The Beholder Part Four

Summary: Puck's thoughts during "The Gathering, Part One." Once again featuring episode dialogue (no, I don't have it memorized).

"He forgets that he is mine to command." – Oberon about Puck, in "The Gathering, Part One."

He was so … small.

Well, of course he was small. He was a baby.

A baby with reddish-blonde hair, though Puck suspected it would later darken, and be closer to his mother's shade. He had her eyes too, and her pale skin, but the rest was all his father. Fox's coloring and David's features combined to make a very pretty babe indeed.

But still, all this fuss over such a little thing….

Such a little thing …

He wondered how much a fully-grown Alexander would look like the illusion he'd conjured up for Goliath's little dream.

He wondered if he'd even get to see him grow up.

At this rate, probably not.

Come home come home come home, Oberon's voice commanded in his mind.

Not yet not yet not yet, the Puck screamed soundlessly back.

I'm having too much fun.

The mortal world was simply too amusing for him to give up on at present.

Case in point, the look on Vogel's face when Petros Xanatos asked if the two of them were related.

"I can assure you sir, we are not." Priceless, just priceless.

Owen couldn't help but smirk. Inside his head, the Puck giggled madly. How could the tedium of Avalon compare to this?

"And may I present Fox's mother, Anastasia Renard."

"It's no longer Renard. I have remarried."

"Remarried?" Oh, poor Halycon. Poor dear, dying mortal, still besotted, still smitten. He clutched her hand. "When? Who?"

"My first husband."

Oh crap!

"I … I have some things to attend to, elsewhere. Excuse me." He didn't know why he was so shocked, so shaken. He should've seen this coming. He did see this coming.

It was just … just … just … damn it!

Owen sighed. Time to implement those security measures.

Later, Owen walked into the room where the family was gathered around mother and son. All of them were completely absorbed in admiring the baby, including Anastasia.

Not, not Anastasia. She was Titania. And she was once again the wife of Oberon, once again Queen of Avalon and the Third Race. She was a force to be reckoned with, and he needed to remember that.

She called Alexander "my little prince." To anyone else, it would have sounded sweet. But he knew better, and it made him shiver.

But she perforce withholds the lovéd boy/Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy …*

Owen clasped Xanatos' shoulder briefly and managed to keep his voice from shaking. "A word, sir." He paused. "It is imperative that you do not leave either Fox or your son alone with Anastasia."

David's eyes widened and he immediately turned to look at her. By the time he looked back, Owen was gone.

Puck reappeared in his true form in the main hall, just behind the tapestry Bronx had been clawing at the last time he was in the Eyrie Building. It was a quiet spot, a secret spot, but the dark seclusion of it did nothing to soothe his panicky mood.

He needed to think. There had to be a way out of this, for all of them. A way that didn't involve ripping his family apart.

His family …?

Never get too attached to mortals, or you will pay a painful price, whispered a distinctly feminine and slightly mocking voice inside his head.

"I'm not attached!"

Liar.

"Oh shut up!" Puck snapped. "Aaaand … I'm talking to myself. Great. At this rate, I'll go as mad as Mab."

Suddenly, there was the sound of footfalls in the great hall. Puck froze, not daring to move, as he heard the unmistakable voice of Oberon.

"A pleasant conceit."

The Lord of Avalon himself had come to get him? Puck hadn't expected that. Of course, he'd been anticipating being dragged back home, but surely Oberon would have designated the actual collection of his wayward servant to someone else? He'd always thought his lord would send the Weird Sisters after him. No doubt those three bitches would enjoy hunting him down.

But for him to actually do his own dirty work? Was Puck really that important to "Big Daddy" Oberon, even after all these centuries?

The thought left him both flattered and terrified.

He heard the whine and growl of a dog. The beast had his scent, he was sure of it. It was all over now. Puck shut his eyes tight, willing himself to be invisible to senses both mortal and immortal, even as he knew the effort was futile.

"What's this?" Oberon sounded distracted. The dog whined again. "Puck can wait." Whew! "Titania is near."

Puck transported himself back to his office and once again took on the guise of Owen. He didn't like to think what was going on right now. David was a remarkable man, but he was still human, still mortal. Fox and Alexander were not. At least, not entirely. And with Titania's urging, Oberon could very well decide that meant either or both of them were subject to the Gathering, just as he himself was …

He tried to picture it, the three of them, going to Avalon together. Fox would feel at home as soon as she set foot on the island, he was sure of it. She would feel the power coursing through her, the magic that was her birthright. Alex would feel it too.

And all the court would dote on him, Titania's grandson, the little prince, and Puck would teach him all his best tricks, and he would be the cleverest babe ever to grace the shores of that fair isle, and they would all be so happy.

And then Puck would get bored.

And David would be … alone.

Speaking of which, it wasn't long before the man himself marched into Owen's office. "Did you know that Anastasia was actually Titania?"

"Yes, I did," he said calmly. That was the beauty of Owen. He could be stoic when the Puck was nearly jumping out of his skin. Thank goodness for that.

"Then you knew that she came here to steal my son." Apparently Oberon had decided that only Alex was to go home. The Queen must have been disappointed.

And as for David …. well, David had never spoken to him in this way before. Oh sure, there were times when he'd seen the man frustrated, angry, impatient. But there was a sharp edge to his voice now, a strong note of distrust. Puck was surprised by how much it stung.

"No, but I feared it." He handed Xanatos a disk. "This contains security measures which I have already implemented."

"Who authorized this?"

"I did, sir. As soon as I learned that Fox was expecting." Did you really think I'd leave you unarmed, Davey boy? "Everything has been built to my precise specifications."

"Excellent." The man regained a measure of his wonderfully brash cockiness, smiling at the disk he held in his hands.

"There are two things to remember. One: Energy is energy, whether generated by science or sorcery. Two: Oberon is vulnerable to iron. His magics are powerless against it."

Just … just don't kill him with iron or anything, all right? He may be a pompous jackass, but he's still …

"I knew you wouldn't let me down, Owen." But he was already on his way out the door. "Wait, where are you going, we've got a fight on our hands!"

"I am truly sorry, Mr. Xanatos, but this is one battle in which I cannot risk becoming involved."

He barely had time to register the shock on the man's face before he turned and left.

You don't understand, he wanted to say.

I'm in so much trouble, David. Oberon is … I … I can't face him. I just can't. Not even for you, my fellow trickster, my dear mortal. He's already so angry at me for not coming home. I don't know what he'll do to me if he finds me out. I have stay out of it. Please don't hate me.

But Owen said none of those things. He just marched out the door, and then out of the building, back ramrod straight, jaw tight, mouth set in a grim, determined line.

For all that he enjoyed his company, David Xanatos was still just a mortal, after all. He needed to remember that. The Puck could find amusement elsewhere. He always did.

He was leaving, and he was not looking back.

*From Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene I.