ᗰᑌᒪTIᖴᗩᑎᗪOᗰ ᗰᑌᒪTIᗰᑌSᕮ

     everything is rapidly recalled. the feeling of being in an airplane with an open door, a parachute attached to her body as wind whips through her hair. she’s done this before, with a team, on missions a lifetime ago (or so it feels like). and while that team was in the past dinah did have a personal mission to complete in the present. things had changed since oliver left. crime had risen in a city working to rebuild and there was only so much one person could do even with the support of felicity and diggle. and the company of the man she’d jumped out of the plane to see? it was crumbling at its seams and on the verge of a hostile takeover. but even more than that, the city that she had grown up in, that she had met oliver and tommy in, that tommy had cared about and given his life, needed it’s hooded vigilante back. and maybe she just needed someone that understood her pain. maybe it was selfishness disguised by altruism. in any case, oliver had been gone long enough. 

     the traps are almost amusing in the kind of way that only someone that has experienced and defeated this kind before could find. she’s impressed though. not that she’d admit that to him when she finds him. dinah has the caution and skill of a trained operative on her side as she moves through jungle, dodging trip wires and other makeshift traps, finally uncovering what was left of a plane. body leans against an open door frame, knowing that despite her stealth he’s detected her presence. she wouldn’t have expected any less. “what’s a girl gotta do to be invited in, ollie?” she’s missed him more than she wants to admit. 

     it was winter’s final days with soft flakes cascading throughout air and chilled gusts sweeping the castle. fires filled with warmth were formed in the courtyard and within stone fireplaces though the lady katerina be not inside. a coat upon her, giggles could be heard as the girl spins and laughs with her trusted maid and friend; gurden had always been a loyal companion, with her since her mother’s death and aiding her in every time of need. a smile bright across her features, she extends hands to block a snowball for katerina had scarcely been allowed outdoors in winter months before. her father’s fear for her health had prevented such things even prompting all visitors to their noble home to be kept at distance during this season.

     but now? now, katerina felt stronger than she ever had before, no fits assailing her since days after her arrival in england and her introduction to the lords niklaus and elijah. it was a miracle, god offering her this one grace after such suffering had been endured previously. would it be snowing wherever nadia was now? would her daughter like the snow? oh, how she wished she could hold her one more time. a sigh escapes, snowball connecting with her side and drawing katerina back into the moment as gurden halts her actions and katerina follows her gaze to a man watching them. “lord elijah!” katerina offers with a bow. “is the snow not joyous?”

     while outward expression proves collected, fear radiates within dark hues, stefan-- now released from the tomb by elijah-- having left to find elena, her sister. how this chain of events had come to pass katerina could not know. of course, the vampire had been aware the mother who raised her had not been her birth mother, but she had always believed elizabeth morrow to have perished and now? now she proved to have lived an immortal life, not a vampire but something else, and to have given katerina not descendants but living siblings in elena and jeremy gilbert. 

                                   flesh and blood... 

     ...that despite all of katerina’s efforts to force this connection as far away as possible impacted her in ways she was only beginning to understand. could she really continue down her present course when it would mean sentencing her own sister-- a direct link to the loving mother she’d once had-- to the same fate she had almost succumbed to? the book elena had brought her still laid open upon the tomb’s ground, their mother’s drawn visage displayed. 

     “wait elijah!” katerina calls out, a step backward in fear taken as gaze tears from book to the original she had not seen in centuries. “there is nothing i can do to save myself against klaus..” that was not entirely true for regardless to which course of action she would take moving forward she held allies who were working to aid her as they spoke (starting with getting her out of this tomb now that elijah had compelled her to remain). “... but he will kill ele-- my sister. yes, elena is my sister not my descendant...” it made no difference to a ritual that required the female blood of the bloodline, if only it did. “... i implore you, whatever deal you have struck with elena, do not let him murder an innocent girl like he tried to me. please... don’t let him kill my sister.” 

     katerina knew the concept of family was important to elijah and this was the only plea she could make to him. klaus had already taken the life of gurden, katerina’s own humanity-- for katerina did not blame gurden for ‘killing’ her, but instead klaus’ plans which forced gurden’s hand to save her--, and her family all those years ago in bulgaria, and katerina could not allow klaus of all people to take the only living family members she still had, even if she had wanted to kill the girl herself weeks previous.  

     edward ramsus hadn’t been known for playing with kid gloves. dinah had seen first hand what people would do when money was involved, the lengths they would go to protect themselves and their goals. sure it had seemed like a white collar crime– though that hadn’t taken away from the level of destruction to people’s lives he had wreaked– but this was STAR CITY and with testimony being given in the case soon she should have ensured some form of protection for the family. in the least, advised her clients to stay in a hotel for a few days. it wouldn’t have stopped the assassin, some part of her reminds herself, guilt eating away at her despite the situation. he had been trained well, something she had seen first hand in her apartment when she’d taken the boy in to protect him herself, and, later at the queen mansion.

     the queen mansion. the fight. tommy breaking up with her. oliver was… that brought about an entirely new train of thought that sent dinah reaching for a glass of wine as she curled up on her couch in her apartment. she should have known sooner. by the way he moved, by his eyes, by the fact he had always come when she was in trouble– even if she could take care of herself. maybe she hadn’t wanted to see the truth and had thus blinded herself to it. didn’t want to admit that another person she cared about was in the line of fire. and then she had seen oliver run into the darkness of the house, ready to face an assassin to protect the child, tommy, and her. it hadn’t been a question of if she should go help him. she was the one with the training, even if she had left that life behind. dinah had seen oliver thrown against a wall and thrown herself into the fight matching move for move until she’s sent over the railing and calling out oliver’s name when she sees the assassin moving toward him. the fall into the table might have hurt but it only served to piss her off more. and then oliver had fallen with the assassin into the spot she had just vacated, both her and oliver suddenly in natural sync with their attack in a way she hadn’t experienced with anyone else before (not even kurt). it had been as they stood over the dead assassin that she knew. oliver queen was the hood and he knew she had powers from her cry in her apartment the day before.

    it had taken two days for her to appear at the club, light hues watching as he carried a box over to the bar. she knows he senses her presence by the subtle way his body tenses. instinct. she sees so much more now than she had before. “ollie we need to talk.” there’s a few workers there, helping to set up for that evening and a delivery man leaving through a side door. this wasn’t the place for this. “somewhere private.” he had to have known this was coming. their cards were on the table just waiting to be addressed.

Oh, no. And there are the waterworks. John thinks of them that way to shield himself from how contagious they are – nothing will ever break your heart like a child’s tears, and here’s his daughter, crying for her mum who has been killed in her effort to protect her.

John squeezes her shoulder, not in his element here. He’s never been very good at helping. His main talent seems to be to cock things up for people and make a right mess of things just by existing. And in a way, that’s what’s happened here, because of he hadn’t been careless with Rose’s mum Rose wouldn’t exist and then she wouldn’t be in this kind of pain –

But it’s not like he can wish this girl out of existence, and he wouldn’t even if he could. He cares about her; he’s going to protect her.

“Alright”, he says, looks around the room. There’s more than a few stuffed animals about, and he can’t pick a specific bear out at a glance. So he looks back to her. He’ll take his time with this. She dispelled the bloody demon. There’s no immediate threat, even if they shouldn’t linger all that long, but he can give her these moments. Let her bring her bear. Whatever security blanket she needs. “Which one’s Puffy, then?”

     a cursory glance is washed over the room, the child biting her lip as she searches for the stuffed animal that had always protected her from bad dreams and the monsters under the bed. he hadn’t been strong enough to save her mum or her mother’s boyfriend, but she was still alive--still able to live another day-- and she wasn’t going to leave without him. “i’ll get him.” she states, step taken toward the other side of the room before she pauses when she realies that would mean stepping away from john. nothing felt safe anymore, not this room, not the air around her; a whole world turned upside down. but, she did trust john. not just because her mother had told her she could, but because of something else she couldn’t quite place. 

       “      What hasn´t he done? I´m sure there’s nothing left for him to possibly do at this point!” 

   Thor noticed the small hint in reference to what happened to Lady Sif´s hair, an event he still didn´t react positively to. Sometimes he wondered if Loki truly thought what he was doing was humorous, or if he was just out after him. After years of dealing with him and being the target of endless tricks, it tended to get on his nerves the more often it happened. Thor knew Kara had to deal with him as well, but she held him in a more positive light. He loved both his siblings dearly, but…  Oh boy.

   Loki was just a handful sometimes. Especially today, of all days. Today´s actions horrified him to no extent. Ending his constant pacing back and forth, Thor took a seat on the nearest step, setting Mjölnir down next to him as he sighed, running his hands down his face. The thunderer looked up at his little sister, always so sweet and wanting to help him out with whatever bothered him, and shook his head in a motion of disbelief.  

        “      He turned me into a frog, Kara. A frog!”

     sigh escapes pink lips. it had been too much to hope that her first assumption would be wrong. the antics of her brothers were no stranger to her. “it is his way, thor.” she begins, body rising from her seated perch and taking a step toward a window as if she was searching the horizon for something. then she turns back around to face him. “he has played tricks upon us all. perhaps you more than others, but would he not fight at your side in battle all the same?” it’s a simple question kara knows the answer to already. no matter the internal family conflicts or antics, they would always stand by each other if the time came for it. this she had to believe, this she did believe.after all, they had been through so much together already. what could eve rbe so terrible as to drive a true unfixable wedge between them?