AN~ Anybody watching Grimm or Once Upon a Time? I am, and they're both awesome shows, but MB is right (if you follow him anyplace), and Grimm is such a spinoff of The Sisters Grimm... He should sue. ...After they finish airing season 1. Once Upon a Time is similar, too, but the idea first happened about eight years ago, so...
Squirrel101: What do you mean, complicated thoughts? I'll fix it if you explain how, but I don't really get what you're saying. :) Anyway, thanks for the review!
Naya Lopez: Thanks for the encouragement. Reviews in the middle of noplace are usually what I need to keep me going when I'm stuck.
s-rv119: Thanks for the review. Sorry for the long wait on the update, but I got mono, and it made me all 'I don't want to write anything'. It was quite horrible.
ANannyMouse: Puck's my favorite, too. :) I don't think it's bad that Sabrina being depressed made you feel better. That's called catharsis, and the Greeks did it all the time with their plays. You're kind of right with the suggestion. Nobody's really doing it, anyway (like, 5 people in the 2 years it's been up). But I'm quite shocked that the thing that kept you from reading was the challenge, not the length. Any NAME suggestions? 'Cause part of the reason it's still called what it is is that I have no idea what to call it...
silverwombat: I put in lots of hints... You can figure it out if you try.
Booklover4ever: It's the last straw, and she doesn't see any way out, so she's kind of blargh. I mentioned that she's not just angry, she goes through mood swings of angry, depressed, and blehhh.
Purpleflower23: Yeah, I couldn't do that to anyone...
Alcoholic Goldfish: Thanks! Glad you liked it! I realized about halfway through that I was making it quite obvious without actually saying it, and I wasn't sure that was a good move, so I'm glad it worked.
They came for Sabrina that evening. They shoved her into a set of mobile handcuffs and ankle cuffs, released her from her wrist bar, and dragged her out of the room- kicking and screaming, she'd be quick to assure everyone.
She fought them as hard as she could, but the cuffs, too, seemed to be spelled to keep her from doing anything magical, and she was stiff from who knows how long in almost the same position, so her struggles were weaker than usual, and almost entirely ineffective- though she did manage to land a good kick on a Hobgoblin's kneecap.
"Oof." He said, buckling but not losing his grip on her. "Nice try, sweetheart. But you're just wasting your energy. Stop struggling, it'll make it easier for all of us."
"Why should I make anything easier for you?" Sabrina asked snarkily.
"So I don't break both your arms before hanging you back up, maybe?" The Hobgoblin suggested.
Sabrina shut up about then and started paying attention to her surroundings. She wanted to make sure that, if the chance came, she'd be able to find her way out.
There wasn't much to see, though. They were walking through a dim gray hallway, still lit with the same vague misty light from no distinguishable source, with nothing to break the windowless monotony but a few doors here and there... doors without handles.
"How do you open the doors?" Sabrina asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
"You don't." The Hobgoblin whose knee she'd kicked said. "We have a password that opens them."
Sabrina shut up again, letting them drag her.
They reached a staircase eventually, and Sabrina debated making one of them lose their balance and fall down the stairs so she could make a break for it, but decided against it. They'd probably pull her with them.
So, again, she bided her time, examining the staircase- nothing interesting here, just a featureless gray set of regular nine-inch cliffs- and the hallway above- now here was something fascinating. Were they in a palace of some sort?
The hallway above the dungeons was a mass of pearly marble with gold trim, carved into pillars every ten yards or so, with something that Sabrina was pretty sure was called a 'flying buttress' connecting them in the inverted, vaulted ceiling, with cherubs and sprites and vines carved into the pillars. Each section of wall was decorated with a different fresco of a group or a single fairy doing something, usually in a forest, and on the floor was a deep red carpet edged in gold that Sabrina could tell, even through her dragging sneakers, was at least two inches thick.
She fought back a feeling of inferiority and out-of-placeness, reminding herself that she was here because she'd been captured in battle. But still, she felt much more at home in the blank, gray dungeon space. At least there she could hate her surroundings in peace.
Even so, she couldn't keep from uttering a small, "Whoa."
The Hobgoblin glanced at her and chuckled. "That's right, be awed."
"Seriously?" Sabrina gave him a skeptical look. "That wasn't even funny."
He banged her head with his fist. "Yes it was. Now shut up, prisoner."
"Ow." Sabrina muttered, ducking and rubbing her head with her tied hands, glaring at the hobgoblin.
They kept walking, Sabrina trying not to look like she was awed at the surroundings, and the guards pulling her along roughly. They climbed two more staircases and passed more doors than Sabina could keep track of before thie finally reached a very ominous looking black door. The hobgoblin opened it and shoved Sabrina inside, slamming the door behind her.
She stumbled, falling to her knees because her bound ankles made it hard for her to catch her balance. She picked herself up off the floor, and, not looking up yet, reached up to brush her hair out of her face.
When she did, she saw a room built out of something shiny and cream-colored, with designs worked into it in a color that blended with the walls unless you were looking at it at the right angle. It could have been crazy wallpaper if it wasn't so smooth, and the floor and ceiling weren't made of the same material. There were a whole bunch of strange instruments sitting on what looked like an operating table, and around the table stood a group of people, one of whom was Puck.
Sabrina immediately wished she hadn't looked around.
"Welcome, Sabrina." Mab said, smiling.
Sabrina glowered at her and asked coldly, "What am I doing here?"
"Why, I thought Moth had told you." Mab said, miming surprise. "We're going to test your powers."
Sabrina blinked at Mab a few times, then looked pointedly down at her handcuffs without saying anything. Someone snickered.
"Ah, well, we couldn't have you doing anything in the hallway, could we?" Mab asked, and Sabrina could hear the smile in her voice without looking up. "In this room, though, you can do whatever you want, and no harm will come to anyone."
A man came forward, holding a key, and unlocked Sabrina's handcuffs, catching them before they hit the ground.
Sabrina whipped her hands up and, staring at the man, shoved a fireball at his chest, not caring if she killed him, for once. After all, she didn't even know who he was.
But nothing happened. Sabrina stared, panting, as the fireball hit his chest and simply went out. Once she could see clearly again, she saw that the same symbols on the walls were tracing their way through his clothes. She cursed quietly.
The man growled and shoved her down. "Don't try that again, girl." He said, his face twisting.
He walked off, back to the table, and Sabrina found herself on the floor again, pushing her hair out of her face. The people at the table were bustling around, messing with instruments, and nobody was paying attention to her.
"I need to get a haircut." Sabrina muttered to herself. "Or a scrunchie."
She heard a chuckle, and a hand reached down to help her up. She took it cautiously, and, standing, found herself looking into a familiar chest, though it, too, was clad in the creamy, shiny cloth. She snatched her hand back, glaring up into Puck's face.
"What are you doing here?" She hissed.
"Helping you up." Puck said, eyebrows raised. "Mab wants you at the table, and you didn't look like you were going to move anytime soon, so she sent me to get you."
"Well, I don't need your help." Sabrina spat. "I'm not going to go over there, anyway."
Puck sighed and said, "Look, Grimm, just... do what they want you to... Please? Don't cause trouble."
"What do you care?" Sabrina snapped. "You're on their side now, remember?"
Puck's face almost looked hurt for a second, but that could have been wishful thinking on Sabrina's part. "Just... do it, OK?" He said. "That's Dr. Jekyll over there, and he's not somebody you want to mess with."
"Whatever." Sabrina said, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. But she stalked over to the table anyway, head held high. She looked rather like a cat, body language saying 'I'm doing this because I want to, not because you told me to.'
Puck shook his head and followed her. It was no more than he deserved, after all.
"Have a seat." Mab directed Sabrina once she'd reached the table, her voice all business.
Sabrina raised her eyebrows but sat on the clear spot in the middle of the table. "Don't you already know some of how this works?" She asked. "I mean, Moth kind of stole my body a few months ago, didn't she tell you anything about how my powers work?"
"Ah, but we're more interested in the ones you didn't explain to me." Moth said wisely.
Sabrina rolled her eyes, then turned expectantly to Mab and Dr. Jekyll, who were obviously in charge.
"What can you do?" Dr. Jekyll asked, holding a pad of paper in one hand and a pen in the other, looking at her over a pair of glasses.
"Lots of stuff." Sabrina said vaguely.
Puck sighed and said, "She can tell when people are lying, create and mess with magical barriers, see the past, travel astrally, and control time, the weather, and gravity. I think that's it."
"Traitor." Sabrina muttered.
Dr. Jekyll had scribbled this list down in his notebook and was now looking up at Mab. "Right." He said. "We'll start with the lies, then, shall we?"
Mab frowned. "That one seems a bit ambiguous, doesn't it? How will we know whether or not she's using it, and how?"
"Oh, haven't I shown you?" Dr. Jekyll asked, picking up a device. "This will give us a readout of her brain, and I can calibrate it to show us whatever I want: thoughts, sight, sound... It's quite ingenious, if I do say so myself."
"Quite." Mab agreed, looking impressed. "You and your inventions..."
Dr. Jekyll looked at his assistants, card soldiers for the most part. "Well?' He asked. "Hook it up to her!"
The contraption, which looked kind of like a series of suction cups attached to what appeared to be a sieve crossed with a piece of chain link fence, was quickly fitted to Sabrina's unresisting and resigned-looking head on one end and affixed to a projector (also made of the shiny cream-colored stuff) on the other.
Dr. Jekyll fiddled with a few knobs on the side of Sabrina's head, then sat back. "I've set it to visual, sound, and thought." He explained. "Now, I suggest we each tell two truths and a lie. Watch her face while you talk, and the screen while the others speak."
Sabrina herself turned to watch the screen, worried about what would show up. A picture of the screen itself flashed back at her, and along the bottom scrolled a quick feed of words, which looked vaguely like this:
"I hope this doesn't hurt. I wonder what- Oh, that's what it does. This is embarrassing. All right, I'm not really thinking in words like this, what is up here? This looks stupid. This invention is stupid. Well, not really. It's kind of cool. But the thoughts thing is stupid."
"Puck, do you know anything about how this works?" Dr. Jekyll asked, looking at the screen in boredom. "Her ability to tell when one is lying?"
"Dunno." Puck shrugged. "People just say something, and she knows it's a lie."
"All right, we'll have her look to start off." Dr. Jekyll said. "It may be that she hears the lie in the voice, or that she sees it in the face, so just in case, girl, turn to Moth."
Sabrina turned to Moth, and the screen flashed, "This'll be good."
Moth cleared her throat, then asked, "Do I make it obvious? The lies, I mean?"
"Of course not." Mab snapped.
"Right." Moth said. "Pink is not my favorite color. Blue is not my favorite color. Green is not my favorite color."
When Moth said the first sentence, her face flashed red in Sabrina's vision, and, thus, on the screen.
"It's visual, then." Dr. Jekyll said, satisfied, leaning forward to adjust the knobs on Sabrina's headgear again. "I can turn off the audio, then..."
"Is that really what my voice sounds like?" Moth asked, worried.
"Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like." Dr. Jekyll said absently. "Mab, your turn."
Mab smiled. "I don't want to hurt you, Sabrina. Truly, I have no grudge against your family, in fact, if you weren't human, I think I'd like you quite a bit."
Mab's face lit up in red when she said the second piece of her sentence, and Sabrina raised an eyebrow. Across the screen ran: "My uncle's married to the woman you tried to kill. Did you think I'd fall for that even if I couldn't tell when you were lying?"
Dr. Jekyll smirked. "Well, I think that's enough. I may want to perform more tests later to see if we can replicate this, but truth spells are just as easy to come by as this. It's interesting, but in no way unique."
"Thank you." Scrolled across the projector. "I absolutely love it when people tell me I'm not unique. Can we get going? I have a dungeon to get back to. At least people there are friendly."
Someone chuckled, but Dr. Jekyll sent a glare around and whoever it was stopped. He fiddled with Sabrina's headgear again and said, "Next, I think we should take a look at this past-prophesying thing she does. It seems much more fascinating. I don't believe I've ever heard of such a thing."
His voice echoed a bit, coming out of the projector as well as his mouth.
Sabrina blinked at him. "Did you turn the sound back on? 'Cause I don't really hear it that much..."
"Ah, you've decided to be helpful." Mab said cheerfully. "Good."
Sabrina snorted. "That's a laugh. I'm just trying to make this go as fast as possible."
Dr. Jekyll fiddled with the knobs again, and the echoes stopped.
"Now, how does it work?" Dr. Jekyll asked. "Does anyone know? Moth? Puck?"
Puck shrugged. "She stares at things and sometimes her eyes go black and then she just phases out for a while, then they go back to normal and I guess that's how it happens. I don't know how she stops it or starts it or keeps it going."
"I don't believe there's a lot of control involved." Moth said. "In what she sees, at least. I get the feeling it's whatever someone is close to, sort of, or what they're thinking about. But... when I was in her body, I would get it from inanimate objects, too, so..."
"How did you start it?" Mab asked. "Or was there a catalyst?"
Moth shook her head, leaning on the wall. "I might have figured it out if I was in her body for longer, but I left too quickly."
"Some help you are." The three of diamonds muttered.
Moth sneered at him.
Sabrina, watching, got a sudden image of Moth in a heavy crimson dress and silver jewelry, sneering at a young man dressed in gold-trimmed robes. Her mouth moved, and Sabrina could imagine her saying, 'A mere duke? As my suitor? How dare you?'
She blinked and Moth was back in her purple floaty sundress. Sabrina was struck by just how inappropriate that outfit was for November... if it was still November. Maybe it was April and she'd been in the dungeon for months.
"Fascinating.." Dr. Jekyll said. "Moth, were you thinking about that?"
Moth blinked. "I'm sorry, I missed it. What happened?"
"It was the time you dismissed the Duke of Orange, dear." Mab said.
"Oh." Moth said. "No."
"But the pose was remarkably similar..." Dr. Jekyll mused. "I wonder if it's more physical memory than actual memory. Do it again." He demanded Sabrina.
Sabrina raised her eyebrows. "I can't just do it. It comes and goes."
"Well, how do I get it to come?" Dr. Jekyll asked, scowling. His face started to change, growing darker and more lined.
He advanced on Sabrina. "Make it work!" He snapped.
Sabrina stared at him, horrified. He was going to kill her, or something, she just knew it! And there was no way for her to make it work.
"Stop it, Jekyll!" Mab snapped. "This is ridiculous!"
But he kept leaning in, slowly, with a hideous expression on his face. Sabrina looked around desperately for a way out, and saw, to her astonishment, that Puck was kissing Moth.
Her vision blacked out, and she was taken back to a time, two years ago (almost exactly), when Puck had done the same thing to her. The vision forced itself on her more suddenly than most, and she gasped, her entire body shuddering.
Dr. Jekyll saw what she was doing and turned to the screen, excited, his face shifting quickly back to its normal visage. "Much better." He said, satisfied. "I'll want to study this more intensely later, but for now... gravity."
But Sabrina was locked in the vision, and nothing they tried would shake her out of it.