It's been a while, but paper number one is done a through with. Only two more to go. Next one is due on the seventh, only 2200 words . . . nothing much compared to what this thing has turned out to be. Well, I had intended to put out Regression as one, long fic but decided to upload the first part as a peace offering for not having out anything up in a while.
Little bit about it. Like in the summary on my site, it is a request history. The email ran along the lines of thinking that Jake and Iceani (I should have picked a different pin name, it creeps me out to write it out . . . too late. I'll just have to get over it) seemed to get along too well for barely knowing one another, he (anonymous email dude) wanted me to explain why. So, I decided to take the thing that my friend wrote that actually introduced the character and throw him in there. Actually, chapter 27 isn't the one I was going to publish, but I wanted to make the main story and any side ones as relevant to each other as possible, and I had already talked about the whole 'reincarnation, hey don't I know you?' type thingy. And I had several other emails that wanted something along those lines.
But here's the next chapter, and I hope I haven't lost too much momentum.
Remember 10. :::the review - a - saurus chomps down on some non believers:::
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XXVIII. Hell
He could hardly believe that she had done it. She had given the man plenty of warning, but one had to remember that she didn't bluff. You got a warning, then a promise. Kenneth Irons had learned, personally, the hard way. Jake McCartey didn't mean to laugh, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing the multibillionaire tossed around by a girl was too much. He had laughed so much his sides hurt.
He wiped the tears off his face with his sleeve.
They had come here to find out what involvement Irons had with Seiji and Sara's disappearances. When Iceani had asked him what Irons had to do with it, he had remained silent. Knowing that he couldn't lie to her. Oh, he could think of what he wanted to say all he wanted, but once he opened his mouth the truth would come out. It got people in to trouble that didn't know that little detail about her. She had asked him again, she added that if he didn't answer she would drag it out of him.
And Kenneth Irons proceeded to prove that even he was capable of moments of severe stupidity.
He had kept his mouth shut. Iceani had stayed true to her word.
The look on her face when Irons didn't respond to her had given Jake a brief flash back of when they had met in Japan. She had been mildly psychotic at the time, and he had learned that she was capable of anything and everything. She would kill the man if she wanted to. There would be no hesitation on her part.
He wouldn't stop her. He didn't care what happened to Irons as long as Sara was all right in the end.
But they needed to hurry.
Damn. He wondered if Irons knew that he might actually die tonight. He shook his head and walked through the wrecked office to find his companion. It was interesting. She was just playing around with him. Normally, one hit and he should have been dead. But, unfortunately, Irons needed to keep his pulse for a little while longer. Jake stepped around a puddle of ice on the floor and stepped into the adjoining room to find Iceani holding a katana to the billionaire's throat. He could see small rivulets of red running down the blade. It looked like she had smacked him around a bit. He would have to ask here where she kept pulling her weapons from.
"I hate to interrupt, but-"
"Detective McCartey, is it not your civic duty to protect-"
"Mr. Irons, you do realize that she's just been playing around," she pushed the blade further down on his neck, "you're only alive because she's let you live this long. I couldn't stop her if my life depended on it. And, yeah it is my 'duty', but you're not exactly innocent."
"I'll give you one more chance, Kenny." She practically growled it out.
He didn't answer her.
Jake shifted his eyes to meet Iceani's blue ones. He shook his head 'no'. Irons' wasn't going to talk. He was too stubborn. Her eyes narrowed, and she lifted her sword off Irons' neck and prepared to finish what she had started. She stopped the decent of the blade. Wasn't she going to off him?
"Melissa?"
"We have to go." The blade disappeared.
"What about him?!"
"Drew has found Seiji."
He looked down at Irons.
"But-but he, he's hurt people!"
"So have I, Jake."
"This is . . . end it. He doesn't deserve to keep going."
"Don't go down that way, Jake. Once you decide who goes and who doesn't . . . then you'd be like him. Like me. It's not you, McCartey."
He looked back down at Irons. His hand was holding his hand over the cut across his jugular.
"I don't think that anything you've done makes you like him."
"I honestly don't know if I am or not.."
He pulled his keys out of his pocket, "Let's jet."
* * * *
It would have been quite a sight if these tunnels had been in regular use. How many people would believe that a teenage boy would be flying through the air. He loved being Sirous, though he missed his predecessor.
The connection they shared was rather remarkable. He mused. Normally it was a direct link up in their minds, but even now when all he could tell was that Seiji was alive, it was enough for him to know exactly where his 'brother' was. He made another sharp turn through the dark tunnel and speed on ahead.
"I wonder if Nottingham was able to keep up?" He mumbled. He would have offered the guy a ride, but he was in a hurry. After all, knocking him out earlier had been kind of a rude thing to do, but he had been pissed. That was another reason it was a good thing that he was back in touch with Seiji. They provided balance for on another. Without Seiji, he became extremely violent and hot tempered. Hell, it was why his armor had the name it did. Storms were full of rage, and that trait was only kept in check by Halo's calm. It worked the opposite way on the other end, most of the time. Seiji would get so introspective that it made you want to kill him. Strange how some things worked.
"Shit."
Drew Newell stopped himself. The feeling had gotten weaker. He had gone too far. He moved back slightly.
"There you are."
He set himself down on the floor. Seiji was right underneath him. And he was pissed. That was never a good thing. Everything hits the fan when Halo gets ticked. He smiled. He knelt and pulled his fist back, hopefully there would be too much debris, and punched the floor.
His hand went all the way through the concrete and ripped a good portion of the floor away when he brought his hand back to him. Another one of the armor's gifts. He had often wondered exactly how physically strong he was. He hadn't had a chance to find out, the opportunity had never presented itself.
Drew poked his head through the hole.
"Hey man."
Seiji looked up.
"A little warning next time, Drew. You just added on to my headache."
He sounds tired, he thought. He felt it too.
"I thought that was my job."
Seiji rolled his eyes.
"Get your ass down here."
Drew jumped down into the small room. At least it was kind of well lit. Seiji held out his wrists for him. He ripped the bindings off off.
"What'd they give you that you couldn't get out of this on your own?"
"I intend to find out."
"Come on lets get you to a hospital."
He put his arm around Seiji who was swaying slightly, and stated to lift them back up through the ceiling.
"No."
"Huh?"
"No hospital just yet. We have to do something else first."
"And what might that be?"
"He has her."
"Who has who?" OK, now he was lost.
"McCartey's killer. He has Sara Pezzini."
"I'm not even going to ask how you know about that."
"He's the one who took me. He's been looking to 'help' her for sometime."
"Do you know where?"
"Somewhere around here, but I don't know how close or how far."
Why did trouble follow them around like this? He figured, somewhere, someone must have a rule book for people like them. He wouldn't mind getting his hands on a copy.
"Can you fight, if you have to?"
"I'm not concerned with that, if we do end up in that situation you can handle it. I'm more worried that I might not be able to help anyone should they be critically injured. Go that way." He motioned down the corridor.
Drew recognized the tone he spoke in. Seiji knew more than he was letting on.
"What did you see?"
"It doesn't matter. So far nothing has followed any of my visions."
"You worried for McCartey or Pezzini? Tell me where to turn, man."
"Her. Where's Iceani?"
"Some one called her. The old fashioned way. She's with McCartey."
"I thought so. I can't pick up direct thoughts yet, but . . . it's strange. Stop here."
"She's coming?"
"Yes. . . we need to find a place to go up. And we need to hurry."
"There was a ladder a few feet back."
"He's found her."
* * * *
"Go away!"
Sara had been determined not to run. She had run in her dream, and she was trying to do everything to make sure reality didn't pan out like it had. But after what had seemed like an hour or so of walking, she realized that she wasn't alone. She had tried to act like he wasn't there, but the feeling . . . he was smiling. She hated that.
She began to run and ahd broken into a full sprint a few moments after.
But unlike in her dream, she had yet to run into a friendly face. And no matter how hard she tried to lose him, he still kept coming.
It was like something out of one of those Jason movies. All that was missing was the background music. And a hockey mask.
She turned a corner and halted. It was a dead end. Some kind of gratified maintenance room. It looked like it had been set up. For her. She had gone exactly where he wanted her to. She hated feeling helpless.
"The walls are pretty, aren't they?"
She spun around to see William Mollard blacking her only way out of this hell hole.
"This will be the prefect place for your picture, Lady Detective, don't you think? I spent a lot of time looking for the right place. Some one like you deserves something more special than the others.
"What if I don't want a picture?"
"It doesn't matter what you want. You're needed in the better place more than you are in this world. It's time for you to move on."
"I don't want to move on! I'm happy here! Don't you realize what you've been doing to people?! You've caused nothing but pain and grief!"
"You don't understand. And it doesn't matter. You'll learn later on. When you're there you won't care anymore about here anymore. And you'll see that the Partner and everyone like him is unworthy of you and your kind."
"Leave Jake alone."
He shook his head.
"I can't. He's a bad person for being what he is. And bad people don't deserve to live. But don't worry too much. I've decided to make sure he goes quick because you like him."
"It's not your choice!"
He smiled.
"Yes it is."
He began to walk towards her. That accursed song that always accompanied her visions of Him started up inside her head. It grew louder and louder until she had to clamp her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to block out the noise.
"Don't make me hurt you!"
"How? You don't have your toy anymore."
"I could take care of myself before, I can do it again!"
He shrugged. Something about him reminded her of a five-year-old. As soon as he got with in her reach, Sara lunged out and punched him. It had enough force to knock him to the floor.
She made a break for it, but he was faster. He reached out and grabbed her ankle and she fell on the hard concrete. The breath was knocked out of her and she gasped for air. The song grew in volume. It was disorienting. She couldn't concentrate.
"Don't try to run away. The other's tried to run too. But they didn't understand."
Sara kicked him with her other foot and sprang up off the floor. She needed to find some kind of weapon. He was up again. He grabbed her shirt and slammed her into the wall. He pulled a knife from his belt. Sara took advantage of his divided attention and punched him again. She followed through with another kick. He grabbed her leg and pulled her to the floor. How could she get out of this? She used her other leg to sweep his feet out from under him and kicked him in the groin. She got to her feet and ran back out into the tunnel and went back the way she came. He yelled at her from the room.
"Don't worry, Lady Detective! I'll still help you!" He called out.
He was crazy! She had to find a way out. She had to get away from the noise. She tried to think, it was so hard. If he wanted some one to eventually find her she had to be close to the surface. It didn't take as long for her to get back to what looked like her starting point, but all these things looked the same. She just had to go further. She wanted to yell for help, but she decided it wasn't the best idea. She turned a corner and ran into someone. She fell on the ground, and hoped it would be a friendly face when she looked up.
It wasn't.
It was him.
How did . . . how did he get ahead of her. Then she remembered Jake's words: not really human.
Mollard pulled her off the floor by her hair and forced her to look him in the face.
"You shouldn't run from people who try to do good things, it's not nice."
"Just leave me alone, please."
"Can't. Don't worry. It'll be the prettiest picture any one has ever seen.
The song stopped.
Silence.
There was a sharp pain in her abdomen and something warm began to spread across her stomach. She didn't need to look to know what it was. He pulled up and the pain increased. He smiled down at her.
No. It couldn't end like this.
Something made him look over his shoulder.
"Oh, someone's here. Don't worry, I'll come back."
He let her fall to the floor and he walked around the corner. She lay there with her hand on her stomach. Slightly thankful that the noise was gone, and she wondering what would happen next.
* * * *
The sun had risen.
It hadn't taken much to get them past the clean up barriers. All he had to do was flash his badge, and they were let through. She had taken them into the subway from there. Jake had asked Iceani exactly how she knew where to go. She wasn't able to explain it. 'I just know' was all she had told him. He left it alone.
He shivered again. Something was going to happen, or something already had.
"Jake, what's down there?" She pointed to stairs across from them.
"They lead to the maintenance tunnels under the rail system."
"Do you have the bracelet with you?"
"Yeah, why?"
She didn't answer him. He hated when she did that. She descended the stairs and began to speak.
"I take it these are used fairly often."
"Yeah."
"Seiji's down here. Why wouldn't they have found him?"
"There are more tunnels underneath these that aren't used much if at all."
They came to a tee.
"Well, which way?"
"Let me see the Witchblade. Maybe if this thing likes her enough it'll do something."
He reached into his jacket pocket and handed her the molded silver. It was still glowing like it was before.
"Melissa? What makes you think she's down here-"
"There is fear and joy down here." She mumbled. What did that mean?
She began to walk of towards the right. She might as well have been jogging. He didn't know if he could keep up with her if she went into a full out run. They walked forever.
Jeez, these things were long, and they all looked the same. She stopped and he ran into her.
"Pay attention."
"I was." Just not to you, he added silently.
"Did you hear that?"
"No, what was it?"
"It sounded like . . . I think it was people. I'm not sure."
"We shou-"
The stone on the Witchblade began to do something different. He didn't know how to describe it.
"Arm yourself, Detective."
She ran off in the direction she they had been walking. He took off in the direction she had gone. Something had gone wrong. It wasn't right.
He heard his name from a ways up ahead. Thank god he keep himself in shape. It didn't take him long to reach Iceani. She was fast, but then she wasn't exactly normal. When he got to her he was out of breath.
"What?" He saw whom she was kneeling next to.
No.
"She almost made it out to the surface."
"Is . . . is she-" Please.
"She's alive for now. I put the Blade back on her. I don't know if it'll do anything."
He got down on his knees next to her. There was so much blood.
"Do something."
"Excuse me."
"Do something!"
"Like what, Jake?"
"Anything!"
"I'm a killer not a healer. I never was."
"You can do something!"
"Yeah, I can finish her off!"
He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I didn't mean it like that, Jake."
"I know." He put his hand over her wound. "What did you do to me?"
"That was very different than this is, Jake."
"No it isn't. You kept me alive for four days."
She didn't say anything. That was never a good sign.
"Say something."
"That's what you were told. Not by me, I might add."
"She's not dead yet!"
Once again she didn't have a response.
"Please, Melissa, she's - she's not gone yet."
" . . . you were."
"What?"
"I just had to make sure you didn't thaw."
It was his turn to be silent.
"I guess we'll yell at each other later. Cover your ears; I'm going to yell. If Drew is anywhere in here, he'll hear me."
He did as she asked, and she covered Sara's. He could have sworn that the walls shook.
"I'd go, but he might come back."
Jake nodded his head, and pulled Sara's head into his lap. Please hold on.
They waited in silence.
* * * *
"You mean to tell me that a girl beat him up?"
"She and her friends are anything but normal, Captain. If you value the lives of your men, I suggest that you pull them out now." Nottingham replied and hung up the phone.
He had returned to the Vorshlage building after an alarm had been tripped. He was surprised at the state of his employer's office. He had found Irons in the rest room cleaning the blood off of his already healed neck. A side effect from his brief exposure to the Blade.
Irons went on to explain what has transpired. Iceani and Detective McCartey had stopped in for a visit, was how Irons had put it. And he made sure to include the Detective's enthusiasm for his death. It was just another thing that Nottingham could add to his list of things to hate McCartey for that had been steadily growing over many lifetimes. Strangely enough, the feud had started in relation to the girl who had come very close to killing Irons.
"Tell me, Ian. Which one was McCartey?"
"History refers to us in numbers. He was the Second even though he was the last to come. I was the Third."
"Does Iceani know that you are-"
"Yes, sir."
"And where do your loyalties lie?"
"To you. She did kill me once."
"Interesting. Now, what should be done about them?"
"I am unable," He grimaced at the word, "to compete with the Yoriden. But it does not mean that they can not be stalled."
"I believe time is on our side. Besides, all this is now unnecessary."
"How so, sir?"
"I believed that the effects of the Witchblade were wearing off. Thanks to our 'Atlanta girl' I have discovered that there is no need. My lack of mental contact with the blade must have been due to Sara's partner. I did not think that his influence on her visions would effect mine. It must have been the Blade itself and not Sara that was blocked. Either way, I no longer need her heart and liver for the ritual. It is not paramount. But it would be good to have them, just in case."
"What will become of Mollard?"
"If he lives and is not caught, I shall send him some place else."
"And what will you tell Dante?"
"If our Lady survives, he will have to find his own way."
* * * *
PAPER TIME IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :::jumps around in a circle singing 'it's over':::
Actually, I have one more to go, but it's not due until the end of the month.
Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter. I know it's been a while, so I put up part of another story as a peace offering. To the person wrote about wanting the McCartey and Iceani thing fleshed out. You're not alone. That's what "Regression" is about. The thing about her is, she wasn't initially written by me. She was based off of facts about me (name, birth day/place, where she lives) but she's not me. But it makes her kind of easy to write. Unfortunately, the fiction that explains everything about her (it was a long one!) was destroyed when my friend's house flooded. It was done online, too. And it was a while ago, and I don't know where he is now. So, I'm re-vamping her, and fitting a few Witchblade charcters into her history. Which has actually been easy. But at the same time, I don't want to make things a cross over, and I'm doing my best to avoid that here. (I hope I've done a good job.)
So, if (in "Regression) something just doesn't make sense, email me and I'll explain it on my web site. I still have bits and pieces of her original story to make reference to.
Remember 10.
