Heya guys! First chapter of 'Damned 3b' is here! I'm a realist and I know it isn't very captivating… so, I just want to let you know it will get better. I think :D
Extended summary:
How to deal with your fiancée almost getting voluntarily buried alive under a building together with his basically dead ex; a manual by V.M.:
1) freak out .
2) take off the ring
3) run
4) find another vigilante at whose couch you can crush on
5) think about what happened as little as possible, or, well, try
10) think about your next move… eventually
Crying and punching things is allowed in and between each step of the plan.
A crossover with Arrow. Slightly heavier than the summary.
Set right after All Roads Lead to Hell (aka the Defenders rewrite)
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1. The great escape
…aka run as fast as you can. Vera's POV.
She was indescribably grateful to Oliver for taking her in. She had no idea where else to go; she had nowhere else to go. If she wanted to run away, run somewhere Matt wouldn't find her, her only options were Czechia and Starling City. Czechia was way farer, in safer distance, but also way more definite. Any other potential shelter was in Hell's Kitchen, where Matt would find her with no trouble; of course, that was, if he would come after her. She had no idea if he would. After all, she had left the ring behind, because she couldn't imagine getting over this, didn't know how to get over him basically killing himself, over him dying for his ex, who was some sort of a zombie— Vera didn't know anything anymore. Hence the running away. Somewhere far, but with a potential way back, because she still had a job and stuff.
Felicity was very willing. Oliver was absolutely taken aback and less willing, probably because he knew what had happened and didn't approve, but he took her on board anyway. Before she knew it, she was falling asleep, curled up in a ball, her mind blank and frantic at the same time.
She closed her eyes, imagining she was in some sophisticated gadget that was sending her back in time. She just needed to figure out which moment she wanted to return to. Before the tremors to prevent what had happened? Before deciding to say yes, now when she knew her relationship wasn't— wasn't? Before coming back to New York from Czechia for the same reason? Before coming to New York City for the first time…?
She fell asleep hoping that when she would wake up, she would be back in the right moment to change things to better; no matter which moment she would be thrown into.
When she woke up, time was still the same. Oliver's gentle hand was on her shoulder, quiet voice announcing her they were in Starling. Which only meant that the nightmare she just had, dreaming in impossibly vivid colours about destruction, betrayal, failure and death wasn't a nightmare, but her life. That was disappointing. Also, she was really tired and her head was under the attack of dull pain.
To make it perfect, she now remembered every detail, recalling the strangest and rawest feelings of the… cacophony after the building collapsed among other things.
So as she followed Oliver and Roy into a cab in the middle of the night in an empty private part of an enormous airport, she gathered her courage, walking by Roy's side.
"Roy?" she rasped, clearing her throat to sound like a human being. The man in question look at her, surprised.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry I elbowed your face… and… stuff," she murmured, remembering his arms around her, trying to keep her in place, trying to keep her from running into a building on fire, still exploding. Trying to keep her alive.
A tired smile ghosted over his face. "It's okay. Occupational hazard."
"Where to?" the driver asked and Oliver gave him two different addresses.
"Vera? Where would you like to stay? You have several options," Oliver offered kindly and Vera's head spun.
She was a freaking refugee, an asylum seeker, and she could even choose? What the actual hell?
"I don't really care, Oliver. Wherever I'll be intruding the least."
"We were talking with Roy while you were asleep. His apartment is tiny, but you can stay with him."
Vera wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sure, Roy seemed nice enough, she had no doubt she could trust him, but if the apartment was really small… he was a complete stranger and he had already done so much for her…
"You can stay with me and Felicity, the couch is sure free."
Her stomach rolled over at the idea. She wasn't sure she could stay with the two lovebirds; she wasn't sure how recent their get-together was, and seeing them together… not to mention she would be the third wheel. She prayed there was a third option.
"Or you can stay at the base," he whispered lowly, "secret lair if you want to call it that. It's under a nightclub, my father's old steel factory. It's a little cold, but there is shower and bed. You would be alone there for the night, but we would be dropping by randomly later."
Vera bit her lip. The choice was obvious. Alone might be what she needed right now.
"If I really can choose? Alone it is," she admitted.
The only answer she got was Oliver's nod, his expression enigmatic. Whatever he thought about her decision, he wouldn't let her know. He just added one more address on the driver's list. They were about to pay a fortune. Somehow, Vera didn't care.
They dropped off Roy first and headed to the foundry only with Oliver. In the end, he paid for the cab, answering to Vera's puzzled look with 'I'll take my bike.'
The basement of the factory was indeed cold. And very spacious. And kinda dark. And there were lots of pointy objects, several computers, scientific equipment, workout equipment, display cabinets with a dummy – for the suits? –, and then there was a fern and a bed. Well. That was not what Vera had imagined. She kinda liked it here.
"Okay. So the bathroom's there and if you go up the stairs, you find yourself in a storeroom of the club with lots of alcohol. The password for the door is 739182. You can use the computers, but try not to mess with the running algorithms. I'll give you some clean sheets and a towel. You need anything else?" he asked as he walked through the base with confidence, tossing away both his and Roy's bags.
Vera couldn't think of anything, still awe-struck. She accepted the sheets and watched Oliver put away his costume… on the mannequin. Oh god. It looked cool, sure, but oh my god.
He looked at her expectantly when he was done and Vera realized he was still waiting for an answer to his question. She shook her head.
"No, no, I'm good. Thanks— thank you for everything. This is much more than I could ask for," she babbled, earning a soft smile from the man and a careful touch on her arm.
"Hey, it's okay. Try to get some rest. We can figure out everything later. I'll text you my number so you can let me know if you need anything. I'll drop by at some point, okay?"
Vera nodded and tried to smile gratefully, barely keeping the tears from rolling down her cheeks. God, this was… she didn't even have words.
"Thanks. Have a good night."
The moment he passed her, she closed her eyes and released the waterfall. She changed the sheets and fell asleep in no time, still crying.
Vera didn't know what time she had went to sleep. She woke up with a startle, feeling herself falling into the darkness. She snapped her eyes open, staring at the grey industrial ceiling dully, unable to identify the space she was in. Until… well. Until she remembered. Starling City. Right. No nightmares; just the reality of life.
She ran her hand down her face as she felt tears stinging her eyes at the memories. Fuck. Fuck.
She wished to curl up in a ball and sleep through the rest of her life. The gnawing pain of betrayal sat heavily in her stomach, her head spinning slightly. High blood pressure, Veronika. You're too stressed, too upset, too ready to fight or flee. Yeah, well. It wasn't like she could do anything about it. And she had already done the flee part. And the fight right before that.
She checked the time, finding it was after 8 a.m. already; which would be interesting and make her wonder what time they had arrived and how long she had slept except seeing the phone screen meant finding six missed calls from Matt – from her ex-fiancée – and that made her toss the phone at the other end of the bed and indeed curl up into foetal position, muffling body in the covers as much as possible. She was alone at the base with no one to see her and hear her, but she was still grateful that the pillow silenced her sobbing and cursing.
The next time she woke up, it was to a sound of someone typing on a keyboard. Vera blinked her eyes open. She rolled over – what an exhausting move – squinting at the source of the noise. She didn't see much without her glasses, but she was pretty positive the person was blond. And female.
"Oh, hey. Sorry to wake you up," the woman offered, apologising. "I just thought I'll stop by since I have a lunch break, check up on my wonderful work."
And on you, Vera's sleepy brain supplied not so helpfully. She reached for her glasses, the picture finally getting sharp.
Wait. "Did you say lunch break?" Vera asked incredulously.
Felicity's eyebrow rose. "Uhm, yeah."
"What time is it?"
"A little after noon."
"Shit."
"Yeah." Felicity made a face. And Vera realized how rude she was; she climbed up from the bed, running her hand through her hair as if it could make her look like less of a mess.
"I'm sorry. Uhm. Hi. Thanks for letting me stay… and for sending me back-up. They saved— lives," she said in the end, reluctant to say his name.
Felicity smiled briefly. "I heard. I mean… Oliver told me, but I was the eyes and ears until they went under. You know… traffic cameras. Security cameras… things like that."
Vera stared at her in shock. "You can do that?"
The blonde looked offended and Vera elaborated quickly. "I mean, do that at such distance?"
"Vera, I didn't make a trip to Cambodia to get the photos I sent you," she sounded slightly amused now. Vera bit her lip. Christ, that was a lifetime ago. Everything had been so different back then… "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Vera shook her head. "I know you didn't."
"History likes to repeat itself, huh? Fearing for his life? I know there was so much more for you, but… when I saw the building explode and couldn't see Oliver out, his comms not responding… "
Vera bit her lip harder, looking away. The pang of fear was unexpected. She knew Matt's injuries weren't serious, but just the memory of seeing the building go down, the utter helplessness…
"I don't want to… stick my nose in your business-" Felicity started and Vera was sure that moment that Felicity actually did want to, because no one said a thing like that unless they did, "but Oliver told me what happened down there."
Vera gulped, wrapping her arms around her torso. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to-
"I can't take either side, but I've been there when Oliver felt like he needed to save everyone, even those who couldn't be saved. Sometimes it worked out like with Roy, sometimes it didn't. But he wouldn't give up on anyone, no matter how crazy it seems. Some people are like that."
Vera quickly wiped away her tears, refusing to think about Felicity's words. She didn't want to think about anything. Thinking hurt. Remembering hurt. Revealing the truth hurt. Lies and secrecy were malicious, but the truth… the truth could be brutal. Devastating.
"Yeah. Uhm… I… I really don't want to-" she rasped, clearing her throat uselessly.
"Sorry for bringing it up. No more probing your personal life, I promise. Just… you wouldn't know what caused the earthquake, would you? We had a run with a machine that could cause something similar only at larger scale last year and we actually discovered someone tried to rebuild it, so…"
Ironically enough, Vera sighed in relief. This was a little safer topic. She had nothing to say to it, but if was safer. "Don't know about that."
"And the weird powered people? Do you know if they were… injected? With some strengths inducing serum? Cause we've been there too."
"Uhm… I'm sorry, I have no idea. Roy mentioned something about… the serum you're probably talking about, it sounded a little like 'miracle', but otherwise… I know a bulletproof guy and a super-strong woman, but I don't know how that happened. The only source of superpowers I know is toxic waste, maybe. …and Chi. Which is some kind on an inner energy? A guy can light up his fist thanks to that and… and punching a dragon to its heart. I have no idea how… how they brought someone back to sort of a life…. So… uhm… yeah. That."
Vera could tell that the IT girl was looking at her like she was crazy even without checking.
"Wow. Okay. Well. I tried," Felicity babbled nonsensically and it made Vera smile inconspicuously. She knew she liked Felicity for a reason. And probing her love-life was not it.
"Sorry. I wish I could be more help. Make myself useful since I'm… using your hospitality."
The other woman smiled at Vera with surprising warmth. "Speaking of hospitality. Did Oliver show you the snacks? They have some protein bars stocked here…" she walked to a cabinet, opening the third drawer. "But, I have my secret stash of sweets."
"That's nice. Thank you. But I need to find a store anyway. And… uhm… there isn't a washing machine anywhere right? So a Laundromat too."
"Oh. I'll have Oliver to drop some of my clothes later if you want. It might be a little short, but I'm sure we can find something."
"Really?" Vera asked, incredulous. "I don't want to… I'm already making so much trouble-"
"Please," Felicity leaned in, whispering conspiringly. "We offer our safe-house too often. At least you're a guest without the potential to become a super-villain… right?"
She winked at Vera and Vera couldn't help but chuckle.
"Thanks. Yeah, I would appreciate that. Any good tips for Italian or something?"
"I'll text you a list from work including addresses. I gotta run. You're gonna be okay here?"
Vera smiled at her sadly. "As much as I can be," she admitted with a knot in her stomach and Felicity gave her a compassionate look.
"Yeah. Wouldn't expect more."
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Notes:
More of an introduction, I know, short too. I felt like it needed to be made and I didn't quite want it to be in the same chapter as— you'll see what ;)