A/N: I'm going to stop trying to write non-cliffs, because then you guys get confused. 27 reviews when I write this. Wow, I feel loved. BTW: I'm spelling the names the way I like. I've stopped spelling Lorelai-Lorelei, because ppl don't like it, and it sounds better with the a. I'm spelling Tristan with a y because it looks better. I do know how to spell; I just choose to twist it up. I'm going for length, since it's wanted. Sorry for the cliffs, but it's more gripping that way, even if I annoy everyone to death with few updates. Well, here's chapter 7—mad scientists.
Rory woke up, and she was no longer folded within the dark shadow; instead she was strapped to a cold, metallic surface. Panic took her, and shook her body. What was she doing here? Hadn't last night all been a bad dream?
A cold, sinister laugh alerted Rory to someone else's presence in the room. She turned, and saw something she'd feared since learning the government wanted to tear her brain apart.
A man built poorly, his small stature and bent back suggested he himself had undergone testing. His jade green eyes were sharp, and seemed to cut through Rory's defenses and read her mind. His deformed left hand was cruelly elongated and stretched to a disgusting length. Rory came to realize that the hand still worked perfectly well as time went by. The man seemed like a massive missile compacted into a tiny, miserable human package.
"Lorelai Gilmore the Second awakens. How special I feel to bask in your presence, young one." He neared the table, and Rory noted that she clothed in a simple white gown. Her regular clothes were nowhere in sight.
"Don't worship yourself, Doc." She bit back. The man merely smiled.
"Ah, young woman—may I call you Rory? Good. Rory, you are going to help us figure out what your special talent is. Now where were you at the time of the Roswell incident?"
Rory choked. First he takes her nickname, and then he assumes she was alive 50 years ago? "Do I look old enough to have been there? I can assure you, I wasn't."
The man threw back his bald head, and cackled. "You've got your mother's spirit, Rory. I have to admire that."
Rory glared at the man, for the first time in her life, beginning to hate him with her whole being.
Trystan and Jess were sitting at the diner, each awaiting answers from the other. Kat appeared, wearing—amazingly—a white strap shirt and a black mini skirt. Jess looked at her appreciatively, but Trystan ignored her outfit. "Rory knew more than I did. Where is she now?"
Kat smiled. "If I told you, all the government officials hiding in this gossipy town would kill all three of us."
She leaned closer, and whispered, "But if I showed you, they wouldn't see it coming." The boys smiled. Raid a government building? Was it worth it? For Rory, anything was worth it to Trystan
Lorelai sat at the counter, whining for her coffee.
"Come on, Lukie! All I want is one cupful! Are you heartless enough to deny a childless woman her one request?"
Luke countered, "No, if you were upset about Rory, I'd pour you three carafes full. But you're just an addict who needs her daily fix."
Lorelai looked at Luke in awe. She whispered reverently, "Three carafes, and they'd be all mine…"
Luke smiled to himself. If she ever knew how tightly she had him wrapped around her little finger, he'd be done for.
Paris was locked in the school, a black shadow surrounding her.
"So, you wish to take back our agreement, Gellar? You wish that I return Ms. Gilmore, in exchange for you? And what good do you believe you can give me? It is only Mr. DuGrey and Ms. Gilmore who give this united nation any threat."
Paris hung her head, and whispered, "I'll give you my soul if you spare their lives. But only if this is done."
Skye's eye shadows widened in shape. "You ask me to make a formal agreement? Then we shall both be bound by it! A creature of darkness does not make such agreements! Are you making this agreement so that Trystan will love you, or Rory will forgive you? They shall not know of this agreement, mortal!"
Paris didn't lift her head, wishing this creature of evil not to see her tears shed. But the realist in Paris made her lift her head, tears and all. Her tear stained face had no effect on the hardened heart of Skye. "I will not agree to this agreement truthfully if you do not."
Skye smirked, her mouth widening, showing ghastly images of death in the smoky hole. "A demoness never swears to tell the truth, but I shall try."
Paris smiled, and tightened the gold band around her left middle finger. There was no way possible that Skye could know the implications that ring would have on the demoness if she did not hold her end of the agreement. Of course, the same fate awaited Paris if she failed her assignment, to make the ring fair.
But Paris found her life rather useless. Chilton would not be opening with rumors of a ghost, and government officials searching it for whatever Trystan and Rory could summon.
Cameron Phlod, government agent, watched the interrogation. With Skye sworn to protect the nation, she appeared to pose no threat to him. However, as Skye had just informed Paris: a demoness never swears to tell the truth, but might try to. Cameron was playing with fire, and he would get burned if he wasn't careful.
Kat's head snapped up. She closed her eyes, and tilted her head into the wind. She listened for a minute, then turned to Jess.
"You guys go pack. Light, no extras. Just some dark clothes and some daggers."
Jess asked, "Diamond?"
Kat nodded. "Strongest known material on this planet. Can't sue anything stronger without raising suspicion."
Trystan was confused by this, but didn't respond.
As Kat ran to whatever meeting she had to keep, Trystan asked Jess if there was something different about Kat. Jess laughed.
"Different? She calls herself a star, and doesn't let me worship her or call her a goddess or angel. From what I know, Skye's the exact opposite of her, making her metaphorically a demoness, and Kat an angel. But I never was good in Sunday school, and I doubt anybody ever taught anything on the subject. After all, compared with them, we're idiotic mortals. For all we know, Kat was a star, and Skye was a black hole. It seems fitting to me, and you'll get too confused to do anything if she were to try and explain. Besides, she can't tell me lots of stuff that would help us understand. Some code she has to follow."
Trystan shook his head. "I'm going to think of her as an angel, and Skye as a demon. What about others? Do we need to be worried about any others?"
Jess smiled. "Don't know. That's Kat's problem. You got the same idea I did. Easier than being stars and supernovas, black holes and vacuums."
Trystan sighed. "Maybe boot camp would be easier than this. Less brainwork, if not less effort."
Rory allowed to sit up, as the doctor had all his associates come to look at her.
"Here's what Washington calls our biggest problem." The people there all laughed. "Why, she's only a little teenie bopper!" One older woman exclaimed, laughing.
One man who seemed more like Rory's Doctor Ledatt took out a blackened blade, and held it next to Rory's throat. "I would bet you next year's salary that I could slit her throat, and no miracle would save her, whatever Washington's afraid of." The group became quiet, their bloodthirty thoughts imagining the dissection they had been hired to do. According to Phlod's sources, she was the stronger of the two known with whatever talent that had scared Washington.
Rory held perfectly still, tears stinging in her eyes. The man with the knife pitied her, and replaced the blade. The crowd sighed in disappointment.
"I do have more research to conduct while she's alive. Why don't you settle in, and tonight at an unheard of hour, we begin testing?" The younger researchers nodded eagerly. A chance to keep the hours they so enjoyed.
A man flashed a badge in their faces. "Officer Roberts of the FBI. Before the subject is killed, I am to interrogate it, to see from what planet it comes from." The scientists slowly left. They would read the report and hear the recording later, after they'd relaxed, and studied up on their subject.
When the crowd had dispersed, the officer placed a button, and hidden cameras imploded. The recorder remained off. The officer looked around, noting the locked and barred doors.
"I do not know who has betrayed the president, but your primary tests indicate you are an intelligent young human who has a strange mark upon your left shoulder. It's below the skin, but it's the only malperfection on your body, Ms. Gilmore. You and your friend will be examined by a trusted physician and take a break from this world while you disappear for a while. I am sure Phlod is making sure you and Dugrey have died a death of agony recently. That will take care of your absence, and no official search can take place for deceased members of the nation."
Rory sighed, and relaxed. This officer was more trustworthy than the doctor had been. Maybe she would be able to sleep in peace tonight.
Perhaps with Trystan near enough to talk to? Rory blushed at the thought, but she was starting to see him as more than a school tease.
A/N: less of a cliff than the last one. Now you see what Skye is up to, and a little bit of Skye's plans for Paris. Can't have her disappear completely. And I probably confused you again with Jess' explanation of what Kat and Skye are, but I don't know yet what Kat is. Reviews equals chapters, the more reviews, the longer the chapter.