Strangers and Lies (22 page)

She got off easy that way, but couldn't stop it from happening. The things almost pulled her head off, to get the helmet away from her, even as she grabbed it, trying to hold on, but after a few minutes she was standing there with nothing metal left on her person at all. None of them had anything left. Not even a knife, though that probably wouldn't have helped much anyway.

Doctor Debussey nodded, staring at Bethany, actually pushing her way through the monsters to get to her.

"You. I should have known
you
couldn't resist coming to me. My arch nemesis, the
evil
Westmorland Detective, Bethany. Here to stop the age of enlightenment and peace. We, as you can see, prepared for that. We've prepared for everything you can throw at us and more." She waved around the space, pointing to the glowing bulb at the ceiling, which had a sickly green color to it. "
That
nifty piece of magic prevents anyone from Teletransporting into, or out of, this space. To think, the others thought
I
was being overly cautious. I know you though, Detective. The only person alive that can match my mind." She glanced at the others, but didn't seem to care much about who they might be. Until she got to Gwen at least.

"So, Katherine come forward now." She gestured at Gwen's face, focusing, but not making a line to mesmerize her. No, whatever she was doing was directed at the girl hiding in her mind. "Tell me, what else do they have planned?"

It was a strange thing for her to ask, one that was almost insane sounding, right up until Gwen felt her mouth start to work, the words coming out without her meaning them to. Of course. Now, with the Doctor's orders in the air, the girl suddenly had the strength to take control. Brilliant.

"Pretty much what you said they would, the whole time. They couldn't think of anything else, so they had some Westmorlands ready to come in and tear the world apart. None of those three came through, of course. They were about ten places back. Other than that, they have
nothing
. I don't think they can stop us now at all." The words were in a different accent than the one she used, so Gwen got it.

It had all been a set-up, the entire time. Well...
Darn
.

She wanted to howl, but she couldn't make it happen. Katherine was in charge suddenly... And probably could have been the whole time, if Debussey had ordered it done. It made sense, it really
was
her body and mind, but Gwen had been so certain that she was the one that was stronger. Probably because she was a moron. She started to feel a little angry, but for some reason even that wouldn't come. After a moment she worked it out. She wasn't hooked up to the body at all at the moment. That meant she didn't get the normal flow of emotions, since those were a chemical process. She could still think, but that was about all. She tried to fight, to take over again, but it didn't work. Katherine didn't even seem to notice her.

"Do we have everything ready?" There was a hint of excitement in the words now, Katherine looking down at the tentacles that held her. She didn't ask to be let go, but Debussey waved the creatures holding her away, which worked really well. Whatever they were, the things were intelligent, and obedient. There was no way to ask about it however. It seemed strange that they were so perfect, as far as frightening Gwen. Almost as if they'd been pulled from her own mind.

"We
do
. This is the day that the new world starts, love. The others are in the main chamber, ready to open the portal. I'm sure they can't wait to see you again, you were always so popular with everyone. Shall we? It won't take but a few moments now. The sacrifices stand ready, and all we need to do is trigger the system in place. We have enough energy already, I think, but a bit extra never hurts." She chortled a little, which got Darrick to look at her with contempt.

"You do realize that if you do this, you'll die as well, don't you? You can't control the Old Ones. It's so obvious that's the case that not even the insane try anymore." He stopped talking, but it was too late, since Erin had already been challenged. It was a bad thing to do with a homicidal narcissist.

Gwen really expected her to kill the man, but she just nodded, a tiny smile on her lips as she looked at the man.

"Ah, I remember you. You sought to question me once. I escaped. Do you think
you
can do the same now? It will be interesting to see. It won't help you however. As to your question, the answer is simple. Other people failed to control the Old Ones, because they weren't
me
. I've worked my whole life to work out how to do this, do you honestly think I'd leave that to chance?" She moved over to Gwen, kissing her gently on the lips. "I left nothing to chance.
Nothing
."

They were moved then, into the other room. The others were moved. Gwen just walked, feeling almost like she was floating. It wasn't a pleasant feeling at all. How could she have let herself be pushed aside so easily? It made some sense of course, if the whole thing had been a set up... But... Faking a murder and body theft? Wasn't that a little over the top? Why bother at all? Yes, it had gotten Katherine into place to spy on the Westmorlands, and some others, but...

Gwen couldn't work it out and no one told her why exactly it had happened. So much for Debussey getting the role as a Bond villain. Then, those guys never told the flunkies like her what was really going on anyway, did they? If Bethany was the hero, the explanation would be directed at her.

There had to be a way to break through this though. Even if Katherine had an edge, Gwen had been in charge for long enough to give her a real fight, hadn't she? Maybe if she picked something small and not important enough for Katherine to worry about and resist? Could she gain a foothold that way?

There were some fifty men and women in white robes, most of them having hoods, which had to just be for show, standing around the six people in the middle of a very large circle. One of them was Ferdinand, and of course the other world leaders had to be in the mix, leaving two people on either side that didn't belong.

On the far side was a small blonde girl that couldn't have been more than six years old. She wasn't even tied down, just laying flat, probably paralyzed. On the other side was a man. One she knew, if from a dream.

Jeffery.

The driver of the lorrie that she'd been taken away in. He was likely the one that had mesmerized her. She didn't get it at all... Wasn't he one of
them
? Katherine seemed to think so and took a step in that direction, holding her left hand out.

"Jeffery..." The words were shocked at least.

Erin nodded.

"Oh, that, yes. Traitor, if you can believe it. He tried to strengthen that puppet we put in place, Farris. It was a good thing that she was found as quickly as she was, or we might well have lost you forever. Apparently he was against us the whole time. He never even loved you, you know. He admitted that under questioning. Too bad, he's a brilliant man in his own way. Still, a little extra energy never hurts as I mentioned earlier, and he'll help balance little Stephanie's female energy."

That part got everyone to look at the girl again.

"Who is she?" Billy asked, finally speaking, the silver scars on his face standing out more now, the rest being flushed from struggling as hard as he had. They were perfect circles, burned into his skin over the years using intense mental training. Electrical though, Gwen thought. That was from back in their world and they just didn't have pain magic. If they had what he'd experienced would have probably been even more extreme.

Doctor Cavendish had done it, to turn him into a super-soldier. It kind of made sense, being that Cavendish and Debussey were the same person, her work here had a different mechanism, but a similar tone to it.

Erin gave him a blank look for some reason, clearly not recognizing him at all.

 "She's my daughter, of course. A personal sacrifice on my part. I tried to bring another version of her here, so that we could transfer that mind to another girl to use for it, but there wasn't enough similarity. If I'd kept my older girl that wouldn't have happened, but I gave her up for adoption decades ago. I wasn't able to locate her at all."

Gwen blinked. It was a little thing, but she'd
meant
to do it, and it worked. She wasn't in control of the body yet, but it was a place to start. She had an idea that Katherine might just be being propped up by Debussey somehow. If she wasn't around, or if she was distracted enough, maybe she could get free? There were a lot of people in the room, but... Well, all she could do was fight and hope it was enough. There was an odd sense to the tentacle monsters too, almost as if they were wavering. Not really there somehow.

She didn't have a clue how to get the woman to be all that distracted however. Billy, for his part just nodded a few times and then shrugged, or tried to, the creatures holding him prevented it for the most part, so it was a pretty subtle thing that probably seemed like an attempt to escape.

"Ah. Too bad. I always wanted a little sister. We could play dress-up and have tea parties." The words were pretty bland, and just a little sarcastic, but were strange enough that Debussey turned her attention on the man. Away from Katherine.

Taking a chance, Gwen made a fist of her right hand. She sort of managed it, the fingers flexing just a bit, but it wasn't nearly enough to actually fight. She needed the woman to really pay attention to something else. Inside she tried to spur Billy on, but there was no way to communicate that at all.

"Sorry? I don't take your meaning? If you
have
one that is and aren't just trying to stall for time. That won't help you, I hope you understand that? We have this quite tied up. Just like the sacrifices." There was a laugh from the robed people then, as if it were funny.

Then, if they were well balanced they probably wouldn't be trying to do this, would they?

Billy made his mouth pull up at the corners. It probably wouldn't fool anyone at all into thinking it was real. No, anyone would see it as a threat, if they had eyes.

"
What
? You mean you don't recognize me, mom? I'm hurt." There was a second of hesitation before he went on. "Of course, I'm not your
real
son, just a copy of him from another world. The same one Gwen is from. I came across physically about fifteen years ago. Darren was being trained to Teletransport without a sphere. He was an over achiever and ended up trading places with me physically. We don't have magic where I come from, so he was pretty much stuck at that point."

Debussey looked at him for a bit and then turned to look at Bethany again. Her words seemed almost reasonable, even coming from a robed person.

"That sounds unlikely, doesn't it? Still, given the forces we're putting forth here, I suppose it isn't that odd that things have echoed back through time, creating a few unlikely coincidences, is it? Too bad he wasn't my biological child. I'm so tied into this that it would add to the power structure greatly if he was. It might even work with him... Well, I suppose we should do you as well. Prepare another table please."

The things were huge stone slabs, so that was going to take a minute and for all that Debussey seemed calm, Gwen actually managed to make a full fist, meaning the insane Doctor was distracted from whatever it was she was doing, which meant it required
will
on her part to keep Katherine at the front. How that worked she didn't understand, but it seemed to be the case. Gwen hoped it was the case, at least. If this was all a trick too, then she was out of options, at least in the short run.

 Billy looked at her and smiled himself, this time the whole thing seemed a lot more real, somehow.

"That seems fair, after all, in my original world I killed you. I took a kitchen knife and slaughtered all of your minions, and then I found you, sleeping up in your room. I was normally kept locked in a cell in the basement, since you thought I was too dangerous to let out. You were right. I dug your eyes out, one by one, then started... trimming. I used tourniquets, so you lived for hours, feeling every piece of you being cut off, one at a time, screaming. You shouldn't have killed her mom. That was the mistake that caused you to lose everything." He took a step toward her, pulling the tentacle monsters with him, since they didn't seem ready for it at all. It got the woman to jump back, real fear on her face.

It was enough for Gwen to get her left hand up to her temple, the old signal for Beth to read her mind. After about ten seconds her eyes went wide, but she nodded once.

The thought was simple, since there was no time to explain anything really.

Lie
.
Tell her that you're her daughter... Do it!

There was no time to explain anything else, since the table was put in place then. The altar. By humans, not well behaved tentacle... things.

Bethany sighed dramatically, playing it to the hilt, trusting that Gwen actually had a plan and that it might work, at least a little.

"You might as well get another one ready then, since
I'm
you're other child." There was a moment of silence as Erin looked at her, baffled and unbelieving. "Darren Westmorland was my brother, we came in on the same day. Surely you remember that you had twins, didn't you... Mother?"

The Doctor was shocked, but it wasn't enough. Gwen could move, but it was slow and hard still. She'd failed, or so she thought. Just then, Heather laughed.