a/n: A friendly reminder that I'm playing fast-and-loose with Irish mythology. Sengann doesn't show up so often in the myths, so I'm kiiiinda inflating his importance:)

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, er, My Love Shall Ever Live Young:

Bella was kidnapped while in town, having tea with Alice. Brigid finds out, through her & Edward/Aengus' father, the Dagda, that Bella hass been taken by the Fomorians. Boann assured her son: "We'll go to meet The Dagda, and learn what we can about exactly which of our enemies took Cáer. We'll find her, Aengus. They will not win this."

Meanwhile, Bella dealt with the reality of becoming the prisoner of a very powerful entity: In the end, she was chained to the wall, getting chilly as the room cooled down, her skin felt like it was beginning to stick to the iron bands as her body tried to heal the damage she'd done, and her left hand and thumb were ugly and swollen. 'Brilliant. I'm even worse off than I was before.'

Bella woke to her guard's voice and his long-fingered hand jostling her shoulder. She groaned in response, the waves of pain from her swollen, bruised, left hand and wrist reminding her of her vain attempts at gaining her freedom the day (evening?) before. Shortly she noticed, too, the ache and soreness in her arms and shoulders from being chained to the wall in her attractive prison.

"Sengann wishes to see you," it said when she opened her eyes.

Breakfast, she thought with hope. Then, remembering her earlier determination not to eat food from the Otherworld in case it would be bad for her, she decided to refocus on her pulsing hand, arms, and shoulders. Better to be in pain than to be hungry. For now, at least.

She remained silent as the manacles and chains that bound her to the wall were exchanged for the intricate bronze bracelets and chains that bound her to her guard. Though focusing on her aches and pains helped her ignore her hunger, it also distracted her from thinking of escape: though based on her embarrassing trip to the bathroom yesterday, there really wasn't a way to escape while it changed her bonds anyway.

It tugged on her chains, bringing Bella to her feet. She stumbled behind it, not awake enough yet to counter her natural clumsiness, her toes catching on the worn stone floor of the hallway. In between keeping herself on her feet, she kept an eye on where her guard was taking her, hoping she'd be able to use what she observed to her advantage later.

Her guard took her to the large hall where she'd first seen her captor. This time, she took a moment to look around, noticing where there were doors—three on each side, in addition to the one on the end where she'd been led through—and the windows in the ceiling, easily thirty feet high, that let in pale sunlight. It was a beautiful room, ornate, and far beyond the beauty of anything she'd seen in the human world, but for all the physical beauty, it was a cold and forbidding place; she wouldn't want to stay here for long.

Sengann was sitting on the dais toward the back of the long audience hall, looking completely comfortable and annoyingly smug in an elaborately carved chair that looked like it wanted to be a throne, though it lacked some innate quality that would've made her call it one. To her, it was just an ornate marble chair. Kind of obnoxious, really.

At the foot of the dais, speaking quietly with Sengann, was another tall man, or, she realized, another Fomorian. He was tall, nearly as tall as Sengann, and blond, with long hair that reached mid-back, accented by the occasional braid. He was no Edward, but she thought, looks-wise, he'd match the overly elaborate throne-chair thing better than the dowdy Sengann.

"You would judge me and my furnishings, child?" Sengann's voice rumbled from him and seemed to fill the entire large space. He made a small gesture to the other Fomorian, who strode to one of the side doors and disappeared on the other side, leaving Bella nearly alone with the would-be ruler. Her only company was her guard, who had stayed at the hall's entry doors after unchaining her for her audience. The ornate bronze remained around her wrists, unwanted and uncomfortable adornment.

"I did like the furnishings in my cell. Very lush. Whoever left you with such a soft room must've been at least middle management." She was pretty sure she was going to regret smarting off to him, but to her surprise, he laughed.

"I understand Aengus' fascination with you now. When first I heard your situation, I did not understand why he simply did not end your life and return you to your less vulnerable form. As a human, you are entertaining. I might have kept you alive in his place as well." Sengann's face twisted into what Bella thought was meant to be a smile. "Amusing as you are, I will enjoy draining your power from you, little swan. Tomorrow will be an auspicious day."

"I don't understand," Bella said, looking up at the tall Fomorian seated before her.

"You have all that power locked up in such a frail mortal body, little Caér, and you do not know why I've taken you?" Sengann looked down his long nose at her, pitch black eyes seeming to suck her in. "You agreed to have the entirety of your knowledge and power buried under this mortal façade—however 'real' Isabella Swan is—so that when you return to being Caér you will have a greater appreciation of the mortals you and your husband are so fascinated with. You are a magical creature, young swan, half Tuatha, half shapeshifter. How can you ask why?"

"You want to use Caér's power to attack Aengus." Bella hated the despondence that bled through, but couldn't keep it from her voice. She was going to be used as a weapon against the love of her life. Lives.

Sengann laughed, managing to sound both indulgent and malicious. The hairs on the back of Bella's neck rose in response.

"So self-centered, to think only of your mate. You think too small, little one. Yes, Aengus will be a casualty, but he is not the mark. As it stands now, one-on-one, I am a match for the Dagda Mor, his father, not that you remember him as you are now. With the power I will gain with your capture, I will be able to surpass him."

Abruptly, Bella was pissed. "So you kill my father-in-law. You think that their--my--people will just roll over and let you rule them? That the Otherworld will be your playground?" She'd caught the arrogance and power as she'd been living with Edward, had seen it leashed and buried under layers of civility in Boann and Brigid, but she hadn't realized the arrogance and pig-headedness of the gods before now. She didn't know if her love and his family had tamped down on it for her benefit, or if they simply didn't give in to those tendencies, but she liked to think that her deity in-laws were nothing like this pompous, greedy ass. She cringed internally. The pompous, greedy ass who could read her thoughts. Fuck.

Sengann's approximation of a smile turned cruel. "Leave me. You will have time to think on the end of your mortal and immortal lives. Were your last words to your husband and family kind ones?" His voice turned mocking. "Did you tell them you loved them?" He gestured at her mangled hand. "Escaping is futile, child. You could not escape those manacles in your true form; you have no hope of doing so in this one."

The large Fomorian turned his attention to one of the side doors, effectively dismissing her. She did not move, though, and since her strange-looking guard was far to the back, she had some time to wait for him to come fetch her from the foot of the dais.

"Cíocal!" Sengann's voice echoed off the walls of the mostly empty hall, and his bellow caused Bella's ears to ring. Everything about him was over-sized, it seemed. His ego, his build, his voice. She wanted back into the real world, now. This was too many kinds of horrible.

The same Fomorian Sengann had been speaking with upon her arrival walked out of one of the doors to the right, his long stride eating up the distance to the dais. His eyes flicked over Bella, and she felt her skin crawl. Sengann's smug arrogance was ten times better than this one, Cíocal's, appraisal. He was the walking definition of creepy. It was even worse that his creepiness was wrapped up in an attractive package. At any other time, Bella would have called the tall blond handsome. After being under his appraisal for only a few seconds, though, she wanted only to hop in a bath and scrub herself clean.

She was almost grateful when she felt the tug on her manacles and realized that her guard was reattaching her chains. It meant breaking eye contact with the Very Creepy One (Cíocal, she reminded herself), and gave her something else to look at. As her guard walked her away from the two Fomorians, she thought she heard Sengann say something to his henchman about "preparing," and she felt a shiver work its way down her back. She was pretty sure he would be prepping for her execution the next night.

She watched the path her guard took as it led her back to her room. She really wasn't far from the main chamber at all, though what she really wanted to know was how far from the exit she was, and how difficult it would be to get out. She had no intention of being sacrificed for some dispossessed god's power play. She needed to warn Edward that his father was in danger.

xx-xx-xx

Edward went back inside, briefly, to tell Alice, Renee, and Esme that he was leaving with his sister and mother. "Don't forget," he said quietly to Alice, "the three of you need to stay here, in the protection of the wards."

"We won't get in your way. Go kick ass, bring my cousin back." She pasted on a thin smile. "I want to give her hell about not telling me she was shacking up with a god."

He nodded grimly. "I will see that you are able to do so." As a good-bye, he briefly cupped her cheek with his hand, and then he was out the door and in the company of Brigid and Boann. "Where are we meeting Father?" He asked.

"Brú na Bóinne. I'll take you." Brigid reached out to firmly grasp his upper arm, and before he could reply, she bent the air around them just so, taking them to the Otherworld side of the ancient site.

Boann appeared seconds after they did, and the three of them walked to a part of the Brú that did not exist in the human world. This was the long-time home of Aengus and Cáer, and Edward led the way to the central hall, which had been used, in ages past, as a throne room. He'd let go of that particular pretention some time ago, but he knew it would be where his father would wait for them. The Dagda never let anyone forget where they stood in relation to him.

When they entered the central hall, his father was lounging in a huge overstuffed wingback chair that looked like it had come straight out of a Victorian library, then been supersized for his father's large frame. Knowing the Dagda, it had been. His huge club leaned against the side of the chair, handle within easy reach. Edward almost started laughing when he saw what his father was wearing. Bella called it the "generation x guy uniform:" jeans, Sketchers, and an untucked button-down shirt over a t-shirt.

"When did you start following modern fashion, Father?" Edward knew he didn't have much room to talk, given that he was still wearing the clothes he'd had on to go shopping with the women. But then, Edward wasn't in his god form, nor was he living in the Otherworld.

"It's all because of a woman, of course. Beautiful lass in Belfast. Broad hips, long legs, eyes the color of the sea. She insisted on dressing me."

Edward rolled his eyes, then mentally rolled them again at the habit he'd picked up from Bella. It irritated him that the other god would be so cavalier about discussing his conquests in front of Boann, even if the two hadn't shared a bed or been in any way involved for many millennia.

The Tuatha leader smirked at his son before he lazily stood up, appearing completely unconcerned with Edward's obvious irritation. "Sengann," the Dagda said, "took little human Cáer to Aughlish." He looked at the three standing before him. "I trust I do not need to explain what happens in two night's time."

"The alignment," Boann nearly whispered. "He would kill her body to take and drain her spirit's power during the alignment." She turned so that both gods were in her line of sight, though she focused on Edward. "At such a time, the power he would pull from her spirit would be amplified." Her focus shifted to her one-time lover. "It seems he would replace you as ruler."

His lips twisted in derision. "As if it were that easy. Even if he were to defeat me, our people would never accept him." The Dagda patted his club absently as he spoke. "To hope to replace me, he would need to displace all our people as rulers of the Otherworld. He would need an army for that."

"There have ever been dissidents in the Otherworld, father. It is not impossible that he's recruited and joined those who were otherwise too weak to fight us."

Brigid sounded grim, and Edward had to agree. For him, this was primarily about rescuing his wife from losing not only her mortal life, but losing her very soul. Secondarily, though, and rising in importance, was the threat to their people. If he had to choose between Cáer and the Tuatha, what would he choose? He wasn't sure. Without Cáer to spend eternity with, he wouldn't want to live; would he then care enough about his people to continue living and fight for them?

"When we cut off the head of the dragon," their father said, "the body may kick for a time out of reflex, but it will die. The key is to eliminate the head." He picked up his massive club and swung it up over his shoulder, casually resting it there, with his hand lightly gripping the narrow end. "I have set up maps in the war room. Come."

Edward, Brigid, and Boann followed the tall Tuatha into an adjacent chamber, and arranged themselves around a huge obsidian table. It was covered in maps and buildings plans, which Edward hesitantly recognized as the Otherworld stronghold of Aughlish. "These are current?" He met his father's eyes over the table and raised an eyebrow in question.

"They are," the Dagda answered.

"Tell me how you propose to get us in to this fortress, then. I want to know how many guards and where they're posted. What type of beings they are, where he might be keeping Bella."

His father nodded and pointed to different points on the map. "There are small garrisons here, here, and here. There is a tunnel that runs under the garrison on the north side..."

xx-xx-xx

They drew closer to her room-slash-cell, and Bella decided she needed to get away. She knew already that she couldn't break away from the chains that bound her to the wall there, so her only chance would be to get away from her strange looking guard, while secured with the lighter chains.

She let herself fall a little bit behind it so she could watch its grip on the fine, deceptively fragile-looking chains that ran from her manacles to its hands. It didn't look like it had them in a firm grip, but she remembered from her experimental tugs the last time it had led her out that it wasn't so easy to get away from.

Bella wasn't quite sure how to get out of this place if she managed to ditch her guard, but she figured that the first order of business would be get free, then she could find her way out. She hoped it wouldn't be all that difficult, and that the fortress wasn't at the heart of a labyrinth or something frustrating.

What had she learned in those long-ago self defense and karate classes? Joints were weak points. She moved her focus from the grip of the guard's hands on her chains to its body. It wore studded leather armor and what looked like homespun wool, so nothing super durable. She thought, watching it walk, that if she could kick in the back of its knee, she could throw it off balance and make her escape. That looked like the least protected part of its body, and she realized that as slim as her chances were, she had to take what she could get.

Moving closer to her guard, she waited until they were close to her room, and out of sight of the other guards that sometimes patrolled, and then she darted forward and slammed her foot into the back of its right knee. As she'd hoped, it went down, but to her disgust, its grip on her chains never altered; when her guard toppled forward, it dragged her with it.

Frantically, she got to her feet and put all of her body weight into tugging at the chains. This was it. If she couldn't get free now, she wasn't going to have another chance, and she needed to warn Edward and his father. Seeing that pulling wasn't working, and that the lizard-like creature's hand was only tightening, she chanced moving in closer and drew her foot back to kick it in the head. It shocked her by twisting so that her chains stayed firmly in one hand and it caught her swinging foot with the other.

Expression was hard to read on its non-human face, but Bella thought it looked annoyed. It squeezed her foot, and she gasped in pain. It felt like the bones were close to breaking. She hopped on her other foot, trying to break its grasp, but it only pulled on her chains and foot, bringing her to the ground, where she bounced awkwardly. Pain flared up from her foot and ankle and Bella realized that she had, at the very least, sprained her ankle, if not broken the bones in her foot.

Her guard picked her up under one arm with no apparent effort, not even limping from her kick to the knee, and carried her, yelling and thrashing as much as possible, into her room, where it dropped her on the floor by the wall and roughly chained her to it. Once it had her locked in, it spared her not another glance, and strode out of her room, slamming the door shut behind it. She heard the lock turning, and then there was nothing but dark and silence.

xx-xx-xx

There were sounds of fighting outside of her room. Bella shook her head groggily, and wondered how long she'd been out of it. By the ache in her arms from where she'd sagged against the wall, pulling her shoulders taut in the manacles, she guessed it had been quite a while. She didn't even remember falling asleep, but with how much her ankle and foot throbbed, she thought maybe she'd just passed out. The guard had not been gentle with her hand, swollen and bloody from her previous escape attempt, or her new injuries when it had chained her to the wall.

Passing out was totally acceptable, she decided. It helped pass the time. The noises outside her room got louder, and then her door burst open in an explosion of light and sound. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden intrusion of light. When she opened them again she almost started crying in happiness. There were Brigid and Boann, with several large, armed men she assumed were their own guards or soldiers. The men went outside, and the two goddesses crossed the room to Bella.

Boann reached Bella first, and reached for her bonds. She flinched back, though, when she saw that they were made of iron. Frowning, she gestured to Brigid. "Help them keep the hallway clear for us. I will free Cáer."

Brigid nodded sharply, crossing back to the doorway, where Bella saw her talking with one of their men. Bella smiled weakly at Boann. "A rescue mission?"

Her mother-in-law smiled, though it was tight. "Just so. For us, rescue, for The Dagda Mor, however, it is a... I believe you would call it a smack down. He will not suffer a rebellion. He and Aengus are ensuring that this does not happen again. Sengann will not survive this day." As she spoke, she was reached into her pockets and came out with a bolt cutter.

"You have a bolt cutter in your pocket? That's--that's--I can't believe you have a bolt cutter!" Bella squinted her eyes at Boann. "Where did you fit it? Your pockets are small."

The river goddess winked as she broke one of the chains close to where it connected to her manacle. "I believe there is a character from a children's story named Mary Poppins?"

Bella blinked uncomprehendingly at Boann. "Yes?" she answered hesitantly, not sure of where the other woman was going with that thought.

"My pockets are as to me as her bag is to her. Bottomless." She accented her answer by cutting the other chain, leaving Bella free to move, even if she still had the hated iron bracelets around her wrists. "We must leave," Boann told her. She gently put her arm around Bella's waist, and Bella leaned on the taller woman as they walked to the door. She was grateful for the rescue, but she couldn't leave with them. She had to know where Edward was.

They drew even to the door, and Bella threw her arms around the tall river goddess in gratitude. She'd been certain she was about to die...and that Cáer, in turn, had been on the threshold of capture.

"Thank you," she gasped out, "thank you so much." She let go of Boann and in turn hugged Brigid. "Where's Edward?"

She looked between the two goddesses. "Edward?" She asked again, her voice quavering.

"Hunting Sengann with our father," Brigid answered. "We came here to ensure your safety; father and Edward went after Sengann."

"The main chamber," Bella breathed out. She didn't wait to see the goddess' agreement. She knew she was right. She turned on her heel and stumbled into an awkward run, skirting past the soldiers, who were paying more attention to the fortress's advancing guards than the little injured human, and fighting her unused legs and damaged ankle to do as she commanded and move quickly.

"Bella!" Called one of the goddesses, but she couldn't spare a moment to look back. She only knew that she had to find Edward. From behind her she heard the sounds of fighting, and she assumed that Sengann's men had found Boann and Brigid. She sent out a silent prayer for their safety as she stumbled forward.

Her legs finally gave into her commands to move when she reached the hallway cross section, causing her to lose her balance. She crashed into the hall wall, causing her to yelp in pain when she caught her weight with her still-swollen hand. She'd been unconscious the first time she had been brought to her room, but the second time, when Sengann had been so gracious in allowing her time to prepare not only for her mortal death but for the permanent demise of Cáer, she had been completely aware of her surroundings when she had brought her back to her room. Sengann had clearly not worried about her escaping, manacled and chained to her guard as she was (given her failed escape attempt, that was understandable). It wasn't far to the central chamber; only one more turn off this hall.

Regaining her balance, she took off at the fastest limping run that she could. She had to reach Edward.

Skidding into the central chamber where Sengann had earlier revealed himself to her, she stopped abruptly. At the top of the dais she saw Sengann held up off the ground by an enormous man she hoped was the Dagda. The Fomorian who had taken her prisoner looked like he was being choked to death, and she paused for a short moment to enjoy the thought of him no longer being able to hurt them.

Through the side door Cíocal had earlier come from, she saw Edward there, encased in a sickly brown-yellow light, writhing on the ground under the power directed at him by Cíocal. With only the thought of distracting the Fomorian from his attack on Edward, she hurried to the side room, and once there, threw herself bodily at the tall blond, and in so doing, took the blast of his power to her chest.

Bella Swan, Cáer Ibormeith, knew immense pain. It burned through her body, set her skin on fire, and raced along her nervous system so that within seconds even her primary thought of 'Edward!' had retreated under the onslaught of pain. Before she completely succumbed to unconsciousness, she thought she heard her name being called out, but she couldn't focus, couldn't respond, could do nothing but scream.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Edward felt the fire retreat, and forced his battered and broken body to its feet so that he could face Cíocal once more. To his horror, he saw why the pain had stopped; his Bella, his heart, had taken his place as the focus of Cíocal 's attack. Before he had a chance to react, she was surrounded by the same ugly brown-yellow light he himself had just been freed from, and then her body was arched unnaturally against the stone floor with only her head, feet, and hands touching the stone. Her scream of pain rebounded through the room and Edward was pushed into action. With a snarl and roar, he launched himself at their attacker. No one who harmed his heart would be permitted to live.

The sounds of a fight drifted into the room, and a quick expansion of his senses confirmed that it was his mother and sister as they closed in on the Dagda's place in the main chamber. They could take care of themselves; now he was concerned only about the petite brunette whose rigid body, contorted face, and screams gave evidence to the pain Cíocal was inflicting.

He tackled Cíocal to the ground, ending his attack on Bella, who nonetheless remained screaming. He wanted nothing more than to beat the Fomorian to a bloody pulp, release all his anger onto it, but went instead for efficiency so that he could turn his attention to his Bella, his Cáer. Straddling the larger man, he used his knees to pin his upper arms to the floor while he quickly, faster than a human eye could have followed, drove his fist into the Fomorian's throat, grabbed hold of spine and soft tissue, and pulled. Dropping the bloody mess onto the floor, he pivoted and leapt toward his Bella, whose screams had died the moment he'd put his hand into the other being's neck.

No. Nononono. He wasn't yet to her body when saw--and heard--that her heart wasn't beating and she wasn't breathing. Edward made it to her side and dropped to his knees. He flashed through memory after memory of Bella taking first aid and CPR classes in recent years, trying to remember the technique to restart someone's heart. There it was: chest compressions and breathing. Frantically, he tilted her head back, pinched her nose, and breathed into her mouth. Please he begged silently. Not her.

He followed the instructions he remembered Bella taking to heart: two breaths, thirty compressions, two breaths, thirty compressions. Edward could feel the life fading from the body of his love. Two minutes and thirty-four seconds into the CPR cycle, he saw the spirit of Cáer leave Bella's body. She hovered over the body for the barest of moments, and he felt the caress of her spirit against his cheek. Then she was gone, her spirit spinning out to its rightful place in the Otherworld.

Edward sagged, resting his head on Bella's still warm chest. He'd lost. Sengann, while no longer a threat to anyone, had succeeded in separating Cáer's spirit from Bella. He was only grateful that the Fomorian had not been able to trap or use her spirit.

He no longer had need to force himself to blend as human, to maintain that form for decades so that he could accompany Cáer-as-Bella as she lived her mortal life, so he let the mortal façade fall away, feeling it melt from him as he retook his true form and reassumed his identity as Aengus.

a/n: Thank you so very much to everyone who has reviewed. I appreciate it!

While I'm working on chapter fifteen, check these out if you aren't already:

Amputated at the Neck, by Minisinoo
Discovery, by Aspiring Empath
From Innocence to Experience, by Thallium81/Jfly
Seducing Ms Swan, by DQRC/Rialle
The Sweet Kiss of Charity, by Ithilwen K-Bane

All stories or authors are on my favorites lists.

Thanks for reading! Review and let me know what you think about the story. Pretty please. :)