Author's Note: Yes, this is much later than I had planned. I have been very, very busy due to the pandemic.
Cover art is a still from Hulu's Runaways.
I do not own Marvel comics, the Runaways, Hulu or any of a half-dozen other related properties, and I do not make any claims upon Marvel or its characters. All these characters are used under the concept of Fair Use, and I make no profit or income from using any of them.
Chiaroscuro
by Jo K.
Chapter 13: One
Oh, my life, changing every day
In every possible way
And oh, my dreams, it's never quite as it seems
'Cause you're a dream to me (dream to me)
-Cranberries, "Dreams"
—O—
—O—
EIGHT YEARS LATER
As two women stepped through the shimmering portal suspended inside the circle of green runes, the dry heat of the California desert embraced them, an earthy smell and prickling of heat washing over and around Ligeia and Yulia Dean as their booted feet stepped onto the hard-baked ground.
The portal vanished behind them, leaving them standing on the side of a small ridge that overlooked the tan and yellow arroyo spreading out for miles below them.
"Thank you for the trip, my wife," said Yulia, wrapping her arms around Ligeia's waist and pulling the jet-haired witch tightly against her as the lingering snowflakes on their clothes rapidly melted in the arid heat.
"Mmm, it's good to be back home," replied the shorter woman as she dismissed her warming spells and tipped her head back and lifted up onto her toes to kiss Yulia's lips. "Siberia is cold as fuck. Beautiful, though."
"You see where my mama gets it from," teased the brunette. "Both parts."
They were still kissing when Ligeia felt a gentle but unmistakable tug inside her chest. She leaned back slightly, looking up into ice-blue eyes.
"Mom's wanting us to meet her," said Ligeia. "She must have something planned."
Yulia only smiled tenderly at her wife. "We shouldn't keep the Sorcerer Supreme waiting," she said calmly.
Ligeia grinned. Still embracing Yulia, she reached out behind the taller woman and gestured with her left hand. Green runes glowed into existence again, opening another portal, then a quick flick of Ligeia's hand toward the two of them pulled the shimmering portal toward them. As the green gateway swept across them, reality shifted as the bright desert heat was replaced by the cool shadows of the Hostel's interior.
"Hey, Mom," Ligeia said happily, stepped out of embracing Yulia and turning to see her mother watching them with a bemused look. Ligeia lifted her right hand in a short, saucy wave. "What's up?"
Lenore Dean, despite being in her late forties now, only looked a few years older than her children, thanks to a combination of Majesdanian metabolism and channeling magic since shortly after her birth. The resemblance was close enough to produce the occasional uncomfortable feeling in poor Yulia when she momentarily mistook her mother-in-law for her wife.
(After one particularly embarrassing incident last winter's solstice, Yulia made a promise to herself to never again smack anyone's ass unless she was absolutely sure it was her wife's. Ligeia, however, who had watched the whole scene play out from the next room, had found the situation—and the expression on her mother's face—hilarious.)
Lenore stepped forward, moving hug Yulia first; she grinned as Ligeia audibly huffed at her mother momentarily ignoring her.
"Hello, Yulia," Lenore said pleasantly, patting the taller woman's back.
"Hi, Lenore," replied Yulia, grinning a bit shyly as she returned the hug.
Lenore stepped back and turned to face her middle daughter, who was currently sporting a disgruntled expression on her otherwise-pretty face. "Come here, Birthday Girl," Lenore said, smiling now that she had teased her oldest child exactly enough.
Lenore, her long jet-black braids swaying on each side of her head, rushed forward, hugging her mother tightly while being careful not to tear the thin, diaphanous mesh top over her black bra. "Missed you, Mom," the twenty-six-year-old said.
"I missed you too, Gee. Happy birthday."
"Another year without the multiverse succeeding in killing me."
"Well, that's a cheery outlook," teased Lenore.
"Hey, sorcerer, you know? Comes with the territory."
"How was Limbo? Its usual charming ambience, I'm guessing?" Lenore leaned in and sniffed her daughter's hair and clothes. "Funny, you don't smell like scorched shit."
"We left Limbo a bit early and spent two days in Siberia," Ligeia said proudly. "Stayed at the old Rasputin place. Made sure the cabin was still standing, fixed it up a bit, updated the wards. No phones, no vid, no electronics or electricity. Awesome quality time for my wife and me."
"It was lovely!" Yulia added eagerly. "We each read some books, went out and looked at the stars at night, played some cards—although your daughter cheats—"
"Hey, you won too!"
Yulia turned to look at her shorter wife. "I lost all my clothes very quickly. VERY quickly."
"Gee Gee was always good at cards," Lenore said, a twinkle in her eyes.
"Well, yeah," said the younger jet-haired woman. "Dad taught me how to shuffle, deal and play, and you taught me how to cheat."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Lenore replied breezily, ignoring the tickled expressions on the faces of the younger women. "Have the two of you eaten yet?"
"Not yet. I figured you had some sort of surprise party planned for me, so we haven't stopped for lunch, just in case you had food planned."
Lenore smiled. "There's definitely a party planned outside thanks to Aunt Molly and Klara, so don't let on that I told you about it. But there's something I'd like us to do first. I have it set up in the sanctum."
Lenore turned and opened a portal through the Hostel's wards, dark green lines and sigils forming a round gateway that revealed firelight flickering off the dark stone walls of the Sanctum hidden inside the Hostel.
As soon as Lenore's back was turned, Ligeia's hands flew up; bright green light shimmered around her hands as she cast one, two, three spells designed to see through and/or disrupt illusions and compulsions. Satisfied that her mother was indeed who she said she was and not being controlled, she lowered her hands as Lenore turned back around, an amused grin on her face.
"Checking for any sign of manipulation?" asked the older woman.
"And for illusions," replied her daughter, unabashedly. "Since this could be a trick to get me to take an imposter past the Sactum's wards."
Lenore's smile brightened, unmistakably that of her other mother, Karolina. "Took you long enough to check," she said, a hint of teasing in her words.
"Well, I didn't want to be rude," Ligeia shot back smoothly.
Lenore leaned forward to peer into her daughter's matching blue eyes. "Who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?" Lenore asked teasingly, placing her hands on Ligeia's head and coaxing a laugh out of Yulia.
"Mom!" Ligeia called out, laughing as she lightly swatted her mother's hand away from her intricate braids. "I spent thirty minutes on those!"
"WE spent thirty minutes on them," clarified Yulia. "With me doing most of the work."
"But you do really good work, hotness," Ligeia said tenderly, turning to kiss her wife's cheek.
"Thanks," Yulia said, blushing and looking down.
"You're welcome," Ligeia said, gently lifting Yulia's chin so that their eyes met.
Lenore watched the two young women interact, their eyes and hands communicating without either of them having to speak; shifting, grinning, blushing and laughing as their focus narrowed to only each other for the moment.
The Sorcerer Supreme fought tears as she realized she was both proud of her oldest child and afraid for the many ways life and the universe were going to challenge her. But there was nothing she as a mother could do to spare any of her children from those challenges, not with who they were and who their family was. The best she could was to teach them, to prepare them, to love and support them. She could clean their scrapes and injuries when they fell, but she had to step aside when they stood up and charged right back at what had hurt them. And they always did.
"Mom," a soft voice said, breaking through her sudden reverie.
Lenore blinked; her eyes shifted back to meet Ligeia's concerned gaze. "I'm getting sentimental. I'm sorry," she said quickly.
"About what?" asked the younger woman, understandingly. "Loving me? Worrying about me?" She leaned forward and hugged her mom. "That's not anything you need to apologize for," she said, hugging the woman who had taught her so much. "Never be ashamed of love, remember? You told me that a long time ago."
Now the persistent tears broke free from Lenore's deep blue eyes, racing jaggedly down the older woman's cheeks.
"I am so proud of you," Lenore managed to breathe out, her chest tight with love and pride in her oldest child. "Come with me, please," she said, reaching with her left hand to Ligeia and her right to Yulia. "There's something I need to do."
—O—
As the golden light and brown shadows of the Hostel were replaced by the flickering lights and dark stone of the Sanctum, Ligeia and Yulia were surprised by how many people had gathered in the relatively small chamber. The soft burbling of the small pool of water at the far end of the Sanctum become more audible as the soft buzz of conversation among those already present stopped to regard the newcomers.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" called out several voices, with a brief flicker of magical fireworks going off at the domed apex of the chamber's ceiling, tossed up there by Ligeia's younger sister Annabelle, who grinned at having been caught with her arm in the motion of returning to her side.
"Damn, Mom," Ligeia swore at the small crowd that had packed into the Sanctum, standing in the open center of the nearly circular chamber. "I thought the party was back at the Hostel."
"It is," Lenore said, stepping forward to stand between Ligeia, Yulia and the others. "This isn't a party. This is something more serious, and more private."
She reached out and took Ligeia's small hands, nail painted a glossy black, the skin soft but with the first definition of calluses detectable beneath the surface, a result of years of training with different weapons. Lenore lifted their joined hands up between them as she smiled and stared proudly at the young woman before her.
"I"m so proud of you," Lenore said calmly, her voice easily audible in clear acoustics of the stone chamber. "I blinked, and you've grown up. But the woman you've grown into is one that amazes me more every day."
She stepped forward, hugging Ligeia with surprising desperation.
"I love you, baby," Lenore whispered, fighting back tears.
"Umm, what's going on, Mom?" mumbled Ligeia. "I mean, this is a LOT more sentimental than usual for you. In fact, you're starting to freak me out a bit. Are you... sick or something?"
Lenore laughed, despite the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "No, I'm not sick," she said, stepping back. "I'm just proud, and happy, and afraid, and... well, fuck, just too many emotions to put into words."
"O-kay..." Ligeia said, still confused.
Behind Lenore, Pandora and Persephone stepped forward. Persephone rested her left hand on Lenore's shoulder, while Pandora looped her right arm around Lenore's waist.
"You're scaring the kid, Nor," Persephone said gently. "Get to the point."
With a long sniff, Lenore nodded her head. "Yes, sorry, I'm fucking this up because I'm nervous."
Ligeia grinned. "Yeah, Mom, get your shit together," she said, the light tone of her voice indicating she was teasing her mother.
Several of those gathered laughed audibly, eager for the mood to lighten.
Lenore laughed as well. "What I'm trying to say, Gee, is this," she said. She lifted her right arm; with a flicker of dark blue-green light, the Staff of One appeared in her hand.
Lenore stepped forward, holding the Staff with both hands. "You're ready, Gee," she said to Ligeia, whose face had suddenly paled as realization dawned on the young sorceress. "You're ready to take on the legacy of our family."
Ligeia looked at the ebony shaft of the Staff of One, from its base to the gleaming gold headpiece, crackling with a yellow-white light. She looked back to her mother, and Ligeia was shocked to find that, for once in her loquacious life, she had absolutely nothing to say.
"I've spent twenty-five years with the Staff," Lenore continued, turning the Staff of One so that it now was positioned horizontally at waist level between her and Ligeia. "Over that time, I've learned as much as I could about the Staff, both from others as well as from the Staff itself."
Ligeia's right hand drifted up, hesitating as it neared the artifact, magic filling the space between her fingers and the black wood with palpable power. She could feel it reaching out for her, and, somehow, her body reached out toward it in return.
"Your obaa-san and I used to talk about its name," Lenore said, smiling at the times she and her mother had spent examining the Staff, both before and after Nico had passed the artifact to Lenore. "The Staff of One. She thought it was named that because you could only use each spell it cast once."
"Well, it does make sense," said Ligeia, eyes still fixed on the artifact between them.
"It does. But after all these years spent with the Staff, I've gotten to know it pretty damn well, and that's led me to come to a different conclusion about its name."
Lenore twisted a bit, to let Ligeia look at the small crowd gathered behind her mother: her aunts Pandora and Persephone, her brother Edgar, her sister Annabelle, her cousins Lydia, Coraline, Sabrina, Blair, Elvira, all curiously watching what was occurring. "Everyone that I asked to be here for this today, every single one of us here in this room, even Yulia indirectly, is here because of the Staff of One."
Lenore turned her body so that once again she was facing Ligeia. "First, Persephone, Pandora and me. The three of us are here because the Staff gave your grandmothers the children they wanted so badly. Lydia and Coraline, Persy's and Gloriana's daughters, were conceived with the Staff. Dori's children Sabrina, Blair and Elvira were also conceived with the Staff, to give each child part of all three parents. You, your brother Edgar and your sister Annabelle weren't directly conceived with the Staff—"
("One straight person in the family, and it had to be my mom," sighed Annabelle from somewhere behind Lenore. "I'll never live it down.")
"—but even the three of you wouldn't be here without the Staff, because I wouldn't be here without it."
Lenore smiled even wider now. "And the newest baby Dean, whom we'll get to meet in a few more months, is also going to be here because of the Staff."
Behind Lenore, Lydia Dean smiled, her pregnancy bump just slightly visible.
"And even though your cousin and her wife are still being dicks by not telling us the baby's name—"
"Hey! Izzy would have my ass if I let the name slip, Aunt Lenore!" Lydia said peevishly.
("I have it on good authority she has your ass pretty regularly, among other things," Lydia's sister Coraline whispered loudly, triggering several giggles and soft laughs.)
"—AS I WAS SAYING," continued Lenore, "all of us here in this room are here because of the Staff of One and the love of Nico and Karolina Dean."
Lenore lifted the Staff, holding the metal headpiece and the crackling white electricity contained inside that circle before her eyes. She gazed into the plasma, constantly flickering and shifting, never stilling, never staying the same, for several long seconds. Then she carefully smiled as her blue eyes shifted focus to look through the headpiece and find Ligeia's sapphire eyes staring back.
"Look around you, Gee Gee," Lenroe said solemnly. "Look at these lives, this family, this power, this LOVE gathered around you."
A tear escaped from the corner of Ligeia's right eye as she glanced at the faces watching her proudly, both older and younger than her but all of them bound by blood—and the Staff of One. Yulia was quiet behind her, her arms gently wrapped around Ligeia's waist as she watched over her wife's shoulder.
"This, all around us, THIS is the One, Gee Gee," Lenore said softly, not much louder than a whisper. "WE are the One. One family, united by a love that began decades ago. A love strong enough to vanquish centuries of cruelty, blood, pain and sacrifice. A love strong enough to embrace both darkness and light and love them equally. A love that created us all, that continues to bind us together, that gives us strength when we are unable to succeed alone.
"Our family is the One. The Staff is the One. Our love for each other is the One, for we are all of these together, and all of these together are the One." She lifted the Staff of One slightly in a silent invitation. "And now it's time for you to bear the One, to learn from it and grow with it."
Tears were pooling in Lenore's eyes as Ligeia drew in a gasping breath, her chest tight with emotion. "I..." she began, stopping as her throat tightened on its own. "I... don't know," she managed to get out. "If I'm ready."
Lenore smiled, and though the gesture was simple, it said many unspoken, motherly things that were picked up by Ligeia's insightful eyes.
"You're ready."
With a ragged intake of breath, Ligeia took a step forward, her left arm raised. Gently the fingers of her left hand closed around the solid ebony wood. A shock of heat flared against her skin, there and gone before her mind could even register the sensation; this was instantly followed by a tingle that raised the fine hairs on her skin and the back of her neck, accompanied by a warmth that raced inside her, filling her inside and out.
With the slightest parting of her lips, Lenore released the Staff, ceding it to her daughter, as it always had been and always would be.
"Goodbye," Lenore whispered, no more than a breath, so soft that no woman, man, boy or girl in the room could have heard it. "Take care of her. Please."
We will care for each other, came a reply, felt directly in Lenore's soul. As you have taught us both. As your sires taught us all.
"As it should be," spoke Lenore, her voice slightly louder. She smiled proudly as she watched Ligeia turn the Staff so that it stood vertically, still held in her left hand in front of her, her face full of wonder as the white light of the Staff's energy illuminated her visage.
Ligeia turned to look back at her mother as the intensity of the Staff's light rose, bathing the entire room in a cool white glow, and in that glow Ligeia could see her mother, her aunts, her cousins. She looked over her shoulder to see her wife, just as Yulia placed a gentle kiss on Ligeia's right cheek.
Ligeia grinned, leaning her head forward to meet Yulia's lips for a longer kiss. Honestly, she was a bubbling stew of emotions at the moment, but knowing that Yulia loved and supported her, that her family loved and supported them both, was the fortification Ligeia's spirit needed right then.
Blue eyes washed in white radiance looked front once more, meeting matching azure gazing back.
"I... I'll make you proud," Ligeia stammered out, cringing internally at how campy that sounded.
Lenore smiled; without conscious thought, her right hand drifted to Ligeia's left braid, the tips of her fingers lightly tracing their way down the long, tight braid of jet hair. "Oh, Gee Gee," she finally said. "You did that a very long time ago."
Ligeia suddenly stepped forward, wrapping her right arm around Lenore as her left carefully held the Staff of One to the side. She drew in a shuddering breath as she buried her mouth in the shoulder of her mother's shirt.
"Do you... Do you think they'd be proud of me, too?" she mumbled, the words muffled by the soft fabric.
Lenore's eyes lifted up, gazing over her daughter's shoulder. She smiled as she saw the two spirits less than a meter away, a tall blonde with bright blue eyes and a short jet-haired woman with intense dark brown eyes. They were dressed in simple shirts, a black button-up for the shorter woman and a yellow t-shirt for the blonde, and both of them wore shorts, khaki for the blonde and black for the ravenette. Neither was fully there, appearing transparent and somewhat diaphanous, but the eyes of the Sorcerer Supreme could clearly see the happy tears and smiles on the faces of her mothers, now looking like teenagers again, as they held each other, silently observing the ceremony.
Carefully, Lenore gave them a simple nod, punctuated with a smile.
Nico's spirit returned the nod, then she was pulled forward by Karolina's spirit and their joined hands. The glimmering blonde's spirit leaned down and pressed a spectral kiss to the back of Ligeia's hand; the young woman shivered once, then again immediately after as Nico's spirit added her own kiss to their granddaughter.
"That was weird," Ligeia said, tingles slowly descending the back of her neck, then her back. "Got a shiver there, a long one."
"Hm," Lenore replied, smiling as she watched her mothers' spirits fade away once more. "You're weird," she said to her daughter, getting a playful laugh in reply.
"If I am, then it's your fault!"
Lenore closed her eyes, enjoying the moment of closeness with her daughter. "I suppose it is," she finally replied. "And yes."
Ligeia leaned back slightly, confusion writ across her face. "Yes what?"
Lenore blinked a few late-coming tears from her eyes. "They're proud of you." She patted Ligeia's mesh-covered shoulder. "Now come on. There's a birthday party about to start, and the main attraction and her wife still need to make their appearances. Life waits for none of us, you know?"
—O—
—O—
Author's Afterword: For all of who have patiently waited for this epilogue, my deepest apologies for it taking so, so long. I hope all of you and your families have weathered this pandemic safely, and if any of you have lost loved ones, then my heart aches for your loss.
My work days have been ridiculous for months now thanks to this pandemic, and my time to write is going to be painfully short for several more months to come, I'm sure.
When I can write, I've started a Blackpink AU story to go along with the Season-3-compliant Runaways story I also began months back. Even odds which one of them will get finished first. I'd like to have at least two or three chapters done of either one before I post anything, so it might take a while. But even if I go quiet for a few weeks or months, I'm still writing, and I'll be back.
THANK YOU all, for sticking with this story. I've laughed, cried and loved writing it the whole way. Nico's and Karolina's family grew in ways I honestly never envisioned when the idea for this story first came to me two years ago. I've been along for the journey just as much as all of you, and I'm both happy and sad that this story is complete. I won't rule out future one-shots, but nothing is burning in my thoughts like the S3-compliant Runaways story and the Blackpink AU, so one of those two is almost certainly going to be my next posting.
Best wishes to all of you, your families and loved ones. Care for each other, because that is the highest calling for our spirits. Leave more love in this world, because love is the only force that multiplies when you give it away. Blessed be!