Mystery Fanstuff Theater 3000/Spirit/12

Meg woke up in a rather uncomfortable position. It took her a moment to realize she had already opened her eyes because she couldn't see anything. Stray candles were lit haphazardly around the room and gave off a thin glow but nothing more.

"Welcome back to the living, Megumi. Or may I call you Meg?" Meg sat up at the familiar voice. He was definitely -not- in her head this time. Unless he learned how to make his voice echo, that is.

"Please forgive me; I'm not used to having a... guest." The light from four candles, one to each corner, brightened. Meg was able to make out the basics of a typical bad guy lair; clammy stone walls, dim lights, and an over practiced evil grin on the said bad guy's face.

She was sitting almost to the back of the room against the wall while a throne made with what seemed to be of a metallic black stone and jade sat at the front. A staff bearing a lion's head of gold lay casually against the arm. Sitting in the chair was a man who strikingly resembled a character she'd seen in a movie, with greased black hair, small eyes, and a pale face. He just screamed vampire.

"It's been a while since I've last asked something of you. Tell me," Saku reached for the staff and let the light glint off it, "would you like to be a demon?"

Madison thanked Ben and ran inside. It was already eight o'clock, and thanks to heavy traffic, they were later than Madison had agreed to meet Danny in the first place.

'Damn. I'll bet I missed something interesting too. I wonder if Chris is coming.' Madison let her mind wonder as she rounded back. At first she had always wondered why the front door was never used. Then she realized that unless you had a katana, you couldn't get through the vines growing over it.

Knocking quickly before barging in, Madison said, "I am -so- sorry I'm late! Did I miss anything?"

Kali looked over from the stove and waved. "You didn't miss much. Just some training, Andy got attacked by a shadow demon, Meg got kidnapped, and now I'm forced to make breakfast for them. Just to name the more important things."

"Wait, what? The training I would skip anyways, but what about the demons? And Meg doesn't have a stone. What's the point in grabbing her?"

"If I knew, I'd say something, but we're still waiting for everyone to get here. Chris is late." Kali turned off the burner. "Want some pancakes?"

"No thanks. Where's everyone else?" 'Her sister was captured and she's making pancakes?'

"I knew you'd be lonely without me." Sean skipped over to the table and immediately began wolfing down the warm pancakes.

Danny sighed and tried to help Andy to the table. Andy on the other hand felt that getting cut up by a bloody scythe would not hinder his walking abilities. Danny sighed again. 'And Andy's supposed to be the smart one in the group.'

"Is Chris here yet? She usually doesn't come late." Danny managed to get one pancake before Sean decided to just grab the whole plate and eat them all at once. Andy had once summed up Sean's table manners in one word, and that word was 'nonexistent'.

"Sean, breathe. It's not going anywhere." Andy mumbled and swirled the ice in his glass of water. Sean chewed thoughtfully, watching Andy glare at his cup while the others just stared at him. Mumbling was definitely not one of his usual ways to reprimand Sean.

"You definitely have the hots for her if you're -this- upset over it," Sean concluded. He was about to take a drink when he felt cold water and ice cubes hit his face. Andy had stormed out of the room before Sean had a chance to react.

"Sean, if you ever get a chance to say something sentimental, don't." Danny sighed for the third time in five minutes and leaned back. Chris was going to have a hissy-fit over this.

"I'm guessing he's referring to Meg?" Madison straddled the chair.

"Who's referring to Meg?" Everyone in the room jumped about three feet before realizing it was just Chris. "What got you all paranoid?"

"Long story, but since Andy's being impossible I guess it wouldn't hurt to explain." Kali sat down with a glass of water and waited for Danny to start.

"I met up with Kuro..." Danny continued.

Andy, who was back in Danny's room, closed the door. He didn't need to hear it again. She was gone. That's all you had to say. That's all that mattered. She was gone, the demons were had bait, and they were stuck retelling stories, -again-. He wasn't able to protect her.

'You definitely have the hots for her if you're -this- upset over it.' Sean's words repeated themselves in his head. 'Idiot. They just aren't worrying enough. She could be dead now and they're eating pancakes. Even Kali doesn't seem too upset, and it's- her- damn sister!'

Andy glared around the room again. 'I can't believe him. Asshole.' He walked over to the corner and sat down. Crossing his arms, Andy tried to think up a plan as to how they could find the demons.

"A demon?" Meg struggled not to let her voice crack. Saku's cold gaze pierced hers as if he was reading her mind right at the moment. It wouldn't have been the first time.

Saku grinned even wider. It was so easy. Scare a human and they won't think straight for hours. If you do it right, that is. "I need your help for another task, but human bodies are too fragile. So, I thought I'd just make you a demon. I-"

"Sir," Kuro appeared before Saku and bowed respectively, "I have news from Zinc."

Saku seemed to lighten from his anger. "It had better be good, Kuro, or you will regret interrupting."

Meg saw Kuro give a weak nod. "Sir, she refuses to cooperate. We might have to turn to Ma-"

"Chris will -not- just turn away. She wants the other overlords gone as much as we do!" Saku leaned forward into Kuro's face and whispered vehemently, "You will not screw this up, understand?"

Kuro gave another weak nod. "But, Sir, there's something else you need to-"

"What?"

"Well, they're holding a meeting now and Chris is most likely going to tell them everything she knows." Kuro watched her feet. "None of us have enough power to stop her with the other overlords there."

Saku felt like grumbling, but instead glared at Kuro. "Fine. I guess I'll clean up your mess for you." Saku set the staff onto the floor and disappeared. "Keep an eye on the human."

Kuro sighed heavily and looked at Meg. "Well, now that he's gone, you can relax a bit." Kuro watched Meg blink in confusion. "I'm not going to interrogate you or something. Chill."

Meg shifted nervously and sat up against the wall, watching Kuro with unmasked curiosity. She opened her mouth to thank her but quickly closed it. What if she said something wrong? She'd be toast in less than a second.

Kuro threw a blanket to Meg and locked her gaze at the other end of the room. "You'll be safe from Saku until the meeting is over." Kuro spoke indifferently, training her glare on Saku's throne. "After that, I can't help you anymore."

Andy crossed his arms tighter across his chest. If he was going to be stubborn, he planned on being very good at it. 'Are they still talking it over? God.'

Andy looked at his twin siblings, sharing a makeshift bed next to the one he'd been on. Turning his gaze to the floor he saw the old wooden box they had kept their stones in. Out of boredom, Andy opened the box to see what Danny was using it for now. 'I didn't remember him carrying this back. Oh well; he did grow up on the streets.'

Inside was a deep violet orb, swirling with a deep forest green and navy blue. The colors moved slowly and almost introspectively. Andy lifted it gently, noting how it fit in the palm of his hand like a baseball and how smooth its features were. He remembered asking about it once before:

'This orb is very important. It responds to its owner's thoughts and emotions and is its basic lifeline. If you ever break it, the owner will die.'

'But, who is the owner?' Sean looked at her curiously as Andy sat off to the side. The orb was currently a deep black with a foggy cloud of silver circling inside.

'That holds no importance to you.' Chris replied flatly and the subject dropped.

Andy tossed it up a couple times. It was heavier than it looked. Maybe Chris is the owner. It makes sense. Whenever she gets into technical stuff or the demons it always gets so cloudy. Something clicked in Andy's head as he put things together. She didn't tell us who it belonged to because she knew that if she did we could use it against her. Danny said that someone was going to betray us. Maybe she was keeping her exits open.

Andy carefully put the orb in his pocket and closed the box. Madison would most certainly deny him, and even if he was wrong it wouldn't hurt to have it just in case. Taking one last look at the twins he let himself drift to sleep.

"So that's why he's all moody all of a sudden." Madison leaned back in her chair. 'That sucks. First his dad walks out, he gets singled out by Naari, and now Meg's gone. Damn he's having a bad week.'

"But there's nothing we can do about it. He'll have to solve these problems on his own." Chris sipped her lemonade. "We don't have time for a rescue mission. Right now, we need to find out where they're hiding and how to-."

"Bullshit!" Danny slammed his glass on the table. "We've wasted plenty of time already. We can 'waste' another day at least attempting to find out where she is. They'll be keeping her nearby their hid out and that's close enough for me." 'Chris is hiding something.'

"You don't understand, Daniel, it's not that I don't want to, it's just-"

"It's just that you'd rather let her die, right?"

"That's not fair Daniel," Chris said evenly. "You know the importance of this. We can't put the value of one life over everyone else."

"But it's our fault! We got her involved and we made her take the risk. Now she's taking the hit for our fault and it's-"Danny stopped and took a deep breath, his eyes falling to the floor. "It's not...right."

Chris sighed and Madison shared a glance with Sean that said everything; 'We're screwed.' Kali got up from the table and went outside under the old willow tree. Danny mumbled something indistinct and left to his room. Looming above the house Saku grinned and disappeared back to his realm.

Andy woke up to a pain racing up his side and the closing of Danny's bedroom door. After checking his side, he turned his focus on Danny who was currently resting against the door. Danny let out a defeated sigh and met his stare.

"Chris and I got in an argument. Things aren't going well. I think I upset Kali too." Danny pretended to busy himself with insignificant jobs around his room to keep himself busy. He felt like screaming, but now wasn't the time and certainly not the place.

"What about?" Danny froze and looked at him. "What did you fight over?" Andy kept his voice and eyes level but Danny could tell that he already knew the answer.

"Chris wanted to give up on Meg and focus on finding the demon lair. I got angry and yelled at her that we should go after Meg, that wherever she is the demons will at least be nearby." 'And she knows it's true, too!' he thought to himself.

"I guess the fact that Meg might be dead already finally hit Kali, huh?" Andy stretched his legs a bit and stood up.

"I guess. That and the fact that it's our fault that she got caught up in this in the first place." Danny sat on his heels and looked at his hands on his lap. "And, you know, there's really no point to it. Either way, we're getting nowhere fast and we still don't have a clue where they're hiding. Unless Chris isn't telling us something."

"Yeah, about that," Andy pulled out the sphere and set it on the floor. "Remember how you said that Kuro claimed that someone would betray us? Well, what if it's Chris? We have no way to know if she's telling us lies or not because we have no idea what we're really getting into. She could easily betray us without us suspecting anything at all."

Danny mulled the thought over in his head. "I guess it makes more sense that she would because she's immortal. She can't get killed by any of us, so it's possible. What's that got to do with the orb though?"

"She said that if this thing was broken than the owner would die but she never told us who the owner was. If she was the owner and already knew that she was going to knock us off she wouldn't want to tell us, right? That would give us something to use against her. If she wasn't going to go against us, than she wouldn't have a problem telling us it was hers."

"But then why would she leave it in our possession in the first place? It's make more sense for her to keep it hidden away." Danny sat down next to Andy and leaned his head against the wall. "Anyways, all this thinking is making me tired. I need a nap."

"Maybe Sean's starting to rub off on you." Andy hit his shoulder playfully.

"I guess if I start inhaling my food we'll know for sure." Danny yawned and leaned against Andy's shoulder. "Perfect. Don't move."

"Hey!" Andy almost shifted, but realized Danny was already asleep. "Man, sometimes I really wonder if you really are related to Sean."

Meg pulled the blanket around her body tighter. After Kuro had left, the darkness had been too much. Even if she was the enemy, at least she hadn't been alone. She felt like a child, being scared of the dark this bad, but she also knew that this time monsters could really come out.

"Well, it seems your friends saved me the trouble of shutting Chris up." Saku picked up the staff and looked it over like an appraiser. "Have you considered what kind of demon you'd like to be? Unfortunately, I don't get to chose."

Saku looked at her and grinned. 'You'd best chose quickly, because you're going to be in a world of pain.' Saku cut off the telepathic link and advanced toward Meg. "Stand."

Meg dropped the blanket as she stood up. She thought about running, but this was obviously his own little world that he created. She couldn't escape unless he let her and that was what scared her most.

The staff glowed as the bottom sharpened and extended. Meg found herself unable to move. Terror shot through her as Saku raised the staff. He started to mumble an incantation before he plunged it deep into her chest. Saku finished the quick incantation and the staff gave off a silver luminosity. The light died down as quickly as it had started and Meg slumped back against the wall and onto the floor. Blood flowed from the wound and stained her clothes.

"Have a nice rest, because once you wake up you'll have lots of work to do." Saku let the bloody staff drop to the floor in front of Meg's body. "You're one of u s now." A corridor appeared in the side wall and disappeared once Saku had entered.

Sean dumped the rest of the cold pancakes into the garbage and slumped back into his chair. They'd been sitting in complete silence for the past hour and forty-five minutes accomplishing even less than when they were fighting. Danny and Andy were still sleeping against the wall and Kali had moved into the tree, moving the branches so no one else could come up or see her. Chris was standing in the same spot, trying to decide how to handle five children.

"That's it. I'm going to check on those two. Things are getting stupid." Sean got up and left the room.

"Hey Chris," Madison looked up at Chris, "did you really mean that? Did you really mean to just let them kill Meg if we could get a head start?"

"We'll never get a head start. They've been planning this since before the stones even came back into existence." Chris looked at the door as Kali came back in.

"Whatever we do, we go now." Kali looked up at Chris with an empty stare. "So I suggest you decide whether you plan on leading us or not."