Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house, she remained under the lip of the jar,

and did not fly away. ~ Works and Days

She would give anything to protect her family.

And she had.

Wynonna had killed her own father trying to save him and her sister, Willa. In the end, it wasn't demons that had killed Willa, even though she'd believed that for so long, but it had been her. She'd killed half of her family. All she had left to protect was Waverly...and she'd give her life to do that.

Maybe that's what she'd done.

Waverly was no longer possessed by the creepy black eyed demon essence, but now she was. Wynonna was being held hostage in her own body. She vividly remembered hearing her possessed sister's form telling her exactly how hard Waverly had been fighting. Wynonna should have been fighting too in that moment.

She wasn't.

Wynonna was exhausted.

Her thoughts wandered though…

Waverly.

Her baby sister was the only thing she really felt like she needed to fight for. She couldn't allow the possession to retake Waverly or bring her to any harm. Wynonna would do whatever she had to to ensure that she was safe.

Hope.

Waverly was the only hope she had in her life, well...the only real kind.

It was odd to think that her baby sister who used to be so annoying when they were younger was what gave Wynonna any kind of want or need to even wake in the morning. Waverly was the one who pushed her and made her better than she thought was possible, but she also was why Wynonna fought the demons.

Blinking, she found herself able to do that and her hand shaking slightly.

She fought for control, but it wasn't an easy battle.

The thing was, she knew deep down that even though if she won the battle in that moment that the war was still coming for her. This moment was only a drop in the bucket and there was no guarantee.

When she blinked, she found herself in control.

Full control.

Eyes wide open, she stared down at a stirring Waverly on the floor. Her first thoughts were on how much time had passed, but she pushed it back and lunged down to haul Waverly up. "Baby Girl, come on...I need you to be wake right now!" Wynonna rambled as tears rolled down her cheeks. She didn't know how much time she had, all she knew was that she needed to do whatever she could to keep Waverly safe.

Right now, safe was away from her.

Far away from her.

Far away from Purgatory.

"Wynonna?" Waverly mumbled.

She shook her sister a little. "That's it. Wake up. I need you up and moving."

"Wha-"

With Waverly awake and on her feet, Wynonna blinked a few times struggling to stay in control. It wasn't easy. It was taking her everything in her in order to stay there and to keep the dark at bay. "Listen to me, the demon that was in you...it's in me right now...and you need to get to Nicole and get the hells out of here."

"Wynon-"

She motioned to Peacemaker on the floor, vividly remembering the feeling of it burning her own hand. "Take Peacemaker. Pack a bag. Grab Nicole," Wynonna told her in her best parent voice for that moment. She sucked at the parent voice. "And just go… Find someplace far away from me...from demons...from Purgatory. Just find somewhere you two can be happy and live…"

"Wynonna, I can-"

"Go!" she shouted just as the demon took over again.

Time didn't seem to pass the same when she was fighting it. All she could think about, though, in that moment was Waverly. She couldn't leave her sister alone with that demon. So, she fought. In that moment, it didn't matter how exhausted she was...she fought just the same.

"Wynonna…"

The voice was familiar.

"Wynonna...don't do this."

But she had to.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she shouted at the ethereal voice. Emotions bubbled up inside of her and all she could think of was Waverly. She'd failed in life so much, she just couldn't fail the one sister she had left.

"The world needs you."

"Fuck the world!"

"Waverly needs you."

And the voice wasn't wrong.

"I know," Wynonna whispered as she tried to focus on her baby sister. She thought about every moment in life where she'd absolutely loved Waverly. It had never been hard to love either of her sisters, but Waverly over the past year had been such a light for her. Whenever she'd felt like an outcast, like she wasn't worth something, or that no one would miss her if she was gone...Waverly was there. It was hard and it hurt to even try to fight it.

Still she fought.

It was a horrible sensation, to have your world pulled away from you...and almost more horrible to have it given back. Wynonna blinked rapidly as she found herself staring at her hand, a knife in it, and the knife stabbing Waverly's bedroom door. She sucked in a breath, her sob bubbling up, and spilling out. "Waverly?" she called as she stumbled back a step or two.

Wynonna knew that she had to keep herself in control. Right now so much depended on it and she knew what she was capable of...and she didn't even want to know what the demon inside of her could push her to be capable of.

"Wynonna, is that really you?" came Waverly's broken voice.

"Do you have your bag?" Wynonna asked. Her eyes closed and Wynonna just focused on holding control of her own body. The demon was fighting back. "Hold it together, Earp," she mumbled to herself. She reached up and found herself fiddling with her necklace.

"Yeah, but Wynonna-"

"Time to go!"

She hated the thought of sending Waverly away, but she hated the thought of being the cause of death for three of her family members more. It was hard enough to live with her father's death...and then Willa's...she didn't even know how Waverly could look at her. Those thoughts only brought her more pain and more tears. But when Waverly's door opened, she squeezed the key on her necklace and forced herself to focus on holding the demon back. Coming face to face with her sister, there were so many things that she wanted to say but she knew that they didn't have the time.

"You have to go," she said as calmly as she could muster.

Waverly was breaking her heart with her big tear filled eyeballs. Wynonna just didn't want to be the cause of pain for Waverly just this once. She needed to be allowed to do good in this moment, while she could still do it. As she fingered the key, the row of beads, and the tassel she hoped that Waverly listened and that maybe she'd find solace out in the world...she'd found it briefly at one point.

"Wynonna, there has to be another way," Waverly got out, her voice breaking here and there.

"Not right now there isn't."

Grabbing her sister, she guided her down the stairs. "You have Peacemaker?" she questioned. Wynonna was trying to keep her tone closer to 'I'll see you when you get back from your trip with Nicole' rather than the heartbreaking goodbye that she knew this was likely to be. She didn't want to make it harder and she needed to know that Waverly was safe.

"Let me just take it back, Wynonna!" Waverly argued.

"No!" she snapped. "Seriously? Let me take back in the evil demon goo? What kind of crazy are you talking?"

"The kind that we're both so good at."

Wynonna thought about that for a moment. "Fair," she agreed with a slight tilt of her head as they hit the bottom of the stairs. "But you do have Peacemaker, right?"

"Yes," Waverly said as tears stained her cheeks.

"You get into the jeep, call Nicole, and you two get seriously as far as you can get from here and you don't come back-"

"How can you expect me to honestly do that?!" Waverly exploded as they made it out to the porch. Her sister swung around to come face to face with her again. "You know what you're doing? This is like fucking Game of Thrones!"

"What? There are no dragons-"

"Yet!" Waverly shouted. "And I call dibs if they show up and can be pets…"

"I thought that we agreed that we were totally House Stark in that shit storm of feels show?" Wynonna put out there. Even though they were both crying their eyes out, they were both talking far too seriously about a show they'd spent time binge watching together.

"We are!" Waverly insisted and then quickly corrected. "We're fucking House Earp! We're unbreakable!"

"I mean...to be fair, that's practically the same at this point," Wynonna said with a shrug. "Both of our houses are cursed no matter how much good we try to do for the fucking world."

"And we're all that we have!"

They just stood there, tears falling, and staring at each other. Time passed and it seemed like much longer than the half a minute it really was. "You're right, which is why I have to make sure that you're safe-"

"We keep each other safe-"

"And this is me keeping you safe, Waves! Let me!"

"Wynonna-"

"Look, I know I left and disappeared for far too long and that I missed out on so much for you and we've been making up for it, but Baby Girl...I couldn't live knowing that I hurt you in any way...please," she begged now. "Please just go, get out of here, and if things change...you know that we'll find you...wherever you are. We'll find you and bring you home." She watched as Waverly opened her mouth to say something, but Wynonna could feel the demon inside of her, its tendrils curling up to take over again. She pushed her sister back and away, Wynonna watched as Waverly fell to the ground and her bag went flying.

Her world was stolen once again.

The demon was in control.

Wynonna fought for power of her own body, Waverly hadn't had time to get away yet. She had to give her as much of a chance as she possibly could. All her life she'd been told that she was a screw up and not worthy of basically everything and anything...the one thing she wasn't going to screw up was Waverly. She'd failed at so much else...but not her.

Not her.

Never her.

"It's within your power, Wynonna," came the voice in her head.

"Who the hells are you?"

"You know who I am."

"And yet, I don't-"

"I found you," the voice insisted quickly without voicing her name. "Broken. Lost. Alone. In a world so cruel." Nothing that was being said felt wrong, but that didn't keep Wynonna from still doubting the words. "You feel that you are undeserving, but my daughter...I sent you to bring back something important...something that you do not realize is inside of you."

"And what's that?" she practically spat out.

"Hope."

"Hope?" Wynonna repeated. "Hope's not exactly a weapon I can wield."

"What would you prefer a lasso?"

"I'd prefer Peacemaker."

"If you really want to conquer the demon that takes hold of you, my daughter, then wield hope and love like you would your weapon."

"How the hells is that supposed to work? Or help?"

"It's within you."

Wynonna was even more frustrated than she had been before. It didn't make sense. None of that it's all inside of you crap was going to help her...or help Waverly.

Waverly.

For that moment, she focused on her sister and it was like fog cleared. It was slow and she could feel the demon clawing back at her. Wynonna had to hold it off...just a bit longer. "Waves," she breathed.

"Is it really you?"

It was then that Wynonna realized she was holding a knife. It fell into the snow a moment later. She was sick to her stomach just thinking about what could have happened if she hadn't been able to take control when she did. "Run!" Wynonna told her sister.

Waverly didn't listen, though. Her sister was on her feet and hugging her a moment later. "Please, Wynonna-"

"I don't know how long I can hold the demon back...or the weird voice in my head."

"Voice?"

"I don't know," Wynonna said. "I'm the crazy one, remember? I think I'm just trying to max out the crazy." She pushed her sister back gently so that they were at arms' length before picking up Waverly's bag and handing it to her. "You have to go."

"I already lost you once, Wynonna, I'm not losing you again!" Waverly cried out and tried to fight against Wynonna's insistent pushing towards the jeep.

"You're going to get you ass into this jeep and you're going to get your girlfriend and drive the hells away!" Wynonna insisted as she pulled open the jeep door. It was taking everything she had in that moment not only to hold onto her own body, but to keep from breaking down. She watched as Waverly threw her bag into the vehicle, but then she was flinging herself back at Wynonna. She squeezed her, she didn't want to leave Waverly or be away from her, but her safety was so much more important. "I love you, Baby Girl. You remember that. No matter what happens."

"I love you, too."

As they separated to look at each other, Wynonna's hand went to the key on her necklace, her fingers rubbing it like they could smooth away the stress. Looking down at it, she immediately pulled it off of herself and handed it over to Waverly. "Take this."

"But Wynonna-"

"You can give it back to me when we see each other again," she said, trying to be hopefully.

"Why does it say 'Athena' in Greek?" Waverly asked eyeing it before putting it around her neck.

Since coming back to Purgatory, that necklace had only been off her person a couple of times and every time Dolls had returned it to her. Wynonna shrugged. "It's all Greek to me. Maybe it'll bring you good luck and protection."

"Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war and a bunch of other things…"

"You are the one with all the wisdom," Wynonna reminded. With Waverly in the jeep, she pushed the door shut. "Be safe, Waves."

"You too."

And it was the hardest thing to do.

To watch Waverly drive away.

To know that she was the reason.

"I love you," Wynonna whispered to herself as she watched the jeep drive through the homestead archway. "I don't think you realize just how much, Baby Girl." Tears streamed down her face as she sunked to her knees. She just watched it go, keeping the demon at bay.

"Hope is out there, Wynonna," the voice reminded her.

The End.