Changes 6/6

(c) 1997 redwolf@triode.net.au

Jordan took the high ground.  Leaping from crate to machine to
container she made her way to the highest point of the
warehouse.  Looking up she saw the steel beams that crossed the
ceiling just above her and leapt.  From this vantage point she
could see most of the floor plan.

She scampered along the joists to a clearer position and
scanned the area below.  She was almost fully wolfen for speed
and mobility, but had strangely elongated hands and feet that
looked oddly simian.  With these she could grip anything --
even to the point of dangling from the rafters by one foot if
it came to that.

'There,' she thought as a movement caught her eye near the
building's entrance.  'Got you.'  It looked like the game was
moving outside.

She bounded from beam to beam, heading for the door.  Grabbing
the final beam, she swung under and dropped to the floor erect.
A human covered in soft, grey fur.  Jordan opened the door and
followed Rex into the car park.

The car park was empty expect for their cars, whose pale colour
seemed to glow in the poor light.  And then she saw him.  'An
ape in a trenchcoat,' she thought.  He stood on two legs with a
wolf's head.  With his black pelt and coat he seemed to be
darker than dark, a light-sucking black hole cut from the
night.  The only light he reflected was the twin stars
glittering greenly where his eyes would be.

"Shall we drop the pretence?" he asked as she walked over to
stand before him -- out of arms reach he noticed.  His voice
was strangely unaffected by his current lupine vocal chords.
It still had a strangely hypnotic quality to it.  A gentle
British lilt with the modulated tones of a BBC announcer.

Jordan nodded, it was pointless now.  She dropped her shields
and felt her fur ripple as it returned to its natural orange
state.  She felt his presence flood through her.  It was an
extremely disconcerting sensation being able to see and smell
someone, yet being unable to feel them.

"Isn't that better now?"  Rex voiced the question as he would
to a disobedient child.

Jordan was silent.

"You've changed, Macti/re.  You're so calm, so detached.  This
is a big difference from the creature that runs on pure emotion
that I know so well."  He seemed genuinely surprised.

Still she didn't respond.  She just continued to gaze calmly
into his eyes.

"My, my.  Is this the silent treatment?  How childish."  Truth
be told he was starting to feel a little edgy.  Nobody ever
failed to rise to his baiting.  He enjoyed watching people
respond to his barbs, seeing their emotions take over.  Their
loss of control made them that much easier a target.  And
besides which, he smiled to himself, it was fun.

He tried his trump card.  "I enjoyed your playmates.  Not too
bad, one of them even managed to shoot me."  He fingered one of
the bullet holes in his coat.  "Pity it was wasted.  How are
they?" he asked in the light conversational tone of someone
inquiring after a mutual acquaintance.

'Damn.'  Nothing but serenity emanated from the younger were.
Either she was still shielding them or they were dead.  "I
don't suppose it matters at this point in time.  Shall we
play?"

Jordan nodded once, but didn't move any further.

Rex shrugged and removed his coat, tossing it aside.  He
dropped to all fours and shifted to full wolf form.  A huge jet
black wolf.

He was much larger than Jordan when she was in wolf form.  She
wondered if there was a Dire Wolf in their ancestry, she'd have
to ask Seagha/n if he knew when she saw him again.

Jordan circled with Rex, not allowing him to get behind her.
They paced slowly, constantly watching their opponent.  Rex
feinted, but Jordan stood her ground.  He backed away and
continued pacing.

"It's almost a shame to have to kill the last of my clan," he
sighed.

Jordan allowed a slow unpleasant grin to spread across her face
and finally broke her silence.  "Oh, I'm not the last, Rex.
You've never met my partner, have you?  He's my cousin.  As a
matter of fact he's in there now," she nodded towards the dark
edifice of the building.  "With two new weres, the FBI agents -
- my friends -- that you attempted to kill.  You're slipping up
in your old age."  She dropped her shields fully to allow Rex
to see the truth of her statement.

Jordan saw as much as felt Rex launch his attack.  His calm
exterior was shattered, he was a raging ball of fury.  In blur
she raised her arm behind her head and drew the short sword
she'd embedded beneath her back muscles.  As Rex made his leap
for her throat, she sidestepped and swung in one smooth
movement.

Rex sailed past her, his body coming to rest a couple of metres
past her.  His head, however, continued it's journey, finally
rolling to a stop under one of the abandoned cars.

Jordan sunk to her knees on the bitumen and leaned her weight
on her weapon.  The sword dripped with the blood of two weres.
She was glad her gambit had worked.  She healed fast, but not
that fast.  When she'd drawn her sword and swung it was a one-
shot deal.  She knew that with the speed that Rex could move,
if she missed there would be no second chance.

She used the sword to lever herself to her feet and walked to
stand over the body of her fallen kinsman.  "Survival of the
fittest."  She slowly shook her head.  "I'm still learning from
my mistakes, but I am learning.  And I've learned a lot since
we last met," she said to the corpse.  "Te/ir in ainm an
diabhail.  Go to hell."  She turned and walked away.

Nathan's face lit up as his partner slowly walked towards him.
"It's good to see you Jordan.  I'm glad I didn't have to avenge
your death," he joked, the exhaustion was still evident in his
voice.  "I don't think I could stand upright for too long, let
alone fight."

Jordan smiled warmly at my partner.  "I'm glad too, Nate."  She
looked at the two sleeping agents.  "I'll retrieve their guns
and then we can get out of here."

She found one of the weapons under a handtruck and the other on
the seat of the forklift.  She leaned down and returned the
weapons to their respective holsters.

Looping an arm around Mulder, she hoisted him to his feet.  The
movement woke him.

Mulder's eyes flickered open.  "Did we win?" he asked.

Jordan smiled crookedly at him.  "Yes, Mulder, we won.  And you
slept through the whole thing."

Nathan was helping Scully to her feet when she came around.
"Nathan?"  She blinked rapidly trying to focus her vision.
"Did you know that you're both naked?  And where did that come
from?" she indicated the bloody sword that Jordan was carrying.

Jordan snorted as she led Mulder back to the car, shouldering
the strange-looking sword.  It was a blade that Jordan had not
yet completed.  The shortness of the blade made it look like a
really long knife, with the handle nothing more than blade
wrapped in leather and a cross-piece not yet in place.

"I'll explain later, Dana," Nathan answered rolling his eyes at
his partner's retreating form.  "I'll explain later."

~*~*~*~

When they returned to the parking lot Jordan sent Nathan back
to their hotel with Mulder and Scully.  She waited until the
car was out of sight and using Mulder's cell phone called a
pre-arranged contact.

She said one word, "Done," and disconnected.  She would remain
as a beacon.

Half an hour later the clean-up crew had removed Rex's body and
carted it off to whatever laboratory wanted to play with it.
Jordan didn't recognise any of the quiet, efficient men that
had removed all signs of the dead man.  Jordan doubted they
were Section 10, possibly InterPol, more likely some Black Ops
branch of the CIA.  Wherever they came from they were all
'Family' loyal, far too much had been invested in Rex to let
him fall into anyone else's hands, dead or alive.

Jordan didn't care any more.

She was tired, she needed to sleep and she wanted to go home.
The hotel would have to do for now.

~*~*~*~

After an all too brief rest, the four agents roused themselves
to meet Will McCormack in the hotel bar.  Jordan had contacted
him the previous night to organise transport and arrange for
the return of a couple of FBI agents.

Will greeted them warmly.  "You all look like hell," he stated
bluntly.  There was something different about Mulder and Scully
that he couldn't quite put his finger on.  It was familiar but
every time he got within reach of the feeling it skittered
away.  'Almost like psi-shields,' he thought and than instantly
rejected the idea as ludicrous.  'It must just be the ordeal
they've been through.'

"I wish I'd known sooner what you were up against.  I wouldn't
have involved you," he apologised to Mulder and Scully.

"They weren't supposed to be involved at all.  They weren't
even supposed to leave Washington," Jordan interrupted.

"Ah," Will said in way that showed that he did indeed
understand the situation.  "I've had experience with these two
before."  He grinned.

"On an official note, Section 10 wished to extend it's thanks
to Agents Mulder and Scully of the FBI for their invaluable
assistance in this case.  Formal letters of thanks will be
forwarded from my people to your people.  You know the way this
crap works.  The diplomatic inter-agency paperwork alone is a
nightmare.  Fortunately it's all going via Glasgow, so it won't
be my hand cramping."  All four agents nodded, smiling tiredly.
They were all familiar with the nature of the beast.

"Personally though, I'm pleased to see that you're all right.
I wasn't informed of what you'd be up against here," he paused,
"If I'd have known I would have been down here like a shot.  I
should have been here.

"And as for you two," he turned to Jordan and Nathan.  "I've
had Section 10 in Britain bending my ear since I got off the
phone with you earlier.  They want to see to you as soon as you
touch down on British soil.  I'm under the impression that
they'd like to keep you on a more permanent basis."

"Oh," Jordan muttered with little enthusiasm.  "Happy days."

"What do you want to do?" Mulder questioned about the job
offer.

"I don't have the faintest idea at the moment," she answered.

"We'll figure it out once we're back home," Nathan finished.

"Are we all flying back together?" Scully asked.

Will shook his head.  "I'm flying on to LA from here," he said.
"I've got your tickets here, you and Mulder for DC and Jordan
and Nathan direct to London."  He drew the tickets from his
pocket and slid them across them table.  "I've got a connecting
flight in less than an hour, so I'd better be off if I expect
to catch it.  It's been good to see you again."

The four agents bid farewell to Will and returned to their
table in the empty bar room.

Scully had a look of confusion on her face.  "I just realised
that Will didn't sense our change."  Her mind was still fuzzy
from exhaustion.  "He should have been able to."

Jordan looked a little apologetic.  "I shielded your change
from him.  It'll give you a little more time to get used to it
before having anyone else know.  If you weren't so exhausted
you could have done it yourself."

"So what are you going to do now that you've both changed?"
Nathan asked Mulder and Scully.

Both agents shrugged.  They were still too tired -- and a bit
shell-shocked -- from their attack and subsequent change.

"We've got some friends we'll put you in contact with who can
help you iron out the finer points of weredom," Jordan
suggested.  "And Mulder, I wouldn't recommend teaching yourself
how to fly by jumping off a building, so you'd better speak
with them."

Mulder smiled briefly at her joke.

Jordan continued.  "If you have to leave the FBI, I'm sure that
Section 10 would snap you up.  They're always on the look out
for Special Investigators and on the plus side you've worked
with them in the past."  Both agents nodded.

Nathan looked through the collection of tickets that Will had
left.  "We've got to run, Jordi.  Our plane leaves soon."  He
passed her the tickets.

They said their good byes and left the two FBI agents in the
bar.

"What are we going to do, Scully," he asked his partner.

"Right now I'm too tired to think, Mulder."

"Do you think Jordan and Nathan would mind if we took over
their room once they've left."  Mulder dangled the spare keys
under Scully nose.  It was much larger and a hell of a lot more
comfortable than the tiny dog-boxes they'd been relegated to
the previous night.

"I don't think so," Scully brightened at the thought of sleep
in a bed and not a airline seat.  "But you get to explain to
the accountants why we're sharing a room."

"Don't have to," he announced helping Scully up from her seat
and heading for the lifts.  "It's not in our name, it's being
paid for by Section 10 and we'll be saving the FBI money by
checking out of our rooms now."  He looked quite pleased with
himself.

"You're incorrigible, Mulder," Scully sighed.  "And you can
keep your hands to yourself or you will be getting an instant
flying lesson from the tenth floor."

"Scully!  I'm wounded that you could think such a thing."  He
looked the picture of innocence.

Scully rolled her eyes.  "Just remember this, Mulder.  Fly or
die."  She grinned evilly taking the keys from Mulder's
senseless fingers and opening the door to the room.

~*~*~*~

Afterword

Irish Translations

Seagha/n Mac Conmara: Sean McNamara -- Seagha/n means 'old' and
Mac Conmara is literally 'son of the hound of the sea'.

Macti/re Mac Conchu/ir: Macteera MacConnor -- Macti/re means
wolf, literally 'son of the land' and MacConnor means son of
Connor, her father.  Realistically it should be Macti/re Nic
Chonchu/ir -- 'daughter of Connor' -- but she chose the male
form for professional reasons.

Laoch Si/: Faery Warrior (Leek Shee)

Daoine Si/: Faery People (Dun Shee) -- this is Irish Gaelic,
Alasdair uses the Scots Gaelic form Daoine Sidhe (same
pronunciation).

Mo mhacti/re beag: My little wolf.

Te/ir in ainm an diabhail: Go to hell -- literally 'Go in the
name of the devil'.

Well that's it.  If you've gotten this far, thanks for sticking
around, and if you've got the time I'd appreciate your
comments.  I can be contacted at redwolf@triode.net.au.

This will can be found on my web page with the correct
formatting and proper accents for anybody who's interested.

Thanks to Alasdair McLean for allowing me to borrow his
universe and play in it for a while.

Thanks to Jeannie Howse (jhowse@nfld.com) for her fast and
invaluable work as my beta reader.

And finally, thanks to all of the people who begged, pleaded
and cajoled me into writing another Jordan story.  You got your
wish.  Maybe not in the form you would have wished for, but I'm
the writer and therefore have the very rare opportunity to play
god.

End Changes 6/6