Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High, or Avril Lavigne, but Joy Peace is mine.
Author's Note: This is a songfic for Avril Lavigne's "My Happy Ending," a song I always thought was appropriate for a Warren's mom/Baron Battle story. There was angst just screaming to be written. So I did. Enjoy!
Let's talk this over
It's not like we're dead
"Baron, why?"
The silence was deafening, and Joy clenched one hand into a helpless fist.
"Please… Talk to me," she whispered, holding out one hand.
He regarded her in stony silence, his expression changing not a whit. Joy swallowed tears and bile, struggling hard to control herself. If she didn't keep a lid on what she was feeling, she was going to burst into tears. And she couldn't let herself do that, not in front of her husband. Not after what he'd done.
Was it something I did?
Was it something you said?
"Baron, you told me you had to do this. That you wanted to make the world a better place. How does burning the World Peace Conference help that? How? I said I'd help you with your dreams… Why did you do it? Why didn't you wait for me? We could have done something perfect together, something good… Baron, you murdered people!"
Nothing. No reaction. His face was smooth as metal, his dark eyes unblinking. If it hadn't been for the slight rise and fall of his chest, he could have been a statue.
You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be
Joy couldn't help herself. Her husband's indifference in the fact of his horrible crimes was killing her. She had been the first in her family to be an active superhero, just because Baron had believed in her. He said she had it in her to be as strong and powerful as any other superhero alive, all in the cause of peace. He had given her the strength to be something she never thought she could be…
Tears welled unbidden to her eyes, emotion surging through her in a tide of shame, sorrow, and bitter rejection.
How could things have gone so wrong? She had given her heart to him, fully and completely. She was a powerful empath, but had never needed or wanted to use her powers on him. It would have been unethical, and also completely unfair. He had accepted and loved her, so she had thought, without having her kind of advantages. She had done the same. She knew he loved her; she hadn't needed her powers to tell her that.
It's nice to know that you were there
Thanks for acting like you cared
And making me feel like I was the only one
"Wasn't I enough Baron? Wasn't our family enough?" she sobbed. What could have been more important than their first child? Why was his obsessive, insane, twisted desire to run the world "the right way" more important than the child she was carrying, the fruit of their love?
It's nice to know we had it all
Thanks for watching as I fall
And letting me know we were done
"I was trying to make the world a better place for our child," Baron said finally, the overpowering wave of emotion battering through his stony resistance. Never had he felt such unbridled chaos from his small wife, and the small part of him that still held hints of humanity was shaken from it.
Joy stared back at him, eyes wide with shock, and then narrowing in determination and pain.
You were everything, everything that I wanted
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it
Her powers surged from her in a wave, unconscious and unstoppable. When Baron had first shown his strange streaks of malice and megalomania, she couldn't believe what was happening. By the time she should have used her powers to see what was going on, she couldn't. Not until she became with child. Even then she could barely believe what her powers told her. Her beloved husband, passionate, caring, determined, clever, intelligent Baron, was cold-heartedly plotting murder in the name of an insane cause.
Shaken and heartbroken, she had called for help, for someone else to stop him. And it had taken every ounce of strength of will and body to make that call. He had been stopped, but not before the blood of four people stained his hands. Now, she just had to know one thing…
And all of the memories, so close to me, just fade away
She pressed her hand to the bullet-proof glass of the visitor's area, and Baron pressed back on the other side, her surge of emotion drawing him there. She imagined she could feel the incredible heat of his hands on hers again, even as her eyes were fully opened to Baron's heart for the first time.
It was a desolate wasteland, all morality stripped and rotted away, a cold and clinical place, almost sterile, replaced with purpose, determination, but not a hint of the kindness and passion that had given her such joy only a short time ago. The worst part of it was some remnant of what he had been still lingered. She could see it, and in blatant shock, she suddenly knew.
He still loved her.
Different now, considering how far he had sunk into his madness, but it was still there. He loved her.
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending
Sobbing harder now, she pulled her hand away from the wall and cradled it around her stomach. This was all she had left now. Her and Baron's child, and her memories. Tears falling hard, she nearly ran from the visitor's room.
Baron Battle stood for a few minutes longer, his hand still pressed to the wall, unshed tears standing in his eyes. He imagined for a moment that he still felt the coolness of her small hand. Then he slowly took his hand down. He would not call after her. He would not tell her he loved her. That, at least, he owed her. He could not stand her pain, for it was his own as well. Better to let it end here. Much better.
He blinked once, and the tears evaporated as if they had never been.
Much better.
So much for my happy ending.