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[allgotrabies]

Hey, it's Annie, you know what to do.

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[loveisall]

"I know," he assures her. "And I don't feel that way here. I don't feel apart here. I don't feel like I am alone here."

[allgotrabies]

"It must be hard, though. To know you have to leave them. Doing it on the roof...it probably felt different than what you're going to do now."

[loveisall]

"No," he tells him. "I had intended on leaving them long before. I had sacrificed myself weeks before the roof."

[allgotrabies]

"How come you chose to sacrifice yourself?" He could have killed himself quietly, another way, if it had only been about death.

[loveisall]

He puts a hand on his chest for a moment.

"Steve Newlin's church was wanting a vampire to sacrifice," he tells her. "They wanted to offer a vampire to the sun, to meet their god. I thought, perhaps, if I gave myself, that they would leave the others alone. That they would stop coming after my people."

[allgotrabies]

"People never stop," she says quietly, a little hint of bitterness in it. She tries to keep that side of her well-suppressed, but every now and then... "But maybe they would have for a little while. Erik though, he must have been so... I mean did he go after them for it?"

[loveisall]

He nods. It had been a thinly veiled attempt to get out and do some good with his own death.

"He - " He hesitates a moment. "He was obsessed when he learned I was missing. He sent in humans after me, then came to find me himself when that didn't work. Of course, the church never had me locked up. I could have escaped at a moment's notice. I was there because I wanted to be. That was something he could never really deny."

[allgotrabies]

"But Steve..." A frown. "Wait wasn't he a vampire, too? I met him here. He wasn't human. Unless my nose is seriously fucked up here."

[loveisall]

"He wasn't when I knew him. When I came and found out he was a vampire, it was a surprise to me. I didn't know what happened to him after we left that church."

He sighs. "He's two years in my future."

[allgotrabies]

"I kind of liked him here. Now I kind of hate him." She knows people change. She also knows some people are just hypocrites.

[loveisall]

"Annie," he says softly. Warningly. "Why do you hate him?"

[allgotrabies]

"Not because you made a choice. Because he was too stupid to think about something that he was willing to kill people for, and then found out he loved. So lala everything's great for him."

[loveisall]

Godric chuckles at that and shakes his head. "It was not that simple for him," he assures her. "He was manipulated, too. He was hurt. Changed against his will. Used and abused by the Vampire Authority, the same people who I hated."

[allgotrabies]

She looks up at him. The thing about her is she doesn't want to hate--not anyone, not for more than a beat or two--and she wants to believe there's no reason to hate Steve, either.

"You never told me much about the Vampire Authority. What's their deal?"

[loveisall]

"Mostly because I only dealt with them when I had to. They came about out of a religious and political necessity, but I was far too feral for the likes of them. But as the centuries made the world smaller and smaller, they became more and more difficult to ignore. When they asked me to take a position of power, I accepted. But I never agreed with their stance. I never agreed with how they chose to go about things."

He leans back.

[allgotrabies]

She turns, leaning back off the couch so her feet are propped up by his hips, while her back is on the ground and she can look up at him. "What is their stance? What do they even do with the power?"

[loveisall]

"Think of them like your government. I am Sheriff. Above me is King or Queen. Above them is the Authority. They govern all vampires. Right now? Or, at least in my time? They want mainstreaming. For vampires to have equal rights."

He looks down to her.

[allgotrabies]

"I didn't think there was anyone above you," she admits. "You're just such a strong force of nature. But equal rights doesn't sound so bad?"

[loveisall]

"There is no one older or more powerful than me, save one," he tells her with no trace of bragging in his tone. It just is. "But I never wanted power. I simply wanted to be left alone."

Not by himself, but alone with Eric. With Nora. With his people. To be left to his own devices. "But that wasn't possible. And equal rights aren't bad, no. But we are wolves asking equal rights from sheep, Annie. There is only so long before we stop asking and begin demanding. And that is what I saw happening after my time."

[allgotrabies]

"I can get that." She sighs softly and looks up at the ceiling. "Why do vampires want equal rights when they could just take over? I mean...you guys are harder to kill than wolves. God, I'm tired of being hunted. Humans must feel the same way."

[loveisall]

"I'm not a strategist," he admits softly. "That's partially why I agreed to change Nora. She was brilliant at strategy. I - just know how to survive. Exist. I don't know what their game is."

[allgotrabies]

"Our pack won't need strategy. We'll survive and we'll be wild and we'll be peaceful," she says, feeling the first stirrings of optimism in a very long time. "I'm good at surviving, too. So we'll be okay."

[loveisall]

"I know we will be," he answers. "That was never a worry of mine. Once we're sorted here, we'll be fine." He sits up.

"Now, did you want that tattoo?"

[allgotrabies]

"Yes!" She sits up and strips off her shirt. "Where should I be?"

[loveisall]

He laughs and stands up. "Go to the table. I'll draw it first and let you see it. Where do you want it?"