A/N: Thank-you so much for the favourites, the follows, and the reviews that were left behind I always love hearing your thoughts and your input. Thank-you for just taking the time to read this and giving this story 5 minutes of your day. I appreciate it so much so thank-you.
Trying to reach the old sanctuary was a slow going experience that was primarily an exercise in her endurance and her ability to tolerate excruciating amounts pain as each of her limbs protested as they moved. Each step that she took was agony as the pain had echoed through her sore body and muscles, her side throbbing at each movement, and without a wall to lean on to support herself it was also very slow going for fear she would lose her balance.
When she looked up she saw the building that her phone's map had been showing her as matching the coordinates she had found on the ancient map. She smiled slightly in relief before shaking her head before she continued her slow walk.
She wondered what had happened, what was happening to all of this. The city was strangely quiet, when she looked over at the road she couldn't see any cars zooming by and she not run into another pedestrian on her entire walk across the downtown core.
She glanced up at the building again for a brief moment before she forced herself to keep going.
She needed to find answers and she needed to find as much information as she could on the Pyripus and on the origin seed and hopefully on a way to seal it back up without sacrificing Bo. She winced at the thought before she began to repeat her mantra in her head again as she nearly fell over.
Walk forward one more time.
Just one more time.
She needed to get Bo and herself out of this situation alive.
"Keep walking." She hissed to herself as she nearly fell over for the fourth time.
She glanced up again and nearly cried in relief when she saw that the building was only a few meters away from her. She would have run the last few steps but she would have collapsed. Taking a breath to try and calm her panting she smiled slightly and walked the last few paces forward.
When she reached the doors to the building that must have housed the old sanctuary, at least it did according to her phone, she had been rather surprised by how generic it had looked. Certainly not like it had housed the thing capable of ending the entire world.
Lauren took a breath and allowed herself to lean against the wall of the building, slowly sliding down it until she was sitting on the concrete sidewalk outside of the nondescript building.
She took another breath and removed her hand from her side, glancing down at the wound in her side, it was still oozing blood but it had slowed. She brought her hand up to examine it, only to see it covered it bright red blood as well as darker clots.
She could feel her breathing begin to return to normal and moved to wipe her bloodied hand on her jeans. The simple action caused another wave of pain to run through her body, causing her to let out an involuntary hiss as she touched the bruises covering her legs.
She glanced up and down the sidewalks again, turning her head slowly, deliberately so that she did not agitate her head or the muscles in her neck, back and chest with sudden swift movements. There was still not a soul in sight and it was beginning to scare her. Had something happened after she had been taken Massimo?
The creeping sensation that she felt and the chill in the air, if would be enough to drive many people to try and escape it. As she thought about it she felt an involuntary shiver travel down her spin, causing pain to flare through her body.
The chill in the air was still there as omnipotent as ever and it scared her greatly, but at the same time she had no ability to run, she could barely walk. She glanced around and then upward at the overcast sky, the weather had turned unseasonably cold suddenly and rapidly.
More then likely this ever present chill, the sense of fear that seemed to permeate the air, and now the unseasonably cold weather, it was more then likely the Pyripus. She shifted her body so that she was curled in on herself, her legs up in front of her chest. For a brief moment she wondered if she could curl up on herself enough would the world even notice if she was missing?
She winced when she shifted again, quickly reaching down to press her hand back over the wound, she needed to attempt to stop the bleeding, even if her hand was far from the ideal method. She hissed in pain as her palm made contact with the open and gapping wound on her side, but after a few moments she felt a little better.
She glanced up and around again, simply stopping for a moment and taking in the world around her. She just wanted to stay here, to stay out here sitting on the ground where she did not have to move around, where she did not have to be in pain anymore. She wished that she could just run, forget all of this and simply run.
Subconsciously she felt her free hand drift into her pocket. She felt her fingertips come into contact with the thin metal chain of the necklace and she sighed before she tilted her head back up towards the sky an ironic smile slipping onto her face.
She couldn't give up.
She couldn't just sit here.
She had someone to protect and if she stopped moving she could easily make a fatal error and allow something to happen to Bo.
She had to keep going.
Silently she reached her hand out behind her to rest her hand against the cold stone. Using it as a support she slowly rocked onto the balls of her feet, letting a gasp slip out as her knees forced her palm to dig into the wound. Slowly she stood up, allowing most of her weight to lean against the wall, if she collapsed she would most likely not be able to get herself up again.
And she had to keep moving forward, whether she wanted to or not.
There was so much more then her own life depending on this.
Keeping her hand on the wall in front of her she turned slowly and began making her way towards the entrance to the building. She could see the ramp coming up and the side and quickly she reached out to grab the railing, as the wall she had been using for support ended.
She walked up the incline rose slowly and steadily as she walked up it, the muscles in her calves and thighs aching in protest as she did. As she climbed she began to lean more and more of her weight against the cold slate grey metal. She glanced up at the beige exterior of the building again before she glanced back down onto the streets.
She would need to call Bo, although the odds of actually getting a hold of her seemed to be rather low at this point. She winced as she reached the top of the incline, panting slightly at the exertion and the muscles in her legs protesting as they bore the entirety of her weight again.
Slowly she made her way across the front of the building, reaching her hand out to use the columns she passed as support when she could. She could see the tall glass doors open as she got closer to them and she smiled slightly for a moment before she glanced around at the interior of the building as she passed through the doors.
Horses.
She turned around slowly attempting to find anything else, any other object, but all she could see were horses of all shapes and sizes, breeds, both real and imaginary.
"Where am I?" She whispered aloud before she pulled out her phone, quickly unlocking it she checked the map app to ensure that she was indeed in the correct building. For a while her gaze flickered between the screen of the phone and the room that she was in.
She had never seen so many horses in her life. Figurines on pedestals, sculptures, wall paintings, mosaics on the floor, carved into the columns, they were everywhere.
Silently she slipped the phone back in the appropriate pocket before she continued her slow walk across the lobby of the building and towards the elevators. Normally if someone was going to hide a creepy sanctuary of some kind they would do it in the basement. And the map she had access to had been old, it would be logical to assume that this building would have been built on top of the sanctuary that had once rested here.
She could also feel the fear, that was her ever-present companion, begin to creep up on her again, stronger then it had been when she had been with Massimo and she had experienced that initial burst. Now it felt as if it were a steady pulse, invading her senses and interfering with her thought processes. She shook her head and took a breath, wincing at the pain coming from the wound in her abdomen.
She needed to send a message to Bo, tell her where she was and what she was doing here. She glanced around at the walls again.
Hopefully this place would yield more then creepy images of horses.
Looking around again she pulled out her phone again and sent a quick text to Bo along with the address of where she was. She would have preferred to call her but at the moment there was no guarantee that she would pick-up, and she was not even sure if Bo had voice mail.
Smiling slightly she looked around again before she reached out to press the elevator's call button. Gingerly she leaned her weight against the wall as she waited for the elevator to arrive her legs beginning to shake as they continued to bare her weight.
She felt exhausted, her energy slowly sapping as she continued to bleed out, as she continued to refuse her body the rest she so desperately craved. She could feel her legs begin to buckle and she leaned more of her weight against the wall in front of her, the uninsured side of her upper body acting as the contact point between her and the wall.
If she allowed her legs to buckle, if she collapsed, she would not have the strength to pull herself back up again, and right now she could not afford to stop moving no matter what. So instead she allowed the majority of her weight to rest against the wall, one hand supporting her and the other pressing against the wounds attempting to stop the bleeding.
If it was still oozing after this long it must have been coated in some kind of anti-coagulant. She leaned her head against the cool stone of the wall, allowing the cold to soothe her overheated skin.
If she was already starting to run a fever then she would be screwed, she'd had no way to sterilize her hand or clean out the wound, and she doubted the blade had been clean, meaning that she was at incredibly high risk for infection. Not that it mattered at the moment given that there was not guarantee she would even survive long enough for infection to set in properly.
Ding.
She shifted her head slightly to look over at the elevator. She could see that it had arrived and with a grunt of effort she pushed herself off of the wall and walked the few paces to the elevator car, the door closing behind her movements later. Looking around at the inside she was delighted to see that it resembled a normal elevator car, no signs of horses in sight. When she looked over at the wall panel she could see a series of buttons indicating subbasements, but no sings of the upper levels.
Out of instinct she pressed the button forth e lowest accessible level before she allowed herself to slide down onto the floor, her legs finally giving out from under her.
At least this time she would be able to hull herself up using the hand rail that seemed to be all around her. She smiled slightly as she closed her eyes for a brief moment allowing her thoughts to drift for a moment before she heard an awful mechanical screeching.
When she opened her eyes again she could see that the entire back panel of the elevator had seemingly disappeared from where she could have sworn it was faux wood moments earlier. Now it was clears and she could see layer upon layer of rock as if rushed past her.
How fast was the elevator going? And how far below ground was she going?
It seemed like an eternity and all at once before she looked up at the LCD panel in the elevator, it telling her that she was only a few levels away from her destination. Reaching out and grabbing onto the handrail Lauren slowly pulls herself back up to her feet, swaying slightly from the change in altitude and blood loss.
Ding
A few moments later the doors opened and she made her way out of the elevator and into a vast cave. She looked around at it in awe as she caught sight of the iridescent green pillars, obviously more recent additions, providing the only light in the space. She could see a central dais and from around it jutted various spikes leading to more shafts like her own.
As she made her way across the walkway the mosaic in the centre of the dais came into view, a giant horse/unicorn in the centre with a smaller figure off to the side, it's eyes both brown and blue, and around the figure were other images, a man half shifted into what appeared to be a wolf form, a person dressed in armour with their sick to the blue-brown eyed figure, what appeared to be a Valkyrie swooping above them her bone white wings extended to their full span, an older figure off to the side sitting in a throne a crown on their head and finally beside the figure was a figure dressed in all white, what appeared to be Caduceus held in one hand and herbs in the other.
A wolf-shifter, a knight, a Valkyrie, an old king, and a healer, all surrounding this brown and blue-eyed figure. It had to be Bo and their group. As she got closer she began to see that there was more then one image in the central mosaic, in deed there appeared to be four, each of them depicting a stage or image of what looked like a battle, if she looked closely she could even see what looked like Massimo swallowing the seed, his body already encased in flames.
"How is this possible?" She wondered as she stared at the scenes playing out on the floor in front of her as she got closer and closer to the dais her breath caught as she saw the last image. It was of the knight and the healer, each one suspended on one side of what looked like a blue door, the figure with the brown-blue eyes looking on as if she was trying to decide between them.
As the centre of the dais finally came into view she could see wording on it, written in the same old language as the prophecy laid out in beautiful mosaic tile surrounded by the images she had seen.
"The one of dual eyes shall chose the fate of the world, through courage and sacrifice she shall save us or through defeat we all shall fall." She read aloud. "Okay… so Bo is going to chose the fate of the world." She murmured as she looked down at the ground. "That's a great idea make the person who rarely makes up her mind about anything decide the fate of the world."
She closed her eyes and took a breath
"Wait… dual eyes… not queen…" She murmured aloud. She tried to figure out how it was possible that Bo was referred to as the queen in one of the prophecies and not the other one in front of her. She shook her head briefly before she forced herself to continue to read on.
"Between the knight and the healer she must chose, her dearest friend or her queen. One shall chose, a sacrifice for the world, the other shall live on in peril."
Her mind began to run as the words spoken in the prophecy washed over her. Either the healer or the knight would have to be chosen as a sacrifice to the world. She glanced over at the final image of the healer and the knight suspended before the blue door.
Someone was going to end up dying.
But the last line, the healer… she thought that the other prophecy she had found said that the queen would die… wait… the healer was referred to as the queen. Bo's queen… and her healer. That made sense if the healer in the images was also the queen they were referring to but who was that?
Her.
It had to be her.
I chose you and you broke my heart. Echoed in her mind.
Bo was descended from the blood king, and by technicality she was a princess, but theoretically if she were ever to inherit Trick's position she would be considered queen. And the person she married, her consort, if it was her, then technically she would also be queen.
"Shit." She murmured aloud as she realized what that meant, either she or Rainer would die.
No wait…
Rainer was referred to as warrior in the prophecy, but at the same time there was always more then one kind of warrior.
Dearest Friend.
The dual eyed one was Bo.
Kenzi.
She could feel her own eyes widen and her heartbeat pick up as she realized in horror what the prophecy lain out on the floor in front of her meant.
Bo would have to choose between her and Kenzi. Bo would have to choose one of them to sacrifice in order to save the world. And if Bo didn't then the world would end, he entire world would fall, collapse around them.
She gulped as her knees suddenly gave out, buckling in fear at what she had just read, at the realization that she may end up dead before all of this ended.
That she may lose her life and at the hands of her lover, who had to make an impossible choice between her and Kenzi, her best friend in the entire world. She gulped again as she chocked back tears of anguish at the realization that soon enough one of them would most likely not live to see the sunrise.
Between the warrior and the queen one of them shall die.
A knight was a kind of warrior, and if it was between the warrior and the queen who shall die? Then it was not between Bo and Rainer, it was between her and Kenzi. She nearly let out a cry of pain when she pressed down to hard on her wound, her hands having come to grip her stomach in an effort to comfort herself.
It looked like a few lines had been missing from her version of the prophecy, the ones that would have been the most important it would seem. Slowly she forced herself to stand back up, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm her racing heart.
Ding.
She tensed for a moment, ready to make a run for it as she looked up to see someone exiting the elevator. She nearly collapsed in relief again when she saw the familiar shape of Bo emerge from the elevator shaft, the adrenaline that had started to surge through her system leaving it.
She could see Bo look at her for a few moments before she saw Bo's facial expression change into what she thought looked like a smile. Forcing herself to stand up a little straighter she walked forward slowly in an attempt to meet Bo at some point between them.
"Lauren?" She heard Bo call out before she saw her take off rushing forward, smiling slightly she took a few steps back as she saw Bo approach her, eyes narrowing slightly before Lauren saw her nod to herself and pick up the pace, quickly closing the gap in between them.
"Bo." she murmured as she saw Bo lean in close to her their breaths mingling for a few moments before she felt Bo's hand come up to grip the back for her neck. She felt Bo tug slightly and Lauren was more then happy to comply, smashing their lips together in a frenzied kiss.
She could feel Bo's other arm come and wrap around her waist, precariously close to her wounded side. Using her free hand. She reached down to grip Bo's arm, moving a little bit more to the right and away from her wounded side. Subtly she moved her hand away from her side and sipped them on her jeans before she brought it up to press Bo's hand to her neck, confirming that it had a right to be there.
She allowed herself to lean more into the kiss, trying to tell Bo how relieved she was to see that she was safe, that she was alive. When she pulled back from the kiss a few moments later all she could was a look of sheer relief in Bo's eyes.
"You're safe." She heard Bo say, her voice little more then a breathless whisper, as she pulled Lauren into a fierce embrace.
For a single moment Lauren allowed herself to be weak, to fall into the embraces she had been craving so much, the feel of Bo against her after so long of being apart. But she knew that it was tainted, it was the heat of the moment and the desperation that was so common between them. This was a dance she was all to familiar with, one they completed each time a cataclysmic event was about to befall them, this one moment of respite, their small calm eye in the middle of a storm.
As she felt Bo shift away from her, pulling back from the embrace ever so slightly she could see her face begin to transform from the look of calm happiness to one of worry and sadness as she took in the cut on her head and more then likely the bruises that were beginning to appear on her cheeks.
"What happened to you?" She heard Bo whisper as she pulled her close again, her hand shifting from it's place at the back of her neck and into her hair, cradling her head, almost as if Bo could shield her from the world. She allowed her arms to got and wrap around Bo's waist, pulling them flush with each other ass he realized the embrace she was being held in was real, wincing as Bo's body pressed against the wound.
"You're okay." She breathed out as she held Bo close to her, wishing that they could stay in this embrace for a few moments longer. But she needed to tell Bo what she had found, her knowledge about how to end this apocalypse before it truly rose, before whatever was going to end the world this time came into existence, before the Pyripus appeared and before whatever had burned Massimo's body came back.
"Bo." She murmured as she pulled back from the soothing embrace. "There's something that you need to know, about how to end this all." She could see Bo had tilted her head down, refusing to meet her gaze. "Bo, look at me please."
"They already told me, Trick already told me. And I can't. I won't. There has to be another way, one that doesn't involve me choosing between you and Kenzi!" She could see was becoming increasing stressed and increasingly agitated, and without thinking she leaned forward to press another kiss to Bo's lips in an attempt to calm her down.
She could feel Bo respond quickly as she began to kiss back, her world becoming a little more vibrant as they shared another kiss.
One, which could quite possibly be their last.
The necklace, she realized when she felt the pendant dig into her side as she felt Bo pull her closer, her arm digging wrapped around the side containing her pocket. She had been carrying it around with her for so long that at times she for got that it was there. It's lightweight and cool metal becoming her companion on her quest, at times her only companion.
It had never felt like the right time to give it to her before, and it still didn't feel like the right time to be giving it to her now, but at the same time she could sense that perhaps Bo needed it more then she did know. Perhaps this time it would take on another new meaning, a token of her love as it had always been, as well as a token of remembrance of her, of them and the short time they had together, a small drop in the ocean that was Bo's lifespan. A small reminder of both the painful and the good memories, and of the love she had once had for her.
Because she had a feeling that however this went down she would not be walking out of it alive.
Pulling back from the embrace slightly and breaking the kiss in the process she allowed one of her hands to leave its perch at Bo's waist and reach into her pocket silently, gently curling her fingers around the cool metal and allowing it to warm from the heat of her skin. Slowly and deliberately she pulled it out, trying not to tip Bo off on just how badly she was injured, and just how badly Massimo had hurt her, no one could afford for Bo to become distracted by anger and protective instincts.
The world needed its champion, the only one who could undo what she herself had brought about. The only way for Bo to makeup for the mistakes she had made and to prevent the world from being destroyed by a fiery giant and the embodiment of darkness and evil itself, in the form of a horse of all things.
She took a breath as she gently pulled her hand in between them, keeping her bloody hand resting against Bo's hip. She opened her palm and showed the necklace to Bo, whose eyes she could see widen in recognition as she held the necklace open to Bo in her palm.
"Lauren…" She felt Bo's grip on her waist tighten as she pulled her closer to her, if it was possible, she let a small gasp escape as a fresh throb from the wound sent a fresh wave of pain through her body. Smiling slightly she looked at Bo, whose eyes were tearing up as she looked at her.
Moving her other arm she brought her hand up to undo the clasp for the necklace, gently opening the small clasp she held it up to Bo. She could see Bo looking at her with teary eyes, begging her to tell her that the necklace meant something other then what she thought it meant.
She wished that she could reach out, to reassure Bo that this necklace was not a goodbye, that it was not a token to remember her by.
But she couldn't.
Because it wasn't.
Gently she brought up to face Bo, holding it carefully, silently asking her if she was okay with putting it on her.
She could see Bo looking at her with tears in her eyes, and in turn all she could do was small at her silently before she brought the necklace around Bo's neck, gently closing the clasp and allowing it to dangle between her breasts. She allowed her fingers to trace down Bo's sternum, fingering the pendant for a few moments before she looked up at Bo again before she looked away.
The necklace looked beautiful on her, just like she thought it would when she bought it. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Bo's cheek lightly. She could feel Bo tense against her and a few moments later she was pulled backward out of Bo's arms and against a hard chest for a moment before she was thrown violently to the ground.
"Massimo." She heard Bo growl and when she looked up she saw Massimo staring back at her his form restored to what it had been before he swallowed the seed, the grotesquely proportioned limbs returned to normal. But when she caught his eyes for a moment she could tell something was wrong, the madness she had seen in his eyes before was gone, replaced by why appeared to be serene calm, a slight pulse of yellow to them.
Whatever had caused Massimo's body to burn away had also apparently taken control of it. She could hear Bo growl as her eyes turned blue, she could see one of Bo's hands drifting downward to grab at the scabbard she hadn't noticed before.
A sword.
She hadn't seen Bo carrying a full-length sword in a very long time.
Not since their fight with the Garuda.
Quickly she scrambled backward and out of the way as she saw Massimo blast Bo with what looked like a siren's whistle, the air around it vibrating at the frequency it was being set off at. She could see Bo quickly dive out of the way, a smirk on her face.
"You might want to try better then that ugly. I spent years fighting with a siren and I picked up some tricks along the way. But you would already know that wouldn't you, since you killed Hale!" She heard Bo yell as she charged at Massimo, her sword coming out swinging, ready to impale him on her blade, only for her to miss, giving Massimo an opening.
Backing up until she was leaning against a pillar she reached up and began to drag herself upward, pulling her body up, hoping that he legs didn't give out on her.
Despite how scared she was, despite how much she simply wanted to get up and run she could not, she needed to find a way to help Bo, to help her at least temporarily injure him, give her time to get Bo and herself out of here.
So she pulled herself up with her last remaining strength.
She needed to help Bo.