Chapter Text
Gods I really hate my family.
I hate Asterion and this hotel he built in mother’s honour.
And I hated how I was powerless to do anything about it.
Astarion was holding me like it was the last time he ever would and blocking me from doing anything. The crowd of monsters were making it increasingly difficult to see what was happening and the roaring fire wasn't reassuring me in the slightest.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place or more so my horrible half brother and my best friends of all time, and I had no clue of how to get out of it.
I wasn't sure if this was Astarion’s magic again, but my emotions were running high, my chest was heaving and cool tears were streaming down my cheek with my brain scrambling to find a solution and almost like magic. I found it or more so Jasper did.
Time stood still and Jasper was inching closer to me, weaving in and out of the monsters towards me, slowly and weakly. It was taking all his strength to reach me and hold time still just like he did the first time I met him. I spied the others holding monsters and place, it was a group effort with Calliope and Erato on the monster’s holding Alley.
None of them spoke and it was clear to me that they were trying to buy me time.
I still had no idea what to do, I managed to wiggle out of Astarion’s grasp so there was progress but I was still blocked off and there was far too much going on for me to just focus on one. It wasn’t like I could magic us out of….here.
I hope you like these magic jokes because I sure as hell am.
With enough distance between me and Astarion that it would take him a few precious seconds to get to me, I closed my eyes and focused on my frantically beating heart.
Back and palms to the wall, my vision was black and the small hope I could do this, my magic began to hum through my veins.
My vision was now flooded with purple outlines of my friends. Alley’s face stained with fear and Carlos grabbing the pole he was once tied to and use it as a weapon. They were there, still alive. Now I just had to keep it that way.
If I could just blast the monster’s away from them, grab and then run away, we stood a chance. Sure I didn’t know how to do it yet but, any plan was better than no plan.
I gave the command to the winions, and they broke the time freeze and let me open my eyes.
From where I stood, the fire was in my eye sight, Alley hadn’t reached there yet and it gave me the single opportunity to send the monster flying.
This was gonna go great. I had no idea what I was doing but I was gonna do it and it would work because if it didn’t not only would it be the most embarrassing thing ever and my friends would die.
Heat poured through my hands, and threads of magic came out of my fingertips, now traveling at lightning speed to wrap around the core of every monster facing my friends, the strings splitting off to get every last one of them but remained just as strong.
The last thing left to do was raise my hands and send them off on their way.
With one single tug, around fifteen were launched into the air, arms flailing and backs firmly stuck to the ceiling.
One of them had still held onto Alley, dropping her on their way up, but I had just enough time to use my magic to save her, holding her inches above the ground before gently placing her down.
My arm didn’t once waver as I held the monsters up, not when they thrashed about and not when I had to raise the other to prevent more hurting Carlos and not when one of them tried to attack me. Key word there being ‘tried’.
The magic had a mind of its own, or more like it was finally listening to my commands and going wild with them. The monster who went for me was immediately thrown back by a sort of force-field around me, crashing into the table where ‘wine’ splashed onto him, making me even more uneasy.
When Carlos had reached Alley had lifted her back to her feet, it was then when I moved, I dropped my arms but the magic still remained, holding everyone where I had left them, but somehow I forgot someone.
“No! You are not leaving! Not when I’ve worked so hard to find more of us!”
Astarion stood in front, blocking me once more, almost…crying.
It was pitiful in all honesty, he was so calm and sinister only moments before but now he was desperate, it nearly made me hesitate.
Nearly.
I knocked my head to the side, sending him flying to the table, landing on top of the other monster.
Jasper caught my eye as he reached his small arms out in celebration, though I still was unsure how to feel about it.
I kept my laser focus on the task at hand, getting my friends out alive.
In the time it took for me to deal with Astarion, they had made it to the door they entered from, looking like they knew their way out. They looked at me, hopefully without fear because that feeling of power made the rest of me look intimidating, but I knew it was different.
They were waiting for me.
I walked over to them confidently, and we began our walk out, just as I saw a flicker of fire catch a light on the drapes.
Oh this place was gonna go down in flames.
The two were saying something, but I was far too focused on the fact that we were going to get out of this shit alive to realise what they were saying. I felt my magic snap and a massive thud from behind,multiple groans and I just couldn’t help but smirk.
We were running at this point, and made it to the entrance room we had come through, and a piece of paper caught my eye. Impulse took over and I grabbed it, before barreling through the doors of the hotel and leaving the bastard place.
All three of us were on the same wavelength that was to run as fast as we could.Adrenaline was high and we just kept running and running, lights flashing by as well as people sending us concerned glances and given how we all looked I wasn't surprised.
So here we are again, running like our lives depended on it.
I didn’t look back, none of us did, but we heard the wails of sirens and flashes of red and blue, painting us the picture of what state of τέρας ᕓ𐌄Ᏽ𐌀𐌔 was in.
I really hoped Astarion was okay.
Eventually we slowed down, Carlos leading us to an alleyway and leaning against the wall with his arm, breathing heavily. We soon followed, Alley clutching her ribs and planting her back against the brick with me very much collapsing to the ground.
Finally after my heart stopped pounding in my ear, I turned to face my friends. We had done it. We were alive.
“The wine.”
Alley gasped, finally getting her words out though sounding rather raspy.
“It was blood. I don’t who’s but, they made me drink it.”
She coughed, hand now stroking her throat instead of her stomach. I turned over, giving her a sympathetic look that she wouldn’t catch. She was fighting back tears, gasping for air again and again.
I got up, moving myself closer to her, and sitting her down with our backs to the wall, Alley now snuggling into my neck. Carlos joined us, sitting by my side and reaching his hand out to her, which she gladly took. I placed my hand on top, intertwining it with the two, and we sat there, collectively trying to calm the fuck down.
The adrenaline was fading and I was pushing my feelings down. Astarion and his fiery fight was nightmare and late night thought material because now I had to make sure that Alley was safe and Carlos was unhurt.
I tapped Carlos’ shoulder, silently asking him to let me look. He moved slightly, showing of a few scars, thankfully no deep wounds or visible blood, some ambrosia from Alley’s bag and-
Our stuff.
My bag.
It was somewhere in the hotel that was set ablaze.
My scrapbook.
I bit my tongue, attempting to stop by sobs, but I couldn’t help but let it out. My mothers only message to me and all my mortal families work, gone. Sure I had a grasp on my powers but what was the prince I had to pay. The price we all had to pay.
The weight of the quest leader title just doubled. This was my fault. Astarion was my half-brother, he conducted it all, and even though I had no evidence of it, I was sure that he was the cause of Alley’s suffering too.
I should've listened to Jasper, he was a part of me and he wanted to go to the Lotus hotel, gods why didn’t we go there?
No words were said in the trio, and before I knew it, all three of us were crying. We let ourselves do it, let it out and then be there for each other when we were done. We didn’t let go of eachother.
It sort of felt like a pact, some sort of promise to each other, one I would keep until the day I died. Help each other and love one another, no matter what.
We must have been in that alleyway for hours because the next time I took in our surroundings, the sun was setting and the streetlamps were flickering on above us, illuminating our trio.
Jasper eventually found us, waddling over with his other winion siblings. All of them looked somewhat optimistic which was a drastic change to what we were feeling.
“Alley.”
Jasper said, holding his hands out, but I was unsure if he was referring to Alley the person or the alley way we were in.
Carlos caught onto the same wave length and shook Alley’s hand, making her look up at us.
“Alleyway Morai Rose?”
Immediately, she smiled, letting out a small chuckle causing a chain reaction to the rest of us.
“Alley Morai Rose Garden?”
I asked, making us burst into laughter once more. It was stupid, a stupid dad joke about her name, but suddenly it was the funniest joke in the world. Our tears of sorrow had turned to tears of laughter and what made it even funnier was Jasper standing there complete unaware of it all.
“It sounds nicer when you guys say it!”
Alley said between giggles, immediately making us all feel just a bit better and cementing the pact we had just made, to me at least.
Eventually Jasper started tugging at my shoes, and we untangled ourselves from each other, still chuckling as we stood up, whipped ourselves down and walked off, seeing the line of winions presumably leading us back to the bike.
Gods this just reminded me of the first time we had run..were the winons sentimental about it? Or maybe they just liked leading the way. Whatever the reason we were grateful for it, plus their glow was a lot less harsher than the blinding light of Las Vegas.
Somehow, by some miracle, our bikes remained there, without any graffiti and undamaged but there was a small problem. We didn’t have the keys.
Where is plot armour when you need it.
Jasper sat on top of my helmet holding his feet in his hands and staring at the key lock.
“Yup. Me, too buddy.”
I said walking over and leaning on the engine hood, feeling utterly defeated and the familiar feeling of dread coming back to me.
“We lost…everything.”
I felt so horrible flipping back and forth between feeling shit and having some optimism but, how could I not when we really are in a bad place.
“Not everything.”
Alley said firmly, finding her voice and confidence again.
“We have each other, and your necklace and doll.”
“But not my scrapbook, Carlos’ spear and your dagger.”
I snapped, reminded of everything we lost. My necklace still hung on my neck, the feeling of it almost normal now and the doll had been stuffed in my bra. I was surprised it was taken from me, but it was a gift from my mother, the hotel was built for her so it would be pretty stupid to take it away.
“The things we have benefit me, and me alone and for what they are worth, they don’t work! They were supposed to protect me and they’ve done nothing but that….I’m happy we are alive and my powers work but, we were so close and-”
I sighed, face in my hands. We were that close. A four hour drive and 270 miles and we would’ve made it. All we had to do was, bitch slap the fates, get what we needed and go with as little trauma as possible but no.
My stupid decisions stopped that.
“No.”
Jasper slapped the top of my head as he spoke. I raised it up to glare at him to see the winions were holding….Carlos and Alley’s weapons up them.
“Polyhymnia my dear winion, have I told you how much I love you?”
Carlos asked the winion, holding up his collapsed spear. He took it gratefully, bowed to Polyhymnia and whirled it round action style, the spear shooting out as well as Carlos’ smile and laugh.
Alley knelled down to retrieve her dagger from Erato, and smoother her finger along the blade.
“How did you find them, little ones?”
She asked gently, as the winions told us that because I was all ‘wozzy and blank’ they could free roam the hotel and immediately went to help them because ‘it was the right thing to do and what Nessie would've wanted’ and they somehow managed to smuggle the weapons out of the monster's grasp and to here.
They received many, many hugs.
Carlos put his spear back in his pocket, his pants now sporting more holes, and put his arm round my shoulders, offering me a comforting smile.
“There is still hope.”
He told me, full honesty and truth in his voice.
“Quest are like Pandora’s box you-”
“Open them and there is nothing in them and you are left feeling unsatisfied?”
Melpomene the winion said, staring blankly at him.
“No, it looks like there is nothing, but there is always one thing in it. Hope.”
He booped her nose as he spoke before looking at me once more, with a single smile injecting the hope he had into me.
He helped me up, while Alley was still crowded by the winions and thanking them individually by giving them a kiss on the forehead each which was just plain adorable.
We were still faced by the fact that we still needed a key for the bikes but Carlos had an idea.
“You can magic us out of it!”
“Already done that joke Carl!”
We giggled as he held out his jazz hands, but he was serious, and somehow that optimism was rubbing off on me. I looked at my bike and its keyhole, and figured out I just needed to find a way to trigger the springs and keep the inner mechanisms at a certain point.
I raised my hand above and let the threads of magic pool down into it, and like before, they took my command and ran with it, weaving together to fit into the hole perfectly and then breaking itself off my hand to materialise itself as an actual object.
With a flick of a finger, the new magic key turned and the engine roared to life. Carlos smirked and I could hear the winions and Alley cheer. I couldn't help but crack a smile and rushed over to their bike to do the same thing, as soon enough, we had two new shiny purple keys to our bikes.
“Come here my love, you deserve to be appreciated too!”
Alley said, coming over to me, standing on her tiptoes and kissing my forehead, sending my dizzy and blushing.
“I also kinda dig the new look…it’s very goth, suits you.”
She said with a smile, making me blush even more and stuttering out thank yous and trying to be cool about it, but from Jasper’s reaction is wasn't working.
Thankfully, Carlos pulled me out of my misery and told us we should get moving again, that we could get to Los Angeles before midnight.
I went to my bike and went to get my gear on but in the tiny part of my vest pocket, was the note, the note I found on the desk.
‘New sister. Nessa West, gift from mom.
The ritual?
No, not like last time, go easy on her.
You go easy on her.
It’s just my love.
Exactly.’
I wasn't sure who wrote it and why but I sure as hell didn’t like it. I also didn’t know how many more pieces of literature a girl could take until I broke, I was up to like 5? Don’t fact check it, I don't even know.
I tucked it back where I had found it, hopefully being able to keep it as a reminder, but if it perhaps came off in the wind I wouldn't mind.
With all my gear on, Carlos gestured to gather, and all three of us had our arms round each other like a huddle, and our heads bonked together, every time we moved, it sent us giggling.
“Team on 3?”
Carlos asked, putting his arm in the middle of us. Me and Alley nodded, watching as the winions under us replicated the same thing.
“1, 2, 3-
“Team!”