'an's been cleared, because the evidence Zo'or had seems to have been erased, or something. It's too strange to go into at the moment."
"Right," she answered, "I'm getting Augur out of the way, now, so- Oh my God!"
"Help-" Deirdre croaked, and fell over after shambling into the hallway. Augur, looking as shell shocked as Lili felt, ran over.
Coughing, with blood spurting from her mouth, she hacked out, "I was in the lab… The creature, it escaped."
"I'm going to call the medical bay," Lili whispered, hearing Liam shout over the global, "What's going on?"
Shutting down the global with Kincaid still shouting, asking what was going on, she shut it down, and rang a desperate call down to the medical bay.
Augur was gingerly touching her throat, and looked back up at Lili. He shook his head no.
"Oh, no," she moaned. She may not have liked the bitch, but to die like that…
Lili's eyes widened as she remembered what Deirdre had gasped out. The gargoyle was on the loose. A creature that could easily create havoc, running around…
Drawing her gun, she motioned for Augur to stay in one of the shuttles.
"Stay here. We need to keep you out of sight."
"What about her?" he asked, looking down at Deirdre's dead body.
"I guess we get her out of the way first," she sighed, and grimaced. Lili wanted to be out hunting down that thing before it got to anyone, but it seemed… disrespectful just to leave her there. So, she and Augur picked her up by her heels, and drug her into an adjoining room, and Augur hid.
For a long time, she didn't know how long her lay there. It just hurt too much to move.
With a soft sob, and a louder groan, Bridget awakened. When she remembered what had happened, she wished that she had not.
She couldn't let the Taelons get her again. She couldn't. She would kill herself first.
Scrambling to her feet, she lurched out of the tiny alcove she had been hidden in, and out into the ship.
Augur was sitting in one of the many shuttles sitting in the bay, wondering how long it would be until Lili got back. Sure, this might be more important, but anything that took time away from him, was, well, annoying.
Just then, he heard a loud moan and rustle from somewhere. Feeling decidedly nervous, Augur craned his neck around, hoping he wouldn't be spotted.
He saw a shadow scurry out of his peripheral vision.
His heart thudding in his chest, he lurched around to see what was going on.
Nothing.
Going back to what he was doing, trying to convince himself that it had been a false alarm, he suddenly remembered that the shadow had left the room they had left Cooley in.
Feeling like a deer in headlights, he stared at the room, and didn't move.
When Deirdre woke up from death, this time, it was with the sure
knowledge that something was wrong.
Lurching up, she skulked out of the room she had somehow gotten into, she began to unchain the spells controlling her form. This time, she didn't hold back, and a haunting roar reverberated throughout the corridors of the mother ship. It had the elements of a tiger's roar, with an eerie, banshee-like counterpoint to it that sent icy fingers through the hearts of all that heard it.
Dropping on all fours, she sprinted to the place she had left her sister.
She was gone.
"NOOOO!"
Augur couldn't stand it any longer. He had to see what had happened.
Getting out of the shuttle, he entered the room where they had stashed Deirdre's body.
The lights were off, and he thought he could make out an outline of the body.
"See?" he chuckled to himself, despite the creepy feeling anyone would have had if they were in a room with a corpse. "She's just lying on the floor, right over-" he reached over to find the light switch, and, oddly enough, there was one- "there."
There was nobody there. There was no body at all.
Turning, Augur ran like a scared rabbit.
Liam started down to the hanger bay, hoping that whatever had happened, he would be in time. It was then that he heard the howl.
In all the memories he had from his fathers, and his mother, nothing in them could compare with the shear fury that he heard in this voice. It rang in his bones like a death omen.
Running now, Kincaid knew who had been behind the strangeness of this night, and headed to the labs where the young gargoyle had been held.
Augur also heard the booming wail. It made him run faster. He was turning a corner, when-
SLAM
He ran full tilt into something huge.
Gasping, he wondered for a moment when the boogey man had gotten out of the closet.
It was tall, with pale wings, and was- it was wearing a dress?
Shaking his head to clear it, he realized that it was not the boogey man he was facing, but a female, a female whatever and that it had just escaped the Taelons.
"You poor devil," he mumbled, seeing the obvious evidence of what had been done to her. Hearing her whimper, he guessed the right thing to do would be to get her out of there. His mind went through a rapid set of plans, then finally settled on helping her to the shuttle bay. He would explain to Lili after they were back at the church. Walking over, he slung the swooning creature's arm over his shoulder, and tried to make his ponderous way back to where he had come from, thoughts of the undead far from his mind.
Of course, they didn't get that far before they were captured by the security teams.
Lili had basically screamed over the global that the creature had escaped, and so Sandoval had shown up with several security teams to start a systematic search of the ship. Lili joined in, her gun ready, and they began to deliberately stalk their prey. After tonight's disasters, the Synod would not take kindly to having their prize escape.
Kincaid was still on his way when he heard the sound on claws scraping across metal. He barely had time to dodge to one side before Morrigan slashed past him.
"Morrigan, stop!" he called after her. To his surprise, she did.
Whirling in a way that made him dizzy just to watch, she got back on her hind feet. Distractedly, he noticed that she had left furrows from her talons scoring the floor.
"Are you the one behind all the strange stuff tonight?" he yelled, feeling really pissed.
Before she could answer, he eyes lit up, and she reached for him.
Gasping and lunging back, he tried to get out of her way, when she grabbed his shoulder and tossed him to the side like he was tumbleweed. It was just in time, because a skrill blast had been aimed for his head. Ducking and rolling, the female gargoyle got back to her feet, to face the person that had fired on her. It was Sandoval.
Lili was with him.
"Don't use deadly force on it unless necessary," ordered the attaché to the rest of his contingent. "Get it."
Liam wanted to curse, because now he would have to fight the gargoyle.
Smiling, Morrigan answered Sandoval grimly, "You mean you guys are going to play fair? I'm touched."
With an easy split kick, she took two of the seven-member force down. "To bad for you."
She bared her teeth in a snarl, and went down to all fours again. Her tail lashed out, and dropped another security guard.
The remaining humans, including Sandoval rushed her. She charged them, and she had the mass to take such a hit.
It reminded Liam of pins on a bowling alley.
That took out two more of the drones, leaving Sandoval, two drones and Lili.
Pulling up into a fighting stance, she using a crescent kick on one of the drones.
Sandoval fired his skrill, which slammed her into the deck.
Smirking, Sandoval comment, "You may have great strength, but the wonders of Taelon science are beyond a brute like you."
Deirdre tried to get up, but the blast had broken her back. Even as she could feel the pins and needles feeling of her healing factor take over, she was dragged to her feet. "Pitiful. Take her to the bridge."
Lili, Liam and a drone were all that were left, so they hoisted her arms over their shoulders. Liam noticed that her lower half was dragging. He whispered to her, under his breath, "I think your back is broken."
Mumbling back, Deirdre whispered," No crap, Sherlock."
Augur was whispering his apologies to Bridget as they were taken to the bridge. Apparently Da'an wanted to speak to them.
When they entered the bridge, Augur was in for a shock. If he had thought the pitiful creature that he had been helping was the boogey man, boy, he had thought wrong.
While the sight that greeted him was clearly of the same breed, he knew that he had met the boogey woman. Huge, black as night, with massive wings, he knew that it had to be something out of a nightmare. It was then that he heard his charge's soft cry, "D-d-Dee-"
Deirdre didn't know if she had died at all when she was being manhandled to the bridge, but she had to have been out of it for a few moments.
Zo'or had regained his sense of self-importance quickly, and was back in his chair. Da'an was looking at her sorrowfully, as if he was mourning her death.
She had stopped struggling, much to Liam's and Lili's relief. Her back finished healing.
Deirdre saw out the of the corner of her eye-
"BRIDGET!" she roared. "Now, let her go!"
With an ease that definitely surprised her captors, she flung Liam and Lili away, and ran over, trying to get her little sister away from those beasts. It only registered vaguely that she was being supported by Augur, but was brought up short by the dozens of skrills being pointed in Bridget's direction.
"Now," said the calm voice of Zo'or, as Augur was made to drop Bridget, and she was jerked out before him. "What is it about this creature that you would spend so much effort to get her back?"
While she wasn't being held, Deirdre held rock still, and growled.
"How many of your kind are there?" Zo'or asked.
Deirdre said nothing.
"Guard, beat this one," he pointed to Bridget, "until the larger one speaks."
One of the drones came over, and kicked the already wounded gargoyle in the gut. Again.
Bridget screamed.
The guard made a hammer fist.
There was a loud crunching noise.
Bridget moaned.
Suddenly, Deirdre wasn't on a Taelon ship anymore. She was on a jungle. She had died, again. She could feel her guards, as she screamed for mercy, death, anything. She could feel them using her, and using her, and-
Something snapped in Deirdre's mind.
She swung around, and dived at the guard holding Bridget, her talons sinking into one of his eye sockets.
Flinging the dead body to the ground, she chose her next target, and lunged.
Everyone could see that she didn't care about saving anyone anymore. She was killing, just to be killing.
Liam ducked as one of the flung bodies skimmed his head. He saw her going after everybody, and there was no sense at all to the way that she was fighting. She had gone totally berserk.
He crawled over to Bridget. He shook her hard, having no time to be gentle.
She moaned, and her eyes fluttered open. Screaming in her ear, Kincaid yelled," Can you reason with her?"
"Who?" she asked, before fear of who she was talking to could get to her.
"Your sister." He pointed.
"Dear- God," she squeaked. "I've never seen her like this!"
Dead and wounded drones lay everywhere, some still trying to get up and fight, most laying there limp.
In all the growling, he couldn't hear what Bridget yelled at her. Or, he couldn't have heard it right.
Deirdre froze, not believing what she heard. How could her little sister be here, out in the middle of nowhere?
Snapping back to reality, Deirdre slumped wearily. When she turned to Liam and Bridget, her face was haunted, and almost gaunt.
"How much?" she mumbled, looking at her hands. Her bloody talons.
"How much blood will be on my hands, when it's all over?"
The elder gargoyle's knees gave way, and she hit the deck. Bridget just looked at her.
"Sister, I want to go home," she said tearfully.
Da'an whispered to them," Then go. No one will stop you."
"That is what you think! You think I will just let you let them go, Da'an, then you have another thing coming!" snarled Zo'or, rage contorting his face. He had picked up one of the energy weapons on the ground. He aimed it at Da'an.
"YOU THINK THAT I'LL LET YOU BETRAY YOUR OWN KIND?"
He fired.
There was no way that Deirdre or Liam could have been fast enough to save him. Both tried, but they were too far away.
As they both lunged over, another, pale body dived at Da'an, and knocked him over, taking the bolt of deadly energy herself.
"OOF!" they all heard, as Bridget's body flew back.
"NOOOOOOOO-"
The little gargoyle hit the ground.
Crying, Deirdre scrambled over. "Bridget, oh, little sister, please, no-"
She gathered the young one to her, and stroked her hair. "I'm sorry," she choked, "I'm so, so sorry."
"Tell Ma and Da that I love them, please," whispered a small, soft voice.
Bridget took a deep breath, and the life went out of her.
Tears streaming down her face, Deirdre stood, and threw back her head.
"AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Bowing her head back over her sister, she picked her up.
Lili had disarmed the Synod leader after Bridget's save. He was standing by one of the virtual glass windows, looking sullen.
"Hear this," the tall female gargoyle intoned. "My kind are not to be touched by the likes of you, Zo'or. The First Race has never been at your kind's beck and call, and we never will. Do something like this again, and you will have the wrath of all the Clans on your head. So be it," she closed her wings around the seemingly peaceful Bridget, like a shroud.
She turned and left.
No one thought to stop her.
Later
"I wonder what will become of these events," Da'an said quietly, speaking to Liam.
Liam shivered. While most of the damage had already been cleaned up, the leftover bodies, the shear number of them, had told him that it would not be a good idea to get the rest of the gargoyles angry.
"I don't know, Da'an."
Lili walked over.
Something occurred to Liam. "Lili, have you seen Cooley?"
"That was something I never got around to telling you about. She's dead."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Why is that the first thing anybody asks? Of course, I'm sure. I saw the body. So did Augur."
"Somebody say my name?"
"HOW-" Lili sputtered.
"How what?" responded Deirdre.
"I saw you dead!"
Looking put out, Deirdre answered, "Lili, I haven't been on the ship all night. Check the records if you don't believe me. Although, considering what I've heard happened here, you may have seen anything."
Lilli carefully backed up, and left the room.
"Would you believe her?" Deirdre made a tsk-ing sound with her tongue.
"I would like to ask you about the recording that you gave to Zo'or this evening," interjected Da'an, gesturing gracefully with his pale hands.
"Oh, that? I was instructed to find any information on you that might connect you to liberation activities. That showed up on my doorstep, and since it looked official, I presented it to Zo'or. What he did with it later is his fault."
Looking pleased, Da'an dismissed her.
Deirdre was able to hold it together long enough to leave the mother ship.
When she got back to her apartment, she broke down, and wept.
She was still stuck as an implant, the Hunter was out there, and worst of all, she had failed to save her sister.
Deirdre wished someone would show up to take her head right then.
Fin.
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