Jack glances in the mirror, and sees the swarm of birds is closer than ever - close enough to see that those are, by no stretch of the imagination, regular birds.
Crows on supernatural magic-steroids, perhaps.
Jack nervously asks "Why exactly are we off-roading right now?!"
Fiore equally-nervously says "Less chance of humans seeing any of this. The Salem Witch Trials convinced everyone to keep a low profile, more or less."
Jack nods, remembering learning about that time period in history class, and asks "But there's always someone who doesn't care, right?"
"Like whoever this is, yes."
They keep driving until the swarm of bird-things catches up to them, and Jack yelps as something heavy lands on the roof hard enough to make a dent in it. Fiore jerks backwards with a small shriek as a gigantic black bird with glowing red eyes and the biggest beak and talons Jack's ever seen pecks at the window and cracks the glass, and Jack jerks on the steering wheel to try and keep control as the whole vehicle gets knocked around left and right.
Fiore slams both glowing hands onto the panel in front of her after another minute of the terrifying attack, and sends a surge of electricity strong enough to light up a skyscraper through the car - several dozen squawks all happen at once, and the smell of charred feathers and burnt flesh comes through the vents after a moment.
The car drifts to a halt, and Fiore mutters "Must've messed with the battery..." That was, without question, the most terrifying thing she can ever remember experiencing.
Jack looks around after hitting the ignition button does absolutely nothing, then says "I don't see anything..." And now he wishes he had his wings, pain or no pain - at least he'd have something to show for his draconic heritage other than some scales on his body! Fire-breath would be ideal, but he'll take wings without hesitation right now!!
After a moment's hesitation, the two get out of the car and go around to the hood. When they open the hood, though, the engine seems fine - no cloud of smoke, no charred metal...seems like she just turned it off.
Jack sighs in relief, closing the hood and saying "Thank...whatever there is to thank, I don't even know anymore. C'mon, before-" Jack doesn't get to finish, as a bolt of black-green energy nails him in the side and sends him flying.
Fiore lets off a beam of light behind her as she runs over to him, but gets stopped by a wall of dark green fire that suddenly springs up from the ground. And then the red-headed woman whirls around at a bone-chilling laugh that turns her blood to ice. When she looks towards the source of the voice, Sagami's standing there - half her body charred black from the lightning, as if she was the crow-like creatures attacking the SUV just a minute ago, yet she looks no more human for it. It only seems to highlight the gray tinge to her skin, the dark circles around her eyes instead of even just under them, and the unnatural light in her eyes that tells her this woman traded her humanity for power long ago.
"Well, well," the terrifying woman says, stringy and matted black hair falling over her face as she grins to show yellowed teeth, "looks like the seal is wearing thin. Such a shame you'll never learn just how many gifts you truly have, little hybrid."
Fiore raises her hands defensively, even as the hairs all over her limbs and the back of her neck stand straight on end, and nervously asks "What did you do to me?"
"Lord Dakkar wanted a way to find the hidden Fae Realm and access it. And what better way than a Fae as powerful as you? Not that you'll ever remember it, that is." Fiore swallows, not daring to glance towards Jack to see if he's alright to not - looking away from this thing that used to be a woman is a deadly mistake, or worse. "Now, be a good little girl, come along back home, and we'll forget this all ever happened, hm?"
Back to Las Vegas, back to Antonino and having his tongue shoved down her throat every time someone so much as glanced at her? No, she knew she'd have to fight for her freedom at some point before she made her break for it with Jack in tow - while Fiore didn't think she was at the center of some big plan of Dakkar's, it doesn't change anything in the long run.
She still craves her freedom, still doesn't want to be bound to jealousy-prone, controlling Antonino Styx for however long she lives - and, with the revelation that her powers are bound, she's just more determined than ever to win this battle. She didn't come this far to just come crawling back with her tail between her legs, hoping against all odds that Antonino will be in a good enough mood to spare her from any punishment.
As such, she doesn't hesitate to shoot off as much lightning from her hands as possible in Sagami's direction without so much as a warning.
Sagami makes a shield that absorbs it immediately, though, and shoots a dark green-black bolt of fire at her in return.
"Alright," Sagami spits out, "I tried to give you the chance to make the smart choice, after seeing me kill that little nobody-human you took with you. I'll just have to piece you back together before showing you to Antonino."
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Jack comes to with a taste in this mouth like sand and disgusting ash, his body feels like it's been slightly cooked through, and his head feels like someone's tried to rip it open.
And then all thoughts of his own discomfort fly straight out of his head, replaced by an intense crawling sensation all over his body and an aching in his bones for a minute, when he hears a familiar voice suddenly scream.
Jack bolts upright, pain erased by sheer adrenaline, and is absolutely horrified to see Fiore on her knees, hands clutching at her head as a woman Jack would describe as a lich or zombie at first glance and a necromancer on the second look makes a stream of dark green and black energy surround her.
"This time," the Lich-woman snarls, "when I seal your powers and memories, I'll seal that ridiculous personality of yours away with them! You'll be nothing more than a puppet for Lord Dakkar, his brat can get over himself!"
Fiore screams again as a particularly vibrant wave of energy hits her, and Jack does the first thing he can think of. He football-tackles the woman to the ground, and then punches her square in the face to knock her out.
There's a crunching sound when he does, but Jack disregards it in favor of running over to Fiore, picking her up, putting her in the back seat of the SUV and getting in front driver's side.
Thankfully, when he tries the ignition button this time, the engine starts and he drives off at once towards the road.
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Antonino starts a bit when Salazar suddenly enters his private room in a swarm of birds, and narrows his eyes at the look on his face. "What is it? Were you not able to-"
Salazar sweeps his arm in a motion to cut Antonino off, and asks "Who, exactly, was the boy your little pet ran off with, hm? Because one bound half-breed wouldn't have been nearly enough to kill Sagami."
Antonino glares at Salazar's tone of voice, but says "Some nobody human who showed up at Mythos. What do you mean Sagami is dead?"
Salazar's eyes flare a poisonous green, and he wraps a rope of dark green and black around Antonino's throat to pull him closer suddenly before spitting out "I mean my twin is dead. We were bound to each other just as much as we were to our demon. I knew the instant she died, it felt like a wrecking ball hit me before a bowling ball was dropped onto my face. And, seeing as your little Fae is neither physically strong enough to do such a thing to my sister nor does she have even a fraction of her abilities at her disposal, it must've been this 'nobody human' she ran off with. Who is, apparently, something other than human."
Antonino scrabbles at his neck, trying in vain to rip off the spell currently constricting his windpipe, and glares death at Salazar for daring to speak to him in such a manner, much less cast a spell on him. After a moment, he rasps out "You dare…"
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Salazar gives him the most contemptuous look he's ever gotten in his entire 300 years of un-life, quickly followed by a surge of power in the magic around his neck as a warning to shut his trap, and says "You spoilt little brat. We serve your father, not you. And him only after Makuroth. It is your disinterest and negligence that has cost Sagami her life, and cost your father her power. Rest assured, there will be hell to pay - both for you and for the boy who dared to cross us."
Salazar suddenly leaves, throwing Antonino one last deadly look as he does, and Antonino gasps for air as the spell choking him suddenly ends.
Rubbing at his throat, Antonino goes and gets a bottle of wine - seems that little nobody Fiore took off with is, in fact, somebody. Somebody his father will end up hearing about, sooner or later.
And it also seems Fiore's lack of powers wasn't her getting the short straw on some ability lottery - his father has plans for her, then.
Well, Antonino thinks as he gulps down a fourth of the bottle, shit.
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Consciousness hits Fiore like a sledgehammer to the head, and it wrings a muted whimper out of her almost immediately - it feels like somebody's torn her skull apart and been digging around in her brain. She sits upright, gasping as it makes her head throb extra-hard, and flinches when Jack shouts "Fiore!"
Maybe a minute later, Fiore groans as arms like steel beams pick her up and crush her ribcage.
"Fiore! Fiore, it's me, Jack! You're safe, we're both safe, that freaky woman hasn't shown up yet. Can you hear me? Says something, say anything, please-"
Fiore cuts him off, nodding her head and slurring out a series of sounds in lieu of forming actual words…and then starts tapping him on the back frantically as she can't get much air in.
Jack quickly sets her down - onto one of the Futons, she realizes, she's in the SUV - and says "Sorry, I didn't realize until after, but…" But he got the most ridiculous growth spurt of his entire life somehow during the fight with that lady - the oversized sweatshirt he was wearing is now skin-tight and about to burst at the seams, his torso doesn't itch anymore which probably means it's covered in scales, and he only realized all of this when he leaned over to check on Fiore and his sweatshirt started making noises like it was starting to rip at the seams.
The tiny part of his brain that wasn't completely consumed by worrying about if Fiore was going to wake up or not is praying that it's a dragon-thing and can be reversed somehow, because otherwise there isn't a shirt size in the world that'll fit him.
Jack waits for a moment, and Fiore doesn't say anything - just keeps her eyes closed, clutching at her head again like it's about to explode.
Jack kneels down, carefully putting a hand to her cheek - both because he literally doesn't know his own strength anymore and because his sweatshirt is barely hanging on if the occasional popping noises are anything to go by - and quietly asks "Fiore, can you hear me? Just nod your head if it's a yes, alright?" Fiore nods her head, wincing as she does.
"Do you remember me? Jack?" Fiore nods again, and Jack breathes out a sigh of utter relief and mutters "Thank gods…"
Deciding it's time to try for a few words, Fiore rasps out "Where are we?"
Jack gets her a bottle of water and cracks it for her - rips the top off, accidentally, spilling some of it, but he can't even feel the liquid on his shirt - and holds it up to her mouth while saying "Drink some water, it should help with your throat. We're at a rest area, I drove until the battery got low. It's been about four hours since that woman ambushed us."
Fiore tries to turn her head away from the bottle, not completely lucid just yet, but Jack puts his free hand to her cheek and quietly says "No, Fiore, it's just water, I swear. You've been out all this time, you've gotta drink something. C'mon, just a little?" He manages to coax her into swallowing a small amount, and then presses the bottle into her shaking hands when she starts searching for it. Jack breathes out a sigh of relief when Fiore starts drinking in earnest, apparently realizing just how thirsty she actually is.
After about half the bottle is drained, Jack says "Alright, give yourself a minute to breathe, alright? Can you still use your powers?"
Fiore makes a small ball of light in her hand, before promptly extinguishing it and jerking her hand away from her face.
Jack sighs in relief once again, and says "Thank…whatever there is out there that was in our corner today, because I legitimately cannot do this without you, Fiore." He never would've made it out of Mythos, much less this far, without Fiore - he wouldn't even be this far down the road in this SUV without her, considering she was keeping the car battery charged while she was driving.
Fiore freezes when Jack wraps his arms around her again, but he doesn't do anything other than just hold her like that - and, she almost immediately notices, he's about as hot as an oven. And, while it would probably be wonderful in winter…it's not winter, it's the middle of summer and she's starting to cook through. And then her eyes fly open in shock, and she asks "Jack, did something happen during the fight?"
Jack nods his head, saying "Not sure just what, exactly, but…pretty sure I sprouted dragon scales all over my chest since it doesn't itch or burn anymore, the sweatshirt won't be coming off unless we rip it off or I shrink down a few inches, and I don't know if I accidentally killed that woman when I punched her in the face because she hasn't shown back up. Or...whatever that thing was." He'll probably be getting nightmares for months about her, but still. Considering she was torturing Fiore, he's not feeling at-all bad about maybe killing her.
Fiore eventually says "That was…Sagami. One of the twins I told you about earlier, Dakkar's personal magicians. She…" Fiore puts a hand to her head again, feeling another wave of pain hit her as she remembers the fight - her getting her behind handed to her by Sagami, more like.
Jack's hand is in her hair once more, as he asks "Did she do anything to you? Can you remember everything?"
Fiore squeezes her eyes shut against the pain, and says "I…I think so. It felt like something broke in my mind, but…I don't know what to look for. I can still remember all my time with Antonino…I think. I remember meeting him when I was four, remember the years I spent with him, us running from Mythos…"
Jack frowns, then says "It sounds like everything's still there."
Fiore just shrugs, and says "I don't know, but…let's just rest for now."
Jack nods, saying "Good idea. We're at a rest stop, and it's getting dark out anyway."
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Jack bolts upright on his futon when Fiore suddenly shrieks, and looks around to see her thrashing and struggling on her own bed. "No! No, let go! Let me go!"
Scrambling up, Jack crosses the small area in three large steps and kneels down next to Fiore saying "Fiore! Fiore, wake up, it's a nightmare!"
She sits upright with a shriek of pure terror, several arcs of lightning escaping her hands - Jack throws himself to the floor, narrowly avoiding getting electrocuted like Boris and Farkas were, and slowly glances up to see Fiore sitting there looking half in her nightmare still.
Jack slowly sits up, ready to throw himself to the ground once more at a moment's notice, and carefully says "Fiore, it's me. You've got to wake up, it isn't real." He keeps talking like that as he moves, hoping to talk her out of whatever nightmare she's in, and doesn't stop until she takes a short breath in through her teeth and looks around.
After a moment, Jack asks "Fiore, you with me now?" He's saying every prayer he knows that she's back with him, because getting lightning shot at him isn't something he wants to practice.
Fiore snaps her gaze over to him, and eventually asks "…Jack?"
Jack nods, pushing himself to his feet carefully, and starts in shock when a sob breaks out of Fiore's throat before she starts breaking down in tears altogether. Not knowing anything else to do, Jack pulls her to him and just holds her as she falls apart.
After a solid five minutes at least, she finally winds down on her tears and Jack asks "You want to talk about it?"
Fiore shakes her head, but says "I probably should…" That's what they say, right? That talking about past traumas makes you feel better?
After a moment and a shuddering breath, Fiore says "Sagami and Salazar…they killed my parents. That's how I was brought to Dakkar in the first place. They didn't abandon me, they…they fought for me and lost…" That's what she was told for as long as she could remember, that she was abandoned and found by Dakkar's men.
Except…now it turns out Sagami and Salazar attacked her parents, fought the both of them…killed them as offerings to their demon, brought her to Dakkar's ritual basement and cast spells on her so she couldn't remember any of it or use any of her powers.
However many and however varied those powers are - she can't remember much, that dream-memory was hazy...but she remembers something about plants. About a rose bush that got healthier when she walked by.
Jack asks "You remembered, then?"
Fiore nods, sniffling and wiping at her face with the back of her hand, and says "I did, the memories came back while I was sleeping. Dakkar…he ordered Sagami and Salazar to seal me. Said he wanted to use me to get to the Fae Realm." And the best way to get her to do that was to make her think they wouldn't accept her.
So he locked what memories she had away, had everyone tell her for over a decade that she'd never be accepted no matter which race she went to - he even made it so she couldn't leave, with her Allure being active all the time! She remembers her mother being in control of herself all the time around her father, so either he could control his Allure or Fae aren't affected by it either.
Jack runs a hand through her hair, and eventually says "It's late, and Mom always said everything looks better after sleep and breakfast." Fiore nods, but doesn't seem at-all inclined to leave his arms or chest - Jack looks around after a moment, then says "I've got an idea. Another one from Mom." He picks her up, puts her on her futon, and pushes his own futon over to hers to make something close to a two-person bed.
Fiore just stares at him for a moment, and asks "Jack, what are you…?"
"I won't try anything, I swear. It's just…my Mom used to do this when I was younger. Whenever I had a bad dream, she'd stay with me until I fell asleep again." After a moment's hesitation, he adds "Besides, I can't get the sweatshirt off anyway, much less anything else, so you don't have to worry about me trying anything even if I wanted to."
Fiore lays down after a minute, too drained emotionally and physically to try to resist anymore. A chest that feels about the same as a brick wall or concrete floor hits her back - or she hits Jack's chest when he pulls her closer - and she promptly feels like she's wrapped up in a heated blanket even though his arm stays at his side.
She eventually manages to fall asleep, after eventually turning around and ending up accidentally burying her nose in Jack's sweatshirt because she can't seem to fall asleep on her other side.