Work Text:
Salem Massachusetts, 1864
Agatha and Rio found it funny how they always ended up back at the beginning. Salem, where Agatha’s coven tried to kill her and in turn she killed them. And where the two met for the first time that fateful night as Rio came to collect the souls of Agatha’s fallen coven. Rio only appeared to mortals when she wanted to so to see those piercing blue eyes staring straight at her was startling.
But here the two were again on a cold February night. It was a little cabin. A kitchen with a wood stove. A fire place to keep them warm. A bedroom shared by the two. A table set with three chairs. By the dying fire was Agatha. She had fallen asleep on the couch her hand still clutched to the bassinet she had been rocking. Agatha’s child, their child, Nicholas wrapped in blankets.
His fever had just broken when Rio had left to collect souls of those who did not make it through the night. That years winter had started early ruining fall harvest leaving storage rooms and grain bins empty. Many starved. Many froze. Nobody had enough time to prepare except for two witches who never needed to rely on mortal means for warmth or food.
Rio reached down with a tender smile to stroke Nicholas’s cheek. It was then she felt the pull. She cursed every fiber of her being that another could not have done this deed. She was cursed with it instead. She was tasked this life instead of another of her kind.
He only had minutes.
Tears fell silently down her face. She glazed towards Agatha. The peace, love and happiness however tired and weary that was etched on her face would vanish the second Rio woke her. Rio wiped her tears. She knelt and with a soft hand shook Agatha awake.
“Aggie”
“Mmmm” a lazy tired smile on Agatha’s lips as she took Rio in. “Good evening my love, you were out late tonight” she stood up and stretched reaching for Rio’s hand. Rio stepped away.
“Agatha” Agatha froze. Agatha’s calculating eyes took in every expression and tick Rio had. She immediately looked down at Nicholas in his bassinet below.
“No…” She whispered in denial. She cradled him in her arms. “No!” louder, angry. “He was fine! His fever broke! It’s a cold! Its…”
“Agatha” Rio’s voice trembling. “He only has a few minutes…”
“No, we can… which healer is the closest?” She looked around for her coat and shoes determined to trudge through feet of snow in the middle of night in winter for anything to save him.
“Agatha, please… let him go in peace not chaos. There is nothing we can do. I feel the pull, its…” Tears started to flow down her face realizing she wasn’t just losing one love tonight.
“Take me”
“Agatha”
“Take me! Take me!” Agatha’s voice rising with each command. “Take me! Just…” her voice cracked her sobs barely being held at bay, “Take me… please… take me”
“Hold him” every once of strength was being used to keep her voice from wavering. “Let him feel you, feel your heartbeat as he takes his last breaths. Hold him” Rio continued to whisper nothings into the air as she wrapped her arms around the two.
She felt it when he left. Never had a death felt like her death. She opened her eyes to see his soul hovering above his body. “Agatha, it’s time. I have to take him now” Agatha pulled away from Rio clutching his body closer to hers. A tear fell. With a wave Rio allowed Agatha to see, to see his soul floating there. Rio brought her arms up gently to cradle Nicholas and laid a kiss on his brow, a blessing for where ever his soul would arrive.
“Don’t take him” Agatha pleaded as she continued to cradle Nicholas’s body.
“I’m so sorry. I love you. I will keep him safe. I’ll make sure he isn’t scared” she could no longer stop the tears or breaks in her voice. “I’ll take him the entire way” Staying, delaying would only hurt more. Driven only by a duty bigger than any will she had she turned and walked back out into the snow and darkness with Nicholas.
The path she took was never the same but the one she walked with Nicholas that night was longer than she had ever walked. Perhaps whoever gave her this duty allowed the path to wind along to allow her to say goodbye to grieve the life all three of them could have had. Eventually the path had to end and she had to let go. For a while she stood there watching the doorway Nicholas had gone through that she would never enter until her feet pulled her back home.
The calm, dark night she had left in was a blinding blizzard howling in her ear, in her body as an ocean of snow stood between her and the cabin. Forcing the door open and walking inside she knew Agatha was gone. Her knees hit the floor and the earth shuttered under the weight of grief. The coals of the fire were dying leaving off the faint glow of the warmth it had been. Nicholas’s body was wrapped tightly in blankets set back into his bassinet by Agatha. His eyes where closed. He looked like he could have just been asleep. On the ground in the middle of their home was the sigil for The Road.
Rio pounded on it, blasted it, sang the stupid ballad over and over again but it would not open for her. Agatha was truly gone. She would not return. Rage filled Rio. She destroyed the cabin and everything in it. By the time she was done only a crater was left where the cabin had been. Well, a crater and a bassinet.
Carefully she picked up Nicholas. She cradled him in her arms as she made his burial place. It would stay enchanted for as long as she lived to always be warm, to always have his favorite flowers and finally have his headstone to mark his final resting place.
She laid him down into the warm ground the anger gone filled with an endless sorrow.
Her shoulder shook. She looked around. The crater was gone. Her shoulder shook again and Nicholas disappeared from her arms.
“Ni..” Rio bolted upright from where she had been laying.
It had been Alice, the fire witch. “You were having a nightmare” she explained not meeting Rio’s eyes before rolling over and going back to sleep.
Rio realized tears were running down her face. She wiped them and turned over. Agatha was asleep next to her. The peacefulness Rio used to find on Agatha’s face when she slept was gone. Rio had lied to Agatha back in Agatha’s house after Wanda’s spell had been lifted. Her heart was black, but it didn’t just beat for Agatha. It beat for their son too. It would always beat for them.