Posted by Sweet Sorcy on June 18, 2001 at 13:46:37:
Sorceress pulled her cloak tighter around herself and huddled in a booth at
the Bean and Donut. Sarah Shepherdson bustled over with a mug of coffee and two
chocolate sprinkle specials.
"Here y’are! One death by caffeine and two
thicker-thigh delights." She winked and disappeared into the kitchen again.
Sorceress forced herself to take a sip of the scalding black brew and relax.
Moments later, the bell over the door jangled Bry Katz’s entry. The Legionnaire
shucked off his coat and helped himself to a doughnut. Wiping chocolate icing
off his chin, he mumbled, "So what did you want to see me about?"
Whitney
Darkness gripped the mug of coffee and stared out the window. She blinked hard
and a small crow darted up to the glass and tapped twice. She gestured and the
bird flew away again. Bry waved a hand in front of her face.
"Hello in
there?"
"Oh? Yes, sorry… I’ve been thinking that I would like to have
something of my mother’s to..to remember her by." She lowered her head. Bry
patted her awkwardly on the shoulder.
"I don’t mean to sound inconsiderate,
but, uh, can’t you go get that yourself? I mean, doesn’t Hagatha have-"
"Not
exactly. She either destroyed or hid away everything my mother left behind when
she ran away…" She swallowed hard. "The only way to get it is to go back and get
it before Gran messed with it."
He chewed on this and the doughnut for a
second. "Ahhhh, I see. You can’t time-travel."
She nodded. "And you’re the
only person I know who can. Believe me, if I could take the risk myself, I
would. I know you don’t want to be away from Lisette - from your work right
now." She smiled and Bry blushed. "Will you do it? I’d be happy to do some favor
in return - I don’t know what, but I’m sure there’s some power I have that could
help."
Bry shook his head. "Nah, don’t worry about it. Can’t be that
difficult. What is it you want? Er, better question: *where* is
it?"
Sorceress leaned over and opened the diner window, allowing the waiting
crow to hop inside and present her with a page of writing. Careful not to make
eye contact with the creature, she patted the shining feathers on its head and
it flew back out into the drizzly afternoon. She unfolded the paper and scanned
it quickly. "Ah, here we go. 1979… There’s a red leather diary in the windowseat
on the second floor of - Oh, it’s in my old room! - of Covenant House." She
looked up. "If you could take me with you, I could direct you there. Sometimes
the house shimmers just a little and folks miss it." She laughed.
Again, the
slightly rumpled Legionnaire shook his head. "Sorry, but I usually go it alone.
Just give me some directions and..GAH!" He looked around wildly as the blue
smoke from Sorc’s hand writhed around his own, imprinting it with a tiny map.
The other patrons appeared to not have heard him. He looked at his hand (tiny
tendrils of ink still settling into place) and back up at the Sorceress. She was
smiling apologetically. "I forgot to tell you: we don’t use paper maps and oh,
yeah, there’s been a vocal shield around the table since you arrived."
"Uh,
right. Thanks for telling me." He examined the map, now clearly legible on the
back of his right hand, traced the silver route from Paradopolis to the
shimmering blue house marked with a ‘CH’. "Shouldn’t be too hard to find."
He
stood. "I’ll have it back in your hot little hand by tonight!" He slid back into
his coat, snagged the other doughnut, and took off. Sorceress watched him go and
felt ashamed and oddly victorious at the same time. She giggled suddenly at the
realization that Gran’s booby traps had more than likely been just as effective
twenty-two years before as they were now.
*******
"What the heck is this
stuff?" Goldeneyed untangled himself from a mesh of faux spiderwebs strung over
the porch of Covenant House, circa 1979. "It’s a house full of witches for
pete’s sake! Can’t they make their own place spooky enough – or at least get the
real thing?!" He grumbled, something the easygoing superhero was rarely heard to
do. He brushed at his sleek black costume and paused at the door. Ringing
doorbells was the polite thing to do, but how does one go about explaining that
they have come from the future to claim something for someone who doesn’t even
exist yet? While he pondered this, the door opened to reveal a pale young woman
with dark, curly hair and a bulging white dress. When he saw her face, Bry
nearly fell off the porch. The woman could have been Whitney’s twin.
"Er,
hello," he managed. The woman smiled and motioned him inside.
"I knew you’d
come," she whispered.
"Er, uh, how? Oh, you do the mindreading thing too?"
He looked around the living room with its overflowing bookshelves and masses of
colored candles. A small fox’s head over the fireplace winked at him suddenly,
and he suppressed a cry. The woman disappeared into another room and returned
with a small suitcase. "I’m ready to go!" She announced cheerfully.
Bry was
so surprised by the talking fox that he thought he had misheard her.
"What?"
"Let’s go! Hurry before" her voice dropped "Ma gets home. She’s been
dying to know who you are.."
Bry was dumbfounded. How did this woman - how
did *Hagatha* even - know who he was? Why did she want to leave with – Oh. OH.
It hit home suddenly and he flopped into the nearest armchair, which gave up a
flurry of small butterflies as he did so.
Whitney’s mother had met Xander
and conceived a child with him, but apparently she had not revealed his identity
to her mother before that child was born. And then a man shows up in disguise
while her mother’s away…Oh, great, she thought he was the father of her baby,
come to take her away. While Bry was putting this together (correctly, as it
were), the woman was busily fluffing her hair and applying her lipstick in a
wall mirror. Bry moved to her side, gently taking her by the elbow. He had to
straighten this out, get the journal and get the hell out -- and fast.
When
he looked at the mirror to catch her eye, he started; the mirror reflected not
the shining golden eyes and black cloth of Goldeneyed, but the tousled brown
hair and clean-cut face of Bryan Katz, smiling broadly as if he were facing
Heaven itself. As if this were not strange enough, he saw the reflection of
Vervaine Darkness beside his and fell silent. The mirror’s obviously magicked
surface showed not a young lady with earnest expression, but a child - a small,
round face of perhaps ten with shocked blue eyes open wide and a expression of
fear and dismay that made him want to reach over and hold her. He looked from
the mirror to the woman and realized suddenly that she could not see what the
mirror showed. She doesn’t want to see it, he thought with a jolt. She’s got
magic and doesn’t want to know about it. The thought made him sad; this woman
had no idea of what lay ahead of her and her child and yet it seemed she had
already suffered something unspeakable…
She turned suddenly, smiling through
the red lipstick. "I’m ready!"
Bry thought frantically. " Um, hey, do you
still have that dress you wore for me before? You know ..the..uh.." He made
vague gestures at his chest and groin. She laughed.
"You mean the red one?"
"Uh, yeah! That one! But you know I can’t wear it now.."
"Oh, right, I
know, but uh.."
"Oh, *I* get it! You wanna play dress-up!" Her eyes lit up
with glee. Bry wondered if Jay had this problem. "It’s in the winter
closet..I’ll be right back!"
She darted off into the rear of the house and
Bry wasted no time teleporting straight upstairs. The room he landed in was
furnished with a variety of magicked objects - talking hairbrush (hey, we need
company sometimes, ya know), firefly hairclips that twinkled in the half-light…
and a battered red leather book with the letters VND stamped into the cover. The
letters began rearranging themselves frantically as he picked up the book and
slid it into a hidden compartment (don’t ask me - maybe he has a tiny waist or
something). And that was when the ceiling exploded and something red and very
pissed off landed on Bry Katz’s head.
*****
"Whit?" Jay Boaz, temporarily
de-capped crusader, poked his head into the Sorceress’ library. She was curled
up in a leather armchair, rubbing her tearstained face with the sleeve of her
cape. She hastily rearranged herself and tried to smile. It didn’t
work.
"What happened? I thought you were going to see your da-"
A loud
wail escaped her and she curled back up, sobbing into her sleeves. Jay wrapped
his arms around her. "What did I say? You and Xander have a fight or
something?"
She sniffed, hiccuped, managed a "No."
She straightened a
little, trying to get a grip. "He doesn’t know who I am, Jay!"
"He what? Has
he been sniffing something in the shop again? Dammit, I told Chronic to stay
away from there.."
"Jay! No. He’s fine..he just…he just doesn’t believe I’m
his daughter. He told me point-blank he does not nor has he ever had any
children, much less a love-child with a runaway..wih..wih..witch!" She burst
into tears again. Jay felt helpless. When she could speak, she told him how she
had gone to give Xander his father’s day gift (sandals with auto-float) but he
was clueless when she called him Dad. He had never met or heard of Vervain and
had never fathered anyone.
Jay looked at her. "That means …?"
"Somebody’s
done something in the past to change this…I knew I should have found a way to do
it myself.." She looked guilty. Jay raised his eyebrows.
"Found a way to do
what?"
"I ..I sent Bry back in time to get my mother’s journals."
Jay
groaned. "So he could have messed something up without knowing it because he
went alone."
She shook her head. "He was going straight there, straight back.
I don’t think Bry would be wandering around, disturbing stuff. He knows the
rules; change the past, alter the present." She bit her lip. "Somebody’s getting
in his way…but mom wouldn’t recognize him and Gran would know who he was and
leave him alone. But there was nobody else in the house…"
She and Jay looked
at each other. Her eyes grew wide. They came to the conclusion at the same time.
"Except.."
*****
The Demon Lover! Bry’s mind had time to register before
the flaming red and embarrassingly naked man smashed a fist into his gut. He
slumped to the floor, twisting painfully to hide the side of his suit in which
the journal was hidden. He fumbled for a moment – still there, ok – and fought
the urge to do what panic demanded: teleport directly back to the Lair mansion,
to safety. He knew if he did, though, he would be surrendering Vervain’s life
and even her unborn child’s to the demihuman glowering at him from the doorway.
Having already seen the creature destroyed in the future, Bry knew the Demon
Lover was not invincible… Having seen how much power it took to destroy him, Bry
Katz knew he could not do the job alone.
He summoned all the strength he had
and attempted to teleport himself downstairs. He knew something was horribly
wrong when the room blurred into gold, then red, then black and wheeled away
from him.
(to be continued)