Not Until We Are Lost

Sun, birds, breeze, fresh air that rivaled that of the Winter Wonderland. A sense of home felt only one other place, though the menace here seemed different. Niks rolled to her back with an almost peaceful sigh, her fingers brushing over the soft bed coverings. They weren't as thick and heavy as the ones she'd come to know recently, yet they seemed just right, perfect almost.

Her nightgown briefly had her wondering if she hadn't somehow created a more permanent dwelling in the Dreamlands. The material so fine and sheer that it seemed to mirror what she usually wore there. The presence of some other creature, one she was growing closer and closer to, also made her wonder if she had managed it, a Dreamlands cottage?

"Mmm?" She stretched, not wanting to leave the bed, not yet. She rolled to carefully to her side, setting her head down to the pillow. Her hand reached out for the fairy not far away. "Where are we?"

This was the first time she'd woken up with either of her men. Even if she hadn't been in the same bed, she was in the same room. Perhaps he found her out there; she doubt that for some reason.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

The songs of the season were not what Sam expected to wake up to. The last thing he remembered was a little hunting and a little running. There might have been a few strange humanish scents along the way. Carols were not high on his list of things to wake up to; they weren't low either. They really weren't on his list at all.

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey

The voices were a little higher than he expected too. When he finally opened his eyes, he was a little disappointed to see that there wasn't a blond head of somewhat sagging curls not far off. He'd grown used to her being around. Evan was fine, and his hunter friend too, but he was growing accustomed to Betsy. He laughed softly at the idea before rolling out of bed.

The air was a little nippy, as if the heater was just about to kick in because it'd gotten below the set temperature. He hadn't had many of these sorts of winters. He'd had a few, but he didn't get that many in Louisiana.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

The cabin smelled of the holidays, and it almost made him sad. He wasn't spending it with friends and family back home - well, friends anyway. He missed Bon Temps when things like the holidays or sense memory triggers came. As a shifter he had a few more senses in play, or he paid a hell of a lot more attention to his senses than normal types.

He knew he could go out in some warm creature's fur, but he wanted to see the world as a human for now. He put on some warm clothes, not bundling up too tightly, and headed out to find someone, anyone.

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

Sam found himself humming that song, throwing in a few Batmans and Robins now and then. He sniffed a little at the air, catching something faintly familiar. He also smelled food in that direction, so he opted to find out what that familiar smell was.

Dreams had come easier since Simon had helped her find her way back. The Lands were always waiting for her, wanting her back, and while she wanted to spend most if not all her time there, she was getting better about not doing so. She had a job here. She had things she must do, and there were people to meet. The alien - literal alien if she understood - had sparked a curiosity which was a nice distraction from the comfort of dreams and Dreamland. The curiosity didn't keep her away for long though.

She raced down the stairs, not from fear though she still felt as if something were waiting, waiting to be free perhaps or just waiting to take her under. She wasn't sure if it was something she had created, her anxiety, or if it was something that was truly there. She'd ask Simon when she saw him next, or more when she saw him next and thought about it. The Dreamlands had a way of making her forget the troubles outside.

In a filmy dress that was more ancient Greek than anything, the librarian settled by the pond and stared out at the waters. It was almost idyllic. Almost. Now and then she'd look up and catch a glimpse of something she knew wasn't there, just hoped for it. She wished a wolf roamed the lands, or the man that belonged with the wolf. In the wolf? To the wolf? Her hand dashed at the water in small frustration.

"He wouldn't want you pining away, you stupid girl." With a huff she rolled to her back to stare up at the sky. "He wants a strong woman, not...whatever you are now. Right?" She rolled over to peek at her reflection in the water. The look on her reflected face told her she knew better.

"You did good in not licking that one." The reflection smiled as if they were sharing a joke. "He felt different, begged to be petted and snuggled against. Can you imagined Mikey with him?"

Her head lifted, feeling not at all alone.

Simon was not fond of the recent happenings. It seemed to him that everybody was being split up and thrown about willy nilly. It meant that he never knew who he might end up with. And it meant that he couldn't be sure of finding Niklas at all on their changes. It had been bad enough that he'd had to seek her out every damned time, but to know that he might not see her at all?

Worse, that she might be with Evan somewhere...

The planet seemed nice enough. Very tame, truthfully. Bordering on dull. Simon was welcoming of the dullness for the simple reason that he wanted time to contemplate this change and what the new rules of it might be. He wanted to brood a little bit about the frustration he was feeling, and he wanted a little time to be a petulant brat without having to worry about what might be out there stalking him.

There wasn't a whole lot to do, so Simon discovered himself at a small diner. He was looking at a cup of coffee that smelled like it had been made yesterday. There was no chance he'd be drinking it, but he didn't want to just sit here empty handed. He should have found a library or book store and gotten something to read, but he hadn't been thinking of that.

"Are you sure you haven't any tea?" He asked the waitress as she passed by. It was a futile question.

"I'm sure, fella. We just don't really get folk in here that want tea. I even looked for an old box in back. We just have soda, juice, and coffee. I can make you a milkshake if you want."

"No. No thank you. I'm in the mood for warm."

"I'll tell Earl to think about ordering some." She smiled softly. Simon didn't know if she really would or not. The diner wasn't exactly high class. There was a layer of grease over everything. It wasn't his normal kind of place, he'd just needed to sit.

Anger, shame, pride, frustration, confusion, anxious, loss, frustration which was totally different from the previous frustration. Niks was feeling so many things so strongly that part of her wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep. She wanted to find her way back to her home, where she truly belonged because apparently she didn't belong here. She couldn't even seduce a man who she was fairly certain wanted her. Unless it wasn't about that, a small voice said. It was usually the small voice that came up with all the many fairy tale suggestions, but now it was trying to bring reason in?

She wished she had some gift that would allow her to blow things up, or create bad weather, or anything that could be a hint destructive. At least in the Dreamlands she had some semblance of control, the world turning to her whim just a little. Here? Here it was left to everyone else, even those damnable aliens. No, especially those damnable aliens.

The librarian didnt' exactly run nor did she stroll down the halls; her longs legs ate up the distance, but she had no real destination. Or so she thought. She'd continued walking until she found a spot on the beach, plush blanket set out, and an umbrella set to give just the right shade. It begged for her to take a little rest. The owner is probably swimming, said the little voice. She ignored the little voice that agreed with a good bit of what Evan had said. The little voice was once more Niks' enemy.

She settled on the blanket and stretched out, with every intention of finding her desired escape. She did get sleep, but all the twists and turns she followed never got her to the stairs. When she woke up, she felt even more frustrated, and it was then she screamed. Well, inwardly. Evan's "admonition" had struck something; she wouldn't act like a complete fae brat. No, she screamed inwardly in frustration and pain. A certain name or more a feeling went along with it. She needed someone who could understand, or come close to it.

Where was Simon?

It wasn't hard for Evan to find where the tea was, once he decided that he needed to find it. And he did. He felt bad for the way things had gone with Niks. It seemed as if every time they talked, something about Simon would get in the way of everything. Now, to top that off and/or make it all worse, now she smelled like a fairy herself. It might be a thing that he was able to get used to, but right at that moment, all it did was make him think of a certain man he didn't like. Doubly didn't like, given what he'd done without permission.

The tea wouldn't really be much of an apology, Evan knew. There were things in this world that even tea wouldn't take care of. Perhaps it would soothe Niks some, and maybe make her a little happy, and that was enough for the time being.

There was an elevator that took him down to the second floor, which opened up into a sitting room. Or a common area. Or a cafeteria. Or maybe it was all three? He could see a couple people sitting around with food, and a spot that had more comfortable chairs. Social Round Up? No, that just made it sound like a rodeo, which brought unpleasant memory flashes of cattle prods and hog tying.

Niks might like it down here, with all the watching she could do. Not particularly people. More like alien watching. But were aliens people too? It was hard to see their captors in the same league as anybody else.

( People are strange... )

Evan felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Though his body didn't look like he'd sustained that much damage. He figured that it was his brain going with the old standbys. Get in a fight, hurt after. Get hit by a guy who can hit that hard, feel like you've met a train head on.

He went to bed aching and sore, and woke up still a little battered, but more shocking was the fact that he wasn't in the lean-to, or laying on leaves, or hearing the ocean outside, waves in perpetual motion. He was in a room. Alone. Weirder still, it smelled like him.

There was a check of the bed, first, to make sure that he wasn't sleeping next to any new strangers, and then Evan got out of the bed and started to inspect things. He discovered all of his stuff. All of it. Even the pig medallion. Everything that he'd had in Electric City, all the stuff from the strange Easterfucked planet, and what little he'd obtained in Blackandwhiteworld. All of it was here.

Quickly, Evan pulled on some clothes and went for the door, sure that it wouldn't open for him. When he did, he paused for a moment, trying to check for a force field or something else that would burn him up on contact. He even used his nose. All he smelled was the strangeness that Evan could only attribute to the metal walls and the fact that he was now sure he was aboard alien craft.

He spent a little time stepping into and out of the room, anxious to leave it, but worried that it was some kind of trap. Evan's head snapped up and he became as still as a rock when he smelled something familiar headed his way.

Fairy.

It was insulting.

Simon had many abilities, could do many things, going over to the other island, the one that he sat staring at now with the warm sand covering his toes, was easy enough. He knew who was over there. He knew that nobody was missing from this farce. He knew, also, that there were dangerous creatures in the water and vicious things in the sky, but even with those issues, he could still get across.

But it was so insulting.

As if a fairy could be kept from what he truly wanted by dangerous animals. As if he couldn't, should he choose, just protect himself from them, or make himself invisible to them, and go across. As if he couldn't just walk across the blasted water like the Christian Jesus if desired it.

Instead of doing anything helpful to anybody, Simon sat and pouted.

It didn't take long after leaving the Doctor and the TARDIS for Annabelle to feel... something. It was weird.

It felt like a push at her brain. And Annabelle realized that if she let the push through, there was a message behind it.

He's in the park. It's down next to the lake, a few blocks from the police station. It was a woman saying this. Inside her head. Annabelle realized this had to be Phaedra. She told Cavan, and agreed to meet him after finding Simon.

He wasn't hard to find.

The park wasn't very full at this hour of the evening, probably because of the news that'd been in the paper.

Annabelle approached, intentionally cracking a twig or two under her feet, and stopped about ten feet from him. The books that The Doctor had given her were in her bag, hanging across her shoulder.

"I hear you're the man to see," she said.

Simon found Niklas easily. He didn't speak to her when he did, though. And he paid no attention to the women in the house who tried to stop him as he headed toward the stairs. The fairy waved a hand and they forgot he was even there. He didn't even knock on her door, just slid the elegantly written note under it and left again.

It stated simply to meet him in the Dreamlands in two nights time.

The time passed easily for him, he found many things to occupy himself while he was waiting. The citizens of this world weren't too exciting, but Simon did like their clothing, and he liked the cars. There was plenty of interesting sights, despite the lack of interesting people. He knew he could have sought out any of the ones who he had been moved with, they would at least be better than any of the ones they were now stuck with. But he wanted his mind clear when he spoke to Niks. There was already Isaac to think about, and what he might be able to do with the youth. Or to him.

Simon waited in the forest at the bottom of the stairs, not hiding his true face, and even displaying the wings he more often than not kept hidden. He knew that she liked them. He lay on his stomach in a patch of beautifully colored flowers. The brightness of everything in the Dreamlands was a bit startling after all the black and white, even for him. He found himself fascinated with a particular purple color at the moment, gently touching the edges of the petal to move it into light and shadow respectively. The green of the grass was beautifully rich, and the fairy wondered how anybody could live their life forever never knowing color.

He wore nothing other than a bit of cloth around his lower bits for modesty. His bare feet wiggled in the lush foliage around him, and he listened to the sounds of birds and other animals. Simon didn't know if he was ever as truly at peace as he was when in the Dreamlands.

There was a thing that he really wanted to do. The need was not there. There was no need for it to happen. Not for the rest of the world. For him, yes. And it was selfish. He knew that. And he knew that there was a possibility that she would hate him for it in the end. But that wasn’t going to stop him.

Timing had to be right, however. As much as he wanted the thing done, he couldn’t just do it right now. Not right now. Soon.

Until then, he was going to sit and brood. Study the world around him, observe the people in it. Watch. Wait. Try to enjoy himself just a little bit.

The bar was not the usual place that the fairy would find himself. He didn’t frequent the spots that didn’t blast music. He didn’t like the places where there was no dancing. Simon liked show. He liked to be entertained. Usually. Tonight, however, he was going to just be. Perhaps one of the others, one of the ones who the aliens had brought along for the ride, would also show up. If one didn’t, he wasn’t going to be upset about it. Being alone would be just as acceptable. For once.

He did, however, keep to his usual tastes when it came to drink. The concoction wasn’t fancy, but it was fruity. The grenadin would have tinted the liquid red, if there had been color in this world. He’d instructed the bartender to keep pouring it in until it could almost be smelled above the liquor. Simon sipped at it slowly, his eyes calmly casting about his surroundings as he faced the wrong way on the bar stool.

The librarian yelped as she came to. She wasn't waking from a bad dream, just that feeling of not being wherever she should have been. With a deep breath, she opened her eyes again, not realizing that she had closed them in the first place. There were people everywhere, faces she knew somewhat. Somewhere moving, others were reacting, and it was not at all what she wanted to see. The lack of color, finally registering, was just as off putting.

Grey eyes, not just because the world had decided to turn grey scale, turned to the other person sitting across from her. While she didn't mind the face she saw, it wasn't the face she had been expecting to see. A manicured brow rose slightly.

"This is an interesting turn of events." Her gloved hands rest on the table before her. She noticed the bracelet around her wrist; it hadn't been there before, but she wondered at the sparkle. It may have been suiting that her booth mate did enjoy the shiny. She turned her hand over to get a better look at it.

"Did you poke something you shouldn't have, Simon? Or was this totally unknown to you? Although, I must say, I like the cut of your suit, what I can see of it." Her eyes lifted to the fairy's face. She had to push the fear that something might have happened to her partner; she couldn't see him from her seat, and she could only hope that Evan were somewhere else in this place. Whatever, wherever, and whenever they were.

Eventually, Piotr decided that enough socializing had gone on. People knew that their friends and loved ones were here with them, and that was a good thing. They could catch up further later, however. If he didn't interrupt, the meeting would go on far longer than anybody wanted it to. He'd provided some snacks, but no actual food. There would be a need for actual food at some point.

He cleared his throat to get the attention of everybody present.

"We are all here right now for the same purpose." Piotr's voice wasn't loud, but it was demanding. His accent cut through everything else easily. The edges of it were sharp, the middles heavy. He wouldn't, couldn't be ignored. "All of us were brought to this place, world or dimension, and we have all been seeking answers since we woke up. It is time to share what we have found."

He smiled a little at Mary, at Cas, then at Rob, still not giving up his position.

"I will do this in the most orderly manner that I can, so we can get the information and compare notes as needed."

Piotr turned to Castiel, who had spoken up first.

Evan was leaving Jack's house, phone and charger in hand. She hadn't said he could take it, he was just taking it anyway. He doubted she had a phone at the moment that it would work for, and he needed it. She was also not exactly aware that he was leaving. As soon as he was sure that she was asleep and not going to wake up, he'd gotten himself away from her. Going so far as to pretend that he was just going to the restroom, then from there gathering his things and taking off.

The phone was charged enough for him to turn it on and for dozens of texts and calls to come through at once. The burst of communication drained the battery again, so Evan didn't dare read, look at, or listen to anything. He had to get back to the house and plug the phone back in before he did that.

He was feeling the guilt again. That crawling nagging that started at the back of his neck and flooded over the rest of him in waves. He enjoyed Jack a lot. He liked Jack, too. But Niks. There was something about Niks. Being with somebody else was ... well, it wasn't Niks. The stupid thing was that Niks wasn't his, and hadn't shown any interest in him in that way. She'd kept all of it very professional. Even at the labs...

Evan shook his head. The guilt this time was much worse than it had been, and he had no idea why. It wasn't like he'd even seen Niks around this place. He had no idea if she was here. If she was back in Electric City, thinking that he'd gone ahead and taken off, despite what the Tower wanted of him. That was within his nature.

But how could he put himself on hold for a woman who didn't even look at him twice?

The unpleasantness wasn't just internal, either. Evan's distracted thoughts had kept him from looking where he was going, and suddenly, the fairy was there.

( bad boy )

They had moved him when he'd been asleep, during the little catnap he'd decided to take with - funny enough - the cat. Simon still didn't know who "they" were, or what their purpose was, but it was a bit unsettling that the would have the ability to render a fairy into a state of supreme passivity and move him without him knowing. That part bothered him. The rest of it? Honestly, Simon couldn't be too upset. He was having an adventure. Seeing things that he'd never get to see.

The strange little house that he woke up in was nice enough. Filled with interesting little baubles. That he was missing his own things was a bit of a concern to Simon, he'd spent many years with his collection. But they were ultimately only things, and he did have some more important bits in his pockets still.

Simon sat at a small kitchen table overlooking a nice garden outside, watching the sun set. He was waiting for his housemate to rise. He knew she was there, and he knew what she was. Experience with Archer and others had taught him well. He hadn't, of course, known it was a she until he'd sought her out and had a look for himself. A very careful look, since some of those vampire types tended to get a little testy when you poked at them while they slept.

Simon watched the woman walk away from him, annoyed by her. Annoyed that she stank of Evan Vang. Annoyed that once again, the puppy was involved in his life somehow without an invitation to it. The Tower had caused the intrusion before, and now it was due to some woman. A stranger. Somebody that Simon had no connection to and no obligation toward.

He decided that he was going to seek out the infant, if nothing else than to let him know that there was knowledge about an illicit meeting with somebody who was not Niklas Wright. It was a tidbit that Simon enjoyed quite a lot. Considering that he knew how Evan felt about Niks and how she felt in return. This would be a weapon against the boy. He still would not tell Niks, but Evan didn't need to know that fact.

All Simon really wanted to do was hurt the artifact hunter.

It was easy to find the lad, holed up in his office. Right where he should be. His desk covered in busywork. Things that the fairy had sent down to him. Not that the boy would ever know. He didn't have any clue that Simon had that kind of pull in the Tower. The fairy didn't knock, just went in, closing the door behind him. He moved through the space, looking at the objects within.

( Evan sighed )

The puppy had been in the Dreamlands.

Simon didn't need to be there himself to know this. The trees had told him. The grass had told him. All the little beasties had told him. Whispering about Niks and her strange companion. They had never seen him before. He smelled strange. He didn't need to have a description of the man that they had seen, Simon knew that it was Evan.

That Evan had found his way into the Dreamlands did more than just irritate the fairy.

From what he heard, though, Evan had believed it to be just a dream. From watching him at work, Evan showed no signs of remembering what he'd done and seen. That didn't mean that Simon stood aside and let the infant off the hook. He sent as much busy work and irritating errands down to Evan as he could come up with. Once or twice, he sent the puppy off on wild goose chases, running around the building looking for something that didn't exist.

Niks was nowhere to be seen. When he inquired, he discovered that she had called out. She was home, or somewhere else. Not at work. He suspected that she remembered. That she knew that Simon would know. She didn't want to face the fairy's anger. She knew that Simon would be upset. He had no doubt about this. He wanted to talk to her. To find out the details of what had gone on there. When he asked these questions of the Dreamlands, there was a scared silence. He could have forced it, but something stopped him. Perhaps he didn't really want to know, after all.

Simon spent much of the day stewing. Over thinking. Pacing. Angry.

Eventually, however, his mood got the better of him, and Simon left the Tower building, sulking.

He would find something else to occupy himself with. Somebody else, perhaps.

Niks sat at her desk, distracted by a few things. She couldn't ask what she wanted straight off; she couldn't do anything straight with the damn fairy. She had to go at it in a way that wasn't obvious, so rather than do the research she had sitting on her desk for a particularly aggravating faculty member, she started something else.

( Time to see just how well a fairy got along with technology. )

Sometimes Simon enjoyed the nightlife of humans. Other times, it annoyed the crap out of him. Tonight, however, he was fond of the idea of watching them scramble to find bed mates and make drunken fools of themselves. He, of course, still chose one of Electric City's more high-end establishments, refusing to debase himself by sharing air with the rabble that occupied other clubs.

There weren't really any, anywhere, that he would have considered worth talking to. Watching, yes. Laughing at, most certainly. But a curt response and a raised eyebrow was more than enough to send the little fleshbags scampering away to find other quarry. He wasn't here to find a temporary soulmate.

He was, however, currently enjoying one of the fruity so-called girly drinks that came in large glasses with tiny umbrellas and absurdly narrow straws. Instead of being overwhelming, the alcohol in it was gently smothered by the mixture of flavors that accompanied it. He could hardly taste it at all, which was good.

Simon sat in the corner, at a table, where he could watch the whole club move and pulse as if it were one beast breathing. The lights played over the surfaces and the flesh of sweaty, writhing bodies. He wondered if Niks ever partook of these kinds of things. He tried to imagine her on the dance floor, enveloped in the air of condensed breath. It rather excited him.

The fairy's eyes scanned all, took in everything, missed nothing.

Simon was delighting in the strangeness of wherever it was that they all were. He was too connected to his surroundings, too ingrained in the real Electric City, to not be aware that things had changed. He hadn't quite worked out the how, and was completely clueless as to the why, but it didn't really matter to him in the end. They were some place that was not their true home, yet everything looked and acted the same. Oh, there was the peculiarity with the humans who strutted around, the way that their eyes changed. But Simon thought that to anybody else, anybody who was not him, everything likely felt the same, as well.

The fairy sat outside at a small cafe, the better to watch those that passed him by. He had not told Niks of the change when he'd seen her last, waiting to see if she would come to him, asking questions. The Tower themselves had not even stepped forward, wanting to know if he knew anything, or if he had done anything. He would be their first line of questioning on such things. They knew that he had the ability and will to do a lot of damage, though they had found a way to tamp down his power.

That was the other beautiful thing.

Whatever the Tower had done to restrict his natural power and abilities was gone. It had been the first thing he'd noticed, his first clue. He no longer felt bound, caged in. He could feel every bit of himself, as if a limb had been reattached. It was beautiful, really. He hadn't had this much control since the Tower had found him, so long ago. Anything that he wanted to do now, it was within his scope to do it.

He could get rid of Evan.
He could make Niks into what he wanted.
He could burn down the whole of the Tower, just by willing it so.

Simon had yet to act on any of these things. He did not want to play his hand so swiftly. Let the girl and her little puppy believe that he was still held back by the rules and the bindings that had been placed on him. Let them think that they, and everybody else, were safe from his desires and moods.

Smiling, Simon sipped his tea.