Mina and Jared past

Chapter Five

Jared left later that week. 

He stopped by Ever's home and told her his plan, assuring her that he could make her better. He hoped he had told her the truth. The obvious pain that she was in crushed him, but made him all the more convinced that leaving was the best thing he could do to save everyone. He couldn't bear the idea of Mina or Charlie going through this sickness. Jared didn't go to the hospital again, though. He checked in on Charlie at the Grimm's enchanted mansion.

"You take care of your sister, okay?" He had said. Charlie nodded fiercely. 

"I'm going to miss you, Charlie. You keep working on that siren call just like we practiced and in a few years, you'll have much more control," Jared advised, easing up a little when he saw the worry in Charlie's face lessen. 

"Goodbye, Jared."

"Farewell, little Grimm. It's been a pleasure."

Now, Jared stood in the throne room of the castle in his home plane. It was indeed dying, and he had felt it the second he set foot on the rotting soil. The sky looked ashen, the rivers were stagnant and the trees held no fruit or leaves - the setting suns burned crimson instead of their usual golden light and the three rising moons were nearly black. The whole world looked post apocalyptic.  Fae lay dead all around, skeletons were strewn about the castle, as if Teague had been too exhausted to dispose of the bodies. 

Teague himself was slumped in the lone throne in the room. His hand shielding his eyes, and his robes tattered. Jared had to admit that the state of his other half was shocking. Never had he imagined that Teague would be the one to fall first, not when Jared had all of the weaker parts. The emotion, the lack of power, the naïve hope. He had always felt less than the other part of himself. Jared was only some copy of the true man, after all. 

"Hello, Brother," Teague sneered, not moving in the slightest, but still, Jared tensed in preparation for a fight. 

"Teague." Jared took a step forward. "What has happened here? To our home?"

Teague gave a slow, dark laugh. "Our home. Our home. This was never your home. You never knew where you belonged or what you wanted. Always striving to make others happy." Teague took his hand away from his face, revealing a sight that further shook Jared. His eyes were near black, as well as the veins that pressed against his skin. Teague was pale, deathly so, only adding to the sickening appearance of him. 

"I, however, knew exactly what I wanted. Power. Revenge. Where is the girl?" Teague looked around for her, warily. 

"Mina isn't here. I came alone," Jared stated. "And you had no reason to seek revenge. You know what truly happened that night. We both do. You just can't admit it to yourself." 

Teague's face twisted in anger. He made a move to stand up, but was too weak to do much at all. "That lying, scheming, pathetic mess of a half-breed," Teague cried out, "Tried to kill us! We saw it - don't lie to yourself. She tricked us,"

"She did no such thing. Mina tried to save us!" 

"You fool. Haven't you realize by now? She never loved us," Teague yelled and the walls shook, but only slightly. "She's been infatuated with the blonde boy from the beginning. Brody Carmichael. He is her Prince Charming. Not you."

"She loves me. She loved us. She said my name, Teague."

"But that's not who you were then. It was me. It was us. She didn't love all of you. How can you know, once you take in the rest of me, when we are once again whole, that she won't do it again? That she won't be frightened of you? That she won't despise you - "

" - Because I'm not going back!" Jared yelled, interrupting Teague. He couldn't stand to listen to this. Not when it had always been a fear, clawing at him from the back of his mind. "I am here to save my home and to save those that I care about that are dying on the human plane. I will rebuild this place." 

Teague laughed again. His hair, a few shades lighter than Jared's, was wild. The frantic look in his eyes confirmed to Jared that he was near losing his mind. "You're going to rebuild this place? You believe you can rule alone? I've already tried, brother." Once again, the word brother dripped with venom. "The power of it was too much to sustain, even for me. How can you, a measly copy, even imagine gaining and controlling that much strength and responsibility?" 

Jared was about to make a smart remark, but a terrible coughing fit erupted out of Teague, much like the ones that Sara had before she died that night. He wiped blood off of his chin and grinned at the sight. Jared moved towards him, then noticed that he had already inched closer and closer towards Teague over the course of their argument. 

"So it's true. You are dying," Jared murmured, wincing at the many blood stains on Teague's jacket sleeves. 

"I suppose you could say that. My body is failing, yes, but the power I have retained from the cursed blade has never been stronger. It needs a more durable host. It needs us. Together."

"That's what I've come here to do."