"Delia, talk to me."

The fright in Misty's voice shouldn't have been able to pierce her thoughts the way it did. Cordelia was filled to the breaking point with terror already. Her was head stuffed with images of her little boy stuck in that house, locked in a cellar or fleeing from the deranged half-dead child in there with him, packed with the berating voices of just what kind of mother she was to let her child be taken so easily and just bursting with incoherent fear. The blazing determination to end this war now and take her son back, come hell or high water, was what had made her walk straight out of the front door, but with every few steps, it was the fear that carried her. It was so deep-rooted and so thick that there shouldn't have been room for anything else.

Yet Misty's fear, a fear that at this exact moment had nothing to do with their son, still poked through.

Cordelia didn't answer. She only kept walking. They had taken the car as far as Marie's territory, but left it at the perimeter. They couldn't just pull up in it or she would know something was wrong.

All of them followed Cordelia now, the whole oddly shaped group: The mute butler, the adopted youngster, the ghost of a frat boy, the wild child and then the schoolteacher. Cordelia was still stunned that she found herself at the front of the group, leading it. It should have been Misty, but it was her. Misty wasn't one for leading people. But she would have to, soon enough.

"Are you gonna do what I think you're doing?" Cordelia didn't answer right away, only briefly looked at Misty, before shooting her gaze back at the path they were walking, making sure she went the right way. They would have to get close before calling on Papa Legba, because once he withdrew Marie Laveau's powers, that child of hers had no lullaby left. Misty had explained how Marie could keep him calm, but if just some of that was her voodoo powers and not the love of a mother, Cordelia could risk being too far from Cage.

"We are running out of time, Misty-" Cordelia started to say, but Misty cut her off, her voice so shrill with panic that Cordelia saw Zoe jump out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't you dare!" Misty took three large steps and put herself in Cordelia's path, forcing her to stop. "You wanted to talk 'bout this, when I made the connection last, so don't you dare just sacrifice yourself without givin' me a chance to talk you outta it!"

There were tears in Misty's eyes. She was wild with fear, she must be or she would never behave like this out in the open, where others could see her. Vulnerability practically shone from her eyes. Cordelia felt her throat close up. She couldn't get the words past her tongue to say the things she needed, so put a hand on either side of Misty's face. She tried the best way she could to communicate her meaning through gaze only, but it was too complicated to explain. She reached down and took Misty's hand, squeezed it and pulled Misty with as she started to walk again.

"Give me a minute", Cordelia said to her.

"You ain't got more than that. Her house is right 'round the next block."

Cordelia gave no answer to that, only walked silently with Misty's hand warm in hers. Misty always had warm hands, dry hands as well, but there was a hint of moisture to her palm now. The feverish terror bursting through her skin made Cordelia want to sink to the ground and cry for help, but it also made her stronger somehow. It made her realize that for once she was the clear head. And she needed to be. She saw also how Misty's behavior changed the closer they got. She slouched more, ran her free hand through her hair more, made a soundless snarl the way she did when she felt backed up into a corner. Yet she kept on walking, kept holding Cordelia's hand so she wouldn't run off and offer her soul to Papa Legba. But Cordelia would do so either way.

They walked in silence the rest of the way, Misty and Cordelia in the front, linked by hand, Zoe and Kyle in the middle and Spalding at the rear. Cordelia thought to herself that they must look strange, walking with that urgency and that darkness surrounding them – because surely these feelings that eluted from them all must transform to a vast mist of darkness around the group, even on this bright evening. It sure felt that way.

When they came close enough to gain sighting of the house, Misty and Kyle both started to twitch with unease. It was almost on key with the moment they turned the corner. If nothing else, it only convinced Cordelia more that they needed to do this. That she needed to do this.

They found an alley as close to the house as they dared get. Cordelia started to mentally prepare herself, when Misty stepped in front of her again.

"Now explain why you're doing this." She said it with calm this time. The panic had left her voice, despite the vague quiver. She was still afraid, that much was obvious, but she had also realized that this was her last chance and she would not take it with yelling. Cordelia saw this in her gaze and loved her for it.

"I can't function without you", she told her lover. She picked Misty's hands up, kissed them and held them to her lips for a moment, before she went on: "I've proven that many times over throughout my life. You are the reason I've learned to deal with the whispers, yours is the voice I search for instead. I can't function without you, but you can without me. You have the strength. And you have sacrificed so much for me. Let me do this. I want you to take care of Cage. You're the better one of the two of us."

The rest of the group caught up slowly, but kept their distance. Cordelia barely registered their presence. She saw only Misty and the streaming line of tears on her face. She felt her hands shake against her mouth.

"It's not true", Misty said. Her voice trembled and it made her sound like a little girl. At the same time there was strength in it, the same determination Cordelia had seen back at the house, the same determination she had spoken with a moment ago. "I…" Misty dropped her gaze briefly, then looked up again and started to explain the hole she had felt in her chest when she had thought they were over. "I can't spent forever not breathin' right 'cause you're gone. And I didn't much function then. But that ain't the most important thing. Thing is, I love that boy." Misty sniffled once and smiled, mostly to herself. "I love him almost as much as I love you, but that's the difference. You put him first. And that's okay, baby, you should. But it means you gotta stay. I can be a mama to him, but you carried him. That means somethin'."

Cordelia was no stranger to the concept of how much love can hurt, even the good kind, but in that moment, she abandoned everything she knew. Nothing had ever hurt as much as the truth Misty had just spoken. In that moment she selfishly shot a glance around the group, too ashamed to linger on any of the faces, but hoping someone else would save her from this choice. No one answered, they remained statues in a half circle around them, close enough to have their faces read. Zoe was crying, but the men remained motionless. Spalding had taken on a new sort of blank attitude. He looked far away in thought.

"We needa call him", Misty said, bringing Cordelia back into the pain of their farewell.

"But we haven't decided yet."

"We'll know, once he's here."

Cordelia nodded and felt the tears finally leave her eyes. It was unusual, the fact that she was the last of them to cry and it was as if those tears were the catalyst to move on. Misty broke the space between them and swept Cordelia into a deep kiss laced with the white-hot intensity of that hurt she felt before. But as that burned away it was only the love that was left. They knew this and they whispered it into each other's faces. They wiped each other's tears from their cheeks and Misty nodded. She was ready.

She stepped into the middle, her hand still locked in Cordelia's and began staring into space. The seconds crept on and Cordelia kept waiting for the cold to consume her, kept expecting to see those cold, red eyes as Misty began to tremble.

Nothing happened.

Misty gagged and then stepped back.

"I… I can't", she said in a strained voice. She looked back to Cordelia regret and relief swimming in her eyes all at once. She ran a frantic hand through her hair. "She won't let me. She did somethin'…"

"Wait, so we can't contact him? Then how are we…" Zoe trailed off, looked from one woman to the other. Cordelia hadn't given up yet. Because she knew something that the rest didn't, something she had hoped she wouldn't need to explore because she was afraid. But perhaps it was better like that.

"Misty is not the only one who has ever made contact", Cordelia said in a flat voice. In her mind she travelled back to that night she always forced herself to avoid thinking of. That moment in which she had held Misty's cold, dead hand and looked down to find the Gatekeeper to the underworld smiling at her. Inviting her.

The truth of it dawned Misty then. Cordelia could see the memory flash in her eyes as they widened. Misty grabbed herself by the hair again with her free hand, tore at it almost subconsciously it seemed. She didn't speak, but her eyes pleaded for the last time to not leave her. Cordelia squeezed her hand and then took her place in the middle of the circle.

She had never done anything remotely as spiritual as this. It felt odd to her at first, like saying a prayer to God, when she didn't really believe one existed. Like calling out to some abstract, faceless existence.

Except Papa Legba wasn't faceless to her and that helped. She did not possesses the same ability to enter a trance as Misty did, so instead she just stared into space and pictured his face. Suddenly the alley swam with greyish-black colors and there in the middle of it, stood he. The cold floated from the hole in Cordelia's reality, in and out of that world which he had once invited her into.

Papa Legba wasted no time with greetings. "Has the choice been made?" He asked with his coarse, drawling voice. It seemed to possess a cold in its own, a cold that didn't travel in the air, but spawned directly in Cordelia's chest. Papa Legba looked between the two of them. "I shall gladly take the set."

That snapped Cordelia into awareness again.

"You won't. You can hav-" She didn't get any further, because just then a foreign hand touched her shoulder and she turned. The hand wasn't foreign after all, had only felt so in the tiny world of her and Misty, but belonged to Spalding. The blankness had gone out of his features and for once Cordelia understood him perfectly clear. She knew his intentions even before he pushed her aside, her and Misty both.

"Spalding, I…" She held her tongue for just a moment to absorb his offer and in the meantime a look passed between him and Misty. Spalding no longer looked at Misty with anger. "I can't let you do that for us", Cordelia said at last.

"It's okay, Delia", Misty said, still looking Spalding straight in the eye. Her gaze was soft, teary, and her voice was full of gratitude and relief. "He wants to help. He doesn't wanna be here no more."

Spalding passed one last look at Cordelia and gave her a nod. She gave one back and whispered "Thank you." He smiled and turned away from her. Cordelia hadn't thought that Spalding had ever been contacted by Papa Legba, but in that moment it seemed the only one who couldn't see him was Zoe. She stared into space a little to his left, all the while clutching a silent Kyle's hand.

Spalding stared at Papa Legba for a long second and then the Gatekeeper nodded.

"Yes", he said. "I can reunite you. I accept your offer."

Go be with my mother, Spalding, Cordelia thought, perhaps she even whispered it in hopes it would resolve a bit of her guilty relief. A second later, Spalding's thin body collapsed onto the ground. It was so withered and light that it barely made a sound, but Cordelia thought she felt her insides drop with him and tears sprung to her eyes again.

Beside her Misty collapsed as well, but in a gasp of pure relief and closely followed by laughter of disbelief.

"The hum, it's gone", she cried as new tears well up in her eyes as well. She laughed again. "She's out."

Cordelia crouched down beside her, unable to speak and pulled her in. Misty half laughed, half cried in her arms, but no one said anything. Zoe and Kyle came close and for a moment, they all looked down at the mute butler. He looked back at them, but his eyes saw nothing of this world anymore.

O0O

Marie was with Damian and Cage when it happened. Chinwee had seen them come towards the grounds, but by the time he could tell her what they were up to, it was too late. Even if she still had him under control, even if he had found it in his heart to warn her instead of running away, she couldn't have stopped it. It was done.

It felt like a cancer going through her, eating away her power, her invulnerability. All of it done in a second. A course of disease so rapid it could only be unearthly. The doing of Papa Legba. She thought she heard him laugh in her head before she turned cold and weak and mortal.

At first she didn't understand; she had prevented the Goode-girl. It must be that she had underestimated the connections of some of the other ones. As she sank to the floor, powerless and confused, she looked from one boy to the other, trying to determine which one scared her the most. The boy who was supposed to be her savior, whose family would come in at any second and strip her of pride, family and home or the boy who was her heart, the one who now looked at her with a terror so deep she thought it might just kill her. She no longer possessed the ability to calm him. Too much of him was dead and not enough alive for a mortal mother. She saw that now.

Damian started screaming.

The horror of his screeching threatened to burst her eardrums. But it was the ravenous look on his face that caused her to move. It took her one second too long to realize that her son was attacking her and she didn't move away before he put his claws in her. Marie cried out and wrenched away from the tiny death grip. Damian lunged again, but this time Marie jumped out of reach. The screams from Damian's throat made her mind all kinds of fuzzy and the tears, she hadn't realized she was crying, were blinding her.

In the corner, Cage started to cry and it made Marie snap into focus. The same happened to Damian. There was a second in which both of them lost focus on each other, and turned their attention to the foreign boy instead. Then time became a race. Marie still had advantage of size by far and she grabbed the little, blonde boy and pulled him out of reach, before Damian and his bloodstained, clawing hands could take him. Marie then ran to the door, Cage Goode under one arm, and escaped into the hall. She slammed the door behind her and staggered into the kitchen a couple of doors down. Cage had gone almost silent in her arms. There was no extraterrestrial power in her now, to tell him to keep quiet. It was the utter terror of the situation that had reduced his crying to a muted whimper. His little hands clung to her shirt, his whole body curled around her like a koala and the acknowledgement made her want to throw the boy across the room. But she couldn't do that. She had never meant to harm him. There was one scratch on his arm from an early attempt at introduction, but she had stopped that before Damian could do any real damage. That was only hours ago, when she still had the ability to do so.

For a few minutes she sat still on the floor of the kitchen, the boy still clutched to her chest, and listened for the sound of Damian behind the door. He was making his wheezing cries and scratching the door, but he wasn't tall enough to reach the handle.

Then something else caught Marie's attention; the unmistakable sound of footsteps coming up the isle outside.

Not Damian. She couldn't think anything else. Not Damian. The witch would take him and she couldn't let her, not her boy. The terror she felt for her son – because of her son, was nothing compared to the thought of losing this last piece of him. She put Cage Goode down without much thought and the frozen silent boy couldn't stop her track of thoughts even if he had had a voice left. She went around the counter and into the drawers. Needles would no longer do, so she had to think bigger. The large kitchen knife would do.

She felt odd with the knife in hand. Strangely mortal, yet powerful in a new way. The idea of bringing Papa Legba to his knees and demanding he returned Damian's soul had gone like sand through her fingers, but she could still bend her human enemy. The witch was not invincible. Chinwee had drawn blood, so she knew it could be done.

With a solid grip on the knife, Marie moved back around the counter, just as the handle on the front door began to rattle. She grabbed Cage Goode by the collar of his shirt and dragged him backwards. He began to whimper, but she shushed him.

"Quiet boy", she hissed and he obeyed. He was good like that, she had noticed. He wouldn't ever be her boy, but he was a good kid. She meant to drag him out of harm's way. She put the knife down on the floor just long enough to bind the boy to Damian's old baby seat. He wasn't a big boy like Damian, but he just barely fit the chair. It would do, until it was over.

The door finally opened, the intruders stepped in and Marie picked the knife up again.

"Marie?" It was the witch. Damian started shrieking at the sound of the stranger – or perhaps it was that he recognized this particular voice – and clawed at the door.

That's good, baby, get their attention, Marie thought. It would make it easier for her to attack.

Hesitant steps continued down the hall towards them, one pair of feet, maybe two. Marie couldn't tell. She didn't dwell on counting. It didn't matter in the end.

O0O

Misty was the first to enter the house. She moved swiftly and energized through the doorway, ready to take on whatever may come. Her head was clear. It felt just like the air did after a rare, solid rain had cleansed it of dust. She could breathe right again, she could think her own thoughts. She could choose her own emotion. And she was furious.

Cordelia was the next one through. Her cleansing had come earlier and in a different form than Misty's, but she was just as ready to fight through hell to get their son. Her fury might be there, but it was well kept under a cool expression of calculated calm. This had come with her cleansing, amplified after Spalding's sacrifice and it radiated from her.

Kyle and Zoe came in last. At first Kyle had resisted, but Misty thought perhaps the change in her had rubbed off on him, because he seemed less scared to enter as soon as she stepped over the threshold. Misty saw this in the periphery of her vision – her gaze was focused ahead, searching.

She couldn't feel Laveau's presence anymore, the way she had been able to before. The connection had broken clean and there wasn't so much as an imprint of her in Misty's mind, but Misty had always tracked by smell. The smell of fear in the air, the stuffiness that came with it, but most of all the actual scent of Marie Laveau; she had grown familiar with that during her captivity and it came back to her now. The scent was strong; the sweat of terror hung in the air. Misty made a right as soon as she stepped through the door. She knew they had gone this way.

"Marie?" Misty called. Her voice shook with anger. She meant for the fallen Voodoo Queen to know that the tides had changed. She would not be cornered this time.

To their right a muffled, childish screaming started. Cordelia gasped with surprise, but Misty recognized the voice at once. Damian's pain called to her so strong that she lost track of her feet. There it was again. It had been so heavily suppressed that the calling felt alien to her. But she could not forget the voice of her siren. The begging for her to fix a wound, the pleading for relief. It tore at her and the magnitude of it sent her into a trance stronger than she could ever remember being in. She moved towards it, put a hand to the handle and turned the knob, all the while ignoring the voices of protest behind her.

Damian Laveau came flying out as soon as she opened.

He reached Misty first, buried his teeth and claws in the flesh of her arm and tore, shrieking as he did so. It only lasted a few seconds, until the power of resurrection rushed under Misty's skin towards the point of contact. Misty felt the sickness in the little boy for only a fraction of a second before he unlatched and dumped to the floor, dazed and terrified. His good eye was wide as it stared at her and there was suddenly a wordless prayer in it. But the sickness stole her focus nonetheless.

"Misty!"

Misty turned only in time to see the flash of steel and lift her already injured arm for protection, before Laveau was on her, knife in hand. It went straight through Misty's forearm and she screamed out in agony. She caught the glaze of insanity in Marie Laveau's frantic eyes, just before she pulled the knife out, ready to stab again.

"Don't!" Cordelia screamed and ran herself into Laveau, before she could stab Misty again. The force of the impact sent Misty staggering backwards and she lost focus on the fight. Marie yelled in surprise, hissed and slashed at Cordelia instead, who cried out again, louder. Warm droplets hit Misty's face and her stomach turned cold. The world became a chaotic mess of limbs as everyone moved at once. Misty felt herself being pushed back against the wall, momentarily blinded by pain, bodies and her own hair. She heard Laveau scream out in anger, Kyle grunt with strain and suddenly the crying of her son. She couldn't locate him, but she could hear him crying somewhere close nearby.

"Baby! Cage, stay where you are!" Misty felt a surge of relief at Cordelia's strong voice. It trembled, it sounded pained and scared, but it was full of life. Misty pinned herself to the wall and regained focus.

The first thing she spotted was Cordelia, running towards the sound of Cage's crying. She held onto her right forearm with her left hand and blood ran through her fingers. She went into the kitchen and disappeared from view, but her cry of relief was unmistakable.

Misty looked around to find that Kyle had grabbed Laveau and now held her in a half nelson. He looked sick with discomfort of being so close to the woman who created him, but he held her in place. His gaze was fixed, not on her, but on his child counterpart in the doorway just behind Misty. Damian still sat on the floor, dazed and wavering. He did nothing but stare at Misty with a hiss on his little face.

When she looked back at Kyle, she now found him staring directly at her. When he had her attention, he cast one glance at the half-dead boy and then looked back at Misty. "Not the same", he said. Misty understood.

"No, you're not the same. He can't do it no more."

"No!" Marie screamed and fought against Kyle's unyielding grip. "Not my baby! Don't you touch him, you filthy witch!"

"He needs peace", Misty said in a ghostly calm voice. The trance had already taken her again. "He's hurting."

"Do it." It was Kyle, who said it. Their eyes met and it was the clearest Misty had seen him since his death. She nodded and crouched in front of the child.

Damian flinched away from her, but when Misty finally got a chance to look the boy in the eye, she saw that prayer again. The boy was just as hostile as Kyle was at first, if not more so, but there was an earnest pleading for peace in his eyes, somewhere behind the flash of hate.

"Look away, Marie", Misty said and put her hands to her child. The rush of whatever her power truly was made her nauseous for a moment. This was the deepest, most grievous wound she had ever encountered and in some ways it felt much worse than putting her hands to Hank's corpse. Because she wasn't giving away this time. She was taking in. She was taking the death-like, twisted half-living out of a little boy and pouring it into herself. She thought for a moment if she could give him a right kind of life when she was done taking, but the more she took, the more sure she became that there would be nothing left of Damian, even if she had had the strength to give. The voodoo spell was a Band-Aid over a crushed bone and as she dissolved the Band-Aid, the body fell apart. He would be nothing but a shell. When his body finally gave up and he sunk onto his back, Misty knew he would never get up again.

The cloud of dizziness began to evaporate from her head and the nausea dissolved little by little. Sounds started to poke through the trance and Misty had expected to feel cold, like she had done before, but instead she felt hot, unbearably so. It burned under her skin and in her very core. Her whole body hurt and she trembled. She could hear it in her own breathing, but she couldn't feel anything but that burning sensation.

A cool hand touched her back and Misty recognized it. She let go of Damian and let herself fall back into the waiting embrace. Cordelia's arms closed around her and pulled her in.

"You did it, love. It's okay. You can rest now." It wasn't until Cordelia stroked her cheek that Misty realized she was crying. She wanted to say that it couldn't all be over yet, because they were still in her captors house, but she had no energy. Instead she focused on the cool of Cordelia's touch and the knowledge that the heat was slowly fading.

The voice of Marie Laveau came back into focus – and Misty thought perhaps she had been screaming this whole time, only outside Misty's field of focus – when she roared with the fury of a mother, who have lost, and made one last attempt at wrestling herself out of Kyle's grasp. Misty turned her head in time to see her succeed. Kyle appeared to have lost himself in the scene, because his eyes were focused south of Misty's hands and it must have loosened his grip. Now he snapped back into focus and grasped for Laveau. He wasn't as fast anymore and Marie escaped him. In a split second, hers and Misty's gaze locked. Then Marie ran.

Kyle exclaimed a feral roar and bolted after her. Misty's eyes snapped to his and she found no recognition. For a moment, the creature of Kyle had taken over again. What he lacked in agility he made up for in brute strength and one tiny hold on Marie was enough. He slammed her into the wall and his fist flew to her throat.

"No mom! No mom!" Kyle yelled. Neither Misty nor Cordelia understood this, but Zoe clearly did, because she came flying into view, put Cage down beside the two women and stepped close to Kyle.

"It's okay, Kyle. She can't hurt you anymore. Don't kill her,, please."

For a moment everyone stared at the scene. None of them matched the shock on Marie's face. The look on her face spoke of disbelief. As if she couldn't quite fathom what Zoe was saying.

"You wanted to bury me, girl. Go on then", Marie spat.

Zoe ignored her and kept her eyes on Kyle.

"Let her go. Let it all go, Kyle and I will too. We can start over. We're tired of being angry, aren't we?"

Kyle grunted. His waxy knuckles turned a shade paler, the bones stood out. Marie started gagging.

Then Kyle loosened his grip and Marie stumbled towards the door. She regained her footing and flew out of the doorway. Kyle snapped into pursuit and Zoe followed. In a second, the hallways was empty except for Zoe's fading calls.

Misty found herself hoping Kyle wouldn't catch her. The anger had left with the fever and she would gain nothing more from this fight. The Voodoo Queen had fallen and she couldn't hurt them anymore.

"Mama?" Cage spoke for the first time since their arrival. His voice was full of terror and his eyes frantically searched her face. Misty forced herself to smile and lift a hand to ruffle his hair. It was damp against her fingers.

"I'm okay, baby boy. Are you okay?" He gave her a timid nod and looked at Cordelia. Misty could feel her move as she made room for Cage to crawl into her embrace.

"Does it hurt anywhere, love?" Cordelia asked him. Misty couldn't see him shake his head, but she didn't need to. For one because she had always been certain that Marie wouldn't physically hurt him and she had kept that promise in keeping the boys separated. But more convincingly, Misty could feel that he was just fine. Her ability was back at full force and she relished in feeling whole again.

"What about you?" Cordelia whispered in her ear. It was the first warmth that felt good. Misty took a moment to feel her body and found that most had faded now. Even the pain from her forearm, though it would take a while to heal, with all this dead inside her.

The only thing that really hurt was the sight of the dead boy in front of her.

"I'm okay", she said again and proved it by lifting herself up. She got to her feet and walked over Damian and into his room. On his bed was a small blanket that she picked up and used to wrap the little body in.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Cage asked and Cordelia told him yes. "He was very scared all the time", Cage added and none of them said anything to that. Cordelia hugged him closer and shot Misty a glance over his head. We did it, the look said and then she looked at the wrapped bundle in Misty's arms. But at what cost.

"It's better this way", Misty said. "For everyone."

Cordelia nodded and the conversation stopped there. Misty meant to bury the body later, but for now she put him on the bed. She went back to her family on the floor and sat down in front of them. She leaned her forehead against Cordelia's and so they sat, until Kyle and Zoe returned her.

"We didn't catch her", Zoe said, once they were inside. Kyle said nothing, but his gaze was calm. Misty couldn't tell if he was relieved or disappointed.

"Good", was all Misty said. She looked up at them and saw Zoe fidgeting with her sleeves. It made Misty remember what she had seen there. "Zoe, come over here."

Zoe looked surprised, hesitant for a moment, but then she stepped over.

"I couldn't help you before, but now I can." Misty got up and made a move to roll up Zoe's sleeves, but shot her an asking glance first. She had momentarily forgotten that it wasn't Cordelia she was communicating with, but Zoe seemed to understand, because she nodded.

Misty pulled up Zoe's sleeves and exposed the small landscape of white scars. She could tell just by look and feel that there weren't as deep as some of Cordelia's had been. These would not take much out of her and so despite her exhaustion, Misty placed her hand over Zoe's arm.

Kyle grunted with unease, but he didn't move, only stared at Zoe. Zoe herself gasped as the warmth started to flow. For a few unpleasant seconds, Misty's skin felt both hot and cold, but then it passed and she moved to the other arm. When she was done, Zoe's skin was smooth and untouched and her eyes were the size of teacups.

"Wow… Wow, that's…" She looked up at Misty with a big smile. "It's like they were never there. That was amazing!"

Misty smiled and tried to hide that she felt faint. "Just be good to yourself from now on, 'kay?"

Zoe's smile faded a bit and her eyes became serious. "Yeah, I'll do better." She turned to Kyle and smiled at him. He smiled back and looked at Misty. His gaze was almost friendly.

"Zoe, will you take Cage and Kyle and wait for us outside?" Cordelia asked from behind them. Misty hadn't heard her get up.

"Yeah, sure", she said and took Cage's hand. She winked at their boy and it cheered him up a bit. Misty hoped he wouldn't remember too much of this day.

Once the three of them were out of the door, Misty felt a hand on her waist and she let herself be guided until she was brought face to face with Cordelia again. Finally alone, Misty breathed an exhausted sigh and brought her forehead to Cordelia's again. She saw the cut on Cordelia's arm as she looked down and without thinking, she took the arm between her two hands and sealed the skin. Cordelia hummed at the warmth and folded her arms around Misty's waist to support her after this last donation of energy. They stood in silence for a moment.

"We should join the others", Misty said, though not wanting to move at all.

"In a minute", Cordelia said and brushed a thumb against Misty's cheek. "I'm just giving you a moment to recover."

"Did you notice?" Misty asked. "You did it. You saved us all and no one had to help you. 'Cause no one could. You proved that thing you were so scared of."

Misty moved her head to look at Cordelia's face. She found her smiling and thought to herself that she looked older and younger at the same time. As if her soul had aged with experience from everything that had happened, but the energy of her body had been renewed. A rebirth of the little girl in the woods. She finally grew up. Misty didn't think she would get lost anymore.

"Yes, I did notice", Cordelia said. She leaned in and gave Misty a kiss. "Let's go home."

A/N: This is it, you guys! I plan to post an epilogue in some weeks (expect a month), after I've handed my thesis in, but that's all that's left. I hope you liked it. Thank you so much for having the patience to stick it out until the end and for reading in the first place. I would love to know what you think!