[reverse darkest timeline au: you stay here]

[stilljustandrew]

The thing about a road trip is: you need roads.

No one's been maintaining this particular stretch of highway for years, which means there are places where they have to maneuver slowly around pitted and cracked surfaces, around fallen trees, around the abandoned wreckage of less fortunate cars. One such heap looks a little too deliberate, according to Kali, and they go back to detour wide around that one for fear of ambush.

There's an enclave somewhere around here, she says, calls itself Nowhere Special. Human, which doesn't mean friendly; there's every chance the ambush was theirs. Or of some enemy camp looking to take over their territory.

It's late afternoon, somewhere between misty and drizzly, when they pull up to the long-abandoned gas station.

Comments

[semicharmed]

Matt doesn't gasp. But he does let out kind of a shuddery exhalation as the flame in his hand goes out.

Lurching forward--not really in front of the shield spell, but not not in front of it--he calls, "There's something controlling her!"

[nita_callahan]

Nita jerks back against the seat, trying to wedge herself into a corner.

"You idiot," she hisses. "I'll bite off her tongue!"

[forewarned_is]

The very edge of Kali's mouth curls into a sliver of terrible smile.

"And if you do anything of the kind, vetāla," she says, "how do you plan to stop me from eating you?"

[semicharmed]

Matt could swear he tastes his own heart's blood on his tongue.

"If I take down the shield," he says in a rush, "can you knock her out?"

[forewarned_is]

Kali doesn't take her eyes off the demon in Nita's body.

"Do it."

[semicharmed]

As soon as the words are out, Matt lets out a breath--



The golden gleam around Nita disappears.

[nita_callahan]

Nita lunges for the door.

[forewarned_is]

And the car shakes again as Kali leaps off the hood to land on the other side of that door, to wrench it open with her right hand -- with both right hands --

One left hand shoots out to seize the demon by the throat, the other to strike, hard and precisely, across the temple.

She releases her grasp as soon as she's sure the temple blow has done its work.

[semicharmed]

Matt spills out of the driver's side, steady but wild-eyed. His eyes flicker to Kali's arms.

Then to Nita.



"I'm sorry. I don't know how it happened."

[forewarned_is]

"They can strike very quickly," Kali says, quiet; not exactly gentle, except in comparison to how she was speaking a moment earlier. "Are you all right?"

[semicharmed]

He nods, raking a hand through his hair. (That spot on his head still hurts.)

"I'm fine," he says. "It didn't get a really good shot at me before I trapped--them."

[forewarned_is]

"Good."

She studies the unconscious Nita.

"Matt, do you know how to pull one of these out without harming the one they're riding?"

[semicharmed]

Matt frowns.

He was going to ask her the same thing.

"I can figure it out. Or talk to someone who knows. But for that I'd need time, and books, and--the bar. Basically."

[forewarned_is]

She glances back up at him, sharply.

"Would it be safe to bring them there?"

[semicharmed]

"Oh--that, yeah, a lot safer than the other options that come to mind. One time we--"



He shakes his head.

"We, uh, got rid of a demon there. Nita was a big part of that."

[forewarned_is]

She nods, slowly, and then straightens to scan the area around them.

And breathes out in resigned irritation. "Searching will have to wait, then," she says. "Let's get you back."

[semicharmed]

His lips twitch into a deeper frown.

"Yeah," he says. "Well, for a door, the gas station seems like the safest bet."

Which they're still a little ways away from, in deference to "Nita's" safety concerns.

[forewarned_is]

"Agreed."

She crouches slightly, and gathers Nita's limp form into her arms. (Just two arms, now. It's hard to say when the other two went away.)