Something Old, Something New

29

Freya raised her hands in surrender, trying not to swallow too hard lest the sword point cut into her throat at the movement.

"Where's the evidence lockup?" Arthur asked. 

"I can't tell you that," Freya replied, her voice only shaking a little bit. She found she wasn't all that bothered that she was most likely going to die. But she couldn't remember the last thing she'd said to Iris, and that was troubling, bordering on unacceptable. 

"I will kill everyone in this building," Arthur stated, and yeah, Freya had pretty much known that simply saying 'no thanks' was not going to have much effect. Her lab was on the same floor as evidence lockup, because she and the other lab techs were the ones who usually needed access to it. Freya tried to hope that one of the other lab techs would notice something wrong when Freya walked by, clearly being threatened by a sword.

"I am going to take this away," Arthur said, and he moved the sword a bit, which made Freya very nervous. "You're going to stay quiet and take me to evidence lockup. You're going to sign out the sword. I don't care what excuse you use. Then you and I are going to have a little chat with the folks upstairs. Merlin and I have some unfinished business."

Freya had been pretty sure who she was dealing with from the moment a sword-point had been leveled at her throat, given the possession rune, and her trust that Merlin would not be so enamored with someone who was clearly a raging psychopath.

"You're Emma," she said, and Arthur - or not Arthur, whatever - smiled.

"What gave me away?" He (she?) said sarcastically.

"You're dead," Freya stated.

"My body is, but that was always part of the plan." Maybe if Freya could keep her talking, Emma would reveal something that she could use. She was pretty sure from hearing both Iris and Merlin's accounts of what had happened before that Emma liked to monologue.

"What plan?" Arthur-Emma looked at her with a condescending smirk.

"Do you think I would just tell you? I'm sure Merlin and the other one told you how much I talked about my plans when I had them." Emma stopped like she was waiting for Freya to get something that was right in front of her eyes. And...oh.

"You meant to die," Freya said aloud. If Emma had meant to die, then all of the monologuing, the revealing of her plans to Merlin and Iris, all of it, was on purpose. She'd wanted them to win.

"Look at that. You're already smarter than the other two, and I think that's enough conversation. Let's go." Emma lowered the sword, and Freya was tempted to make a desperate motion for the panic button. "No funny business or I'll make you watch while tear through every single person in this precinct." 

"Someone would stop you," Freya argued. Surely Emma couldn't take on an entire building full of trained people with guns. She had a sword. Emma smiled and raised a hand. 

"Incendae." A tongue of flame ignited, curling between Emma's fingers. Oh. Okay, well there was that. Emma closed her hand and the fire disappeared. "Get going." Freya started moving.

Freya's mind spun as they walked. Emma walked next to her. She'd even left the sword in Freya's lab, but Freya had no doubt that Emma could and would snap her neck with just a few words and maybe an overly dramatic wave of her hand. Freya needed something she could use. She was supposed to be able to see things other people couldn't see. She'd detected the parasite latching onto Arthur's aura, she just hadn't recognized it for what it was. The walk to the evidence lockup was not a long one, and Freya did not have nearly enough time to form a coherent plan.

She shot a glance, as covertly as she could, to Emma. Arthur was much taller than Freya, probably just an inch or so taller than Merlin. He was built like a football player. None of this was useful. In fact, it was all things that were to Emma's advantage. Arthur's aura was still off, and that was even clearer now that Freya knew what was going on. She focused on that. That she could work with. Her eyes travelled over it.