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Apo had asked Scott to meet; she finally wanted to talk. Embrace vampirism just as he knew she would. The town had cast her out once they learned the truth, just as Scott had predicted they would. Humans always have the same reaction to creatures of the night; it didn’t matter how long or well they knew them; once they were vampires, they were no longer members of society. They were castouts, monsters. Scott had been after the incident, so why would it be any different now? Plus, having her on their side could only be a good thing, even if Owen heavily distrusted Apo and told Scott that he shouldn’t go to meet her, but Owen was really just being paranoid. Apo was on her own and desperate. She needed them; she didn’t have a choice but to join them, even if she didn't like it.
Apo had asked Scott to meet her at the falling-apart tower on the hill off the dead woods. The tower had a beacon that was currently converted to their side. It was supposed to symbolise neutral ground, Scott supposed. Scott couldn’t just go through the front door and fly there as he usually would, at least not without Owen noticing, and the other was quite adamant on the fact that Scott shouldn’t meet Apo. His protectiveness was cute, but in this case it was an inconvenience. one Scott didn’t want to deal with, so he simply used the castle beacon to make his way to the tower.
"Hello Apo,“ he said with a predatory smile as he arrived next to the beacon and perfectly behind the soldier.
"Ah, the heck, man, you can't just sneak up on me like that,“ Apo screeched as she startled back; clearly, she didn’t expect him to arrive like that.
"Allow me to remind you that you, Apo, were the one who asked me to meet you here, so you shouldn’t really be surprised that I've joined you,“ Scott said in his usually kind-sounding manner.
"Yeah", Apo said with slight hesitation before offering, "how about we talk and fly?"
"Great idea, I simply love stretching my wings,“ Scott said with a smile before both of them transformed into bats and took to the sky.
"So do tell me, why did you finally decide to speak with me?" Scott asked with a coy squeak.
"You know why,“ Apo hissed, earning a confused tilt of the head from the white bat that was flying next to her. Apo let out a sigh of defeat before talking, "You were right, Scott. Is that what you wanted to hear? Once they found out I was a vampire, they kicked me out of town.“
"Oh my", Scott clearly faked his surprise before adding in an exaggerated manner, "if only some smart elder could have warned you."
"If only there'd been an elder around that could actually be trusted, one that doesn't lie with every breath they take,“ Apo shot back with a glare, clearly not amused by Scott’s dramatics.
"I don’t actually breathe, honey, and you don’t have to either anymore," Scott pointed out as he flew after Apo, as she had taken quite the sharp midair turn.
"Well, maybe I still want to,“ Apo squeaked in an accusatory tone, as she dipped down so she was hovering over the forest floor. It was sad how she still tried to cling to her humanity no matter how badly the humans treated her. Apo’s so desperate to get back to her lover, but what a pain that will bring her. After all, no human would ever love someone they considered a monster, no matter how much they loved them before. That's simply how their world worked.
"Apo, look, I know this might be hard for you to accept, but you're not human anymore, and because of that, people will kick you out or try to kill you. It doesn’t matter how well you knew them before. Trust me, I understand that it hurts, but the longer you try to deny that fact, the more it will hurt,“ Scott told her, sounding surprisingly kind and sincere.
"You're the one who turned me! You're the one who made me into this monster!" Apo screeched at him in anger and frustration.
"I'm sorry that what I did hurt you so much, but I'm not sorry that I did it," Scott calmly admitted to her.
"And I'm not sorry for any of this,“ Apo said, her voice sounding surprisingly cold, before she let out a loud and high-pitched screech.
The screech shortly disoriented Scott before he felt the sensation of a bottle hitting his body from above, causing him to fall. The bottle shattered upon impact, which led to him being completely drenched in some slightly burning liquid. Oh no! Holy water! But instead of feeling the disgusting texture of grime and dirt once Scott felt the pain of hitting a surface, it was the burning sensation of silver that greeted him. As Scott opened his eyes once again, when did he even close them? That's when he really understood the situation. He was weakened by holy water and traped in a silver cage. Apo had betrayed him. Owen had been right; why didn't he listen to the other?
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Owen was feeling kind of bad. He had stopped Scott from meeting with that treterus Apo, which he did not regret; that vampire was planning something. What he did regret was the fact that Scott was currently giving him the silent treatment because of it. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like not being with Scott. Not being with the second person to ever show him kindness. Not being with the second person he had ever started liking.
"Scott I know that you're upset with me, but I was just trying to look out for you. And it was too dangerous to go alone like she wanted you to. Not to mention how suspicious it was. If you still really want to, we could go there together, I suppose. How does that sound?" Owen offered as he stood in front of the locked door to Scott’s room. But Scott didn’t answer.
"Please just talk to me,“ Owen quietly asked. Again getting no response, something felt weird. And it might be an infraction of Scott‘s privacy, but something just felt too odd to Owen. Scott has not stayed away from him for this long in a while. So Owen made the executive decision of transforming into a bat and sending a small sound through the keyhole of the door. He just wanted to know if Scott was doing well and maybe also if he had been knocking at the right door, though he was quite sure he was. When the sound came back, Owen‘s expression went cold: Scott wasn’t in the room.
Owen didn’t like not knowing where Scott was, so he started flying around the castle while using his echolocation to try and find him; after all, it would be quicker and more efficient than any other sense at his disposal. Still, he found nothing. It was as if Scott wasn’t in the castle. He wouldn’t, right? Who was Owen kidding? Scott had gone out to meet Apo on his own without telling anyone. Owen needed to find him and fast. Who knows what kind of danger Scott could be in. What kind of trouble he'd gotten himself into.
Owen soared out and above the castle as fast as he could muster before letting out a collection of squeaks in every direction at once. It would probably be overstimulating for a moment, but it would lead to him finding Scott quicker, and that was what truly mattered. When all of the reverberated sounds came back, Owen‘s head hurt at first as he felt overwhelmed by all the information that his brain was processing, but as he focused through it, he found what he was looking for. There was a huminod movement to the right of him. And after sending a few more sounds in that direction to understand the situation better, Owen felt nothing but rage.
There were five humans and one vampire in a clearing; one of them was holding up a cage that had a bat inside. By the size of the bat, it was immediately clear to Owen: Scott was in that cage. Why wasn’t he freeing himself? How did they manage to trap him as a bat? It didn’t matter; they were as good as dead. Owen decided as he flew as fast as his wings would take him into Scott‘s direction. He won’t lose the person he loves again.
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"Oh my goodness, it actually worked!" M cheered once Dr Legundo closed the door on the cage, trapping the vampire indefinitely.
"Well done, Apo, this was an amazing plan,“ Martyn agreed as he walked out from behind the tree he had been standing.
"Indeed, yer managed to resist the charms of that beast, don'tcha know,“ Renhardt added as he joined the rest of them in the clearing.
"Thanks,“ Apo said after she transformed out of being a bat. Abolish silently joined the group as he jumped down from the tree he had been sat in so he would have a vantage point when throwing the holy water.
"What now?" M asked the group as they looked at a sizzling white bat that was helplessly trapped in the cage, looking as if it were fighting to stay conscious through the pain it must be feeling.
"Now we kill him and cure everyone,“ the doctor confidently stated. That was one of the core conditions, after all. You had to kill the sire.
"No, you won’t,“ a voice that was laced with barely contained anger said. As the group of humans looked up, they saw a quickly approaching bat that, once it reached the height of the treetops above them, transformed back; Owen had arrived, and he was pissed. As he landed on the clearing floor, Owen used his momentum to slash at Martyn and Ren, heavily injuring both of them as they fell back.
Apo and Abolish were the first to react as Apo lunged forward to try and stop him. Owen noticed that Abolish was about to chuck a bottle of what he assumed would be holy water at him; perfect timing. As Owen moved out of the way, the holy water hit Apo instead, making her useless to the humans. He used his strength to practically throw her at Abolish, incapacitating him as well. As Owen looked around himself, he noticed that it seemed like M was trying to help his newly injured teammates, making him useless in a fight. which only left the doctor between him and Scott.
Once Owen turned to face the doctor, he only became angrier at the sight of Scott. It was the first moment he had actually seen the other throughout this whole ordeal, and Scott didn’t look good. He was crumpled up on the flooring of a cage that was clearly made out of silver, as Owen could not only see but also hear the sizzling of Scott’s skin. Scott’s eyes appeared to still be open, if only barely, but without him moving, Owen wasn’t sure if Scott was even still lucid. Knowing that they hurt him, that Scott was still hurting made Owens blood boil.
"Owen, please calm down; we’re just trying to help you, all of you," the doctor gently said. He wanted to reason with Owen. He wanted the other to understand. They knew how to cure them.
"Help us, really. If you really want to help me, why don’t you open up the cage and let us go then?" Owen said, as the murderous intent behind his eyes focused on the doctor. No matter how much this doctor tried to convince him that he wanted to help, Owen could see right through him. All the doctor wanted was to take away the last gift Louis had given him and the vampire he had started loving. And Owen would have to be dead to allow them to take another man he loved away from him.
"Owen, please, he’s tricking you; he’s using your grief and your pain to manipulate you,“ the doctor said, sounding as if he were almost begging him to understand, but how could he when the humans were so wrong? Scott has never once tried to manipulate him. Scott was kind and funny; he had never once been afraid or disgusted by Owen. Scott pretended to be a cruel and charming noble to protect himself and his coven. Owen had easily seen through the ruse; obviously the humans never took the time to do so. They never took the time to properly understand people that were different. They didn’t for him; they didn’t for Louis, and they sure as hell didn’t for Scott.
Owen was about to continue arguing with the doctor, convincing him that the world would be better if the human race were eradicated from it, when he heard a weak hiss of pain leave Scott's mouth as the doctor had moved the cage so that more of the bat's body was in direct contact with the silver. The doctor had his chance. They all had to die.
Without a second’s hesitation, Owen leapt forward, clawing at the doctor. He was getting Scott out of this cage, and he was doing it now. The doctor looked like he sustained a possibly lethal injury, but Owen couldn’t care less if he lived or died; he had someone more important to help. The cage cluttered to the floor, probably injuring the bat inside it further, but Owen couldn’t hear Scott make a single sound despite the pain that should have coursed through him. This was bad.
Instead of ending any of the humans around him, like how he so desperately wanted, Owen ran over to where the cage landed and crouched on the floor next to it. Scott was passed out, probably due to the pain. Owen didn’t hesitate in opening the cage even as his own skin started to feel like it was boiling. The pain was nothing in comparison to the pain he felt knowing that Scott was in pain. Owen reached into the cage so that he could gently lift Scott out of it; as he did so, Owen used his own hands to shield Scott from the silver that was surrounding him.
Once Scott was out of the cage, he was no longer actively sizzling, but he was still clearly hurt, and his wounds weren’t healing; they hit him with holy water. Owen remembered that Scott had an antidote for it, hidden in a chest in his room at the castle. Scott had used it once to help him; now he had to do the same.
Owen carefully moved Scott so that the bat was lying comfortably in his arms before he started running as quickly as his legs would take him back to the castle. Owen needed to save Scott; he needed to take the elders' pain away. He wanted to kill those who had done this to Scott, but right now the injured bat was more important.
A few hours later Scott woke back up, but instead of a cage and a plan for his death, he found himself lying on Owen’s chest with the others' hands patting his fur. It was a nice scene to wake up to. Probably the nicest Scott has ever witnessed, even if Owen was actively planning someone's murder while waiting for Scott to come back to him. There's no way he would let the humans get away with this.