It was easy to take this all in stride. Time travel? It used to be her day job. A timeline where she didn’t survive? She’d seen that more than once. Tracking down someone she loved who thought she was dead, or in fact had seen her die? Done both of those a few times.
The last one still made her anxious though. Not because she had died, but for the impact it would have on other people. After finding out what Evie had gone through, Sara hadn’t been surprised to find out she was no longer working closely with the rest of the Outlanders. Another couple of questions on arrival and she had a general direction of where she was going to find Evie's bunker.
Sara took her time going through the forest, mostly because she knew the closer she got to the bunker, the more likely it was she was going to find or trigger a number of traps that protected Evie’s home. At least Sara had the advantage of being trained in detecting and escaping traps, as well as being familiar with Evie’s pristine craftsmanship. She just hoped Evie wasn’t in a place where she was willing to shoot on sight without asking questions. No one liked getting shot.
What did Evie look like now? Was she taking care of herself out here? How much had she changed? How would she react to seeing Sara now? These were all questions Sara was trying, and failing, not to think about too much. Her mind had no trouble spiraling into the most terrifying and heartbreaking scenarios of what might be going through Evie’s mind daily. None of them were something Sara would ever want for the woman she loved.
Finding her safehouse was going to go one of three ways. She would miss one of the traps, and get caught up in something. She could bypass all of them and knock on the door. Or, she could trigger a trap on purpose and draw Evie out. The last one seemed like the best option at the moment, for both Sara’s own ego (she would kick herself for actually falling for a trap), and for not making Evie feel cornered or thrown off in her own home by the arrival of a younger version of her dead wife.
Wife. Despite how shit this whole situation was, the word wife sent a feeling of warmth through her body, and she had to fight a smile whenever she thought it.
Sara spotted a number of traps easily enough when she started to get close, and began eying her options for least uncomfortable or embarrassing. Eventually she spotted evidence of what she was sure was a hole in the ground. One she would fall into if she stepped onto the brush lightly covering it. Sara considered for a moment, before deciding to go with it. Hopefully this version of Evie still set her traps to capture, and not kill. Even if she could heal, falling on anything sharp would be horrible.
Exhaling a deep breath, Sara stepped onto the trap, and braced for the impact. If she broke something in fall, at least she’d be healed by the time Evie arrived.
Evie was zoned out on papers, information gathered from a recent trip into the city that’d left her with a bandaged arm and not as many supplies as she would have liked. Going into the city was less than optimal, but necessary in some cases. Especially in terms of following a trail she’d been on for months now.
When her proximity alarm went off, the crude wiring set off a silent red light that had her out of her seat quickly. Video cameras took up too much of her solar energy to run, so she kept things basic. Eagle Vision was her backup, when it chose to be reliable, and Evie felt her knees buckle at the aura she picked up almost immediately on the scan.
Sara. In the ground, having triggered one of her covered traps.
She didn’t bother with guns, only her knives and hidden blade, as she pulled open the locked door and steeled herself from this.
It was stupid. She hadn’t been part of the planning in the Outpost for a while now, but had known this was a possibility. Had brushed Essek off when they tried to get word to her with a well-timed fuck off. The chances of them even completing it had been slim - Evie had lost her sense of optimism years prior.
She was silent as she approached, knife resting in her left hand, finger blades popped and ready to launch if it somehow wasn’t Sara after all.
But that blonde hair was unmistakeable. She knew better than to lean over an open trap, but did anyway. “You stepped into that on purpose.”
There were ten hard years of difference, this place was enough to age anyone, especially with magic gone. But when she looked up to the opening of the hole, there was no mistaking who was looking down at her. The lighting wasn’t the best for seeing the details of Evie’s face. Sara wasn’t even sure she’d be able to get close enough to her to try and catalog all the similarities and differences she could find with a decade between this Evie, and the one back in 2023.
Sara grinned up at her. “You don’t know that. I could have been trapped.” Evie definitely did know that, who was she kidding.
She followed up with a slight shrug. “I figured I should knock first. Before showing up at your door.” If you could call that knocking. Sara didn’t know enough about Evie’s state of mind to be able to accurately guess which approach would have been best. But nothing was currently being pointed at her, so it was technically going well so far.
“Got a rope or something?” Sara had run through her options of getting out of the hole, but if Evie had built it, it wouldn’t be easy. There had to be something up there though for getting people out, assuming she willingly let some people out.
Evie didn’t smile back. Years before, she would’ve. It would have been easy to look at Sara and fall right back into that.
Time hadn’t been kind to her. There was no it could’ve been worse, as Evie had hit the bottom of that well a while back. Now it was just facts and the only spare bit of hope she had left was expended on figuring out how to break the thrall so they could have their people back.
So she could have Jacob back.
But Sara-- Her Sara was gone. Was only a memory these days, with the sword that had done the deed hanging in her bunker as if it was proud, somehow. It’d done it’s duty and now Evie looked at it every single day because she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of something that belonged to Sara. They’d already lost everything else.
She snapped herself out of it with another frown and then pulled out a rod that she placed on the edge of the pit - one tap of her foot later and the rod shoved spikes into the ground and rolled out a ladder all at once. Brigitte-made.
“I didn’t think it would work. Their idea.” She took a step back to give Sara space to climb out, and busied herself with watching around the perimeter for any threats. “What if they just pulled you into all of this shit only to get you all killed.” Again.
“Sometimes it’s the insane Hail Mary’s you just have to go with.” she said as she climbed up and out of the hole. Hail Mary’s were somethings he was more than used to. When you don't have the resources you need in your own time, you go where you have to when so many lives are on the line. “Or maybe the magic worked because Vallo wanted it to.” There was always the hope that somewhere under all this bullshit, there was still hope.
There was no counting the amount of times Sara had run through the mortal debate of time travel and impacting events, so she got Evie’s point. But she didn’t agree. “Seems like this is the future we arrive at if we don’t do something.” she said, finally getting a look at Evie from her normal point of view. She still had to look up, but at least this was the view she was used to.
Sara didn’t try to move closer, as much as she wanted to. She knew what it was like to see a version of your loved one that wasn’t yours, and it hurt. Even so, Sara still had to come and check on her. “I’d rather fight to change my time, and give everyone here a shot at something less horrific,” To help you get Jacob back “than sit around and wait for this to happen.” She gestured vaguely to the forest around them, but indicating the entire situation of this future.
Evie didn’t wish this future on anyone. Even if she wanted to bitterly grumble, she knew it would ultimately help them. If it worked.
If it didn’t, they were just getting another dozen people killed, to no good end.
But if they got stuck in this place, they were dead anyway. Dead, or the kind of zombie Jacob was stuck as. If there was any chance in hell at getting Jacob back, that was where Evie sat. “Yeah.” It wasn’t really an agreement, angry sounding as it was. Evie pressed the button with her toe and the ladder retracted so she could pick it back up, before she started towards the bunker, expecting Sara to follow her.
When she was back inside, after avoiding another three traps, she held the door open just long enough for Sara to enter before it was locked. “The Outpost has better maps, more updated intel. I’ve still got people who share things with me. The thralled people are spread out, the city belongs mostly to monsters and Vorerra. We know Interitus has been in Cloud Recesses and Geliara in the past.”
Evie avoided looking at Sara, preferring to keep to the business end of things and avoiding her emotions. It was easier to be angry. “We can’t make large-scale attacks without half of our people getting turned into thralls.”
Follow her she did, watching Evie as they went and taking note of their surroundings, pinpointing the additional traps, and marking the path to get to her door. She didn’t waste time expecting Evie to invite her in, and just stepped through the entrance, eyes immediately taking in the site around her.
It was a far cry from their home in the apartments, or even Evie’s room on the train, or Sara’s room on the ship. It was a safe house, and keeping things neat and orderly and the luxury items they had everyday access to just didn’t take top priority anymore. She took note of the maps, the trunks, the stacks of paper, research, and information. The weapons. Her hellsword. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised to see it or not, but it was better left under Evie’s eyes than in the hands of Interitus.
Tearing her eyes away from the sword, she looked back to Evie with a nod. “Sounds similar to the run down they gave us.” A few times now, and she knew it was probably coming a few more times while they were here. This was the last shot, everyone had to know what was coming and where they needed to be to play their parts. “Geliara falling was still a shock though.” Vorerra turned traitor was not. Sara didn’t spend a lot of time interacting with the magic community specifically for magic. Any magic she wielded was never her own. It came from someone else or another object. But from her understanding, Geliara was powerful.
“Are you planning on joining the Outpost for…whatever it is we’re about to throw ourselves into?” Sara asked, leaning up a pipe that stuck out slightly from the wall. She didn’t miss that Evie wasn’t looking directly at her, but that wasn’t going to stop Sara from committing this version of her to memory.
“Power really hasn’t made much of a difference at all, in the end.” It was luck. Who lived, who died, who was snapped, who was thralled. Bad luck on each and every end of it. The covens had been a wakeup call to a lot of them, for as confident as they had been about going up against Interitus.
Vorerra turning sides hadn’t been a surprise. Not to most of the Outlanders who had already been on their bad sides.
She tensed up slightly and moved away to fiddle with some maps and intel she’d recently gathered. “I have some other things I’m working on.” Brenda-related things. Things she had plans for, routes, timelines, ideas for how she’d sneak into the DOA building and jam a knife in her throat for all of the people Brenda had sold out over the years.
Evie didn’t say any of that, but sucked in a shaky breath. “But a few of them know where to find me if there’s a big fight. Or something with the Thralls happens. Jacob.”
“I guess that’s kind of always the case in the end.” everything rose, everything came back down eventually. While Evie continued to very pointedly not look at her, Sara inspected the bunker a little more closely while she could, memorizing the layout, and trying to figure out what she was researching.
“Anything you need or want help with?” Sara was here specifically for helping take down Interitus, but would be more than willing to help Evie with her plans if she was able to. Sara didn’t know this version of Evie specifically after everything that had happened, but whatever Evie was working on had to be significant. If Sara had to guess, she would guess it had something to do with the Thralled. Maybe a way to get them back other than the hope that they might come back once this fight was won.
Pulling her eyes away from the walls, she took a half a step closer, cautious of giving Evie space. “Have you seen him at all?” she asked gently, watching Evie’s face carefully, trying to read everything she wasn’t actually saying. Sara knew what it was like to lose a sibling you were close to, and she and Laurel hadn’t even been as close as the Frye’s. If it had been possible, Sara would have moved the heavens to her big sister back. Evie had a chance here. That wouldn’t be something to ever let go of.
It would be fitting for this Sara to help her take down Brenda, of all people, if everything was true about her selling out powers to Interitus for safety. Evie knew just how capable and strong Sara was, how skilled, how remarkable. But the thought of willingly putting her in danger made Evie’s stomach turn, and it was a hard sell. “Something I have to do on my own, I think.” A similar situation to when Evie had helped Jacob hunt down the traitor who’d killed Serefin. Jacob had to be the one to do it, no matter how much Evie had wanted to help him carry that burden.
And Jacob had. But that didn’t solve all of their problems, it only provided selfish relief to Jacob.
Hollow relief was better than none, it would at least give Evie something to feel right now. Anything beyond grief. “Yes.” Fought him, even. Even as a thrall, Jacob seemed to know how to find her, but not for the cheerful reunion they deserved. “A few times. I have a few scars as reminders.” A hidden blade hurt just as much on the receiving end as one might expect.
It was taking everything she had to not poke at that answer. What was she working on? Was she just saying that to keep Sara away? Understandable, but Sara still didn’t like it. She understood it though. Some things just needed to be done alone, even if they were dangerous.
Part of her wondered if Evie dealing with a Thralled Jacob was similar to how Laurel had felt when she dealt with her with no soul. When they got Jacob back, and everyone else who was Thralled, she hoped they didn’t have to remember.
“I’m sorry.” which wasn’t enough, it had to fall short. “Whatever comes out of this fight, I hope we get them back for all of you.” There were too many Outlanders trapped and not under their own control. Leaving them there wasn’t an option.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be here for, but if you need anything, let me know? Please.” Maybe her being here was just making things worse though. All she could do was put herself out there, see how Evie responded, and then respect it.
Evie steadied herself and grabbed onto the edge of the table as she closed her eyes. It was easier to steel herself against the onslaught of feelings as they swelled up when she wasn’t looking at Sara.
But how she wanted to look at Sara. To see her wife again, after everything they’d been through. Despite sharing this space actively with this Sara, Evie felt incredibly alone and ready to fold in on herself. “Yeah.” She both wanted to touch her wife one last time and recoiled away from the idea of it not being her Sara. So she backed off.
“You can take the sword. Please.” The very one on the wall, there was no question of that. The very one that had killed Sara. Evie had kept it so it wouldn’t get into the wrong hands, but it had been a reminder this entire time.
It wasn’t complete silence, but it might as well have been. Sara couldn’t blame Evie for it. This wasn’t her Evie, she wasn’t her Sara. But it still fractured something in her to see any Evie in this much pain. Evie responded to everything she said, but it might as well have been silence. Sara had come here because it seemed like the right thing to do, to at least check in on her, be helpful if possible. But being here wasn’t helping her, it was causing her pain.
Wordlessly, Sara went to the Hellsword and pulled it off the wall, its weight familiar and comfortable in her hands. She hadn’t brought the sword from her own world, though she had debated it, it wasn’t something she wanted to risk losing in another timeline. She would worry about what should happen to it here after the battle was done.
Swallowing the desire to just try one more time to get her to engage, Sara allowed herself one more glance at this older version of the woman she loved before turning to the door. “I mean it, anything. Take care of yourself.” If the only thing Sara could do to help improve Evie’s life was fight to take down this wannabe-god asshole and potentially get the thralled back, then that’s exactly what she would do. Strategically, ruthlessly, without hesitation.
Not waiting to see if Evie chose to answer this time, she headed back out the door to make her way back to the Outpost.