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For a moment, Alex just frowns. She knows that she shouldn't be able to understand that, that she hadn't been able to understand it before when the rest of them were speaking it, but now she does. Wondering if she can speak it too, Alex just thinks: Yes. It's in Ancient Sumerian even if it's not entirely clear what the response is to when it comes to the questions that she was asked.

I just feel...

Words are always what Alex has been good at, but right now they seem incredibly far away. She knows that it's shock or something like it, but she's so fixated on the weirdness inside of herself that she doesn't really notice what happened between Richard and Tiamat. While Alex's heart still feels like it's pounding within her chest, she realizes that it doesn't burn anymore. It doesn't burn but she can feel the scales moving with her, and that solidifies the fact that they're a part of her now.

I feel odd.

It's an understatement. Alex Reagan feels electric. She can feel power moving through her, over her, around her in ways that she never could before. For her entire life, Alex has been under the assumption that she's just perfectly normal but now she knows that's a lie that she'd been telling herself however unintentionally. Alex has never been normal, she has always been this. It's more than a little jarring as she wraps her hand carefully around his own, needing the reminder of the fact that she does in fact have a body, and that this is hers.

"I'm okay." Alex says it aloud, because she needs to hear her own voice, in her own language and she needs to know that with everything else, she's still her at her core. She's Their consort, willingly stayed, but she's also herself too.

Tiamat moves to take her hands - and Richard lets her go, rising to stand beside her. The goddess moves to kiss the newborn dragon, his, her, their consort and Richard offers a low groan in response.

"You are so beautiful." she kisses Alex's fingers gently, "And that is all you. The real you. The destined you."

cupping her cheek she hugs her, "...When I am at my full strength I will teach you how to use your powers and the world shall tremble at your feet I-"

There is a knock at the door that makes Tiamat rise and purr, amused.

"Let Warren in Richard." Tiamat's look is pure malevolence, "Let him see us as we truly are."

Warren looks busy and slimey and all those terrible things but when he is given the order to stand he raises his gaze, and his jaw drops in shock.

"Her? You blessed her?"

Kissing Tiamat is like kissing the universe itself, and Alex had no idea just how much that was true until now. How much she could feel of it. It's wild, it's spinning below her fingertips and against her lips and it's dizzyingly gorgeous. Honestly, it's like seeing the world for the first time, and Alex is practically coltish with it. It's like taking her first steps and she just molds herself to the goddess, the blue of her scales gleaming in the light as those golden eyes take in Thomas Warren for the first time.

Anger, hatred really sizzles in Alex's chest, making her eyes almost seem to glow with the words that he speaks to her. She knows that he's hated her for a long time which was one of the reasons that she'd provoked him so badly the last time that they'd met when he'd wanted her copy of the horn.

Alex Reagan has never been able to stop herself from speaking out of turn, so it shouldn't be surprising that she isn't able to stop herself in this moment when she just says in perfect ancient Sumerian: "I'm theirs, Warren. I've always been theirs. What did you think was going to happen? You always underestimated me. That was very stupid." She wants to ask him why he stole her glasses, what her dna test result had said, but in the end, it doesn't matter. None of it matters other than the Goddess who has gifted her with this and who she loves with her entire heart.

"What it said doesn't seem to matter. Our lady has chosen you - blessed you even with my service-!"

Richard grabs his wrists - Warren letting out another bleat of surprise before the man is held in place, "You two - what the hell happened to you Strand? You're a freak!"

"What did you expect?" Tiamat speaks, "What did you think when you summoned me? Did you not think that I wouldn't make Gods of my true followers?"

She strokes alex's cheek, "would you like to kill him? Or would you like me to?"

"I would like to be the one to do it." Alex just gives Tiamat a smile that's as bright as it is cruel. It's both different from how she is but also the same in a way, because it like her compassion comes from the way that Alex cares for people around her. "Thomas Warren is a man who has hurt people and killed people in the name of power without understanding what it actually looks like, my love. He's tried so hard to subvert the natural of order of things. He's cruel without reason, without care, and without any thought of what you might actually have wanted." It's clear from the way that she looks at Warren, that Alex has a bit more to say on the subject, but instead she turns her gaze to Tiamat again.

"May I do it?" Alex just asks earnestly, before she adds with a little bit of the Alex Reagan cheek. "Pretty please?"

" I gave you everything! I gave you my family's money, our corporation - all of it! And you give power to this...this-"

Richard hits him in the back of the neck and the man goes down with a whimpered yell. Tiamat smiles.

"My only request is you enjoy it."

And she and Richard will wait, their hands entwined, scales snaking up Richard's arm from where she holds his fingers.

Watching.

"I will." It's odd how easy it is for her to say it, to mean it. Alex had always considered herself well, not a pacifist exactly but someone who doesn't hate easily. The list of people who she's hated directly is very small and for the past two years, Thomas Warren has been on the top of it.

She does mean it as she just steps towards him.

And then Alex steps onto him. She takes her scaled foot and slams it into his groin, hard and driving the heel down like she's stepping on some sort of spider. Alex Reagan doesn't even kill spiders. But she takes her hand and wraps it around his chin, forcing him into a half sitting position as she bends down. "You're wrong. And you've always been wrong, Thomas." She says his name deliberately, and her tone is soft almost loving. "You have been taking my beloved's name in vain, spreading your lies and your insults and your filth with it. You have been trying to subvert her power by creating demons that have nothing to do with the sea or the sky or what they should be revering."

But then her tone gets hotter, more angry, and more personal. "You tried to use me as bait. You stalked me. You stalked us. You tried to make me hunted." Alex growls the word softly. "You made me terrified in my own home. You sent the countdown timer to the studio to make me frightened. You wanted me wounded and bleeding because you thought it would make this easier." Alex steps on his side now, but it's a careful strike, designed to hurt him, to make him bleed inside but to make it slow.

Alex wants it slow. She wants it to hurt.

"You made me weak, Warren. For a while it worked, all of the things that you did. But in the end you were wrong about me. Because I belong to Tiamat and always have. I'm the thing that you never planned on. You thought that what I was doing was bringing Richard into believing in this for you. It was never about you."

For a moment, nothing happens, and Alex knows that she's strong, stronger than she's ever been.

And then she just slides her not-quite claws into his neck, spraying herself with blood as she does it.

Something dies in Richard when he sees that. He's damned her and he knows it and it's a testament to his power that he writhes and Tiamat, stroking his neck calms him.

Some part of him dies and somewhere, far away, Charlie wakes up with a sad little sob. Richard sees it. He sees all of it, inhaling.

I think...I think I'm ready. To give myself fully to you. To merge.

To take Alex?

To take you.

As Alex slaughters Warren Richard sweeps Tiamat back into a passionate kiss sealing their bond as the woman leans against him, smiling, loving, warm.

"...Alex!" Tiamat's voice is high and clear and loving, "Alex!"

Alex can feel blood on her hands and she just frowns at it, she frowns at the way that it's spreading around her feet and she quickly backs away from the source of it as Warren just gurgles his last breath. She'd done that. She'd done that gladly. Alex Reagan knows that she'd do it again if she had too, and for the first time she feels like she can understand how Simon can do what he'd done in the service of Tiamat, to save those kids.

She makes him a silent little promise that all of the people like Warren wouldn't live long enough to regret it.

When Tiamat calls her, it's a reflex for Alex to turn towards her now, and there's a smile on her face, even as there's blood on her hand. When Alex talks to them, she's definitely addressing both of them as one: "yes, my love?" The love is evident in her voice, bright and soft and meaning, because Alex doesn't say things that she doesn't mean. Especially now.

"Well done."

It's Richard who moves a hand to take hers, both of them smiling mirror smiles. His dragon eyes are bright as he draws her close and whispers in Alex's ear-

You will be a magnificent queen.

Tiamat stares down at the blood before raising a hand and watching two men pick up the corpse. Tiamat draws Alex's chin forward to kiss her, warm and soft and sweet, before glaring, "...I am at last in charge now."

Alex just glows from the compliments that they give her, she can't help it. It makes her feel warm, and it makes her feel like she'd done the right thing when it all comes down to it. Thomas Warren needed to die for a lot of reasons, and he had even before Alex and Richard had seen Tiamat with him at the club together. Tiamat's glare following her kiss is simply just another reason for it.

We should make sure that there's no one else who is more loyal to Warren than there is to you, my love. It would be a terrible idea if someone got it in their head to interrupt your wedding tomorrow.

Funny how a few hours ago, before what Tiamat had done, Alex would have been tormented and torn apart with jealousy because of that statement. But now, she's not. Instead she's just at peace with it. She's theirs and there's a part of them that she can't touch because it's not hers. And that's okay. Because she doesn't need to be jealous because now she belongs to both of them equally. Alex Reagan is their consort, and that's all that matters.

Richard takes Tiamat's hands, his eyes full of love, before staring at the men who dragged the body away.

Looking to Tiamat, he speaks - and his voice rings with command as he raises a scaled hand.

"If you value your lives You will seek out our enemies and bring them to us. Use your powers. Go."

Richard kisses Tiamat's fingers and Tiamat, smiling at Alex, hugs her, "...I am so proud of you."

Alex just hugs Tiamat back, with a smile, because while this is weird, it doesn't feel wrong. She'd always thought that it would have felt wrong to kill someone, especially if you're not defending your life or someone else's. But there's no such sensation in her now. Instead, it just feels right to have done it, and to have done it with her bare hands. She doesn't even mind the blood on them other than not wanting to taint Tiamat's holy skin with it.

So, while she hugs her back, the hug is careful out of reverence for this, and Alex just softly adds: I am too.

It's funny, Alex Reagan has always been a bit of a people pleaser (well, at least to a point anyway. There were times when she most assuredly threw that line away, especially when it came to Richard and this story) but pleasing Tiamat like this felt good. It felt right in a way that few things ever have, and it makes Alex feel as if she's glowing with the approval, with the being theirs.

He deserved it. Anyone who wants to hurt us does.

Us.

Tiamat brings her lips to Alex Reagan's and she looks to Richard with a smile.

"Come. Richard."

She stares at him.

"Take your place. Judge the traitors and use your power. Know I will be with you."

Tiamat takes Alex's hand and Richard bows, smiling at the two of them before her eyes lid and darken at Alex's smile, her eagerness. She leader her out of the room, down and away to a second space where she opens and closes the door.

The room is softly lit and blue and green.

Tiamat smiles.

"this was to be your room and now I want...to spend time with you in it."

Alex just gives Richard a smile, and a little nod as she's lead away, because she doesn't want him to worry about her. It's a reflex from the time before, something that Alex hasn't quite unlearned yet. But it's a look she'd given him hundreds of times during their time together, and it's just as much of a part of the two of them as everything else is.

Is there a part of her that almost wants to stay and watch him judge the people who had hurt them? Yes, of course there is. But Alex has other things that she wants more, and Tiamat is most assuredly one of them.

She's not surprised that the room is blue and green after the color of her scales. It makes sense: Richard is fire. He's always been fire even when he wasn't this. A wall of it, an immovable object. Alex has always been water: quieter, calmer, more patient but she can erode the world, carving through it. She's an unstoppable object even if it takes a while for her to be able to do that. She's like the sea in some ways, inevitable with changing tides but still present.

Of course her room reminds her of the sea.

Alex just looks to Tiamat with a smile, and she steps closer to the Goddess and brushes her fingers over one dark cheek. She's tall, nearly as tall as Strand himself is, but Alex is used to that now. "You did, my love?" It's soft and warm and inviting, the voice that Alex has so rarely been able to use for Richard with the walls between them, but wished that she had done more of.

The chaos Goddess looks sad at that, unbearably beautiful and gray and sad as she strokes her cheek, "I was not always this. This chaos creature."

Her hand trails down over her collar bone and breast, slowly, ever so slowly, before taking Alex's scaled hand and kissing the palm.

"Once I was just living - the opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation. I was the essence of it until Marduk. I loved him."

Her tears warm her cheeks and drip onto Alex's palm.

"And he...betrayed me." Her hand goes boiling hot but she doesn't let go of Alex's hand, "Do not betray me Alex reagan. When Richard marries you and takes you for consort do not betray him or he will flay you alive and scatter you to the winds and I don't want that..."

She is weeping, tears carving rivers in her cheeks, "you must think I'm a monster."

For a moment Alex doesn’t know what to say to that—it’s a part of the story that she didn’t know or didn’t hear but also that somehow she can feel in her chest. It creates an ache that Alex can feel all the way down to the marrow of her bones and her hand just moves over Tiamat’s cheeks, brushing the briny salt of her tears away.

“I don’t think you’re a monster, my love.” Alex’s voice is real and it’s true and she says it rather than using her mind because she’s a journalist and for someone who always speaks her words, it being aloud makes a magic in them.

Moving up onto her toes, Alex just gently presses light kisses to the goddess’s cheeks, to her forehead, to her lips. It’s a reflex for Alex to want to kiss away her pain. It’s something that Alex has wanted to do for Richard for a long time but she wasn’t allowed to do before. Now, she can do it for the both of them.

“I am not him, Tiamat. I’m not going to hurt you. Or him. Or either of you. I promised I would stay because I love you both and I keep my promises, Tiamat. I’m not going anywhere. All I want is to be yours.”

Edited 2020-06-01 23:42 (UTC)

There is gentleness when Tiamat kisses her back.

In the throne room, or a room that has become a throne room that was once a hotel room - Richard Strand gives a little sigh and the two of them kiss her back as Tiamat runs her fingers through the other woman's hair.

Tonight you shall be one with the sea and the sky.

And the Goddess was naked, moving toward the bed with glowing coals for eyes that dissolve into stars. Breasts rising and falling, skin flawless and dark and smooth.

Alex just keeps her back softly, gently, tenderly. They are lovers kisses, with Alex's heart placed into them like an offering to her. It's simple thing really: a shy little gesture that Alex is wanting to give him because she doesn't want Tiamat to think that it's only Richard that she's here for. Maybe it was at the beginning, but Alex knows now that it's more than that. That she's more than that.

It's funny, when Richard had told her that she was at the center of this Alex had never imagined that it would be this directly or in this way.

But back on the bed, she kisses Tiamat again gently but deeply, her hand trailing along the goddess' neck and then down to between her breasts. Letting her fingers linger there against the beating of Tiamat's heart, Alex just follows the pathway that she'd made with her touch with a string of light, delicate kisses.

I only want to to be with Tiamat and Richard. You are more important than the sea and sky.

The stars weep.

Richard, distantly in the bedroom dispensing justice, draws his claws across one man's throat with a snarl. Some dying part of him hates this. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. Another part feels so good when blood runs through his fingers, across his chin, into his mouth as he licks as his fingers.

Tiamat, for her part, arches her back and rolls Alex so she's atop the Goddess, looking up at her with love and affection. A finger finds her nipple and gently pulls, fingers gently stroking her skin.

And you will love us?

“Yes. I will love you. I do love you.”

It’s easy for Alex to say the words, they’re light and they’re breathless as she arches a bit. And the expression in Alex’s face matches the love in Tiamat’s. It’s an expression that has been on her face countless times when Alex has hoped that Richard isn’t going to notice it (and she bets that he’s willfully ignored it if he’s seen it) but it’s been there.

Her heart has belonged to him for a long time. But it belongs to the Goddess as well, since even before it had been in the chest of one plucky reporter from Canada.

I will love you until the stars have burnt out. I will love you til the seas dry. I will love you when there is no more me and all that’s left is the love that I have for you.

Tiamat's kiss comes with-

Pain. The pain of being torn apart. Marduk's cruel look as he pulled wing from back and peeled skin from body. The distance of her spirit.

Pleasure. The girl is naked and bound to an altar. She screams, she cries, she begs. Tiamat has - after millennia - built herself a new body. Her form and figure twist and writh as she slithers up the young woman who screams. She enters her body through her mouth, coiling in her stomach as the body arches and screams and she is...

merged.

Truth. A knight in England. A millennia ago it almost is. She holds up a hand as a young templar with familiar blue eyes bares his hands. He has slit his wrists, blood dripping onto a stone altar. My bloodline is yours

All of this is pressed to Alex as Tiamat rolls her again so she can stay atop her, hips grinding against her mound as she bends down to kiss her, body warm and scaled. The other room is filled with blood, the good and bad, her servants torn apart by Richard, more animal than man.

"My Alex." Tiamat's voice echoes and sounds like Richard's, "My Persephone."

Alex Reagan is someone who has always sought the truth. Richard told her once that he sought the truth and that they wanted the same thing. She's someone who looks for the truth in the nightmare under bed, who'd peered into the shadows that weren't shadows at all, and who had glibly poked Thomas Warren like a bear when she met with him to ask what he wanted with the Horn.

She was also the one who had murdered him less than an hour ago. Because of a truth.

The images crash into her, Tiamat's truths bringing pain and pleasure and the origin store for what Richard had been bred to become. Later there will be questions on if something similar happened somewhere down her line, or if it was simply just Alex being herself that had done all of this, caused it all to happen. It's not a question of guilt, because Alex Reagan doesn't feel guilt for any of this.

She understood, even before this, how betrayal could make you want to destroy the world in blood and fire and bone. She understands even more now, and the mixing of the two titles makes Alex lift her hips to Tiamat, opening her legs for her as she just kisses the Goddess in return.

I will love you for always. I think I always have.

Tiamat whispers words of endearment in ancient babylonian. Sliding her fingers between Alex's lips she begins to move them back and forth, back and forth, kissing Alex, long deep probing kisses.

Something is wearing at Richard Strand but Tiamat, whispering in Alex's ear, purrs.

I can't wait until you are queen. I want to drape you in jewels. Richard wants you to be happy. He adores you.

Alex's breathing comes harsher and faster with the movements of the Goddess' hands, and her hips rush to meet the strokes that she's making with them like an errant cat who is demanding pets. It's almost a reflex maybe, to kiss the goddess back in return, just as deeply, just as long. Alex's hands slide over the goddess' skin, brushing against her side, her fingertips following the line of her ribs down to her stomach. Tracing the line that the snake that was Tiamat's essence had taken within the woman.

It's a gentle brush before her palm just lingers there, holding her and rubbing her fingers against it in long and slow circles, wanting her to feel it there, wanting to make her gasp in the same way that Alex is.

I love him. I've loved him for three years. Being with him makes me happy. Just like being with you does as well. But you have already draped me in jewels, Tiamat.

Her hand moves along the scales of her other hand, and it's those warm scales that she rests against Tiamat's core.