DISCLAIMER:All things Sapphire and Steel belong to P.J. Hammond, ITC Entertainment Group Ltd, and anyone else with a legal claim to the materiel. Absolutely NO infringement of copyright is intended; these guys are not making me any money AT ALL. In fact, like everyone else, I lose on the deal. I am borrowing the characters just for fun - and will give them back in one piece at the end.
BY MAGGIE
This story takes place immediately after the end of the very last episode and is my take on how they get out of Eternity Cafe.
PART ONE
"The future ... our future ... nothing else; only space ..."
"Sapphire ..."
But she was re-running the past, extrapolating forward into the parameters of their situation, hoping to be right in her guesses, that would have to do as answers.
"Some kind of, well, almost a still point ... the point in the circle where the beginning and the end of Time meets ... "
Steel looked around at the tables, the checked cloths that covered them, the chairs, the counter, the window; nothing but space beyond it.
"This place?"
"Yes," in that calm, accepting way she had when all seemed hopeless. This time it was all too appropriate.
"But that means ..."
"Yes, Steel; they know. They know and they won't release us, because they ... they are the ones who put us here. It was nothing to do with the Transient Beings, Steel; they just made the bargain."
"Agreed to act as their agents in all this ..."
"Yes."
"But why? Why would The Concord want to imprison us for Eternity, Sapphire? It doesn't make sense."
She turned away from the window suddenly, her eyes all but accusing him.
"We must have done something to anger them. Something so terrible that it put us beyond the reach of any lesser judicial decision."
'No,' his mind whispered secretly, only to itself, in fear, which was trying to escape the confines of another emotion which Steel always ran from or ignored, dreading its chains - shame. 'No, it can't be that ...'
A hesitant reply which only served to relentlessly sharpen the points of cold light in those Sapphire eyes.
"Can't it, Steel? It's obvious, surely? The railway station, the Darkness ... Tully ... Poor Tully ..."
"But Sapphire, we had to, there was no choice -"
"Wasn't there? There must have been another way, Steel; it's the only explanation for all this. The only reason there could possibly be for The Concord to be able to override any jurisdiction that Control had over us. Anything less than that and they wouldn't have been able to touch us. The resentment, Steel; the resentment of Time itself. The Concord ..."
"Alright, but analysing the whys and wherefores isn't going to get us out of here."
"I doubt that we can."
"Well I personally refuse to entertain the idea of staying here for a few millenia with only the prospect of going insane with boredom to look forward to. You?"
"I suppose so."
Sulky and unrepentant, she returned to the table reluctantly and sat down.
"Right. Now, even if we can't appeal to the ones responsible we might be able to contact some of the other agents."
"Even if we could, Steel, they'd never be able to get to us, you know that."
"We'll have to leave that up to them, won't we?"
"Steel ..."
She leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her, her index fingers pointedly towards him.
"If they're discovered trying to help us, they run the risk of ending up in a similar position; you know the rules, Steel..."
"You don't suppose for a second that if we could get in touch with say ... Silver ... that he would be willing to leave you here, do you?"
"I don't know; it's too much to ask of any of them. And anyway; I'm not sure that I'd want Silver to risk himself over this. After all, this imprisonment is hardly unjust is it? We have earned it."
"Do you want to stay here for the next few thousand years, Sapphire?"
"No of course I don't."
"Then help me!"
Breathing a heavy sigh, Sapphire straightened in her chair and reached out to touch her palms to his. Their fingers interlocking they gazed at each other for a few moments, locking into each others minds and then slowly closed their eyes ....
*
The joint signature pattern had long ago fused into one thing and had grown in strength over several hours. Easier than it might have been for some. To know someone completely was a privilege, but on the other side of the coin to be known completely was, although desired, a terrible invasion, and could be too much to tolerate, for some.
It was a disturbing experience for both of them, but Sapphire, more used to dealing with feelings than Steel, survived it somewhat better than her partner. When she finally opened her eyes, unable to maintain such a high state of awareness any longer, she found Steel already lapsing into unconsciousness.
"Steel ... Steel!"
She shook him and he stirred a little.
"I'm alright, Sapphire; just ... give me a minute."
He smiled; the rueful little smile that maybe only she had ever seen; but he wouldn't look at her.
"I wouldn't want to go through that again," he said at length.
"Steel ... if we want to get out of here ... we'll have to. It's all we've got. It may be wasted effort, but we can't give up."
"No."
A 'No' of slightly annoyed resignation. She'd heard it before, and she knew what it meant. Only one way round it.
"Perhaps Silver didn't make it back. Perhaps they did something else with him."
"Perhaps!! Not a lot of good speculating, is it?"
Getting up from the table impatiently, Steel began to pace the floor, a frustrating activity in itself as there wasn't all that much room in the first place; his animated strides just made the space seem all that much more confined.
"Please don't, Steel! We mustn't panic ..."
"I'm not panicking, Sapphire."
"I'm frightened enough without that."
"I don't exactly relish the idea of ...! Alright, alright; sorry."
Slowly regaining some sort of calm, Steel almost smiled, a grim little smile, which Sapphire was all too familiar with; it was Steel at his most cynical, a trait that wasn't all that useful, even though sometimes he was right.
"Maybe this is just what they want."
"What?"
She asked the question distractedly, her mood verging on annoyance that someone as normally fanatically efficient as Steel could find nothing better to do than make sarcastic comments.
"I mean - us. At each other's throats."
Sapphire looked up, her attention caught by the sly intonation in Steel's voice; he was onto something! She thought around the idea for a moment before she realised what he was thinking.
"You think they have some sort of audio/visual transmission system in here?"
"Maybe ... Help me look, Sapphire. If they have, maybe we could adapt it; send a message."
"Would you know how? I mean, that sort of thing is more in Silver's line ..."
"Damn Silver! And anyway, he's not here, is he?"
'Well, at least he's got his mind on something more positive now,' Sapphire thought to herself wryly.
"Alright."
Methodically, they began to search the room, all too rapidly running out of places to look. To stave off the growing feelings of desperation and futility, Steel found himself trying to define all the logical reasons there could be which would support his theory.
"I mean ... they'd have to have ... some sort of relay system, I suppose ... but there must be something here ... something to .... tie it to the ... realisation parameters of Time. Otherwise ... otherwise it couldn't exist in any functional dimension. It wouldn't really work... Defeat their object."
Sapphire said nothing, just leaving Steel to natter away, as she searched all the nooks and crannies at the front end of the room, hoping to come across anything that could be a disguise for something else.
Ten minutes later, having exhausted every possibility, Sapphire sat down at the centre table again, trying to fight off her own feelings of frustration. It had seemed to be such a likely possibility ...
"Steel ... there's nothing here."
Standing up from behind the counter, Steel rapidly searched the room again, his eyes darting into every corner.
"There has to be!"
"But how could it work anyway? If Time has been slowed down so much."
"I don't know."
Steepling her fingers, Sapphire held grimly onto a still centre of patience as she tried to imagine just how their nemesis had managed to engineer this elegant little trap.
"Perhaps that was something they had to sacrifice."
Coming from behind the counter to sit opposite her, Steel finally took the time to follow her train of thought for a moment.
"You mean ... watching us suffer?"
"Yes."
Their eyes met in silence across the table; in the space of a few seconds they allowed themselves to remember all the quietly fond moments that there had been since they had first begun working together. Not many -- there had usually been too much to accomplish in too little time -- but enough. Enough to bond them into a team so unique that the Transient Beings had come to resent them enough to want this kind of revenge.
Strangely enough, it was Sapphire who eventually broke the moment, though in a fashion totally typical of her; with a fraction of a second's concentration, she had suddenly created the illusion of the appearance she had taken at the Mulreens' party. Steel, still held by the relative warmth of the memories, seemed somewhat puzzled by her action until he understood what she intended. His eyes still locked with hers, he watched as she rose smoothly from the table and came around to his side.
"Do you remember?" she asked him softly, almost teasing him, as she drew him up from the chair. "In the Library ... We were interrupted then, as I recall."
Almost unconsciously adopting the black suit and slicked back hairstyle that he himself had created for that occasion, Steel gazed back at her, and almost uncharacteristically for him, gave her a look which dared her to complete the action.
Totally uncaring, at that moment in time, of the desperate situation that they were trapped in, she leaned forward and kissed him. Only a small kiss really, as such an act expressed nothing like the bond which they shared with their minds, but a pleasant diversion nonetheless, and perhaps a necessary one.
There was a genuine, sparkling warmth between them as they parted, but that could not be held for long. Reaching out to touch a stray hair back into place at her temple, Steel smiled, not quite innocently and whispered,
"I remember."
Then, with a mutual decision to keep their appearances as they were, they returned their attention to the more pressing matter at hand.
Walking back towards the window, Sapphire stated the obvious next question.
"What do we do, Steel, if there's nothing here but 'us chickens'? I mean, they would have made sure that there was no way we could escape."
Reseating himself, Steel's expression sank into seriousness once more as he drummed his fingers quietly on the tablecloth.
"But there must be something to anchor this place to Time."
"Well, perhaps there is. But I don't think it could be a transmitter; there's nothing here."
"Well, whatever it, is, we have to find it."
Sapphire shook her head, unsure whether she was ready to give up or if she was just trying to shake the cobwebs away. She glanced over at Steel, and realised just how desperately he needed to get out; perhaps another diversion of a different kind, she decided, to give his sub-conscious time to work on the problem. She found the small, travelling chess game under her fingers and smiled; just the thing.
"Steel ..."
"Yes, what is it?" he proclaimed testily, proof enough that his mind was working on autopilot now.
"Steel, I think we should ..."
"What?"
Sapphire looked down at the box, suddenly feeling energy coursing through her as something clicked into place.
"Steel ... How can that box just be a game of chess?"
Chess ... chess ...
Chess ...!
"Sapphire ..."
Returning quickly to the table, Sapphire picked up the box with its scattered chess pieces and stared at it, willing it to provide an answer.
"This box brought us here. Perhaps it's this."
Picking up one of the pieces, Steel looked up at her, the first real hope in his eyes since they'd arrived there.
"The link ..."
"They had one of these too," Sapphire glanced at the second box lying nearby on the table,hardly needing to remind him now as their minds rapidly converged on the solution.
"They didn't use it to get out."
"That's right, Steel; they were taken from here."
"Is that all that stops us from leaving? You mean ...?"
"Steel! The existence of this place ... don't you see? They would have had to make a bargain with Time through The Concord."
"They couldn't create a trap themselves, not even with the help of The Concord! Anyone able to review the Time Stream would have been able to trace us!!"
"Yes!! They would have thought of that. They would have had to pay something to keep us ..."
"Out of the phone book?"
"Yes,"she smiled. "Out of the phone book."
Suddenly losing track of where she was going, Steel walked back to the counter and put his back up against it, sure that the answer was there for the taking, and yet not quite able to grasp it.
"Sapphire ... How does that help us?"
"We can do the same thing. Make a deal for our freedom."
"What do we have that Time could possibly want?"
Sapphire sat down once more, her manner inviting him to do the same.
"We have ourselves. Ourselves for Tully. That's what started this whole thing anyway. The Transient Beings wouldn't have been able to touch us if it hadn't been for that.."
"But that would mean we'd have to go looking for that thing - that Darkness - and find a different way of dealing with it ..."
"We wouldn't have to look for it. Time would probably just put us back at the railway station before the bargain was made. Then Tully would be safe."
The fear returned to Steel's face, as he forced himself to retrace the steps in his mind which had led to his decision to sacrifice Tully. The Darkness; it had been unbelievably powerful ...
"It had control of you, Sapphire."
Reaching across the table Steel took hold of her hands, but she hardly seemed to notice.
"Then we think of a way to deal with it here, now, before ... before ... STEEL!!"
"Sapphire! What's happening?"
Gasping, they felt their world twist in on itself, and suddenly a terrible wrench ...
PART TWO
Slowly they became aware of walls around them. Steel groaned and the sound echoed around him; felt himself falling and there was a momentary painful tearing at his flesh; like barbed wire ...
Sapphire once more smelt the fragrance of the Pasque flower and feeling suddenly sad, found that her face was wet ...
//Steel ... Steel! We're out!! Time has accepted our bargain. We're out ...//
Her voice echoed in their minds as, not yet corporeal themselves, they were still caught up in the aura of memories emanating from the station buildings.
Steel felt something solid beneath his feet and able to look around suddenly drew in a hurried breath.
"Yes; but it's left us no time to devise a way of dealing with that creature. Look ..."
Sapphire saw that they were once more in the railway station, on the footbridge.
"Where is it, Steel?"
"The Darkness? Don't you know?"
His voice was almost reproachful now, but Sapphire was used to that, now that they were back there, at the railway station, work still to be done; and done right this time, or they would be lost at the ends of Time forever.
"Yes, Steel, the Darkness, where is it? It has to be here somewhere. And where's Tully?"
Thinking quickly, Steel thought his way around her questions, then realising what must have happened, answered her with another question.
"When are we, Sapphire?"
"It's just taken us twelve days out of time. So little time, Steel ..."
"Yes; so little ... Come on, let's get down onto the platform."
"Steel --"
Catching hold of his arm as he made to set off down the stairs to ground level, Sapphire moved in front of him, to face him. She could see apprehension warring with indecision in his face and this worried her. She knew Steel was happiest doing something, but it was unlike him to be this agitated without something going on in his mind to back up his action.
"Just what are you going to do?"
"I'm still thinking about it," he told her, cold and quick, as if he were impatient, or trying to put her off asking any more questions.
"No you're not," she told him flatly, seeing through the barriers he was putting up; another familiar habit that she'd grown wise to by this time. "Steel, I'm the one who has to allow this thing to take control of me, have it inside my mind, where it can do what it wants. I'm not going into that situation blind, not this time."
From the anger which so quickly replaced the nervous blank wall that he was projecting, Sapphire could tell that it would take more than wild horses to drag whatever scheme he had put together, out of him. The aggressive silence which he confronted her with only added fuel to the fire of her own stubbornness, making her even more determined not to give way to him over this.
He made to push past her, but she stood in his way once more, standing solidly against him. He caught hold of her arms and was ready to vent his anger, but Sapphire had had enough. Using all her concentration she caught him in a time loop, making him relive the past sixty seconds over and over again.
This ability was one of her specialities, one that Steel did not possess and he had no defence against it. He had seen her use it many times to help solve some of the cases they had been assigned to, but had never imagined that she might one day use it on him. Frustration burned inside him, but eventually he held up his hands in surrender, realising that that was the only way of stopping her. Now he had to think of an answer to give that would satisfy her, without it being the truth.
He couldn't tell her the truth; she would let the two of them rot in that nightmare of a station, or back in that cafe, in the hope of finding another answer, if he revealed what he really had planned.
Sapphire stood there, waiting with arms crossed, for his answer. If she had been a less patient individual, she would have been tapping her foot by now, he realised, grateful that she wasn't given to behaviour of that nature.
"Alright, alright; it's risky, Sapphire, very risky, and even I'm not sure whether it can be done."
"What?"
Plain, simple, no beating about the bush. 'I hope she buys this,' he thought desperately, unable to come up with any other option.
"We know what happens when it comes here," he began almost tentatively for him.
"Yes, it comes into me," came the terse reply. She was still waiting.
'Here goes,' he thought, preferring to jump into a vat of boiling oil than try to persuade her to accept this false solution, knowing how she would react.
"I'm going to try and freeze it," he told her, anticipating an explosion. He got one and them some.
"You mean while it's still in my mind!!? You remember what it's capable of, Steel? If you think I'm going to let you do that you're CRAZY!!"
She turned and started to walk away from him. He followed her, grateful that she was at least going in the right direction.
He began hurriedly explaining the plan as he followed her across the bridge and down the steps to the waiting room, almost making it up as he went along, and hoping that she would take any hesitation as nervousness rather than him not knowing what the hell he was going to say next.
"I know we're going to need help, Sapphire, but technically, we're still on this case, aren't we? Not in the trap; so if we need help, it'll be sent, won't it?"
Steel hated to have to wheedle, preferring to cut to the chase, but this was no ordinary, Earth-type member of the populace that he was dealing with nor even any of their other colleagues. This was Sapphire, and he was skating on the thinnest of ice here; one slip now and they'd both be in the soup, relatively speaking.
"And if we are still in the Trap, Steel, but have been made to believe that we're not? What then?"
She had a point, but Steel wondered whether it could possibly be valid, pointing out as much to her.
"That would mean they would have to send the Darkness here, wouldn't it? Besides which, you seem to be working on the assumption that the Concord have decided that there is a correct way to handle this situation and that if we discover what it is, then we could be transferred back to the real railway station, at the correct time, to carry that out."
"I suppose so, yes," Sapphire agreed, still not sure where he was going with this train of thought.
"Then why didn't Control let us know what the right solution was once we'd finished the case, in the first place? We didn't even get a black mark, did we?"
He was smiling in that smugly superior way that he had when he knew he was right, and it was Sapphire's turn to feel somewhat annoyed -- mostly with herself for not thinking of that in the first place.
"So what you're saying is --"
"What I'm saying is, that we are at the station as there would be no point in testing us first because the Higher-ups don't know the right answer any more than we do; I can only hope that this will work; but this is the only possible alternative that I can think of."
All Sapphire could think of was the danger, both to herself and Steel if this plan went wrong, but he was right; what else was there to do? Finally looking back at him, she nodded, quickly, once and then walked off towards the platform not saying another word.
Steel continued to follow her, breathing a sigh of relief and then stopped short, suddenly remembering what really had to be done. Closing his eyes, he shivered, the consequences of what he was about to do suddenly overwhelming him.
Steel had never lacked courage and would always lead the way into the risk of danger, when necessary, as and when it was possible for him to do so, but this ...
There was no risk here; it was a certainty, the worst certainty he could imagine, with no hope of escape. But what else could he do?
Taking a deep breath and tearing from his mind all thoughts except those of what had to be done, he marched off after Sapphire.
*
"Who do you think they'll send?"
Sapphire's softly voiced question broke through the almost oppressive silence in the Reception area of the old railway hotel and Steel turned sharply, almost feeling the sound still ringing somewhere inside him. He held onto it and then, with a breath, let it go and sighed, suddenly bone-weary.
"Radium," he replied, sounding almost distracted. For the first time that he could remember, he wished he was a million light years away from the place ... anywhere, that is, that wasn't that damned cafe.
"Radium? Not lead?"
He smiled at the surprise in her voice. Without having to turn around to look at her, he could see that almost innocently puzzled face. It was so clear he could very nearly bathe in the light of it.
'You're getting sentimental in your old age,' he smiled to himself, a small, tired smile. He just wanted it all to be over, just wanted to sleep. Strange that it should be here; the only place where he ever had slept.
"Yes, Radium," he finally replied to her query. "Well, you'll need someone to thaw you out, won't you?"
"So I will," she realised, and then sat in the chair quite obediently, in response to the calm atmosphere that was now being generated in the room. "Now?" she asked him as he turned from looking out the window and came towards her.
Steel nodded, being careful to keep his steps calm and measured, his face lightly neutral until he was behind her, his hands on her shoulders as they had been before. They hadn't looked for Tully, deliberately keeping him out of the arrangement; he would have lost twelve days of his life, but that was a small price for him to pay in exchange for him remaining safe this time.
His hands on her shoulders, Steel gently let out the breath he had been holding and steadied himself for what was to come.
Sapphire summoned the Darkness.
Her words sent thrills of fear all through Steel but he bit down on them, pushed them away, and concentrated on trying to stay calm.
It was difficult. He kept losing track, his mind slipping away to other things; other thoughts.
'Why am I doing this? What's made me come over all altruistic all of a sudden? What if I can't --'
"WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?"
It was the darkness speaking of course, though still, disconcertingly, Sapphire's voice.
For the space of a breath Steel held his peace, summoning the strength, the resolve to go through with his plan. His plan; there was nothing left to do but say the words. Just say the words and then it would all be over. He wondered if there would be time to say goodbye, and then he wondered if he could bear to.
No matter; it was out of his hands now, really. He was surprised at how strong his voice sounded as he spoke.
"All the dead returned to their rest and Mr. Tully free to go his way ... in exchange for me."
Sapphire fell like a dead weight in his hands as the Darkness left her, and before he could be caught, Steel hurried to the doorway out onto the platform. As he stepped out and walked slowly up towards the tunnel at the far end, he could feel it behind him, close behind him, too close, feel it watching him. He turned, but kept his eyes on the paving at his feet, unable to confront his final enemy.
"You ... you must take us back twelve days first," Steel stuttered, terrified that this unnameable thing would just snatch him up in its greed. "We ... have to check that you've kept your ... your end of the bargain."
If this thing had had breath to breath, Steel would have been able to feel it hot in his face. It was no longer in control of Sapphire so there was no way that Steel could converse with it anymore, but he was still there, on the platform, so he could only assume that the Darkness knew his terms and had agreed.
When he finally looked up once more it was to see Sapphire, standing shivering in the doorway. He just as quickly looked away again, not wanting to see the look in her eyes.
"You can't," she whispered, seeming unable to move either towards or away from him. He had seen in her eyes that she wanted to scream, to run, take hold of his hand and run and try to get to somewhere the Darkness couldn't find them.
There was nowhere; only Eternity Cafe and they both knew that that wasn't an acceptable option either.
"It's done," he responded, sensibly, or was it just an admission of stupidity? HAD there been some other way? "It's a little late to discuss this now. Come on; we've got at date on the footbridge, remember?"
She didn't move, so in the end, he just walked over to her, took her hand and led her down the platform to the stairs. He could feel the emotion shivering out of her, but somehow now, it didn't seem so hard to just accept it; be grateful for it. After all, they had both known that it might come to something like this for one or both of them someday, and they had accepted that risk as part of the job. They were specialists and they were both proud of that status, had enjoyed the freedom that it had afforded them. Now, for Steel, it was time to pay.
*
The Darkness had kept its end of the bargain; now ...
"Now it's time to keep our end of the deal," Steel uttered, with a smile in his voice even if he couldn't quite manage to put one on his face. Dammit, he didn't want to do this to her ... it was already a painful wrench inside him, but he held his breath against it and began to meander slowly onto the middle of the platform, trying to be ready for whatever this exchange of his life for others' lives would mean for him.
Would he just cease to exist? Would some part of him remain conscious and aware of the torment or pain or whatever it would be? It was certainly a better deal than even the Darkness could have imagined surely; a Time detective, an operator snatched away, when he probably had so much left to do? He almost smiled at the idea of the 'Higher-Ups' as he had referred to the Concord and even Control, tearing their figurative hair out. He would have chuckled to himself over that, but he couldn't summon the breath to do it.
Farther down the platform, Sapphire seemed poised either to run away from this or to move towards him, still held in an agony of indecision. She knew that he hated overblown displays of emotion and he realised deep in his gut that she was trying to remain calm enough to say goodbye to him without spoiling it for both of them. He tried to make a joke of it.
"Silver will be pleased."
"Wh ... what?" she asked, seeming to be too concerned with her own control to have heard him.
"Silver. He'll have you all to himself now; no 'competition'."
//Don't, Steel, please.//
Saying something, even in her mind, must have lent some impetus to one of her warring impulses and finally she approached him. She couldn't keep the tears from her eyes, but, holding onto her silence, somehow managed to keep from shedding them. He took hold of her hands and she grasped them tightly, the contact keeping them one step removed from what was about to happen.
//You know, don't you?//
It was more of a statement, really; Sapphire had known Steel long enough to have heard and understood everything that had not been said between them, perhaps even more than what had.
//Yes; I know,// he told her, not running away from her eyes. He took the warmth there inside him, held onto it. //Now you'd better leave or it might change its mind and take you too.//
Sapphire could see the quiet fear in his face and realised with dread that he wanted to face this alone. How could she just walk away and leave him to this? But Steel was becoming edgy now, and could hardly keep from looking over his shoulder. Loosing her hands suddenly, he began to back away from her slowly, but before she could follow after him she felt a pair of hands on her arms holding her in place.
"He's doing this for you," whispered a quietly smooth voice behind her. Normally she would have always been pleased to see Silver as he was very pleasant company, but now she almost turned on him.
"I know," she replied, the cold anger in her voice momentarily twisting her grieved expression into something harder.
Even as she turned away from Silver to look back along the platform, there was a muffled cry, cut off, and Steel was gone.
Looking at her, all Silver could see was the jerk between her shoulder-blades and of her head; what he didn't see was something very vital draining from Sapphire's face. The slumping of her shoulders was the signal Silver had been looking for; time to leave.
"Sapphire ..."
Silver reached out a hand to her shoulder, but she shrugged him off. Turning back to him, she was all business again. He'd been prepared for that too, but she seemed to still have something other than grief on her mind. Only just, but it was there.
"No, Silver; there's something we have to do first."
"What's that, Sapphire?"
His tone, overly warm and concerned, only made Sapphire feel colder. She wanted out of there, she wanted to stay there forever; she wanted to work and work, she wanted to never see Control again. She didn't know what she wanted.
"We have to find Mr. Tully; let him know he can go."
"Er ... Tully? "
Silver, knowing nothing of the details of the case, was understandably confused.
Sapphire wasn't in the mood to enlighten him.
"Come on; he'll be on the other platform or the footbridge."
Sighing gently, Silver turned slowly on his heels and dutifully followed her.
*
They found him standing by the door which led out onto the station car park. He seemed a little weary but otherwise alright.
"Mr. Tully?"
He turned, recognising the voice and almost ran over to them, his hands out in a placatory gesture.
"Oh, my dear, are you alright? But ... where's your friend?"
Silver jumped in at this point and introduced himself, and very quickly explained that Steel had had to go, and that he had been sent as a last minute replacement. He looked set to engage Tully in full-blown conversation, but Sapphire cut across him, for once annoyed at his incessant charm and pleasant appearance.
"They've all gone, Mr. Tully; the Soldier, the Airman, all of them. Even the Darkness. You're quite free to leave this place now."
He looked up at her, still a little apprehensive.
"Are you sure? The Darkness too? Quite gone?"
"Quite gone, Mr. Tully. You're free now ..."
Trailing off, Sapphire returned her gaze to the opposite platform. There was something there which caught her eye, and unaware of Tully and Silver regarding her with a growing sense of concern, she made her way back to the footbridge and over to the other platform.
Her pace quickened as she recognised the small bluish, purple spot in the flower tub. She bent down to pick the flower and held it in her hands, lost in thought now.
She remembered the words; the words Steel had made her remember, the words he had said to her just before the darkness in her mind's form had gone to stab him.
He'd confronted her with irrefutable evidence that he knew what he was speaking to was the darkness, and not Sapphire ... the Sapphire that he had 'come to know ... and to love...'
Squaring her jaw, her lips a thin line, she made a promise.
'Tully will leave; go back to his cat and his loneliness, and Silver and I will go back to Control for debriefing and then onto our next assignments. But I promise you Steel, if you're still in existence, I will keep trying; will keep searching, trying to find a way to free you."
Silver appeared at her side, his expression obviously geared towards trying to return some normalcy to the situation.
"Your friend Tully's gone, packed his bags and left by the back door so to speak; I saw him out. Er ... what's that?" He was looking down at the blossom in her hands with interest.
"It's rare and only blooms at Eastertide," she replied, something in her voice leading Silver to believe that she wasn't just talking about the blossom. "It's called a Pasque Flower."
"A Pasque Flower ... and rare, you said ..."
"Very rare. Valued; not to be let go of easily."
She hardly felt his hand on her arm this time.
"Time to go, Sapphire," he told her quietly, leading her slowly back to their exit point. She didn't resist, didn't really seem aware of her surroundings anymore. The neutral energies of the Doorway drew them back to their own dimension and the station was empty once more. Everything still and silent, except for the light, dry scattering of leaves along the platforms in the slight evening breeze.
But almost to be heard for anyone who knew what to listen for, there was a laugh. Not a human laugh, sounding more like deep, hideously powerful breathing. And words of a kind, for anyone who could have understood them. The sound of Darkness itself.
Oh, yes, oh YES, Steel, oh yes, yes, YES!! Because you see, ha, ha, ha, ha, you see ...
THIS IS THE TRAP.
THE END
RETURN TO GENERAL FICTION PAGE