Primeval Secret Santa for Lsellersfic - Obsidian And Iron Part 2
Title: Obsidian And Iron Part 2
Author: knitekat
Fandom: Primeval
Word Count: 2470 words out of 20537.
Characters: Claudia Brown, Nick Cutter, Tom Ryan, James Lester, Connor Temple, Lorraine Wickes plus SFOCs: Jon Lyle, Niall 'Blade' Richards, Robert Finnand David 'Ditzy' Owen (OCs)
Rating: 18
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. Certainly not me. And Lyle, Blade, Finn and Ditzy belong to Fred. Writing for fun and will replace.
A/N 1: For Lsellersfic's Secret Santa and her prompt: The anomaly team find the Holy Grail. What is it? What does it mean? What do they do with it? With possibly some aspects of her High Concept Sci-Fi prompt as well. Not sure how well it hit either prompt but I hope you enjoy it and had a wonderful Christmas.
A/N 2: Partly beta-ed by Fififolle (oops my word count was out) and modified by me, so all mistakes are mine.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Nick groaned softly as he woke, the last thing he remembered was Claudia screaming his name and then... He wasn't quite sure what had happened but he could have sworn something had taken his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. He shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the memory, groaning softly when the motion set his head thudding and his stomach churning.
He put his hands down as the world felt tilted and froze, feeling rough stone beneath his fingers rather then tarmac or grass. Where the hell was he? He swallowed down his nausea and blinked his eyes, trying to see where he was. He frowned when he realised he was in a room which appeared to have no door; the only way in or out appeared to be a window high in a wall, the sky beyond it a clear, pale, perfect blue. He sighed, knowing he could neither reach it nor scramble out of that small opening even if he could have reached it. He frowned as he stared up at that window... was that how he came to be in this room? Had he fallen through the window? He shook his head again, instantly regretting it as nausea roiled in his gut. He knew he hadn't, the window was in a vertical wall, but if one of the Troodons had attacked him... why was he here instead of... well, eaten.
Nick almost shook his head again, remembering just in time and settled for a heartfelt sigh instead, worrying about how he came to be here wasn't going to help. Instead, he turned his attention back to his surroundings and tried to think where he might be, because he certainly couldn't think of any building on or near the Tor which would have matched the room he found himself in. Most of the room was in gloom, but the walls he could see were made of blocks of rough hewn stone, crumbling with age and dripping with water and slime. He blinked as a beam of sunlight pierced the gloom, the brightness making the shadows seem even deeper and he could have sworn something moved within those pits of darkness.
He swallowed and moved away from the shadows, feeling the menace within them grow as he watched it, knowing that something was watching him back. That whatever it was, and his imagination kept suggesting a myriad of things, was just waiting to pounce on him the moment his attention wavered from them. His fingers scrambled on the wall, blindly searching for a way out even though he knew there was none. He froze when he felt rough wood instead of stone beneath his questing fingers. He knew, he would have sworn, there hadn't been a door when he had looked earlier. Where the hell was he?
He searched his memory for some clue as to why he was here and swore softly when he recalled the last moments before a shape had loomed out of the mist and clouted him over the head. Dinosaurs were one thing but... they didn't exist, did they? Although someone - something - had obviously brought him here, he felt a cold shiver down his back as he wondered who they were and what they wanted with him.
Nick froze when he heard footsteps approaching, wondering who - or what - he could hear and what it would mean to him. He strained his ears when he heard a voice, muffled by the door but he could have sworn he knew it from somewhere. He placed his ear against the door as he tried to hear what was being said while keeping an eye on whatever was concealed in the shadows. His eyebrow rose when he finally recognised the voice, although presumably on a mobile as he could only hear Blade's side of the conversation.
“It was definitely goblins, sir,” Blade said. “I caught one of the scrawny sods and convinced it to tell me where they'd put the Professor.”
Nick's eyebrows rose. Goblins? What the hell was going on? He'd never have expected Blade to play tricks on people. Loom menacingly while armed with far too many knives, yes, but not play a joke on someone. He turned his attention back to the one-sided conversation he could hear.
“No, sir,” Blade was saying. “It won't be a problem. I took care of it.”
Nick had no trouble imagining exactly how Blade would have taken care of the... whatever it was.
“Maybe, it said she wanted to talk to him,” Blade said, obviously responding to another question from whoever he was talking to, and how Nick wished he could hear whoever it was. “Do you think they're making their move, sir?”
Nick frowned, who was 'she' and why would she want to talk to him? Although he could only think of one person Blade could be referring to, but why now after eight years of silence? Not that knowing it could be Helen told him who was making their move? He winced when he rubbed his head, feeling wetness on his fingers and recalling that he'd been hit on the head by something out of a fairy tale. He sighed, maybe this was just some elaborate dream and he was lying unconscious somewhere? He had spent the journey to Glastonbury listening to Connor's non-stop ramble about the Tor and all the legends. That had to be it... didn't it? Except Nick knew it wasn't, he knew what he'd seen.
“What do you want me to do about the team, sir?”
Nick held his breath - was whoever Blade worked for about to order their deaths? He knew Blade wouldn't hesitate if that was the case. He knew he'd thought it before, but he really wished he could hear whoever Blade was talking to, to know who gave the man his orders.
“And if they discover the truth?” Blade asked before offering, “I could arrange an accident, sir.”
Nick swore softly and quickly peered around the gloomy room, trying to see if another way out had appeared when he hadn't been paying attention. He needed to get out and warn the team of the danger they were in. He looked around for another way out but that unreachable window, looking even narrower and even further away was still the only other option. The glimpse of impossibly blue sky he could see might promise escape but he knew it was unreachable. He glanced back at the shadows when he heard something that sounded far too much like a claw scraping on stone for his liking. It was always possible another door lay concealed within that darkness which crept ever closer as Nick watched it, infiltrating patches of sunlight as it flowed around others, leaving pools of light within the darkness before they too were engulfed, plunging more and more of the room into shadow and gloom. Nick pressed harder against the door, he had no wish to meet whatever lay concealed within that darkness, even Blade was a better option... at least, Nick hoped he was.
“And the Treaty?”
For a moment, Nick forgot the danger he was in, his attention grabbed by Blade's words, what Treaty was he on about? Then he remembered that he should be more concerned about what Blade might do to him when he found him.
“Yes, sir. Anyone who tried to harm them will have to go through me first, sir.”
The tone of Blade's voice sent a shiver down Nick's back, even as he realised that whoever gave Blade his orders had just told him to protect them. Any relief he felt faded when the first tendril of shadow reached his boot and he could see tiny claws scrabble on the leather. He pulled his feet in as much as possible, huddling as close to the door as he could and let out a yell of surprise when the door was yanked open, sending him sprawling in a corridor and hearing the squeals of pain and the scamper of claws as light spilled into the room to pierce the shadows. He blinked in the brighter light of the corridor and peered up at Blade.
At a grinning Blade and if for a moment Blade's teeth looked too many, too long and too sharp, well... Nick shook his head, knowing it was just a trick of the light and the bump on his head. He blinked and Blade's teeth looked normal again. Of course they did, he'd just been spending so much time around Connor that the boy's weirder ideas were influencing his subconscious mind. He swallowed when he noticed the sharp knife in Blade's hand, the blade black and glossy in a way that steel wasn't. Of course it was a head injury, They didn't exist... just as dinosaurs didn't roam the modern world. He knew what Blade was, he remembered the stories his grandmother had told him, gathered around the fire in the dark of the evening when the wind howled outside and snow cloaked the land.
“Come on, Professor, lets get you out of here before they come back.”
Nick didn't have the strength to resist when Blade hauled him to his feet, where he swayed and would have fallen once more if the soldier hadn't slung Nick's arm over his shoulder. He blinked when he took a step and found himself under bright sunshine. He glanced around as Blade continued to drag him along, and realised that the grass was a vivid green and the flowers were so intensely white and yellow it felt as if he'd been blind to their colours before. He peered over his shoulder to see if the building was still there, watching as it shifted and shimmered as parts of it faded in and out of view and other sections twisted into new shapes.
He groaned and knew Lester wouldn't believe a word of this if he told him, not when even Nick was sure he had a concussion and couldn't be entirely sure he wasn't imagining all of this. Otherwise... somehow he'd crossed over into the Otherworld, the land of the Fae.
Nick stumbled as he stepped through the anomaly and found himself on the uneven ground at the top of the Tor, the deserted and ruined tower of the Church of St Michael the only building in sight. He shook his head to clear it and felt Blade's hand tighten its grip on his arm. “Move, Professor.”
Nick nodded, he would feel a lot safer once he was back at the ARC, even when he just had the team around him, rather than being alone with Blade. He snorted, he was a man of science and impossible things just didn't happen... except if someone had told him only weeks ago that he'd be dealing with dinosaurs and holes in time, he'd have scoffed at that too.
He heard a hunting horn behind them and felt Blade tense before he swore under his breath and hurried Nick on. Nick stumbled over the unever ground and almost fell when Blade let go of him, stepping clear before he spun, raised his rifle and fired at whatever was behind them. “Go, Professor!”
Nick nodded and half-ran, half-stumbled down the Tor, Blade at his side as the man covered their retreat. He could only hope they ran into the rest of the soldiers before the... well, whatever the hell was chasing them caught them.
He glanced back when he heard Blade curse once more, Nick's eyes widening as he stared in shock at the sight which met his eyes. Maybe he really had knocked himself out and this was just a bloody weird dream as he lay unconscious. Otherwise he could have sworn that the pair of Troodons behind them, which had slowed to harry him and Blade, were being ridden by children. He caught a better look at the riders and knew that no child could look like that. Blade's yell shook Nick from his shock and he cast about for a weapon, any weapon, for he knew they wouldn't - couldn't outrun the Troodons. He spotted a fallen branch and grabbed it, swinging it forcibly at an approaching Troodon and grinning when he knocked it down. He watched and felt it snap at the branch which Nick was using to pin it down before something slithered from its back crawled towards him along the branch. He caught an impression of a gaping maw full of jagged teeth before he swung the branch once more, feeling a heavy weight on one end before Nick swung the branch and let it sail into a nearby willow thicket, hearing a shriek as whatever the creature was landed in the bushes.
Nick heard the hunting horn once more and looked around for another weapon, not even questioning when Blade shoved a knife into his hands. He glanced at the steel blade and noticed the creatures hissed in discomfort when they approached too closely. He hoped it would be enough to keep them at bay, but feared it woundn't be. Not when more of the creatures arrived to harried them, driving him away from Blade, and Nick soon found himself gasping for breath. He spared some air he didn't have to curse the quick little creatures and their even quicker mounts that were fast becoming his worst nightmare.
He tripped trying to avoid a slashing sickle-claw and landed flat on his back, all the air whooshing from his lung with the impact and the knife slipping from his grasp as he fell. He raised his arms in what he knew would be a useless defense as the Troodon lunged towards him, only for it to be held back by the creature riding it. He watched as the creature dismounted and Nick could have sworn he heard it chuckle evily as it slithered towards him. Its huge mouth was opened unnaturaly wide to reveal a triple rank of jagged teeth within its massive maw. The black blade it carried glittered as darkly in the sunlight as the one Blade carried. Nick tried to scramble away from it, his eyes fixed on that wicked knife and the beady red eyes behind it. Oh Fuck! He was about to be gutted by something which belonged in one of his grandmother's tales about folklore and, from the way the creature was licking its lips, he had the horrible realisation that he'd be eaten by it too. Hopefully once he was dead but... he swallowed as he recalled more of his grandmother's tales. Nick found himself frozen, unable to move, the creature's breath foul in his face, unable to do anything but stare helplessly as it raised its dark blade above him.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Author: knitekat
Fandom: Primeval
Word Count: 2470 words out of 20537.
Characters: Claudia Brown, Nick Cutter, Tom Ryan, James Lester, Connor Temple, Lorraine Wickes plus SFOCs: Jon Lyle, Niall 'Blade' Richards, Robert Finnand David 'Ditzy' Owen (OCs)
Rating: 18
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. Certainly not me. And Lyle, Blade, Finn and Ditzy belong to Fred. Writing for fun and will replace.
A/N 1: For Lsellersfic's Secret Santa and her prompt: The anomaly team find the Holy Grail. What is it? What does it mean? What do they do with it? With possibly some aspects of her High Concept Sci-Fi prompt as well. Not sure how well it hit either prompt but I hope you enjoy it and had a wonderful Christmas.
A/N 2: Partly beta-ed by Fififolle (oops my word count was out) and modified by me, so all mistakes are mine.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Nick groaned softly as he woke, the last thing he remembered was Claudia screaming his name and then... He wasn't quite sure what had happened but he could have sworn something had taken his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. He shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the memory, groaning softly when the motion set his head thudding and his stomach churning.
He put his hands down as the world felt tilted and froze, feeling rough stone beneath his fingers rather then tarmac or grass. Where the hell was he? He swallowed down his nausea and blinked his eyes, trying to see where he was. He frowned when he realised he was in a room which appeared to have no door; the only way in or out appeared to be a window high in a wall, the sky beyond it a clear, pale, perfect blue. He sighed, knowing he could neither reach it nor scramble out of that small opening even if he could have reached it. He frowned as he stared up at that window... was that how he came to be in this room? Had he fallen through the window? He shook his head again, instantly regretting it as nausea roiled in his gut. He knew he hadn't, the window was in a vertical wall, but if one of the Troodons had attacked him... why was he here instead of... well, eaten.
Nick almost shook his head again, remembering just in time and settled for a heartfelt sigh instead, worrying about how he came to be here wasn't going to help. Instead, he turned his attention back to his surroundings and tried to think where he might be, because he certainly couldn't think of any building on or near the Tor which would have matched the room he found himself in. Most of the room was in gloom, but the walls he could see were made of blocks of rough hewn stone, crumbling with age and dripping with water and slime. He blinked as a beam of sunlight pierced the gloom, the brightness making the shadows seem even deeper and he could have sworn something moved within those pits of darkness.
He swallowed and moved away from the shadows, feeling the menace within them grow as he watched it, knowing that something was watching him back. That whatever it was, and his imagination kept suggesting a myriad of things, was just waiting to pounce on him the moment his attention wavered from them. His fingers scrambled on the wall, blindly searching for a way out even though he knew there was none. He froze when he felt rough wood instead of stone beneath his questing fingers. He knew, he would have sworn, there hadn't been a door when he had looked earlier. Where the hell was he?
He searched his memory for some clue as to why he was here and swore softly when he recalled the last moments before a shape had loomed out of the mist and clouted him over the head. Dinosaurs were one thing but... they didn't exist, did they? Although someone - something - had obviously brought him here, he felt a cold shiver down his back as he wondered who they were and what they wanted with him.
Nick froze when he heard footsteps approaching, wondering who - or what - he could hear and what it would mean to him. He strained his ears when he heard a voice, muffled by the door but he could have sworn he knew it from somewhere. He placed his ear against the door as he tried to hear what was being said while keeping an eye on whatever was concealed in the shadows. His eyebrow rose when he finally recognised the voice, although presumably on a mobile as he could only hear Blade's side of the conversation.
“It was definitely goblins, sir,” Blade said. “I caught one of the scrawny sods and convinced it to tell me where they'd put the Professor.”
Nick's eyebrows rose. Goblins? What the hell was going on? He'd never have expected Blade to play tricks on people. Loom menacingly while armed with far too many knives, yes, but not play a joke on someone. He turned his attention back to the one-sided conversation he could hear.
“No, sir,” Blade was saying. “It won't be a problem. I took care of it.”
Nick had no trouble imagining exactly how Blade would have taken care of the... whatever it was.
“Maybe, it said she wanted to talk to him,” Blade said, obviously responding to another question from whoever he was talking to, and how Nick wished he could hear whoever it was. “Do you think they're making their move, sir?”
Nick frowned, who was 'she' and why would she want to talk to him? Although he could only think of one person Blade could be referring to, but why now after eight years of silence? Not that knowing it could be Helen told him who was making their move? He winced when he rubbed his head, feeling wetness on his fingers and recalling that he'd been hit on the head by something out of a fairy tale. He sighed, maybe this was just some elaborate dream and he was lying unconscious somewhere? He had spent the journey to Glastonbury listening to Connor's non-stop ramble about the Tor and all the legends. That had to be it... didn't it? Except Nick knew it wasn't, he knew what he'd seen.
“What do you want me to do about the team, sir?”
Nick held his breath - was whoever Blade worked for about to order their deaths? He knew Blade wouldn't hesitate if that was the case. He knew he'd thought it before, but he really wished he could hear whoever Blade was talking to, to know who gave the man his orders.
“And if they discover the truth?” Blade asked before offering, “I could arrange an accident, sir.”
Nick swore softly and quickly peered around the gloomy room, trying to see if another way out had appeared when he hadn't been paying attention. He needed to get out and warn the team of the danger they were in. He looked around for another way out but that unreachable window, looking even narrower and even further away was still the only other option. The glimpse of impossibly blue sky he could see might promise escape but he knew it was unreachable. He glanced back at the shadows when he heard something that sounded far too much like a claw scraping on stone for his liking. It was always possible another door lay concealed within that darkness which crept ever closer as Nick watched it, infiltrating patches of sunlight as it flowed around others, leaving pools of light within the darkness before they too were engulfed, plunging more and more of the room into shadow and gloom. Nick pressed harder against the door, he had no wish to meet whatever lay concealed within that darkness, even Blade was a better option... at least, Nick hoped he was.
“And the Treaty?”
For a moment, Nick forgot the danger he was in, his attention grabbed by Blade's words, what Treaty was he on about? Then he remembered that he should be more concerned about what Blade might do to him when he found him.
“Yes, sir. Anyone who tried to harm them will have to go through me first, sir.”
The tone of Blade's voice sent a shiver down Nick's back, even as he realised that whoever gave Blade his orders had just told him to protect them. Any relief he felt faded when the first tendril of shadow reached his boot and he could see tiny claws scrabble on the leather. He pulled his feet in as much as possible, huddling as close to the door as he could and let out a yell of surprise when the door was yanked open, sending him sprawling in a corridor and hearing the squeals of pain and the scamper of claws as light spilled into the room to pierce the shadows. He blinked in the brighter light of the corridor and peered up at Blade.
At a grinning Blade and if for a moment Blade's teeth looked too many, too long and too sharp, well... Nick shook his head, knowing it was just a trick of the light and the bump on his head. He blinked and Blade's teeth looked normal again. Of course they did, he'd just been spending so much time around Connor that the boy's weirder ideas were influencing his subconscious mind. He swallowed when he noticed the sharp knife in Blade's hand, the blade black and glossy in a way that steel wasn't. Of course it was a head injury, They didn't exist... just as dinosaurs didn't roam the modern world. He knew what Blade was, he remembered the stories his grandmother had told him, gathered around the fire in the dark of the evening when the wind howled outside and snow cloaked the land.
“Come on, Professor, lets get you out of here before they come back.”
Nick didn't have the strength to resist when Blade hauled him to his feet, where he swayed and would have fallen once more if the soldier hadn't slung Nick's arm over his shoulder. He blinked when he took a step and found himself under bright sunshine. He glanced around as Blade continued to drag him along, and realised that the grass was a vivid green and the flowers were so intensely white and yellow it felt as if he'd been blind to their colours before. He peered over his shoulder to see if the building was still there, watching as it shifted and shimmered as parts of it faded in and out of view and other sections twisted into new shapes.
He groaned and knew Lester wouldn't believe a word of this if he told him, not when even Nick was sure he had a concussion and couldn't be entirely sure he wasn't imagining all of this. Otherwise... somehow he'd crossed over into the Otherworld, the land of the Fae.
Nick stumbled as he stepped through the anomaly and found himself on the uneven ground at the top of the Tor, the deserted and ruined tower of the Church of St Michael the only building in sight. He shook his head to clear it and felt Blade's hand tighten its grip on his arm. “Move, Professor.”
Nick nodded, he would feel a lot safer once he was back at the ARC, even when he just had the team around him, rather than being alone with Blade. He snorted, he was a man of science and impossible things just didn't happen... except if someone had told him only weeks ago that he'd be dealing with dinosaurs and holes in time, he'd have scoffed at that too.
He heard a hunting horn behind them and felt Blade tense before he swore under his breath and hurried Nick on. Nick stumbled over the unever ground and almost fell when Blade let go of him, stepping clear before he spun, raised his rifle and fired at whatever was behind them. “Go, Professor!”
Nick nodded and half-ran, half-stumbled down the Tor, Blade at his side as the man covered their retreat. He could only hope they ran into the rest of the soldiers before the... well, whatever the hell was chasing them caught them.
He glanced back when he heard Blade curse once more, Nick's eyes widening as he stared in shock at the sight which met his eyes. Maybe he really had knocked himself out and this was just a bloody weird dream as he lay unconscious. Otherwise he could have sworn that the pair of Troodons behind them, which had slowed to harry him and Blade, were being ridden by children. He caught a better look at the riders and knew that no child could look like that. Blade's yell shook Nick from his shock and he cast about for a weapon, any weapon, for he knew they wouldn't - couldn't outrun the Troodons. He spotted a fallen branch and grabbed it, swinging it forcibly at an approaching Troodon and grinning when he knocked it down. He watched and felt it snap at the branch which Nick was using to pin it down before something slithered from its back crawled towards him along the branch. He caught an impression of a gaping maw full of jagged teeth before he swung the branch once more, feeling a heavy weight on one end before Nick swung the branch and let it sail into a nearby willow thicket, hearing a shriek as whatever the creature was landed in the bushes.
Nick heard the hunting horn once more and looked around for another weapon, not even questioning when Blade shoved a knife into his hands. He glanced at the steel blade and noticed the creatures hissed in discomfort when they approached too closely. He hoped it would be enough to keep them at bay, but feared it woundn't be. Not when more of the creatures arrived to harried them, driving him away from Blade, and Nick soon found himself gasping for breath. He spared some air he didn't have to curse the quick little creatures and their even quicker mounts that were fast becoming his worst nightmare.
He tripped trying to avoid a slashing sickle-claw and landed flat on his back, all the air whooshing from his lung with the impact and the knife slipping from his grasp as he fell. He raised his arms in what he knew would be a useless defense as the Troodon lunged towards him, only for it to be held back by the creature riding it. He watched as the creature dismounted and Nick could have sworn he heard it chuckle evily as it slithered towards him. Its huge mouth was opened unnaturaly wide to reveal a triple rank of jagged teeth within its massive maw. The black blade it carried glittered as darkly in the sunlight as the one Blade carried. Nick tried to scramble away from it, his eyes fixed on that wicked knife and the beady red eyes behind it. Oh Fuck! He was about to be gutted by something which belonged in one of his grandmother's tales about folklore and, from the way the creature was licking its lips, he had the horrible realisation that he'd be eaten by it too. Hopefully once he was dead but... he swallowed as he recalled more of his grandmother's tales. Nick found himself frozen, unable to move, the creature's breath foul in his face, unable to do anything but stare helplessly as it raised its dark blade above him.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6