Chapter 26
Tamsin and Bo searched for Zagreus. Two days later, the clues that he had left behind led them to an abandoned mansion outside the city. They found Persephone's body under the rose bushes in the backyard, but Zagreus was nowhere to be seen.
They figured that Hades had killed Persephone, impersonated her and lured Zagreus to the mansion. However, neither Zagreus nor the Dark Lord himself stayed there for long.
Tamsin and Bo tried to find them, but they couldn't find anything useful. They had no choice but to go home.
They spent the next few days doing research on hell gate and Zeus' lightning, but it didn't go anywhere. They had gone through most of the books in the library, both the Ash's and the Morrigan's, but didn't find a single book with the description of hell gate. In fact, hell gate was barely mentioned in any of the books. It was as if it didn't exist.
Their reading session was interrupted by a panicking call from Dagny. She told them that she was having a high fever and feeling really weak.
They rushed home and sent Dagny to Lauren's clinic. Lauren examined the young girl and told them, "it's just common Fae flu."
"Just flu?" Dagny asked with her hoarse voice, "but I've never been sick before. Are you sure it has nothing to do with my-my transformation?"
"Well," Lauren scratched her hair. "Technically, it has everything to do with your transformation."
Seeing that both Dagny and Tamsin got nervous, she explained to Dagny, "usually when teenage Faes are going through the changes, their immune system goes like a roller coaster too. Right now, yours is probably weak, and that's why you're much more prone to disease."
"I thought I wasn't Fae, but an Ancient or a Primordian or whatever," Dagny murmured while snuffling. "So now I am a Fae again?"
"I actually am not very sure whether you are an Ancient, a Primordial, or a Fae," Lauren answered honestly. "Actually, the genetic difference between the three of them are quite small. In fact, the genetic difference between humans and Faes might be a lot smaller than you think too. We all carry some genes that dates back to the beginning of time. Some of them are still active, others aren't. In your case, though, I found some genes that are so ancient that they are longer active in anyone but you. I think that might be why you are something that we've never seen before. Anyway, Fae or Primordian, you have flu."
Dagny nodded and pondered for a long time, before she asked, "I am just having a flu and nothing else?"
"Yep," Lauren nodded. "I'll prescribe you nothing but lots of rest and plenty of fluids. If you-"
A loud yell coming from a patient room nearby interrupted her. Then a nurse stormed into the room they were in, and told Lauren, "Dr. Lewis, you either fire me now, or stop sending me into the witch's lair."
Lauren let out a heavy sigh, which sounded more like a frustrated groan.
After the nurse walked away, Bo said, "that sounds like Evony."
"It is Evony," Lauren replied. "In-home care isn't working well for her, so I admitted her into the special care unit here. And now...she's nesting, turning the whole place into a no-go zone for doctors and nurses."
"Sounds like so much fun," Tamsin commented.
Lauren just sighed and shook her head. "If you would excuse me," she murmured and left the room without telling the others whether they should follow her or leave. So, they followed her.
The special care patient room was filled with Evony's personal belongings. She had successfully turned the place into one of her fashion dens. Although, she was wearing nothing but plain color robes with no makeup at all.
"Oh, look who's here," Evony, who was sitting in the patient bed, exclaimed when she saw Bo and Tamsin walk in. She gave them a big, fake smile, before she moved her eyes to Dagny.
"Well, hello there," she spoke to Dagny in a voice so soft that it creeped Bo and Tamsin out. "Hi, I don't think we've met, but let me give you a little advice. When you have someone going down on you, just make sure that they don't secretly have a human-Fae altering serum sac in their mouth."
Lauren cleared her throat uncomfortably and went to check on the machines. Both Bo and Tamsin ignored what Evony had just said. Dagny was quite confused but she decided that she'd ask about it later.
"Evony, you are..." Bo stuttered as she looked at the woman in the patient bed. Her skin was beyond pale. It looked as if something had drained the life out of her already. She looked more shriveled than the last time Bo had seen her, like she was slowly losing her flesh underneath her skin. Without any makeup on her, the droopy sacks under her eyes seemed huge. She didn't look like an old lady yet, but she felt like one.
"Yes, I am still alive, and no, it won't be for long," Evony snorted loudly. "Please, Bo, just be honest with me, just be you for Gods' sake. I literally don't have much time for any of the bullshit."
Bo pulled her lips into a tight smile. "Well, you look better than I thought," she told Evony, and Evony snorted again.
"Whatever," the woman waved her hand at Bo, "just leave me alone. Go save the world, or whatever it is that makes you happy."
Bo nodded slightly. She walked to the bedside, and hesitantly squeezed Evony's hand. She wanted to give Evony some kind words, but the long feud between them made it extremely hard for her to be nice to her, even though she was dying.
Dagny gave Evony a polite smile, before she asked Tamsin in a low voice, "are you and Bo going back to the library? Can I go with you?"
"You heard the doc," Tamsin replied firmly. "Lots of rest and plenty of fluids."
Dagny pouted. "Fine, I'll do my own research on hall gate online then."
"You are doing research on hell gate?" Evony asked. "They teach that in kindergarten now?"
"I am in highschool," Dagny corrected her.
Evony rolled her eyes. "Like there's much difference," she drawled. "Just get outta my sight."
"Wait," Bo turned to Evony with a frown. "You've heard of hell gate?"
"Oh of course I have," Evony shrugged. "I dated that moron Eros, remember?"
After exchanging a quick look with Tamsin, Bo said to Evony, "if...if you don't mind, can you tell me everything you know about the hell gate?"
"That depends, Succu-bitch," Evony drawled, "can you do me a favor?"
"Well, if you want a glass of water, sure, but if you want someone dead, then nope unless it's my father," Bo told her.
Evony rolled her eyes. "I just need someone to do my nails."
"Evony," Lauren interrupted her. "I don't think putting nail polish on is a good idea."
"Oh shut up, Lauren. I think I'm allowed to do whatever I want. What if I close my eyes today and then never wake up after that?"
Lauren choked and clenched her lips.
"I got this, Lauren," Bo told the doctor softly. Lauren gave in, and left the room after a long, deep sigh.
"So...nails, huh?" Bo squeezed those words through her teeth while sitting down beside Evony's bed. "I think I can handle that. Shall we start now?"
"Not so fast," Evony said as she pointed at the snuffling Dagny. "Get her outta here. I don't want to catch any of her kid germs."
Tamsin rolled her eyes. She gave Bo a nod and took Dagny away, leaving the Succubus alone with Evony.
Per Evony's instruction, Bo got a set of nail polish out from the drawers. She laid them in front of Evony, and let the woman pick the color she would want.
Evony ordered Bo to put two of the colors on two of her nails to see which one would look better for her. As Bo did that with eyerolls and grunts, she murmured, "oh, the hell gate, where do I start?"
"Why don't you start with when you first heard of it, and what the hell is hell gate?" Bo suggested.
"Well, I first heard of it when Eros and I were dating. I think once he let that name slip out and I got curious. He wouldn't tell me at first, but there was this time that we had way too much wine. Like, way, way too much, and he started to spit things out non-stop. I mean, I actually had to shut him up before I ripped his clothes off and-"
"Yeah, why don't you keep all those steaming details to yourself, and talk about hell gate only?" Bo cut her off.
"Fine," Evony rolled her eyes. "He told me that hell gate is like an abandoned portal that connects the place underneath Tartarus and Tartarus."
"There's a place underneath Tartarus? I thought Tartarus was the bottom of all hells," Bo said, frowning.
"Oh, there is. There is a whole hellhole below the hellhole," Evony told her. "Anyway, he told me that Zeus asked Dionysus to make a special wine so that whoever drinks it would forget everything about hell gate."
"So she wanted people to forget about hell gate? Why?"
"I guess the hell gate scared the shit out of them. They didn't want anyone to open it ever. They didn't even want people to know about it. You know, hotheads like you, who might get curious and try?"
"Why are they so scared? What's inside that gate? Monsters? Dead souls?"
Evony shook her head. She stared at her painted nails, before she said, "the whole history of the Ancients has this repeating theme. The father ate his children because he was afraid of losing power. The children grew up, castrated the old man and took the throne."
"Okay...?" Bo frowned at Evony, not sure where the elder woman was going at.
"Do you know how Zeus took the throne?"
"She cut her father open, rescued all her siblings and then had a war with him and his minions. She eventually banished all of them to Tartarus."
"No, not to Tartarus," Evony corrected her. "To the place beneath Tartarus."
Bo furrowed her eyebrows. "You mean...behind the hell gate?"
Evony nodded. "Imagine thousands of furious, bitter Titans who want nothing but revenge and death of Zeus and her siblings. Imagine how pissed they get inside the prison as time goes by. That's why hell gate scare the shit out of Zeus. Bitch was really afraid that someone might let those fuckers out."
Bo nodded. She pondered for a long time, before she murmured, "then...it doesn't make any sense that my father wants to open it, does it? I mean, he was on Zeus' side when they defeated their father. He was one of the Ancients who locked them up there. They probably hated him as much as they hated Zeus. Why would he ever want them out?"
"Your father want them out?" Evony exclaimed. "I don't think so, Bo. He would be one of the last persons who wanted his father, Cronus, and his minions out."
"Then why would he want to open the hell gate?" Bo murmured in a low voice.
"What?" Evony asked her loudly. "You need to speak up, okay? I have this fucking ringing sound in my ear for days now and I can't hear you."
"Nothing, nothing," Bo told her. "I was just wondering where the hell gate is."
"How the hell do I know?" Evony drawled. "It's somewhere in the damn Tartarus, I assume. I thought about looking for it but I didn't like that place. It's wet and there's cobwebs and rats everywhere!"
"You seemed to be...quite interested in hell gate," Bo commented.
"Of course I was," Evony said. "I was so young back then, and I had a new lover and a whole new life ahead of me. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of ancient fuckers run around ruining things for me. I figured that if the hell gate really existed, I needed to know everything about it. But then, the asshole dumped me for that stupid chick, and I thought hell why would I care?"
"So...that's all you know about hell gate?" Bo asked.
Evony shrugged. "Well, soon the Ancients disappeared, and then there were wars after wars, depression after depression. Who would care about some gate in Tartarus?"
"Do you know anyone who might still know anything about it?" Bo asked. "I mean, anything that you don't know already?"
"Oh, I don't know, Bo. Anyone who possibly knows about it are either dead or gone," Evony said. "If your grandfather was still alive, he might...I don't think there's anyone left, Bo. It's just me."
Bo nodded. She was about to say something, but her beeping phone interrupted her. She checked the message that Dyson had sent her, before she told Evony, "I have to go. Got a case."
"Sure, and don't come back any time soon. Also, tell your ex-wife to order me some new robes. The ones I have are like rags!"
"Sure, of course," Bo told her. Before she left, she stood by the doorway and gave Evony an awkward nod. The elder woman snorted again, hiding the bitterness in her eyes.
Storming into the morgue inside the police station, Bo saw Dyson and Mark standing beside an autopsy table. There was a dead body on it.
"What's the emergency?" She asked as she rushed over to the table.
"This," Mark told her as he pointed at the body.
"Okay, we got a dead body and…?" Bo murmured while raising her eyebrows at the dead body. A quick examination told her that there was no visible wounds other than some small tears on the dead man's hands. The only thing that seemed to be out of the ordinary, is that the man had his eyes wide open. The look on his face seemed to be quite peaceful, though.
"What's his story?" She asked Dyson.
"We don't know yet, but he's not the only one with a story, I'm afraid," Dyson said as he walked to the refrigeration unit.
He opened four drawers, in each there was a dead body, male, female, young, old. All of them had their eyes wide open.
"Hades?" Bo asked in a deep frown, because that seemed to be the only conclusion she could draw from multiple deaths lately.
"I don't smell him on any of the bodies or at any of the scenes," Dyson said honestly. "It doesn't fit his signature either. No laceration on the throat, no blood."
"However, you two think that these deaths are related somehow?" Bo asked as she checked the bodies again.
"Otherwise how would you explain all these deaths? I mean, they all had their eyes wide open. That should be a connection, right?" Mark suggested.
"I don't know..." Bo said hesitantly. "I mean, we have a lot of random deaths in town everyday. It's just hard to say that these five deaths are related while others aren't."
"True, but check this out," Dyson told her as he showed her the case files. "They were found in various locations. They have no known connections. Not in the same age, or gender group, etc etc. However, what caught our attention is that...the five deaths occurred very recently for one, and the way they died for two."
"How did they die?"
"Good question. The medical examiner couldn't figure it out herself either," Mark replied. "There is just...no cause of death."
Bo frowned at the bodies, and then she turned to Dyson. She saw the look in Dyson's eyes, which told her that the Wolf had something on his mind but he wasn't ready to tell her. "What is it, Dyson?" She asked.
"It's just..." Dyson muttered. "Well, before I tell you this, I want you to know that I am not accusing you of having done anything, or even remotely suggesting that, okay?"
Bo nodded, and her frown got deeper.
"The look on these people's face...it reminds me a lot of your previous victims, you know, those people you...killed before we found you," Dyson said honestly. "I texted you because I wanted your opinion, not as a private investigator or the daughter of Hades, but as a Succubus. Do you think it's possible that this has nothing to do with your father but another sex demon in town?"
"Huh," Bo hummed. "Another sex demon in town? I don't think I've noticed any other sex demons in town lately. I mean, if there is any, shouldn't you be the first one to know? You are the one who's keeping the ledger, Dyson."
"I am not aware of a second sex demon in town, but not everyone comes into the Dal and signs the ledger voluntarily," Dyson said. "Especially if this person leaves a body trail behind."
"Have you checked with cops in other cities? Does any place have similar deaths?"
"I am still trying to find out if there is any," Mark said. "Are you really sure that there is no other sex demons in town?"
Bo shook her head. "I mean, there was one last year, but she moved to a bigger city. Then...I think two months ago I saw another in a nightclub, but he was just passing through and he never stayed."
"And you are sure that you've seen no one else?"
Bo shrugged. "I mean...I don't go through every single nightclub every night so I really can't say for sure, but I'll certainly let you know if notice any, okay?"
She quickly glanced at the bodies again, before she told them, "gotta go. Need to research on hell gate."
Bo went to the gym looking for Tamsin. When she arrived, the Valkyrie raised her head from a pile of old parchment papers and gave her a slight nod.
"I didn't know you and Evony would have a three-hour conversation," Tamsin commented.
"We didn't," Bo replied while getting herself something to drink. "I went to the precinct because they have this weird multiple death case."
Tamsin raised her eyebrows. "Weird as in Hades did it?"
"I don't know," Bo shrugged. "It didn't look like him but...anyway, they think it might be another sex demon."
"There is another sex demon in town? Wow it must be a miracle that everybody is still alive then," Tamsin teased, and earned a soft punch on her shoulder.
"I don't think I've seen another sex demon in town recently," Bo said. "Have you?"
Tamsin snorted. She wanted to make a joke about Bo being a sex demon, but somehow any joke that popped into her mind right now sounded flirty. She shook her head and replied, "no, I haven't."
Putting down her parchment papers, she asked, "did Evony tell you anything useful at all?"
"Well, yes, at least she told me what hell gate is," Bo answered. "She said that it was like a portal between Tartarus and somewhere underneath Tartarus, where Hades' father and his minions were locked up tight."
"Cronus and his Titan army?" Tamsin frowned. "I thought the books said that they were all imprisoned in Tartarus. So...they are in somewhere below Tartarus? And Hades wants to open the hell gate and free them? That doesn't make any sense. I thought he was among those who defeated Cronus and locked him up."
"Yeah, I know, but...I mean, we don't know for sure that he wants to open the gate. Maybe...he wants to close it like...forever close it so his father won't come out one day and kick his ass?"
"The riddle specifically said open," Tamsin reminded her.
"I know, but…it's a riddle. Riddles are confusing sometimes," Bo said. "Anyway, we now know what hell gate is, I mean, sort of. I guess it's probably safe to say that we want that thing stay closed forever. If, for some fucked up reasons, my father wants to open it, we have to stop him."
"Did Evony tell you where this hell gate is?"
Bo shook her head. "She said it was probably somewhere in Tartarus."
"Then we'll find it and make sure it's locked," Tamsin told her firmly.
Bo nodded and let out a deep sigh. "But, we need to find Zagreus first," she murmured. "We might still be able to convince him to side with us before Hades turns him into his loyal lieutenant."
"I'd hope for the best but prepare for the worst if I were you," Tamsin told her sincerely, and Bo nodded again with a burdened heart.
Bo thought she'd do some reading here while discussing what to do next with Tamsin. She barely finished the first page of the book in her hand when dagny came out from her room.
The young girl walked into the kitchen for some water while snuffling and sneezing. She was having a hard time drinking because whenever she swallowed she couldn't breathe through her nose.
She watched Bo and Tamsin quietly for a few seconds, before she hesitantly asked Bo, "can I talk to you for a bit?"
"Sure," Bo nodded.
"In my room?" Dagny suggested.
A little surprised that Dagny wanted to talk to her in private, Bo raised her eyebrows at Tamsin. The Valkyrie rolled her eyes and impatiently waved her hand telling Bo to follow Dagny.
Bo dragged a chair to Dagny's bedside while giving the young girl a smile. Dagny, who now wrapped herself in blankets with an ice pack on her forehead, smiled back.
"So...what do you want to talk about, hmm?" Bo asked.
"I want you to teach me how to fight the power of Hades," Dagny said.
"Oh sweetheart," Bo pulled her lips into an awkward smile. "To be honest with you, I'm not sure if I'm the best person to teach you that. He controlled me several times, and each time, the bond got stronger and time of me being under his control got longer. The last time he controlled me, I almost killed everyone."
"But, you broke free and sent him back to Tartarus," Dagny reminded her. "I want to know how you did that, because...because if he controls me, I can break free too."
She hesitantly looked down at the handprint on her chest. "Or...do you think I'm even capable of doing that?"
"Dagny," Bo said softly as she held the girl's hand. "We share his blood, that's something we can never change, but I want you to know that he doesn't own us. You do have a choice."
"I just...I can barely control my own power. What if he hijacks my mind and turn me into a killing machine or something?" She murmured. After a long pause, she looked into Bo's eyes and asked, "how did you break free from his control?"
"I..." Bo trailed off as she tried to remember what had happened when she forced the dark force out of her mind. Things were quite blurry because she hadn't been herself. She remembered sucking Chi out of people, and then suddenly, all the memories with the gang came back to her vividly. Kenzi, Lauren, Dyson...and Tamsin.
A painful sting made her fingers shiver when she recalled that when she had remembered Tamsin during that time, it was their kiss in Brazenwood.
She wondered why it had been that particular moment. The scorching heat, the fear of death, and the buzz in her head when their lips touched. The joy and relief on Tamsin's lips. The way the Valkyrie cupped her face while they were kissing.
A stream of heat passed through her body, just like in Brazenwood. It gave her heart a dull, painful squeeze.
Suddenly, she started to wonder why that moment came to her back then. Why hadn't it been anything else? Why would that particular piece of memory pop out?
She had always thought that the kiss was purely the influence of the machine. She had never told anyone but Kenzi, and she had never talked about it with Tamsin either. They hadn't talked about a lot of things, in fact. They toed the line carefully and pretended that a lot of things hadn't ever happened.
She, herself, had chosen to ignore each and every one of them. It was the machine. It was the heat of the moment. It wasn't the way it seemed. It was something she misunderstood. It was Tamsin being drunk. It was the life and death situation. It was the power of Krampus.
She ignored the nervous flutter inside her. She ignored the heat burning on her skin. She ignored the shivering fingers, the quivering lips and the sound of the pounding heart.
She couldn't afford not to. There had been a thousand reasons for her to ignore them, to forget about them. And now suddenly, she started to wonder if all those reasons were valid at all. She started to wonder if that fear deep down inside her heart was ever real.
"...Bo?" Dagny called her name and pulled her out from her train of thoughts.
"Umm...yeah," Bo stuttered. "I...I broke free because for some reason the memories with the gang suddenly came to me."
"The memories with the gang?" Dagny frowned.
"Yeah, it was like all the things just popped into my mind, reminding me that how much I don't want to hurt them, and that how much I don't want to lose them. My consciousness kinda kicked in and I just broke free."
"It was that simple?"
"I guess the only thing that's been keeping me from joining him, from surrendering to that dark force inside me, is that I love all of you and I want to be with you guys," Bo explained. "This is where I belong. I never wanted to be the Dark Queen, even if that means I get to rule the entire world. I just want to be here, be a PI, be with everyone that I love."
"And I belong here too," Dagny announced.
"Don't worry, okay?" Bo told her softly. "If I can do it, you can too. Besides, I'm sure your mom will kick the sense into you if Hades ever gains control over you."
Dagny chuckled. "I just...I don't want to make her proud, you know," she said in a low voice.
"She's more proud of you than you think," Bo told her with a smile.
Dagny nodded quietly while turning the ring on her index finger.
"Why don't you get some rest while your mother and I discuss about what we are gonna do about this whole upcoming shitstorm?" Bo suggested as she stroked Dagny's hair.
She turned the light off for Dagny and closed the door behind her. Turning around, she met Tamsin's eyes.
Her heart thumped as she remembered the kiss they had shared the other day. Like many, many other things, they ended up not talking about it at all while pretending that they were nothing more than just friends.
She thought about bringing it up multiple times, but then at the same time, she asked herself if it was worth doing it. Should she talk about it, and make things more awkward? Should she confront Tamsin, talking about Tamsin's feelings for her and then risking driving the Valkyrie away again? Should she just ignore it, like she had done to everything else, and wait for things to be magically sorted out?
In the meantime, she wondered, what was that strong, heated flutter inside her? Why did it feel so warm yet it felt like it was about to kill her?
Her fear for all the uncertainties, for things that she couldn't name or was too blind to see, did it keep her safe, or did it toss her into the whirlwind and stop her from thinking straight?
A/N: There are a couple of guest reviews regarding Chapter 25 wondering if they were reading the wrong fic or who Zagreus is. No, it's not the wrong fic. Zagreus (in this fic) is Bo's half brother, and Hades' long lost son. Like Aife, Persephone sent him away when he was a baby to protect him from his father. And now Bo and Tamsin had found him (and lost him again). I started last chap in his POV because it seemed more interesting that way.
Also, some people are wondering how Bo could suddenly warm up to Tamsin and such. Remember, this fic is set as 10 years after Tamsin's rising. Bo had gone through a lot of things in 10 years. She had broken up with Lauren over and over, and possibly had a few new (or old) lovers that didn't really work out for her either. I think it would really make her think about love, relationship and everything else. I think she'd seriously think about it. Also, a few chapters before, she and Kenzi had a long talk about what love is. I think after that talk, she'd really put some serious thinking into it. Right now, Bo has many failed relationships. She has hurt people before, and she has also been hurt. Unless she wants to hit the dead end repeatedly, she will have to rethink what love is to her, and how she should approach it more carefully.
As her and Tamsin, at this point, I am not saying that she's suddenly in love with Tamsin. I do think that Tamsin is still in love with her, but her love for Bo has also changed into something deep and maybe less childish like what we saw in s5. For Bo, I think it's more like after losing Tamsin for 10 years, she realized how important Tamsin is to her, and she really missed her. She also probably finds that the strong connection between them are back, because she has lost it for 10 years. I think she'd have a whole new view about it. It's gonna be a slow burn, with some spontaneous sparks as well as the bond between them with respect, trust and honesty that has formed a long time ago. Like I said before, love isn't just chemistry, because that heat fades at some point. What makes it last, is how well two people can work through things together and how well they support each other. Some love burns fast and bright, others burn slow and deep. For me, I also think Valkubus is more of the latter, and that's what makes it beautiful. It's something that can last and it will grow as time goes by.
Anyway, someone said that this seemed a bit OOC or AU, I agree, because people change after 10 years, and especially for those who have experienced love, lost and death. So yeah, I guess they are all at little OOC at this point.
Thanks for reading!