Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence Chapter Thirteen
Title: Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
Author: Alex Foster
Category: General
Word Count: 50,000+
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A trip home for the holidays turns into a race to protect a young special from The Church of the Nephilim. Claire/Gretchen/Elle triad relationship.
Contains: Polyamory, established relationships, original characters, cursing, misogynist language, threats of violence to a child, sexual situations, descriptions of violence.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
....
Chapter Thirteen
The airbag had exploded in her face. Elle didn’t remember that happening so that meant she must have blacked out for a second. At least she hoped it was for a second.
Sitting back with a groan, she coughed and did a quick check of limbs. Nothing seemed broken, just sore as hell. The car was dark and a quick check of her mirror showed the bashed in store entrance at least a hundred feet back.
The wagon’s back end was parallel to their hood and beyond that she could see the outline of Light’s sedan. All three cars had spun in different directions after coming together.
Beside her Claire had blood on the side of her face but the wound that had caused it was already closing. She didn’t seem any worse for the wear.
"You good?"
Claire nodded and reached for the gun that had fallen to the floor. "Yeah, I’m fine. You?"
"I’ll let you know in an hour or so." She jerked her head toward the station wagon. "Get them out of here. I’ll create a diversion."
"Maybe Light didn’t survive."
"Since when are we that lucky?" Elle leaned on her door and forced it open. Glass rattled in the doorframe.
Her legs were wobbly but nothing was broken. Elle stumbled forward and aimed for the sedan.
The back was a ruined mess but the rest of the car had survived intact. And both doors stood open.
Elle cursed and dropped low. Keeping the rear fender to her back, she scanned the store. Empty racks were thrown about haphazardly and boxes and crates were stacked, but there wasn’t a lot of cover. Overhead were boarded up windows, empty light fixtures, and several catwalks crossing between them.
Hoping one of them hadn’t gone up to the catwalk to work as a spotter, Elle stood and sent two quick bursts off into the darkness.
A second later lightning answered her. It missed but not by much. She could hear the air sizzle as it passed her cheek.
Elle took off running and fired back in the general direction. She drew him purposely deeper into the store and away from Gretchen.
~
Claire stayed low and out of sight behind the car until she was sure the flashes of power were moving away from the station wagon. Then made a dash for the rear passenger side. Peering inside she saw Stephen and Gretchen struggling out of her seatbelt beside him.
Claire tapped on the glass and then held up a finger signaling for quiet. "Are you hurt?" she mouthed.
Gretchen shook her head and then pointed to West.
The front end of the wagon from fender all the way to the driver side door was twisted and blackened. Jagged metal jutted up where the lightning had hit and peeled back the body down to the frame. Everything smelled hot and of burning oil and fluids.
She switched the gun to her other hand and reached in past broken window glass. West was slumped over but his pulse was strong.
Claire sighed as she thought. So much for flying out of here. She couldn’t carry him so she’d have to get Gretchen and Stephen out and then come back for him.
She stepped back and started to walk around to Stephen’s side. The wagon was too damaged to even try forcing the doors on this side. The layout of the plaza swirled in her head. She needed a place to stash-
Salt was suddenly there in front of her. Reacting without thought, Claire brought the butt of the gun up and around planning to slam it into his head. The grip tumbled from her fingers though before she could get it halfway to him. She watched in stupid amazement as her entire hand shriveled and turned to dust.
Salt shoved her away and she stumbled backward until her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground. The gun slid to a stop against the GT-R. She hit the ground awkwardly on her left shoulder and heard bones break. Clawing forward, she tried to reach Elle’s gun. Skin and bone dissolved around her into powder and she couldn’t gain much ground.
Inside she felt her ability fighting against Salt’s. It rushed through every cell, regenerating, unable to get ahead. Claire could feel herself losing the fight.
Several feet away, Salt began moving toward her. "We considered offering you a place," he said. "The four of us. But it seemed your true power was only notoriety. Little did we know at the time.
"You should be dead, Claire Bennet. Why are you still able to struggle?"
She tried to answer, to tell him one of Elle’s more colorful expletives inside another expletive, but there was no moisture left in her throat and she only managed a croak past cracked lips. The gun was frustratingly out of reach.
Salt seemed indifferent to her trying to claw at the weapon. "I would love to know the extent of your healing power, but I must kill you. You have sided against your own kind in this war. The church is mother and it will rebirth this planet as something better with or without you."
A grunt sound emerged from Claire’s throat as she struggled just to stay awake. Every time she blinked, she felt the lids drag against dry eyes.
"Stop." The words seemed to come from every direction at once and made the air curl with wrongness.
~
"Come out and be judged by God’s divine grace," Light said, arcs of power punctuating his words. "You and I are one of the same. Test yourself against me and see if you are worthy of God’s forgiveness."
Elle stayed low behind several shelves and tried to peer between a set. She could see Light, his profile anyway, but not Claire or the car. The cheerleader could handle herself, Elle knew, and tried to focus on one problem at a time.
Taking him on directly wasn’t something she was looking forward too.
Her gaze swept over the ceiling and catwalks. Nothing that was useful to her up there. Next time she would have to crash into an Acme Anvil Warehouse.
Still using the shelf as cover, she hurried around into the best surprise flank position she could hope for. Now would be a good time for a big damn hero moment, Noah, she thought and waited a few seconds for the universe to think it over.
The universe apparently figured she could go screw herself.
"You know," she said stepping out into the open, "despite my name I’ve never been one for religion." Lightning, one continuous arc, jumped from her hand.
Light spun and dodged a direct hit but not fast enough to counter her attack. The blast caught him across his back and tossed him through the air.
Elle rushed forward and fired again, pumping enough power into the attack to fry him where he stood.
Light rolled on his hip, came up on one foot, and joined both hands in front of his chest with his palms out and wrists crossed.
The bolts hit his hands and he drove enough of the power to ground to prevent a killing blow.
Elle growled and ran for cover, shooting as she went.
Light fired low and past her, swinging around and coming to his full height.
The arc of power went wild and lashed across Elle’s path, knocking over boxes and making wooden pallets explode. Elle half jumped and half fell to the side and shot blind.
Her attack missed and Light didn’t slow. His blue eyes were crazed and the air crackled around him with a charge.
Oh, she thought ruefully, this is how it feels to be on this end of it.
Light flicked his wrist and sent a ball of lightning flying toward her.
Unable to get to cover in time, Elle raised her hand to block it the same way he had. Electricity was the same no matter what and just needed direction and a path of least resistance. The ball hit her hand and she was able to turn it away a hair second before it exploded with a blue white flash.
It felt like someone had shoved a hot fireplace poker through her hand and up her arm. The pain took root in her shoulder and made the entire limb feel like dead weight. She barely noticed the whips of pain that hit the back of her tingling hand from errant arcs.
That was a glancing blow. Jesus fucking Christ.
She scrambled backward, unable to get the damaged arm to respond properly, and tried to get enough of a purchase to stand.
Light walked forward like a smug bastard. She wanted to watch that grin of his burn away slowly and painfully. That prospect wasn’t looking good though unless she thought of something fast.
Light fired once from his right hand and then from his left. Both went intentionally wide and caused her to flinch. "God has judged you unworthy," he said.
No surprise there, Elle thought.
She forced the numb arm to take weight and thrust her good arm out to fire a blast at him.
Light batted it away without slowing. "Do you not understand yet?" he asked. "I am beyond mortal feelings of pain and fatigue. I am God’s holy weapon on Earth. You are nothing to me."
Bob Bishop’s voice filled Elle’s head. She remembered all the long painful sessions deep in the pit of the Company. He and Company scientists used to work her to exhaustion to learn how her ability worked and how to counter it. She learned too and had that knowledge on top of Company field training.
She doubted Light had had much in training. He was flash and power without grace. The Company proved time again that skill trumped raw power
The were only a few people left with more Company knowledge than her and the universe didn’t see fit to send any of them for a heroic rescue.
She formulated a plan and planted her dull hand against the floor and raised her good hand. "Oh yeah? Why don’t you show me what you got?"
Elle released her power in one long continuous stream. Light fired too and the two bolts met in the air.
The feedback shot through her body and felt like falling naked into a bin of syringes. Red hot syringes with barbs. She was ready for it though and didn’t let up on feeding the lightning crackling from her fingers.
Illuminated by the flashing blue white discharge, she saw Light’s cheek twitch when he tasted her ability and then smile. He increased his output and the feedback shot through her.
Elle closed her eyes and ignored the pain. She focused on his ability and tried to sort it from hers as they tangled together in arcing bolts.
Ever since she was little her power had felt like a living thing. It responded to her anger and grief. Her father’s scientists had taught her how to cage it and channel it outward on command.
She assumed Light’s power felt the same way for him.
And then she found it. The little tendril of him inside the rolling mess of power and electricity sparking around her. With the same will she used to command her own power she latched onto it.
Elle took a deep breath, filling her nose with ozone, and pulled his power into hers.
The feedback was beyond anything she’d ever felt before. Pain mixed with the sense of something alien filling her body. Shoving it down, Elle concentrated on her numb arm making contact with the ground and funneled that alien down and out her fingertips.
Then she pulled back her own ability.
The force of his blast hit her hand hard enough to knock her back but she kept sending it down and away.
She sensed then through their connected abilities that Light realized what she was doing. He tried to recall his power but her grip on it was too tight.
Not giving him time to recover, she pulled it all out of him. One long drain of power. It went through her like a ground wire and died in the earth.
Light began struggling against her control, doing anything to break her focus. Elle’s willpower had training behind it though and she kept drawing more and more while he grew panicky and sloppy.
Between the two of them they could have kept the state of Texas in lights for a long while, but Elle intended to drain him dry like a hungry vampire. She opened her eyes and saw electricity arcing wildly, flashes of blue white light, and shocked fear in his eyes.
Keeping the circuit in place, Elle brought her knees around and rose to a crouch. Exhaling, she released his ability and before he could recover or move she fired one last blast that was all her.
Light was still off balance and he didn’t have enough power left to throw up any sort of defense. It hit him square in the chest and tore through him like he was made of paper.
The store was quiet but the exertion left ringing in Elle’s ears. She pushed shakily the rest of the way to her feet and walked to where Light’s body had landed. Wary of a ruse or some sort of aftershock, she peered at him.
He was dead.
Covered in horrible burns it was the collapsed in chest that confirmed he didn’t have any fight left in him.
"Merry Hanukkah, motherfucker." Elle breathed a sigh of relief then flexed and shook her hand to restore feeling. It was fine by her if she never had to do that again. "Thanks, daddy."
A new sound rang out and broke the silence of the store.
"Someone help me!"
Elle turned and started running. It was her girlfriend.
~
Gretchen threw her hip against the door, trying to get it open. The metal frame groaned in protest but didn’t budge. Past the fractured windshield she saw Claire go down. Blue white light flashed from deeper in the store, but that wasn’t the cause. Salt was here and he was going to kill everyone.
Desperate, she looked at Stephen. "Please," she said. "You have to help them."
He didn’t have any reaction save to pulled at the peel wrapped around his crayon.
"Salt is going to kill her if you don’t," Gretchen said. "I know you could do something if you tried. Please help them."
The small special turned to look at her.
She desperately searched for hope in his eyes. "Will you? Please?"
Stephen silently shook his head no.
Air left her lungs with a crushed huff. She stared at him slack jawed for a moment, unable to believe he was going to leave them to die that way.
"Fine," she said at last, pumping resolve through whatever connection the special had made to her. "Do whatever you were doing to me. Make me special so I can help them."
He tipped his head.
"Just do it! Juice me up-give me something that will help."
Stephen reached out and pressed one tiny finger to her forehead.
Pain exploded in her body. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. It felt like pins were sliding in underneath her skin, everywhere all at once. Worse was the twisting feeling in her chest, like a hand was wrenching her heart around. It was the sense that something was very, very wrong inside her body.
When Stephen took his hand away from her face, her eyes were clouded and milky white.
~
"Stop."
It was Gretchen’s voice but held none of her normal inflection or personality.
The press of Salt’s ability against her lessened considerably when his attention turned to Gretchen.
Claire tried to call him away from her, tried to reach the gun again, but enough of her body hadn’t regenerated yet. Most of her limbs she saw with surprise existed solely as phantom feelings.
Salt considered Gretchen for a moment as she stood calmly ready to face him. "What are you?" he asked. "I sense no touch of God in you."
"Stop what you are doing to her."
"No. Another thing I shall never know about today." Salt raised his hand toward Gretchen and Claire felt a slight ripple in his power.
She flinched, expecting to see Gretchen vanish in a puff of dust.
Nothing happened.
Gretchen’s arm came up and Salt jerked back as though punched. Her eyes were white with power.
Salt’s influence over Claire disappeared completely as he struggled to overcome Gretchen.
Free of the destructive ability, Claire began to regenerate fully. She gritted what was left of her teeth and rode it out. Painfully slow her clothes began filling back out as skin and bone regrew.
Salt took half a step back, braced himself, and then brought his other hand up. His entire body shook with effort.
Gretchen shook too, but not as violently. Blood started running from her nose, dripping down her chin.
Skin still raw, Claire completed the journey to the gun and rolled onto her stomach, aiming for Salt.
His body began convulsing and he lifted several inches off the ground. Pulling his arms and legs inward, he began beating against his chest as though trying to expel something stuck there.
Claire didn’t fire and lowered the gun when she realized what was happening to him.
Red tinged sweat broke out all over his body, soaking his clothes in seconds. His neck fell back and he opened his mouth to the sky, as though silently begging God to stop what was happening to him.
It came to a halt. Messily and wet.
Claire turned away and partially rolled to avoid splatter.
Salt’s remains didn’t go outward though; just fell straight down into a pile of saturated clothes, bones, and internal organs that were now outside the unbroken sheet of skin.
Claire climbed to her feet before the pool of bodily fluids could expand out to her. New joints popped as she moved. She slipped the gun into her waistband and approached Gretchen slowly. "Gretch? Can you hear me?"
If she did, she gave no sign of it. Blood was hemorrhaging faster out of her nose now and she was seizing.
"It’s okay. He’s gone. You can stop now. Stop, Gretchen."
Eyes, still clouded, looked at her for a moment before rolling back into her head and she collapsed.
Claire rushed forward and caught her in mid fall, lowering her to the ground she tried to break the spell. "Gretchen, talk to me. Snap out of it. He’s dead."
There was no one left to answer her. In her arms, Gretchen jerked and bled but there was no recognition.
Claire looked over her shoulder, the light show from before had died and she hoped that meant Elle had won. "Help me!" she yelled. "Somebody help me!"
~
Elle skidded to a stop when she saw the sight of Gretchen on the ground with Claire cradling her. Her gaze flicked to the inside out pile of…of human steaming in the cold air across from them.
"She’s bleeding bad," Claire said. "Salt’s dead and I think she had an aneurysm."
"Jesus." Elle dropped down beside them and turned Gretchen’s limp head to see white eyes. "What did she do?"
"I don’t know. Salt was about to kill me and then she stopped him."
"She did that?!" Elle ran her good hand through her hair. "What about your blood? Can you heal her?"
Claire shrugged. "I can try but it could make it worse. I think it is Stephen’s ability that is doing it."
Elle looked over at the station wagon. "Stay with her." She grabbed the gun from Claire’s waist and stood.
"What are you going to do?"
"What I should have done when I first met the little fucker," Elle called over her shoulder. She thumbed the magazine release, popped the clip to check there was still bullets left, and then shoved it back in place. She chambered a round.
Stephen sat in the backseat, still buckled in, coloring in the same book they left behind in the park. Beside him was a full box of crayons. Elle only half registered that the coloring set had come from nowhere.
She opened the door and yanked his seatbelt free.
He didn’t make a noise when she pulled him from the car and pushed him down.
"Stop whatever you are doing to her, for good, right now," she said. "Put her back the way she was and don’t ever change her again."
Calm eyes blinked back at her.
"Elle, stop it!"
Elle raised the gun and put the barrel to his head. He might look like a kid but he was about as far from one as a person could get. Plus she’d killed kids before in her past life and had no problem doing so again in this one.
"I give it about equal odds that if I pull this trigger she goes back to normal anyway when your mojo unravels. But you’ll still be dead. I’m up for a gamble, how about you?"
Stephen’s gaze flicked over to Gretchen once and then returned to Elle.
"She stopped bleeding," Claire called out. "I think he stopped it."
Elle hesitated for a second, her finger on the trigger, and she wondered if the world would be a better place if she pulled it. Finally lowering the gun, she hit the safety and turned away.
She covered the distance between Stephen and Gretchen at a run. "Doe Eyes?" she asked, dropping beside her.
Gretchen was only half awake, muttering, but her eyes were back to normal. "Did I throw up?" she asked weakly. "I feel like I threw up."
"You can do that later," Elle said. "I might join you."
Claire looked up. "Elle, I hear sirens. Police are coming."
"Damn." Elle glanced over at the station wagon and then the GT-R. Neither seemed up for another high speed chase.
"West," Claire said. "He can get her out of here the fastest."
Deciding she really hated having him as a partner, Elle stood and ran back to the wagon. Stephen watched her go by, turning his head to follow her.
West was still in the driver’s seat, slumped across the steering wheel. A dark bruise was forming on his temple from where it made contact.
"Hey." Elle shook him. "No time for beauty sleep. You have work to do."
He stirred.
"Yeah, come on. We need you to fly out of here."
West groaned and sat back. "Did we win?"
"Kinda sorta. We need you to get Gretchen out of here fast though."
"O…kay." He began climbing out the passenger side. The kid was moving slow but forward motion was a win in Elle’s opinion.
"Stephen too," Claire said. "He can hang on to her."
Gretchen was on her feet now, still wobbly but present. She nodded her agreement.
"Where am I supposed to take them?" West stumbled and Elle caught his arm to keep him upright.
She turned and gestured toward one of the large, high faced windows. Ball lightning shot across the distance and shattered it outward. "Fly that way.
Now she could hear sirens. Not good.
Abandoning his coloring book again, Stephen walked up and took West’s left side while Gretchen took the right. West boosted him up on his hip and put his arm around Gretchen’s waist.
Elle nodded her thanks to him and then they were gone. Up and away through the door she’d made for them.
Claire sighed and looked around, as though seeing the destruction and carnage for the first time. "My God…"
Elle was already moving. "I’ve had enough God for today, Cheerleader. Go open the gas tank door on the wagon." She did the same on the GT-R and doubled checked inside for anything that could identify them.
"What are you going to do?"
Elle looked around and then gestured toward a metal stairway leading up to the catwalks. "Didn’t your dad ever take you on evidence burying field trips as a kid?"
"Must have missed that." Claire followed her up to the next level.
From the vantage point they had a good view of both damaged cars and the bodies between them. She also had a good clear shot at both gas tanks.
The sirens were right outside now.
Elle licked her lips and glanced toward the broken window. She couldn’t believe this was what she had to wait for.
She counted to ten. Nothing. Then to twenty. She was about to complain when West shot back through the window at high speed. He pivoted in mid-flight to keep from hitting the far wall and raced back toward them.
"Took you long enough," Elle said. "What did you stop for coffee or something?"
"Sorry." West hovered next to the catwalk. He extended both arms toward them.
Elle nodded at Claire and watched as the cheerleader put her foot on his as she stepped off. He caught her with one arm around her waist and she hugged his body for balance.
"Now you."
Elle hesitated. "Maybe you should take her and come back for me? I had a big dinner last night."
"No excuses," Claire said. "Come on. We’re not splitting up."
Elle glanced down, which was a mistake, and forced one foot to go over the side. It made contact with his and she lunged the rest of the way. His arm came around her ribs and kept her from falling. Her fist balled in the neck of his shirt until her knuckles were white with strain.
The three of them bobbed in the air but didn’t sink.
Elle gave an uncomfortable grimace. "That had better be a magic feather in your pocket, Dumbo."
"Are we ready?"
"Just about. Rotate me a little" Elle took careful aim behind West’s back, did her best to still a shaking hand, and fired twice. "Go!"
Her static discharge hit both open gas tanks and the vapors ignited with a whoosh. Both cars exploded sending debris and fire across the floor.
They shot upward, gaining speed far too fast for Elle’s taste and she buried her face in his shoulder to keep from seeing the ground race by so very far beneath them.
"I really hate flying."
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