Sable

They were halfway to the tower. Sable thought over and over about what Conor had said. Had he meant that he wasn't going to be coming back with her? She had only just gotten to know him; he had to go back with her- she needed him. How could she just go back to her normal life without him?

She stared a hole into the back of his head. How dare he think that he could just abandon her. Unless he would be joining her at a later time-? Maybe he had lied to his men, and he was planning on going with her after all.

Conor froze and held his arm out, keeping Sable behind him. Ahead of them a demon stepped through the trees and onto their path, two smaller demons accompanying it. It was obviously large- six differently sized horns on its head. Its arms had long blades protruding from them. Sable gasped at the sight. And it turned its ugly head toward them.

"Stay back, Sable," Conor said. He stepped forward as the demons approached, and unsheathed his sword.

"Conor, I can fight too," Sable said. She moved to stand next to him; Conor looked at her from the corner of his eye. Sable pulled out her own blade.

"I'd rather you didn't," Conor sighed. "I don't know how much energy you've burned."

The demons had finished approaching before Sable could point out that she had a limitless energy source surrounding them. The giant demon lifted one of its blade-arms in a defensive stance.

"Which one of you would like to die first?" the demon growled in a distorted voice, similar to what Finnian's had sounded like. It paused and sniffed the air, and then stared intensely down at Sable. "The goddess Inara. I'll devour you and absorb your energy for myself."

It swiped for Sable, but Sable and Conor dodged and swung at it at the same time. Conor's blade took off one of the creature's arms, while Sable's blade embedded itself deeply into the monster's side. Electricity flowed from Sable, through the blade, and into the monster. Its body jerked violently. When Sable pulled the blade back out the giant beast toppled over to the ground, its body still convulsing.

Conor swung, and the monster's head came off. Sable turned to the two smaller demons that were coming after them after their leader had fallen. She raised her hand and allowed energy to build- cold this time- and then allowed it to release. A strong wave of cold air froze them in place.

"You're amazing," Conor said. He swung at them, shattering them to pieces.

"Thank you," Sable said. "I told you I could fight. The whole having powers thing is becoming more and more... normal. Like I've had them my whole life."

Conor nodded. "Shall we continue on? There are bound to be more where they came from," he suggested. "I'd rather run into as few of them as possible. We're making it through now, but I am growing tired."

"I can handle myself," Sable said, offended. "Admit it though, we make an amazing team. But you're right... let's go."

Conor led the way again. Sable returned to staring a hole into the back of his head as she followed him. She could press him about it. He wouldn't like it, and he probably wouldn't answer her at all, but she needed to ask.

"Conor, are you going to be- staying behind, here?" she asked.

"Sable, I'm not going to talk about that right now," Conor said. "If I answered, then you'd refuse to go home- where you'd be safe."

"Fine, then," Sable huffed. Conor stopped long enough for her to catch up, and then he took her hand in his.

"Sable, I'm serious," he sighed. "My world is falling apart. The threat of the demons is far too great. We can't even trust most of my own kind. It's better for you to be back in a world where no one knows what you are, where no one is trying to obtain your powers. Can you at least understand that?"

Sable sighed too. She looked down at their linked hands, chewing on her lower lip. He had a very valid point; it would be a lovely change to be back in a world where magical powers were virtually nonexistent.

"Okay," she finally agreed. "But we're not going to close the gateways right away. I'm going to wait for you- for you to finish off the demon army."

"Sable... it's too dangerous," Conor argued. "I have no clue if I'll make it out alive. And what if a demon comes through while you're waiting?"

"Well, then I'll just kill it off," Sable stated like it was a fact he should have known. She frowned. "And you could solve the able-to-die issue by becoming my familiar."

"Sable, we already discussed that. And this conversation is over," Conor warned.

"Fine, but I am still waiting for you," Sable wouldn't budge. Conor was quiet for a long moment.

"Alright," he agreed.

Relief flowed through Sable. She squeezed his hand tightly; she knew he would make it out alive. The tower came into view then.

"It's quite a climb," Conor told her. "I've only seen it a few times. It's actually quite a pretty thing, quite interesting."

"Have you ever been to my world before?" Sable asked.

"I have not," Conor shook his head.

"I think you'll like it," Sable smiled. "We may be far below your advanced technology, but we are all, for the most part, at the same level. There aren't many areas that are behind in their technology."

"I see," Conor chuckled. They reached the door to the tower, and Conor held it open for Sable to pass through. He followed in after her.

"Describe the gateway to me?" Sable asked. "I've never seen it before. I want to know what to expect."

"Well," Conor began. He led the way up the winding staircase. "It's- it's a little bit hard to describe. I guess... it doesn't really look like a gateway, or a doorway at all. It's just this swirling, glowing mass of energy. It's really quite beautiful. You'll see it."

"It sounds beautiful," Sable agreed.

Conor looked over his shoulder at Sable to make sure she was still following him. Sable smiled at him; Conor smiled back at her. A nervous feeling started in the pit of Sable's stomach.

She really did not think that she was ready to go back home. She had only been gone a few weeks- perhaps a month- but she felt like she wouldn't be able to readjust to her old life. Besides- a whole month had passed. What even was going on in her realm? What all would have changed while she was away? She was definitely a missing person by then.

Conor squeezed her hand; she hadn't noticed that he had taken it in his again. She squeezed gently back, and let out a long sigh. Things would be very complicated upon her return. She needed Conor at her side when it all went down. She had grown used to him being there.

"Are you ready?" Conor asked.

They had already arrived at the top of the stairs before Sable knew it. Another old, wooden door rested at the top. Sable stared hard at it for a long while, and then she finally nodded.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said.

Conor nodded and pushed the door open. Sable was blinded for a few seconds by the bright light that then streamed out through the open doorway. She shielded her eyes with her free hand, and then looked again once they had adjusted.

It was exactly as Conor had described it: a bright, glowing, purple mass of energy. It was actually quite large, and took up most of the room. Sable gasped in amazement.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Conor asked her. Sable nodded, and couldn't find her voice. "The few times I've visited- I mostly just stared at it for hours. I did study the pattern that the energy flowed in for a little while. It gets even brighter when a storm is coming. It turns green when someone is passing through it."

"Wow," Sable gasped.

"Are you ready to go back home?" he asked.

"No," Sable said. "I'm scared. I've been here nearly a month. Everyone over there probably thinks I'm dead by now, and has moved on without me."

"Time passes differently in both our worlds," Conor shook his head. "You'll have only been gone a day or so. You can come up with whatever explanation for anyone who may have noticed your absence. The real problem will eventually be your friend Alex's disappearance."

"Conor, how do you know that there aren't already creatures on the other side waiting for me?" Sable asked.

"There would be a red swirl in the energy," Conor explained. He pointed out toward it. "I told you, I've spent a while studying it. And not many people know of it. Now stop stalling. It's time for you to go home."

"Okay," Sable nodded. "I'll wait for you."

Conor smiled and pulled her close. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Sable closed her eyes for that brief moment, and smiled.

"All you have to do is walk through it, and you'll be transported back home," Conor said. "And then we'll destroy the gateway."

"Okay," Sable said. "See you on the other side?"

"See you on the other side," Conor smiled back at Sable. He gave her a gentle push toward the mass of energy.

Sable faced the glowing mass. It didn't look very safe, no matter how pretty it was. Conor would probably force her through it if she continued to stand there any longer though. She stepped over to it, and stopped right at the edge. She looked back at Conor, who smiled at her and nodded reassuringly. She faced it again.

Sable sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then stepped through the mass of energy. Electricity hummed all around her, tickling her skin. She opened her eyes and found herself suspended in mid air, surrounded by a wide array of pastel colours.

Suddenly she was falling- falling fast. The feeling of being on a roller coaster flowed through her; she was being whipped around. Sable screamed at the top of her lungs, holding her hands out in front of her- whatever good that would do for her though.

Finally she came out on the other side, falling hard against the floor. She groaned and just laid there a moment; her body ached. She squeezed her eyes shut tight for a moment as a wave of nausea came over her and then passed, and then she opened her eyes again.

She rolled onto her side, and then turned to face the gateway, watching it turn from green to purple again. She waited.

"It should only be a few seconds, or so, for me," she whispered to herself. "Assuming the battle doesn't take too long..."

She continued to watch the glowing mass of energy. She gasped and excitement built up within her as it began to glow green again. She sat up and chewed her lip.

Something was wrong. The thing was expanding and turning blue. Sable's heart sank. He wouldn't have... Would he have? She scrambled to her feet as it continued to expand, backing away from it.

And then it turned gray, and dispersed. The gateway no longer existed. And Conor hadn't joined her.

"No!" Sable screamed. She rushed over to where it used to be and knelt there. She grasped at the floor, hoping to will it back. "What!? No!"

She started slinging waves of energy at the floor, trying even more desperately to bring it back. She stopped when she was tired and realized it was useless. The gateway was gone; it was not coming back. And Conor was still on the other side. He would never be with her.

"No," Sable sobbed, dragging the word on a long time. "No, please. You asshole."

Tears streamed down her face. She punched the floor, and then cradled her hand as pain throbbed through it. How could he have done that to her? what was she going to do without him? She wasn't a normal human anymore. How was she going to go on pretending that she was?

He wasn't human either though. She realized that it probably would have been even harder on him to be there and pretend. He hadn't been human for a long time. Sable had only just been normal a month ago; she could relearn easily.

"No," she whispered again. "That doesn't matter. You were supposed to be here with me." She touched the floor gently. Had that been his plan all along? As much as she wished he had, a goodbye kiss would probably have made her suspicious.

"Bastard, now we'll never see each other again," she cried. "There could have been something..."

She sighed and rested her chin on her knees, hugging her knees to her chest. She could hear what he'd probably say to her then. It's for the best. I don't belong in your realm.

If they had formed the familiar bond, would she have been able to bring him there by force? There was no way to tell. She stayed there and cried a long while.

When she had finally finished crying, she stood up. She wiped at her face and sniffled. It was time to go and face life back in her realm. Where had she left her cell phone? At work. She could explain that she had been so tired that she had forgotten it.

She made her way out the door slowly. The building she was in was not a tower there, but a small one-room cabin. It was in a familiar place in the woods, and the outer edge of the trees broke away tot he highway that led into town. At least she wasn't lost.

She walked back to town slowly, getting bitten by mosquitoes and smacked in the face by tree branches. It could have been worse. It could have been a surprise attack by a demon. But she was alone there; she was the only being not human there.

Unless there existed more people like her there, that used to be stars? Virtually harmless to her, and probably with no memory that they had ever even been a star- just like Conor. Almost just like Sable. She shook her head.

The highway was pretty barren of passing cars, but the sun setting in the sky told her that it wasn't the time of day for there to be a lot of traffic anyway. She smiled and crossed the road safely, making her way over to the side her town would be on.

As she thought about it a bit more she was quite excited to see everyone again. Conor be damned; she would meet some other cute guy and fall in love with him then. It was bound to happen...

There was the diner she worked at. She stood in the alley, at the back door. She chewed on her lower lip and pondered going in. She had done it on many other occasions, when she wasn't on shift... It felt wrong to do it then, but what difference would it make then? She shook herself out and pushed through the door.

"Sable!" Kim called from the stove, immediately once Sable was inside. "Hey, you crazy kid. You left your cellphone here the other night, and your roommate has been looking for you. What happened last night? Both you and Alex disappeared. He never showed up for his shift this morning, so I had to take it, and his phone line has been disconnected."

Sable froze. 'Alex's' disappearance was already causing problems. He's dead now, Sable thought bitterly. Never even existed in the first place.

"Well, what happened to you guys?" Kim pressed again. Sable snapped out of her thoughts to find her staring expectantly.

"Oh, just," Sable sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "No clue what happened to Alex. But I just- I just needed to disconnect myself from everything for a bit. A day was long enough- you know I can't survive long without my cell."

"Of course not," Kim laughed. "No idea how you even left it in the first place. It's in the office in your lock box. See you tomorrow morning!" She turned her attention back to the stove.

"Bright and early!" Sable smiled meekly as she passed Kim. The pretending thing was easy. She even greeted other fellow coworkers with a smile as she made her way through, and then back out of the diner with her phone.

Now that she had her cell phone again she unlocked it and checked everything. Twelve missed calls from her roommate. Had Kim not told her that Sable had forgotten her cell phone? Sable smiled to herself and dialed the number.

"Hey, it's me," she said when Maria answered. Maria blasted her ear off with her crazy theories about what had happened.

The two had planned to go out earlier in the day together. Sable's disappearance had ruined said plans. Sable sighed and rolled her eyes as Maria continued to chew her ear off through the phone.

"No, sorry," Sable laughed. "I'm sorry for making you worry. I just needed a break for everything. I should have at least called, or texted you. I'm back now though. I'm okay."

It didn't feel right to lie. But Sable was safe. And she was home. And her roommate was waiting for a makeup hang out session. She hurried on her way home, forgetting about Conor and the whole ordeal for a short while.