I12DT - Down Below

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria's avatar, her spell having gotten no result from Melpomene, reappeared to Regan's left to come in with a rather vicious and wholely physical blow to the face as Victoria herself pushed herself back away from her. "Funny, I haven't done anything to you, whatever you are. Which leads me to wonder where Regan is."

She focused her magic on the ring, trying to figure out that very question.

[Regan Rourke]

Regan reels backwards, laughing madly, "Feels nice."

"And I'm the only part of Regan that matters anymore," Regan says, swinging at Victoria's avatar, "As soon as I get one more bloodstone, whatever weak little part of her that's left will finally go bye-bye."

With the ring, Victoria could get something of a lock on Regan. She was in Limbo, near Belasco's fortress.

[Victoria Valentine]

"The cute thing is that you actually think you can manage that," Victoria mused, a red glow hazing over her eyes. "My mistress had a list of things she wanted me to do if I ever tried to conquer limbo. I'll put them on my 'to do' list right after 'save my student.'"

"So," she said, runes dancing in the air, rippling like water to keep from presenting a solid target to cut. "I suppose it's time to take two more steps. Let's do this, demon-bitch."

[Samantha McManus]

She flinched mentally as Mel said that, her mind roiling in anger.

"Don't you dare think we're the same. You broke her. She was never the same after, and now she's dead."

[Melpomene]

"Oh yes, you have it all figured out, don't you!" she spits back, slowly losing her composure. "They broke her by taking her away from me! She didn't have to suffer had they let her be with me! Have you fixed Drew yet? Can you honestly say she is better off now than she was with me? You ruin peoples lifes just so they'll fit into your narrow view of things. You may shy away from just doing it but you force your way of thinking on everyone around you just as much. Except when I do it I make them feel better about it!"

[Samantha McManus]

"You just try to make them all into the one that got away. It wasn't Norma's choice either, what you made her do."

She was forcing her way along the link now, fighting Mel's mind every step of the way.

"You thought you had a friend, but all you ended up with was a puppet. Small wonder she suffered when the strings were cut."

[Melpomene]

"They need the strings! They're so sad and lonely in their heads! They're all broken! Most of them so much they're barely good for being tools but some of them... some of them I can fix! Like you. I thought I could make you understand. I still can!"

Mel's mind is slipping away slightly, using the shard of Sam's mind trapped in the bloodstone as a shield. You have to temper her... It's what you do... she whispers to Nemain, trying to keep the scales tipped in her favour, trying to make Sam see things from her (rather broken) point of view.

[Samantha McManus]

"What's in your hand there is the only thing holding me back from doing what I should have done to you years ago... I hope you appreciate that, Mary."

[Melpomene]

"So what you're saying is you want this. You need this." she says, clutching the stone to her chest.

[Regan Rourke]

Regan looks annoyed, standing on her guard, "Do you think you've won, little witch?"

"This whole thing is pointless. Give yourself to me or face the consequences," Regan says. Between them, green fire begins to build. Within the flames, Victoria can see the students of XI on their field trip.

[Samantha McManus]

"Not as much as you need that angel to be on my shoulder..."

[Melpomene]

"Yes, because you're broken without it! Don't you see it? What I've been trying to show you? You need this. You need me!"

[Samantha McManus]

"All you've done is stolen it. Let's see how much good it does you," she said as she lowered her hands towards Mel's throat.

[Melpomene]

"Thought you'd... understand... Everything fit..." she croaks out, gasping for air. "Always drawing from the minds of those around you when I first met you... looking for something that's missing. And then the muses in your head... Never got the others quite right, but I could have fixed you..."

[Samantha McManus]

"Maybe it's time you realize that you're the one that's broken," she hissed.

[Melpomene]

"Could have... fixed it..." her hand goes limp and the bloodstone falls from her hands, rolling down through the grass towards Regan.

[Regan Rourke]

The bloodstone rests on the ground for a moment before pulsing with a sickly green light and flying to Regan. The amulet appears around her neck and the stone rejoins the others.

"Yes," Regan says, energy swirling around her. A gate begins to form behind her, "Finally."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I think not," Victoria said. Her avatar made one sharp gesture, and the glowing razor-chains burst into reality again, shooting at Regan from all angles to wrap her up, pierce her through, whatever they could manage to keep her in place and that sword immobilized.

Meanwhile, Victoria held her hand over the ring on her finger, her eyes fixed on the soulless body in front of her. Spirits of the lost, voices of the abandoned, by the right of order and power! Let all links be joined, let what is broken be made whole! Two steps by two steps, I will it so!

[Samantha McManus]

As the bloodstone escaped her grasp, Samantha's attention was pulled away from Mel, her hands leaving the woman's throat.

"No!"

She lashed out with her mind, mustering the flock to make contact with the missing part of her again. Then, with all her might, she pulled.

[Regan Rourke]

Victoria's magic holds her in place rather painfully and bloodily. Regan laughs, even as Sam started prying the bloodstone from her body.

Too late. He comes, Regan says as her own powers kick in to overdrive, prying the gate open, "Bow before your new god!"

[Victoria Valentine]

"I really hate you without your redeeming qualities present," Victoria growled. Then she launched herself forward, grabbing at the amulet as her avatar gave Regan's body a good firm kick toward the portal.

[Regan Rourke]

With Sam's mental efforts and Victoria's physical efforts, the amulet and Sam's bloodstone both were pulled free from Regan.

"No!" Regan yelled, reaching out as she fell backwards. The gate began to close, "It's not fair! It's -- "

Awful cold black strands whipped out of the gate, pulling Regan in just before it closed. The last thing either of them heard was the demon screaming.

Thankfully, when you exile a demon to a dimension of Elder Gods, they never come back later. She was gone for good.

[Victoria Valentine]

"Well," Victoria panted, looking at the amulet. "That... could have gone worse."

How. The hell. Did that little brat get five without me knowing...

[Samantha McManus]

"...where'd the bloody thing go?" She asked, eyes darting about for where her bloodstone had fallen.

[Narrator]

The bloodstone was on the ground, all casual-like. It was chilling.

[Samantha McManus]

Her eyes locked on it and she scrambled to pick it up, clutching at it tightly.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria watched Sam for a minute, then sighed.

"I suppose that this next part I need to do on my own," she mused, getting out her phone. She called the school, giving them a GPS location to come pick up the headmistress.

[Samantha McManus]

"You don't understand. That's part of me in there."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Oh, darling, I understand quite well," she said. "And I've got parts of four other people right here," she said, holding up the amulet. "And one bastard through the dimensional veil who's been trying to steal them, who has my student all tucked away somehow out of my reach. So this is a rather grim and 'must be ended with prejudice' situation."