Summary: Because the front line was gone and he was the only one left, wasn't he? one shot
Note: This has been sitting around for a loong while and I thought – while updating that attentionwhore of a fic – What the hell? I'll post this to tide my petty little conscience over. Hear that? You're petty.
So this is it? This is how I die?
Nouda is bearing down like I'm the all-you-can-eat, and Bartimaeus is gone to the Other World. I said goodbye, didn't I? And for the barest of moments, I understood everything. Ptolemy, Other World, Bartimaeus. Is this how it's like when you die? Or is it because I was melded with a djinn?
Nouda makes some sort of shriek that probably blew out my ear drums, but I'm so numbed from the shock of my side, and the absence of Bartimaeus… He really is gone isn't he? It's funny, but once I had him in my head -- that whole dual control – I can't really seem to get him out. Even when he's gone. Sort of like the barest of whispers: C'mon Nat. Not much left, you can do it. Then again it might be me whispering to myself, but I don't check because I'd rather believe that he's left a piece of himself in me to guide me through this. Hah. A magician that's attached to a djinn beyond servant and master. How Farrar would sneer.
The spirits in the staff scream at me for release and as Nouda opens the former Prime Minister's jaw – and stretches it beyond any human limit – I do just that. The Staff trembles and the wood cracks even further and breaks into jagged fragments that dissolve from the powers that surge forth. For a fleeting instant, some of the djinn wrap around me, singing my praises. I sigh, and relax, because its over and if this is death then-
Nouda howls and I open my eyes to see him consumed in a piercing orange light – flame?. The whole building shakes and I think I hear glass breaking – my ears were safe after all – and the groan of iron bending toward us.
Before I can so much as smirk victorously – or collapse to that same strain – the building starts to burn and fall into itself and all I can think about is Bartimaeus and how whole and perfect I felt when we melded. Oh yeah, and how I lied to Kitty. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time.
I wonder if I'll ever see him –
Boom. Crackle.
Note: Was this just a smidgeon Nathamaeus? …Yeah. Yeah, it was.