Chapter 19 - Laughter Is The Best Medicine?

"Do I have some mystical fucking tracker on me or something?! What the hell are you doing here?!" I growl at Lawrence.

"Nice to see you too and how the hell should I know? I got my ass shoved into a portal by Tarquin who wanted to test something." He's not looking too happy about that.

"So how come you're not bursting into flames Alias? The sun is kinda bright this morning."

I smirk softly, looks like Kyron kept his promise to keep me quiet. Maybe I should play dumb? Nah.

"I got an upgrade, like you did."

"What?! How the hell do you know about that and you're a nuwisha too now?"

I grin and get up, dusting myself down. "Calm down sweetheart, you're going to have an aneurysm at this rate. Kyron fell through to this world yesterday and told me everything. Well, after a bit of a Mexican standoff, I know about the order to kill me. But we shouldn't talk about this out here. We've currently got a bit of a situation and we're not sure how to handle it."

Lawrence begins dusting himself off and restoring his ruffled clothing.

"Well, I haven't a fucking clue how to get back or if Tarquin will be kind enough to attempt to retrieve me, so would you mind if I hung with you whilst I wait? I'll try not to be a bother."

We start making our way back to the motel room. I open the door and we head in. I start making some tea for everyone.

I smile at him. "Darlin, I haven't been so happy to see someone in quite some time. I'd be more than happy for you to hang around."

Lawrence grins back at me. "Missed you too m'dear. Old Morgain is livid you slipped through her grasp, though I guess I ought not to be too surprised considering the Cyclops development. Oh where are my manners? Who's this handsome gentleman that I have been so rudely excluding?" he indicates to Soothing and I flush.

"This would be Soothing Song, another member of the Pack I belong to and a good friend."

Lawrence holds out his hand and Soothing shakes it, there's a grin on Lawrence's face I recognise, I can feel the dread building for the next words out of his mouth.

"Oh really? Just 'how' good a friend hmm?" he's grinning. I'm resisting the urge to punch him, barely.

"Not like that you perv, if you're part of a garou pack, you should know that garou shouldn't mate with garou!"

He laughs softly. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I know that your heart belongs to..."

Lawrence's face falls and he claps his hand across his mouth.

"Oh my god Alias, I never realised. I'm so sorry."

I'm already shaking my head. "It's ok, I already know about how it has to be and I also know about Leonis."

Lawrence steps forward and next thing I know he's hugging me tight.

"Oh god, my friend, I am so sorry."

There's a huge lump in my throat and I hug Lawrence back.

"Wow, this sorrow and friendship lark really does have some strong feelings doesn't it?" remarks Lawrence.

I chuckle as we break the hug.

"I'd forgotten you were a lot older than me, I was a bit overwhelmed at first, but you'd been dead for nearly two hundred years. What the hell happened with you?"

"Nothing fun hun. Basically I walked face first into a trap which gave me this form and cost me Tyr. We now have a Tyr in our world from another world, I'm guessing this one since you're here. I was mortal, I broke down, went a bit loopy, discovered I now had to eat and drink and other stuff. I got used to it again pretty quick surprisingly. It's the feelings that I haven't gotten a grip on yet. I'm worried that some of them are stronger than other s for the wrong reasons."

"Speaking of Tyr, we're actually trying to get his adoptive brother out of custody. His niece has gone ahead with my little brother and our pack alpha."

Lawrence raises an eyebrow. "Little brother? You have been busy Alias, how'd that happen?"

"About the same time I went back to my real name."

He frowns at me.

"Your real name?"

"I'm Alex again now. Alias was the name my sire gave me and I left that behind the day I became purified in Erebus."

"That's cool Alia... Errr I mean Alex. But now you're talking about stuff I have no idea about."

I bring him up to speed on my adventures in this world. He sits sipping his tea rather attentively but I can tell he's totally awed by the things that have happened.

"Incredible. You certainly sound like you've managed to get what you needed rather than what you wanted. As for your little problem right now, you can count me in to help. The Tyr in our would and I don't get on, but it doesn't matter which world I'm on, if a tiger is in trouble, I'm gonna lend a hand."

I smile and nod "It's appreciated friend. Soon as we actually figure out what the hell to do."I look over at Soothing.

"Well, waiting right now seems like a good idea. We don't know where he's being held, though the local police station would be my guess. If we let the 24 hours pass and he's not free. We will have to start tracking him down. Not exactly sure how we're going to do that either."

Lawrence chews his thumbnail and frowns. I'm guessing he's thinking. I don't have any ideas right now. I'm kind of worried about the fact that we can't track Riyada any other way. Soothing is looking at the pair of us and shakes his head when he sees me glancing over, he's no further input at the moment.

"There is something I do need to mention to you Alex."

"Hrm?"

"You really haven't a clue how lucky you've gotten with Wyrmripper. He can't actually afford to look as weak as he has been doing around you."

"I'd hardly call compassion weak."

Lawrence laughs. "Oh, you're just getting to the good part aren't you Alex? I've had the fun of learning just how brutal life can be in front of all the garou. Colt has been especially brutal. Though it's not his fault as such, apparently because of the whole political situation and what the fuck we actually are or were, we're not exactly going to be welcomed with open arms."

I flinch, this isn't looking good. "Well I can understand the cautiousness, but we're trying to do the right thing aren't we?"

"Well yes, but that's not exactly the core issue. They're pretty much ready to die each day, so when you fuck up, you could put someone else's life on the line. I recently made a huge mistake and it nearly cost me my life. I gave a bane infested sword to a Black Spiral Dancer."

I frown "How can that be so bad..." I taper off at the end because Soothing is looking monumentally pissed.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" he snarls at Lawrence.

Lawrence sighs and looks at Soothing. "I got drugged and chased, when given the choice between that and my life I chose that. Later that choice got the lost cairn back to us."

That makes Soothing recoil and blink. "Wait, a cairn was lost?"

Lawrence groans "Yeah, long story short, the werewolves lost their cairn to the vampires in our world. My cock up prompted a very powerful mage to keep us from being pissed at him to repay me by granting me 1 wish. I wished for the cairn to be returned to the garou."

I frown gently "Wow, that's something but... How come you didn't wish for Tyr back?"

Lawrence winces and hangs his head. "You can't make a deal with a devil and expect no price. Believe me, I want Tyr back so badly it hurts. But it wasn't my first thought. I looked to the guidance of the others around me and they suggested that I wish for that. We were right that there is a price as the vampires are pissed about it and we're pretty much at war. But I dread to think what the price would have been had I have asked for Tyr to be returned to me. He lost his life so that I got mine back, if I were to keep it, who would have taken his place?"

Soothing has definitely calmed down now and is looking at Lawrence intently.

"You seem to have learned your lesson at least there." he says in a not particularly nice tone.

"Heh, the irony being as a Nuwisha, I'm supposed to do the teaching." Lawrence shakes his head gently.

"So because you sacrificed your chance at getting Tyr back in exchange for the cairn, they overlooked a minor detail?" I ask.

"MINOR detail?! What the hell are you on about Alex? He gave a fucking bane blade to a Black Spiral dancer!" growls Soothing.

I look confused and then turn to Lawrence who sighs and shrugs.

"I don't get it either. It's like the pair of us are staring at the fucking elephant in the room but we couldn't hit it if we tried."

Soothing is looking really pissed at the pair of us now. I'm wincing and trying to rack my brains for something when a memory of Colt springs to mind.

"So you're saying that I basically hit the radar as a mortal? Not wyrm riddled?" I ask Colt

"Basically, though you have some wyrm taint like most humans." he replied

"Is that why you don't like humans much?"

"Sort of, each human has the capability of good or bad. The wyrm taint grows dependent on the corruption within a person. It would be really easy for the taint to grow in you."

"Ah, so that's why you don't like vampires at all. So garou are lucky enough to have no taint?"

"Sort of. We have a connection with our rage, but if we give into the wyrm in any way, it will take over our lives."

"Hrm, so we're basically all fucked from the start, we just try to go through our lives doing as little damage as possible?"

He laughs. "Nah, humans have the ability to reach gaia too, they just fuck it up too much."

"Must be nice to have that connection."

"It's what reminds us of what we're fighting for."

"Hold on a minute there Soothing. I think I'm starting to understand." I say.

"Please enlighten me if you would be so kind Alex, because I'm still trying to get a clue."

"Okay. Basically we're both looking at it from two different viewpoints that the garou or nuwisha, don't have. We were both mortal. Brought up in very different worlds than the one that garou go through. They live their lives fighting one evil after another in the hopes they'll eventually turn the tide in this war. We spend our lives trying to figure out what we actually want to do. It gives the wyrm a perfect chance to get in. Then we both became vampires, a whole new world there where time was something that didn't matter to us anymore. We could do pretty much what we wanted and it was only our survival that was paramount."

Lawrence is watching me and frowning, he's listening to everything I say and nodding along a little.

"Okay, I get that our viewpoints will be skewed because of our history, but I don't get why they have to be so cruel when they're supposed to be the good guys."

"I think it's because our version of good guy isn't the real good guy. To us, Colt and Tyr appeared as the mythical 'knights on white horses'. Leading a valiant crusade against the forces of darkness. When the actual truth is that they were fighting an impossible fight and doing the harsh things that others won't do because that's what they needed to do. It basically boils down to us looking at them as Superman when in reality they're more like the Punisher."

"So what you're saying is that we're the ones that need to readjust to this world instead of using our viewpoint to question why they should make certain decisions?"

"Yes and no. Remember, they've been doing this longer than you've been around. Granted yes they haven't won, but nor have they lost. So they must be doing some things right. What it generally boils down to is that the pair of us are rather naive about the world we're actually in. Although I personally agree with your decision that a sword isn't worth your life. What if that sword had been Tyr?"

"What?"

"I think that's where we're going wrong. We put self preservation above most of our own goals, apart from the ones which involve people we care about. I know that I'd put myself in danger to save the pack I belong to now, hell I already have done. Fighting the wyrm to them is just as big a goal as saving the ones they care about."

"Youch. Not to put too big a dampner on your ideas there, but my rules are different to garou. I have a different set of guides to follow."

"Well ok, but you're part of a garou pack aren't you? You said Colt was your alpha?"

Lawrence nods.

"Then you need to follow their rules as well as your own. So you'd be subject to the same laws and punishments if you wanted to be around them. If you honestly can't accept that right now, then I'd suggest you find a way out of your current situation or a way to deal with it."

"What about you?"

"I'm getting there. I think if I consider myself surrounded by Sabbat waiting for their chance then I think it'll put me in a better stead for a while until I can prove myself."

Lawrence gives a low whistle. "Well that's one way of looking at it. I don't really want to leave Colt and the others, so I guess I'd better find a way to deal."

That makes me frown a little at Lawrence, but Soothing interrupts.

"Well that made some sense to me and explains a bit more why you keep getting confused about some things, but I have to ask, what are the Sabbat?"

"Errr... Well, do you remember me telling you that I was pretending to belong to a group of vampires called the Toredor?"

Soothing nods.

"Well the Toredor, Ventrue, Malkavian, Tremere and Bruja are all clans of vampire that belong to a group called the Camarilla. They're more interested in keeping alive and in power through subtly and are strictly forbidden from breaking what they call the masquerade. It's basically never let humans know they exist. The Sabbat are made up from other clans of vampires and they aren't so fussy. They think humans are food and future generations. For lack of a better term, Camarilla were the good guys and Sabbat were the bad and I use that in the loosest way possible."

"I'd describe the Camarilla as a lot of things, I don't think 'good guys' would be on the list though." Lawrence remarks dryly.

"I know, but this world doesn't have vampires so it's hard to explain."

"No vamps? You lucked out then Alex. You get to hang out with a cute guy, don't have to worry about the vamps, got a younger brother. Nice little family you have going." Lawrence says, the bitterness creeping in at the end there.

"I'm sorry it didn't go well for you Lawrence. If I could change it for you, I would." I put my hand on his.

He sighs softly.

"I'm sorry Alex. It's hard to control the emotions. They often bubble over when I'm not expecting it and sometimes confuse me. I'm worried that sometimes what I'm feeling is just brought on by being new to the situation."

"I get how you mean on that. Though I've been lucky here that I've been able to let them out instead of bottled up. I wish I could have been there for you."

He smiles weakly at me.

"Thanks hun. I'm glad I was right about you though. I knew that even though your heart was dead, you'd find a way."

I blush and squeeze his hand.

"Thanks Lawrence. Trust your feelings and the people around you. I know you can trust Colt with your life."

"I already did. Twice."

"Didn't let you down did he?"

He smirks softly "Course not, I'm still here aren't I? Without Colt or the others, I don't know how long I'd have lasted." his face softens in a smile as he says that. I feel my eyes narrow, the look on his face every time he mentions Colt... Nah, couldn't be...

Lawrence sighs and stretches. "So come on, what tricks have you picked up since being garou? I mean, you've been gone over a month. You must have had something done."

I feel my jaw hit the floor in disbelief.

"A.... A MONTH?! I've only been gone a week and a bit! I only became a garou three days ago!"

Soothing coughs, "Erm, actually, you were in Erebus for the rest of the time."

Holyfuck. I've lost nearly a whole month!

Lawrence is smirking softly. "Well that's a bit of a shit. However, since we don't really have anything else to do right now, I'll give you a crash course in what I've learned. Come on, let's take a trip to the Umbra." he stands up and is holding his hand out to me.