What Once Was Lost

[Lilith]

"Act clever?" Lilith scoffed at the thought.

Acting clever was only acting naturally as far as she was concerned. Cleverness was breath to her life, cleverness had wrapped itself around and intertwined to become part of her very being. Cleverness had come up with the plan so far and it would be the reason as to why it would be carried out flawlessly.

"Acting has nothing to do with it." Eyes that perfectly reflected the storm she could be narrowed on the feline. "Unless you wish to consider my entire life a Comedy in which case, dear dear Sebastian, yes, I suppose I am rather good at playing the part. And Tonight, tonight the curtain will draw for the beginning of Act 2 in which everything burns and we find our heroine making up for lost time."

The tirade had been finished off with a dramatic flare of placing her hand on her hip and posing as if for the cover of a comic book with a suitably epic title. Her body wasn't nearly disproportionate to make it look quite right though. The image faded quickly though as she let out a deep breath and let her body slump back to weariness.

"So much to do... so very little time." Lilith whispered, letting the internal thought leak from her.

[Sebastian]

Sebastian watched the spectacle with the closest approximation of a raised eyebrow that he could muster, and then let out a small feline sigh before beginning to enthusiastically lick his genitals.

He hesitated mid-way, his leg still cocked up behind his head and his tongue poking ever so slightly out of his mouth as he turned back to his mistress.

"Your mildly adorable and regularly irritating flair for the over-dramatic aside," he began, presenting Lilith with a spectacular view of his furballs, "What you propose to do tonight is no small feat. In the past your endeavours have largely been acts of mischief; risky, yes, but their success or failure has solely affected your own amusement. Tonight, you intend to take the fate of another being into your hands, both short-term, and long. It is a significant responsibility, and a heavy burden to place on those skinny shoulders of yours."

He lowered his leg, and scampered across the cushions to the arm of the sofa, perching as close to eye level with Lilith as his stature would allow.

"This is not the time for games, young one. These acts must be taken seriously, or not at all." He blinked, first with one eye, then the other. His tongue snuck out and licked his nose. "Be honest with me, mistress: do you understand that?"

[Lilith]

If ever Lilith had a moment of doubt, maybe, just maybe that was it. After all, it didn't get any more questionable than a cat pointing out potential problems with your plan. Well, not with her plan so much as the aftermath of said plan. The actual evening would be the easy part, Lilith knew that. She didn't, however, like it being pointed out that she may have been unfit for the task she had chosen to take on. It wasn't like she was being pushed to do it - no one could make Lilith do anything, not even her mother. No, this was all her idea, and seeing as how it was...

"Yes. I'm fully aware of what this will mean, what this will start. Everything has lead up to this moment, I'm not about to turn away now. It's my duty and I will not allow anyone else to take her from me." What distance was between them forced by height Lilith closed so she was practically nose to nose with the feline, her gaze harsh, challenging.

And then she spun away, the growing coldness in her voice vanishing, replaced with her usual lilt. "And you're wrong. Everything is a game, you either win or lose. I don't intend on losing, not anymore."

[Sebastian]

Sebastian let out a deep sigh.

"And that is the problem, mistress. By viewing the world as a game, you divide everything in to black and white. There is no room for grey, blue, orange, green, or any of the other wonderfully diverse colours that make life beautiful and worth living."

He hopped down from the couch; trotted the necessary few paces to bring him to Lilith's feet. With perfect poise, he stared up at her, blinking slowly with his feline eyes.

"You see the world only in terms of victory and loss; every time the world does not unfold as you wish it, you feel it as defeat. But sometimes, the greatest parts of life are the unexpected greys. Acts of kindness; acts of love; joy; sorrow; every emotion that your heart contains are superfluous to you when life is a game. They are distractions to be shrugged off and ignored; and yet without them, you cannot be a whole person."

A faint frown furrowed his furry brow. "I have raised you since you were a child, Lilith; if I have not taught you that, then I have truly failed you. Please, I beg of you -"

[Sebastian Snow]

In a blink of an eye, the feline was gone, a man of short stature standing in his wake. He reached up, gently taking hold of Lilith's hands, a pleading look in his eyes.

"- do this because your heart tells you it is right; not because your mind tells you it is the only way to win."

A conflicted look crossed his features, and he was forced to look away; his grip released her hand, his arms hanging loosely at his sides as he stared at the ground.

"If you cannot do that, then I-"

His voice cracked, as if what he was about to say was the hardest thing he had ever uttered. He forced his eyes to look at hers once again.

"Then I will not help you," he said, managing to find a little resolve for his words.

[Lilith]

Why was this day so determined to make her feel things? Things went so much better when she didn't have to. Plans went smoother when you didn't consider the toll it would take on anyone - herself included. Lilith would have found it sad if she had the time or mind to really think on it. But as it was...

"You can't listen to what doesn't exist, Sebastian." Coldness had wormed into her voice as she stared with unforgiving eyes down at the man who had been there since she was young. He, of all people, should have known better. He knew what life had done to her, what it had given her in return, and then what had become of that. What her life was now...

"I'm working on fixing that. This isn't a matter of winning or losing, it's a matter of doing what needs to be done. Neither of us have a choice. It's about time you learned that."

She pulled her hands from his and turned away from him, taking several small steps away from him to face the fireplace in the room, watching at the low flames licked at the embers remaining there. Lilith figured, if she stared long and hard enough, maybe, just maybe she would see what the future held. Maybe then she could say for certain if everything was going to be worth it. If everything had been worth it.

"But," A deep sigh left her as she looked back over her shoulder at Sebastian, man not cat. "I agree, this will require care. Perhaps all I have left to give. And if anything, anyone is worth it... she is."

[Max Hodsson]

It was dark; or at least, it should have been. Though you couldn't see them this close to the city, the stars were out, and the dull and dreary bulbs in the ceiling had called it a night. Alas, broad beams of light lanced in from the corridor through the door's tiny window, and from the security floodlights outside through windows were blinds were forbidden for fear of what Angela might use them for.

The room was not without shadows however, and from one of them stepped a solitary figure. His slightly frayed sweatshirt and otherwise unremarkable clothes might have looked unassuming and ordinary, were it not for the fact that he was stalking through a locked mental hospital in the dead of night.

He stepped through a beam of light and reached the bed. Easing himself into a crouch, he cast his gaze from head to toe of the sleeping Angela, studying her with cool detachment. Her frame was more than just slender; it looked frail almost, only the scantest covering of barely used muscle to separate skin from bone. It was appropriate, he supposed, that the sight reminded him of a tiny broken bird.

"Angela," he said softly, his voice little more than a whispering breath of wind, half swallowed by the eerie ambiance that was silent and yet somehow not.

She didn't move, didn't stir, too deeply subdued by whatever the doctors had dosed her with. It was a strange notion: to save a life only to trap it in a prison of drug-induced sleep and a few stolen waking hours of medicated haze.

"Angela," he tried again, a little more loudly this time. "You need to wake up."

His hand settled on Angela's shoulder blade.

[Angela]

Her eyes snapped open. Her lungs ripped a breath into her tiny lungs.

She could feel them, the fingers on her back, touching the place from where they had been taken. Wide, feral eyes stared around the room, searching for who had been responsible. Searching for the man with the voice.

The room was empty. Whatever had been had gone. Or perhaps it had never been at all. It was always hard to tell where the truth and the lies of her mind and her eyes started and ended.

Her eyes strayed to the window; her ears reached out. Nothing to see. Nothing to hear. She was alone. Like always, she was alone.

And yet she hadn't been: hadn't felt it, not mere moments ago. It felt true and yet it made no sense. How could someone be there, and not be there? How could someone simply vanish into thin air?

Why would anyone even want to see her at all?

Something flickered in her memory; a flash of blonde, a few half remembered words from hours before, hard to make out through the haze in her mind. "Pumpkin," she whispered to herself, and hugged her knees to her chest.

[Lilith]

The asylum looked far more sinister from the outside at night. Lilith had to give them some credit on that one but that was as far as it would go. There was no lingering dose of professional respect for those that created the place, those that worked there, those that committed the atrocities, those that turned a blind eye - nope. Not one bit. There would be no holding back, no ounce of mercy. None was deserved. That didn't mean she didn't almost feel bad for the poor unsuspecting creatures but they should have known better than to meddle with the affairs of their betters in the name of their precious science.

A chill wind carrying hints of an autumn just beginning blew past her, tumbling golden curls and forcing her to pull her coat tighter around her. Lilith glanced to the side at Sebastian, a man now, not the feline she would need him to be in a few moments. He was on Operation Open the Doors which left Lilith and her mother, if she chose to play along, on operation Distract, Destroy and Rescue. She pouted at the fact that it was just the trio. Lilith had hoped, wished, but hadn't resorted to begging her two cousins to join in. She had the sneaking suspicion they would have enjoyed this, maybe they all could have bonded over it, patched things up, and they did owe her one. But she'd hesitated far too long on making the offer and she never had been one for last minute surprises - at least, not where real family was concerned.

"Time to rise and shine..." The words left her lips as her fingertips worked their way out of a pocket and flicked at the air in front of her. "Confracturae."

The metal fence surrounding the premises groaned before a high pitched screech of metal rending itself apart overcame the stillness of the night as the gates before them became encased in a sickly violet glow before they simply became undone. There was no other word for it as the wrought swirls and bars suddenly became nothing more than shrapnel that blew inwards towards the asylum. In an instant what had been an imposing means of keeping some out and others in was nothing more than a gaping maw of tangled steel.

Lilith could only grin. What a fun start.

[Pythia]

Pythia regarded her beloved daughter with a mixture of sadness and pride. The proficiency with which she commanded the spells at her disposal - not to mention the impeccable way that the Latin words rolled off her tongue - spoke of a woman who, for all her mirth and mischief took her studies of the occult and the arcane seriously. On the other hand, the apparent joy that she took in the destruction she caused was troublesome: anger, Pythia could have understood, but the gleeful spark in her eye was not the pattern of behaviour Pythia had hoped to instil in her child. It was not that she disapproved, for Lilith had her undying love no matter how she chose to act; her discomfort stemmed more from concern, for a mischievous heart was far more easily exploited for darker ends by the beings from whence their magic came.

Stepping over the twisted remains of the perimeter fence, Pythia watched as Sebastian wordlessly obeyed his instructed part of the plan, melting from man into feline in the blink of an eye. He bounded from object to object with instinctive grace: boxes, dumpsters, branches, drain pipes all formed an easy stairway that led him to the rooftops and out of sight. For a moment, Pythia's mind lingered on a memory, of Lilith and Sebastian cuddled together in the castle room that had been appropriated as their lounge, Lilith's songbird voice giggling as she commanded the contraptions of modern technology to make a tiny man not entirely unlike Sebastian in appearance hop from platform to platform in much the same way, progressing from one side of the television screen to the other in what should have been an exercise in futility, but that clearly inspired nothing but joy. Pythia's disdain for the industrial world was almost without limit; but seeing the smile on Lilith's lips and in her eyes swelled her heart and fractured her resolve enough for a few occasional concessions to be made.

As she glanced across to Lilith now however, her child barely even noticed her feline guardian's display of agility. The childlike joy was gone, not just today but on far too many days lately, and in Pythia's heart she nursed a lament for what had been lost.

Her attention was grasped by the sound of a door; the sight of a guard stepping forth, torch in hand. She cursed under her breath; the industrial world had constructed mechanical eyes to scry on their behalf, and it seemed that their presence had been noticed. A breath summoned her magic; a graceful gesture accompanied her muttered words as she hurled an enchantment towards the guard. "Incidet in dormitabis!" she muttered, and as instructed the guard crumpled, tumbling to the ground under the duress of arcane narcolepsy.

Pythia's eyes scanned the buildings, and settled on the mechanical gargoyles observing them. "Oblivisci quae videtis!" she commanded with a grand flourish of her hands. All around them, tiny flickers of arcane energy coursed across the cameras, the unnatural watchers blinded; for now at least.

"There is little time," she pointed out, choosing her voice and her tone carefully. "We must be swift, if we wish for nobody to be harmed."

[Lilith]

Lilith cast an unseen glance at her mother, lips firmly pressed together as she contemplated what had been said. So often now it seemed they simply did not see the world the same way, it was a dismaying thought but one that had to be pushed aside for the moment. The two strode towards the main entrance and its door. There was no need to waste energy, call upon their abilities when unnecessary, not with a man on the inside. She had timed the route with Sebastian, gauged it in paces taken. The satisfying click of a bold unlocking proved it had been worth it. Triumph flickered in her eyes for a moment but was quickly put away as she realized she much rather have just ripped the damn things from their hinges.

No sooner than they crossed the threshold than two men stepped from their post. If she couldn't take out her frustrations on a door...

The young woman's hand shot out in perfect gesture as she eyed them both viciously. "Sanguis fit acidum!"

[Pythia]

"Protego!" Pythia bellowed, her eyes widening in horror as she watched the hex surge from Lilith's hands, the far shorter incantation for her own protective ward thankfully conjured just in time to deflect Lilith's spell harmlessly away. "Somnum et oblivíscere!" she added, another sleep spell tossed casually towards the guards to subdue them.

By the time she rounded on Lilith, her eyes were aflame with fury; anger boiled on her tongue as her voice and magic cascaded from her, slamming into Lilith like a wave. "Alligabunt in catenas! Cessabit tuam magicam!"

Crackling chains of red and violet manifested from nowhere, snaking their way around Lilith to bind her inescapably. A flourish from Pythia and the chains bound themselves to the wall, pinning her wrists, her chest, and wrenching her head back so she had no choice but to look at the disappointed rage that had consumed her mother's features. Snarling, panted breaths escaped from Pythia as she tried to reign in her anger; when she spoke, a darkness rumbled beneath her voice like a barely contained storm, more menace than Lilith had ever heard before, demanding her undivided attention.

"You will not harm these people," Pythia commanded. "Your rage towards them is misplaced. The evil done to Angela was done long ago and far away by people with blackened souls, but for all their ignorance and their naive practices, these people believe that they are doing all they can to reduce Angela's suffering. To condemn the innocent for the sins of others is and evil that I will not tolerate, especially not from my own child. You will desist, Lilith Kathryn Latona, or I swear to all the powers in all the realms: I will liberate your sister myself, and I will hide her far, far away from their reach -" Her eyes narrowed. "- and from yours."

[Lilith]

The breath that had been exhaled with the malediction wasn't able to be regained as it caught and was choked on. Outrage that she was denied was trampled down by an overwhelming sense of shock and betrayal. Pythia had never used their talents against her. Never. A line had been crossed and for a second, just a tiny fraction of a moment, Lilith wasn't quite sure who was the guilty party. That all changed with the verbal lashing she was forced to endure, each word crushing down on her until she broke with the final proclamation. Funny how the standard for just how much trouble you were in had become just how much of your name was invoked - most didn't realize the real significance of that, they used it as a mark of their resolve rather than power.

Lilith knew better, but even the warning it served wasn't nearly as devastating as what had followed. Years of preparation, of waiting, of anticipating this moment meant nothing if it meant going against Pythia's core values.

So maybe she had gone too far, gotten caught up in the moment, misplaced her abundance of anger. She didn't like conceding to anyone when it came to her wrongs, but she had asked her mother to come. Maybe it had been her subconscious' way of making sure things didn't get out of hand.

Nah.

"Accipio condicionem" Not typically uttered between two of their kind, she hoped her mother would understand the solemn nature of the statement.

[Pythia]

I accept the terms.

They were words of binding; a vow normally made to fay who granted their magic, a solemn accord between mage and benefactor that the sorcery bestowed would only be used as per the terms agreed. Magecraft was more complex than most mere mortals understood: magic was not normally a trait found amongst humans, but rather a gift bestowed by higher powers, who invested in the beings below for reasons that were seldom clear. Some fay were benevolent; others malevolent or mischievous; some were curious, and viewed sorcery as an experiment; others gifted magic purely on a whim. That was what made the accord between mage and fay so important: deals were binding, and spells would only function if they satisfied the terms.

Pythia's shoulders sagged a little at the implications of her words. It was a solemn and sincere utterance, yes, but it was a detached one. A deal and a promise were not the same thing: the former was binding, whereas the latter relied on trust and faith; Lilith's words asked for neither, speaking to Pythia not as a daughter but merely as a fellow sorceress. To have used her powers against Lilith was devastating enough, but to be spoken to in such a way swung more.

A gesture dismissed the conjuration, the chains evaporating into nothingness as Lilith was released. In her throat, words of apology, sympathy, and understanding collected, but as her mouth opened to try and speak her voice refused to comply. Her features settled into her usual dispassionate mask.

"She is waiting." Pythia wasn't sure what else to say.

[Lilith]

"Yes, even if she doesn't know it yet." There was no lingering sensation of the chains that had formed and restrained her yet still she rubbed at her wrists as if trying to remove some unseen residue.

The same hallways she had been escorted through earlier that day were now strode through as if she somehow had laid claim to the entirety of the asylum, then again, Lilith figured some days if anyone were to become the self proclaimed ruler of a madhouse it would probably be best suited to one like her. Door that stood in the way were alternated between being pushed open by hand and magic as the rage she felt towards what had been done to her baby sister was only contained by her mother's warning. Muttered utterances of "dormeo" and "nihil vident" were spoken instead of the crueler chantings that lingered on her tongue bitterly. She'd have to stow her anger for now, find some way to let it loose later. Couldn't have that sort of thing rotting away inside of you, after all.

The final door was approached slowly, carefully, as she once more considered the fact that the only person in the building aside from those she had arrived with that she didn't want to frighten in some way was just on the other side. There would be no trick of fae here, just a lock that had been undone by a clever Familiar. One last glance was cast back at Pythia before Lilith gently pulled it open and stood silhouetted in the doorway. Strange that she couldn't think of anything to say in the moment. No awesome turn of phrase that would announce their presence.

Only a meek and cautious name left her. "Angela?"

[Angela]

Angela hugged her knees tighter to her.

This was wrong. The sounds outside were wrong. The door being open was wrong. Someone in her room was wrong. Two someones, but especially the someone she could see. Night was for talking, not for sleeping. Night was when the doors were closed. Night was when the doors were locked. No doctors. No nurses. No -

Her head cocked slightly to one side, a hint of recognition fighting it's way through the frantic anxiety in her chest, and the medicated fog in her head.

"Visitor?"

Her voice was weak and uneasy, but as the word lingered in the air it offered a faint glimmer of safety. She couldn't make out much about the silhouette in the door way, but the light from behind highlighted the outline of pretty golden curls. A tiny, fragile smile tried to make it's way to her lips.

"You came back?"

Slowly, Angela let her legs uncurl, gingerly letting her bare toes touch the cold floor as she crept to a perch on the edge of her bed. Her attention fell away from the visitor, the smile on her lips faltering like a newborn foal not yet accustomed to it's legs. Her eyes found the visitor again: wide, pleading, and entirely unsure.

"Am I still a pumpkin?"

[Lilith]

"No." There was no sternness, not even negativity in the word. Which really was just odd considering it was basically the very epitome of negative, zero, null. But somehow she managed to make it sound like a promise of something more.

Lilith walked slowly into the room, came to a stop before the broken girl and half smiled. It was about the best she could do with half her heart breaking. Again. How many times was she going to end up doing that? A deep breath was taken, slowly, as if she was trying very very hard not to cry. Which she wasn't. Not one bit.

Okay maybe just a little.

"You're my little sister. I'll always come for you."

Yeah, okay so tears happened. She hid it by suddenly, though oh so gently, hugging Angela to her. A vow was made again, this time to herself, that no matter what happened, no matter who did what or what did what or anything else, Lilith wasn't ever going to let Angela go ever again. Okay so physically yes... obviously. But not right in that second at least.

"And you can still be a pumpkin too if you want. As long as you're my pumpkin."

[Angela]

Sister.

Angela knew that word.

Sometimes people called the nurses Sister.

Sometimes the strange black and white people with the hats were called Sister.

Sister.

Sister. Brother. Mother.

Shakespeare's Sister. Sister Act.

Little Sister.

Those last two words lingered in Angela's mind. Little meant small. Little meant fewer. But Little Sister meant something else.

Little Sister. Baby Sister.

My Little Sister.

Angela felt the hug wrap around her. It was a new, strange sensation, different from the hug the last time her Visitor had been there. It felt tight. It felt sad. It felt damp on her shoulder. She raised her arms, rested her hands awkwardly on the Visitor's back.

"There, there," she said quietly, something she'd seen people say when they let her sit in the room with the chairs and the television.

"Don't cry Big Sister."