Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: I want to thank all of you for sticking with this so long. Also I want to thank Red Lighting, who requested the idea originally and beta reads for me.
Hope you enjoy this chapter. Comments are welcome.
Chapter 4
It was dark, the indigo sky broken by the ominously grey wall of clouds. Rolls of thunder rumbled quietly in the distance. Having equipped himself, unbeknownst to the lieutenant; with a rapier, crossbow, and automatic assault rifle; Ichabod Crane faced the mounting wind in an empty meadow.
"Horseman of Death, I summon you! Face, Abraham Van Brun!" He hollered into the night. "Face me!"
His cries were answered by a great clap of thunder and sudden pounding rain. A bright bolt of lightning struck the ground not two yards from him; he did not flinch, perhaps those mid-storm experiments with Franklin had payed off. From the flash of light darkened the awaited large figure. In the haze of lingering light he could just make out the impossible form of a head. When the apparition solidified, the whole bodied figure of Abraham Van Brun was revealed.
"What, Ichabod? You wanted me to face you. Here I am."
"Abraham."
"Should we take advantage of this face to face opportunity or get to the reason we're both here?"
"I don't think you know just what that is."
"Really? I believe since I'm the challenged party, I decide the weapon." Another streak of lightning struck the ground at the horseman's side, leaving in its place a saber wavering in the ground from residual energy. Taking a step towards his challenger, taking up the sword with an exuberant and flourished swing. Crane, in turn, shed the excess weaponry. "I don't know? Perhaps, then, you can explain it to me." He thrust the blade forward, causing Crane to back quickly away a few paces. "Why are we here?" He asked with a swipe.
Deflecting the blow, Ichabod took on a more offensive stance. "You- you took Katrina and Abigail."
"Now you can't blame me for that. I merely stumbled across them, her coven sent them there."
Lunge, parie, swing, deflect, parie, advance, retreat, lunge, deflect.
"Yet you are responsible for their separation!" Crane accused. The clash of steel continued throughout their conversation.
"A little out of practice, Ichabod?" Abraham inquired tauntingly, noticing Crane's reversion to defensive moves. "You were always the weaker swordsman."
His already building anger bursting out into rage, Crane loosed a frenzy of strokes upon his opponent. "Why?"
"I couldn't have the child around to remind her. She's but a remembrance of you. For Katrina that life is over." The old rivalry had arisen and found expression again in the flurry of steely blades as well as words.
"Katrina is still my wife."
"Not anymore, she's been promised to me."
"She was promised to you once before I recall. You lost her then, as you will now."
"You forget, Ichabod, she is in my domain now. And there she shall wait as my prize. But not for much longer now."
"She is no one's prize, did the last time not teach you that? She doesn't love you."
"She will, in time!" Abraham stated, voicing his desperate belief. "Katrina is mine now."
"I will find her."
Abraham laughed, accentuated by a roll of thunder. "You try, you just try, Ichabod."
To give credence to his prior assertion, Crane lunged. The blade's path was true and would have met with Abraham's chest, had it not been for the bolt of lightning that descended and collected the horseman.
Now left facing not but the wind once again, Crane repeated his promise. "I will find them."
Crane stumbled, worn and exhausted, into the vault where Abbie was sitting with nothing to do. "Where have you been?" Taking in his slumped, sword dragging form she amended her question. "What have you been doing?"
"I was in a duel."
"A duel? With who?"
"Abraham."
"The horseman? You had a duel with the horseman? Are you insane?"
"No," he yawned, "but I am very tired." He dropped the sword and the other pilfered weaponry. "So if you'd exc-"
"Hold up. You didn't tell me you were gonna do this."
"You were out and would in all likeliness not have allowed me to go through with it."
"Not without me I wouldn't've." She scolded, before curiosity got the better of her. "So what happened?"
"He's the one who separated them. It was all in order that Katrina would forget about me so Abraham could claim her."
"But she hasn't. Who won the duel?"
"Neither of us. He disappeared."
"What now?"
"I'm going to find them, and get them back." He stated as before, though with more determination.
"How exactly do you plan on doing that?"
"Retrieve them from purgatory. There must be some sort of spell to do that."
"It's gonna be a little more complicated than that." The comment came from the door, where Rachel stood.
"What are you doing here?" Abbie asked, displeased in the extreme to see the woman again.
"Well I-I-" Stammering, she wrung her hands nervously. "Could- could I talk to Ichabod alone?"
"No. Whatever you've got to say you can say in front of me."
"Ichabod… you may not have known but I… I always was very fond of you." The wringing intensified. "Perhaps fond is putting it lightly. But that's all beside the point now; since you obviously never noticed me in the slightest, it was all about Katrina what with Van Brun and you fighting over her as you were." The room was silent after this rambling revelation, and the sudden change in her demeanor. "Well I've decided something. I always thought that an upside of this curse is that I'd still be here when you returned and there might be a chance for us. Only, obviously things aren't turning out as I'd planned, you love her and I've no place in this. Living forever's suddenly lost its charm. So I'm ready to help if you'll have me."
"Crane, you're a heartbreaker." Abbie said after a moment, an ironic smile accompanying the statement. He opened his mouth a few time as though about to speak but no words came. "My God, he's speechless. If you can teach me how to do that, you're in."
"Well, I don't know if that in particular is something I can teach. But there is a silencing charm."
"You said there's a problem?" Ichabod asked, finally finding voice.
"Yes." She replied, relieved that she had been excepted. "As I said, it's more complicated. You can't just summon a trapped soul back from purgatory, you need to have a location of that soul."
"We could use a tracking spell." Abbie suggested.
"Location in purgatory is complicated. Tracking spells often get confused."
"Complicated how?" Crane asked.
"It's a land of the mind - minds really - individual personal islands of the mind, travel is achieved through thought."
"We'll figure something out." Abbie assured. "In the meantime maybe I can learn a few things from Rachel."
"It would be my pleasure." Rachel responded. "Ichabod, you look awful. Get some rest, and let us girls get a start on this."