VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, [10] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 22:38:19 11/04/03 Tue
Author: Yarvarni
Subject: 4
In reply to: Yarvarni 's message, "Witchblade/The Pretender Crossover" on 22:29:45 11/04/03 Tue

Sara glared at the computer screen, she hated looking through files like this and with Ian sitting next to her zipping from case to case the brutal honesty of just how scary smart he was was glaringly obvious. He and Jarod had switched places earlier and Jarod was just as bad. An annoying high pitched ring began emitting from the cell phone Jarod left on the table. Ian glanced at it then across the room to Jarod who was oblivious. He picked it up grinning broadly when he saw the caller id, "hey sexy, what are you wearing?" Sara looked to him in shock, he winked at her and leaned back in his chair. "Pretty bold, calling me on your hubby's phone."

Never in her wildest dreams would she have suspected Ian Nottingham had such a mischevious streak. He had dropped his voice and octave and it had picked up a huskier tone, "so, when are you going to leave him and run away with me?" He gave a sexy chuckle that sent shivers down her spine then he paused for a moment dropping the seductive charm, "looks like he's in the middle of a sim want me to get him or have him call you back. Ok, I will, take care of yourself, Parker." He grinned at Sara as he hung up the phone, "Jarod's wife."

"I figured. So, what exactly is a sim? You've mentioned it earlier when you talked about his brother and its just weird when the two of you zone out."

"We were taught to focus on a problem by getting into the heads of the people involved, we can simulate what they would do in our heads."

"So you kinda become that person for a little while? They taught you to do this at that school?"

Ian hesitated for a minute it was strange talking about this with someone outside of The Centre but if Sara was going to work this closely with them she deserved to know and she had hit the proverbial nail on the head with her analytical skills and he knew her, she wouldn't let this go. "Yes, The Centre called us Pretenders. We can become whoever we want to be, a surgeon, a lawyer, anyone."

Sara looked at him skeptically, "show me."

Ian's eyes widened, "what?"

"Prove it, become someone else."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, maybe honesty wasn't such a good idea after all. "Sara, it's not that easy, we don't snap our fingers and become someone else, we have to prepare." That she wasn't buying it was obvious. "Sara, I entered Special Forces as a Captain without ever going to boot camp. I read military manuals, books on war, and watched training films, I was never a private, i went from civilian to officer immediately. You still don't believe me," he sighed and found himself staring at Jarod's haliburtan case. "Why don't you come over to the mansion tonight and I'll show you some of the sims I did when I was at The Centre. I have all the DSA's made when I was there."

"DSA's?"

"Digital Simulation Archive's." Jarod answered in a tight voice. Ian cringed knowing Jarod wasn't going to be pleased about this. "Christian, can I speak to you privately."

"Guys, I need to check in at the station and I'm going to track down some of the hard files we don't have and I'll bring them tomorrow, ok?" She still didn't have a good read on Jarod and as good natured as Ian insisted on him being, he seemed pretty pissed.

"That would be great Detective."

"Bye, Sara."

"Later, Ian," she arched an eyebrow at him knowing he'd take the hint and call or come by tonight. "Goodbye, Agent Charles."

Jarod turned back to Ian when she was gone. "How much have you told her?"

"Jarod, she is an extremely perceptive and intuitive she knew something was different about us. You can't stick a woman like that in a room with two Pretenders and expect her not to ask questions. It's not like she's going to run around telling everyone. We can trust Sara."

"How certain are you of that?"

"You remember those scrolls you and Parker went after on Carthis? How powerful the stones were/would be if the got into the wrong hands?"

"Yes but what...."

"Sara's bracelet is sentient, it is an ancient weapon called the Witchblade. I am her Protector and one of her guides. She could feel something was different with me. She trusts me or at least is beginning to and I would not betray that by lying to her about something she could eventually figure out on her own. She won't involve anyone else. "

"Did you show her any of my sims before I came over here?"

"Jarod, you know better than that. Those belong to you, I would never take them much less even ask for them to use as an example. Skirting around the truth only would have made it worse. Do you understand. If it makes you feel better, she knows our secret, but we know hers as well."

"Just tread lighly, Chris."

"I will, don't worry, Sara will be fine. By the way my sexy girlfriend called me on your phone but she wants you to call her back. My heart it breaks....."

"Go away!" Jarod said gruffly but began laughing before Ian got to the door. "If I don't see you tonight, same time tomorrow."

Sara opened the door expecting the deliveryman but was surprised to find Ian. "Hi. He didn't kill you?"

"No, he was a little miffed but I explained things to him." He held up a silver case, "if you still want to see the DSA's, I brought them."

"Yeah, come on in. Have you eaten? Takeout is on its way, wait, it's here," she said as she spied the delivery guy coming down the hall.

Ian laid the case down on the coffee table and opened it, "no, I haven't." He looked up at her in surprise, "are you asking me to stay for dinner?"

"Well, yeah, I'm not going to eat in front of you while you sit here."

"Oh, I was just going to leave this." He assumed she had enough of him for one day.

"No, I'd rather you stay while I watched this, I imagine I'll need some help running this thing." She frowned at the complicated machinery held inside the case. It looked like a souped up VCR/laptop and he had laid out a small box that contained mini cd's.

She walked to the kitchen and began splitting the Thai food on two plates, "beer or water?"

"Water will be fine."

She handed him a plate and a bottle of water, she went back and grabbed her beer, figuring she'd need it as well as her plate then sat beside him. "So, this is a computer?"

"In a way, it's a DSA player. You ready?" When she nodded he popped in one of the little laser discs and typed in a few passwords and hit play. "This is the first day I was there."

At the bottom of the black screen in white letters stated, FOR CENTRE USE ONLY-NOTTINGHAM Suddenly the screen faded and a black and white video began playing. It showed a young boy dressed in loose black clothing sitting quietly at a desk reading, suddenly a dapper man entered. "hello, my name is Sydney and I'll be taking care of you."

Sara frowned trying to place the man's accent.

"What is your name?"

"Ian Christian Nottingham, Sir." Wide eyes watched the man move closer with great interest.

"What would you like to be called?" Sydney sat on the small cot across from the desk.

"Whatever you wish me to answer to just tell me."

Sydney leaned towards Ian, "we are forging a new way, you and I, starting fresh. Everyone upstairs is calling you by your surname but Nottingham is such a big name for a young man."

"Christian is fine with me."

"Christian, I'm Sydney," he held out his hand. Ian eyed the hand as if it were a trap or a snake for a couple of minutes but then slowly extended one of his own, shaking the older mans hand. Sydney smiled and stood, "I'll let you get back to the business of settling in. I'd like you to look over these problems and we'll discuss them tomorrow." He handed Ian a notebook.
Ian took the notebook and began pouring over the pages immediately. Sydney watched him for a moment before turning to leave. "You're Belgian?"

"That's very good. It is a difficult accent for many to place."

"Really?"

"Yes, now you get settled, I will see you tomorrow."

"I can have these done in an hour, they are not that difficult, I have taken tests like this before."

Sydney seemed to think about what he had said, "I will stop by before I leave and see how you are doing with them, how's that."

Sydney was barely out the door when Ian began writing in the notebook. The video remained on Ian but the sound cut to Sydney speaking to someone else. "Tread lightly with him, Sydney, he's a valuable asset to Kenneth Irons. Therefore an asset to us. He has become increasingly difficult for his tutors and private instructors, Kenneth felt he would do well in an environment like this." the voice paused for a minute, "what did you give him?"

"An intelligence test Jarod was given when he was about that age."

"Report to me how he does."

"Yes, Mr. Parker."

Sydney reentered the room, "Christian, have you seen a silver pen, I think I may have left it in here."

"I know why I am here. I know that you are watching me to see how I am doing, there is no need for subterfudge."

If at all possible Sydney looked annoyed and amused, "all right, Christian. May I see what you have done so far?" Ian carefully tore of the first few pages and handed them to Sydney then returned to his work. He scanned the pages, "this is very good, Christian. Tell me, did you have problems with your other teachers?"

"They had problems with me."

"And why was that?"

Ian glanced up at him, "you are a trained psychiatrist?"

"Yes, I am."

"Hmmm." Ian pondered that information for a moment before answering the earlier evaded question, "I became bored with their lessons quickly and it made my father angry."

"I will endeavor to keep you well occupied and the lessons up to your learning level not for your age, how's that."

"I would like that, but you will have to do better than this", Ian said in utter sincerety as he handed him the notebook.

"I will see you tomorrow, get some rest."

"Yes, Sir."

Sydney left the room and changed the camera angle. "I will begin testing his abilities as a Pretender tomorrow, if these are any indications," he held up the notebook, "he might be on a level with Jarod."

The DSA ended and Sara sat silently beside Ian turning over what she just saw in her head. Ian was lost for a moment in the memories of that day.

It was Sara who spoke first, "so, this Sydney was your teacher?"

"In a way, they preferred the term handler. He guided us more than taught, we learned on our own for the most part."

"You were a bit of a smart ass, I can see why the others didn't work out." Ian just grinned at her. "Irons just dumped you there?"

"It was the beginning of the season in Europe and he had a new mistress, he couldn't be bothered with me."

"Couldn't be bothered? She half questioned half repeated in disgust.

Ian chose not to elaborate but popped in another disc. It was set up like the first but Christian had replaced Nottingham in the For Centre Use Only overwrite. A much younger Jard with a hideous haircut and loose grey clothing knocked on Ian's door and stuck his head in. "Hi, I'm Jarod, Sydney asked me to show you around."

Ian sat up on the edge of the bed and put down his book. "All right."

Jarod smiled widely and held out his hand, "Jarod."

Ian hesitated much like he had with Sydney before shaking Jarod's hand, "Christian."

"Mind if I call you Chris?"

"No."

"Good, so where are you from?"

"New York."

Jarod led him down a sterile looking hall, "What is it like on the outside?"

"On the outside?" Ian asked as he eyed a gigantic man standing beside an empty mop bucket, the blank look on the mans face was cause for concern but Jarod seemed unphased.

"In the world. I've been here since I was five, I've never left. Did they steal you as well?"

"I was not stolen, I have been training in China, I do not really know much about the outside. If I am home, I do not leave the estate."

Jarod leaned in towards him, "so, you're a prisoner too?"

Ian stopped in the hall and peered up at Jarod. Sara couldn't help it, she burst out laughing at the total look of confusion on his face.

Ian paused the DSA, "what?"

"Your expression, it's like you can't decide whether he's a mental patient or not."

"Truthfully, that is what I was wondering. I could tell he truly believed what he was he was saying whether it was actually the truth, I did not know. I had no idea what was going on. I desperately just wanted to be back in my room, not wandering those creepy halls. I thought I'd made him so furious, he'd locked me in a madhouse."

Sara's eyes were drawn back to the paused screen, the video was tight on Ian's face and all the confusion, saddness, and mistrust was evident in those unnaturally large doe eyes. "You must have been so scared and alone."

"It wasn't the first time." Ian gave her a sad little smile then looked away.

"I don't think I want to see anymore right now." When she was 11 her biggest worry was if she'd get first string on the basketball team or what kind of girly dress Marie was going to buy her or if her dad was going to be late for dinner. It was breaking her heart that at the same age Ian was wondering if his dad had stuck him in an asylum and Ian didn't seem all that disturbed by it. This was heartbreaking.

"Not even to see a simulation?" Ian didn't really understand what had affected Sara so much, so he tried to pull her from her anguish.

"You know what I want to do?" Sara asked suddenly.

A number of possibilities entered Ian's mind all were amongst the genre of kicking the freak out. "What would you like to do, my lady?"

"Let's get some ice cream and go rent a comedy and spend some time together without child killers, Kenneth Irons, and sentient bracelets hovering over our heads." She genuinely like the man Ian had become and was even beginning to understand why he acted the way he had when Irons was alive and just after he died. In fact she was increasingly attracted to this open, mischevious, sexy man he was.

"So we are going to avoid all this angst for the evening and pretend we are normal?"

"Something like that. I realize you are adjusted to how you grew up and you've accepted it but I haven't. Ian it tears me up to see what you endured."

"I don't understand, it does not affect you, it has no bearing on who you are."

"It does Ian." How could she make him understand. "I look at that video and think about what I was doing when I was eleven, then I see this sweet, intelligent little boy worried that his dad stuck him in a madhouse. What kills me the most is you don't seem to be angry about it."

"Anger would do no good at this point. What good would it do to rage about something that can not be changed. It is over, my life is now my own."

"You've had a lifetime to deal with it, I just found out about this. I suspected you had been abused but I had no idea how badly."

You still don't, Ian thought but wisely kept to himself. If this disturbed her, he had no idea how she would react to the physical abuse Kenneth had wreaked upon him. He closed his eyes and tried to get a handle on the emotions pouring from Sara. Anger, sadness, the last and predominant emotion hit him and it all made more sense to him, "you feel guilty. You think this is your fault."

Sara stood quickly and walked to the kitchen then suddenly turned back to him, "of course I feel guilty, isn't it all about me?" She held up the Witchblade, "isn't it about this?"

Ian practically flew to her side shocked at the unshed tears glistening in her eyes, "it was him, how he was raised, what the Witchblade did to him when he wore it for those few moments. This will only be about you, if you make it so. This is no more your fault than it was mine, please tell me you understand. He palmed her face in his large hands forcing her to look into his eyes, "I do not blame you, or the Witchblade. Please, don't do this to yourself."

Tear bright green eyes searched amber ones for any hint of resentment, finding none she closed her eyes feeling the tears that now fell being wiped away by gentle thumbs as they slid down her cheeks. He dropped his hands from her face and grasped hers, leading her back to the couch, pulling her into his arms as they sat down. He had never dreamed she would react this way, his feelings had never been a consideration for her in the past. Had her feelings for him changed in the almost two years they had been out of contact? Had absence made the heart fonder as the saying went?

Sara let him lead her to the couch, she even curled up in his arms. She shocked herself with her behavior, these weepy hormonal outbursts weren't like her. Ian was right, this wasn't her fault, but she couldn't help but feel partially responsible due to the seemingly innocuous bracelet that lay dormant on her wrist. No child should carry the sorrow she saw reflected in those soulful eyes that had been frozen on that screen.

They sat there in silence for quite a while Sara lost in thought and Ian quietly trying to process the fact that Sara had become so emotional over him. He eventually came to the conclusion that pouring over case files filled with dead children coupled with the truth about his past had overwhelmed her. She would be embarassed and more than likely would try to push him away. He was shocked when she snuggled closer to him. He reveled in the closeness, Irons had warned him away from physical contact but he craved it, longed to be held to hold someone, to hold this woman.


Emotionally exhausted and lulled by his steady heartbeat, Sara eventually fell asleep. Ian held her for a while longer, carrying her to bed only when she became restless from being cramped up against him. He watched her sleep for another hour before setting her alarm clock, then her coffee maker. He gathered up the DSA player and discs then left.

Sara woke up to the incessent buzz of the alarm clock. She hit the button with a resounding smack, smelling coffee she rose from the bed. She was halfway through her first cup when the events of the past evening hit her. Glancing around the apartment she found no evidence of her guest other than a note placed beside her cell phone.

I hope you slept well. As much as I would like to
have remained, I felt it best to leave. Please
accept my sincerest apologies if I have made the
wrong decision, it is not my intent to upset you.

Ian

"Perceptive fellow there, Nottingham," she said to the note before downing the last swig from her cup and heading to the shower.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

  • 5 -- Yarvarni, 22:39:59 11/04/03 Tue
    [ Contact Forum Admin ]

    Forum timezone: GMT-5
    VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
    Before posting please read our privacy policy.
    VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
    Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.