Just Children

**Warning! This webisode contains dark themes. Viewer discretion is advised**

**Summary:** Elena relives her traumatic childhood

***Note there will be a song in this one but it's not from RWBY. It's called "After All" sung by Christine Ebersole. Disclaimer I do not own the song it's the property of its original writer and the Ever After Musical. All changes to lyrics were made to fit the situation, please support the original release.***

*The camera view opens up in New Troy a few weeks after the events of Sisterly Love. Elena wakes up in her bed next to Vernal, she smiles at him as she gets dressed. She checks her phone and her eyes misted up, May 19th, the same day she lost her last child. A tear runs down her face as she touches the scars on her abdomen, thinking back to those times spent in Sparta.*

**Vernal:** *\*hugs her from behind\** It's all over now, they can't hurt you anymore.

**Elena Troy:** *\*leans on to Vernal's chest with tears flowing down her face\** But I couldn't save any of them...I'm their mother.

**Vernal:** But you were also just a kid...

*They hear a knock on the door, and Shinigami is standing there.*

**Shinigami Mikoto:** Hey, what's taking you guys so long?

**Elena Troy:** *\*wipes her tears away\** I'm, I'm fine. We'll be out in a bit.

*The camera cuts outside to New Troy, Elena and Vernal are assigning posts to soldiers.*

**Vernal:** Okay...Eurasus, has anybody seen Eurasus?

**Eurasus:** *\*running up to them frantically\** My Queen! Urgent news! Our best medic and healer, my dear wife, Calista. Her contractions have started! And none of her apprentices have the experience of delivering a baby! Please, I beg of you come quickly!

**Vernal:** I'll take care of the guards, you go help her.

**Elena Troy:** Got it!

*She followed the man to one of the huts, where Hebi Hachibi, Midnight Darkness, Aira de Kan, Raquelle Mandjet, Serenity Mania and Ebony Scar are already there trying their best to help the struggling woman who is screaming out in pain.*

**Elena Troy:** Alright guys step back, this is gonna get ugly. *\*to Calista\** How far are your contractions?

**Calista:** *\*panting and in pain\** 8 *\*pant\** 8 minutes...

**Elena Troy:** Right, Ebony, Midinght, Raquelle you guys get the drug and towels ready. Hebi, Aira try and use your pressure point techniques to reduce her pain.

**Calista:** GYAAHH!

**Hebi Hachibi:** *\*her fingers are on the woman's vertebrae pressure point, attempting to help her feel less pain\** Ma'am please, we're doing the best we can.

**Aira de Kan:** *\*her hands are also at a pressure point\** Hebi, I don't think the technique is working!

**Ebony Scar:** *\*to Midnight and Raquelle while using her rune stones to heat up some towels\** How's the pain killer drug coming along?

**Midnight Darkness:** *\*with her glyphs activated over a small pot, casting a healing spell for the drug\** Does it look like it's coming along?

**Raquelle Mandjet:** It's no use. No matter how much we gave her she's still in pain! Elena, what should we do?

**Elena Troy:** I guess if the baby wants out then I say let it. Ebony, I need the towels.

**Ebony Scar:** Here you go!

**Elena Troy:** *\*positions the warm towels underneath the woman\** Okay, I'm gonna need you to stay with me a little while longer, I need you to push as hard as you can! Okay? On three, 1...2...3..PUSH!

*Calista screams in pain as she tries her best to push the baby out.*

**Elena Troy:** You're doing great I can see the head! Don't forget to breathe! Just keep pushing!

*Following Elena's instructions and after several minutes of struggling, a cry is heard.*

**Ebony Scar:** Congratulations! It's a boy!

*The baby is wrapped in the towels and given to his mother, Eurasus comes running into the hut as soon as he heard the baby's cry.*

**Calista:** *\*tears of joy in her eyes\** Thank you....All of you...

**Eurasus:** What shall we name him my love?

**Calista:** Luciano...not every single child has the honor of being delivered by the Queen herself.

**Serenity Mania:** *\*to Elena\** I'll take it from here Ellie, *\*to Calista's apprentices\** She seems to ba having trouble pushing out the placenta and her blood pressure is super high, get me some anesthesia and some Syntocinon and ergometrine.

*Serenity puts on a surgical mask and apples the drugs and anesthesia. Within an hour Calista's blood pressure lowers and the placenta is successfully removed. Calista and her husband cries tears of joy hugging their son and thanked the girls over and over again. Elena smiles at the new family, but her smile soon faded as she touches her lower abdomen. She walks out of the hut and to a waterfall. Elena sat on the rocks, she is happy for them but she can never forget the torment she endured in Sparta. Que "After All" by Christine Ebersole in the background.*

***\*Flashback\****

What would a mother not do for her child

What lengths would a mother not go

There’s a bond that exists
between mother and child

With no end to how strong it can grow

It’s a promise for life

between mother and child

It begins from the moment of birth

And you're shaken to your soul

With an ache you’ve never known

And you look into their eyes

And find you’re looking in your own

***The flashbacks start with a 10 year old Elena holding onto her bulging abdomen begging Menelaus to spare her child, his child. But she was slapped aside, restrained and all she could do was watch in horror as they slit open her abdomen and ripped out twins. A 12 year old Elena is shown screaming in pain as she gives birth to a still-born baby boy when a figure looms over her, she wept as she was beaten by Menelaus and her son's carcass is thrown to the hounds which ripped the prone little body apart right in front of his own mother. She reaches out her hand trying to reach him before losing consciousness***

And there’s a pain you can’t imagine

A special kind of torture you can feel

A cut that bleeds from
somewhere deep inside you

A past regret you can not heal

And no one guesses all

the while you’re praying

That screaming little

stranger in your arms

Might just grow up and

save you after all

Might just grow up and

save you after all

***Then a slightly younger Elena (about 14 years old) is shown cowering in a corner in her old 'room' in Sparta. Wearing torn translucent clothing and a heavily scarred abdomen. She looks up to see Menelaus's figure looming over her. She screams as he comes closer. When he finished a bruised Elena is shown lying on the ground completely naked and clutching to the remaining rags that were once her clothes. A few months later at one of Menelaus's victory parties she is shown wearing a sheer dress and in shackles, being presented by Menelaus to one of his comrades during the war. He grabbed her and dragged her off into a room where it always happens.***

What would a mother not do for her child

What heights would a mother not climb

There’s a bond that
exists between mother

And child and it only
gets deeper with time

It’s a promise for life
between mother and child

And to break it there’s no greater pain

And you’re shaken to your soul

With an ache you can’t erase

Like the tears you never cried but

still keep scrubbing off your face

And there’s a pain you can’t imagine

The kind that keeps you wide awake

That somehow turns to bold determination

That you wont ever ever make

the same mistake

So you’ve got to feed your little future

Assuring that her talent poise and charm

Might just grow up and

save you after all

Might just grow up and
save you after all

***Elena is shown reminiscing of the day she attempted to save one of her children. This time during the routinely abortions, the baby survived. She didn't care about the pain she kicked the undertaker in the face and slit his throat with the scalpel and then uses it to free herself from the restraints. She grabs the baby and runs. Crying tears of joy as she looks at the crying infant in her arms. She runs through the palace kitchens while being pursued by Menelaus and his guards, she runs over to the window and using what little clothing she has on, ties the screaming baby to her back and climbs down into the palace gardens. Only to intercepted by the guards and beaten, her baby was snatched and held under the fountain as it screams until it finally drowns.***

Some dreams die upon the vine

Some will become toys

Sweeter than the sweetest wine

That mine becomes

QUEEN OF TROY

***She watches as the small child is thrown into a pit, with tears running down her eyes. A 15 year old Elena was shown bleeding and panting inside her 'room' her clothes torn and her abdomen even more scarred and stitched up***

And it’s relief you can’t imagine

It’s filling every sinew bone and nerve

To know that you can get

out of this hellhole

And finally live the

life that you deserve

And as you leave the past

you knew would haunt you

And all of the regret you didn’t show

Might just grow up and

save you after all

Might just grow up and save you

Might just grow up you

save you after all

***She is then shown vomiting into a bucket. "Oh no, no no no! Not again!" she crumbles to the ground and cries clutching her abdomen with a small bump slowly starting to form. She is then shown strapped to what looked like an operating table with a thick cloth stuffed into her mouth and a larger abdomen with multiple scars, a figure looms over her with a large scalpel Elena tries to scream but she couldn't and the only sounds that escaped was a muffled cry and tears run down her eyes.***

What would a mother not do for her child

What lengths would a mother not go

There’s a bond that exists

between mother and child

Ah.. but then again

How would you know?

***The 3 dead babies were taken away all she could do was watch in horror as they disposed of it. She reaches out her hand with tears running down her face.***

**Shinigami Mikoto:** I knew you'd be here....

**Elena Troy:** *\*snaps out of the flashbacks\** Shini, I'm fine, I just...

**Shinigami Mikoto:** *\*hugs Elena\** You lost your children...didn't you?

**Elena Troy:** How? How did you-

**Shinigami Mikoto:** The way you immediately walked out after seeing someone have their own kid and I've seen that look on your face before, plus the scars.

**Elena Troy:** *\*begins to cry\** I was only 10 when my first was taken from me...I couldn't save any of them!

**Shinigami Mikoto:** There, there.

**Elena Troy:** *\*sniffles\** We were all children, just children. When they did those things to us.

**Shinigami Mikoto:** Don't worry, Ellie, they're in a better place now. *\*she hugs the sobbing Elena close to her\**

*The camera cuts to Sparta where a gardener has been digging for a lotus pond for Helen of Troy, when he screamed. Guards came running over where they made a horrific discovery. The area where the pond is being dug, is a mass grave full of skeletons belonging to babies. And the screen fades black.*