The Lost World Unofficial Season Four
A.N.: Sorry about the extreme shortness of the last chapter. Bad little me, this one's worse!
And to clarify, Finn's mother is Victoria Roxton, so yes, Marg and John are also Finn's grandparents. (That kid's got some messed up genes!)
Disclaimer: This is my fic, and in my fic, you are to call me idiot, not you owner!
***********************************************
Episode 7: The Conclusion (aka: She's finally finished with this absurd soap opera!)
"What is it, Arthur?" Challenger asked anxiously.
"We're family."
"We know that," Marguerite answered. "We've been a family since we came here." She looked at the ground and laughed a sour little laugh. "Even though we've had some troubles. Especially from me," she added. Veronica (the one who Marguerite had attempted to sell as an unwilling bride) put her arm around the other woman's shoulder.
"Nothing done in the past can break this family. I don't care what you did."
Arthur returned to the point. "No, child, not we are A family. We're family." He paused. "All of us." He looked right at Marguerite. "When I was sick, in delirium from that bee sting, you were the one who took care of me."
"It was nothing," she answered in a soft voice.
"No, it was very important. You see, I was so afraid from the fact that Anna died alone. I needed her to say that she forgave me. You gave me that."
She smiled. "That's what family does."
Summerlee nodded. "Exactly. You see, in my delirium, I thought you were Anna. An understandable mistake, considering the circumstances of my health. But there's more to it than that. I can't believe I'd never noticed before. You see, you look so like your mother."
Marguerite nearly choked on her own surprise, as the others just stared dumbly. She began to cry. "Why?" She finally managed to say.
Summerlee wrapped his arms around her and brushed through her coarse hair as she cried against him. "I didn't know, darling. I never knew. I never would have allowed it." He held her at a distance wiping away tears. "Anna didn't know, either. We didn't give you up willingly. You see, we never knew we had a daughter. Anna was pregnant, but something went wrong. We thought we had lost the child. There was a funeral and everything. We were crushed." The sadness showed in his eyes. "But there was a mistake. Only the people here saw, they've been watching over all of us, you see, making sure we all got here together. They led you back to me, to all of us. They explained to me that some time after we left the hospital, you were resuscitated. No one could explain. It was almost miraculous. They never managed to contact us. After we thought you died, we were too upset to stay in a place that had so much pain for us. You were put into the orphanage." Now he was crying. "I'm so sorry. If we had known that you were alive, that there were any chance at all to save you, we never would have left you there. I can't forgive myself after what Saael told me. I just hope that you can."
She nodded, grasping him around the neck.
Roxton seemed distressed. "Not to break this up, but you said there were two pieces left."
He shook his head, as though he himself couldn't believe it. "My father was gone for much of my life. Sometimes, we didn't know where he was. It made me angry at the time, of course, but it turned out for the better, really." He thought about that for a moment. "You, see, he was having an affair. We knew that, but never confronted him."
The group seemed to understand where this was going.
"After I had already turned twenty, my father came home distressed. He refused to talk about it to any of us. But we knew what had happened, because eight months later he went away again, this time for several weeks. After that, he quit leaving the house like that. We never found out who, but again, Avalon knows."
Everyone looked to Challenger. The melodramatic LMR was no longer fooling ANYBODY with her pathetic plot twists. And frankly that was just a ham-handed segway.
"I never knew my father," he said, his face blank.
Summerlee spoke. "I always knew I had a brother. But I never dreamed I would see him. As it turned out, I was living with him for a year, and didn't know it. I only wish I could have known you sooner."
The entire family was crying, but at that exact moment, there was no sadness in the land of Avalon. They separated for the night, knowing that they would never be apart again.
***************************************
Veronica looked into space thoughtfully. "Busy day wasn't it, my husband?" She relished the word.
"Indeed, my wife," he answered in kind.
"I never dreamed that this could happen. I always thought I would be alone all of my life. Then one day, out of the sky, falls the sweetest, kindest man who could ever exist."
"And wanders right into a man eating plant," he reminded her.
She laughed. "Good thing I was in a do-gooder mood that day." Her face sobered. "I might have missed out on the greatest joy of my life."
***************************************
"My father," was all that she said. John tightened his grip around her.
"I'm glad you finally found him. I know what effect this whole thing has had on you."
"I just assumed they never loved me. Nobody could love me. I loved my parents, even though I didn't know them, and they had deserted me. I knew somehow that everyone I loved would desert me. I couldn't get married- I knew I had to make my own way. So my logic was a little off and I ended up getting married five times. But I never loved. I never let myself love." She suddenly looked terrified and turned to her husband. "I didn't kill any of them. I just sort of . . . waited. It even made me a little sad; I cared about them. But I let everyone think that I murdered them; just to make sure that no one would ever love me. My husbands came to me without any love. We all know perfectly well what they wanted."
"They were foolish to see nothing else in you. But I won't lie; I won't deny that they wanted rightly." He hoped the comment wouldn't make her mad. She made no response.
"I can't understand," she clarified. "You're young, you're gorgeous. You could have any woman. And what's worse, you're rich with a title. Anyone in his right mind would be frightened for his life in your position."
"But I'm not in my right mind; I'm in love. And I trust you.. If you had wanted to take my fortune, you would have seduced me from day one, rather than blocking my advances at every turn. I knew as soon as you bit my lip that you would never do me any harm." He looked down. "But I did know you would hurt me a great deal. I decided right then that it was worth it."
"The Chosen One came to me after I turned you away. She asked me why I tortured myself, knowing that I was destined to be with you. But I was so afraid."
"I could never run away from you." She smiled a little, and seeing that she was in a peaceful enough mood, he added, "Where would I go?" She smacked him on the shoulder, laughing.
"John!"
************************************
It was morning. Saael knew everything that was happening on the Plateau, and right now she knew there was trouble with one of her Seven. Something was amiss. Medicine was needed, for one thing. She began grinding the seeds for the treatment of what her people called the early choking that she knew was to come. Poor Marguerite. It was, from the accounts of those who had suffered it, close to unbearable. The medicine should help.
But Saael soon realized that she was too late with the it. It had already began, and no medicine could stop it now.
"Something's wrong with Marguerite!" Roxton was not at the point of panic but coming up fast. Veronica put a hand on his shoulder, and Ned tried to talk him down a little, spouting meaningless nothings of comfort. Challenger and Summerlee rushed into the room to check on her, while Finn bounced back and forth between the two, not knowing what to do, but not wanting to do nothing, nor get in the way.
The two older men checked her pulse. It seemed normal, but her face told a different tale. It was pale and sickly.
"Is it serious?" Finn asked, coming out of her stupor.
Challenger turned to the girl. "Indeed."
Summerlee held her by the chin. She looked up weakly. "Can you sit up, dear? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she paused, not really knowing what to call him. "Arthur. I probably just ate too much of the sweet cakes at the party last night."
Challenger looked to her, concern flashing in his blue eyes. "You didn't drink any of the wine, I hope?"
"No, I took a little taste of the dionai the first day we came here, and I really didn't like it. So I haven't had any since." Both men seemed relieved. She looked between the two of them. "What's wrong with me? Is it bad?" She looked worried.
Her father and uncle looked at each other, silently deliberating. "Go ahead," Challenger encouraged the other man, gesturing to the woman on the bed.
"Quite the contrary, my dear. You," He pressed his index finger against the middle of her chest for emphasis. "Are going to make me a grandfather."
If they thought her face was white before, they seemed now to be badly mistaken. Summerlee held her up to make sure she wouldn't fall from her perch on the bed. "I'm . . . I'm."
"Expecting, yes dear," Challenger finished for her.
She was still dazed. "Has anyone told John?"
"No, no," George said. "You get to do that. Congratulations." He kissed her on the side of her face.
"Congratulations," the other said.
Outside, Lord Roxton was wringing his hands. His parents had been proper and therefore silent about the process of birth or anything to do with it, and being the youngest, he hadn't been there for any of the difficulties his own mother had faced. George put a hand on his shoulder. Relax, John. Everything is fine. Here she is now."
Marguerite was still in a state of shock. "John, we're . . . you're a . . . a father."
He stared blankly, first at her face, then shifted down to her stomach, still its rightful size.
Saael smiled, off to the side of all this. She turned to Sarneera. "Ride to the Zanga. A child was born there some days ago - Rosaro. Bring her family here."
Roxton smiled, coming out of his stupor. "You must be William, then." Saael nodded, then put her hand over Marguerite's stomach, and she could feel something strange inside of her. It felt like Saael was reading the child.
She knelt, and even with her head a few inches away, she seemed to be listening. Paying close attention. She then turned her face toward him, looking right at him through Marguerite's skin, it seemed. Trying to know him better.
She stood and looked at all of them. "There is no child so blessed as one conceived under the dark moon.
Behind John and Marguerite, Veronica looked at the sky. She choked a little bit, a bit of laughter. She poked Ned in the ribs, and pointed. He started to laugh a little too, until all of the treehouse crew, save the parents, were looking up (trying not to snigger loud enough to get into a life-threatening situation) at a moon a few days past full.
**************************************************
The time had come to say goodbye to one of their own, but this time, it was forever. Finn could not stay in their timeline. It would be as though she had never left her throne. It was time for her to return to the era when she was supposed to exist - only in the minds of her family for another four generations. But she would never be lost to them, for all knowledge exists in Avalon, and they would always communicate across the conventional dimensions of time and space. And though all the laws of nature forbid it; they would never truly be apart. The love they all had for her could never be broken, and love is some magical thing that cannot be confined by mere time. So as she said goodbye to them all in turn, there was no true sorrow, only the knowledge that they would always be together.
And that, friends, is the story of the Seven. An incredible truth almost impossible to believe. A secret desire that none of them knew was within them. An adventure no one could have imagined. The ultimate story. The untamed beauty of true friendship. And most importantly, the love they all believed they would never find.
They spent nearly four years looking for a way home; a way out of the lost world. And now, they realized that they had been home all along.
************************************************************
Love from, LMR .
A.N.: Sorry about the extreme shortness of the last chapter. Bad little me, this one's worse!
And to clarify, Finn's mother is Victoria Roxton, so yes, Marg and John are also Finn's grandparents. (That kid's got some messed up genes!)
Disclaimer: This is my fic, and in my fic, you are to call me idiot, not you owner!
***********************************************
Episode 7: The Conclusion (aka: She's finally finished with this absurd soap opera!)
"What is it, Arthur?" Challenger asked anxiously.
"We're family."
"We know that," Marguerite answered. "We've been a family since we came here." She looked at the ground and laughed a sour little laugh. "Even though we've had some troubles. Especially from me," she added. Veronica (the one who Marguerite had attempted to sell as an unwilling bride) put her arm around the other woman's shoulder.
"Nothing done in the past can break this family. I don't care what you did."
Arthur returned to the point. "No, child, not we are A family. We're family." He paused. "All of us." He looked right at Marguerite. "When I was sick, in delirium from that bee sting, you were the one who took care of me."
"It was nothing," she answered in a soft voice.
"No, it was very important. You see, I was so afraid from the fact that Anna died alone. I needed her to say that she forgave me. You gave me that."
She smiled. "That's what family does."
Summerlee nodded. "Exactly. You see, in my delirium, I thought you were Anna. An understandable mistake, considering the circumstances of my health. But there's more to it than that. I can't believe I'd never noticed before. You see, you look so like your mother."
Marguerite nearly choked on her own surprise, as the others just stared dumbly. She began to cry. "Why?" She finally managed to say.
Summerlee wrapped his arms around her and brushed through her coarse hair as she cried against him. "I didn't know, darling. I never knew. I never would have allowed it." He held her at a distance wiping away tears. "Anna didn't know, either. We didn't give you up willingly. You see, we never knew we had a daughter. Anna was pregnant, but something went wrong. We thought we had lost the child. There was a funeral and everything. We were crushed." The sadness showed in his eyes. "But there was a mistake. Only the people here saw, they've been watching over all of us, you see, making sure we all got here together. They led you back to me, to all of us. They explained to me that some time after we left the hospital, you were resuscitated. No one could explain. It was almost miraculous. They never managed to contact us. After we thought you died, we were too upset to stay in a place that had so much pain for us. You were put into the orphanage." Now he was crying. "I'm so sorry. If we had known that you were alive, that there were any chance at all to save you, we never would have left you there. I can't forgive myself after what Saael told me. I just hope that you can."
She nodded, grasping him around the neck.
Roxton seemed distressed. "Not to break this up, but you said there were two pieces left."
He shook his head, as though he himself couldn't believe it. "My father was gone for much of my life. Sometimes, we didn't know where he was. It made me angry at the time, of course, but it turned out for the better, really." He thought about that for a moment. "You, see, he was having an affair. We knew that, but never confronted him."
The group seemed to understand where this was going.
"After I had already turned twenty, my father came home distressed. He refused to talk about it to any of us. But we knew what had happened, because eight months later he went away again, this time for several weeks. After that, he quit leaving the house like that. We never found out who, but again, Avalon knows."
Everyone looked to Challenger. The melodramatic LMR was no longer fooling ANYBODY with her pathetic plot twists. And frankly that was just a ham-handed segway.
"I never knew my father," he said, his face blank.
Summerlee spoke. "I always knew I had a brother. But I never dreamed I would see him. As it turned out, I was living with him for a year, and didn't know it. I only wish I could have known you sooner."
The entire family was crying, but at that exact moment, there was no sadness in the land of Avalon. They separated for the night, knowing that they would never be apart again.
***************************************
Veronica looked into space thoughtfully. "Busy day wasn't it, my husband?" She relished the word.
"Indeed, my wife," he answered in kind.
"I never dreamed that this could happen. I always thought I would be alone all of my life. Then one day, out of the sky, falls the sweetest, kindest man who could ever exist."
"And wanders right into a man eating plant," he reminded her.
She laughed. "Good thing I was in a do-gooder mood that day." Her face sobered. "I might have missed out on the greatest joy of my life."
***************************************
"My father," was all that she said. John tightened his grip around her.
"I'm glad you finally found him. I know what effect this whole thing has had on you."
"I just assumed they never loved me. Nobody could love me. I loved my parents, even though I didn't know them, and they had deserted me. I knew somehow that everyone I loved would desert me. I couldn't get married- I knew I had to make my own way. So my logic was a little off and I ended up getting married five times. But I never loved. I never let myself love." She suddenly looked terrified and turned to her husband. "I didn't kill any of them. I just sort of . . . waited. It even made me a little sad; I cared about them. But I let everyone think that I murdered them; just to make sure that no one would ever love me. My husbands came to me without any love. We all know perfectly well what they wanted."
"They were foolish to see nothing else in you. But I won't lie; I won't deny that they wanted rightly." He hoped the comment wouldn't make her mad. She made no response.
"I can't understand," she clarified. "You're young, you're gorgeous. You could have any woman. And what's worse, you're rich with a title. Anyone in his right mind would be frightened for his life in your position."
"But I'm not in my right mind; I'm in love. And I trust you.. If you had wanted to take my fortune, you would have seduced me from day one, rather than blocking my advances at every turn. I knew as soon as you bit my lip that you would never do me any harm." He looked down. "But I did know you would hurt me a great deal. I decided right then that it was worth it."
"The Chosen One came to me after I turned you away. She asked me why I tortured myself, knowing that I was destined to be with you. But I was so afraid."
"I could never run away from you." She smiled a little, and seeing that she was in a peaceful enough mood, he added, "Where would I go?" She smacked him on the shoulder, laughing.
"John!"
************************************
It was morning. Saael knew everything that was happening on the Plateau, and right now she knew there was trouble with one of her Seven. Something was amiss. Medicine was needed, for one thing. She began grinding the seeds for the treatment of what her people called the early choking that she knew was to come. Poor Marguerite. It was, from the accounts of those who had suffered it, close to unbearable. The medicine should help.
But Saael soon realized that she was too late with the it. It had already began, and no medicine could stop it now.
"Something's wrong with Marguerite!" Roxton was not at the point of panic but coming up fast. Veronica put a hand on his shoulder, and Ned tried to talk him down a little, spouting meaningless nothings of comfort. Challenger and Summerlee rushed into the room to check on her, while Finn bounced back and forth between the two, not knowing what to do, but not wanting to do nothing, nor get in the way.
The two older men checked her pulse. It seemed normal, but her face told a different tale. It was pale and sickly.
"Is it serious?" Finn asked, coming out of her stupor.
Challenger turned to the girl. "Indeed."
Summerlee held her by the chin. She looked up weakly. "Can you sit up, dear? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she paused, not really knowing what to call him. "Arthur. I probably just ate too much of the sweet cakes at the party last night."
Challenger looked to her, concern flashing in his blue eyes. "You didn't drink any of the wine, I hope?"
"No, I took a little taste of the dionai the first day we came here, and I really didn't like it. So I haven't had any since." Both men seemed relieved. She looked between the two of them. "What's wrong with me? Is it bad?" She looked worried.
Her father and uncle looked at each other, silently deliberating. "Go ahead," Challenger encouraged the other man, gesturing to the woman on the bed.
"Quite the contrary, my dear. You," He pressed his index finger against the middle of her chest for emphasis. "Are going to make me a grandfather."
If they thought her face was white before, they seemed now to be badly mistaken. Summerlee held her up to make sure she wouldn't fall from her perch on the bed. "I'm . . . I'm."
"Expecting, yes dear," Challenger finished for her.
She was still dazed. "Has anyone told John?"
"No, no," George said. "You get to do that. Congratulations." He kissed her on the side of her face.
"Congratulations," the other said.
Outside, Lord Roxton was wringing his hands. His parents had been proper and therefore silent about the process of birth or anything to do with it, and being the youngest, he hadn't been there for any of the difficulties his own mother had faced. George put a hand on his shoulder. Relax, John. Everything is fine. Here she is now."
Marguerite was still in a state of shock. "John, we're . . . you're a . . . a father."
He stared blankly, first at her face, then shifted down to her stomach, still its rightful size.
Saael smiled, off to the side of all this. She turned to Sarneera. "Ride to the Zanga. A child was born there some days ago - Rosaro. Bring her family here."
Roxton smiled, coming out of his stupor. "You must be William, then." Saael nodded, then put her hand over Marguerite's stomach, and she could feel something strange inside of her. It felt like Saael was reading the child.
She knelt, and even with her head a few inches away, she seemed to be listening. Paying close attention. She then turned her face toward him, looking right at him through Marguerite's skin, it seemed. Trying to know him better.
She stood and looked at all of them. "There is no child so blessed as one conceived under the dark moon.
Behind John and Marguerite, Veronica looked at the sky. She choked a little bit, a bit of laughter. She poked Ned in the ribs, and pointed. He started to laugh a little too, until all of the treehouse crew, save the parents, were looking up (trying not to snigger loud enough to get into a life-threatening situation) at a moon a few days past full.
**************************************************
The time had come to say goodbye to one of their own, but this time, it was forever. Finn could not stay in their timeline. It would be as though she had never left her throne. It was time for her to return to the era when she was supposed to exist - only in the minds of her family for another four generations. But she would never be lost to them, for all knowledge exists in Avalon, and they would always communicate across the conventional dimensions of time and space. And though all the laws of nature forbid it; they would never truly be apart. The love they all had for her could never be broken, and love is some magical thing that cannot be confined by mere time. So as she said goodbye to them all in turn, there was no true sorrow, only the knowledge that they would always be together.
And that, friends, is the story of the Seven. An incredible truth almost impossible to believe. A secret desire that none of them knew was within them. An adventure no one could have imagined. The ultimate story. The untamed beauty of true friendship. And most importantly, the love they all believed they would never find.
They spent nearly four years looking for a way home; a way out of the lost world. And now, they realized that they had been home all along.
************************************************************
Love from, LMR .