Title: "Lost & Found: The Prologue"
Author: Rebecca Bradstreet
Rated: PG
Archive: Sure
Summary: Michele and Terenil's Awakening doesn't go unnoticed.
Warning: Violence.
Disclaimer/Notes: This story is a Bedlam's Bard/Poltergeist: The Legacy X-Over. I don't own Terenil, Bethany "Beth" Kentraine, or any of the other Bedlam's Bard characters in this story. Neither do I own Derek Rayne, Alexandra "Alex" Moreau, or any other Poltergeist: The Legacy characters. I do own Michele "Micky" Perdu. This story is set at the end of Knight of Ghosts and Shadows. The words I've set off inside the <<>> are those of Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. I'm starting my story from theirs. I am using // as thoughts, :: as telepathy, and ** as emphasis. It's not beta'd so all mistakes are my own.
"Lost & Found: The Prologue"
Rebecca Bradstreet (c) 2000The Battle of Griffith Park 1990,
<<Gold armor, with touches of brilliant scarlet, so brightly polished it hurt to look at it. The stranger raised his visor --
Beth gasped. //Terenil? But-- //
"So, High Lord Perenor has taken to slaughtering children, has he?" Terenil said contemptuously. He glided confidently through the tangled knots of fighting, around the fallen bodies, with no sign of his *ever* having been the wreck Beth had seen after Eric vanished --
-- except for the sad and haunted look in his eyes; the look of someone who has seen himself in the mirror and found only self-condemnation for what was there.
He stopped, just for a moment, beside Beth; caught up her hand and pressed it to his lips.
::Forgive me, child.::
Before she could react to that, he gave her an odd half-smile, turned on his heel and took Kory's place between Perenor and the band, pulling his visor down as he did so.
Suddenly a golden blaze of light flared up around him as he brought his sword up to guard position.
Perenor snapped his own visor down and his blade up -- and an answering glow of cold blue sprang up about him.
Beth couldn't tell which of them moved first; they seemed to spring at each other simultaneously, blades and magic clashing in an exchange of lightning-quick strokes.
Unlike Kory's fight, or Eldenor's, this one involved both sword *and* Power. Which, since Ria was channeling magic to her father, made it two against one.
//By the gods, if I can't do anything else, I'll see if I can't fix *those* odds!//
There didn't seem to be anything but fallen bodies off to her left.>>
Then Beth saw *her*; struggling through the black fog, fighting the monsters in it, and keeping her eyes on Terenil and Perenor.
//An angel?!// Beth couldn't think of any other word to describe the apparition. She, the angel, had glowing white wings and carried a flaming sword. Terenil and Perenor didn't have time to notice her. They were so evenly matched they were a blur that moved not one inch from the spot where it had formed. The angel's focus shifted from Terenil and Perenor to Ria. Beth knew she had noticed the link between Perenor and Ria. The angel moved towards the sorceress swiftly and silently in her armor.
//What are you going to do now, angel?// Beth wondered as she studied the angel. Aside from her wings, armor, and sword, the angel looked like a normal girl. The angel had wisps of fine red hair escaping from under her helm, and her armor showed her curves. She knelt next to Ria, and Beth thought they must be speaking, though she couldn't hear anything pass between them from where she stood. Then the angel stood, and dropped the hilt of her sword on Ria's head.
//Yes!// Beth thought triumphantly. The angel had broken the link between Ria and Perenor. Surely Terenil could beat Perenor now, but it didn't happen. Perenor got past Terenil's guard, and Beth feared it was all over. At that moment the angel reached out to Terenil with *her* Power, and pulled Terenil away from Perenor's attack. The angel hadn't completely saved Terenil from injury. They could all see how Terenil was hurt, but Terenil didn't hold back. He attacked Perenor, surprising him, defeating him. It *was* all over.
"Aaarrrrgh!" Or Beth thought it was. As Perenor died the magic he had been drawing from Ria returned to the sorceress in a lightning storm of Power. Ria screamed, and thrashed, and the angel...the angel flickered. //She's spread herself between them, trying to keep Terenil on his feet, and shield Ria from the backlash. She can't do it, can't do it by herself. Goddess help us!// Beth ran towards the angel, trying to open herself to the angel as she stumbled over fallen bodies in the fog.
::Take it, take it!:: Michele's head snapped up. Someone was trying to help her, to offer her more Power. //Not the Bard, he's still making the new nexus. The witch, she asked the Goddess to help us. Maybe...just maybe...// Michele opened herself to the witch, and the Faith the witch was offering. For a moment Michele was afraid she'd lost, that the witch couldn't help her, but then she felt the Power pooling in her and flowing out of her to Ria and Terenil. //They're going to make it. They're *both* going to make it!//
Beth crashed to her knees in the grass. She panted as she felt the angel let go of the connection Beth had offered her. She...the angel...pulled back her protection from Ria. Michele had managed to shield Ria from the worst of the blasts, but the sorceress was still. Beth crawled towards the sorceress, glancing at the angel and Terenil. Now the angel was concentrating entirely on Terenil. Michele sent her sword away, changed out of her armor into her street clothes, not hiding her wings just then.
::You may not want to hear this, but you're going to live.:: Michele held out her arms to Terenil and smiled. He winced as he leaned into her open arms.
::You're right I don't want to hear it. What are you, Micky?:: He used the energy she offered him to change out of his armor, and into his street clothes.
::Good. It's easier for me to heal your wounds if I can touch them.:: Micky placed her hands on his wounds, and they began to heal beneath her fingers.
::That's not answering my question.:: Terenil complained though he couldn't keep the relief from her healing touch out of his voice.
::Truth? I'm an angel, Terenil.:: Micky blushed, not taking her hands from his wounds, or looking up at him.
"You're an angel?" It was so unbelievable he had to say it out loud, and speaking out loud made his mending muscles hurt.
::Shhhs! Yes, an angel. Though it's been a very long time since...:: She shook her head. She wasn't an apostate angel of Hell, but for some reason she couldn't get home.
::Okay Micky, what...why...I mean I'm grateful but...:: Terenil looked over the battle field, watched as the Bard healed Korendil, and left the park without Kory or Beth. Eric had saved lives, Elizabet and Kayla would save lives, and still Terenil couldn't help thinking Micky should be saving someone else.
::I was listening to *you*. Eric's music woke you, and you woke me. I'm not an elf to have been trapped in Dreaming exactly, but...but I've been sleep walking, drifting from one patch of Holy Ground to another, providing a miracle here, and a miracle there then drifting on. *Your* need woke me, and called me. Come on you've seen me plenty of times before now. This is just the first time we've both been Awake.:: Micky squeezed him gently in her arms, and folded her wings around them.
"They...they were right *there* Kory. I mean...they were Terenil and an angel." Beth waved here hands at the empty space the angel and Terenil had occupied just before Kory turned to look for his Prince.
"I trust your word my lady, but where is Eric?" Kory's mind turned quickly from worrying about his Prince to worrying about the Bard.
::You've hidden us from them.:: Terenil made it half question half statement.
::They have to catch Eric. If they stop to check on your health, and gawk at me he will get on a bus, and vanish from their lives. They're a trinity. I don't break those.:: Micky started walking Terenil towards the parking lot. Every survivor of the Battle of Griffith Park was headed towards the parking lot.
::Okay. So we let them go. What are *we* doing next?:: Terenil squeezed Micky gently, and groaned as his muscles protested the use.
::Well, we're Awake and alive. I think we should start by getting out of this park.:: To emphasize her opinion Micky picked up their pace just enough to make Terenil groan once more.
::You know I have a horse?:: Terenil asked Micky as he summoned his elven steed.
::Really?:: Micky replied as a frisky pickup truck trotted up to them.
San Fransico Legacy House 1990,
*Crash!* Derek had been having visions since he was little, but sometimes they still caught him by surprise. This one had been odd even by Derek's long standards -- a man with pointy ears and cat's eyes, a girl with fiery feathered wings, not to mention the horse/pickup truck...an elf, an angel, and a horse/pickup truck? Derek shook his head, and looked at the broken remains of the jar he'd been studying. Sloan wouldn't be happy that he'd broken the jar, and he *really* wouldn't understand the vision. Derek wasn't sure he did.
"Derek are you okay?" Alex asked, as she came into his office with a worried expression on her face.
"I'm fine. The Etruscan jar I was studying however...," Derek gestured to the broken remains on his desk.
"What happened?" Alex picked up one of the broken pieces to try and get an impression from it herself.
"I don't think the vision was related to the jar. Trust me that jar never had anything of interest in it." Derek smiled at Alex as she put the jar fragment back on his desk with a disappointed frown.
"So what was the vision?" Alex looked at Derek expectantly.
He wasn't sure he should tell her. Alex had been having visions since she was little. She was the House member most likely to believe him...but *he* wasn't sure what to make of the vision. What would *Alex* think of it?
"Two people...a battle...a horse..." Derek told her, leaving out any mention of pointy ears, or angel wings.
"An elf and an angel?" Alex asked.
"You've seen them too?" Derek leaned toward Alex surprised.
"The elf...fought some other elf. He was nearly killed by the other one, and the angel saved him. I didn't see any horse." Alex smiled at Derek waiting for the full version of his vision.
"They were both walking, limping away from the battle. They got to the parking lot, and there was this horse that looked like a pickup truck, or a pickup truck that acted like a horse." It sounded just as strange saying it as Derek thought it would.
"A horse/pickup truck...now *that's* weird Derek," Alex teased him.
"The question is what does *any* of it have to do with *us*?"