Tamsin's going to kill her.
She is going to rip Lauren apart limb from bloody fucking limb, Bo be damned.
Tamsin's body may be human but she hasn't lost complete control of it, and in her blind rage she throws herself at Lauren with teeth bared and fists flying. But Lauren is ready, as she's been ready every other time, and Tamsin barely comes within arm's length before Lauren deflects her blow and lands one of her own, a hard right across Tamsin's face.
It's a hit that Tamsin would normally shake off. She'd usually laugh and incinerate whoever tried to land it. But her reflexes have ground down to a fraction of her usual speed, each muscle moving as if swimming through heavy water, so she doesn't even realize how slow she's going until it's too late.
Lauren's fist connects with Tamsin's nose.
Crack!
Tamsin reels back, her hands flying to her face. For a second nothing happens, but even as that thought finishes formulating, Tamsin's knees give out.
Shit, it hurts.
Tamsin chokes. A foul taste coats her tongue.
It hurts worse than Tamsin's ever imagined, more than she can bear, and she rocks back and forth on the flats of her knees. The pain comes in waves, endless and bottomless, coupled with the nauseating smell of blood. Tamsin's head spins, blurry spots appearing haphazardly in her vision. Her fingers graze the rapidly swelling bump, and she bites back a scream as fresh agony lances through her face.
"You broke my nose." She mumbles, watching in horror as blood begins to drip down her hands. All she can see is blonde hair through a haze of red. "You fucking bitch, you broke my nose."
"Breathe through it. It'll pass."
Lauren, panting, stands up slowly. Tamsin catches the glint of metal in her hand and suddenly scuttles backwards, putting the table between herself and Lauren. Her gun. In the momentary panic of losing her Valkyrie half, Tamsin had dropped her gun and now Lauren's finger is on the trigger, pointing it in her direction.
Fuck.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I had to do it."
None of her imagined worst scenarios can compare to this.
Tamsin lunges again, halfheartedly, but Lauren is faster. How the hell is Lauren faster?
"How the hell did you-"
"I was trained in hand-to-hand combat before I was deployed to Afghanistan." Lauren says, having remained amazingly calm as Tamsin had thrashed around the floor like a dying fish. The same calmness remains cast upon her now, even as Tamsin sits glaring at her from below. "They taught us to defend ourselves if we were ever under attack. No healer fae or hospital to patch us up."
The doctor's grip on the gun loosens as she backs away, keeping her eyes glued to the former Valkyrie's every move. Tamsin somehow knows that Lauren won't kill her, won't shoot her if she can help it, but so long as she has that fucking gun Tamsin is effectively powerless.
Lauren lowers the weapon slightly, clearly unsettled by the amount of blood on Tamsin's hands. But she doesn't make a move to help.
"You goddamn- you fucking-"
Tamsin damns the doctor to the lowest pits of hell for doing this, something worse than killing her, far more irreparable than a broken nose. The only part of her that she values- the only part of her that's worth anything- it's fucking gone. She's fucking lost.
God help Lauren if Tamsin ever gets her hands around the doctor's neck.
Valhalla. Odin. Her blood and her sisters and her Valkyrie were supposed to be hers, always. No matter what happened, what mistakes she made, they were pieces that could never be taken from her. But not there's an endless chasm of emptiness that was once filled with everything that made her Fae, and as Tamsin manages to work past the pain radiating from her face, the terrible reality begins to settle.
She buries her head in her hands, overwhelmed with the loss of millenia. Tamsin barely bites back a scream as the void stretches out before her.
There is nothing she can do.
"I'm sorry, Tamsin." Lauren repeats, looking sadly down at her. Her fingers twitch and Tamsin draws a painful breath. "I had to stall, you didn't give me enough time. I swear I never wanted to have to do this. You understand."
Fuck understanding.
"You-" Tamsin hisses. She crawls, hands and knees, to the wall, where she braces and slowly hauls herself up. The pain has dulled into a hot sort of throb, and when she turns to face Lauren, it rushes up to her very eyes.
Stay calm. Breathe. Plan, then execute.
Neither of them move. Lauren appears to be holding her breath.
"I understand that you're going to go back." Tamsin finally says, heartbeat slowing as the adrenaline slowly dissipates from her system. It beats a pathetically slow pace, a human pace. She spits blood on the floor at Lauren's feet. "Dyson's tracking bracelet- if I don't show up with you, he'll know something went wrong and he'll go to the council. You're going to die if I have to kill you myself."
Yes. Yes, that was it. Dyson and the council.
Lauren just shakes her head, golden hair framed by the sun pouring through the lone window on the ceiling above them. If Tamsin didn't know better, Lauren would look like an angel.
"I never said I wouldn't go back."
"What?" Tamsin whispers, stunned.
"I told you, I just needed more time." Lauren steps forwards, glances briefly towards the door where her car is still parked, then down at the gun in her hands. No expression of anger or fear mars her face, only a look of intense concentration. Tamsin might as well be a houseplant for all the attention Lauren is truly paying her. "You're right that I didn't expect this," she continues, frowning as she jangles Dyson's tracking bracelet on her wrist, biting her lip. "But the outcome remains the same."
"What fucking outcome?"
Lauren takes one more look at the gun in her hands and then holsters it to her side, where her own pistol had been before Tamsin had tossed it away.
"One where I go back with you. Back to the Fae."
And despite her hatred for the doctor, Tamsin still shakes her head in confusion.
"Then what was this all for?" She demands, taking a step forward even as Lauren puts a hand to her side in reflex. "You turn all those Fae, you turn me, you fucking give up everything that matters- what the fuck is going on inside your head? What the hell do you want?"
She's screaming by the last word, her hands still braced against the wall for support. Being human is markedly different from being Fae; Tamsin's looking through an unsaturated lens, everything a little blurrier, a little dimmer, sensation dulled as if by a clumsy artist. Every instinct takes more thought, more effort. Tamsin feels like she's been drugged.
"I want amnesty for every human in Fae captivity. You release all of them- all of them- and any Fae that can live without feeding on humans is blood-bound to do so. No more human slaves, pawns, status symbols, no more discrimination in any avenue where humans and Fae have to interact. I want it done, and I want it done immediately."
Tamsin's mouth opens in shock.
"You know that's not possible."
"Then I release the serum into the air. I put it into the water, the soil, I feed it to every human being and every animal and till it into every tract of farmland and forest until there is not a place on earth where a Fae can exist." Lauren says, face stone. As if by an injection of steel, her pose straightens and she looks at Tamsin, through the blood and the tears on her face. Tamsin realizes that this is the first time they have faced each other as true equals, and the thought terrifies her.
Lauren has power she may not even know exists.
"You think I'm the only human the Fae have ever wronged, Tamsin? There's a resistance you don't even know about, because you never even considered us a threat. If anything happens to me, they will act. All they need is for me to give them the signal." She pauses for breath. "But I'm a fair woman. You give me what I want, and I'll give you my blood oath not to give them that signal."
Scratch that, Lauren definitely knows her own power.
"You can't do that."
"Try me."
"Bo will-"
Lauren doesn't so much as flinch.
"Bo can't stop science and she can't sacrifice herself or her love, not this time. Magic isn't infallible, Tamsin. And anyway, she grew up human. Being one again won't faze her as much as you think."
Tamsin's frustration breaks through her common sense.
"You're making a goddamn heap of assumptions here, doc." She growls. "Last time I checked, you were pretty human yourself. What's stopping me from putting a bullet in your head the next time you've got your back turned?"
"You're not going to kill me."
"How do you know?"
"The same reason the Fae won't kill me. Who else can make you Fae again? You kill me, you never get another life cycle. You stay human forever, and the rest of the Fae follow."
"What if I was willing to make that sacrifice?" Tamsin hisses.
"Then try your luck. I always liked the idea of being a martyr." Lauren begins to walk towards the entrance of the secret laboratory. "Either way, you're coming with me while I make some last preparations. Now, are you going to go easy, or am I going to have to force you?"
At that exact moment, a muffled ringing erupts from Tamsin's pocket, making both of them jump. Lauren draws the gun with incredible speed, immediately shrinking to the opposite wall in apprehension. The military woman in Tamsin can appreciate that, but ordinary Tamsin suddenly wonders if she's getting out of the room alive. Not if Lauren gets an itchy trigger finger, that's for sure.
No movement. No sound.
Then her pocket vibrates again.
Lauren sets a silent finger to her lips, and Tamsin doesn't dare exhale as the phone goes to voicemail.
"Tamsin?"
It's Dyson.
Lauren's face contorts with some unreadable emotion.
"I'm getting a signal that the tracking bracelet has been activated. Did you find her? Is Lauren there?" After a moment of Tamsin's silence, he sighs, crackly with static and exhaustion. "I guess you must've rolled over on it or something. Anyway, let me know once you get anything. Thanks and good luck."
Tamsin allows herself a little chuckle at Lauren's expense; the doctor is visibly agitated by Dyson's call, and as the phone falls asleep again, Lauren catches a harsh breath that sounds suspiciously like a sob.
That's all it takes.
With surprising speed, Lauren dashes forward and points the gun straight at Tamsin's chest. Tamsin takes a step back and, her throat aching with the pain of holding her breath.
"Call him back, right now!"
Tamsin doesn't move, and with a sudden growl Lauren points the gun right above Tamsin's head and fires a single bullet into the rock above. Tamsin drops hard into a crouch, covering her head with her arms as shards and dust rain down on her. Her entire body vibrates with the crack of the shot, inches above her head.
"Now, goddamnit!"
Tamsin moves an inch a second, slipping her hand in increments to her pocket, then raising the phone to her ear. She presses a button and waits for the tone, never taking her eyes away from Lauren's face.
Tamsin suddenly understands that unreadable motion that the doctor was sporting a few seconds earlier.
It's regret.
"Put him on speaker and tell him everything I just told you. Say nothing else."
Dyson picks up on the first ring.
"Hello-"
"Listen to me." Tamsin states, her voice steady. Her tongue grazes her lip with the words and she tastes the metallic tang of her own blood. "I don't have a lot of time."
She repeats Lauren's instructions, and lets Dyson exclaim his own fear and confusion on the other end. Tamsin can see him now, pacing agitatedly around his office, his hands cracking the casing of the phone, mind racing with Bo and Trick and hell, the fate of all of the Fae.
Tamsin's newly human heart aches.
Dyson stutters his last words.
"Tamsin, stay alive. Please just do as Lauren says, she has to come around eventually."
"I'll do my best." Tamsin says. Lauren doesn't react.
"I'm just- I'm so sorry. Tell her I'm sorry for what's happened."
At that, Tamsin watches Lauren visibly flinch. She looks away from Tamsin, to some spot far beyond the wall she faces.
Tamsin hangs up. She doesn't need to say anything, but she does anyway.
"Dyson says that he's sorry."
"A bit late for that now, isn't it?"
Tamsin can't help but agree.
Lauren shakes her head again, thin-lipped and pale even in the bright sunlight, and walks behind Tamsin. Tamsin doesn't dare turn around, but as the doctor crosses her vision, she notices that Lauren looks decidedly unhealthy up close, skin sallow and drawn tightly over her cheekbones. But that doesn't stop her from jabbing the gun hard into Tamsin's back, throwing her slightly forward.
"We're leaving."
Tamsin starts walking.