Weary feet carried poor Dr. Lauren Lewis over the baseboards of her stairs. She was tired, stinking of every form of ammonia and chloride, and she longed for the warm release of a hot bath. She relished in the thought of bathing her body, of basking her feet in the pool of water, and it soothed her even before she could pull off her professional blouse and tight skirt. After, she could curl into bed next to her gorgeous wife and drift into a peaceful and not so proverbial sleep.

She blinked as a cold feeling of dread pooled at the pit of her stomach. She did not have a wife.

"This feels like the Dawning," she commented, looking over the room that was identical to her own.

It won't try to trick you like the Temple. But it can have the will to trap you here.

"So you're still here," Lauren replied to the voice in her head- her Seraphim. She hated to admit it, but the familiar voice soothed her mind slightly.

I cannot very well leave you, Doctor. For now you should go along with whatever this test provides. Sleep while you can.

"I don't think I could calm my mind down enough to..." Lauren couldn't finish the sentence as before she could utter the last few words, her eyes drooped down and she fell fast asleep.

A melodious hum cascaded over Lauren, waking her softly from slumber, her body physically becoming attuned to the beautiful refrain much like a flower's strain towards a source of music. Her breathing became in sync with the song, it rising and falling to the beat, and a small smile appeared on her lips; forgetting for a moment where she was and hoping this captivating song was from the throat of her lover. She continued to listen until a soft finger languidly traveled down through her hair to caress her cheek. The smile became wider as Lauren's delicate hand raised to hold onto the other, and slowly she opened her eyes.

What she found was not what she was expecting, to say the least.

"Now I know this isn't real!" Lauren exclaimed as Evony's fingers curled into her hair again.

"Shh, darling." A knee moved to the doctor's crotch. "I'll handle the rest."

Lauren felt something clack together in her pocket as both legs were forced upward onto the bed. She wondered if whatever in her pocket was a totem of help from Tamsin, immediately wondering also where her armor was, before she pushed Evony off of her quickly. Shaking her head, placing a hand to her temple, Lauren looked over to where she pushed Evony to and saw nothing but the silk threads of her sheets.

"You said it wouldn't try to trick me," Lauren said, getting off of the bed quickly and looking about her room.

It cannot alter your mind for I am here. You have seen through the ruse swiftly and without falter.

"In other words it's still going to try to trick me, but since it can't it'll try other ways." Lauren rolled her eyes, a half smile appearing on her lips, before shaking her head and looking into her side table drawers. Slamming it shut she huffed out a breath and rubbed her temple. "What am I supposed to be doing?"

What is in your pocket?

A light bulb flicked on in the doctor's head as she remembered the clacking she heard moments before. Fishing around in her pocket, Lauren's brow furrowed as her fingers pressed the strange cubes between the knuckles and pulled. She cocked her head when she brought what she held to eye level, quirking her brow as she wordlessly asked why a pair of blood red die were in her pocket. There were a strange pair, they malformed from a pair of usual looking die, and she sat on her bed as she looked them both over. Either one only went up to the number three, small stenciled bones showing the number instead of the usual white dot, and she hummed a question as she looked on.

The air rushed from her lungs as she fell backwards. Blinking furiously, looking around her, all she could see was a thick blackness. Wherever she was at was devoid of light and as she breathed out in a plethora of coughs, Lauren found there was no sound here either. Even for a split second of not hearing something that should be audible felt like eternity and it was all Lauren had to try to calm her breathing. She couldn't hear her heartbeat, couldn't feel air flowing over her arms, nor could she even feel when she bit into her own lip.

Just as she thought she would snap, an explosion of light and a clanking boom exploded in the area. As suddenly as sensation was taken from her, it swept over her in waves again- practically skewering her with radiance.

Ragged breathing filled her ears as Lauren turned slowly. Her eyes squinted at the light, it being painful now, trying to make out what was standing inside of its rays. With eyes watering, she tried to walk forward but a tug on her body told her not to move. Instead she shook her head as if to clear it, before realizing something wet was in her right palm.

Bending her head downward, Lauren almost screamed and threw the pair of die that were now literally bleeding onto her. The lurid liquid swathed over her palm and hit the dark ground, it seeming to be absorbed there.

Choose.

Lauren looked back up as another boom resounded in the room, it scaring the hell out of her again. This time it was slightly easier to make out there was, in fact, a shape inside of the light that looked to be that of a human. Just as quickly as that light appeared, the person unmoving as if the light was a physical barrier, another and then another came into view. There were six in total all splayed out side by side to each other.

The command from her Seraphim came again. Scoffing Lauren asked, "Why? Who are they?"

As if to answer her question, making Lauren jump, static seemed to clap through the air beside her as a portal appeared. It was similar to the mirror portal Tamsin had created in her chambers just a few hours previously and it showed the Dal Riata and the inhabitants there. They seemed haggard as if they had not slept or bathed in days, and they had their weapons brandished as if they were about to go to war. As Lauren looked on, it was as if the portal followed them outside to continue to show the doctor those back on Earth's progression, she saw the streets lined with filth and bodies.

Gasping Lauren saw many buildings either crumpled to dust or their windows broken in and unoccupied. Some even had bodies hanging from them, as if they were trying to escape something, and as the portal followed her friends, she realized they had caught the attention of things crawling out of the shadows. They looked emaciated, their ribs poking painfully from lithe flesh, and their eyes burned like fire. Their skin was black as coal and their lips rose up into that of jagged teeth. As Lauren stared at them, it seemed as if they disappeared into a void and pulled the onlooker in with them. She feared if she stared any longer she would go mad from such pain, and Lauren wondered how Bo, Kenzi, Dyson and the rest of the gang could possibly fight them.

Choose!

"Choose what," Lauren cried, shocked again by the sudden scream of her Seraphim. She would have continued to watch the ongoings of the battle as it unfolded- first with Bo's newfound sword slicing open one of the creatures- if not for the opaque lights in the room suddenly becoming transparent.

Her eyes widened as her head swung back and forth from the portal to those standing in the light. She knew these people. She loved these people. What-

Choose which of your family will die...


"That isn't happening... is it?" Tamsin turned, asking her mother with worry furrowing her brow.

Freyja turned her gaze from the circular mirror-portal watching Lauren's test and bent her head low. "No, daughter, the carnage is not so rampant yet. Your prodigy is still dealing with your father and has not released the Abominations yet." The proud woman lifted her head and squinted towards the portal. "No, tis the future she sees now. What may come to pass, what will, or perhaps you will be able to stop this all before it begins."

Tamsin stepped around the mirror as her mother spoke and to Lauren's side. The human-fae was laying on the cleaned long table they were once eating from, her body motionless and defenseless. She grabbed Lauren's soft hand and held it for a moment, putting it to her lips with care. "What is this supposed to do?"

"Quite simply, daughter, to see if she is strong enough to choose who will die in the coming war. The blood die has already been set in motion, all she must do is continue it on its course."

"A Seraphim is strong as you are strong, but it's not possible to decide what the future will hold. Seeing into it, sure, but actually manipulating it..."

A wry smile appeared on Freyja's lips. "Do you not agree that seeing into the future will make one inevitably choose to change it?"

"Of course."

"Then do you also think, if she survives, she will have a stronger constitution to protect those she is condemning?"

"She already has that, mom."

Freyja pouted and shook her head, watching as the human-fae accidentally dropped the slippery die. It landed on four and almost instantaneously the one known as Hale's light flickered out. On Lauren's portal she was forced to watch the poor man be mangled to death by the unholy monsters. He tried to use his Siren whistle but to no avail as he was overrun, his lover calling out to him with terrified screams. She began to hack away at flesh, trying to get to the Ash, but it was too late.

The goddess watched Lauren's unsullied hand go to her lips, holding back a scream as she watched what she thought was reality unfold. She dropped down to her knees at the command of her Seraphim and grabbed the blood die again in trembling hands. She was still on the ground when she looked up towards the lights, her beautiful orbs dripping over the remaining five closest people in her life. With still shaking hands, she rolled the die deliberately this time, her eyes refusing to look up to see who she had condemned.

"Ah," the goddess whispered as she watched Lauren turn her gaze to the portal of Earth. "She is too hard on herself."

"She thinks she's killing them," Tamsin replied, holding onto the doctor's hand just a little tighter.

"Indeed she does, but she is also witnessing her supposed choice and yet continuing to make it. She has no information to tell her this is true, but she still feels their death like a scar upon her soul. Almost as if all of the burden must be placed on her shoulders for fear of being-"

"Happy," Tamsin finished, her lips kissing Lauren's hand before letting it down smoothly. Coming back around to peer into the mirror-portal, Tamsin frowned. She saw Bo screaming for the now eviscerated Trick as she tried to hack through the mob. The more Lauren rolled, the more blood was seeping through her fingers as the dice protruded more gore from itself. The numbers were also weaving and changing with the dwindling lights and was now down to one bone on each side of the die. The number, if rolled appropriately, would only go up to four- the remaining amount of people left- though no matter what it landed on it would force Lauren to break down even further.

Lauren rolled again, this time landing on three and watched on as Kenzi tripped and skewered her ankle by a piece of glass that had fallen from a window. Bo's reaction to it was heart wrenching as the Unholies descended upon the small girl. The die were practically swimming in the pool of blood they created in Lauren's hands and the doctor placed a closed fist to her temple and screamed. She was at her ropes end, it seemed, as she suddenly lifted her arm and threw the dice as hard as possible away from her.

Tamsin heard them screeching in the dark, they clattering on the stone and resounded as they finally came to a halt. Dyson's light went out, a grisly murder of similar fashion happening on the Earthen portal.

"No, that wasn't me!" Lauren cried, her body crumpling in on itself as she watched the scene unfold. Tamsin almost broke down herself seeing her doctor like this. It was not the violence that staggered her, but the pure and unadulterated helplessness that was seeping through her soul. "No," Lauren whimpered as she looked to the two remaining women. "No, I can't do this." Her Seraphim presumably yelled at her to choose again, the dice skittering back into the halo of light surging down onto her, before she picked them up and held them to her chest. The die only had one bone on either one now, the rest of the spots being voided by a swirling darkness. It was either one- Tamsin- or two- Bo. It was stacked against Tamsin and Lauren knew it too. But even so, Bo would also die if she rolled snake eyes.

It was fucked up, this all was too fucked up.

"What is the true purpose of this, mom?"

Freyja, who was far too interested at the unfolding events, tore her hazel eyes away for a moment to look at her daughter. "I told you: to see how strong she truly is."

"She was strong enough to survive a transplant from Seraphim DNA into her bloodstream. Isn't that all that you needed?"

"Yes, this is true," the goddess admitted. Holding up her hand to quiet her daughter from yelling indignation her way, she continued, "It is better this way. Now you will see if the woman you love is still holding strong, or if she will be devoured by her Seraph."

As the woman spoke, trembling hands rolled snake eyes and the pitiful cries came again. This time, however, Tamsin noticed something as Lauren cradled her arms around herself. A bright light, brighter than the barrier around the last remaining people in the room, was exuding from Lauren's back. It seemed as if it was detaching from her, or perhaps running away in a sense, but it was gone in an instant as the doctor picked up the die again.

"I'll see you again, love," Lauren whispered to the Tamsin doll. Without giving herself time to rethink her decision, Lauren dropped the die down onto the ground, closing her eyes just as Tamsin's light disappeared. Her weary eyes traveled over to the Earthen portal and watched as the valkyrie died with a smile on her face as her belly was ripped open. Lauren was still on her knees, her bloodied hand going up into her hair as she cradled her head and rocked.

"This is madness," Tamsin said, shaking her head with disdain.

"More than you know, daughter."

"Wait, why isn't she waking up?"

Freyja looked down to Tamsin with sadness in her eyes. "The test is not over yet."

"What do you mean? There's no one else to kill!"

"There is always someone, or something, to kill..."

Tamsin's transparent green eyes swung back to the mirror. They widened as she realized Lauren was looking down at the die again that had skittered back into the barrier. As the human looked down, just as Tamsin saw it too, she took in the fact she was now standing on a bloodied red number zero. The human-fae looked at the dice again, seeing no number printed, and realized what the true test was. Her weary eyes looked back to the portal, it panning now to her own self walking out of the Dal slowly.

"I have too much to do to die now," Lauren said shakily, though her hand no longer trembled. "I won't stop here!"

As her arm careened toward the ground, the dice with it, Lauren truly believed what she had said. Sniffling and heaving, the woman watched as nothing happened in the portal and smiled with no care behind it. It was all fake, it wasn't real, and now-

"Lauren!" Tamsin screamed just as the woman's smile was erased from her face.

Her body swayed forward then back again, as if stuck on something. Lauren made a face of confusion while she looked down as if to see what the strange feeling in her gut was. Her fingertips touched the condensed light softly, surprised that she could not feel the burn, before it was suddenly gone. She doubled over, coughing up warm liquid, before she fell onto her side.

Lauren looked up to the shining form of her Seraphim, it seeming to burn away all of the shadows around them, and to its light-sword soiled with lurid liquid. Blood, Lauren thought slowly as she tried to cover a hand over the wound in her stomach.

"No," Tamsin said. "Open your eyes, Lauren. You open your eyes right now!" The valkyrie had gone back to the human's side, her hand caressing her cheek. "What have you done," she screamed to her mother after a beat of silence. "What have you done!"


The pain in Lauren's belly seemed to transport her back to her first assignment with Tamsin. Their home together, their wedding rings. The murderer in the night that had swung a ruthless looking dagger into her stomach and how she almost died then too. It was strange how something so similar, yet so different, could feel the same. It was if there was a dull ache in between the moments of sharp pain that wracked her body. Tamsin was with her last time, coaxing her to stay away, calling Dyson to prep the medical lab. How funny it seemed so far away in this moment. So much had happened that had devolved into this poignant affair and yet it seemed only yesterday Tamsin and she were happy. Truly happy.

Her whiskey orbs looked back to the burning gold of her Seraphim's. The woman standing before her was beautiful, though bathed in a golden sheen and made of sunlight. If she were anyone else, Lauren guessed her eyes would have already burned from her skull for looking into the Seraph's eyes for too long. Yet here she was, holding onto her wound while her head lied gently on the floor looking up into those golden spheres.

"I have to protect-" she tried to say, her words being choked in her throat.

"It is I who wills control," the melodious voice of the Seraphim resounded into the stoned room. Lauren's mind translated the ancient Enochian as if a second language. The being spoke again, "You are now just a voice."

Lauren couldn't feel her legs anymore and her skin felt cold as ice. She put more strain into her voice, her words trying to govern the power she knew she had, "I will protect them. You cannot stop me."

"You are strong, but not enough."

A surprisingly strong hand clamped down onto the Seraph's ankle. Squeezing, Lauren slowly pulled herself up to the surprise of the fae. The hand left her stomach as she gripped the Seraphim's shoulders tightly, her face inches away. ""Everything that I have done is for her. Everything that I will do is for her! You hold no sway over me, demon and you will listen to my command. I will no longer bow to any fae!" As she spoke the last sentence, it was if pulses after each word poured out of her and into the fae's body causing the light surrounding the Seraphim to beat brighter. "Now take... me... home," Lauren finally said, raising her hand and pushing it through the fae's chest.

The Seraph looked surprised, its face contorting into a yell, before the rays of light were suddenly gone as it was enveloped into Lauren. The blonde looked down at herself, her hand slowly leaving the wound on her stomach, and nodded when she saw the laceration knitting itself back together again. The human-fae looked at her hands, now void of all blood, as they emitted brilliant light from them.

"She is at one with her fae."

The disembodied voice resonated to the woman's core and she smiled that beautiful smile. "I'm coming, Tamsin," she said as she looked upward.

I'm coming...


As quickly as Lauren spoke from the portal, her body suddenly jolted upward with a hitch and a gasp. Tamsin, who was already at her side, practically jumped on top of her with a hug and a sigh of content.

"Where am I," Lauren asked groggily.

"Back in the great hall," Tamsin replied, letting the woman go and smiling wide. Looking over her slowly, making sure her body had not garnered any injury, she glanced back up to Lauren's eyes. "It was all fake. You didn't kill anyone in there."

"Except your fae, of course," Freyja interjected. "Not killed per say," she reprimanded as Lauren looked at her warily, "but you have dominated it. If Tamsin had done this same test correctly the first time, her shell would not be stuck in Valhalla right now with her father."

Tamsin sneered at her mother, practically sticking out her tongue, before she looked back to Lauren. Her hand still caressed the back of the woman's head, while her other was placed on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I thought..." Lauren paused for a moment before looking into Tamsin's eyes and smiling. "I thought the Dawning trip would be the last time I would have to deal with mind altering shenanigans."

The valkyrie laughed too, her giddy nature suddenly rearing its head. "Let's try to keep it down to two, shall we?"

"I agree wholeheartedly."

Tamsin slid her forehead onto Lauren's as they both closed their eyes. Simply breathing each other in, the two stayed as such for some time before Freyja cleared her throat.

"That is all the time you shall have from this point on, I am sorry to say."

"What do you mean?" Tamsin asked but was stopped from further inquiry by Lauren's hand on hers.

"The Unholies are about to be unleashed back on Earth. If that happens millions will die in the span of a few days."

Freyja nodded solemnly. "I will create a portal that will lead you both to your father's kingdom, Tamsin. But if you cannot stop the girl from taking his power and unleashing hell on Earth, then the next time we see each other will be the last, daughter."

With that the goddess waved her hand at her side and the crackling of lightning filled the room as the portal was created. It was swirling with blues, greens, and purples with flashes of lightning shooting forth from it.

The two, Lauren still in Tamsin's battle garb, approached it slowly. Lauren was still getting the hang of walking again, her being in her test still fresh on her mind, and Tamsin was simply not in the mood to see her father again so soon.

"Thank you, mother."

A smiled played on the goddess lips as she watched the newfound fae nod with appreciation and to her daughter. As they disappeared into the portal, Freyja put a hand to her lips before blowing out a kiss to the departing women. "May we meet again, my dear children. Gods speed..."

Traveling through the portal was not something Lauren thought would ever grow easier with time. She was wrong as she maneuvered around this one, actually seeming to understand the speedy time passing as they catapulted through it. All too soon she was in a place of wood and stone, completely at odds between the golden hues of the great hall, and Lauren was even more surprised and happy she did not double over and vomit up her lunch.

There was a slight ringing in her ears, however, and as she looked up to a burly man sitting atop a throne, she heard Tamsin speak after hesitance and silence.

"Hey, daddy-o. Miss me?"