Bo Dennis is not a lost girl anymore (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} faetedlove) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} valarlogs,@ 2017-10-03 14:13:00 |
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What: Bo is kind of dying from the Nyx infection, arguments with Lara happen and eventually she opens the jack-in-the-box to save herself. Also Bo drops the "Hades is my father" bombshell.
When: Today
Where: Croft Manor
Warnings: PG-13ish for near-death experiences, language and a little blood when Bo gets rid of Hades' handprint
The past day and a half had not been kind to Bo. She’d woken up the previous day with her hand being black, a side effect from having touched Nyx. And after the dream she had the previous night, she knew what would stop her from dying, only she really didn’t want to resort to opening the stupid jack-in-the-box. Bo was being stubborn even though she knew the handprint on her chest wouldn’t protect her forever.
She was pacing around the living room, the Adamantine Box sitting on the table. It was closed, but she refused to open it. She knew it would suck the Nyx out of her arm and save her life, but she didn’t want to take the chance of unleashing Hades upon the world.
Bo grimaced as she looked at her left arm, which was now black up to above her elbow. “Shit,” she muttered. She’d been careful to not touch anyone with that hand. She needed to do something sooner or later about it.
She was opting for later.
Lara hadn’t slept since this started. It was kind of a vain effort, but she’d been researching everything she could think of. She’d even tried poking Diana’s brain to no avail, but she didn’t need Bo to tell her the blackness reaching her heart was a bad thing. It was easy enough to figure that out on her own.
Finally, she gave up. “Use the box, Bo.”
“No, I’m not using it. It’s pretty much like Pandora’s box. I open it, something worse will come out.” Bo eyed the box warily. She knew in the dreams, it had held her father inside it. She was deathly afraid that Hades was inside the box currently sitting on the table. And both of them were aware that Bo would rather die than unleash some horrible evil.
As if on cue, the black crept another inch or two up her arm. It was a really strange sensation. Bo could still use her arm, but she couldn’t exactly feel it.
“There are many versions of Pandora’s Box,” Lara said. “In some, it was already opened. In others, hope was never in the box, it escaped with everything else. The box was a metaphor.”
And then Lara reached for Bo’s blackened arm. Maybe if Bo wouldn’t act to save her own life, she’d act to save Lara’s.
“No, it’s not hope that’s trapped inside the box. And it’s very much not a metaphor, though I really seriously wish it was.” Bo shuddered. Hades was in the box in her dreams, and knowing her luck, he was inside it here and opening it would release him into this world.
When Lara reached for her blackened arm, Bo pulled it away and moved back from Lara. “No! Don’t...just don’t. I can’t let what’s in that box out. I let it out in my dreams, and I can’t help but feel like I’ve doomed the entire world. I’m not going to doom this one, too.”
“We can deal with whatever it is, “ Lara said, giving Bo a pleading look. She didn’t want to lose her, but more and more it felt like Bo’s dreams were on a collision course that Bo wouldn’t survive. No one else had. “We’ve both saved our worlds several times. We can do it again. I’m not letting you die.”
Now the emotions were starting to kick in. The closer the black got to her heart, the more Bo was realizing just how close to death she was getting. She’d been able to be in denial about it before, but now? Now her impending death was something she couldn’t deny. The handprint on her chest couldn’t save her, it was only slowing the spread instead of stopping it.
“The thing in that box is death. If it’s even in there here, I don’t know, but how can we fight death?” Bo was trying to keep her emotions under wraps, but it was starting to get difficult. She couldn’t handle putting Lara through this, but neither could she take putting the world through whatever Hades wanted to do. Her desire to protect the world and her love for Lara were butting heads right now.
The lights might have flickered ominously, casting Lara’s face in shadow. It gave her, for half a second, a skeletal appearance like that of Death. “I like to think we’ve both fought and been death before. And that there are others in this county more than capable of standing besides us. I’m not losing you, Bo. I refuse to, and I’ll do damn near anything to keep you alive and stay with you a damn long time.”
Bo pressed her lips together tightly, tears welling up in her eyes. God, she hated doing this, but she was the bleeding heart hero who would sooner sacrifice herself than unleash some evil upon the world. And the fact that the evil that may or may not be in the box was her father, it made everything even worse.
And, well, she felt she should really come clean about something she’d been keeping secret lately. It was eating her up inside, and if she was going to be stubborn enough to let this kill her, she should at least let Lara know what might be in the box.
“I know you would, Lara. I just…” She took a breath, casting her gaze up to the ceiling for a moment, a couple tears trickling from the corners of her eyes, before she looked back at Lara. “There’s something I should tell you, something I’ve been keeping a secret. In my dreams when I went to Valhalla to bring Kenzi back, I was sent somewhere else when Kenzi was sent back to the living world. I ended up in another part of the underworld. I met Persephone, and while trying to navigate my way out of there, I discovered that I was born in Hel. My father had kept my mother in a cage in Hel, and the nursery that I saw during my Dawning was there.” She paused again, looking at the box.
“My father is Hades. And he’s trapped inside that box. If I open it, he’ll get out.”
Any time Bo got emotionally like this, it stabbed Lara in the heart. And then the knife twisted, every time. She usually didn’t bother to hide the way it made her feel, but today her expression remained unchanged. It was becoming more and more common for her, like a defense mechanism against the things Orange County was throwing at her.
It felt like the only way she’d make it through, and still be able to keep her marriage intact in the process.
Still, her face softened. The implication about Bo’s mother was obvious, if she was in a cage, and she was momentarily angry on that count alone. “So you’re not just any succubus, you’re a demigod too.”
Bo was right, that changed things about the box. Lara glanced down at it. “Your father might be Hades, but I’ve killed a god before.”
“He’s not a god, not really. He’s fae. We call him and the others like him Ancients. The people of the ancient world worshipped them as gods. So I think I’m more superfae than demigod.” Bo took a breath and tried to keep herself in check, even as the black crept further up her arm, reaching her shoulder now.
“But while he’s not a god, he is death. The handprint on my chest is his mark, and I discovered that it was a link between us. That every time I fed on someone’s chi, he grew stronger from it.” Bo sunk down onto the couch, pressing her unaffected hand to her face. “I didn’t want to kill Nyx. She was just a girl who lost her collar and was angry because Dyson’s son was seriously injured. But Hades forced me to open the box, to use it to trap Nyx and effectively kill the girl she was using as a host.”
This time, at least, there was no innocent girl that would die if Bo refused to open the box. But she lifted her head and looked at Lara. She felt that if she died, Lara would too. Oh Lara would continue living, but she would undoubtedly just throw herself into work and never come out of her shell again. And Bo didn’t want that to happen.
That only made him easier to kill, Lara reasoned, but she didn't say that out loud. Her heart actually stopped for a moment as the rot moved again. Her eyes moved from Bo's face to the arm, to the box, and back to Bo's face again. "Is there a risk of someone else dying besides you? What if we amputated your arm."
It was a practical, if horrible solution.
“I don’t think so. I haven’t seen any reports that fit this,” she gestured to her arm, “is happening anywhere else. If Nyx was here, everything and everyone would be dying.” Just like in that vision she’d had in the dreams. “As for amputating my arm...it might save my life, but the infection will still be there and be able to spread to others.”
The rot spread again, finally moving over her shoulder. Bo gasped a bit. Now it was starting to hurt, and she could feel it encroaching into her chest. “Shit,” she cursed. She looked at the box. Push was coming to shove, and even if Lara took an axe to her arm, it was too late for that to save her. And the arm would still be able to spread the infection.
And with that it was too late to cut off Bo’s arm. Lara exhaled shakily. She’d thought they could wrap the arm in a blanket and bury it in the yard or cremate it.
“So you’re just going to sit there and let it kill you?” Her voice grew shaky, and she snapped. “What happens to the infection then? I suppose I could shove your corpse into the fireplace!”
Bo flinched as Lara snapped. That wasn’t something she’d expected, and suddenly it dawned on her that she was doing what she’d done in her dreams that had led to the whole clusterfuck with screwing things up with Kenzi. She hadn’t given any thought to what Lara might be going through in dealing with the after effects of Bo’s dreams. If she lived, maybe she could fix things, and help Lara. And if that meant Hades would be out in the world, then so be it.
Silently, Bo grabbed the box and started winding it. It was a literal jack-in-the-box, just one made of special metal and had ancient writing on it. It did take a little while before the box finally popped open, bright light emanating from within it. However, nothing came out, save the light which faded after some moments.
Or, at least, nothing that they could see came out.
By now, the rot had spread onto her chest and Bo was in pain and her breath was coming shorter, but she just grit her teeth and started cranking the handle in the opposite direction to close the box. After a couple cranks, the rot started to recede, letting go of its hold on Bo, and it started to be pulled into the open box.
There was only so much before any reasonable person would snap, and they'd past that point a long time ago. Not that Lara was unreasonable, but she had been stubborn, and hopeful. It was just that she didn't want to lose Bo. A simple need.
That she'd already sunk so much into her own quest for immortality was certainly part of it, but not the main thought.
She watched curiously, unable to do anything but unable to look away either. If something had escaped, they hadn't seen it. She preferred to think it had been a non-issue.
Once all of the rot was pulled into the box, the lid slammed shut. Bo took a slow breath before setting the box back on the table. As she was the only person who could open it, it was of no harm to anyone, but she had thoughts of burying it somewhere. She really didn’t want to look at it ever again. Her arm was back to normal now. Bo pushed aside any fears she had about Hades now being loose in the world because she needed to focus on Lara.
“I’m sorry.” It was meant for, well, everything of late. Not that Bo could control what happened in her dreams, but she could have done so much better making sure that Lara was okay. And she should have done so. She loved Lara, and her wife deserved better than this.
“Christ.” Lara sank onto the couch next to Bo and wrapped her arms around her. She wanted to scream. Maybe cry a little. Definitely scream. But not now, and not in front of Bo. She focused on Bo and Bo’s feelings, entirely. “None of this is your fault. You just …. Need to be a little less stubborn.”
She wrapped her arms around Lara, hugging her tightly and rubbing her back soothingly. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. Right now, Bo was numb and not really feeling much of anything. Though she did make a mental note to take that adamantine dagger and sever her link to Hades. No need to have that link in place if he was now free. That, at least, only involved making a cut on her skin along the handprint. “You can scream or berate me or whatever you need to do.”
"Shut up." Lara rested her face on Bo's shoulder. That had gotten agonizingly close. Much longer and she'd have lost Bo. And to something she couldn't have prevented or shot. She did smack her palm against Bo's chest. "Just shut up. Why can't our lives be uncomplicated?"
She took the smack, and drew in a breath. By now, near-death experiences were second nature to her so Bo wasn’t particularly phased by this. “I wish they were uncomplicated, but that would probably take me being human.” Being fae definitely screwed a lot of things up. It had been part of why Kenzi had left in the dreams. Bo may have had a lot of good things in her life in her dreams, but being fae had also brought a lot of very terrible things.
And those things were bleeding over into this life more than she wanted them to. And she did have to wonder if Lara would find it too much to handle. That fear may have started to creep back in with everything that had been happening lately.
“Too bad you’re not human, and I’m not fae,” Lara breathed. She lifted her head. “Your dreams have to end eventually. Everyone’s seem to. We can make it to then. I’m not going anywhere, even if I want to tear my hair out sometimes. I was so… scared I’d lose you today, Bo.”
“I wish I was human, it would make everything better. I wish Lauren had used her serum on me instead of Evony.” Bo sighed, wishing there was a way to reverse her succubus nature. But no, she reminded herself to not get too absorbed in her own crap and forget about Lara’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you sooner. I should have.”
“You had good points. The fate of the world and all that. I’d do a lot to save it. But something like this… we can’t fight something if we’re not around to fight it.” She took Bo’s hand, squeezing it. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“Don’t be sorry, I kind of deserved it.” Bo looked at Lara. “Are you alright? There’s been a lot of shit coming at us lately and I’ve been terrible at making sure that you’re okay. I want to change that because I don’t want what happened to Kenzi and I in my dreams to happen to you and me here. I don’t want to get caught up in myself and dealing with my dream crap that I forget about you.”
“... you probably did,” Lara agreed, smiling tiredly. She shook her head, but didn’t elaborate on why or how she wasn’t all right. It was just really hard to watch someone she loved going through this. It made her feel helpless, and that feeling brought back uncomfortable memories. “I don’t want to make this about me.”
“And what if I do want to make it about you? It’s been all about me for, I don’t know, a couple months now? We can take time to focus on you.” Bo wasn’t even meaning to deflect away from her own problems. There wasn’t anything they could do about Hades now, save for severing Bo’s tie to him. Which she would take care of. But right now, Bo wanted to be more concerned about Lara than anything else.
Lara spread her hands out in a defeated gesture. “My dreams haven’t been new since I gave up the Source and someone assassinated Ana. There’s nothing to focus on, for me. I’ve got my work and my research, and you. At the moment, helping you through your trauma is all I can do.”
“I’m not talking about your dreams. I’m talking about your emotional fallout from my shit. It has to be taking a toll on you.” And if it didn’t, well, Bo wasn’t sure how to take that because it had to take a toll to constantly deal with Bo’s injuries, near-death experiences, and friend fallout from the dreams.
Lara almost lied. Instead, she closed her eyes and sagged against Bo. “I just bury it. I can sort through it later, when I know you’re okay.”
Even if that took months. It wasn’t like it would be the first time Lara had ever buried anything.
“That’s not healthy, Lara. Burying it only makes it worse later. And burying it doesn’t mean you’ll deal with it when you’re ready. Burying it means it’s a ticking time bomb.” This was the quintessential pot-meet-kettle moment. “I know I do the same thing, but it’s really not the best way to handle anything.”
“Bo, I’m fine.” Lara pulled away, getting to her feet. She didn’t want to have this conversation, not with she was getting it from the kettle. “I can’t afford to think about it right now. I’ll be useless to you if I do. It’s better to pave it over and dig it up-” Never “When we both have breathing room.”
Bo looked at Lara, inwardly sighing. “Alright, fine, I’ll stop poking.” It didn’t do much to make Bo feel any better about not paying attention to Lara, but what could she do when Lara didn’t want to talk about it? Might as well turn her attention to things she could do something about. Like burying the box and taking that knife to her chest. In the non-fatal way. “I’ll take care of this, then I need to take care of my connection to my father.” She got up, grabbing the box.
“I…” Lara closed her mouth and sighed. The discussion was closed, she’d gotten out of talking about anything messy, and she could deal with it when she wasn’t feeling so emotionally raw about the situation. Getting some space was a good thing.
“Just let me know when you want to talk.” Bo wanted to help Lara, but clearly it wasn’t the time to do so. She’d just push aside her own feelings on the matter and try to wait until Lara was ready to talk. And she couldn’t help but realize it seemed to be a pattern with them. One that clearly wasn’t going to be broken today.
Bo headed off to the garage to grab a shovel, then she headed into the yard. She found a spot off to one side, set the box down and started digging.
After a few moments, another shovel dug into the ground next to Bo’s. Lara looked at her, her throat bobbing as she started to dig as well. “I haven’t slept a full night in ten months. Maybe longer.”
Bo looked up at Lara, a bit surprised that she’d come out, but even more surprised that she started talking. A little frown crossed her face at what Lara said. “Why not? What’s keeping you awake?” She asked gently as she continued to dig. Bo was going to let Lara talk, poking only if she needed to. But otherwise, she’d let Lara say what she wanted. And then she’d focus on helping her once she better understood what was wrong.
“Everything.” Lara continued to dig, letting the routine smooth her edges and give her something else to focus on.
“We can’t go a fortnight without your dreams manifesting something horrible. I’ve been a light sleeper since Yamatai, but I’ve been even more on edge, expecting every night to end in blood or tears.”
She jammed the shovel hard into the dirt. “I’ll watch you sometimes. I’ll even pray you can sleep through the night.”
She listened. And she felt like apologizing for what she was putting Lara through, but she knew it wouldn’t help. It wasn’t like Bo could control her dreams and what happened in them. It also wasn’t her fault that she seemed to be the eye of a hurricane, except the hurricane consisted of fae shit and destiny than it did anything else.
“Are you afraid I’ll wake up dead?” It was a legit question. And, well, there had been one time where Bo had woken up dead. The time she’d had to cross into Baba Yaga’s realm by being held underwater.
“Dead. Or screaming. Or bleeding. I’m thankful you weren’t here for my puncture wound.” At least Bo had been spared that, and many of the other injuries Lara had sustained. Of course, Lara had been alone for every one. At least Bo wasn’t alone.
“But you were still alone when you woke up with those wounds. That’s not really better.” Bo had wished she’d known Lara earlier, that she’d been there to help her when she woke up with those injuries. Bo wasn’t a doctor, of course, but she could have at least been there to help.
“We can’t change that. And if I have any other dreams, you’ll be there. You helped me through the whole source mess. And the hallucinogens.” Lara started to dig again. “And I’ll lay that and think about what you’ll do when I’m gone. Who’ll be there for you, how you won’t let yourself move on. So I’ll get up. Read or research or plan…If there are places like Orange County. If there are these creatures I’ve found and my artifacts…”
Bo looked at Lara, feeling her heart hurt at what she said. Though Lara knew Bo well, she probably wouldn’t move on after Lara died. Oh she’d probably have some no-strings-attached relationships so she didn’t die of chi starvation, but she wouldn’t let herself get this close to anyone else who wasn’t immortal. It was a pain that Bo knew she would never quite get over, but she tried not to think about it.
“Have you found anything?” She eyed Lara, wondering if this was normal work, or if she was becoming obsessed with something. There was a fine line, and Bo wanted to keep a close eye on her. She had played those games. And seen the Angelina Jolie movies. She knew how Lara could get if she became too work-oriented. And that wasn’t going to happen on her watch if she could help it.
It was a pain Lara was determined for Bo to not have to live through. Lara hit something hard, and changed direction, not wanting to risk breaking a pipe. “I’m narrowing in on Atlantis. Not just the land itself, but some of the properties of the artifacts I’ve been discovering. You know the fountain of youth? I think it was a relic of Atlantis.”
She was digging carefully, trying to avoid any pipes or whatever else may be in the ground. “What, seriously? You think it’s part of Atlantis?” That was news to Bo, but she wasn’t exactly one to do research into that sort of thing. She wasn’t exactly someone who found research fun, even when she needed to know something. “Are the crystal skulls like the one we found in India tied to Atlantis as well? Or is that something completely different?” Color Bo curious on that front.
“Yes. I think there are more places that are part of Atlantis than we think. I found a ruin buried underneath an island, underwater near Crete last month. Too much in common with other non-greek places I’ve been, and plenty of other hints if you know what to look for.” Lara leaned on the shovel. “I think those are linked as well.”
That was interesting. “That’s definitely something. And not something that many people are looking into. Or even looking for.” Bo was proud of her wife for daring to follow these sorts of leads. “I’m sure that your hard work will pay off.” She genuinely meant that as she dug a little more. She judged the size of the hole as compared to the size of the box.
But they were skirting away from the crux of the issue. Bo looked back at Lara. “What can I do for you to help you? Carrying all of the worry and any other emotional stuff can’t be easy. But I want to help you deal with it however I can.”
It was much more interesting to talk about her work. She was so close to a breakthrough, so close to finding something that might give her more time with Bo. Even a century was better than a few decades. “Don’t hide things. I worry more when I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Of course,” Bo said with a nod. “Speaking of, you probably won’t like what I need to do to sever my tie to my father. You remember that dagger I received from my dreams the other day? I...need to cut myself with it. Specifically across the handprint on my chest. Which I need to do sooner rather than later because apparently every time I feed on chi, it allows him to get stronger.” And if Hades was, in fact, running around this place now, she didn’t need that to feed him anymore.
“Okay.” Lara didn’t like that idea at all, but she was practical. It had to be done, and if it had to be done they’d do it. “Do you want help? How deep do you have to cut? Do it in the shower, we can wash the blood away.”
“Just deep enough to break the skin. The adamantine dagger is the only thing that can sever the tie. Believe me, I wasn’t a fan of it myself, but my aunt Zee was actually right.” It was really weird for her to refer to Zeus as being a woman. “I don’t need to cut my heart out or make some weird sacrifice or something. Just blade across skin will take care of it.”
“That’s… a huge relief.” Lara thought the hole was deep enough, so she stepped back. “I think we’re ready to bury that thing, and hopefully put the rest of this behind us.” Once that link was severed, anyway. Lara was looking forward to a few days without stress.
Really, most people would have filed divorce papers already.
Bo set her shovel down, picked up the box and put it in the hole. She took a breath before picking up her shovel again and started to fill the hole back in. “That would be nice. I’d like some peace again.” There were times when Bo wondered how Lara hadn’t thrown around the divorce word, or taken extended vacations away from her when things got like this. Some days Bo couldn’t even deal with herself, and she did wonder how others put up with her when she was being difficult.
It felt a bit like burying a body. It at least had that same kind of connotation in Lara’s head as the dirt rang off of the box. Eventually it was just the sound of the dirt and not the metal. Lara patted her shovel down on the fresh earth. “What if we planted a tree here?”
With the box buried, Bo breathed a bit easier. Of course, the box only contained Nyx’s essence, but it was still a relief to not have to look at it. And if anyone decided to come along and dig it up, they wouldn’t be able to open the box, no matter what. They needed Bo to do that. “We could do that. Something good and strong.”
“Shower,” Lara said, taking the shovels. “Take care of your mark at the same time. And then we’ll go to a nursery. Find ourselves a nice tree. Maybe even make a tradition of it.”
“I like the sound of that, of making a tradition.” It would do the environment some good as well. Bo headed inside and grabbed the dagger from where she’d put it. She then got a bandage and so forth ready, leaving them on the counter in the bathroom, just in case Lara wasn’t in the mood for a kiss. Running the water, Bo stripped down, grabbed the dagger and got in the shower. As she looked down at her chest, she saw the handprint as it began to glow.
“I don’t think so, dad. Not this time,” she said as she lifted the blade, pressed it against her skin and cut across the handprint. Bo grunted in pain, but the dagger did what it was supposed to. The handprint was severed and stopped glowing. She set the dagger aside, then grabbed something to help stop the bleeding. Which it didn’t bleed too much, which was good. But still, she needed to stop the blood.
Lara hovered in the doorway, unsure how much she was wanted. They’d basically had a form of a tiff, and she at least still felt kind of emotionally raw. She finally came in and pressed her hand over the bandage. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Under normal circumstances, Bo would have asked Lara for a hit of chi to heal the cut. But considering the day’s events, she didn’t feel right asking. She’d already put Lara through enough today. Bo set her hand over Lara’s. “No, it’s not. Zee tried to make it seem like I was to be a sacrificial lamb, but his was all that was needed. Now I’m not tied to him anymore. At least not in this way.”
“Good.” Lara stepped in, heedless of any water or anything else. She took Bo’s face in her hands and kissed her lightly, offering her some chi.
She’d always offer, even if it killed her.
She kissed Lara back, taking the hit of chi. Which did the trick as the cut healed easily. Bo then wrapped her arms around Lara and hugged her. “I’m sorry I put you through that today. As long as I’m in my right mind, I promise not to do it again.” Bo couldn’t promise an outright never, considering she could wake up with an altered state of mind that she couldn’t do anything about. Such as that whole incident where she’d broken the mirror.
“I don’t blame you. You don’t want to hurt people.” Lara tugged Bo out of the shower. “I was being the selfish one.”
“Considering I’m your wife, you should be selfish when it comes to me living or dying.” Bo didn’t hold it against Lara either. Even if Hades came back to bite them in the ass, she wouldn’t blame Lara at all.
“When you put it that way.” Lara picked Bo up, and carried her towards the bed. While she wasn’t in the mood for anything, she wanted to hold Bo.
And be held by her.
Laying in bed holding Lara sounded like a very good thing right now. Clearly they both needed it after the day’s events thus far. Bo needed the closeness, and wanted to reassure Lara that she was alive and not going anywhere now.