(Note at end)
Chapter 14
"You alright, kid?"
Sam couldn't move. Her muscles had frozen, leaving her curled up so tightly it hurt, and she didn't want to know what would happen if she tried to relax. Her ears rang with echoes of the horrible screech, accompanying green after-images flashing across her eyes. She couldn't remember how to breathe. How long had it been, here in the hot darkness, whilst all around the screaming and the evil green light seethed, bursting into the faint sanctuary, battering, wrenching, searching … Then nothing. An eternal moment of nothing, while Sam's mind spiralled away into the dark and the echoes and –
An elbow jammed into her side. It was such a sudden, unexpected and mundane sensation that a yelp shot past Sam's lips and her paralysis vanished. It felt like every muscle in her body tensed at once, in the full-body spasm more usually associated with fitful sleep, then she crumpled and the shaking started. Small sobs crept out as she half-went to curl back, and then light burst into the darkness, air rushing past as she was pulled roughly onto her knees. Hands clasped her shoulders, hard, and an external force shook her.
"Look at me."
The words punched past the fog of terror and adrenaline-relics swamping her mind, going straight to the muscle centres. Sam's eyes snapped open, almost of their own accord, and her gaze locked with the brown stare opposite her. One of the eyes was blackened, the other outlined in blood as if with some particularly macabre makeup, but the stare burned.
"Keep it together, kid," Richard said quietly, and Sam gulped, trying to regain control of her body again. Panicking wouldn't help: the noise and chaos had stopped now.
"Wh-wh-what happ-pp-ened?" she stammered, her voice shaky and small, as if the words were trying not to be noticed. Richard opened his mouth, then froze. Several expressions flashed across his face in quick succession, starting with horrified realisation, and he swung around. His hands dropped from Sam's arms and he turned. Sam managed to follow his gaze.
What she saw was … unbalancing. Little had changed. They were sitting off-centre in the huge marbled circle, gold light still spilling down from above and highlighting the web of columns, if less brightly than before. The only real change was in the centre of the room, where a figure was slumped on the gilded ground. Sam nearly groaned. She'd survived that?
Richard gave a small sound, and suddenly he was on his feet. Sam started after him automatically, then stopped. One clear glance had been enough.
It wasn't Katryna. The form was tall and slim, but the slenderness was stretched now, an athletic build thinned out as if wasted. The hair was still long, but it had lost its unearthly sheen and was tangled where it had fallen ungracefully aside, and her face … It was certainly not Katryna's face. There were dark circles under the eyes, marring the soft skin, and faint lines were etched onto an otherwise smooth forehead, aging the features far more than apparent years should have done. Even her dress had changed; and no more gave the appearance of a glittering second skin, but changed to plain, if fitted, white. Real white, not the luminescent facsimile that had become so familiar.
The only other obvious detail was the spork handle buried in her chest, gleaming even as scarlet blossomed from beneath the silver.
"Kate!" Richard dropped down next to her, wand falling from his fingertips as he roughly pulled the crumpled form into his arms and shook her. "Oh hell – can you hear me?"
His gaze flicked down to her chest and a small wince crossed his otherwise inscrutable features as he focused on the metal spike. He reached gingerly towards it, but as his fingers brushed the surface Kate's hand shot up, locking around his wrist. Her eyes fluttered open.
They were blue. Plain, simple, ordinary, human blue.
"… Richard …"
"It's me." He said caught the hand, squeezing it gently. "Don't try to talk, you're hurt."
"She's … she's gone." A smile, a real smile crept onto her lips and Kate's eyelids drooped. "You really did it."
"I had no choice," Richard said quietly. Sam realised with a jolt that his eyes were glistening, "I promised. We couldn't let her-"
"Thank you …"
"No!" Richard shook her shoulders again as her eyes started to drift closed. "Stay with me! We'll get you out of here."
Kate laughed. The sound was barely audible, and very different from Katryna's vicious giggle. The fallen woman looked up at Richard, amusement flicking across her drawn face.
"Always the optimist. I'm tired, Richard –" she squeezed his fingers weakly, "but happy. We're free; we won."
"This time," he muttered and half moved, as if reaching for her other hand, but stopped.
"Then you're in practise … to win again …" Kate reached up and, very gently, laid a shaking hand on Richard's cheek. The two stares locked, blue to brown. Constant, for the first time. "You don't … let much stop you, I … know."
"And you don't give up this easily!" he nearly snapped, his hand reaching up to hesitate again next to hers, barely brushing. "You're-"
"… free…"
Her hand fell.
Richard didn't move. Eventually he reached down and eased Kate's eyelids closed. Sam wanted to turn away, didn't want to see the hollow expression on his face as his hand moved over to the spork handle, but she couldn't make her neck respond to her commands. Richard hesitated again, briefly, before his fingers closed on the handle and he pulled, freeing the weapon with a damp crack. Blood gleamed on the silver, tracing strange patterns on the smooth metal.
He stared at it for a long time. Then he flung it aside and turned away, his eyes closed.
Sam felt numb as she watched the scene unfold. Perhaps there wasn't any more room inside her for other emotions, and confusion was first in the queue for when some of the space was cleared. Should she say anything? Probably not. She got the impression that this was another event where she was superfluous to requirements, so she would have to just be as not-there as possible. Don't speak, don't move, don't make any sound until –
She stopped. Something was making a sound – a soft sound, like a high-pitched version of ruler vibrating on a desk edge – but it wasn't her …
She glanced round at the same time Richard seemed to become aware of the noise and turned. They both saw the spork standing straight in the air, its prongs sunk deep into the floor and quivering. The sound rose, vibrations becoming faster and faster, and around the tips of the prongs the ground began to crack like breaking glass. The golden light began to fade as tiny lines of smoke started to rise from the fissures.
"Run," Richard said quietly. He turned and met Sam's eyes at the same moment that the ground rocked violently and shattered, the spork plunging downward into the sudden cavern as smoke started to billow. Richard pulled Kate's body back into his arms and stood up, leaping out of the way as the ground beneath him zig-zagged like crazy paving and collapsed, plumes of greasy smoke swirling around him as he dove through them and yelled again:
"RUN!"
They ran. Sam cleared the edge of the golden circle after he did, and a fraction of a second before the remaining marbled gold fractured, heaving up like breaking ice as smoke billowed. Tiny bolts of lightning crackled past them, stabbing into the pillars as they ran past and sending ripples through the glow beneath. Sam glanced back, swallowing a yelp as she saw the wall of gilt columns crash down into the boiling mass the circle had become. Please don't lead back there, please don't lead back there –
Her silent desperation broke and she nearly hit Richard's back as he skidded to a halt. The forest of pillars hadn't led back to the circle room, but it had led to a blank wall. Richard swore.
"Damn!" He glanced round. "We'll have to go back – "
They looked round. There was no 'back'. There were only a few metres of architecture remaining behind them; the rest had collapsed into the chaotic mass. Richard looked around and started towards the only surviving pillars, but Sam grabbed his arm. She was staring at the wall, listening to the suspicion dancing around her thoughts.
"This place is Sue, right?"
"We do not have time for a question session!"
"Richard!" Sam looked up at him, as fiercely as she could. "It's Sue, isn't it? Katryna could make it work because she was a Sue!"
He glared at her and she could see the worry creeping onto his face.
"I don't know. But yes," he conceded, seeing her expression, "probably. What's your point?"
"You might be human now, but I'm not. I brought us through a wall once…" Without waiting for any response Sam tightened her grip on his arm, focused as hard as she could on the back of her mind where Serena lurked and lunged forward. Her forehead hit the wall painfully, but just before she rebounded the surface seemed to lose its integrity and she plunged into the cloying brilliance, dragging Richard behind her. This time, she kept her eyes open. The gold lightning crackled around them as they struggled forward, pushing through the surrounding glowing fog. It was like trying to swim through treacle, occasionally there seemed to be floor, more often not, and Sam's lungs started to ache from the strain of trying to breathe the oddly heavy air. She squinted, trying to see anything against the light, and thought she saw an area of fainter glow. Hoping that meant a way out, she began forcing her way towards it.
She was less than an arm's length away from the dulled area when the fog in front of her lit up and writhed. Sam swung back as the light swirled, condensed and divided, narrowing until two glowing slashes of light formed. Around them, a recognisable shape unfurled like a flag and suddenly a Sue was hovering in the smoke in front of her, eyes bright. The figure's arms swung up, reaching towards Sam in a horrible embrace that she couldn't dodge. She didn't have to. As the foggy hands touched her, Sam cried out, pain flaring from the back of her mind as she felt her own Sue lash out at the attempted intrusion. The hovering Sue jerked away, looking momentarily surprised, and Sam took the opportunity to dive forward, dragging Richard past the Sue. Suddenly she was falling through normal air as they toppled out of a wall. She span round, making sure Richard was completely out. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the figures looming up behind the glassy surface. Slashed eyes of gold fire were fixed on them, desperate hunger etched on each mannequin-face.
"Stay away from the walls," Richard said as he straightened up. "They're desperate, and conscious now."
"That one," Sam gasped, trying to get her breath back, "she grabbed at me, I-I think my Sue-"
"It won't last, trust me on that." Richard grimaced. "Keep running."
They seemed to have emerged into one of the endless corridors, so at least the actual running was easier. Sam tried to squash the thought that they really, really had no idea how to get out of here. Even if they managed to get back to where they had entered, being disgorged from the gestalt's lofty 'shoulder' with no form of flight available wouldn't be a very good plan. She was so focused on the thought that it was only pure instinct that allowed her to dodge the first ghostly hand which shot out of the wall and snatched at her. She dodged it, squeaked, and hopped over another that thrust out of the floor, clawing for her ankles.
"Avoid them!" Richard snapped, jumping over a trio of hands that grasped for him, and ducking under some more that speared down from the roof. "This place is falling apart, they need a host. Don't give them one!"
Sam gulped and tried to concentrate on running. Golden lightning and dark cracks raced alongside them, brilliant eyes condensing at a horrible speed as they dodged hands, arms and less-clearly formed limbs that shot out, grasping greedily as they sprinted past. Sam hurdled an almost complete smoky torso and suddenly something caught her eye. She came to an abrupt halt. The corridor branched at that point, and the light at the end of the left one didn't seem as gold.
"This way!" she called and Richard span round, ducking back after her as they changed course. The more Sam focused on the different light, the surer she was, and she had to press down treacherous relief. Get out first, then be relieved about it. She skidded to a halt by the end wall and examined it. Cracks were snaking out across the surface like a web, the surface itself was less shiny than the rest and, most importantly, there didn't seem to be the swirling fog behind the glass. Sam reached out gingerly, took a deep breath as she focused, and stuck her head through the wall.
Cold night air hit her like a punch to the face. She didn't have enough night-vision to be able to see much as she craned round, but she could tell that they were only a few metres off the ground, and that whatever they were inside was certainly not Katryna-shaped anymore. She pulled herself back inside and turned round, opening her mouth to speak to Richard as he reached her, but her words vanished in a small squeak as she saw the collapsing chaos boiling behind him. It had reached the end of the corridor and the dark cracks were already snaking towards them, gouts of smoke shooting out where the walls collapsed.
Sam grabbed for Richard's arm.
"It's only a short drop, we can – "
"Wait." Richard's eyes narrowed as he glared around, suspicion on his face. Sam hopped from one foot to another, gaze flicking between the advancing chaos and Richard's face.
"What?"
"Nothing's come after us. In the tunnel, nothing's grabbed for me. You?"
"No, but, I thought that, I mean we're nearly out, and …"
"No. This isn't right." Richard knelt down and gently laid Kate's body against the fractured surface. He straightened up, moving over to glare at another wall. His hand shot out, pressing palm-first against the surface, and suddenly he swung the other up, fingers grasping around smoky arms as they lunged out at him. He wrenched back hard, dragging the figure out of the wall.
Sam took a step back, her eyes widening as Richard slung his burden aside, but the shape twisted in the air, spinning like an insubstantial gymnast to land squarely on its hands. Limbs blurred, shifted, and suddenly the figure was on it feet, a horrible grin splitting the demonic mannequin face. This new figure was different to all those Sam had seen before. For one thing, it was very clearly male.
So that's what Stus emphasise …
"I hope you've kept my body in good shape, Richard." Adrastos stretched, cat-like, and straightened, before focusing his gold eye-slashes on Richard. "I'll be making a new deal now, I think."
"Get out, Sam," Richard growled through clenched teeth as he fixed a death stare on his smoky doppelganger. Adrastos glanced over at Sam, clearly uninterested, but then he noticed the limp form at her feet and his smile widened. He smirked.
"So we got an ending after all, Richard? I wonder – did you tell her? At the end, perhaps, in the heroes' way?"
"Sam! Get out!" Richard yelled, but Sam shook her head violently.
"I'm not leaving you!"
The foot slammed into her chest so hard that her ribs screamed. Sam let out a yell as she was thrown backward, automatically snatching at the air for purchase. Her hand closed on Kate's dress and they hit the wall together. She tried not to fall through it, but resistance didn't make any difference as the cracked surface shattered under her weight and she smashed out. There was a moment of stomach-churning gravity, and she just had time to worry about hitting the ground at that unnatural angle, before her plunge suddenly slowed, unseen strength taking her weight. Her head jerked up automatically as she drifted to the ground and she focused on the shimmering, unfocused mass of yellowish, glowing fog above her. The only clear area was a ragged hole above her, where two figures were visibly highlighted against the glow. Richard was turning back from his kick, but he wasn't fast enough. Adrastos leapt forward, foggy hands plunging unstoppably towards his ex-host's chest.
Sam hit the ground and suddenly there was the thud of feet next to her and an arm shot out, wand-tip bright in the darkness as a female voice yelled:
"Coerceo"
A ripple shot out through the air, smoke fleeing before it. Adrastos looked up just in time for the spell to hit him full in the face. He let out a bizarre half-roar, half screech of rage as the spell caught and the Stu's smoky form writhed, twisting round, up and back on itself until he'd been condensed into a globe of boiling fog. Richard leapt to his feet, his puzzled expression visible even from there.
"Jump, you bloody idiot!" The familiar voice rang out like a gunshot and Richard span around and flung himself clear of the corridor a fraction of a second before the walls collapsed. The wand waved again and his fall slowed, but he still rolled as he landed. Sam scrambled to her feet and turned round, not daring to hope for what she knew she was going to see.
The first thing she noticed was the lack of red. Jackie – her hair something closer to brown than scarlet now – flashed a tired grin.
"Evening."
"Forget the pleasantries!" Richard yelled as he reached them, the still, white figure clutched in his arms again. "That thing is about to collapse! Run!"
They ran. The ground shuddered under them, rocking, bucking violently, tremors rippling through the earth with ease, and over it was the noise, a screaming, screeching reverberating crescendo, that became louder and louder and louder until the ground sang along with it. Sam ran. The howling peaked as the air filled with greasy whispers turned to shrieking and the sickly golden glow grew bright enough to turn night to momentary day. There was a final pulse of light and sound, and then the sprinting figures were hurled bodily forward as behind them the seething, chaotic mass of dying Sue exploded in an effects-director's fever-dream of brilliance, fire and gold.
The echoes took a long time to die away, and even longer to stop rebounding inside Sam's skull. She covered her head with her arms and pressed herself against the ground, trying not to inhale grass, and stayed there until the earth stilled again. When she finally managed to ease herself up onto her knees and open her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the light. Gone was the sickly golden brilliance, replaced with the soft light of several dozen lumos spells, and the faint grey shimmer of dawn.
Around her, in various states of disarray and bearing identical expressions of utter confusion, but upright – if swaying – and very much alive, were the Terrace. They were stared, wide-eyed and disbelieving, at both her and something behind her. She turned.
Behind her, scarring a significant stretch of the dark forest, was a massive crater, scored several storeys deep into bare earth as if by some titanic scoop. Everything else was gone. The battle-scorched trees, the ruptured ground, the assorted side-effects of magical fallout. Everything, swallowed up by the earth.
Sam's heart skipped a few beats before she found what she was really looking for in the destruction. Two figures, rising unsteadily to their feet right at the very edge of the crater. Before she knew what she was doing she was stumbling over, trying to push away tears of relief. Richard stood up first, but he instantly dropped down again to crouch by the pale shape crumpled beside him. Jackie looked over at Sam then turned back to Richard as he straightened up for the second time. His face was blank when he glanced round.
"Nice shot."
Jackie managed a thin smile.
"Thanks – " she cast a glance over him and raised an eyebrow. "You look awful."
"Thanks; I feel it. So," he said dully, "we won, then."
"Apparently. Are you alright?" Her expression indicated she already knew the answer. Richard shrugged.
"I doubt it."
There was a long moment of silence as Jackie's gaze travelled down, alighting on the slumped figure. When she next spoke, her words were tentative – hopeful, almost – but her expression was the same. The question needed to be asked, even if its answer was already clear.
"And … Kate?"
Richard's lips pressed together tightly and he shook his head. He half made to turn away but Jackie stepped forward, enveloping him in a tight embrace before he could move. For a moment he stiffened, conflict fighting with grief for control of his face, and then he crumpled. It wasn't a graceful or dramatic fall, but the buckling collapse of someone pushed beyond their endurance levels for far too long. Jackie managed to catch him, but Richard was considerably bigger than she was and she stumbled trying to support his weight.
The scene froze.
Then Sam caught Richard's other arm, pulling it around her shoulders, and the moment broke. The lights flickered as the Terrace resident suddenly surged forward, sound rising as shock cracked and the questions started. There were too many to even hear properly, so it took a few minutes and a sonorus charm before Jackie could make herself heard above the chaos.
"In the nicest, most sensitive way possible: everyone SHUT UP! Now," she shot a glare around the pale crowd. "We have to move, and I don't want anyone attempting Apparation. There's a portkey on the hill, we'll do multiple trips. Level One Field operatives, out here now."
The crowd parted and, a little hesitantly, four figures moved forward. Sam didn't recognise any of them, and even Jackie had to squint slightly.
"Alright. Two of you take your teams and go ahead, the rest are on escort duty. I'm not sure where the 'port back will come in, so be on your toes. Is Elsa – ?"
"I've done the best I can with no supplies." The medi-witch emerged from the crowd, looking flustered. Her newly-black hair had been scraped roughly back, still in its braids, but her stare was as sharp as ever. She raised an eyebrow at Jackie and Sam, then stepped towards the figure slung between them.
"I won't ask, yet, but –"
"Not now. Is everyone stable?"
"Physically? Mostly. As for anything else …"
"It can wait. No one is to be left," Jackie said quietly, "even if …" she trailed off and shot a glance round. Elsa followed her gaze, and the remaining colour drained out of her face.
"… oh no …"
"Elsa, I need to go with everyone else. You're alright?"
"Unbalanced, bruised and I haven't dared try magic, but yes."
"Consider yourself deputised."
Elsa nodded grimly and then span round, snapping some sharp orders as she began to divide the group.
"Come on," Jackie muttered. She started towards the hill – already crowned with a ring of lumos as the Field team got into place. People started filtering after them, pale-faced shadows in the darkness as wands were quickly requisitioned. By the time they reached the circle of light, Sam was having difficulty walking, her legs starting to shut down under the combination of increasing exhaustion, plunging adrenaline, and the weight of Richard across her shoulders. She tried to ignore the rising buzz in her ears, and the way her vision kept sliding in and out of focus.
She'd got this far. She couldn't stop now, she couldn't …
A dull rush of air heralded the arrival of a tall black woman, one hand holding a wand, the other buried in the portkey's shimmering feathers as it re-appeared. She nodded to Jackie.
"Comes out in the kitchen. All seems clear, I've got one team ready for pickup, one establishing safe sections in the rest of the building, and Ivy's securing the Infirmary."
Jackie managed a thin smile.
"You're good, Jo."
"Trained by the best." The tall woman glanced at Richard for a second, and something approaching a wince crossed her face. It was gone just as quickly as she held out the wing to Jackie and the small group that had been moved in around them. Sam reached out, taking hold of the glassy feathers and the world lurched. Dizziness swept over her as she was dragged forward and she focused her remaining strength on two things: holding the portkey, and keeping Richard's limp arm pulled close to her shoulder. The journey ended as abruptly as it had begun, Sam's feet hitting solid ground hard as the battered remains of the Terrace kitchen whirled in around her. She stumbled forward and was caught by several hands, quickly moved to one side by strong, if shaken, movements, and then suddenly the weight was off her shoulders and Jackie was muttering to her, trying to move her somewhere. Sam looked up in time to see the portkey return for the second time, Elsa moving in on Richard's unconscious form, but the view was fading, blurring and Sam felt her strength fail as her final flicker of adrenaline gave out. She sank to her knees, dimly aware of the hot tears on her cheeks, or of Jackie's voice, soothing, comforting …
It was finally over.
She passed out.
-x-x-
Jackie leaned against a reasonably-sound wall, taking a moment to sigh, close her eyes, and thank any deity that might happen to be listening that a decent supply of coffee had survived the chaos. She gripped the mug tightly between her fingers; thick, gritty liquid crawled against its sides, promising another few hours to be snatched from the arms of sleep. She took a swig, breathed out, and opened her eyes to survey the scene before her.
All in all, they were doing rather well. The corridors between the kitchen, main hallway and Infirmary had been cleared, any suspect walls reinforced, and enough side rooms tidied up to provide at least floor space for the residents. The remaining residents, Jackie reminded herself with a shudder as she thought of the small room that lead off the main hall. Once a TV lounge, now a makeshift morgue under Field guard. Nine dead, over two dozen with physical wounds, and damn near everyone moving around whilst in various stages of shock. Still, they were doing well. The Field teams were systematically working their way through the rest of the Terrace, removing obstacles and repairing wards; Elsa had gathered her own team and was moving between the rooms and huddled groups, a bag slung over her shoulder, dispensing whatever immediate care she could. Jackie's tentative inquiry about the medi-witch's own wellbeing had been answered with a cold glare and sharp rebuttal: "My magic might be shaky, but I can bandage, salve and apply sticking plasters perfectly well without a wand, thank you."
Jackie herself had made sure that there was someone on tea, coffee and high-sugar product duty. They really needed chocolate, but there was only a limited supply of that left. She'd procured a few bars of it for what she considered her most personal duty, which she was currently looking at.
Richard was stretched out on a hastily-transfigured bed, stripped down to his shorts, but modesty was well satisfied by the sheer area of potion-imbued bandages secured across his bare skin. His clothes were neatly piled next to him, quietly repairing themselves, having expelled all the grime several hours ago. Whatever he'd got charmed into his robes was working overtime. Again.
Opposite Richard, curled up on an intact sofa on the other side of the room and wrapped loosely in a scavenged blanket, Sam slept quietly. Jackie allowed herself a grin as she looked at the small figure. She'd been through hell and back, and, as far as Jackie could tell, she'd emerged intact. A little battered, but very definitely not beaten.
Like the Terrace as a whole, really. Jackie straightened up and moved over to the small room's window. It offered little in the way of a view – just the street outside, cars moving along its tarmac skin as morning faded into afternoon – but she stared out of it nonetheless. Idly, she glanced at her reflection in the glass, and played with a bit of the tangled auburn that now capped her head. The lack of scarlet was going to take a bit of getting used to, but she admitted a small sense of satisfaction that her eyes hadn't changed along with the forced eviction of her subconscious lodger. It was a very strange sensation, finally being alone in her own head, not having to constantly watch her thoughts, but it was a nice one. And at least she'd be able to really trust herself around matches now.
As thoughts swum lazily through her mind, Jackie was quite aware that she was avoiding one particular line of mental inquiry. It wasn't the time, not yet. Get the now sorted out first. Then, maybe, there would be time for other things. She tuned round and looked at Richard's unconscious form. A lot was going to depend on him. Sure, she could get things tidied up, and the Field teams were a great asset, and now some of the other residents had started to mentally thaw enough to be of use, but …
They needed him. They needed the focus; the determination, the sarcasm-veiled concern and the sheer, undeniable, undiluted Richard-ness of him.
I can't lose them both.
Her thoughts were broken by a small voice.
"Jackie?"
Jackie turned. Sam was sitting up, her eyes wide. Time slowed, and then suddenly the girl's arms were latched tightly around Jackie's waist as she sobbed into her shirt. Jackie reached round and returned the hug, squeezing gently to reassure without words. After a while, the girl's grip began to lessen, her cries subside, and Jackie carefully eased her off and guided her back to the sofa. As they sat down, Sam gulped air, and words started to be discernable.
"… sorry. I just – "
"Hey," Jackie slung an arm around the small shoulders, "enough of that. Venting tear-ducts is a perfectly acceptable response, don't worry about it. If it helps, I'm glad you made it too."
Sam managed a wobbly smile.
"Th-thanks. I still d-don't understand what happened, really. But it's over, right?" there was a pleading edge in her voice, "I mean, everyone's okay, aren't they? I saw, on the hill, they were all standing and looking, well, different …" She stopped, staring closely at Jackie's hair. The slightly-redhead grinned.
"Yes, there are some truly shocking degrees of normality around the place now. Maybe I should go purple? For the sake of our own twisted branch of the ordinary, of course." She regarded her friend closely. "You did well, Sam. I'm proud of how you handled it all."
"I was terrified! I didn't even know what I was doing!"
"Take it from an old-hand, kid: No-one ever does. Even … hmm," Jackie frowned, "I don't think 'normal-iris' is going to hack it as a description. Ah well. All good things must come to an end, I suppose."
At that, Sam suddenly went very quiet and looked at her feet.
"So, you're human too? Now, I mean."
"Yup. It's faintly disconcerting."
"But I'm not. Katryna … she never took my Sue. Why?" Sam looked up again. Jackie thought about it, then shrugged.
"Dunno. Maybe it wasn't strong enough to interest her?"
"She kept talking about it," Sam snapped and a small spark ignited in her eyes. "Calling me 'Serena' and weak."
"And she was probably right." Jackie grinned at the shocked expression on Sam's face. "I think Richard told you – Serenas generally aren't very strong. But it wasn't Serena out there, was it?"
Even in the dim light, Sam blushed.
"No."
"Exactly. Anyway," Jackie continued airily, "you aren't the only one who didn't get de-Sued. Last thing I saw, Elsa was fussing excessively over our top Field team, once they'd been dug out. I think we needed a drill to get Darek out of the floor. They're back to themselves now the Influence has faded, but they're still in your boat."
That seemed to brighten Sam up a little. She sat silently for a moment, and then started to look round. Her gaze swept across the room and landed on Richard. Relief flooded her features, but it was quickly followed by wide eyes, a look of shock and a sudden diversion of stare, while crimson burst anew onto her cheeks. Jackie couldn't stifle a small laugh.
"Er, yeah, well we did have to get to all those wounds. A lot were from sporks, weren't they?"
Sam swallowed nervously.
"Yes."
Then she told Jackie everything. It took some time, involving a lot of stumbling sentences and grappling with description, but, however awkwardly, she got there. When the final words faded from the air, Sam sat back and closed her eyes, letting out a huge breath.
"It's just so unreal," she said quietly, "like it's too weird to have happened, even though I was there."
"Weird isn't the half of it," Jackie murmured. She looked at the small figure next to her, and then over again at Richard.
Merlin's bea-
ars-
oh hell, Merlin's entire anatomy!
She didn't know what she'd been expecting to have happened. She had a few foggy memories of what Zitkalasa had seen, but the Sue had never been concerned much with anything that didn't burn, and things had become decidedly foggy after the Phoenix flames had died. The first clear recollection was coming to in a torn-up forest, in time to see some giant, boiling mass of sickly gold start to pulse very strangely, a few moments before Sam had been hurled out of it. Everything from then on had been mostly instinct, and she hadn't thought much about what had occurred in her missing minutes.
Ye gods.
"I swear, kid," Jackie said, shaking her head, "if you don't end up in Field, I'll give up cake."
Sam managed a small laugh. She shook her head.
"I'd be useless. Anyway, what's happened here? It was such a mess before!"
"Still is, but we're working on it."
"Can … can I help?"
Jackie raised an eyebrow.
"You feel up to it?"
Sam shrugged.
"I can't sleep anymore. Besides, I want to do something."
Jackie regarded her closely. There were dark circles under her eyes and she was still pale, although her collection of cuts and bruises were healing well under Elsa's salves. Still, she didn't look much worse than a lot of those still shifting furniture, and Jackie knew well the desire to stay busy. It helped stop you thinking quite as much. She sighed, and nodded.
"Alright. This is rather against my better judgement, and if Elsa kills me for this, I blame you utterly. Mind being stuck on tea-duty?"
"If it doesn't explode, glow, try to kill me or sprout anything more horrible than steam, I'll be happy."
Jackie laughed. She straightened up and pulled one of her procured chocolate bars from her jacket.
"Eat this first. And I'll see if we can't find some less threadbare clothes for you."
They moved towards the door. Sam pushed it open, hesitating before stepping through into the organising chaos beyond. Her gaze strayed back to the slumbering figure, and when their stares next met Jackie felt a jolt of surprise at the age in Sam's eyes.
"Will he be okay?"
"Elsa's a genius, he'll be all knitted up in no time – "
"No," Sam said softly, and Jackie could almost see the moment that was playing behind her eyes, "that isn't what I meant."
There wasn't any need to elaborate. Jackie swallowed the lump in her throat as she gently ushered Sam out of the door.
"I know. I wish I knew your answer too, Sam. I really do."
The door swung shut behind them.
-x-x-
Winter sunlight streamed out across the landscape, sharpening the edges of everything it touched. The dark wash of trees was broken only by an occasional rocky outcrop, small ridge, and one large crater. Far beyond the trees, where faint shades of turrets were just visible in the distance, two small dark shapes rose into the pale sky and rapidly became larger as they flew towards the forest's scar. Leathery wings beat the air, raising small tornadoes of dust, and soon two Thestrals were landing smoothly in the centre of the scoured ground. Their riders dismounted.
The first man to speak was the larger of the two, a huge figure who towered over his companion. Beetle-black eyes stared out from behind a wild mass of hair that swamped most of his face. The visible features held clear disbelief.
"'S like a crater. Yer think summat landed here?"
"I'm not yet sure, Hagrid," the second figure replied carefully, sharp blue eyes glittering behind his half-moon spectacles as he, too, assessed the scene. "Nor can I think how an event of this size could go unnoticed by our wards."
"Nothin' saw it. Never seen the Centaurs so worried as when they foun' it, neither."
The older man didn't reply. His gaze was tracing the crater, sweeping over every detail of the scene. He drew a thin wand robe from his robes and waved it gently, a light wind springing up around him and sweeping out, scattering the top layer of soil before it.
Silver gleamed. Here and there, bulbous droplets of melted metal peeked out of the earth, their original form unrecognisable. Except for one. The old man bent down, his beard brushing the ground as he carefully pulled the object free. Triple prongs glinted in the light.
"Wha'tcha got there, Professor?" Hagrid leaned over, squinting down at the thin metal object. The older man didn't answer him at first, and continued to stare thoughtfully at the implement resting in his palm.
"Dunno what coulda done all this." Hagrid waved a huge hand around, gesturing to the rest of the crater. "Nothin' should be in this forest that'd do it!"
Very slowly, Dumbledore's lips twitched into a small smile and he carefully pocketed the spiked metal.
"It's alright Hagrid." He straightened up and smiled again. "Nothing to worry about here, I think."
The big man regarded him quizzically for a moment, then shrugged.
"Wha'ever you say."
-x-
(Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/fed back to me on this, plus the usual grateful nod to my betas: SerenaSnape and filiuslupi. Final chapter in beta.)