And then there were none - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

She was gone. Sansa was gone.

It wasn't unusual for Snow White not to see Sansa for a day or two. Sansa kept to herself much of the time, shy of many of the inn’s inhabitants. But she would find Snow, would talk to Snow, and it would always bring light and warmth to Snow’s day to see her. She didn’t understand why. She didn’t need to know, so long as she could have this.

Yesterday had been just about the most magical day in her life. She'd found Sansa building a castle in the snow, and they'd worked quietly together on this tiny model of a castle called Winterfell. Snow had finally worked up her nerve and kissed her after those last touches were made. It had been terrifying. It had been achingly sweet. But it had not been bad. Neither of them knew what it meant, and yet...

And then today she just knew something was different. Something was wrong. She had gone to Sansa’s room. Then to the desk.

She didn’t cry. Or scream, or rage. Instead she calmly and quietly collected four glass bottles from the bar and took them out to a fence along the road.

She had four bullets left in Rose Red. Two had been used in Songrun, and she had been saving the rest until Percy could make her more. She lined up the bottles on the fence, and stepped back as far as she thought she could manage.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero.

She dropped the gun and went down on her knees in the grass, staring at nothing.

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[st_ockandbarrel]

The sound of gunfire drew him, echoing as it did off the mountains at the inn's back. There weren't many in the inn who had the weaponry and the loud retort of the gun sounded different than Mac's sleekly designed yet oddly battered firearms.

Which left Snow and he had seen how she'd treasured her gun and how little ammunition she had left. Percy slipped a small pack into his coat pocket and followed the gunfire to its source. The slim girl with her dark hair on her knees struck him hard. He'd seen his sister in that despair.

For a moment, he hesitated. He was not, by anyone's measure, good with people. But he couldn't turn away from the girl either. Vex would have his head.

"Snow?" he called from a good distance away, giving her plenty of time to wave him off.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow didn't move, or speak, or even breathe any faster. She gave no sign that she'd heard him at all.

She had, of course. She just couldn't muster enough give-a-fuck to respond.

[st_ockandbarrel]

She hadn't told him to go away. Hadn't reacted at all, in fact. She was out of ammunition. He'd counted the shots.

He kept walking until he was at her side, then knelt. From his coat pocket, he took out the packet he'd slipped in there earlier and offered it to her without a word. The faint clink of metal against metal sounded as he held it in his always slightly shaking hand.

He didn't speak, didn't ask her to.

[st_arkcrowblack]

That should have been the sweetest sound Snow White had heard in nearly a year, and yet when she tried to take the packet from him, she couldn't get her hands to move or find words to speak. Instead she let out a sound rather like a croak, her eyes filling with tears.

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy froze. He understood the sound of heartbreak but he still didn't know what to do about it. Awkwardly, he reached out and touched her shoulder. "What's happened, Snow?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow flinched away from that hand like it had burned her, though she did not otherwise lash out or try to pull away. Her eyes were hard, the wariness of an animal gauging a threat.

He wouldn't do anything to her, that wasn't the issue. But could she physically make herself explain herself to someone who was still mostly a stranger? Should she? Would Vex hate her if she just punched him?

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy dropped his hand and waited. He rather wanted to reach for the earring he wore and call for backup but this felt like a salvageable situation still. At the very least, she was out of bullets unless she took the ones in his hand.

[st_makemeastone]

The other girls pain was palpable. It was loud. It stained things, it was sticky and thick and it hurt.

Normally River shied away from such things, she didn't WANT to feel them, but this was Snow. This was a friend. So she went looking. And when she found her in the grass she quietly sat down next to her, close enough to feel her warmth but not so close to touch.

Snow didn't like to be touched or she might have patted her awkwardly on the arm in consolation. But instead she just sat and silently let her friend know she was not alone.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow hadn't ever asked River just what it was she could do or sense or hear, whatever it was, though she had accepted a certain ebb and flow to communication that made words less necessary than they were with other people.

Her mind was full of Sansa, and rather than try to hide it or otherwise push it away, she leaned into it.

[st_makemeastone]

River hadn't really known Sansa, she'd been aware of her but she hadn't spoken to her. But sitting there next to Snow, she did know her. And she missed her. She wanted her back and she was angry that she had gone.

"You are not alone," she said finally. Not that she expected it to ease the pain but for River alone was almost worse than anything else. Alone reminded her of the Academy.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow nodded. She knew. She still had Mama and Kash and Vex (and Vax) and Molly and River and Dyson--when he had gotten onto that list she really couldn't say--and yet it still felt like all of her guts had fallen out and been replaced with ice water.

"Fuck everything," she whispered.

[st_makemeastone]

"We can try, but I do not believe Simon would approve." Simon could be a prude, and she was his baby sister.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Unsure whether that was a joke or in earnest, Snow only turned her head away and said nothing. In the former case she lacked the anger, in the latter case she lacked the context, and in either, she lacked any words.

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash knew the sound of a gun being fired from fighting alongside Percy. He also knew that Percy firing four gunshots in a row would already have contacted someone by earring and Vox Machina would be converging on his position.

But no one was heading toward the doors, and so Kash decided he'd better check it out. Just in case.

What he found wasn't an attack in progress, but one of his...closest friends he guessed kneeling in the grass with a smoking gun in her hand and no attacker in sight. Which meant it was something inside her mind that was hurting her.

He didn't have Trinket or one of the horses and Mittens wasn't going to cut it this time, he was pretty sure. So he said her name quietly so she knew who was coming, and then came close to sit beside her.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow did not say anything. She did not move or speak or even so much as look in his direction. It meant she wasn't doing anything like attacking him for getting close to her, but it meant she wasn't trying to get away or telling him to leave, either.

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash sat. Quiet. Still. Steady. These were things he could do. He knew better than to ask himself what Z would do or Vex, or Lillith, because they wouldn't be right for him to do. What was right for him to do right now was sit and witness and...

Care. He cared. He gave a fuck about this girl and if that meant sitting here, not speaking, not touching her, not doing anything until she was ready or he was, then he would gods-damn well sit here and do that.

And if it meant letting her punch him until he bled and she cried, he could do that too.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow did not say anything for a long time, and for once unlike with most people, that was okay. Kash knew just as well as she did that words were hard. Slowly her tongue came free, and her mouth opened. Two words fell out. "Sansa's gone."

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash knew words were hard. He also knew words didn't say as much as people thought they did. Which meant he knew when Snow did say them, she meant them to say everything.

Sansa's gone.

Not her mama, not one of the horses, a friend. More than a friend, maybe. "One of the ones worth holding onto," he said, certain, not asking. "Feels like a bleeding hole in your chest." For him, anyway.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow's nod started slowly, as if she were testing out her own agreement, and then became more certain as she realized her body was doing what she wanted it to do.

[st_oriedqueen]

After the last big exodus, Regina had talked Daryl into providing her and Caroline with notification whenever anyone checked out. So far, it had worked 100% of the time. All one time. All one time when the first person her daughter had felt adult romantic feelings toward had disappeared, the very day after she'd seen the building a snow castle together.

She let out a snarl of rage and flung a fireball at the interior wall of her office. How was she supposed to protect her daughter in this nightmare?

A short while and several fireballs later, Regina decided the best she could do was be the one to tell Snow. Too late, it seemed, because she couldn't find her. Not for more than an hour. And when she finally did...

"Oh, Snow," she murmured and sank down into the grass, her arms instantly going around Snow.

[st_arkcrowblack]

For a long moment, Snow's body refused to soften into the embrace. She didn't fight it, but she remained stiff and unyielding in her mother's arms. And then she just... wilted, the tears coming huge and hot. She gasped in a breath, and then she began to wail.

[st_oriedqueen]

This was not the sort of grief that responded to words. Regina knew. It was the sort of grief that led to three-decade long revenge schemes. First loves, broken hearts--at least she hadn't been the cause, but it didn't change how she grieved for Snow.

She didn't tell her daughter it would be all right. It wouldn't. She didn't tell her she was here. She was, and it mattered, but not right now. She didn't tell her they'd find Sansa. They probably wouldn't.

What she said was, "Snow, sweetheart," and with tears in her eyes and her voice, "I'm so sorry."

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Mamaaaaaa..." It was the cry of a child who had never been betrayed like this before and was reeling from the blow. Snow had experienced many betrayals in her life, to the point that even she recognized her trusting anyone was a miracle. Her father had given her gifts, but never himself. Her governesses and nurses had given her care, but never love. Mrs. H had given her cruelty when even the merest scrap of kindness would have fed her for years.

But this? She didn't even know what this was, and that it hurt so much was bewildering.

[st_oriedqueen]

"I know, sweetheart, I know." Regina stroked her hair and drew her daughter into her lap like she was still small, and held her tightly. "I know. You lost something so precious you don't even know what it was yet, and all you can feel is that you want it back, that it's not fair it's gone, and mad as hell that it hurts so much." She pressed a kiss to the top of Snow's head and rocked her. "Scream and cry. Get it out. Don't let it turn black on you."

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow wouldn't have known how to keep it in. Not really. She hadn't been bottling it up so much as too stunned to do anything. She cried for a long time, longer and harder than she thought she had in her, like she hadn't since before she'd ever set foot in the Madonna Inn. Eventually, completely wrung out, her head lolled on Regina's shoulder, she went quiet. Her head hurt and she felt exhausted.