Title: Silver Lining
Rating: T

Summary: An unlikely source instills a little hope in Victor while inside 33.1.

Timeline: This takes place two years prior to "Calendar Girl."

Warning: Coarse language

Silver Lining

And I won't let you drown, when the water's pulling you in
I'll keep fighting, I'll keep fighting. - Silver Lining: Hurts

Sit in a rotting jail cell for long enough, and it's almost enough to make a person crazy. Courage, determination, all that fades as a consequence of the passing minutes, knowing that things are going to never going to change.

Then she came.

Her name was Emily, or at least, that's what he thought it was. It was hard to know for sure. The screaming, voluntary or otherwise, didn't help either. She just didn't get it, but Victor knew. No how many times she yelled, circumstances weren't going to get any better than this.

And now, Victor had enough. "Just stop!" To his relief, the shouting stopped in the cell next to him. "Enthusiasm like that is only going to make things worse," he added, a little more polite this time, realizing that the girl was likely just scared.

"I sincerely doubt that," was her immediate reply from the other side of the wall. Emily wasn't an idiot, she knew her pleas had a consequence, but when two days of silence brought similar results, she figured it wasn't going to make a real difference. She knew she was a prisoner, she knew how her family had given her up to 'cure' her, but Emily also knew that she didn't want to be a lab rat, a toy for a sick billionaire's interest.

She had no idea how long she had been here now, as time seemed to blend together, no longer mattering in the long scheme of things. But if this was the mentality that Emily had to look forward to, she was planning on changing that, one step at a time. Peering at the high ceiling of her cell, she verified her cell neighbour's name. "It's Victor right?"

Victor's eyes widened before turning towards the wall. It didn't allow him to see her, but it still surprised him that she remembered his name. It had been ages since anyone had called him by his name. A thing, a freak, sure, but anything resembling a human name was hard to come by, so he appreciated the sentiment more than Emily would ever realize. "Yeah." Swallowing hard as he pulled lightly on his restraints, he found it in himself to smile. "And you're... Emily?"

He heard a single chuckle from the other side, as she had been impressed, and slightly flattered that he knew her name after such a short period of time. "That's me."

Victor hadn't exactly experienced small chat behind these doors, but when he heard no outside reaction to their conversation, he took the risk, hoping to calm Emily down. "You know it's not going to help, no one's going to help you here."

"I don't care because living like you do isn't healthy," she blurted, sighing once the words had escaped. "If you give up then... then they win... and you lose the last piece of yourself that you have."

"I already have." His family, the majority of his body, his home, his life, there wasn't much left of Victor Stone these days.

Yet Emily still found a way to disagree. "No you haven't," she said with as much conviction as she could muster. "I may not have seen you face-to-face, but the walls, as you know, are thin."

She couldn't even bear to imagine what Victor must have gone through to get here, not to mention the idea of how long he had been forced to live behind these walls. All those hours, being a prisoner with no hope. She had heard the guards call him a robot, a metallic freak, and it made her sick.

Sure, Emily had her share of monikers, as 'mind-fucker' seemed to be their favourite. But for some reason, it hurt a lot more when she heard them through the walls. She wanted to help, but she was stuck, a concept that reminded her of of her own situation. As she shifted her body, the zipties around her wrists broke the skin further, as they would each time she tried to fight, but she wouldn't give up. And she wouldn't like Victor give up either.

"You're more than that. You have memories, real memories." She may not know what they were, but that didn't mean they didn't exist. "Look, I know I don't know you, and I'm probably just a silly girl to you, but you're no less human than me. That's why you have to keep going, fight for a real second chance, because this isn't it."

For a while, Victor didn't say anything, so Emily released another sigh, figuring her words had fallen on deaf ears. She knew it would be a tough message to send, but she had to try.

"You believe in me that much?" Victor asked, breaking the silence. He had been surprised by the conviction in the girl's voice before, but now, hearing her strength as she talked about him, it blew him away a little. She didn't know Victor, what he looked like, what he could do, but Emily did know what he was, and she still wanted to help.

Feeling her eyes water slightly out of relief as she closed them, Emily replied, "You make it sound like a pointless concept." Not that it surprised her, but she still wanted to point it out to Victor.

"What if it is?"

Looking up at the ceiling above her, the walls that surrounded them both, it felt pointless, but Emily didn't care. "Have a little faith Victor." Finally, there was sound in the corridor, which likely meant bad news for either or both of them. Turning her head towards the wall that separated her and Victor, Emily added, "This isn't the end of our story."

I will try to save you, cover up the grey
With silver lining.

~End~

Sera's Scribbles: As this story is on hiatus for awhile, I'm trying to fill in some blanks, starting with this one. I've been receiving positive comments in regards to Victor and Evie's friendship, so I thought I'd try to give their relationship a little context. But these fics will have little to no Chlollie, so I'm not sure if anyone is actually interested in that. I'll post more if the demand is there, so please let me know if you want to see more.

Update on this note (Sept.1/12): I have updated this fic's title to "Second Chances," a theme in Evie and Victor's relationship. "Second Chances" started as a fanmix for Evie/Victor and built its way into being a collection of stories, starting with "Silver Lining." I will have another one-shot coming soon.