lina_musebox | ;rey&poe

He was struck dumb again, staring at her with open awe. This close... he could tell it was her. It couldn't be anyone except her. The look on her face, however, made lead sink in his stomach. She had returned but didn't know them at all.

But she had returned.

His name brought him out of the trance, and Finn jolted a little before trying to follow along. "Right. That's right. Ah- I'm sorry if we startled you. We hadn't meant to."

Confusion was one thing. Fear was quite another. He never wanted her to look at him like that. "Are you all right?"

They knew her name.

Two strangers KNEW her name. It wasn’t like she had a luggage tag with her information. They knew her name as if she should know them. Which was impossible, since she had never seen either of them in her life. Not unless they were from her childhood as her memory was spotty there but no. Neither of those names rang a bell.

“Uh-huh...a tour, you said?” She asked, her British accent coming through quite easily.

“Which tour company?” There was nothing mentioned about being given a tour. Rose would’ve said something about it, or her sister would have. If anything their entire student group would’ve been part of it... and why did both men look upset? Or sadden? Were they expecting someone else?

It was getting too weird for Rey’s tastes. She wouldn’t be so guarded if she was back in London where she knew where to go to lose someone or get help.

“I’m okay but I should be going...no need for the tour.” She quickly took a step back from the pair and started to walk quickly away from them.

"Pluto Tours," Poe answered instantly.

It wasn't that he liked seeing that fear himself, but he could almost feel Finn's discomfort at his side, without even looking at him. He knew Finn was miserable. And it was starting to make him angry.

What kind of joke was this? That they went all these millenia waiting for her, only to find her and she didn't even know them.

But he forced that all down as deep as it could go and reached into his pocket instead. There were no cards when he reached, but when he reached out, he magically had one in his hand. It was black with silver embossed lettering on it, and he quickly stepped in front of her to hold it out.

"We understand if you're busy," He said, as smoothly as he could. "Feel free to give us a call if you change your mind."

All the card said was PLUTO TOURS and then had a number beneath it.

Finn watched the exchange quietly, darting his eyes between them. He could tell that Poe was becoming more tense, less hopeful. Angry. Poe got stupid when he was angry but just handing out a number of theirs wasn't that bad.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am," he said with a little nod and tapped Poe on the arm. They should leave her be. Freaking her out more wasn't going to help.

After all, she clearly had no idea who they were... They needed to process this.

Rey looked at Poe with some hesitation and reached for the card. It was all too coincidental that they had called her out by name and were trying to get her alone with them. For a brief moment, it felt like they were trying to....kidnap her? Which would have been very hard to do given the crowd around them...but looking at the other guy, Finn, it....hurt to see him crestfallen? No, that couldn’t be right.

“Yeah..,,okay? Thank you?” She told Poe, her hand brushing against his as she took the card—

And felt a spark run through her body. Something inside of her calling out to both males....

It was the goddess they had lost. The woman that made their home complete and the woman who now looked utterly confused. Sparks didn’t JUST happen for no reason.

He felt it - like lightning racing up under his skin and making his heart rate kick into over time. Damn it. Damn it. This was a stupid game! He knew Finn was trying to pull him away, knew that the reasonable thing was to go away. To regroup.

To come up with a plan to drag her back down to the underworld with them.

She'd come to love them again eventually, right? It'd be okay.

That was the reasonable thing. But that spark had made his heart pound against his rib cage and without even thinking his hand darted out, closing around her wrist and making him shudder.

Gods, he missed her so much.

"I really think you should come with us," He said instead, his grip getting a little stronger. So much for trying to play it subtle. Sorry, Finn.

Finn felt the spark, too. It was more of an echo being shot through both of the others, but he felt it all the same. Further confirmation that she was theirs.

The emotions welled up, rising to his throat, but he didn't dare speak or do anything. Whatever he did could ruin-

His eyes went wide when Poe grasped her wrist. "Poe, I don't know if that's such a good idea." Despite his nerves, his voice was firm and agitated. Terrified, honestly. They could lose her forever like this, even if they managed to bring her back home. But if they let her go now, she would never return. It was an awful dilemma... but he couldn't stand her being afraid of them.

The ruse was up, at least. Finn grabbed at his arm. "You're not thinking straight. Calm down."

They all felt it. All of them. Two people Rey had never met before and yet somehow had a strange connection to. Her mind was telling her that none of this should be possible and yet her heart....ached? None of it was making any sense to the poor young woman.

And now one of them was holding her wrist. What the hell?!

“Let go of me,” she told him in low tones, fear giving way to anger as she tried to tug her hand back but Poe was stronger than her.

They better think of a plan before she started screaming and fighting.

"I'm thinking perfectly straight," Poe retorted quickly, changing his spoken language to the ancient near-greek tongue of the gods. She spoke it fluently, once. Maybe she'd recognize it again.

This wasn't a great plan. He knew that? Finn knew that! But, as with many things, the fact that the plan was terrible had no actual impact on the fact that the plan had to happen now.

They'd kidnapped her once before. They'd do it again. She'd hate them for a while - or at least him. She could hate him, that was fine. At long as she and Finn were together again.

His eyes flashed, the dark brown going almost purple, and he started tugging Rey back towards a door in the wall that didn't seem to be there before, a moment ago.

"I made stairs," He said to Finn, the ancient greek rolling off his tongue. "It won't hold for long, you have to help me. If we can get her inside before I have to unmake the door again--" Sure, they mostly lived on the surface these days, but. That didn't mean they couldn't flee to the underworld for a little while.

This wasn't how this was supposed to go. It was wrong to do it the first time! But if they let her go now, no amount of trying to explain would ever allow them to see her again.

This didn't have to be permanent. If she just heard them out, that would be enough. Maybe the Rey they knew would never really return.

"We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk." Like she'd believe that, but Finn tried to say it anyway. His own eyes flashed to the purple hue, but he looked a lot more worried than Poe did. "I'm sorry. It won't take long."

His hand grabbed her other wrist, that same spark of recognition flooding him. But he couldn't think on it, instead pulling her along, too. "I know you feel that. I know you want answers."

When Poe doesn't release Rey's wrist, she tugs harder. She wasn't about to be taken by people she didn't know, in a country she where she knew no one. This was feeling eerily familiar in a way that she didn't like. Her lips parted again, prepared to scream when she hears Greek--no, it's a different dialect. It's more...refined? or roughed? It sounds like a mess to her, but then it clicks in her mind. Like puzzle pieces falling into place, but she didn't have time to dwell on that.

No, not when their eyes turn purple. Like colored contact lenses that look freaky (and cool if she wasn't so confused and angry about the situation). She struggles again, trying to dig in her heels to keep herself grounded to the floor.

Now the level headed one, Finn, seemed to be going along with it?!

"I don't want to talk!" she yelled, still struggling against Poe, eyeing the door he wanted to pull her through. Finn takes hold of her wrist and that spark comes through. Another jolt of electricity that feels familiar and she wants to know why. Why does it make her heart beat faster and harder in her chest? And why does all of this feel so damn familiar, but the feeling keeps slipping through her fingers.

"Release me, both of you!" she screamed, unknowingly switching to the ancient Greek she spoke so long ago as she was pulled through the door and down the stairs into the Underworld.

Her voice - her real voice, unmuddied by a foreign tongue - made his human heart seize painfully in his human chest. He let go of her wrist mostly from surprise, but also because it was too late: as soon as the door slammed behind them, it was gone - melted back into the wall of the temple.

The three of them stood at the top of the stars, illuminated somehow in purple light even though there was no lightsource to be seen. Just black stairs that continues endlessly into the dark.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” he said, in their true tongue. She’d spoken it. Something in her had remembered...

He took a couple of steps down the stairs.

“Sorry, I didn’t know how else to get you here,” he grumbled. “Just trust us, okay? Just hear us out. We’ve been- we’ve been waiting for you for a long damn time.”

She was mad. She got mad last time, too. Finn's not sure if Poe remembers it as vividly as he does.

He let her go once the door disappeared, backing away a step with his hands raised. She was theirs. The proof just kept piling up.

"Just listen to what we have to say. We can answer any questions you have. And if you still want... to leave-" He paused to glance back at Poe, knowing the other wouldn't like this promise. "If you want to leave when we're done talking, we'll let you go. We'll bring you anywhere you want."

That'll probably erupt in an argument later. It wasn't like Finn found it easy to say, though.

“Trust you?!” Did Poe understand how insane that sounded? Trust them after they kidnapped her and threw her into....into a dungeon?! She was not going to die here. No, no, she survived a system that failed her as a child, she wouldn’t not in some dark, underground basement! Never mind the fact they were all speaking a dialect that was thousands of years old.

“What? Is this the part where you tell me I’m the descendant of Jesus and the Illuminati are after me?” Ridiculous, all of it, but she was too stubborn to follow them down the stairs. She was standing her ground and refused to be moved further.

God what kind of mess did she get herself into?!

“This is all insane and you want me to trust you?!” And ow, why did that hurt to say it like that?!

Poe gave Finn a very hard look. The other man could say whatever he liked, but Poe knew how hard losing Rey again would hit him. Poe (or so he thought) could weather the rejection, but Finn would be miserable for the next thousand years. And Poe was not about to do that to him, promises of freedom or no.

This was where Rey belonged. Once she knew that, once she believed that, then they could all go back up topside and enjoy the world outside of Under. But until then, she wasn’t going anywhere.

He took another few steps down, having to tilt his chin up to see her, eyes narrowing.

“Jesus isn’t one of ours. And the Illuminati? Really?” He turned around, his dark mood deepening, glowering down into the darkness. “If you don’t start walking, I’m going to crumble the stairs beneath you,” he warned, and then he started to descend.

To Finn: “I’m calling the dog. She’s got to at least remember the dog.”

Edited (Sorry phone typing ) 2019-09-01 16:46 (UTC)

Finn didn't want to lose her again, but this time was clearly not like the last. She could find out everything, she could remember everything, yet not want to be here. Finn would never want her to be unhappy, not like they had been for so long. He couldn't do that to her.

"We're not going to hurt you," he repeated quietly after Poe's veiled threat. "He might try to scare you, but- Listen, you don't have to trust us, but there's not really anywhere else to go, anyway. I know you want answers."

He held his hand out to her, hoping that kindness would be the way forward and not Poe's cold desperation. "You're not a descendant of someone. You are someone. Please, Rey. Give us a chance."

Jesus wasn’t one of theirs? That didn’t make sense to her! Nothing has made sense and she really, honestly, hated it. Rey hates being left I. The dark with things but she couldn’t very trust either of them. If anything, she was thinking how she could escape. The strap of her satchel could be used to choke one of them. Her pen could be used for stabbing, a girl had to have her options for self defense—

Wait Poe was going to make the stairs crumble?! What the hell?! She let out a frustrated sigh, but at least Finn was trying a kinder tactic. Her brown eyes looked down at the offered hand...and despite her anger and hesitation, she reached out for it. Her hand easily slipping into his and that familiar spark cane back.

“I’m a student. Nothing more,” she murmured, following Finn down the stairs, unsure how they were illuminated since there didn’t seem to be a light source.

“But how do you know my name?” It wasn’t very common but still.

“Beebee!” Poe yelled down the stairs, his voice echoing far further than it should. Just how deep did this staircase lead? And why was it getting warmer the further they went?

“I know your name like I know my own heartbeat,” Poe muttered, loud enough to be heard in the dead silence of the staircase but not much louder. “The humans had other names for you, but we knew the true one. They get Finn and I completely confused. Most of them thought we were just one person, which- I mean, he’s handsome as hell so I don’t mind but we aren’t the same.”

He was calming down a little, at least, now that she was walking. He didn’t have to look behind him to feel Finn’s hands in hers. He could feel the echo of it in his own palm and it made his heart ache.

“You might know us by our joined titles. Lord of the underworld. Pluto. Hades. But we aren’t complete without you.”

Finn was mostly trying to concentrate on not squeezing Rey's hand. He held it gently like she could break if he squeezed any harder. Mostly, he didn't want to frighten her more. She felt safe enough to reach for him - she reached out for him - and he wasn't going to ruin that with idle thought and aching impulses.

Though, he had enough mind to wonder if Poe was telling her too much at once. With Poe apparently calming down, he wasn't going to argue the matter.

"We-... We knew you a long time ago. A long time ago. Something happened to you, and we've been alone ever since. But now you've come back and-" Well, not really back to them or even to their temple. He had meant back to life.

"Have you heard of reincarnation?" Finn's still a bit behind on the progress of mortal's stories. Is that still a thing most of them believe in? Does he sound crazy?

Wait, so the two of them were what? Gods? Greek myth experts? More information that didn’t make sense in the logical space. It was like she was in the Twilight Zone. Reincarnation? It was talked about sure, but nothing that could be plausible. She is trying to keep an open mind, but hard to do when the people around her were speaking crazy things.

“Yes, I’ve heard of it but doesn’t mean it’s real.” Because there was no scientific fact behind it. And people with psychic connections were a crock of shit.

As they walked down the stairs, the air around them felt warmer and she could hear....the sound of paws scraping against the floor? Okay so maybe they were in a dungeon that had animals? What the hell?

“But you two as Lords of the Underworld? That....that’s ridiculous.” Cause if they were “waiting” for her then that would make her Persephone...ha. Like she was a goddess. Fuck, what of kind of shit was she in? Crap, was this a cult?

Sorry, Finn. They were long past gentle introductions. All Poe could really do was push her into the deep end and hope she could swim.

Poe let out a little scoff at “something happened”, but he didn’t interrupt Finn. Oh, something happened alright. A murder happened. And even though she’d killed Kylo back didn’t mean that Poe didn’t wish daily that his soul had ended up here. He would have spent the last several millennia ensuring that Kylo knew just what he’d done.

“Look, I could go all fire and brimstone on you if I wanted, but I spent a long time on this body and I like it the way that it is. And I’m not sure you’re in a position to tell what’s real or not. Since when could a mortal even speak this dialect? Or have you been brushing up on Olympian Greek during your studies?”

He paused on the stairs, the sound of paws scraping stone getting louder and louder and louder.

Suddenly Poe’s whole demeanour changed and a grin split his face and he started running down the stairs, two or three in a step.

“Buddy!” He cried, exhuberant, and suddenly out of the darkness bounded a massive dog. Easily half again Poe’s height, it barrelled into him and knocked him down onto the steps, licking at his face. It seemed to be getting smaller as it did, though, until the excited white and orange dog fit comfortably in Poe’s lap. Or, he would, if he wasn’t sprawled over Poe’s chest.

It paused, suddenly, tilting its head up to look at Finn and Rey, and for a second it almost looked like it had three heads instead of one. Then, just as suddenly, it let out a joyous bark and bounded towards them.

They had little physical evidence. Her dresses and other things had all been kept untouched but those could belong to anyone. Their best proof was what she was already beginning to feel. He wasn't entirely confident she'd remember Beebee but she did remember something.

Finn smiled when the dog rapidly approached, stepping forward but not releasing her hand. However, the dog ran right by him. At least he couldn't blame the poor thing.

"Easy, easy, easy-!" He squeezed her hand tighter, ready to make a catch if she fell.

“What are you—!!” A body? He crafted a body? Again, not making sense and all logic seemed to have gone out the window when she saw a big dog tackle Poe. It’s coloring changing to orange and white—and Rey felt her heart sunk into her chest. That dog was so familiar—like one of the dogs she saw as a child but couldn’t have.

It was bounding for her and rather than try to pull away, Rey knelt down and caught him. Without thinking, a smile came over her face as she started to pet and scratch and love on him. She was laughing, giggling—a complete 180 from earlier.

“BeeBee!!” She cries, letting go of Finn’s hand to give the cute pet all the pets it wanted, not minding that he and his other two heads were licking her face. It was a magical moment where they were all together again....

But all good things didn’t last for long. After several minutes of puppy kisses, Rey came out of her stupor and held the dog to her....and looked up at both men.

“...this doesn’t make any sense.” This REALLy didn’t make sense and now she was starting to pull away from the poor pup.

With Rey fully distracted by the Dog, Poe finally let himself turn around and look back at her. For a few seconds - Beebee in he arms, Finn standing next to her, it was like Poe’s entire universe had shifted back into space. He drew in a shuddering breath, his heart aching for them, and it took everything he had not to draw them both into his arms and hold them tight for the next couple centuries.

Instead, his joy cracked as she stood up, trying to separate from the scene, as if she hadn’t just poured love all over a creature who’s name she shouldn’t even know.

“I knew you’d remember him,” he murmured, lowly. Even as the dog let out a low, sorrowful, questioning sound, and oushed his head against her leg.

“This is your home, Rey,” he continued, his voice far softer than it was before. “Part of you knows it. Part of you feels it. Part of you knows we’re telling the truth. You used to live down below, with us. All of us. Together.”

Finn missed her hand like burning but didn't bring any attention to it. Especially not when he was given this gift. The image of her lavishing her affections on a creature she shouldn't know was near to breaking his heart... in a good way. Though it had been so long, he was immortal and thought his memories were still fresh. Yet, this- The small details, the sight of her smile, the sound of her laugh-

He felt a heat behind his eyes but blinked hard as soon as it had appeared. By the time he composed himself, her spell had been broken.

"We were a family," he agreed quietly. And they were, of sorts. They were together and one and separate. He wasn't sure how else to explain it to her with just a mortal's understanding. "It doesn't make much sense now but it will. You'll understand. Just, please, give us a little time."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject