So, I hope this makes sense... kind of like the last chapter, Elise's mind is a bit all over the place. It gets messy and probably needs a decent rewrite but this was about as good as I could get it so I hope you can read it, how I meant it and can still enjoy it on some level? Who knows at this point......

________________________

Cain said nothing as I truthfully told him exactly what had been going on in what had been less than ten minutes since he'd left, and then came back with Doctor Katie, before returning her home. Crazy visions aside, the fruit were doing their job as I knew Hecate intended. I felt good, normal.

New.

"So I don't actually have any recollection of eating the fruit, clearly not intentional or on purpose but you did say if she gave me a check up?" I held up my hands, a pomegranate in each one. "Your turn?"

"You spoke to Matt, in the vision?" He asks instead.

"Yes."

"And he said we always come from the trees, and he always wins?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's something." Cain sighs. "And we're going on, an hour with no contractions or visions. At all?"

"Blueberry heard my prayers and has decided to stay put a little while longer. Mental health is on the rise, possibly why these things keep showing up. This is as good as we are going to get, Cain. We avoid the trees. Hide for as long as we can, but still manage to lure him out and boom. Done by dusk."

It was a simple plan.

It was all we had.

"My whole life has been spent trying to stay at least twenty steps ahead of everyone." He says slowly, taking one of the fruits as piece by piece I saw him disappear and the Dark King alter ego he hides behind reappeared. "And then along came you."

I'm pretty sure I've heard this before, in many different ways from too many people. I hugged myself, unsure where this would go as he watched me as closely as I watched him.

"You are perhaps the greatest challenge I have ever known," There was a gentleness to the way he said it that I wasn't prepared for.

I gave a little shrug, and to be fair, I'd been called a lot worse and he didn't follow it up and now you die so that was a bonus. My vision blurred at the thought, the darkness that followed threatening to make me out to be a liar, yet somehow whatever was attempting to come through faded and it was as if I only blinked.

"At least you called me a challenge, and not a curse."

"You are many, many things, Elle, but you are not a curse," he replies with a smirk, his gaze meeting mine and for a moment nothing else seemed to matter anymore. "And I love you, just the way you are."

"Despite ruining your twenty steps ahead plans, and never knowing what insanity was going to appear in my life, our life, next?"

"I didn't say perfect, but I wouldn't want things to get boring," he winks, slicing off the top of the fruit before cutting it open in a large wedge. "And I don't think that's possible with you."

"I'm trying to decide if that's a good thing or if I should be insulted." I roll my eyes, unable to stop my smile. "We're doomed."

"Perhaps, but I'd rather be doomed with you than be without you at all."

Something felt odd about all of this. He was being nice and way too calm about everything after the mental breakdown that I sensed he was just as close to losing himself to as I was before he left. Maybe I was the one who had lost their mind, and none of this was actually happening.

Real.

Not real.

"As sweet as all this is, what is going on right now?" Then it dawned on me what this felt like. Goodbye.

Cain sat beside me as I turned to face him better only before I could say anything he started talking.

"Would you rather we argue over what to do next? I have been thinking of the logistics of locking you into some similar set up in your world, the doctor with you, until such time as I have managed to resolve all of this or you are well enough to leave our son and join us in taking Uranus down. I considered sending you back to Tartarus, could that lure Uranus there and save us half the battle? Would sacrificing what family I may have, and the majority of your friends, and allies, benefit the future in any way? Is there a clue we've missed now that I have faced Uranus that could be our key to victory." He took my hand, kissing my knuckles briefly. "I could tell you what we will do now and not listen to whatever you say next. You have the power of Fate, so tell me how it will work out for me. For us."

I don't say anything; letting him talk as much as he wanted as it all sounded like the right things to be saying, almost as if he had rehearsed it. I didn't need any powers of Fate to see where this would be going.

"I'm not accepting any of this Elle or giving up." He knows I know what he is thinking. "It's not a goodbye. Right now, I'm just processing and focusing on the one thing that makes it all worth it, until I can get myself at least two steps ahead."

That one thing being me. Sweet, but he was trying too hard now.

"Only two?" I ask; something in the back of mind, reasoning that while he isn't lying, he most definitely isn't telling me everything either; goodbye or not.

"It's a start and hopefully that will be enough."

His smile is too easy, casual and stress-free; as if the end of the world wasn't waiting for us outside our sanctuary. While not looking like he was about to fall apart at a second's notice was a talent he had and one I had yet to master, this wasn't that. He'd just admitted to staying a few steps ahead, and whatever was going on now, I knew I wasn't going to be a part of it. Especially when he kissed that sensitive little part on my wrist, before so willingly taking more of the seeds from the fruit. I forced myself to stand and put some kind of space between us, instead of falling for whatever he was attempting to sell right now.

"You are going to, if you haven't already, trap me here somehow aren't you?" I accuse, remaining neutral as I could.

"Only temporarily." Cain admitted easily. "Elle, whether it's been an hour or twenty minutes, you're in some stage of labour. Uranus will have to wait."

"So is that how you get ahead? Hide me away and then what else did you say? You want to send me to Tartarus?" My voice rises slightly. It would be as he said starting with an argument. "Not happening."

Even if it did make some kind of sense.

"No, I was just being hypothetical." He defended.

"L-I-A-R" I spelt out.

Cain's neutral expression flickers, a brief shadow passing over his features that I didn't doubt anyone else may have missed. I knew him too well. "I'm not up to anything."

"Yeah sure, and I'm actually the Tooth Fairy."

"I almost forgot how funny you can be." He meets my gaze, his stubbornness showing as he didn't budge an inch. "I'm not plotting anything beyond keeping you down here, as safe as you could possibly be, until I can work out a way forward."

"You? What happened to us? Together?" So much for avoiding that argument. "And don't forget, I know you as well as you know me. You are planning something beyond keeping me 'safe' down here. Not saying it or glossing over the bigger details is just as bad as lying!"

I'm not sure if it was a vision or a memory, but seeing him and Hades together, coming from a different angle in one of the paintings comes to mind, and before I can accuse him, I feel hot. Too hot. My shirt is off, and in only my leggings and sports bra, the urge to just get naked grows. No, I want the water. I want a bath. I want to go into the ocean.

I look at Cain.

I look out the window and into the ocean.

I'm too hot for this conversation. My anger only makes it worse, and pointing my finger at him, my insanity is bound to show. Again.

"You're not staying here with me either, are you? You're going to Hades."

"Even knowing what Uranus knows, I'm still not as much of a target as you are. He made that clear when he was attacking earlier and by how it ended." Cain admits with a little more tension now. "I need to find out what's going on and hopefully work out a new way forward from there. I need you to stay here so I can focus and get back to you as fast as possible. Both of us being missing right now is going to raise even more questions, and Hades barely told me anything due to being distracted by other events."

"So that's my fault?" I clench my fists, hating how sweaty my palms feel scrunched up like this.

Cain quickly shook his head, moving to touch me yet I stepped back. "No. I never said that, it's no one's fault, it's just how things are right now."

"We don't come from the trees." I say finally, stripping off as I go back into the bathroom.

"And you'll be right here when I get back?" Cain pushes, a touch of fear clear in his tone as he follows again. "Promise?"

I sigh, the tub instantly full as I step into it. "Yes."

It was a simple plan.

It was all we had.

"I can't go until you get out." He says as I close my eyes and sink further under the water.

"It's a bath." I sigh again, dipping beneath the surface until I'm forced to rise again. "This isn't enough."

"Enough what?"

While I didn't feel as hot as I just did, it wasn't what I wanted. "Never mind. Why can't you go now?"

"I read it in a book. You shouldn't be left alone when-"

"Things are this fucked up when you go into labour? Man, I really should have read those books and saved us all this trouble."

Looking at him now, my heart stung as the stress he'd so carefully locked away was not being caged any longer. Looking into his eyes now, there was only panic and a fear I didn't know he, or anyone could feel. I suddenly felt cold, to the point of being numb.

"You have to stay with me, Elle."

"You are the one who literally just told me you're going to trap me here while you leave." I start to slide under again, eager for the water to feel hotter now.

"What?"

I stop. "What?"

He takes a breath and I brace myself for whatever is coming but instead he just slowly nods, looking around the room as if he's checking the answers we need aren't just hovering in the air above us.

"I'll be gone, half an hour. Less even." Cain promises, leaning over the tub to kiss me on the forehead. "Please. For my sanity. Stay here. I will be back."

"Wanna pinky promise?" I hold up my pinky, making him roll his eyes yet he links his finger with mine.

"If that's what it'll take."

"I'll see you when you get back."

Reluctantly he stands, and as he steps back he disappears. I want to be worried that he's wrong and Uranus won't give a shit if I'm there or not, but I can't be. There's a knowing in the pit of my stomach that he'll be fine, they all will be for now, and sinking under the water I hold my breath as it warms around me until the muffled chatter above the surface has me sitting back up. Gasping, I look around to find I'm still alone, and the weight of the necklace seems more intense around my neck.

I slip it off, dropping it over the side of the tub with a clang and lean back, closing my eyes as a twinge starts in my side. Nope, not now and just as I start to slide back under, the voices mumble something behind me.

"Will she drown herself?"

"No, she's just being dramatic."

The voices were too clear, too real, to be in my head, and slowly turning around, I'm instantly out of the bath, dried and dressed with my powers reaching out to find - nothing.

"See. Dramatic." The Elise of my academy days smirks, the leather of her jacket creaking with her movements as she points at me. "It's what we do."

"We're not always dramatic." This white haired version offers me an apologetic smile. "Ignore her. How are you feeling after your bath?"

Real.

Not real.

I lower my sword, and instead hesitantly reach out to find her very solid under my fingertips. "Explain."

"Oh, can I do it?" Younger me pushed past the other version of us, and for the first time in my life I understood the look on so many faces over the years, when I'd done the exact same thing.

"You're going to think you've lost your fucking mind, and I'm sorry to tell you, but you have." She smiles, like this is actually a good thing. "And now you get us to keep you company! Think of me as the little devil on your shoulder, that you've always wanted but never got to have."

"I wouldn't say I'm the angel?" White haired Elise pouted.

"I didn't say you were."

They both laughed, clearly an inside joke that I wasn't a part of.

"Neither of you are real." I point out.

"Who says?" Younger me winked, and left the bathroom. "This place hasn't changed a bit. Oh, tequila!"

I follow her out and sure enough, she's at a bar cart that definitely was not in the room earlier, pouring three shot glasses of tequila. The other Me's fuss over the shots, lime and salt soon being shared out between them. I know I am hallucinating, there is no other explanation for it all and besides, I already told myself I'd lost my fucking mind.

"Come on, join us," Maiden says, thrusting a shot glass into my hand. "You need this more than you think."

"We gave up drinking, remember." Crone winces as she swallows the shot, tears in her eyes as she bites down on the lime. "And we got ourselves knocked up so, it's a no no."

Maiden rolls her eyes. "Ugh. We're the worst."

She tosses the empty glass aside, instead holding the bottle in her grip as if her life depends on it as she stands in front of me. "Not even one? We've gone through hell, literally, like what, twice? Three times? We deserve a break."

"One bottle or one shot?" I joke.

I can smell the lime and tequila on her breath, and lick my lips. If only she knew how much I actually did agree with her. Wiping all of this from my mind for at least one night was exactly what we, I, would have done once upon a time.

Maiden grins, holding out the bottle. "See. I knew she was one of us."

"As much as I want to, I'm not doing that. Why are you even here?" I sit on the bed, watching the pair of them take turns sipping from the bottle with an odd sense of deja vu kicking in which seems just as disorientating as the tipsy high they have fallen into.

Maiden shrugs. "Who cares? Like, does it even matter?"

"It matters." Crone sighs, sitting beside me. Her arm goes around my shoulders as she pulls me into her hug. "You know it matters."

Rolling her eyes, younger me does the same thing and being held by two imaginative forms of myself, is oddly comforting. Did I have a point; does it matter? I closed my eyes, holding onto them as best I could. I can feel the tears as they run down my cheeks, and we all take a collective deep breath.

"We're not going to survive this." I finally say.

"Trust yourself," Crone whispers. "And take things one step at a time."

"And maybe have a little fun along the way," Maiden adds. "You're too serious now. It was never going to work. We don't plan. Remember?"

This seems to worry older me. "Planning never was our strong suit."

"Exactly, and we've made it this far. Fake it until you make it Elise."

That's all I seem to do.

"I'm hiding, in labour, and talking to two hallucinations of myself. I'm pretty sure I can't fake it any more than I already have, so what do you suggest?" I groan, standing up as I feel hot again. Looking towards the ocean, I want to dig my toes into the sand and swim in the ocean; not a bathtub.

"Let's go for a swim." She answers, not even thinking about it.

In seconds, she's standing by the window in a black bikini I don't ever remember owning, yet wish I did. Her carefree attitude is contagious, pulling at a part of me that wants to escape, and be just like her again even if it's only for a moment. Surprising me further, older me seems to agree, simply following along behind her.

"Shouldn't you be advising against this? Cain told us to stay, and we can't, we shouldn't leave this place." I remind them.

"I think you're expecting me to be the angel on your shoulder, but I never claimed to be." She smiles, and despite the white hair she doesn't look as old as I was thinking she was.

I look down at my swollen belly, feeling a mix of caution and longing. "But-"

Maiden bounces on her toes, half of her torso already reaching out into the ocean before she comes back in. "Come on, Elise! Give yourself this, just let go and stop over thinking. No one tells you what to do, not your parents, not your brother, not the stupid academy teachers and the council rules. Cain gets you. He'll understand."

"Besides, isn't it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?" Older me shrugs, and disappears into the darkness of the water, Maiden right behind her.

I watch their figures in the water, aching to join them. Putting my hand to the water wall, the coolness is the relief my body has been craving and I step even closer. Maybe I haven't completely lost my mind. Maybe I'm just reminding myself who I am. Hecate always said to do things my way. It has always been my greatest strength, yet again I inspect my stomach. Never had there been so much at risk if I really did fuck it all up.

"You have to stay with me, Elle."

Cain's voice is like a whisper in my ear.

"I want to, Cain." And I meant it. My pinky fingers linked together, just how ours had. "I'll stay."

I let myself imagine diving in, yet instead sink to my knees as a new contraction starts up. This is fine, it's going to be fine and now the other Me's are sitting at my side. One pats my back, the other passes me a water bottle and after a few minutes of breathing, sobbing and feeling completely lost I get myself together.

"Seeing me like this, well Uranus will win." Younger me declares, shrugging off the looks the other me gives her. "I'm not going to lie. We're all thinking it."

"Great, now I don't get to feel defeated, I can literally look myself in the eye and tell myself that too." I sigh, forcing myself to stand. "So, apart from providing none of the motivation I need right now, are you two good for anything else or can I not even hallucinate right?"

"I mean, I've provided plenty of helpful suggestions." Maiden stretched out on the bright towel she now has, as if she's getting ready to lie in the sun with a fresh summer read. A cocktail appears beside her a second later, and takes a small sip.

"Tequila, getting drunk, and leaving the one safe place we have, do not count as helpful suggestions." I point out.

"The Elise I know wouldn't have thought that." She shrugged.

"What about you? White hair, clearly you're older and wiser right?" I turn to the other me.

"I am actually not sure about the hair." This one frowned, inspecting it where it was free over her shoulders. "I think you're trying to do the whole Maiden, Mother, Crone act. You're just not old enough for it to be a thing but whatever helps you deal."

"That almost makes sense." I agreed.

"Woah. Maybe she is older and wiser. Doesn't this immortality curse keep us young and beautiful for like, ever?" Maiden seems excited by this. "There's a perk!"

"I mean, look at our friends. They're all gorgeous and really, really fucking old." She lets go of the small braid she'd started. "And we managed to find ourself a man like Cain. No wonder we got ourself knocked up, our kid is going to be beautiful."

"Again, none of this is helpful." I groan.

"They're gods. Maybe that's why we never felt like we fit in at school, or even with our family. We weren't supposed to."

"I've often wondered." White hair sits beside our younger version and gives her a little hug. "So, let's help her out and work out what our sexy and clearly special self is going to do next, even if we are pregnant, facing another crisis situation and losing our mind."

"That doesn't involve tequila." I quickly added.

Younger me rolls her eyes. "How did I turn into you?"

"How was I ever you?"

"Now who's not being helpful." Crone scolded both of us.

I started pacing, again feeling ridiculously hot and looking towards the ocean the longing to be in the water grew.

"There's like three of us. We have all this power. Just do it. Who's gonna know?" Maiden Me whispers, her chin resting on my shoulder as she hugs me from behind.

"Why do you want me to?"

"Because I just want us to be happy. Give yourself a break, you can't fucking drink anymore apparently, and you know it's going to ease the pain. We act impulsively, it's like our signature move."

"I am all for listening to those urges, Elise. Our body knows we need the ocean. We need freedom. His cage won't keep us." Crone Me speaks softly, a gentle nudge has me stepping closer to the water and the whisper of Cain's power lingers all around us now I have noticed it. "He really did it, he trapped us down here. Maybe he doesn't actually trust us as much as we thought."

"One little swim. That's all. Just to remind him who the fuck he is dealing with."

"It isn't like that." I weakly protest.

"Is that even the ocean or are you so stupid you missed him actually leaving you in Tartarus. We learnt a long time ago, we can only trust ourselves. No one else." Another nudge. "Silly, naive girl. You haven't changed at all, or at least not how you think. They just took away your fire. Tamed your wild. Cain has done exactly what Medusa warned you about."

I shook my head. "No. He's the only one I have that accepts us as we are."

"Because he has to." She shrugged.

"Why are you so mean? The ex-vamp clearly always had a thing for us. He doesn't have to do anything, unless he wants to." Maiden me flicked her hair back, glaring at the Crone. "They called him the Dark King, which is still, just fucking hot, like I would have hated you for not hitting that when you did, kind of wish you'd gone there sooner but whatever. Do you think someone like that would do anything he didn't actually want to do regardless of this Fate bullshit?"

"We all agree on that, only maybe I am older and wiser if I can see it's still a way he is controlling us and we will not be told what to do."

"I get it but I'm not completely against it either in the right situation. Wouldn't be the first time. Remember that night when Penny threw that party at her place on break and-"

"Focus. For just one minute." Crone snaps. "It's not just about drinking, partying and sex!"

"Well, it can be and it's great sex. Think about all those times that ended up with this situation occurring. Gods, as if I'd turn into you. I mean, I'm not sure about what we've got going on right now either but you are definitely not the future I see for me. This one gives me some kind of hope that it's not too late to change." The Maiden taunted, apparently determined to start some kind of argument now. "Besides, what ever happened to dying young and leaving a pretty corpse?"

"I don't even have wrinkles!"

"You could and just be really good at hiding them. Let me guess, the white hair was a choice because it suits our complexion so well."

"Well we aren't known for choices that work in our best interest, are we?"

"Oh sorry, I didn't realise we'd welcomed Dad into the conversation. What next? You're disappointed in us? Got to protect that Bunting name!"

"Looking back, he has a point. They all do. You're terrible and how anyone could even stand to be around you is becoming even more. What is that?"

"Mine."

I turn to find the pair of them wrestling over a bottle of something brown. No wonder I've lost my mind. I am a fucking mess. Apparently I always was, and possibly always will be if this show is anything to go by. I try to tune out of their argument, but the noise is grating on each and every one of my nerves. Closing my eyes I take in three deep, slow breaths and welcome the silence that follows until I know I'm not alone again.

I feel the hand on my shoulder, the arm that rubs against mine as I'm sandwiched between the pair of them.

"She's going to do it. Good for you." Maiden squeezes my side, her hug oddly comforting.

"No she's not." Crone scoffs, slapping the Maiden's hand off me.

"Yes I am."