(Thank you to everyone who has responded, and the usual set of thanks to my betas)
Chapter 11The silence lasted just long enough to become uncomfortable. Sam kept her attention fixed firmly on the Suescope and tried to avoid looking up at either of her companions. There was some kind of wordless communication occurring there, consisting of a rapid sequence of frowns, facial twitches and meaningful stares, all utterly lost on her. She got the impression that the same train of thought was going on behind both sets of eyes, apparently with equal reluctance. Richard seemed to be glaring more, but that was hardly new.
Jackie broke the silence, and the stare, first.
"Okay," she sighed, rolling her eyes, "I'll say it: how? Every fireplace is rubble, Sam can't Apparate and I can't get much further than Birmingham without risking a splinch. Field-prep had that thing – " she waved a hand at the broomstick still lying near her discarded rucksack, " – which won't get us far, and short of hijacking a plane there is no form of Muggle transport that could get us to Scotland in time!"
Richard half made to speak, but Jackie shoved a hand over his mouth before any sound could escape.
"No. We're coming with you, and I don't think you're in any state to pop off successfully on your own. Leaving your kidneys here while the rest of you lands off-target in Aberdeen will help no one."
"Did I say that?" Richard snapped irritably, his voice momentarily muffled by her fingers until he batted them aside. "I know what to do."
"We are not hijacking a plane!"
"A little credit, please? Follow me." He span on his heel and strode back towards the shattered entrance, pausing only to retrieve his cloak and swirl it back around him as he moved.
Jackie watched him go and rolled her eyes again.
"Drama queen. C'mon Sam –" she picked up the rucksack and swung it over her less injured shoulder, "– let's get this over with."
Sam followed. She shot a last glance round at the wrecked room as she stepped through the entrance hole, and shivered. She really, really didn't like that place.
The journey back through the cellars was considerably less creepy than their initial trip had been. Sam couldn't help looking for undulating trails of smoke every time she turned round, but there was nothing. She didn't expect anything, not really, not after everything that had happened. But she stayed very close to Jackie anyway.
When they reached the shaft that led up to Scanns, the redhead seemed surprised. She whistled softly and started examining the walls, even as Richard began to climb back up the still-attached ropes.
"Interesting. Not Serenity then, this?"
"No. She had an agreement," Richard spat the word and glared down at them from a perch halfway up the wall. "Now, if you don't mind?"
Jackie regarded the ropes and shook her head vehemently.
"Not on these shoulders. Let's see if this thing works." She swung the broom out of her bag and straddled it, nodding at Sam. "Grab on, kid."
They beat Richard to the top. Sam barely had time to regain her balance before they were climbing down another shaft – the one previously occupied by Kate's gilded elevator. The actual lift had been shattered and half-melted to the back wall, but it didn't stand up to Richard's reductor hex. He vanished into the darkness on the end of another Summoned rope, the others following at a more controlled, if airborne, pace.
Sam wasn't sure if the descent took longer this time. On one hand, she wasn't sinking into the earth alone with a silent, icy figure, under unspoken but somehow very explicit threat. On the other, she was balanced in a rather precarious position on the back of a broom, tilted at an unpleasant angle to fit down the shaft, and descending into unknown danger-housing pitch blackness.
Yes. Completely different then.
She compromised between the desire to shut her eyes and the cold fear of not being able to see any attack by spending the descent staring very hard at Jackie's back and trying not to see the bloodstains. When they landed, it took several minutes for Sam to ply the fingers of one hand away from the broomstick – the others remaining firmly clenched – and slightly longer before she could make herself look around as the torches flared into light. It was … anticlimactic. The room seemed to have escaped the destruction wrought with such abandon throughout the rest of the building. The old wine rack was still intact, the crumbling brickwork no more so than before, and the heavily-tethered ropes still hung limply from the ceiling rings, or lay coiled on the floor beneath them. Sam couldn't suppress a small shiver as her gaze reached the far table and alighted on the instruments laid out there.
"Don't move."
Richard's soft instruction came so suddenly that Sam jumped as she looked up at him. His jaw was set, eyes narrowed and dark.
"Why?"
He ignored her, turning instead towards Jackie.
"Give me your pack."
The redhead didn't argue and silently handed the rucksack over. Richard took it by a strap, weighed it carefully in one hand, then wound his arm back and hurled the bag out of the lift alcove and into the main room.
The result was abrupt, direct, and very, very fast.
"Ah." Jackie's voice was a few notes higher than usual, but Sam barely heard her. Her attention was too fixed on tracking the tiny scraps of shredded rucksack as they drifted to the floor, drifting in strange patterns around the ropes as they relaxed serenely back into their inactive positions.
"Katryna?"
"No. Kate," Richard replied grimly. "Auto-defences. Anyone comes down here not accompanied by her and those things will tear them to pieces."
"How come I didn't know about this?" Jackie muttered, annoyance clear in her voice. Richard glanced at her, and for a second his eyes swirled amber.
"I wasn't sure. Besides, you've seen the wards around my room. Now –" he slid gingerly to one side, " – as long as we don't move out of here, they won't touch us, but I'll bet an attack will trigger them to here."
"Is there a plan now?"
"It's only a spell," he muttered, seemingly ignoring her comment, "that aside, they're normal rope, I remember installing them. They'll burn."
"You can't shoot an incendio that strong. And no," she said, and held up a hand quickly, "I won't. I've used too much already."
"I know," Richard's eyes returned to green as he spoke, "and I wasn't going to ask. Think killing the roots, though I will need your help with this, unless you want to wheel me to Scotland on a medical trolley."
Jackie glanced back at the faux-innocent ropes, understanding flickering in her eyes, and she nodded.
"Okay. Stay back Sam, I don't think there'll be any backwash, but better safe than sorry, eh?"
Sam did as she was told and scrambled to the back of the alcove. She had no idea what that had all been about, but anything that got her further away from those ropes was a good thing. The image swirled in front of her eyes, of the lifeless coils suddenly springing into deadly action, and she shuddered. Still, her curiosity was enough that she didn't go all the way to the back, craning round until she could see past her companions into the room beyond.
There were a few moments of quiet discussion, and then both of the older figures swung their wands out, tips held so close together they were nearly touching. Sam could hear Richard counting under his breath.
"… two, one - Exuro ferris!"
Jackie shouted at the same time, identical effort contorting her features as both wand tips flared and spilled what looked like streams of blue light into the air. The light swelled, flattening as it spread out before them, until they were standing behind a thin, shimmering wall of turquoise air. Both expressions twisted in identical effort as the sheet suddenly shot forward, sweeping dust into the air as it washed over the ground and hit the first set of ropes.
Whatever Sam had been expecting to happen, didn't. The blue light slid over the ropes, unmolested but ineffective, and continued forwards. The inactivity remained as it hit the second set, then the third, then the fourth and so on, until suddenly it was pressed up against the far wall, shimmering and useless.
Her lips started to move, words of confusion silently shaping themselves. What was the point of th-?
Jackie grinned. Her wand snapped forward, Richard's in perfect synchrony, as they both muttered:
"Fundo"
The heavy metal rings, sunk deeply into the brickwork, began to glow. It was gradual at first, a slight flicker of orange beneath the rust, but a few moments later every supporting loop in the room was red-hot and shining, scarlet turning to white even as Sam stared. She suddenly become aware of a strange low whine, as if something was building, getting louder every second …
She just had time to look up before the shimmering blue glow over the far wall turned white and the rings exploded. Droplets of white-hot iron seared through the air, splashing onto the floor, the walls, sending their animated-chord cargo dropping to the ground. The ropes writhed as molten metal turned their strands to ashes, acrid smoke rising as small fires caught here and there, and Sam could swear that somewhere in the background she could hear a strangely clothy shrieking.
It didn't last long. After a minute or so, and after most of the charred ropes had stopped twitching, Richard stepped forwards into the room. A few blackened strands tried to grab at his ankles, but with the damage already done and nothing anchoring them, their attempts were futile. He blasted any that tried and the rest seemed to give up.
Jackie caught Sam's arm in hers and steered her forward, making sure the girl didn't accidentally step in any of the still-cooling drops of metal. Sam was glad of it. She felt oddly light-headed again, as if she was watching events over her own shoulder, and she didn't trust herself to be able to do a lot more than stare right now. They reached the big table, now pock-marked with burnt scars, where Richard was standing, staring upwards thoughtfully. Sam followed his gaze, and focused on the display plaque of severed wings she'd seen before. They were a little more battered now, but the feathers still gleamed in the torchlight.
"Is there a plan now?" Jackie repeated, letting go of Sam's arm. Richard paid her no heed and gestured up at the plaque. It shuddered, then pulled away from the wall in a shower of dust as the supporting brackets tore free. Loosed, the slightly macabre trophy floated down to the ground, landing heavily on one of the still-twitching ropes.
"You know," Jackie muttered, raising an eyebrow at Richard as he crouched down and began to feel around cautiously under one of the wings, "even for you, this is cryptically unhelpful."
"Indeed… ah!" Richard gave a short, triumphant nod and straightened up, pulling the wing free as he did so. Jackie folded her arms.
"And…?"
"Grab a feather. It'll bring us in about four miles away from the castle, so we just have to hope she hasn't got past the Forest yet."
Jackie's eyes widened and she darted forward, bringing her face very close to the wing with sudden interest clear on her features.
"But… these are monitored! Getting round the Floo supervision was hard enough, but how in Merlin's name did you get this past those anal gits?"
"I didn't," Richard held the wing out, "Katryna must not have known about this one -" he cut off and, just for a second, an odd expression flashed across his face. Something a little like … relief? No, that wasn't right, it was more like-
- and then it was gone, the determined scowl settling back into its accustomed position, as if it had never left.
"Let's go," he muttered and roughly grasped a handful of the iridescent feathers. The others copied him, rather gingerly in Sam's case. The feathers felt strangely glassy under her fingers, crackling a little as the barbs crumpled in her grasp but she didn't have time to dwell on it, as the moment her hand settled in the sharp down she felt a sudden jerk somewhere behind her navel and the room lurched. A sudden sense of irresistible gravity swept over her and she let out a yelp as her feet left the ground, some hidden force taking hold around her and hurling her body forward. The room dissolved into colour around her as she plunged forward, fingers locked immovably into the feathers.
A sensation somewhere between vertigo and motion sickness swamped her senses, and then just as suddenly as it had started the whirl of colour broke apart, peeling back overhead as it vanished into darkness and Sam's feet hit soft, damp ground. She gasped, flooding her lungs with suddenly chill air, and realised that the glassy feathers were free in her hand again. She dropped them quickly and looked round, squinting as her eyes began to adjust to the cloaking darkness. As far as she could tell, they were outside, on a hill and more landscapes were curves dimly visible in the distance, but little else presented itself clearly. The night wasn't particularly overcast, but there was enough cloud to accentuate the darkness.
"Everyone alright?"
Sam turned, focusing on the tall figures silhouetted against the sky, and felt a shot of relief that they were around.
"I'm okay," she said, then realised there was still weight in her other hand, "and … er, I've got the broom…" she finished weakly. At least if she was carrying it, she was doing something other than being a handicap, surely…
"Richard, look," said Jackie, her voice cutting sharply through the night-time silence. Richard's eyes gleamed cat-like in the darkness as he turned, his attention fixed not on the barely-visible redhead but on something in the distance. Sam tried to follow his gaze. He was watching the horizon? No, that wasn't…
What the …?
Her eyes widened. The distant, pale line she had assumed was a brightening horizon was moving, undulating strangely as it surged towards them.
"Down!"
Richard's hands slammed onto her shoulders, full weight of his body behind them and Sam plunged face-first into the muddy grass. She barely had time to look up before something shot overhead, all painful brilliance and unearthly shrieks, giggling, screaming, all at pitches the human ear objected to enduring. Sam caught a brief glimpse of a tumbling mass of yellow-white light, swirling with strange eddies, before her balance slipped and she went down again. When she managed to pull herself onto all fours without slipping, the screeching wave had passed. Jackie helped her upright, absently brushing bits of plant-life off her shirt as she did so.
"At least it was a soft landing …"
"It went that way," Richard snapped, either not noticing the glare Jackie threw at him, or not paying any attention to it. "Lumos."
Sam's night vision had already been wiped out, but the sudden light still stung as he swept past her, the wand held above his head like a sacred beacon. Jackie muttered something that sounded irritated and then lit her own wand.
"Let's go, before he Vanishes Mysteriously Into The Night."
They started down the slope, following the bobbling point of light. Progress was swift, if unstable, their feet skidding and sliding on the slick grass as they hurried to catch up with the shadowy figure. Not for the first time Sam found herself wondering if Richard's stealth was enhanced somehow, or if that swirling cloak was anything more than just a garment. Even holding a bright light above his head in the middle of the night he was ridiculously difficult to keep track of, and only became clear again when he stopped. Abruptly. Jackie dodged into the circle of light he was casting, and a moment's fraction later took a sharp intake of breath. Sam's heart skipped a beat as she craned round and saw the focus of her companions' attention.
It was a body. More specifically, it was Elsa's. The medi-witch was lying on the ground, still clad in the limited clothing her Sue had chosen, her black hair still braided around her fa-
- blackhair?
As if reading her mind, or at least her intention, both Richard and Jackie caught Sam's arms at the same moment, preventing her from darting forward. His wand-hand still free, Richard muttered and sent four globules of white light in different directions. They hit the ground and stuck like semi-ethereal lamps. Even if the shapes that had been revealed briefly as the light passed over had been missed, the scene now illuminated was clear enough. Sam didn't notice as her arms were dropped. She was far too busy staring.
"What … what on …?"
"Everyone?" Jackie stepped forward slowly as she spoke, but the question didn't need a response. The redhead leaned over a pair of limp figures sprawled together nearby. They were just two, of the ghoulish carpet of immobile forms strewn out across the patchy grass. Richard surveyed the scene silently for a while longer, and then crept forward, moving down the clear spaces between bodies and muttering under his breath as he passed each one.
Sam didn't move. She wasn't sure if she wanted to, but her muscles had taken a decision independent of her brain and locked themselves in place. The Terrace. The whole Terrace, everyone, just…
"… are … they …?"
"No," Richard glanced around, his expression showing nothing other than a careful blankness. "They're all breathing. As for anything else…" he trailed off and continued his circuit around the low maze of flesh. A shiver ran through Sam's body, breaking the paralysis enough for her to totter uncertainly over to where Jackie was knelt next to one of the prone figures. She was very, very gently checking for a pulse.
"I found the Jennys," she said. "They're brunette. Kip looks normal enough." She moved back from the unconscious youth a little and sat back on her haunches, staring thoughtfully down at her impromptu patient. "I don't get it. Katryna drags them all the way up here with her, then just Suppresses them and sends them down for the duration? Doesn't make sense."
"It might."
Both looked up as Richard made his way back over to them. There was a very strange look on his face, something akin to suspicious disbelief. He crouched next to Kipling's prone form, then caught Jackie's gaze.
"My whole Field team is out there, and I almost didn't recognise them. Ivy's got no horns, Jo's down to the usual complement of eyes and there's not an extended ear tip of any kind in sight."
The stares held. Once again, Sam got the impression she was missing something significant.
"That's not possible," Jackie said flatly, breaking the stare to glance back at Kipling. "You, of all people…"
"Let's find out." Richard gestured down at the unconscious youth, and his eyes narrowed. "Ennervate."
The blond shuddered. Then his eyelids fluttered and opened, even as the prongs of two sporks shot forwards to hover by his throat. His eyes were glazed and his expression stayed blank as he stared up at the grim, muddy, bloodstained faces above him.
"Wha-?"
"Who are you?" Richard snapped and his spork inched closer, "And be aware: I will know if you're lying."
"I'm Kipling," he muttered, almost dreamily, and blinked a few times, squinting up at them as if he was trying to see through fogged glass, "and you, you're-"
The rest of his words vanished in a strangled yelp of terror. His eyes widened so far that they bulged and he sat bolt upright, apparently not noticing as the sporks' razor tips etched thin grazes along his neck. His hands locked on Richard's shirt, grasping frantically as if he were trying to claw the image of him away like some thread of a nightmare.
"You can't be here! She took them, all of them! You can't … can't … so many …"
Kipling's fingers unwound as he fell back, eyelids slamming closed, and hit the ground hard. The slight rise and fall of his chest was the only indicator of life. After a brief moment of shock, Jackie leaned forward and carefully pressed her spork to Kipling's pale cheek. Nothing happened. No reddening, no blisters, no smoke.
Nothing. He didn't even flinch.
"It's … really gone," Jackie drew back, shaking her head, "I don't believe it. A decade, and we never managed that in one person. She does over two hundred in a few hours? How?"
"It's not the how that I'm concerned about," said Richard as he stood up, holstering his spork, "it's the why. And possibly the what. They were already Subservient. Why remove them? Serenity was the only one who could survive outside -" he stopped. His eyes narrowed again and he looked up. Sam swang round, in time to see another writhing band of light surge over the hill. Now she was able to see it more clearly, she wished she couldn't. It wasn't light, no matter how bright it appeared against the dark sky: it was fog. Wispy, luminous fog, with golden slits of light transiently visible within it as it swept forward. Sam caught a brief blast of the unearthly shrieking and then it was gone, sweeping overhead before plunging down behind one of the other dimly visible hills. Richard gave a low snarl.
"They were Sues! They must be coming in from across the whole country!"
"How?"
"I don't know! But I intend to find out. Sam – " he swung round, eyes gleaming rather manically as he flicked a hand towards her, "– give me the broom."
"What about the others?" Jackie demanded as Sam stated to hand over her timbered charge. "You're just going to leave them here?"
"They clearly don't matter enough for her to kill right now. They're safer here, as are the two of you." He made a grab for the broom, but Jackie had started dragging Sam aside before the words had even left his lips, and his fingertips fell short. He Glared at her.
"Dammit Jackie!"
"When I said I'd be at your back, I meant it, whether you like it or not!" Her eyes flashed dangerously and suddenly she was in front of him, drawing herself up and closer until they were less than a centimetre apart. Anger crackled in the air between them as their gazes locked, and Jackie extended a gloved finger, jabbing it hard into his chest.
"I'm not asking to come with you. I'm telling you I'm going. This –" she reached over suddenly, her bare hand capturing his own exposed fingers, "– holds as true as it did nine years ago. I'm not leaving you, Richard."
Richard shook his hand free, caught the accusing digit and shifted it aside in the same movement.
"We had no idea then. There was nothing in those silly pledges to cover this."
"There was enough. You aren't the only friend Kate has, y'know. I'll act on that one, even if it kills me. Besides," a small grin crept onto Jackie's lips, "I'll hex you out of the air if you try and fly off alone."
For a moment, Richard didn't move. Then, incredibly briefly, the ghost of a smile reached his face and he released her hand. He stepped back.
"Alright. And you?" he turned, glaring at Sam so abruptly that she jumped at being the unexpected centre of attention, "You have any little speeches to make?"
"N-no…but… I'm coming!" Sam's fingers tightened around the broom as the words spilled out, "I can't … not after everything … I can't just sit here! I won't get in the way, I promise!"
Richard looked at her. He sighed.
"I don't have time to argue. You steer, Jackie, and kid, you … be careful. And when things get worse, run."
"Things can get worse?" Jackie muttered. Richard gave a reptilian grin, and his eyes swirled black.
"Oh, things always get worse. This is going to get worse in all new and interesting ways."
Had anyone been watching, the three of them would have presented a bizarre sight, Sam mused, as she clung to Jackie's waist and struggled to stay balanced. The broom wasn't new, and was protesting by means of occasional showers of magenta sparks from the bristles at having three people jammed onto it, even if one was hanging by his hands underneath. The ground rushed past as they flew, somewhat erratically, away from the fallen Terrace residents and rose towards the distant outcrop the wave of Sue had vanished behind. There was a faint haze of light spilling over the hill's crown, as if something brilliant was skulking ineffectively behind it.
Then there was the whispering. Not loud, never loud, but somehow very penetrating, sliding through the ears right on the edge of sound, if it even used the ears at all - and Sam half-suspected that it didn't. It was tactile, somehow. She hadn't liked to mention it at first, partly since she wasn't entirely sure she was hearing it, but by the time she realised why it seemed familiar it was already getting louder. She found herself trying to listen and blinked, shaking her head automatically as if it would shake out the cloying voices.
"Jackie?"
"I know. Ignore it."
"What is it?"
"Fallout Influence, I guess," there was a strange hiss from the redhead, and an edge of strain in her voice that Sam hadn't heard before, "… getting worse the closer we get. Watch yourSelf."
Sam lapsed back into silence and concentrated on not doing things. Such as listening. Or paying undue levels of attention to the way oily static was starting to prickle across her skin. Or feeling the strange shifting sensation in her irises as her Ocular Cycle began to turn. She particularly didn't want to hear the other whispers. The ones that were soft, whimpering, saturated with fear, and rising from the shadows at the back of her mind. Her Sue was terrified. Sam did look down, once, and quickly tried to pretend that she hadn't as she saw the insane kaleidoscope that Richard's eyes had become. There was strain on his features too, but not a lot was getting past the scowl and his cycling gaze was as fixed on the ever-closer ridge as it had been before. They were so close now, Sam's stomach was knotting itself into fresh loops as the horrible anticipation rose, waiting, just to see what lay over that hill…
It was at that point that the third wave, sweeping in from a different direction from the previous pair, hurled them out of the sky. Sam's muscles locked, panic freezing her in place as the broom bucked and shuddered, tossed round like paper in a hurricane as the world around them vanished in a wailing, screeching, howling mass of semi-solid mist. Unseen hands grasped at her hair, clawed at her skin, at her mind as the whispering rose anew, deafeningly in its noisy silence as it wound through her brain. Never clear, never really heard but felt with every fibre and nerve and thought, and over it all the shrieking drilled into her, sending what remained of her own thoughts spiralling away into the ravenous mists – and then suddenly it was gone and the world crashed back, darkness, sound, chill air and gravity …
The rest of the descent was very busy. There was screaming, although that might have been her. There were definitely trees. By the time the world gained the right axis again and Sam's back slammed heavily into the floor, 'disorientated' would have been far too generous a description for her state of mind. She automatically tried to rise, managed to get up halfway and staggered drunkenly, vision blurring in and out of focus as she swayed. Half-collapsed against a nearby tree trunk, she leaned her forehead against it hard enough to hurt and tried to keep her balance as she threw up loudly. That seemed to help a little, but she was still unprepared for the hand that dropped onto her shoulder and she leapt aside, shoulder slamming painfully hard into another tree before she could look up.
Black emerald gleamed, constant for just long enough before it dissolved back into the whirl of shades. Sam gave a small croak of relief as Richard swept an appraising glance across her. He looked unscathed, aside from a thin line of fresh blood drawn along the side of his face.
"You're alright." It was a statement rather than a question, but Sam found herself nodding anyway. Probably …
"Glad someone … is." Jackie emerged from the shadows, picking bits of tree out of her hair. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and this, coupled with the creases of strain strung out across her features, certainly made her look worse than Richard did. She raised a hand and waved a long shape in the air. "This damn thing … was trying to get rather too … personal with my kidneys."
She almost threw the broom aside in disgust, but Richard stopped her with a shake of his head.
"No. We don't know what's out there yet."
"Did you … see anything? Before we hit the … canopy?" Jackie asked, a little breathlessly. She was blinking hard. Richard glanced through the dark trunks, towards what Sam assumed was the way out, and his expression flickered.
"I'm not sure. Come on. Sam, stay behind."
As he turned away, Sam swore she heard him mutter something very quietly.
"… hope I'm wrong …"
They moved through the dark forest on foot. Sam very quickly decided that she didn't like midnight-shrouded plant-life and tried to keep close to one of the others, to avoid inadvertent branches. She couldn't avoid the sounds, though. The whispering had ceased to be so loud, even though it seemed to have merged into a general background hiss, but now there was something new – a high-pitched note, right on the edge of hearing.
"Jackie?" she muttered, "can you -?"
"Sam, please," the redhead's voice was audibly strained, "not … now, eh? I need … to concentrate."
Sam drew back, rebuked. She was only here as long as she kept out of the way, after all, and both her companions always knew what they were doing. She dropped back slightly, so she was at the rear of the small group when they finally cleared the trees, and had fully expected to see whatever awaited them last. She was wrong.
Nothing could have hidden that.
The trees opened out here into a rough clearing cut into the forest edge, but it wasn't the sudden lack of foliage that was so obvious. It was Katryna, or at least, Sam assumed it was her – there were a few differences since the last time she'd seen the Sue. Mostly the scale. The figure, sweeping across the dark grass in a way best described as a glide, was roughly the size of a house. She was glowing softly, like moonlight seen through cloud, and leaving a trail of the same misty brilliance behind her every movement. Pure white robes swirled aesthetically around her, highlighting her crystal-porcelain completion perfectly, as hair the colour of bronzed starlight cascaded down her shoulders, outlining her curves in th-
Sam's mind came crashing back down to earth as someone smacked her scientifically across the back of the head.
"Stay with us, kid," Richard growled, his gaze fixed on the massive, luminous figure in front of them. His Ocular cycle seemed to have stabilised, and the green was glittering in the glow spreading out from Katryna. After a moment, he swore quietly.
"I'm going to need a spork the size of a pitchfork to bring that down."
"Or a cannon."
Richard snorted.
"Like cannon ever had any effect on Sues. I- Stop!" he held up a hand suddenly and crouched down, sweeping his cloak around his shoulders. His gaze went skyward and Sam ducked back into the woods just in time, as a fourth howling wave of condensed Sue rounded the landscape and plunged towards them. It skimmed the tops of the trees, before suddenly changing course and pulling into a horizontal skim as if dragged by invisible strings. Sam stared, caught somewhere between horror and amazement, as the iridescent wave slammed straight into Katryna. The Sue didn't even flinch. The wave didn't break but folded, swinging out and around the huge figure again, and again, and again, until nothing was visible but a rough shape shrouded in brilliant, shrieking mist. Then it condensed. The fog bubbled, rippling as it began to swirl backwards, like a reverse time-lapse film of some slow-burning flame. Whirling strands folded back, caught stragglers, melding into the luminescent form beneath as limbs became visible again, clearer, stronger, brighter.
But it's still not right, thought some tiny part of Sam's mind that wasn't panicking, it's sort of fuzzy. Round the edges, the boundaries are wrong … like it's not finished …
She saw Richard move, spork glinting in his hand as he lunged forwards.
She saw Jackie dart after him and stumble, pain flashing across her face as a thin sliver of silver went spiralling out of her grasp.
She saw Katryna turn, saw her huge eyes glitter brightly as the final threads of fog faded into her.
She saw the smile.
Then a shockwave tore the air apart. Sam hadn't even realised she'd been running forward, but suddenly the world around her changed. The whispering exploded into a howling roar, the air condensing into something oily and harsh, wrapping around her so tightly she couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't even think as the deafening voices called to her, past her, reaching into the back of her mind and pulling it forward. Her Sue flowed over her, through her, every chamber of her mind echoing with the screams and the voices as she felt the shreds of her own mind whirling away in the mental hurricane. There was nothing left for her to hold onto as even her name dissolved, cracking under the sheer force of Influence saturating her -
- Serena could feel it now, control, right there, just waiting for her. Sure, the surging waves of power propelling her forward weren't hers, per se, but this was better than the nothingness she'd endured in the last few months. It was so close now, so close she could taste it, feel the beautiful clawing wind on her skin, see the perfect light as She called her i-
Silver glinted. The last threads of S.a.m. drew together, forcing a final movement from her failing limbs, and suddenly agony exploded in her arm. Someone shrieked with her voice, body thrashing madly but the hand held, forcing its prize even closer with the strength borne of utter desperation. The pain swelled, spread, blazed like a localised explosion held in her arm with agony like nothing before… No. No, it was familiar, the icy burning somehow-
Spork.
Sam's eyes snapped open and she gasped, sucking in a huge lungful of chilly air as she scrambled back onto her feet. The voices had vanished. She glanced down, realising that her right hand was clamped so hard around something that it was cutting into the skin. Jackie's dropped spork was clenched between her fingers, blood welling around both the handle and the prongs buried in her arm. She wrenched it free automatically, the pain barely registering anymore and span round, desperately searching the scene for the others.
Her heart missed a few beats – although at least it was hers again – as she saw the hunched dark forms a few metres away, but the extra panic didn't last long as Richard straightened up and swung his wand up towards Katryna's face. The Sue hadn't even moved.
"This ends now" Richard roared as his cloak fell away, light flaring at the wand tip as he stepped forward but it the same moment Jackie gave a strange sound, somewhere between a moan and hiss.
"Richard!"
Sam turned and yelped as her eyes locked with the upward-tilted, mismatched stare. Jackie's eyes were glowing, thin strands of red light darting out from her pupils and back, even as scarlet amber swirled up through her irises. Richard turned and his expression froze, horror leaching onto his features.
"No-"
"I…I can't …can't…c0n7r0l!1!" Jackie hunched even further; arms wrapped tightly round her chest as the glow started spilling out from her eyes. Her whole body was shuddering erratically, and suddenly there was a sound like a striking match, hugely amplified, and she screamed. The sound started off low, but rose rapidly as the air flared around her. Scarlet flames sprang up along her limbs, violent spasms rippling through her body.
"Jackie!" Richard lunged towards her, but was hurled back as a jet of flame caught him in the chest. Jackie screamed again, her arms and legs jerking out into a suspended spread-eagle as her feet left the ground, outlined in flame. Her arms flexed and this time the fire whirled about them, spiralling around her as she rose into the air, aura swelling, roaring … and suddenly the shape focused. A bizarrely-pitched screech cut across the landscape as massive, fiery wings beat a hurricane from the air.
The phoenix rose, brilliant golden eyes condensing from the flames as it screeched. Occasionally, the swirls of flame pulled back slightly and a dark figure could be seen in the heart of the fire, but not clearly.
Once again, Sam's body had reacted before she had time to think about it, and she found herself struggling to stay upright against the searing wind, shielding her eyes as she ran towards Richard's fallen form. He was starting to sit up by the time she got there, but she began dragging him back anyway. He accepted her grip and pulled himself upright, patting out the small flames still licking around his charred shirt. His eyes glittered, a strange gold colour in the fiery glow, his expression contorted horribly around them.
"Shit!"
"Wh-?"
"Why couldn't you bloody fools have stayed behind?" Richard snarled as he glared up at the avian inferno towering above them, still screeching into the night sky. Something in Sam's mind snapped, and she did something she never would have thought possible. She yelled at Richard.
"This isn't my fault! I don't even know what's happening!"
"Two fully unleashed Sues, within a continent of each other? What in Merlin's name do you think is going to happen, kid" The final word was spat with all the malice of a curse. Sam glanced up at the massive figure above them, and tried not to think about it.
'… they're either dominant or subservient and they'll fight to the death not to be the latter …' Her stomach gave a weird lurch as she realised who had said that.
"But … isn't that good?" she hazarded, weakly, "I mean, she'll fight Katryna …?"
"Oh, they'll fight," Richard said through gritted teeth, his eyes gleaming oily black, "and then I have to kill the victor."
Someone apparently took that moment to replace Sam's insides with ice. Her jaw dropped.
"But, but Jackie's on our side!"
"That isn't Jackie. Zitkalasa is not on our side!"
x-x-
The monstrous phoenix screamed one last time and then, leaving a trail of feathery embers hanging in the air behind it, folded its wings and plunged towards the huge, iridescent shape that was Katryna. The Sue watched it coming.
And smiled.
x-