Author's Note: Gotcha.
Don't worry, folks, it's almost over. One way or the other. Oh, and while I'm pondering sequals… go ahead and give me your 'shipper votes. Because I know there are those of you out there who want … people… to end up with… other people. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.
Kalina stormed into the Ocularis room, barely paying attention to the whimpering children who were tied under the spinning blades. "What the hell is going on, Cyrus?" she yelled. "You said this would be easy! You said there wouldn't be anyone to interfere! Your pet psychic I can handle, but now you've got witches in on this?!" Amber's seemingly effortless bullet-dodging had left Kalina very edgy.
"They are of little importance," Cyrus dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand. "Although they might prove useful if Arthur winds up too stubborn to be easily manipulated." He looked sharply at Kalina. "And what are you doing here alone? You were supposed to be leading Arthur to this spot, convincing him to throw himself into the machine for the sake of his children. The device requires a sacrifice."
Kalina swallowed. When Cyrus used that silky smooth tone, he wasn't happy. Like the cannibalistic chimpanzee, when he smiled was when he was at his most dangerous. "We got separated… those witch bitches showed up. I think the Kane chick knew what I was up to, so I had to get out of there… I had …" she stopped, deciding at the last minute not to tell Cyrus how close she'd come to capturing the other witch for him.
He wasn't interested anyway. "Kane?" he asked sharply, eyebrows descending to the top of his pointed nose. "Sebastian Kane's daughter is here?"
Kalina gulped, nodded, wondering what it was about the man that was concerning Cyrus so much. "Yeah… why, I thought he was just an old kook…"
Cyrus shook his head, turning back to his machine and his designs. "He is as much of an old kook as I am. If Meredith Kane is here, then her father will not be far behind once he finds out that she is in danger. Fortunately the house is sealed…" From the expression on his face, though, he didn't appear to be certain that the seals would hold. Kalina was startled. She'd never thought that Cyrus would be scared of any other magician.
Maybe it was time for a change of mentors… Sebastian Kane didn't have to know that she was going to threaten his daughter at gunpoint. If she helped the witch, maybe she'd be able to get in with that lot… She snapped out of it as she realized that Cyrus was talking and she hadn't been listening.
"… use the girls against each other. Witches are always pathetically willing to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs, their friends, their Goddess…" Cyrus made a disgusted face.
"Instead of Arthur? You want me to get one of the witches?" Kalina asked, almost dreading an affirmative answer. She'd already missed her chance to get two of them.
"No… no, don't bother. The children will draw the witches to this spot, and then I can use them however I want. This is perhaps a better scenario than the one I had envisioned for you." He turned beady eyes on Kalina, and for one terrifying second she thought that her usefulness had ended, that he was going to kill her. She took a couple steps backwards, and he laughed.
"Oh, stop that," he said, amused. "I'm not going to kill you."
The word 'yet' hung unspoken in the air.
"I have a different job for you, now. Go over…" he gestured to a corner of the room that held a glass cabinet of artifacts. "And see if you can make use of some of those devices to pinpoint Sebastian Kane's whereabouts. I would like to know if he is close enough to do us any sort of harm. Besides, it wouldn't hurt for you to figure out the use of some of those devices. Don't interrupt me for anything less than a dire emergency. If Sebastian comes within the house, deal with him."
Kalina opened her mouth to ask how the hell she was supposed to deal with a sorcerer that even Cyrus was wary of. Then she closed her mouth, realizing that he wasn't likely to give her any help. Oh well. She went over to the cabinets, sighing and glaring at Cyrus when she thought he wasn't looking. At least, if she was supposed to be looking for Sebastian, she would have an excuse to approach him. Maybe the guy could get her out of this hellhole. She'd had just about as much of Kriticos as she could take, anyway.
Meredith held her breath… she wanted to close her eyes, didn't want to see the inevitably bloody demise of the sweet young man she was rapidly growing to like. Her eyes stayed stubbornly open. Then she heard the pounding footsteps, her eyes still on the maul descending towards Dennis' spine. When it fell on his shoulder instead, she sighed with relief as she heard a familiar voice shrieking.
"Take that, you son of a bitch!"
Amber. Beautiful, wonderful Amber. Tae Kwon Do black belt Amber. Feisty Amber, always combat ready, always preferring to charge in, kick ass, and take names later. A flying two-kick combo knocked the Hammer back several feet, even as Dennis crumpled to the ground and clutched his shoulder, moaning piteously.
"I really..." Amber yelled as she dodged the maul and snap-kicked the ghost in the ribs. "Really..." she caught the arm and kicked out the knee as the maul descended, flipping the Hammer over and landing him on the ground with enough force that it would have shaken the walls if their planes of existence had intersected any more. "Really, really hate this house." She stomped on his sternum, breaking it with snap that was audible to everyone but Maggie.
Meredith crawled over to Dennis. It had looked like his shoulder had been almost entirely pulverized... at the very least like it was violently knocked out of its socket. There was a cut and a bump on his head, too... probably where he'd been grazed as the maul had come down. Maggie was down the stairs by now, and Amber walked over to join them. "Impeccable timing, as always," Meredith told her, smiling slightly.
Amber propped her hands on her hips and scowled. "I was in the neighborhood," she said lightly, although Meredith could tell she was pissed. "Who're...?"
Maggie waved abstractedly, taking a better look at the cut on Dennis's head. "Maggie."
"Dennis," he groaned weakly. "Thanks for the save... I thought I was a goner."
"You very nearly were..." Meredith chided gently, pulling herself in front of him and starting to unbutton his shirt. "Don't try to move just yet... "
Amber knelt down beside the both of them. "Merry, really, he's cute, but do you really think we have time for this?"
Meredith rolled her eyes and ignored the comment. "...you could have anything from a dislocated shoulder to a broken collarbone, and I don't know what all else." Dennis nodded, wincing, and let her look him over. He looked up at Amber as Meredith probed his shoulder gently, blinked, and looked up again.
"Why... are you flickering?"
"Huh?" Maggie and Meredith said in unison, then, "Gimme those..." Maggie grabbed the glasses off of Dennis' face, and he let her. "Whoa."
"Oh..." Amber looked down. Her body's image was flickering, between her vinyl jacket, shirt, and blue jeans... and her other self, slightly taller, clad in chainmail and black enameled plate armor, a design of a raven on her chest and a huge broadsword on her back. "Sorry."
Meredith ignored the gaping. "Astral... or spectral, however you want to call it... form. We all have 'em. Amber's a little more... violent... than most."
"If you weren't injured I'd hit you."
"See what I mean?"
Meredith finally finished at poking Dennis' shoulder and sat back. "Well, I don't think you've broken any bones.. which is a minor miracle, thank the Goddess. But it's definitely dislocated, and you've probably torn some muscles in your shoulder, too." She started to pull herself up, gasped, and coughed up what looked like mucus... and blood.
"Merry..."
"Holy crap..."
They all stared at her. "Okay, sit back down..." Amber tried to get her coven-sister to sit. "You need healing, and you need it now."
Meredith found reserves of strength from somewhere, pushing Amber away. "Not now. Not right now, we can't spare the energy, and you know it. Cyrus has released the last ghost. If we don't get to the Ocularis before he does, he's going to start up something to get the thirteenth ghost... and then it's going to be too late for anyone."
"She's right..." Dennis pushed himself up with his good arm. "We can all go to the hospital when we've kicked that psycho's ass... ow." He winced. Amber rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist, reaching up to his shoulder.
"Hang on a sec..."
"OW! Sonofa..."
Maggie and Meredith chuckled. Amber pulled Dennis (much more gently this time) to his feet, and Meredith climbed back up and leaned on Maggie.
"Laurel's already in position," Amber said, all levity gone from her voice. "The kids are in the Ocularis room, tied under at least three spinning circles that are probably edged with razors or something. It's like the rings around a globe, I'm guessing that's the linchpin device. Kalina's cowering in a corner. Last I looked, all the ghosts were heading there... the Hammer's just going to be a bit late. Along with a couple of others." She smiled grimly. "Beating up ghosts is more fun than beating up people... the ghosts can't sue. Anyway. I'm guessing Cyrus is going to put in his appearance soon, so we'd all better be ready."
Meredith sighed, wincing as the action hurt her already damaged ribs. "Well, we're as ready as we're ever going to be... let's go."
"If this is as ready as we're going to be..." Maggie muttered, "I never want to see what happens when we get caught with our pants down."
Privately, Meredith agreed, but she wasn't about to tell Maggie that this was what happened when they were prepared. At least, normally prepared. She sighed; if she'd known what kind of house this was and how Cyrus Kriticos had managed to construct the Ocularis, she'd've brought her father, Laurel's cousins, Erik, John, Rose, Phillip, and a whole host of others.
Instead, she was tottering along with one hand on a glass warding wall, with every breath feeling as though her ribs were stabbing into her lungs. Her back was starting to hurt now; she was almost sure she'd bruised it when she'd slammed into the wall. Hell, she'd been lucky not to break her spine. And her head hurt. She suspected concussion. She really wanted to pass out.
Dennis didn't look much better. His shoulder injury had rendered his arm useless for anything but dragging along, and he looked shell-shocked to the extreme. His face was pale and slightly gray, he was sweating, and every once in a while he had to stop and lean on Amber, looking like he was about to throw up. From her expression, she was half expecting him to be sick too. She kept glancing back, giving the two women concerned looks.
Meredith privately thought that throwing up might actually have been a good idea… except she didn't want her stomach heaving and complicating her half-crushed ribcage. They were a hideous sight.
They could hear whimpering around the next couple of corners. Meredith closed her eyes and leaned up against a wall, wondering gloomily if this was going to be how it all ended. She wasn't in any shape to do a thing against Cyrus, and Amber had at least one mundane and two injured people to keep in mind if she launched herself at the sorcerer. As though sensing the thought, Amber set Dennis down and they all took a five-second breather.
"Hey, Meredith…" Dennis' voice was weak and pained.
"Merry." She didn't open her eyes.
"Merry…" He took a deep breath, winced and hissed as the movement jarred something loose; he mused have gotten a broken collarbone, too. "If we don't make it…"
"Don't even…" Amber said warningly. "I'll shake you. I mean it."
Meredith laughed ever so slightly. "She does. You better listen to her, Dennis."
Dennis actually laughed. It was tired, and it was rusty, but it was an actual laugh. She couldn't remember … was it his second or third laugh of the evening? It sounded good on him. "You guys have been the greatest…" Meredith opened her eyes and sat up, staring at him. "Just figured I'd tell you that."
"Yeah?" Maggie looked kind of startled, but was smiling. Amber and Meredith exchanged grins.
"Don't worry," Amber said dryly, very carefully helping Dennis back to his feet and slinging his good arm over her shoulder. "You'll get plenty of chances to flatter our egos when we get out of here and get you into a hospital. Both of you," she glared over her shoulder at Meredith.
"Yes, mother." Meredith swallowed, leaned on Maggie as they all tottered forward and around the corner. "Once more into the breach, dear friends?"
There was silence, except for Dennis muttering something. At first she thought it was a prayer, and she smiled at the thought of Dennis being that religious… he hadn't seemed the type. Then she really heard it, and it gave her chills.
"Their's not to make reply… Their's not to reason why… Their's but to do and die."
"Into the valley of death rode the six hundred."
Don't worry, folks, it's almost over. One way or the other. Oh, and while I'm pondering sequals… go ahead and give me your 'shipper votes. Because I know there are those of you out there who want … people… to end up with… other people. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.
Kalina stormed into the Ocularis room, barely paying attention to the whimpering children who were tied under the spinning blades. "What the hell is going on, Cyrus?" she yelled. "You said this would be easy! You said there wouldn't be anyone to interfere! Your pet psychic I can handle, but now you've got witches in on this?!" Amber's seemingly effortless bullet-dodging had left Kalina very edgy.
"They are of little importance," Cyrus dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand. "Although they might prove useful if Arthur winds up too stubborn to be easily manipulated." He looked sharply at Kalina. "And what are you doing here alone? You were supposed to be leading Arthur to this spot, convincing him to throw himself into the machine for the sake of his children. The device requires a sacrifice."
Kalina swallowed. When Cyrus used that silky smooth tone, he wasn't happy. Like the cannibalistic chimpanzee, when he smiled was when he was at his most dangerous. "We got separated… those witch bitches showed up. I think the Kane chick knew what I was up to, so I had to get out of there… I had …" she stopped, deciding at the last minute not to tell Cyrus how close she'd come to capturing the other witch for him.
He wasn't interested anyway. "Kane?" he asked sharply, eyebrows descending to the top of his pointed nose. "Sebastian Kane's daughter is here?"
Kalina gulped, nodded, wondering what it was about the man that was concerning Cyrus so much. "Yeah… why, I thought he was just an old kook…"
Cyrus shook his head, turning back to his machine and his designs. "He is as much of an old kook as I am. If Meredith Kane is here, then her father will not be far behind once he finds out that she is in danger. Fortunately the house is sealed…" From the expression on his face, though, he didn't appear to be certain that the seals would hold. Kalina was startled. She'd never thought that Cyrus would be scared of any other magician.
Maybe it was time for a change of mentors… Sebastian Kane didn't have to know that she was going to threaten his daughter at gunpoint. If she helped the witch, maybe she'd be able to get in with that lot… She snapped out of it as she realized that Cyrus was talking and she hadn't been listening.
"… use the girls against each other. Witches are always pathetically willing to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs, their friends, their Goddess…" Cyrus made a disgusted face.
"Instead of Arthur? You want me to get one of the witches?" Kalina asked, almost dreading an affirmative answer. She'd already missed her chance to get two of them.
"No… no, don't bother. The children will draw the witches to this spot, and then I can use them however I want. This is perhaps a better scenario than the one I had envisioned for you." He turned beady eyes on Kalina, and for one terrifying second she thought that her usefulness had ended, that he was going to kill her. She took a couple steps backwards, and he laughed.
"Oh, stop that," he said, amused. "I'm not going to kill you."
The word 'yet' hung unspoken in the air.
"I have a different job for you, now. Go over…" he gestured to a corner of the room that held a glass cabinet of artifacts. "And see if you can make use of some of those devices to pinpoint Sebastian Kane's whereabouts. I would like to know if he is close enough to do us any sort of harm. Besides, it wouldn't hurt for you to figure out the use of some of those devices. Don't interrupt me for anything less than a dire emergency. If Sebastian comes within the house, deal with him."
Kalina opened her mouth to ask how the hell she was supposed to deal with a sorcerer that even Cyrus was wary of. Then she closed her mouth, realizing that he wasn't likely to give her any help. Oh well. She went over to the cabinets, sighing and glaring at Cyrus when she thought he wasn't looking. At least, if she was supposed to be looking for Sebastian, she would have an excuse to approach him. Maybe the guy could get her out of this hellhole. She'd had just about as much of Kriticos as she could take, anyway.
Meredith held her breath… she wanted to close her eyes, didn't want to see the inevitably bloody demise of the sweet young man she was rapidly growing to like. Her eyes stayed stubbornly open. Then she heard the pounding footsteps, her eyes still on the maul descending towards Dennis' spine. When it fell on his shoulder instead, she sighed with relief as she heard a familiar voice shrieking.
"Take that, you son of a bitch!"
Amber. Beautiful, wonderful Amber. Tae Kwon Do black belt Amber. Feisty Amber, always combat ready, always preferring to charge in, kick ass, and take names later. A flying two-kick combo knocked the Hammer back several feet, even as Dennis crumpled to the ground and clutched his shoulder, moaning piteously.
"I really..." Amber yelled as she dodged the maul and snap-kicked the ghost in the ribs. "Really..." she caught the arm and kicked out the knee as the maul descended, flipping the Hammer over and landing him on the ground with enough force that it would have shaken the walls if their planes of existence had intersected any more. "Really, really hate this house." She stomped on his sternum, breaking it with snap that was audible to everyone but Maggie.
Meredith crawled over to Dennis. It had looked like his shoulder had been almost entirely pulverized... at the very least like it was violently knocked out of its socket. There was a cut and a bump on his head, too... probably where he'd been grazed as the maul had come down. Maggie was down the stairs by now, and Amber walked over to join them. "Impeccable timing, as always," Meredith told her, smiling slightly.
Amber propped her hands on her hips and scowled. "I was in the neighborhood," she said lightly, although Meredith could tell she was pissed. "Who're...?"
Maggie waved abstractedly, taking a better look at the cut on Dennis's head. "Maggie."
"Dennis," he groaned weakly. "Thanks for the save... I thought I was a goner."
"You very nearly were..." Meredith chided gently, pulling herself in front of him and starting to unbutton his shirt. "Don't try to move just yet... "
Amber knelt down beside the both of them. "Merry, really, he's cute, but do you really think we have time for this?"
Meredith rolled her eyes and ignored the comment. "...you could have anything from a dislocated shoulder to a broken collarbone, and I don't know what all else." Dennis nodded, wincing, and let her look him over. He looked up at Amber as Meredith probed his shoulder gently, blinked, and looked up again.
"Why... are you flickering?"
"Huh?" Maggie and Meredith said in unison, then, "Gimme those..." Maggie grabbed the glasses off of Dennis' face, and he let her. "Whoa."
"Oh..." Amber looked down. Her body's image was flickering, between her vinyl jacket, shirt, and blue jeans... and her other self, slightly taller, clad in chainmail and black enameled plate armor, a design of a raven on her chest and a huge broadsword on her back. "Sorry."
Meredith ignored the gaping. "Astral... or spectral, however you want to call it... form. We all have 'em. Amber's a little more... violent... than most."
"If you weren't injured I'd hit you."
"See what I mean?"
Meredith finally finished at poking Dennis' shoulder and sat back. "Well, I don't think you've broken any bones.. which is a minor miracle, thank the Goddess. But it's definitely dislocated, and you've probably torn some muscles in your shoulder, too." She started to pull herself up, gasped, and coughed up what looked like mucus... and blood.
"Merry..."
"Holy crap..."
They all stared at her. "Okay, sit back down..." Amber tried to get her coven-sister to sit. "You need healing, and you need it now."
Meredith found reserves of strength from somewhere, pushing Amber away. "Not now. Not right now, we can't spare the energy, and you know it. Cyrus has released the last ghost. If we don't get to the Ocularis before he does, he's going to start up something to get the thirteenth ghost... and then it's going to be too late for anyone."
"She's right..." Dennis pushed himself up with his good arm. "We can all go to the hospital when we've kicked that psycho's ass... ow." He winced. Amber rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist, reaching up to his shoulder.
"Hang on a sec..."
"OW! Sonofa..."
Maggie and Meredith chuckled. Amber pulled Dennis (much more gently this time) to his feet, and Meredith climbed back up and leaned on Maggie.
"Laurel's already in position," Amber said, all levity gone from her voice. "The kids are in the Ocularis room, tied under at least three spinning circles that are probably edged with razors or something. It's like the rings around a globe, I'm guessing that's the linchpin device. Kalina's cowering in a corner. Last I looked, all the ghosts were heading there... the Hammer's just going to be a bit late. Along with a couple of others." She smiled grimly. "Beating up ghosts is more fun than beating up people... the ghosts can't sue. Anyway. I'm guessing Cyrus is going to put in his appearance soon, so we'd all better be ready."
Meredith sighed, wincing as the action hurt her already damaged ribs. "Well, we're as ready as we're ever going to be... let's go."
"If this is as ready as we're going to be..." Maggie muttered, "I never want to see what happens when we get caught with our pants down."
Privately, Meredith agreed, but she wasn't about to tell Maggie that this was what happened when they were prepared. At least, normally prepared. She sighed; if she'd known what kind of house this was and how Cyrus Kriticos had managed to construct the Ocularis, she'd've brought her father, Laurel's cousins, Erik, John, Rose, Phillip, and a whole host of others.
Instead, she was tottering along with one hand on a glass warding wall, with every breath feeling as though her ribs were stabbing into her lungs. Her back was starting to hurt now; she was almost sure she'd bruised it when she'd slammed into the wall. Hell, she'd been lucky not to break her spine. And her head hurt. She suspected concussion. She really wanted to pass out.
Dennis didn't look much better. His shoulder injury had rendered his arm useless for anything but dragging along, and he looked shell-shocked to the extreme. His face was pale and slightly gray, he was sweating, and every once in a while he had to stop and lean on Amber, looking like he was about to throw up. From her expression, she was half expecting him to be sick too. She kept glancing back, giving the two women concerned looks.
Meredith privately thought that throwing up might actually have been a good idea… except she didn't want her stomach heaving and complicating her half-crushed ribcage. They were a hideous sight.
They could hear whimpering around the next couple of corners. Meredith closed her eyes and leaned up against a wall, wondering gloomily if this was going to be how it all ended. She wasn't in any shape to do a thing against Cyrus, and Amber had at least one mundane and two injured people to keep in mind if she launched herself at the sorcerer. As though sensing the thought, Amber set Dennis down and they all took a five-second breather.
"Hey, Meredith…" Dennis' voice was weak and pained.
"Merry." She didn't open her eyes.
"Merry…" He took a deep breath, winced and hissed as the movement jarred something loose; he mused have gotten a broken collarbone, too. "If we don't make it…"
"Don't even…" Amber said warningly. "I'll shake you. I mean it."
Meredith laughed ever so slightly. "She does. You better listen to her, Dennis."
Dennis actually laughed. It was tired, and it was rusty, but it was an actual laugh. She couldn't remember … was it his second or third laugh of the evening? It sounded good on him. "You guys have been the greatest…" Meredith opened her eyes and sat up, staring at him. "Just figured I'd tell you that."
"Yeah?" Maggie looked kind of startled, but was smiling. Amber and Meredith exchanged grins.
"Don't worry," Amber said dryly, very carefully helping Dennis back to his feet and slinging his good arm over her shoulder. "You'll get plenty of chances to flatter our egos when we get out of here and get you into a hospital. Both of you," she glared over her shoulder at Meredith.
"Yes, mother." Meredith swallowed, leaned on Maggie as they all tottered forward and around the corner. "Once more into the breach, dear friends?"
There was silence, except for Dennis muttering something. At first she thought it was a prayer, and she smiled at the thought of Dennis being that religious… he hadn't seemed the type. Then she really heard it, and it gave her chills.
"Their's not to make reply… Their's not to reason why… Their's but to do and die."
"Into the valley of death rode the six hundred."