Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mare POV

“MARE LETS GO” Gisa yells at me from downstairs. 

“Mare c’mon please let me design a dress on you” Gisa asks me, her eyes widening into a soft, pleading stare.

“ No, use one of your various mannequins scattered all around the shop” I grumbled back, turning away from Gisa. 

“Please Mare, I barely get to spend time with you as it is. You're always either training or locked in your room” Gisa begs.

Guilt forming in my chest, I reluctantly agree to Gisa’s request.

“Yay, be ready by 9 tomorrow so we can head over” Gisa exclaims, clapping her hands excitedly and already heading off to her shop to design who knows what. Damn, I’m going to regret this later. 

“Coming Gee” I yell back, dressing into a pair of boots, leggings, and plain black t-shirt grabbing my favorite purple leather jacket and tossing it over my shoulders as I leave the house. 

Life after the war has been peaceful, certainly the break I was long due for. I had moved with my family to Monfort where Gisa was able to live her dream and open her own streemstress shop. My parents were happier than ever, my dad having gotten his leg back after Sara had restored it, and my mom had the home of her dreams where she endlessly cooked meals and experienced the luxuries Stilt life never provided. As for Shade, he and Farely also moved to Monfort after the war where they safely lived as a family raising Clara, Farely still working with the Guard to rebuild Norta. 

No more war, no deaths, he is 6 feet under the ground, and I am given an opportunity at a normal, simple life I always craved for. It seemed as though all my problems were resolved and I was able to take a breath. Though it was foolish of me to believe someone as broken as me could ever have a chance at normal. At night my mind is plagued by those ice blue eyes as he comes closer to me and whispers into my ear, “I told you I would save you” as he takes out a knife and plunges it into me, instantly jolting me awake and finding my hands clawing my stomach. Unable to go back to sleep, I spend the rest of the night in pain at the uncontrollable recollection of memories. 

…

“Gisa if you poke me one more time with your needle I’m leaving” I retort as she weaves her needle and thread around the cloth close to me, pinning down areas to later sew. 

Gisa stops working and turns towards me, “If you would stop moving so much, this wouldn’t happen” she tells me while she directs her attention to the dress once again and continues working.

“I don’t even need a dress Gee, it’s not like I have places to attend”.

“You don’t always need an occasion for a new dress” she comments

After a couple more minutes of endless pinning and sewing, Gisa tells me she’s done. Using this chance, I take the dress off and put on the comfortable feeling of my leather jacket.

As I’m about to leave the shop, I turn around to hear Gisa calling me. 

“You need to loosen up Mare, you never know when you will meet someone” she winks.

“You're one to talk. You spend all your time in the shop then you do talking with someone” I fire back, turning back around after seeing Gisa’s pale face slowly turning a crimson red. 

For the past months, Gisa has been trying to set me up with anyone and go on a date. But everywhere I look, my broken heart refuses to interact with any person I meet, my heart always coming back to the flaming prince I left. No , I tell myself. I didn’t leave him, I took the necessary time away from everything to collect myself, there’s a difference. I shouldn’t be thinking about him, he probably has already moved on, it’s been a year since I told him not to wait for me. It would be stupid of me to think otherwise. 

…

As I make my way over to the training arena where I’m meeting with Rafe and Ella, I begin to pick up on the light sound of footsteps trailing behind me. Everytime I stop walking, the sound of footsteps stops and resumes when I continue. Hastily I turn around, ready to strike down whoever is behind. To my surprise my eyes landed on a small, brown haired little boy around 7 years old who was now still and had a terrified expression on his face. 

After seeing it was only a little boy, my stance relaxed and I walked closer to him about to ask what he was doing. But as I got closer, the little boy snapped out of his trance and before I could say a word, he turned around and quickly ran away. That was odd I muttered to myself as I headed over to train. 

        …

“Your late Barrow” I hear when I arrive at the arena where Rafe and Ella are. 

“Ran into someone on the way over” I answered back, heading over to an area of the arena where I took my jacket off.

“Has the little lightning girl finally found herself someone?” Ella teases

Rolling my eyes I respond, “Sure, if you consider a seven year old my type”

“Well you do have a thing for blowtorch” Rafe joins in, grinning

“Very funny”, I glared at them while quickly shooting a small bolt of electricity towards Ella and Rafe who weren’t quick enough to dodge.

“You're gonna regret that Barrow” Ella and Rafe say at the same time, causing me to burst out in laughter. 

…

I first sparred against Rafe in hand to hand combat, who had made the first move when he went to strike my face, which I quickly dodged, successfully blocking the rest of his attempts. Managing to grab his wrist, I sharply twisted it against him and used my free hand to clip his nose, successfully hearing the crack of bone. Using my chance, I quickly moved to his other side where I swiped Rafe’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall. About to grab his head in a choke hold, his arm snakes around my ankle, throwing me backwards. Rafe uses his opportunity to then land a kick to the side of my stomach, feeling a few ribs crack causing me to double over and barely miss his next blow. At the end of our fight, Rafe and I are breathing heavily. I had several cuts and bruises forming all across my body, clutching my side while Rafe had a limp in his right leg and was wincing from his broken nose that was excessively bleeding with half his face being swollen, several nasty bruises already showing. 

Exhausted and in pain, I got treated by a healer on standby before seeing Ella and practicing my electricity next. Her and I each created our own lightning storms first and sent bolts at moving practice targets in front of us. The entire room lit up in sparks of purple and blue lightning from our power. However, Ella managed to take them down faster than I was, her aim being more precise than mine. Afterwards, Ella was teaching me a new trick she learned.

“Close your eyes and first spread electricity all over your body” Ella instructs

Closing my eyes, I gathered my electricity and had it travel across my body.

“Now focus and transform the electricity into a shield” she adds

Taking a deep breath, I focused my electricity and successfully turned it into a shield in front of me, but the power drained my energy, leaving me catching my breath after a while. 

 I turned and saw Rafe sitting on the side smirking at my struggle and I flip him off in return, earning a chuckle from Ella.

“You're getting stronger Barrow” Ella says, handing me a towel. 

“Not nearly as strong as I am” Rafe interrupts, walking towards us.

“Hell no, don’t let your ego get to you” I fire back, seeing Ella place a hand on Rafe’s shoulder and telling him, “She’s right, in a spar with lightning you're screwed. Mare’s power has been growing stronger each time, she’s almost as good as I am”. I grin at Ella’s response seeing Rafe’s annoyed face. 

“Whatever” he replies, rolling his eyes and walking away. Leaving Ella and I holding our stomachs with laughter. 

I head over to pick up my jacket and pull it over, quickly saying bye to Ella as I leave. 

…  

On my way home, I stopped by a bar. Painful memories flooding my thoughts. Looking around I saw groups of people lost in their thoughts, their choice of alcohol sitting in front of them to drown out their problems. To my left I spot a kid passing by a group of passed out, drunk men, carefully driving their hand into every pocket. I immediately walk over to give the kid a couple coins before the guys wake up to being robbed, but then the kid turns around and I’m surprised to see it’s the same little boy as earlier. 

I gently grab his arm and pull him out of the bar. Once we were outside and away from the bar, I sternly asked the little boy “What were you doing in there?”. To my shock, the little boy fiercely grabs my wrists, panic flooding my chest as his eyes terrifyingly turn into the same dark, ice blue color that haunts me everyday. 

“I told you I would save you”.

Chapter Text

Mare POV

“ I told you I would save you”

No no no, this can’t be real. My breath quickens and I can feel my heartbeat pounding against my chest. Sparks of electricity trace down from my arms to my wrists where they disappear. The same spot where they were suffocated and cut off for six months , six months of gruelling torture where death would’ve been too kind of an escape for me. 

“H-how did you survive. I-I saw you die in front of me” my voice barely a whisper

Instead of receiving an answer, all I get is a chuckle and an all too familiar devil’s smile. The kind that comes off innocent at first and would compel you to their bidding before making the worst mistake of your life.

“ANSWER ME“ I yell at the little boy, anger and terror taking over as I sharply pull my wrist out of his hand. 

The little boy stops chuckling and stares into my eyes.

“ Now now, that’s not the way you greet someone. How weak and vulnerable you’ve become Mare. We both know you’re nothing, a selfish nobody responsible for all those deaths. Newblood deaths, red deaths, your fucking prince’s father” the little boy whispers into my mind. 

“STOP, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD”

I’m on my knees now, clenching my teeth as a throbbing pain spreads across my head, my screams prove useless as the voice continues. I attempt throwing a bolt of electricity to stop the whispers, but nothing comes out.

“I don’t know what Maven sees in your pathetic ass. One thing to say for certain is how glad he’ll be to hear your writhing in pain under my touch” he bends down and forces my chin up, his icy blue eyes turning a soulless, black abyss and he viciously strikes my face. My vision turns spotty and blurry when I open my eyes to his hand coming off my face with traces of red blood. 

“ Until later lighting bitch” was the last thing I heard before blackness swarmed the corners of my vision, pulling me inside.

…

I open my eyes to a vast, open scenery around me. There are tall, green trees in every direction I look to. Where am I? I don’t remember being in the middle of a forest. Suddenly I hear a rustle of leaves behind me and I immediately turn around to see what was the cause. A tiny, adorable, white bunny jumps out of the brush next to me and I see it’s fur is stained with red. I bend down to inspect the vulnerable bunny, when it suddenly dies at my touch. The dead bunny transforms into Gisa, her back turned to me with her bright red hair having turned a muted, crimson red and I hear a stifle of sobs coming from her. My heart breaks at the sounds of sobbing, seeing Gisa crying was a rarity and my arms immediately wrapped themselves around her delicate waist, as not to harm her. 

“Gee what’s wrong?” I whisper, fearing the worst.

Gisa turns around and I gasp at the sight, my arms pull away and my hand goes to cover my mouth, tears build up in my eyes. 

Gisa is cradling her broken hand and her eyes are bloodshot red. She looks up at me, her eyes a pleading stare as she pushes me away. 

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT” Gisa screams at me, tucking her broken hand deeper in her chest.

“ALL YOU DO IS INFLICT PAIN ON EVERYONE. You try convincing yourself that you're doing this to protect us, when in reality all you do is destroy everyone who comes close to you. Look what happened to those Calore brothers you are so fond of. You ruined and killed the first brother while the second one wants nothing to do with you” she snarls.

I sink down to my knees, wrapping my arms around my waist.

“I’m sorry. I-I never wanted any of this. I never wanted to hurt anyone” 

Gisa’s screams become quiet and I look up to seeing her long red hair turning short and jet black, bronze eyes replacing Gisa’s emerald green, pale skin bleeding over golden, an all too familiar muscular build forming, one that I’ve spent several nights tracing my fingers across. 

“Cal” my whisper audible only to myself.

“MARE, YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE” Cal yells at me.

A blaze of fire erupts among the forest and burns everything in sight, a cage of fire now suddenly surrounds me, keeping me grounded. In front of me, I see Cal in chains, silent stone, by the way his face turns palier by the second, his strength slowly depleting as he slumps his head. The fire comes closer and closer to him until it starts burning him.

“CAL, NO. NOO” I scream, I throw my fists at the cage wall, burning them in return. Trying to escape from this flaming prison, I call on my lightning but nothing happens. I hear an all too familiar maniacal laugh to my left and I see the Calore brother that haunts my nightmares.

“Maven please let him go. I’ll do anything you want, just please let him go” I beg, the fire grows and continues to burn Cal, his screams becoming louder and louder every passing second. 

“My dear, time for negotiations is over” he says, taking a strand of my hair and twisting it around his finger. 

"Now you and your prince must pay the price” he finishes, letting go of my hair 

Click 

No, not this

Click

Please not this hell again

Click 

Click

I’m thrown against the cage floor screaming in pain. This feels much worse than last time. This feels like a knife is slicing through my entire body and a fire is burning my insides. My back is arched backwards, every area burning in pain. My vision blanks out as black spots dance across my vision and the burning sensation gets worse. I taste the sweet, sticky feel of blood inside my throat, building up and choking me of any oxygen I have left. 

“-are”  

“Mare”

“MARE WAKE UP”

I jolt upwards from my position, my heart is heavily pounding against my chest. My hair is plastered to my forehead with sweat, my entire body is trembling. As I blink my eyes open, I use my free hand to shield my eyes from the blinding light in front of me. I begin coughing relentlessly as oxygen fills my lungs and I feel a thin line of blood trailing from my mouth, staining my white gown.  

“Oh my god Mare are you alright” a voice near me asks, looking to my left I see Kilorn and Farely. Both their faces are pale and their brows furrowed, eyes wide with worry.

“W-where am I?” I mutter, wiping the excess blood off my mouth and laying back onto what feels like a bed.

“M-mare” Kilorn stammers, his entire body faintly shaking. 

“What he means to say-” Farely interrupts, glaring at Kilorn “-is that you are in a hospital”. her voice softening at the end. 

Wait what? What happened to me? Why does Kilorn look like he’s seen a ghost?

“I found you outside my house Mare. I was on my way to Farely’s when I saw you were passed out, unconscious on my doorstep. Your entire body was covered in bruises and blood” Kilorn’s voice breaks off at the last part. I must’ve said that outloud...

“I carried you to the hospital where I called Farely and told her what happened. But shortly after bringing you in, you started thrashing everywhere, screaming no over and over as if someone was attacking you. That was when your lightning grew out of control and was sparking all over your body, leaving a trail of scars and red blisters everywhere. Once Farely had come in, her and I had to try restraining you to keep you from hurting yourself, but that was when burns started to appear all over your hands. A healer ended up having to sedate you in order to heal you” Kilorn finishes, breaking eye contact with me and looking down. Farely takes my hand and in a soft voice I only hear around Clara asks me

“What happened Mare?”

“I don’t know. Last thing I remember I was pulling someone out of a bar”

I’m sitting up now, looking down at my hands where I can see faint red marks from where the burns must’ve been. Tracing my index finger along the faint red line, I sharply inhale a breath in shock, remembering what happened.

“I-I remember I was on my way home after training and I pulled a little boy I ran into earlier out of the bar I was in. He was trying to steal from a couple of drunk men but when I brought him outside…his eyes turned a dark blue color exactly if not similar to his ..”

Turning to make direct eye contact with Kilorn and Farely, I mutter 

“...the boy was a whisper” 

Hearing a gasp from Farely and Kilorn, my face matched the same pale color as theirs. Clenching my fists, I continued. 

“He blamed me for being the cause of everyone’s death, how I ruined everyone’s life instead of saving them” I take a deep breath after remembering his exact words: you're a selfish nobody responsible for everyone’s death. 

Kilorn immediately pulls me into his embrace. “That’s not true Mare. You saved everyone, created a world undivided by Reds and Silvers. You’re the reason why all Reds are free, why they no longer go to bed hungry, why they don’t fear conscription anymore”.

“But at what cost! How many families are dead or forever broken by the loss of their loved ones, all of it is my fault!” I yell, lights start flickering around me as a nearby light bulb shatters. 

“Mare calm down!” Farely yells. Ignoring her, I finish telling what happened. 

“But that's not all Kilorn, after he had blamed me for everything, he said how Maven would be glad to hear about my suffering. I couldn’t move at all now could call lightning, he knocked me out shortly afterwards. I then woke up in the middle of a forest--g-gisa’s hand broken--all my f-fault--Cal--fire--lightning click click--” I stutter, my brain uncontrollably flooding memories of what happened, what he said to me, how useless I was. 

“Shhshh Mare, everything is going to be alright. It was all a dream, nothing else. He is dead, he can’t hurt you” Kilorn assures me. But no, it’s not. It’s something else, I can feel it. This was just a warning for something bigger, something deadlier. 

“Wait Kilorn” I say, remembering something he said.

“Yeah Mare?”

“Why were you going to Farely’s?”

The air around me thickens and the entire room goes silent.

“Uhm, Farely just wanted me to babysit Clara for her” he answers. I notice his hands are fidgeting and I know he’s lying. 

“She’s not an idiot Kilorn, she’ll find out soon anyways”

“Find out what?”

Farely looks at me and sighs, “There was a fire in the middle of the woods nearby. A small house was burnt down but luckily there was no one there. We don’t know how it started”. I am speechless by what Farely tells me. A fire in the woods, just like the one I had a dream about. This can’t be a coincidence, can it?

“This is going to sound crazy, but was there a bunny?”

Kilorn and Farely look to each other

“Uhm, yeah. As weird as this sounds, but there was a dead bunny in the middle of the ashes. It wasn’t burnt by the fire, just lying there”

Shit, shit, shit, shit. This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.

“Farely, there was a dead bunny in my dream. My wrists were burned by a forest fire in the dream, Maven had turned my lightning against me and I was choking on my blood” I stammer, my heart plummets at the sudden realization of what is happening. 

Farely is pacing around the room now as it dawns onto her what this means. 

“I need to organize a meeting with the Guard immediately, we need to discuss this. If what you say is true Mare, and about Maven’s involvement, then I fear this is his doing. How, I’m not sure since we saw him die. But we need to discuss this before something worse happens” Farely leaves the room and tells me that when she gets any more information she’ll let me know. 

I move to get up out of the stupid hospital bed but Kilorn rushes over, telling me to get some rest and that he’ll wake me up when there’s news. I ignore his comment and stand up, I’m definitely not going to stick around this place much longer than I have to. 

“I’m going home Kilorn, I’m fine” I hastily say, grabbing a set of clean clothes hanging on a chair nearby, getting changed and leaving much to Kilorn’s dismay. 

…

When I open the door I’m rushed by Bree and Tramy while mom and dad are on the couch watching everything, all of their eyes having the worrying look and I know they must’ve been informed of what happened

“Oh my god how do you feel”

“Who was responsible for this?”

“I swear I’ll find this fucker and beat him up”

I’m holding my stomach with laughter after the last comment “I’m fine guys, I can take care of myself. I’ll be in my room” I answer, using my chance to quickly run upstairs before they process what I’ve said and come asking more questions. 

When I got to my room, I collapsed on my bed with exhaustion as my mind tried to explain everything that happened. What the “dream” means, who the little boy was and what his connection to Maven could be. 

…

The same thoughts and questions flood my head for the next few hours until I hear a nearby ringing. Groaning in frustration, I turned over to see the phone next to me, Farely was calling. I quickly grab the phone on the second ring and pick up. 

“Farely what happened” I sternly ask

“Alright so I informed the Guard on what happened and they said that in order to decide the next move, a meeting will take place in 2 days to discuss what happened  in order to inform everyone of what happened and establish a sense of clarity and evaluate the potential threat” Farely says

“Alright then” I let a sigh of relief

“Wait” Farely interrupts

“What?”

“The meeting is going to take place in Norta , they want all of our representatives there to discuss things through”

I immediately go silent at the mention of Norta, the place I haven’t seen in months. The place where he is, who no doubt is going to be at the meeting. 

“Mare, are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine, I’ll see you in two days then” I mutter quickly, ending the phone call. 

Guess I’ll be seeing you sooner than I expected, Cal . 

Anonymous POV

“Everything is going as you predicted. The Scarlet Guard will be in Norta in two days”

“You’ve done very well, thank you Thomas ”

“Anything for you”