11calls | (no subject)

"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.

Alex doesn't know what to do with a sword. Especially an ancient stolen, golden sword that really does belong in a museum. It makes her arm ache a bit to hold onto it for too long, like there's some sort of electric current inside of it. It's giving her a headache, the whole thing is, like the waiting for a thunderstorm to start to roll in. So, Alex ends up with it in her lap, sitting on a seat in the back of a van, and she just looks to Simon.

"I thought I would just know everything I needed to know when I touched this." Alex does touch it again, because in some ways it's like she can't stop touching it. Like a sore or a bruise or something. "I mean. I know it's supposed to be mine. That much I can feel. But it doesn't like give me any sort of 'hey maybe do this so the whole world doesn't turn into a nightmare space just your life, thanks!' instruction manual. Something."

She sighs. "I know they're going to Babylon. To her temple there. But they were supposed to do that before."

Nic rubs at the back of his neck. He's hopped up on coffee and he's struggling to stay awake but Alex...

Something has changed in Alex and he wonders if she can see it. She's brighter, crackling with energy. An unstoppable force. He listens to her talk before opening the book that he had to try and find the passage about it-

It's Simon who speaks. Simon speaks like he's speaking to an adult he respects, like he's speaking to someone with power and authority.

"Marduk wanted to be king over all the gods, so he slew Tiamat. He wasn't supposed to. He drove her mad. Mad things...have to die. Chaos can't be directed. She has to go back to being formless. He damned all of us."

The younger man struggles, breathing for a moment before lowering his gaze.

"I spent so long summoning you. Or trying to."

Alex just frowns for a moment, and she needs to open up the window because she’s so hot. Because she’s she doesn’t know what she is. But. “I don’t think it works like that with him. Not the same way that it does with Richard and Tiamat. You didn’t see them together. It really was like the they were one person split into two bodies. Richard had a hard time separating them. I’m not having that. He could hear her in her head. They were having conversations. About me mostly I think. But.” Alex just shakes her head.

“Marduk was never supposed to be the King of the Gods. He was never supposed to kill her. Just scatter her. The universe needs chaos and he tried to wipe it out. The other gods, the older ones. They knew that. So they scattered him I think. But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t nullify her anger. And rightly so I think.”

Alex just pauses for a moment, and when she stops, she realizes that the three of them are outside. They’re not in Geneva anymore. They’re outside the temple of Tiamat. Alex brought them there without even knowing that’s what she was doing.

She just frowns hard and looks to the sword that’s still in her lap, and the pinkish light of the dawn that’s starting to bloom across the sand.

“You did summon me though, Simon. You summoned me and not Marduk. Did you always know?”

Nic hurls. He grips at the sand - it's his first time biolocating as Simon keeps his focus on Alex. He will be called soon. Called to the armies, he knows it. This may be the last time they see each other.

There is a momentary twitch, and then a shudder as the other man's eyes roll back in his head before rolling forward - ink black. Dark as night.

He smiles.

"I knew I was trying to stop them. And I know that's what you'll do. Stop them. Let me tell you this - this is not the last time we'll see each other. If here, or on the other side...that I can't tell you but I know this is not the end."

The eyes would have scared her before, but they don't know. Maybe they wouldn't even have scared her before she'd gotten the sword once she had met Tiamat herself. She knows that he's probably right. That he was trying to stop them. Alex just frowns and she takes a step towards him, and she extends the hand that's not holding the sword out to him. "I'm sorry. I wish I could be sure that you're safe, Simon. I..."

She doesn't tell him that he was on the list she'd made with Tiamat before everything that had happened. She doesn't tell him that she's sorry. She doesn't know what to tell him other than one very important thing: "You'll have sunsets. Whatever else happens afterwards, Simon. You'll have sunsets."

Simon closes his eyes and looks up in the sky before looking back at her.

"No one is ever ready for this,"

He doesn't fade, he's just gone leaving Nic in his place with his throat working staring at Alex.

He's seen this through to the end. Some part of him wants to be let go too but he feels...

"...We should have stuck with Geocatching." It's a running joke but also he stands, shivering, "...Can we grab me a gun before we charge in there?"

Down below them, nearly out of site, are cars and men with guns.

"Unless that sword comes with superpowers?"

"It kind of does." Alex just gives Nic a little bit of a grin, but it's the smallest, thinnest and saddest one. She can't help it. "I mean I bilocated us here. That's good for a start, I guess." She just hugs him very carefully. "I should have left you back in Geneva, Nic. I'm worried what's going to happen if I bring you in there. She just tried to kill me, and she wants me. Before that she wanted me to be like a hostage for Richard's good behavior. Because..." She just sighs.

"Maybe we should have stuck to Geocatching." The words are a borrowed bad joke, and she gives her best friend a little smile.

"I don't know what happens now, Nic. I don't know how all of this is supposed to happen. I don't even know if I can kill them. But I'm worried if I bring you in, you'll die too. I don't think I can handle losing Richard and my best friend in the same day."

"If this is one of your "hey, stay back because I'm planning on doing something stupid- I'm not leaving but I'll stay here and cover your escape."

He pauses, "Don't say - we're not going to escape.. You're getting out." It's a prayer as he throws his arms around her tightly, "You're getting out."

The trucks move and he looks at Alex a little sadly.

"...Can you...sense him?"

There? somewhere below? Being prepared, being purified for the ceremony?

"We're getting out," Alex repeats dutifully, and just hugs him even more tightly before she ends up letting him go. She has to let him go otherwise she's not going to be able to go through with...

Something drives Alex down onto her knees. It hurts and it's sharp and she just takes a deep breath before her hair flairs around her like it's caught in a wind that exists only from her skin. Holding onto her sword, Alex just closes her eyes. Instinct is something that she's always acted on her entire life, so she trusts it now when she fades from the world.

She fades and the appears in the shadows of the room that Richard is in, trying to keep herself wrapped in them, hidden until she knows what's going on.

It feels like it's been a lifetime.

There has always been Deva, there has always been Tiamat. Something died when Coralee did, and there is less of Richard. He's still there however, dressed in a black silk robe baring his shoulders.

There are scales there. On his shoulders, swirling patterns. The ones remain across his features and his horns have grown. Folded, sitting beside him...

His eyes open.

"Ah. A wind blows in." His nostrils flare, "who could it be I wonder? If it's who I think it is, you're too late. I have embraced her.

"Richard..." Alex just drops the pretense of the shadows, and she drops the pretense of stealth. That's not who Alex is. She's not someone who cheats and tricks and does everything she can to win. She's just Alex, and Alex just loves Richard. All of Richard, even when he's covered in scales and has horns and says things like that.

"I don't believe it's too late. I won't believe it. If it was too late, I would know it, Richard. And I don't know it. I know you're still you. I know you're still fighting because you're trying to buy me time to save you from what she wants you to be. What she wants you to be isn't who you are, my love."

Alex just takes another step towards him, her eyes not looking away from what Tiamat has done to him. She doesn't flinch, because he's still hers. He's still the man that she loves.

"You are not her creature. You don't need to be. I'm not Marduk. I may be his mantle but I'm still me. You can come back, my love. I can help you. But someone in this needs to give someone a fucking choice here. I want to give you this one, my love. And I don't want to hurt you. Please don't make me do that."

It's a simple motion. He rises and raises a hand to push her away with the wind, with chaos, "...Could you."

His smile is an animal, "Could you kill me. I've broken Richard. What you may sense, Marduk, is not him. It is me, It is luring you."

And that is a lie, but Richard is incredibly pained, staring down at Alex.

"...You will not stop our ascension."