Forever Destined Still
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Warehouse 13/Charmed crossover (but shh, I am pretending it is AU for Bering and Wells AU Week)
Pairing: Bering and Wells, Myka/HG (mentions of Leo/Piper)
Summary: When Myka becomes a guardian for witches after losing her battle with cancer, she realizes that she isn't quite finished with her old life.
A/N: As stated, this is for Bering and Wells AU Week, even though it is a crossover.
*There is character death in this story, as Myka is a Whitelighter.*
The first thing Myka noticed when she died was the lack of incessant beeping. She thought there would have been the tone of the heart monitor alerting the nurse that there was no longer anyone named Myka Ophelia Bering in Univille Medical. The second thing she noticed was a man, who was tall and balding at the window. He stood tall, his face serene and robes white as he regarded her. Before either of them could speak, however, there was a warm glow in the shape of many small spheres that formed into another man. If Myka needed any more proof that she was dead, this new man's words were it.
"I've been waiting for you," he said softly.
"My entire life, I'm guessing," Myka said. She kept her back to the person in the bed, the smallest fraction of who she once was.
The man smiled weakly at Myka, and she knew that she had been correct in her assumption. Instead of answering her, however, he turned to the robed man at the window. "You have served her well. Your duty here is done. You are relieved." With those words, the robed figure nodded to Myka and with a small, sad smile, vanished. Myka sensed his loss immediately. "He was your guardian," the remaining man explained when he looked back and saw the expression on her face. "Myka," he said, which made her look up at him, "you have led a full and exciting life, haven't you? The amount of people you have helped and saved is incredible. Because of this, it has been decided that you are to become a Whitelighter."
"What is a Whitelighter?" Myka asked. "Who are you?"
"My name is Leo Wyatt. And a Whitelighter is a guardian, as well, of witches."
"Witches?" Myka echoed.
"You just came from a place filled with mystery and magic," Leo said with a smile.
"So this shouldn't be too much of a stretch," Myka finished.
"And who better to watch over the forces of good than a Secret Service agent?"
"Ex, since I'm dead and all. Can we just… pause this conversation? I need to.. adjust."
"Unfortunately, I don't have time to wait for this to get through to you. I need to bring you to the Elders and assign you a charge… And I've got to get back to mine."
Myka guessed that this meant she couldn't say goodbye, not that she had anyone at the Warehouse now. She'd days ago, told Pete and Claudia not to come back to the hospital after she'd refused, in a hoarse voice, to be in hospice care, and her family had plans to come up again to see her after things were settled in Bering and Sons. Myka had known that it would have been too late for that, and she was glad that they hadn't been there at the very end of things. She didn't want for anyone to remember her last breath, until they took theirs. The only one she'd really wanted to speak to was H.G, and that was only to apologize for not telling her she was sick, though the inventor did have her own ways of finding out by now. If Helena had known, she'd respected Myka's pride enough to stay away, or, if Myka's senses had dulled, Helena would have gotten a good look at her and stayed away out of fear. Still, if Helena hadn't known in all this time, she felt it would have been wrong to find out from someone else, that she had been sick, and that she was now gone because of it. Perhaps she could… This line of thinking was absurd Myka knew, but she couldn't seem to keep them at bay once thought.
"Come on."
Myka took a deep breath, though she didn't need the air. The action still soothed her and gave her the courage to step towards Leo, who took a couple of steps of his own to meet her in the middle of the room. When they stood face to face, with only about a foot between them, Leo placed his hand on Myka's arm and together they dissolved in the white orbs of light.
Whitelighter…
She got it now…
Myka didn't count the years that had passed since her death. She hadn't seen her former coworkers of the Warehouse on either plain of existence in that time. She always knew, though, the difference between demons and artefact related incidences, and she took comfort in this. Myka had quite a few charges over time, most of whom were in their own transitions, until they went off to their destinies. She had lost a couple of charges, too, and she felt each one still. She had to keep going, to let that pain fuel her need to protect her newest charge, Rebecca. The girl was still angry and reckless, so much like Helena. The Elders' newest warnings of an out of control Darklighter had her a bit on the edge. Rumour had it that not even the Underworld could control the Darklighter, which meant that the Source was afraid if he was willing to work along side the Charmed Ones. With Rebecca as powerful as she was and just on the cusp of good and evil, she was the perfect target for the likes of this Darklighter, and rumour had it the evil was getting nearer. Myka herself knew this, as the Darklighter had gone after one of her other charges.
"MYKA?!" came the panicked cry. Rebecca. Myka orbed in from Seattle where she had been watching over Teddie, a preteen who hadn't yet come into her powers, but the Elders felt she needed a guide for when that time came. She materialized inside of Rebecca's halfway house, where she had been sent after her most recent time in jail for arson. Myka was just in time to witness a blue globe form in her charge's hand before it was thrown at the Darklighter. Myka orbed again, this time right behind Rebecca, where she grabbed the girl and transported her to the basement. Then she orbed once more, back to the scene.
It was against the Elders' rules to intervene more than as a guide and healer for charges, but after Sierra died and seeing how many times Leo looked after his wife Piper Halliwell, Myka decided her time following rules to the letter was in her past, when she was still alive. She saw the Darklighter had their back to her, sensing for her charge, but Myka wasn't about to allow it. She took the opportunity to kick the figure in the middle of the back, and watched as they stumbled forward.
"I told you, witch, I'm here for your Whitelighter-" the dark figure's voice was one that Myka could identify, but it was impossible. The last Myka knew, Helena was living happily with a man and his daughter. Myka may not have counted the years, but even if she had, she knew it was too many for Helena to move as quickly as she did.
"You found her… Helena," Myka replied, once she could force herself to think again.
The Darklighter spun around quickly at the sound of her name, or perhaps Myka hoped her own voice was just as engrained in Helena's mind as the inventor's was in hers. Helena's eyes widened. "Myka," she breathed. It had been said as if she hadn't been searching for her, for who knew how long.
Myka lost her speech again. Helena, with the exception of pitch black eyes and matching attire looked exactly as she had in Warehouse 2 right before her betrayal, but there was something there that Myka hadn't seen in a long time, Hope. "How-?" the Whitelighter tried to ask as Helena moved towards her.
"Not exactly as exciting as meeting at gunpoint, but-"
Arms went around Myka's neck as Helena embraced her. There was the smallest of moments where the ex Secret Service agent stilled. It was a mistake, as she then felt herself moving out of existence, as if she was orbing, but not in the way she had gotten used to. The next she saw, the two of them were in what at first appeared to be a cave of some sort, but it was furnished like a penthouse apartment. She couldn't hear her charges in her head, and this scared her. Myka knew then that she was in the Underworld, and at any moment she would be detected. "You're safe here," Helena said, looking Myka over as she stepped away from her. Myka tried to orb away, knowing it was a futile attempt. She kept her eyes away from Helena, wrapping her mind around the possible how's and whys of the other woman being a Darklighter. Part of her wondered if this was some sort of trick, if perhaps the rogue Darklighter was merely using Helena's image, but her blackened eyes told her differently. Besides that, she couldn't remember ever hearing of a Darklighter with an ability like that, and if the Elders had known that about the rogue, they would have alerted Myka to this.
"Why were you looking for me?" Myka asked. "Why not just kill me?"
"I didn't become a Darklighter to kill you, Myka. After all we're both already dead." Helena's face twisted somewhat into one of annoyance. "Well… metaphorically on my part." Helena inched forward again, and Myka was confused. She didn't sense any evil in her, however she wasn't sure how else Helena would have become a Darklighter.
"What… What happened? How-?"
Helena's eyes cast down for a moment, the hood on her head covering her momentarily. Then she brought the hood back, and Myka was reminded of that musical episode of Xena as the inventor stared at her. "It's quite the story," Helena finally said, softly.
"Well," Myka said somewhat dryly, "I'm here now." Her shoulders went up. "And seeing as I can't orb out of here, you've got yourself a captive audience- pun intended, I suppose."
"I never could get over it. Your… death. One minute you were there saving the world with me and the next you're dead- and of cancer of all things! You knew, Myka and still-" Helena's fists balled and her head went down. It took a long moment before her fingers relaxed, but still her hair remained the curtain of black, covering her eyes of the same shade. "There was always so much left unsaid between us…. I always thought we'd have time. I didn't want to be a burden to you, and that was why I chose him. I thought I could make it work for a while, be a little less mad." She went quiet, but Myka didn't speak as she waited. "The news that you were gone was the pinprick that burst that particular bubble."
"It was always us, Myka. Bering and Wells, and the best of all of that was dead." There was another silence. "I don't know what you expect. I went crazy. You know me, it wasn't hard for me to do so," Helena said with a lip curled, as if to sneer at herself. "In the end, I can't remember if it was me or him who left the other. And I found myself back in South Dakota. Pete and I were… quite the team, you know? Without you, we weren't as efficient, but somehow the job was done. One day when we were in California, we heard of so many pings that weren't quite artefact behaviour, but they were something. I had to know what it was." Helena stared at Myka now, her eyes looking at her, taking her in, but almost as if she was no longer really seeing her. Myka dared a step forward and sat on the cushions of the nearest piece of furniture. Helena slowly went over and sat beside her. Myka didn't move away from her, and this gave the inventor hope.
"One day I managed to convince Pete to come with me for on of these 'extra' field trips. We got there just in time for a fight. I didn't know it then, but it had been a fight between a demon and a witch. All I knew was that a woman was dying, and we were going to be too late. But the woman called out your name, and I froze when I should have been getting some sort of authority. I thought my grief had gotten the best of me, especially when you, yourself came to this woman in a ball of light and healed her." Helena's eyes remained far away, lost in her tale, and Myka could see the wonder in the other woman. "It felt so… you. Like you really were there. I had to find out if it could be possible. After all, we worked in a place of endless wonder. Who was to say, after having travelled a century into the future, that you somehow hadn't been reborn? I followed that woman between pings until she died."
Myka knew whom Helena must have been thinking of.
"Sierra."
"Yes. She was my only hope of seeing you again. I went to the books to see if angels were real, before I found another word."
"Whitelighter."
Helena nodded. "I learned right away that the quickest way to locate a specific Whitelighter was by way of a Darklighter."
"Oh Helena… How did you-?"
"I summoned him," the dark woman said, her voice flat and unrepentant.
Myka gasped. "No." It was the part of the whole thing that she had wanted to know the most, but now that she knew…
"I happened to meet all of the criteria for a Darklighter's apprentice. Such vanity, in their need to continue their own legacy through a protégé. All that was left was for me to die. As I said, I was already dead by then; I was willing to be so in body as well. I managed to stall this part of the process, however. If I was going to die and finally turn evil, I wanted to make sure that you really weren't there to stop me this time. I wanted to see you, or at the very least, prove to myself that you really were gone and I was just mad after all. We struck a deal: I was to stay alive with Darklighter powers while I looked for you. I've got five years to complete this task and then I am his. I had nothing left to lose, and so I accepted. I knew that should I not find you in the first year, I never was going to. Now that I have seen you though…" Helena stopped speaking now and she stared fully at Myka.
"Are YOU the Darklighter that has the Source nervous?"
"I'm not dead, and I have yet to kill, so I am not evil yet. Because of this, I can go places most demons can not travel to, and if I were Him, I would be nervous too."
Myka thought about this. "And now that you have found me? What are you going to do, Helena? You're just going to become a Darklighter and start killing off my colleagues?"
"My contract's up in more than four years. I'll think of something," Helena said, but she placed a hand up to where, in another time, a locket of Christina lay. Myka knew that Helena wasn't as convinced by her own words.
"And if you don't?" Myka pressed.
"Then… Yes. Forever destined, remember? Only, crossbows this time, apparently."
Myka didn't speak for a long time. Her chest ached as it always did, and she was scared for Helena, more than she ever had been before. "You should have just let me go, Helena," she finally said softly.
"Darling, I already knew that was never going to happen. Other than Christina, you are the only woman I have ever loved. There IS no letting you go, not when I went through time to meet someone so extraordinary." There was no hesitation now to what she had wanted to say for so long, words she had only managed to put down in countless letters since meeting Myka Bering. Now that she was given the second chance she had been praying and searching for, she was taking it fully. "I love you, Myka. At the very first draw of your gun I was infatuated with you, and if there was any possible way I'd see you again, I'd take out the Source himself to get it."
Myka had long fallen silent, not sure what else to say when everything was out there in the open between them now. Before, she had the looks and the statements with room between the lines to write novels to hide behind. She needn't say anything, that is, once she understood exactly what it was she'd wanted to say to the other woman. Her heart, which had up until this point ached for the loss of her fallen charges and her previous life, began to ache for another reason entirely. A tear fell, and she regarded Helena. There was just the familiar look between them before Myka admitted, "I loved you too."
"Loved?"
"I'm dead. I'm sorry, I'm used to thinking of myself and my life in the past tense. I do- I love you, Helena," Myka stammered. Helena smiled a small, yet genuine smile before her face suddenly dropped.
"He's coming for her."
"Who?" Myka asked with a frown.
"Alexos, for your charge. Take my hand."
Myka stood, and she didn't hesitate to do just that. The two women transported back to the basement of Rebecca's halfway home, where Myka's charge ducked, barely missing an arrow aimed at her from the Darklighter.
Alexos, in the Darklighter fashion, also had on black to match his eyes, but his hair was long, and ginger. He had a beard to match, but it didn't hide the cruel smile on his face. Alexos took aim again. Myka didn't think that the arrows would affect Rebecca, but an arrow was still an arrow. Myka watched as the teen used her powers to deflect the second arrow before the ex Secret Service agent orbed behind Rebecca and then orbed her again out of the fight. She came back after being sure the girl was unhurt, and what she saw before her was reminiscent of a Western. Helena and Alexos both had their bows drawn and aimed at the other in a standoff.
"We had a deal. I said nothing about taking care of the witch while you were offing the Whitelighter."
"Tell me, when did I ever mention killing my Whitelighter, should I have found her?" Helena asked. "I don't recall that I ever did."
Alexos seemed to realize what she was saying. "Then you-" Both Helena and Alexos let their arrows fly. Both were direct hits, Helena's arrow hitting the Darklighter in his neck for a quick vanquish, and Alexos' arrow hitting Helena's chest. She stumbled as she watched Alexos disappear, dead.
"Helena!" Myka ran to the other woman and kneeled beside her.
"Myka," Helena murmured, her voice now low. There was sweat forming on her brow as the poison went through.
"I don't get it. How is the poison affecting you like this?"
"I don't… understand… how it has… vanquished him either, darling." Helena admitted.
At that moment another presence was felt, and instinctively, Myka covered Helena's body with her own before she felt herself go flying. She orbed mid-flight, and got to her feet again. She tried to move, but she was frozen, much like Piper Haliwell's power. She saw a tall, hooded figure in front of Helena's now still body. Myka tried again to get to the other woman's side but there was nothing she could do.
"Please!" The hooded figure lowered his hood, and she saw the red and black markings of his hairless head. His sharp teeth were visible as he snarled in her direction, telling her to be quiet. He then reached towards Helena and an inky black smoke seeped out of the inventor's body. This included the arrow that had protruded from her chest.
When the figure had no more of Helena's Darklighter powers, he said to Myka, "She's still alive, but just. She's got a couple of minutes, at best." The way he told Myka this said so much more, and she nodded to him.
"Thank you," she said, "for sparing her."
The figure did nothing to indicate that he had heard, before he vanished like a black mirage in the desert. Thinking quickly, Myka began to call out as she once again ran to Helena's side. "LEO!" She called again for her mentor and friend, her voice cracking as she looked up to the sky. A tear fell. "LEO!" She felt his presence and looked over to him. "Please. Do something. Please… Please…" she begged him, bringing Helena's body in to her again.
"What happened? Who is she? She's not-"
"She's not anymore," Myka corrected. She's just human now, but she's going to die if you don't do something."
"There is nothing I can do for her Myka. She's a Darklighter and there is nothing I can do for a Darklighter arrow."
Myka let out a sob. "You're an Elder! You could make her like us."
"Myka-"
"She never killed with those powers, and she is dying because she was helping MY charge. She died doing something good! Please…" she said, her eyes looking into Leo's, "She's my Piper."
Leo swallowed at this, and another conversation ran between them unspoken. The love he felt for his wife overwhelmed him as it always had, in ways he had never felt in life, and tried to push it back so he could think clearly. He didn't forget the debt he owed to Myka for the times he, as an Elder had to be away from his wife and children while Myka watched over the Halliwell sisters. Myka helped them many times with her photographic memory from her old life, coming in useful in the dangerous missions she had assisted them on. He nodded. For this alone would he face the repercussions of the actions he was willing to do next. "Alright… Alright." Leo joined Myka on the floor and said, "We have to wait for her to um… die."
"I know," Myka nodded. Leo placed a hand on Myka's shoulder, knowing that even with what he was about to do, witnessing the death of a loved one was never easy. He placed his other hand over Helena's chest and let it hover as the darker woman took her final breath in this life. Then, a white light emanated from his hand, blinding everyone in the room. Myka watched as Helena's spirit left her body, only to solidify again in the mystical way Whitelighters were formed after death.
"Myka?" she asked after she looked around and saw her own body on the floor, lifeless. "What happened?"
"I… I think the Source took your Darklighter powers away and… Leo made you into a Whitelighter."
"Your past was dark, but you weren't dead when you received your powers. You also never killed while you were a Darklighter. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to do anything at all." There was a pause as Helena stared at Myka, who nodded, her face still filled with tears, happy ones now. "You've got to come with me now," Leo continued, "I have to justify this to the other Elders, and then we have to ready you for a charge. It is possible that you will be in a period of rest first, to make sure you're ready to go into the role as a Whitelighter, but… I believe in Myka, and she… well, we must go,"
Helena was confused now. Myka didn't miss that about becoming a Whitelighter, or anything that directly came after that, the confusion and the melding of all knowledge of good and evil, past and present crammed into her head. She wanted to reassure Helena. She wanted to be with her through the whole thing, and she vowed that she would be. "Go on. I will be up too, after I check on Rebecca. We will get you adjusted together." She took a step into Helena's space. "It's all right, Helena. It's alright now. I promise." She kissed Helena's cheek as Leo stepped forward. Helena nodded and the ex Secret Service agent watched as they orbed away.
It was going to be alright now. For both of them.
It would be them once again, Bering and Wells, solving puzzles and fighting evil.
Together.