Title: Everlasting
Author: Loxodontack
Pairings(Fandom): HG & Myka (Warehouse13), Magnus & Kate (Sanctuary)
Rating: NC-17, M, 18
Disclaimer: Alas, the characters are not mine.

Part 1

Endless barren wasteland, nothing like the green fields of home. Of course, home was one hundred years ago in a very different country. Looking out the windows of the car that was bringing her to Lord only knows where, all she could focus on was the hopelessness of the land and how it reflected her own. What was to become of her, and did she really care anymore?

Something is wrong, something is very wrong. The tension just wouldn't let her go. Initially she thought it was a result of the last couple of days. The frantic race over the globe, looking for Warehouse 2. Then the mind, body, spirit tests in the race against time to save Mrs F. The elation of having solved all the riddles. Feeling shocked and betrayed when she realised Helena had knocked them out. Flying to Paris. Realising Helena's daughter was buried there. Dashing across the ocean back to the USA only to realise that Helena truly meant to end the world.

It was in that moment standing, looking at the other woman she began to understand what she had known. Understand the devastation and desperation that would drive someone to request they be bronzed. Having travelled through time with one clear aim, to save her daughter. Yet failing her, again. Having the intelligence to create the unimaginable and see beyond others, only to feel the weight of failure of not being able to keep the one, the only person who truly mattered, alive. Myka had seen glimpses of the pain, the utter despair but hadn't understood. Why hadn't she understood?

That moment standing on top of a super massive volcano, with the future of humanity in the balance, she began to understand. Understand the soul encompassing pain Helena was in. Understand the sheer humanity of the woman standing in front of her. Was it right to want to end the world? No. Was it understandable? Maybe. Thinking back on the woman. The strong, reserved, stoic woman and the grief she displayed when taken from her happy place in Warehouse 2. The sheer desperation of hoping for a better world.

Looking into eyes consumed by anguish and realising she had been led to this place, by this woman. Helena had known what they would do, known how many clues she had left behind and still she had done so. She wanted Myka there. Maybe even needed her there. It was then Myka searched herself and everything she knew and placed her life in the hands of the one person no one would expect her to trust. But she did trust Helena. She knew standing there with a barrel of a gun pressed against her forehead Helena would not, and for some reason could not, kill her.

She trusted herself, she trusted Helena and walked right up to the edge and jumped without hesitation. Helena had caught her. Helena had been unable to follow through with her own mission, obsession, of ending humanity as they know it, because of her.

Helena had been defeated. It should have made her happy, but the reality of that defeat in the eyes of the other woman, was nothing to celebrate. The drive back to the warehouse with a moaning Artie and a silent Helena had been excruciating . She had desperately wanted to knock Artie out and talk with Helena, but neither was possible. So instead she focused on the task at hand and drove. Drove Helena back into the hands of the Regents.

There was no protest, no attempt to save herself, nothing. Helena had stood from the car, walked directly into the building, where she knew they would be and submitted to the handcuffs they placed on her wrists. Everyone knew the handcuffs could not hold her if she didn't want them to. But the once proud woman, head held high, walked to the SUV in those cuffs in front of the only people in the world who knew her and suffered the humiliation in silence. Myka watched until the SUV drove over the top of the hill and then the disquiet had settled in.

Something is wrong. There is something not adding up about the whole scenario. She went over to Leena's and looked around. She wandered up to the room Helena had been using up to the night before last and it was just as it had always been. There was nothing personal of the woman, all the furniture was the standard mass produced pieces Leena had put in until agents got their own furniture sent. She then wandered down the corridor to her own room.

Before she knows it, Myka has packed all her belongings. The majority she will have sent to her storage locker until she needs it again. Anything she expects she will need she packs into her own SUV. Taking one last look around her room she leaves Leena's. Five minutes later she is pulling up in front of Warehouse 13. She knows this is the right thing to do.

Having put everything she might need into her SUV she goes back into the Warehouse one last time. Unexpectedly she runs into Pete and helps him realise he is exactly where he belongs, before Mrs Frederic comes along. She is sure she will be found out and Mrs Frederic will call her on it, but nothing happens. Mrs Frederic doesn't ask her what she is planning or even why she took what she did, she only gives her a pep talk about not blaming herself.

Handing over her letter to the team she accepts this is exactly the right thing to do. She strolls out of the Warehouse and directly to her SUV. One last look before she gets into her SUV and then she aims for the horizon. She allows herself a second to think how her letter will be received before committing her mind to her course of action. She doesn't look back.

Endless days of hunting down leads, following every tip received, calling in every favour she ever built up and it all leads her here. To an unremarkable building in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. She is exhausted, her back aches from the crappy motel rooms she has stayed in and the sense that something is not right just keeps escalating. Driving by the building she notices that it's not as unremarkable as it first appears. There are some serious security measures in place.

Driving by again in a borrowed car she does one last scan of the premises and takes as many high quality photos she can. Twenty–four hours later she is ready. Her plan is fully formed and she is more committed than ever before. At dusk she appropriates another car and sets the plan in motion.

Driving to a secluded spot a block from the property she activates The Imperceptor. She scales the fence, crosses over the large open area, in through the drains, through the maze of corridors until finally she finds the room she is looking for. Looking in she sees Helena with her back against the wall, unmoving.

Using the reflex hammer on the door, she is in. This is where it gets tricky because she has just alerted the complex that Helena's door has been opened. She dashes into the room and crosses to Helena who just stares at her blankly. She looks horrendous. Her eyes are sunken, there is a complete lack of expression on her face and her body is nothing but skin and bones.

'Come on Helena' Myka says, with not a little desperation. But she gets no response at all. Lifting Helena she turns towards the doors as she hears voices at the end of the corridor. Initiating the Imperceptor she retraces her tracks. However, this time crossing the open area she is hailed upon by bullets. With absolutely no warning Helena moves, throwing Myka off stride. Righting herself she runs to the fence and, using the mat artefact she placed earlier, jumps the fence.

After a very awkward landing she aims them for the car a block down the street. She places Helena in the backseat and drives to her own car. She replaces one car with another. Lifting Helena from the back seat she realises the seat is covered in blood. She desperately searches Helena finding a bullet hole in her left shoulder.

'Helena ... please Helena ...' frantically searching for a pulse, she finds a faint one. 'Come on Helena ... don't do this.' After applying pressure to the wound she starts the car and slowly moves the car away. Heading to the nearest interstate she is careful not to speed or draw any attention to herself. She needs to get Helena to a doctor. She only has medic training and has no idea how to take out a bullet.

'Shit! Shit! Shit!' Myka had no idea what to do.

'Sanctuary' is whispered from the back seat.

'What?'

'Sanctuary' again is whispered from the back seat, followed by an address in New York.

'You want me to go to a sanctuary in New York?' Myka is unsure what the other woman is mumbling about. But she seems very sure she can find sanctuary in New York. Aiming her car for Interstate 80, she is determined to get Helena to a sanctuary. Besides at this point she had no better ideas.

Five and a half hours of endless interstate later she pulls up in front of a very daunting building. This is definitely the address Helena gave her earlier though. The woman in question has been fading in and out of consciousness and Myka is terrified she doesn't have very long left. Gathering her wits about her she walks up to the bell and presses the buzzer.

'Hello?' Myka has the distinct feeling she is being watched'

'Huh'

'Hello! Hi, I have Helena Wells here, she's been shot and I need help.' Deciding to go with the honest answer since Helena had lead her here.

'Huh' and the gates are opened. Getting back in her car she drives up to the front door which is opened by a huge hairy man? ape? Reminding herself nothing is impossible she calls out to him. She is physically and emotionally drained and fears she will drop Helena if she tries to lift her.

'Come' she is instructed. Following through numerous corridors and going down in a lift they enter what seems like a complete medical centre. Helena is placed on a table in the middle of the centre room. She looks so pale, so defenceless Myka's heart bleeds.

'Well what do we have here?' Abruptly pulled from her thoughts Myka looks over to see a striking woman with long dark hair and stunning blue eyes. She is dressed as a doctor and appears supremely confident as she looks at Helena on the table.

'Well, well Helena. I certainly didn't expect to see you again.' She gets no response from the prone woman on the table. 'Agent Bering perhaps you would like to wait somewhere more comfortable?'

'Hey come with me' turning towards the voice she is startled to look into an arresting pair of brown eyes. 'Hey, it's cool. We'll just get you settled away and let Magnus to do her thing.' Myka is very nervous about leaving Helena to this woman's care. A woman she's never heard of and knows nothing about. Sure she seems to know Helena, but how? Some of her concern must show on her face.

'It will be alright.' Maybe it's her exhaustion, maybe it's the fact this woman knew Helena on sight or maybe it's the confident voice speaking with an English accent, not unlike Helena's. Whatever it is she decides to trust Helena will come to no physical harm with this woman, who has turned from her to focus on Helena's wound.

Turning to follow the other woman she catches the man? ape? in the corner of her eye return dressed like a nurse.

'Don't mind the Big Guy, your friend will be fine. Magnus will get her sorted. Agent Bering just this way. My names Kate by the way.'

'Myka.'

'Myka, just this way, I'll get you somewhere to freshen up and rest while you're waiting for your friend.'

Myka followed Kate down endless corridors, she worries that she may not be able to go any further when she is led into a large room with a four-poster bed in the centre. Kate showed her an ensuite and explained the other door opened into the room beside explaining there was no one using the room before leaving her alone. Standing just inside the door Myka isn't sure what to do. She wants to run down the corridors until she reassures herself Helena is alive. She wants to have a long shower to wash away the last twenty-four hours, no, the last week. Moving over to the bed she decides to sit for a minute before doing anything.

A knock on the door startles her awake. Trying to get control over the shot of adrenaline rushing through her body, to stop shaking, she calls to the person to enter.

'Agent Bering, a pleasure to meet you, even in such trying times. I came to assure you that Helena will make a full recovery.'

'Myka. How do you know me?'

'It is my business to know certain people. You are more than welcome to remain here for as long as you wish.'

'Is she ... when will she...' Myka wasn't sure what exactly she was asking. 'When do you expect her to wake up?'

'She has lost a lot of blood. I have placed her in the infirmary for the moment in order to monitor her progress. She was fortunate the bullet missed all vital areas and with a little rehabilitation she will regain full use of her arm.'

'Thank you so much. Who are you? Sorry, sorry.' Unsure of herself, Myka left the silence. Feeling as though the other woman could read her mind, she knew she was being assessed.

'My name is Helen Magnus. I own this facility. Perhaps you would like to freshen up and then we can see about you visiting our patient.' With that she turned and left the room.

Half an hour later another knock on the door pulled Myka from her musings. This time she crossed the room to open the door. On the other side she found her original tour guide.

'Come'

Stepping into the hall, Myka closed the door behind her. 'Yes, thank you.'

Nodding his head he turned, leaving Myka to follow him. Myka took time to study his ambling form. She found that she was unable to put any context to him, so spent the remainder of the journey wondering about Helena.

Eventually he came to a stop outside a sterile room and indicated she should go in.

'Thank you' she said, to be met with an inclining of his head. Interesting.

Immediately her mind turned to Helena. She still looked very pale and with her eyes closed appeared fragile, a word she would never have used to describe vibrant woman. Although at least now her face looked more peaceful than it had earlier.

'She's unconscious, and I expect she will remain so for another day.' Surprised Myka turns to see Magnus enter the room. Nodding Myka indicates that she understands. Following her gut she walks to the edge of the bed and grasps Helena's hand. It is so cold and yet so soft. She realises they hardly ever touched, all their contact was through their eyes. An ache starts in her chest, she yearns to see those glinting eyes full of mischief. Yet the feeling that urged her to track down Helena and free her, has eased with only a slight sense of unease remaining.

Watching Magnus check Helena's vitals and move around the room she is impressed and reassured. Returning her attention to the woman on the bed she gazes at her and takes a seat in the chair beside the bed. She refuses to let go of the hand she is holding, wanting Helena to know she is not alone.

'Dinner will be served in an hour.' Magnus informs her as she leaves the room. Myka settles back and thinks.