11calls | (no subject)

There is a resistance, and Nic Silver is a part of it.

It's not intentional. Days ago he was just a fucking producer on a goddamn podcast and now he was trying to save his best friend's boyfriend from becoming some sort of demonic monster. That had been Simon Reese's order - and taking orders from a noted murderer aside he was happy to at least try to stop it. Whatever the cost.

Reese watches. He doesn't trust him but he does trust Richard Strand - or the thing that was Richard Strand who is commanding him to keep Alex safe but somehow subtly sending signals as to where they need to go. From Seattle to Geneva to battle the forces of darkness and the end of the world.

They can't teleport - like apparently Alex said Richard could - but he stirs and looks over at his seatmate.

"...Sorry. I don't think I meant to fall asleep." he yawns, "This is just...a lot. Are you okay?"

She had been diving into research. Sleeping somehow even less than usual.

"I'll knock you out if I have to. We're not good to him, to the planet apparently, if we're passing out on the steps of this stupid temple."

"I can't sleep." Alex knows that she sounds exhausted, that she looks exhausted, and that she looks like some sort of refugee from her life dressed in Nic's sweatshirt and Simon's pants and a pair of kid's shoes. At least Nic managed to grab her spare glasses when he was at work, because she doesn't think that she could have handled contacts for this many days when her eyes are so dry and tired from her lack of sleep. "And knocking me out would be a bad idea," the words are a caution as Alex just closes the notebook that had been Strand's, and she holds it to her chest almost like a Teddy Bear.

"When I dream, Tiamat finds me. It's dangerous for me to sleep, for all of us, okay?" Alex's voice is sharply defensive, far more than she wants it to be and it makes her sigh. She doesn't want to go into what Tiamat does or say when she manages to find Alex sleeping, how she can command the darkness and the demons to find them and try and stop them on their quest. Tiamat won't kill her, at least not before she's standing in front of the Goddess and Alex knows it, but Simon and Nic have no such assurances, at least not now.

Alex tries not to think very hard about how if she had kept her word, they would have been protected even if the world wasn't.

But Tiamat promises Alex's safety in the dreams. She promises love, both of herself and Richard. She promises Alex her share of the world if she would just stop this. Alex won't stop, she can't stop, because she can't let Richard down. Alex Reagan has promised Richard Strand that she would save him, and she means it.

Instead, she just shifts in her seat to look at Simon. "I think it's time you tell me what you've been avoiding for days. Why Richard sent me to you."

Simon comes and goes as he pleases. Reappearing in different seats or beside different people and it hurts - somehow it hurts that Alex is no longer shocked by this.

But he is fulfilling his purpose before the queen calls him to the chessboard and he folds his hands.

"Marduk."

He had seen Richard. Richard had summoned him, commanded him and he had gone with horror and fear. Seeing the good Doctor as he had been, as he was now...

He didn't tell Alex. He didn't dare.

"Marduk. The legend of he who slayed Tiamat. The one I was trying to summon. It's funny how the universe ends up working things out right? Absolutely wild."

Nic glares at him, "She asked you a question."

"Shut up."

He bares his teeth at the producer before he turns back to alex, "...Marduk is the only way to stop her. To rescatter her body and spirit."

Alex had read the Enûma Elish more times than she can count at this point, and she doesn't know if she would count Marduk as a hero. Maybe it's just the way she could feel Tiamat's lips linger on her own or the sadness in her, but it's hard to reconcile the two. Of course it's easier now when she remembers what Tiamat had done to her Richard. He's always hidden from her in those dreams Tiamat sends her, and she suspects that it's for a reason.

But she frowns, and she shifts in her seat, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them with a soft sigh. Alex can feel the exhaustion slipping deeper into her bones as if someone was sucking the life out of them. "Marduk was a storm god who made the other gods name him King of the Gods if he did it. He's kind of an asshole. Also gods are really stupid, because none of this would have started in the first place if Abzu hadn't planned to kill the younger gods, so they killed him and Tiamat wanted vengeance."

And then there had been the monsters that Tiamat was already summoning into the world. Monsters they'd already barely escaped from once.

"So how do we get Marduk to come in and do it then? And how do we protect Richard from him? It's not exactly as if he's a nice guy or something."

Simon stares at her, before staring at Simon with a sad little sigh before he gestures, "There's a sword we're going to go and uh...steal. Well I'm going to steal it. You're going to collect it."

Nic's eyes go wide, "Wait what?"

"It's fine." Simon waved a hand, "Once we get the sword I'm told everything will be explained, at least that's what my reading has demonstrated."

He pauses, "You need to think about what Richard may want Alex."

There may as well only be the two of them in the world at this point, simon's eyes boring into hers, "...He's a genetically perfect vessel for Tiamat and I think he's thinking of Charlie - as well as you. If they don't take him, they may take her."

"A sword..." Alex says the words softly, and she doesn't look away from Simon when she says it. Ignoring Nic right now is easy, and Alex just shivers, she can't help it. Charlie was supposed to be safe too. Charlie and Ruby and Amalia and Nic and Simon. All of them were supposed to be safe, and Alex can't help taking the blame of that firmly on her shoulders. They've lost people already--she's fairly certain that Coralee is dead, and that Tiamat killed her already for what she'd done to Richard. And now there's Charlie.

Charlie who broke his heart.

"Fuck." Alex swears very rarely, but it seems like since this whole thing started she's been doing it more and more often. But she can't help it, because there doesn't seem any other word that just fits with this entire mess. Her voice gets very quiet and she just adds: "you think he has to die when Tiamat does, don't you?"

He doesn't want to sugarcoat it. Something in his chest twists and he shakes his head, tilting to stare at her.

Before he lowers his gaze.

"...Let me rephrase the question for you. If you were host to a massive demonic god would you want to live?"

He folds his hands, "I think he will resist with every fiber of his being but I think you need to get the sword. I think you need to see."

"I know he's resisting. If he wasn't, Tiamat wouldn't be trying so hard to get me to come back and keep my promise." Alex says softly, admitting it for the first time to them. She doesn't know what Richard told them before he'd gotten her out, but in the days that they'd been traveling, she'd kept it quiet. Even when they lost contact with Amalia and Alex had been filled with panic.

Her only hope was that Tiamat was keeping her alive so that she could use her against Alex later or that she was using her as proof that the Goddess was keeping her promises, even if Alex wasn't.

But Alex doesn't expand on it, instead she just asks: "me the sword? You mean..." She has to do it. She has to be the one to kill Richard. Her heart just twists and Alex looks haunted and hunted. Which she actually is being, so at least it makes sense. "How far away from the sword are we? Where do you need to go?" There, that was easier than thinking about Richard dying in her arms.

"Geneva."

For a moment the plane fades out of reality and it's just Alex and Simon.

It's a power he may not have demonstrated before. It's a power he's never shown before and when hes its crosslegged and stares at her he points.

"Marduk tore her to pieces. We get the sword. We do what we must." He pauses, "I can do this because she is close to her full power. Because Richard is calling me, and them, and her army to her and when we are there, everything will fall beneath his feet."

He pauses, "I'm sorry."

He is truly sorry, sitting at her side in the place between. Staring up he tries a nervous smile, "...This is pretty cool though right?"

Alex just looks to Simon shocked for a moment, her eyes wide with fear as she just follows what he points to. The sky, tearing her to pieces and that Alex knows. What she didn't know was that Richard is calling to him, and to all of the hordes that Tiamat has ever assembled. It sounds like her version of hell. It is her version of hell, honestly. Especially with Simon apologizing to her for what she's going to need to do.

Frowning, Alex can't say that it's cool; she's seen it happen had it happen too many times with Tiamat at this point. It's worrisome, but Alex does trust Simon, and she doesn't think that he would do anything to put her in danger. At least not intentionally. But Tiamat is getting stronger because Richard is getting stronger and god knows what will happen if she can't.

If she can't kill them.

"So, we just go find a sword and then it has the ability to kill her? Or is it like a puzzle piece we're just grabbing. You said that I would see when we had the sword. What does that mean, Simon?" Since Alex had been forcefully pushed into escape by Richard, she's been touching the bruise on her collarbone like a touch stone. Alex is doing it now.

The boy was a boy once. A true boy who never had a grand destiny or intended to be in these machinations. He's no longer a boy but he looks a little lost at that.

"You should leave it alone."

It might be hard to tell if he's talking about the sword? Or if he's talking about the bruise. Tilting his head he studies nothing before turning to look at Alex.

"Marduk was never meant to slay Tiamat he-"

And the boy's eyes go wide. Panicked. Scared - and-

There's a sucking noise, then a sound like hands scratching along the world they're in and Simon is gone and in his place-

For what it's worth Richard doesn't look inhuman...here. Apart from the unsettling dragon blue eyes he looks like himself but turning to Alex his features falter and he presses his lips together before he looks scared.

"You couldn't be quieter about this?! You're making noise you-" He turns to where Simon was and gives it a panicked glance before moving to take Alex in his arms. Fuck what pain this might cause him.

Alex Reagan has really never been all that good at leaving things alone. At all. If she had been, then none of them would be here now. Probably. Alex knows that the reason that Richard even started to believe in any of this stuff was because of her. Yes, she’s pretty sure that’s what tiamat means by bringing him to her. In no small way this is her fucking fault.

But when there’s the noise, Alex uncurled from how she was before into a standing position. If it’s Tiamat, then Alex isn’t facing her looking broken, even if that’s how she feels.

Her chin is jutted out in determination and her eyes narrow and if Simon would have allowed it, Alex would have pulled him behind her. But Simon was gone and Richard was here.

He’s here and he looks almost the same and she just fights the smile at the corners of her lips.

And then she’s in his arms, and she’s holding Richard just like he’s holding her. Tightly and not wanting to let go. “Are you okay?” Alex’s voice is small and tight and then she looks around for Simon. “Is he okay?”

His hug is tight and warm and real and he might feel more real than she's felt since before. Since before the club. Since before her.

"...I don't know."

That's the truth. But he holds her as tight as he can and kisses her head, "I tried to put him in a place that she would...respect without hurting him." He swallowed, "Much. This is all so new to me and I think-I'll do my best to protect him."

He pulls away, hands gripping her shoulders, "Alex, you have to be more quiet. Go to Geneva. The sword killed Tiamat. Marduk forged it. Marduk is the only one who can wield it. He was never meant to slay her but when he did the universe uses it as a check on chaos."

His chest rises and falls.

"Listen to me. Simon isn't Marduk"

"What?" Alex just blinks, and worry for Simon devours her chest, making her heart beat faster, harsher. Tiamat is going to know that Simon is helping her, that he has been helping her since the entire thing had begun. She's worried that the Goddess is going to hurt him to get to her to get to Richard, and it's exhausting to think about. Of course Alex is someone who has always cared, but having people's lives in her hands now that she knows what she's doing is harder than she'd ever expected.

"If he was never meant to slay her then what happened? Then how do we stop her now, and of course Simon is Marduk. He'd been trying to summon him since he was a kid! He has to be. He's the only one who it could be." She just frowns harder, but she keeps her voice down when she's doing it, as if being physically quiet is the actual problem here and not that Tiamat has a web wrapped around the world and she's progressively drawing it tighter and tighter around Alex, Nic and Simon.

And Richard. She can't forget him. As if she ever could. Alex wants to ask about what Simon implied, but she can't, not right now.

"Just because someone summons something doesn't mean it'll summon where it wants to go."

His hands stroke her face, his eyes focusing on hers, stroking them before he presses his forehead to hers.

"The universe is chaos. Tiamat is the child of the universe. Maybe - Tiamat isn't a...look just trust me. Marduk is here. The hero has been summoned. And the hero must. Slay the dragon."

Read his thoughts Alex.

Alex is just freezes as what he’s dancing around actually hits her. It’s not hard, really considering that Alex is known for jumping to conclusions in a spectacular fashion. This time she’s hoping that wrong but the sinking sensation in Alex’s gut tells her that she’s not.

“No.” Alex just whispers the word, trying very hard to not whimper it and she mostly succeeds. Mostly. “It can’t be me, Richard. It can’t be! I’m just me.”

Alex feels more than a little sick but her gut is also reminding her of all the things that Tiamat has said, and that Richard has said that she did. “That’s why she wanted me. That’s why she needed me to agree. To stay. That’s why it felt so good for you to control me.” Her voice is still a little shaky and she can’t help but add: “but I already failed once. I gave her my word and I love you, Richard. I don’t know if I can kill you.”

Later she’ll wonder if it’s a love that the two of them chose or if it was just Tiamat and Murdak and this fight between them.

"Alex."

His voice is soft, gentle, it might not be a voice she's ever heard, "Alex I am...not a good man in the slightest. I wasn't before this. And that's not Tiamat - but you...you made me want to be better. You're magic. and...I believe in you."

He laughs weakly, looking away, "And this is me. Alpha Skeptic Richard Strand saying that."

"You saved me. After Coralee I buried my heart and swore to never love anyone ever again. And you dug it up and thrust it back in my face and told me that wasn't acceptable. You saved me. I'm asking you to save me again."

His fingers stroke her hair and then twitch.

"Take the sword. Fulfill your birthright. and I...I will fight against mine."

“I think you’re a good man.” Alex says quickly, and her voice is thick with tears in a way that he’d never heard it, not even on her sleep note when she had woke up from the nightmare with that cat. “And I think you’re worth it I always have. And I love you.”

She’s just sobbing openly now, without meaning too. “There has to be a different way. If I’m magic then there has to be.”

There’s a soft laugh and a bad joke. “I’ve never been good at following a narrative anyone has ever set for me, Richard. Don’t fall in love with your interview subject, don’t sleep with a chaos goddess, kill the man you love. It’s not fair I’m expected to do it now.”

"Damn it."

He's crying too, "Damn it Alex - Damn it. I want you safe. IF I have to fight with you - I can't. And She'll force me to. Just once. Just once Alex...."

He kisses her hard and she can probably feel his fangs bumping against her teeth.

"Besides. You may not have a choice."

“There’s always a choice.” Alex just protests, even though she can feel his fangs below his lips. “There always is, Richard.”

She refuses to believe that neither of them had a choice in this. That this is all birthright and destiny bullshit.

Alex may believe in a lot of things, but she doesn’t believe in that.

“What was he suppose to do when he actually killed her? If it wasn’t that?”

"I don't think it matters anymore." His voice is soft, "What matters is that we're angry and we can't be stopped unless someone stops us."

His voice is soft, "I love you. Please don't hate me."

“Why would I hate you? This isn’t your fault. It’s hers. And whoever the hell made the deal for this in the first place. You didn’t chose any of this. And that’s what is so damn unfair about all of it.” Alex just kisses him again. Holding onto him so tightly that she’s pretty sure that it might hurt, Alex just murmurs. “Please don’t hate me for this. I...”

She couldn’t do it if he was going to hate her for it.

"I'll come back to you. It will have to be like this but I will come back. I swear. You...ground me even with all your flights of fancy and-"

He traces her cheek and then vanishes in a pull of light.

---

Outside the realm of nothing and everything, Nic Silver is reading over the museum he's supposed to take Alex to, questioning his life choices, everything that led them here -

When the plane rocks - hard, papers spilling to the floor.

He blinks as a few people shriek and he moves to shake Alex awake, "Alex!"

The plane rocks back and forth and back and forth and somehow he knows - he doesn't even have to think about it in detail he just knows that this is Tiamat, or Richard, or both of them. One is blurring into the other.

Alex's cheeks are wet in her sleep, and when she's jolted away, it's with a soft and heartbroken sounding sob. But the world and the shrieks around them rock and echo, and Alex just becomes present instantly. Grounded. Richard had said grounded but it couldn't be this, it was too literal.

Alex Reagan has never been a great flyer. She can do it, and does to it often, but the rocking like this is kind of the worst case scenario for her and she knows that Richard knows it. Which means Tiamat knows it, which means that this is intentional. Damn it, she told Simon that she couldn't sleep because it would mean that Tiamat would have found her, and this is exactly what she'd meant.

Reaching forward, Alex just wraps her hands around Nic's, holding onto her best friend for dear life. "How long was I out?" Because she wants it to be that they're close, and that they're not over the ocean or something. And then she looks around: "where's Simon?"

"What? He-"

The plane rocks again and shakes and bucks and people are screaming now. Nic can't respond as it dips a hair and he feels his heart squeeze in his chest.

Stomach rolling, he presses his lips together and prays to God, even though God had been so damn silent through all of this...

"He hasn't been here-!"

The oxygen masks drop and he slides one over his face while...

While a slim hand fills Alex's and the seat beside her is occupied by a familiar dark skinned woman, with Galaxy eyes.

Ah. Marduk.

On the way to the temple of Tiamat, Days Later

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