Chapter Text
Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas
Perceptiveness is the key to survival.
Scott had internalized this phrase more so than anyone else he had known in his life. Most people went through their lives never truly seeing others, so focused on their own little trivialities that they tended to ignore anything else.
The people of Oakhurst were no different. All of them were too focused on either the bigger problem (being trapped in Oakhurst) or their own (which usually ended up in petty town squabbles.) While the humans argued among themselves, Scott always made sure to take a step back and look. He saw Pyro's clenched fists and constantly flitting eyes whenever Scott was around. He saw Avid's reliance on his stake and the way he scratched at his throat when he thought nobody was looking. He saw Cleo's strange calmness when it came to the talk of vampires. However, her calmness was nothing compared to Doctor Legundo's.
In fact, nobody could compare to the good doctor. Legundo was so…standoffish. So other. So weirdly prepared. For example, when the first couple of beacons had been turned, everyone kept clutching at their chests. The beacons radiated such a powerful holy signal in their souls that it almost hurt. For vampires, it hurt more, the holiness nearly choking him with its light every time. Legundo, however, never moved or made a sound. While others bent over slightly, he would just keep standing as straight as a soldier.
However, that measly observation meant nothing alone.
As time went on, Scott had continued to notice things. Things like Legundo being extremely adverse to anyone traveling at night in the woods, despite his insistence on proving Avid wrong about vampires. If he allowed anyone to travel at night, he would force them to be in groups of four. It made hunting for any human blood difficult, because Scott could never manage to corner anyone alone with two other humans around. Or, on the first day of arriving in Oakhurst, Scott had tried to room with Shelby and Legundo had refused, insisting on himself to be the one to live with her. Scott had been forced to pivot and live alone.
The strangest observation was how Legundo acted towards him. The doctor kept conversations with him simple or had none at all. If Scott was in town, Legundo was elsewhere. The longest conversation they would ever have was when Scott attempted to move out of town in hopes of being able to live more freely (and therefore, getting real food would be easier.) But just as he had packed his things and approached the gates of Oakhurst, Legundo appeared behind him, voice full of false pleasantries.
"Mr. Goldsmith. What a coincidence. I was just about to fall asleep, but I heard the racket you were making and came out to investigate. What did I say about going out at night?" Scott frowned. He had ensured that his packing and exiting was as quiet as he could be. How could've Legundo heard anything?
"I'm not going out to change any beacons, doctor." Scott let go of the gate that would ensure him to freedom from this awful, suffocating dump of a town. "I'm moving. You never said we couldn't do that, right?"
"It was implied. If we stay together and change the beacons, that will get us out of here."
"It's not like I can go far. I'll simply be constructing a house near that ruined old castle instead." He would fix his castle up and make it his home again, drinking human blood and slowly recruiting others into his coven if they were useful. Then, they could make it all out together. He would survive. In his current state, however, he was so weak. It was slowly driving him insane.
"You won't be doing anything except staying in this town." Legundo's voice was firm. It grated at Scott-why was he so persistent about this? The man seemed to hate him, so them being as far apart from each other as possible was a good thing for him.
He would have to do this the hard way, then.
"Doctor, frankly I'm getting sick of you." Scott narrowed his eyes, stepping closer to the doctor. "I'm starting to wonder if this really is about some danger beyond our walls. You say vampires aren't real, yet you've taken measures like a skilled hunter would. You know something and you're hiding it from all of us."
"And so what if I am?" Legundo had his arms behind his back, his posture calm but his face dark and smoldering with barely-hidden annoyance. "Does it matter if it gets us out of here?"
"If you wanted us to get out of here, then you'd stop holding everyone on such a tight leash. You preach healing and doing good, but I think that you secretly just want control. I see how you act. You're one of those military types, aren't you? You're just doing what you're good at: taking control of towns."
Legundo threw out a punch, Scott quickly ducking the hit and stepping to the side with a smile. It was an impulsive move from the doctor's end. Good. Scott had control here. "Ooh, touched a nerve there, didn't I? You missed."
"Didn't." Legundo responded gruffly as Scott felt a burning metal slice across his chest. His eyes had been too focused on the doctor's face to see the weapon behind his back. Legundo pulled back slightly, silver sword in hand. The vampire huffed angrily before unsheathing his claws and swiping. He was far past playing games. Legundo would become his meal, and he would run into the woods and never look back. That was the plan until Scott realized the doctor was dodging every coordinated swipe he tried to make.
It was nearly unnoticeable. From the outside, one could say Legundo just had a good reaction time. But as Scott continued to fight him, he realized that he was making steady, practiced dodges and hits. Scott made his own movements unpredictable, but the doctor seemed to already know where his hands were going to land and how to fight back against him.
He and Legundo had barely talked before. But the man seemed to know him.
Scott jumped back and stared at the doctor. He was almost certain his own eyes were glittering with interest. "What are you, doctor? A seer? Or have we met before and I don't remember you?"
The doctor was silent.
Scott slowly walked around him, inspecting and listening to his heartbeat from afar. It had been steady up until this point, but he could hear the slight increase in the organ's rhythm. "No, you seem human." Legundo gripped his sword tighter. "Except for your eyes. They seem…hm." He didn't know quite what to make of his eyes. They had a strange look in them that almost made him step back.
"I recommend you forget what happened tonight and go back inside your house, or I will make you." Legundo glared at the vampire as he continued to stalk around him, unaffected. The doctor's pupils were slightly blown and a trail of sweat was forming on his skin.
"So you're not a vampire or a seer. But you know things. You walk through this place like you own it. Everyone keeps struggling with getting lost, even when they're together, but you don't have that problem."
"You don't want to pick this fight, Scott." The vampire refused to stop. He was putting the pieces together. The only other potential explanation was impossible, or at the very least improbable. But it made sense. A smile crept along his face as it suddenly clicked.
"You're in a time loop." He breathed, pride brimming through him at the sight of the doctor's shocked face. Bloodlust soon filled the rest of his body. "You would be amazing in my coven." At that, Legundo's demeanor changed. Fury flashed in his face before he pulled something out of his pocket.
"Of course you would only think of using me in your coven."
It was a old, handheld clock. The hands moved in a steady rhythm, similar to a heartbeat. Scott switched his gaze from it to Legundo's face. "So you're going to reset the loop now? What's the harm in me knowing?"
"More than you will ever comprehend." Legundo stated flatly. "I'm getting tired of you. You're always the common denominator. Wouldn't it kill you to be different for once?"
"Maybe I am different this time. You're not exactly giving me a fair chance, here." Scott scowled involuntarily. A manic look suddenly appeared in Legundo's eyes.
"You want to know why I don't want to give you a chance?" Legundo growled, lashing out and grabbing onto Scott's arm. Scott attempted to struggle out of his grasp, but before he could get very far, a loud ticking noise filled his ears. "Then come with me."
A white flash filled Scott's vision, and then they were gone.
˚₊‧ⴵ ‧₊˚
Ash filled the air, surrounding the world in a smoky haze. The black substance drifted off of the ruins in waves, poisoning the grass and the trees. Debris was littered everywhere, meaning every step he took was echoed by a sickening crunch.
Scott stood in the middle of it all, cape fluttering in the wind. It was Oakhurst, but not the Oakhurst he had come to know. His Oakhurst had people in it, constantly chattering away or running off to do something stupid.
This Oakhurst was deathly silent.
"This is why I never want to give you a chance." A tired voice floated from behind him. Scott pivoted towards it, watching the doctor make his way through the ruins. One of his eye sockets were a haunting white while the other was bright red.
"So I was wrong. You're…just a time traveler?" Scott muttered, confused by the world around him. How exactly had Oakhurst come to this?
"Not exactly. I would explain it to you, since we're here, but it wouldn't make much sense to you. Not without knowing about the first loop."
The two sat in silence for a bit, watching the smoke and ash drift in the wind. Scott had seen plenty of destroyed cities in his time, but none like this. This was a town that grieved its inhabitants. This was a town that mourned. The destruction was almost impressive.
"I did all of this?" Legundo nodded, a deep pain in his expression.
"You started it all. You encouraged others to follow in your footsteps." He spread his hands out. "You wished for control and power, and you got it. Too bad you didn't get to see what it all amounted to, in the end. This is what I got in return for trying to save everyone, you included."
"…Hm." A strange feeling was creeping into his heart. He stared at the destruction, trying to figure it out. Guilt? Shame? Remorse? Whatever it was, he didn't like it. It was forcing him to look back at his previous actions in previous cities he had controlled and wonder: could I have done something different?
Either that or it was his intelligent self preservation.
"Well. This was interesting." Legundo sighed, pulling out his clock again. "I guess I'm sorry for dragging you here. It just gets lonely sometimes."
"I can see that." Scott whispered. "Do you ever regret it?"
"More than you could ever know."
Something nagged at him in his memory. He tugged on it, trying to remember. Trying to capture it in his claws before it could slip away from him.
"Do you ever regret it?"
Scott smirked at the pleading look in the doctor's eyes. "Oh, no. I actively wanted this life."
His head was pounding.
"Business before pleasure."
He clutched the edge of his skull as pain flooded through it. The world flickered around him, memories not quite fitting into their correct places as he kept pushing.
The doctor was standing at the edge of a cliff, staring at the abyss below. He looked destroyed, blood coating every bit of him. Scott almost felt bad for him as he and Cleo approached him. "We have a solution."
Memories came flooding back to him. The first time he had stepped into Oakhurst. Meeting Shelby. Turning Pyro, Cleo, his coven, all of it flew back into his mind.
The first loop.
Legundo watched him stumble on the knowledge of it all, causing him to fall to the ground and use his elbow to keep himself from eating dirt. "There we go. I was wondering if that was going to happen."
"What…?" Scott was breathing heavily, the sudden switch up in the doctor's tune catching him so off guard that he momentarily forgot he didn't need to breathe in air.
"Welcome to my hell, Scott. Nice of you to tag along." Scott leapt up, eyes flashing. His clothes were different, he realized, and his claws looked longer. If he could use a mirror, he knew he would see white hair staring back at him.
"What did you do?" Scott hissed. The feeling that had been in his chest was gone now, replaced by the crushing ache of being alone without Drift or Shelby or Avid or god, even Pyro and their sire-fledgling connection that had been present until he had died. How could he had forgotten them? His last memory was of leaving Oakhurst with the survivors, preparing to start a new life as he had promised to the doctor and Abolish. It had worked out well for him, in the end. He escaped.
He was supposed to escape.
"I wasn't sure if it would work." Legundo laughed, the sound just on the edge of hysterical. "I didn't even know if you would get your memories back of the first loop, but it seems like the saints have been kind to me today."
"Last time I saw you, you were walking with Cleo to your execution. What could've possibly happened since then?" Scott's mind was reeling.
"I died." Legundo's voice was cold. "It all went to plan. After I was staked, I woke up in a strange plane between life and death. I saw-" A shudder went down his spine. "-divine beings in that place. They told me that my sacrifice was a waste." Legundo spat the last word out, pointed ears twitching. "Martyn and Ren were dead. Abolish would turn out to be some sort of half-vampire anyways. Pearl apparently was a vampire-werewolf. No humans made it out of Oakhurst. They never got the choice to be human or to be a vampire. I didn't have to force the burden of killing me onto Cleo. They all didn't get a choice." Legundo pointedly glanced at the elder vampire. Scott stared speechless at the sight of the doctor in front of him. This doctor was different than the one he knew. He was broken, scarred. "They told me I could do it again. I could save everyone, even Pyro and Owen. They handed me a clock and told me I would only have one more chance to get it right."
"One chance?" Scott asked, gaze moving back to the wasteland in front of them.
"One chance!" Legundo repeated, a terrifying grin on his face. The expression showed off his fangs, even in the dim light. "And I fucked it up." He turned and yelled into the nothingness, "I fucked it up!" Legundo pointed a shaky hand at the other vampire. "Because I didn't stop you in time. I handed you a sliver of mercy and I was wrong for it. Instead, you got worse. Everyone killed each other and you were no different than them. The way you look right now is how you last looked before Pyro staked you in the heart. There was no peace, only dissonance and fighting."
"Then why are you still here?"
"The saints punished me. They told me they had expected better. Now, I am either forced to stay here or start the loop all over again." Scott's claws buried into the ground. "But the thing is, Scott, every time the loop ends or I chose to end it, I end up back here. I do it again and again, but it never matters."
"A constant reminder of your mistakes." There was a strange magic in his soul, he realized. It was invasive and thrummed strangely in his chest. It had only appeared after his memories had been returned. "But now I'm here. What does that mean for me?"
"I don't know." Legundo smiled sadly, holding up the handheld clock. Unlike before, the hands were frozen in the same spot, the clock never moving. "The timeline we were just in is the closest I have gotten to having a loop go well until you just had to figure me out. Like I said, you remaining unchanged has always been a problem in these loops."
"I changed!" Scott argued. "In the first loop, I did!" Granted, he wasn't sure how long the change would last once he was out of Oakhurst, but hey, at the bare minimum he had been planning to try!
"Since then? You only change out of convenience or not at all." He pressed a button on the clock, causing the hands to start moving again. "Let's see how this one goes, huh?"
"Legs, don't you dare-"
A bright flash consumed his vision, before settling into inky darkness. He was in a dusty, enclosed area, the smell of his own breath filling the space. Scott groaned as he adjusted to the new area before punching an arm out towards the ceiling.
His fingers smacked against hard wood. He was back in his suffocating coffin. Scott punched clean through the wood, using the hole to take off the coffin lid from the other side. Usually, he wouldn't take so kindly to his own resting place being destroyed like this, even if it was by his own hands. However, in the moment, he couldn't care less. Any indignation was overshadowed by a more terrible realization. He was in the crypt just below his castle, surrounded by dust and rot. His cape swished as he spiraled in a circle, looking at the familiar environment.
He was back at the beginning. Back to having just woken up from his six-hundred-year slumber. Back in Oakhurst.
Legundo had dragged him into his time loop.
Red hot rage spiraled through him. He gritted his blunt fangs and smashed his fist into the stone walls of the crypt, causing a large dent in the stone along with a spider web of cracks. An angry scream ripped itself out of his throat as he replayed the last couple of minutes in his head, over and over.
Legundo had gotten so exhausted of the hell he had put himself in that he had forced Scott into that hell with him. A perfect punishment for the man he hated most. Scott punched the wall again before smoothing out his hair and brushing off the little flecks of dirt, dust and wood splinters that had made their way onto his outfit. Fine. He had lived through decades before. He had lived through eternity before. He could survive through another excruciating, permanent existence. He was nothing if not patient.
Legundo wanted him to relive hell over and over again? Two could play at that game.
Scott Goldsmith would break out of it sooner or later.