Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. Serves me right for having so many projects on the go at once.
Sethoz: Thanks, Sethoz. For the love of Sawyer… hehe. That quote was pretty random, but you've got to love spontaneity. : )
BloodMoonLycan: Me and my cliffies? Aheh… I swear… there isn't another one at the end of this chapter… and it's not evil… *looks around shiftily*
LotRseer3350: Ah yes… cliffies. Ahem. I don't adore them, I swear. This one was unintentional, and I hadn't even planned for this one. It wrote itself, I swear!
Graymoon74: I did let Q shoot Tom, yes. Hehe, scare ya? Good, that was my intention. Don't plan to give anyone a heart attack though. I like Americans, and I don't think you're stupid… but Skinner was in a fix, and had to say something silly : ) And that was it.
Raven Silvers: I'm not going to kill Skinner… or am I?
Beck2: I can't help but think – whenever I see your name – that I know two people called Rebecca… ahem. Anyway. Yes, Zachary is alive. Ah yes… odds… don't they suck? Woods is a nasty git…
With no further ado, here is Chapter 23 of By The Light of The Moon…
Tom felt the cold metal of the handle against his palm, and froze for a moment, hesitant as to what he would find on the other side of this door, and what he would have to do in order to save Skinner… if, indeed, Skinner needed saving. He could be fine, and this could just be a trick whilst the thief aimlessly wandered the corridors, perhaps lost… or the invisible man could already be dead, and Woods knew Tom would come anyway at the declaration of a fellow League member endangered.
Here goes nothing, he thought, turning the handle and opening the door slowly but surely, before he strode into the room, locking eyes immediately with Sebastian Woods. The man was standing in the centre of the room, smiling smugly; with about a dozen armed men around him… in the middle of the armed men was a floating jacket that had to be Skinner. At least, Tom guessed it had to be Skinner… it seemed like him from the smell of it as well, and when he looked again, there was a set of handcuffs with a life of their own behind the jacket as well… definitely Skinner.
The rest of the League, along with Anise, Dmitri and the turncoat werewolf, all followed in behind him and spread themselves out as he stepped in front of them, angry and glaring. "Okay, Woods, I'm here… let him go."
Woods seemed to consider the options, before he set his eyes on the turncoat, and Tom felt cocky for a second at the sight of their slight widening. "How…"
Zachary Fairfax stepped forward and presented himself beside Tom, declaring, "Falx is dead. And I haven't seen Gladius in a while either… you've failed."
Woods laughed a bitter laugh. "Oh have I? Have I really?" He shook his head, as if feeling sorry for Tom and Zachary. "Now, now… you should know better than that. Your father thought I was a quitter as well… and I showed him just how wrong he was."
A loud growl erupted from beside Tom, and he had to latch his hand around Zachary's arm to stop him from advancing, especially when a guardsman cocked their gun and aimed it at the back of Skinner's leg, intending to wound, not kill.
"Don't…" Tom whispered harshly to the other brainwashing victim, and glanced to him, seeing the soulful brown eyes meet his for a moment, and they flashed with understanding. Zachary backed down.
"You see… Exuro knows when to keep his mouth shut."
"Don't call me that," Tom growled, advancing of his own accord, despite Mina's urging that he keep calm. "I am not one of your soldiers."
Woods looked him over, and then raised a brow. "Ah… I see someone helped you along on the clarity issue."
The government man glanced to Quatermain for a moment, and cocked his head. "Impressive weapon… weren't you worried you'd kill the boy?"
"I'd rather see him dead than under your control," Quatermain responded coldly, and Tom wasn't sure how to feel about that. After a moment, he decided that the hunter was right… he knew he would rather be dead than brainwashed.
"Oh, really, now," Woods scoffed. "Are all the British – or Scottish if you please – so melodramatic about everything? I thought it was Americans who blew things out of proportion! Why can nobody see what I am trying to do?" He shook his head, as though he had been served a great injustice, and sighed heavily, glaring at Tom then with a coldness and hardness that he had not seen before. "I know you don't understand… hard for you to see anything that's right in front of you." Tom scowled, and Woods turned to Zachary. "And you… you say Falx is dead?" There was a pause. "A shame, yes… a tragedy… hardly. I can find another who measures up to her. They won't be quite the same, but nothing's perfect."
"You don't even care," Zachary muttered in an icy tone. "You went to all the trouble of erasing anything that she might have been before you got to her… and you don't even care that she's dead."
"Of course I don't," Woods said bluntly in reply. "Why should I?"
"You disgust me…" Mina hissed, her eyes flashing red for a long moment.
Woods saw this, and his eyes lit up with a kind of sarcastic amusement. "Oh how fitting that a vampire should chide me on my values!"
Mina growled quietly, and was only accompanied by the four werewolves surrounding her. They reached a light cacophony, and Woods arched a brow.
"It seems I have a challenge on my hands… well, the ultimatum is really quite simple. So simple… that even these two-" – he pointed at Tom and Zachary, irritably – "should be able to understand it." Glancing around the group standing before him for a moment, he pressed on determinedly, "The two of you are to surrender yourselves… and this… thing, goes free."
"Oi," Skinner protested, before receiving a rifle nudge in his back, making him shift uncomfortably.
Tom glanced to where he assumed – from experience – Skinner's face would be, and knew the invisible man would be inwardly pleading him not to go through with what was turning over and over in his head. He was puzzling over whether or not he had a choice, and reached the awkward conclusion that those guns would be faster than any of them – supernatural or otherwise – would be able to move.
Tom turned his gaze to Zachary, who appeared more than reluctant, but there was a light in his eyes that the League member sympathised with. He felt an obligation… in order to save Skinner's life. Swallowing dryly, he sighed and turned his gaze back on Woods. "Fine."
Anise started forward and touched his arm, but he pulled it away gently, keeping his eyes from hers, knowing that he would lose his composure if he did look at her; saw the hurt and dismay in her eyes.
Woods smiled. Nothing happened.
"You said you'd let him go," Tom pushed, nodding his head towards Skinner, who – he noticed – seemed to be shaking.
"I said I would let him go when you surrender yourselves," Woods emphasised, brushing off his tie idly.
Tom set his jaw grimly, annoyed beyond comprehension, and suppressed the growl that wanted to rise. He moved forward, along with Zachary, to stand near to Woods.
One of Woods' men moved to Tom, and reached a hand inside his jacket. Tom, instinctively, grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it, hearing a horrible snap, making the man scream. The cry was echoed through Skinner, who was slammed in the back. Tom immediately let go of the guard, and held his hands out, looking pleadingly to Woods.
"Behave," Woods grumbled to Tom, scolding, and threw a similar gaze in Zachary's direction. "Both of you."
"Let him go…" Tom repeated, unable to stop the growl that slipped into his voice, quiet but resonating.
Woods backhanded him across the face, and grumbled, "Don't order me around, boy."
The League stood, helpless and unsure of what to do, lest they get someone hurt or killed. Quatermain's grip had tightened on his rifle enough to make the wood creak slightly, and Mina's eyes had flushed red, remaining that colour. Jekyll's hand hovered near his pocket for a vial of his elixir, and Nemo's hand was gripping the pommel of his sword. Anise and Dmitri looked ready to transform and pounce, but Woods glanced firmly in their direction, taking a surprisingly strong grip on Tom's lapels and yanking him forward. For Skinner's sake, Tom didn't object… at least not on the outside. On the inside, he was screaming and forcing down the lupine urges to tear the bastard to pieces.
"All of you, stay where you are," Woods told the League, and turned his head to the guards watching Skinner. "All right, let him go."
The jangling of keys was the only noise in the room as the handcuffs were removed from Skinner's wrists, and he was shoved in the direction of the League. The men moved to Zachary and Tom, and Woods kept his grip on the lapels of the latter's jacket. He threw Tom a reproachful glare as the man stopped in front of him with the handcuffs.
"You don't need those," Tom told him quietly.
"Nevertheless, one thing I'm very fond of is peace of mind." He gave a gentle shake on the lapels, and Tom sighed. He offered his wrists to the man in front of him, who took one, and cuffed it. Woods released the lapel, and the man turned Tom around, taking his arm with him, before cuffing the other one behind his back. Zachary stood near to him, similarly restrained.
Tom knew that if he tried, he could get out of the cuffs. He just didn't want to, for fear of what was going to happen.
"Now," Woods began, almost loftily, as if triumphant – and there was an undercurrent of it in his voice – as he eyed the League, "I'd like for you to leave. You have your invisible man back, and unless it is your wish to join the Asian-" – Dmitri growled loudly at this – "I suggest you pretend you were never here."
"We will not simply leave," Mina whispered harshly, her voice carrying like a breath on the wind, a dull hiss that chilled the bones. "We do not have what we came for."
"If it weren't for you compassion, you would have. All it would have taken was a disregard for the freak that stands beside you," he said, waving at Skinner, who squared his shoulders, "and Sawyer would be free. But instead, you gave in to your weaker, base instincts to protect… and it was your failing. Now leave."
When the League did nothing, Woods removed an inscribed, polished pistol from the rear of his belt, and aimed it in their vague direction.
Tom noticed Mina – probably without realising – grabbed a hold of Skinner and yanked him behind her. Skinner made to protest, but Jekyll silenced him. Quatermain's finger found the trigger guard of his elephant gun, and Mina growled, joined by Anise and Dmitri.
Woods sighed dramatically, tutting and shaking his head as if disappointed. "Some people… they just don't know what's best for them."
And with that, he pulled the trigger, setting off the deafening explosion of the gunshot from his pistol, and Tom watched in horror as it hit Anise, making her cry out, even as she fell to the floor, with Dmitri at her side, clearly in agony.
Woods opened the chamber, and spun it, removing a round and turning it in the light, chuckling.
"Isn't silver a marvellous creation?"