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.Duel	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Highlander Views: 1431 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Highlander, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
There wasn't a lot of furniture in the house. A large color TV seemed to be there just to keep the guards happy. Two men were watching some movie that involved topless women discussing philosophy.
A third man was in the kitchen making nachos. He paused once they were in the microwave to grab the plastic case with Destiny's salad.
Eve followed him down the hall and marked the room he went in. She heard a chain rattle.
There were two bedrooms besides Destiny's, one was completely empty. The other had a cot and a suitcase. Nacho-Man wasn't on any of the surveillance teams. He might be permanently assigned to the house.
"More room to pile the bodies," she muttered. Because there were going to be bodies.
She hadn't asked Lincoln if deadly force was authorized. There wasn't much of a chance he'd have said no, but why risk it?
There was no basement, and no one else seemed to be in the house. She figured to stand in the hall and shoot the first guy when he came away from Destiny's room.
When the other two heard him crumple to the floor and his eventual death, she'd drop them, too. Easy peasy, then wait for Lincoln.
His arrival was so clear in her mind that when the back door opened, she assumed it was him making his entry. But she still hadn't felt his aura....
"You guys were followed!" a voice said. There were footsteps in the back room, protests from the TV room. She hid in the empty room and heard the Keeper shut Destiny's door.
Five or more men, on alert, all armed. That might be a bit less perfectly easy, she mused.
A number of voices were raised simultaneously. She edged down the hall in the wake of the Keeper. She never quite grasped how they knew that Lincoln was out there. It was enough for her to know that he'd been made, and she'd be the one to tell him so.
Gleefully. Of course, her mood might improve if the bastard would just- She felt the familiar giant's grasp around her torso. Lincoln, or another Immortal, had arrived.
"He's out front!" someone shouted. Then the front door burst open. She saw him twitch and someone fell, probably with a throwing knife in his heart.
Then several guns went off. Later she decided that they had a practiced team. Pistols had made him duck to one side, where the guy with the shotgun was ready. They were playing on his having perfect and predictable reflexes. And it worked.
There was a boom from the weapon, then a huge blast from Lincoln's chest. She saw through the hole... She actually saw the front wall through the hole in the Immortal's torso. He glanced down at the wound as he tipped over.
The men ran from their positions to shut the door and to secure their new prisoner. Eve crept up the hall while they were surrounding his body.
"Who the hell is that?" several asked. No one seemed to have an answer. One pulled out an electronic device and scanned his face.
They were asking where Eve was. If she had brought a partner or if he'd somehow replaced her.
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, she tried to convince them telepathically. Think that I'm dead.
"Hey!" the scanner said. "This is KANE!"
"The Ancient One?" another man asked. She saw that he'd picked up a sword and prepared to chop it down on Lincoln's neck.
"Eve got mixed up with Kane?" a third asked.
"Then she's dead," two men said in chorus. They all stood and stared down at the still form.
"If this is Kane, we need to interrogate him," the swordsman said. He shifted the grip on his weapon and speared it through Lincoln's arm. He was pinned to the floor.
Other swords appeared and he was soon staked out nicely.
And I get to rescue him! Eve thought to herself. She took careful aim.
The Keeper was standing closest to her, his back to the hall. It was a big, big target. But if he grabbed his back, they'd know right where to look for her.
Instead, she aimed at his hand. She would still be attacking from behind, but if she knew humans...
"Ow!" Keeper exclaimed in pain and lifted his hand. When the others turned to face him, both hands were before his face. There was no telling where it had been when she attacked.
Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he pitched over.
"What the fuck!" A man knelt by the Keeper and lifted his hand. "There's a dart!"
"Probably poisoned," the first swordsman said, aiming a kick at Lincoln. Or at Kane. "He must have thrown it when he came in the door."
"Everyone search yourselves for other darts!" someone shouted.
"I got-" one said, hand to his earlobe. He pulled it out, much too late. And fell over.
"DAMMIT!" one swore. He moved away from Kane, out of Eve's view. "Anyone else?"
There were four left. She considered a frontal assault. But someone still had to open Destiny's door for her.
"We need to call the others back," someone said as she moved across the hall to hide in the room with the cot. "To transport Kane and sterilize the house."
"We'll just burn it down," someone else said. "We got the stuff."
"Someone wanna offer the bitch a mercy bullet?"
"We still might need her," someone, maybe the Swordsman said, but not firmly.
"What? As bait for a trap we already sprung?" There was a meaty slap. Someone had hit Kane.
"Oh, God, look at the bones move. He's going to be awake again soon."
"And pissed."
"Not that it'll matter a damn," someone said confidently.
"I'll get the girl," someone said. She heard a hammer drawn on a weapon.
Footsteps came down the hall. She held two shafts in her left hand, drew a third with her right. The instant she heard the door latch come open, she jumped into the hall and let fly.
The gunman had just noticed the pain in his shooting hand when he felt more in his shoulder. The arm dropped limp.
His brain was still delivering his greeting to their prisoner as the third shaft hit his ass. It penetrated through to his pelvis. "Well, Little Lady it's time...that... "
And then his time was up.
Eve turned and saw a very surprised face. Someone in the front room was staring at her. Right at her. She hadn't checked her six.
But there was a chance hesitation might have gotten Destiny killed. She knew she wouldn't have done anything different.
The man was already raising his pistol. She turned to duck back in to the room.
There was a blast and a tugging sensation. The bullet took her right in the quiver. Its inertia spun her around three times, but at least she staggered into the room and out of sight.
He was trying to explain what he was shooting at to the others. There were three left, she estimated, reaching for an arrow.
It came out of the quiver busted in half.
They all were.
She drew her sword and shucked off the quiver.
Eve came out of the door running as fast as she could, curving for what little benefit she could get as a moving target.
The arc of her path actually hit the far wall and went up four or five inches, five feet along.
The man that had seen her emptied his pistol at the speeding form. When she came off the wall and ducked into the living room, he followed her with his gun.
And shot a partner in the foot. That man's scream made the shooter pause and she disappeared under the TV-watching sofa.
"What did you do THAT for?" the third man asked the shooter.
"It's under there! It's under there! Kane must have trained an attack monkey or something!"
"Yeah, right!" The light came up as the sofa tipped over backwards. Eve held the springs behind the leg in the front. No one saw her.
She gave them a moment to realize there was nothing there, then grabbed the sofa's skirt and swung into the air.
Two flips and she hit the man's thigh, weapon-first. It stabbed in like a thought and opened his femoral artery.
Dead, but not yet aware, he slapped at her as she slid the blade out sideways. The cut was thin, but as wide as a wallet.
The gunman raised his weapon, pointing at her and at her opponent's thigh. He paused, though, just when she was hoping he'd shoot an ally once more.
She ducked another slap and dropped to the floor where she cut the first Achilles Heel she found.
This one would not grow back. And this time she kept clear of the collapse.
Huh, she had time to think. I'm NOT allergic to the learning process. Then she was face first with the foot-shot. He propped himself on his elbows and leveled his pistol at her.
She threw her sword at his eye. He flinched. She ducked down and threw herself against the gun. He struggled, fired it, and took the last man in the knee.
Damn, Eve thought. She'd been aiming at his balls.
Still, all three men were down on the floor. All their carotids were in Dolly reach. She knew that it didn't take a beheading to kill mortals. But it was so, so very satisfying to open their jugulars. Just like she'd practiced.
Finally she slogged her way back to the bedroom. The front room was silent, except for the moist sounds of Kane's chest rebuilding itself.
She paused at the doorway. "Destiny?"
"What is it?" the young woman shrieked. "Who's going on? I mean... Who is it?"
"It's me, Destiny. Eve."
"Eve?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Are you coming in?"
"Yes. Just...don't freak, okay?"
"Are you covered in blood again?" Eve was amused by Des' conversational tone. "Come in, I don't mind."
"It's not that," Eve said, rounding the door way. "Or not just that."
Destiny was chained to a large, metal bed. There was a portable toilet at the foot. She wore rumpled clothes and hadn't washed in a while. And she stared down at her rescuer.
"Hi," Eve said.
"So, you're a fairy," Destiny said in a monotone. "That's what the magic talk was all about. You're a little fairy."
Eve started walking purposefully towards the lock on Destiny's chain.   "We prefer the term, wing-enhanced-Americans." Her dagger worked as a decent lockpick.
"Were those guys immortal?" Des asked.
"No. Everyone out there is dead," Eve said confidently.
"Cool." She watched quietly as Eve freed her, then stood and stepped quickly to another door.
"Des?"
"Excuse me, Eve, but I have GOT to pee and I'm not using that thing again."
"Okay." She sheathed the blade and drifted out the hall. Nothing moved in the living room. She navigated around the blood pools, coming to stop by the only guy that had a chance of standing ever again.
His skin had closed over the wound so there was no overt squishy soundtrack as he continued to heal. She stood by his ear and kicked it. "Where the hell WERE you?"
"It was a trap," he said.
"We knew that."
"No, the trap was a trap. They had people watching the house, waiting for us to show up."
"Oh. And big super-warrior Kane couldn't detect them?" she sneered.
"Oops," he said. His eyes were still closed. She wondered if his stomach was at that itchy stage of repair. She considered bouncing on it like a trampoline. "Well, they also had guys watching the watching watchers."
"That's how they knew they'd been followed," she nodded. "So why did you run straight into the shotgun?"
"That was a shotgun? I thought I felt secondary explosions in the chestal area."
"It was a shotgun," she said. "I don't know what it was loaded with...."
"N'matter," he said. "I saw them rushing into the house's yard... I thought you'd been discovered. So I burst in like an idiot..."
"No," she said.
"No?" he asked. His eyes opened and he looked over at her.
"No. You threw yourself into their clutches to see if I would save your ass. Another test, from my sadistic sensei."
"And you did!" he pointed out cheerfully.
"Haven't yet," she said, slapping one of the blades pinning him in place.
"Ah." He lay his head back down.
"But Destiny is in no condition to drive," Eve mused.
"Oh, God, it's real." Eve turned around to see Destiny at the end of the hall.
"OF course it's real, Des," she said. "I unlocked you..."
"I thought I was hallucinating a trip to the real toilet," the younger woman said. She looked down at the staring, unmoving faces. "Are they all dead?"
"Not this one," Eve said. "Destiny? My boss, Ka-... Lincoln the Akkadian. Boss? This is Destiny."
"Is... Is he okay?"
"He's okay," Lincoln growled. "And he'd like to stand up if someone could pull a few swords out."
"Should I?" Destiny asked Eve.
"I think he's our ride," Eve said.
----------
They found the incendiary devices the crew had planned to destroy the house with. "Waste not, want not," Lincoln said. His hands proved to be a little weak, still, so Destiny set them up.
She seemed quite comfortable with the process, even setting two devices among the dead. Eve wasn't sure if it was cathartic or a sign of deep denial.
Then they scurried off to a hotel to take a hundred showers and a few naps..
----------
"Would I be in danger if I went home?" Destiny asked after a room-service meal. She ran a finger through her wet hair and regarded the other two.
"Probably," Lincoln nodded.
"Really?" Eve said. "In an enlightened species, you'd think they'd notice that everyone that’s fucked with her has ended up painfully deaded!'
"Which just makes the challenge that much more attractive to the people that do this," he said.
"I'm so sorry, Des," Eve said. Destiny shook her head and lifted the tiny woman like a doll.
"Not your fault!" She squeezed her friend in a hug. "And even after how horribly I treated you, and how horribly he shrank you, you came to save me."
"Well, HE came to save you, I'm just glad he brought me along."
"Oh, pshaw," Lincoln said. "You'd have made my life a living hell if I hadn't. This rescue is entirely on your shoulders."
"Yay!" Des said, with another hug. "So, can I come with you guys?"
"Oh, Des," Eve started to explain. "There's not a lot of room-"
"I own the condo next door," Lincoln said simply. "She can stay there as long as she wants."
Eve wriggled free of her friend's embrace and dropped to the table. She stared at her owner/captor. Des felt an undercurrent of emotion that had little to do with her.
"I, uh," she stood. "Need to..."
"The hotel has a personal shopper," Lincoln said. His eyes never left Eve's as he handed a credit card over. "You can avoid going out shopping, in case there are others looking for you. Just give her instructions and get about two weeks worth of clothes and toiletries.
"After that, we'll come back, square your disappearance with the police, and pack up your apartment."
"Um...thank you," Destiny said. She started for the door, pausing to blow a kiss to Eve. Then she was gone.
"What the hell is going on?" Eve asked. "Am I your pet or your partner or your.. Your attack Barbie? Lucky talisman? What?" Trained monkey, she remembered.
"I dunno," he said, leaning back. He pushed the plates aside. She stepped a little closer.
"You know Lissette's dead, right?" he asked.
"Yes, but thank you so much for breaking it to me gently, just in case I hadn't been aware." She refused to be shocked by the revelation.   Girly-girl my ass, she thought.
"The Dutchman killed her," he said, more bluntly.
"The Dutchman you killed the day you shrank me?" she asked.
"Exactly. So, among the powers and memories I got that day, I have Lissette's. I know Lissette loved you."
"She was my teacher," Eve said. "I was fond of her, too. Except when she tossed me a cannon ball and shouted 'twenty laps!' Then I wanted her dead."
"No, Evangeline, she loved you."
"Oh. Um.... Oooooooh." She considered that. She knew Lissette had never crossed any boundaries but she hadn't been aware the woman wanted to... Wait.
"Wait a minute!" she snapped. "You're not telling me that you suffered a Love Quickening?"
"No!"
"Because the only emotion I've ever felt after a duel was my own. And I was glad I had won. I didn’t suddenly feel sympathy for the Anarchists, or for Nazi Germany, or decide I trusted the French."
"I said, no," he repeated.
She started to pace. "I mean, that one guy in the 80's had a Flock Of Seagulls hairdo, but I never went over to the darkside after I took his head.
"And Gunther! I didn't become a supporter for Germany during the next World Cup!"
"That's not what I'm saying, Eve."
"I did shift from Democrat to Republican recently, but it wasn't from taking any heads. I just wanted to conserve my..." She spun to face him. "You called me Evangeline. No one calls me that. Not now. Not in sixty three years."
"I know," he said. "And no, I didn't get Lissette's love through the Dutchman. What I got?
"The moment I saw you I knew your sense of humor. I knew you were dependable in a fight, but lousy in the kitchen."
"Hey!"
"I know what you looked like running across the heath... With that damned cannonball. I know you cheat at Chess."
"ONE TIME!"
He reached out to pinch her hand between two fingers. "I know you are the closest I've ever met to the perfect partner for me. I hadn't quite processed that knowledge when I cycled down the ramp, so I didn't stop doing what I'd planned to do.... But that's what stopped me, why I didn't go all the way, and kill you."
She blinked, her eyes swelling with tears. She sniffed and looked up at him. "I still want to be big enough to reach the toilet seat all by myself. So if I get the chance, I'm going to reclaim my power."
"Perfectly understandable," he said. They shared a smile and he stroked her hair with the tip of one finger. "Which reminds me, I consecrated the entire suite while Destiny was bathing you."
"Aw!" she protested. Then she shrugged. "Ah, well."
----------
Clothes were delivered over the next couple of days, along with a suitcase Destiny packed it all away in.
And the doll.
"What's that?" Eve asked. "Some kinda joke?"
"It's better than that oxygen tank idea," Des replied. "I put you in the box, dressed as Halloween Barbie, point out the unbroken seals if anyone asks, and you ride out the trip in the overhead. Not in a dark metal can."
"Why Halloween Barbie?" Lincoln asked.
"Because the costume makeup almost completely hides her features," Des explained. "It won't fool a collector, but chances are it'll pass through security."
"But when they X-ray me, they'll see bones," Eve pointed out.
"That's just part of the incredibly expensive, life-like articulation of the Platinum Edition of Halloween Barbie," Destiny explained.
"Huh," Lincoln said. "And a woman carrying the Barbie won't draw as much attention as I would." Destiny beamed under the compliments.
"I'm still taking my supplemental oxygen," he said, lowering the box to the table.
"But you don't need it!" Destiny said.
"Yeah, but WITH it, a nice airline employee will push me through the airport and I won't have to walk." He glanced from face to face. "I'm old! I shouldn't have to exert myself..."
"You LAZY," Eve hissed. "Self centered, privilege abusing, rule flaunting-"
"He's old," Destiny shrugged. "Probably get along well with my grandfather. He's a mean old fart, too."
Lincoln smiled then stood. "I'm going to make the travel arrangements." They watched as he strode out.
"He likes you, doesn't he?" Destiny smiled.
"He's beguiled," Eve said sadly.
"Insert fist pump here?" Destiny asked. Eve shook her head.
"No, he's bespelled, but not by my feminine charms." She gestured at her size. "I mean, he can't be thinking I can satisfy him like this."
"Well, you said he kept you naked for a two days?" Des asked in conversational tones. Eve's mouth gaped as she stared. "Honey, it's tits and ass. Men that see tits and ass MAY question the age, but they don't typically wonder about the mechanics of scale."
She plucked the unmoving woman up and held her in her arms, scooting into a corner of the sofa. "Now, I spent most of elementary school telling my dolly all my problems. It's probably time for a little payback. What's wrong? Tell me everything."
"Des, I .... He doesn't love me. He's remembering the memories of someone who loved me."
"Uh... Let's pretend I don't know what you mean by someone remembering other people's memories."
Eve explained. Destiny asked few questions, but they were critical to her understanding. Then they sat in silence for a bit. Eve had a moment to wonder just how long it took to arrange two tickets and a rental.

Then she realized that 'mean old fart' had made himself scarce for both their benefits. He'd seen the two and assumed they need privacy for 'girl talk.' Or to talk about HIM! The fact that they were talking about him never entered her mind.
She seethed at the idea of his ancient-days sexism. God, next time she saw him, she'd jump down his throat and cut her way to freedom.
Eve realized Destiny was asking a question. "Uhmmm?"
"I asked, did Lissette ever do something stupid to defend you, or your honor?"
"What? No. No, she was a tactical genius. I honestly don't know how anyone defeated her...unless they cheated."
"My point," Destiny said slowly, "is that he was not reliving something from his new memories."
"No, not that I know of."
"So.... LINCOLN knows more about you than he did a year and a month ago. LINCOLN chose to spare your life, because of those memories. LINCOLN ran headfirst into a trap for your sake. LINCOLN saved your friend for your sake. Thanks, by the way."
"You're welcome. What are you saying?"
"However he came by the memories, they're his now. The feelings? They're his and they're real."
Eve considered this. "But LINCOLN is my best hope to get big enough to have sex again. I think it'd be a little psychotic to make googly eyes at him now, then end up standing over his shortened corpse later."
"Okay," Destiny shrugged. "That means... You're not holding any feelings towards him?" There was a speculative tone in her voice that made Eve stand up and stare into her friend's eyes.
"Oh, ick! Des, he's like a million years old!"
"And probably knows a trick or two in the bedroom, you think?" Destiny winked.
"Ick! Ick! Ick!"
Destiny started to stand. Eve scrambled to get off her knee, jumping to the coffee table.
"Your Mr. Lincoln has never seen me in a dress, has he?" Destiny mused as she headed towards her room of the suite. She tugged the robe open.
"Don't you DARE vamp for my boss!" Eve shouted.   Destiny giggled and shut the door behind her.
Eve wondered if her friend was trying to make her jealous or trying to draw unwanted attentions away. Then she felt the twisting of an Immortal's aura.
She looked around instantly for her sword. Thc chances were almost entirely that it was Lincoln. A thousand, a hundred thousand to one.
But Lissette had pounded that lesson in. Math keeps things straight, but swords keep you alive.
----------
She really regretted losing the arrows. They had brought refills, but they were packed in the suitcase. No time to retrieve them. She had her sword, though.
If it wasn't Lincoln, that would be a problem. She jumped to the carpet and ran to the windows. The curtains were drawn and she quickly climbed the inner liner. She couldn't see the room, but then, they couldn't see her.
The door opened smoothly, not forced. So it was probably Lincoln with his key.
"Who the hell are you?" Destiny shouted. Crap, Eve thought. She scanned her immediate area.
"Where's Eve?" a strangely accented voice asked.
"Who?" Destiny sounded sincerely confused.
"The woman who rescued you from my team!" There was a lot of hissing in this one's voice, not always on the sibilants. She tried to place the speaker in the room.
"Look, I've been kidnapped twice today," Destiny said, sounding tired. "Can you come back tomorrow?"
"Where is she? I can feel her....Though, it's strange..."
Eve kicked at the curtains. From outside they'd have seen the flutter as if a person was behind them.
If the intruder wasn't looking in the right direction, he'd still see Destiny's face if she did.
"Ah. I expected better!" Yes, she thought. A blade stabbed into the empty space below her, right where the average gut would have been.
There was a grunt of surprise when the sword didn't encounter any resistance.
It poked through a few more times, then swept through the space.
Then a balding head came into view almost directly beneath her. He peered into the window bay-
Eve dropped to his shoulder and stabbed into his ear. She held her place, grabbing and biting the ear's shell while she spun her blade around and around.
She punched her arm as deep as she could get it and cut as much brain as she could reach.
Whoever it was screamed and attacked...the window. Eve wasn't sure exactly what brain structures she reached, but he seemed enraged by his reflection rather than the pain on his shoulder.
He charged forward and burst through the glass. They fell together, tumbling, over and over, down twelve stories.
Eve struck the glass ceiling of the pool patio first. The panel cracked, but slowed her just a bit. She was dazed but not dead as she hit a table umbrella and bounced into the pool.
The glass wasn't there, then, for the attacker to strike. He shot through the debris and struck the patio slightly off to the side of head-first.
Eve fought her way out of the water and up the side. She paused at the sight of her opponent. He looked kine of like a hairy strawberry milkshake poured on a pile of clothing.
She could probably cut his neck with a sponge, if she could find one. And then find his neck.
There was a handy shaped glass shard among the slivers. She picked that up and went to watch him heal.
One eye formed before anything else recognizable. It stared, though there was no way the optic signals were reaching anything. She poked it with the glass. Just to be a bitch.
And, of course, for the tactical advantage of her opponent's lingering blindness, she thought to herself.
The Immortal must have been pretty powerful. She could distinguish a shoulder fairly quickly. Then an ear. She started sawing away between the two.
Destiny was talking to a man from the Hotel when Lincoln returned to the room. Two staff members were cleaning broken glass by the torn curtain. Two others were packing everything.
He paused to listen.
"And he must have been on drugs," she was saying. She had no problem sounding authentically frightened, he noticed. "He ran in and screamed about angels and demons and he attacked the WINDOW! And went through it."
"And you were..."
"Backed against the wall! Hoping I wasn't on his list of demons!"
Lincoln opened his mouth to announce his presence. Then the lights flickered. There was a blue radiance coming from somewhere below the window.
The staffers looked out and down. "Man. What kinda drugs was he ON?"
-------------
The Hotel could not be responsible for the actions of a drug crazed man who wasn't even a guest, of course. But he had managed to get a key to the suite.
They got a new suite, free of charge, and the most sincere apologies for any inconvenience.
Lincoln propped the new room door open and poured Destiny a drink. "You kept your cool very well," he complimented her.
"I nearly went to pieces!" she protested. "I saw them go out the window and I screamed my head off."
"And made up a story on the spot," he said with a nod.
"But Eve!"
"She'll be along in a minute," he assured her. "Once she's recovered."
"You're sure she won?" Destiny asked. "Shouldn't you go look for her?"
"She'll think I care for her," he said.
"You do," Destiny said flatly. "Even if you hadn't admitted it to her, I can see it plain as day."
"Yes... But I figured out, it's to Eve's benefit to pretend I don't. Keeps her angry. Gives her an edge." He sipped. That inspired Destiny to take a drink of her own.
He called room service. The kitchen was closed, but he mentioned wanting champagne to calm his wife down after their ordeal...
When they realized what room was calling, they promised a bottle in minutes. They were as good as their word.
The night manager escorted the waiter personally. Neither woman noticed the flutter in the linen covering the cart, so focused were they on satisfying guests that could still sue the establishment.
Lincoln and Destiny assured them that they were happy with the new suite, bore no ill to the management and hadn't found more than a couple of glass slivers in their luggage.
The waiter gasped, the manager tried to pretend she thought they were joking, but gave them plenty of opportunity to make it a formal complaint.
As she closed the door behind her, she casually mentioned that the cops were in the old suite and the pool room, trying to figure out what had happened. And that they weren't to check out until they had Destiny's story.
Then they were alone. Lincoln took a deep breath, as if bracing himself, then stepped over to the sofa.
A naked little woman crawled out from under it and stared up. Glared up. "You," she said in a dangerously low tone, "didn't consecrate SHIT!"
He shrugged. She started calling him names. Destiny caught one word in three. The man took it, eyeing Eve closely. He interrupted her only once.
"Are you taller than you were?"
"What?" She looked down along her own body. "I dunno. I'm me. I don't... Did you pack the calipers? The ledger? A ruler? Will the stores have what we need? We need to go home! Now!"
"Or," he said a little sarcastically, "you can get dressed and see if your clothes fit."
"Oh! Yeah," Destiny said. "Come here! I can put you in that workout outfit."
"I can dress myself, Des," Eve said, running towards where her friend was fishing clothes out of her suitcase.
"You can, but you won't," Des said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You'll be trying too hard to pull to tight to convince yourself they've gotten smaller."
Eve suffered through her friend playing dress-up. There was a bit of truth to Des' explanation, though Eve thought she just wanted to play with a live doll.
Still, the clothes were more than a little tight. "Are you bloating from your period?" Des asked. Eve rolled her eyes. "Immortals...don't get those?"
"No!"
"Oh. Well, no one told me. Swelling? Did you get hit in the fight?"
"I'm fine. I'm bigger. I'm actually bigger! The Quickening WILL make me grow back to normal!"
She turned to stare up at Lincoln. He stared back.
Des giggled. They turned as one to glare at her. "Oh, you're both so keeeYOOT!" she giggled. The Immortals shared a look.
"Oh, come on," Destiny said. "You're trying to decide how this affects your relationship. How to slot this into YOUR vow to take his head off in the most grisly manner possible, YOUR fascination with teaching her how to kill you."
"And you have an answer?" Eve asked.
"Duh! You don't need HIS head. You need A head. But the good news is, you need to take it in, what did you say? Ritual one-on-one, or in your case one-on-point-one-"
"Fuck off!"
"Point-oh-one," Des corrected smoothly, "combat. So you need to know everything you can about killing giants with your bare...sword." She turned to Lincoln.
"Which unfortunately means that she'll have to practice on you. Until she's good and lethal."
"Excuse me while I bleed my way around the cardinal directions," he murmured.
"And where do you fit into this?" Eve asked Destiny.
"Oh, I'll be the confidante both of you can confide in. 'He treats me like a music box swordsman,' and 'she treats me like a pincushion,' and 'she's so demanding' and 'he's so high maintenance.' You'll be in and out of my part of the condos all day long."
Eve thought Des looked all too pleased with the prospect.
She looked over at Lincoln.
"Of course," he was saying, "you'll have to be experienced defending yourself from attacks, too."
"No, I don't think so," she replied. "No one suspects there's a foot-high Immortal in the game..." She really didn't like that gleam in his eyes.
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Thirty six hundred miles away, in the Watcher archives, the directors of the Watchers Guild stumbled into the conference room for a hastily arranged briefing.
Archivist Terrell was talking even as he set up the projector. "Okay. Tung's watcher says he was beheaded a few hours ago in New York."
"He plays the Game," Director Stanislaw pointed out. "Why the emergency?"
"We're not entirely sure who did it," the researcher reported. He called up what looked like a security camera view of a patio.
"I had a report that he attacked Kane," another director said.
"Kane was in the hotel. It was Kane's room, but Kane was in the hotel bar having a drink." He played the video. "Someone else... SomeTHING else took him out."
"What.. What is that?" someone asked.
"A trained attack monkey?" someone suggested.
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