Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again; I really do have the best readers on FF. Thanks for your lovely messages guys- they really got me smiling on my bad days. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update this story. I've had a really tough few months and haven't felt like writing. Anyway, I'll update Road Trip soon hopefully but I know a few of you have been waiting patiently for me to get moving again with CtH so here it is. There is a cameo in this chapter that some of you are not going to like but I stress the word cameo and it's helped me move the story along. As always folks, thanks for sticking with me!

Chapter Eleven

Dark, dark everywhere. The whole world had gone dark, in fact. It was the only truth that Bo Dennis knew as she languished in that lunatic's prison. Yet just that one certainty still brought its own strange comfort and Bo prayed that this endless night would soon swallow her whole.

Had Christophe really been telling her the truth? Had her deepest and most secret fear truly come to pass? Could she really have done…?

It was too unthinkable to bear. And yet here she remained, an endless cycle of terror within her own mind driving her slowly insane.

Were those fearful creatures whipping past her ears in the eerie blackness or were they yet more figments of her own tortured imagination? She could barely find the energy to care anymore. Her mind would swing rapidly back and forth between the great gaping ache of desolation and a cool, almost pleasant numbness.

Oh, what was the use?

She eased her tired body back against the hard, stone-cold surface behind her, a pair of iron cuffs tearing at her wrists with each subtle movement. Her eyes slid closed while she waited patiently for the next wave of detachment to kick in.

Bo Dennis, Succubus and Queen, was giving up.

XXX

Kenzi clasped Dyson's hand to her right and Kostas', their new associate, to her left as she glanced around their rough, rag-tag circle.

"So, what's next guys? A rousing chorus of Kum-Ba-Yah or what?" she said flatly, clearly unimpressed.

"Kenzi" Dyson warned through slightly gritted teeth. "It's simple," he said, turning to address the group. "We cannot stride into this battle still carrying our fears if we want to beat this man who thrives on terror. We must stand strong…together." He paused, slowly drawing his gaze to around the room before he continued; "Each of us now, will take it in turns to give voice to our fears, no-matter how shameful we believe it to be. Among friends there is acceptance. We cannot knowingly give Christophe anything with which to attack us, our focus must remain solely of saving Bo."

Breaths drew deep; the mass sharp intake echoed throughout the vaulted lair and for long seconds no one replied.

"Well, I'm all for rescuing our girl so…" shrugged the compact Russian at Dyson's side. "This was your idea so, floor's yours Wolfie!" she finished with forced cheer and a resounding smack on the Shifter's back. Dyson frowned in frustration but saw no reason he shouldn't do as he was told. He did, after all, have a point to prove.

"Alright," he growled, "my greatest fear…" he trailed off, trying to gather his courage "my greatest fear is losing you," he said finally, turning his head to face Kenzi, "that I can deal with anything that comes for us except the passage of time itself. I'm afraid of the day that you will be taken from me."

Kenzi swallowed back the lump that had suddenly risen in her throat. Safe to say that whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't this. Truth be told, she had half-believed that Dyson was only ever killing time with her. While she loved the man deeply, she knew well that there would be no real future for the two of them and that Dyson would eventually move on with his life after she was gone. It almost felt at times that he was with her out of sympathy, after he had seen for himself how terrified she was of ending up alone in Hades' Arena during their journey to the Underworld.

"Wolfie…" she said, blinking at the burning sensation behind her eyes, "I had no idea…" she squeezed his hand tightly. "I thought you just felt sorry for me. That was my fear." Her voice broke and a single stray tear sneaked through her carefully built damn to slip down her cheek.

"Well maybe we can help each other come to terms with it"

"Yes please" said Kenzi, rubbing at her face with her shoulder as her hands remained bound within the circle.

"So, who's next?" said Dyson, turning his attention back to the group who merely all glanced at each other unnerved.

"Oh, come on guys!" cried Kenzi in support.

Suddenly Dagny cast her eyes down to the tiny hand that clasped her left;

"Ethan? What are you afraid of kiddo?"

"Spiders!" giggled Charlotte on Ethan's other side before the poor boy even had a chance to reply.

"Am not!" he squawked at his sister.

"Are too!" she laughed.

"Not!" he whinged, stamping his foot hard on the wooden floorboards of the Dàl's lair. He looked up at his aunt with wide eyes; "well, maybe a li'l but that's not it…" his gaze slipped to his blue, buckled shoes while his bottom lip began to tremble. Dagny, knelt as best she could to the small boy's eye level.

"What is it little guy? C'mon, you can tell me."

"Immafraimdfdedark" he mumbled incoherently.

"What honey?"

"I'm scared of the dark" he said finally. "Sometimes at night I have to go find Charlotte 'cause I'm so scared."

"Baby, why didn't you say anything?" asked Lauren, crouching down now to face her son, her heart breaking for his tiny tear-stained face.

"I'm trying to be a big boy now like you and Ma say. Am a man soon like Uncle Dy." He said, valiantly trying to puff out his chest.

"Yes, you are baby but it's still okay to be scared sometimes. It's okay to come to me or Mommy. You're still our little boy, remember?" said Lauren. At Ethan's nod, Lauren shifted her attention to her younger daughter positioned between them. "What about you honey? What scares you the most?"

Charlotte seemed to consider the question for a moment before shrugging lightly;

"Nothing, I guess" she shrugged easily. It was true in fairness. Charlotte was her and Bo's fearless warrior. She was so much like Bo in that way, the resemblance was truly uncanny. Nothing much ever really phased her. Lauren only hoped and prayed that the girl would remain that way as grew up, especially once the teenage years hit. Still, there had to be something. No one was afraid of nothing.

"There must be something baby…" Lauren tried again.

"Well," Charlotte hesitated, "I guess I'm scared that Mommy won't come back. Real Mommy."

"Oh sweetie…" Lauren sighed, "I'm scared too. But I'm going to try so hard to bring her back home to us. We all are. I promise. You wanna help?"

Charlotte nodded and bit her lip, her eyelids growing visibly heavier. Her poor children were exhausted, despite having grabbed a nap earlier.

"That's my girl" the blonde whispered with such pride she felt her heart would burst. She reached over and placed a firm kiss on each of her children's heads before regaining her feet and arching her tired back. "Dagny? Feel like going next?"

The young Valkyrie shuffled her feet and darted her eyes around the corners of the room; "Well that's pretty easy really…I'm afraid I'll end up alone." Her gaze lowered and flew around the assembly when no response was forthcoming.

"How can you ever think that, kid?" asked Kenzi incredulously from the other side of the room. "You have a whole faemily here and you're stuck with us!"

"Yeah but…" Dagny faltered lamely.

"You don't want to end up like your mother…" interceded Lauren with the utmost delicacy. Dagny could only nod shakily before finding it within herself to continue;

"My mom waited her whole life for someone to love her. Hundreds of years across dozens of realms and nobody wanted her…then she finally has a daughter, not that she ever wanted me, I was a trick, an accident…and then she dies. I don't wanna be like her…" she finished barely audibly. She felt terrible for saying it. In many ways, her mother was her very own hero. She was brave, fierce and loyal to those she cared for but in reality, she had also become embittered and desperately lonely. Dagny could not help but dread that she too would suffer the same fate. That she would forever walk alone in the world with no one to love or be loved by in that special way.

"I'm here" piped up Saoirse suddenly who had thus far remained firmly silent through proceedings. "I'll be here Dag. No matter what."

After a soundless passage of understanding, Saoirse turned to her left-hand neighbour;

"What about you Kostas?"

"I'm Dark," he grunted, "we don't get scared."

"Kostas, this isn't going to work unless we all participate. Do you want to get your brother back or not?" growled Dyson with just enough of a threat lacing his tone to make the big man reconsider.

"Fine," the Dark fae rumbled and Saoirse beside him caught a waft of very expensive cologne as the handsome Grecian shook out his neck, "I…worry, that I will be the last of my clan…if my brother is truly lost to me."

"You'll be alone too" remarked Dagny softly with just a hint of respect for the man's struggle. They may see life from different sides but here was a man whose concerns she could recognise. The man's only reply was a rather gallant nod in the blonde's direction.

"You're next honey," said Lauren on Saoirse's other side and she felt the comforting squeeze of her mother's fingers about her own.

"Well, that's pretty easy," she began with a slight quirk of her shoulder, "I'm afraid that I won't measure up. I'm afraid that I'll turn out a disappointment."

Lauren's face crumpled at her elder daughter's words;

"My sweet girl. You have had so much expectation placed on your shoulders since you were very young. You are very much your mother's daughter, a fact which gives you great strength but also brings with it a great burden. I am so, so sorry if you have ever felt that you are not good enough. I know I can't truly understand what it means to be raised a warrior like Athdara can but you are just as much my daughter too and I love you with all my heart, my darling. Never, ever doubt that."

"I love you too Mother."

Mother and daughter allowed themselves a minute to simply gaze at each other in a way they had been denied for so many years before Saoirse, ever the pragmatic one broke the peace; "it's your turn."

Lauren nodded and swallowed hard, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room in turn.

"I am afraid that I will not be able to lead you through what lies ahead. I'm not the hero," she said with a sad chuckle, "I'm not a great warrior," she continued, glancing between Dyson and Saoirse, "I'm afraid that I won't be able to keep you safe," she said, flitting her gaze between Kenzi, Dagny and the two very drowsy little ones by her side, "and I'm afraid I won't be strong enough to fight my own wife if and when the time comes."

"You are bearer of the proud name of Beattie…and I am proud to call ye my own, child." Emanated an unfamiliar voice from a dark corner of the vaulted space and wild eyes bounced rapidly from wall to wall until a figure emerged into the light.

The doctor's pupils widened instantly as she recognised the face from a blurry old sepia photograph she had carried with her for most of her adult life.

"Auntie Meg!" she exhaled reverently.

"Oh, don't gawp dear, it doesn't suit." The old woman scolded but ancient, soulful eyes twinkled with mirth. "You, my girl, take after me and my side o' the family," she continued as she stepped further towards her niece, reaching a wrinkled hand to caress the blonde woman's cheek. "You were always so forthright when you were young, Karen. What happened to that girl I used to watch?"

Lauren's features only grew wider, "you…you were?" she gulped.

"You were always my favourite. I used to watch you often. Such intelligence but ye never got a bit head with it. And you lived to help others. Even when you were a child you always took the blame for other people. You fought for the things you believed in no matter how poked fun at you for it. Tell me, is that fearless girl still in there?" Meg asked earnestly, slipping her fingers to rest above her niece's heart. Lauren shook her head, tears streaming freely down her face, feeling an absurd sense of relief that she had not felt in years. Not since the last time she had cried in her mother's arms. Suddenly someone was here to take the hurt away. For the first time in nearly thirty years, she was able to take a childlike comfort in her own family. She hadn't realised until this moment just how much she had missed having an elder matriarch to run to when she scraped her knee. She felt safe and that everything was going to be okay.

Here in front of her was a woman she had admired and tried to emulate her entire life. Here was a woman who had seen it all, done it all. She had fought for women's rights, rights she enjoyed with barely a second thought. She had not only survived war but put herself at risk in saving the lives of others. Here stood the living, breathing image of everything Lauren, herself, had dreamt of being.

Auntie Meg seemed to sense the endless whirring in the younger woman's mind so she simply smiled and reached for the blonde's hand, gently unclasping Lauren's iron-tight grip to reveal Meg's old Suffragette brooch and taking it between her fingers and turning it over in her palm.

"I was very fond of this…" she said wistfully, "why aren't you wearing it child?"

"I didn't really think I'd earned it," Lauren shrugged, "it felt wrong somehow."

"Wear it and think of me, my darling" Meg replied simply, pinning the bejewelled arc on the blonde's chest before gripping her in a secure, reassuring embrace. Absurdly, Lauren felt a well of emotion bubbling up inside of her as Meg placed a firm kiss to the corner of her jaw in the same way that her own mother used to do. Family, she thought to herself. "Oh, and before I forget," she said abruptly, pulling away from Lauren to stroke away a stray hair back from Saoirse's face, the next generation she considered privately, "I was brought here by someone you know" she winked.

"My mother?" Saoirse gaped in surprise. "You were with my Mum?"

"Yes, love and let me tell you, she is so proud of you." Said Auntie Meg.

"She's never told me that before," Saoirse barely whispered.

"I know, my girl. She is sorry she couldn't be here, she had other business to attend to but she asked if I would tell you that she loves you…that she's missed you but that she is so very, very proud of the young woman you have become and I must say, so am I." the old woman grinned.

XXX

"Dear god Bo, I never thought to see ye like this."

The gentle voice broke through the invisible chasm that Bo had opted to surround herself with. It wasn't the first time the Succubus had heard disembodied voices since she had been dumped in this hellhole but it was the first time that she had heard that particular one. The other times it had been the pleading cries of her own children, the sharp jabs of Kenzi, Dyson's harsh critique that could strip her layers of ego bare or worst of all the accusatory ire of her own beautiful wife Lauren. What the hell was wrong with her? Why couldn't you save us Bo? You always were a loose cannon! Just a stupid little lot girl! Why's Mommy hurting us? Stop it, Mommy, please!

"It's me Bo" came the voice again.

"So, what now? On top of everything else the voice of my wife's ex-lover comes to tell me 'I told you so' just for that extra level of crazy?" The Succubus spat.

"No Bo…" the tone was warm and soothing and entreating. Bo found herself relenting just a little at the implied kindness.

Something shifted in the air close by as the presence crept closer. The ground was slightly damp underfoot, gravel cackling under the figure's booted feet before the lightest touch fell upon Bo's thigh, forcing the stricken fae to peer fruitlessly into the gloom.

"Listen Bo, I don't have much time. I'm not…technically, supposed to be here. Bo?" Athdara gripped the Succubus' shoulders tightly, grabbing as much of the other woman's focus as she could reach, "Bo, you can't believe that madman. Do you really think you could ever kill your own family, no-matter how lost you got?"

Bo paused for a moment, contemplating the Griffin's words before turning sharply away;

"And why the hell would I believe you, huh? You're just in my head! You're just another hallucination sent to torture me. I can't let myself believe you" she finished quietly, curling in on herself protectively.

"I'm not in your head Bo…I promise" Athdara pressed on gently.

"Well if you're so real then why don't you get me out of here?"

The Griffin smiled sadly though she knew Bo couldn't see it;

"Well, I can't…I'm here but only in spirit. It's a little trick Griffin's can do to find souls who cannot be reached. It's something your wife has become quite skilled at in fact." She said, with a genuine, almost proud, smile this time.

"She has?" Bo asked and Athdara could hear the hopeful edge in the question.

"Yes Bo. She's alive. They all are; Lauren, your two beautiful children, Dyson, Kenzi. They're all fine. At the moment, they're just trying to find a way to help you." But the time for reassurance had reached its end and suddenly her tone became serious; "you must realise what DeVilliers has been up to. He's banking on you driving yourself insane down her in your own grief so that he can harness your rage to unleash an army of your vanquished enemies. The power of the Underworld. He wants you so desperate and angry enough to lead them…against your friends, the colony and god-knows where else from there. He wants to use you the same way your father tried before. You cannot let that happen Bo. You have to stay strong. For your children. For Lauren."

Silence stretched on between for long moments, allowing the words to sink in before Athdara took an audible breath; "y'know, you really are the best thing that's ever happened to her Bo. That woman will love you until her very last dying breath…" she said, echoing words Lauren, herself, had spoken so many years ago, and it broke Bo's heart, "don't let that be tomorrow Bo" she vaguely heard her finish before the Griffin slowly began to retreat.

"Before I go, I have one more thing to give you…" Athdara whispered, keenly aware that her time was growing short. She leaned forward, cupping the back of the younger woman's neck and gently lifted her closer whereupon she pressed her lips firmly against Bo's and began to push dazzling white energy into the Succubus' body. She forced the flow until she felt it saturate every fibre of the other woman's muscles and they each eventually broke away coughing and spluttering; Athdara falling back onto her haunches and Bo reeling off to the side.

"Just what in the hell was that?" Bo asked roughly, feeling as though her body was about to overflow with…something.

"Energy…to help you keep on fighting." Athdara replied in that same matching tone, feeling completely sapped. Bo had needed even more than the Griffin had anticipated. This meeting was not going to last a great deal longer. "I have to go Bo, I am needed elsewhere" she said as she struggled wearily to her feet, staring into the spot where she knew the Succubus lay. It took several seconds before she heard any sort of reply;

"Please stay with me?"

The plea was tiny and childlike. It was a sound that Athdara never would have believed she would have heard coming from the strong warrior she had come to respect and it saddened her. Bo already possessed the tenfold strength of an army, even if she had forgotten that for a moment. Right now, there was a burgeoning army out there that needed all the strength it could get.

"A few minutes." She relented, coming to a rest beside where Bo sat.