Liz Sherman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
open_flame) wrote2011-04-06 03:54 pm
open_flame) wrote2011-04-06 03:54 pm
Entry tags:
- (fanfic),
- (flashback),
- plot:fae war,
- verse:bump in the night,
- who:abe,
- who:belenus (belenus),
- who:hellboy (righthand),
- who:jack (flyboy),
- who:liz (open_flame),
- who:nathan (prezstandsalone),
- who:stella (magical),
- who:the brother (flyboy),
- who:the doctor,
- who:the master,
- who:thomas (tardis),
- who:trevor (bprd)
Hurricane - Fae War Fic for Bump in the Night Verse
Characters: Liz Sherman – Harkness (Seelie Knight of Fire), Seelie King Belenus, Nathan Petrelli (Seelie Knight of Air). Mentions of Jack Harkness, Thomas Harkness, Trevor Harkness, Stella Harkness, The Doctor, The Master, Trevor Broom, Abe Sapien, and a crap ton of others
Fandom: Hellboy/Torchwood
Setting: Bump in the Night Verse
Rating: R (Mental projections of violence)
Word Count: 2500
AN/Warnings: Liz deals with the ramifications of focusing on her family, rather than her duty when she takes the Seelie Knight of Fire Oath. Spoilers for The Year that Never Was Arc and The Children of Earth Arc. Future!Bump Verse spoilers. Fic takes place immediately following Jack and Future!Trevor's abduction by the UnSeelie. All muses I do not play are used with full permission and knowledge of their muns, and with the utmost love and respect. <3 Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
watch_the_nails for the Grammar!Smack.
Prompt: Hurricane - 30 Seconds to Mars
Tell me, would you kill to save a life? Tell me, would you kill to prove you're right? Crash...crash...burn. Let it all burn. This hurricane's chasing us all underground.
Something was wrong...
Belenus knew it the moment the last words of the frantic and hastily promised oath crossed Elizabeth Sherman-Harkness's lips. Becoming a knight was always an experience he could not prepare the chosen ones for, but this was different. This was not supposed to happen.
“Elizabeth...” Unafraid, the King reached out to her, the fire that had suddenly ringed Liz's body the last of his concerns. What had she done? The King stretched his hand further while opening his mind, trying to work his way into her thoughts now that Liz had solidified the bond between Knight and commander. He was met with a resistance the likes of which he'd never felt from a mere mortal. He had to help her, to stop whatever was doing this to the girl who'd helped him so many times.
Before Belenus could touch her, he felt a hand that was much more gentle and heard a voice that was much more formal in the past. “Your Highness, don't touch her!” Nathan's warning broke though the chaos of emotions and memories pouring off of Liz. The King shook his head, eyes darting from Liz to Nathan.
Liz didn't know she was being watched. She didn't know she was on fire. She didn't feel anything but...them.
The first thought to cross over was simple, yet so confusing. It was only words in a field of black smoke, and they made about as much sense to Liz as Gallifreyan would have.
“Stop worrying. I'm a lot more discreet than T'n'T are, Big Papa.” A young woman's voice that was somehow familiar teased insubordinately. “Trust me,” The girl's voice added before an unmistakable, albeit more weathered voice invaded Liz's mind in response.
“Stop calling me that. And your brothers...” Jack Harkness, in a manner that sounded both older and tired, groaned in a way that was very familiar to both Liz and the woman he was speaking to. Finishing the sentence would take too long, as Trevor and Thomas' idiosyncrasies were too numerous to list, just like the rest of the family.
Liz could hear the tell-tale sounds of handguns being loaded and belted, boots being tied and coats rustling as the young woman simply chuckled, much like Liz herself did as Jack went on and on in that old familiar mission briefing speech. Even in the 51st century, Jack was so set in his ways.
“Just get going and help them fix this,” Jack finished his speech, sounding annoyed, “ And do not break that, it's new,” he said sternly before Liz heard the familiar sound of a Vortex Manipulator shifting time and space for its user. The younggirl whom Liz had no idea was her and Jack's adult daughter said sincerely before she vanished, “I won't let you down, Daddy.”
Before Liz could even begin to be confused by what she heard, or more accurately felt, another memory from her family,complete with emotions, invaded her mind.
A tall blonde man in a leather jacket and jeans was raving about timelines and being selfish. Liz's mind took a bit to focus on the grumbling and suprising cursing in a language that few still spoke. The Gallifreyan dialect had nearly died with the Time Lords themselves, but this man was fluent, even in the more colorful aspects of the ancient language.
“Can't I at least have my stuff? My guitar! Don't make me leave that here. The TARDIS will hide it.” Another familiar yet unknown voice shouted as the man, who Liz had no idea was the Thirteenth and final regeneration of the Doctor, rushed around the console room of the TARDIS. His companion, a man in his 20s, followed Thirteen around like a lost and confused puppy. Finally her vision focused on the young man who, in Liz's opinion, needed a good haircut and shave; he had aviator sunglasses perched on his head and a beaten leather jacket. She didn't see his face. If she had, those tell tale eyes and signature jawline would have made the Adult Thomas unmistakable. As he waved his hand in protest Liz could see the small charm that circled Thomas' wrist glint in the dim light coming from the TARDIS console.
“Nope. I saved the universe with a bucket and some string before. Ask your father. “The Doctor smirked as he dug into the other man's pockets and stripped him of his Timey Whimey accessories. “And I'll let her hide that piece of junk, your music is too...” Thirteen waved his hand in the young man to show his opinion of Thomas' music, then pushed him out the suddenly open TARDIS doors. “And be quick about it, we have to go to The Library tomorrow!”
Before she could blink, Liz's mind pulled her into another memory that belonged to a family member. With each link that bonded her to her blood family, Liz's mind took the reins, guiding her to the best way to observe her family's memories be they of this century or many in the future.
She was standing next to her barely teenage son, Trevor, this time. Nathan Petrelli, looking older and more scarred than he did in this time was watching the thirteen year old closely.
Liz reached her hand out, trying to touch her son, but her hand went right though him, just like Kitty's Pryde would if her power was active. Liz coughed, her jaw hanging down as she watched Nathan with her son in shock.
“You're fighting it.” Nathan's voice was calm and reassuring as Trevor wrinkled his nose at that comment, looking so much like Liz did when she used to meditate to try and control her fire. After a shiver, Trevor cracked open an eye and scowled at 'Uncle Nathan'. “You're not the one who got a mind full of someone else's idea of kink, Uncle Nate.”
Nathan couldn't smile at that, not right away. He still, after all this time, hated how at the beginning of the Knighthood his own demons had mixed with Liz's thoughts and twisted them both so severely.
“I've seen worse,” Nathan insisted as he reached out and placed a hand over Trevor's eyes to force the boy to close them. “Now relax, and imagine a window...”
All this, as odd as it was, wasn't all that upsetting. Liz's fire was almost calm as it stayed around her, a protective halo against an unseen assault on her mind. The fire, as remarkably intelligent as it was, couldn't differentiate between one type of attack or another. It knew it had to protect Liz, and so it did. It should have gone out, but it didn't. It knew she needed to be kept safe, almost as if it knew what would be coming when Liz finally made the link with her husband...
There was so much blood. It pooled in puddles around Liz's hands and knees, dripping from the wounds on her face from the Master hitting her repeatedly when she didn't submit to what he wanted from her in the way he wanted. Her tears mixed with the crimson ooze as she felt, saw and experienced things she wasn't meant to.
This never technically happened...the time storm that ended The Year that Never took it all away, but here it was. Liz could smell the charred flesh of Abe Sapien though they had drugged him off to be 'disposed off' after Liz was forced to kill him. The lifeless body of Trevor Broom was slumped in a pile, his neck still twisted from when Jack had snapped his neck to spare the old man the torturous time the Master had planned for all of the BPRD.
Hellboy's massive form, drained of all life and blood, hung from the lock and chains around his neck and arms. The doorway to release the Ogdru Jahad sat unopened, the world spared the destruction of the seven Gods of Chaos when Jack plunged the dagger into the dormant Beast of the Apocalypse's heart and ended the demon's life.
So then, there was only Jack and Liz. The girl and her hero. The princess and her knight...and their tormentor. The Master screaming in fury at the loss of his 'toys' when Jack killed Hellboy. “You'll pay for that, Freak!” The Master howled as he advanced on Jack, who really wasn't even Jack anymore. If Liz wasn't so busy staring at the blood on her hands, she'd have noticed.
Without warning, Not-really-Jack wrapped his fingers around Liz's neck, yanking her body close as he dug his fingers into her skin. “Don't take another step.” The Brother of the Bad Wolf warned menacingly. “I kill her.”
Liz winced in pain, not understanding why the man who'd sworn to always protect her was choking her so tightly she could hardly see. “Jack...what are you doing!?” She choked out as his grip tightened.
Unlike the first time she'd lived though this, which the time storm had conveniently erased for everyone at the BPRD's memories save Jack, a quiet, soothing hiss of a voice drifted into Liz's mind. “He has no choice. I have no choice. Trust us...trust him.” The Brother's thoughts were almost regretful. The emotion pouring from him to Liz surely was. It was something Liz had never expected from Him; humanity. A soul. A conscience.
Just as when Jack had handed over the 12 children to the 456 in 1965, just as he had hated himself with every fiber of his being for letting go of Gray's hand, just as he'd wanted it to be him that died to save the world and not Ianto or Steven, Jack Harkness hated himself at that moment. And Liz, for the first time in all the years she'd known him, finally understood what he felt on a level she was never meant to. His feelings were her feelings, his thoughts her thought and his pain...hers.
“I love you... I always will.” Liz's heart actually skipped, which was completely inappropriate for the situation as Jack's spoken words softened to his own a second before he reached his other hand up and snapped Liz's neck as quickly and cleanly as he had Broom's a few minutes before.
Liz's perceptive changed then, watching her own body fall to the floor. As The Brother of the Bad Wolf looked upward, Liz saw everything he saw, felt everything he felt. The anger, the rage, the sorrow and the hatred toward the Doctor, The Master, and above all himself.
She even felt the sting of the bullet the Master ordered be put in The Brother's brain at the lose of his last 'new toy'.
Liz was twitching on the ground, the new links with her family too much for her mind to process or understand, too much for her body to deal with. She writhed around in pain, screaming as though it would somehow make the feelings stop. It hurt more than anything she'd ever felt, even having her neck snapped by the man she loved.
The King's voice had lost every last bit of joviality it had earlier as he watched Liz in the sand. “She's in so much pain, but I cannot determine what is causing it.” The blood from the unnecessary wound Liz had slashed over her palm mixed with the gold of the charm Nathan had given her as her fire flared, so aggressively protective of her physically and emotionally that it liquified the charm within seconds.
Liz alternated between curling herself into a protective ball of silence and crying out in pain that must have been similar to having her soul torn out of her. Finally, in with the sound of melting sand, the roar of the ever growing fire, her screams of pain, and gasps for air came a singly worded question.
“Why...?”
Nathan lost his formality as he roughly pulled his King farther away from Liz. The pool of molten silica around her grew larger with every breath she took, ever thought she absorbed. Nathan looked at the sky a moment, deep in worried thought before casting his eyes back on the burning, out of control woman. He shook his head in frustration before looking Belenus in the eyes. “We need to go.” Nathan said firmly as the King's eyes flew open in shock.
“No, the child of flames needs us. She's unprepared for-” Nathan cut him off. “I am not prepared for her to destroy you the way she did your son!” The Knight of Air snapped at his King, the mental connection the two shared allowing Belenus to not only hear but feel how terrified Nathan was right now that Liz would explode for reasons neither of the men understood. Her pain was too much, they couldn't break though it to access her mind or help her calm down.
The ruler of the Seelie Fae nodded to his loyal knight, “The children will be safe. Your protective gifts coupled with mine from years ago will see to that.”
Both looked at Liz one last time, loathing their own respective weakness against something so powerful housed in such a delicate woman. “We must leave her for now, my friend.” Belenus placed a hand on Nathan's shoulder as the king called on his magic, and started to fade away. Belenus opened his mind, his thoughts flowing into Nathan's as easily as water flows over stones. They didn't need to speak.
“She needs time to come to terms with her destiny, just as she always has.” Belenus pushed the thought to Nathan before he called upon his magic to take him away from this place fully. “She will do what is right, in time.” Belenus promised Nathan as he faded from visability.
Nathan shook his head as he weighed conflicting courses of action once Belenus was gone. They'd already wasted so much time. The Brother of the Bad Wolf was in the hands of the enemy, the progress of the war already slowed, and his leader wanted him to give Liz more time? It made no sense.
Nathan watched Liz, doubled over in pain on the section of beach he and the king had stood on minutes ago. The cries of pain and fear were almost undetectable to him as he winced at the emotions he couldn't block from her. He was sure whatever was going on in inside her head was going to break her...if it didn't kill her first.
Still, Nathan had his orders, and his Oath bound him to them. He had no choice but to walk away from Liz as the King had commanded. He floated above the sand a moment, watching Liz with a heavy heart. He tried to push one thought to her before he harnessed his power and took off to return to New Jersey. If Liz could have heard it over the flood of emotions from her blood family, she might have smiled, or maybe hit him. It would have depended on her mood, really. Nathan had no idea how much like someone else who always ended up hurting Liz's family his words sounded.
“I'm sorry. I know you're never going to believe that, but I am so...so sorry.”
Fandom: Hellboy/Torchwood
Setting: Bump in the Night Verse
Rating: R (Mental projections of violence)
Word Count: 2500
AN/Warnings: Liz deals with the ramifications of focusing on her family, rather than her duty when she takes the Seelie Knight of Fire Oath. Spoilers for The Year that Never Was Arc and The Children of Earth Arc. Future!Bump Verse spoilers. Fic takes place immediately following Jack and Future!Trevor's abduction by the UnSeelie. All muses I do not play are used with full permission and knowledge of their muns, and with the utmost love and respect. <3 Thanks to
watch_the_nails for the Grammar!Smack.Prompt: Hurricane - 30 Seconds to Mars
Tell me, would you kill to save a life? Tell me, would you kill to prove you're right? Crash...crash...burn. Let it all burn. This hurricane's chasing us all underground.
Something was wrong...
Belenus knew it the moment the last words of the frantic and hastily promised oath crossed Elizabeth Sherman-Harkness's lips. Becoming a knight was always an experience he could not prepare the chosen ones for, but this was different. This was not supposed to happen.
“Elizabeth...” Unafraid, the King reached out to her, the fire that had suddenly ringed Liz's body the last of his concerns. What had she done? The King stretched his hand further while opening his mind, trying to work his way into her thoughts now that Liz had solidified the bond between Knight and commander. He was met with a resistance the likes of which he'd never felt from a mere mortal. He had to help her, to stop whatever was doing this to the girl who'd helped him so many times.
Before Belenus could touch her, he felt a hand that was much more gentle and heard a voice that was much more formal in the past. “Your Highness, don't touch her!” Nathan's warning broke though the chaos of emotions and memories pouring off of Liz. The King shook his head, eyes darting from Liz to Nathan.
Liz didn't know she was being watched. She didn't know she was on fire. She didn't feel anything but...them.
The first thought to cross over was simple, yet so confusing. It was only words in a field of black smoke, and they made about as much sense to Liz as Gallifreyan would have.
“Stop worrying. I'm a lot more discreet than T'n'T are, Big Papa.” A young woman's voice that was somehow familiar teased insubordinately. “Trust me,” The girl's voice added before an unmistakable, albeit more weathered voice invaded Liz's mind in response.
“Stop calling me that. And your brothers...” Jack Harkness, in a manner that sounded both older and tired, groaned in a way that was very familiar to both Liz and the woman he was speaking to. Finishing the sentence would take too long, as Trevor and Thomas' idiosyncrasies were too numerous to list, just like the rest of the family.
Liz could hear the tell-tale sounds of handguns being loaded and belted, boots being tied and coats rustling as the young woman simply chuckled, much like Liz herself did as Jack went on and on in that old familiar mission briefing speech. Even in the 51st century, Jack was so set in his ways.
“Just get going and help them fix this,” Jack finished his speech, sounding annoyed, “ And do not break that, it's new,” he said sternly before Liz heard the familiar sound of a Vortex Manipulator shifting time and space for its user. The younggirl whom Liz had no idea was her and Jack's adult daughter said sincerely before she vanished, “I won't let you down, Daddy.”
Before Liz could even begin to be confused by what she heard, or more accurately felt, another memory from her family,complete with emotions, invaded her mind.
A tall blonde man in a leather jacket and jeans was raving about timelines and being selfish. Liz's mind took a bit to focus on the grumbling and suprising cursing in a language that few still spoke. The Gallifreyan dialect had nearly died with the Time Lords themselves, but this man was fluent, even in the more colorful aspects of the ancient language.
“Can't I at least have my stuff? My guitar! Don't make me leave that here. The TARDIS will hide it.” Another familiar yet unknown voice shouted as the man, who Liz had no idea was the Thirteenth and final regeneration of the Doctor, rushed around the console room of the TARDIS. His companion, a man in his 20s, followed Thirteen around like a lost and confused puppy. Finally her vision focused on the young man who, in Liz's opinion, needed a good haircut and shave; he had aviator sunglasses perched on his head and a beaten leather jacket. She didn't see his face. If she had, those tell tale eyes and signature jawline would have made the Adult Thomas unmistakable. As he waved his hand in protest Liz could see the small charm that circled Thomas' wrist glint in the dim light coming from the TARDIS console.
“Nope. I saved the universe with a bucket and some string before. Ask your father. “The Doctor smirked as he dug into the other man's pockets and stripped him of his Timey Whimey accessories. “And I'll let her hide that piece of junk, your music is too...” Thirteen waved his hand in the young man to show his opinion of Thomas' music, then pushed him out the suddenly open TARDIS doors. “And be quick about it, we have to go to The Library tomorrow!”
Before she could blink, Liz's mind pulled her into another memory that belonged to a family member. With each link that bonded her to her blood family, Liz's mind took the reins, guiding her to the best way to observe her family's memories be they of this century or many in the future.
She was standing next to her barely teenage son, Trevor, this time. Nathan Petrelli, looking older and more scarred than he did in this time was watching the thirteen year old closely.
Liz reached her hand out, trying to touch her son, but her hand went right though him, just like Kitty's Pryde would if her power was active. Liz coughed, her jaw hanging down as she watched Nathan with her son in shock.
“You're fighting it.” Nathan's voice was calm and reassuring as Trevor wrinkled his nose at that comment, looking so much like Liz did when she used to meditate to try and control her fire. After a shiver, Trevor cracked open an eye and scowled at 'Uncle Nathan'. “You're not the one who got a mind full of someone else's idea of kink, Uncle Nate.”
Nathan couldn't smile at that, not right away. He still, after all this time, hated how at the beginning of the Knighthood his own demons had mixed with Liz's thoughts and twisted them both so severely.
“I've seen worse,” Nathan insisted as he reached out and placed a hand over Trevor's eyes to force the boy to close them. “Now relax, and imagine a window...”
All this, as odd as it was, wasn't all that upsetting. Liz's fire was almost calm as it stayed around her, a protective halo against an unseen assault on her mind. The fire, as remarkably intelligent as it was, couldn't differentiate between one type of attack or another. It knew it had to protect Liz, and so it did. It should have gone out, but it didn't. It knew she needed to be kept safe, almost as if it knew what would be coming when Liz finally made the link with her husband...
There was so much blood. It pooled in puddles around Liz's hands and knees, dripping from the wounds on her face from the Master hitting her repeatedly when she didn't submit to what he wanted from her in the way he wanted. Her tears mixed with the crimson ooze as she felt, saw and experienced things she wasn't meant to.
This never technically happened...the time storm that ended The Year that Never took it all away, but here it was. Liz could smell the charred flesh of Abe Sapien though they had drugged him off to be 'disposed off' after Liz was forced to kill him. The lifeless body of Trevor Broom was slumped in a pile, his neck still twisted from when Jack had snapped his neck to spare the old man the torturous time the Master had planned for all of the BPRD.
Hellboy's massive form, drained of all life and blood, hung from the lock and chains around his neck and arms. The doorway to release the Ogdru Jahad sat unopened, the world spared the destruction of the seven Gods of Chaos when Jack plunged the dagger into the dormant Beast of the Apocalypse's heart and ended the demon's life.
So then, there was only Jack and Liz. The girl and her hero. The princess and her knight...and their tormentor. The Master screaming in fury at the loss of his 'toys' when Jack killed Hellboy. “You'll pay for that, Freak!” The Master howled as he advanced on Jack, who really wasn't even Jack anymore. If Liz wasn't so busy staring at the blood on her hands, she'd have noticed.
Without warning, Not-really-Jack wrapped his fingers around Liz's neck, yanking her body close as he dug his fingers into her skin. “Don't take another step.” The Brother of the Bad Wolf warned menacingly. “I kill her.”
Liz winced in pain, not understanding why the man who'd sworn to always protect her was choking her so tightly she could hardly see. “Jack...what are you doing!?” She choked out as his grip tightened.
Unlike the first time she'd lived though this, which the time storm had conveniently erased for everyone at the BPRD's memories save Jack, a quiet, soothing hiss of a voice drifted into Liz's mind. “He has no choice. I have no choice. Trust us...trust him.” The Brother's thoughts were almost regretful. The emotion pouring from him to Liz surely was. It was something Liz had never expected from Him; humanity. A soul. A conscience.
Just as when Jack had handed over the 12 children to the 456 in 1965, just as he had hated himself with every fiber of his being for letting go of Gray's hand, just as he'd wanted it to be him that died to save the world and not Ianto or Steven, Jack Harkness hated himself at that moment. And Liz, for the first time in all the years she'd known him, finally understood what he felt on a level she was never meant to. His feelings were her feelings, his thoughts her thought and his pain...hers.
“I love you... I always will.” Liz's heart actually skipped, which was completely inappropriate for the situation as Jack's spoken words softened to his own a second before he reached his other hand up and snapped Liz's neck as quickly and cleanly as he had Broom's a few minutes before.
Liz's perceptive changed then, watching her own body fall to the floor. As The Brother of the Bad Wolf looked upward, Liz saw everything he saw, felt everything he felt. The anger, the rage, the sorrow and the hatred toward the Doctor, The Master, and above all himself.
She even felt the sting of the bullet the Master ordered be put in The Brother's brain at the lose of his last 'new toy'.
Liz was twitching on the ground, the new links with her family too much for her mind to process or understand, too much for her body to deal with. She writhed around in pain, screaming as though it would somehow make the feelings stop. It hurt more than anything she'd ever felt, even having her neck snapped by the man she loved.
The King's voice had lost every last bit of joviality it had earlier as he watched Liz in the sand. “She's in so much pain, but I cannot determine what is causing it.” The blood from the unnecessary wound Liz had slashed over her palm mixed with the gold of the charm Nathan had given her as her fire flared, so aggressively protective of her physically and emotionally that it liquified the charm within seconds.
Liz alternated between curling herself into a protective ball of silence and crying out in pain that must have been similar to having her soul torn out of her. Finally, in with the sound of melting sand, the roar of the ever growing fire, her screams of pain, and gasps for air came a singly worded question.
“Why...?”
Nathan lost his formality as he roughly pulled his King farther away from Liz. The pool of molten silica around her grew larger with every breath she took, ever thought she absorbed. Nathan looked at the sky a moment, deep in worried thought before casting his eyes back on the burning, out of control woman. He shook his head in frustration before looking Belenus in the eyes. “We need to go.” Nathan said firmly as the King's eyes flew open in shock.
“No, the child of flames needs us. She's unprepared for-” Nathan cut him off. “I am not prepared for her to destroy you the way she did your son!” The Knight of Air snapped at his King, the mental connection the two shared allowing Belenus to not only hear but feel how terrified Nathan was right now that Liz would explode for reasons neither of the men understood. Her pain was too much, they couldn't break though it to access her mind or help her calm down.
The ruler of the Seelie Fae nodded to his loyal knight, “The children will be safe. Your protective gifts coupled with mine from years ago will see to that.”
Both looked at Liz one last time, loathing their own respective weakness against something so powerful housed in such a delicate woman. “We must leave her for now, my friend.” Belenus placed a hand on Nathan's shoulder as the king called on his magic, and started to fade away. Belenus opened his mind, his thoughts flowing into Nathan's as easily as water flows over stones. They didn't need to speak.
“She needs time to come to terms with her destiny, just as she always has.” Belenus pushed the thought to Nathan before he called upon his magic to take him away from this place fully. “She will do what is right, in time.” Belenus promised Nathan as he faded from visability.
Nathan shook his head as he weighed conflicting courses of action once Belenus was gone. They'd already wasted so much time. The Brother of the Bad Wolf was in the hands of the enemy, the progress of the war already slowed, and his leader wanted him to give Liz more time? It made no sense.
Nathan watched Liz, doubled over in pain on the section of beach he and the king had stood on minutes ago. The cries of pain and fear were almost undetectable to him as he winced at the emotions he couldn't block from her. He was sure whatever was going on in inside her head was going to break her...if it didn't kill her first.
Still, Nathan had his orders, and his Oath bound him to them. He had no choice but to walk away from Liz as the King had commanded. He floated above the sand a moment, watching Liz with a heavy heart. He tried to push one thought to her before he harnessed his power and took off to return to New Jersey. If Liz could have heard it over the flood of emotions from her blood family, she might have smiled, or maybe hit him. It would have depended on her mood, really. Nathan had no idea how much like someone else who always ended up hurting Liz's family his words sounded.
“I'm sorry. I know you're never going to believe that, but I am so...so sorry.”