Mal didn't really know what to expect when blinking around the world with vampires she barely knew. Maleficent knew this was a mission and it was going to be serious but these men had been friends for years or at least knew of each other, Bones and Vlad hated each other and Maleficent found herself always taking Vlad's side with him being her twin flame, but seeing how they worked together even with just swimming underwater after Ian watching his front and flank she could see they were actually a lot alike.
Maleficent was nervous, she didn't know what exactly to expect with these guys. She knew Vlad and Mencheres had vouched for her so they knew she wasn't an enemy, but that didn't mean they would welcome her with open arms. She thought they would be cold to her but instead they were more focused at the task at hand.
When they had made it inside of the cave, Ian took over as the leader of the group speaking quietly to the vampires.
"So, when I was here last time there were seven guards protecting Cain's body and his horn, I left here with the horn and their respect. If we are lucky the same blokes are here and will treat us with kindness, if they have Katie hopefully they'll just tell us and we can get her out of here." Ian turns away from the group and looks down the dimly lit hallway. "This way,"
Very rarely did Maleficent ever feel spooked about her surroundings but this was one time she was, she couldn't understand how something could feel so eerie. Maleficent felt as if she was walking towards the end of something, but she didn't know what it was. Maleficent closed her eyes and listened to everything around her, pushing past the noise of current companions and deeper into the cave. She could hear where water leaked in from the ceilings, footsteps of other vampires, and finally... one heartbeat.
"Someone in here has a beating heart," Mal whispers and Vlad turns toward her, nodding his head.
"Someone in here is alive with a steady heartbeat, let's head to it." Vlad says, gaining the attention of everyone in the group. He begins walking up to the front and passes Ian, who grabs his hand and pulls him back to face him.
"Let me go first, these people attack first and ask questions later. Vlad, you will kill someone if they approach you. You can't set anyone on fire here or damage the walls. It'll cause serious damage to Katie if she's here." Ian tells Vlad, his voice is stern and compelling but not disrespectful. Vlad brussels but only for a moment before nodding his head. Ian sees this and turns to Maleficent.
"Mal, we know that you have the same powers as Vlad, that goes for you too. Don't set anyone on fire." Ian says looking Mal up and down and Mal just shrugs.
"I won't kill anyone unless given permission."
"Good." Ian turns away and leads the group onward, Vlad falls back until he falls back in pace with Mal. They look forward but Mal can feel questions dripping off of him, so she turns her head and their gazes meet.
"Did you tell anyone about how you can transform yourself?" Vlad, the bastard, says it loudly enough that the whole group can hear. Bones, Katie's father, turns and looks at her.
"Transform? Into what exactly?"
Mal lets out a big sigh, she didn't really want to reveal all her secrets to a group of men she probably would never spend time with again.
"When Uma was kidnapped she knew Audrey was going to kill her, when I reached her she flung that last of her magic at me and now I can transform into a beast at will." Mal says, she shrugs her shoulders and the men stare back at her. Faces of confusion, humor, and curiosity match her straight face.
"Kinda like how a demon can shapeshift, but I can only turn into the one form I was given. Which is like..." Mal stumbles over an explanation "A grey vampire bat with huge wings."
"Can I see?" Asks Spade, only for him to be hit in the back of the head by Ian. "What? I am the one married to a shapeshifter, I should be allowed to see another!"
"Maybe once we save the little girl perhaps?" Ian rolls his eyes "Distracted bloke, you are. Come on,"
The team goes back to walking in silence, until they hear new footsteps walking towards them. The group slows down, anticipation sinking in. Some stop and take on a protective stance, fists up. Mencheres, the tallest of the group, moves to stand next to Ian in front. With Mencheres being the strongest with his telekinetic abilities Mal finds herself looking around, trying to see what commotion that power could have in the small cave. Mal couldn't see anything that could be lifted and thrown around though. If Mencheres tried he could take a wall down, but with them being underwater that would cause more trouble than good.
"Ian?" Says a new voice, "Oh Ian, you've returned and on such a magical day!" Finally a vampire appears. He's a shorter man with light brown hair and scruffy facial hair, green eyes and a wide smile with crooked teeth.
"Hello, Timothy," Ian sighs out in a mix of temper and relief. "I have come to ask you a few questions."
"No time for questions, Ian!" Timothy says that wide smile never leaving his face "It's time for Him to rise."
Mal flinches as Timothy's smile begins to look a little crazed.
"The gift of life has come to save him," Timothy continues a chuckle escaping his lips.
"The gift of life?" Ian questions "What is the gift of life?"
"We found her and brought her here, she is being prepared for the ceremony."
Ceremony?
It takes a moment but Mal watches as Ian begins to play the role of another excited cultist. "Where is she? I have to see her." Ian says and he tries to match Timothy's energy - that same crazed look on his face. Timothy's smile falters though.
"As great as it is to see your enjoyment of the news... The gift of life cannot be seen by any man until it is time for the ceremony." he looks at Ian like he can't believe he didn't already know this "We cannot bother the gift of life until she is ready for her sacrifice."
"What is her sacrifice, Timothy?" but we all already know the answer to that question.
"She has it inside of her, the perfect blood to let Father rise again." Timothy says and even jumps with anticipation "Today is the day, she is being prepared but no man shall see her until she is ready for the ceremony."
Mencheres steps forward and looks down at Timothy who smiles back up at him. "Hello, friend of Ian. Are you all here to watch Cain rise?" The vampire looks around the group, that crazed smile back in full fledged as he meets everyone's eyes. When he sees Maleficent, he stops, his head leaning to the side as he stares at her.
"Would you like to help the gift prepare for the ceremony, Miss?"
Mal stumbles for a moment. "I can see her?"
One of the only people who Katie has never met or heard of before. Katie the literal killing machine created by the US government. Mal groans inwardly, if this child has been kidnapped and another random person tries to help her... Mal could be up for a fight with a child who only knows how to protect herself.
"Of course, other women can help the gift of life prepare for sacrifice." Timothy nods
"Let me see her then,"
"Come," Timothy says and reaches a hand out to Maleficent. He turns back to the men of the group, nods his head at them then walks with Maleficent hand and hand down the hallway. "How nice of Ian to bring a woman who can help the gift of life prepare for her sacrifice. Truly great thinking on his part, the gift shouldn't have to be alone to prepare for this moment."
"You know, we have some more ladies that can come to the gift of life prepare for such a glorious sacrifice." Mal tells Timothy, this... this could work if she could get Cat, Veritas, and Uma all in the room with Katie. Maybe they could get her out of this cult safely and back home to live the life of a normal child.
Timothy stops walking "You can bring more women to help the gift of life prepare herself? Why yes! Bring them all." Timothy looks joyous and Mal finds herself wanting to set him on fire, but she simply bristles and turns and finds Ian's eyes. She hopes he's smart enough to understand what to do next.
"Ian, it's time to bring Uma, Veritas, and Cat here to help the gift of life be ready for her sacrifice. Make sure Ashael is close by as well." Mal can feel her eyes begin to shine vampiric green with her intention of the second message to Ian. Bring Veritas, Uma, and Ashael as close as possible, I don't know if we can get her out of here by myself.
Ian, smarter than Maleficent originally gave him credit for nodding his head. "I understand." and in the next moment, it's like he was never there. Ian having to teleport more than one person over such a long distance would cause his energy to be drained, once he brought everyone to her cave he won't be able to do much else to help. Mal bit her lip as Timothy once again began walking her to the gift of life.
"She is in here," Timothy tells Mal, "When Ian returns with the other ladies I will bring them to you here. Goodbye, young friend."
Timothy leaves Mal in front of a simple grey blanket hanging up from the wall and down to the floor, Maleficent waits until he's far enough away to move the blanket over to the left and walk behind it and into a secluded room. Mal can't even pretend to be shocked with what was behind the blanket.
Everything is gold, a gold table, a gold mirror, and chairs all shining pieces of gold. The space was bigger than she expected as well, long white candles are lit warming up the room and giving it a calm atmosphere.
"Hello?" Mal calls out she knows a human is here, the heartbeat is calm and clear in her ears but she can't see anyone. Mal turns to her left, towards the gold mirror, chair, and table and finds another doorway.
There is a young redhead draped in a towel, drying off from what had to have been a shower. When she hears Mal come closer she turns to face her. Her face is young and round with high cheekbones, pink lips, and grey eyes that match her mom's perfectly. Her cheeks and forehead are freckled but her eyes are vacant, like she's seeing right through Maleficent.
"Finally, a woman to help me get ready." She sighs and flips her hair behind her back "Men aren't worthy enough to stay in my presence for long, you... you will do."
Mal's eyebrows go up.
This doesn't seem like a young girl who was kidnapped.
"Come, you can brush my hair." She says and walks out of the doorway to one of the golden chairs in the room. The girl sits down in a chair in front of the mirror and pulls a brush from the desk and holds it up in the air, motioning with it for Maleficent to come to her. Completely befuddled, Mal moves forward and takes the brush from the young girl's hand. Mal thought this was a rescue mission but this girl... doesn't seem to be in any danger or have any fear.
"Your name is Katie right?" Mal asks as she takes the brush down Katie's long straight hair brushing it, watching it begin to shine as she untangles the wet hair.
Katie nods "Did Timothy not tell you?" She questions, her voice is robotic and straight to the point, something tells Mal that Katie wouldn't be one to understand a funny joke - only logic and critical thinking appears to be this young girl's forte. "Figures, he's been calling me Cain's gift of life since I found him and his little group."
"You found him? Not the other way around?"
"They weren't smart enough to find me, mother hid me well. But I still made the connection, I did my research. I knew what to do so they could come get me."
Mal's eyebrows couldn't go any higher, this little girl was setting herself up to be Cain's sacrifice? "You want them to sacrifice you and bring Cain back to life? You asked for this?"
Katie looks at Mal in the mirror who's still brushing out the tangles in her hair. "Do you not know anything? Cain's return will bring supernaturals back into a place of power and not hiding in the shadows, we won't be used as weapons to the human government anymore. If I can stop what happened to me to happen to anyone else I'm going to take that chance."
"Even if it kills you in the process?"
"One life to save many doesn't sound so bad,"
Katie sounded like she was having post traumatic stress, so much in fact that it was going to kill her. She wanted to protect the world by bringing back the original vampire? She thinks he can save everyone?
Mal knew stories of Cain just as much as any old vampire and ghoul. Cain killed his brother and became the first murderer. God punished him by making him feed on the blood he once spilled and gave him immortality, to always have to live alone and watch everyone around him die, but Cain grew tired of this existence and created vampires and ghouls to always have companions, children of his own to live forever with. Mal wasn't old enough to know the first vampire, no one she knew was old enough. It could be considered an old wives tale or something more. Mal wasn't a big believer but everyone knew the stories, could she be surprised a young girl with PTSD would end up wanting some type of savor to save her and give her purpose?
Maleficent was about to open her mouth and ask her another question when noise started outside of their little room.
There was a gasp and then "Katie!" Maleficent turned to see Cat pink tears in her eyes as she runs towards Katie. "Are you okay? Have you been hurt?"
"What are you doing here?" Katie questions sounding genuinely confused.
"What am I doing here?" Cat asks, aghast. "I'm here to take you home, Katie, we're gonna get you out of here."
Maleficent takes this as her time to step back, she puts the brush down and lets Cat take her place, Cat wraps her arms around her daughter and Katie doesn't hug back, she leans into the hug just a little.
"Maleficent," says a voice Mal didn't know she needed to hear, she turns and finds Uma standing behind her with a warm smile on her face and Mal relaxes when she sees her lover. Mal leans over and kisses Uma, pressing her lips to hers and breathes Uma in. They hadn't been separated long, but long enough. So Mal kisses her and wraps her arms around Uma's waist, forgetting about everything going on around them for just a few moments.
"Hi love," Uma breathes out when Maleficent pulls away from her. "I'm here,"
Maleficent smiles "You're here, don't leave my side again until you have too."
"I'll be next to you for as long as I can be." Uma says back and leans in and gives another kiss. "I think we should stay back here for a minute, let them... do what they're doing."
Cat and Katie seemed to be in a heated discussion, Cat was holding her daughters hands and looking into her eyes trying to get her to understand her point of view, but that vacant look in Katie's eyes never disappeared. It appeared to be going into one ear and out of the other, but Cat was there in front of her, pouring her heart out.
"You are so much more than destruction, you have a purpose that is outside of men forcing you to be a part of their urge to kill people. Katie I took you away from this life for a reason, you deserve a normal childhood." Cat's tears spilled over and onto her pale skin and Mal winced, she felt like she shouldn't be overhearing such a personal conversation.
"Do you understand? There is no purpose for me, you never wanted children. You didn't raise me, I didn't ask to be born, and now I have one. Cain can make things better again, we can be safe from humans; they won't be able to hurt any of us if Cain is here."
"But we can't have Cain here and you here. I'm not letting you die for him,"
"Cain coming back to life is my purpose! Why else would I have the perfect combination of blood for him to rise? This is what I exist for!"
"No Katie!" Cat takes a deep breath and sighs "You exist because men in power decided to be greedy and wanted to create something that couldn't be killed by normal means... but you don't have to be that anymore. You are more than what you were originally born for."
"I..." Katie stumbles "I have no purpose."
"You're a child, you don't need a purpose, we just need you alive. We want you to stay alive. You can't do that if you give yourself up to Cain." Cat lets her hand cup Katie's cheek "Stay alive Katie, you have so much life ahead of you, waiting for you. You'll never reach it if you die here."
Katie keeps looking up at her mom but her eyes seem so far away, she stares at Cat for a long time, she doesn't say anything or pull away from her mom. Her heart begins to race as it seems she makes a decision. Katie shakes her head and pulls away from her mother's grasp.
"I want to be the reason he's back, I want to be the thing that makes the world safer. It doesn't matter what happens to me after the fact." Katie turns and runs out of the room.
"Katie stop!" Cat runs after her, followed by Uma, Mal, and Veritas who follow close behind.
Katie is fast, faster than Mal expected her tiny body moves at a rate Mal didn't expect and with the hallways so small Cat couldn't reach her. Katie ran past her blanket entrance to her room and back into the main corridors. Other vampires walk the hallways but when they catch sight of her they gasp and look away, shielding their eyes from the young girl in a towel. They fall to their knees as she passes and stare down at the ground.
I really hate cults. Mal thinks as she continues to follow closely behind Cat.
"Guys! I could use the backup now!" Cat calls out when the group of running women can hear their friends voices.
Katie rears and turns around a corner into a new hallway Mal hadn't seen when they first came into the underwater dome and she stops putting her arm out to stop Uma behind her as well as Veritas.
This was a new space they hadn't seen before and it was brilliant. The room was better lit than others, keeping the same bright yellow golden tones as Katie's room had been, a gold altar appears in the backspace of the room and there on top of it is a skeleton.
Uma gasps and puts a hand over her mouth at seeing the body, and Veritas who comes up beside her puts a hand on her arm and whispers "Ashael is on the island, we just need to reach him if this gets worse."
Something told Mal this was going to get a lot worse.
"You don't understand! This needs to happen for the good of everyone!" Katie is standing right in front of the altar, she even turns and looks at the bones laying behind her "We need him to return to us," when she makes eye contact with her mother again she smiles then looks away and sees the men behind them "I'm sorry you don't like what needs to be done." Then, Katie drops the towel and pulls out a dagger with sharp jagged edges.
"Don't!" Cat begins to fly trying to rush her daughter, but it's too late.
Katie has sliced open her own throat and thrown herself onto the bones.