Mission Impossible

[Robert Stephens]

"I don't know."

And as far as Robbie was concerned, he didn't care either. Her family wasn't about to hang her or burn her at the stake. They wanted to keep her indoors, not locked up the way they did to her brother. It was Charlie and Robbie that Robbie was most worried about--a fact evidenced by their obvious imprisonment.

He looked around at their surroundings. They were locked up in a room, it seemed, but one without furniture. No bed, no drawers. One door and no windows. He didn't know if they were still in that place with Temperance's brother in a cage or if they were back inside the manor that Temperance and her family lived in.

Reaching up, he felt his throbbing head and his fingers also came away with rust-red smears. Blood. But he wasn't bleeding now, and neither was Charlie. Slowly, Robbie crawled over to him and sat up. Then he helped Charlie up, too. "What do you think they'll do to us?"

[Charlie Ayers]

"Well," Charlie said, "I thought they needed me. But maybe they'll just kill me off and find her a more... compliant husband."

He didn't like that idea. The way they were using Tempie just didn't feel right. She was a person, not some tool for them to use. But by the looks of things, the Hazletons viewed their children as little more than exactly that--tools. Tempie was to marry into some demon summoner like himself. And that boy... what did Tempie call him... Teddy? He could have sworn he had a very different name, some uppity upper class name--but he couldn't remember for the life of him what it was. It didn't matter. Tempie mattered and he had to get out, to find her.

But... he also cared for Robbie. They were blood. They were brothers. For a long time, it was really just them. Although Robbie had been strangely quiet lately and maybe a bit of a creeper (Tempie's words, not his), Robbie was still Robbie, that kid brother that came to him with his skinned knees and his math homework.

Charlie slid an arm around his brother's back.

"I'm sorry, Robbie... for getting you into this. But we'll find a way out of it. We always do."

[Robert Stephens]

"'s not your fault," Robbie mumbled as he shifted closer. He slid an arm around Charlie's waist too and leaned his head against Charlie's shoulder. When it was just them, like this, he felt... right. Nobody getting in the way and nobody threatening to steal Charlie away. Charlie was all he had now and selfishly, he wished that he was all Charlie had, too.

Wasn't he enough? Why did Charlie need Temperance? Look where being with her landed them--in here, in a locked room. Charlie even had to summon a demon in order to please her family, something that Robbie was sure would shorten his life in some way. Being bound to a demon was draining; it wasn't just a contract and some fancy incantations.

"Hey!" He straightened. "What about Kor? Can you get in touch with him?" Maybe by now, Kor would have recovered and he could come get them out of here.

[Charlie Ayers]

Maybe...

Maybe this had all been a mistake. But if it was, Charlie didn't want to admit to it because he didn't regret meeting Tempie or falling in love with her. He might have fallen in love with her even if they weren't meant to marry but Tempie said there was somebody else. Somebody they took from her and he saw the pain in her eyes when she said it. She'd been hurt so much by her own family.

Charlie didn't want to be that for Robbie. His little brother was counting on him. The big brother had to be smart and cunning and protective. He had to make sure they got out of this alive. Or at least, that Robbie did. Gently, he laid his head against Robbie's head and he sighed so heavily that it felt like his very soul had left his body.

"I'm so..." Tired, he was going to say, but Robbie suddenly popped his head right back up and Charlie jerked his head back so as not to be head-butted.

"Kor..." He wiped at his face again. How long had they been out? Not long enough because Charlie really did feel more tired than he had ever felt. He almost believed that if he laid back down and closed his eyes, he would fall into a deep sleep and never recover, never wake up. Drawing a knee up to his chest, he narrowed his eyes, and then closed them, feeling for Kor somewhere in his mind, where he always dwelled.

"He's... I don't think he's doing so well... But he's alive. Just not answering me."

He could feel Kor in there, curled into a tight little ball of pain and anguish. But he was there.

"I don't think he's going to be able to do anything for us right now." He took in a breath. "Maybe... Maybe I can try reaching out to a new demon. I... I felt others, when I was helping Tempie try and break that shield. Maybe some of them are still around."

[Robert Stephens]

"That guy did something to Kor, didn't he? Teddy." Robbie saw it all unfolding before his eyes, the way that the thing inside the cage looked at Kor when Kor tried to take his power away. It was like nothing Robbie had ever seen or felt before and it frightened him. He wasn't usually nervy or prone to undue flights of fancy, so he knew that what he felt was significant.

The suggestion of summoning another demon made his grip on Charlie tighten. "No! What if it goes wrong? Wait a minute. Wait." He got to his feet laboriously. God, how his head swam. But at least he hadn't exhausted his strength trying to break into that cage back there. Robbie was just knocked out. His magic was weaker than his brother's, but he wasn't totally helpless!

Staggering over to the door, he felt all around it, at the hinges, at the handle. It was locked, but to his surprise, it wasn't magically sealed. It was just closed! He turned back to Charlie with wide eyes and a bit of a hopeful smile on his lips. "Charlie! Maybe we can break out!" Perhaps they weren't all that concerned about Charlie and Robbie. Perhaps they were busy with Temperance, and thought that they would lay unconscious in the room until someone got to them.

He bent his head to the lock again, studying it. It was the old-fashioned kind with a large keyhole, but he couldn't see much beyond it. Robbie jiggled the handle, then felt across the hinges again. Maybe if he heated them until they melted... He tried, at any rate, and focused all of his power on the one hinge.

[Charlie Ayers]

"Yeah," Charlie said, trying to remember just what happened to Kor during the entire event. Had he been left lying there, a dead cat? No, no. He was alive. His presence was there. Charlie could probably even find him if he followed that presence. He rubbed his aching chest. So many people hurt in their attempt... They should have planned better. He lowered his head.

"I think he was... eating him. His energy."

He couldn't be sure but... it sure seemed like that. The energy was going somewhere and it wasn't going into the shield. Charlie was pretty sure that Tempie's brother was doing to Kor what he'd tried to do to Charlie. He bit his lip and shook his head at Robbie's insistence that he not try to summon another demon. Actually, he was right. If Charlie tried right now, the demon would tear right through him. When he summon Kor, he was strong, he was at his prime, he had a lot of energy. Now he was on empty, zero percent.

"How?" Charlie asked, looking up tiredly. With great effort, he used the wall behind him to get to his feet and he stumbled toward Robbie, watching him. Of course Robbie was a witch, too. He wasn't useless. The hinge seemed to melt away, molten metal dribbling down the side of the door.

"You're doing it!" Charlie tried to push against the door and it groaned. One hinge did not a doorway make, it seemed.

[Robert Stephens]

"Hey, don't touch it! It's hot!" Robbie said unnecessarily, as red-hot, glowing, molten metal pooled and slid down the side of the door. The smell of burnt wood soon assailed his nostrils and he wrinkled his nose, but moved on to the second hinge.

Because... yeah. One hinge didn't do much for them.

After the second one was gone, Robbie gave the door another push. It creaked, but held. He felt it rock, however, and heartened by that, he gave it a harder push. The whole thing swung open and revealed an empty hallway.

Robbie gulped. He reached for Charlie's hand as he peered out owlishly, blinking into the light. "I think we're back at the house," he whispered. But that meant that they were surrounded by Hazletons...

[Charlie Ayers]

Charlie gently ran a reassuring thumb over Robbie's hand, ever the big brother. He couldn't help it. Even if he was the weaker one that needed protection right now, he had to protect his brother. Even if it was just his feelings. He didn't want to see Robbie hurt or worse. Naively, he thought life would be better here, when he was married and they were settled in. If he'd known that Robbie would have been thrown into danger, he never would have let him come with him.

"Where in the house?" Charlie asked in hushed tones, peering around to see what hallway they were in. It was no hallway he remembered. And the room they'd been in seemed to be some kind of... he didn't know. Some kind of storage room without much in it. Where would that be situated in a house like the manor?

"Basement?" he hazarded a guess. "Old cellar, maybe?"

[Robert Stephens]

"Basement maybe." It was quite chilly down here and he couldn't see any natural light. Robbie stole quietly down the hallway with Charlie, breath bated. His nerves jangled but he tried to keep a cool head. No use freaking out and putting them both in danger.

"We need to get out of here... Maybe they won't come after us..."

It was Temperance they needed, wasn't it? Robbie heard things about her. About her entire family. They had Big Plans and Charlie was only a peripheral part of them. Robbie? He barely registered on their radar at all.

So... They could just leave, maybe. Leave and never return...

[Charlie Ayers]

"Wait," he said, tugging on Robbie's hand to pull him closer. Yes, he understood they were in a basement and they might even have a prime moment to escape but...

"What about Tempie? What about Kor? We can't leave them here."

Again, he could never live with himself if he didn't do everything he could to help them. He had no idea where that sense of justice and charity came from. Charlie had just always been that way--the little boy that fixed broken airplanes and nursed drowned squirrels back to life. He could never leave broken things broken.

[Robert Stephens]

"We can't help them if WE get caught again!" Robbie argued, half annoyed that Charlie was still thinking about Temperance and half annoyed that he felt bad about feeling annoyed. There was no love lost between himself and Temperance but even Robbie had to admit that the way she was treated by her family was cruel and unusual.

Still. He wanted to get out of here. He was spooked and he'd been knocked out. That didn't happen every day to Robbie—he wanted no part of any of that!

"We can come back for them. With Kor! When we're not..." He flapped his free hand frantically. "Like this!" If a rescue HAD to be mounted, they should at least be in good shape. The way that they were now, they were about one tap to the head away from a permanent nap.

[Charlie Ayers]

"No..." They couldn't help if they were caught but they couldn't just LEAVE. It went against everything Charlie was, everything that made up Charles Ayer as a person. If it was Robbie, he wouldn't leave him and now Tempie had grown to be an important part of his life, too. And Kor. Well... Kor was a demon and he could probably find a way out on his own but Charlie couldn't help remembering the lifeless form of a helpless cat.

"But we... if we just leave, they're going to think we abandoned them."

Kor probably wouldn't. Kor didn't have the same kind of feelings they did. If anything, he'd be more irritated with Charlie for leaving him behind than anything else. Anyway, Kor was easy enough to get back. All Charlie had to do was summon him; the contract was still his so whatever happened to him, he could be brought back to him no matter where they were.

But Tempie...

"She's going to think I abandoned her," he amended. "She'll never trust me again if I leave her. We have to find her, Robbie."

[Robert Stephens]

"But what good are we to her if we're caught and... and killed?!" Robbie insisted heatedly, frustrated with Charlie's one-track mind. He could be like that, Charlie. Once he had his sights set on something, he was dogged in its pursuit. It was the same with Temperance, too. Robbie admired his brother's long chivalrous streak but it could be dangerous, too!

"They'll have her guarded! There's no way for you and me to get her out. You're weak, Kor's not here and I..."

Robbie's powers weren't useful here. Unlike his brother, he couldn't summon powerful demons. He could summon weak little things, but the brunt of his magical abilities laid in their banishment. And unless every Hazleton was connected to a demon, he doubted that his abilities were useful here.

"Come on, Charlie! We're wasting time! She'll understand! She wanted you to leave before!"

[Charlie Ayers]

True, if they were killed, they were no use to anybody. But Charlie had that strange invincible streak in him, where he just felt that if he was doing the Right Thing then everything would work out in the end. This was the Right Thing now, to make sure that Tempie was okay. Sure, they had her guarded but there had to be a way to reach out to her.

"She didn't, though!" Charlie argued. "Not really! She just... says things like that to keep me from getting close."

He had been telling himself that for a while with some hint of doubt but now he was sure. The way she held onto him, the embrace she gave him... Despite everything, he was sure now that she trusted him. Maybe she didn't love him or didn't love him the way he wanted her to, but she trusted him. No way could he betray that trust.

"We have to find a way to at least contact her. I can't just leave."

[Robert Stephens]

"You can contact her from the outside! Once she hears that we escaped, she'll know that... that we'll come back for her!" Then, almost to himself, "You always do."

It felt like everything these days was Tempie, Tempie, Tempie. Charlie's feelings for her came out of nowhere and Robbie had been secretly hoping that they weren't real. Infatuations happened every day, but Temperance was a Hazleton. She wasn't related to them by blood—and blood was thicker than water.

Robbie tensed and put a finger to his lips. Was that a noise? Footsteps? He looked up and down the hallway, almost forgetting to breathe, but the noise soon passed. "Come on Charlie!" He hissed urgently. "Kor—once he gets better, he can get a message to Temperance! But we have to get out now!"