11calls | (no subject)

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."

Alex raises her hand, and the wind around her stops. Tiamat is Chaos, but what Alex has inside of her now is Order, even if it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to her that she would ever be someone who would wield something like that. Fear is farther away than it has been, probably in her entire lifetime honestly, but the fear for Richard is still there, pulsing against her heart, surrounding it in her chest as it pulses.

Her voice is soft, because Alex is choosing to use it. She's choosing to talk to Tiamat as herself and not as the power that is swirling inside of her like a storm. "I am not Marduk, Tiamat. I may have his power, someone may have tried to form me into him through my genes or whatever but I'm not him. I don't have his voice in my head. The other Gods, your children, my siblings, they punished Marduk for what he did to you, Tiamat. You were never meant to die. Marduk cheated, Marduk lied. Marduk was wrong in what he did to you, Tiamat. I don't want to do that."

When she speaks again, it's in Ancient Sumarian. "Lover. Please let him go. Let all of this go. He's not someone who has a choice in this, Tiamat my lover. I know Marduk pretended to love you in order to get close to you. I would never do that to you. I'm not doing this to you. I just want you to finally rest. I want you to be safe. I want Richard to be safe. Is destroying the world really going to be what makes you happy?"

The Richard thing struggles, clawed hands twitching, before he bares his teeth.

"If you hadn't dug. If you hadn't pried. I wouldn't be here." Tiamat is all venom and he has to get that out, "Coralee is dead because of me. Charlie is in danger. because of me and you..."

His body warps, it shimmers and twitches as he lets out a scream before Tiamat smiles through him.

"The whole world shall know my rage." The creature's voice is thick with pain, "You will all know my pain. I will tear this world apart and we will be a world where no one will have to suffer like that again!"

It's Warren then, Warren who appears with...what looks like a corpse. A frail and elderly woman who Richard takes by the hand." Richard takes her arm and Warren bows.

That's when the guns are cocked. Hundreds of them. Guns pointed down at her.

"Ah Marduk." Warren murmurs, "At last. You destroyed our goddess once before. That won't happen again. Given time Marduk's desires for power would consume you. Resist that.

Come with us. Witness the union and perhaps you and Tiamat could...be together then."

Lies. Lies and more lies.

"Unless you mean to kill hundreds however, Alex. I suggest you come quietly."

Alex doesn't say anything for a long moment. Instead what Richard's words echo within her head, she can't help it. Coralee is dead, Charlie is in danger. The entire world is in danger and she can't disagree with him. With them about that. So Alex just stands there for a long moment, watching the frail woman and Richard before she looks back to Warren.

Sexy James Bond. That's what Alex used to call him, and now that she's looking at him, she can't see what she'd seen before. She just sees power and hatred for her. It's like a radiating black hole but Alex doesn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her flinch. Even if she didn't have Marduk's power within her, Alex wouldn't have done that. Thomas Warren is a servant, but a dangerous one. She knows that he would pull those triggers on her if he thought that Tiamat wouldn't destroy him in her rage as well.

Alex just holds up her hands, empty and bare. It's funny, she'd always thought that at the end of the world she'd be holding a tape recorder, because someone should see. Because someone should know what happened. But it's been weeks since she's laid a finger on one. All of this, this story that they're living hasn't been one she can tell to the world. All she can do is live her part of it.

And subvert that narrative that it wants to repeat.

"I am not Marduk, Warren. And I've never wanted power. I don't want it now. All I've ever wanted was to know. All I've ever wanted wanted was Richard. I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to kill anyone." She means it, and what is unsaid but she doesn't think it goes unheard as she flicks her eyes to Richard and the old woman again is: I don't even want to hurt Tiamat. Because Alex doesn't.

"But don't bother to lie to me, Thomas. I can see through it. In some ways I always could with you. Don't bother to try and shoot me in the back. It won't work."

At that? Warren laughs.

"Okay. If your life has ceased to matter. Do it for your boss."

He gestures, snapping his fingers, and two men drag a limp and unconscious Nic in between them. Warren gestures and they shake the body - that doesn't move. He is unresponsible.

"Come. You are both wedding guests."

"Nic!" Alex knew that she should have bilocated him someplace safe. Some place far away. Panic climbs up her throat, strangling at her and Alex just shivers. She can't not. Nic. And he doesn't look like... She can't think about that right now. If Alex thinks about that right now then she's going to lose it. If she loses it then everything is for nothing.

When she speaks, Alex's voice is sharp and angry, but it's her own anger. It's her own fire within her. "I didn't say my life ceased to matter. I said you can't shoot me in the back. Because you can't. It won't work. It won't kill me. Tiamat wants me here, and don't forget that. I am supposed to be here, I was meant to be here."

Alex switches to Ancient Sumerian again, as she takes a step forward. "You weren't. If Nic is dead, I will remove you from here. I won't kill you, Thomas, but I will make sure that you wish that I did."

Later, much later, if they survive, Richard makes a mental note to tell Alex that her taking charge is...kind of attractive.

It's funny how that is how this began.

That thought crosses his mind and it's his which makes the old woman stare at him in shock.

And like that they're just gone.

And in the temple.

The whole place is chaotic. Carvings line the walls and fire burns. The whole place smells of incense and fire - fire most of all as Warren takes his place at the head of a table that Richard is lying on.

With Tiamat by his side.

"We are gathered here today to honor the elements. Earth, Wind, Water. When Tiamat - our lady - our queen was torn apart the world was lost to fire - until now. Behold the fire bloodline, descending from Tiamat's children. He is chosen, his element is fire, it burns within him..."

It is in ancient Sumarian but there's Richard's voice in Alex's head.

There aren't supposed to be two people aligned with fire.

Richard's voice is soft.

We burn brightly together.

Alex doesn't want to watch this. She can't not watch this. She doesn't know where Nic is, she doesn't know anything other than how hot the fire feels to her, and how she wants air, she wants water, she wants earth. Who was it that said the world would end in fire? Alex doesn't know. What she does know is that she can hear Richard in her head.

She doesn't know if he means himself and Tiamat, or herself and him, but in the end it doesn't matter. In the end she can just stare at his body and the old woman who has been alive for thousands of years at this point.

I love you.

Alex just sends it back, and she knows that she's waiting for something, but she's not sure yet.

"You weren't always fire, Tiamat. You weren't always the dragon. Do you remember the water? Where the sea met the river? Do you remember the feel of the deep places of the Earth. Don't you miss that? You said you wanted a world where no one will feel like you did with what happened, lover. But what do you think happens to the six billion mortals who are alive here? What do you think they're going to feel. The sea is our mother, Tiamat. It's from it all life comes. The sea and tears are the same. They're why we weep. You don't have to be fire, my love. You don't have to be hate. You can chose not to be. You don't need to destroy the world to have what you want."

Alex just pauses, and she takes several steps closer to the altar, and she offers the older woman her hand over Richard's body. "If you destroy it then you'll never have it, my beloved. You will never have happiness or freedom, or anything but a fire that burns to brightly and a chaos that will eventually take you. Please don't do this."

This is revenge. Revenge for her and alex may be bombarded with images of Marduk - burned into her brain - the first of the first and her legions - the damned souls she raised from the pit to fuel her vengeance. Humans warped into shadows on the walls to pay, to pay for how she had loved so deeply...

He is the first fire in a thousand years. He is like me. And I will have him.

It's so plain. A fact of a fact.

It's bad, there's a crack in the flesh of her wrist and a long snake head, black with bright blue eyes, slithers out from beneath the old woman's wrist. It twists, curling, impossibly long and huge, and after a moment it lays there, coiled in a pile and the body crumbles to dust...

Richard gasps, chest arching. His eyes open bright blue - glowing bright blue.

Alex.

He is fading, this projection of himself.

alex she can't get inside me. And you can't pull her out.

Somewhere in the world Charlie screams, crying at her father. He says goodbye, goodbye to her, goodbye to Alex. To his father and his mother and the world because if she survives.

She can't possess a dead body. I love you enough to believe in magic Alex Reagan.

Alex just cries out when those images hit her, driving her almost to her knees with the onsault of what happened, what the God who's mantle she carries has done. What she has caused to happen. What she's going to do. She's already sobbing when the old woman dies, when she can feel him fading. She can feel it like it's her own pulse that's slowing, like it's her own blood that's stopping to pump.

Like it's her own life that's about to end.

Somewhere, outside a storm begins to rage. It's lightening and it's thunder and it's rain seeping unexpectedly into the dessert that has been crying out for it for too long. It's like the sky itself is mourning for them--all of them. Amalia, Coralee, Simon, Richard, hell it's mourning even for Tiamat and it's mourning for Alex herself.

Richard loves her enough to believe in magic for her, and she loves him enough not to let Tiamat take him over. For once in her life, Alex Reagan is going to perform a magic trick, and it's her best one. When Tiamat starts to crawl up Richard's chest to his open mouth, when it looks like she's not going to do anything, Alex just calls the sword that she's kept hidden in the ether to her, and she slices through the snake's neck and into Richard's throat, just spilling blood and chaos and shadows all of them and the altar.

"I'm sorry." It's a manta, spoken in every language that both Alex and Marduk know. "I'm sorry. I love you. I'm sorry."

Several things happen at once.

Stars rise and fall, other universes shift and break, things press against walls of reality and pull away in fear. Eyes open and close and Richard Strand's Blood gushes out of his neck.

The others in the room, the humans, they all vanish save for Alex and the prone figure on the altar, the prone figure on the stone. Everything is swirling and churning between the two of them.

And it is...a hospital room.

It's a fairly non-descript room with a window - though the whole scene has an air of grimness. Richard Strand is there, bandaged and hooked up to tubes and beeping, slowly beeping. Suspended between this world and the next.

There's a knock on the door then and a man. Broad and darkskinned in a lab coat with glasses and coal black eyes.

"Ms. Reagan? You're here for Doctor Strand right?"

Alex doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't have the slightest idea of what's happening right now. She just takes a deep breath as she realizes that the two of them, the three of them aren't in the underground temple. It's a hospital, but how can it be in a hospital? Alex doesn't know and it doesn't make sense and when she looks down at her hands, they're still covered in a blood that feels wet and sticky and fresh.

Blackness mingles with the red blood, and Alex knows that it's not just Richard who'd bled on her, because it's not just Richard who had died. Honestly, she just feels like she's covered in dust and blood and ashes, and she feels like she doesn't know if this is real or not. It takes a moment for Alex to realize that someone is calling her name, almost like she doesn't know if it belongs to her or not here.

But one name that always belongs to her is Strand, and Alex just perks up and looks at the man in the labcoat. "I'm Alex." She says softly, and her throat feels hoarse and dry as if she'd been screaming for hours, and she needs to clear her throat before she asks the next questions, in order of importance. "Is he okay?" followed immediately by: "Where are we?"

"He's touch and go."

The older man made a note, "And we're in a hospital. Obviously. The man has given a lot to get here. He's got some struggling to do. You do too."

The older made another mark and the doctor tsked, "He's got scars across his face and head where horns and scales were. Rising, the doctor examined them, "We'll do the best we can with these. It won't be the same but it's...fixable.

That's what you want right?"

The doctor's eyes are stars, "...That was a lesson in humility that the good Doctor isn't soon to forget."

Alex just frowns for a moment, because she doesn't know how they got to the hospital, but the Doctor's eyes let her know that they're not in the mortal world right now. They're some place else and Alex doesn't remember how or where, but if he's touch and go, then he's not dead and Alex just moves towards Richard. When she gets there, her hands are clean, and Alex thinks that she's the one who has done it, but she's not sure.

"Can you fix his eyes? Give him back his glasses?" Alex just asks softly, tracing her fingers carefully along the edges of his hairline. It's the softest touch, but it helps remind her that he's there, even if she avoids the places where the horns were turning into scar tissue. Looking back to the Doctor and his starry eyes once more, she just asks: "Does that mean that she's gone? That she's scattered? Like she's supposed to be. That's what I was trying to do. The universe needs it's beautiful chaos, but it can't be all that."

Right now, Alex is fairly certain that she will never not feel guilt for doing that, but she also would have done anything that Richard had asked her of. It's an odd position to be in.

"Can you tell me if Nic's okay? If Simon is? Charlie?"

"...I think we can do that."

His smile is kind, "...The poor man's been through enough. You both have."

The Doctor's hands slow, "...There are things in this world that are repairing themselves. As for the rest, the simplest answer is that to heal from chaos you come together to find peace."

His gaze drifts down toward Richard and his name tag catches the light. Doctor Anu - the name of the hospital scrambled out.

"There will be scars on the inside too. For both of you."

He inhales, "And to fix that, we need to talk about your insurance policy. How will you be paying for these services?"

It's funny how something so small can make such a big difference. But it had made one to Richard when Tiamat had stolen his eyes from him, and she hopes that it's going to make a difference enough when the two of them are back home that he has them when he's dealing with everything else that the Goddess had done to him. That Alex had done to him in starting this whole damned thing.

As soon as Alex sees the name tag, she knows. She can't not know, but she forces herself not to start thinking about all of this too hard because she doesn't want to do anything that might destabilize all of this. It's too important, and Richard is too important to risk anything for. The question makes her laugh though, she can't help it.

"Well, I know we're not in Canada." It's a joke, and not a particularly good one when it comes to that, but that's what Alex Reagan does when things feel too heavy. It's something that helps ground her in who she is, and Alex just drags that around her when she looks to Anu more seriously. "I never wanted power like this. It's not who I am. And it was never really Marduk's either. He cheated and he stole it. He cheated her. I would make a really terrible god, Anu. So, that's what I'm willing to pay for it. All of the power of Marduk."