Dead and Gone, or Not
Disclaimer: Gargoyles belongs to Buena Vista, Earth: Final Conflict belongs to Tribune Entertainment, and Highlander belongs to Rysher. I make no money from this.
When William Boone awoke, he had no idea where he was.
He remembered having a strange dream, in which he was submerged in a tank. He could see Zo'or, and-
He had felt the way a person does when they come into contact with static electricity. Then, a painful jolt, and-
Nothing.
Desperately, because his CVI should have made remembering what had happened instantly, he dredged his mind for what had happened.
Nothing. It was a complete blank.
Panic hit him then, and for several moments all he could do was listen to the rapid beating of his heart. Then sense reasserted itself.
If he had been a captive of the Taelons, he certainly wouldn't have come to in a human bed.
Carefully taking in his surroundings, he noticed the Spartan nature of the decorations. It wasn't completely bare, though. He saw several displays of weaponry, most of which were Medieval. No painting, pictures or posters were on the walls.
Trying to move, he gave a soft groan. His muscles where stiff, like he had lain on his side the entire night.
Rolling over, he spotted something that surprised him. There was an orchid growing over in one of the corners. It was the only living thing he had seen so far, and it was one that his beloved wife would have itched to get a hold of. In fact, it was the only thing that lent any beauty to the room at all.
Sitting, Boone realized something else, as well.
Underneath the blankets, he was nude.
Scrambling around, he found that someone had laid out some clothing that approximated his size. He was getting dressed, when a strange sensation his him.
It wasn't something that could really be described, even as his mind tried desperately to come to some sort of analysis. It felt faintly like static electricity. Then was a kind of buzzing that was in him and around him. He rang like a gong, resonating to something that was coming closer.
Then, that something came into the room.
When Boone saw who it was, he couldn't help but scream.
Deirdre had been on the mother ship twice since her little sister had been killed.
She hadn't been having any trouble recently with acting out the role of an implant. Despite being immortal, she was dead inside. When she had come back from the wars, the Clan had been her purpose. She had lived for them, and her little sister had been her laughter, no matter the headache she had caused.
She knew that now that the Taelons knew about the existence of the gargoyles, she had to keep them from finding out about them. That was all that kept her going.
Zo'or hadn't questioned her information. He had trouble believing that an implant, especially so new a one, could have done anything against his wishes. Anything odd about her behavior could be attributed to the rest of the strange things that had happened that evening.
She had been lucky, damn it. Why hadn't that luck rub off on her sister?
It was her fault. She had been impatient, and it had gotten her sister killed.
Looking down at her hands, she saw that they had balled up into fists.
Carefully unknotting them, she noticed absently that her fingernails had cut holes in her palms. Blood dripped down her wrists.
"Doesn't matter," she said aloud, surprising herself. She hadn't spoken much in the past month and a half. She watched with bitter amusement as both palms healed in seconds.
"What doesn't matter?"
She hadn't noticed when Liam had waltzed down the arched and curved corridor towards her.
She wanted to hiss, but it was as useless as everything else was. She just didn't care.
Liam flinched back from the face that met his. While her implant should have made her as content as a cat in cream on the mother ship, her eyes were as opaque as onyx and dull as limestone.
When she didn't answer, he got the hint and left. He had to arrange a meeting with both Nightstone Industries and Xanatos Inc.
Wandering around the halls some more, Deirdre came back to the cell that had held her sister for so long. Grimacing at the memories her CVI was playing back for her, she wondered how long she would stay in the black mood that the Celts were famous for.
Quickly moving on, she felt it. It was the strange buzz, tingle, and gong-like feel that she had whenever she was in the presence of an immortal…
Or not. It was faded out, like an ill-tuned radio station. She had never met someone that was a pre-immortal, but this was what she was told it felt like.
She was now in rooms where most of the suspension chambers where kept. All around her, the eerie sight of humans, and a few Taelons, in a blue liquid surrounded her, many with several types of monitors attached.
"Dragon. I just stepped into Frankenstein's lab!" she let out in a hoarse garble.
Pinching herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming, she tried very hard to keep from staring, and quickly scouted around. Whoever it had been that she had sensed, it wasn't one of the people in the tanks. There was nothing to make her feel that it was one of them.
Searching further, Deirdre wondered if something had happened with her CVI that was making her mind imagine the sense of an immortal. She was about to give up, when she crossed into the room with those subjects in deep storage.
Deciding it would be easier to look at the "patient's" charts, she carefully worked her way into the computer system, and ran down the roster.
She came across a very familiar name, and almost fell over.
William Boone.
Whatthefraggin'hell?
Taking a deep breath, she tried to order her mind to get into his file. That failing, she took several deep breaths. Sitting, breathing like a bellows, she finally got enough control that she was able to open it.
He had been seriously injured fighting Ha'gel, but Taelon science was more than adequate for such. What killed him was Zo'or.
There was a recording of his demise. She watched it, and was grateful that she was already drained of emotion.
Zo'or was entering a room. His expression was one of shear rage, and envy. Then, a mask dropped over his eyes, and he put his hand to the glass of the tank housing the brutally wounded William. There was a swirling of light sparkles, like glitter, or fireflies. Then, there was nothing in the tank. For about five seconds.
No one could have been more shocked than Zo'or as the sparkles of light coalesced back into the form of William Boone. Watching the faces of both Zo'or and Ronald Sandoval, she could see that shock was too mild a word. Flabbergasted, now, that would work.
Deirdre held her breath as they checked his vital signs. There were none. Not able to explain what had happened to Boone, they put him in deep storage.
Looking around, wishing she could speak the Taelon language, which she couldn't even speak the name of; she hunted, and found something that smelled familiar. She smiled, thankful that her gargoyle sense of smell seemed to still be working.
What the hell am I doing?
Stopping short, she wondered if this rescue mission would turn out like her last one.
Think things through, this time!
Stepping back, she wondered how she would get him out. Deirdre had no doubts as to that he was the one that she had sensed. After seeing his records, there was nothing that could have convinced her otherwise.
Okay, now, think. I need to get him off the ship. Duh. How tightly is this place monitored?
Since there was no one in the room, it was rather obviously not. She had been in there for the past twenty minutes. If someone were actively aware of what was going on, she would have been routed out.
Step two: find the mechanical surveillance.
Nonchalantly leaving the room, she went to the nearest computer interface. With somewhat less than Augur's skill, she hacked into the system.
Congratulations, fly-girl, there is no artificial surveillance of the room.
Now, she knew that she needed to get him out. How was the interesting part. She couldn't go dragging a dead body down to one of the shuttles.
Okay, check the duty roster.
There was a shift change in a few hours. She had asked for piloting lessons from Marquette after becoming an implant. It was conceivable that she could get him onto one when the shift changed. Being an implant had its uses.
Now, the hard part: waiting.
For the next three hours, she went back down to earth to get something that would fit her former commander. When he woke up, he would not like it if had no clothes. What really had Deirdre in a bind was the question of how she was going to break the news to him that he was an immortal. Heavens knew, she had enough trouble excepting it, and she had been a mage for several years when it had happened.
Taking the shirt, pants and underwear back to her apartment, she then boarded the mother ship again. It was then that Kincaid found her.
"Sergeant!" he barked, catching up with her. She had been walking briskly down the corridor, trying to act as if she was on an errand, so she wouldn't be disturbed.
It doesn't seem to have worked.
"We will be having a meeting at the Aerie Building, later tonight, and you and I will be Da'an's representatives. The two companies are Nightstone Industries and Xanacorp, for technology rights involving the portal project."
Frowning, Deirdre wondered if she would have enough time to do what she had planned. Sighing, she promised herself that she wouldn't put it off. She owed Boone too much.
Liam gave her an odd look when she didn't answer right away. Then all his suspicions about her came back to him. He didn't know who she was, or what she wanted. The unformed question in the back of his mind, which had just now come to the fore, was if her CVI was working properly.
"I have some errands to run," she answered him, finally. "I'll be there, though."
It had been hard to disguise her annoyance for too long, but she was able to wait until it was time. Skulking into the deep storage facility, she typed in the code for release of Boone's particular holding tank. It eased out of the wall with a soft scraping noise. In it, was her old friend.
In the time that he had been in the tank, his awful wounds had not healed. He had died, and not yet had time to "come back." He had been put in suspension before he had repaired himself.
Well, that was about to change.
Walking over to the readouts, she reversed the suspension procedure. Slowly, to avoid notice or shock to Will's system.
Her ears picked up a soft thrumming noise, like a cat's purr. The blue light that radiated from the tank faded, until Boone's body floated in shadow. The deep humming gradually lessened, and the process was complete.
Looking at his vitals, it was obvious that he hadn't come back yet. Grunting, Deirdre watched closely for several minutes.
Afraid that she had been wrong after all, she began to notice the telltale signs of an immortal's healing, as the hideous tears and burns in his flesh started to mend themselves, dotted with streaks of lightening.
Sighing with relief, Deirdre waited until he had healed most of his wounds. Then she clambered up the side of the tank, and opened it. Inserting a thin needle into his upper arm, she gave a not so healthy, (in fact, it was fatal) dose of poison she had stolen from one of the Taelon's medical bays. His monitors went dead.
Taking a deep breath and grunting under his weight, she heaved the tall human out from the liquid. True, it would have been easier to just drain the tank, but the alarms would sound only with the tank completely empty. Closing her eyes, she unchained a part of her shape-changing spell. Now, she had her old strength back. Leaping lightly to the ground, she found a sheet that would normally be used to cover dead bodies, and wrapped him in it. Next, she carefully set the room back to exactly the way she found it. Using an illusion spell that would make everyone who saw her would ignore her, she trotted to the shuttle bay. Depositing the body, she jumped into the pilot's seat, gained clearance to leave, and left.
Entering ID, she made a smooth path to Da'an's embassy, and landed. Again, she picked Boone up. Trying to take a path that no one would notice her on; she went to the top of the embassy. Then, she waited for nightfall.
It seemed to take forever, as it always did. She had to cross the dawn line to get there from the mother ship, but she was grateful for that. It would make the spell go that much smoother.
Cooley heard a soft sigh from beside her, and that told her that Will was once again among the land of the living. Then, the sun sank below the horizon.
"Oh, God," she gasped, as the first waves of pain hit.
Feet became splayed talons, fingers joined together, horns emerging from her forehead, and wings and tale erupted from her back. A roar of awakening thundered from her throat.
Breathing deeply of the newly night air, Deirdre took a great joy in returning to her real form. With a graceful ease, she lifted the unconscious Boone, and glided to her loft, her mission successful.
William Boone screamed, and screamed, and screamed. He had seen her die. There was no way that she could be there, standing directly in front of him.
Taken aback, Deirdre just stood in the doorway of her bedroom, wondering what it was that had him so frightened.
"Easy, Will, easy!"
"You're dead! I saw you die!"
"Yes, you did. Congratulations! You're in Hell," the rather sadistic streak in her made her say.
"I, what, where?"
She deliberately walked over to Will, and gave him a huge pinch on the cheek.
"Ouch," he yelped in pain.
"You're awake, in case you were wondering."
"Thanks," he said sarcastically. His mind flashed to what could have happened. "This is some sort of illusion, the Taelons must have scanned my memory to make me give something away-"
"Will, why would they use someone you thought were dead?" Deirdre asked, exasperated.
"Who knows how the Companions think? They could have any number of reasons-"
"Then, why are you in my apartment, and not somewhere you would feel comfortable? And while we're on the subject of using dead people, why not use Flower Girl?"
"I thought that I told you not to call Kate that," his annoyance for at that name made him think that, if they were trying to get his trust, then they were going about it the wrong way.
Boone's CVI began to play back memories of his old second in his platoon. They were strong, and as complete as any other memory that his CVI could produce, especially those of her death.
Again, he could hear the gunfire, as he was transported back-
"Sir, it's an ambush!"
He and Kincaid snapped around, seeing Cooley running toward them, her rifle spitting out slugs at the people behind him. She was so busy covering their backs that she forgot to cover her own.
"Cooley!" Boone shouted in warning, too late.
The sniper behind her fired, and round after round thudded into her chest, blowing her upper body into a gory lace…
Shaking his head, he said aloud," My memories of you are vivid. I guess that means that you aren't something they happened to program into my CVI. The worst one is how you died."
"Yes, I told you. I did die. You saw me." She scratched her head, with a familiar look on her face that came when she had something to say, but wasn't sure how to say it.
"You may not believe me when I tell you this, but I came back from the dead. I am immortal."
"Right," he sneered. "Next, you're going to tell me that fairies and elves are real."
Giving him a wry look, she answered," Well, yes, they are, but the weirdest thing I'm going to tell you is that you are, too."
He was about to interrupt, when she held up her hand," You died after that fight with Ha'gel, but that wasn't what killed you. It was Zo'or."
She brought out her global, into which she had downloaded the recording of Boone's demise. Tossing it to Will, he opened and played back the visual.
He was speechless, as his own memories of what happened to him came back. They were amplified with this CVI, and impossible for the Companions to duplicate. Still, he didn't believe what she had said about herself, much less about him.
"I don't know what you have planned," he muttered, "But it won't go along with it."
"By the Dragon," she groaned. She knew that he would be stubborn about it, but there was no reason for him to be this stubborn.
"I guess I'll have to prove it the hard way," she mumbled, and her hand slid down her leg to her boots. Pulling out a bowie knife, she smiled in annoyance.
"This will hurt." She balanced the large pommel in her hand, and slung it.
Before Boone could let out any kind of yell, the knife was deeply embedded in his chest.
He died.
For about five minutes, he lay there, on the floor, blood pooling around him, very dead. Then life exploded back into his body.
Gasping in pain, he tilted his head forward to look at the knife sticking out of his chest. He could feel his heart trying to beat around the twelve-inch blade planted there. "My God," he shrieked shrilly, panic taking over.
Reaching over, Deirdre yanked the bowie knife from him.
"G-god," he sobbed out, lying back down. "Warn me, will ya?"
"Have I proved my point?" Deirdre asked, her voice shaking a little.
"Was that a pun?" he responded, angry now.
"No. Well, one good turn deserves another."
With that, she reversed the knife towards herself, and thrust home. She fell, a boneless heap.
Boone couldn't believe that she had done that, despite her having just murdered him. Scrambling over, he pulled the knife from her chest, and checked her pulse. There was none. He noticed vaguely that he was kneeling in blood, his own and hers.
For several minutes, she lay there, unmoving, not breathing, when her eyes opened, and she gasped.
"Now, have I made my point?"
"I-I, I'll listen to what you have to say."
"Good. I have to go soon. I have to get to work. If you ever feel anything like what you did when I came in the room, then run to the nearest holy ground. Two: While you can't die of any other method, if your head and your shoulders ever part company, then you die, permanently. Three: If you want to, you can access my computer, and use anything you find there, but don't, under any circumstances, ever contact anyone from your past. They all believe that you are dead, and I'm trying to save you and them a lot of pain. Got it?" She stared him in the eyes, daring him to say anything.
Well, once she left, he could do whatever he wanted.
"I'm going to take a shower, and get all the blood off me. You mind?"
Looking at the recently dead woman, not sure he could trust himself to speak, he nodded.
She looked at the floor that was covered in drying, sticky blood, feeling annoyed.
Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she held out of her hands, and softly hummed. Her hand lit up, and the blood, impossibly, pulled itself into a ball, and was tossed into a nearby trash can. Boone, who had more than his fair share of shocks for one day, sat down again, very hard.
"How did you do that?" he asked, faintly.
Deirdre waved her hand in the air. "It's maaa-gic," she replied. Then, she went into the bathroom. Boone sat in a daze, listening to the water run.
At some point, he must have fallen asleep, because he never heard her leave. Now, he thought, I will get some answers.
"It'll be one hell of a mistake leaving him there alone," Deirdre mumbled to herself, thinking that she might as well of taken his head right them. There was no way she could keep him there, not and keep his trust.
She sighed gustily, before she walked into the embassy, and was immediately met by Kincaid.
"Good. You're early, and you're even dressed decently."
Deirdre raised her eyebrows at that. "I had not been told there would be any kind of dress requirements for this evening, or any other time. For that matter, your clothes are rather shabby." She was looking at his usual outfit of dark pants, patterned shirt, and leather coat. She was dressed the way she usually did, only this time with a white silk blouse with full sleeves under a black suede vest, and all of that was under her normal coat. Her hair was in a braid down her back.
They both glared at each other with barely concealed hostility.
"What is it with you two?" said Marquette. She walked between them. "I feel like I'm going to have to stick you in opposite corners to keep you from hitting each other."
It was in silence, then, that they walked to the shuttle bay. Deirdre sat in the back, while Liam decided to pilot, because he couldn't stand the thought of sitting next to her.
"Where are we going for the meeting?" Deirdre asked Lili, after having asked Liam three times, with no answer.
"The Aerie Building."
Deirdre whistled. Then, because the joke was right in front of her," We are moving up in the world, aren't we?"
It was so bad, that no one even bothered to groan about it.
The Aerie Building was still the world's tallest, mainly because no one else was rich enough, or crazy enough, even in Taelon America to put a tenth century Scottish castle on top of a skyscraper.
Liam was a very good pilot. They landed on the very top, on the castle itself. For some reason, as soon as Deirdre stepped out of the shuttle and onto the parapet, she felt a strange sense of belonging. It was like she had come home.
They were greeted by Owen Burnett, David Xanatos' assistant, and his son Alex.
Pulling out her ID, Deirdre greeted them with, "I'm Sergeant Deirdre Cooley, this is Lili Marquette and Major Liam Kincaid. We are here for the bidding on the contract."
"Yes," said Mr. Burnett. Glancing him over, Deirdre's first impression was that this guy was more than he looked. He while he looked like the perfect cardboard cutout of a personal assistant, her nose was telling her that something was different about this man. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there it was. Alex Xanatos was a David Xanatos with red hair. He positively reeked of magic, and that was something she would have to look into later.
Liam and Lili lined up beside her to shake hands. Formalities done, they followed their hosts into the bowels of Castle Wyvern.
It was a long walk, but Deirdre didn't mind. There was little in the way of small talk, and most of that was handled by Kincaid. Deirdre was taking a delightful pleasure in simply walking through the massive building. It had a deep, musky scent to it, like old leather, but with a subtly different aftertaste to it…
Inhaling deeply and closing her eyes, Deirdre could feel her CVI working to put a name to the strangely home-like smell that so permeated the large stone edifice. Stone, how she had missed it! The exotic plant buildings that were grown by the Companions seemed like a lovely trap for unwary flies. Stone was safe, and warm, and –
Her eyes clamped shut all the more, when the memory surfaced. She smelled gargoyles. Now, she opened them, hoping that no one had noticed her woolgathering.
Eyes were on her back. When one had been a soldier as long as she had, you began to recognize the feeling. Wondering if she looked as stupid as she felt, she reached inside her coat, for her compact. She flipped it open, and caught the shadow of wings, slipping into the dark of the night.
Her heart in her throat, Deirdre wondered if all they were there for was to bid on portal technologies.
William Boone was about to explode from sitting still. He had gotten on Deirdre's computer, and he was shocked to find out that the date said it was over six months later!
Looking into what it was saying, he realized that he needed to speak to someone from the resistance. If he didn't, there was no way that he could know what was really going on. He would have loved to know what she had done to make it look like she had driven a knife into his chest, and then repeated it on herself. If this was some sort of scheme on the part of Zo'or, why implicate himself?
Other questions filled his thoughts. Why would they use someone he thought was dead and gone? If they were going to make him think that reality was different, why wouldn't they use something more…probable?
Grunting in frustration, he turned the computer off, and had decided to leave.
He let out a deep breath. The resistance still seemed to be alive and kicking. That was something he could do, and prove to himself that it this was or was not some sort of elaborate plot.
Boone decided to raid Deirdre's closet. She was almost as big as he was, and if she had any more of those huge coats she favored…
Grabbing one, he left the loft.
It was a long walk to the Flat Planet.
Boone lost his breath faster than he should have. He wondered when he had last exercised. Hearing himself wheeze, it seemed like lifetimes ago. For a moment, standing in front of the café, he heard all of Deirdre's admonitions not to find anyone from his past. But that's more than a little silly. She must be working for the Taelon's or she wouldn't have tried to give me a reason not to go.
His hesitation gone, he strode in.
Augur was sitting in his usual booth, brokering stocks, this time. Of course, he was the one that had engineered the fall of certain companies' prices, and the rise of others. For some reason, he loved the smell of green in the evening.
The nightlife of the Flat Planet was just getting warmed up. It was only a little after midnight, and the business at the bar was hopping. Augur was just about to order another round, when he caught sight of something that made him feel like he had been kicked in the head.
Seeing Deirdre alive had been strange enough, even though he doubted that it was really she. Now, some creep was impersonation Boone? That was just sick!
Getting up, he decided to go confront this freak, and find out who was trying their best to become a damned Lazarus.
"Hey, buddy, I don't know who the hell you are, but if you don't tell me what you are doing here, I will have to report you," he grated the imposter, who turned to look at him, his face covered with confusion.
"Augur?"
"Yeah, whatever. They, whoever it is that likes to try bringing people back from the dead, has already pulled that act with me with that Cooley clone. Frankly, I'm sick of it. There are a lot of people here that knew Boone, and I am not going to let you run around, bringing back bad memories!"
"Augur, I don't know what you're talking about. I woke up, and I saw Cooley, and I have no idea what is going on! This has got to be some trick by the Taelons. I have got to go and find out what happened!"
Augur's temper was abating while he listened to this. It sounded like, whoever this person was, he was as confused as Augur himself was.
Grimacing, Augur answered, "Come on, pal. Let's go make sure you are who you say you are."
Closing up shop for this night, Augur took Boone down to the church, which was his home, now.
Deirdre was sitting, listening as Liam took bids for technologies. It was a pity that Dominique Destine had not been able to be there in person, but family matters had gotten in the way. She was still able to bid, but by audio only.
It was a rather heated negation, with both companies dueling it out for the portal rights. Yet, the way their host and his competition argued, it was like they had some kind of history together. Leaning back, Deirdre took a moment to get David Xanatos' measure.
He had to be in his mid-fifties, but he had aged very, very well. He had an ageless quality to him that made her wonder if he was an immortal, but she had not gotten any kind of "buzz" off of him, so that theory was out. Except for a few streaks of gray, he was still in the prime of his life.
Deirdre was getting odd looks from his assistant ever so often, like she was something he had never seen before in his life. It was rather unnerving.
Gargoyles. There were other gargoyles here! Simply knowing that was making her itch to go out and investigate, and see what might be living here. She needed to tell them the truth about the Taelons, and let them know that they couldn't be trusted. Although, she thought to herself, from past experiences with humans should have taught them that.
The negotiations were going well, and it looked like Xanatos would get the contract after all.
Feeling more than a little edgy, Deirdre got up. Leaning over, she asked Mr. Burnett where the bathroom was.
He looked at her a strangely, but gave her directions. Nodding in thanks, she walked down the hall he pointed to.
To make sure that her excuse was genuine, she did walk into the bathroom. Getting into one of the stalls, she glanced around. There were no surveillance cameras there.
Okay, if there are gargoyles here, then how do I contact them? For another, how do I do that, without letting Xanatos, or Liam know about it?
Her mind wandered, but she knew that she had to find out what the gargoyles were doing here, and if there were, in fact, gargoyles at all.
Is Xanatos as lax about security as the Companions?
She couldn't sense electronics the way that she could sense another immortal. Well, she thought, no time to experiment with magic than the present…
"Hey, Deirdre," shouted Lili. "We're done, here. Let's go."
Standing up and flushing the toilet, Deirdre whispered, "Damn."
"I can't believe it," Augur muttered to himself, looking at the DNA readout that he and Dr. Belman had been working on. "He's the real thing."
"Genetically, he is. But, there is the possibility that he is, in fact, a clone. The Companions have that capability."
"Come on. I've been testing his memory, and he has all of Boone's memories, at least as far as I can tell. Plus, we also ran a test on the skrill on his arm. It's Condor. If they were going to clone him, why would they clone his skrill? Besides, no one saw his body. They could have put him in cryo, or something."
"Remember Lazarus? He acted a great deal like Boone, as well. This may be one of the weirdest things of my career. Has he said anything about how he got here?"
"Let's ask him," Augur suggested, and gestured over to a very pissed off looking William Boone. He had not anticipated having to prove his own validity. In an odd way, though, it reassured him about the reality of what was going on.
"Hey, Boone, what happened to you?"
Boone wondered when they would finally ask that.
"I don't know. The last thing I remember after Ha'gel was being in one of those blue tanks. Then, a fizzy feeling, like I was about to be shocked by static electricity. Then pain and darkness. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in Cooley's apartment, wondering what the hell happened."
Augur sat up like he had been stung. "You say that Cooley was the one that found you?"
"I woke up in her apartment. She didn't say if she was the one who found me or not. What she did tell me was incredible enough." He shook his in incredulity. "She said that I was immortal, and that she was too."
"Yeah, right. Did she mention the part about not looking into mirrors or sunlight?" snorted Augur. "She could have offered to hold up a cross to prove it. Did she try to prove it?"
A haunted expression passed over Boone's face, and Augur wondered what he had said wrong.
"Yes, she did."
"What?" asked Dr. Belman, thinking that she couldn't have heard him right.
"Yes, she did try to prove it. I think that she must have pulled some sort of mind trick on me, but she pulled out a knife, and stabbed me with it."
That got the predictable response, although Dr. Belman wanted desperately to try and repeat what Deirdre had done, which Boone wouldn't allow.
It was a disgruntled Deirdre that returned to her loft. She was frustrated, and that meant that she wanted to get back into her own skin, and go gliding. If she had only been able to speak with those gargoyles at the Aerie Building!
The quiet of her home beckoned, and she dropped onto her couch. It took a little while for it to click in her head that it was quiet. It was way too quiet, especially with another immortal there.
"Oh, shit!"
They were finally satisfied that Boone was Boone, but that didn't mean much.
"I don't know what to tell you," Belman told him. "If you are really immortal, or how you got that way, or anything else, for that matter. Your DNA is about as textbook as you can get, and you have all your memories. I just don't understand it."
They had decided, though, that finding out the specifics could wait, and that it would be a good idea to go back to the Flat Planet to celebrate the return of their old friend.
It was on the way that Boone got a feeling like he had when he had first seen Deirdre. Only it felt wrong, like an ill-tune instrument. It made William almost sick.
"I think I'm going to be sick," he said, his words echoing his thoughts.
They had been walking back, unable to get a cab.
Suddenly remembering Cooley's advice about strange feelings, he asked Augur," Is there any holy ground around here?"
Not asking any question, he answered," There's a church over that way." He pointed left.
"Let's get out of here."
"What's going on?" Augur snapped as they broke into a run.
"I'm following advice!"
"What-," Deirdre hissed, feeling the presence of another immortal in the area.
Boone and Augur ran, but as they turned to the Old Church, they were blocked by a man that looked as if his mother had been deeply involved with a bear.
Smiling ferally, the man drew a heavy kris broadsword.
"I am Chapman, and I have come for your head."
"I don't think he's ready to give it up just yet," said Augur, ever the wise ass.
"Listen, buddy, I don't want fight you," Boone started, but he was cut off.
"I want your Quickening, and I will have it," shrugged the larger man, who was dressed like a respectable businessperson, but his hair and eyes were wild.
Augur didn't get where he was without learning how to think on his feet. He had already grabbed his global and was getting a mayday out to Liam and Lili. While he was doing this, Chapman had begun to advance on Boone.
Boone was caught in disbelief. If what he felt was real, and this man was another immortal, which couldn't be happening, there was no such thing, his every thought denied it, but here he was, another immortal, but that was impossible-
Boone was not normally the type to be stuck in confusion, but he was. Yet even as his mind stopped working, his reflexes worked to save him. His arm raised Condor the skrill ready to fire.
It was then that he was imbued with the sense of another immortal. She came out of no where, and it was another that he didn't recognize.
"My name is Ginger, and I wouldn't do that. You are forbidden to use distance weapons. If you violate those, then I will have to fight you as well."
She was a normal looking woman, but she also had bloodlust rampant in her eyes.
Both of the immortals looked at their prey with sadistic humor, and laughed, when Chapman advanced. He swung, a quick, stinging swipe, which cut a shallow gash into Condor. The skrill gave a short trill of pain, and blanked out.
Feeling the creature's pain, Boone gave a short yell. He backed up, when Chapman shed his overcoat, and kicked at him.
While disoriented, he was able to block, and hold on.
Augur, while not the most adept fighter in the universe, ran at the woman. Giggling insanely, she deflected, and that fight was joined, though it was massively one-sided. Augur was having the living hell beaten from him.
Boone landed a side-kick, but Chapman shrugged it off, and snatched at his foot. With ease, he twisted, and the joint gave a hideous crunch, felling Will. It was then that the sense of another immortal surprised them all.
Swallowing a curse, Boone groaned," What now?" while his dancing partner colored the air around him with his language.
It was dark and foggy in front of the little grimy church, but the lone street light made the mist seem to glow. A figure emerged, looking more than a little ticked.
Deirdre was shrugging off her coat as she approached the combatants.
Her plain hand and a half broadsword clenched in her hands, she continued over to them.
"I am Deirdre, and I have come for the head of the one who would kill my student," she announced, grimly facing the behemoth that was trying to take William's head.
"The battle had already begun, witch. You can not interfere now."
"Alright," she said lazily, but glanced over the woman beating the crap out of Augur. Her own arm came up, and she fired.
The blast knocked the woman off her feet, and Augur was almost taken with her. Rushing over to Augur, she gave him a hand up.
"That was against all the rules!" Chapman screamed at her, eyes blazing like a gargoyle's.
"No," she corrected. "She was fighting a mortal. I was protecting a friend. That put it outside the rules. Now, since she is prone now, will you protect her before I take her head?"
Almost roaring, the man rushed her.
Easily sidestepping, Deirdre countered his thrust with a riposte of her own.
First blood was hers.
Beyond sanity, Chapman launched a brutal attack, one that was based on shear strength.
He began a series of overhand blows, while Deirdre parried up, getting in close, then lunged in with her shoulder, throwing Chapman off balance. She followed with a blow that should have taken his head, but he kicked up, knocking her off her feet. Rolling out the way, she swung her leg hind him to return the favor, but he jumped. She was now facing his backside a split second before he turned around. Head butting him, he lost his breath with a loud oomph, and Deirdre shifted her grip on her sword to one hand. She got to her feet and lashed out with a crescent kick to the front, finally getting him to the ground. Slashing down to the left, she took off his sword hand, and then his head.
Her eyes were dead at that moment. The pain that he saw made him wonder if the worst wounds could ever be physical.
It was then that a shuttle came out of ID, and landed a few feet from them. Out leaped Liam and Lili.
Deirdre looked at them in shock, before shrieking, her arms flinging up to the sky," THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"
The world exploded in lightening.
It cracked the sky, and lit the air around them with a garish blue. A ring of fire surrounded Deirdre for a timeless eternity, as the lightening hit her, and was absorbed. Then, it was over.
"What are you?" asked Lili, her voice hushed.
Sergeant Cooley had fallen to the ground at the end of the Quickening, so she had to look up from her hands and knees position to answer.
"I am the undying, the death that comes on the wings of night," and said nothing more.
Fin.
Comment? Questions? Death threats?