Brace yourselves, This is a sad one
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Cora stood at the edge of the shoreline. Her blue hair was now black and pinned into a bun. She was dressed in a black Victorian dress modified to stop a little below her knees. Her wedding ring seemed to weigh heavily on her chest.
Two years ago, She'd been Willow Elizabeth Virago, The Blue Rose, The Death Mage.
How ironic.
A single tear slid down her already wet cheeks.
She'd only been married a month when the blood war had stolen everything from her.
Curses were flying left and right, two figures were racing through the crowd, a young man and woman. Death Eaters dropped in their path like flies.
The man twisted around to grasp the hand of the woman, determination and fear both strong in his eyes"I'm going to clear a path and you're going to use it to get to safety!""Jackson no!" Willow protested, jerking away
"You'll die! There's too many!"
"I know."Jackson replied calmly, grasping her by the elbow and looking into her eyes, there was an acceptance there that the witch couldn't stand.
"No! No way! Jackson-"
Jackson cut her off with a kiss. His hand went to her stomach, which was just barely starting to show.
"Take care of Victoria for me." He whispered into her ear.
"Or David." Willow corrected, her eyes starting to blur.
"Or David."
"You won't know unless you stay with me. We can still escape together!"
Jackson broke away as the thundering roar of a giant announced that that massive brute was charging right at them, its enormous club aimed to swing at them.
Jackson pushed Willow out of the way and pulled out his wand.
"No, we cant."
He cast a force field around his wife.
Jackson fired a large blast, knocking all surrounding men and women back, and firing a curse to set fire to the giant. A single Death Eater managed to reach him and Stabbed a knife through his heart.
"NO!"
Black magic spilled from her core, shattering the force field and turned the surrounding Death Eaters to black ash. Her eyes turned black as large skeletal wings made of shadow formed at her back.
Willow let out a pain filled shriek that echoed over the grounds. Willow grabbed her knife, her death magic twisting it into a white hot sword.
Willow leapt from Death Eater to Death Eater, giving them each the same, twisted fate as her husband had been given.
The sword was as hot as the pain tearing through her heart.
They had had taken Jackson, her love, her Linked!
They all needed to DIE! If mercy hadn't been an option before, it certainly wasn't now.
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"I sentence you, Lady Virago, to a lifetime sentence in Azkaban for the use of dark magic, and homicide.
Willow sneered at the minister from where she sat in chains.
"I do not regret the deaths on the battle field of Men and Women who would slay me on the streets."
The Minister glared at her from the podium.
"Before you are sent to Azkaban,You will sent to Saint Mungos under strict surveillance, where the parasite within you shall be removed, as it will no doubt posses the same unholy powers as the woman who carries it."
Before Willow could process what she had just been told, she was struck with a spell that rendered her unconscious.
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When Willow awoke she felt the absence immediately. There was no small life growing within her. They were gone. The Ministry took them.
When Willow escaped she only had a single thought:
The Ministry of Magic would pay.
They needed her. The Virago family was ancient. The family lineage tracing all the way back to the Slytheryn and Ravenclaw lines, linking at the marriage between the little sister of Rowena and the son of Salezar.
The Viragos funded over half of the ministry and owned most Wizarding land.
The goblins of Gringotts cared nothing for Wizard laws. If she told them to cut off all funds and cut Wizards off from the land she owned, everything would fall to chaos.
Perfect.
The Ministry truly were nieve fools.
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Cora wept silently, arms wrapped around her stomach, remembering that a life had once been nestled in there, And recalling warm arms tucked around her.
Cora recalled the blue of her older brothers eyes and her mother,Coraline's soft black curls. She thought of the way her father laughed at her witty remarks and the peaceful days in the sun when the Viragos and the O'Connors all got together at a beach not so different from this one for dinner parties and cookouts. She remembered the days when she and Jackson were young and chased each other across the sand.
They where all gone now. The family she'd been born to, and the family she'd just started to make.
Some days she was certain these scars had healed and others she'd realise they were as fresh as the day she'd earned them.
Cora gripped her ring in one hand and clutched her stomach in the other.
God how she hated May second!
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one week later
Cora sat quietly off to the side while Lapis quizzed the Crystal Gems on all the information on Peridot. She still wore a black dress, this one was simple and plain, going down to her ankles and wrists. the only hint of color was her necklace.
Lapis knew why she was in mourning and had thankfully taken over when they had gotten the call from Steven that they had finally caught Peridot and gained information from the small green gem.
A hand tugged at her dress and she looked over to see steven looking her over in concern.
"Are you okay, Cora?"
So innocent was steven. Cora wondered if her child would have been anything like him.
"I'm alright, thank you." Her voice was soft and quiet, her throat raw from crying during the day and screaming at night from the terrors that waited in her dreams.
Steven was unerved by how Cora was acting. The whole team was. The last thing anyone had expected-even Garnet- was for the confident 18 year old to step out of her truck dressed in black with her eyes ringed red from what could only be crying and Lapis standing in front of her almost protectively, doing all the talking for once, instead of skulking in the back as she usually did.
Even when Pearl had explained that unless they acted, the world was going to be destroyed, Cora had only spared a single listless glance before picking a spot on the couch and curling up quietly.
Ironically, Peridot was doing the same thing two cushions away from her. Surprisingly the Green gem was extremely quiet when no one was paying attention to her. But the moment she sensed eyes on her some sort of switch would be flipped and she would go back to acting like a bratty toddler with a large vocabulary.
Cora was eyeing the green gem now. Steven had moved away to call his dad to ask if he knew anywhere they could build a drill without drawing attention from the humans (none of the ruins would do, Pearl insisted, not wanting to disturb the history) and her attention had been drawn to Peridot. She looked an awful lot like the more sane prisoners in Azkaban had, quiet and afraid.
Of course she would be, Cora mused. She was a prisoner here. A prisoner to earth and a prisoner to the Crystal Gems.
"My name is Cora O'Connors, what is yours?" Peridot jumped and looked up, startled.
The human stared at her with a kindness Peridot had never had directed at her in the entirety of her short life.
"I'm, Peridot."
Cora smiled and pulled the small gem into a hug. It had been a long week and she doubted she had the energy to pull up her stone cold soldier facade any time soon.
"Well then Peridot, welcome to earth."
Peridot's eyes widened and she awkwardly copied the hug.
"Guys! My dad says we can use his aunt and unkles old barn!"
Cora gave a soft whisper of a laugh and stood to follow the others to the warp pad. Peridot jumped off the couch and scurried after her.
Garnet raised an unseen brow at the two as they rejoined the crowd that was gathering on the warp pad. From the start Cora had Garnet perplexed. She was a myriad of emotions and masks. She was unpredictable and difficult to track with her future vision. Garnet never could quite determine what Cora was going to do or say.
As someone who always knew the future, this was frustrating. The Sapphire within her, however, was intrigued. Just who was Cora O'Connors really, and just how special did you have to be to twist fate as she did?
The way Peridot currently clung to Cora's dress was an interesting development as well. Cora had never seemed to be the nurturing type, everything, including her apparent title of Death Mage, suggested that she hated everything even remotely childlike. Even Steven with his wonderful gift of getting people to open up to him seemed to set her on edge.
And yet, nieve, bratty Peridot was clinging to her like a shy toddler while glaring at anyone who made eye contact and yet she didn't so much as twitch.
Perhaps these next few weeks would bring clarity to the Mystery of Cora.
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Cora observed while Pearl set about looking for something to help plan out the drill.
Peridot continued to refuse to be more than three feet away from Cora. The darkly dressed human made her feel safe.
Cora looked around the vast field with a frown. All this space and only one tree. This wouldn't do. They'd all burn up in the heat!
Cora walked towords the center of the field with purpose.
"Where are you going?!" Peridot called out, running after her.
Garnet glanced at Cora upon hearing Peridot's cry. What was she doing? Amethyst, Steven and Pearl had gained Cora's attention as well.
Cora knelt down and pressed a hand to the ground and felt the warm pulse of life thrumming through the earth. She sent a pulse of her own magic into the ground and pulled her hand up.
A tree sprouted from beneath her fingers and rose. Its limbs fanned out and sprouted dark green leaves. The wood of the tree was bone white for some odd reason.
The magic spillling from Cora's being caused a soft bed of thornless blue roses to bloom around the trunk of the tree. The buds ranging from the size of her fist to as small as the head of a pin.
"Woah!" Steven cried at the incredible display of magic.
"Show off!" Lapis cried playfully to her best friend, glad to see she was well enough to use her magic.
A pair of birds flew a ring around the tree before landing on Cora's waiting hand and chirped at her. Cora relaxed against the trunk of the tree and sang three perfect notes back which the birds copied before flitting into the tree.
A swarm of butterflies gathered amongst the blue roses, several coming to rest in Cora's hair which had turned blue once more. When the Gems reached Cora a rabbit had already raced from somewhere to rest in the witches lap.
"Dude, you sure you aren't secretly Snow White or something?" Amethyst asked as she took in the small flock of creature that had gathered around her friend.
Pearl meanwhile was inspecting the tree in amazement. Garnet was sitting with a pair of rabbits in her lap. Steven was sitting beside Peridot who was examining a butterfly that landed on her finger.
Cora sighed and stroked the rabbit in her lap fondly.
"Animals have nothing to fear from death. To them, I am but the incarnation of the cycle of life. They see me as a Mother Nature of sorts and and treat as one of their own."
Cora's hand stilled and her tone became bitter "I only wish this lack of fear would spread to humanity. I rather enjoy being loved rather than feared.
Peridot scowled. "I'm not afraid of you."
Surprise flickered in Cora's eyes before they went blank and she stood abruptly, the animals scattering at her sudden movements.
"Well, we better get started on that drill. I live here to it'd be a pity if this planet were destroyed.
Her walls were back up, her frigid aura instilling caution amongst Peridot who guided her through the list of supplies needed for the drill.
Garnet was disappointed. They had been so close.
the only thing of note that occurred was a short quarrel between Peridot and Pearl over how the latter's status as a servant class gem should prevent her from working on the drill. This argument was cut off by Cora who told Peridot to be polite and cooperate with Pearl.
This got a pout from Peridot and a smug grin from Pearl.
That night Cora couldn't sleep. She and Lapis sat a good distance away from Peridot and the Crystal Gems who gathered around a fire to rest.
"I shouldn't be here." Cora murmed, fists clenched.
"Don't you start." Lapis warned
"It's true though! Cora cried, standing up and pacing.
"How much longer do think I can just keep lying to myself, Lapis? How much longer can I pretend my presence isn't some sort of poison? That I should have let myself be shipped off to Azkaban! I'm a Death Mage! I-I'm fucking toxic! And I'm selfish, so damn selfish, and hypocritical! I'm no better than a damn Death Eater."
"Stop It!" Lapis clutched Cora's shoulders, stilling her.
" You have come too damn far to do this now, Coraline O'Connors! You. Are. Not. Toxic!"
"My grandmother was a death mage." Cora whispered. " She was only a little older than me when she lost control."
"You aren't losing control."
"Aren't I? I'm all over the place Lapis! One second I'm so sure I've got myself together the next I'm not even sure who I am anymore! I wish Jackson were here..."
Cora gripped hugged herself and looked to the starry night above.
Lapis gave her friend a fierce hug and Pulled her towards what she had called the Blue Tree.
"What's wrong," Lapis spoke firmly, determined to help. "Is that you've been hiding behind your masks for so long you dont recognize yourself anymore. You need to stop hiding, Willow."
Cora stiffened at the mention of her old name.
"The Blood War is over. The Ministry can't find you. You can affordto be yourself again. You're safe."
Willow O'Connors nee Virago hugged her knees.
"Then why don't I feel safe?"
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Well that could have been better I think.
I feel like Cora/Willow's character has been kind of all over the place which I'm going to start working on, and yes, this is going to be one of those stories where peridot is basically a gemling. Canon can go to hell. My story, I do what I want. I HOLD THE POWER
please leave a review-
Blue
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