A/N The new season of Sanctuary has arrived, with the potential for a whole new host of wonderful, creative fic from the fan community, so this story draws to a humble close...notes at end.

SEVENTEEN

Nikola fell to his knees, his mouth torn open in a silent scream as the elemental rushed inside of him. Once it had all disappeared within him, he fell forward, his hands barely catching his fall.

"Nikola?" Helen took a step forward, though Will kept a firm hand on her arm, her voice small and hopeful.

His head snapped up and his eyes were black, his teeth bared and unnaturally sharp. He rose sinuously to his feet, flexing his shoulders and gazing at them with a cold, imperious smile.

"Nikola?"

"That's my name, darling, don't wear it out." Nikola grinned, his voice a deep, guttural tone. He casually kicked John's inert body aside, a small groan escaping from the broken man, as he walked over to Helen. She felt rooted to the spot, unable to feel Will desperately trying to pull her away.

Kate had already drawn out her gun and fired off her entire clip into Nikola. His body jerked a few times at the impact, but he merely shook himself and empty shell casings fell to the floor. He looked over at Kate mockingly and said, "Manners, manners, young lady."

With a swift movement he had knocked her to the floor, her arm lacerated and she gasped from the sudden shock of pain.

Helen stared desperately at him. There must be some of the Nikola she still knew in there. What sort of mad curse was she afflicted with that all her dearest were taken by this blackness? He stepped ever closer towards her, menace colouring every movement.

"And you, dear Helen, the one I loved most of all." His voice was tinged with a bitter, ironic laugh that spoke nothing of affection. He tapped a talon mock-pensively to his lips as he considered her. "You're the only thing that really stops me from being truly great. From achieving the kind of legacy and future I could have in the palm of my hand… ambition, ruthlessness, and the will to take it all."

"You can still have all those things, Nikola." She fought to keep the tremor out of her voice as she tried to smile at him.

"It's a pity that I started out as human … weak and so susceptible to those impulses. You're really the only thing that's holding me back from fully embracing the more powerful of my ancestry."

Will placed himself in front of Helen, his stunner aimed at Nikola. He had a grim look of determination on his face, and tried to reason with the approaching vampire. "Come on, don't do this. You don't have to do this, Tesla. You're better than this."

"Touching." Nikola drew his arm back, his claws gathering to a razor point and he struck, about to plunge his hand into Will's chest when a pale figure suddenly grabbed his arm and snapped it back hard enough to break bone.

Nikola growled, whirling around to face Aurelian who snarled back. Nikola cracked his arm, setting the bone back in order and was about to lunge after the offending Sybarite, when Ylerin stepped over and pulled Nikola's face down to hers in what looked like a lover's kiss.

The howling scream that tore from his throat before it was muffled by her mouth spoke differently. She clamped down savagely onto him, and the muscles in his face grew taut as she inhaled and drained him of everything. She shook with the effort as the elemental was dragged into her as she robbed Nikola of all breath. Her veins popped up from her skin, outlined in black as she forced the elemental away and into herself.

They sank to their knees, Aurelian catching them and steadying their descent, and with a last ethereal scream she suddenly fell away, sinking into Aurelian's arms and Nikola slumped to the floor.

"Hurry, hold him up." Aurelian beckoned Will over, and they brought Nikola close enough to Aurelian that he let loose a silver wisp that disappeared down Nikola's mouth. He opened his eyes, gasping, and trembling from the ordeal.

"It won't stay in her long, hurry!" Aurelian held up Ylerin, her eyelids fluttering, her face drained and like paper. Nikola tried to fight off his weakness and dizziness, and touched a hand to Ylerin's arm. The first thing he could think of was to create an EM shield organically linked to him.

Ylerin shuddered in Aurelian's arms and her head slumped onto his shoulder. She was dead. The elemental screamed that it was trapped in a dead host and couldn't flee because of the EM shield surrounding it. Its dreadful shrieks, operating on a frequency no one could truly hear, but feel in every nerve of their body, dwindled as it cannibalized its reserves of power, slowly diminishing in size.

Nikola shook as he held up his hand and saw his blue shield encircled tightly around a ball of black. Experimentally, he flexed his fingers together and compressed the elemental sphere until it was a small circle in the palm of his hand.

Will stammered, "Is it dead?"

Nikola probed it gently, and then slowly shook his head. "No … but its weak."

Will looked over at Ylerin and gulped. "Is she dead?"

Aurelian stood up, cradling Ylerin in his arms and she hung there limp and small. He smiled softly at them, sad, but not grieving. "She was dying already, Will. She is now onto a greater time."

Nikola fell back to the floor, unable to kneel or crouch for much longer. He looked about him at the destroyed laboratory, John lying unconscious a few feet away, Kate bleeding and being tended to by Helen and the dead Sybarite, his ancestral cousin.

He looked over at Helen, catching her gaze and was stunned, and then silently elated to see her smile and wink back.

John woke and immediately shut his eyes again, blinded by bright light. He tried again, more slowly, only opening them a crack and his surroundings swam into view. A white room. A bed. A vital signs monitor.

"Morning, sunshine." He heard a familiar drawl beside him, but from someone he hadn't expected to see at his bedside. He turned his head slowly, his body crippled with aching pain, to see Nikola lounging in a chair with a book in his lap.

"Have you come … to finish the job?" John asked weakly.

Nikola looked up from the passage he was reading, his usual veneer of disinterest on his face. "Tempting, but Helen would skin me for undoing her handiwork."

"Babysitting … then?"

Nikola sighed gustily, mock-petulant. "Indeed. I must have committed some egregious sins in a previous life to pay for them in such a manner now."

John attempted to laugh but found that it hurt too much. He looked over at Nikola curiously. "Why are you … here, old boy?"

Nikola merely shrugged, but there was no sardonic lift to his shoulders, or dismissive glint in his eye. The two men regarded each other for a moment, both unable to really place how two bitter rivals could reconcile with the understanding that also comes from a century's worth of history, but beginning to accept that some things just were.

"What are … the doctor's … orders?"

"Bed rest. And I guess you get jello."

Helen and Aurelian both stared at the small plot of earth underneath the oldest tree the Sanctuary had in its courtyard. Aurelian had insisted that Ylerin's remains be cremated, and they had placed the ashes in a small urn that they buried underneath the tree's roots. Helen had asked Aurelian if he would have preferred they be sent back to the temple, but he had waved off the idea.

"The temple is merely a place. All one needs is somewhere one can see the stars and the moon."

She looked over at him, he had perhaps been the least affected by the death, and wondered again on what it must like to be older than some civilizations. To see great empires rise and fall, and more than once in a lifetime.

"You'll be going back to South America then?"

"Yes," he nodded, "there are still places I haven't explored. Great cities I have not seen. There is still much to enjoy, and I feel like going about it at a more sedate pace than I have been lately."

Helen smiled at that. With all the chaos they had recently endured, a slower change of pace seemed welcome to all.

Aurelian turned so he could face her better, a question revolving in his mind. He was silent for a moment, and she looked back with polite curiosity until he finally spoke. "With Ylerin's passing, her life debt has now also ended with her. And while I have observed the same as if I have also given such a vow … I now wonder if it is still necessary."

Helen blinked at his cryptic words, she should have been used to it by now. "What do you mean?"

Aurelian beckoned her closer, and then leaned in as if he were about to kiss her. Before their lips could touch, a silvery wisp left his mouth and curled towards hers. She inhaled, an old memory settling in the back of her mind, waiting and dormant for her perusal.

Aurelian drew back, smiled at her, clasped her hand and then got up and walked away. Helen stared at his disappearing form in wonder, an inkling of what he left her, and closed her eyes.

Helen teased out the memory and saw what Nikola had wished for down in the Chamber of Silver over a year ago when she thought he had died.

Nikola picked up his small soldering iron and then put it down again for the third time. He gave out an unhappy huff as he stared at his workstation and felt acutely uninspired.

"Bored?" Helen asked teasingly as she sat down and pushed a cup of tea towards him.

"Immensely," he growled, sniffing the tea suspiciously first before drinking it.

The elemental he continued to contain within the EM shield he generated. He had decided it was the best place for it. There was no hope of any interference be he sleeping or unconscious. It would only fail if he were dead. It stuck to his person, as he needed some contact to generate the shield, and sometimes it nestled unobtrusively in the palm of his hand, or sometimes in the hollow of his neck where he could hide it under clothing when he was tired of such a constant reminder.

Helen had insisted they find a better place for it, but had agreed that they now had the time to design and build a foolproof house for it. Nikola had attempted the initial designs five times already but kept scrapping them.

"I need a challenge. I'm just bored now. I've made Wardenclyffe twice and finally perfected it. My company's making more money with minor designs than I ever made with my best patents a century ago… there's nothing new to do. Nothing fun." Nikola pouted into his cup of tea.

"Oh quit whining. I have something you can do for me if you're really keen on a new sort of task."

Nikola looked at her suspiciously. "Unless it involves you in various states of undress, I'm uninterested."

She glared at him. "It doesn't … and when has Nikola Tesla ever backed away from trying something new?"

He tried to think of a cutting response, realized she was right, and settled for glowering at her instead. She merely grinned back and said, "Your face will stick like that."

"Barbarous woman," He sighed, "Just tell me your designs for me already."

"Run a Sanctuary."

Nikola snorted derisively, saw that she wasn't joking and then his eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Why would I ever want to do that?"

She grinned. "It's a challenge. You'll have lots of responsibilities, new problems to solve every day, a whole team to work under you, and all the time you want to work on your side projects whenever the fancy strikes you."

Nikola pulled a face. "I don't know if babysitting furry freaks is really the life for me, sweet Helen."

"You can see if you're any better than me at it. I highly doubt it, there is a steep learning curve."

Nikola frowned, and then pointed his finger accusingly at her. "I see what you're doing here…"

Helen kept her most innocent smile on her face. "Who knows? Maybe there are some things you can learn from me. You're right, perhaps this is a challenge too great even for the brilliant Nikola Tesla. There are just some things I can do better than you."

Nikola glared furiously at her, and then mumbled into his teacup, "I don't want to live in Paraguay."

"Actually that position is being filled by an existing Head of House who wants a change of scenery. Think about it…" Helen got up and winked mischievously at him as she left the room.

He cried out after her, "Devil woman!"

"Is that all right for you, John? Do you need some more support on your back?"

Nikola grinned over at him. "I can fluff your pillows if you'd like."

John gave him a withering glare as he eased himself onto the lawn chair, trying very hard not to wince as he did so. He didn't need to give the vampire another bloody thing to laugh at him about. Helen kicked Nikola in the shin to shut him up, and helped John into the chair so he was most comfortable.

"Are you sure he should be having any, Helen? You're an irresponsible doctor for prescribing your patient alcohol."

Helen uncorked the bottle and sniffed it appreciatively. "Could you really call the Chateau D'Yquem mere alcohol, Nikola?"

He pretended to think about that and gravely said, "You're right, Helen, I can't. Now hurry up and pour, woman."

John clucked his tongue disapprovingly at Nikola and said, "Gluttony is a deadly sin, old boy. You don't want to damn your soul, do you?"

"With this kind of vintage? Happily."

They each held up their glasses, and with Helen's prompting raised them up. "A toast, gentlemen."

Nikola paused in thought, considering his words carefully, and with equal parts audacity and aplomb declared, "To outlasting everyone else."

Helen looked at him disapprovingly for his crass choice of words, but had to hold back a giggle. John leaned over and quirked a knowing eyebrow at Nikola as he said, "To not having killed each other all this time."

They looked expectantly at Helen, and she thought for a moment of where they all were. All together, sitting on her rooftop, having near misses with death, losing yet more friends, coming out on top of a ghastly shadow war, and somehow still having each other.

"To the Three. To us."

They clinked their glasses together and drank underneath the stars.

END

A/N But wait! There's an epilogue!