Title: Desires Revealed (Part 7/?)
Author: Erilo
Email: Ladyhellcat666@aol.com
Rating: 15
Based on: FG
Spoilers: FG
Disclaimers: Forbidden Games Trilogy along with Julian, Jenny, the Shadow Men and any other characters from the books mentioned belong to L. J. Smith. Angel belongs to me.
Summary: Since the game's end all Jenny wants is Julian back. But is she willing to play a game of the Shadow Men's choice to do that?
Desires Revealed (Part 7/?) [Chapter 15]
"You want to keep me safe from the other shadow men?" She asked incredulously. This was really starting to confuse her although if he was going to turn all stalker on her she figured it might make sense to want her away from everyone else.
"The others are of no concern." He sighed dropping his hand.
"Then who exactly do you think is going to harm me?"
"The one you call Angel."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jenny was dumbstruck to say the least. Angel, he was the one behind all of this? It couldn't be. Could it? Angel was a little off for sure, but he had done nothing but help her since she carved him into being. Granted Julian had pretty much mistrusted Angel from the beginning. That didn't hold much stock though, Julian mistrusted any guy that got with in two feet of her; her cousin, Zachary included.
"Why should I believe anything, you have to say?" She asked him eying the bed pointedly.
"The shadow realm is a venomous and baleful place, little one, and their are many of my kind that would wish to drag you out into that darkness and ripe you limb from limb. The only protection you have against this is what we have given." So he was back to the 'we' again. That calmed her down at least a little.
The mental picture that conjured up was enough to make Jenny revolted. It was the truth, even as he spoke she found the trueness in his words. But somehow that did little to comfort her.
Jenny nodded slowly, "Fair enough." She added irately, "but considering the circumstances of my abduction, I'm still wondering just what is going on here?"
"Fine, we will explain," The Crocodilian Shadow Man began, "we created the young one."
The young one? Angel? They created Angel? But how could that be? Jenny had so many questions that needed answers but he was already going on. She'd just have to listen and wait for the answers.
"After our pray was stolen from us, we wanted amends, we wanted you." He turned crimson colored eyes her way, waiting, for what she didn't know. "You freed the old man, and the two boys, and then the betrayer gave an unworthy replacement for your soul. So your 'Angel' was carved into existence and made to do our will. He was to go to
Midgard and bring you back to the Shadow World for your crimes."
"Crimes!" Jenny shouted incredulously, unable to hold in her anger a second longer, "You took my grandfather and imprisoned his soul into an amusement park novelty, depraved bastards?" No to mention what became of P.C. and Slug. That had been too horrible to comprehend. No matter what any of them had done, no one deserved to have their souls and bodies tampered with for all eternity.
"Depraved? We are nothing more than a force of human nature, a product of man's desire to cause mayhem. We are as cruel and ruthless as Nature itself. Man, trying to achieve omnipotence created the first of our kind. So you see it was man that made us what we are." It was odd the way he said it. It was said with great dispassion as if it were fact and nothing else. Which in reality it was, though Jenny found this bit of knowledge to disturbing to dwell upon for to long.
Jenny stood rooted where she was, appalled. She could believe that, Julian had told her as much at the Shadow Park's tunnel of Love and Despair. Jenny heard the truth in his words she'd witnessed it time and time again. And her grandfather had been the one to open Pandora's box. She loved him, he was her grandfather how could she not? But this was all his doing. Every person that was captured by the Shadow Men, Julian falling for her, the countless lives that were needlessly extinguished all so he satisfy his curiosity.
She turned away mouth pressed into a thin line, "So let me guess, the plan was to make me believe that I had actually created him so that I would trust him enough to let him lead me to my own annihilation?" She scoffed steering the subject back to the matter at hand.
The Shadow Man nodded shortly brow furrowed, an extremely 'human' action, "Yes, however when you arrived, he became defiant. We commanded him to bring you to us, that is all, no game was originally planned, and the betrayer was not meant to be brought back into being."
Jenny gave a slight snort, but wisely chose to keep quiet. So far, he wasn't saying anything that would bring about her wanting to take their side.
He regarded her with narrowed scarlet eyes, a sneer forming on his grotesque features, "He wishes to destroy us and take our place. He somehow utilized you to oppose our control over him." He snarled voice turning from distant ice chimes into a endless hoarfrost cavern. It could be heard echoing through the spacious chamber.
"You do not seem nearly as naive as others that come here." A pause. "What bargain did you make with him?" He demanded when Jenny made no move to answer.
"I never made..." She trailed off realizing the lie forming on the tip of her tongue.
Oh God, a bargain, she mused panic rising in her belly.
//Jenny eyed him suspiciously, "and what do you get out of the bargain?"
Angel stared at her innocently one perfect eyebrow arched, "All I want is my freedom, and of course to stay here in Midgard."//
Angel had used her to get a free pass back to her world. He had asked her and she had been stupid enough to agree.
//If she let him stay on earth what kind of havoc would he inflict? His eyes seemed to reflect a horror worse then death. She knew that if she let him remain he'd be worse then the other Shadow Men, he'd have no boundaries, no limits. What it really came down to was, was Julian really that important to her that she'd be willing to unleash Angel on this world?
Jenny hesitated for only a fraction of a second. "Fine, you have a deal. I get Julian and you get to stay here."//
If he made it back to earth it would be because of her.
Jenny deflated, she was exactly like everyone else, she was apart of the human Nature the Shadow man mentioned. She had willingly insured the Earth's demise, humanities suffering, all so she could get Julian back.
She took a deep breath, moving to sit in a nearby chair. This was enough to blow her mind. She thought back to the girl that had come to the Shadow World with a mission in mind and the girl that now sat before one of Julian's ancestors. To her they seemed like two completely different people. She'd gone from one extreme to the next.
The Jenny that she had been as a teenager was just to naive, she knew nothing about the nature of the world.
The Jenny that had come here was no better. She was rash and devil-may-care. That Jenny had helped her to cope with all the wrong and evil in the world.
Now she didn't know who she was anymore. She couldn't go back to the Jenny that had caught Julian's attention so long ago, she'd seen too many travesties in her time to do that. But her other self was off limits too. Jenny would just have to live in the here and now and somewhere along the way she'd find herself. And to do that she needed to correct her mistakes. She had to get rid of Angel.
She glanced up and crimson eyes met emerald, "Fine, I bargained my world for Julian."
She paused momentarily.
"Though you probably already know that bit of information." She stated coolly, biting back a reply when amusement flickered in the creature's eyes.
"What do you want from me?"
"We seek his destruction." Came his reply.
She knew that was coming, so when it did she wasn't surprised by it at all.
She nodded, "Fine, but how exactly am I supposed to do this."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a light began to grow from the out stretched palms of the Shadow Man. In the light a runestave appeared. It was the runstave, the one that Julian's name had been carved upon. When the glowing died down he snatched it from the air and handed it to her. What Jenny now held in her hands was the stave of life.
"Why give this to me? I could just use it to kill all of you." She asked head slightly tilted to the side, face masked in confusion. It held some irony that their lives--existences would now be in the hands of a human.
"We will come to an agreement. We posses the betrayer's stave of life. When you have written 'Angel' out of existence we will give you his runestave for the return of this one." Pause. "But if we were somehow carved out ourselves you will have no hope of having the betrayer brought back to you."
Jenny looked down inspecting the stave of life. The Shadow Man was being truthful; the place where Julian's name was suppose to be was baron.
"Just remember that it works both ways. If I kill Angel and Julian drops dead, you can kiss your existence goodbye!"
"Agreed." He nodded in agreement, "you will need some of his blood to do this and this," he handed her a knife made of bone but it glistened like ice.
Jenny suppressed a shiver as she took the knife offered to her. This was the same knife that was used to cut out Julian's name.
"Once you have acquired some of his blood trace this rune," He pointed to a symbol that she wasn't familiar with. "And speak his cipher's name, Mannaz. Then carve the rune from the stave."
That wasn't too hard. She just had to find a way to get some of his blood.
"Where am I supposed to put these until I use them?"
The Shadow Man came closer and placed his hand over the hand that held the stave of life and the blade. It wall Jenny could do not to wretch her hand from his grasp. But she stilled the nausea in her stomach and waited.
A light, similar to the one that the stave had appeared in emanated from his leathery palm.
The knife and the runestave seemed to shrink in on themselves until they disappeared all together.
He removed his hand and stepped back.
Jenny looked from her now empty palm to him growing bewilderment on her face. "Where'd they go?"
"When you need them, the knife and the stave will appear." He said by way of answer. Jenny figured that was all the answer she was ever going to get.
She slowly rose to her feet giving her palm on last fleeting glance before letting her arm fall to her side.
"If we don't have anything else to discuss, how do I get out of here and back to Julian and Angel?"
He motioned to the door, which swung open so suddenly it caused Jenny to jump. "Through that door and down the corridor you will find them."
Jenny turned towards the door and began walking. At the door she turned back, for what she wasn't sure but the Shadow Man was gone.
She rolled her eyes and walked out the door. Thankfully the corridor was softly lit with torches that seemed to guide the way. She didn't know what she would have done if she would have had to navigate these corridors in the dark, when she'd lost her flashlight sometime ago.
Jenny began walking down the corridor, hoping that she'd find Julian before Angel got any bright ideas.