Forwarded by the ASC-VSO 
Posted: 30 Mar 2004 19:20:23 -0800  
In: alt.startrek.creative 
From: djinn@djinnslair.com (Djinn) 
 

TITLE: The Lost Years: Chaos (Slayer Series)
AUTHOR: Djinn
CONTACT: djinn@djinnslair.com http://www.djinnslair.com
SERIES: TOS
RATING: PG-13
CODES: Ch, K, U, Others
PART: 5/7
SUMMARY: The seventh in the Lost Years series.



Christine waited by the door impatiently.  She and Jim had slept much
later than she'd expected.  Then he'd insisted they eat.  "Come on."

Jim hurried over to her, the weapon slung over his shoulder, safe in
its case.  "Calm down."

She took a deep breath.  "I'm calm.  Now, come on."  

She glanced over at the couch; the throw that had covered her was
pushed to the side.  Somehow, while they'd slept, Jim had managed to
turn them so that he had been lying down and she'd been nearly on top
of him.  It had been an interesting way to wake up.

He shot her a look, seemed to be thinking the same thing as he looked
over at the couch.  "Not the best place for two to sleep."

She smiled.  "The bed would have been less ummm intimate."

He laughed.  "I'm so glad you're not the kind to say 'I told you so.'"

"Me too.  Now can we go?"

"It won't be dark for a while."  

"I know."  She pulled her crossbow over her shoulder, shoved the
phaser into her pants' pocket.  "No good for beheading, by the way."

"No?"

"Takes too long."

He nodded thoughtfully.  "Good to know."

They stopped for coffee on the way--his idea, and she chafed a bit at
the delay as he bought their drinks.

"Chris.  He's a vampire.  Even if he's in the sewers right under her
house.  He can't come out until it's dark."

"I know."  She sipped at the foamy coffee.  

He'd splurged and bought the good stuff.  He saw her expression and
smiled.  "Life is too short to drink boring coffee."  He sipped at
his.  "Besides, I could use the caffeine."  He grinned at her.  "Not
so sure you need to be any more wound up than you already are."

"I'm all right."  She watched a young woman as she walked toward them.
 After they passed each other, she said, "She's one of them."

He turned and looked at the woman, then turned back to her with a
frown.  "One of whom?"

"The slayers."

He shook his head.  "You're seeing shadows everywhere, Chris.  She's
not."

"You saw them all last night?"

He laughed.  "Actually I did.  There wasn't a lot else to do since we
weren't fighting.  They were all so different.  I mean other than the
same basic age.  And female."

"And you know she's not a slayer."

He shrugged, shot her a long-suffering glance.  "Maybe she is.  But
she wasn't there last night.  And what difference does it make?"  His
attention was caught by something ahead.

Christine looked away from him.  She saw Carol Marcus standing with
her son, staring at the two of them as if trying to make up her mind
whether it was safe to go by.  She finally turned and walked across
the street.  David was telling her something and didn't seem to notice
the delay.

Jim sighed.  "I think it's harder now when I see them every now and
then, than it was when I knew they were safely offworld."

She nodded, touched his arm.  "I'm sorry."  She smiled softly.  "Maybe
if I hadn't been here, she would have come this way?  Maybe she was
just worried for her hand?"

He shook his head, but smiled at her.  "I doubt it, Chris.  It's a
nice thought in a way, but I can't let myself think that way.  I can't
get my hopes up."

"You prefer to live in this misery where he's concerned?"

"You have a better idea?"  His smile faded as he looked at her.  

She held up a hand.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean what I said as
condemnation.  It's just not the way I've lived my life, you know
that.  I'm more impulsive than you."

He nodded.  "I know."  He gestured to the place they'd hidden out
before, down from Emma's townhouse.  He looked up.  "The sun will be
down in about forty five minutes."

She felt out with her slayer sense, could feel the sun's passage as if
it was marked in her body.  He was right.  "How do you know that?"

He looked guilty.  "I feel it."

"Do you feel the dawn too?"

He nodded.  Then he looked down.  "Have ever since we got back."

"So it's something you could always do?"  She could hear the doubt in
her voice and smiled gently to show him she was just curious.

"Only since Anacost."  He moved closer to her.  "Some things are
different."

"Like the way you like your meat?"

"That's a big one.  But not just that."  He leaned in, sniffed her
neck.  "You smell different.  People do."

"Like food?"  She laughed.

"No."  He grinned at her.  "You just smell good." 

She smiled.  "Then different how?"

He thought about it for a moment.  "More intense.  Like I can smell
the life in them?  It's not obvious...I didn't even realize things
were different until one day in the gym.  I realized that everything
was more intense."

"You're stronger too."  She nodded.  "Somehow, his blood is making you
a little stronger than you were."

"It'll dilute, right?  Like a transfusion would eventually."

She shrugged.  "There's not a lot of data on this.  I'm not sure
vampire blood does dissipate over time.  Maybe it'll always stay
separate and strong."

"But it won't take over?"

She shook her head.  "It would have by now.  It would have that night,
after he bit you.  If it was going to."  She ruffled his hair gently,
at the neck, where he seemed to like it.  "You're just going to have
to live with being a little bit vampire.  I don't think that's a bad
thing."

"Yes, I know how fond you get of them."  He smiled. "It's slayer not
lay--"

She put a hand over his mouth, felt him laugh under her touch.  "For
the record, I've only been with one of them.  And that's an old joke. 
Ever since Buffy."

"Does everything start and end with her?"  He shook his head.  "Seems
like you should date things BB and AB."

She laughed.  "Maybe we should."  She thought about those other worlds
Spike had seen, the ones where Buffy's life had gone so differently. 
Certainly his world revolved around the woman.

"Was it different with a vampire?"  he asked.

"Sex, you mean?"

He nodded. 

"The basic mechanics are the same.  Their bodies aren't warm.  That
takes some getting used to."  She touched his hand.  "You don't have
that characteristic.  You're very warm."

He nodded.  "Alma used to say I had lots of fire in me.  Speaking of
which."  He opened the case and took the weapon out.  He flipped it
on.  "Might as well get it ready."

"Do you miss her?"

He nodded.  "I do.  Not as much as I did at first.  So much has
happened since she left."

She nodded.  

"And there's you now."  His look was open, not trying to hide what he
felt for her.

She smiled.  "She was good for you."

He nodded.  "Yes.  I think she was."  He smiled.  "Like Spike was for
you.  Do you miss him?"

She laughed.  "I do.  He brought a lightness to my life I'd never
had."  She smiled fondly.  "You'd like him.  He's fun."

"I'd probably be too busy wondering if you were still sleeping with
him."  He made a funny face.  "Not that I have any right to be
territorial."

She shrugged.  "I like it that you are."

He grinned at her.  "Well, that's good.  Because I doubt I'll change
any time soon."

She watched him as he loaded a rocket into the gun, then she looked
down the street, checking the tops of buildings, and other hidey holes
for watchers and the other slayers.  The block appeared empty of life.
 Unnaturally empty.  It was as if the watchers had chosen this street
for its very isolation.  Less questions, she supposed, but lonely for
Emma.  And scary at night when a vampire was gunning for you and a
little human company would have been welcome, even if was a distant
company.  Even if the humans around didn't have the least idea what
was happening.

The hum of the machine changed to the low whine that signaled it was
ready.  She watched the street again, waiting for
something--anything--to happen.  "David said he didn't love Emma." 
She looked at Jim.  "Do you believe that?"

"You know him better than I do."

"I don't know him at all.  Maybe I don't know her either."  She shook
her head.  "So many lies, Jim.  When does it stop?"  She felt him
grasp her hand.

"Lies do seem to be the norm around here, don't they?"

She nodded.  He squeezed her hand, then took out the box holding the
orb and checked it.  Seemingly satisfied, he put the orb in his
pocket, and stuffed the box into his other pocket.

At her look, he said, "I think it'll be tonight too.  I can feel it in
the air."  He looked up, closed his eyes for a moment and said, "Sun
will be down soon."

She nodded.  They waited in an easy silence, watching the sky as it
changed from blue to orange to dark indigo.  As the sun set, she could
feel her senses coming alive.  She looked over at Jim.  He looked more
alert too.

An hour passed as they stood in silence.  Every nerve inside of
Christine seemed to be screaming danger.  She wanted to fight, was
ready to fight.

She heard footsteps sounding down the walk, from the opposite
direction.

"He's not going to just walk up to her door," Jim said, his words
barely more than breathed air.

But that was exactly what David did.  He bounded up the steps and rang
Emma's door chime.

Emma must have been waiting by the door for it opened instantly.  She
stood aside, let David in.

"No!" Christine was already moving but Emma didn't seem to hear her. 
The door shut.

Jim was right behind her.  "Why would she do that?  Why would she let
him in?"

"What if he made her the same offer he did me?"

"Her life for yours?"

Christine nodded, felt her stomach sink into a pit somewhere near her
knees.  "Emma, no."

They rushed up the stairs and she tried the door, but it was locked.  

"To hell with this," she said, as she stepped over to the scanner. 
"Medical Emergency override.  Protocol EMT five-zero-alpha.  Doctor
Christine Chapel."

The door clicked and she pushed through it, running upstairs.  There
was no one in sight.

"Chris, down here," Jim called from the lower level.  

She ran down the stairs, her feet barely touching the ground.  The
training room was empty, but the back door stood open.

She ran out into the night, knew he was right behind her.  David and
Emma were nowhere to be seen.  She stopped running.  Stood trying to
get some kind of fix on her watcher.

"Where would he take her?"

She looked up at him.  "I don't know."

"The cemetery?"  

She nodded.  "Maybe."  But they'd been there before.  David wasn't
that predictable.  Where was he headed?

"Chris.  She doesn't have much time."

"I know."  She could feel panic pushing at her.  Where?  Where would
they have gone?  She was breathing too hard, forced herself to slow
down.  "I have an idea."  A really bad idea.  Before she could think
better of it, she grabbed his hand.  "We're going to need your magic,
Jim."

With her other hand she reached up for Laura's ring, jammed her little
finger into it.  Pictured Emma's face...and David's.

A portal started to form.

"Chris, what are you doing?"  But he followed her into the portal.

"We're going to borrow this."  She turned to him.  "Just give me a
boost, I can do the rest."  She hoped.

He nodded, closed his eyes.  As the portal closed around them, she
felt a rush of raw power fill her, pouring through Jim's hand into
hers.  She focused on Emma.  "Find her," she ordered the portal.

The portal shook.  They could probably feel it all the way back in
Kirsu.  There'd be hell to pay with LaVelle if this worked.

The portal opened in a small room.  Christine jumped out, pulling Jim
with her.

"Where are we?" he whispered as the portal closed.

"I don't know."  She moved silently into the next room, a big room,
warehouselike.

She saw Silver and his fellow watchers.  And slayers, but only a few. 
Silver was sitting at a small table, slayers and watchers huddled
around him, looking at something.

"David has Emma," she managed to get out.  Not sure why she thought he
could help.

Silver whirled.  His face went white, then he glared at them.  "I told
you what would happen if you got in our way."

"Did you hear what she just said?" Jim said.  "Where are the other
slayers?"

Silver stared hard at him, then said, "We had a report of David being
seen in Berkeley.  A very good source."

"It's not him," Christine said.  "He's in town.  And he has Emma."

One of the other watchers said, "How the hell did you get in here?  We
have slayers on the entrance.  Are they sleeping?"  He motioned for
two of the slayers to follow him to the entrance, but stopped as Lynda
and another slayer slowly walked backwards into the warehouse.  Both
had stakes raised.

David, holding Emma close with a phaser to her throat, emerged from
the shadows and followed them in.

"You promised, David," Emma said softly.  "You said it would be quick.
 In the cemetery."

"How can he watch if it's in the cemetery?  How can he suffer if it's
quick?"  David's grip on Emma tightened.  "Sorry, lover.  I lied."

Christine backed up slowly.  Maybe he hadn't seen them yet.

"Stay where I can see you, Christine."  

She froze.

David shot her a puzzled look.  "I could have sworn I saw you outside
Emma's house."

"Guess you were wrong."  

"I can't take the shot as long as he's holding her as a shield," Jim
said softly.

David did not appear to be worried about the gun.  She looked over at
Jim.  He had the gun pressed against his leg.  It shimmered slightly,
and her eyes seemed unable to focus when she tried to look at it.

Good thing he had the protection spell down pat.

Silver stood up.  "David.  It's me you want to hurt.  We both know
this."  He held out his hand.  "Let her go."

"Nice try, old man."  David moved back, pulling Emma with him.  "The
slayers go.  All except Christine.  Send them out now."

Silver didn't hesitate.  "Lynda, take them out."

She looked at him uncertainly.

"Go!"

She led the others out.  David waited until they were clear, then he
pulled Emma to the door switch.  He hit it, waited until the door
closed firmly, then shot it with his phaser, fusing the lock.  He
never let go of Emma.  "See what he'll do for you, lover?  I told you
how important you were to him."

Christine moved closer, could feel Jim behind her. 

"If you could get that phaser away from him," he said softly.

She nodded.  "We just need a little distraction."

"I think I have that covered.  Just get us a little closer."

"What are you and your paramour muttering about, Christine?"  David
pulled Emma toward him; he had her arm at an odd angle.  If he pulled
her any closer, he'd break her arm.  "That's close enough."

Christine stopped.  "Emma, why?"

Emma looked over at her.  "He made me an offer I found too good to
refuse.  I thought he was a man of his word."  She wrenched her head
back so that she could look up at him and spit in his face.  "My life
for hers.  That was the deal."

He rubbed the spittle off against her hair.  "I intend to keep up my
end of the bargain.  But I didn't say anything about our fellow
watchers."

Christine took another step forward.

David yanked up on Emma's arm.  The cracking sound seemed to fill the
room.  Emma didn't cry out, but tears came and she was breathing hard.

"Behave yourself, Christine.  Or I'll hurt her some more."  David
looked down at Emma.

Sweat was pouring down her forehead.  "Hurts, does it?"  He glanced at
Kevin.  "So brave.  Isn't she brave, Kevin?"

"David, for god's sake, let her go."  Silver took a step toward him. 
"How many years are you going to hold this against me?"

"That you took a little boy who only wanted to study science, maybe
join Starfleet, and turned him into a monster?  That I had no choice
in the matter?  Why, I think I'll hold it against you forever.   And
for me, that's going to be a nice long time."

"You could have quit," Emma said.

"And have my fellow special ops brothers track me down?"  He looked
over at Christine.  "How easy was it to quit?"

"No one tried to hurt me when I did, David.  You could have quit."

"You don't know that.  I had access to everything.  Horrors you have
not heard about yet.  Things that make the Cruciamentum seem kind." 
He looked at Silver.  "Would you have let me live, Uncle?"

"You could have left," Silver said.

Christine could hear the lie in his voice.  

Jim inched closer to her, the movement so fluid that David didn't
notice.  "We're running out of time.  Silver's too stubborn to save
this situation.  I think it's time for a distraction."

"Agreed."  She didn't look at him when she whispered, "On three?"

"One, two, three," Jim said, throwing the orb to the side of David. 
"Laura," he whispered.

Smoke gushed from the broken crystal, rising up, making a wispy dark
curtain.  The watchers moved back.

David pulled Emma away from it; he looked at Jim as if he'd gone mad. 
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"David?"  A voice that Christine had thought she'd never hear again
rang through the room.  "David?"

Both he and Emma turned to the smoke, twin looks of amazement on their
faces.

Laura walked out of the smoke.  She smiled at David.

"Chris, go.  She'll only hold form for a few minutes."

Christine was already moving, slowly covering ground, trying not to
spook David.

"David?"  Laura walked toward him.  

He dragged Emma with him, his eyes locked on his lost slayer. 
"Laura?"

Emma looked over at Christine, a strange suspicion on her face, then
she looked back at the girl.  "Laura?"

Suddenly Laura fell, the smiling young girl giving way to the girl
who'd died on Vega Hydra.  Bloody and hurt, she held her hand up to
David.  "Help me."

He backed away.  "No." Then he seemed to realize Christine was coming
up fast.  He turned, lifting the phaser again.

"No!" she said, knew it was too far, that she wouldn't get to him. 
Then she felt a familiar energy pushing her, getting her close enough
fast enough.

Jim.

Her hand was out, slapping the phaser away from David, her other hand
pushing Emma away from him.  She kicked David back, saw Jim out of the
corner of her eye pulling Emma away.

David frowned.  "What is that?"  He suddenly moved so Christine was
between them.  "A weapon?"

She kicked him away from her.  Saw that Jim had raised the gun.  It no
longer shimmered.

"I told you.  We're not just whittling stakes anymore."

He laughed as he moved around her.  "He can't get a shot as long as
you're in front of me."   He traded blows with her, never hitting her
hard enough to lose her as a shield.  "Do you think he can fire before
I get to him?  Before I rip his head off?"

She smiled. "Yes.  I do."  She saw that he was working them closer to
Jim.  "But you're not going to get the chance."

"We'll see."  

He moved back and she followed him, then he suddenly lunged at her,
kicking her hard, back toward Jim.  He followed, keeping her between
them, and leapt up, kicking her again as she tried to give Jim a shot.

She went careening into him, knocking the weapon out of his hands.  It
clattered to the ground.

Next to Emma.

As Christine went after David again, she heard Emma say, "Which one do
I shoot?"

Jim yelled at her, "David.  Shoot David."

Emma seemed to sob.  "I know.  But which one?"

Christine moved between David and her watcher.  He rushed her and she
caught him up, threw him away from her, into some of the other
watchers.  He was up quickly and back at her.

"You knew it would come to this," she said.  "You and me.  The
old-fashioned way."

He shook his head.  "I've still got body armor.  You don't."  He
laughed, then rushed her for real.

She lost track of what Emma or Jim or anyone but David was doing. 
Their movements were like poetry, strike, strike, kick.  Back and
forth, neither of them giving ground.

She remembered that Rosa had danced like this with Anacost.  Finally,
understood why she'd been smiling.

It was what she had been born to do.  

They closed, fought closer in.  Her hands were sore from hitting his
armor; her legs were staring to tire.  But she laughed.  She could
feel a strange darkness fill her.  They would finish this.  Finally.

And it would not be her that would go down.  She grabbed him, pulled
him to the side.  Gave Emma a shot.  Knew her watcher wouldn't miss. 
Even with a broken arm.  She was the best shot Christine had ever
seen.  "Emma, now!"

Emma fired. 

And the rocket flew dead on target--if she'd been aiming for
Christine.

"No!" Jim yelled.

Christine made a helpless noise.  Time slowed strangely and she knew
it was over.  It would be her lying on the ground.

It would be her who died.

Then David pushed her away. 

She fell back, landed hard on her butt, felt the shock as her tailbone
protested.

David was smiling, turning toward the rocket as it tore through his
chest.  He flew back, as if the rocket was still traveling and
carrying him with it.  He finally fell, and she could see fire burning
through the gaping hole in his body armor.

She rushed to him.  Could hear Jim behind her.

David looked up at Jim.  "You made this?"

Jim nodded.

Christine was trying to put the fire out.  She tried to smother it
with her jacket but it wouldn't go out.

"It's chemical, love.  I can feel that.  Not normal fire."  It began
to spread out from this chest, his skin bubbling up around the hole,
then turning into something that looked like coals, fire glowing from
behind the cracks in his skin.

She leaned forward and he caught her around the neck.  His hands
tightened painfully on either side of her head.  She froze.

He looked up at Jim.  "You need to make it burn faster.  If it were
anyone but her...I'd snap her neck."  He let go of her.

She started to breathe again.  "David."

"It hurts."  He reached out, touched her jacket where she'd dropped
it.  Pulling out her stake, he handed it to her.  "End it, Christine. 
The old-fashioned way."  He groaned in pain as the fire spread again.

She tried to blink back tears, but they fell onto his face.

"You cry for me."  He smiled.  A shy, uncertain smile.  He was
Thompson again.  Just for a moment.  "That's nice."

"I'll fight for them.  I promise."

"I know you will."  The fire spread again.  So slowly.  Too slowly.  

Why didn't it burn faster?  

She looked at the stake.  It was what she was made for.  To slay him.

He smiled, grabbed her hand.  "Here.  I'll do it for you."

She put her other hand over his.  "No.  I can do it."

He nodded, relaxed his grip on her hand, but didn't let go of the
stake.

"Goodbye, David."

He smiled up at her.  This time his own cocky grin.   She slammed the
stake into his chest, felt his hand clench on hers, then it turned to
dust.  She looked up at Jim.

He was watching her with concern.  He gently set his hand on her
shoulder.  "I'll help you.  You know that.  Whatever I can do for the
slayers, I'll do."

She pushed herself to her feet and moved close to him, touching his
cheek, then leaning in and kissing him softly on the mouth before she
pulled away.  "I know you will."  She looked down at where Silver was
sitting with Emma.  "We need to get her to the hospital."

He pulled out his communicator.  She could hear him calling for
emergency transport as she walked to her watcher.  She pushed past
Silver, knelt down next to Emma.

"I didn't think you'd be able to do it," Silver said softly.  "I may
have misjudged you."

She gave him a hard look.  "Don't talk to me right now.  I had to kill
him because you couldn't let a little boy live the life he wanted. 
And I thought it was only girls you destroyed."

He looked down.  "I don't expect you to understand my position."

Emma reached out, touched his arm.  "Don't, Kevin.  Just let her hurt.
 She loved him."  Emma's eyes met hers.  "We both did."  She looked
down.  "Even if he only loved one of us."  Her smile was tremulous, a
little bit startling coming from such a normally stalwart woman.  As
Christine watched, the starch came back into her expression.  She
smiled firmly up at her.  "My arm's in pain, dear.  Perhaps a
hospital?"

"Jim's got that covered."  Christine helped her up.  And led her away
from Silver and the other watchers.

She left Emma with Jim, then gathered up her jacket, touching the pile
of dust.  "I won't forget," she promised David.  Then she sighed and
straightened up.  "Get us out of here, Jim."

She didn't look away from the dust until the transporter took them.

End part 5 of 7

--
Stephen Ratliff
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