Covenant of Liars
by tenshinrtaiga
Disclaimer: I don't own the Covenant or Pretty Little Liars
Primary Characters: Alison DiLaurentis, Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, Emily Fields, Hanna Marin, Chase Collins, Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Reid Garwin, Tyler Simms.
Secondary Characters: Ezra Fitz, Wren Kingston, Samara Cook, Sarah Wenham, Kate Tunney, Caleb Rivers and more.
Pairings: canon pairings plus some Caleb D./Spencer, Aria/Reid, Alison/Chase
Summary: No one really knows how the Power came to be. Not even the Book of Damnation recorded its beginning. But those who mastered it have always been hunted. In the middle of the 17th Century, many escaped the brutal Witch-hunting in England and France by coming to America. As the brutal persecution of those with the Power spread throughout Massachusetts, the ten families of Ipswich (Danvers, Hastings, DiLaurentis, Putnam, Parry, Fields, Montgomery, Garwin, Simms and Marin) formed a Covenant of silence. And for 300 years it has kept them safe. Until now.
Alison, Caleb, Spencer, Pogue, Reid, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Tyler have to deal not only with their own high school drama, but the strange supernatural ones that keep popping up. And it doesn't help that the Covenant of silence is splitting at the seams as Spencer deals with her family, Caleb finds himself in love with someone else and Aria falls for her new teacher. And of course, further splitting the group, there's Alison and the girls as they try and secretly deal with That Jenna Thing.
Caleb raced through the water, swimming hard during their early morning practice. He and Chase were neck and neck coming on their last lap. Suddenly Caleb felt something. It was like the water was hard and tangible. Like it was gripping him and dragging him under. He thrashed in the water but the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Chase's black eyes.
The next thing he knew he was blinking awake with his brothers standing over him looking worried. "What happened?" he asked with a sore throat. They explained what happened, but Caleb tuned them out as he thought back on what he knew. Chase had black eyes. Only the Covenant had black eyes. Someone had been Using. Someone had sent a Darkling. No one in the Covenant would do something like that. It must have been Chase.
Over and over his thoughts cycled and no matter what way he sliced it, he kept coming to the same conclusion: Chase was one of them.
All day, Caleb kept his eyes firmly on the other boy. He knew what he had seen and now he just needed to find a way to prove it. He watched as the boy talked with their group of friends; with the Covenant. Watched as he confidently strode through the halls, kissed Ali and answered questions in class; all with a smirk on his face. Like he knew Caleb was watching. Like he found Caleb's suspicions amusing. Like he didn't care that Caleb was onto him…
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Reid asked as he and Aria slowly made their way to their English class.
"Not really," she replied honestly but didn't stop moving. "But what am I supposed to do? Hide in my house forever?"
Reid shrugged in response. "Or drop his class." When she sent him a questioning look, he elaborated more clearly. "Claim conflict of interest and drop the course or transfer into a different one."
Aria blinked in surprise. "Maybe," she replied, but her eyes showed that she was seriously considering the option. The two entered the classroom to find it halfway filled with students and the professor nowhere in sight. The duo climbed high up to their usual seats with Emily and Tyler who were already sitting there waiting for them. Aria set down her books but continued standing, turning so that she could face Emily. Because the classroom was at a tilt, Aria standing made her face to face with the sitting girl. "Morning," she greeted with a friendly smile.
"Morning," Emily returned.
"So…" Aria led on. It was obvious she wanted to say something but wasn't sure how or even if she should. Apparently she couldn't hold it in any longer because she blurted out her words quickly. "What's going on with you and Samara?"
Emily shifted awkwardly, especially when Reid and Tyler looked interested in her answer too. "Right now we're just friends," she replied honestly. "She just moved here and Maya's only been gone for a month."
"But maybe later…?" Tyler asked.
Again, she shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of her friends. "Maybe," she said shrugging lightly. Her three friends shared grins, clearly happy for the girl. When Emily first came out at the end of their junior year, she'd had it rough for a while, but as she grew to accept herself the way she was, so did others.
"Good to see that Baby Boy didn't permanently ruin you for everyone," Reid teased.
"For the last time, I did not turn Emily gay," Tyler scowled, well used to his best friend's comments. He turned to his best female friend and looked at her imploringly. "Tell them I didn't turn you gay."
Emily gave a grin in return. Ever since she and Tyler broke up and Emily came out of the closet, all of their friends had begun teasing Tyler saying that he was so bad in bed that he turned Emily gay. Even now, almost six months later, the teasing hadn't stopped. "Tyler didn't turn me gay," she said in a well worn tone, clearly having repeated the line many times.
"Lie and deny, Baby Boy. We all know the truth," Reid crowed, not listening to Emily any more than he had for the last several months. Out of the corner of his eye, a flicker of movement caught his attention. Turning slightly, his eyes narrowed when he realized that the professor had just walked into the classroom. Reid's eyes narrowed further when he realized that he was staring at Aria who had her back to the front of the classroom.
Playing off like he didn't know that Fitz was watching, Reid wrapped an arm around Aria's shoulders, tugging her closer to him. She looked up at him questioningly. After she had met Ezra, she had broken off their friends with benefits relationship and technically they never reinstated it after Ezra told her in no uncertain terms that nothing would be happening between them.
Reid raised an eyebrow questioningly, clearly knowing what she was thinking about and asking whether they were back on. Aria blinked slowly as she thought about it before giving a light shrug of agreement. If she wasn't going to be dating Ezra then there was no point in not continuing her relationship with Reid.
The blond smirked before leaning down to kiss her thoroughly, though he was still conscious of the fact that they were in a classroom surrounded by their peers and didn't do anything too salacious.
"Mr. Garwin, Ms. Montgomery!" Professor Fitz called out angrily causing the two teenagers to separate. "If you're done, class is starting," Ezra said through grit teeth.
The two took their seats, Aria with stiff discomfort and Reid with blatant casualness, but underneath the table, Reid gripped Aria's hand. She needed all the strength she could get, having to sit in this classroom across from Fitz every day.
"So, are you going to do something about the Jenna Thing?" Hanna asked hesitantly as she spun around on her stool in the science lab.
"Like what?" Alison asked right back with a knowing smirk on her lips. She was fluffing her hair while looking in a compact mirror and for all the world seemed nothing more than an average high school girl.
"I don't know," Hanna shrugged. "You did something that night. You made Toby confess to doing something you did," she whispered, scared that someone would overhear them.
Alison finally drew her eyes away from her own reflection and looked down at the other blonde. "We did," she corrected with an angry sternness. "I made him confess to doing something we did."
Hanna nibbled her lower lip, but nodded. Yes, blinding Jenna Marshall was something they all did together. Ali may have been the one to throw the firecracker but they all let her. This was their true secret; one they kept even from the boys.
Seeing that Hanna was properly cowed, Alison went back to fixing her makeup. "As for Jenna… Why don't you just let me worry about that, Sweetie. It's being taken care of," she assured the blonde.
Hanna felt a chill go down her spine at those words. That's what she was afraid of.
"Pogue!" Spencer yelled as she raced through the halls trying to catch up with the man. "Pogue!"
The long haired boy stopped, turning to wait for her to catch up. After a few quick seconds, she reached him. She gripped his arm to steady herself as she regained her breath.
"What's the fire?" he asked in curiosity. Spencer was almost never this frazzled. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her so much as disheveled. She and Caleb were the calm and collected ones.
"I need a huge favor," she admitted as they began to walk toward the cafeteria for lunch. "Can I…" she hesitated, unsure how to ask. Finally, she decided to spit it out. "Can I please move into your spare room?"
Pogue blinked in shock. "What happened to your apartment?" he asked.
Spencer sighed, but knew she had to tell him the whole story or he'd never agree. "You know Melissa got engaged, right?" She waited for him to nod his head before continuing. "Well, she wanted to move into my apartment. So, after essentially kicking me out, my parents promised to buy me a new apartment." She raised her hand to forestall any questions. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but it's my family so bare with me. Anyway, I've moved my things into the house so that Melissa and Wren could move into the State St. place. But… something happened and it doesn't look like my parents are going to be getting me a new apartment anytime soon. So can I please move in with you?" she asked looking up at him with her very best begging look.
"What happened?" Pogue asked, sensing that she was hiding something from him.
The brunette girl let out a sigh. She should have known better than to think she could breeze past this. "Wren and I kissed and Melissa found out."
"Wren, her fiancé?" he asked in complete shock, but with more than a hint of being impressed. "You kissed Melissa's fiancé?"
Spencer scowled as she looked around to see if anyone was listening in. "Yes, okay. And now my house is like fucking Siberia. And Melissa, despite no longer needing a place with her ex-fiancé, won't give me back my apartment and my parents aren't going to get me a new one so now I'm stuck at home with all three of them glaring at me all the time," she said, her voice raised near a yell.
Pogue raised an impressed brow. Spencer never swore or raised her voice. She must really be upset. "Of course you can move in with me," he said, wrapping a comforting arm around her. "We can get your stuff after school."
"I hope so. Uh, listen. I have something to do first, but I'll give you a call later, okay?" Caleb muttered lowly into the phone, conscious of his three friends waiting. He quickly hung up the phone.
"What'd she say about Kate? Why won't she call me back?" Pogue asked worriedly.
Hanna scoffed, choosing to answer instead of Caleb. "She's still pissed at you," she stated obviously.
"Why are we doing this?" Spencer asked, shivering in the cold rain. She and Pogue had just barely finished moving all of her things into Pogue's apartment when Caleb called asking them to meet him at the school.
"Because I saw the darkling again," Caleb explained as he threw one leg over the fence and then another. He then turned to help Hanna do the same thing.
"Yeah, but why break into the admissions' office?" Hanna asked in exasperation. Her hair was wet, her makeup was probably running and she felt like a soggy rat. She slowly crossed the fence, mindful of the fact that she was wearing heels and it was slippery.
Caleb lifted the blonde down from the fence and moved back so that Pogue could go next. "'Cause I want to know more about Chase Collins."
Pogue hopped the fence cleanly in one go, unlike the first two who took it one leg at a time. He turned to help Spencer but found her lithely jumping the fence as easily as he had. With a shrug, he turned to the others as they all huddled under an alcove. "Look, I don't even like the guy. Are you sure you're not just imagining this?"
Caleb scowled. "I'm telling you, his eyes were as black as night in the pool today."
Spencer moved toward the admissions building. "Alright," she nodded, agreeing to trust Caleb's judgment. Around her, both Hanna and Pogue also nodded in agreement. As one, the four fled across the courtyard quickly, mindful of both the rain and any security guards as they quickly ran to the building they were looking for. Caleb quickly Used to unlock the door and they all crept inside. The admissions office was technically on the other side of the school in the same building as the Provost's office, but all of the formal paperwork was stored in the back of the old school chapel which had been converted into a meeting hall.
The four quickly rifled through the 'C' section and it didn't take long for them to locate the correct file. They split the papers into four, each looking through their section. "What are we looking for?" Hanna asked as she scanned through the papers.
"I don't know. Something suspicious. Who are his parents?" Spencer responded. "If he's one of us, it had to come from his dad. Find out about his dad."
Caleb looked through his papers before picking up a newspaper article. "Died in a car accident," he answered. "Says Chase's father just lost control."
"His real name is Pope," Pogue said after having looked through his own stack. "Chase Goodwin-Pope born July 14."
Hanna took this opportunity to speak up about what she found. "The Collins adopted him after his mother died when he was two years old." The three turned to look at Caleb wondering if any of this was what he wanted to find, but Caleb wasn't paying attention to them.
"When did you say his birthday was?" Caleb asked with a frown, scanning the article in his hands again.
"July 14," Spencer answered, remembering the date.
"That's the date his adoptive parents were killed. They died on his eighteenth birthday," Caleb said significantly. A witch's eighteenth was an important birthday. Before he could say anything else, they heard footsteps in the hallway. All four whirled around, but didn't see anything. They quickly turned off their flashlights so that the light wouldn't give them away. After a moment, they heard nothing. They relaxed thinking they were safe when suddenly the door flew open. The four witches exchanged a panicked look before quickly using their powers to float to the ceiling, hiding them in plain sight from the security guard.
Hanna winced when several of the papers fell from the folder she was carrying, but Spencer quickly Used. The papers hovered just above the security guards head just inches away from his face. After a quick look around, the guard left and the four teens returned to the ground.
"That was too close, man," Pogue muttered as they all waited for several minutes for the guard to leave the building.
"He's gone," Spencer confirmed as she looked out the window to see the old man heading towards another building. "Let's get out of here."
"Why are you taking them to the hospital in Gloucester?" Sarah asked worried as she looked down into the sick bay. She had come back to the dorms to find a note from Kate saying that she was in the infirmary. After a phone call to the nurse, Sarah had made her way over, worried for her friend but when she arrived, she found not only Kate, but Emily too with a concerned Samara hovering by her side.
"Her temperature's jumped to one-hundred and five and she's showing symptoms of anaphylactic shock," the doctor explained as he joined the two blondes.
"What does that mean?" Samara asked.
"It's a severe allergic reaction," the doctor put into layman's terms.
Sarah glanced down in true fear. "To what?" she wondered aloud.
"Well, we're not sure. It's as if she'd been bitten by hundreds of insects. Like spiders," he said thoughtfully, making a note in the chart about the possibility of spiders.
"Goodwin-Pope," Caleb muttered under his breath as they made their way through the main hall. "Goodwin. Goodwin-Pope. Agnes Goodwin-Pope!" he exclaimed suddenly, reaching out an arm to stop everybody. "That's where I've heard it before."
"What are you talking about?" Pogue asked in confusion.
"The Book of Damnation. They used to call her Goody Pope. Do you remember her?" he asked excitedly.
"Oh," Spencer's eyes widened as she remembered. "Oh!" she too exclaimed once she realized what Caleb was getting at.
"And for those of us who haven't read the book since we were kids?" Hanna asked, impatient with all of the drama when all she wanted was to get out of her wet clothes and see if she still had time to call Rivers back.
"Just call the others," Caleb sighed as they exited the building. "We'll meet up at the old colony house. Spencer and I have to tell the families." Hanna and Pogue looked at the duo in confusion but did as told and separated as the two brunets made phone calls to the families, drawing all of the Covenant parents to the Danvers' mansion where the two teens would explain what was going on.
