Chapter Text
“I’m not going anywhere, honey. I promise…”
Those words echoed through Severa’s head as she looked up at the giant skull of the Fell Dragon. A mist of tears began to cloud her eyes as she tried in vain to wipe them away.
“You stupid dumbass lying idiot! Why did you sacrifice yourself?!” She shouted, “I-I thought you promised you weren’t going to go anywhere this time!!” She stopped and looked to the floor, “You promised…”
“Daddy, where are you going?” Severa looked up and blinked at her father.
For a moment, her father remained silent. He looked down at his left hand and then at Severa. He knelt to meet her at eye level.
“Listen, Severa,” He took a deep breath, “you know that I love you, your sister, and your mother with all my heart, right?”
The eight-year-old nodded. “Yeah, of course, I do!”
He smiled. “That’s good to hear.” He glanced at his left hand again.
“What’s wrong, daddy?” Severa raised an eyebrow.
“It’s…” he hesitated for a moment. “It’s nothing…”
He rose to his feet. “I should get going…” He put on his cloak and walked towards the door.
“Daddy, wait!” Severa grabbed her father’s hand causing him to stop. “You’ll be back, won’t you?” She looked up at him with wide puppy-like eyes.
“Yeah…” he said with a soft smile, “I’ll be back, I promise….”
He yanked his hand away from hers and ran out into the torrential rain pouring outside. Severa could only watch as the door slammed shut leaving her all alone.
“You promised….” Severa repeated to herself once again as she wiped the last bit of tears from her swollen red eyes.
“Hey, Sev.” Her sister placed a hand on her shoulder, “A-Are you alright?”
Severa didn’t answer and yanked herself away from her sister’s warm touch.
“He’ll be back, I’m sure of it!” Her sister smiled.
Severa glanced back at her sister. She was obviously forcing it and trying to cling onto whatever hope she could to try and rationalize things. Not that she’d remember but she said those exact same words on that day as well.
“Remember what Naga said? If our bonds are strong enough, then…”
“Morgan!” Her mother spoke up causing them both to look back at her, “That’s enough. Leave your sister alone for now.”
“All right, fine.” Morgan sighed as she walked over to their mother.
“Severa…” Her mother spoke her name in a softer and sweeter tone. “I know what you must be going through right now but just know that we’re here for you, alright?”
Severa didn’t respond as she continued to gaze at the dragon’s skull.
“Yeah, Severa you’re not alone!” Morgan chimed in.
“We’ll be with the others, so feel free to join us when you’re ready.” She grabbed Morgan’s hand. “Let’s go, Morgan.”
Severa glanced back and watched them rejoin with the rest of the army. Like they could possibly understand how she feels. They’ve only lost him once. This was the second promise he broke to her. She gripped her chest as tears once again started to run down her cheeks. This unbearable cold ringing pain that throbbed in her heart. She couldn’t stand it back then, and it was even worse now.
“Gods, I was such an idiot!” She said in between sobs.
She should have never trusted them. She knew this was going to happen, and yet…
“I’m not disappointed, Severa. I couldn’t be happier that you decided to come back to us.”
“I love you, honey, and I’m behind you no matter what happens.”
She shook those thoughts away. It was too late now. Once again she was left all alone.
———
“I’m home…” Severa said as she walked inside her parents’ house with a large crate full of various vegetables, fruits, milk, and other groceries.
“Oh hey, Sev!” Morgan looked up from the book she was reading and waved at her. “You’re just in time to join us for storytime!”
“Yeah, storytime!” Her younger self said with a bright smile.
It was still something she hadn’t quite gotten used to yet. It was like looking into some kind of weirdly distorted mirror.
“We’re reading Sleeping Beauty.” Morgan showed her the cover. “She, er… you.. she?” She took a deep breath. “Well you know what I mean, she picked it out herself.”
“Miss Marx, what are you talking about?” The younger Severa looked at Morgan.
“It’s nothing,” Morgan said with a sheepish smile.
“Yeah, whatever. I’m not interested.” Severa scoffed as she continued into the kitchen. “I’m in charge of making dinner today, anyway.”
“Your loss.” Morgan said as she opened the book back up, “Now where were we?”
It wasn’t really much of a loss for her cause she was still technically participating though not actually. Gods, this time travel stuff was all so weird. She breathed an exhausted sigh. Whatever. She just needed to get started on making dinner.
She grabbed an onion from the crate and quickly got to work. It didn’t take long for her to get a stew going. She took a quick sip and nodded. It was coming along pretty nicely. Now she just had to add the tomatoes. Although…
She glanced back at her past self and Morgan.
“So, can you read this word Severa?”
“Yeah it says,” the little four-year-old squinted as she tried her hardest to read the words sprawled across the page, “the purrinnsess would not wake up.”
“Very good!” Morgan patted her on the head with a smile.
Severa tightened her grip on the ladle’s handle. Gods, why did she have to be wearing his coat while reading that book to her. She even patted her on the head like he used to whenever she read a sentence correctly at that age. Her heart began to ache again as nostalgic memories came flooding back.
Severa quickly shook her head. No! No! No! She had to focus. She had no time to think of such things. She grabbed the tomato and threw it onto the cutting board. If she knew herself as well as she thought she did, then tomatoes weren't exactly going to go over very well with her younger self. Though she’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it. If she complains, she’ll just lecture her like her dad-
Severa stopped cutting. “Damnit!” She cursed under her breath.
She did it again.
“Something smells good,” Cordelia said as she emerged from a nearby hallway.
“Mommy!” The younger Severa leaped out of Morgan’s arms and sprinted over to embrace her mother.
“And hello, Severa.” Her mother picked up her daughter. “Have you and Miss Marx been having fun?”
Her younger self nodded. “Yeah we read Sleeping Beauty and I read a whole sentence all by myself!”
“You did?!” Cordelia gasped, “that’s amazing, sweetie!”
“Thanks, mommy,” her younger self giggled.
“All that reading has probably built up an appetite.” Her mother said. “Right?”
Her younger self nodded. “Yup, I’m starving.”
Her mother smiled. “Well, I’m sure Miss Serena has made something extra special for dinner,” She placed her daughter on the floor. “But you have to wash your hands first, alright?”
“Right!” She once again nodded before running off towards the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”
“She sure is carefree,” Morgan said with a wide smile. “Surprising how such an innocent kid turned out to be so prickly.”
“I’m right here, you know!” Severa shouted as she finished dumping the tomatoes into the pot.
“I know,” Morgan said with a smug grin.
“You little!!”
“Now, now, Morgan. That's enough teasing your sister.” Cordelia said as she took a seat at the kitchen table. She breathed a heavy sigh, “Still, I’m glad you two are around to help out. For as cute as they are, they can be a handful.”
“You can say that again.” Morgan took a seat at the table, “I can’t tell you how hard it was getting little Sev dressed in the morning. She’s pretty picky about her clothes.” She gave Severa another devilish little grin. “I guess some things just don’t change, eh Sev?”
“Oh, would you just shut your mouth already?!” Severa slammed a plate of stew in front of her sister. “And it’s not like you’re one to talk either! For a baby who’s only just learned to crawl, putting clothes on you is like trying to wrangle a wild bull!”
“Honestly, I thought she would never fall asleep.” Her mother breathed another heavy sigh as Severa placed down her stew.
“It’s a wonder you survived Hurricane Severa with your sanity intact without us.” Morgan laughed.
Severa glared at her sister as she finished setting down the last two plates and took a seat.
“Well, back then, I still had…” She stopped as a loud silence followed.
Both she and Morgan knew what she was about to say. It had been about six months since Robin sacrificed himself to kill Grima and there had been no sign of him anywhere.
“I….I apologize. I shouldn’t have said anything.” her mother spoke up.
“Damn right, you shouldn’t have!” Severa slammed her hand on the table and scowled at her mother.
“Severa!” Morgan snapped back at her sister.
“What is it, Miss Marx?” A familiar high-pitched voice spoke up.
Everyone at the table turned their heads over to see Severa’s younger self emerge from the hallway. She cocked her head and blinked.
“I….” Morgan collapsed into her chair with a sigh. “It’s nothing…”
“All right!” The younger Severa smiled as she ran over and climbed into her chair.
She took one look at her plate and immediately frowned, “Yuck!! Who put tomatoes in here?” She grabbed her fork and began combing the stew and picking out any tomato slices she could find.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Severa grabbed her fork and began placing the tomatoes back on the plate.
She worked hard on this stew, and she’d be damned if her younger self couldn’t appreciate that and eat the whole thing.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Her younger self puffed her cheeks at Severa.
“Getting you to eat your vegetables!!”
“Well, actually tomatoes are a fruit-“ Morgan said.
“Nobody asked, Marx!” Severa hissed.
“I’m just saying,” Morgan crossed her arms.
“But fruits are sweet!” Her younger self whined. “Tomatoes are yucky! Like other veggies!”
“I don’t care what they are! They’re good for you, so stop complaining and eat your tomatoes!!”
Her younger self crossed her arms with a pout. “You’re starting to sound like daddy!”
“And so what if I am?! Someone has to help take care of you after he left you behind!” Severa shouted.
“Daddy left me behind?” Her younger self asked as tears began to glisten in her eyes.
One look into those eyes sent a shiver down her spine as a flood of memories began to rush through her head. She tore her eyes away. It was like looking into a mirror. She might’ve said ‘you’ but was that what she really meant?
“Daddy left me behind?”
“Daddy, where are you going?”
“I’m not going anywhere, honey. I promise…”
Those words rang out in her head louder and louder as if pounding the walls of her skull with a sledgehammer.
“Severa!” She heard her name and was pulled back to reality.
Severa glanced over to see her younger self in a mess of snot and tears as her mother went to try and comfort her.
“Severa, what the heck was that?!” Morgan slammed both her hands on the table. “You can’t just say he left us behind like that! I’m sure he’s-”
“JUST SHUT UP!!!!” Severa shouted, causing her sister to flinch. “GODS, WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?!”
“Sev, I was only…”
“Only what?! Trying to stay positive?! Easy for you to say when you don’t even remember what it was like to lose him the first time!!” Tears were now beginning to pool in her eyes as the world around her began to blur into a hazy fog. “How could you possibly understand what it is I’m going through!!” She could feel her voice begin to break.
That’s right. It was just like before. It was just like how it was in the future. This cold, familiar feeling wrapped around her chest and gripped her heart.
“I…” She hesitated and swallowed the lump in her throat. “I REFUSE TO BE ALONE AGAIN!!!!” Severa shouted at the top of her lungs before rushing out the front door.
“I refuse to be alone again…” Severa muttered to herself as she ran through the cold numbing rain.