Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! Well it's happened! We finally got here! We've made it to the end of season 6. Do you know what that means? It means the start of Season 7 (obviously) but it also means that it's the start of Steven and Rowan getting back together. If you don't remember, it's going to be happening by episode 298, so I was pretty close with guesstimate back when this all started except as promised I managed to keep it under the 300th chapter mark. Can you guys believe that we're almost to 300 chapters? My god it's been a wild ride and I'm still not done yet!

Chapter 288

After her last jump, that was it. Wo Fat locked her down. He had said that before but this time he meant business. He hid her energizing ray so she couldn't power herself up to be able to jump. If it was an emergency, he said she should pull from that void connection, hopefully with Steve weak from the surgery his body wouldn't be able to take the stress and it would kill him. It was a smart move, because he knew Rowan wouldn't chance it, even if she was mad at Steven for wanting her to come back even though he was married.

To help her curb her temptation, both Wo Fat and Conejo had, originally, not taken any jobs. But then the two of them got bored and the energizing ray came out again so she could throw them places. Well Wo Fat said he had problems on one of his routes that he needed to fix ASAP but Rowan knew what it really was, he had gotten bored at home and it was easier to travel with her powers.

Except they only gave her enough energy to send them and pull them back. Which meant she couldn't go anywhere… namely Hawaii… without them knowing.

Not that she wanted to go back to Hawaii. Okay that was a lie. She wanted to go back to Hawaii, she wanted to sit by Steve's bedside and hold his hand and be there when he started each day. She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to go back and tell him that yes, yes, she wanted him to dump Catherine to be with her.

But all of that was preposterous and she had too much pride to do that to herself. Especially since she knew that once he was sober, Steve wouldn't feel the same way.

She had started calling Nahele to check in on him, which she did so more frequently now that she had the time.

She knew that he was studying for exams, that he was still getting tutored. That he had been at the Alex and the Doctor's concert and had seen her two songs and thought that she had been amazing. That Steve had been livid after she and Wo Fat had escaped. And he reported, that he had been in to see Steve multiple times in the few weeks and he was doing perfectly fine.

He had more than recovered, but they hadn't let him out of the hospital yet. And when he was released, he was not going to be allowed back on active duty. Something that was upsetting him greatly.

Steve was going to be forced to rest and Catherine was doing all the heavy lifting. Rowan remarked that it meant Steve and Nahele could do more things together but the kid got awfully quiet after that and then changed the topic.

When Rowan wasn't calling Nahele to drop subtle hints about want to know about Steve's life without her, she was working on a song that reminded her of Conejo and how dangerous he could be. She thought it perfectly personified how dangerous a man he could be and she hoped he'd like it.

That day Wo Fat and Conejo were both gone. Today's business was in Spain so she didn't have to throw them anywhere. They would both be back for dinner. They were always back for dinner. They never wanted to leave her alone for too long as, according to the two of them she was not to be trusted. To prove them wrong she had not caused a single shred of problems since they had started working again. She had been well behaved out of spite alone.

Every night when they came home, Rowan would have dinner ready for them, they would eat like a family she would ask about their days, and then show off the fact that their house had not exploded or spontaneously combusted while they were gone. And every night they would act surprised like they thought they'd come back to the place on fire or something with her standing outside all ashy with a guilty look on her face.

She was always bored while they were gone, this day would be no different. That morning, after seeing Wo Fat and Conejo off with a good-bye a hug and well wishes while they worked, she went on to her daily routine. She made and ate her breakfast. While she cleaned up after herself she found a heart-shaped box of chocolates in the garbage. She took it out of the garbage because she was surprised. She didn't know how any of her boys had managed to hide a chocolate box from her, let alone not shared it with her. But the box was completely sealed. It hadn't been touched or opened. The only reason she could think it to be hidden from her was if it came from an admirer. Either way she wasn't about to waste a perfectly good box of chocolates.

After the kitchen was cleaned up, she went for a swim. You know to keep up her endurance and physique since she didn't want to run. God, she hated running, but every now and then Conejo would come into her room in running apparel and she'd have out run him.

She had learned quite quickly though that if she run straight to Wo Fat screaming: "Help me, help me, help me," it always led to Conejo running right into Wo Fat's drawn gun and that would be the chase over. That was because Conejo never wanted to fight Wo Fat, and Wo Fat had made it clear that he'd shoot Conejo in the face if he thought him a threat to Rowan. So, they compromised on one run a week and the rest of the time she'd swim.

Once her swim was done, she went and showered all the chlorine off of her. Then it was time for music, but first…

Chocolate.

Rowan skipped down to the kitchen, snatched up that box of chocolates and then rushed up to her music studio.

She opened that box and took a few chocolates to eat before going into the studio to put down the guitar portion of the song. It took a few runs but she got it through in one pass in a good recording. Now she could add it to the back of the track to give it more dimension.

She went back into the control part of the studio to listen back to it stuffing her mouth with a few more of the chocolates. They were all her favourite, the rice crispy nougaty kind. They must have been custom purchased. Why had one of her boys thrown these out? They were great! Unless they had bought them for her and then thrown them out to punish her. That was a cruel and unnecessary punishment.

She went back into the studio to put down the vocals and noted that she was a bit shaky on her feet. She held onto the control panel until the spinning stop and then headed into the sound box. Maybe she was coming down with something?

Devil, devil. Clever Devil, Devil. How quickly they do sell their souls, for the feast and the promise of gold, but devil that won't be me

Devil, Devil. Bones of metal, metal. You torture saints with a single glance, make them think, they ever stood a chance

She got part way through the song and then heaved. Oh, oh god she did not feel good. She staggered out of her sound box and then her studio. She went up the stairs, on her hands and knees, and when she got to the floor with her room, she found she couldn't get back up. She had to drag herself into her room, and then across the carpet to her washroom. She tried to throw up but nothing would come up. The world was spinning, her throat burning and her stomach was in terrible pain. God what was wrong with her?

She felt her pockets for her phone but it had been left behind in the studio. Not good, not good. She collapsed to the tile of her bathroom but not even the cold of the floor was making her feel better. Something was very wrong but she didn't know what. She tugged at the void, trying to send a message out to her brothers to get them to come home and help her but she wasn't powered enough to get a good hold. The strings were all slipping through her grasp.

She lay there on the tiles and a whisper of her song for Conejo came out of her.

…Devil, Devil, please come save me, Devil, Dev...

Just a few words before the world around her faded into a spotted dotted black.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

One second Conejo's in the back of some dark and dingy warehouse about to execute a man the next he's in Rowan's bathroom.

Conejo stood there and blinked his eyes, his gun was still in his hand, still pointed outright, ready to pull the trigger, but there was no one there to shoot. Unless he was gonna shoot her sink. He looked around but Rowan wasn't there. In his pocket his phone rang and he picked it up.

"Hey Fat," he answered. He didn't even have to look at the caller ID to know who had called him.

"What the hell happened. I just had to shoot a man screaming about diablo which is not the message I wanted him screaming before I took him out, especially since I wanted him to think I was the devil. Where are you? Where did she send you?"

"I'm back at the house. I'm in Rowan's washroom."

"She pulled you to the house?" There was an edge to his voice that Conejo recognized. If Rowan felt the need to pull him to the house when she had no actual energy to do that and she knew the only way to do was to put Steven through pain, then something was wrong. Either someone was in the house terrorizing her, or she had hurt herself, there was no other reason for her to chance Steve's health like that so soon after his surgery.

Conejo came out of the washroom to find Rowan sitting on her bed. Her eyes closed, her legs crossed and her arms outstretched. It was like some weird meditating position except the position didn't look to be comfortable in anyway. But otherwise she looked like she was fine.

"Yeah, she's just in her room though, she looks fine," Conejo said. "I'm gonna talk to her and call you back."

He hung up the phone and then cuffed Rowan's shoulder. "What the hell is wrong with you? You better have a good reason for pulling me here or Wo Fat's going to scream at you and I will let him. No matter how much you cry."

She opened her eyes. Those were not her eyes.

They were all black with swirling galaxy purples and bright stars staring back at him. Then she opened her mouth. "I always have a good reason."

That was not Rowan's voice. The voice that came out of her was deep and dark and he swore a sort of mist came out with her words. Conejo couldn't help it, he yelped. The gun in his hand coming up to point at this thing that looked like Rowan but wasn't Rowan.

The imposter cocked its head. "That's not her voice is it? It's been so long since I've done this."

Conejo's gun shook. "Oh my god your eyes, your eyes."

"Oh, what's wrong with them?"

"Well for starters they're all black? And you normally have blue eyes?"

"Oh, then you are right, I do not have the right eyes." It closed its eyes again and then looked down. After a moment it asked: "How about now?"

Okay, so this wasn't Rowan. That's what he got from this. This was something that just looked like Rowan.

When the imposter looked up again her eyes were a grey color. It took in Conejo's face and said: "Also not right. Give me a second, I'm out of practice."

The imposter eventually managed to look up and her eyes were the right shade of blue. "There is that better?"

Conejo was done playing this game. He took the gun in his hand and put it flush up to Rowan's head. If it were really Rowan she would freak out, but this thing merely smiled a grin at him was way too toothy for his liking.

"Is pointing a gun at me really wise?"

"Where's Rowan?"

It calmly blinked those blue eyes he was used to. "She's right here."

Oh my god it was in her body. It wasn't an imposter. It was a body snatcher. The gun lowered immediately, he couldn't shoot her now, the thing would just leave her dead body and try to get into him.

"Well… get out of her. Right now!"

"As much as I would like to do that, doing so would leave her body in a state of peril. Until I can fix the damage done, it would not be best to leave."

It was finally speaking in Rowan's regular voice, but Conejo could barely think of congratulating it. He took that explanation in and slowly put the gun away. So, he had been pulled for a reason. Something was wrong after all. "So, she's hurt? What happened?"

It made a gesture with his hand, like a wave of sorts and a box of half eaten chocolates appeared on the bed beside him. There was no pop, no fizzle, no portal, they just appeared. So this thing had powers like Rowan's too, except it was much better at using them "They're poisoned."

Yeah eating half a box of poisoned chocolates would put someone out of commission. But this didn't explain what had happened to Rowan, or what… this thing in her body was.

"So… so… okay… so you're… you're what? Healing her?"

"Of sorts."

"And you are?"

"Saying my name in my language would explode your little head. Mortals can't comprehend beings such as I."

"So, what are you then?"

"I believe, when I was here last, they had come to call me Fate. Does that help?"

No, no it did not but it sounded an awful lot like this was some kind of god. "Right… Fate. So, uh… what brings you down here? I mean… why are you here? Why did you bring me here?"

"She was singing a song that reminded her of you before I took over. I'm sure that it was the poison addling her brain, but then I got here and realized she wanted your presence, so I figured… why not?"

Okay that was one question answered. "Okay and the why are you here?"

"I told you, I came to ensure that…"

"No, I get that you're saving her life. But why Rowan? Why do you care if she lives or dies?" The thing in Rowan's body tilted her head in a confused sort of manner and he quickly explained a little better. "Not that I'm not grateful, I totally am but… I mean…"

"My existence, has been boring as of late. I had taken myself away from the tiring world of the mortals, retired to my heavenly perch content with my solitude. And then… in the dark and quiet comes this screaming comet."

Conejo blinked his eyes. Dear god what was this thing talking about?

"Was Rowan the screaming comet?"

How does a girl become a screaming comet?

"She fell through a hole in her plane, passed through mine and eventually settled here in this one. Now it's not uncommon for mortals to cross, or for holes to form, and if they do, they rarely stay in my plane. But this one. This one keeps coming back."

Her travelling. It was talking about all her jumps. That meant it's realm was the void. This thing was a god, from inside the void.

"At first, it was just because something was trying to pull her back to the right world. Again not uncommon. Then I saw the wall build, to stop her from leaving and I knew, this one had to be trouble. It wasn't long before she figured out how to harness magicks that not even I learned at her age. Granted I have been helping her along the way…"

"So, wait… every time she's lost control… her eyes, they've gone white, is that…"

"That is me speaking through her. She asks me… or I suppose she's asking the plane itself for help and I answer her. To help guide her hand to the outcome she seeks."

Conejo nodded that made sense. Rowan never knew what happened when her eyes went that white color. She always said it was like something else had taken over. Now he knew that she had, in fact been taken over.

"For a long while, I just watched her. It pains me to say but, the more I watched her the more I grew to care about her wellbeing. It's not very often I meet mortals made of the same calibre as the old ones. And it always amazes me that she doesn't use her abilities for her own gain. Usually, but I think we both know why she strayed that one month."

It narrowed Rowan's eyes at him and Conejo nodded. He did know. He and Wo were bad influences and led her astray. But he also understood how this thing came to be attached to her.

"Yeah Rowan's special," Conejo said softly. Then he sobered up. "And you're not keeping her."

The warning was a very real one but it only made the thing in Rowan's body laugh. "I have no desire for a pet mortal. You needn't worry little bunny. When she is healed, I will leave her all for you."

"Hey! Only Rowan can call me bunny. I'm Mr. Rabbit to you!"

The thing in Rowan's body smiled her dry smile at him and said something like: "Whatever pleases you," and then Conejo got he feeling that he had been dismissed. He sat down on the floor in front of it and then just stared up at it.

"So how long is this going to take?"

But it was done talking to Conejo. It got back into its crooked meditation position and merely closed Rowan's eyes. And no matter what Conejo asked it, it did not speak again.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

It took an hour for Wo Fat to get back to the house. He had tried calling Conejo a few times but the phone had just gone to voicemail.

He had said that everything was fine, but Rowan had pulled him and then Conejo had gone silent and that did not bode well for him in anyway possible. He was expecting to come back to their house to find it up in smoke or taken over by the FBI or worse… Steven. Though how any of them would have been able to find them made no sense to him.

But he got back to the house and it was still standing, nor was it flooded with special agents sent to deal with them. So that was probably a good thing. So why didn't he feel settled?

Usually he parked the Audi in the garage, because he liked it better when no one knew they were home but something was pulling at him, telling him to hurry. So, he left the car by the front door and quickly made his way into the house.

He didn't bother to call out, something was pulling him in what he knew was the right direction. Which was up to Rowan's tower. He got part way up the steps and bumped into Conejo.

"What's going on?" he asked. He knew something had to be happening, because Conejo looked very suspicious.

"Okay, don't panic."

Except saying something like that made him panic. "What happened?" he asked his jaw clenched.

"So apparently Rowan ate poisoned chocolates…" "—she what?!" "…and this thing from the void has a hold of her until further notice."

Wo Fat recoiled. What the hell kind of nonsense was this? He swept Conejo aside and went into Rowan's room. Something that looked like Rowan was sitting on her bed. But it only had to open its eyes for Wo Fat to realize that was not his sister.

He stumbled to a stop with Conejo right behind him. He was locked into the big black eyes, the swirling galaxies he saw staring back at him mesmerizing him. But the fear took him over.

"Get the hell out of my sister," he shouted starting forward. He wasn't certain what he was going to do when he got to her but he was going to do something. An Exorcism if he had to. Send Con to break into a church for holy water and priest.

Con shouted something like: "No she's not better yet," and tried to grab him and the thing that had a hold of Rowan stood her body up and then left.

A sort of whooshing through the room, a wind that whipped them back and forth and when it was done. Rowan stood there. She blinked her regular big blue eyes at them and then said: "I don't feel good."

Wo Fat lurched forward, catching her as she crumpled where she stood but he was unsteady so he fell with her.

"Why did you do that?" Conejo cried, dropping to his knees beside them. "Oh my god Rowan, Rowan!" when she didn't respond he turned accusing eyes up to Wo Fat. "Why did you do that? I told you! I told you! She needed that thing!"

"What are you talking about? That thing was wearing her like a suit!" Wo Fat cried back cradling Rowan too him a little tighter as if that was going to help her right now.

"She got poisoned Wo! It was fixing her! That's what I was trying to tell you!" he shouted.

"I'm gonna be sick," garbled out of Rowan's mouth just seconds before she ducked into his chest and hurled.

Conejo snorted while Wo Fat growled at him. "That was a silk waist coat."

And it was his own fault, he supposed. If the thin gin Rowan was fixing her and he chased it off, having her throw up into him was a fitting punishment. Rowan rolled out of his chest, and Wo Fat immediately picked her up, where he then took her into her washroom, and dropped her right by the toilet. "I'm going to go get changed, Con will stay with you, okay?"

Rowan nodded and then hurled again. "I will be right back, I promise."

He left Rowan in Conejo's capable hands to literally sprint the distance, which really should have been much shorter, to the master suite in his wing. He ripped off his ruined waist coat and then the dampened shirt. He wasn't originally going to change his pants but she had thrown up quite a bit and it really had gone everywhere, which now included his shoes.

He changed out of literally everything, and then rushed back, only to get up the steps to hear Conejo shouting: "She needs something other than water. Get her a ginger ale!"

Wo Fat stumbled once more to a stop and then headed back down to the kitchen to get what was needed. By the time he got back upstairs, Rowan was mostly dry heaving, Conejo had her hair held up and she looked to be much better.

Wo Fat threw the can of ginger ale at Conejo and then took a hold of Rowan. He turned her to him, forcing her to look into her eyes.

"Are you my Rowan or is the other thing still in there?"

Rowan narrowed her light blue eyes at him. "What are you talking about?"

Okay good she was Rowan again. "Do you think you'll throw up again?" she shook her head and then before Conejo could hand her the now opened can of ginger ale, Wo fat had Rowan up again where he then carried her back to her bed to put her on it.

"Okay. Now, I have been very, very reasonable about all this void nonsense, but I just watched something basically wearing you like a puppet. And that freaked the shit out of me so you have to give me some kind of explanation as to what the hell I just witnessed, Rowan. Now what is it?"

Rowan sat on her bed looking up at Wo Fat with wide blue eyes. She then turned to Conejo and said: "What?"

Wo Fat turned to Conejo. "What?"

"Okay, remember the first void incident where she took out Diego and she had no idea what she had done?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah it's like that."

"I'm sorry, what happened? What did I do?" Rowan cried. "Did I have another void incident? They usually make me tired… not sick."

"Rowan, when you lose control and you don't remember what's happening… that's something in the void coming here to help you. It called itself Fate and it told me that it helps you out when you can't handle the situation."

Wo Fat turned to Rowan. "And you don't remember this at all?"

Rowan turned her wide eyes back to Wo Fat. "No, no… I…"

"Okay what do you remember then?"

"I remember blacking out in the washroom," Rowan whispered.

"Do you remember singing a song?"

"I… yeah, I wrote you a new song it was all I could think of to sing," Rowan said.

Conejo nodded. "See, she sung that song and the thing in the void pulled me to her."

Wo Fat put his head in his hands. "Okay so what was this about poison?"

Rowan nearly chocked on her sip of ginger ale. "Whoa. Hold up. I was poisoned?"

Conejo nodded and then picked up the box of chocolates that were at the bottom of her bed. "She ate half of these and they're apparently poisoned." Wo Fat took the box from him and then Conejo turned to Rowan. "Where did you get these? Did someone drop them off? You're not supposed to accept packages when we're gone."

Rowan opened her mouth, no doubt to lie, because Wo Fat knew exactly where these had come from.

"These were delivered to me when we were in California. They were from a secret admirer. I was going to give them to you, but I forgot I packed them."

Conejo thought it over. "Alright, so someone is trying to poison you and they got Rowan by mistake."

Wo Fat turned a glare onto Rowan. "I threw this box in the garbage this morning, did you… did you take them out of the garbage?"

Rowan took in both of their shocked face and threw up her hands in frustration. "Well… who throws a perfectly good box of chocolates in the garbage?"

"Ro… oh… oh my god!" Conejo cried in disgust.

"They were in the garbage because they're like a month old!"

"Chocolate doesn't go bad!"

"Yes, it does! Dear god! Yes, it fucking does," Conejo screamed.

"Rowan! You're telling me that you took this box of chocolates out of the garbage and then ate them?"

"Okay fine, yes, I did. But in my defense, I was left unsupervised and we all know how much I love chocolate. It's not like the box was open."

Now it was Wo Fat's turn to throw his hands up in frustration. He turned to Conejo wanting some kind of support here, to find that he was just standing there behind him, hands on his hips glaring down at Rowan like he was about to scold a child.

"So, if you're left alone, you'll take food out of the garbage? What are you a raccoon? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Rowan hung her head. "I'm sorry. I just… they were all in the box, it wasn't even open, I figured they'd be good. How was I to know they were poisoned. Why did you bother to keep them," she shot that last question at Wo Fat. "You don't even like sweets."

"I was going to give them to you. But with everything else that went on I forgot," Wo Fat said. "Now I wish I had found out sooner, I would have been able to track down who sent them."

"Oh, Irina did."

Both boys turned to her with dry glares. "How do you know that?" Wo Fat managed to ask though the angry growl escaped him anyway.

"Uh… well… now that I'm looking at it… I can see the black strings and they… they're from her. She uh… she knows you don't like sweets and so she sent you my favourite chocolates figuring you'd give them to me."

"Oh you can see the strings, huh? You can see the strings now?" Wo Fat snarled. "You couldn't have seen them before you ate most of them."

"I didn't think to use my void sense on a box of chocolates. I'm sorry. Do you have to keep lecturing me? I almost died!"

That was true she had almost died. And Wo Fat was slowly reaching the end of his tether. For godsake, even when she was in a safe house, miles away from anything that could hurt her she found a way to get herself into mortal danger. What the hell was he going to do with this girl? Cause he couldn't keep her wrapped up in bubble wrap for the rest of her life. Though the option was tempting. And he knew there was only a matter of time before she wanted Nahele and her car here. Then things would get even more complicated than before.

It seemed to him that he was getting closer and closer to the moment he was dreading. He was going to have to start thinking about potentially giving Rowan the option to go back to Steve.