CHAPTER THREE ♔ heaven rain the colors down to form another prize

[romanticidal]

♬ someone like you (acoustic) - brian vander ark

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Des
WHAT || The OT3 escapes Italy
WHERE || Venice --> etc
WHEN || June 8th
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It's already about ten or eleven in the morning by the time Raf, Buffy, and Des made it to a hotel in Venice and got a couple rooms to crash in for a few hours, since they were running on zero sleep and a lot of adrenaline after their escape from Rome and subsequent barrage of revelations.

A few hours of rest is all they're looking for before they make their way back to London, but they're still cut off from the Knights, thanks to Iscariot taking all their phones.

When Buffy's eyes flutter open after some very, very satisfying sleep, it might take her a moment to realize that she's actually awake. Rafael's face is remarkably close to her own since they're sharing a pillow, and his own eyes are open, studying her face with a thoughtful, fond expression and the shadow of a smile on his cheek. One of his arms is still wrapped around her, and he squeezes her side when he sees she's awake and greets her gently.

"Buongiorno, carina."

Comments

[slay]

Luthir.

[ she shakes her head, tears stinging the edges of her eyes with empathy for what vi must be going through. they’d only just gotten married. they had a whole happy life ahead of them—they were supposed to, anyway. ]

Luthir’s dead.

[ she stares down at the phone like somehow it’s the culprit, even if wynn on the other end is simply the messenger. ]

[romanticidal]

No... [ raf stares in shock for a moment, before squeezing her shoulder and turning his head away as he lifts the phone to his ear and continues for her. ] Sorry, she is... She is here. It is just very shocking for us to hear. Si. How-- [ he grows pale as wynn explains, then his teeth grit together slightly, eyes sliding over to meet des' for a moment. ] I see.

[nothingsodivine]

[well.

des feels like shit now. he runs a hand over his face and cringes when rafael looks at him. he'd been so convinced that blade was bullshitting...]

Sonuvabitch.

[slay]

[ On the bright side, this is one time Buffy will never pull the I Told You So card. Someone died. That's not the kind of thing to be smug about. She rubs her hand against her mouth, getting herself under control, and then reaches out to take the phone back from Rafael. ]

I've got it. It's — [ Well, it's not okay. She presses her lips thinly together, but keeps her hand held out as she opts not to finish that sentence. All she can think is how happy they were just two days ago, saying their vows, celebrating with their friends. It's not fair. ]

[romanticidal]

[ raf frowns, but nods, handing it back so that wynn can fill her in on the rest of... the terribleness. yay. ]

Poor Vi...

[nothingsodivine]

I thought that bastard was bluffing us out.

[Of course it doesn't mean that Blade was telling the truth. It could have been an unfortunate coincidence.

...Yeah.

Des and his bottles of convenience alcohol will just take a seat over here now.]

[slay]

[ Buffy concludes the call, clarifying that Keijen Blade was involved in New York and Vi is safe. She reiterates that Rafael will be coming back to the castle with them and that they should talk more there before hanging up. ]

Vi's alive. Whatever hold he had over her, it's gone. [ Small consolation in the wake of Luthir's death. The plan worked exactly like Elena and Buffy knew it would. ] But Elena's gone. She took the doppelganger out of the dungeon and ... I don't know. Eloped. All we know is she went willingly.

[ She sighs, rubbing the side of her neck. ]

I guess we weren't the only ones having a bad couple of days.

[romanticidal]

She broke him out of the castle? [ what. the. fuck. ] I did not know they were--

[nothingsodivine]

[Des snorts.] Doesn't matter what they were. He was the only other doppelganger she knew. She's a kid- a lonely, frustrated kid dealing with the fact that she's a species most people would rather shoot first then try to be friends with. He could be playing her like a fiddle and she'd follow anyway, because she probably felt safer with her own kind after everything.

[slay]

I hope you're right.

[ Buffy shakes her head, glancing out the window. ]

Because if she doesn't feel safe, then it means she's terrified right now. [ And Buffy sure as hell doesn't wish that on her. ] But she knows exactly what she's doing. He's hurt Elena more than any of us—he got under her skin, and betrayed her. [ Wis 21 to remember their conversation about how Elena doesn't hate him, even now. ] If he's playing her, she knows it. Which means we can get her back.

[romanticidal]

Si. We must. [ no doubt about it. get off our ladies' dicks, bad guys. raf is 100% over it. ]

[nothingsodivine]

We will.

[100% confidence from Des over here. Mr. I REALLY NEED TO STOP MAKING PROMISES I CAN'T KEEP.]

[slay]

[ She doesn't seem sure she believes that. They didn't precisely help Vi after all, did they? Losing her husband is no rescue. Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she stands. ]

Some knights are locking down Heathrow to try and keep Elena from leaving the country with him. I'm gonna tell the pilot to divert course to a private airport. They'll send someone to pick us up there.

[romanticidal]

Let us hope then that they have found her before we even arrive.

[nothingsodivine]

We could use a good miracle about now. [He's just saying. Life sucks. He's optimistic that they'll get her back, but they'll probably have to go to Andres to do it, unless something fucking falls out of the sky.]