Chapter Text
Toni's heart thuds while she stares at the table full of candles in the bunker. Knots twist around in her stomach just imagining the comet hurtling towards Riverdale at full speed. It could be the end of everything– the town they've worked so hard to save might crumble into flaming debris any minute now, leaving no trace of the town or its residents, erasing its legacy— their legacy— from history.
"Mom, Dad…" Anthony croaks out in a shaky voice. "I'm scared."
Her palms tense up to see the fear overtaking his face because she hasn't seen him this way before. Every challenge so far, he's taken on with the bravest face he can, but they all know that this is different. Anthony might spend the rest of his life without his parents if they die from the comet.
"Hey," Toni coaxes, trying to shove her own fears into the backseat because she knows it won't help Anthony if she panics, too. She slips into the chair next to her son and reaches for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Everything is going to be okay."
On the other side of Anthony sits Fangs, who nods his head in agreement and then brings his hand to rest on top of his son's free hand. The fear in Anthony's eyes doesn't dissipate, but it settles to be milder as he tries to trust his mother's words. All Toni can do is hope that she isn't wrong and that the comet can be melted– that Cheryl can melt the comet.
Tears begin welling in her eyes even though she wanted to put on a strong front for Anthony. These might be their last minutes alive, and Cheryl is out there all by herself, facing the comet in all of its power alone. Her stomach knots tangle further when she thinks about all of the things she never said to Cheryl. The day was just so busy and they had these pressing matters to attend to, and maybe it felt like they had all the time in the world to talk later because they always have found a way out of these dire situations. It hadn't felt like death was upon them until this moment.
And now? She might die with regret. She might die leaving her son alone in this world. Her tears have fully begun waterfalling down her cheeks and leaving stained trails behind.
Even through the thick walls of the bunker, she begins to hear the faint sounds of sizzling outside. She knows it's time.
She brings her other hand to Anthony's to strengthen her hold on him. She closes her eyes and inhales deeply. There's no running from this.
It feels like her eyes have been closed for a lifetime, and nothing. No loud sounds, no crashing– nothing. Her eyes jolt open and she finally exhales. Anthony is still next to her, and Fangs is still across from her. Unless she and Fangs both suddenly gained Archie's invulnerability, they all survived.
"We're alive!" Fangs exclaims with a toothy grin, patting his son's shoulder.
Toni feels a swirling in her stomach, like she isn't fully at ease just yet. Her breaths are made unsteady by her overwhelm. She presses sweaty hands against Anthony's cheeks, her lips pulled into an enormous, yet cautious, smile. Despite her lingering worries, Anthony is still sitting right beside her.
"Are we sure there wasn't a delay in the comet or something?" Anthony asks, his fear that this is all too good to be true peeking through his smile. "You guys are really still here, right?"
"Yeah, buddy. You can't get rid of us that easily," Fangs chuckles.
Toni presses her lips together into a tight smile as Anthony nearly stumbles out of his chair to hug her. He goes to Fangs next, and Toni just sits there, marveling at how this miracle happened when she was really starting to think that they were doomed for good.
"Cheryl actually did it…" Toni blinks rapidly, stricken with wonder. "She melted the comet."
It doesn't feel real. She'd been skeptical since the minute that Veronica revealed her ridiculous plan to transfer everyone's powers to Cheryl and have her melt the comet. She's heard a lot of crazy things since word first got around that Archie gained the power of invulnerability, but somehow Veronica's plan still seemed like more than a longshot.
She feels silly for not having faith in Cheryl because of course she did it. She saved them all after death the first time, how crazy could it really be for her to save them before death this time?
A smile takes over her lips again and she can hardly control her breathing now. They made it out alive from the night of the comet, all thanks to Cheryl. She gets to stay with Anthony, and now… she doesn't have to live with regrets.
"We should go thank her," Toni stands up from her chair, earning a side-eye from Fangs. "You know, for saving all of us."
"We can thank her later," he says calmly, though the bitterness leaks through his tone. "We should… stay here in the bunker until we get the all-clear."
Toni's smile fades as she sinks back down in her seat. She knows he's right and she's getting ahead of herself. Cheryl will be there tomorrow, and she'll probably be in high demand with everyone in town swarming her to thank her for melting the comet.
They wait in a painful silence that leaves Toni to fidget with her fingers, elbows pressed against the bunker table anxiously. It's not that she's in a rush to thank Cheryl— she's over that now. She just… needs someone to tell her that this is really over and that it's safe to go outside again.
She waits, and keeps waiting. It's starting to feel like the all-clear is never coming.
Then their phones vibrate. As she reaches under the table to pick hers up, she holds the anticipation in her lungs tightly. It's a group message from Heather.
The comet never came into contact with the town. You may all safely exit your hiding locations.
Toni takes a hefty exhale. This isn't too good to be true, even when the darkest corners of her mind wanted her to believe that.
She nearly jumps out of her seat this time, eagerly pulling her leather jacket out from under the table and sliding it over her shoulders. Fangs watches her with a raised eyebrow, remaining glued to his seat for long enough that it makes Toni feel uncomfortable while she searches the bunkers for all her stowed belongings. His judgmental eyes make her feel like she's doing something wrong, but she knows she isn't. She thought she was over it, but giving Cheryl a little thanks is long overdue. She doesn't have to apologize for that just because Cheryl happens to be her ex-girlfriend.
"Anthony, come on. Get your stuff," Toni encourages as she keeps searching.
Anthony obliges immediately. Fangs takes another moment before reluctantly standing up from his chair and beginning to pack up. Once they've found everything, Toni starts climbing up the ladder out of the bunker. Anthony follows behind obediently, while Fangs trudges out behind both of them.
Toni can't wipe the smile off of her face as she searches for her car keys in the pocket of her leather jacket. When she finally finds them, she gives them a good jingle while humming quietly, and then shoves them into the lock.
"Don't you want to go home?" Fangs asks from the passenger seat, tapping with faux-nonchalance at the center console. "Get some rest after… such a long day?"
She shrugs him off, eyes never leaving the road. That never even occurred to her.
She keeps humming as she parks her car in the lot by Pop's. She swings her keys in her hand while exiting her car, then her head jerks up to find Tabitha hurriedly stumbling in her direction, while Jughead tries to keep up and hold onto her arm. She furrows her eyebrows.
”Tabitha? What’re you—“
"Toni!" Tabitha cries, clutching the collar of her yellow button-up. Her eyes are shot with red and her cheeks are stained with tears– Toni can only assume there's bad news, so she watches worriedly, trying to brace herself. "We— we came to check on Cheryl at the diner, and… something..." She inhales, tugging at her shirt anxiously. "Something happened."
Toni freezes in place, trying to process. Trying to make sense of how this could mean anything other than—
"Cheryl's dead," Tabitha releases her breath sharply.
Toni's car keys clink against the cement below her boots. She never could have braced herself enough for this.
Her knees suddenly weaken and she feels them on the verge of hinging down, like she's going to fall to the ground. Jughead finally catches up, shooting Toni a look of sympathy, like that's going to help her. He puts his arm around Tabitha to calm her down, squeezing her shoulder.
"No, this– this can't be true. You're lying. We're alive. She melted the comet, and we're alive," Toni is practically hyperventilating by this point. "How are we alive, but she's–"
She can't even bring herself to say the word, or else it might become real.
Tabitha is too overwhelmed to explain, so Jughead steps in. "We don't know exactly what happened, but… we found her outside of the diner, and she wasn't breathing. We think that… that maybe melting the comet drained her, somehow. That it was too much for her to handle."
Toni stares at the cement numbly, eyes growing red as tears fall down her cheeks freely.
"Do you, uh… do you want to see her?" Jughead asks.
Toni nods slowly. She sniffles and tries to wipe as many tears off of her cheeks as she can, but they just keep falling back. She gives up and pivots around to face Anthony and Fangs.
"You guys should stay back."
"Mom, I can come with you," Anthony offers, taking a step towards her.
"Thank you, baby, but… I need to be alone for this, okay?"
Anthony nods and steps back to Fangs, whose face normally sours at the mention of Cheryl, but not this time. He puts his arm around Anthony to comfort him and just stares at Toni apologetically– that's how Toni knows that this is really happening.
Toni's heartbeat feels stagnant, taking slow steps forward, with Jughead and Tabitha just behind her. She sees the diner in all of its sameness. But she knows it isn't, and it spikes her heartbeat as she finally forces her eyes down to the ground.
She sees her.
She tries to take a breath, but it feels like she's inhaling shards of glass. She feels frozen in place but her feet travel forwards anyway. She already knew this was coming, but it's completely different seeing it.
She sees her with her back pressed against cold concrete, void of motion. As she nears, she keeps praying that this is a mistake– that she just fainted temporarily and is going to bounce back up and say something wittily mean but still endearing. She wants to hear Cheryl jab that Jughead's flannel is out of style, or comment on how she can't comprehend how Jughead was able to get a girl like Tabitha, or… anything. She'll take anything.
But when Toni finally sees her face, she knows it's over.
Cheryl has always been pale, but this is something else. Her skin looks ghostly.
Toni crumbles down onto her knees, hovering over Cheryl's body. She brings a frantic hand to her own cheek, desperately trying to push away the pouring streams from her eyes. But she doesn't know if they're ever going to stop. How can they stop? How the hell is she supposed to just go on while everyone else made it and Cheryl didn't? She brings her hand to Cheryl's cheek and gently grazes her fingertips against her cold skin.
There's so much she wanted to say– still needs to say. But now she can't. She'll never get the chance to.
"Cheryl, please wake up. Please. Please."
No answer. She sucks in another sharp breath.
"Cher…"
Toni exhales. She finally concedes. She bends and presses her face against Cheryl's on one side while cupping her cheek on the other.
She doesn't know what to say now. There's no point– Cheryl isn't here to listen. She shuts her eyes. She holds Cheryl. She cries. And she keeps crying until her body might be out of tears and her eyes just sting. She drowns out any words from Tabitha or Jughead advising her to get up and breathe— advising her to leave this spot. She doesn't know how long she stays there, but she just knows she doesn't want to leave her and–
Toni's breath suddenly hitches and her eyes rip open as the repeated beeping of her alarm clock grates against her eardrums. Frantically, she grips around the clumps of blanket right next to her, where Cheryl is supposed to be. But it's just her blanket– it's just her bed.
Everything looks the same, right in place. Her alarm clock sits on her nightstand, her room is just as messy as it was yesterday with clothes scattered around the floor. She feels oddly disoriented, her head spinning as she tries to recall how she got back home, if she somehow just blacked out and Jughead and Tabitha took her home.
A wave of nausea runs over her stomach when her mind finally returns to the bitter reality. Cheryl is dead.
"Toni, turn that off already!" Fangs yells out, pushing their bedroom door open. He has his black duffel bag strapped onto his shoulder. His eyes widen when he sees her. "You're still asleep? We have to go to Archie's in thirty minutes."
Huh? She doesn't remember making a plan to go to Archie's yesterday. She doesn't even remember seeing Archie yesterday after the comet melted.
"For what?" she asks.
Fangs raises his eyebrows, looking at her like she's a crazy person who's supposed to know what this plan is.
"Uh, to figure out what to do about the comet that's about to kill us?"
Toni releases a huff of air in relief, glancing around the room. It was just a dream— a very bad dream that felt so real because she swears she could actually feel Cheryl's cheek when she was holding her on the floor, but this is good. This means that Cheryl is still alive. She's sure that her brain was just playing tricks on her because of how scared it is about this comet.
"Right. Sorry, I was kinda out of it. Let me change."
Fangs stares at her, still seeming confused, but he shakes it off and nods, returning to the living room. Toni slides out of bed and grabs a purple mesh top and black skinny jeans from her closet.
When she finishes her morning routine, she hears Anthony's whining from the living room. "Mom! Moooom!"
She groans quietly to herself and goes to the living room.
"What is it, Anthony?"
"Have you seen my vest? The plaid one?"
Toni blinks several times, eyebrows arching as she just stares at Anthony. She swears that this all sounds familiar– she swears that Anthony whined about not being able to find his plaid vest before they went to Archie's house at the beginning of that nightmare that she just had. She tries her hardest to shake it off because there's no time for this with the comet getting closer and closer to them every minute. It's probably just a scarily bad case of déjà vu.
"Let me look," she sighs.
Strangely, she remembers looking for this vest in the dream. She checked the living room first, then went into his bedroom and checked the closet, and then finally–
When she looks under Anthony's bed, the vest is there. Right where it was in her dream.
She swallows thickly and pulls the vest out. Maybe she's just good at finding things.
"Here you go," she says and gives him the vest.
"Woah, you found it so fast," Anthony comments, grinning as he pulls the vest over his shoulders and pats it. "Thanks, Mom."
"You're welcome."
With a raised eyebrow, she watches Anthony run back to the dining table to shove spoonfuls of cheerios into his mouth from his bowl. Everything seems normal, but she can't shake this weird feeling tickling her skin. She feels… unsettled.
. . .
When they arrive at Archie's house, as soon as she sees the group gathered in the living room, she gets an eerie sensation wringing through her— even more-so than before. She didn't pay that much attention to their outfits in the dream, but she swears they were all wearing the same clothes– at least, clothes that are very similar to the ones they're wearing now.
Her eyes land on Cheryl. She especially remembers that turtleneck shirt because of how bright the orange flowers are, but that's unimportant. Her heart settles with relief just to see her breathing– alive –and whispering something to Heather on the couch. She shivers thinking about the vivid image of Cheryl laying on the ground beneath her pulselessly, skin cold to the touch.
She blinks a few times while everyone else settles in. Archie looks right to her and Fangs.
"What did you find out?" he asks.
She feels weird explaining this again when she remembers this conversation from her dream, but forces herself to not dwell. They need to get rid of this comet. Fast.
"I've had the Serpents out all night, on every road and every highway," Toni explains. "And all along the town's limits, there's some sort of invisible barrier completely surrounding Riverdale, and it's keeping us from leaving it."
"Yeah," Fangs chimes in. "It gets crazier, though. When we were out there on the highway, a car drove into town… like there was no barrier."
The coincidences are beginning to feel like too much. Unless she's some sort of psychic now, she doesn't get how everything in real life seems to be nearly identical to her dream. It feels… creepy.
Quickly, she turns to Betty. She swears that Betty made some stupid comparison to–
"So it's basically like we're… trapped in a roach motel. You can get in, but you can't get out."
Toni's breath hitches again. What the hell?
She turns to Veronica next. She remembers Veronica asking Jughead about–
"Jughead, what about opening up a portal? I mean, I'll take any dimension over this one at the moment."
And then Jughead tells Veronica that he can't–
"I tried. I can only open portals within town limits. No other dimensions…"
And then Archie asks Tabitha–
"Tabitha, what about you? Have you tried to time travel?"
Then, Tabitha–
"Every timeline I've gone to, past and future, there's always a comet that's about to destroy Riverdale imminently."
No way. She feels an overwhelming churning in her stomach. It feels like she's been here before, but it isn't possible. The comet still hasn't hit, so why does she feel like she already knows everything they're about to say?
She stops guessing who's going to say what. She presses her lips together, her palms growing sweaty as she tries to process the familiarity of this entire conversation.
"How the hell is this happening?" Kevin asks.
"It's Percival," Tabitha answers.
"But was he really powerful enough to get Bailey's Comet to change course? I mean, it's a comet," Kevin says.
"He is," Heather joins in. "And powerful enough to weave the binding spell that's keeping us all trapped here."
Toni tries her hardest to not guess, but she knows it in her gut that Kevin asks about the government–
"Shouldn't, like, the government try to shoot the comet out of the sky or something?" Kevin asks. "Why isn't this all over the Internet?"
And she knows it in her gut that Heather tells them that the rest of the world just thinks–
"It's a facet of the spell," Heather sighs. "Percival doesn't want anyone to help us, so as far as the world is concerned, Bailey's Comet is passing over Riverdale tonight, just as it has every sixty-five years."
And that Veronica makes some joke about regretting moving–
"Great! So, that's it, then. We're all going to die," Veronica starts and turns her head to the side.
Toni exhales, feeling a moment of relief that she didn't make that joke.
"I'm so happy I moved here sophomore year."
The churning in her stomach returns immediately.
"Well, not everyone's going to die," Betty reminds, and looks up at her boyfriend who's standing next to where she's sitting. "Archie's invulnerable."
God, this has to be a part of another bad dream. Maybe this is just some kind of nightmare inside of a nightmare, because it doesn't make any sense. She's never had such an overload of déjà vu in her life ever. It's like everything that anyone says– any movement that they make– is familiar to her.
She realizes how badly she's zoned out when Fangs nudges her abruptly.
"Huh?" she looks at Fangs.
"Moose was asking you a question," he says.
"Uh… yeah. I was just asking about Big Anthony. Y'know, since he's immortal?"
"Oh… Sorry, I– yeah. He's immortal. I, uh… I," Toni knows she looks and sounds insane, with her breathing all over the place, looking disoriented when they're discussing a time-sensitive life-or-death situation. It probably looks like she's distracted and doesn't care— she does. "I already talked about this with Archie. They… they might be the only ones who survive this." Her mind flashes to what happened in her dream when she took Anthony to the bunker. She can practically feel the punch to her gut when she got to Pop's with all the hope in the world, but Tabitha told her that Cheryl was… gone. "Especially if they're in the bunker when the comet hits."
"Uh, let's not go there yet," Archie says. "We have enough time to make sure we all survive. Percival was a sorcerer, and pulling down the comet and making this barrier are all spells he cast."
"They are spells, Archie," Cheryl leans forward, moving from Heather.
Toni's stress doesn't go away, but she feels calmed by the sound of Cheryl's voice because, God… her "death" felt so real that she never thought that she would hear Cheryl talking again, and now she just did. She would feel more at ease if she didn't know that the next thing Cheryl's going to say is something about how Percival used some kind of magic that–
"Incredibly elaborate ones rooted in dark, arcane magics honed over centuries. Far beyond my knowledge."
"And mine," Heather says.
"But… there might be someone we can consult with ancient knowledge that rivals Percival's," Cheryl adds.
"Okay, great," Archie nods. "In the meantime, Frank and I– and anyone else that wants to help– we're going into the mines. If we dig deep enough, maybe we'll find a tunnel that passes under the barrier."
Toni watches Cheryl scoff at Archie's enthusiasm for such a halfwitted plan. Then, everyone starts to disband and Fangs nudges her.
"You ready to go make Anthony an official Serpent?"
. . .
Toni's eyes wander everywhere around the Whyte Wyrm except Anthony's bicep where Fangs is putting the finishing touches on his Serpent tattoo. It's not that she doesn't care— of course she cares, but she can't stop thinking about the meeting at Archie's house and how everything they were saying was predictable to her. She feels queasy just recalling the details. And this? Giving Anthony his Serpent tattoo was in her nightmare, too.
She figures that Percival must be responsible for this. He's been responsible for everything that goes wrong in Riverdale these days. So many bizarre things have happened lately that Toni wouldn't even bat an eye if he told her that this is all because he warped her mind to mess with her, so that she can't focus and they can't stop the comet from hitting Riverdale. This has to be one of the final tricks Percival had up his sleeve.
Fangs sets down his tattoo pen on the table and wipes Anthony's arm with a rag. "There you go. All done."
Ugh. Toni might not have paid attention to every word at Archie's house in her nightmare, but this is one of the biggest moments in Anthony's life. She remembers all of this. And she knows exactly how it's going to go.
Anthony glances down at the tattoo to see the finished product, a tiny smile curving onto his lips. He gives each of them an excited glance.
She knows the question that's coming from Anthony.
"So, does this mean I'm a real Serpent now?"
And she knows the answer that's coming from Fangs.
"Not just a Serpent. Serpent King."
Anthony nods his head, accepting the duty. Toni's head is spinning, but she knows she has to get her words out because it's her job as his mother to make sure he knows what being Serpent King entails.
"Anthony…" she starts dizzily, trying to pull herself together. "You're our son. You've… you've got the best shot of surviving whatever's coming. And it's up to you to make sure the Serpents don't die out, and… being king is your birthright, and that's why it's up to you to make sure that legacy— our legacy— continues. Okay?"
Anthony nods again. "Yes, Mom."
Toni relaxes a little bit, trying to remind herself that this is probably just Percival's game. He would do anything to make sure that they can't survive the comet. Everything can't be the same, anyways.
She smiles and takes a breath of relief when she realizes that it isn't, because in whatever that nightmare was, she'd gotten a group text message that Cheryl had sent to everyone—
Her phone buzzes, and so does Fangs's. She feels her stomach drop as she reaches across the table to look at her phone. It's a text from Cheryl.
Emergency meeting! Everyone gather at Thornhill ASAP.
. . .
Toni shifts uncomfortably on Thornhill's living room couch. Just like in the nightmare, Cheryl said she'd "be right back" because she has to go to the mines to inform the men about the emergency meeting since they don't have service down there.
And then, there they come into the living room, followed by Cheryl. Just like they did before.
Cheryl stands proudly in the front of the living room and Toni wonders if even what's coming next from her dream is true. This is when things started getting absurd— she thought at least this would just be a dream.
"Listen up, Riverdalians," Cheryl begins, hands pressed together. "Thanks to some ancestral advice," from Abigail Blossom, Toni already knows that, "I believe I might— might— be able to melt the comet with my Phoenix powers."
So, the whole melting thing is real, too… Just great.
"Woah, that's incredible news!" Tabitha says excitedly, looking around the room with a smile.
It can be. If it doesn't kill Cheryl. Unless that's just what Percival wanted Toni to think— he wanted her to think that it would kill Cheryl because he knows that would make Toni try to stop her so that he can successfully destroy Riverdale and kill everyone.
"And there may also be a way to undo Percival's binding spells so that we can evacuate the town," Cheryl adds, then looks over to Toni with a hesitant look. She bites down on her lip awkwardly. "But… Toni, you and I need to speak about that privately."
Toni arches her eyebrows inwards, but not in the same way as she did the first time she heard Cheryl say that. She arches them with worry because she knows what Cheryl needs to talk to her about. She can't believe that this part— the most absurd part— might actually be completely real.
"Okay."
"Hold on," Veronica cuts in on cue. "Is it really as easy as melting the comet?"
"No, Veronica," Cheryl says with a weak smile. "There is one huge catch. It will take all of my Phoenix energies to extinguish Bailey's Comet, which means if I successfully melt the comet, one or more of the dead I've resurrected will surely perish."
"What? Wait. Why?" Betty asks.
"Because it is my powers that are keeping the resurrected dead alive," Cheryl explains. "Who knew?"
Reggie looks up, now concerned. "So, who is on the chopping block… exactly?"
"Archie… Jughead… Polly. My Nana. Dagwood. Alice. Frank. Sheriff Keller. Fangs, and… Toni."
Toni tries to swallow through the lump in her throat, but it only hurts more. What if this isn't Percival? What if Cheryl really is on the chopping block, but she doesn't even realize it? According to whatever happened in her dream, everyone else made it out alive— well, probably. At least from those she saw: herself, Fangs, and Jughead.
"If Riverdale is to live, one or many of you or your loved ones… must die."
Everyone glances around with long faces filled with fear over the impending reality of losing their friends or family. And Toni would, too, because she is scared, but this just feels like some kind of fever dream by now. The others ready themselves to leave Thornhill while Toni leans back further on the couch, sighing under her breath. She barely processes as Fangs walks by her, mumbling something about how he'll see her at home later.
Archie's the last to leave. He follows behind Betty, but lingers to give Cheryl pleading eyes with a last bit of hope that she'll give some other good news that doesn't include an outcome of people dying or Riverdale being destroyed. Once he's gone, Cheryl begins scooting two chairs towards the fireplace.
"Come, come."
Slowly, Toni stands up from the couch. She takes her seat across from Cheryl.
"Uh, what… what can I do to help, Cheryl?" she asks.
"My ancestor, the witch, Abigail Blossom, is… going to help us figure out a way to break Percival's spell and escape Riverdale's borders."
Toni gives a singular, drawn out nod. She already knows this. Maybe she shouldn't have ruled psychic powers out, because that's really what this is starting to feel like.
"But first," Cheryl continues, "she wants to spend one final evening with her beloved in… carnal form, and we need two vessels to make that happen. I would be… Abigail's, and you, pending your agreement, would be her beloved. Thomasina Topaz, your ancestor, who was also a witch."
Toni's head snaps backwards. Okay, she can rule out bad dream, because how the hell would she ever be able to come up with something like this, even in a dream? It's bizarre beyond words, and there's no way she could know that. It's got to be psychic powers or Percival messing with her mind. He messed with Jughead's mind before; what would stop him from messing with hers, too?
But… why her? Why not Heather? Heather's her actual girlfriend. Unless Percival has been reading her mind–
"Are you alright?" Cheryl asks, lifting up her eyebrows.
"What? Yeah, I'm– I'm good," she nods.
Cheryl squints faintly in disbelief. "I suppose I thought that you'd have more questions, or… I don't know. I know that the request is a bit odd."
"No, no. I– of course I'll do it. For the town," Toni swallows hard. "Our souls will be elsewhere anyways. I mean, I assume…"
"Very perceptive," Cheryl smiles with a nod. "Yes, our souls will be elsewhere. Heather will keep our spirits in a jar until the lovemaking ends." She takes a moment to pause, slightly stunned by how quickly Toni agreed. "Well, alright then. I will let Heather know and we'll begin the ritual shortly."
Toni nods, but fidgets with her hands as Cheryl gets up and exits the living room. She's already had time to process this bizarre request, so that isn't the part that fazes her. It's the fact that she already knew the request paired with the fact that she knows what happens when Heather does that spell– or, what doesn't happen.
Well, maybe she won't mess up the spell this time. Maybe Percival wanted to mess with her mind so that she's afraid of saying yes to the request so that Abigail never tells them how to break the barrier.
Cheryl and Heather return, and Heather holds an empty jar in her hands. She gives Toni a pleasant smile and nod of acknowledgement, then pops the lid off of the jar and places it on the back table. Anxiously, Toni stands from her chair without any order from either of them. Cheryl seems puzzled, but shakes off her thoughts and stands across from Toni. Heather positions herself equidistant from the two of them, hand firmly at the top of the jar.
"If you're ready, let's begin," Heather says.
Cheryl turns slightly so that she's fully facing Toni now, offering a nervous smile before extending her arms out. Toni knows the drill; she takes both of Cheryl's hands in hers and gazes directly into her eyes. It feels different looking into Cheryl's eyes now because she knows what might happen next–
"Here ye, here ye, great above," Heather begins the spell, a glowing light circling both of their bodies. Just like before. "Send two spirits deep in love. Take these vessels for the night and earthly realm to reunite. Switch the souls, let flesh remain, shake thy broom, that love of flame."
What the hell? Heather messed up the spell again, somehow. She looks different and feels different, but she can see Abigail.
"Abigail, can this truly be happening?"
And she can hear her own voice, but they're not her words coming out.
"Yes. Yes, my love. This is real," Abigail laughs joyfully. "Come. We have oh-so-much to catch up on."
Toni knows what that means. And she feels the entire thing, but it doesn't feel like Abigail.
It shutters between something and nothing, but suddenly she's there, standing by the foot of Cheryl's bed, and it never shifts again. She doesn't see the thick black gown that Thomasina was supposed to be wearing, or the red one that Abigail was. She feels like herself. And Cheryl does, too.
It feels warm when Cheryl— or, Abigail— kisses her. And it feels right when she kisses back, weaving her fingertips through strands of red hair, her back pressed against the bedpost. It still feels right when her hands find the sides of a pale face, clinging to it desperately.
Maybe Abigail does the same things in bed as Cheryl, or maybe she just doesn't remember correctly, but... it feels perfect and she doesn't want it to end.
That only makes her feel a bigger pang of guilt in her chest when her eyes open and finds herself staring at Cheryl, who's beside her in bed, the duvet covering the lower half of her body.
"Cheryl…"
"Yes, Toni. C'est moi."
Toni just lies there, the side of her head resting against the black pillow. Her brain swirls with memories of what they just did, but she doesn't ask the burning question on her mind because she already knows that Cheryl doesn't remember anything; she doesn't need to make herself look like a fool again.
She begins getting up from the bed. But she slows down when she notices the pensive look on Cheryl's face.
"Toni, you don't… You don't remember anything, do you?"
"No. Of course not," Toni answers quickly, taking a sharp breath as she sits upright again.
"Oh. Well, I don't, either. I wanted to make sure."
Toni shifts again, feeling the desperate urge to race out of this bedroom.
"Toni," Cheryl calls after her again. Toni turns back around once more, only to feel Cheryl reaching down and touching her hand gently, giving it the faintest squeeze. Toni glances down at their hands, the same overwhelming sensation taking over her. "Thank you."
"Y-yeah. Of course. I should go," Toni swallows, pushing the covers off of her before Cheryl has another opportunity to make her feel this stupid fluttering in her stomach.
She shoves the covers to the side and then hastily searches the floor for her clothes and re-dresses herself. She barely looks back at Cheryl before rushing out of the bedroom, taking a deep breath when she's finally out. What the hell is going on?
She spends half of the evening hiding out in her bedroom, staring up at the ceiling while she lets Fangs and Anthony do all of the packing before they go to the bunker to camp out when the comet gets close to Riverdale. In whatever vision she has, she was helping with the packing, and Fangs was asking her a million questions about what Cheryl wanted, and she can't even remember what lie she made up.
She glances at the clock on the nightstand– it's almost time to go to the bunker, and Fangs still hasn't done his interrogation. She smiles to herself in relief; maybe if she doesn't go where her vision wants her to go, this stupid déjà vu won't get her. She's been following the vision almost to a T so far, and now she's finally not.
"Toni, we've gotta go soon," Fangs pops into the bedroom.
"Okay. I'll be out in five."
She expects Fangs to leave and go finish packing with Anthony, but he lingers in the doorway, staring at her with nervous eyes. It can't be coming, can it?
"Hey, so… What did Cheryl want?" he asks.
"Nothing," Toni groans.
"Nothing?" he raises his eyebrows. "But she said she needs you to get rid of the barriers."
"Yeah, I just– I had to talk to my ancestor Thomasina and convince her to convince Cheryl's ancestor Abigail to help us break the binding spell."
"Damn, that was a long talk," he comments.
His eyes linger on her cautiously, but she can tell that he doesn't believe her. Clearly, he wants to prod for something more. But she doesn't have the mental strength to argue with him about this right now. She doesn't feel like herself and everything is just off. She needs this day to be over– she needs Cheryl to just break this barrier or melt this comet and everyone needs to come out of this alive.
"Abigail Blossom is tough to get through to," she tries to wave him off.
"Is that really it? She couldn't just talk to your ancestor on her own?"
"Yes, that's it. We have a familial connection; it was just easier, okay? Can we talk about this later? My head hurts and the comet is coming, so…" Toni groans.
"Yeah. I guess," he says, and begins to pivot around to the door. He turns back when he remembers something. "Oh, also. Did you get that message from Veronica?"
"Huh? No, I… I haven't looked at my phone in a while," she says, and leans over to fetch it from where it has fallen onto a pile of Fangs's clothes.
"It's kinda important. I don't know exactly what happened, but she thinks that Cheryl can melt the comet without anyone dying," he explains. "I think they transferred their powers to her."
Of course that happened, too. She tries to feign surprise to the best of her ability. Fangs seems to buy it since he goes back to the living room to finish packing. Toni slams her face against the pillow beneath her and groans into it. She wonders if anyone else is experiencing this much déjà vu. What if Percival messed with everyone's minds, but no one has brought it up because they all think they're alone in this?
She figures that there's no use in starting commotion about this now, though. The comet is about to hit and if she's the only person who feels this way, she's just going to be taking everyone's focus away from stopping the comet. Plus, everyone will think she's officially lost it.
"Toni, let's get going!" Fangs calls from the living room. "We've only got an hour until the comet."
. . .
Toni strikes her match against the side of the matchbox for the third time, when it finally catches fire. She hovers it above the final candle wick until it lights, and then takes a deep breath. She can't believe it feels like she's living through this comet fiasco for the second time. She remembers feeling so relieved when it was finally over and she could leave the bunker– the rush of joy she felt until the moment that Jughead and Tabitha had run up to her outside of Pop’s.
This day has been torture, but she's mostly just grateful that it wasn't real. She doesn't know what she would have done if Cheryl really had died from melting the comet. Her stomach sinks just thinking about it.
"Mom, Dad…" Anthony croaks out in a shaky voice. "I'm scared."
Just another thing that she remembers happening. She draws her eyebrows inwards, staring at Anthony's fearful face. He's looking to both her and Fangs for comfort, and she wants to give him that comfort, but her lips can't find the words because she actually feels like she's losing her mind at this point. If this is Percival's doing, he certainly won from the grave because she can't take this anymore.
Fangs glances at her like he's expecting her to be the one to say something motherly and deep, but her lips just snap shut. Fangs finally steps in and takes Anthony's hand. She sits down on the other chair and takes Anthony's other hand.
"Buddy, we're all gonna be fine. Let's just stick together. We're not going anywhere," Fangs smiles.
She shouldn't go anywhere, should she? She's supposed to be here for her son who's facing the possibility of losing one or both of his parents forever.
But when she's sitting by Anthony and Fangs idly, she just feels unsettled. Everything she's guessed has come true. Maybe she's delusional, or psychic, or Percival messed with her, but in the off chance that she's right? That means she isn't just counting down the minutes until Bailey's Comet is supposed to hit Riverdale– she's counting down the minutes until Cheryl dies because melting the comet drains her so badly.
Without thinking more, she jumps up from her seat, earning shocked looks from both Anthony and Fangs.
"Toni?" Fangs looks at her with arched eyebrows.
"I'm sorry. I have to go."
"What? Where?" Fangs asks incredulously. "The comet is about to hit!"
"I know, but there's something that I have to do," she breathes nervously.
Hastily, she grabs her jacket from under the table and shoves it onto her shoulders while walking towards the bunker exit. Anthony stands up and looks at her with sad eyes.
"But, Mom… Isn't it more dangerous out there?" he asks with puppy dog eyes that Toni doesn't feel right saying no to. "What if I never see you again?"
She wants to be there with him and savor her last possible moments with him, but this feels bigger– her gut is begging her to go. Anthony is immortal and is going to survive this regardless, but Cheryl might not.
She kisses the top of Anthony's head. "I love you, Ant."
"I love you, too," he says quietly, eyes never leaving her as she begins climbing up the ladder out of the bunker.
"Toni!" Fangs stands up and yells behind her. "You can't–"
He follows her to the exit and reaches out an arm to try to pull her back, but she shakes it off and keeps climbing up because there isn't enough time to argue with him or justify herself, even if there was any possibility of him believing her. If there's any chance that she can save Cheryl, he'll have to understand if they all make it out of this alive.
She races to her car and drives so far above the speed limit that she can barely control her steering wheel around the curves of the road. She slams her brakes when she gets to the parking lot of Pop's Diner.
"Cheryl!" she cries, sprinting towards the diner as fast as she can, not even bothering to close her car door.
But the blue cosmic light is already illuminating the night skies over Pop's. Toni stops in her tracks and looks up; Cheryl is already up in the sky, hands stretched out, screaming something with all of her might that Toni can't decipher. She's so consumed in whatever spell she's belting out that she doesn't even notice that Toni's there.
She doesn't know what she would have done to stop this, but she's too late.
She pants unsteadily, nails digging into her palms as she watches this unfold. She knows she's been right about basically everything today, but she's begging the universe to make her wrong about this one thing. She's begging for Cheryl to just safely melt this comet and come down to the ground on two feet.
And she does melt the comet, but it's just like Toni feared.
The hurtling ball doesn't crash into Riverdale— its matter vaporizes into nothingness, leaving no trace of itself in the town. But Cheryl's face pales immediately, her breaths looking unsteady as she shakily tumbles back towards the ground, falling onto her back.
"Cheryl!" Toni screams, her eyes widening as she runs towards her. "No, no, no…. No. Please. Not again."
She kneels down on the ground beside her. Cheryl looks so dizzy that she can barely process the sight of Toni above her. She releases one last shaky breath and Toni can see the life has been drained from her body.
Toni's stomach drops down a hundred levels as she collapses over Cheryl, pressing two fingers to her pulse point to see if it's really true. Nothing. Just nothing.
She begins sobbing into Cheryl's neck, holding her body as closely as she can. Her skin still feels warm.
Toni feels more than devastation this time. She feels guilt because she knew this was going to happen and she did nothing. Again. Sure, she was confused and doubting herself all day, but it was like the universe had given her a sign that this was going to happen, and she did nothing differently.
”I didn’t want to be right,” she mumbles.
She lays over Cheryl, her sobs muffled by coldening skin. She feels frozen in place, glued to Cheryl's body. She doesn't even think about moving until she hears a gritting sound. The sound of a car engine revving.
Jughead's car. He and Tabitha both come out, puzzled expressions on their faces when they see Toni there on the ground.
"Toni?" Tabitha furrows her eyebrows. "How'd you get here so fast?"
"It— it doesn't matter," Toni chokes out. "Cheryl's… she's… she's not okay. She's…"
Jughead and Tabitha glance at each other with panic briefly before running towards Toni.
"Oh my God!" Tabitha cries, kneeling down next to the two of them. Her tears start flowing and she can't take her eyes off of the lifeless body. "Oh my God. Cheryl. How did this happen?"
Jughead's face looks sickened, his hand pressed against his mouth in absolute shock. He takes a deep breath and examines Cheryl, like he's actually trying to figure out how this happened. But Toni doesn't want him to open his mouth because she already knows his theory, which is probably right. She knows it was the comet. She knows that melting it drained her. She can't hear this again.
"It must have been from melting the comet," Jughead analyzes. "I guess… I guess it must have drained her, somehow. It must have been too much for her to handle."
"Then, why the hell did we make her do this?" Toni yells, her arms still stretched over Cheryl's body.
"We didn't know this would happen," Jughead says.
That's a lie. Toni knew. Toni knew. She feels like an idiot.
"I'm so sorry, Toni," Jughead breathes. She knows it isn't his fault. He actually had no idea. "This— this never should have happened. We should have found another way."
She doesn't talk again. She just stares at Cheryl with tears streaming freely. Jughead and Tabitha feel too sorry for her to leave her side, so they just sit there with her and cry. She stays there forever and never plans on moving until someone drags her away.
She sniffles and shuts her eyes to flick a teardrop away. And then—
The beeping alarm blasts in Toni's ear and she rolls over in her bed again. No Jughead, no Tabitha, no Cheryl.
Her bedroom. Her messy clothes on the floor. Her annoying alarm clock. And—
"Toni, turn that off already! You're still asleep? We have to go to Archie's in thirty minutes."
What the hell?