Of Plot-holes and Mary Sues
By Risa
Disclaimer: I own the characters and the story, the Night World and all related ideas do not belong to me.
Author's Note: It's a fluff piece and I'm still not quite sure what possessed me when I wrote it... This is based on the challenge which Darla sent to the NW Writings list although it deviated from the challenge quite a bit about halfway through the story.
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"And…done!" I said, clicking my mouse loudly as I leaned back in my chair, looking at my computer screen in satisfaction. I had finally finished the last chapter of the Wild Power fanfiction after months of procrastination. I glanced at the clock. 3 AM. Definitely time to sleep.
I didn't know that when I woke up the world as I knew it would end.
I always had a flair for dramatics. Wish I could say the same for my grammar.
The crash of the door woke me up the next morning. I opened my eyes to see a group of young, handsome men in my room.
Hm. Maybe I was still dreaming.
Then they began to tie me up. Roughly. Nope, I wasn't dreaming. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not the kind of stuff I dream about. "What the hell are you guys doing?" I shouted.
"We're from the Night World. We've been sent to capture the last Wild Power – you," one of the men said.
"What?!" I screamed. "Are you insane? I'm not a Wild Power and you're definitely not from the Night World. It's a book – it doesn't exist –"
"If you're trying to fool us you can forget about it. We saw your 'story' on the Internet. There's no way you could've known so much unless you are a Wild Power yourself."
"That was just a harmless story! It wasn't real! And anybody who has picked up a Night World book knows that stuff!" My voice entered higher and higher octaves as I became more and more hysterical. By now I was beginning to screech.
"Oh put a sock in it," one of the men said in annoyance, wincing as my voice screeched again.
And he did. Literally.
This had to be a dream, I thought. At the count of ten I'll wake up and be back in my room and my safe, dull life… That was the last thought I had before I felt a large pressure on my brain and everything went blank.
Cue tacky funeral music. I was doomed.
I woke up to find myself locked and chained in a cell. It was dark, damp and disgusting. There must be a Middle Ages buff among my captors…
Wait. The guy probably came from the Middle Ages.
I could see it all in my head now… Some tall, dark and devastatingly handsome vamp will be the one who's supposed to torture me and break me. But instead, we turn out to be soulmates and he falls in love with me and we'll have that whole angsty "but-it's-forbidden!" thing going on… Eventually he'll give in and rescue me and we'll elope…
"Penny Lim?" a voice came from the darkness.
He's here already? "Yes?" I said, trying to keep my voice calm.
"I'm from Circle Daybreak – I'm here to rescue you."
So much for my fantasy. Although… I could fall in love with the guy who rescued me but the Nightworld finds us later and he dies or I die and we can have that whole teary-farewell thing…
No. Too Romeo and Juliet.
I was still coming up with various romantic permutations and combinations in my head and working through the probabilities as the mystery person unlocked the chains. I didn't even realize that I had been released.
"Penny?" the voice prompted, "I think we should go?"
"Oh. Yeah," I said, shaking the fantasies away and followed him out of the cell. When he opened the door at the top of the staircase, I saw four bodies lying on the ground. We stepped over the bodies and walked down the corridor. Something didn't make sense. If they really thought that I was the last Wild Power then security had to be tighter than this.
I didn't realize that I had said this out loud until the man replied, "You're right. Security would usually be much tighter. Except that we've got a lot of people out launching an attack on the other end of the building and most of the security forces have been directed there. The rest we've handled."
"Diversion – an old trick," I said. "But wouldn't they be able to guess what you guys were trying to do?"
"They might've but the guy in charge of security happens to be one of our undercover agents," the man said, grinning. "He was the one who told us that you had been captured."
We continued to walk in silence. When we walked out of the building, I could hear the sounds of a distant fighting. "How would they know whether you've succeeded and when to leave?"
"They wouldn't. We set a time limit of thirty minutes. Once the time's up, they'll all retreat."
We reached a nondescript black car hidden in the shadows. As we drove off I asked, "Who are you?"
"Aidan Kwan," the man replied glancing at me with a quick grin. The streetlights allowed me to have a proper look at his face. He was only slightly taller than me and his hair was black, with hints of blue. His features were quite ordinary except for his eyes. There was something about that glint of mischief in his black eyes that just captured a person's attention.
I think I've got an eye fetish.
Ok. Now I really hope I didn't say that out loud because that would be far too embarrassing.
"Before you ask," he continued just as I was about to open my mouth again, "we're going to one of Circle Daybreak's safe houses."
I leaned back into my seat and sighed. Everything just seemed so surreal. I was still pretty certain that I'll wake up any minute and find out that I was just dreaming – a side-effect from spending too long in the Night World-verse for my story. As the adrenaline died away, I began to feel drained and worn out and I soon fell asleep.
I woke up again to find myself in a bed in a small room. The walls were painted white and the room was bare and plain. It looked like a sterile hospital room. There was a short knock on a door before a woman came in. She smiled warmly at me and said, "Hi, I'm Jasmine. Welcome to Circle Daybreak. We've got some people outside who want to meet you so if you'll follow me…" She walked out of the room.
There was a man and a woman waiting for us out in the field. I realized then that we were staying in a small farm house in the middle of nowhere. Great. As if I didn't already have enough problems trying to figure out how to get home.
"Penny, hello," the man said. "I hope you had a good rest. Sorry about everything you had to go through. Anyway, we brought you here to train your powers. We thought that we should start early so that you'll be able to protect yourself against the Night World."
"Wait… Did you say training?" I said, panicking. "Does that mean that I'll have to get a cut somewhere? But I'm not even from this world! This world shouldn't even exist – it's fiction, not real life! I'm not the Wild Power you're looking for – all I did was just write a Night World fanfic and then bam! I wake up and find myself here…"
"Don't worry," the woman said, "It wouldn't hurt." She held out a small knife, the silver glinting in the sunlight. She reached for my arm before I could protest and made a cut on my arm. As the blood began to well before my eyes, I began to feel my head spin. I couldn't stand the sight of blood. Never could. Plus all the shocks I had been through and the fact that I hadn't eaten anything in the last twenty four hours, there was only one logical response.
I passed out.
As I slowly regained consciousness yet again, I heard the conversation going on around me. Male Voice One said, "Maybe she's got split personalities – maybe that's what the prophecy was talking about."
"The twilight referring to the side that is the Wild Power and the dark the one which isn't? Possible. Could be why she keeps insisting that she doesn't have powers," Male Voice Two replied.
"What about all that talk about being sucked into a book?" Male Voice One asked.
"I don't know," Male Voice Two replied, "Could be that she's insane."
Looks like I might have traded in my dark, dank cell for a white padded one. I opened my eyes and said politely, "Would you like to take measurements for a straitjacket since you're here?"
At least they looked embarrassed. "Sorry about that," one of them said – Male Voice One. "We're supposed to be guarding you."
"Couldn't you do it outside?" I asked pointedly.
They sheepishly left the room as I sighed. I was back in my little white room. I got out of bed and began to pace. There must be some way for me to get back to the real world. I just had to figure out how I got there in the first place.
Just then, Aidan entered the room. "So you're here to check on the loony?" I said, irritated.
"I believe you," Aidan said simply.
I stared at him, "You're not just humouring me, right?"
"Nope," Aidan said. He paused, taking a deep breath before he said in rush, "I believe you because I was the one who brought you here."
"It was you?" I shouted.
He nodded, his expression apologetic. "I wanted to see if I could enter the universe of a book. So I created this device which used and augmented my powers as a witch to open a portal into the book universe. I tried it out the day before, but nothing happened. I thought I was unsuccessful but I must have configured something wrongly and brought you here instead…"
"Wait," I said, shaking my head in confusion, "you wanted to enter a book? But you're already in one! This whole world's fictional."
"You sure about that?" Aidan said challengingly. "Who is to say what's real and what's fiction? You might be from a fictional world yourself."
My brain whirled with the possibilities. "This is just what I need right now," I said, dazed, "Doubts about my own existence."
"It doesn't matter," Aidan said, "what matters is that you think you're alive."
"I think, therefore I am?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "Never thought I would be sucked into a book and discussing philosophy."
Aidan grinned. "Anyway, I've explained everything to Circle Daybreak. The news has been passed around that you aren't the Wild Power. Still, we're going to make sure that you're protected – just in case the Night World does attack."
"Thank God," I sighed with relief. "I didn't want to go through those blood things again…"
"And I'm going to try and figure out a way to send you back to your world," Aidan said, his voice confident.
Well, at least one of us was.
The next day I was in the bathroom and caught in a rather embarrassing situation. "Aidan?" I said, my face burning.
"Yeah?"
"There isn't any toilet paper," I replied, barely able to get the words out. This was just far too humiliating. But I had no choice. Aidan was the only one within calling range.
There was a short pause before Aidan said, "Oh. I'll get it."
A couple of minutes later there was a knock on the door. "Look away," I ordered. Gingerly, I reached forward and turned the knob, making sure that the space was just large enough for the roll of toilet paper. As I took it from Aidan, my fingers brushed his palm. A small spark of electricity travelled up my arm.
"What the hell was that?" the both of us said at the same time.
Then it hit me. There were only two possibilities. One, the toilet bowl was conducting electricity or two, he was my soulmate.
I found my soulmate in the bathroom. How romantic. I never expected violins or romantic dates but the bathroom?
When I finally came out of the bathroom, we stared at each other warily. "Was that –" I began.
"Are we – " Aidan said at the same time. We continued staring at each other.
"Only one way to find out," Aidan said as he reached for my hand and held it. This time it seemed like an electric current was flowing from my arm to his and back again. I looked at him, disoriented. The only thing I could see was his eyes. And that was it. I was captured.
"So what's going to happen to us once you've fixed this machine?" I asked. Aidan was at his desk, working on some calculations while I sat on the edge of the table. It had been a week since I discovered that Aidan was my soulmate. During that one week we had gotten closer and closer. I never expected it to happen like this, but I was beginning to fall in love. Aidan was intelligent, funny, gentle and a really good kisser…
He could also be oblivious, stubborn and insensitive. Love isn't blind; it just has a selective memory.
"I'll go with you," Aidan said, as he continued his calculations. Then he looked up and placed his hand on mine, "Unless you don't want me to."
The look of doubt and insecurity melted my heart. "Of course I do," I said, as I moved my other hand to cup against his cheek. "I would stay here but I've got family in my world and I can't just leave them like this."
"I know," Aidan said. Then his face turned wistful. "I lost my family years ago – there's nothing holding me here. I want to be with you." He looked at me warmly and I could see the tenderness in his eyes. "Besides, I'll like to see other worlds," he said quickly, looking back down at his work as if trying to push aside that moment of softness.
As he immersed himself in his work once more, I wandered off to read. Then, about half an hour later, Aidan said triumphantly, "I've got it!" He ran towards me, pulled me into his arms and twirled me around the room, laughing.
"Really? You sure?" I asked, a large grin on my face.
He nodded.
"When can we leave?" I asked in excitement.
"Now," Aidan said as he placed me back down on the ground and picked up a small black handset on the study table. He keyed in a few buttons before he took a deep breath and pressed the trigger.
A purple portal appeared right in front of us. "C'mon," Aidan said laughing, "let's go." He took my hand and pulled me into the portal
I felt like Alice and her looking glass as I stepped through that portal. One step and I was back in my home. "Let me make sure this is the right place," I said, as I ran up the stairs to my room and switched on the computer. Quickly I typed in a number of L.J. Smith websites that I frequented.
Yep, I was back in the real world. I turned around to see my soulmate smiling at me broadly and I hurled myself into his arms.
Sunlight pouring in from the window woke me up the next morning. I yawned and snuggled further into Aidan's arms, trying to hide from the sunlight. It was the first decent night of sleep that I had in days and it'll take more than sunlight to wake me up.
The second after that thought crossed my mind I heard pounding on the door. You can always count on dear Murphy. Maybe if I just ignored it long enough, it'll go away…
The noise finally woke Aidan up – who was probably practicing for the Imitate-a-Log Competition. "Aren't you going to get that?" he said sleepily.
I picked up one of the pillows on the floor and whacked his head with it. Sure, sure, make the woman do all the work. You sure weren't like that before we got together… "All right, all right, I'm coming!" I said grumpily as I stomped my way to the door. If I'm not getting any sleep, there's no way you are, I thought.
PMS – licence to be a vindictive bitch.
I opened the door to find two police officers standing in front of me. Their uniforms looked perfectly normal except for the colour.
Lime green.
I wish I was blind. Hell, they should be ones who get arrested. I'm sure there's a law out there against lime green uniforms…
"Miss Penny Lim?" one of the limes said.
I nodded.
"Fanfiction police. You've been charged with writing several Mary Sues. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say…" they continued as they roughly handcuffed me.
"Aidan!" I shouted. "What the hell did you just do?"
"I don't know!" he said defensively. "Don't worry, I'll get you out. Just let me get a bit more sleep first."
"Aidan! I'll get you for this!"
*~ Finis ~*