2.10 Reflecting

Trapped in different cells, the Archer twins communicate telepathically to formulate an escape plan. Terrorist forces have control of Bridgeport's communication networks, and intend to televise their prisoners' execution if demands aren't met. Finley and Junpei don't know how much time they have before this happens.

"As I'm sure you've noticed by now," Finley projects the thought, then stops, realizing Junpei hasn't noticed. "Okay, you've been too worried about my safety to realize you can't sense anyone else. I can't sense anyone outside of my cell except you, and you can't sense anyone outside of your cell except me. Though I can sense Winona and Meela, through you."

"Okay." Junpei understands her point. "And you're locked up with Wogan." Twang. "They let him keep his guitar?"

"Focus, Junpei! The fact that we can talk to each other right now is weird and significant. It means the connection we have isn't blocked. Every other magic I've tried to get through the cell walls has just shot right back at me."

Junpei frowns, catching the memory of Finley nearly harming herself and Wogan when she tried to make the walls go kaboom. "So you're glad you stopped me before I tried phasing through."

"Yes. Wogan says the cells are protected by energy crystals the Felds acquired recently." The Felds. Meela's family. "Those crystals were able to put magic-confining fields throughout the cell walls down here. Do you know anything about disabling magic crystals?"

"Well, if the crystals were absorbing our magic, we could overload them. But since they're reflecting it, the chances of us being able to overload them without killing ourselves are slim."

"So, let's think of something else. Maybe there's something we can do using each other as gateways. Maybe we could make the crystals' fields of influence unstable," Finley theorizes.

"It's worth a shot," Junpei agrees. "You've been thinking about this for a while?"

"Yep. I regained consciousness like, hours before you did."

Perfectly ready to execute her plan, Finley hits the next logical stumbling block. "What spell do we use? We need something that won't hurt us if it backfires."

"I'll think of something," Junpei reassures her. But his mind begins to wander. "I think I know where these crystals came from. When I spoke to Faraday, he told me about a mind control device, and how he suspected it had been used to get him to hand over certain items in his collection to the terrorists."

"You were off talking to some guy when I was captured, and you STILL managed to get yourself captured too," Finley seethes.

"So I don't always think things through..."

"Wait. The mind control device...?"

"The Infractus Mens. That's what it does. It places a powerful spell on a person and hides it deep in their mind. The spell is a set of simple instructions. It can't be too complicated. The spellcaster will give the victim a command to follow through on, and the victim either doesn't know they're going to do this thing until they do it, or they do know, but the spell tricks them into thinking it was their idea all along. They cannot be swayed from their task. So the Infractus Mens could be used to turn people into sleeper agents."

"So, according to your hallucinations, Loki has possession of this thing... and he used it to make a genie kid start screaming and never shut up. That's. A. Bizarre use of an object of great power."

"What would you do with it?"

Finley is irritated by the question. "I don't know! But how do I know it wasn't used on you?"

"Loki has it. Not Chet."

"Well maybe you just THINK that.... Wait! This potentially means the terrorists may not be responsible for their actions?"

"I wouldn't go that far. Remember, the commands have to be simple."

"Okay. Fine. So. I don't see how knowing this helps us."

"Knowledge is power."

"You aren't being helpful right now!"

"Well don't get mad at me! You're watching my thought process. Not all trains go somewhere useful."

"I'm sorry, Junpei. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at them."

"You are mad at me," his thoughts take on a whiny note.

"I'm mad you didn't let Meela help you far earlier! You need to stop thinking about these nightmare characters. Especially when we're in mortal peril."

"But if there's any truth to them, everyone may be in mortal peril."

"You need! To stop! This fantasy! I love you, I need you sane! I need your help!"

"You don't believe me..."

Finley didn't mean to hurt his feelings. Facing the wall in her cell, her eyes fill with tears. "I believe... you were put under Chet's influence. And if you think about it rationally for a while now, and get a few good nights' sleep, you'll feel better."

"I'm still going to try to find Chet." Junpei clenches his teeth. "I just don't know how, if Meela has stopped me from being able to have further... memory-nightmares... and figure out what Chet was trying to tell me..." He's fairly certain Meela cannot reverse what she's done.

Finley tries to hide her next thought, but it's useless. So she comes right out and admits it: "I think I know where to start looking for Chet."

"Moonlight Falls?" The left side of Wogan's mouth twitches up in some half-wince-smile. "It's just a song."

"There's no use lying to me about it, Mr. Hemlock."

"If I were lying... I'd have a good reason for lying, little girl."

Finley paces around in the cell, though there's not even enough room to comfortably have personal space for two people and a guitar. "My brother and I have a score to settle with a vampire named Chet. You know her?"

"Who can say?"

"You can say! Is there nothing I can say to you to win your trust?"

"In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass," Wogan's singing voice is monotone and awful, "and in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen."

Finley crouches down to look him in the eyes. "You're trying to protect someone there, aren't you?"

Wogan narrows his eyes. "Attempting to get past my telepathic defenses... is very rude."

"I'm not with Supernatural Control. I may even have more to fear from them than you do."

Finley broke off the mental consultation with her twin abruptly to question Wogan, leaving Junpei to awkwardly explain to Winona and Meela why the walk-through-walls idea isn't going to work.

"Fine. Bummer. You can't just walk through the wall. There's still something I don't understand," Winona brings up. "You have the power to heal. Why didn't you help Vladimir?"

Junpei frowns. "He told me to 'shoo'."

"He probably didn't know you were useful!"

"Leave him alone," Meela says. "Don't be pointless."

"It's not pointless. Think of all the things he could be doing with this power. Things he isn't doing."

"I don't understand it very well. It only started happening after Chet put all that stuff in my head. I've only healed something twice."

"You'll know the place by a circle of rocks near the shore. The largest rock will have markings like this," Wogan explains. As he draws the symbols on the floor with his index finger, a trail of greenish light is left behind, illustrating his point. The drawing fades after only a few seconds. "At one time, you could travel to the village on foot. These days, the protective wards are so labyrinthine, the only way is by sea. If you leave from Challiston's west pier, then go directly south, keep going for twenty nine kilometers exactly. Then go west. On a normal night, this will take you directly into the path of sector two's cooling filter. You will die instantly. You will be torn apart and recycled. Your chemical makeup will be analyzed by the computer system and reported as human casualty. Every relevant coast guard employee working that shift will be fired for failing to prevent you from entering a restricted zone."

"Lovely..."

"On an abnormal day, occurring once every twelve to fourteen months, the filter will be shut down for maintenance, and you'll reach the shore safely. The ocean won't be anything but a bunch of water."

Finley stares at him, unamused. Surely this is an elaborate joke. "And how does one know when maintenance is scheduled?"

"One of our mathematical geniuses came up with the system's calculation for maintenance day. I don't remember what the formula is." He traces a string of numbers onto the floor in green light anyway. "Those are the next two dates. The filter is down for forty-eight hours."

"So it's right there on the coast?"

"If you see the rock circle I spoke of, you'll be in a small inlet. Write these symbols in the sand, and the 'guardian' will be forced by magic to appear. He knows the way in."

 "Did you need any of the steps repeated?"

"No. I have a spell that lets me commit things to memory. It's been active on me for days. Haven't forgotten a single thing."

"Sounds dangerous." Wogan smiles vacantly. "Admittedly, not as dangerous as being recycled."

"And this... is how you visit...?"

"My daughter," Wogan confirms. "And Morrigan."

"Why don't you stay there with them?"

"Complicated." He lets the silence hang for a while, then offers one last detail. "By the way. If the guardian doesn't trust you, he may try to erase your mind."

"Winona's right," Finley can sense Junpei's sulking thoughts. "I could be helping people with my healing ability... but I'm a coward."

"What? Stop being neurotic. You barely have it figured out, you weren't even sure you could heal Meela! Now forget it."

"Alright, alright." Junpei winces at her strongly projected protest. "I want us to try a summoning spell. Teach me how."

Finley's mood suffers yet another whiplash. This time, it's back to smug glee. "Me teach you something? That's new."

Finley's wand is a curious device. It will not respond to anyone not of her father's bloodline. Since she forged a bond with it, the most simple of spells can call it to her hand. This wouldn't have worked through the confinement fields; Finley was shocked to wake up and find the wand stuck in one of her back pockets, cursed invisible. It must have reacted to her being knocked out. Finley had never before imagined it was complex enough to actively keep itself from being stolen.

The summoning spell was something Finley picked up intuitively, so it's not long before her mind-linked twin also grasps the concept, and they begin casting at the same time.

When the visible signs of magic show up in the room, Meela skitters backwards, away from it.

Winona stands her ground. "Given what you told us about spells backfiring... what, exactly, are you doing now?"

"Tug-O-War," Junpei answers.

Since the spell requires a mental component, wherein the caster must envision where the wand ends up, it's possible for Finley and Junpei to get in each other's minds and confuse the operation. For a moment, they each are the other. Just as she was able to sense Winona and Meela through Junpei, Finley is able to use her brother's mind to direct the device to him, while he, at the same time, uses her mind to direct it towards her.

The conflict is created.

To resolve it, two points must become one.

Whatever exists between those points begins to break down.

The crystals cannot stop it, since it is impossible for them to determine which energy signatures should be reflected back in which direction. 

"Not a very welcoming place, is it," Serril monotones.

"I wouldn't know a warm welcome if it hit me in the face," Larkspur answers. "So it's alright, so far."

Observing the fairy's lack of stealth, Serril half-rises from where he's crouched. "Shouldn't you be a tiny speck of light right now?"

Larkspur strolls brazenly around the corner. "Why bother? You are only going to pounce in and make a mess."

Infiltrating the terrorist hideout feels more like walking into someone's house and shooting everyone on-sight. Is it a little weird, that the terrorists have designated one of their personal mansions as a gathering place of operations? Larkspur isn't sure. Supernatural Control knows very little about these vampires or their objectives. What they know is murderous vampires have control over an essential city, the first agent sent to take care of it failed, and that means it's time for overkill.

"You ruined that," Larkspur points out.

"It does look bad in red. You did mean the painting?"

"I may not have."

It was only a child. Serril has no concept of children being innocent, naturally. He was no taller than that when he was kidnapped and taught to use his powers to 'impose order'.

Serril doesn't respect any agent pretending to have respect for life. The fairy's hands aren't clean. He may not enjoy acting as enforcer for the humans, and as time has passed he's been more discerning about who needs to die and who just needs to be frightened into submission... but that's vastly inefficient, to Serril.

The one time Serril tried to be discerning, all it did was get another agent killed, and the entity responsible is still at large. His superiors were very displeased about that whole mess.

In any case, there's not much a hexed submachine gun can't instantly take care of, with Larkspur here to negate any protective fields.

As expected, one of the vampires is wielding a cursed anti-fae weapon.

Kairos Feld used this against Foxglove, and it bought them time enough to unleash a psychic attack on her. Unfortunately for him, the same trick doesn't work twice. The yellow one is weakened in proximity to the weapon and snarls at him, but the bluish one, unaffected and unconcerned, holds up the blocky noise-and-disaster-making device Kairos doesn't recognize, and it's all over before anyone can think twice about it.

"Oh my god, it's not even fair," Serril chuckles. "They don't know what guns are."

 
"We will be capturing your soul and interrogating you before we destroy you," Larkspur informs the new ghost.

The cell the Felds placed their daughter in may have been infinitely less grungy than the other cells, but all of them are still in the same dark dungeon. Once the twins destroyed the walls between them, turning those walls into crumbled stone and slag, they found they were only separated by a narrow hallway, which they now creep out of, in search of the other captives. And in search of escape.

Given this glimmer of hope, Meela finds herself struggling to keep it together, to not immediately try to find her parents and scream at them.

Junpei first notices the stairs. Are they the way out?

Winona first notices the glowing half-spheres sticking to the walls. "This is what you two call 'crystals'?"

"Wogan called them that," Finley whispers.

Junpei glances over his shoulder at her. "Ask him if we can smash them."

Wogan has started playing his guitar again.

They find some of the others in a different style of cell.

"Our cell's door was invisible," Junpei complains about the unfair discrepancy. 

Focusing on inconsequential details is all that's keeping him sane.

At this point, Winona snatches away Wogan's guitar, and uses it as a beat-stick to smash the wall-crystals.

Junpei frowns at the stairs, expecting all this noise to attract attention. It doesn't.

"I can sense Brigit now!" Finley says excitedly. That means the psychic/magic-reflecting barriers around each cell are gone.

"My guitaaar," Wogan whines.

Finley wastes no more time blasting the lock open and freeing Brigit. "What do you think they did with Tara and Tariq?" Some of the others weren't taken captive, but killed outright. Finley knows Tara and Tariq weren't among them.

"I think we should worry about ourselves first," Brigit says.

Lou and Chris, mentioned before but not in screenshots until now, don't need any help breaking out of their cell. Once Winona broke the magic surrounding it, Lou was able to use ridiculous-strength-provided-by-magic to force his way out.

"Who's awesome?" he greets Finley with a wink. "I am."

And then, a noise on the floors above hammers through everyone's acceptable pain threshold.

"What was that?" someone asks. None of the others answer; they don't know.

"I think someone's made a tactical error," Serril says. "By that I mean our handlers. We're spread too thin. These terrorists pop up in different cities, and we send someone to each one. And that'd have worked, but then these artifacts popped up, and our people weren't expecting them. We were expecting some run-of-the-mill... dumb... vampires. Something's screwy here. If they have these kinds of resources, why aren't they using them more efficiently? They could have easily had one city. Well, not easily. We'd have still put them down. But it's a better plan to take over Bridgeport, than to take over Bridgeport and other cities, isn't it?"

"I don't know? What is your point?"

"It's a ruse. They're not trying to accomplish anything. They're trying to distract Supernatural Control."

"Whyfor?"

"Don't know yet. Where'd they get this stuff, anyway? Are we looking into that?"

"Of course we are."

Serril stops walking, eyes on the spiral staircase several yards in front of them. He counts people down there, less than ten. There's no way for them to go but up. "I figured you'd be the one out for blood, here. Because, your daughter."

"She is unconscious, not dead."

"Sure, but... it could take years to wake 'er up."

"Those shall be peaceful years for me."

Ghosts. They flee from some terror above.

Junpei recognizes one of them as the woman he attacked with fake sunlight to save Meela.

And Meela recognizes her father. He grabs her arm and hisses: "Run, you stupid girl!" ... It sounds more like a cheese grater on a chalkboard than words.

The Archer siblings are not as startled by the sudden appearance of ghosts as they are by the feel of a pull, something unnatural locked onto these spirits. As soon as they were shot, they were marked. There's no running from it.

"Someone's capturing their souls," Junpei analyzes the situation. He's never felt something so .... wrong ... outside of the dreams. Short-lived exposure to this theoretically shouldn't hurt him, as long as he's not spellcasting back at it, or connecting with it in any way...

Serril notices the Archers' reaction to his spell. Disagreeing energy signatures. Intensely disagreeing. "...Mediums?"

Larkspur glowers. "What are they doing here..."

"We can ask them after we shoot them."

"No. Let me send them out of here."

"Why? They're terrorists."

"I do not think so." Larkspur doesn't let Serril know he's recognized them. He doesn't know Finley or Junpei on a personal level, after all; they may well have become terrorists. "Let me find out."

Serril growls. "Why are you this way?"

"I promised someone I'd be this way."

Larkspur cannot shake Snapdragon's memory.

He knows what she risked, what they both risked, to rescue a random child she'd identified as 'special'. Something about seeing Mab caused him to remember, and it has troubled him ever since. He puzzled over it for a good while, after it happened. If the little girl had been a normal child, Snapdragon wouldn't have deigned to save her. But if she'd been a normal child, she wouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place.

It's not uncommon for fae to value one life, randomly, over others. They had long viewed humans as humans viewed cute little animals. But trying to assign meaning to it, other than passing fancy... that's what's still troubling him. He is afraid he will never understand, and never figure out what Snapdragon would have wanted. Still, he keeps trying.

Of all the reactions to have to a fairy, Wogan's the most correct. Undignified panic!

A bunch of things happen within the span of a few seconds.

First, rainbow sparklies surround Finley and Junpei.

Second, Lou has no clue what this winged creature is, but it appears to be attacking so he tries to punch it. Finley, as evidenced by her expression, knows this is a bad idea.

Third, Serril strolls down the stairs, and there is a tremendous noise.

Junpei can see Zoke was right about not being able to tear Serril away from the S.C.'s grasp. Before anyone can even wonder what he's holding, Serril's opened fire and the population of the room has been cut in half, literally and figuratively. Lou's fist never got the chance to connect with its target.

Junpei will always remember the noise. If anyone screamed or shouted, their words or cries couldn't be heard over the noise. Larkspur and Serril are immune to it, through whatever means of unfair magic. They don't flinch.

The noise, and the horrible, unreal Cheshire Cat smile on Serril's face, and Meela reaching for him...

Meela reached for Junpei, but all she caught was a handful of fairy magic.

This is Larkspur's oldest, most wildly unpredictable spell.

It takes you where you need to go.

Finley and Junpei are home.






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Etc.: My source on all information regarding weapons assured me that an uzi could cut down a tree and is thus overkill to use on human being type things. 

For the Felds' home, I used Raven Fortress.

Originally there were more plot elements here. If you first read this story in 2012 and on a reread you're thinking "huh, something is missing" you're absolutely right. I simplified the plot, and even changed the names of two of the characters. I had done a lot of world-building in this storyline that was ultimately pointless and distracting, given how I put the blog on a decade long hiatus and once I got back I didn't want to return to those particular plot threads.