Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 22:53:43 PST
Title: post apocalyptic
author: Stana


    "...she's waking up."
    "Is she hurt?"
    "Stace?"
    Jagged light splintered the darkness of her mind as she struggled to
open her eyes. They didn't want to obey the simple command. A distant
sensation registered around the vicinity of her face. Then a dim jerking
motion and painful brightness. All around was clear white.
    "Her pupils aren't dilating." murmurred a voice. "I can feel her in
there though. Stace?"
    Sullam looked intently into the girls' eyes. Clip hovered over his
shoulder, but he blanked his attention to that. Stana had been hit hard
by the attack, and Sullam hadn't been able to prevent that. When the
rest of the malignant spirits had been driven off, she had collapsed to
the ground and hadn't moved since. He could sense her consciousness
beneath the surface, but couldn't penetrate to it. Ruefully he regretted
not having the empathic girl around.
    Then practicality reasserted itself. There had to be another option
to get her free of whatever was still holding her. It was up to them to
find it. Quickly. His eyes flickered to the dim indications that dawn
would soon be upon them.
    "What recommendations do you have healer?" Clip asked. "This girl is
afflicted by the darkness, not easily dispelled as the unattached
shadows."
    "Possession then?" Sullam was slowly coming to this conclusion.
    Clip shrugged but seemed inclined to that position.  "If so we've no
easy task ahead."
    Sullam didn't say anything for a moment, he just continued to
examine her. Her skin was cool but clammy; muscles limp and
unresponsive. He placed his hand to her heart and felt a jackrabbit beat
underneath, the pulse at her neck as well.
    "If we try an exorcism-she could be seriously injured."
    "If we do not," Clip argued, eyes flashing with impatience "we tarry
here until the wizard sends worse against us. The child MUST be
rescued." the Unicorn seemed to have latched on to a shadow of his
personality. Sullam knew it was merely the result of the power Clip had
asserted against the darkness. Soon enough he would slip back into his
amnesia-worse for the remembering.
    "You've the knowledge healer?" he unicorn inquired finally "I'd not
have thought this your speciality."
    "I've the knowledge." he replied simply, and wasn't surprised at his
reluctance to utilize it. He still bore the scars from the last time he
had tangled with the forces that most referred to as "supernatural". The
posession of the girl was not in the same sense that the Unicorn
referred to. She was not held in thrall of some otherworldly force, but
had been "overwritten" by a focused burst of power. That overflow had
incapacitated her. That the power holding onto Stana was imbued with
malignant intent he had no doubt. That the "evil" of the sorceror gave
that power a focus reflective of the intent was also evident.
     He appealed to Clip, a distant look in his eyes, and the Unicorn
stirred uneasily. The girl he viewed dually, a darkness overlaying her
natural self. She partially obscured underneath. A flickering rainbow
under a thunderhead.  This one was inscrutably blank to his view.
     "Not all demons are found in fairytales." Clip said, metally
warding himself. He trusted not this mortal that he could not "see".
     "Not all fairytales are stories, Unicorn." Sullam replied "and
while I do not believe in the concepts of ultimate good and evil-I do
acknowledge the concepts of energy. And energy-being nuetral can be
influenced by variables  such as selfishness and greed."
     "Is that not in itself evil?"
     "That is human." he chafed his hands and stood. "the longer we
wait, the weaker she becomes. I will need help in this, are you game?"
     Clip nodded "Mortal or neigh. I owe her a debt."
     "Good enough. You know the result?"
     "What matters if I lose more of what passes for a mind?" he
countered "I remember nearly nothing now. Better to not realize what I
have lost."
     Bitter or no, there was a sardonic sense in his words. Sullam
nodded.


     Stacey would have screamed if she could. Instead she lay there,
burning in agony as it felt her entire body was being shredded to
pieces. Fire flared down each limb as claws ripped and drew blood.
Suddenly she felt her body struggling. She gasped against the pressure
in her chest, breathing a fight in itself. The pain wrapped her body in
an unendurable blanket, and it hurt-_it hurt_.


     Sullam watched the girl whimper, shuddering with a cold only inside
herself. Clip held her firmly, long arms encircling the body. The healer
laid a hand against her neck, and winced at the heat there. No wonder
she was shivering! Stana cried out against the touch, trying to pull
free.
      "Stace!" he murmurred urgently, "still, be still." He wasn't sure
if she could hear him at this point, her consciousness was slipping in
and out. Even waking was plagued with a near delirium. He settled his
thoughts against the sympathy and reminded himself that it was the only
way to get her free.
      "Be quick healer!" Clip murmurred urgently "she cannot endure much
more at this rate."
      He ignored the Unicorn, blanking out the distractions one by one
until his focus was all. Then, calmly, he grounded himself and reached
for her.

      Stana screamed, lashing out against the intense pain. Sullam shut
his eyes, drawing on his inner strength and _pulled_.

  Clip gave a trumpet of alarm, eerily equine in a human throat. He
watched the mortal thrown back by the explosive darkness but held onto
his charge, who, after one more shudder, lapsed into unconsciousness.

        Clip felt the darkness around him and threw back against the evil. Blue
light coursed around him, and enveloped the girl as well. Despite the
pain he refused to release her. At the same time he could only wonder at
the irony. He embraced Stana, and at the same time fought to repel the
malignant force residing within her... .
        With the last of his own weakening power he focused himself
against the darkness and reached up and _out_. The world slid out from
under him.

   The mortal healer slammed into the ground with a painful, crunching
sensation. For a moment he felt the unleashed power beat around him with
battering forces, then nothing as he opened his eyes. He got to his feet
briskly enough and moved forward. It had been less than pleasant to have
the darkness reach out and shake him like a rag doll before discarding
his rattled body aside. Even less pleasant was the view of both girl and
Unicorn lying so still. He feared total failure before he noted that
Clip at least, had life in him. In fact the Unicorn was already stirring
to consciousness. Stana had not moved yet and was it the dark of the
woods or was it a remainder of the shadow within that drew her face so
pale?
    Clip  started, chest heaving for breath. With a blank gaze he looked
from Stana to Sullam and back. There was a puzzled amnesiatc look that
showed no recollection of their current situation. Sullam mustered an
encouraging nod for his benefit and then checked Stana for a pulse.
    "Stace?" he pressed gently, trying to rouse her. There was some
response as she rolled her head and moaned, she looked at him with eyes
that were glazed over with fatigue and stress and he smiled into them.
     There was no levity in her, just exhaustion. She took in everything
with a glance and closed her eyes again, wanting nothing but to sleep.
     Clip shook his head fuzzily, still trying to grasp what was going
on. Bit by bit images flashed back. Sullam looked at him.
     "You still with us?"
     "I am assuming I should be?" he answered acidly. That was a normal
enough response and relieved he bounced his head.
"How is she?" The Unicorn asked. He was looking at her with some
confusion. "She seems...dark still."
          Sullam took the Unicorn seriously. Mortal or no, his
instincts-what was left of them- were not to be taken lightly. he wished
it were not so. Then Clip was seing the pall still hanging there as
well.
           "We did what could be done." Sullam said finally. "I sense
that there is still some shadow therein, but have not the strength, nor
the ability to dispell it. Anything more must come from other sources."
           "You say that she is tainted?" he asked.
           "Overshadowed more like. The remains of darkness we could not
call out. She's herself yet, but touched on the fringes with the
wizards' power." he looked at the girl, lying in a half conscious doze
"I have no way to estimate the results." he looked at Clip searchingly
"You would know more than I the affects of as perverted Alicorn. It is
this that the wizard uses, and it is this that no mortal power alone can
conquer."
           The Unicorn squirmed momentarily, uncomfortable as if caught
doing something wrong himself. For a moment he thought of Teri, and a
moment was all that was neccessary. He lost the recollection of his
other life.
           Sullam watched Clip stray, and sighed. He tried again to
rouse the sleeping human, knowing that they were losing vital time and
unable to do anything about that. That knowledge did notthing to help.