A/N: If you've stuck with me this long 1) you're a good sport, 2) you're a bunch of masochists 3) whatever happens, just trust me. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. And you might want to hold someone's hand (or your favorite teddy bear) to read this, just sayin'.
The Valkyrie and the human made their way down a set of stairs and as they crossed two massive wooden doors, a giant gladiator arena greeted them on the other side. The stadium, once filled with thousands of enthusiastic Romans, was suddenly cast and surrounded by darkness. The stands were emptier than a Toronto Maple Leafs' game after the Boston Bruins wiped them out of this year's playoffs, yet the rowdy cheers remained.
Up on the throne, where the king's buttock was usually encased, sat the Undertaker; sadistic smirk still in place. He tipped his top hat upwards with a bony finger at the pair's arrival, springing up to his feet to greet them.
"Here they are!" The creep bent his crooked back forward and set an old, worn boot on the edge of the high wall coming to an end just inches above most people's ankles. "Give a warm welcome to the two gorgeous gladiators for this evening's entertainment!" He opened his scrawny arms, as if ready to receive a hug. The nonexistent mass cheered, whistled and applauded louder and louder with each rotten word spoken from his mouth.
"Someone has a superiority complex." The Doctor remarked with a slight venous edge to her voice, although remaining wary about their current predicament.
Scrunching up her nose, Tamsin turned towards the smaller blonde. "And a love for Russell Crow flicks."
"I have to admit…not the best possible combination."
Grinning wider, if it was humanly –or in this case, inhumanly possible - the Undertaker waved an arm around. "Say hello to my little friend, and your first challenger!"
"-And he just keeps ruining great movies. Fucker." The Valkyrie spat, guarded eyes surveying the gigantic gate slowly opening.
Griping the taller woman's shoulder, Lauren pointed at the three gladiators emerging from said gate, sporting very little armor, though the trio held sharp weapons. Two of them had Gladius swords, while the one, which seemed like the leader (and considerably larger than the two others), had a spear as well as a round shield. "I think we have bigger problems to deal with than pop-culture massacres."
Rolling her green eyes, she stared directly at the Undertaker and opened her arms wide as she shouted over the noisy audience: "Four hundred pound beefcakes in diapers, really? That's the best you can do?"
"Considering your condition Valkyrie, they might be more than your old body can handle."
Tamsin simply snarled in response, as she readied herself for battle.
"What's the plan? You do have a plan, right?"
"Knock the big one out first."
"Well, they all seem considerably big to me."
Tamsin corrected herself: "The bigger one," Briefly glancing at the fidgeting Doctor behind her, the Scandinavian cracked her neck, left then right. "Don't worry Doc, I've got this."
"Good, because I'm not so good with the violence and the punching…thing." The petite blonde trailed off, brown orbs growing wide with fear as the man wielding the spear let out a vicious battle cry before charging towards them.
"Enjoy the show, you're about to witness what a Valkyrie can really do." Confident smirk firmly in place, Tamsin bent her knees slightly as she waited for the charging beefcake to get in close enough for her to take him down.
The gladiator stopped, took a leap forward and shouted as she thrust his spear forward. I'm sure he would have done a wonderful job at slicing a piece of Tamsin, if she hasn't side-stepped, causing his blade to cut through the air uselessly.
"Didn't your mom ever teach ya," Fingers curled around the pole, gripping it tightly, she gave it a hard tug forward. Letting go of the weapon, she stepped to the stumbling man's left side and stuck out her arm straight out.
An Adam's apple came met a strong forearm in a sudden and hard impact, causing the man to lose his breath – and his helmet - and fall on the ground, unconscious. "Don't point sharp objects at strangers, bitch." The helmet rolled in the sand, coming to rest right against Tamsin's shoe.
"Tamsin! Behind you!" Lauren shouted her warning, hoping the crowd wouldn't drown her out. There was nothing she could do to help her lover but be the eyes at the back of her head.
Quickly whirling around, the Valkyrie slid the toe of her dress shoe underneath the protective headpiece and flung it in the air in a swift motion. Left foot hanging back, she expertly transferred her weight onto her right side; left arm moved down while her right simultaneously moved upwards as she propelled the helmet forward with a perfectly aimed kick. Smirking, Tamsin shouted: "Heads up!"
The semi-heavy piece of metal cut through the air and smashed itself against the beefcake, whom was attempting a rogue sneak attack on the blonde. It bounced off of his face, breaking his nose in the process, before it finished its journey on the ground; sinking in the sand, bloodied and dusty.
Arching his strong back, the gladiator flexed every muscle in his body as he growled angrily. Crimson liquid flowed from his nostrils to his upper lip and dripped over his chin. He launched himself at Tamsin, viciously cutting the air around her, yet never landing a single blow.
"Swing and a miss!" Her taunts never ceased as she hastily dodged the Gladius' sharp edge. And on his third missed swing, Tamsin took the opportunity to add salt to the open wound: "Three strikes and-" Crouching down to avoid the piercing tip of the blade from taking off her head, she took out the gladiator's legs out from underneath him.
Forearm effectively shielded her eyes from the onslaught of sand that lifted up from the ground as the man's massive body fell down. Her green eyes located the fallen, and still unconscious, leader's spear. Stepping on the end of it, the weapon sprang up and a ready hand caught it in mid air. With a violent shout, Tamsin impaled the blade in the gladiator's stomach, eyes closed as wet and warm tangy liquid painted her face.
Standing up straight, Tamsin mimicked baseball umpires, wildly moving her arms about. "Yoooooou're out!" Stretching out the vowel as a lively chuckle escaped her lips; the invisible audience's cheers mutated into indignant shooing.
Her victory, although an honorable one, was short lived as she heard a familiar voice calling her name in panic. As she focused on the two figures standing ways behind her, her fears were validated. One of the gladiators was holding the Doctor, his blade raised to her throat.
Letting the spear fall, her usual emerald eyes were engulfed in darkness. "STOP!" She quickly ran towards them, arm out as shouted the command. The man stilled all his movements at once, and she continued: "My voice is the only thing you will obey from now on. Drop your sword," The short blade fell by his feet. "Let the woman go." His grip on the back of Lauren's air loosened completely and he let both of his arms fall to his side, aimless and useless.
Pressing her hand against her chest, the petite blonde stumbled back until she hit the ground. All that her wide eyes could focus on was Tamsin's changing face. The familiar features she came to know were lost under the now skeletal form. What in the world…?
A deep and hoarse unsettling tone took over, almost completely drowning out Tamsin's voice. "FACE ME! FACE YOUR MASTER!" The beefcake, now but a puppet at the mercy of the Valkyrie's finger tips, did exactly as ordered. "Get on your knees." As his knees sank into the sand covering the ground of the arena, Tamsin marched towards him, her gaze never leaving his as she angrily gripped his throat.
The booming voice instilled fear and overwhelming doubts in his mind, causing his whole body to tremble. Jaw clenched tightly, the distress in his eyes was clearly visible, yet he made no movement to untangle himself from the fingers crushing his throat.
Tamsin's face continued to sink into itself, the transformation spreading to her neck and hands. She opened her skeletal jaw, wide, to the point where it would have unhinged itself if she had been anyone else. A dark, foggy smoke escaped the depths of her open mouth, infiltrating itself in the brute's slightly parted lips and nostrils.
The darkness traveled through his veins, branching out like rapidly growing trees. It lathered his whole body, his face and his eyes. He grew stiff and cold under Tamsin's hand as his breathing stopped completely.
An unworldly screech emitted itself from the Valkyrie's mouth as she flexed every muscle in her arm, clenching the hand around the man's throat until she could close her fist. He broke into a million pieces like fragile porcelain, dissipating into a cloud of smoke. The smoke which was immediately absorbed by the blonde's dark aura.
Her frosty Scandinavian cheeks were back to their original color, her eyes gleamed a darker shade of green than they have ever been. Feeling her breath leave her, as if she was the one getting choked out, she fell to her knees, both of her hands around her throat as a violent cough took over. Her own blood dripped from her nose, mixing with the fallen warrior's blood that already stained her face.
A strong hand gripped her bicep, pulling her up to her feet. Though, she knew, the hand was far too large to be Laurens'. She felt her eyelids becoming increasingly heavy; the Druid's potion had succeeded into boosting up her abilities, yet her old body couldn't handle such raw power. Come on, don't faint, not now. I need to make sure Lauren's safe. I can'… I won't.
The Detective angrily shook the dizziness out of her head, with perfect timing nonetheless, seeing none other than Lauren holding the previously unconscious leader's shield and shouting something that sounded like 'duck'. A duck…what? The piece of armor had been thrown her way like a Frisbee, a very dangerous one hundred pound Frisbee with sharp blades all around. OH SHIT, DUCK!
Digging her elbow in the gladiator's side, Tamsin threw herself on the ground, and out of harm's way, covering her head with both of her hands as the shield zoomed over her stretched out body. Lifting herself up on her elbows, she looked behind her to see both the leader's head, and his shield, rolling on the ground before his body finally slumped forward, lifeless and spurting a gruesome amount of blood.
Both bodies were sucked into the ground, like the earlier brute had been, leaving behind new sand; void of the bloodshed it was previously tainted with. Lauren for her part was still immobile, both unable and unwilling to move. This was the first time she had taken a life, the first time her body was used to brutally decapitate another person's body. But he wasn't a person, he wasn't even human and he almost killed Tamsin…I-I saved her. The Valkyrie still had her head, and that's all that mattered to Lauren.
Before she could say anything to the stunned, yet impressed Detective, The Undertaker silenced the crowd to make his grizzly and irritatingly high pitched voice heard: "Bad, bad Valkyrie," His cheery tone quickly grew darker. "Using dirty tricks in my own realm will result in severe punishment!"
The audience cheered once more and as he silenced them, a grin spread across his face. "For you, I'll make death excruciatingly long and painful." With a snap of his bony fingers, the ground started shaking beneath both women's feet. Metal bars started spurt out from the sand, forming two separated cages around the pair.
Something else was simmering in Tamsin's place of confinement: a large pair of arms erupted from the sand, and another one and another one. As the head and torso of the beast protruded from the ground, she realized the three sets of arms belonged to the same creature. Two, massively large horns sat on top of his bull-like face. His lower limbs resembled a horses back legs, curved and compacted with power.
No combination of swear words could ever describe the distress she was feeling in this exact moment. "Take a baseball bat, stick it with sharp nails and beat me with it." The crude imagery did nothing to calm her down or stir up any sort of confidence within her.
The Valkyrie had seen this Underfae before and she wished she could forget the bloodshed it had brought to an entire army during the Trojan Wars. Virtually un-killable, the high elders were only able to neutralize it and trap it in a spell powered, indestructible cell for eternity. The humongous beast smashed two of his six fists against its chest, letting out a growl so loud it made the whole arena tremble.
The Undertaker's cheeky laughter echoed around the seemingly empty stadium as his gaze landed on a distressed Doctor. "You can do nothing but watch as my Minotaur tortures and tears your lover limb from limb. Sit back and relax human, as you will soon be his victory meal." Another maniacal laughter rose from within his throat, raising a whirlwind of anger and hate inside of her.
"Just take me, let her go and take me! That's what you want isn't it? Just take me and let Tamsin go!" Lauren desperately pleaded and repeated, clutching to the metallic bars holding her hostage. She couldn't say that she wasn't use to it by now. One way or another, the Fae will always perceive her as a stray animal, needing to be tamed and punished when necessary.
"Offering yourself for your lover? Quite noble, yet you know nothing of what I want, human. I wish to see you both die. With, of course, the benefit of being entertained by your worthless efforts to survive." Sitting back down on his red, velvet throne, the man rested both of his elbows on the arms of the chair, intertwining his hands together. "Enough talking. Let the battle commence!"
"Lauren," Tamsin turned away from the beast, looking at the infuriated blonde Doctor, whom was currently attempting to dig a hole in the sand. Her efforts, however, were to no avail, as the hole immediately filled itself up. "Lauren look at me!"
The human finally lifted her head, whipping away her tears with the back of her hand as her shimmering brown eyes looked into Tamsin's emerald ones.
"This isn't real. None of this is real. Bo's gonna get out soon and we'll be free, I pro-ARGH!" Before she could finish her sentence, the Minotaur smashed his fist into her side, cracking her ribs on impact. She was certain he hadn't even used all of his strength, or her insides would have been pulverized; Valkyrie themed slush swirling around in her stomach.
"Do not make promises you can't keep, Valkyrie." The Undertaker took pleasure in taunting the woman, relishing each and every pained breath she took.
The gigantic beast's large fingers curled around her slender arm, his other hand gripping the back of her head as she simultaneously smashed her skull against the metal bars and snapped both her humerus and radius bone. Her screams of agony only fueled the cruelty of his actions as he effortless lifted the woman up above his head and threw her body against the metal bars.
Tamsin fell on the ground, like a rag doll that had been viciously played with by an energetic bunch of children; clothes ripped and disheveled, stained with blood, though it was almost impossible to see on the dark fabric.
Lauren ripped her crying eyes away from the scene, unable to watch Tamsin getting tortured in such a inhumane way. She wished she couldn't hear the woman's pain, she wished she could do something to help, but all she felt was hopelessness.
"Oh no you don't." The Undertaker raised a finger, taking control of Lauren's body as she turned her head towards the one-sided battle. "You will watch every second of her suffering. You will watch her die!"
As much as she tried, the petite blonde couldn't close her eyes, nor look away. A sharp, suffocating pain started around the middle of her chest and quickly engulfed her whole torso. No one could understand the pain of having their heart ripped out of their chest as Lauren did in this exact moment.
The Minotaur grabbed Tamsin's head, lifting her up off the ground as his second set of arms began tenderizing and pulverizing the woman's insides, crushing every bone and bursting every organ in the process.
Blood spurt from her mouth and she promptly spat in the beast's face. She used the only functional limb and delivered a fierce kick right underneath his jaw. His grip slipped and he dropped the battered woman on the ground.
Resting her back against the cage's wall, she used the last bit of her strength to push herself up against it with her legs. Tears trailed down her face, painfully so. Was there anything in her body that wasn't screaming in agony? Tamsin even wondered how she was still alive.
The Undertaker felt Lauren try to break from his control and he relinquished. "Fine, you wish to be closer to her? Go!"
The cage vanished and with it, the Doctor's freedom was given to her. She ran to the dying Valkyrie's side, taking her shaking hand in hers.
Taking a painful half-breath, she turned her head to look at the beautiful human. "I-I'm s-sorry, L-" Another spurt of blood rose into her throat and spilled from her mouth.
Lauren quietly shushed her between painfully chocking back her sobs. "Just hang on, Tamsin, I'll fix this. When we get back, I'll find something." She gently ran her hands into the woman's messy hair.
"No u-use D-doc, I-w was a-already dead."
"I can- I will find a way to reverse it."
"You can't, L-Lauren. A Valkyrie's l-life cycle c-can't be reversed. No o-one can h-help me."
"I won't let you die here." Lauren whispered as her reddened chocolate brown orbs stared into her lover's fading green ones.
A weak smile lifted the corner of her lips as she let her eyes close briefly. "You have to." The Detective breathed out, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the warmth of the body behind her for the last time. If she could have chosen any way to go, this was perfect.
"Stay with me! Goddamnit, Tamsin, stay with me!" Lauren didn't want to lose control, she needed to stay strong, but how could she?
"Doc," Taking a deep breath, The Icelandic blonde wet her lips before she spoke: "I love you." And with one last declaration, a final breath left her.
"NO! TAMSIN!" The cage and the minotaur disappeared, leaving Tamsin's lifeless body to fall back against Lauren. Cradling the woman in her arms, she hadn't noticed that the world around them faded in the blink of an eye, and that they were both back at the Dal Riata.
What pulled her back into reality were Dyson's distressed and angry shouts as he rushed to his partner's side. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER LAUREN?! WHAT HAPPENED?!"
The Doctor couldn't talk, her mind was stuck elsewhere, and she couldn't form words with her mouth as she stared disbelievingly at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes.
The wolf gently grabbed the back of Tamsin's head, tears wetting his cheeks and he pressed his forehead against hers. "No, no, no no, Tamsin, what did you do? Come back, damnit, COME BACK!"
The Valkyrie's body convulsed, her back arched and her torso lifted itself above the ground. A bright light shot out of her body and smashed a hole into the Dal's ceiling before her body slumped back down.
Dyson wrapped one arm around Lauren, bringing her closer as he shielded both women from the debris caused by the…
"What the Fae'ing shit was that?" Kenzi exclaimed, stealing the question burning everyone's lips.
Trick moved to the grieving Wolf's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "When a Valkyrie perishes, her life essence goes back to where it came from: Valhalla." Though I wished it wasn't at my bar's expense, The Blood King thought as he peered at the blue sky through the ceiling.
"There must be something we can do Trick, this can't be the end." Dyson's voice was uncharacteristically distressed, laced with disbelief as he held Tamsin against his chest.
"We cannot choose when a Valkyrie's life cycle expires. There's nothing we can do, Dyson. I'm sorry."
"Do something, Trick! For God's sake, you're the blood king!"
He cast his eyes down, saddened by the loss of a great warrior. Saddened bu the fact that someone with such a prestigious title of 'King' could not bring this loved one back. "Even my power has its limits."
The rest of the gang was shooed away by the barkeep, leaving Lauren and Dyson alone with the fallen Valkyrie. Lauren let herself be comforted by the Wolf's warm embrace. Something so uncharacteristic for them was the only thing keeping their seams from bursting. Their pain and suffering was shared, and they both understood this.
I feel like I must say this: TBC