Chapter Fourteen
You'll lose your trial.
Michelle rushes to the older black woman, her Lawyer and High Priestess, when Lady Kendra Little enters the Holding Cell. Mother Siobhan's visit earlier had been for comfort, now she can get answers. "They won't tell me anything more. How's Jimmy?"
"You don't remember?" Kendra's expression says she doesn't believe this.
She'd been told what she'd done to him during a lucid period, she'd woken up on the floor to his screams and the blood. She knows; she doesn't want to believe it.
"You pretty much bit his penis off."
"Oh, Goddess." The woman is typically blunt, but this still hits hard.
"We don't have time for that right now. We have to make plans."
This blasts another explosion of fear through her. "My trial?"
"You're going to lose your trial. I'm talking about your future, and possibly the only real option left to you."
She'd thought she'd gotten used to the woman's bluntness, but this certainty steals her breath.
"I understand from Agent Gibbs that you told him you Astral Projected to save Agent DiNozzo."
"Yes. I couldn't get to him, I was trapped in a maze. I had to Project."
"Tell me what happened, exactly what happened. Did your Circle fail? Was it faulty somehow?"
"I didn't form a Circle." She tries not to wither under Little's glare. "I didn't have time."
x
There are times when an Apprentice does something so staggeringly stupid Little simply cannot find words blistering enough, and she decides there's no need to search for any. She now has a clear idea how Michelle, who has for so long struggled with her temper, left herself open.
She wants to explain in the most sulfurous terms what an incredibly stupid thing the woman had done but forces herself into silence. Two people are dead, her husband will suffer for months with his horrific wound and in Michelle's best possible future her Career is over.
She can add no more to her Coven-sister's perception of the problem by berating her.
x
Instead she listens to the details of the search for Tony DiNozzo, makes the woman go through it over and over until she's sure she's drawn every detail out of her, until she knows exactly where and when Michelle was when she'd made her ill fated attempt to save her partner.
Instead of saving the man, she'd doomed herself.
She'd given in to frustration, rage and hatred of those two women, had left her body unattended and undefended, and while she was gone Sharadakar had stepped in and, when Michelle was distracted or fatigued - or actually asleep - took over.
x
"I will do what I can for you but you're on film with three Counts of ADW upon those Nurses plus two hours threatening nine babies with a scalpel. The ADA will milk every second of that at your trial. They'll probably stop the film with you about to plunge the blade into that baby an instant before Special Agent Gibbs tackled you. I don't know if I can get the jury to not convict you."
"But I don't remember any of that!"
"By the time you've seen that film a dozen times you'll never forget it."
"Oh, Goddess, what am I going to do?"
"Your career in NCIS is over. You're already on 'Indefinite Suspension' but you'll ultimately be fired."
"No! It can't come to - it-"
"I'm so sorry, child."
"And Jimmy?"
x
She can't stop coming back to this. If she can hold on to this, if she can hold on to something, anything to provide some measure of stability-
"Your husband does love you and may forgive you but his injuries are extreme. He'll be quite some time on a bypass catheter until he heals, but he'll be unable to do anything without pain for the foreseeable future."
"Foreseeable future? Do you know what's going to happen?" Little's perceptions are sometimes beyond her, the woman has often surprised her.
"Your future is uncertain. You'll face extensive Prosecution from the parents of those one, two and three day old infants. You'll go to jail. I'll do what I can but I may promise nothing."
"Nothing?" Is she doomed to be cast off?
"Listen carefully. In saving you - and those babies - Rising Star had to show its hand and we'll suffer much for that revelation. The Crises that was years away will accelerate, possibly to the point where we'll be unable to stand against it."
This is too much, too fast, but this last... "I don't understand."
x
"Years ago we foresaw a great conflict coming, a conflict between the Mundane and the Gifted. It is inevitable. But we have been working hard over the years to adjust the end."
"Adjust the end?" She'd been worried - is still worried - about her own fate. What is Kendra talking about?
"Conflict with the Mundane is inevitable, but it doesn't have to be catastrophic. Had it taken place a decade from now, it can, in fact, result in an accord wherein both sides could live harmoniously and that's what we've been working for. Wiccans throughout the world have been striving to prepare the world for integration, but we're years from that resolution."
"I know. But-"
"Now ZNN has sped things to the point where neither side can be ready. Now you know what happens when neither side in a conflict can be ready to discuss peace."
x
This is too much. They were talking about her defense, now Little is talking about... What? "Goddess. What can I do?"
"There is one solution. It's neither a moral one nor can more than immediate good come of it, but we're pressed to the point where immediate good is all we can work for. Give me your apartment keys."
"What? Why?" She feels she's being left further behind by the moment.
"You have the Scrying mirror."
"The Scr -" This tall mystical mirror, older than she's ever learned, not only shows her other locations but actually allows her to journey to them. It's her most prized possession and most carefully guarded secret. "What are you going to do?"
"What I must. Too many people have died because of Sharadakar's interference. The mirror will allow me to prevent that from happening."
x
"Wait a minute. You're going too fast. What can the Scrying Mirror do in this?"
"It will allow me to step back to before this disaster happened."
"No. The mirror only shows what's happening now. Time has nothing to do with it."
But her mentor only shakes her head at her. "I've allowed you to keep the mirror because you believed that."
"But-"
She holds up her hand and Michelle, with years of Mistress/Student conditioning, falls silent.
"The mirror is more than you know, more than you've been allowed to know. When I first learned that you have it, I allowed you to keep it but I rationed what you learned about it until I thought you were ready. But it's too late now for rations."
"But if the mirror can be used in Time-"
"You weren't ready to learn these things. You're still not."
"What things?" Seeing Little's eyes, she's sure she's not ready now.
"There are times the Goddess allows her High Priestesses to glimpse what may be. It provides perspective. Today that future I'd seen is no longer present. Too much has been done to alter it, too many people have died, too many have suffered wrongly. Things must - must - be put back. Now I could give you a line about how sometimes a High Priestess must do what must be done and what a terrible moral challenge that is, but the bottom line is that I must do this because you're not pregnant."
x
"Oh..."
x
"Okay..."
x
"As an explanation I never expected that."
"You're not pregnant and you're not going to be pregnant for another two years. And you will not become pregnant languishing in a cell or an Institution, even if your husband ever does recover well enough to make it possible. And should you ultimately become pregnant by someone else, it won't be the right pregnancy."
Michelle shakes her head, as much to clear it. "Perhaps I'm stupider than usual today but how does my being pregnant matter in this?"
"I'll tell you, but only because nothing you can do can affect things in any way. It's gone too far for that. Further, if I'm successful you won't remember any of this anyway.
"We have seen a great conflict, one more terrible than any that you or any of your NCIS colleagues have ever faced. It will turn brother against sister and the rights of American citizens will be redefined for many, for others savagely curtailed."
"The New Order McGillicuddy and the others are trying to bring?"
"I don't know McGillicuddy but it'll be a New Order, all right. The rights of Americans are in the balance and the ramifications will hit other countries as well."
x
"But-" All they've done, all the sacrifices, all the death - and Kendra would have her help to restore that future?
"You, your colleagues, your family, you have your places in this war. You personally will suffer greatly."
"How?" 'Suffer greatly' sounds worse because Kendra doesn't indulge in hyperbole.
"You, Jimmy and your child face hardship and pain."
"And you want to ensure that future?"
"That future is already upon you. It has been for years. You fight the war now but though you will win the war you will lose the battle."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Your enemy is not who you think. But you must fight because, difficult as the world we've foreseen is, the world I have seen today will be a horror far worse. It is why you suffered today, to bring that world into being through your exposure and ours years before either side was ready. If this reality continues you will look back upon what's happened to your husband and your dead friends as the Good Times.
"Now give me your keys."
x
Stricken, Michelle can barely feel or move her fingers as she pushes them into her coat pocket and pulls out the ring, puts it into the black woman's hand. "Just one last thing. Why would I bring a baby into either of those worlds?"
Kendra's hand closes about Michelle's and then the large woman catches her as she slumps toward the floor. Kendra eases her onto her bunk, adjusts her body to comfort and rises.
"Because if you do bring that baby forth, you will know heartache and grief, and your family, along with untold others, will be torn and devastated by tragedy.
"If you don't, it will be a disaster"
ooo
Gibbs slaps his phone closed. The maze building ($4 to enter) is brick, sixty five feet to a side, too dimly lit from distant light towers, only a third of which are lit. If square it's a potential 4,225 square feet.
He and Palmer take positions at opposite sides of the side by side entrance and exit doors and he checks her face. Anxious but no fear shining in her eyes. Good.
Presumably the maze doubles back upon itself. He signals silently to take their own sides and he grabs the handle of the left side Exit door, finger-counts down from three and he yanks while she shoves the Entrance.
"FEDERAL AGENTS DON'T MOVE!" His voice cuts and echoes through the tremendous room even before they see what challenges them.
They have an unobstructed view of DiNozzo seated tied to a chair way at the opposite side over 20 yards away. There are far too many clear barriers doubling back and forth between them. The motionless agent's head is slumped down to his chest, his jacket off, both sleeves rolled high and he's heavily bound to the chair.
A blonde and a brunette woman in skirts too high and blouses too low turn about at Gibbs' commanding bellow and the Agents see there's an intravenous bag hanging from a stand beside DiNozzo with a tube leading into his left arm.
x
Immediately the women bolt for what at first looks to be the white wall but it's a door painted to match that barrier, and it slams open with a muffled bang as they run through it into the night.
"Get him off that!" Gibbs commands as he turns, runs back out.
For an instant Michelle's confused. The maze appears to be clear barriers, glass so clean she can barely see it beyond the distortion of dozens of floor to ceiling panes between her and the motionless man.
An arrow points to her right, the only help she can find and she takes the directed path. Left turn, left and right turn further along, then there are two possible turns but the left points her toward DiNozzo. That left, right turn, left, she's headed for hi- No! Dead end, barriers on all sides.
Turn around and scream.
x
A human figure appears before her in horrendous detail; front of the tall body seen from behind, bones and flesh and working organs appear, moving away from her in rapid succession as Michelle gasps frantic breaths.
She hates visiting Jimmy in Autopsy for fear of what she might see. This is infinitely worse. This time it's not still organs on a table, it's a working body appearing out of thin air, inch by inch like some kind of nightmare MRI.
A moment later clothing ends the vision and Kendra Little turns around.
"Sorry."
x
Michelle clutches her chest, breath hard in frantic panting. That she knows what's happened doesn't help. It's obviously the result of Kendra using her Scrying Mirror. She's had someone describe the sight to her when she'd used it and that person was standing on the wrong side, but this is the first time she's seen the effect for herself.
It doesn't help that her Scrying Mirror is standing in her living room and her High Priestess just used it to scare the life out of her.
"How the Hell did you get here?"
She only realizes the utter stupidity of the question after it's flown out of her mouth. That Little gives her a 'stupid question' look doesn't help.
x
"With help from you. I'll explain later when there's time." She looks past the startled woman to the endangered man fifteen yards away.
"Oh dear, you were right," she tells her apprentice, sympathizing with the woman's panic. Bad enough to see a Scrying Transition from the wrong side, but the man at the far end of the maze is even worse off than she'd been told. "This is bad."
"I was right?"
"There's not a lot of time. Please be quiet." She's not immune to Transition Vertigo, and it's only with the greatest effort that she fights it off. Short trips are bad enough as her body copes with instantaneous shifts in orientation but that's usually just physical transition. The Earth is rotating while it's orbiting the sun and the sun's orbiting the galaxy, a combined relative motion measured in thousands of miles per second. Humans are so oriented they rarely if ever notice the constant motion but her orientation has instantly changed. Her mind appreciates it, her body is totally unprepared for it.
Long trips magnify the effect, but this is the worst. Add to physical displacement a displacement in time and she's fighting disorientation that threatens to turn her inside out - and she must endure this twice in far-too-rapid succession. She's fighting the fact that her inner ear, her whole body, insists she was just a moment ago moving upward to her left two days ago. She doesn't have the time or endurance to answer questions, and wants to be laying down when she stops fighting the upcoming second Vertigo to be added to this one.
x
Reaching out with far more than her hand toward the bound and unconscious man, she reaches across the distance between them. "Your emotions still blind you," she tells her student, not looking at the young woman. "You have to learn to push emotion back and see the entire picture. Once you can do that, you can focus your power properly and with clarity."
The clear plastic bag held high on the stand moves outward, lifts off the hook and falls to the floor.
"Gravity and his own blood will save him now," Little says, turning her attention to her student. "Listen carefully. Get to him now, let your fellow Agents think you removed it." A look back confirms that DiNozzo's blood is seeping through the clear tube, washing back the poison.
"But-!"
A thorough look at her surroundings shows Little the path. "Go back to the entrance. That side of the room," she points to the right wall, "is a straight line to the back. Use it."
"But what are you doing here? Why won't you answer me?"
"Offer a Prayer of Thanks to the Goddess that you'll never know. Now move. Fast!"
There's no more time. In a few moments other Agents will come and she must return to Michelle's apartment through the Scrying mirror.
She turns away, steps forward. To her apprentice's eyes she very likely appears to gradually vanish. At least this time, though Michelle's still behind her, she's moving forward away and there's no shriek to threaten her concentration.
x
Utterly confused, Michelle turns back the way she'd come, this time finding in the floor bracings the pattern of the glass that she couldn't see by looking through the clear panes. She backtracks, appalled at the ease in which she can find the path to the entrance.
Gibbs had commanded her to get DiNozzo off the poison. He hadn't told her to use the maze but had obviously - now - meant to use the exit path. She'd been so focused on saving DiNozzo she hadn't even processed the order.
She goes out the entrance door, goes around and in through the exit door, turns left and runs the straight lines along the forward wall, then right turn toward the rear and right to the middle. There she finds the tape holding the needle into DiNozzo's arm and pulls it loose, pulls out the needle and lets it fall to the floor near the bag.
DiNozzo is still unconscious, but she frees his arm from the ropes, raises it high, pulls the sleeve of his shirt to get some material between them and holds pressure upon the wound.
A moment later Gibbs is beside her. "Sir?"
"They're locked up outside," he tells her with his usual brevity and pulls out his cell phone. "Good work, Palmer."