I know I didn't update. I'm sorry. My only excuse is that life gets in the way and I have zero luck when it comes to calling collages and shit so... yeah.
I'd like to thank VicaJoy for kinda... spurring me into finishing the story. I was in a hole when you PM'd me Vica and I don't think you know how that helped so thank you!
Anyway I won't hold you up, enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own any Once Upon a Time characters, just Ven
Chapter 12: …and Sacrifice
"ENOUGH!"
It happened in a split second. The lightning in the air, the rocks falling to the ground, the friends and enemies desperately working together to protect the people they held most dear… froze.
Ven couldn't move, no matter how she strained and struggled, it was like every muscle and nerve in her body was inert, she couldn't even feel the rocks against her hands that had been like sandpaper moments before.
Time… had stopped.
Ice cold realization hit her like a shock of lightning. We're too late. All of that planning. Working together and they were too late. I made a mistake… She'd drastically underestimated how fast Mim could gather power, how powerful she already was. I've doomed us all.
"You pathetic children think you can defeat me?!" Mim screeched. "It doesn't matter if you have a thousand men at your back! The Dark One, a demon, I would still defeat you! Don't you get it?!" Her screeching laughing resonated against the walls of the canyon. "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
I failed.
Mim's magic wrenched her from the cliff face and spun her to face Mim. She could see Rumple, frozen on the ground, Hook locked by stone into the cliff, Emma and Regina hovering in the air, trapped by bolts of crackling magic. And Peter. Just as she was only a few yards away, frozen by black magic, so close and yet so far away.
We're going to die because of me.
As though hearing her thoughts Mim screeched again. "YOU FAILED! FOR THAT YOU'RE GOING TO DIE IN AN ABYSS OF PAIN AND TERROR!" She slowly turned, red shown at the corners of her yellowing eyes and her pitch-black pupils shown with the crazed light of insanity.
Those eyes slowly locked onto Ven's mismatched orbs.
"You…" She floated forward, the black magic crawled up her legs and her chest, pulling at her heart. "The little street rat, the liar, the killer…" Mim grinned blackly. "You were supposed to be my greatest enjoyment! My entertainment, my tragedy with curtains as red as the blood that must be spilled! Toying with time, taking you from your mother, watching you grow black and rotten on the streets of the human world… and watching you grow closer and closer to death at the hands of the only person you truly loved… that is what I wanted. My beautiful tragedy!" Then her eyes widened and she screamed in rage. "BUT YOU RUINED IT!" The magic on her muscles vanished and she convulsed in pain as black lightning arced over her body.
"YOU RUINED MY PLANS BECAUSE OF THAT DISGUSTING LIE CALLED LOVE!"
"AAAHH!"
"BUT I'M STIL GOING TO FINISH IT! I SHALL SPEAK THE LAST WORDS OF THE TALE!"
Pain ripped through her with the lightning, tearing apart the very fabric of her being it seemed, ripping through her heart and pulling at her mind.
"DIE—"
"STOP!"
All at once the pain vanished.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
Her eyes snapped open. Peter.
Mim turned towards him. "You dare to speak to me?!"
"Don't touch her!" Peter shouted. She felt her heart pulsating in her chest, forever linked to him.
"Pe-ter," she croaked. "S-top… pl-e-se… stop…"
"No! I won't stop! I will never stop protecting you Ven, not so long as there is breath in my lungs and your heart beating in my chest! I love you! I will protect you!"
She's going to—
"HAHAHA!" Mim cackled delightedly. "YOU?! Protect someone?! Well that's a riot! You were the one that spent so long planning to kill her, to take her heart for yourself and now you swear to protect her?! The irony!" Then she switched and her eyes took on a deadly glint, her voice dropping to a hiss. "You fool."
"Stop… Peter!" she exclaimed, having recovered just enough.
Mim started and looked at her, then looked back at Peter, then at her… then a smile spread over her wrinkled face revealing blackened teeth and tongue.
"If you love him so much…" she began. "Then…" she turned and floated towards him. "…he can die first."
"NO!"
Mim darted forward and grabbed Peter, her clawed hands encircling his neck.
"No sto—"
"AAH!" His scream of pain sent blood pounding against her ears in cold, bear panic amongst Mim's crazed laughter.
"…You're good you know, at the game…"
His body convulsed with the magic.
"…we're both kept captive on this island by a demon…"
She struggled desperately at the magic bonds around her wrists.
"I'm only here to die!"
"Hold on Ven!" They were trying to get to her but they couldn't. They weren't strong enough.
'I would have died for you!'
His eyes rolling back to show the whites.
"The most important person in my life…"
His body went limp. She could feel herself moving, she could sense that she was screaming, but inside… she felt nothing. Numbness washed over her… shock, despair…
Time seemed to slow as the clawed hand opened…
"I…love you…too."
No… He was… dead. No… Falling… he was falling. No. No. Dead. No. Falling. No. Dead. No. Falling. No. Her…
Mim…
Everything shifted back into focused and her head slammed against her chest.
"NO!"
In a split second the bonds around her wrists and ankles shattered and more energy than she had ever felt in her life flooded her body! The energy exploded out from her and she dove down.
"PETEEER!"
Her arms wrapped around him and she held him tightly.
"No this can't be you—"
Magic slammed into Mim and sent her thudding against the cliff face to drop like a stone to the ledge.
"Peter? Peter talk to me!" she exclaimed, tears flooding her cheeks unbidden. "Peter open your eyes!" she shouted. "WAKE UP!"
His eyes remained closed and his cheeks were pale.
She bowed her head, her forehead touching his chest. Tears streaked down her dirty cheeks, mixing with the dust and blood.
"You can't… you… I love you…"
"Ven."
The voice sounded behind her, she could hear their footsteps as Rumple, Hook, Emma and Regina approached.
Regina stepped closer. "Ven is he…?"
Mim.
Anger flooded her very soul like a tidal wave, reverberating through her like the beat that had been in his chest. That still should be. She slowly raised her head.
"Ven?"
Mim…
The rumble moved and the witch crawled to her feet.
"She is going to die."
How could it go so wrong so fast? One minute she had been finishing her tragedy with magic and flair, ending the drama, drawing the curtains with a flourish. She groaned, her eyelids fluttering. But then that girl. She gasped and glanced down at her arms, bruises shown against her deathly pale skin.
She was… hurt.
"How could she do…" she trailed off and sneered. "No. No one defeats the Mad Madam Mim," she hissed. "I'll kill—"
"—him."
She looked up. Then grinned. What a stroke of luck! There stood the girl, the heroine of the story, the destroyer of the story… and the tragedy. Standing right before her like a cake on a platter just ripe for the taking!
The little girl stood before her, her head hung down in defeat, her arms limp at her sides and her hair like rags around her face.
"You're a little fool for coming straight to me," she cackled, climbing to her feet and brushing dirt from her filthy dress. "More foolish than I thought."
She glanced over the ledge. "Looks like the tragedy is drawing to a close is it?" She grinned her rotten teeth at the corpse. "Your wittwe wover is dead…" she spun around. "… and you're n—ACK!"
Pain exploded in her chest as something bright and dark slammed into her, sending her over the ledge. She just barely gathered her magic around herself to break her fall on the ground.
"Wh-at?" She pushed herself up. Such power… I must kill her. I must have it back!
"You pathetic hag…" The voice reverberated through her, pulsating like a heart.
Her eyes widened.
The girl raised her chin.
"Y… eyes…"
"You made a mistake to challenge me such," the voice said. "But your biggest mistake… was killing him first."
One glowing black… one white. Magic… terrifying magic of both black and white. Dark and light. Fighting in unison. Rage emanated from her, permeating the air and growing thickly with the magic that formed like a misty barrier around them. White magic crackled and flashed through the black mist.
Dark and light.
It was…
"Monster." A monster. A monster come to kill me. No… no I can't die. My story, my tragedy it isn't over!
Then the monster took a step.
An earsplitting screech jarred her and she scrambled back in pure terror. "NO STOP!"
"You… killed him!"
Her back slammed against the wall. "PLEASE—"
"DIE!"
Blow after blow rained down, magic sliced her skin open, black blood oozed from the wounds and fire burned her skin. Boils appeared and shifted. Pain ripped through her and she screamed in pure, unadulterated agony.
"PLEASE STOP! STOP! DON'T KILL ME! STOP I BEG!"
"Ven stop! Stop enough!"
"That's enough!"
"Please stop!"
The magic thickened and pain ripped through her, she was slammed against the wall and slumped, all life draining from her limbs. The pain continued but she no longer had the strength to scream.
But then suddenly, as suddenly as it started, the barrage stopped. She sobbed and writhed on the ground in pain, gasping and gagging. A hand wrapped around her neck, scraping her against the rocks as she was dragged up.
"Enough Ven…"
My savior…
She dared to looked up. The mother stood behind the girl. The girl's eyes… like orbs of pure magic… and tears fell from those orbs.
"She is defeated. There is no reason to go any further, he's—-"
"Yes, listen to her! Please."
The black and white eyes snapped to the witch.
Her eyes widened and she coughed. "Please…" she croaked. "Don't… kill me…" She gasped again. "Please… I'll… do anything…!"
"Anything at all?" Those eyes…
She felt liquid trickle down her cheeks… blood.
"Anything in the entire universe."
Time stood still.
The hand loosened and hope, if one so rotten as her could even comprehend the emotion, spread through her chest. Maybe… just maybe… even monsters could feel pity. Maybe this monster would let her go. She could survive… just as she always had.
Those terrifying eyes of the monster looked at her as though staring into her soul… and the glow faded, the magic pulsing on the monsters skin fading with it until it was just her.
The monster. The girl. Ven.
The mismatched eyes, full of tears, the eyes of a child broken and shattered like glass, they stared at her as though seeing into her very soul.
"Anything," she repeated desperately.
Then those eyes narrowed. The tears on its cheeks tricked to her chin… and dropped.
"Then burn in hell for all eternity."
The witch's eyes widened in horror as fire roared up around her.
"NO! AAAAHH—"
Nothing.