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Author's Note: To truly hear the one I used for inspiration on this fic, you want the remix by RedOne and Alex P- you can find it on youtube here.
She was running. She felt like, if she stopped, the fear and loss would catch up with her; and she knew from experience that she wasn't going to let that happen. She'd wanted to help, she really had, but to know this would be the end result? She wasn't sure if she'd signed up for any of this. Oh, hell, who was she kidding? She'd been looking for a place to belong, and she'd found it in the unlikeliest of places. First, there were her boys, and Goddess, did she miss them! But, then a bright, shining, fellow redhead beacon! Someone who didn't care about her past beyond how it brought her to them!
The storm that had only been threatening until this point changed to rain, but that just blended with her tears as she kept running, hoping she'd gotten out ahead of her pursuers. She didn't even know how they'd known where she'd been hiding – an abandoned warehouse in the depths of Atlanta, but they'd found her. She tried to slow her tears, but, Goddess, she was so tired! Tired of running, tired of trying to stay one step ahead of these men who were out for her head, tired of missing what had been torn from her. She still didn't know how any of it was possible!
A sudden crash of thunder and lightning illuminated what looked like a cabin, but she knew better than to just trust this to luck. Even though her crying jag headache made her just want to run to shelter, caution be damned, she still scouted the perimeter of the small house before checking the lock. Pulling out her picks from an oilskin against her chest, she slowly worked at the lock, one ear trained for any noise from the woods behind her. She couldn't help the hissed "yes!" as the tumblers succumbed, and slowly made her way inside, making sure to lock the door again behind her. She stood still for a moment, listening for the common signs of life, and, hearing none, made her way to the living room.
She'd made her circuit and was going at a small fire in the fireplace when she glanced over to see a pair of boots had been illuminated. She followed them up to a pair of jeans and further to a softly smiling, but familiar face as the fire finally caught.
"Hello, Charlie. You're a hard Immortal to track down," said Nicole Pierce, nee Alissa MacKenzie.
****
"H-how do you know what I am? All I know is I woke up in the morgue after the Steins had come through. I would've thought the boys would've given me a Hunter's burial."
Alissa sighed and lowered her head, her black hair streaked with purple. "They were heartbroken, and Sam was trying to keep a Mark-emboldened Dean from simply massacring the Stein family, so I offered to do it, but those boys loved you. As for how I knew, I sensed it from when you first came to visit the company," she explained.
"Oh, Goddess, how is Amber? Is she okay?" Charlie asked and Alissa smiled.
"A fellow techno-pagan like Willow, I take it?" she asked, and Charlie nodded. Rubbing the younger woman's shoulders, she got up, glancing outside at the storm, and muttered a spell to strengthen the borders. This cabin was a place In-Between – both here on Earth and simultaneously in the Underground, or, more accurately, the Woods Between Worlds. As Amber grew older, this had become a place for the young princess to practice, seeing as it was close to sea, shore, and the wood, though that wasn't easily visible in this rain.
Glancing back at Charlie, she said "I will send a message to Jareth, and see what he says – it's tricky for me, but being Queen of the Labyrinth has its' advantages," she said with a smile and a motion for the redhead to stay seated as she came back over. "As a former medic, I'm telling you that you need to sit and get dry. Your clothes are in the dryer and won't take long."
Charlie glanced down at herself under the blanket and Alissa shook her head on a chuckle. "Child, you are the one my eldest wants; I wasn't expecting this, mind you, since she was such a tomboy as a child, but, being something of a pansexual myself, more so than my husband, means that I understand love comes in all shapes and forms. Amber being happy is more important to me than anything else. That being said, I've helped many patients before – male, female, intersex – and know how to behave in a clinical manner when the situation calls for it."
Charlie glanced into the fire, and then back to Alissa, a worried look on her face. "I just had a stray thought of wondering if I'd still be someone she'd want now that I'm a zombie. An intelligent zombie, but still..." she said, and started at the snort from Alissa.
"I can't completely fault your frame of logic, but being an Immortal is a hundred times different from a George Romero character," she scoffed and Charlie gaped.
"You are a nerd! Amber told me that was no way! So-" she started, but stopped when Alissa held a hand up.
"Having much prior experience with nerd babble, I would forestall that line of questioning for now, since there are much more important, dare I say deadly, matters to attend to first. Such as what an Immortal is, and how much sword training I may need to give you," she said, and Charlie blinked.
"Swords? Um, not my, uh, strong suit unless I'm LARPing," she said and Alissa snorted in amusement.
"Cute, but I meant like a sword that was a bolt of metal and steel folded many times to achieve the ideal blade. Granted, there have been those in The Game who have kept the blade they trained with before facing their First Death, while others adapted to the times. Regardless, a sword is needed to defend yourself in this Game the Gods pitted us in," Alissa continued, the last part growled out.
"It sounds like there's way more to this than you feel we have time for," Charlie commented, thanking the other woman for the glass of whiskey. "But, what is this Game? What does a sword have to do with it? And why am I involved at all?"
Alissa scoffed, staring off into the fire as she began to explain. "The Game is something many Immortals participate in, sometimes even seek out. Others, like me, Duncan, Methos, and a few others do our best to avoid the struggle, only fighting other Immortals when the safety of ourselves or those under our protection is threatened. The Game," she spat out "was a contest originated by Ares after his original idea of giving certain warriors Immortality didn't go the way he'd wished."
"Wait, the Greek gods were real?" Charlie asked, her blanket falling off her shoulder in her excitement, before pulling it back up. Alissa just smiled at the excitement on her face, knowing she had no way of knowing yet that the only reason she made it into the cabin at all was that the magic of the Labyrinth recognized her as the Crown Princess's intended, even if neither of them had voiced their intent yet.
Nodding, Alissa said "Yes, they were, though many of them left for other pursuits," she mused, her eyes growing distant at a flicker of memory. "I remember reading a report of a...team encountering Apollo once, but none of the others. But, as for Ares? He enjoyed the sport and entertainment his Immortals gave him. The Game was created off the concept that the final Immortal – the One – would achieve immortality to rival a god. One Immortal nearly achieved it back in 1986, but, he said that after he killed the Kurgan, he heard a voice who asked if he wished to be the One, and he said he wanted to be with Rachel instead, so it seems to have morphed into an attainable-by-many goal," she said, shrugging at the last bit. "As I said, I don't participate much."
"Do I have to?" Charlies asked, her voice now small as she huddled in her blankets, though Alissa could sense she was dry by now.
"No, child, you don't, but we do need to take you where you can learn in safety, without interference. And, since this place is a spot in between this world and that of the Labyrinth, we can go there and back without difficulty," she explained, standing and holding out a hand for Charlie, though the hacker noted a warm glow had begun to surround the other woman, and it wasn't firelight.
Taking a firm grip on the blanket around her, Charlie reached out a hand and grasped that of the being she could tell was slowly becoming a Queen again, instead of being just Nicole Pierce. "I'm ready, but I need-"
Alissa smiled softly, not seeming to notice the crown that snaked through her hair like ivy. "We can help with that, can't we, Hoggle?" she asked over her shoulder, and Charlie had to bite back a gasp at the sight of the goblin, though that one did let out a gasp of his own. "M'lady Bradbury, we were-"
"Yes, Hoggle," Alissa whispered ever so kindly. "It is she- she is an Immortal like me, it seems. Take her to be clothed in that of a female Immortal, much like Tilsby does for me – leather and clothing for movement not looks. I love my husband, truly I do, but sometimes his outfits are more for the design than the substance," she said with a chuckle, her clothes having morphed from a t-shirt and jeans to a gown-type design with an elaborate bodice, but a skirt open to showcase the breeches she wore underneath.
Charlie could see the wall of the living room dissolving into cobblestones and Hoggle looking up at her expectantly. The redhead glanced back at the storm just beyond the windows, then back to the sunshine glittering off the stones of what she guessed had to be the Underground. She'd read that story as a kid, too; glancing up at Alissa, she let her fear peak out.
"There's nothing to fear here – my loyal subjects know that to ever hurt an intended of the royal family means death, and they love Amber too much, and by extension, will come to love you as well." Charlie watched Hoggle glance between her and his Queen, who nodded. "You have the right of it, Hoggle," she said, waving her hand, and Charlie looked down to see herself clad similar to how she would be during LARPing, and glanced back at Alissa's outfit, as that one shrugged.
"I have a position to uphold – you're free to run around in breeches all you want. I'm the one who has to greet delegations after I get you settled. That being said, I would rather arrive at the castle itself, so that my daughter hears the good news first before the town," she said, holding her hand out for Charlie again.
Charlie took it, an impish grin on her face. "So, should I call you my mother-in-law or just Sensei for now?"
Alissa's laughter flowed out until the wall returned to just being a wall and the fire cut off in a flash of light.