To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz - Chapter 11
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary crossover story but my altered headspace. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corp, MGM, Fox, various individuals and companies and whoever owns them. Sanctuary belongs to Damian Kindler, Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood, The Beedie Group, Tricon Films & Television, Space and whoever else owns bits and pieces of it.
Spoilers: For SG-1, to the end of series; for Sanctuary, up to the episode “Pavor Nocturnus” (Season 2, Episode 5). Everything after that is up for grabs.
Summary: Sam and Cassie go Christmas shopping in New City ...
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Chapter 11
Cassie watched with sick fascination as Monster ripped her way towards the lab with brutal efficiency. Throat and chest; those were her targets and she found her mark each time-sometimes simply slashing through her victim and pulling out his heart.
Cassie swallowed the bile that rose in her throat as Monster gloried in the thrill of each kill. Another guard stepped into the far side of the corridor, taking aim at her. Reflexively, Cassie’s finger squeezed the trigger of the handgun she’d liberated from one of the guards Monster had killed in their break out.
Just the way you taught me, Sam; just the way you taught me.
With strange dispassion, she watched the man fall, his death throes accompanied by a hail of machine gun fire that pierced the roof and ricocheted off the walls. Almost too late, she realised the danger and forced her mind outwards, hurling the dying man-and his bullets-into the far wall at the end of the corridor.
A cacophony of shrill screams caught her attention now, as Monster tore her way though the labs. The scientists scattered, trying to make for the exits. Cassie slammed all the doors shut. And then, when she caught sight of a struggling Sam, manacled to the bed and the fires of hell burning in her dark-almost black-eyes, she slammed the scientists into those doors. And the walls. And the ceiling. And the floor.
The screaming stopped.
Moments later, Monster’s banshee wail sounded. She stood frozen in front of a short, red-haired woman, hand around her throat.
The head scientist, Cassie realised from Sam’s descriptions.
“Remember, you can’t hurt me, Ashley,” she said in an incongruously teasing tone of voice as she stood ankle-deep in the blood and carnage Monster had wrought all around her. “You’re programmed not to.”
Monster screamed again, a sound of pure rage and frustration. Lightening-fast, she moved, and almost before Cassie could register it, she’d hit the release control for Sam’s manacles. Suddenly, before she could register any movement, Cassie’s gun was in Sam’s rock-steady hand, pointed directly at the woman’s head.
“She might be programmed, but I’m not,” came that glacially cold voice that sounded nothing like Sam.
A small, neat hole appeared in the middle of the shocked woman’s forehead. The gun’s deafening report tore throughout the lab like a sonic boom, and its echoes seemed to grow louder and louder, each iteration deluging Cassie’s mind like a relentless flood.
“The guards are breaking through the doors, Cassie!” Sam shouted-urgency prevalent in her hoarse voice as she took the extra clips from Cassie’s pockets. “You’ve got to blow the generator now! Ashley and I will hold them off for as long as we can.”
Cassie nodded dumbly, trying to focus her overloaded mind. Around her chaos reigned as Sam and Ashley answered the guards’ invasion into the room. Cassie gathered her will and focused on the lines of energy permeating the room. Following the strongest back, she forced her mind outward, pouring all her anger and hatred into the source in wave after relentless wave.
Electronics sparked and exploded. Lights flickered and then died, plunging the lab into a murky dimness. Cassie fell to her knees, utterly exhausted.
In the darkness, the guards screamed, trying to get away as the maelstrom that was Monster as she tore through them, her madness pulling Cassie along for the ride.
“Cassie! Call her off!” Sam shrieked, gun clicking emptily. “Tell her to get us out of-”
Cassie looked up just in time to see Sam fall, blood seeping darkly through pale fingers clutching at her abdomen, trying to stem the flood.
“Sam!”
#
Gun in hand, Helen raced down the corridor to the tech lab. Will Zimmerman caught up with her at the door and they entered the room together. Their team, Henry Foss, Kate Freelander, Declan McCrae and the Big Guy, were already there.
“What’s going on, Henry?” she asked the technician breathlessly, her accent more prevalent than normal. “Why the alarm?”
“I’m not sure, Boss,” he replied. “But we’re getting some weird readings on those new detectors I’ve been tinkering with to give us a heads up on teleportation activity-”
“Someone’s trying to teleport into the Sanctuary?”
“Not here, Boss-some building in New City,” he said bringing up a digital map of the city, “belongs to a pharmaceutical company. The weird thing is-the detectors aren’t pinging on teleportation activity, but on an EM shield around that building.”
“A shield? Why didn’t we detect it before?” Will asked; the confusion was evident in his voice.
“Because normally we can’t-at least I didn’t know we could, since if our shield is properly balanced, you shouldn’t be able to detect it from the outside unless something tries to teleport across it,” Henry said excitedly as he brought up a display of what looked like frequency oscillations. “But for some reason, this thing’s become unstable in the last couple of minutes and is showing up as spikes all over the spectrum.”
“It has to be the Cabal,” Helen said angrily. “We have to get over there fast and find out what in hell is going on, because if they were housing Abnormals ... experimenting on them-and if that shield goes down-”
“Whoa-ho-ho! There she blows!” Henry said cackling madly as the screen blazed a blinding white for a few seconds. “Too late, Boss-that thing’s toast and it’s wiped out power to a couple city blocks surrounding the building.”
Helen started towards the door and Will turned to follow her out, but Henry’s sudden shout stopped them.
“Whoa! Teleport activity! Someone just got the hell out of there!”
As Helen turned back to face Henry, Will saw the sudden flash of hope in her eyes. “Can you tell where they went?” she asked hoarsely.
“Scanning for teleport signature within a hundred klicks now,” the young werewolf replied, working his magic on his keyboard. “They’re ... here,” he said looking up at Magnus, who jumped as the front gate buzzer blared.
After a long moment of silence, Henry brought up the surveillance camera at the gate. A face filled the frame; she was young and blonde, shivering in the late evening drizzle that was threatening another cloudburst, but she was not Ashley.
“Hello ... is anyone there?” she cried plaintively. “Is this the Sanctuary? Is Helen there?”
Helen started towards the intercom, but Declan stopped her. He nodded to Henry, who activated the device.
“Who is this?” Declan asked.
“My name is Cassandra Fraiser,” the girl shouted over the wind. “I’m looking for Helen-she has a daughter named Ashley.”
Helen gave an inarticulate cry at the sound of her daughter’s name, but Declan held her still, one hand clamped around her wrist. “It might be a trick, Magnus!” he said harshly. “Ashley is dead,” he barked to the intercom’s pick-up.
“Well for a dead person, she can certainly kick ass!” the girl said sarcastically. “Ashley is out here with me. She’s not exactly in a talkative mood, but she’s here. She pulled that neat little magic trick I’m sure you all know about and brought us here ... me and my Mum, Samantha Carter. This afternoon-or maybe it was yesterday-some goons kidnapped Sam and me from the Waterview Mall. They thought Sam was Helen-look, I can explain this, but you’ve got to let us in! Sam and Ashley are hurt. Ashley is holding her own-she seems to heal incredibly fast, but Sam’s bleeding out all over the sidewalk!” she cried hysterically.
Helen struggled against Declan’s grip. “Let me go!” she cried desperately.
“Look!” the girl shouted. “Let us in before I have to go all Hurricane Cassie and bust up your pretty little shield! And I can guarantee you won’t like it any more than those sadistic bastards who experimented on Sam did! And they only experimented on her-pumped her full of some crazy-ass blood to try and turn her into a psycho-killer like Ashley-because they thought she was Helen!”
Will’s heart plummeted into his boots as he met Helen’s devastated gaze. Pushing past Declan, he answered the intercom. “We’re coming out, Cassie,” he said. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Just hurry up and get your asses out here!” she spat in disgust.
As Declan let Helen go, Will caught her by the shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze. He knew that her first instinct was to run out there to her daughter, but if Ashley was anything like the programmed, brainwashed assassin they’d tangled with the last time, she was still incredibly dangerous. And even after everything that had happened, there was no way Helen would be able to be objective when confronted with her child.
“You need to go prep your surgery now,” he said, his eyes begging her to understand. “If they’ve been in a fight with the Cabal, both Ashley and this Sam woman will need your services as a doctor first, Magnus.” She opened her mouth to protest. “We’ll bring her in, Helen. I promise we’ll bring Ashley home.”
Helen nodded jerkily and he squeezed her hand gently before running out after his teammates. After throwing on his jacket, Kate pressed one of Henry’s newest souped-up stun guns into his hands and they raced out into the night behind Declan and Big Guy.
The three women were huddled just outside the gate. The girl, Cassandra, held another blonde-haired woman cradled against her, hand pressed against a wound in the woman’s side. And crouched in front of them was Ashley Magnus, her vampiric fangs and claws ready to tear them apart. She hissed menacingly as they stepped forward.
“Monster, stop!” Cassandra commanded and Ashley gave a cry of pure rage. “Come,” she continued quietly, and to their surprise, Ashley scuttled back into the girl’s one-armed embrace.
Cassandra met Will’s gaze. “She won’t hurt you,” she said quietly. “I have her under control. Just take Sam and get her inside out of the rain-I’ll lead Ashley in.”
Will nodded and gestured for Big Guy to take the injured woman from Cassandra. As the Sasquatch butler lifted the woman up, her face came into view for the first time.
“Oh my God!” Will whispered as he looked into a deathly pale twin of Helen Magnus’ face.
“Holy shit!” Kate exclaimed behind him, just as Declan muttered, “Bloody hell!”
Cassandra rose and pulled Ashley closer into her embrace. “I take it Sam really looks like Ashley’s mother,” she said impatiently. “But can we get her the hell out of this cold rain and someplace we can get that damned bullet out of her?”
Will nodded and Big Guy took off at a brisk lope back to the house. Kate went next, while Will walked next to the two young women, keeping an eye on a strangely docile, yet still vampiric, Ashley.
Declan brought up the rear and Will didn’t have to look back to know that his gun was trained on the two young women. He did however, wonder which one the other man considered more dangerous; Ashley with her preternatural super-Abnormal abilities, or Cassandra with her ability to not only control Ashley, but also her self-confessed ability to bring down the Sanctuary’s shield.
Henry stood near the elevator and stared open-mouthed as the Big Guy passed him with the unconscious woman in his arms. The two young women barely spared him a glance as they also hurried into the elevator. Declan made a move to stop the girls from entering behind the Big Guy, but the glare Cassandra gave him stopped his protest before it began; there was no way that young woman was letting her mother out of her sight.
Declan got in next to Will, while Kate stayed in the foyer with Henry.
Helen was already in scrubs and her lab coat when the door opened onto the first level of the infirmary. As Cassandra led Ashley out of the elevator, she ran forward, homing in on her daughter and automatically reaching for her, while the Big Guy hurried past to lay the injured woman on one of the waiting gurneys.
Cassandra drew Ashley back, putting her body between mother and daughter. “Don’t try to touch her, ma’am,” she said gently and Helen stopped, trembling where she stood. “She can’t control herself-basically her personality has been splintered into fragments. There are three I know of-the one that’s out right now is called Monster-”
Helen gave a low, inarticulate cry of pure pain; the girl continued resolutely, “And Monster’s last order regarding you was to kill you, which she failed to do last time. I’m a telepath, ma’am-and she’s bonded to me as her Keeper. She trusts me to tell her when to kill and when to stop. Let me get her into one of those beds and once she feels safe, perhaps I can persuade Monster to go to sleep and coax Huntress into speaking with you-I think she’s the one that saved you the last time from Monster. If you can get Huntress to trust you, then perhaps she’ll allow Ash to surface.”
Helen nodded, tears pouring down her face. “Huntress? Ash?” she croaked.
“Monster is the vampire assassin you see,” Cassandra explained quickly. “The Huntress persona is the protector-and looks a hell of a lot like you, ma’am, except she wears a mask, dresses in black leather and is bristling with weapons-knives, guns, crossbow ... broadsword. You name it and it magically appears in her hand. She protects Ash, who has the persona of a little blonde five-year-old girl. I think she’s the embodiment of what’s left of Ashley.
“Ma’am, please, you’ve got to help Sam,” the girl continued desperately. “I can keep Monster under control. Your daughter has already healed her bullet wounds-but Sam’s lost a lot of blood. She isn’t healing like Ashley, probably because we escape before whatever Frankenstein experiment they were carrying out on her was completed. You have to get that bullet out of her. Please. I also need to call my mother and have her bring blood in case Sam needs a transfusion-her biology was altered a couple of years ago and she can’t take blood from anyone else.”
Helen nodded and dried her eyes before hurrying over to the occupied bed. She stopped short as she saw the other woman’s face for the first time.
“What in the world?” she croaked hoarsely, blood draining from her face, and leaving it even paler against her dark hair. “My dear God,” she whispered as she got to work cutting the woman’s wet clothes off and hooking her up to the life support machines and monitors.
“Your mother?” Declan growled suspiciously. “I thought you said Sam was your mother.”
The girl glared at him, and Ashley hissed, lunging at him before Cassandra gentled her again with a touch.
“What is your problem?” she demanded. “Sam’s my Mum-she’s a second mother to me. She’s helped my Mom raise me since I was ten years old!”
She turned her attention back to Magnus. “Helen, look, my Mom is Dr. Janet Fraiser, MD, United States Air Force-” Pointing to the blonde-haired figure in the bed, she continued, “And she is Colonel Samantha Carter, a very important government scientist-also USAF-and for some reason, you’re wearing her freaking face! Now, will you please tell somebody get me a bloody phone so I can call my mother to number one, tell her Sam and I are safe, before she brings down General O’Neill and the entire USAF on your damned heads, and number two, tell her to bring enough blood to replace what Sam lost saving your daughter’s life!”
“Give her your phone, Will,” Magnus ordered before turning her attention back to Samantha Carter’s wound. “Cassandra, tell your mother I can keep Samantha stable, but we’ll need to operate soon.”
#
Chapter 12
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary crossover story but my altered headspace. Stargate SG-1 belongs to Gekko Film Corp, MGM, Fox, various individuals and companies and whoever owns them. Sanctuary belongs to Damian Kindler, Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood, The Beedie Group, Tricon Films & Television, Space and whoever else owns bits and pieces of it.
Spoilers: For SG-1, to the end of series; for Sanctuary, up to the episode “Pavor Nocturnus” (Season 2, Episode 5). Everything after that is up for grabs.
Summary: Sam and Cassie go Christmas shopping in New City ...
To Dance Between the Raindrops: A Snowflake's Waltz
Chapter 11
Cassie watched with sick fascination as Monster ripped her way towards the lab with brutal efficiency. Throat and chest; those were her targets and she found her mark each time-sometimes simply slashing through her victim and pulling out his heart.
Cassie swallowed the bile that rose in her throat as Monster gloried in the thrill of each kill. Another guard stepped into the far side of the corridor, taking aim at her. Reflexively, Cassie’s finger squeezed the trigger of the handgun she’d liberated from one of the guards Monster had killed in their break out.
Just the way you taught me, Sam; just the way you taught me.
With strange dispassion, she watched the man fall, his death throes accompanied by a hail of machine gun fire that pierced the roof and ricocheted off the walls. Almost too late, she realised the danger and forced her mind outwards, hurling the dying man-and his bullets-into the far wall at the end of the corridor.
A cacophony of shrill screams caught her attention now, as Monster tore her way though the labs. The scientists scattered, trying to make for the exits. Cassie slammed all the doors shut. And then, when she caught sight of a struggling Sam, manacled to the bed and the fires of hell burning in her dark-almost black-eyes, she slammed the scientists into those doors. And the walls. And the ceiling. And the floor.
The screaming stopped.
Moments later, Monster’s banshee wail sounded. She stood frozen in front of a short, red-haired woman, hand around her throat.
The head scientist, Cassie realised from Sam’s descriptions.
“Remember, you can’t hurt me, Ashley,” she said in an incongruously teasing tone of voice as she stood ankle-deep in the blood and carnage Monster had wrought all around her. “You’re programmed not to.”
Monster screamed again, a sound of pure rage and frustration. Lightening-fast, she moved, and almost before Cassie could register it, she’d hit the release control for Sam’s manacles. Suddenly, before she could register any movement, Cassie’s gun was in Sam’s rock-steady hand, pointed directly at the woman’s head.
“She might be programmed, but I’m not,” came that glacially cold voice that sounded nothing like Sam.
A small, neat hole appeared in the middle of the shocked woman’s forehead. The gun’s deafening report tore throughout the lab like a sonic boom, and its echoes seemed to grow louder and louder, each iteration deluging Cassie’s mind like a relentless flood.
“The guards are breaking through the doors, Cassie!” Sam shouted-urgency prevalent in her hoarse voice as she took the extra clips from Cassie’s pockets. “You’ve got to blow the generator now! Ashley and I will hold them off for as long as we can.”
Cassie nodded dumbly, trying to focus her overloaded mind. Around her chaos reigned as Sam and Ashley answered the guards’ invasion into the room. Cassie gathered her will and focused on the lines of energy permeating the room. Following the strongest back, she forced her mind outward, pouring all her anger and hatred into the source in wave after relentless wave.
Electronics sparked and exploded. Lights flickered and then died, plunging the lab into a murky dimness. Cassie fell to her knees, utterly exhausted.
In the darkness, the guards screamed, trying to get away as the maelstrom that was Monster as she tore through them, her madness pulling Cassie along for the ride.
“Cassie! Call her off!” Sam shrieked, gun clicking emptily. “Tell her to get us out of-”
Cassie looked up just in time to see Sam fall, blood seeping darkly through pale fingers clutching at her abdomen, trying to stem the flood.
“Sam!”
#
Gun in hand, Helen raced down the corridor to the tech lab. Will Zimmerman caught up with her at the door and they entered the room together. Their team, Henry Foss, Kate Freelander, Declan McCrae and the Big Guy, were already there.
“What’s going on, Henry?” she asked the technician breathlessly, her accent more prevalent than normal. “Why the alarm?”
“I’m not sure, Boss,” he replied. “But we’re getting some weird readings on those new detectors I’ve been tinkering with to give us a heads up on teleportation activity-”
“Someone’s trying to teleport into the Sanctuary?”
“Not here, Boss-some building in New City,” he said bringing up a digital map of the city, “belongs to a pharmaceutical company. The weird thing is-the detectors aren’t pinging on teleportation activity, but on an EM shield around that building.”
“A shield? Why didn’t we detect it before?” Will asked; the confusion was evident in his voice.
“Because normally we can’t-at least I didn’t know we could, since if our shield is properly balanced, you shouldn’t be able to detect it from the outside unless something tries to teleport across it,” Henry said excitedly as he brought up a display of what looked like frequency oscillations. “But for some reason, this thing’s become unstable in the last couple of minutes and is showing up as spikes all over the spectrum.”
“It has to be the Cabal,” Helen said angrily. “We have to get over there fast and find out what in hell is going on, because if they were housing Abnormals ... experimenting on them-and if that shield goes down-”
“Whoa-ho-ho! There she blows!” Henry said cackling madly as the screen blazed a blinding white for a few seconds. “Too late, Boss-that thing’s toast and it’s wiped out power to a couple city blocks surrounding the building.”
Helen started towards the door and Will turned to follow her out, but Henry’s sudden shout stopped them.
“Whoa! Teleport activity! Someone just got the hell out of there!”
As Helen turned back to face Henry, Will saw the sudden flash of hope in her eyes. “Can you tell where they went?” she asked hoarsely.
“Scanning for teleport signature within a hundred klicks now,” the young werewolf replied, working his magic on his keyboard. “They’re ... here,” he said looking up at Magnus, who jumped as the front gate buzzer blared.
After a long moment of silence, Henry brought up the surveillance camera at the gate. A face filled the frame; she was young and blonde, shivering in the late evening drizzle that was threatening another cloudburst, but she was not Ashley.
“Hello ... is anyone there?” she cried plaintively. “Is this the Sanctuary? Is Helen there?”
Helen started towards the intercom, but Declan stopped her. He nodded to Henry, who activated the device.
“Who is this?” Declan asked.
“My name is Cassandra Fraiser,” the girl shouted over the wind. “I’m looking for Helen-she has a daughter named Ashley.”
Helen gave an inarticulate cry at the sound of her daughter’s name, but Declan held her still, one hand clamped around her wrist. “It might be a trick, Magnus!” he said harshly. “Ashley is dead,” he barked to the intercom’s pick-up.
“Well for a dead person, she can certainly kick ass!” the girl said sarcastically. “Ashley is out here with me. She’s not exactly in a talkative mood, but she’s here. She pulled that neat little magic trick I’m sure you all know about and brought us here ... me and my Mum, Samantha Carter. This afternoon-or maybe it was yesterday-some goons kidnapped Sam and me from the Waterview Mall. They thought Sam was Helen-look, I can explain this, but you’ve got to let us in! Sam and Ashley are hurt. Ashley is holding her own-she seems to heal incredibly fast, but Sam’s bleeding out all over the sidewalk!” she cried hysterically.
Helen struggled against Declan’s grip. “Let me go!” she cried desperately.
“Look!” the girl shouted. “Let us in before I have to go all Hurricane Cassie and bust up your pretty little shield! And I can guarantee you won’t like it any more than those sadistic bastards who experimented on Sam did! And they only experimented on her-pumped her full of some crazy-ass blood to try and turn her into a psycho-killer like Ashley-because they thought she was Helen!”
Will’s heart plummeted into his boots as he met Helen’s devastated gaze. Pushing past Declan, he answered the intercom. “We’re coming out, Cassie,” he said. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Just hurry up and get your asses out here!” she spat in disgust.
As Declan let Helen go, Will caught her by the shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze. He knew that her first instinct was to run out there to her daughter, but if Ashley was anything like the programmed, brainwashed assassin they’d tangled with the last time, she was still incredibly dangerous. And even after everything that had happened, there was no way Helen would be able to be objective when confronted with her child.
“You need to go prep your surgery now,” he said, his eyes begging her to understand. “If they’ve been in a fight with the Cabal, both Ashley and this Sam woman will need your services as a doctor first, Magnus.” She opened her mouth to protest. “We’ll bring her in, Helen. I promise we’ll bring Ashley home.”
Helen nodded jerkily and he squeezed her hand gently before running out after his teammates. After throwing on his jacket, Kate pressed one of Henry’s newest souped-up stun guns into his hands and they raced out into the night behind Declan and Big Guy.
The three women were huddled just outside the gate. The girl, Cassandra, held another blonde-haired woman cradled against her, hand pressed against a wound in the woman’s side. And crouched in front of them was Ashley Magnus, her vampiric fangs and claws ready to tear them apart. She hissed menacingly as they stepped forward.
“Monster, stop!” Cassandra commanded and Ashley gave a cry of pure rage. “Come,” she continued quietly, and to their surprise, Ashley scuttled back into the girl’s one-armed embrace.
Cassandra met Will’s gaze. “She won’t hurt you,” she said quietly. “I have her under control. Just take Sam and get her inside out of the rain-I’ll lead Ashley in.”
Will nodded and gestured for Big Guy to take the injured woman from Cassandra. As the Sasquatch butler lifted the woman up, her face came into view for the first time.
“Oh my God!” Will whispered as he looked into a deathly pale twin of Helen Magnus’ face.
“Holy shit!” Kate exclaimed behind him, just as Declan muttered, “Bloody hell!”
Cassandra rose and pulled Ashley closer into her embrace. “I take it Sam really looks like Ashley’s mother,” she said impatiently. “But can we get her the hell out of this cold rain and someplace we can get that damned bullet out of her?”
Will nodded and Big Guy took off at a brisk lope back to the house. Kate went next, while Will walked next to the two young women, keeping an eye on a strangely docile, yet still vampiric, Ashley.
Declan brought up the rear and Will didn’t have to look back to know that his gun was trained on the two young women. He did however, wonder which one the other man considered more dangerous; Ashley with her preternatural super-Abnormal abilities, or Cassandra with her ability to not only control Ashley, but also her self-confessed ability to bring down the Sanctuary’s shield.
Henry stood near the elevator and stared open-mouthed as the Big Guy passed him with the unconscious woman in his arms. The two young women barely spared him a glance as they also hurried into the elevator. Declan made a move to stop the girls from entering behind the Big Guy, but the glare Cassandra gave him stopped his protest before it began; there was no way that young woman was letting her mother out of her sight.
Declan got in next to Will, while Kate stayed in the foyer with Henry.
Helen was already in scrubs and her lab coat when the door opened onto the first level of the infirmary. As Cassandra led Ashley out of the elevator, she ran forward, homing in on her daughter and automatically reaching for her, while the Big Guy hurried past to lay the injured woman on one of the waiting gurneys.
Cassandra drew Ashley back, putting her body between mother and daughter. “Don’t try to touch her, ma’am,” she said gently and Helen stopped, trembling where she stood. “She can’t control herself-basically her personality has been splintered into fragments. There are three I know of-the one that’s out right now is called Monster-”
Helen gave a low, inarticulate cry of pure pain; the girl continued resolutely, “And Monster’s last order regarding you was to kill you, which she failed to do last time. I’m a telepath, ma’am-and she’s bonded to me as her Keeper. She trusts me to tell her when to kill and when to stop. Let me get her into one of those beds and once she feels safe, perhaps I can persuade Monster to go to sleep and coax Huntress into speaking with you-I think she’s the one that saved you the last time from Monster. If you can get Huntress to trust you, then perhaps she’ll allow Ash to surface.”
Helen nodded, tears pouring down her face. “Huntress? Ash?” she croaked.
“Monster is the vampire assassin you see,” Cassandra explained quickly. “The Huntress persona is the protector-and looks a hell of a lot like you, ma’am, except she wears a mask, dresses in black leather and is bristling with weapons-knives, guns, crossbow ... broadsword. You name it and it magically appears in her hand. She protects Ash, who has the persona of a little blonde five-year-old girl. I think she’s the embodiment of what’s left of Ashley.
“Ma’am, please, you’ve got to help Sam,” the girl continued desperately. “I can keep Monster under control. Your daughter has already healed her bullet wounds-but Sam’s lost a lot of blood. She isn’t healing like Ashley, probably because we escape before whatever Frankenstein experiment they were carrying out on her was completed. You have to get that bullet out of her. Please. I also need to call my mother and have her bring blood in case Sam needs a transfusion-her biology was altered a couple of years ago and she can’t take blood from anyone else.”
Helen nodded and dried her eyes before hurrying over to the occupied bed. She stopped short as she saw the other woman’s face for the first time.
“What in the world?” she croaked hoarsely, blood draining from her face, and leaving it even paler against her dark hair. “My dear God,” she whispered as she got to work cutting the woman’s wet clothes off and hooking her up to the life support machines and monitors.
“Your mother?” Declan growled suspiciously. “I thought you said Sam was your mother.”
The girl glared at him, and Ashley hissed, lunging at him before Cassandra gentled her again with a touch.
“What is your problem?” she demanded. “Sam’s my Mum-she’s a second mother to me. She’s helped my Mom raise me since I was ten years old!”
She turned her attention back to Magnus. “Helen, look, my Mom is Dr. Janet Fraiser, MD, United States Air Force-” Pointing to the blonde-haired figure in the bed, she continued, “And she is Colonel Samantha Carter, a very important government scientist-also USAF-and for some reason, you’re wearing her freaking face! Now, will you please tell somebody get me a bloody phone so I can call my mother to number one, tell her Sam and I are safe, before she brings down General O’Neill and the entire USAF on your damned heads, and number two, tell her to bring enough blood to replace what Sam lost saving your daughter’s life!”
“Give her your phone, Will,” Magnus ordered before turning her attention back to Samantha Carter’s wound. “Cassandra, tell your mother I can keep Samantha stable, but we’ll need to operate soon.”
#
Chapter 12