A/N: This is written in response to a challenge that was given by Dragonrider2203 concerning the Source Blood Virus in Sanctuary For None pt2. So if you haven't seen that you have been warned it is a spoiler. There will be more I do promise so don't kill me just yet, unless you hate it and don't want more! Anyway, you better get on to reading it and please tell me what you think as I think I might need the encouragement on this one. And yes…I'll stop talking now. Go. Read. Enjoy. Make friends. Ok, really stopping now. ~~Arones
Will could not believe her. She was ridiculous. Not only had she kept a secret this big from him for over a year but she had the audacity to assume it wouldn't anger him. Yes, she was allowed to keep some secrets; he didn't need to know every little piece of information about her very long and very tedious life. But hadn't he earned her respect enough for her to entrust this to him sooner? For God's sake, he was the last employee in the Sanctuary network (excluding the ones she didn't want included) to find out about this oasis she had created. Didn't his four years of living and working with her mean anything?
He stalked through the halls to the new building. He was under strict order not to leave after they had their discussion and he was pretty sure he couldn't find a way to escape just yet. She had Praxian technology and he needed to learn how to bypass those systems before he could escape once again to the surface.
Everything was beautiful, everything was perfect: damn the woman. Could she do nothing wrong? No, she did things wrong all the time, she just always fixed them for the better. God, she was so frustrating some times. Where did she get off thinking that she was right all the bloody time?
Will had no idea where he was going. He'd only been in the city for a day at most; he'd been introduced to her new office, his new rooms that had already been filled with his things including the baseball his father had given him so she must have known what was going to happen which had only served to piss him off more. The woman was insufferable. Will blinked suddenly when he realized he was in a lab.
Backing out of the door he looked at it; seeing no one around, he determined that this must be Magnus' private lab, which was confirmed when he entered and turned on the computer monitor and saw her user name was locked on the screen. He looked around: this was not where he expected to find himself. But, since he was here, he might as well look around.
The drawers slid open seamlessly, nothing seemed to be locked, but then again these were her private labs and he doubted anyone would dare come down here or mess with her things like he was doing. He didn't care though. They had been in the same vicinity for long enough that he knew he was welcome to do this: even if he shouldn't be doing it he thought he certainly deserved the opportunity. Magnus was just being plain unreasonable and even if he was being a bit childish what did it matter?
He found a drawer that was locked with a punch key code on it. Smiling to himself he punched in the day Ashley was born, the month Henry was born and the year he was born and grinned when the drawer popped open to reveal three small vials of blue liquid. He hummed to himself; now this was interesting. Taking out one of the vials he turned on her computer and punched in her passcode. Will searched through the system until he found information about the blue liquid in his hand. Scanning the massive amounts of data that she had gleaned from her experiments he came up with one idea and it was not the smartest idea in his head. He should inject himself.
She was so intent on abnormals: abnormals this and abnormals that, he was easily a second class citizen within the Sanctuary and now that they were underground? Where would that leave him? At the very bottom of the totem pole of that he was sure. The vial swished in his fingers from one end to the other has he contemplated it. What could he possibly lose? He had nothing to lose.
"Will, I need to talk with you." He'd just settled down in his new office and placed the books that were exact replicas of the ones he had had before she blew up their home, in their new designated area and sat down.
"Sure, what is it?"
She sat across from him and smiled, folding her hands gently in her lap and giving him a soft look. "As I'm sure you are well aware, everyone 'up there' believes me dead. I need to keep it that way, for our protection, as long as possible. Secondly, this place," her hand bounced in the air, indicating the new Sanctuary she had built, "needs to remain a complete secret."
"I know how to keep a secret Magnus; I've been doing it for the last four years with you and many even before that." He turned to look at some files she had left on his desk for him to look through. It couldn't be that simple, he knew it. They couldn't just slip back into their routine like nothing of the last month had happened. Like she hadn't kicked him out of the house and forced him to work against her; like she hadn't waited weeks to make that phone call to tell him she really was still alive and well; like it hadn't been weeks before she conceded to send him the data on how to get here.
Magnus was watching his face intently, but he wasn't giving anything away. "I don't think you understand me. I need you to break all ties with the surface. I need you to fully commit to this cause." And, implicitly, she meant to commit fully to her. He could have loyalty only to her.
He looked up then, knowing exactly what she meant and knowing that she should not be asking him to do this at all, which was why she was being so cryptic. "You want me to break off all ties, basically fake my death."
"Not a death, per se, just a…disappearance."
That was it, he was going to cut straight to the point and see if it was exactly what she meant and what she wanted him to do. His voice was accusing when he spoke. "You want me to break up with Abby." The look on her face confirmed exactly what he had been thinking. Will ran his hands over his face and drew in a deep breath. Magnus wisely kept silent. "Break all ties with everyone? Jesus Magnus, I only started to have a relationship with my father again and you're asking me to do this? You can't ask me to do this." He looked at her pointedly, making sure she knew exactly where he stood.
"I am… asking you."
"Does it ever end with you?" He was standing now and he didn't remember when he'd leapt to his feet. She was still seated, her legs crossed and her hands neatly folded. How the hell did she do that? "You ask so much from me, demand it all and never once look at the consequences or the cost that I've paid for it."
Again, Magnus remained silent. She knew he would be angry when she came in here, she also knew that anything she said would not make it better; she could not simple 'fix' this situation. Will strode to the door and slammed it open until it put a crack in the new wall. "Will, stop." Her voice halted his motion and she stood moving to press a hand to his cheek, drawing his eyes to look into hers. "I didn't mean for our friendship to be a casualty of this. You have been more than I ever could have asked for and I am so proud of you. But everything is different now and you need to understand that. We are not playing by the same rules that we once did. You need to understand that."
"How can I trust you, Magnus? After everything that has happened, all the lies, all the stories and the arguments: how can you expect me to trust you like I once did?"
She didn't answer him, he looked so lost and so alone she wasn't sure she could. Gone was the confident Magnus that had come into the room and there she was, losing one of the closest friends she had had, and possibly the most loyal friend she'd ever had. Will was still staring at her, his eyes lingering waiting for a response. He knew he'd backed her into a corner, but maybe, just maybe she would let him in a bit. He was surprised when her lips were on his; the kiss itself was soft and quick, he could take it or leave it in so many ways. Will pulled back away from her and shook his head before stalking out of the room.
That was how he'd ended up in her lab. She had royally ticked him off and his mind had swirled with concoctions of what she had meant and why she had asked him to leave everything behind. Not only had she done it once before but she was doing it again. Perhaps the difference was this time he had something to live for up there and this time he knew, or at least he thought he knew, exactly what he was getting into.
Not thinking, he grabbed an empty and sterile syringe and poked the end into the top of the plastic vial. Drawing out and measuring what she had determined to be an adequate dosage in her notes, he cleaned an area of his forearm and pressed the needle into his skin barely wincing. Depressing the top of the needle, he injected the light blue liquid into his vein, sighing when there was nothing left. He pulled the needle out and placed a cotton ball onto the small wound to prevent bleeding.
God, what had he just done? What was he going to turn into? When he'd been in the clutches of the abnormal from Hollow Earth, when he was being transformed he was painfully aware of every moment that passed until he was completely that creature. Maybe that would happen this time, maybe he wouldn't have to witness anything or remember anything as soon as the liquid took over him.
It seemed like he had been waiting for forever for some sort of reaction from the injection. He had little choice to reverse the effects now so it was just a waiting game from that point and it was a waiting game that he was not having an easy time waiting for the game to begin. She would undoubtedly be coming to her lab at some point and would walk in and berate him for whatever he had done. He probably wouldn't even turn into anything; it probably wouldn't even have an effect on him knowing his luck. When he wanted to change he couldn't change and when it was least expected he would become something he really didn't want to become.
He glanced at his watch; it had been twenty minutes since he'd injected himself. He stood to slide the needle into the biohazard container hanging on the wall and felt a rush go to his head making him dizzy. He made it to the wall and deposited the needle and the cotton ball that he'd still been holding his arm. He was no longer bleeding, but his eyesight was not exactly at its best. There were black patches that slid over his vision and he couldn't feel his feet or the floor for that matter. He vaguely heard her coming, heard the heels on the floor that he was sure she would never be rid of. He heard her call his name, or at least he thought he did. He felt a warm hand on his cheek and his head move because the dizziness became unbearable in that moment. He could barely make out her blue, blue eyes. She looked scared. It was his last thought before he felt nothing.