Heir of Galena

It's More than a Sacrifice

There was something humbling and horrifically liberating to find out that it wasn't just a myth. As if all the doubts that kept her distracted with the hope of a future together were finally shed. She had to focus on the mission – the mission to right the wrongs now plaguing much more of the world than where it started in their home land so many years ago. There was a lot going on, a lot to take her mind off of Jason. She needed all the help she could get.

It started the day they almost had forever...

Apparently a trio imprisoned in the long forgotten Underground found that the wars on neighboring kingdoms bordering the far West and South had sprung to life in a last ditch attempt to call for reinforcements. There were powerful magics in place that were keeping the three both from getting out and from getting into the vast network of tunnels that were supposed to connect much of the world through major power centers of each kingdom.

The magics had to be lifted as they found that there were survivors roaming the tunnel system trying to find a way out. So it was that Anthony Zacchara was imprisoned in the actual prison and his children were held on trial to assess what should be done with them. They endeared themselves to the court as 20 years with no more than survival and insanity gave ample time to peruse the schematics for the tunnel systems.

Johnny and Claudia Zacchara were now the reigning authority on all things Underground.

And that wasn't the half of it. Michael also got the shock of a life time. His mother, Carly Corinthos was found, not so much human anymore as she was adorning the bow of the leader of the Blue Legion's, a Pirate guild out of the Veshuvian region, ship. Sam was a little more nervous about that in that Lorenzo wanted Jason to help him.

Sam had to admit that not even she was aware of what all Jason could do. He should have grown up in a court that could have let him learn of his gifts over the last 18 years, but instead he was raised on the road, by a man too afraid to risk the few times that he used his gifts. Jason was just now trying to play catch up. And as the last of his kind, there was more than just a few obstacles in his path. Still he wanted to try.

And as if all the rest wasn't enough, the very place that they were headed to had fallen to Elizabeth's forces. What could that possibly mean for them?

Well it meant plenty. It meant that the route they had planned on taking was now the most dangerous strategy in the game. It meant that they couldn't possibly know their own strengths and that they barely knew half of their companions. It was a recipe for disaster and one they didn't have to test before the cook off.

Sam stood quietly at the back of the cabin as Jason sank into a seat opposite Lorenzo next to Michael. Lorenzo was telling them how he came across Carly. "...I'd been in the cell for nearly a fortnight, no hope, nothing. Finally I woke one morning and she was there, stuck with me. I'd already given up but she was so full of life she made wanting to live easy. She saved me long before she was cursed."

"So you were both kidnapped in Veshuvia?" Michael asked, leaning forward anxiously. It was plausible. The VBE was in Veshuvia when she'd gone missing.

"Yes. She told me that she was kidnapped by the Black Legion. While we were plundering their latest store house we found your mother and rescued her, but when the Black-hearted Queen took down my ship, she captured us all. I thought she had died in the firefight until she was brought to my cell." Lorenzo explained.

"How did she get turned into a piece of the ship?" Michael asked in a growl, not liking where this was going as it was clear that the man had feelings for his mother.

"It was the evil Queens doing. She was trying to get to me, She wanted something else that I had, a medallion that told cryptic fortunes. Torturing me wasn't working so she turned on the people in my crew." Lorenzo actually looked distraught. "You might think all pirates a cut throat lot, but our loyalties run deep. She saved my life and when Elizabeth turned her to wood, I vowed I would return the favor."

"And we're just supposed to take your word for that?" Michael asked heatedly.

"No, you can ask your Mother and you can take stock in the fact that despite the price on your friends head." He motioned to Jason. "I haven't tried to take him by force."

"How did you know about the price?" Sam and Jason knew that Elizabeth knew about him now and that she was already sending others after him, but somehow it seemed to be getting around a lot more, which meant that they could have to deal with others coming out of the wood work to find him.

"Elizabeth send out a magical announcement – the light exploded over every major city in every major country in the world proclaiming that the man with the red dragon tattoo was wanted dead – and those that brought him to her would receive a single wish." Lorenzo replied quickly. "So while I could be trying to take your corpse to her and plead with the witch to turn your mother back to her former glory, I thought I might bet on a more trust worthy horse."

"What makes you think that we're more trustworthy?" Jason leaned back in wonder, not sure what to make of this guy.

"I've heard of what you've done, Sir. I docked before the storm set in. You saved an entire shire and the prince of the region." Lorenzo explained his reasoning. "I'd say that your heart was more in the right place then hers will ever be."

"And what if he can't?" Sam asked pushing off the wall worriedly. "You scrap the plan and try to kidnap him to claim the reward in hopes that plan B will work?"

"If he can't then we'll find another way." Lorenzo replied though it was clear that he wasn't sure what that other way might be as of yet and so he wasn't truly saying no to Sam's inquiry.

"You will do no such thing. As she is my mother I will take her off your hands and find a cure myself." Michael replied, trying to hold himself in check. "If this doesn't work." He clarified looking back to Sam as he still felt he owed her.

"Look lets quit trying to think of maybes until I see what I can do." Jason spoke up as he climbed to his feet. What he knew about his gift was that injury and near death needed life from else where to restore what had been taken. Curses that swapped one form of life for another weren't exactly covered in his experience. Everyone climbed to their feet after him. "Let me talk to Mrs. Corinthos and see what I can do for her, before we start thinking of alternatives."

"Please help her, Highness." Michael whispered as he bowed his head in respect, now knowing what Jason's true station was.

Jason caught his hand and beckoned his eyes back to his. "I'll do everything I can." He promised him. "And you owe me no patronage. I have yet to take back what is mine." He explained.

"As you wish, Sir." Michael shook his hand and gave another nod as Jason looked back to Lorenzo, watching the scene with such interest.

Jason walked onto the deck and then to the single set of of scaffolding that had been set up level with Carly over the bow. He climbed over and settled in at eye level, watching in wonder as her eyes opened to meet his. "Hello, Mrs. Corinthos." He smiled kindly. He caught the hint of guilt at the use of he name but let it go without mention. "I'm going to try and change you back to your previous form." He explained as he reached out to touch her hands melded and shaped against her sides.

"I appreciate this so much, you have no idea." Carly whispered to him. Jason smiled compassionately at her before he bowed his head, Sam and the others over head looking down to make sure that this was going alright.

Jason tried several times as if accessing his healing ability but nothing happened. He was getting more and more frustrated, his mind wandering on a silent tirade of injustices that never should have been, namely his and Sam's predicament, when at last his felt warmth permeating his hands, and he heard Carly gasp. He closed his eyes, giving into the feeling, taking hold of the power, channeling through him as he felt her hands growing softer and softer in his own until all at once he he had to grasp a hold of her to keep her from falling as she almost plummeted off the front of the ship now in human form.

Jason caught her with a growing smile and quickly pulled her back onto the scaffolding with him, Carly hugging him tightly, whispering a string of excited thank yous as the others quickly helped them up and over the side, Michael vying for the next embrace of his mother as Lorenzo stood back hands crossed over his chest as he watched the reunion.

Sam stood not so far away, watching Jason carefully to see if the effort had take much out of him, but he seemed far better than usual after using his ability. Jason watched in glee as Michael and Carly hugged tightly and Sam felt her heart breaking that she couldn't feel the freedom to do even that with Jason.

"It's quite bittersweet isn't it?" Lorenzo asked her softly.

"What is?" Sam asked him without looking his way, her eyes still focused on Jason.

"Watching someone so happy without feeling like you can embrace them. And yet being so happy for them." Lorenzo knew all about it. He knew that Carly was married but they had shared a lot the past few years. Still he liked to think that he had no illusions of what would happen once she was back to her former glory. He had hopes but that's all they felt like they were sometimes.

"It is." Sam finally admitted fighting tears as she watched them all.

"I'm Lorenzo, by the way, I don't think that we've been formally introduced." He was scared to look, scared to see the guilt in Carly's restored eyes.

"Sam." Sam offered breaking eye contact with Jason when it got to be much for the both of them to take the Pirates hand in her own in recognition.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

"Let me take the fall...let me take the blame...let me carry you from hell...to home again...Let me walk for you...when your legs are weak...Let me find the words for you...when you can't speak..."

"He saved my life and he could be the answer to saving us all." Nikolas sat across from his father, the both of them readying to say goodbye. His father would have expected no less of him, but it was still hard. "I've proposed that we take the underground to the Swamp of Morrow with Johnny as a guide. His knowledge of the tunnels will prove useful. Johnny will not accept. He wants his sister along but will relent to his father staying behind in prison." Nikolas explained.

"I think it is a fair trade considering it was his father that was the true betrayer of their lot. They have been closed off two decades – unable to form new alliances." The king told Nikolas softly. "I'm sending with you a small group of soldiers. My best. My personal guards...Jerry and Jasper Jax."

Nikolas nodded solemnly. "We will not you or the kingdom down." Nikolas promised him.

"Let me be your armor...let me be your shield...Let me take away the pain you feel ( your armor)...Let me be the light...That guides your way through the darkest night...Let me be your armor..."

"You can't even entertain the idea." Spinelli grabbed his pack from the floor across from Maxie's unsure why she would possibly risk her life to head out on this mission. She couldn't. He'd just found her.

"I don't need you permission." She smirked as she shouldered her own pack, her dress changed for more reasonable clothes for the Underground beyond. "I'm a top ranked fighter and I speak five languages. Something that could definitely come in useful where we're going." She chuckled. "Just take a breath and except it, Spinelli." She smirked before she leaned in and dashed him speechless with a kiss to the cheek.

"Let me take the blows...That were meant for you...Let me help you through the trials...you're going through...Let me keep you safe...from the world outside...Let me wipe the tears...that fill your eyes..."

"Thank you so much for never giving up." Carly whispered a breath away from Lorenzo, his arms encircling her as she finally looked up to meet his eyes. She knew it was wrong. She knew she still loved Sonny, her whole family, but here he was...the one that had found away to break the curse and while he wasn't the one that had done it, she knew what he'd given up to do it.

His second in command now ran his Legion because of her. Because he wouldn't allow the Queen's wrath for him be her undoing. "I would do it all again." He whispered as he fought the urge to kiss her.

It was she that finally broke the embrace as she reached for her pack needing to put space between them lest something happen that she couldn't take back. "We should go." She breathed as she looked to the large group readying to make their way into the Underground.

"Let me be your armor...let me be your shield...Let me take away the pain you feel ( your armor)...Let me be the light...That guides your way through the darkest night...Let me be your armor..."

Sam looked up from where she was lacing her boots as Jason closed the door behind them, leaving them alone as he sank to his knees, hands against her knees, his eyes imploring hers where she sat on the bed in her room. "Don't pull away from me." He breathed.

Sam had to fight the urge. "Jason..." She started but he cut her off.

"I know that it seems as if we can never be together, but Sam..." Jason captured her hands in his own. "I haven't given up on us. I never once gave up on you, I never forgot your name or your face or the way your lips felt against mine all those years ago. I know that deep down you feel as I do for you. I can feel it. More and more the more I get in touch with my abilities. It's like I can feel everyone but none more than you." He whispered.

Sam was fighting more and more tears, blinking as she kept her hands in his despite the slight tingle warning her that there was a price for it.

"I know where we go there are no absolutes. But despite everything that stands in our way. I love you and none other. Not as a friend, not as a lover..." Jason licked at his lips tears brimming his own eyes. "As the piece of my soul missing all these years...I love you, Sam...and I will find a way..." He promised her.

"Oh, Gods..." Sam melted into his arms her own feelings running just as deep as all her bravado crashed around her. "I love you too...We'll both find a way..."

"Let me keep you from... the experience you need...Let me bind you with my selfishness...and greed...Let me stifle you...Let me have control...Let me smother...every aspect of your soul..."

Elizabeth looked into the medallions face with a smirk seeing the union that would be their downfall. She would win this war for the world yet. She walked out of her tent, tucking Lorenzo's gift away as she beheld the battle field, laid waste in burning flames...

"We march on Heradesh next." She said calmly to her enslaved husband Ric Lansing.

"Yes, My Dear." He replied quickly – as he turned to address the armies awaiting her command.

"Let me be your armor...let me be your shield...Let me take away the pain you feel ( your armor)...Let me be the light...That guides your way through the darkest night...Let me be your armor..."

Johnny and Claudia took the lead into the Underground, the path that would lead them to the Swamp of Morrow without detection from the world above and thus the armies still marching over the world. Behind them Nikolas marched with Jasper and Jerry Jax in tow, guarding their Prince with all diligence.

Spinelli, Maxie, Michael , his mother, and Lorenzo came next, Lorenzo's men scattered through out the ranks as they made their way into the bowels of the Earth. Sam and Jason brought up the rear, Sam watching everyone's backs as they headed into the great unknown...

"Let me be your armor..."

Last Song - "Let Me Be Your Armor" by Assemblage 23

Next Chapter: The trek to the Swamp and more...