(The Return of) the Baker Street Fanfiction Academy
Chapter two (eleven)
The two women gazed at each other over the sheet-covered table. Their features, nearly identical, were only separated in that Juliet Norrington seemed to be disintegrating. Great clouds of dust flew into the air when she moved and all of her hard edges were smoothed away, so that she looked more like a sandcastle than a woman. Her spaghetti-esque hair was pulled back on her head and she wore a long piece of green cloth was wrapped around her neck and a dusty orange and purple t-shirt.
Juliet broke the ice, "So, I take it you received the paperwork?"
Lux nodded, "My lawyer sent it to me yesterday."
"Is everything okay? I saw that you had the car."
"Yes, they brought it over this morning when I signed the papers." Lux shifted. "I'm still not sure I understand, however."
"What?"
"How did you mean that you are becoming me, and I am part of you?" She crossed her legs. "I mean, I understand the concept—how each of us in a new incarnation of an older version. A few people here have retained their original persona and name, but this is rare. The rest of us are typically built from all of our previous personas, meaning we have had several different names, personalities, and sometimes even appearances." She uncrossed her legs and tucked them under the chair. "What I don't quite understand, is how it happens. So I exist, and you exist, but where is the beginning and the end?"
"And I am me and you are me and we are all together." Juliet shrugged. "I don't know. Eventually I'll disappear, I guess. I was pretty strong, as we go, but it's coming to an end. So you get everything that was mine."
Lux nodded, "That's why you're leaving me the Academy."
"Well, someone needs to take it." Juliet sighed. "After the war I didn't have the strength to restart the program."
Lux frowned. "Am I expected to reinstate the program?"
"If you like. I'm sure the fandom could use it." Juliet shrugged again. "To be honest, I haven't seen much of it lately and most of the former students don't seem to be involved much anymore. The war might have frightened many of them away, even if they don't remember it."
"What do you mean, don't remember it?"
Juliet made a thoughtful noise in her throat, "What do you know about the Great War?"
"Not very much. I wasn't around then."
"We were only a fledgling school, of course, most of the other OFUs survived. But," she bit her lip, "I'd always hoped for more. We had been heralded as this great thing in the Holmesian community but we died before we could come to term." Juliet sighed, "I probably shouldn't do this, but you'll need to have some idea if you're to take this place." She leaned across the table and held her palms up to her mouth. "This might sting."
"What might—" Lux began before she was cut off by Juliet blowing harshly on her palms and sending dust flying into Lux's eyes.
Lux blinked and sneezed as every liquid in her head began to churn and run, her eyes watering and her nose leaking. Her vision blurred—she put the heels of her palms into her eyes and scrubbed. When she opened her eyes again, the lights had been switched off and the dusty Juliet was gone. She froze, her pupils widening as she looked around the black room.
There was a long silence in the room before a long, slow whistle began in the distance. Lux stood up and looked around the dark room as the whistle grew louder.
A sharp, loud voice shrieked, "Incoming!" as a figure in a white tank top and green work uniform, top unbuckled and hanging down around her waist, burst through the overlarge double doors. Her black combat boots slapped against the tile floor as she scampered in and dived under the stretching mahogany table. Lux looked down under the table. The woman under the table, her back to Lux, was crouched low, a knife attached to her ankle and her brown hair falling out of the tight braids pinned on the top of her head. The whistling grew closer and the room began to shake.
The whistling stopped and a burst of fire and light exploded through the room. Paintings fell from their hooks, small Chinese knick-knacks smashed on the ground, the doors splintered with the impact of fire and shrapnel. Lux screamed, falling to the ground and covering her head with her hands. The explosion subsided, leaving behind it burning carpets, curtains, and wallpaper. The woman under the table began cursing under her breath. She slammed her hands on the ground and growled. Lux uncurled herself from her fetal position on the ground, shaking flecks of broken china out of her hair.
Two women rushed in; a petite young woman with hazel eyes and a whip-thin redhead with an eyepatch over her right eye. Both wore black army uniforms with red and gold PPC patches on their left shoulders.
"You okay?" The small woman called across the room.
The woman under the table slid toward Lux and out from under the table. "Yeah, I'm fine." She brushed off the dust from her pants and blew the hair out of her face.
"They've taken the back hall," the redhead craned her neck around the doors.
"Fuck," the woman growled, "go on, I'll be there in a minute." The two agents nodded and sprinted off down the hall.
"What's going on?" Lux asked, standing up and brushing off her knees. The woman turned around, her eyes searching, but they did not focus on Lux. Lux gasped, it was Juliet, whole and undusty. Her skin was smooth, even in the harsh light and she looked down at the broken bust on the floor around Lux's feet.
She sighed and bent down, "I'm sorry, Lord Byron. These people don't have any respect for the talented."
Lux stepped forward, "Hello?" Juliet didn't reply, but continued picking up the shattered pieces. Lux bent down and began picking up the pieces with her. Another blast went off down the hall, shaking the room and shattering more china pieces. Lux and Juliet were thrown against the wall by the fireplace.
"Goddammit," Juliet growled and ran out of the room, her boots harsh and slapping against the floor, leaving Lux holding Lord Byron's eyes and nose in her dusty white hands.