CHAPTER FINALE ♔ cause it's always raining in my head

[narcosynthesis]

♬ oceano - josh groban

WHO || Keijen Blade, Nadia Reichenov, Rafael Giovanni, Buffy Summers, Alainn O'Rourke, Myrilandel Odair, Finnick Odair, Desmond Descant, Elena Gilbert, Rose Hathaway, Fredrick Jr., Jack Chessing, Kat Samcelot, Jeanne Gar, Spike, Sterling Archer, Violet Reedhym, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro
WHAT || Failboat does the Grammy's, tries to stop Keijen Blade's performance from reaching the masses, and aspires to save Nadia
WHERE || Staples Center, Los Angeles
WHEN || Feb 8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

The day has finally arrived: the 2015 Grammy's gather together musical talent at the top of the food chain, which means that NOVA Records will be well represented at this year's ceremony. Unfortunately, this includes performances from Keijen Blade's band, Heatless Passion, and Nadia Reichenov's, Derere, both of whom are working for "Chad Becksworth", aka Draken Crombe, head of the Shadowkind-hating cult, the Church of the Lord's Humanity.  Equipped with some sort of ability to hypnotize large crowds with subliminal messages, Wynn fears what lies beneath Keijen's intended performance, and is sending his Knights to shut down the broadcast, to prevent that message from being spread to millions of viewers worldwide.

Meanwhile, the gang finally has a chance to see Rafael Giovanni again - but what he's been up to in the months since they last saw him, and how his reunion with Buffy will go, remains to be seen.

Several of the Knights have decided that this is their last chance as well to try and break Nadia free from Keijen's influence, now that they've learned the truth about him - that Keijen is in fact Kel'in'hrae, sadistic son of the Nightmare God Malaak'a, likely working to free his father from the prison Sehanine had created for him.  The prison sealed by the relic that the team has been chasing for years, believing it to be an immortality-granting talisman of great power.

The truth, it seems, was worse than they could have imagined.  

One step at a time, however, and stopping the signal is first priority on Failboat's to do list for now.  With an actual plan under their belts this time, maybe this is the turning point they've been waiting for...    

Comments

[doubletake]

[Elena's will save isn't all that much better than it was in the briefing room, but this time around it's more about tension and anxiety than any wtfuckery at her presence. There's a lack of anger in her expression; the vast majority of that has faded over time, and if anything there's apathy where it used to be.

They both fucked up as far as Elena's concerned.]

If it makes you feel any better, I'd be plopping down in the seat next to you if I'd managed to figure out a plan myself?

[littledhampir]

[Rose leans back in her seat, lips pressing into a grim, almost smile as she bobs her head, letting out a long, huff of air as the silence returns. She'd figured that once she sat down, words would come out and there might even be some kind of air clearing but mostly it was just Rose not sure what she even wanted to say.]

A little? [Glancing briefly at Elena.] I just... Looks like we're going to have to work together so, ya know.

[doubletake]

If everything goes to plan, I don't think I'll be seeing most of you. But we all know how often everything goes strictly to plan.

[Failboat.]

I know you probably don't trust me anymore, but for what it's worth, if everything goes to hell, I'll have your back.

[littledhampir]

After what happened with Keijen the last time? [She shudders visibly in light of recent revelations.

Those words force Rose to look at Elena, lips pressed together, lost in her own head for a long moment as she tries to decide if that's true or not. Her shoulder lifts in a slow, uncertain shrug.]

I figure, there's no room for personal crap when it comes to something like this.

[doubletake]

Yeah...

[She remembers that night all to vividly, and catching that on the news had been a part of it.]

It's already forgotten as far as I'm concerned, Rose. If anyone's still carrying any of that, it's you. [She's not even judging, really. She gets it. She's getting exactly what she deserves.] At this point, I'm just trying not to get in your way.

[littledhampir]

[And Elena still didn't know the half of it, which in a way, felt strange for Rose. It would have been the first thing she'd done when they returned to the Castle, tell Elena all about the concert and getting up close and disgustingly personal with Keijen. Instead she'd walked straight into a briefing and hit the road again.

Her lips pull into a grim line, Rose unable to respond at first because while Elena may have forgotten? She wasn't there yet and might never be. It's not that she was incapable of forgiving Elena for what happened. She didn't harbor the same ill feelings, feel the uncontrollable anger that had been there in the beginning but she didn't know how to forgive somebody who wasn't sorry. It would forever be the sticking point for Rose because if she wasn't sorry then there was nothing stopping her from doing it again.

She mulls her reply over in her head, taking in a deep breath and slowly exhaling as she tries to put words to her thoughts. It might have been a different conversation of they weren't preparing for another mission involving Keijen but then, if they weren't doing that then this might not have been a conversation at all.]

For the first time in, a really long time, I'm in a good place. [And it doesn't escape Rose that Elena would know very little about her life now, aside from what she's gleamed from Castle gossip, Dimitri's absence, Dean's presence, the fact that Dean practically lived in her room.] I don't have it in me to be fighting everything all the time. I'm just trying to enjoy the good that I have now.

So... [Trying to work her way towards a point.] Regardless of what I feel about the past... Its not going to be a problem when it comes to working together, at least not for me.

[doubletake]

[She'd forgotten in the sense that it didn't matter anymore. She'd been mad, furious even. But a lot of it had been her own insecurities rearing their ugly heads. She knew who she was now, she knew what mattered to her, and so the thought of her friend hunting her down maybe just meant they weren't supposed to be friends.

They couldn't go back to the way things were. Ever. And accepting that was wiser than letting anger burn inside her, especially when she'd brought that anger on herself in the first place.

On top of that, they had to work together. There were other emotions there, but Elena had gotten good at burying them, and for now, that's what she'd do.

Besides, Rose seemed happier without her. Better not to rock that boat.]

I've noticed. [Besides the things mentioned, there'd been no rumors about broken noses, either.] I don't think there will ever be a day when I wouldn't take a bullet for you, so there's that too.

[littledhampir]

[She’d come to accept a lot of things in the last six months, come to believe that she’d never mattered to Elena the way she’d thought she had. Hurt had fuelled the anger and without closure, she hadn’t quite known what to do with herself. Their argument in London hadn’t ended well and yet it had been the closure she’d been looking for, had given her the answers she’d needed even if they weren’t the ones she’d wanted. Without that she might not have been able to move forward, might not have been able to build the relationship that she and Dean had. She might not have been able to forge the friendships she now held close and might not have been able to appreciate those relationships the way she did now.

One thing she had come to accept though? Was that she didn’t matter to Elena. She’d found a way to make peace with that as best she could, to allow the changes around her to let the hurt from that realization fade into a dull, mostly ignorable ache and so when Elena opens her mouth to speak, it’s impossible for Rose to conceal the confusion that borders on shock as she says the one thing that could threaten to unravel everything she’d come to believe and accept.

Her mouth falls open, words dancing on the tip of her tongue but she closes it again, drags her eyes away from Elena as she tries to process the unexpected feelings that rise up at what she’s just said and she’s slammed by the overwhelming desire to get up and leave, not because there was nothing to be said but because she’s not sure she can handle the emotional fallout of trying to tackle the baggage that comes with this conversation, not when they were about to face down Keijen.

Rose finally manages a nod, something to at least acknowledge what Elena had said, the lines still creasing her brow, making wrinkles ebb from the corners of her eyes as she shifts in her seat, clearly about to move.]

Okay. [It’s not much by way of an answer, more an acknowledgment really but she’s in no position to try and process this, not emotionally and not mentally and she stands, painfully aware that she was basically about to try and run away on a flight that made escape impossible but space it seemed would be the best thing right now, space and time to absorb without the other being right there.

Her foot sticks on the ground though and she can’t walk away without saying anything at all, Rose’s hand gripping the back of the seat she’s just vacated as words that can’t fully form make her expression shift.]

For what it’s worth… No matter how hurt or angry I was. [And she’d made no secret of the fact that there’d been a whole lot of that.] All I ever wanted was for you to be okay.

[She can’t fully make herself look at Elena, like she’s still determined to keep some emotional wall between them but she’s not sure she’s ever made that clear, that in the midst of all her own selfish distress, that was the thing that had mattered to her most. Maybe it didn’t mean much now, not after everything that had come and gone since but it was the most that Rose could really give to Elena right now, whether it means anything to her or not.]

I just thought you should know that. [Eyes briefly flickering towards her before she’s staring ahead again, the seat she’d claimed practically screaming for her to get her ass back in it and maybe that was a weird place to leave things but more progress had been made in the last five minutes than had been in the last five months. Even Rose wasn’t about to push harder, at least not today and so rather than say more, she just manages a nod as she starts moving back to her seat.]

[doubletake]

[She hadn't expected much more. If anything, she's getting more back from Rose than she expected. Elena's come to assume that Rose thinks of her as more monster than friend at this point, and she's accepted that because she has no other choice.

Maybe that's not the case, though. She can't change what she's done, but maybe it won't be ugly forever.

Elena will deal with whatever happens. It's up to Rose.]

I wasn't. [Before she left. Or right after Andres.] But I am now.

[And then she lets Rose walk away. She's pretty sure that as far as conversations between the two of them go? It's not going to get much better than that.]