From: glenn@v-wave.com (Glenn St-Germain)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative,alt.tv.forever-knight
Subject: "KNIGHT LEAP", part 03/04
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 16:25:47 GMT
Organization: Videotron Communications Ltd. (V-WAVE)
Message-ID: <33d23bb2.6001134@news>

Knight Leap
A Quantum Leap - Forever Knight Crossover
by Glenn St-Germain


Part 3

    Sam parked the car in front of the nightclub, located just off the
main drag in Toronto's nightclub district. Schanke decided
to stay in the car, ostensibly to monitor calls. But from Schanke's
attitude, Sam could tell that the nightclub was not exactly
Schanke's favourite place.
    Inside, the lighting was dark. Couples and small groups, mostly
dressed in black, sat at tables along the wall; a few more
people sat on stools at the bar. A small dance floor was along the far
wall, but no one was dancing, despite the dance music.
    Sam went to the bar and leaned against it with one elbow, looking
over the crowd. The place seemed to appeal to an
assortment of fringe types: new wavers, punk rockers (Were they still
around in 1993? Sam wondered), and the like. Black
was the colour du jour for this place.
    The music matched the decor, sounding like a fusion of disco and
punk. Alternative, he thought, that's what they called it.
He listened for a moment, trying to identify the performer, but came
up blank.
    Sam turned to see a tall, handsome woman in a tight, black lace
dress sit on a stool beside him, facing the open room. In
her hand was a half-full wine glass. She didn't look at Sam, but she
spoke to him.
    "I was wondering when you would come, Nikola," she said.
    "You have something to tell me?" he replied.
    Jeanette looked at Sam.
    "Something you want to know?" she asked.
    "I think you know what I want to know."
    "I only found out myself a week ago."
    She paused, taking a sip from her glass. Sam was sure that it
wasn't red wine she was drinking. She continued.
    "It is Lacroix. He has returned."
    "I thought I... took care of him."
    Jeanette laughed.
    "Nikola, Nikola... even after so long, you can still be so naive."
She turned toward him. "I find it exciting."
    "I'm sure you do," replied Sam.
    He felt very uncomfortable, watching as a lady vampire made a pass
at him. He wondered if she could see through him, if
she could somehow detect that he was not really Nick Knight. Animals
and small children could see Sam for what he really
was... could vampires?
    "Lacroix was very hurt by what you did to him," she said. "It took
him a long time to recover. He went away, and I
thought he'd be gone for quite a long time."
    "You mean you knew he wasn't dead?"
    She looked at the floor, ashamed.
    "Yes," she said finally, looking up. "I didn't want to tell you...
I did not want you to worry, my Nikola."
    She reached up and stroked his cheek. Sam tried not to wince. He
also made a mental note that she saw him as Nick
Knight. He was safe. Or relatively so, anyway.
    "So now he's back," he said. "What does he want?"
    "He's very angry, Nikola. I think he may have gone mad."
    "What makes you say that?"
    "Do you remember why he brought you across? It was because you
represented everything he hated. He thought by
making you one of us, it would destroy what you were. And yet you
persist in acting like one of them."
    She absently waved her glass in the direction of the crowd.
    "And that bothers him?" asked Sam.
    Jeanette laughed. "You still hang on to that shred of humanity
which he so despises. In fact, it is getting stronger. I can tell.
And I think Lacroix has lost his patience with you."
    "I didn't ask to... become one of you."
    "He doesn't care about that! You still represent everything he
hates. And I think he has given up trying to mold you in his
image."
    She turned toward him again and gripped his upper arm with her
free hand.
    "Nikola... he wants to hurt you as badly as you hurt him. And
since he has found he cannot hurt you directly, he will strike
at that which you hold most dear. One way or the other, he will try to
destroy you. And I do not want that to happen."
    She kissed him, a quick peck on the cheek. Then she grabbed him,
pulled him to herself, and gave him a passionate kiss
on the mouth that caught him completely by surprise.
    "Be careful, Nikola," she said, letting go.

    A few hours later, Sam and Schanke were cruising down Young
Street, heading toward the Lake Ontario waterfront. The
sky was clear, and there was a cool breeze blowing in from the lake.
And so far, the night was uneventful.
    A rock song started playing on the radio, which Schanke turned up.
Sam listened for a moment, trying to place it.
    "Remember her?" asked Schanke.
    Sam thought for a moment. Finally, the name "Rebecca" came to
mind.
    "Rebecca?" he asked, tentatively.
    "Come on, Nick. As if you'd forget. It was you who cleared her."
    A dim recollection entered Sam's mind... a heavy-metal singer
called Rebecca, who was killed onstage during a concert
several years ago. In Toronto.
    "Isn't she dead?" asked Sam.
    "Very funny, partner," replied Schanke. He looked at Sam for a
moment, then snickered. "I get it. Okay."
    Sam wondered what Schanke was talking about. He wished Al were
around so he could check with him about some
details. Like Rebecca.
    Almost as if on cue, Al appeared next to the car while they were
stopped at a red light. The light turned green a second
later, leaving Al behind, standing in the middle of Yonge St. Al
adjusted the handlink to keep himself centred on Sam, leaving
him floating alongside the Cadillac as Sam drove on. To Sam, it looked
strange; Al's gold jacket and neon purple shirt made
him look even stranger. He grinned.
    "I wonder where she is now," asked Schanke as the song ended.
    "Who?"
    "Rebecca! Jeez, partner, you're just not with it tonight."
    "I guess not."
    "Been thinking about what I said? About Natalie?"
    "Among other things."
    Al listened to their banter for a moment, then cleared his throat.
Sam looked at Al with an apologetic glance.
    "Feel like a coffee?" asked Sam.
    "No thanks," replied Al.
    "You really are acting weird," said Schanke at the same time.
"You're starting to act normal."
    Sam pulled to the side, in front of an all- night diner.
    "This one's on me," said Schanke as he got out of the car.
"What'll you have?"
    "Black, no sugar," replied Sam.
    When Schanke was gone, Sam turned to Al.
    "I talked to Jeanette," he told the hologram. "She confirmed our
suspicions. Lacroix is back, and it seems he has it in for
Nick."
    "That jibes with what Nick told me. It seems that this Lacroix
character is a major sicko. He turned Nick into a vampire
just because Nick was a knight in shining armour. Did you know that
Nick was in the Crusades?"
    "No... but he was in the Civil War. I saw his face in a book on
war photography."
    "He gets around. Anyway, I got some news on the next victim. It
happens later tonight, but not for a while yet."
    "How do you know that?"
    "Ziggy got the police report from the Canada Justice Department
computers. Someone heard the screams. It was about
three thirty."
    "It's just after three now."
    "I'll tell you where to go... Oh-oh. Here comes your partner."
    Schanke climbed into the car, carrying two styrofoam cups of
coffee and a small paper bag.
    "What's in the bag?" asked Sam.
    "Donuts. Want one?"
    "Not right now, thanks."
    Sam started the Cadillac and pulled onto the street. This time of
night, it was nearly deserted.
    "Turn right at the next light," said Al, floating alongside the
car. Sam turned right.
    "It's just around here somewhere," Al continued. "Keep your ears
pealed for a..."
    A loud scream, a woman's voice, pierced the night air.
    "... scream."
    Sam took a sharp U-turn and headed east. Al moved himself ahead of
the car and waved toward an upcoming alley.
    Another scream. Sam turned the car into the alleyway and switched
the headlights to high beams. Farther down, a dark
figure retreated into the shadows. Sam stopped the car, climbed onto
the seat, and jumped over the windshield onto the hood.
He ran toward where the dark figure disappeared, Schanke following
close behind.
    On the ground, in a doorway, Sam and Schanke found a teenage girl,
shaking and crying. There was blood on her neck,
but the wound did not appear serious.
    "Stay with her!" called Sam. "Call an ambulance!"
    Sam turned the corner into the side branch of the alley and
continued to run. He had to stop when he reached a wooden
fence. He looked around for a way past it, something to climb on. A
few crates were piled along one wall; Sam climbed them
and jumped over the fence.
    Landing hard in a crouch, he looked in all directions. Nothing.
Nothing was moving. He heard nothing except the far-off
wail of a siren. He leaned against the fence, catching his breath.
    Ahead of him was a doorway, the light above it burnt out. A
shadowy figure stepped out of the doorway toward Sam.
    "Hello, Nicholas."
    The man took another step, and Sam could make out some features in
the dim moonlight: short-cropped blond hair, a
malevolent grin on his face.
    "It's been a while, hasn't it, Nicholas?" he said.
    Sam replied with one word.
    "Lacroix!"
    Sam was guessing that this man before him was Lacroix. Al had
given Sam the description Nick had given him of the
vampire who brought Nick over to the world of night.
    The two stared at one another for a moment. Finally, Lacroix broke
the silence.
    "No 'Hello'? No 'Nice to see you'? Nicholas! For shame! After all
we've been through together!"
    Lacroix started to pace in a slow circle around Sam; Sam turned
slowly to keep facing Lacroix.
    "What do you want?" asked Sam.
    "I wanted to see you. I missed you."
    "Is that all?"
    "Nicholas! Aren't you glad to see me? After all this time?"
    Lacroix grinned, an act that made him look almost demonic. He took
another step toward Sam; his expression changed to
one of puzzlement.
    "Nicholas! You've changed! I sense... something about you is
different. How extraordinary!"
    Sam gulped, wondering what Lacroix had detected.
    "Nick?" Schanke's voice called from the other side of the fence.
"Nick? Where are you?"
    Sam turned his head toward the fence and called back,
    "Skank! I'm on this side!"
    He turned back toward Lacroix.
    But Lacroix was nowhere to be seen.

    The girl's name was Michelle Andrews, from Sudbury, Ontario. She
had arrived in the city a few days earlier, and was
trying to make a living on the streets. She had just left a party held
by some new friends when she was attacked by Lacroix.
Sam had someone in the department run a check on these "friends" of
hers while a police psychologist helped her calm down.
The wound on her neck was superficial, and would heal.
    "You think that was our killer?" Schanke asked Sam, as Al looked
on.
    "I'm sure of it."
    "Well? Did you get a good look at him? What did he look like?"
    "Uh... it was dark. I couldn't see him too well."
    "Just our luck."
    Schanke went to speak with Captain Stonetree. Sam picked up the
phone again so he could talk to Al.
    "You've changed history again, Sam," said Al. "Michelle goes back
home in a few days. A social worker there helps her
with the problem she's having with her family... Uh-oh."
    "I don't like the sound of that," replied Sam.
    "You've really changed history! Lacroix's next victim is tomorrow
night."
    Al looked worried. Almost scared. He continued.
    "According to the new history, his next victim is Doctor Natalie
Lambert."
    A short while later, Al returned to the waiting room to plan
strategy with Nick. No one knew Lacroix like Nick did;
Nick's input would be helpful in saving Natalie's life.
    According to the current, recently revised history, Dr. Lambert
was murdered... will be murdered... the next night for
Sam, at Nick Knight's loft. Knight himself was arrested for the crime
as the prime suspect; he somehow escaped while in
custody, and was never seen again. Al knew that Knight, in this
history, had escaped by using his mesmerism power to have
the guard release him, then disappeared into the night. He wasn't
going to tell Nick any of this, but simply mention that Natalie
was in danger.
    When he arrived in the waiting room, he found Dr. Beeks standing
over Nick Knight; Nick was white as the sheets on
which he was lying.
    "I don't know what's wrong with him," said Dr. Beeks. "It's like
he's wasting away."
    Al had kept the knowledge of Nick's vampiric affliction secret,
even going so far as to order Gushie to forget what he had
seen. He looked at Nick, who lay there, unmoving. He then turned to
Dr. Beeks.
    "I think I know what's wrong," he said. "Could you get Gushie for
me, please?"
    Doctor Beeks gave Al a questioning look, then shrugged and left
the room.
    "Nick," said Al. "Can you hear me?"
    Nick stirred, briefly, but said nothing.
    "Nick. I need you alive. I... we need your help."
    "Natalie..." Nick mumbled.
    Gushie entered the room, acting nervous.
    "You wanted to see me, Admiral?"
    Al turned toward Gushie.
    "Go down to the medical lab and get me a unit of blood," he said.
    "Blood, sir?"
    "That's right, blood."
    Gushie looked at Nick, gulped, then left the room. A few minutes
later, he returned, carrying a bag of blood from the
medical facility's blood bank.
    "It's type A," he said "I didn't know what you wanted."
    "That's fine, Gushie."
    "Can I leave now? He gives me the creeps."
    Al nodded. Gushie ran from the room. Al twisted open the valve at
the bottom of the bag and squeezed a drop onto
Nick's mouth.
    This is disgusting, he thought to himself.
    The smell and taste of blood brought Nick around. He sat bolt
upright and reached for the blood bag, almost grabbing it
out of Al's hands. Al let the bag go; Nick put the IV feed to his lips
and drew a long pull. A moment later, he stopped drinking,
and looked at the floor.
    "Thank-you," he said, weakly.
    "I guess you can't go for more than a few days without... without
eating," replied Al. "How long has it been?"
    "Two weeks." He snickered, a derisive, mirthless laugh. "So much
for my seeing it through." He looked up. "Natalie has a
theory, that the blood is what keep me from coming back."
    "Looks to me like you were starving."
    "That's how it always ends. Time was, I'd become an animal. If I
went too long, I'd start hunting people. An uncontrollable
urge. Not anymore."
    "Sounds like you've been making progress," replied Al, trying to
sound encouraging.
    Al noted that Nick almost looked like he was in pain, to be
telling him this. He also noticed that although he drank greedily
from the pint of blood which he was given, the look on his face was
one of revulsion. After a few minutes, Nick spoke again.
    "Do you know what it's like," he said, "to go day after day, being
something you hate? To never see the sun? To never
know the touch of a beautiful woman without it being tainted by... by
what I have become? Sometimes it's very hard to go on."
    "I know this is going to sound like a stupid question," said Al,
"but if you hate living so much, why don't you just stay up to
watch the sun rise?"
    "I think about it once in a while. But when I finally end my
existence on this Earth, I want it to be as a man, not a monster.
If I died now, I would be unredeemed."
    "A vampire with religion. I love it."
    Nick gave Al a sideways glance.
    "You care a lot for Natalie," said Al.
    "Very much. We met in her lab..." Nick smiled, remembering. "I was
injured trying to stop a robbery. Someone threw a
pipe bomb at me. They thought I was dead. I came to inside a body bag
in her lab.
    "She wasn't scared, not really. Even though I tried to frighten
her. I told her what I was, that I was a creature of evil. She
said an evil person wouldn't have tried to stop a crime. She said she
could help me.
    "Here she was, faced with a creature who could have ripped out her
throat to drink her blood, and she wanted to help
me."
    "She sounds pretty special."
    "She is. And with her help, I've regained some of my humanity. I
can hold a crucifix. A small one, but it's a start. She
helped me get onto the Toronto police force; I faked an identity from
Vancouver, and transferred in."
    "I wondered about that. How did you pull that one off?"
    "I used my mesmerism power to have a clerk enter the required
information into the computers.
    "This was four years ago. Natalie is my best friend... she's done
so much for me. If only I could be human again..."
    "I don't know how I can help," said Al. "But I need you to help
us. Natalie is in danger. It's Lacroix. And he is trying to
hurt you by hurting those close to you."
    "I have to stop him! Get me back to my own time!"
    "I can't. It's up to Sam. Somehow, Sam has to change history."
    "To you, it is history. To me, it's the present. What happens?
Tell me!"
    "I... it's not pretty."
    Nick's eyes glowed red, just for a second, and he stood up.
    "Tell me!" he growled.
    Al gave Nick a stern look.
    "Cut that out! I'll tell you. Lacroix kills Natalie."
    Nick sat back down, stunned.
    "It hasn't happened yet for Sam," said Al. "He can prevent it.
Since I can tell him what's going to happen and when, he can
change it. That's what he does in the past, he changes things for the
better. And now it's your turn. But you have to tell me
about Lacroix."
    Nick remained silent for a moment, then took a sip of blood.
    "All right," he said finally.