A/N: Before you begin reading, I must tell you there are many changes that I have made regarding Via's back story. I feel the changes I have made fit the story line that I am going with at this time. If you don't like it, I do apologize. I feel that I have made more of a connection with her character as far as her wants and needs. For as many changes as I have made I am going to go along with a lot of the story I have written previously. The love interest previously is at this time subject to change. To me previously it felt forced. I will have a total of four oc's. Via is still the same. I really hope you like it. As always constructive criticism is welcome. I have started writing Ch 2 of the rewrite. As per usual, anything you recognize I clearly do not own. I am hoping to write a chapter a month. This is due mostly impart to the fact I get stuck a lot in my writing and I sometimes the muse just leaves, as the case of the previous part of this story. Sorry for the long note!
Via turned the radio up a little louder in her car. The Offspring was so loud she could feel every note flow through her veins. She wanted to tune out the previous moments at her parent's house before she left for the hospital gala. Her parents had been arguing again about Via's mental state. Her mother's final words to her father had stopped Via cold as she had walked out the door.
"Peter we have tried everything. Our sweet little girl is never going to come back again. I'm tired of being understanding. We have sent her to the best therapists money can buy. She just doesn't want to come back. All she wants to do is party and spend her time with those crazies. Yes I know she volunteers at hospital But she is never going to come back."
She had never smoked but one of her friends had left their cigarettes in the car. Lighting the cigarette, she turned the volume up even louder. Her emotions threatened to spill at any moment.
Three years ago she had gone on a volunteer trip to Africa through her church. Her group was only supposed to have been there for two weeks. Via ended up being there for six months. The first week had been filled with getting to know the villagers, as well as, helping them get medical treatment. The next week wasn't nearly as kind.
She had woken up in the early hours of the morning to hearing the screams of the villagers. Disoriented Via and her group went outside to see what the cause of the chaos had been. A militia of soldiers were burning the village, shooting people left and right and taking liberties with the village women. The priest that had lead the group stood beside Via screaming in the native language to try and stop the militia. He was the first to die. On her bad days, she was still never able to scrub physically or mentally the priest's blood or brains enough off of her body.
The rest of her group, including herself, had been rounded up and taken hostage. Via didn't know if the sick joke was on her group or kidnappers due to the United States policy in dealing with hostage situations. And with this thought began her six months of hell.
Every morning Via began to wonder if this was the day it would all end. Everyone in her group was physically tortured by men disguised as boys for the sure pleasure of them seeing the pain on their faces. Once a week the militia would line up her group 30 for the ultimate torture. The man in charge, would pull out a gun, put in a bullet, spin the cartridge and pull the trigger at each person's head. Some weeks no one would be killed, other weeks as many as five would be murdered.
Via had found herself many a times wondering if it would be better if she wasn't one of the ones who had already been put out of their misery. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, until there were only two of them left, she and Sister Mary.
Sister Mary had become her only source of light in dark. Always optimistic, Sister Mary believed one way or another that in the end they would end up in a better place. Sometimes Sister Mary's ideals made Via angry. Although she didn't want to die, Via didn't want to live anymore. She was tired both physically and mentally. She didn't know how much longer she could keep on going. Even though they had been stripped of a jewelry, Sister Mary had managed to keep her miraculous medal.
On the eve of their six month's anniversary of hell, Sister Mary looked at Via,
"My dear child no matter what happens tomorrow, I want you to have my medal."
Via began to protest. The nun wouldn't take no for an answer. So Via put the medal around her neck, knowing she would always treasure it. Due to the heat Via was not able to sleep well that night. By the time she had fallen asleep, she was abruptly woken up by the guards. Via could barely contain her physical shaking when the guards led Sister Mary and herself to the room. The room of Death.
The commander walked into the room with his gun. This time he didn't load the gun before them. Via knew what she had feared and yet hoped at the same time was coming. They were going to die. The commander faced the nun first aiming the gun at her head. The gun made sickening sound as it went off. As Via saw the kindly old nun drop, she tried to wretch herself free of the man who was holding her.
The next moment seemed to happen in a flash. A team of men barged into the room with their guns firing. Their faces were a blur of camouflage. All around her the captors fell in the haze of gunfire. Via's life began to flash before her eyes. So much so that she didn't know that she was being picked up like a bag of flour over one of the soldier's shoulder until Sister Mary was no longer in her sights. She began kicking and hitting the soldier and screaming as loud as she could until her vision and mind went black. She didn't regain consciousness until she woke up in an army hospital five days later surrounded by her family.
Her parents had seem to her trying to get all the mental help they could buy. Her siblings were always around her in the beginning. It had taken her months before she stopped having ear shattering nightmares. She was eventually able to get a job part time. She took everyday one at a time. She was less sober than she was messed up on either drugs or alcohol. She had begun to party hard Her parents had rushed her to hospital many times over the past three years whether from alcohol poisoning or practically overdosing. In her quest to feel alive since she had come back from hell, Via had gotten many tattoos, much to her family's dismay. While they weren't rich, they were no where near poor. Her back was practically covered with different designs. Her favorite tattoos were just behind her ears. Behind her left were three stars, while on the right she had the sun and moon. Even though she was happy to be alive, she always felt so alone.
Lonely was how she felt driving down the road to gala. Her parents had gotten her a job at the hospital as a volunteer. They had high hopes it would improve her mental state to feel she was doing something worthwhile.
Tonight was the annual fund raising gala for the hospital. She was dressed to the nines in black stiletto heels and a pale blue strapless empire waist gown that her mother thought was indecent given Via's "blessing" in being so top heavy. Via however, loved the dress. It had made her feel beautiful for the first time since she had come back. This was the only reason her mother had bought it for her. Her raven black hair which was normally up in a ponytail or bun, cascaded down her back to almost her backside in rich curls. Her eye makeup for once was perfect which was due to her older sister making her sit for almost half an hour while it was being applied. Her green eyes just seemed to pop.
Due to the chilliness of the night Via had on a black hooded mink cape with black satin elbow length gloves. She also had on her best jewelry. Her great grandmother's pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings. She also had her diamond earrings on in her second holes. On her left hand she wore her grandmother's aquamarine ring. It was really gaudy due to the huge size of the stone, but she felt like she was worth a million dollars when she wore it. She was also wearing her usual gold necklaces that she wore on a daily basis that either had either had diamonds, emeralds or aquamarine stones.
For all the expensive jewelry she was wearing the only piece that had true significance for her was the gold miraculous medal. Putting her fingers around it and singing the nun's favorite hymn, Be Not Afraid, Via's tears began. Sister Mary had told her she had the voice of an angel. Via had always laughed at this. Jokingly she would tell the sister,
"Maybe a fallen one."
Trying to compose herself, Via could only see the tears in front of her eyes and not the bright headlights of the oncoming car.
Moments later Via awoke to the sound of thunder. She could barely see around herself due to the thickness of the dark clouds. The thunder sounded like it was getting closer. Frightened she ran towards the trees. As she ran, she could feel the ground start to shake. Looking over her shoulder she saw a group of seven men on horseback behind her. In what barely seemed like seconds, they had surrounded her. The man who looked like the leader looked at her.
"Who are you?"
Via did a double take. He repeated himself again. Via looked at him dumbfounded and thought.
'Is he speaking Latin? Oh, God. No one speaks Latin like that. None of my siblings or I do and we took all four years in high school. I think I am going to be sick.'
With that Via fainted.
Arthur looked at Gawain.
"Pick her up and put her on your horse with you. Dagonet get her things. This hour is bewitched hour to be so dark at mid afternoon."
Gawain picked the girl up and got behind her as they rode back to the wall. By the time they had reached the wall, Via had woken up. She was taken off the horse by the biggest man she had ever encountered. He was bald and strong.
"I am Dagonet." He said quietly. She couldn't find her voice, so she nodded. He went to relieve Via of her purse, but she kept a death grip on it. Arthur moved in front of Via and spoke to Dagonet.
"Bring her to the meeting room. The rest of us will be right behind you. Jols make sure you take her things to a room."
Dagonet lead a trembling Via to the room. It was difficult to lead her due to the instability of her walking. He thought it odd for a woman so tall to have difficulty walking. By the time they reached the room she was cursing her decision to have worn the six inch stilettos. But then again she had no idea on the strange events that would come to pass. The villagers who saw her as she walked by thought she was a freak.
"Its just unnatural for a woman to be that tall."
Via entered the room and stared in awe. It was a beautifully decorated room with a round table taking up most of the space. He lead her to one of the seats. Gratefully she sat down. She had barely taken a moment when the other six men entered the room.
"I am Arthur, king of this land. Who are you?"
Once again she looked at him funnily. She raised her hands from underneath her cloak and proceeded to pinch herself. She didn't feel anything at first.
'This must be a dream.'
She sighed and smiled. However just as she did she felt a sharp slap against her back, which made her rethink her previous thought. She looked to see who had hit her. The man had shaggy almost shoulder length hair with braids and tattoos under his eyes. She immediately got to her feet and turned to hit him back. In doing so the hood of her cloak dropped revealing her face and jewelry. Arthur immediately stilled.
"I apologize my lady. We had no idea that you were of noble birth. We tend to be careful when strangers enter our land."
She was confused by his words. While she knew Latin, she didn't know all the words of the language. She sat back down. Trying to control her breathing, Arthur put his hand on her shoulder.
"You will be safe here. You must tell me where you hail so we can get you back."
Via sat there for a few moments trying to take in his words.
'How do I explain to them that not only am I not from Brittan, I am also not of this time period.?'
Via wasn't even sure if she had gone back in time. The whole idea seemed absurdly surreal. She just didn't know at that moment, if she hadn't stepped into compound, in whose members thought they were from times past or back in time. Even if it was true that she had gone back in time there was a possibility they would think her daft and burn her at the stake. She looked at the table and began to pinch herself again. Indeed it hurt. A glass of liquid had been put before her. She immediately swallowed it in one gulp.
"My apologies, milady you must be thirsty."
Arthur motioned for her glass to be filled again.
"You see we have to be careful due to an alarming rate of women entering the wall claiming to be from the future and that they are here to help us. Unfortunately they had to be burned at the stake for their very talkative crazy know it all witch like ways."
Via almost had a heart attack when she finally understood Arthur's last statement. The wine that had begun to warm her, now threatened a very hasty retreat.
"Let me introduce you to my men. Lancelot, Gawain, Bors, Dagonet, Tristan and Galahad."
Each man looked at her with a curiosity. Via just sat still in her chair.
She drank again from the glass slower than the first, but still quickly. Galahad impatient with the woman's lack of speech this entire time,
"Do you not speak?"
Without hesitation, Via shook her head no.
Moments after her response, Arthur motioned for a maid.
"Please show her to a room."
As Via got up, she knew she wouldn't make it where ever she was being taken with her stupid heels on. She leaned over took off her shoes underneath the table and held them to her person under her cloak. The maid came over and took Via's arm. Via got up rather shakily and left the room.
Daonget looked confused.
"Wasn't she a lot taller? She seems to have shrunk a good six inches."
Lancelot smirked.
"Too bad she doesn't speak. She is rather pretty. Although the silence would be appreciated so as not to wake anyone."
Arthur face palmed.
"Lancelot do not go after her."
Gawain laughed.
"Come on my brothers, there are enough pretty wenches at the tavern. Let us go drink and find company for the night."
After everyone had left Arthur, he couldn't help but think there wasn't something strange about the woman's appearance.
Via entered the room with the maid. The room was extremely sparse. There was a bed and a table with a wash basin on top. The maid went to help her with her clothing, but Via moved away from her. Exasperated the maid left in a huff. Via laid down on the bed and soon fell asleep. Sleep however didn't last long as it gave way to nightmares of her time in Africa. She woke with a start as the man's gun went off in her face. No matter what time period she was in there was always one way to prevent her nightmares. She put her heels back on and went in search of the tavern.
It was a while before she found the tavern. She had gone up and down so many staircases her feet were starting to threaten to runaway from her. She looked around hesitantly at first. She noticed the knights at a table. Then a thought came to her mind.
'Crap I don't have any money. How am I going to be able to drink?'
Lancelot looked up from the table.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Vanora, the girl's drinks are on me."
Via looked at him. Laughing on the inside.
'Boy you are going to be losing a lot of money tonight. And all for nothing.'
She walked over to the table and sat down. As she sat down a mug of ale was put before her. The knights started to laugh as they watched her start to drink. For each of them thought at any moment the girl would start to cough from the strongness of the alcohol. Their laughter had subsided by the time she had finished her sixth mug. They stared at her until she had finished her eighth. Bors laughed at Lancelot.
"I'd say her drinks cost you an entire night's company."
"How did I know she could drink like that. Where are you going girl?"
Via had gotten up and started walking towards the bar. She stood before Vanora with her mug and motioned for another refill. Vanora laughed to herself and refilled Via's mug again and again. Til she realized the girl had drank more than 10 mugs of ale. When Via moved to have her mug filled again. Vanora looked at the girl.
"No dear, I fear you've had enough. Dagonet, the lady needs to go sleep now."
Dagonet got up from the table and guided Via back to her room. At one point he began to carry her for it was just too much trouble for the girl to walk beside him. Dagonet was used to not talking himself but the girl's lack of chattering was enough to drive him crazy. After carrying her up the stairs, Via grabbed his hands and tried to dance with him. Confused he dropped both her hands and picked her up again and deposited her on the bed. He left shaking his head.