11calls | (no subject)

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.

Alex was in the process of reaching for her oxygen mask when she can feel the world turn cold. She can feel the sea around her, and she's not surprised to see Tiamat sitting next to her and holding her hand. For a moment, Alex just stares at her, and it's all she can do to swallow. Then she does something surprising, and for the first time Alex doesn't need to say anything aloud.

Are you done trying to scare me now?

The surprise is evident, and Alex just speaks aloud in it. "I didn't know. I wasn't trying to manipulate you." She doesn't know why she feels the need to say it, because she does. Maybe because there's that ever-blurring line between the Goddess and Richard, or maybe because of the empathy she felt for her before what she'd done.

"Stop this."

Please.

Richard loves you. It may as well be just the two of them, I think he loves you more than anyone ever - in his whole life. Almost as much as his daughter - his flesh and blood. And he has been fighting me at the great moment of our triumph.

She shakes her head.

Denounce him. Tell him you despise him and I'll let you live-

Something cracks in Tiamat then and she looks around wide eyed and scared

Tell him you despise him!

But perhaps Alex may sense - may know inherently - that Richard would never believe it if she lied like that.

He wouldn't believe it even if I did lie. And it would be a lie, Tiamat.

Alex still doesn't know how she's doing this, she still has no idea how any of this is happening, or what the hell it means that she's supposed to be Marduk, or why Tiamat looks so scared. But she does know that she's not going to tell a lie that would be useless to everyone involved. Including the Goddess herself.

You don't need to do this. I don't want to hurt you, Tiamat. I don't want any of this bullshit. You don't need to rip the world open. It isn't going to fix anything. It's not going to undo what happened. All it's going to do is make Richard really seriously hate you if you hurt me. And we both know that he will.

Alex just reaches out for Tiamat again, touching her cheek. Please just stop all of this.

The goddess leans into her touch, eyes hopeful - before she tears away wtih a snarl.

Richard.

Is.

Mine.

I want a willing vessel but he doesn't have to be wholly willing. I won't share you. I won't share either of you with the other-

And the plane nosedives. Nic is shoved back against his seat and the plane is righted but only after people bounce around and Tiama's eyes burn red. Bright red.

When you are at our rebirth you will see. Richard can't keep stopping me from hurting you.

He just can't.

If you kill me now, I won't be there. There's desperation in the thought that Alex flings to Tiamat. Her heart is in her throat, and she wonders just how much of this is whatever Mantle Alex is allegedly (and she's going to keep thinking of it allegedly or she's going to lose her mind) supposed to have and how much of it is Alex herself.

If you kill me then you don't get to have me, either, Tiamat. Is that what you want? Is your anger worth that?

Alex just kisses her then, desperately, trying to make the Goddess see that it doesn't need to be like this. None of it does. They don't need to do this just because that's the way the story is supposed to go.

Electricity crackles outside the airplane and Tiamat starts to take her hand, to pull her into nothingness, to take her away - and the plane rights itself.

There is a second scream and Tiamat has gone with news that they are making an emergency landing in a city a few miles out from Geneva.

Nic, gasping looks over to Alex, "...Are you okay?"

Alex is pale, and she just says softly: "I think I'm going to be sick." That was entirely too close for comfort, and she knows it. She can feel the electricity around her, and she can feel it lingering in her tongue and on her lips. She knows how close the plane had come to crashing, and she knows how close Tiamat had been to taking her, and both of those are her fault.

She wants to throw herself into Nic's arms and cry, but Alex just takes several deep breaths for a moment, putting her head onto her knees. And then she realizes something, and her cheeks turn scarlet and she whips her head up so quickly that she almost feels like she's going to pass out from it. "Did you see her? She was here. Tiamat I mean. Did you see her?"

"Yes."

The lie is spoken without hesitation and he hates Richard Strand in that moment because Alex looks absolutely out of her mind but maybe...once this is over...once whatever happens happens...

He wraps his arms around her and squeezes her, "You ever wish we'd stuck with the geocatching segment? Just....just a very tired exhausted thought from...from me."

Alex doesn't know it's a lie, but if he's hugging her anyway after that it can't be that bad, right? She just makes a small combined sound of a sob laugh as she holds onto Nic, and she just shakes her head. "No. I really don't." Because she wouldn't have met Richard, and none of this would have happened, but then there wouldn't be a Richard in her life, and the illusion of safety doesn't undo the fact that she loves him and has for a very long time now.

But she also feels the need to explain the kiss so, she does. "Tiamat wants me. And she doesn't want to share me with Richard, I think because he's fighting her so hard on this. He was here before, when I was asleep. He..." Alex can't say it, she can't say that he wants her to end him like she's supposed to end Tiamat. "I was trying to show her that there has to be another way than doing all of this. Then trying to kill me. And that's why I kissed her."

Right.

"Alex..." The plane bumps gently, "We were almost in a plane crash. Whatever you have to do to survive you should have done it."

He is a very good liar. That's why he has what little power he has, but she might be able to see through it. Even as he moves to hug her again.
--

The sword is in a museum - a comedy of errors the likes of which Hollywood might love. They take it however, and it is Alex's.

It was always, always meant to be Alex's.