ALEXA. PLAY THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN. Apologies for the insane wait for this chapter and the cliffhanger. Your authors had a rough year but we're back now! We hope this chapter is all you've waited for, and that you enjoy. Merry not Christmas!
IMPORTANT: Before you embark on our next installment, please keep one thing in mind; feministkendra and I are active readers of many of the works here on FF and on AO3. We have recently become of aware of another story that bears an uncomfortable level of similarity to this fic right here. We aren't going to name names or point fingers. Yet. But just know this. We have poured blood, sweat, tears, and magic into this story. It is our baby. We love this. For someone to take the skeleton and muscle of this and try to label it their own, down to the twists and turns and plotlines we labored to create? Is cruel. Don't plagiarize. Because you are. Enjoy.
The sunrise crept softly over the preserve and shone all too cheerily into the Sorenson's empty kitchen. Kendra barely paid it any heed as she sipped her second can of Red Bull that night. Morning. Whatever. The two had blurred together a few hours ago and she didn't care enough to make the distinction. The grandfather clock in the hall ticked loudly, ominously, threateningly. She felt an overwhelming urge to rip its golden hands from its pearl-marble face.
"That crap is gonna stop your heart."
"Live fast, die young, bad girls do it right."
"Really? Jokes now?"
"Well you're certainly not gonna make them so-" Kendra bites back acidly, feeling too many things to really comprehend, none of them very fair or kind to the man in front of her.
"Sorry," Warren snarks, clearly anything but. "I'm just a little frustrated with my, well, whatever, at Vanessa, for pulling that stunt."
"What stunt?" Kendra exclaims, gesturing a little too wildly and sloshing some caffeine. "She did her job, the job she fought so hard to get back, the job she's so damn proud of."
"The job she keeps using to do dumb shit to get back in our "good graces" or whatever." Warren pulls a cup from the cupboard and slams it down with far too much force onto the marble counter.
"Oh please," Kendra scoffs. "Vanessa fights for her, don't take that from her."
"I'm not, I just-"
"Listen, dude," Kendra throws back the remainder of her can, the sugar making her teeth ache. " You need to stop looking so inward all the time. We know you care and love us, but it is not always about you."
Warren said nothing, turning away to rifle through the K-cup drawer. Kendra pressed on.
"Vanessa made the hard call because she had to, because that's her duty as a knight. You do it all the time and end up like this and worse. Now you know how we feel," she pauses to collect herself and sigh. "You can't blame yourself every time someone gets hurt, Warren. We know you want to protect all of us, all the time, but it's not realistic. Share the load, and maybe fewer of these situations will happen. Maybe not, but at least there will be less smothering guilt floating around."
Kendra's throat was raw from all the tears she had shed over the past few hours. She had thought herself all cried out, but miracle of miracles, more tears were slowly making tracks down her cheeks. She noticed Warren wipe discreetly at his eyes, too.
"So, I guess I'm saying what goes around comes around, and at this rate one of you morons is gonna end up dead because you're all stupid Knights, and I'm really sad and these stupid tears won't stop so will you just hug me so we can be sad together?"
Before she could even finish speaking, two strong arms had caught her in a bear hug. Warren's old blue flannel smelled like varnish and barn and coffee and home. She let it soak up the remainder of her tears, and tried her best to imprint everything about the hug in her mind. She always forgot how easy it was to lose someone until you were standing at the abyss, the point of no return. Until someone was laid up in bed, unconscious, looking fragile and sick and wrong. She buried her face deeper into Warren's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, kid," Warren's voice was rough with unshed tears. "I'll do better. I promise. I'll do better."
"It's not your fault, Warren. None of it is. Ever. I know how hard it's to believe those words, and not just hear then, but I need you to try."
"Done." Warren pulled away and gave her a shaky smile, squeezing her shoulders, before moving away to grab his coffee. "I'm going to go sit with her for a little. You should sleep."
"Sleep is for the weak, Warren." Kendra said seconds before she yawned.
"Yeah, sure, Kens," Warren chuckled as he strode past her, ruffling her hair as he did. "See you in the morning, O Strong One."
Kendra huffed, fixed her hair, and cast her gaze about the now empty kitchen, struggling to remember what she had been in here for. When she came up blank, she shrugged, and decided to take Warren's advice and try to get some rest. Before she could reach the stairs, though, she heard Bracken calling her from the living room. She diverted her path, and found him there pacing.
"Bracken? Is everything ok?"
"No not exactly, love," Bracken stopped his pacing to fiddle with a timepiece on the mantle. There was no fire in the hearth, and the dark room cast deep shadows over Bracken's face. "I'm afraid I can't heal Vanessa."
"What?" Kendra balked, the anxiety climbing up her throat effectively vanishing any lingering exhaustion. "Why not? What's happened"
"Our species- we don't- I can't," Bracken paused and sighed, swallowing thickly before continuing. "I was never meant to heal a blix. My magic is not going to do anything more than add to her pain. May kill her faster, even. Our biologies are just too different."
"So what happens now?" Kendra asked in a voice that felt so small, she was afraid the shadows would swallow her words whole.
"You heal her."
"What? Me?" Kendra all but yelled. "I have almost no practice! I could kill her!"
"But you won't, Kendra," Bracken turned to her and crossed the room, placing soothing hands on her shoulders. "I have faith in you, and your abilities. You can do this."
"I can't!"
"You must."
"Bracken!"
"Kendra you have to try, or she'll die."
Kendra spun away and began her own pacing. She worried her lower lip between her teeth, ran her fingers through her hair. She warred with herself for a good minute before turned back to Bracken.
"Get Warren."
"Kendra-"
"Please, Bracken. Get Warren, now."
Bracken stood for a long moment, debating, and then sighed.
"As you wish." He walked out of the living room, and Kendra dropped into her favorite armchair. A moment later she heard footsteps approaching that were definitely not Bracken's.
"Kens? What's up?" Warren carefully lowered himself into the second armchair.
"I-I can't. I can't do it. Not without you knowing."
"Can't do what? Know what?" Warren was talking evenly, like he did on missions that we're going south. It did little to ease her mind.
"Bracken can't heal Vanessa. Something about biology. It will probably kill her if he tries. So he needs me to do it. But I can't-I've never-," Kendra put a fist to her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. "She's your Bracken, your everything, even if you haven't...and I-"
The dam broke. Kendra felt the tears spill over and start falling down her face as the adrenaline from the night finally caught up to her and wore off all in the same instant. "Warren, she can't die. Not like this. If I kill her, or if I fail and she-," Kendra took a shuddering breath. "You will hate me. If I fail, you will hate me. And I won't be able to handle that. I won't know how to live with myself if I take her from you."
Before she could press on, a calloused hand covered her own.
"Jeez, Kens. Take a breath kiddo. It's all gonna be okay."
Kendra looked up into Warren's eyes and saw only sympathy and understanding. She felt herself begin to cry harder.
"Kendra, you have been under so much stress and pressure since you were fourteen years old. Fourteen! And it's not okay. What we ask of you, all the time. You've been carrying the weight of the world on your young shoulders, and we put it there. So take a deep breath, because none of this is ever going to be your fault. Not any of the causes, and not any of the end results, are on you. So, if you feel up to healing Nessa, I say go for it, because I have the utmost faith in you. But if you can't, and you won't, I understand, and we'll find another way. It'll be okay. I promise. Just breathe. Nothing is worth you making yourself sick about it. I don't want that. Nessa wouldn't want that."
Warren had moved to run circles into her shoulders, kneeling in front of her on the carpet. She fell forward to rest her head on his shoulder as the tears began to stop.
"I'm scared" she whispered.
"Me too." He whispered back. It was the most comforting thing anyone had said all night. Kendra lifted her head off Warren's flannel clad shoulders, wiped her eyes, and stood. She offered Warren a hand to help himself up, and he took it. She looked him in the eye once he was on his feet.
"I want to try. For Vanessa." Kendra said, then took a shuddering breath. "But in case I can't we should wake Tanu to help figure out a plan B."
"Sounds like a plan, Stan." Warren smiled.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
Moments later, Bracken, Kendra, Warren, Seth, and a very sleepy Tanu were all gathered in the Med Room. Grandma, Grandpa, and the others were waiting in the kitchen. Vanessa lay still on the bed, her ball gown long gone, now in a tank top and shorts. The dark magic under her skin that had turned her neck black within the first hour had spread. Her jaw and lower lip were turning ashen, and, lower down, her veins were mapping the poison's path toward her lungs and heart.
"Okay," Tanu started the conversation, shaking off as much exhaustion as he could as he grabbed a tray with some medical tools, scalpels and the like, and wheeled it over to Vanessa's bedside. "To recap, the dart punctured her throat, damaging the trachea and esophagus. The poison entered the bloodstream there, and is rapidly approaching some very vital and hard-to-come-by organs. Heart, lungs, kidneys, you get the deal. From what I can tell, the blend is not that highly concentrated, as it is moving quickly. So, the sooner we can get this ball rolling, the more damage we can prevent. If you all wanna move out, and give me and Bracken some time, it would be very appreciated."
"Actually, Tanu," Bracken cleared his throat and folded his hands behind him. "Kendra is going to be assisting you with this one."
"Kendra is going to do what now?"
"Allow me to explain, briefly," Bracken started, and waited for Tanu to offer an incredulous, if not impatient, eyebrow as a sign to continue. "My biology will not allow me to heal Vanessa. My magic may be Fae in nature, but I am a unicorn. I will more than likely kill her, as unicorns were never meant to heal her kind. It simply isn't possible. Kendra, however, is not a unicorn. She wields light Fae magic, with none of those predetermined biological hang ups."
"If she were awake right now, Vanessa would probably give you an A for the semester just for that little speech." Kendra murmured. Bracken smiles weakly.
"Thanks, love. I think."
"Kendra," Tanu said. "You know I trust you, and that I encourage you to take every opportunity to learn, and to harness your gifts. But this is a very delicate operation. Do you think you can handle the pressure?"
Looking into Tanu's open and kind eyes, Kendra's shoulders suddenly felt weighted down with all the world on them. Before she could let despair consume her, though, she squared those shoulders and returned his gaze.
"I don't know, if I'm being honest. But I have to try. Vanessa is friend, an ally, practically family. I owe it to her to give it my best shot," she stated, faking confidence she in no way felt. "And, thanks for asking, Tanu."
"Always, kiddo." He smiled back at her, and then grew serious once again. "Okay, everyone who isn't me or Kendra or Bracken, clear out. Sorry, Warren, but I need the space."
"I understand, man," Warren smiled sadly and clapped the Samoan on the shoulder. He turned to Kendra next. "Don't overthink it, Kens. You know what to do, deep down. I trust you. Love you kid." He ruffled her hair halfheartedly but kindly as he trudged out.
"You can do this, K." Seth chimed in as he too headed for the door. "You're, like, the smartest person I know. If anyone can handle this, it's gotta be you, sis."
Kendra bumped the fist he offered her before he rounded the door frame and disappeared from sight. She sighed and turned to Bracken.
"So, where do we begin?"
"I'll defer to Tanu from here on out. I'll be able to offer some emotional support, and even less magical support, but I'll do what I can should you need me."
"Thank you, dear." Kendra smiled shakily, and Bracken returned it softly, before they both turned to the potion master. Tanu stood up and walked over to the cart and Vanessa.
"Okay, Kendra, here's what we're gonna try first. The poison is physically in her bloodstream, but the poison is mostly magic itself. Try pulling it out through her skin, like osmosis. Do you remember that from Bio?"
"Yeah," Kendra nodded and she rolled her neck shoulders, letting her joints pop. "It's when liquid-y stuff phases through harder walls. Usually water between cells, I think?"
"Exactly. The poison is the water, and Vanessa's skin is the cell wall."
"Here goes nothing."
Kendra lifted a hand to Vanessa neck, resting her palm on the general area where the dart hit her. She closed her eyes, and let the energy she always felt resting deep inside her surround her. It felt like opening a dam deep inside her as light surged through her. She concentrated, taking a deep breath in like she did when she was meditating, She held the breath, feeling the light build to a crescendo, and then exhaled. As she did she directed the energy toward her palm, and focused on pouring it into Vanessa. Just as she should have felt her energy bridge the physical gap between their auras, it stopped, as if hitting a wall. She pushed forward mentally, but felt no budge. After a few moments, she released her concentration and allowed herself to dim. She opened her eyes to two very confused faces.
"Something is wrong," She said. "Just when my magic should be able to reach her aura and the poison, I hit a wall. I can feel the dark magic moving just beyond it, but I can't quite penetrate it."
"Sounds about right," Bracken sighed, running a hand through his already very messy hair. "In short, blixes' magic is known as blood magic. They derive their power and abilities from not only their own blood, but the blood they take in from other creatures. By the time they're adults, an active blix, such as Vanessa, will have built an intricate, uh, web, so to say, of blood magic within them. It has many side effects and uses, such as preventing conventional other magic from affecting them, such as simple light magic. I'm afraid I'm doing a rather poor job of explaining it, though, so you'll have to take my word for it that this won't work. Worth a shot."
"What will work, then?" Kendra felt a headache building from the impromptu bio lesson and the prolonged use of her magic. And she still wasn't done.
"If I followed all that correctly," Tanu said. "This should do the trick."
He picked up the scalpel from the tray. Kendra felt herself start to sweat.
"I don't know if I like where this is going." She muttered.
"I know I don't," Tanu smiled ruefully, then held out his hand. "Palm, please, Kendra. I promise it won't be deep"
Kendra took a deep breath, and turned to Bracken and Tanu began cutting open her palm. Pain blossomed over her hand, sharp and unforgiving and pulled a gasp of pain from her as her eyes started to sting with unshed tears.
"Talk to me, love. Walk me through what's happening. Please. I need to learn." Kendra looked at her boyfriend pleadingly. He grabbed her other hand.
"Direct contact between blood should be enough to get through a blix's natural defense systems," Bracken's voice washed over her like a wave, and helped to soothe the burning racing across her palm. She fought the tears from her eyes and focused on his words. "It will add you to their "web", so to say, but not like a bite will. The side effects are nil. Once your blood can intermingle with theirs, your magic should be able to move across the bridge the blood magic would otherwise create."
By the time Bracken finished his spiel, Tanu has finished with Kendra's hand and was working on Vanessa's neck. After a moment, he moved away.
"All set, Kendra."
Kendra took a deep breath and moved back to her spot beside Vanessa. She placed her throbbing, bleeding hand on Vanessa's shallowly bleeding neck. She tried to ignore that the blood oozing out was thick, black, coagulating, and faintly rancid. Once her cut was pressed to her friend's, she closed her eyes again. She took a deep breath, pulling up the light she knew resided deep within her. She held her breath again for a moment, feeling the magic build and thrum in time with her pulse. She pushed away the tension building behind her eyes, deep in her skull, and focused on directing the energy within her into Vanessa as she exhaled a second later. There was no resistance this time as her light magic flooded into Vanessa, but there was a good bit of screaming from both parties.
Kendra felt her friend's pain as her own and her aura flooded through their blood. The pure white light of her magic coursed through the blix, absorbing the poison and pulling it forcefully out of her friend's body. Kendra could sense other dark magic, deeper in Vanessa's aura, but knew she couldn't touch that magic. Somethings were just better left alone, and Vanessa's biology definitely fell into that category.
Little by little, Kendra's light surrounded the poison and pulled it out of Vanessa. After what felt like an hour, but was most likely two minutes at most, Kendra felt her magic pulling back into her own body. She and Vanessa had stopped screaming, but before she could truly register her friend, the room, or anything of the sort, she felt her body growing heavy, and her head was most definitely being cleaved in two. She turned to let the others know she wasn't okay, but she blacked out before she even could even open her mouth.
Bracken POV
Bracken felt his eyes adjust as the light that was blinding him a moment ago began to recede. As the light faded fully back into Kendra, he stepped forward to help her. Before he could reach her however, he watched her whole body tense, and then drop like a sack of bricks. He yelled and rushed to her, dropping to his knees beside her prone body.
"Shit!" Tanu swore and surged out of his chair. He joined Bracken in kneeling by Kendra's side. They both turned her over just in time to see her veins pulse a dark midnight before fading back to invisible. A fraction of a second later, darker than average blood began to drip out of her nose and ears. Bracken felt himself on the verge of breakdown, but reigned in his emotions and turned to Tanu form some kind of help.
"Move your hand, Bracken, I need to check her vitals." Bracken did as Tanu asked, worrying his lip as Tanu pressed a hand to her neck and then her wrist, and then pressed his ear to her lungs. He sat up. "She's fine, physically. I think her body is just utterly spent, magically. That's all I can tell for now, until she wakes up."
"When the bloody hell will that be?" Bracken yelled, failing to contain his frustration. Tanu merely placed a kind hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I have no idea."
Bracken hung his head, pushing back tears. He righted himself quickly as footsteps approached the door. Warren appeared in the doorway seconds later.
"Hey all," he started warily, not seeing Kendra as she was blocked by Tanu's broad shoulders. "Just checking in to see what the various screaming was about."
His face brightened marginally when he saw Vanessa's neck was no longer darker than a moonless night, but was still confused when his gaze shifted back to the others.
"What's wrong with you two? You look like someone died."
Bracken shifted to stand, and Tanu moved out of the way. Warren's eyes fell on his younger cousin, blood still tricking out of her slowly. All color left his face as he took in the sight before him.
"What the hell happened in here?"
Well, that's that. Hope you all enjoyed. In better news, we have the next two chapter just about finished and will be uploading them once we feel they're ready to go! Please leave a review if you feel so inclined, they really do motivate us and mean more than we can say. And a huge thank you to all still following this story. So long for now!