That Wicked and Needy Kind of Love

That Elusive Thing Called Death

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters, settings, or situations. I do however, own the characters reactions to the situations that I put them in.

BTW, if anyone seems OOC, they are. It's an AU, everyone is OOC. Silly geese!

When I met the Three on the foggy barge those many years ago, I didn't know that this is what they meant.

I should have realized it when they said we wouldn't meet again. They were the Three that took everyone to the other side after death. And like a fool I had given away my final choice of death. It wasn't until after my twenty-fifth birthday that I started to get a sense that something wasn't right. I had gone to America after graduating from Spence, I was going to start fresh. I graduated from university and became a secretary for a lawyer. It was while I was on a lunch with some of the other ladies from the office when it was brought to my attention.

"Gemma," started Addie, she was born in the States and she had a strange accent, she was from Boston, "you must tell us how you manage to stay looking so young. What are you, twenty-five? And not a wrinkle in sight." Americans were very blunt, it took me a bit to get used to their inquisitiveness. In Britain, you didn't ask questions, you spoke about the weather just to be polite. But, I truly didn't have anything to tell her. I shrugged and said,

"My mother always looked younger than her age. I must have gotten it from her."

Three years later and I still looked the same. The same as I looked as a twenty-two year old. I felt as if it must have had something to do with the realms. I had not returned since that last time at Spence, so it couldn't have been a result of the magic that resided there. And there couldn't have been any magic left in me, because I had bound it equally to the lands. Both Ann and Felicity were just as involved in the realms as I was, but through the letters and pictures we had sent over the years, I could see them aging. Though slight, it was there. But for me, nothing had changed after a certain point in time.

I was at a loss for what could be causing my seemingly everlasting youth, and there was only one group of beings that could possibly answer my questions. So sitting alone in my apartment one evening after work, I gathered my courage to call the door of light.

I was afraid that it wouldn't work. I hadn't tried anything realms-related for eleven years. But I think I was even more afraid that it would work. I told the creatures of the realms that I would be back. To help them find a balance, and to mediate between the tribes. If this did work, all I could hope was that time passed differently there than it had for me, and that they hadn't missed my presence too much.
And it was not only the creatures of the realms that I was worried about seeing again.

Kartik was there, as he would be forever. While he assumed that we would meet, and be together again, how could that be? Especially since he was tethered to the Tree of All Souls for seemingly the rest of the realms' existence, and I wasn't even aging properly enough to expect death at this point. After the first couple years of our separation, I would have dreams of him, of us, in the realms. Dreams of love and possibilities. But sooner than later, those dreams dwindled, fizzled out to nothing, and I was left with the harsh realities that I find myself in now.

I called for the door. Nothing happened. I called again, focusing on the memories of old Gemma, Felicity, Ann, and Pippa, when we would call it after sneaking out of Spence and into that cave in the woods. And the lights flickered out. A breeze made my spine tingle. And when I opened my eyes, the door was there. And I grabbed the knob and turned it, stepping to the other side.

When I stepped out, I was in the Garden. A great wave of nostalgia passed over me. This was where I saw my pseudo-mother for the first time after her death, where the other girls and I would frolic and play. It looked the same. It looked beautiful. It was perfect. And I could feel the power I was used to feeling inside me thrum in the air. But it was quiet, and the silence made me wary. I was hoping to see some of my old allies here, just waiting for me. But I knew that was a wish if there ever was one. I started walking towards the river. If there was one person who I'd want to see most right now it would be Gorgon.