Washington D.C. - 350 And Down
I look up. There's a pile of shattered emerald at the side of my head. Dad puts something in my hand, and for a moment I can feel it. Feel her. Feel us.
Dad's fingers trace the filigree of the black star. I can't tell if its metal or gem. “To remember by.” Dad doesn't grin. Somehow, it's even more warming than when he did. “To remember her by.”
“And you?”
Dad takes my hand and puts it on a lump in his leather duster. “A present. From... from an old friend.”
For a moment, we're silent. But I can't leave it like that. “Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Do I have to lose you too?”
“Do you want to?”
I want to cry. So fuck it. I do. “No. No, Dad. Not ever.”
My Dad wraps me in his arms. “Me neither, kid. I'm never losing you either.” He kisses me. He grins, but he's not trying to hide his own tears. “So shall we go fix me?”
I look up. “Well, that might be a problem.”
“Problem?”
“You know. Bullet. Brain. Um – twice. Does the second one count? Was it really a bullet?”
“I'm betting not.” Dad looks up at motor-bike chick. “I'm betting I'd know the maker's mark on that piece, right?”
Biker chick smiles. “Could be, Jack. Could be. Anyway. We square, Shadow?”
“Yeah. We're good.”
“Great. Be seeing you, Jack.”
Dad winces. “Not if I can help it.”
Biker-chick winks. “You know how it is, Jack. What's gotta be...”
Dad sighs. “I almost feel sorry for him.”
Biker chick grins. Me, I raise an eyebrow. “Him?”
“Never mind.”
“Er – Jack?”
“P?”
“The second one – it was hellfire, but it was still a bullet. I'm keeping it out of her cortex, but it really needs to come out.”
Dad looks at me. “It's up to you, kid.”
“What is?”
“Whether you trust P.”
“You trust her, dad?”
“Second most in the world, kid.”
“So who's the most.”
Dad blushes. My Dad. My been there, done that, kicked its ass Dad blushes. And I want to cry again, I'm so happy. I look up. “Miss Prowess?”
“Just Prowess, dear. Or P. After all, you're Jack's family.”
“P? I kinda don't wanna die right now.”
“Then let's take care of that, shall we? And....” Now it seems it's a shapeshifting empathivore's turn to blush “... well, would you mind if I gave you a present as well? After all, it's a bit like your birthday, dear.”
“What present, P?”
Prowess smiled. “You'll see. Come here, dear.”
I get up, just, and I walk over to Prowess. She – well, flows is pretty much the only way to describe it. She flows, and she wraps round me like a great, huge blanket. As everything goes black, I wonder how I'm going to breathe.
“Don't worry, dear. I'll take care of it.” The voice isn't in my head. It's in every part of me. And it's not a shadow. It's Prowess. I black out.
I wake, and the notes of Shadow Child are in the air. I touch my head, where CG's bullet killed – fuck it. Killed me, even if it wasn't my head at the time. There's not a mark, and I feel – I feel great! “Wow, P! How did you...?”
“Oh, I stole some of your life, dear.”
“WHAT?” My new pink not-a-Glock is in my hand, and it's pointed at P's head. She doesn't miss a note.
“I stole some of your life. Not anything you were going to miss. It's from a long way off.”
“But...”
“She had a choice, kid. You could be dead now, or dead maybe a bit sooner than forever – but not now. You rather dead-now?”
“But...” I try to work out what comes after but. Thing is, there really isn't anything that makes sense. “I'm sorry, P. Thanks – I guess.”
“Oh, don't mention it, dear. By the way – that's a really nice gun you have pointed at me. Very – pink.” P looks at biker-chick. “Pink? Really?”
“Never argue with a girl who's got her pink on, lady.” Biker chick twitches her hand, and a long chain slides from her body, whipping round her head. As chains go, let's say it isn't black. Like, very not-black.
Prowess grins. “I suppose not.” She looks at her piano. “Jack? Do you think...? Oh, never mind. We can talk about that later. No, I meant it must be quite difficult to carry a big gun like that round with you, dear.”
I shrug. “Not really. I just keep it in my...” I stop. My gun hand drops, and lifts my skirt. My not-a-Glock slips neatly into the thigh holster I shouldn't have, because CG tore it off me.
“At least there's no demon in this one, dear. It's all – well, it was all – me. It's Shifter skin, dear. Like your old one, but given willingly, not flayed from a screaming prisoner and stitched on with...” Prowess spits. “I'm sorry dear. I knew what it was as soon as I saw that evil little brat tear it off you. Would you mind killing him for me?”
“It will be my pleasure, P.”
“Thank you, dear. Anyway. This one's a gift, so it's rather better part of your – well, your you. You'll heal quicker, and even if it won't stop bullets all over, you won't have to worry about anything that hits it. And it will move wherever you ask it to, if you think nicely at it. And it matches you perfectly, with a direct link to Shifter-space, so nobody will ever see your gun. Oh – and one more thing. Jack? May I?” Prowess holds out a tentacle. Dad drops the filigree star into it. “Thank you.” The tentacle whips over to me, and down between my legs. It caresses my holster. “There dear.”
I run my hand over my holster. I can just barely feel the star under it.
“It will – well, think of it as a memory jogger, dear. I did the same for your father.”
“Dad?”
“Of course.” Prowess smiles. “Where do you think he got that rather nice leather coat? Now. Do run along.”
Dad scoops up the shattered pieces of emerald. “Can you do it, P? He's got to be me, but he can't remember...”
Prowess gives Dad a dirty look. “Do I ask if you can load your gun, Jack? Come here.” A tentacle snakes out, and settles on Dad's forehead. Then another sits for a while on the shattered emerald pieces in Dad's hand. “There. Don't worry. The leather will know what to do. And...” Prowess picks one of the shards of emerald out of Dad's hand “... if you crush this under his nose, so will you. Er – he. Well, one of those. Or is it both?” She looks at me. “Let's try not to do this again, shall we dear?”
I raise one eyebrow. “Again? But this is the first...” I look at Dad. “Er – dad? What does she mean, 'again'?
This time it's Dad giving Prowess a dirty look. I wonder how many times I've died, so I can live at last.
Dad pulls some chalk from his pocket. He scrawls what would be a pentacle on the ground, if pentacles weren't just hokey spiritualist shit. The leopard-man appearing in the pentacle makes me wonder if I needed to re-think my views on spiritualist shit as well.
The leopard man looks at Dad. He looks at me. He clutches his head. “Shadow! You can't...” He looks at me again. “Oh. You can. Er – you did. Right. At least we're not going to have to do this again.”
“Er – Mr Leopard? About that 'again'?”
Leopard guy looks at me. He clutches his head again. “Never mind. I mean, really Never. Ow!” He rubs his head.
Dad raises an eyebrow. “Haures?”
“Ow! Yes, you can make a one-time disposable Summoning Pentacle. Yes, it will vaporize as soon as it's used. Yes, it will... OW! YesitwillsummonanythingevenintoaParadoxStorm! OWOWOWOW!”
Dad sighs. “So how do I...”
“Left pocket! It's set for Barbas. And I hope it bloody chokes him, so there! Ow!” Leopard guy clutches his head harder.
Dad takes something out of the leopard guy's pocket. Which is a pretty neat trick, given the pockets leopards don't usually have. Dad scrubs a line of the chalk pentacle with his toe, and leopard guy vanishes. Dad looks at me. “OK. This is where it gets tricky, kid. Timing's everything.”
I grin. “Great sex, great comedy and war. Timing's always everything. So what's new, Dad?”
Dad grins too. “New is, this time I don't die.”
“This time?”
Dad shrugs. “It's complicated.”
I raise one eyebrow. “Riiiiight. I bet.”
Dad takes a bottle from his pocket. “We have to get there just before you drag – well, before you drag you out, but not so close you see you. Got it?”
“No.”
“Good. That way you won't try to over think it.” Dad tosses me a flask. We drink – and we're gone.
Washington D.C. - 350 And Down
“Did you do it, Lee-Ann?” Shadows don't speak. Not even shadows with nothing to cast them. So this shadow didn't ask Prowess anything at all.
“Yes. I did it. It's in there. But it's not fair! I didn't really steal it! It was just a tiny piece! And I only wanted to know why he... why he didn't want...”
“It's alright, Lee-Ann. She didn't mind.”
“You can't know that!”
“Of course I can.”
“How? How can you know?”
“Because I said so. That's how.”
“Oh. Right.” Prowess fingers wandered slowly over the keyboard. “Is it... is it worth it? Really?”
Shadows don't smile. So this one didn't. “Oh, yes. It's worth it.”
Prowess smiled, and even if the smile was weak, it was real. “Good.”
The shadow that couldn't have been there wasn't there any more – because it was gone. And the room echoed as Shadow Child drifted into Dragon Star – and back again.