Disclaimer: Don't own anything except original characters. All material (c) to respective owners. I write these for fun and make no profit. They're just random plot bunnies that live within my strange mind.
Chapter 8: Confrontational or Suicidal?
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Ichabod saw a silver chain tightly clasped in Sabina's hand and glanced over his shoulder briefly, he was letting Daredevil basically lead the way out since they had turned far too many paths for him to keep track.
"What are those Sabina?" she glanced at the silver chain in hand and carefully maneuvered her hands so she could glance at the objects on the chain and keep a grasp on Ichabod.
She leaned on his shoulder studying the trinkets on the chain. "Rings…they each have a different color stone and two of them are glowing right now. One is a diamond and the other is a powder blue crystal." He lowered his gaze to the rings feeling Daredevil speed up again. "These must have some significance…I recognize them but can't put my finger on it just yet." She noticed Daredevil was slowing his pace and paused hidden among some thick trees.
"Must be he is waiting to see where to go from here." Ichabod half turned studying the rings on the chain and seen she had managed to slide of the two glowing rings, along with a violet one that seemed to intrigue her. "That glows brightly in your hand." She noticed this too and hesitantly slid it onto her middle finger of her right hand; once on the glowing ceased, she felt an almost odd electricity fly up her arm. "Strange." He studied the diamond that still glowed within her palm.
"Ichabod…this may sound like a bad idea, but put this on." His eyes widen at the idea of putting a strange ring on his finger, but before he could protest she slid it onto his middle finger of his right hand and again the weird electricity occurred and the glowing ceased. "Travel rings…I read on these back home in a book I had. They open dimensions…each ring is tied to a person from a dimension, that's how that demon is getting back and forth. His ring is black with an odd red glow, he's tied into a dark dimension that is nothing but shadows…he technically has no form which is why he's all red eyes, hooded cloaks and large gloves. Each of these rings must belong to the others in the agency…at least the agents, not the superiors. This bone like ring must belong to Seth…he got involved without even knowing it." She tucked the rings into her zipper pocket of her jeans and slid the violet one on her other hand.
"Why are you keeping that one?" Ichabod was puzzled by her explanation of the ring and curious about the amethyst.
"Because unfortunately it belongs to your quirky partner…I just hope the demon didn't use these to hurt anything in your worlds." Daredevil was off without a warning, Ichabod reflexively caught the reins feeling her arms tighten around him out of surprise. "We need to hurry…apparently the shadow demon is nearby again."
They were rapidly coming into a clearing which Ichabod recognized as the exit out of the woods, he firmly locked the reins around his good hand and squeezed Sabina's arm in a reassuring way, apparently Daredevil was going to make a jump to exit the woods judging by his increase of speed.
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Willy and the others had their hands full with more of the werewolves escaping the woods in a violent frenzy. After a long few minutes the Hessian stopped swinging and all dodged to the side watching Daredevil break through the trees landing a few feet off and trotting over to his masters' side. Ichabod slid down off the horse helping Sabina down seeing her stumble slightly and glance around at the others. As she had predicted once Willy was over to their side the amethyst on her finger started to glow and she handed it to him explaining what she had guessed from her books. Reluctantly Willy slid the ring onto his finger getting the same odd electric current once it ceased to glow.
Sands and Jack exchanged looks with one another after listening to her story. "Ye mean there be a ring in there for all of us?" she nodded reaching into her pocket and slipping out the chain of rings, the bone one glowed the minute Seth come within range and she handed it over watching his startled expression.
A ruby started to glow further down the chain which she instantly handed over to Sands, it was so red it was a bloodstone she guessed once the odd effect had taken place and then she handed over a turquoise one which stopped glowing once Jack had placed it among his others. She slid the others safely into her pocket, she had a feeling that she would have a lot of explaining to do once they got the shadow demon back into his own world; she also had a feeling that this wouldn't be the end of her involvement with the Dimensional Agency.
Ichabod and the others exchanged curious looks with one another. "Should we check in with the information…or keep it to ourselves?" Sabina glanced at her four newfound friends and saw a familiar smirk light up Jacks face.
"We should keep it to ourselves." Willy nodded in agreement with this but Sands and Ichabod look apprehensive. "Ye know as well as I do they find out about these rings, we will all be gathered into that bleeding room with all the superiors. We will all have the rings handed over and Sabina will be sent back home, she probably won't be able to even come back after this." She noticed Ichabod and Willy both wince at this, unfortunately that's how the superiors worked and they both new this. "It wouldn't surprise me if Tia Dalma didn't do something to make sure that happens either." He scowled at the thought of the voodoo queen and noticed an odd expression take over Sabina's face.
Sabina twisted the ring on her finger in thought considering what she would say to that. "She can't." the others looked at her curiously; the monsters were busily talking with the Hessian learning about his appearance and other such things about his stay in the woods. "If she could have done something she wouldn't have made me come on this mission with Ichabod and Willy, she knows more then she lets on about this situation. The others really need the rings though…otherwise that shadow demon could do a great deal of damage in their worlds." Willy and Ichabod found this strange and yet both agreed with her, it made sense. "What do you think Sands…clearly you have something running through that twisted mind." All eyes fell on the familiar temperamental agent.
Sands smirked returning his gun to his side and staring at the others. "I think she's right…in more ways then one." A cold hardness took over his dark eyes, which made Willy step cautiously behind Sabina and Ichabod; he was very familiar with that look.
"Mate…don't shoot the superiors, that's one mess ye can't clean up." Sands offered a wry smile at Jacks obvious statement and then started to program the coordinates into a familiar black box, Ichabod repeated the action.
"We're going back to sort this out, the rest of you keep together and out of sight for a while. I get the feeling you are all in danger…Horseman, keep them safe?" the horsemen met Ichabod's curious gaze and nodded. "Come on Willy…Sands clearly isn't going to shoot you for the moment." He wrinkled his nose at Ichabod's sarcastic tone, but nodded and joined his side.
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Sabina took notice to two familiar figures waiting outside the recognizable yellow building looming before her, once the colored lights faded. Oddly enough she was glad to be back in this particular city considering her other options of going home and dealing with blade demons, or dealing with a shadow demon in monster city. "Dean Corso and Mort Raney." Willy glanced up at the familiar muttered cursing from Corso seeing he had dropped his cigarette during their arrival and found himself smirking.
"Another vampire…awful popular with the weirdo's aren't you?" Sabina narrowed her eyes at Corso and almost took out her frustration on him by pounding his smirking face; she instead reached into her pocket and studied the rings for the ones that would be glowing.
"Screw you Corso…not a vampire." Sabina found an emerald colored stone glowing at his approach and handed it over watching his puzzled expression; Ichabod proceeded to fill in the blanks with forced patience while Mort studied her curiously. "Yes?" she met his curious gaze and took notice that he had apparently more control over Shooter then in her world where his story was fictional.
Willy noticed Mort smile at her annoyed tone. "Don't even think about it Mort…judging by her current tone, even Shooter might have a problem." His violet eyes twinkled at the annoyed expression on Mort's face, Sabina ignored the little battle of wits around her and handed over a black glowing stone with a hint of green within it.
"Who knows where the rest of you are?" She glanced up from the curious looks around her and saw Jack smirk. "Right…not going to trust you alone Jack, pirate remember." She grinned at the wrinkled look on his face. "Sands…take these and hand them out to the others, explain what is going on." He nodded dragging a very sour looking Jack with him. "Are you two going to come in with Ichabod, Willy and myself…or walk off and hide out from them?" she pointed up at the familiar yellow building with a flair in her eyes that read angry all the way.
Corso and Mort exchanged nervous looks with one another; she was definitely something to deal with. "Do we have a choice?" Mort studied her irritated expression. "I take that as no." Corso nearly choked on his cigarette when she grabbed his tie and followed Ichabod and Willy up to the double doors, she dragged him all the way taking notice to Mort's nervous expression.
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Corso finally managed to wrangle himself loose and glowered at Sabina, she ignored his dirty look and kept marching ahead. Ichabod and Willy on either side of her, Mort and Corso hesitantly following behind eyeing her like she was the plague from hell. She opened the doors with a flair that surprised Willy and stood there before the council arms crossed.
Norrington was the first to look up from the group of Superiors. "Who are you?" he all but sneered seeing the others all turn their attention to the girl before them. El, Katrina, Tia Dalma, Dr. Wonka and several others were now present but she was too ticked off to pay them any mind.
"Don't, I mean don't even use that tone with me at the moment Commodore." Sabina's eyes fixed on Tia Dalma; she knew why Sabina was ticked off and had an odd almost nervous look in her eyes. "You know more then you let on…tell me now. We almost were all killed by a shadow demon." Her voice was barely above a hiss, the other four stepped back unaccustomed to this side of Sabina.
There was a murmur of whispers about the table, and then silence for Tia Dalma. "Ye girl…should not use that tone of voice with us, you are here because we allow it." Sabina's eyes flashed angrily at this, she knew better and Tia suddenly realized her error in misjudging her intelligence.
"If that was the case…I. Wouldn't. Be. Here." She offered a forced smile and glared at the group before her, the only one that appeared even remotely on their side was Dr. Wonka, and El Mariachi. "I've given the rings back to their proper owners Tia Dalma…now that we are through with the crap; explain before I really get mad." Willy was enjoying how easily she could put them in their place along with the others; it had never been done before to their knowledge.
Katrina to her surprise stood to address her next. "You won't address us that way Ms. Crystal. We will determine when and if we find it necessary to tell you what is going on. Now kindly apologize to the members and we will sort this out in an orderly fashion." Her eyes leveled with warning.
Ichabod noticed a dark look come in to Sabina's eyes and winced. "Bite me!" she all but hissed. "I'm waiting Tia Dalma…and don't feed me any shit." Her eyes narrowed expectantly at the woman who was eyeing her with an odd glint in her eyes, Willy could have sworn it was a cross between pride and amusement.
"Ye have fire girl…I'll give ye that." Katrina glared at Tia Dalma who sounded far too amused with the situation; Tia ignored her and nodded deciding it would be best with Sabina's fire and temper. "Very well…" there was a sudden outburst of whispers and protests from the rest of the members, but she easily silenced them with a look. "Ye knew of the rings before ye come to meet the agents. This is because I once come to yer world knowing of the rings being stolen and hidden years ago, well ye get the point. I found ye when ye were young and noticed yer odd fascination with unusual things, I studied ye without your knowledge for a great deal of time and learned ye have a gift for understanding the weird, or what we do for a living. Unknown to me at the time a shadow demon was in search of these rings and eventually created this chaos, I knew through various readings, and other sources ye be coming and soon. I am not sure how yer involved in this girl, but ye are definitely a key in this and ye are now part of our agency whether we like it or not. Ye have a power even we can't comprehend entirely…which is the only reason ye still have a working tongue." Her eyes glittered almost dangerously at this; it didn't faze Sabina in the least.
"Thank you for finally giving me a straight answer. Now if you don't mind we have a demon to deal with and I'm taking these two with us." Sabina promptly grabbed Corso by the tie and proceeded to leave the room, the others followed after worried that something would come at their backs.
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Once outside Sabina released Corso ignoring the dark look she received and all but dropped to the steps, Ichabod and Willy were both at her sides in seconds. "I can't believe I just did that…I thought one of them was going to kill me." She covered her face and ducked into her knees.
"You weren't the only one, I never seen Katrina that red in the face with anger." Ichabod gave Willy a warning look and glanced up in time to see Jack and Sands heading their way. "They…did." He leaned back twisting his cane thoughtfully seeing two others were following behind them. "It appears we have more help coming miss bravery." That made her look up and send him a familiar scathing look.
Sands and Jack sure enough were being followed by two more familiar figures. Sabina studied the first of the two newcomers who was Tom Hanson walking along side, she assumed his partner who was Gene Watson. Gene was the first to pause studying Willy with what she could tell was minor contempt, his gold rimmed glasses flashed briefly when he run his hand through his dark hair and slightly long bangs, his grey business suit looked a bit on the rumpled side at the moment. Tom was wearing jeans a jean jacket over a white t-shirt studying the group curiously, clearly he was aware of the situation and was studying Sabina almost instinctively.
Tom offered Willy a brief smile; he was one of the few that could tolerate his demented side to an extent. "I take it this is Sabina and the reason we have these interesting additions?" he held up a soft colored yellow jeweled ring on his right middle finger, Gene glanced down at the orchid colored one on his right hand and then at her.
"Yep." Willy smirked seeing she wasn't overly enthusiastic with him at the moment. "She also told off the superiors…literally. I don't think I've ever seen them that worked up over some little girl." That was enough for her to climb to her feet and irritably place a foot over his seeing him wince in surprise at the action before she stepped back and studied the new arrivals. "Owy…she's in a fine mood." He smirked down eyes twinkling at the scowl on her face.
Sands lifted his sunglasses up eyebrows raised, eyes curiously twinkling. "You did what?" she then saw a small smirk slowly cross his face, apparently all of them had been dying to do that for a long time.
She took a deep breath and considered her words carefully. "I told all those blockheads off…now we need to get back to the others, things could get very ugly for them." Violet eyes sent her a look of resentment. "Alright…most of them are blockheads, your dad not so bad." She ignored the amused twitch in his face and glanced skyward irritably. "He's so exasperating." She stepped over next to Ichabod who was trying to contain his amusement at Willy's broad grin.
"We're all going?" Jack glanced around at the small group and stepped away from Tom, apparently he had issues with him as well. "Bugger." He scowled while the others put in the coordinates for the Monster City outside the cemetery where they last left their friends.