A/N: Sorry for the wait for this chapter guys. I've had a few old fics that I wanted to catch up with while I was off work. Also, I realise I've been screwing up the horse's name. I'm sticking with Thunder as that was the name I first used; hopefully there aren't any more mistakes! Once again thanks for reading and for all the feedback.
"Mrs Fields, please, come in." The last person Paige had been expecting to find on her porch was Emily's mom. She stepped aside to let the older woman inside the house. It was late in the evening and Paige had only been discharged from the hospital that morning. "Is Em ok?"
"There's been no change. Her father's with her; I just wanted to come check on you. The police told us you pulled her from the car. Thank you so much." She threw her arms around Paige in a crushing hug that would give Hanna a run for her money.
Once she finally let go of the teenager Paige led her in to the living room and offered her some tea or coffee. She politely declined; which was probably for the best since Paige's arm was still in a sling and she probably couldn't even lift a kettle. Her mom was still with her grandmother and her dad was out grocery shopping, so it was just her and Pam in the house. Paige couldn't help but apologise for what had happened.
"Mrs Fields, I'm the reason Emily was in that car in the first place. If it wasn't for me-"
"Paige, I've told you, please call me Pam; and you can't blame yourself for what happened. It was an accident. Emily wouldn't blame you and neither do I." Emily's mom was doing her best to convince Paige that she had done nothing wrong; just as Emily's friends had done too. That didn't make Paige feel any less guilty about what had happened though.
"She was sick; I never should have dragged her out." Paige shook her head, angry at herself for dragging Emily out to the stables when she was so unwell. She was blaming herself for more than just the crash; she should have known that something was seriously wrong with the other girl. Between her fevers, the muscle cramps, how much she was sleeping, and her vivid dreams, she should have stepped up and made Emily go see a doctor.
"Emily was so excited about going riding yesterday. It was all she talked about over breakfast. I don't think anything either of us could have said would have changed her mind about going."
"I still shouldn't have taken her out…I just wanted to do something to make her happy. We'd been fighting over stupid stuff…" Paige sighed. Her guilt was eating away at her. Pam leant across the sofa and took hold of the teenager's hand.
"Sweetie, Emily hasn't been herself in a long time. This whole sordid thing with Mona and then what happened to Maya, it's hurt her bad; but yesterday, when I saw how happy she was, it was almost like having the old Emmy back. I have you to thank for that. When Emily gets better, and she will, I hope I can depend on you to keep making my daughter happy." Pam smiled at her as she squeezed her hand. Paige managed a small smile of her own as she nodded.
"That's all I've ever wanted… but what if she doesn't wake up? What if she-"
"Don't!" Pam snapped at her sternly. "Don't even think like that! Emily is strong, and she's stubborn; she gets that from me… She's going to pull through this. We just have to be strong for her. Right now she needs our courage and our prayers." Mrs Fields truly believed what she was saying, but it was easy for her to have hope; she hadn't been there when her daughter had been lying battered and bruised on the side of the road. She hadn't been there when Emily had stopped breathing. Paige wasn't sure she would ever get those images out of her head. She wanted to believe that Emily would be ok. She needed her to be ok. No matter what anyone said, Paige knew that she had let Emily down. She would never forgive herself if Emily didn't wake up.
"Up! We have to go up!" Paige ordered as she sheathed her sword and pulled Emily to her feet. The dragons were still circling menacingly above them, but they hadn't seemed to notice the girls yet.
"Up? Are you crazy? There are dragons up there!" Emily objected, her eyes never leaving the fierce creatures high above.
"We're already more than halfway. There might be a cave higher up or a deeper ledge we can hide on. We need to keep out of their sight."
"By getting closer to them?" Emily was still arguing, but she did as Paige said and started scaling up the rock face.
Her arms were still aching from their earlier climb and the muscles in her legs were burning with exhaustion. She ignored the pain and carried on following Paige up the mountain. An ear splitting roar erupted from above and had the rocks shaking beneath them. They scrambled up quicker, looking for a ledge or a hiding place. They managed to get to a platform just below the peak of the mountain. Paige instructed Emily to wait on it as she climbed up the last few feet to the top. The jagged rocks bit in to the palms of her hands as she pulled herself to her feet.
The top of the mountain was flat, with no caves or obvious places to hide. There was also no sign of Spence. Paige was a sitting duck standing out there in the open. She kept her hand on her sword and a wary eye on the creatures above her in the sky. They seemed to be circling lower. "Find anything?" She jumped as Emily climbed up beside her. She dusted off her jeans as she scanned the barren mountain top.
"No, nothing. I think-" Paige was cut off as another roar filled the air. It sounded like thunder rumbling through the mountains and had the ground shaking beneath their feet. It came from the largest dragon, a magnificent creature with blood red scales and huge black wings. Its eyes were pools of thick gold amber as they narrowed on the two girls. "Uh oh…" The red dragon dropped its head and starting diving towards them. The other three dragons followed suit; with all four creatures hurtling towards the ground there was nowhere for the girls to run to.
"Get back!" Paige pulled Emily back behind her and drew her sword out ready for the attack. One sword would do little to fight off four dragons, but she still had to try. She felt Emily pressed right up against her back and she reached her free hand back to squeeze her hand. She drew courage from the goddess at her back and gripped the sword in her hands extra tight. She kept her eyes glued on the red dragon as it landed a few feet in front of them. The force of its wings beating almost knocked Paige off her feet.
She felt Emily's hands on her hips steadying her. The other dragons landed, flanking them on all sides. There was nowhere for them to go. Without turning back to look at Emily, she said, "Whatever happens, I'll protect you…even if it is with my last breath." She pulled away from the other girl as she narrowed her eyes on the biggest dragon. It took a step towards her, its massive claws biting in to the rocks and sending a cloud of dust up in to the air. "Okay ugly, you're first!" The red dragon let out another deafening roar in response. Plumes of smoke were rising from its nose as its golden eyes watched Paige intently; it was like it was weighing up her worth.
The dragon must not have thought very much of her as its eyes flicked past her towards Emily; they seemed to light up when they landed on the other girl. "Hell no!" Paige growled at the beast as she tightened her grip on her sword. She wouldn't let it near Emily, even if it killed her.
"Paige, wait!" Emily grabbed at her arm to stop her lunging forward. There was something about the way the dragon was looking at them. There was an intelligence behind its ominous glare. "It sounds crazy, but I think that might be Spencer."
"You're right, that is crazy." Paige shot back. She had seen the Goddess of the Air transform from a bird right before her eyes, but there was a difference between a large bird and massive fire breathing dragon.
"No. I'm right. I know I am." Emily was sure of it as she stepped out in front of Paige. The dragon watched her warily, though it made no attempt to move. It looked torn between anger and fear. "Put the sword down!" Emily tossed the order over her shoulder.
"Are you kidding?" The other girl snapped in disbelief.
"Just do it! I know what I'm doing!"
"Now I'm crazy." Paige muttered under her breath as she lowered her sword. The other three dragons took flight again, circling them like vultures, but the biggest one, the red dragon, took a lumbering step forward. It let out another roar as Paige threw up her sword again and the smoke coming from its nose turned in to a thick fog surrounding its head. Emily ignored Paige's protests and stepped forward to meet the creature halfway.
"Spencer? It's me. It's Emily." She held her hands up in front of her as she slowly inched towards the smouldering dragon. "I know that it's you. We've been looking for you, we need your help. Spence, please…" Emily watched as the fog grew thicker and it started spreading to surround the dragon's body, engulfing it until it was barely visible through the smog. When the smoke finally cleared she and Paige were staring at a wide-eyed Spencer. Her body was shaking as she pushed herself up to her feet. It had been a long time since she had been in her human form and it felt strange. Her skin felt like it was crawling and her shoulders kept flexing, trying to move wings that she no longer possessed.
"E-Em-Emily." Her throat was dry as she tried to choke out the other girl's name. She couldn't remember the last time she had used her voice. Spencer had tried to live as a human when she had been condemned to a mortal life with her sisters, but after Emily's death she had chosen to abandon her human form altogether. She had spent most of the last two years living as a dragon and it was difficult to adjust to being a person again. She couldn't think straight. She was staring at Emily, but her sister was dead. She couldn't be standing on the top of Spencer's mountain asking her for help. "You're dead. You shouldn't be here…dead people should not be here! Not even you Emily…You have to leave!"
"They weren't kidding about the crazy." Paige muttered. Both Aria and Hanna had warned them that being trapped as a mortal had left Spencer out of her mind. The young warrior's eyes were still fixed on the three dragons circling overhead. They were doing pretty well for a species that was supposed to be extinct.
"You can see them? Can't you?" Spencer snapped at Paige as she spotted her looking up at the creatures above them.
"The huge ass dragons the size of a small house? Yes, I can see them." Paige remarked dryly. Climbing the mountain had left her cold and tired and she was in no mood to play nice with the crazy dragon lady.
"I don't like you." Spencer glared at her.
"The feeling's mutual." Paige shot back. It was hardly a secret how she felt about the goddesses; Emily being the obvious exception.
"Can you two ever just get along?" Emily rolled her eyes at the pair of them. "Look, Spence, we need your help. We're taking on A and-"
"Taking on A?" Spencer cracked up laughing. "Are you kidding me? I told you all! I told you all when you did that stupid spell that Mona was up to no good! But did you listen? And where have you been for the last two years? You couldn't have come back from the dead sooner? That's just lazy Em!" Spencer's eyes were wide with madness as she ranted at the other girl.
Paige kept her hand on her sword. Spencer might have still possessed all of her abilities, but she was still stuck in a mortal body; a body that could be killed. The fire goddess was clearly unhinged; if she made a move to hurt Emily then Paige would have no choice but to end her. Emily seemed to pick up on what the other girl was thinking as she stepped back and put her hand over Paige's. "Spencer, listen to me. I'm not the girl who died two years ago. I don't really understand it myself, but I'll try to explain, if you'll let me?"
"Ok." Spencer relented, seemingly calm again; it was like there was some crazy switch going on and off in her head. Emily could only imagine what Spencer had gone through in the years she had been alone. Hanna and Aria had their human lovers to help keep them sane, but Spencer had been completely on her own. She couldn't blame her for being paranoid. "But first I want to know how she can see the dragons! Normal humans can't."
"It's the fairy blood, right?" Emily answered for Paige, remembering what the other girl had said about being able to see past Allison's glamour. It turned out to be the wrong thing to say.
"I hate fairies more than I hate humans." Spencer growled out defensively.
"Oh look, something we have in common." Paige quipped, doing her best not to lose her temper with the goddess. Whether she liked Spencer or not she needed her. "I'm not a fairy. My family…my bloodline has some fairy in it, but I'm just a regular old human."
"No." Spencer took a step closer, staring intently at the other girl. "You're not…you wear a dragon on your chest. It's pretty."
"Ok, how about we go somewhere and talk?" Emily suggested, trying to get Spencer back on track. She was losing focus again; and she wasn't the only one. Paige looked a little disturbed by Spencer's outburst as she held her hand to her chest.
"Fine, I have a house in the valley down below, we can talk there." Without warning Spencer transformed back in to her previous form and shot up in to the sky. The force of her flapping wings almost knocked Paige and Emily off her feet. She joined the other dragons in the sky before all four of them descended down in to the valley on the other side of the mountain.
"Great, looks like we're taking the long way." Emily sighed, hoping that scaling down the mountain would be easier than getting up it. "Are you ok? What was she talking about?" Emily quizzed, concerned by how pale Paige had suddenly gone.
"Nothing." Paige tried to shrug it off, but Emily refused to budge until she had an answer. "Ok, my family crest is a dragon. My dad wore it on his armour; over his chest."
"Did your family kill dragons or something?" Emily really hoped the answer was no. She knew both girls well enough to know their volatile tempers would get the better of them if there was any kind of history there.
"No." Paige surprised her by laughing. She decided to share the story as they made their way down the mountain. There was a kind of pathway worn in to the rocks that led them down in to the valley below. "So, one of my ancestors was hunting deep in the woods when he came across a dying dragon. It was old and it was in pain. He prayed to the goddess of fire and he sat with it until its soul passed. She rewarded him for his compassion by giving him armour made from dragon's skin. It was said to protect the wearer from magic; after that my family adopted a dragon for their crest."
"What happened to it?" Emily asked. The plain leather armour Paige was wearing was a far-cry from fancy dragon-skin.
"A took it; same as everything else." She answered with a heavy heart as she took hold of Emily's hips to help her down from a high ledge. Her hands lingered as Emily stepped down beside her. "I've only got two things left in my life; and A isn't getting either of them." One hand caressed Emily's cheek as the other rested against her sword.
"What is it with you and humans?" Spencer sneered as she walked out of the little wooden shack that was nestled at the bottom of the mountain. The valley was empty except for the hut and the dragons lying down on the wet grass. They seemed oblivious to the human intruders that had just climbed down in to their dwelling. There was at least half a dozen of them and the side of the mountain was potted with caves that could easily be hiding more. "That's what got us in to this mess; you not being able to keep it in your pants around that bar wench!"
"Hey!" Emily protested. "I told you, I'm not that Emily; and Maya's not a wench!"
"Oh yeah, she's a real peach." Paige drawled, earning a scowl from Emily.
"Can we please get back on track here?" Emily demanded, snapping at the other girls. "We've come to talk about taking down A. I'm not the goddess of the water, but I have her abilities; or at least some of them. I can explain all of that later, but right now we just need to know we can count on you to help us."
"Of course I can help. I know exactly how to deal with A. We take away her powers and then she's nothing more than a mangy human." Spencer spoke like stripping Mona of her stolen powers would be a walk in the park.
"Great!" Emily's face lit up at the prospect of having Spencer's help. After weeks of going around in circles she was finally getting somewhere in taking on Mona; bringing her down had become all the more important since Emily had found out she was stuck in the Rose Woods. She needed to get home; back to her family and back to Paige. She still didn't know if her girlfriend was ok after the crash and it was eating away at her. Paige could be lying by the side of the road and dying for all Emily knew. She had to get back to the real Rosewood; and she would do anything to go home. "How do we do that?"
"It's easy; we just have to kill Hanna and Aria."