Post by Lorpius Prime on Apr 11, 2009 2:39:43 GMT -5
Jay pushed himself up from his knees, then wiped his eyes with the back of one hand as he stood. Colonel Holland had tensed up as soon as Jay turned around. Jay thought that was just fine, let the bastard squirm.
For a moment, the two men just looked at each other, and neither said a thing. Jay snorted.
"You know," he said, and reached down towards his waist, "when this was given to me, I had no idea what it was, or what I was supposed to do with it." Jay removed the sword and its scabbard from his suspenders to hold one end in each hand. "But now I'm glad I have it." He looked at Holland's eyes, "And I can see why I do."
Jay took a step towards the Security Service man, but Martin held his ground.
"Are you quite all right, Mr. Blake?"
Jay scowled. "I am not. I've been in this godforsaken country for two long weeks running from you and your goons. And all the while you've been picking apart my life just because you couldn't get to me. Well here I am, Colonel," Jay fairly spat.
Holland frowned, "I'm not at all sure what you're talking about, has something happened—"
"Spare me, Colonel," Jay cut him off, "I've seen what you've done! The people you've murdered, the people you've—" Jay choked on his words for a moment, "…lied to," he finished awkwardly.
Martin blinked, and his brow creased, "Jay Thomson, whatever you think has—"
"I know it!" Jay shouted. He was sounding like a wild man, but he didn't care. "I know it!" he screamed again.
Martin's eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips for a moment. "Fine," he said. "Whatever you know has happened, it doesn't matter. It's in the past, and things have changed. Radically!" he swept a hand through the air in a slicing gesture.
Jay was shaking. How dare he? Jay bared his teeth in a quivering grin, "You can't change what you've done, Colonel. Do you think I could just forget?" Jay actually managed a broken chuckle. "The world has put up with you for too long, now."
Holland set himself, "You don't have any choice, Mr. Blake. I'm the only way you're getting out of here alive, which means you're just going to have to do as I say for a little while. Unfortunately, Margaret's going to have—"
Jay loosed an angry shout at the mention of his sister's name. He grabbed the handle of the sword with his right hand and ripped the blade out of its scabbard. Jay was not at all practiced with the weapon, but it felt comfortable in his grip, it felt right. He leveled the weapon point-first at Martin's chin. The two men were still several feet apart, but Holland's eyes widened to see the weapon. He started to take a step back, but checked the motion.
"You want to put that away," he said.
Jay ignored him. "I don't know what lies you've told my sister," he growled, "but if she knew any of the things you've done, she'd spit in your eye and tear out your throat. I won't let you touch her again."
It was Martin's turn to shake with rage. "Watch your tongue, boy. You have no concept of the sacrifices I've had to make on her behalf and yours. You can pitch a tantrum all you want, but I am not your rich daddy. It's not going to get you anything except killed."
Jay's hand tightened around the wire grip of his sword. He advanced a few paces towards Martin, but the Security agent just glared harshly back into his eyes. Jay started to raise the sword.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Jay froze at the sight of Margaret in the doorway. She had a long robe wrapped around her, and was looking between Jay and Martin with an utterly horrified expression.
"Mar—" Jay started to say.
She gave him a fierce look, "Jay Thomson you put that thing down right this instant!"
Jay looked at her for a moment, then lowered the sword cautiously.
Margaret frowned at the both of them again. "What are you two doing?" she demanded.
Martin wore a guarded expression as he eyed Jay. For his part, Jay was reluctant to take his eyes off the Security Service man. But he gritted his teeth and turned his head to Margaret.
"Margaret, you don't know him, you don't know what he's done."
"What he's done? Jay Thomson!" She gave a sharp, exasperated sigh, "What he's done is rescued you! He's nearly got himself killed doing it, too! And he did it because I asked him too. Now whatever you think, that's more than enough for me."
"Margaret, he…" Jay looked between her and Holland several times. It was so much easier when Jay was just going to finish the Security Service agent alone. "He tried to kill me, Margaret. He's the one who killed Mills. He killed Perry, he killed Sam. Oh God, Margaret. It was all him." he turned to face the object of his hatred, glowering.
Margaret screwed up her, "What are you talking about? Martin hasn't killed anybody!" She looked at Holland, "Why would he think that?"
"I really have no idea," Martin said very calmly.
"Liar!" Jay whirled about wholly and stepped towards Martin, tears streaming from his eyes. He lifted his sword back into a ready position.
Martin's eyes locked onto the sword, and his good hand darted inside his coat. He was reaching for his gun. Jay, however, was faster, and he lifted the sword all the way above his head to drop his wrath upon his enemy. All of his might went into the swing.
"No!"
Several things happened very quickly, and although Jay could see each moment pass in crystal clarity as if it took an age, he could not move swiftly enough to stop any of it.
At the same time that he swung for Martin, Margaret lunged forward. Holland himself was still fumbling inside of his jacket when she collided with him, shoving him to one side. Already committed to his attack, Jay could not reverse himself, and his sword fell.
He had aimed perfectly, and the tip of the blade swung through a spot in space that should have contained Martin's neck. Instead, the sword connected with Margaret's eyebrow. It split the skin and travelled down, across the surface of her right eye, and then ran along her cheek, leaving a thin wake of blood. Finally, the blade cut across back of the hand she had used to push Martin. Jay felt only the tiniest of shivers in his own hand as the sword encountered bone. Damage done, the sword cleared space, and Jay was already dropping it, reaching out with his left hand for his sister.
Martin landed hard on his left shoulder, and sprawled across the floor. His gun fell out of his hand and clattered away.
Margaret managed to remain standing. But she screamed and clamped her injured hand to the side of her face. Her face was a ghastly sight, covered in blood that soaked into her hair and ran down her arm. She lurched away from Jay as he reached for her. Jay froze, appalled.
Margaret took her hand away from her face for a moment to look at it, then shrieked again, and tried to cover both of her injuries with her other hand. The effort was wasted. Margaret turned to face Jay, absolute terror showing through her other eye. She stumbled forward, and began to run. Before Jay could start after her, she had turned down one of the side passages out of the hallway and disappeared.
"Margaret!" Jay managed to take another step forward, but was still too horrified to go any further.
A heavy weight crashed into his back, sending Jay reeling forward into one of the heavy doors. Colonel Holland's scream was born of an emotion that had passed beyond fury, and Jay barely had the strength to turn and face his attacker.
Martin was advancing slowly towards Jay. He was hunched forward and breathing heavily, but the hatred his eyes left no doubt about his intentions. It was Jay's turn to die.
Jay's sword was lying on the floor a few steps behind the Security Service man. So was Martin's gun. But even though he was unarmed, even though his left arm was bound up and useless, the man looked more than capable of snapping Jay in half. Jay wouldn't be able to stop him.
Fine, Jay thought, to his own surprise. He felt his spine straighten slightly. Holland had already killed Jay's colleagues, already destroyed Jay's life and career, already turned Jay's own family against him. Maybe Jay's situation was hopeless, but with absolutely nothing left, he might as well go down kicking. He might as well tear off as big a chunk out of Martin as he could before the bastard killed him. If Jay was going to die, then that sounded like a good way to go. He met Martin's gaze, and smiled
Holland's eyes narrowed slightly, but he kept moving forward. Jay crouched down in front of the hallway doors, then took off towards Martin as a run. He shrieked like a feral animal as he moved, and the noise felt good.
His charge caught Martin right in the stomach, and actually lifted the Security Service agent off his feet for a moment. But Holland recovered smartly, and he spun as he landed, and kicked Jay's legs out from under him. Jay sprawled across the stone floor and slid, scraping his chin and the palms of his hands.
He started to push himself up, but before he made it, Colonel Holland grabbed him from behind by the collar of his shirt, and lifted. Perhaps Martin had meant to throw Jay, but his action actually helped. Jay got his feet back under him and, with little other options, pumped his legs up with all his might and stood. He put his arms out as he did so, and within a moment, Jay was the one lifting Martin into the air.
He didn't stop to wonder at the absurdity of the feat, nor at just how he'd managed to find the strength to carry a two hundred pound man. Jay's thoughts had recently become very focused, and he concentrated on using his momentary advantage to smash Colonel Holland as completely as possible.
Jay ran sideways into a wall. Martin grunted into his ear as he slammed into the stone, but instead of falling, he wrapped his arm around Jay's neck and squeezed.
Defying the pressure, Jay roared at the top of his lungs, then charged forward again. With Martin clinging to his back, fingers scraping at Jay's throat, Jay half-ran half-stumbled down the hallway. He kept on screaming until he ran into the archway at the end.
Jay collided with the stone wall at the end, wrenching his shoulder painfully. He bounced off the solid surface and fell backwards, then drew in a sharp breath as he struck the floor.
Martin, however, did not bounce. Instead, Holland flipped over Jay's shoulder at impact, and then just kept on going. It was as if the stone wall was not even there for him.
In the same manner as Jay had seen in Muninn's visions, Colonel Martin Holland of Her Majesty's Security Service simply fell through a wall, and disappeared into oblivion.
Jay stared at the wall. For a moment he forgot to breathe, but then started gulping down air. He blinked a few times before he felt sure that what he'd just seen had really happened.
Squinting against the pain in his backside, Jay stood up. Then he stepped forward and put a cautious hand against the stone wall beneath the archway. The wall was solid. It felt much like any other stone wall, hard and rough and cold.
Jay leaned against the archway for a while, catching his breath. His adrenaline level started to decline as it became apparent that Holland was not about to reappear through the wall, and Jay realized that he had other things to worry about. Like his sister.
Still panting, Jay turned around and started walking back down the hall. He hesitated for a moment when he reached the fallen sword, and almost bent down to pick it up. But he stopped himself. He couldn't imagine that it was likely to be of any more use at the moment, and it had already done enough damage. Jay kept walking.
A few steps past the sword, there was an actual trail of blood on the floor, like something out of a detective story. Jay tried not to think too hard about the source of the blood, but followed the trail down to the end of the hallway. The tiny crimson spatters turned down one of the side passages. Jay walked around the dividing wall and entered a narrow tunnel. The passage was unlit, but it was quite short, and at the end was a stairway. The stairs led outside, Jay could see stars at the top. Jay climbed them slowly, they were thin and he didn't want to fall.
The stairway opened onto a courtyard. It was not the courtyard that Jay and Margaret and Martin had passed through on their way into the palace, so Jay was probably on the other—eastern—side of the building. Small, well-tended trees lined the courtyard, surrounding little pools and fountains of water that glinted in the starlight.
Although it was night, there was still enough light from the stars and partial moon for Jay to see where his sister's blood had fallen on the white pavement of the courtyard. Jay looked around, but could see no sign of Margaret herself. Biting his lip, he followed the blood stains.
They only took him a few more yards before there were no more spots of blood. Blinking, Jay spun around to search the pavement. But the trail had just ended somewhere in between a small fountain and a slightly larger, rectangular reflecting pool. Neither was close enough for Jay to think that Margaret might have walked into one, breaking the trail.
"Margaret? he shouted.
After a minute with no response, he called again. But no one said anything back. A bit of wind picked, blowing cold air across Jay's face and causing the shooting water of the fountains to shiver around him.
"Margaret?" Jay called one more time, his voice broke and it was more of a squawk than a shout.
He couldn't see her and he couldn't hear her. He didn't know where to look. She had gone.
And it was Jay's fault.
Jay collapsed onto his knees. A stinging sensation in his eyes told him that he was crying, and he rubbed at his cheek with one hand, which only hurt his skinned palm.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this," Jay said, to himself and no one. "It wasn't."
But even as he said it, Jay knew it was a lie. He'd had no idea how it was supposed to happen. None at all.
For a moment, the two men just looked at each other, and neither said a thing. Jay snorted.
"You know," he said, and reached down towards his waist, "when this was given to me, I had no idea what it was, or what I was supposed to do with it." Jay removed the sword and its scabbard from his suspenders to hold one end in each hand. "But now I'm glad I have it." He looked at Holland's eyes, "And I can see why I do."
Jay took a step towards the Security Service man, but Martin held his ground.
"Are you quite all right, Mr. Blake?"
Jay scowled. "I am not. I've been in this godforsaken country for two long weeks running from you and your goons. And all the while you've been picking apart my life just because you couldn't get to me. Well here I am, Colonel," Jay fairly spat.
Holland frowned, "I'm not at all sure what you're talking about, has something happened—"
"Spare me, Colonel," Jay cut him off, "I've seen what you've done! The people you've murdered, the people you've—" Jay choked on his words for a moment, "…lied to," he finished awkwardly.
Martin blinked, and his brow creased, "Jay Thomson, whatever you think has—"
"I know it!" Jay shouted. He was sounding like a wild man, but he didn't care. "I know it!" he screamed again.
Martin's eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips for a moment. "Fine," he said. "Whatever you know has happened, it doesn't matter. It's in the past, and things have changed. Radically!" he swept a hand through the air in a slicing gesture.
Jay was shaking. How dare he? Jay bared his teeth in a quivering grin, "You can't change what you've done, Colonel. Do you think I could just forget?" Jay actually managed a broken chuckle. "The world has put up with you for too long, now."
Holland set himself, "You don't have any choice, Mr. Blake. I'm the only way you're getting out of here alive, which means you're just going to have to do as I say for a little while. Unfortunately, Margaret's going to have—"
Jay loosed an angry shout at the mention of his sister's name. He grabbed the handle of the sword with his right hand and ripped the blade out of its scabbard. Jay was not at all practiced with the weapon, but it felt comfortable in his grip, it felt right. He leveled the weapon point-first at Martin's chin. The two men were still several feet apart, but Holland's eyes widened to see the weapon. He started to take a step back, but checked the motion.
"You want to put that away," he said.
Jay ignored him. "I don't know what lies you've told my sister," he growled, "but if she knew any of the things you've done, she'd spit in your eye and tear out your throat. I won't let you touch her again."
It was Martin's turn to shake with rage. "Watch your tongue, boy. You have no concept of the sacrifices I've had to make on her behalf and yours. You can pitch a tantrum all you want, but I am not your rich daddy. It's not going to get you anything except killed."
Jay's hand tightened around the wire grip of his sword. He advanced a few paces towards Martin, but the Security agent just glared harshly back into his eyes. Jay started to raise the sword.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Jay froze at the sight of Margaret in the doorway. She had a long robe wrapped around her, and was looking between Jay and Martin with an utterly horrified expression.
"Mar—" Jay started to say.
She gave him a fierce look, "Jay Thomson you put that thing down right this instant!"
Jay looked at her for a moment, then lowered the sword cautiously.
Margaret frowned at the both of them again. "What are you two doing?" she demanded.
Martin wore a guarded expression as he eyed Jay. For his part, Jay was reluctant to take his eyes off the Security Service man. But he gritted his teeth and turned his head to Margaret.
"Margaret, you don't know him, you don't know what he's done."
"What he's done? Jay Thomson!" She gave a sharp, exasperated sigh, "What he's done is rescued you! He's nearly got himself killed doing it, too! And he did it because I asked him too. Now whatever you think, that's more than enough for me."
"Margaret, he…" Jay looked between her and Holland several times. It was so much easier when Jay was just going to finish the Security Service agent alone. "He tried to kill me, Margaret. He's the one who killed Mills. He killed Perry, he killed Sam. Oh God, Margaret. It was all him." he turned to face the object of his hatred, glowering.
Margaret screwed up her, "What are you talking about? Martin hasn't killed anybody!" She looked at Holland, "Why would he think that?"
"I really have no idea," Martin said very calmly.
"Liar!" Jay whirled about wholly and stepped towards Martin, tears streaming from his eyes. He lifted his sword back into a ready position.
Martin's eyes locked onto the sword, and his good hand darted inside his coat. He was reaching for his gun. Jay, however, was faster, and he lifted the sword all the way above his head to drop his wrath upon his enemy. All of his might went into the swing.
"No!"
Several things happened very quickly, and although Jay could see each moment pass in crystal clarity as if it took an age, he could not move swiftly enough to stop any of it.
At the same time that he swung for Martin, Margaret lunged forward. Holland himself was still fumbling inside of his jacket when she collided with him, shoving him to one side. Already committed to his attack, Jay could not reverse himself, and his sword fell.
He had aimed perfectly, and the tip of the blade swung through a spot in space that should have contained Martin's neck. Instead, the sword connected with Margaret's eyebrow. It split the skin and travelled down, across the surface of her right eye, and then ran along her cheek, leaving a thin wake of blood. Finally, the blade cut across back of the hand she had used to push Martin. Jay felt only the tiniest of shivers in his own hand as the sword encountered bone. Damage done, the sword cleared space, and Jay was already dropping it, reaching out with his left hand for his sister.
Martin landed hard on his left shoulder, and sprawled across the floor. His gun fell out of his hand and clattered away.
Margaret managed to remain standing. But she screamed and clamped her injured hand to the side of her face. Her face was a ghastly sight, covered in blood that soaked into her hair and ran down her arm. She lurched away from Jay as he reached for her. Jay froze, appalled.
Margaret took her hand away from her face for a moment to look at it, then shrieked again, and tried to cover both of her injuries with her other hand. The effort was wasted. Margaret turned to face Jay, absolute terror showing through her other eye. She stumbled forward, and began to run. Before Jay could start after her, she had turned down one of the side passages out of the hallway and disappeared.
"Margaret!" Jay managed to take another step forward, but was still too horrified to go any further.
A heavy weight crashed into his back, sending Jay reeling forward into one of the heavy doors. Colonel Holland's scream was born of an emotion that had passed beyond fury, and Jay barely had the strength to turn and face his attacker.
Martin was advancing slowly towards Jay. He was hunched forward and breathing heavily, but the hatred his eyes left no doubt about his intentions. It was Jay's turn to die.
Jay's sword was lying on the floor a few steps behind the Security Service man. So was Martin's gun. But even though he was unarmed, even though his left arm was bound up and useless, the man looked more than capable of snapping Jay in half. Jay wouldn't be able to stop him.
Fine, Jay thought, to his own surprise. He felt his spine straighten slightly. Holland had already killed Jay's colleagues, already destroyed Jay's life and career, already turned Jay's own family against him. Maybe Jay's situation was hopeless, but with absolutely nothing left, he might as well go down kicking. He might as well tear off as big a chunk out of Martin as he could before the bastard killed him. If Jay was going to die, then that sounded like a good way to go. He met Martin's gaze, and smiled
Holland's eyes narrowed slightly, but he kept moving forward. Jay crouched down in front of the hallway doors, then took off towards Martin as a run. He shrieked like a feral animal as he moved, and the noise felt good.
His charge caught Martin right in the stomach, and actually lifted the Security Service agent off his feet for a moment. But Holland recovered smartly, and he spun as he landed, and kicked Jay's legs out from under him. Jay sprawled across the stone floor and slid, scraping his chin and the palms of his hands.
He started to push himself up, but before he made it, Colonel Holland grabbed him from behind by the collar of his shirt, and lifted. Perhaps Martin had meant to throw Jay, but his action actually helped. Jay got his feet back under him and, with little other options, pumped his legs up with all his might and stood. He put his arms out as he did so, and within a moment, Jay was the one lifting Martin into the air.
He didn't stop to wonder at the absurdity of the feat, nor at just how he'd managed to find the strength to carry a two hundred pound man. Jay's thoughts had recently become very focused, and he concentrated on using his momentary advantage to smash Colonel Holland as completely as possible.
Jay ran sideways into a wall. Martin grunted into his ear as he slammed into the stone, but instead of falling, he wrapped his arm around Jay's neck and squeezed.
Defying the pressure, Jay roared at the top of his lungs, then charged forward again. With Martin clinging to his back, fingers scraping at Jay's throat, Jay half-ran half-stumbled down the hallway. He kept on screaming until he ran into the archway at the end.
Jay collided with the stone wall at the end, wrenching his shoulder painfully. He bounced off the solid surface and fell backwards, then drew in a sharp breath as he struck the floor.
Martin, however, did not bounce. Instead, Holland flipped over Jay's shoulder at impact, and then just kept on going. It was as if the stone wall was not even there for him.
In the same manner as Jay had seen in Muninn's visions, Colonel Martin Holland of Her Majesty's Security Service simply fell through a wall, and disappeared into oblivion.
Jay stared at the wall. For a moment he forgot to breathe, but then started gulping down air. He blinked a few times before he felt sure that what he'd just seen had really happened.
Squinting against the pain in his backside, Jay stood up. Then he stepped forward and put a cautious hand against the stone wall beneath the archway. The wall was solid. It felt much like any other stone wall, hard and rough and cold.
Jay leaned against the archway for a while, catching his breath. His adrenaline level started to decline as it became apparent that Holland was not about to reappear through the wall, and Jay realized that he had other things to worry about. Like his sister.
Still panting, Jay turned around and started walking back down the hall. He hesitated for a moment when he reached the fallen sword, and almost bent down to pick it up. But he stopped himself. He couldn't imagine that it was likely to be of any more use at the moment, and it had already done enough damage. Jay kept walking.
A few steps past the sword, there was an actual trail of blood on the floor, like something out of a detective story. Jay tried not to think too hard about the source of the blood, but followed the trail down to the end of the hallway. The tiny crimson spatters turned down one of the side passages. Jay walked around the dividing wall and entered a narrow tunnel. The passage was unlit, but it was quite short, and at the end was a stairway. The stairs led outside, Jay could see stars at the top. Jay climbed them slowly, they were thin and he didn't want to fall.
The stairway opened onto a courtyard. It was not the courtyard that Jay and Margaret and Martin had passed through on their way into the palace, so Jay was probably on the other—eastern—side of the building. Small, well-tended trees lined the courtyard, surrounding little pools and fountains of water that glinted in the starlight.
Although it was night, there was still enough light from the stars and partial moon for Jay to see where his sister's blood had fallen on the white pavement of the courtyard. Jay looked around, but could see no sign of Margaret herself. Biting his lip, he followed the blood stains.
They only took him a few more yards before there were no more spots of blood. Blinking, Jay spun around to search the pavement. But the trail had just ended somewhere in between a small fountain and a slightly larger, rectangular reflecting pool. Neither was close enough for Jay to think that Margaret might have walked into one, breaking the trail.
"Margaret? he shouted.
After a minute with no response, he called again. But no one said anything back. A bit of wind picked, blowing cold air across Jay's face and causing the shooting water of the fountains to shiver around him.
"Margaret?" Jay called one more time, his voice broke and it was more of a squawk than a shout.
He couldn't see her and he couldn't hear her. He didn't know where to look. She had gone.
And it was Jay's fault.
Jay collapsed onto his knees. A stinging sensation in his eyes told him that he was crying, and he rubbed at his cheek with one hand, which only hurt his skinned palm.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this," Jay said, to himself and no one. "It wasn't."
But even as he said it, Jay knew it was a lie. He'd had no idea how it was supposed to happen. None at all.