Alucard got out of the car and opened Aurora's door, he smiled at her in that way that made her once again question if he knew about the nature of her morning, but if he did, he said nothing and for that she was thankful.  Her traveling companion adjusted the sunglasses he wore and

Aurora, shifted inside the retro leather jacket she'd picked up from the house in Port Huron during their brief visit there to acquire the equipment she knew had been on the grounds.  She'd seen a photo of her father wearing it many years ago, likely when she was a baby and it was certainly broken in and had seen better days, still, the moment she put it on it felt like she'd don'd some bit of Gavin's strength and so she could not bring herself to leave it behind among her mother's treasures. 

She noted to herself that later she'd have to ask him if it was okay that she kept it.  If it was precious to him, she'd relinquish her new prize back to the Wolf.  If, however, it wasn't ... she supposed she had a new favorite piece of clothing.

"Miss Byrne."  Charlie walked across the tarmac to meet them, followed closely by another familiar face.

Aurora moved to him and threw her arms around Oscar who eagerly returned the embrace with a sheepish, "Good to see you too, Boss."

Aurora looked to Charlie and then back to Oscar, "No, you have orders... the orphans."

Oscar shook his head.  "All hands on deck.  Without you those kids don't have a shot.  We need money.  I keep you alive, you keep funding the kiddos.  My wife has it under control, but I work for you now."

"Oscar you have a family, Billy wanted you out of the life."

"Billy ain't here now, Miss Byrne, and no disrespect meant to you but I'm my own man.  My life for yours, if it comes to it.  Blood in, Blood out for family and the Boss meant you to be family.  Charlie and I both know that."

Aurora looked to Charlie, who merely nodded.  And that was it.  Just like that, two became three, became four.  And the little girl who hadn't wanted a single man guarding her had now just accepted three.

---- TAKE OFF  ----

Aurora stared out the window of a plane at the clouds passing by.  The flight was one which the woman she was going to bury had taken at a similar age, in a similar state of mind - Detroit to Philadelphia, the Motor City to the City of Brotherly Love, from Gratiot Avenue to Race Street, non-stop.  And like her mother at that age, death was on her mind. 

Unlike her mother in her hour of need, here there was no William Bowden and no Gavin Byrne to save her from her own Ivory Tower.  Whether her mother chose to see it that way or call it by its name... Race Street had been a sort of Ivory Tower and it had sheltered the young Lioness while she grew powerful and prepared to face & stand among the seven devils of this world and their minions. 

---- MIDFLIGHT ----

"Not that I'm complaining," Oscar asked.  "But why Las Vegas?"

"I like gambling."  Aurora said softly, her eyes closed her head leaned back in what appeared to be a napping repose but Oscar had not fallen for it any more than her father's bodyguards ever did when he tried it.  Unlike Gavin's guards, however, Oscar hadn't learned that the pose meant 'leave me alone' yet.

"I do too but we could do that in Detroit.  I mean, you got home and businesses there and..."  

Charlie glared at Oscar and the talkative man went silent.

Charlie got it.  She was beginning to think she'd been rash to judge Charlie so harshly when she first met him.  He really was a good egg.  Likewise, maybe she was too quick to judge Oscar.  He was a good guy... but this was going to be a long day if he kept poking her about painful topics.

---- PHILADELPHIA, PA ----

The plane landed under a sunny sky.  Birds flying overhead, it was a perfect afternoon - not like the one which she'd fled from.  Aurora kept her head down as she moved to the car waiting for her.  The arrangements were a little harder than normal, but she knew damn well that risks would have to be taken if she was to have any chance of surviving this visit. 

Word on the street was that everyone from Trust had paid the price her mother did... and she'd escaped.  When Cosa Nostra leaders decided that an entire wipe was needed, they didn't much care for finding out so much as a goomba slipped through their fingers - especially if said goomba had the blood of the enemy in her veins.  She could only hope that after a few days and a few more conflicts since then, that the citizens of Philly weren't watching too closely for her to slip into their turf.  Maybe, just maybe, she could get in and bury her mother and leave with no one being the wiser.

It was a nice hope, but Aurora didn't put a lot of stock in wishes or hope these days.  Silently she sat down in the back, Oscar took the driver's seat, Charlie in the passenger's position and Alucard came in beside her.  

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Aurora stared off in the direction of Race Street Pier, though she could not see it from here she knew where it was as surely as ship captains knew true north.  It was a part of her and even now, she wanted to tell Oscar to drive over and let her see it with her own eyes, just to know that the landmark stood even if the crews did not.

"She had everything."  Aurora licked her lips and mused, "I wonder what it was my mother wished for when she blew out her candles."

He sat quietly next to Aurora, letting her muse about things.  He just listened. He could hear the emotion and nostalgia in her voice about locations they passed, and the memories they conjured.  He wanted to put his arm around her, give her a shoulder to lean on if she wanted it.  He didn't though, her reaction the night before to him hugging her when he found her at Billy's, let him know that putting an arm around her was probably out of the question. Instead, he hoped that his presence alone didn't make her feel uncomfortable. 

"Turn left up here"  He quietly said.  

The car took a soft left into Laurel Hill Cemetary's vehicle entrance, at the bottom of the hill was a small building that looked something like a one-room cottage.  There was a space to the side of the building that is just enough for the size of the car.  

"Go ahead, and pull in beside this building."

As the car came to slow stop beside the small building. Alucard circled around the back of the car and opened the door for Aurora.  He held offered her up his hand to help her out of the car.  Aurora looked first at Alucard's hand and then up to his eyes. For a moment she held his gaze and then smiled warmly before putting her hand into his. He returned her smile with an equal warmth she showed him, his eyes mirrored the warmth in his smile when he felt her hand slide into his.  When she stood up out of the car she was only inches away from him, his eyes looked down at her and he held his breath as his heart skipped a beat.   After a moment he stepped back and could finally breathe. 

He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to the smaller building.   "We can make the arrangements for your mom here.  I will make sure she gets a proper Catholic funeral, on consecrated soil.  There's a nice spot on a rampart overlooking the river.  It's a beautiful spot.    Bella, she deserves something special, someplace special.  I'll show you, if you like. "

The last words stuck in his throat, a reminder not only of the loss of a friend, but also of his failure.  Pain welling as well, as he looked at Aurora, and his mind drifted to how tough this has to be for her, and how utterly useless he felt in being able to ease her of the pain.  It took Alucard about a half an hour to make the full arrangements with the Catholic church and priest, and the groundskeeper Samuel.   

After he locked the door, he picked out a specific key on his key chain and handed the key to Aurora.  "Come on Rora, I'll take you to her."  He swallowed hard "I didn't know what else to do. I needed to keep her safe.  So I brought here." 

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, to stave off the tears he could feel wanting to build in his eyes, before he offered up his arm to lead Aurora to where her mother was. 

She stood before the door as Alucard pulled it open and she could see her laying there in the shadows.  The only mother she'd ever known was laid out on a stone slab in the same outfit which Aurora had last seen her wearing, on her birthday.  

"One foot..."  She breathed aloud, tears already rising in her eyes as, with tremendous courage, she took a single step towards the woman and then another.  Darkness swallowed her up until at last only the flickering lantern light illuminated the cool cement room which her mother had been resting in for several days now.

Aurora gave out a guttural cry of pain as if struck as she got closer and could see what they'd done to beautiful Isabella Byrne.  As she covered her mouth to subdue her own sobs, she thanked God himself that he had done Gavin the mercy of not allowing him to see her this way.  Never again would she lament having taken her father from that place.  There was nothing of this that would have brought him peace, no matter what he thought.

"Oh, Mama."  she choked out. 

With a trembling hand, she reached out to touch her mother whose mouth had come open.  Gently she tried to close it only to find that rictus was not undone so simply and had to be overlooked.  Instead, she brushed the woman's cheek and pushed her hair into place.

"I'm so... so sorry." 

Aurora looked down to her hands and broke down further realizing her mother's rings were missing - both the ruby Gavin had given her, upon which those swearing loyalty placed their lips, & her uncommonly clear diamond engagement ring and wedding band.  Her family on one hand.  The family on the other.  Somehow the woman had balanced them both against all the odds.  

Aurora had told herself her mother and father would be here together one day... dead under horrible and tragic circumstances and yet despite years of preparing, of mentally telling herself she'd be ready, the truth was - she wasn't.  She never wanted to say goodbye to Isabella, the woman's stories would echo in the streets forever and the love which she and Gavin had shared would never be matched.  Not by anyone.

Aurora leaned down and kissed her mother's brow, trying to ignore the bullet holes and bloodstains upon her body, thankful they did not shatter her face.  She did not think she could have borne seeing her that way.  The small mercy that they had not been able to execute her in the standard fashion gave Aurora some small bit of comfort.  They had not taken the dragon prisoner or broken her.  Bella Byrne had died on her feet.

Turning back to the door, Aurora opened it and stepped out.  "This is going to take time.  I need some things.  A bucket of warm water, five gallons.  The soap should be something floral - pretty smelling.  A cloth to wash with.  A small pile of towels.  A dress.  Size seven.  Something she can be buried in.  Pretty ... classy.  I trust you to pick something nice.  I'll stay with her until you get back.  Charlie and Oscar can guard the door."

With that she returned to sit beside her mother in the darkness.

-----

Milk white skin by lantern light seemed to glow.  Glistening with floral soap, Isabella shone like a star punctuated by the entry and exit wounds of the bullets that stole her from the world.  As she worked she remembered how she learned this traditional preparation of the dead.

For a long while, the half-sisters washed their father, Salvatore Luciano, in silence.  This body was a reminder of the truth of who they were born to be, who they might have been had others not made choices for them in life, and what they'd both chosen to be in the face of it all.  More than seeing the fifteen scars on his body from bullets which had failed to do what the new ones had done, what truly scared her was the absolute meticulous precision with which Bella worked.  

"How much have you done this sort of thing?"  Aurora finally asked after she'd sobbed out another amen.

Bella responded coolly, "Too much."  Aurora shuddered at how her mother's words matched perfectly her father's words about the price of the bounty on her head.  

"But I'm glad we got to do this one together."  She admitted tears filled Bella's brown eyes.  "Because one day soon you'll need to know the prayers for me and your father, even if he doesn't care that much for them."

Aurora squeezed out the rag again, pink water pouring down into the five-gallon bucket.  "O Dio, che ci hai comandato di onorare nostro padre e nostra madre,"

"Our father lived and died that we would have better..." She said.  "I nearly lost everything for you and Will to have the path out that I and your father will never have and still you chose this?"

Bella motioned to Sal's body.  Then she shook her head.

Aurora said nothing.  

"I can't do this for you.  If you ever come to me like this... I'll eat my gun."

"Mom!"  Aurora's voice squeaked a strangled cry.

"I need you to know the price I can't pay, Aurora.  I'll give everything up for you to have a safe and happy life.  You want me to walk away from my title, my money, my life ... all the things we own and even your father.  God have mercy on me for it, but even he doesn't matter to me so much as you and William."

"...guarda nella tenerezza della Tua misericordia sull'anima di mia madre e perdona i suoi peccati,"

She stepped closer to Aurora.

"In or out."  She said softer. 

Bella shook her head.

"You can't be half-a-mobster.  If you're in... it's here in Philly with the people who brought you up into this life.  Where Sal should have been... surrounded by the family where he might have had a chance."

She sighed.

"Anywhere else gets you this."  She looked down, indicating Sal's condition.  "If you're content to live a life outside of the mob, then it starts when you go back to Vassar.  You come home only for the holidays.  Briefly.  Never more than a few days and no more dating mobsters.  You'll end whatever it is you have with Billy."

Aurora's mouth fell open, "You... you're just upset about Dad.  You don't mean that."

Bella nodded.  "I do."

"And if I'm in... can I finish at Vassar?  Can I keep seeing Billy?"

Bella thought for a moment, "You'll finish at Vassar, but ... no.  Billy is out of the question.  Seeing any mobster outside of our operations is as well."

"You can't do that to me,"  Aurora spoke in almost a whimper.

"I can.  I can do anything necessary to protect you - even from your own bad choices.  I know can't understand now... I hope you never do."

Tears flowed down Aurora's cheeks as she threw the washcloth in the bucket and ran up the stairs, slamming the door behind her leaving Bella alone in the dimly lit basement with a dead body. 

"...e concedimi la gioia di vederli di nuovo nella gloriosa luce della vita eterna."  She sobbed the prayer, begging God to hear her words, for once feeling the eyes of her creator upon her as she spoke - HIS hand guiding her own as she washed the blood and death from the horribly scarred form of the woman who had given her life.  Not that she had grown in Bella's womb, but seeing the scars on her belly now, in this way, Aurora truly appreciated the depth of Bella's sacrifices for her since long before her very first breath. 

"Per Cristo nostro Signore." 

It went on this way for more than an hour before Aurora whispered the last, "Amen."  Then, she realized she had no way of dressing her mother alone and so it was she opened the door the second time.  

Charlie and Oscar immediately stood, ready to talk to her and help her but she didn't ask for them.

"Alucard?"  her voice was full of pain barely restrained.  

"I... I can't dress her alone. Will you... can you help me?"

"Of course."  He said little more than a whisper to Aurora, pausing as looked at her.  His heart broke for her, as the pain she was feeling he could read like a book in her eyes.  "I will be back as soon as I can." 

After Aurora walked back in with her mother, Alucard looked over to Oscar and Charlie. "I swear on every god that is worshiped on this earth, if ANYTHING happens to her while I am gone... you are going to regret the day you were born." 

Alucard was gone longer than he wanted to be.  Buckets, soap, rags, and warm water were all easy.  However, he'd never been shopping for a dress before, he's never bought a dress.  Dresses were never Integra's proverbial cup of tea.  Still, he needed to make sure the dress he picked out was good enough, proper enough, classy enough for a woman such as Bella. 

He spent time with the who owned shop.  Describing Bella from her black hair that was just starting to streak with grey, to her brown hair, to her strong and fierce personality, to her utter devotion to her family.   He told the owner that cost was no issue, and in time she helped him pick out a very elegant and classy navy blue dress.  A dress that he knew she would have looked absolutely radiant in, in life.  He hoped beyond hope, that Aurora would carry the same thoughts on it that he did. 

He made his way back to her, placing the bucket of warm, sudsy water that carried the smell of both lavender and roses, down at Aurora's feet.  Outside he kept watch, quietly waited for his friend to finish.  She asked for her help, and he gave it without question.  In silence, the two finished preparing the late Bella Byrne, for her final rest.   

Alucard took his Godmother's hand, and lightly kissed the top of her fingers. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more, that I didn't do more.  I will keep my oath to you, I promise. Rest with the angels."

The walk back to the small office felt longer than it did when walking to the mausoleum.  He hurt for Aurora, he'd have done anything to ensure she didn't have to feel the pain she was going through now.   Life, however, isn't that kind.  Pain isn't something you can just take from someone, like an object.  He did the only thing he could think to do, and that was to take her hand as a silent reminder she is not alone.

When back at the office Alucard made the calls to the priest let him know it was time to come and do the ritual for the burial site.  Then called up Samuel, and let him know where Bella was. 

"Yes Samuel, you are to bury her on the rampart overlooking the river, underneath the tree.  In an unmarked grave.  What do you mean how will we know not to bury anyone else there? Because we don't bury anyone else there.  Those are now family plots, the family owns all of them up there."  He had a few more minutes of back and forth with his groundskeeper before he finally hung up. 

With that, they made their way back into the car to head on back to Hollowood. 

The gate to Hollowpoint was open and unprotected, moving slightly in the strong wind of the early evening.  Aurora's eyes lingered upon the dragon and wolf head in the middle of the wrought iron.  Their negative spaces defining one another, Aurora read into the sigil her mother had crafted so much more than she ever had before.  The two had made one another better.  They were united in life, and now, with the dragon gone, the wolf had holes in him.  Gavin would live, but their sigil silently confirmed her worst fears, he would never be whole again.

Down the winding path the car went, the trees looming above them casting long shadows across them.  Aurora stared out into the woods in which she played as a girl, the ghostly echos of children's laughter & her mother calling them for dinner just out of the reach of her ears.  She wet her lips as she spotted the targets where her father and she used to get in practice every day.  She hadn't trained in days now, the first time in years she'd let up on her disciplined regimen.  She knew her father probably hadn't either.  She'd call him, she decided, tonight and ask him how far he'd run today.  Egg him on.  She had to try.  

The car stopped in front of the main house.  No lights were on, the front door was covered in crime scene tape and an official-looking notice that read in bold print at the top, "DO NOT ENTER."

"We'll stay in the guest house tonight."  She spoke barely above a whisper.  "I need to look around though.  Get some things, if they haven't been stolen.  Charlie and Oscar, please do a sweep of the property while Alucard and I go inside.  He'll stay on me."

Aurora opened her door then and stepped out into the quickly chilling night air.  The silence here was deafening.  No animals, not even frogs, just silence.  It was as if everything that had once called this place home had left or that they had learned to fear new arrivals and so no longer sang as they once did for the Byrnes.  

She summoned up her courage and putting one foot in front of the other, she made her way to the door - her gun pulled out.  The inside of the house didn't instantly look different and for a brief moment, she wondered if maybe everything here was just as it had been.  Then she saw the den and her heart fell through the floor.

Shattered glass, broken photographs, scraps of paper and the remains of books that had taken bullet's like good soldato and would never again be enjoyed by the people they had once served so well.  The moose alone looked untouched, high above the fireplace looking down on it all - he had borne witness to what had to have been one truly horrifying shootout.

Chalk outlines on the floor told Aurora the story of her mother's marksmanship.  Aurora looked at the shattered remains of a clay bowel that Will had made when he was a boy at school as a mother's day gift.  She picked up a bit of the hardened blue-glazed clay and rubbed it before letting it fall to the floor.  In her mind, the fight played out. 

Aurora guessed there had been four gunmen in the room at one point... and her mother.  Considering what she'd seen in that brief glance into the room, they might have been her mother's own men.  They'd have been the first to arrive.  Aurora counted the four bodies noting where they went down, and the stains of blood where each had died.  Also, the blood trail that had gone through the den and lead back out towards the front door.  Had her mother made it to the front yard? 

Yes, she supposed so.  She wouldn't ask Alucard.  She'd tell her father, if he ever asked, that she had.  There was something nice about the story that mom had died outside under the sky rather than in here.  Dad would like that.  It might give him some comfort.  Though, she supposed the thought of her dying alone would never sit right with - Aurora's eyes fell on the secret door to the basement.

"Uncle Will."  It hit her then that they hadn't been alone.  Mom hadn't been the only one in the house.  How had she NOT thought about William in all this?  The guilt crushed her.  She'd been thinking about the Byrnes and not once considered him, not once thought about the man she had loved so much!

"UNCLE WILL!"  she cried out throwing the door open and caution to the wind as she threw on the basement light and gasped at what she saw.  She went down the stairs and into the carnage.  The scent of the room was eerily similar to that of the mausoleum which her mother had spent the last few days in.  And like that place of death, her basement had become a resting place for the dead as well.

The police had not found these bodies.  They had not known about the Godmother's secret rooms with drains in the floors - rooms for the doomed, and rooms for those they prayed they could redeem.  It was here that William Bowden, Bella's right hand... the love of her Aunt Tara's life, was trying to find himself again.  It was here he, in his final moments, very apparently did.

Aurora imagined the brief moments of hell that ensued here.  The mistake they'd made letting him out of that cage.  Had they asked who he was?  Had they bragged about killing Bella?  Aurora imagined that they took him out and he could hear his angel dying and something in that... the need to get to her... it brought her uncle back from the place that Durden and the bullet's had buried him.

One man had died right outside the cage.  His face shattered against the bars, body riddled with bullet's, Will had used him as a shield.  She sobbed as she looked back to where the shooter lay dead, his gun a few feet from him and his whole body through a glass coffee table.  Neck broken.  Will's brute strength had won him two of the three.  Maybe he caught a bullet from coffee table guy, it slowed him some.  It's why the third got the kill shot... but like the caribou she'd shot in Iceland, the massive Bowden just wouldn't accept that he was dead and he kept moving.

She walked slowly back to the two men at the base of the stairs where Alucard was waiting, closing Will Bowden's eyes and rolling him off the last man he'd killed with his bare hands - avenging his angel in death.  Dying the man who he always had been, who he always would be.

"I..."  Tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked but her voice was numb, empty and far away.  "He'll need... there's a grave and a coffin already.  Can your people?"

Alucard nodded.

Aurora knelt down and kissed Will's cold cheek.

"Rest now, Sir William."  She smirked through tears.  "The war is finally over.  Follow your Angel home."

Aurora stood up and said to her friend, "The phone is at the top of the stairs, it should still work.  I'm... I need to go up to mom's office and my room.  Just... um... when you're done, come find me?"

Aurora slipped past Alucard and went up the stairs in silence.  Up here the world was still right.  Photos were untouched on the walls - their trip to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, her graduation day, a dance recital where she'd been a solo dancer, and Will's fifth birthday party.  A newspaper clipping framed about the opening of Treble Club... her mother and father dancing together in front of a big band, looking like king and queen of the world.  

Aurora wanted to remember them that way, in their prime.  Strong.  Happy.  Together.  She took the photo down and slid the back open to pull out the newspaper folded it carefully into her pocket.  

Past Will's room.  The kid was a horrible mess.  She smiled scrubbing away tears.  

Past her parents' bedroom where she'd run to as a girl, seeking refuge from her nightmares and imagined fears... none so horrible as this reality.  She stared at the bed they'd never share again and imagined them there, just waking up, smiling at her as she ran in to leap into their arms.  Gavin tickling her mercilessly until Bella would pull her into her arms and kiss the top of her head.

The ghosts disappeared and again, the darkened room stood empty.

Stopping at the office of the Dragon, she pushed open the door to find much of the room gone.  Maps of Philadelphia were on the walls, this time not an act of intimidating for a visitor... but war planning.  She imagined her mother in here, plotting, planning... avenging her Billy and hoping to stop a wave of war the world such as the world had not seen in generations.  Never knowing, her act would be the first of many and that the war she feared, would come.  It had been inevitable.  

Aurora walked to the desk and looked down to find a photo of Bella, Gavin, and Louis Mezzo - laying beneath a half drank glass of Salvatore's favorite brand of whiskey.  Picking up the glass she looked at the photo and tried to remember when it was taken but to Aurora it was just one of many such moments.  Her mother had loved Louis and she could not understand what lead to the choice to kill him.  Aurora sat down in her mother's chair and imagined the weight upon her shoulders, the fear she must have been feeling to make the calls she did in the days leading up to the end.

Without thinking, she drank the whiskey and sighed as the burn coursed through her, and the warmth went into her limbs.  Looking over the papers in front of her, she refilled the glass.

Businesses.  A deed to a business in Las Vegas called 'Sapphire Ladies Club' ... Aurora picked it up.  Her mother owned a club in Las Vegas?  Why was this with so much of her plans for Philly?  The documents here (aside from these two deeds for properties in Vegas) were clearly all about Philly.  So, why had her mother been turning an eye to the west?  Aurora dug through the papers and found correspondence with Don Video.  leaning back in the chair she held Video's letters in one hand and her drink in the other, imagining her mother and trying to force her singular forward thinking mind to think like her mother ... so many directions, all at once.

Another drink and her body finally began to relax.

"Vegas."  She said.  And just like that, LA was off the table.  Vegas was her new home.  Vegas who had, in the end, dealt with her mother and was likely to be kind to her bloodline as well.  Kathrine Pryde would be a project for another day.  The Byrne sisters might not be in the same city, but LA wasn't so far from Vegas and in time, perhaps they would work together on something meaningful.

Aurora stood up, emptied her glass of whiskey, put the glass down and took the deed to Sapphire club as well as the unnamed land deed with her.  Whatever schemes her mother had planned didn't matter now.  These were the keys to her and Alucard's future.

The last place she went to was her bedroom.  The soft pinks and white patterns everywhere made the room feel like a stranger's.  A little girl, a princess, grew up in this place... the shattered warrior who returned here felt as if it were an alien new world even though she recognized everything within as her own.

The alcohol made her a little light on her feet.  She bumped into her dresser as she passed it.  Opening her jewelry box, the music that played quietly might as well have been screaming the way it echoed through the house.  From within she pulled out a necklace her father had gotten her in Sweeden and a ring Anthony Russo had promised her would one day be replaced with a real engagement ring.  

She left the music playing as she went to her bedside and dug out her journal, fat with stories of her youth, her life on Race Street.  She opened to a random page and sat on the edge of her bed and read a seven-year-old girl talking all about the time her Grandpa Jack brought a circus to the city for her birthday.  She clutched the book tight as she read about riding Will Bowden's shoulders into the big top, how her Aunt Tara took her to give peanuts to the elephants, of how father got them to let her play on the trapeze, and how her mother bought so much cotton candy she had gotten sick from stealing it off all the members of Race Street Company.

She had lived a charmed life.  Perfect in nearly every single way.  She closed the book on the life of a girl she barely recognized herself as now.  Sitting in silence, she waited for Alucard to tell her that it was time to walk away from this place, perhaps forever.  

He picked up the phone at the top of the stairs, a sigh of relief escaped his lips when he heard the familiar sound of it still working.    He dialed the number for his people at Laurel Hill.  

"Samuel.  How are things coming?  Good, good.  I need another favor of you, I need to come to the address I am about to give you and take care of another body for me.   There's a grave and coffin are already.  I can't do it, I have the living to take care of.   Samuel, this is what I am paying you for, please... don't argue.  Yes like the other body, this to be kept quiet as well.   Should anything ever slip out, I'll bury you in a shallow grave somewhere in the woods where the animals can find you to feast on your rotting corpse."

He heard no further complaints from the man on the other end of the phone.  He finished up his business, then hung up the phone.   He made his way first to Bella's office, he knew where that was.  He laughed, as he remembered the times Bella called him to the office, not wanting anything but for him to just sit there.  "Trust Family Eye Candy"  Bella called him.   The name was silly but in an odd way helped him to feel like he may actually have a place in Race Street.   Another family lost.   

He wiped away the beginnings of the tears he felt forming in the corners of his eyes, then followed the sounds of the music to a room he assumed to be Aurora's childhood room. 

"Rora"  he quietly spoke.  "The arrangements have been made.  Are you ready?"

He watched as she stood, seemingly uneasy on her feet as she stumbled taking those few steps towards him.  "Aurora!"  Alucard ran to her. "You're exhausted." 

"Come here."  He said as he scooped her up in his arms.  She fussed but seemed too tired to put up much of a fight, outside a verbal one. It was when she spoke close enough to him that he could smell the alcohol on her breath.  "You're in no shape to walk.  When we're at the bottom of the stairs, I'll put you down." 

When the finally got to the guest house, he had her sit down then brought her a glass of water.  "Drink this.  I'll bring you some tea here in a bit."

As he got the leaves around for the tea, he wanted to be mad at Aurora for drinking and putting her and Billy's baby at risk.  He couldn't be though, he found himself too empathetic just imagining what all this as to be like for her.  He really just lost Integra and his child, she had lost everyone but her child.  In so short a period of time.  Before he put the leaves in the infuser, he took just a sprig of mint to add it to the tea.

He set the tea down in front of her, "Here, it's an English blend of tea, with a hint of mint. It should help calm you and possibly your stomach if it's upset.  I don't imagine you've really had a lot of time to just sit down, and process things.  So I'm going to give you some time, maybe think on what you'd like to eat, I'll make you whatever you want."  

He walked over to the couch and took a blanket off the back of it, and wrapped it around Aurora's shoulders. 

"If you need me, I'll be changing the sheets and preparing the bed for you.  I can't imagine you want to go laying in a bed that smells like me." 

He gave her a smile and a laugh, before he slowly made his way to the room where he stayed. 

Charlie stepped over what was easily almost fifty birthday candles strewn all about the patio and looked at the wreckage that had once been the lovely home of Godmother Byrne.  This had been the epicenter of a war zone.  The table on its side and an empty cake plate shattered on the Tuscan tiles was the last evidence of a birthday celebration which had obviously been in progress when things went down.  He wondered who it was - the Godmother or her husband likely, with this many candles.  Charlie sighed, it was a fuck of a way for someone to go out.

Oscar stepped around the side of the house and expressed vocally the thing Charlie had kept within, "Oh... shit."  He shook his head.  "You don't think she was here for this do you?"

Charlie just nodded.  She was.  It explained that look in her eyes.  He'd seen it in soldiers, in police officers, that death that happened to the spirit but not the body.  It wasn't impossible to come back from that place, but it was a long road.  Aurora would need every person she had left, their support and understanding, and their love or she might well find herself in a grave beside his former boss and that was the last thing Charlie wanted.  Not just for Billy's sake, though that was certainly true, but because the girl was genuinely a good person and she deserved better than this.  No one should suffer so fucking much in this life and if he had anything to say about it, the girl would find a reason to smile again and he'd keep her safe until she did.

It wasn't lost on Oscar in that moment, the wind whistling through the trees of Hollowood Estate, that this was what Billy had been trying to protect him from.  A shiver ran through him as he imagined dying in a situation like this one.  

Noise from inside the house caused both men to pull their guns.  Alucard had walked down to the guest house caring a very angry Lioness about five minutes ago.  Oscar looked to Charlie who was already moving forward, ready to shoot first and ask questions later.  The noises continued, whatever was going on inside, the person or animal making the racket seemed to have no regard for the idea that someone might hear them.  

Charlie passed through the den and then went into the dining room where he could hear someone just inside the kitchen.  Oscar covering him from behind, he spun into the room and leveled his gun at ... Neil?

The mammoth aging midwesterner had his gun on Charlie too.  The two lowered their weapons slowly.  Neil's face was still a mess of healing bruises and cuts from the beating he'd taken, but the expression of hope and shock wasn't lost in those wounds.  

"Neil!"  Oscar said happily.  "Thank God you're alright buddy!"

Charlie shook his head at the Dragon's most trusted guard.  "How the fuck are you alive?"

Neil pulled out his notepad and wrote, "Was in the hospital when they did this."

"Shit." Oscar said.  

Neil wrote more.  "Who did this?"

"Her people."  Charlie said flatly.  Neil slammed his huge fist against the countertop and after a moment wrote again.

"The Kids?"

"Miss Byrne is here now, the guest house.  Don't know about the ..."  Charlie didn't get to finish as Neil made for the door and began rushing down the path to find Aurora.

----

The door to the guesthouse nearly came out of the frame as Neil ran through the door.  Aurora fumbled but pulled her gun before Neil got to her only to put it aside as soon as the simple giant who had helped to raise her wrapped his arms about her and began to cry.

Aurora looked at Oscar and Charlie over his shoulder as they entered, Neil held her so tight she could barely breath but she didn't mind so much.  It was nice to see family and so, Aurora pet his hair an shushed him as she would a child and let him cry into her breasts, kissing his head from time to time as yet another strong man in her life shattered on the rocks of reality.  Bella was gone.  Nothing was ever going to be the same.

It was then she noticed Alucard was also in the room, also with his gun out - though he was puting it away now.  Anyone who knew Neil, even briefly, knew the gentle giant and loved Bella almost as much (if not more) than even Gavin and that was saying something.  His devotion to her had been utter and that Bella had died without him was as great a pain as she supposed he could imagine.

"I'm glad you're here Neil..."  She tried to give him hope.  She tried to make sure he had a reason to keep going.  The simple man might just think following her into death was the only answer and she couldn't let that happen.  She needed him still, god help her but she did.

"... I'm pregnant."  Neil pulled back to look at her, as if he was in utter disbelief.  She gave him a nod, reassuring him it was true.  

Charlie and Oscar stood feet away, mouths agape as she added, "It's Billy's and I don't know how I can do any of this without all of your help."

Neil put a hand on her belly and smiled through the tears.  She tried to return his smile but she didn't feel it.  Her eyes were just too sad and lost.  Charlie looked to Oscar and Oscar to Charlie.  Neither said a word but both knew one thing for sure: the mission had changed yet again.

Aurora looked to Alucard, "That bed ready?  I'm pretty damn tired."

Wild-Card took Aurora to the bed and after tucking her in, he found her hand reaching out to take hold of his.  She smiled at him as she gave it a gentle squeeze, her buzz leaving her feeling as though nothing mattered so much as this moment and the person she was with - the pain of all the days events further away from her mind now.

"Stay."  She whispered.  "Just... hold me?"

Alucard nodded and came down behind her, pulling her body into his own and holding her tight to him.  With his fingertips he brushed out her long dark hair, kissing her, inhaling the scent of her.  Aurora's mind wandered but it never had a chance to go anywhere interesting because, safe and feeling a sense of home for the first time in too long, she fell asleep to the sound of the muddy creek rolling by just outside the guest house window.

---

Birds.

She drew a breath, a breeze came through the open window and Aurora could hear birds singing and the wind rippling through the long grass as it danced with the trees that hid Hollowpoint away from the world.  A beam of early morning sun painted Aurora's body in a bright white light and as she opened her eyes she could see Alucard across the pillow looking back at her. 

The world had paused and for a moment they just smiled at each other listening to the peace, wrapped up in the illusion that the oceans of blood might have finally come to low tide and they could once again breathe without fear.

"I want to be able to let him go."  She whispered to Alucard, an explanation of a conversation she felt like never ended.  It had been there since she'd begged him to use her and thusly to let her have permission to use him, but he couldn't and with how he looked at her now, she supposed she knew why.  

She reached up and touched the stubble on his cheek.  She wanted to love him the way he loved her.  She imagined the comfort it would bring, the ease to her heart to have that strength wrapped about her as she faced the fires she stood in now.  Would they consume her?  Would they burn the life she knew away to a fine gray ash on the wind?  Or would something come out the otherside?  Could she build a life on the ruins of her old one.

Alucard simply nodded and then they kissed.  For a long while, they lay there kissing, until at last Billy crept into the edges of Aurora's thoughts and she felt guilty kissing the man who had been there for her through everything.  She gave him a sad smile and he kissed her forehead, nodding as if he meant to say 'it's okay' and she supposed that it had to be.  What else could Alucard really do other than accept her situation or be relegated to being a stand-in for a ghost?

Brunch was made but the utensils, plates, and trash wasn't cleaned up.  Aurora felt a little guilty not cleaning, but what did it matter now? who would see?  Who would know?  Who would care?  Hollowpoint wasn't a home anymore and it might never be again.  Silently the group went about the final walk-through of Hollowpoint, packing up the things that mattered most to come with them... leaving the bulk of her life and happiness behind to be retrieved another day.

Aurora wasn't ready to say goodbye to this place... but she supposed she never would be.  This place was the Dragon' Hoard, her true treasure, the place where the sum total of everything that ever mattered in her life came together and she could put upon it three names:  William, Aurora, and Gavin.  In the end the Dragon had protected her hoard from invaders.  She'd died to ensure that no one touched it and only now as she began her goodbye could Aurora appreciate that.  

Don Video & Don Beko got off the plane in Philadelphia.  Unlike Aurora and her companions, they had nothing to fear in getting a car and driving a direct route towards the place known to the world as Hollowood Estate, the former home of the late Godmother Byrne.  They'd come a long ways from Summerlin, Las Vegas but not without their good reasons.

Video had been working with the Godmother on several business projects inside Vegas and while he was comfortable with the deals he'd cut with Isabella he wasn't about to let those deeds and contracts fall into a rival's hands.  If they wanted a bite out of Sin City, the new Dons of Philly would have to do much more than pick through the rubble of their former Godmother's home.  They would have to come to the table just as she had and the only way to ensure that was to bring a handful of loyal men, guns, and go to Philly to take back what was theirs before it fell into the hands of the new Philly families.

Video had not had a chance to come to the picturesque wood inside Philly's city limits before, but it was a world away from the desert vistas of Nevada.  Tall trees lined either side of the road as their car passed down the road that lead to the Godmother's haven.  The sun was rising higher in the sky and the streets were quiet peaceful this time of day with very little traffic.  Which was why, when they rounded a corner and saw three cars following close behind one another ahead of them that it gave them pause.

A strange sight, so many cars together.  Even in a city, cars were a luxury and nice, new cars like these, a rarity.  Three of them together?  Well, that had only one answer.  Gangsters.  

The question was, where were they going... and why and would Beko & Video get involved?

---

Wild-Card closed the trunk. 

"That's the last of it,"  Aurora said coming out of the house, stopping dead in her tracks.

"I sure as hell hope so,"  Alucard said with a laugh.  The trunk had been filled to the brim!

"Shhh!" Rora snapped.

Alucard pulled his gun noticing not only the alarm in her tone but how she stared into the trees, but he heard and saw nothing.

"What?"

"The birds..."  She said softly.  

"I can't hear any,"  Alucard said confused by what birds she was talking about.

"Exactly,"  Aurora said moving back towards the house.  "Someone's coming."

Before she reached the door all hell broke loose.  Gunfire ripped through the trees.  Aurora hit the ground, first covering her head and and then rolling behind the decorative half-wall that went around the house.

"DAMN IT!"  Aurora shouted, pulling her gun out and looking at the guys quickly taking stock of them.  No injuries that she could see... yet.  

"OH GOD! HOLY SHIT!"  Oscar exclaimed she could hear the terror in his voice over the exploding glass and pottery around them.

Alucard laughed popping up to shoot.

Neil shook his head and followed suit.

"Here we go..."  Charlie muttered behind her.

Aurora knew ammo was limited.  They could try to fall back into the house to get more weapons, but they'd have to rise up and be exposed to squeeze through a single point... tactically someone would have to cover the fallback and even then, even with sacrificing someone, she wasn't sure it could be done.

Every shot would count.  Aurora drew a breath preparing herself. 

"Billy... please..."  She whispered hoping that her dead lover was now her guardian angel, guiding her shots.  Rising up, she took aim and watched one man fall before taking cover again.  

There were too many.  She was going to die here... feet from where her mother made her last stand and her sacrifice would mean nothing if she didn't think fucking fast.

---

The three cars that Video and Beko had kept in their sight finally parked, a short distance from Hollowood and as Beko and Video's car drove past they could see the small army of wise guys piling out of the cars, watching them with suspicion as they passed.  This gave Video and Beko the advantage of knowing exactly how many enemies there were, how many guns, and the odds against whoever the dead men and women were that they were hunting.

Three cars.  Four men each.  Twelve.  A decent sized gang.  Wing-tipped shoes on only two though.  The cars and guns were obviously funded by someone with money, but not these guys.  These men weren't made men.  These were goons, low-level hitmen and thugs... a clean-up crew being sent to finish something which seemed to indicate that someone was still at the Godmother's home.

There were a few rumors that some of Race Street Trust had survived the purge.  Mostly concerning the Godmother's own family and this was because no one had actually found Godmother Byrne's corpse, nor the corpses of her children - a goomba Aurora & a non-combantant boy named William, nor her husband, The Wolf of Race Street, Don Gavin Byrne.  It was possible some of the crew got out of the city and came back here but it was much more likely that it was the Godmother herself, or her kin.

If Beko and Video chose to go back and engage the gangsters, they'd have surprise and could come up behind them to aide the Byrne family... or they could keep driving and come back in a few hours hoping to collect what they came for by stepping over the corpses of the dead.  The question was, did Video and Beko want to get into a gunfight?

As the car was turning and made way through the side street a loud boom was overheard. 

Gunshots. 

Video immediately grabbed the back of beko head and pulled her down. He looked around to see where the bullets were coming from. There appeared to be a few cars with men behind them aiming in the direction of the former Philly Godmothers house. She had mentioned to Video how there was some sort of interior conflict going on in her city but did not say too much more than that. It was a need to know basis. These men operated under completely different rules. They were not the same Philly men of respect we know today, they were something sinister. 

What are they shooting at? 

Beko asked while she was being sheltered. They were in no danger but they were definitely in close enough proximity that something dangerous could very well happen. 

I think it is more of a Who they are shooting at rather than a what. It seems like some sort of interior city conflict. I think we should get out of here.

As he was saying this and they began to push the gas down Beko grabbed the shoulder of Video. She saw someone, someone she knew. She turned to video. Her eyes were as wide as he had ever seen them. 

Video, we have to help. Thats Rora! 

Video looked at her with such confusion. Who was rora and why did Beko feel so strongly about trying to help her. Gunshots were flying back and forth between the two groups. 

Damn it. Who the hell is Rora and why are we going to risk our lives to save hers? 

Beko unlocked the car door and got out. She shouted back saying she would explain later. There may not be a later. Loyalty was always a trait of Beko nothing new to Video that she was displaying this. Video threw his head against the back of the headrest and opened the door. 

Video grabbed his Tommy gun and pistol and snuck up with Beko behind the men. They were hidden well enough that if they started shooting they could take out most the guys and still be able to retake cover. 

Wait for them to reload and once they do we fire. Okay? 

Beko Nodded. The gangsters continued to fire until a majority of them finally decided to load their clips again. Lick clock work Beko and Video opened fire. Their submachine guns created streams of blood in the streets of Philly. Seven men hit the floor instantaneously. A few of them jumped in their cars and two more started running in another direction. 

Ill shoot my pistol. You load the Tommy guns Beko! 

It was more a less to cause distraction to the gangsters. As he continued to fire his pistol Beko set the guns straight. They took cover for a split second to hear what the gangsters were doing. Silence. 

On my mark, we flank them. You take that side ill take this side. As soon as you see one of them you begin to fire. Ready? 

READY! 

Lets do it. 

They marched their ways to the cars and held their guns aimed. After several the top of one of the gangsters hair emerged. The bullets flew and riddled the cars. They continued to walk towards the cars spraying bullet after bullet into the passenger doors. Glass shattered and blood began to show. 

They peaked in the cars with their guns aimed in. Just dead men. They fired a few more times to be sure at the lifeless bodies. 

Thats how we do it! Now, who is this Rora we were supposed to help? 

The gunfire was louder then, an instant before Aurora was about to send her companions running for the door and laying down cover fire for them.  She peeked out from behind the wall and saw what could only be called, 'impossible.'

She called over the din to Wild-Card, "THE CALVARY IS HERE!"  She laughed and silently thanked God, and Billy.

When the gunfire finally ended, Rora stood up keeping her hands and gun visible.  "Beko?!?"  She'd met Beko in a bar when she was just 19.  She'd only begun taking jobs, whacking low-life nobodies for next to nothing and this gangster, not much older than herself, had cash money.  Who was she to refuse? 

It was one of the few times she drank to excess while negotiating a job.  Tequila, she had decided that night, was the devil's own urine... but she strongly suspected she'd probably hit it again if Beko ever invited her to do so.  What a night they'd had!  Beko, like Integra, had proven to be one hell of a woman - the sort she could actually be friends with.  And, she was.  Though they rarely saw each other living on opposite coasts as they did.

Aurora came out from behind the small garden wall and moving among the dead walked up to Beko and offered her hand.  "Seems I'm in your debt this time," she said with a smile.  "I can't tell you how fucking happy I am to see you, Beko!  These are my friends... Alucard, Neil, Charlie, and Oscar."

The man noted as being Oscar smiled at the two Dons from Las Vegas and enthusiastically chirped, "Great to meet you!"

Aurora shook her head and looked at the man with Beko, "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met.  I'm Aurora Byrne."  She said offering her hand to Don Video.  "This was my mother Isabella-Luciano's home & these bastards were obviously coming here for nothing good.  I think you and Don Beko here might have just saved our asses so... thank you."