The Silver Lining

AN: Check out the videos for The Silver Lining here: http://vimeo.com/user4287166/videos Hope you enjoy them.

Meredith: I tried to reply through your e-mail but haha, it was being painful, anyway I hope you are still enjoying.
recordkeeper: Yeah Sophia is kinda preachy with the feminism, I made her the polar opposite to Lancelot so she always challenges. I'm glad you're enjoying and I hope you continue to.
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The monastery wasn't quite like Sophia pictured but she had to remind herself that there was over a thousand years of difference between her own time and the present... past. She didn't know which was correct but she rightly didn't care about it all that much. She more cared for finding out if her queries were right or not. They were greeted outside by a man dressed in a red robes with a gold necklace on. Arthur seemed to know him and Sophia hung back with the knights as Arthur spoke to the man. After a few words, the man glanced over towards Sophia and then back to Arthur, nodding at him.

He approached Sophia who folded her arms across her chest. "My lord Arthur here says you know something of The Order, child?"

Sophia nodded. "I was helping them. A close friend of mine was a friar in the church of Rome before he came to aid my family years ago," she answered. "I didn't know whether they would be here or not."

"We are in more places than most who know of us would like to think. May I ask what your name is?" he said with a smile.

"Sophia."

"Just Sophia?" he pressed as though expecting her to have a much longer name to give him.

She sighed.

"Sophia Marie Lore Valerious." He seemed to pause for a moment before glancing down at her clothing as though only just noticing how she was dressed.

"Sophia? You are Romanian?"

Arthur frowned. "How do you know that?" he inquired.

The man held up a hand and asked them to wait here for a moment before quickly rushing away. Sophia was confused. How did he know that when she had only told the knights where she was from? Turning to face the group of ragtag looking men she smiled a little, refolding her arms across her chest as she watched Agravaine try and stay conscious on the back of his horse. He didn't even have strength to get off the horse which made Sophia wonder just whether he would become a werewolf or if his wounds were just infected badly.

"Well, safe to say I would never join the ranks of monks." Glancing up at Lancelot, as he spoke suddenly, to find him grinning devilishly in her direction alone. "They dress like women and can't have women. What a horrible way to live."

"Says you," she shot back.

Seeing his look, she wished she could take back her remark. He'd been baiting her; knowing she'd say something. "I do say so. How anyone could-"

"Lancelot, they do it because they are not like you, for which I thank heaven and skies above for that," Sophia argued, cutting him off and watching as he folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow at her.

Before anyone could stop them or put their opinion into the argument another voice made Sophia's eyes light up wide. "Damn it man, I was very busy!"

"Carl!" Without warning Sophia spun round and rushed toward the owner of the voice, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

After a moment or so of looking down at the woman in apparent shock, he returned the tight hug, almost lifting the small woman off the ground. "I take it you two know each other?" Arthur asked, watching the pair with a slight smile.

Sophia pulled back and nodded.

Carl wrapped his arm around the tiny woman's waist in an affectionate gesture which the men did not fail to notice. He was not much older than Galahad by the look of him. Sandy blond hair reached just past his ears and he was not much taller than Sophia herself. He wore brown robes and it made him seem a little large in the waist as it was not tied round him properly.

When Carl smiled at Sophia and Arthur noted the clear look of brotherly affection in the gesture.

"I am glad you are alive," Carl told her. She smiled at him and nodded.

"All thanks go to my rescuers," she said, motioning to the group of men who all gained either embarrassed smiles or just nodded.

"Forgive me but did you curse before to the father, you're a monk?" Arthur questioned only just remembering.

Carl glanced at Arthur and Sophia just covered her eyes for a moment. "Actually I'm still just a friar, I can swear or curse all I like." She shook her head, hugging him again as he laughed and Arthur chuckled at the response. "Now... what brought you here in the first place? Silvanus said you were asking about the Order?"

She nodded before hanging her head. "I did. I thought they may have a cure for-"

Carl raised an eyebrow at her reaction. "For?" he pressed.

"Werewolf injuries."

He sucked in a deep breath and stepped back from her, looking her over worriedly. "You?" She nodded, pulling her jacket and coat arm back to reveal the bandaging Dagonet had redressed the bite wounds with this morning. "Anyone else?" Again, she nodded. "Who?"

"My knight, Agravaine was injured," Arthur replied before Sophia could.

Carl looked the knights over before noticing the one in question barely conscious on the back of his horse. "Quickly, bring him inside-" he said and turned to face Sophia, "I need you to tell me exactly what happened."

As Tristan and Dagonet helped Agravaine from his horse and into the monastery, Sophia explained to Carl what had happened, how long it had been since the both of them had been injured and that he was not doing so well.

The knights followed Carl down a number of hallways as Sophia asked Carl about why she was not in the same condition as Agravaine was. "That I do not know-" he began as he pushed open a large door and stepped back to let Tristan and Dagonet in. Inside it seemed more like a prison than it did a healing room, "however it will take a few hours for me to make the cure, I do hope it works for him considering how long since his injury."

Carl made to shackle Agravaine's arm to the wall behind the cot Tristan and Dagonet had laid him upon however a sword came to his throat. He swallowed thickly and looked at the scout who gave him a placid and emotionless stare. "I need to restrain him in case he begins to turn. If he is allowed loose we are all dead."

Sophia placed a hand over Tristan's and pulled the scout away. "Come on Tristan. I promise Carl knows what he is doing," she whispered to him as he turned to face her.
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Nightfall came and Carl was still dashing in and out of the place to make the cure. The knights, Arthur and Sophia were all placed in a room with a number of chairs and tables in it and a fireplace. A boy clearly not older than sixteen brought them food and seemed to stare at Sophia, which she did notice and felt unnerved by it. Tristan scared him off and Sophia relaxed a little as she ate until they heard him. Agravaine was crying out. Both she and Tristan looked at the door and then to each other in worry. Without a thought as to what Carl might be doing, Sophia took off out the door and down the few hallways to the room where Agravaine was. His cries were much clearer now and she realized he was begging for help.

Opening the door, she stepped inside and shut it behind her. Turning she found him sitting up on the edge of the bed trying to pull the shackle at his wrist from the wall. "Agravaine," she said gently. He glanced at her before resuming what he had been doing. "Agravaine, please you need to stop."

"Why?" he growled back, his eyes shifting. He was turning. She only hoped Carl was nearly finished.

"Because I am asking you to," she replied, holding her hands up a little in front of her. "Look I have no weapons and nothing to hurt you with."

He smirked. "There's your first mistake, little one." Sophia's eyes widened in terror as he stood up from the cot and dropped the broken shackle to the ground. "I've been able to run for some time." This wasn't Agravaine. Sophia knew that something within a man changed when he began to shift and could see it in the way Agravaine moved now. His eyes were different, his steps towards her were more menacing than what Agravaine's would have been. His injuries seemed to have miraculously healed and she swallowed the thick lump in her throat as her back hit the hall.

His body and arms trapped her, a deep wolf like purr coming from the knight before her as he leaned forward and rubbed his cheek against hers gently. She shut her eyes tightly in reply. She put a hand up against his bare chest and saw him glance down at it. "Why haven't you run then?"

He chuckled. "Because whether the old Agravaine is in charge or I am, both still have affection for you. That is what stopped me from running. I knew you would be drawn to him asking for help but I for one would enjoy not sharing you with the weakling he was," he replied.

"You can fight this, I know you're stronger than the others Agravaine," she pleaded watching as his hand covered her own that was on his chest.

"Why would he want to fight what he knows will make him feel so much better and stronger?" he queried just before his hand pushed her own away.

Sophia moved towards the door, only to be grabbed back against Agravaine and held fast by an extremely strong and vice like grip. She winced and asked him to let her go. The pain in her voice was what triggered it, it was the only thing that she could think of that she hadn't already tried that suddenly changed his demeanor.

The grip suddenly slackened and Sophia spun round to face the knight who looked the complete opposite as to what he had done moments ago. "Agravaine?"

He looked up at her. "Sophia," he rasped out and she caught him as he nearly collapsed to the ground. She only saved him from a very hard collision with the cold stone as his weight caused her to fall back. He was atop her and he looked up slowly, shaking his head a little as though trying to get rid of whatever had just come over him. "I... I didn't hurt you?"

She shook her head as she sat up. He lay with his head against her legs, his hand softly stroking her knee as she brushed his hair back from his face. "You need to fight it for as long as you can, Agravaine. I promise Carl will be here soon with a cure." She hoped. He nodded against her legs silently and only relaxed a little more against her. Sophia smiled and leaned down, kissing his temple. "I don't need to lose you, knight."

"Take more than this to lose me, been through worse over my years," he joked back weakly and groaned a little. Sophia knew he was tired and that fighting whatever was inside him was a losing battle.

Looking around, she saw the shackles on the walls. Moving, she helped him to his knees and then feet. "Come, you're losing because you're exhausted. If I can keep you shackled-"

"Don't shackle me again," he said, trying to move in the opposite direction.

Sophia stopped him, placing her hands on either side of his face and smiling softly at him. "It is to save you, Agravaine. If you get loose, they won't hesitate to kill you," she explained. He hung his head a little before sighing heavily. "I promise the moment you're better I'll let you free."

When she had him shackled, she made to leave. "Wait, Sophia." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Stay. Please." Stepping in close to him, Sophia smiled at him as he looked down at her.

Leaning up a little to him, she kissed his lips gently and felt him smile weakly against her. "Don't turn please."

Moving over to the bed, Sophia eased herself down onto it and sat against the wall it right ran alongside. A hoarse chuckle made her look over at Agravaine after a few moments of silence. "It is truly incredible. Such affection for the one who hunts what he is to be become and especially when he knows so little of you. Unconditionally."

"How is it that you know so much of me?" she snapped back at the thing, unnerved by the silver eyes staring back at her.

The shackles tightened suddenly as he tried to break himself free. "Sophia, poor little Sophia. Didn't you know whoever is turned is passed on the memories of their maker and his maker and so on. Thousand of years of history in my mind, it is enlightening at the foolishness of men over those thousand of years and what they have repeated in that time."

"I want to speak to Agravaine," she replied getting up from the bed.

He chuckled. "If you wish, though I do not see why you would want to speak to him, all he can do is look at you with longing he has never known for another."

Sophia sneered and saw the silver eyes become dark again. "There is my Agravaine," she remarked, smiling at him and see him embarrassingly look away from her.

"What did I say?"

"You can't remember?" she inquired.

He shook his head, still not looking at her.

"Better left unknown to you," she whispered as she stood up and walked over to him. "Are you cold?" Agravaine looked at her as she ran her hand up his arm and neck.

"Little one," he murmured just before Sophia kissed him. As best as he could, Agravaine returned the kiss despite his uncomfortable position being shackled to the wall. She looped an arm round his neck, as he groaned softly against her.

After a moment or so, she pulled back and was glad as the door opened just as Agravaine made to speak. He looked up and saw Arthur come in with Carl close behind him. The commander looked over his knight. "How on earth did you end up on the wall?" he inquired, looking at Sophia who had her fingers entangled with Agravaine's.

"He broke the shackle near the bed when I came in," she said, half lying.

The other knights were behind them. "His side, the scratches are gone."

"One of the many miraculous things about being an immortal. Your healing factor is phenomenal," Carl remarked as he walked over to Sophia and Agravaine. Seeing the knights wary gaze, he glanced at Sophia and nodded. "If you wish, Sophia can do this. I am not very comfortable with field work."

Sophia shook her head. "You never have been."

The small woman took hold of the bowl of liquid from the man who bowed a little. "Be careful, Sophia."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and glanced round at Tristan. "We're here." Biting her lower lip, she looked at Agravaine who just nodded slowly at her.

"Now or never little one."