A/N: Phew! Sorry about the delay, real life came up. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and thank you to all my reviewers, you guys rock.
Helen felt nothing; saw nothing, there was only the white void. It clung to her, filled her lungs, stripping the breath from her lungs. She felt like she was drowning, but there was no water, no air, there was only the nothing.
Just as she felt she was giving up, just as she found peace within herself, that she could finally let go, pain returned.
Her bones came back first, alarmingly solid, giving her gravity, pulling her to the ground. Muscle next, as she was rewoven, sinew connecting tissue, blood running through her ageless veins. Her skin emerged, burning as it covered her naked body, a hundred thousand pinpricks as her hair bloomed back into existence. She opened her reborn eyes and watched as her gun materialized in her hand, even as her clothing settled gently back on her shoulders.
She fell then, landing hard on cold cobblestones. The air was filled with fog and smoke and the night was alive with noises—horses trotting, dogs howling, people shouting. It was the sound of a different time; something Helen had not heard in a full century.
She pushed herself off the ground and stood, righting herself and ignoring the pointed stares directed her way by the random passersby.
She needed to find Adam and end this once and for all.
Helena sat up with a groan, feeling like she had been kicked in the shoulder by a very large and angry horse. She blinked as she looked around, realizing she was in Myka's old room at the inn, the empty bookshelves and the dust that had gathered on the bare windowsill seeming to glare at her in reproach.
Helena gently lowered herself back down, trying to swallow the hot guilt that had risen in her throat, bitter as bile.
Her fault. It was all hers, this terrible present, mocking her in contrast to her visions of a perfect future.
But for Myka, she wanted to die.
Myka, headstrong, brilliant and utterly unexpected, she'd cut through Helen's darkness like a beam of sunlight.
Myka had never given up on her. Even when she should have, even when Helena had cost her everything, her friends, her job and almost her life.
Helena ruined Myka's life. Yet, even when she tried to pay her back, tried to make the ultimate sacrifice for Myka, Myka would not let her go. Helena should have died under the earth, in a hell of her own creation.
Myka should have hated her. Should have wanted to see her rebronzed for Christ's sake.
Instead, Myka chose to save her. Again.
Myka had cut through her grief and her hatred to the heart of her twisted psyche and had seen, had simply known, exactly what to say to soothe the pain of a century of misery.
Helena had never had anyone who had known her like that. It frightened her a little, to think there was someone who could see her, truly. Myka had never known the loss of a child, but the sympathy in her verdant eyes had been enough to revive Helena's dead heart.
She thought of Christina. Her baby's name still echoed in the hollow in her heart, yet it was not accompanied by the usual burn of rage. Instead, Helena felt something that resembled calm. Peace even. Christina was gone, but Helena knew that, had known it for a long time. Her sweet girl would not have wanted her to live blinded by unholy rage forever.
She had mourned her child and buried her in the way that no mother ever should have to. Yet, she still lived. Helena wondered why.
She already knew how.
With that, her thoughts circled back to Myka. Helena knew she would never be through repaying her. For the rest of her days, however numbered they may be when the Regents found her once more.
She tried to take a deep breath, groaning as she felt her ribs creak. She must have cracked one or two when she hit the wall.
She gritted her teeth and tried to sit up again. This time she succeeded, managing to prop herself up on the pillows.
The door swung open, revealing Claudia, who poked her head in, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"HG." She said in greeting, cautious. Helena could not blame her.
"Claudia." She said warmly, slightly embarrassed at how weak her voice sounded.
Claudia crept in, the vivid green streak in her hair shifting as her ran her hands through her hair, uncertain.
Claudia surveyed her carefully, taking in her still tattered clothing and the bruising on her face.
"You look like you took on an elephant and lost." Claudia said finally.
Helena chuckled dryly. "Its no worse than I deserve."
"I heard your machine worked." Claudia added. "I tried to stop you."
"Clever girl." Helena breathed. "It was you who was diverting my electricity, wasn't it?"
Claudia nodded. "It didn't work."
"Oh but it did." Helena countered. "You gave Myka enough time to get to me…." She trailed off. "To stop me."
Claudia stood at the foot of the bed, tears in her eyes. "How could you HG? Not just the first time, but then you tried again? How could you do that to us, to Myka?" Her voice grew more heated. "Do you even know what you've done?"
Helena met her eyes, gravely. "Claudia." She said gently. " I can never provide enough restitution for what I have done. I do not blame you if you cannot tolerate my presence."
"Its not even that I want you to pay us back or something like that! I just want to know why? Why did you betray us?" Claudia was almost shouting now. "We were your family!"
"Claudia. Enough." Myka had appeared in the doorway, a storm in her eyes.
"No." Helena said, hating how frail she sounded. "I want to tell you." She was looking at Claudia, but they both knew she was really addressing Myka.
Helena paused, trying to find the words. "There is no why." She said at last. "No rational reason at least." The words began to flow, Helena's voice increasing in strength. "I was so angry Claudia, for so, so long. I spent so long in my own darkness, I could no longer even remember what the sun felt like. There was nothing for me but the darkness and the pain and my revenge. You all changed that."
"Too little, too late." Claudia sneered.
"I know. Believe me, I know." Helena sighed. "There is no act of mine that I regret more than my betrayal of your trust. Every other event has spiraled from that."
Helena closed her eyes for a moment. The throbbing in her shoulder was increasing. "I cannot ask for your forgiveness or your trust, for they must be earned with time, if I can even be granted that."
"Claudia, could you excuse us." Despite Myka's phrasing, it was not a request.
Claudia nodded and left, clicking the door shut behind her, refusing to meet Helena's eyes.
"Where the hell do you get off?" Myka's voice shook slightly. "Asking for another chance, are you freaking kidding me?"
"Myka, please—"
"No, don't you think you can bat your eyelashes at me, and I will forget that you tried to end the world. Twice. You destroyed me Helena. You destroyed us."
The throbbing grew, her heart pounding so hard that she could not hear herself think any longer. "Alright then." Helena gasped. Then darkness took her again.
Myka blinked as Helena wilted in front of her, in a drop dead, picture perfect Victorian lady faint.
"Helena!" Myka cried, rushing to the bedside, her fingers scrambling for the syringe full of pain killers perched on the bedside. They had called for Dr. Calder, but the good doctor would not arrive for hours yet, having been on the other side of the world when the call went out.
Myka grasped the syringe and silently apologized to the unconscious woman in front of her as she jabbed the needle into her arm with little grace.
Helena's breathing eased as the minutes ticked past. Myka hovered anxiously, unwilling to call for help yet paralyzed with fear she was going to lose Helena once again.
Myka was angry, but not to the point where she wanted Helena to leave her. She wanted explanation, she wanted to fight, wanted Helena to open her damn eyes and let Myka rail at her. Maybe then they could make something of this mess.
Five minutes after she fainted, Helena's eyes blinked open. Seeing Myka leaning over her, concern painting her features, Helena smiled slightly. "And here I thought you no longer cared."
Myka frowned at her. "I'm not done with you yet." She growled.
Helena wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. How she could do that while critically injured and in some serious trouble was just beyond Myka's understanding.
Myka sighed and sat down next to the injured woman. "This discussion is not over."
"I know darling." Helena said softly.
Myka looked at her, Helena's pale skin was dappled with bruises, her chest crisscrossed with the bandages Myka and Tesla had rigged up on the flight back. Helena's dark eyes watched Myka carefully, her expression withdrawn.
Myka tried to clear her mind. "I'm not saying that I can't forgive you." Helena remained silent. There was a long pause, in which Myka carefully weighed every past moment, every emotion. Finally, she murmured:
"I need time too."
Helen beamed at her. Myka only hoped she wasn't making yet another huge mistake.
Some twenty miles outside of Univille, deep in the heart of the Warehouse library, Nigel Griffin was pacing back and forth, absorbed in his own musings, absently flickering in and out of the visible spectrum.
"Would you knock it off?" Nikolai snarled from his seat at the large oaken table, strewn with books. He swirled the wine glass in his hand.
"Sorry old boy." Nigel said. "Ol' habits die 'ard."
"Where's pretty boy?" Nikolai asked, looking around.
"Who, Dr. Zimmerman?" Artie asked.
"Yes, Helen's boy toy." Nikolai answered, bored.
"Ha ha ha, so funny." Will walked out from around the corner, a book in hand. "Look, I want to find Magnus just as badly as you do, so lay off, Dracula, alright?"
"Touchy, touchy." Nikolai resumed his swirling. "So tell me Arthur, Helen and Adam made it back to London, yes?"
From the other end of the table Arthur Nielsen looked up and said "Yes, according to the data that Claudia pulled right before the dam blew. 1890, London."
"Where would she have gone?" Nigel asked, scratching his head.
"The Sanctuary?" Arthur suggested.
"Maybe." Nikolai shrugged. "But James kept all his records in Latin and God only knows how tedious that translation would be. My Latin is a bit rusty."
"Same I'm afraid. I've let me classical studies slip in favor of, er, more profitable pursuits." Nigel added, shrugging slightly. Once he could turn invisible, he'd rather have spent the time liberating Roman art from the British Museum than trying to read it.
"Would we even be able to get a hold of those records?" Will asked. "There was a lot that was destroyed when the London Sanctuary was under siege last year."
"Fat lot of use you people are." Arthur grumbled.
"What's your stake in this anyway, chap?" Nigel asked, curious as to the portly agent was working so hard to rescue Helen. He knew Helen had that effect on people, but this was a little extreme.
"Why do you want to know?" Arthur folded his arms across his chest.
"He makes a fair point." Nikolai offered. "Why the interest? All your birds have come home to roost, so to speak."
Arthur's brow furrowed and he sighed. "Helen Magnus saved my life." He said finally. "I walked straight into an SS officer's trap in Uruguay, 1972. My partner was unconscious and I was done for, when she walked in and started shooting. I owe her my life."
Will smiled at him slightly as Tesla took a sip of his wine and sighed. "Fine. I guess we will trust in your noble intentions or whatever."
Arthur went back to looking at the ledger in front of him. "Must be hard to trust people when your personal history reads more like a hit list." He mused.
"He he he fat man, very funny." Nikolai retorted.
Arthur pointedly ignored him. Nigel rather approved.
Deep under the Sanctuary, the man in the glass coffin remained frozen, the monitor keeping his body in stasis beeping softly, indicating all was well.
The dead man slept on.
A/N: Your reviews make my day, thank you!