Title: "Then the Skies Changed Again"
Rating: T
Genre: hurt/comfort, romance
Character(s): Oliver, some MM characters, the rest of the EF team, a few OCs
Pairing(s): raise your hand: who likes surprises? (No? Okay. Here's a hint: there won't be any canon pairings present.)
Summary: The walls only rose higher and higher until soon, everyone he held dear were shut out. But then she came, and the tower he had hidden in crumbled brick by brick. AR.
Notes: Third in the Kill the Cliché collection (and which, strangely, is the one posted first) . If you check out my profile, you'll see where the prompt for this came from. You'll also note that the stories in this collection are totally unrelated to each other. Partial credit goes to itslikeababywithamustache whose Tumblr blog post partially inspired this story.
The prompt picked for this encouraged an idea I've been trying to work on for the longest. It's somewhat abstract, but the gist of it should still be here. This story features an alternate version of LREF, and a portion of it is also influenced by the events in The Flash's Killer Frost episode.
So, with that said, can you guess what cliché is being reversed in this story? :)
TW: angst, death, and mentions of blood
He learned pretty early on that defensive walls serve one well. He was four when his father left him and his mother. He didn't understand then why he did so, but one thing was clear: his father held him at a lesser value. He asked his mother one night if what he thought was true, if his dad didn't come back because he didn't love him, and to his mother's credit she didn't lie. She didn't attempt to. She only smiled and told him what he needed to know then: "I love you, baby. Mommy loves you very much. I won't leave. I'll always be here for you."
He accepted that, because time and time again his mother proved true to her word. She made sure he understood how important he was to her. She did her best to give him the life that he deserved, even breaking her back just to work some odd job to sustain both of their needs and nearly all of his wants.
The bricks on the wall were weak then, and for the first several years they only served as a pedestal.
He strengthened his defenses when he began working for Mighty Med. He needed to. His newfound job required him to keep to himself classified information. After his first year, he also learned to do so because the men he thought as friends proved themselves to be manipulative liars bent on discovering the secrets of the superhero hospital.
Sure, Wallace and Clyde expressed some interest in being reformed, but once trust was broken it was hard to put it back to the way it once was. And he'd always known to be cautious anyways. Better safe than sorry, as they say.
Still, even if the tiers of bricks continued to pile up, he left a door open. Time and time again, Kaz proved trustworthy. Though his friend could be a little overzealous and unpredictable, he had never let him down. There was also a girl: Skylar. She constantly left him feeling all sorts of wonderful. He loved it.
So, he left the door open for her, too. She and Kaz could come in his shaded corner of the earth whenever they wished. He didn't mind.
It went well for a while. Then, his mother did the unthinkable.
He pleaded with her. He pleaded with her so desperately, with all his might, to refrain from carrying out her plans. Her heart was in the right place deep down, he knew. But the Arcturion? It wasn't the solution to their problem. It would never be what she wanted it to be. It would take rather than give.
But she didn't listen. She risked her life for something so material.
I love you, baby. Mommy loves you very much.
He guessed that was a lie, too.
As she left, taking off to the skies, he wondered if what he had to offer was ever enough. His father skipped town and didn't bother to stick around to watch him grow up. Now, even his mother refused his love.
Maybe it just wasn't. Maybe that was why they both left him.
He woke up in the middle of the night, alone in his bed, alone in his home, four days after his mother vanished. He and Kaz had abilities now; that was the first thought he had. Then, his eyes caught on a picture of him and his mother.
As deafening silence filled his ears, it came to him that she was never coming back. There was no use staying there in their home. There was no use waiting for her. He would just be wasting his time.
His mother was gone. She had been gone for years now, ever since she discovered about the Arcturion.
It filled him with anger. He had been alone in that house for so many years. How could he have not known? How could he string himself along like that? How could he be so stupid?
Embarrassed and disappointed, he built his walls higher, making sure the blocks were cemented and strong round about him.
The door to his fortress – he started closing that, too.
There were so many bodies that day. People that they knew, people that they'd seen, people that they'd talked to on a daily basis—they were there. They were all there, sprawled about in the dust and ruins of the place they'd accepted as home. Lights flashed about and rescuers hurried to salvage as many from the great destruction, but he…he couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he could do was stare.
He didn't know how to help. It took one rescuer barking an order at him for him to be able to figure out what to do. He helped lift person after person on gurneys, assisted in checking vitals, got what other 'professional' doctors needed, everything. He forced himself to be objective because giving in to fear and panic would only make matters worse.
Skylar and Kaz – they were out there looking for their friends. They would take care of everything he couldn't at the moment.
But then he found them: Alan and his father. The EMTs pulled the white sheets over them just as he began approaching.
He turned around to look for his best friends, but instead, on one of the many gurneys, he found Horace. Rescuers and paramedics surrounded him, trying to revive the head of the hospital although they knew his chances weren't good.
He rushed to him and knelt down beside him. The older physician was gasping, his lungs evidently struggling after he lost a great deal of blood. Horace's eyes wandered around the dark skies as if searching for answers. His fingers, ridges and nails caked with crimson and cuts, twitched occasionally as if reaching out for another hand to steady them.
He took his hand and held it warmly. "Horace? Horace, I'm here. It's Oliver," he said. "I'm here."
Horace slowly turned his eyes at him. For a moment, confusion glazed his irises. Then, he took a breath. He opened his mouth. "A…" he seemed to want to say, but no sound came out.
"Alan?" he asked.
"'s…safe?"
He couldn't tell him. He couldn't tell him his nephew was dead. So he fought himself to gather enough strength for a small smile. "I think he's okay now," he said honestly. "He's not suffering anymore."
The older physician seemed satisfied at that.
As his close friend began to wither before him, he tried to hold back the tears. "Please don't leave," he begged the man who had become like a father to him. "You're the only one I have, man. I can't do this by myself."
Horace looked at him. He squeezed his hand softly to encourage him. Then, he took his last breath.
The night of the funeral, he flew to the mountains and screamed at the sky. What else? Who else would other people, other things take away from him? Hadn't he lost enough?
From that day on, he built his tower higher. He couldn't let anyone get to him again. He wouldn't allow himself to fall for anything ever again. He would keep them out.
He locked the only door, the one that only Kaz and Skylar knew how to get to.
Usually, they could still get through. Sometimes they could not. They knew he kept them out because he was hurting, and they let him have his space. After all, they were hurting, too.
It didn't occur to them that he did this because he was scared. He was terrified of what he would do if he lost them. They were the only people he had that kept him somewhat balanced, kept him breathing and thinking and looking forward to what the next day might hold.
And so he kept them away as reasonably far as he could. It was safer that way.
A new chapter unraveled for the three of them when Donald Davenport made an offer. A new team, in Centium City, with one of his sons and his daughter. They would join forces to keep the city safe while also tracking down those responsible for bringing down Mighty Med.
He was more than ready for it. His friends, his family – they deserved justice.
He packed up his most important belongings and moved to the new place. The change didn't intimidate him, at least not so much. He, Skylar, and Kaz needed a new start. They needed to get out of their home town, the one that reminded them of destruction and loss, so they could focus on rebuilding again.
Still, that didn't mean he wasn't cautious. Sure, they have met Bree and Chase before. They had even worked together to bring down a super villain. Nonetheless, he didn't know much about them.
Bree was not too difficult to trust. Did her passing crush on him influenced his opinion of her? Of course. She may not feel the same way anymore, but at least he could be certain that she didn't mean him any harm.
Chase, he didn't know about. From day one, it had been obvious that both of them had the same roles in their respective groups. It was in Chase's programming to lead, and though he had never been assigned as the leader of their trio, he did enjoy having his input worked into the big plan in some way.
The two of them fared well for a while. Eventually, as he expected, differences arose.
Though he continued to respect the bionic mission leader, he also kept a close eye on him.
Did he push them away too far? He must have. They didn't respond as well to him as they used to.
Kaz seemed to have found a new close friend in Chase. The two boys spent much time hanging out with each other and concocting plans and pranks that were both amusing and annoying. Though they constantly incur the wrath of their housemates, Kaz didn't seem to mind. He was having too much fun with his new friend, one that understood his quirks and went with it.
Skylar also found a new friend, a new sister, in Bree, but she treated him and Kaz pretty much the same. Yeah, she was happier. She may be a bit moody from time to time. But she was still Skylar, the same Skylar Storm that offered him a different perspective on life and on himself.
Yet, like Kaz, she seemed a bit more distant. He had been used to her eye rolls and sighs whenever he did or said something insufferable. Even through years of being friends, she still had to put up with his and Kaz's oddness. He knew those looks of toleration like the back of his hand. He didn't mind them.
But lately she appeared…uncomfortable around him. Once upon a time, she returned his affection for her to a degree, and from that small bit he had learned to be content. Now she didn't. She seemed guilty, withdrawn.
Did I scare them off?
Against his instincts, he threw the door to his safety tower wide open. He did his best to include himself in their lives, even if it irritated them. Kaz would jest and make comments that half the time crossed the line of being demeaning, but he ignored it. Skylar narrowed her eyes at him more frequently, unknowingly making him feel inadequate and a nuisance all over again, but he stuck with them.
He stuck with them even if it hurt, because there was no way on earth he would lose the only people he had left.
"Excuse me, is this… Is this the Davenport Tower?"
When she came, all five of them were immediately on guard. She just flew in, with a piece of paper stuck in her hands and confusion casting a shadow on her face. She wore something that normal girls wear on that kind of weather: blue leather jacket, a sensible scarf tucked underneath, and white jeans and shoes. After another glance, though, it came to him what her clothes emulated: the sky.
"Who are you?" Chase asked.
"Yeah, and how did you find this place?" Bree added.
"Uh, well, it's not that hard. It is the highest building in the city," she said. She pocketed her paper, grinning, before holding out her hand. "My name is— Uh, well, let's leave it at my codename. They call me Catastrophe."
Battle stances, save for him.
She held her hands up. "Look, you guys, I don't mean any trouble. I'm just here looking for work."
"Work?"
"Yeah! I've been going from city to city checking which one still needs a hero. Almost every city has its guardians. I heard Centium City was a free-for-all, but then I just found out that there's a new team now. I was kind of wondering, do you have room for another person?"
After a thorough investigation, they found out that the girl was a new hero coming on the scene. She was seriously desperate for work, any work to do, that would help her establish her status in the superhero community. Gradually, the team warmed up to her. Not that they couldn't; she was energetic, cheerful, and had a larger-than-life personality.
Her smile and her laugh – they were contagious, too.
The rest of the team did their best to entertain her while digging for more information and updating Mr. Davenport of the new development. Bree and Kaz seemed very taken with her, while Chase and Skylar worked together to make sure everything the new girl declared checked out.
Meanwhile, he checked his defenses.
Oliver...Oliver...
He awoke with a gasp. For the fourth time that month, he dreamt about his mother calling to him. The eerie sound of her echoing voice, the warmth of her presence – it all felt real. Every time he woke up, it always felt like she just left his room after watching him and calling to him.
He shivered, like always. Out of fear or out of coldness, he didn't know. He was tempted to tell someone, but he knew he shouldn't. Kaz and Skylar would only tell him it was just a dream; it wasn't true. Chase would tell him he probably had just been thinking too much about his mother and thus ended up dreaming about her. Bree would just look at him apologetically.
None of them would listen. No one there bothered to listen to anyone else but themselves nowadays anyways.
How did they all get to this point? They were supposed to be the good guys. Since when did they become selfless for others but selfish to one another?
He flew out to the only open shop in the city at that early hour of the morning. The location was less than ideal. In fact, it was probably the shadiest street in town. However, he knew the owner, and not a soul's out roaming anymore.
With a weak cup of coffee (he just needed some help in keeping awake) and a factory-made pastry, he sat out on the curb to enjoy the silence.
It had not been ten minutes later when: "Hey. What are you doing here?"
Looking up, he saw the girl taking a seat right beside him, a cup of something steaming also in hand.
"Can't sleep?"
"Uh, don't want to sleep," he replied. "You're up pretty early."
"Can't sleep," she said, smiling.
"Oh. Hey, I'm sorry about, you know. Sorry Mr. Davenport said no."
"It's all right. I figured I won't get in. There's this unspoken rule of having odd numbers when it comes to team members, and there are already five of you, so…"
"Are you gonna go back to looking for a new city?"
"Yeah, but I figured I'll take a quick break. Looking around can be exhausting."
He said nothing. After a bout of hesitance, he offered, "You know, you don't really need anyone's permission if you want to help this city. Even the five of us can't get to everything."
She smirked. "Your bionic homie looks like he wouldn't take to that lightly."
He grinned. "Yeah, he wouldn't, but he'll be all right."
She chuckled.
"Why are you called Catastrophe?"
She smiled fondly at the memory that accompanied the answer. "My abilities. My mom also called me that when I was younger."
"Did you inherit what you have from your parents?"
"My mom. My dad's a lawyer."
"Why do you sound disappointed?"
"No, I'm not disappointed! It's just, you know how it is when you have a professional parent. They want you to be like them, too."
"What about your mom?"
"My mom died. She was like both of us."
"Protecting someone?"
She nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"It – it was a long time ago," she said, waving it away, smiling. "What about you? Where'd you get your abilities?"
"Accident."
"Ah. Those could always go either way. Either you die or you change."
"Not much difference sometimes, really."
She grinned. She knew. "Having powers is not for sissies."
Later, he prompted, "So, professional, huh."
"Ugh, yes. That's why I'm desperate to find a place to base in. It's either I become a superhero like mom, or a doctor like my older sister. Hmph, doctor. I can't think of anything worse," she muttered. "Except maybe a doctor for superheroes."
He stared at her. "I was a doctor for superheroes."
She looked back at him, mortified. Purposely, she digressed into drinking her coffee.
The next few minutes filled up with uncomfortable silence. Soon, though, she broke it with a random question that he entertained out of mercy. They talked, but once he finished with his coffee, he bid her goodbye.
"All right. See you around…?"
"Oliver," he supplied.
"Oliver."
"Yeah, I'll see you around, too…"
"Everly."
"Everly?"
"Only to the people I trust."
"You…trust me?"
She shrugged, smiling. "People who can't sleep and won't sleep at night have one thing in common."
"What, insomnia?"
She smiled. "No. Nightmares."
He stared at first. Then, a small smile tugged at his lips. For the first time in weeks, the load on his shoulder was lighter. "Stupid nightmares," he said, causing her to laugh.
He took off to the skies and went back to Mission Command, smiling at the memory of the conversation.
Coming back from a mission one day, he found his room in a state of absolute disaster. Wreckage lied everywhere. The bed was overturned, glasses smashed, curtains shredded, windows broken. Kaz and Chase assured him that it was not of their doing. Accident? Bree suggested. Maybe one of someone's side experiment went haywire, Skylar said.
No. It was clear that whoever did it did so with a specific intention.
He quickly noticed the markings burned on the walls. After pointing it out, Kaz said that maybe they were unintentional. Chase, on the other hand, thought it deliberate. However, even after hours of trying to decrypt it, no one figured out the message.
No one, except him.
"They're keeping something from you."
"What?" Chase asked.
"Who's – who's keeping something from who?" Kaz asked.
"Me. Something is being kept from me."
"Who would do that?"
"Who would say something like that?"
"Yeah. What does that even mean?"
Amidst the protests and questions, he noticed the way Skylar steeled.
He stared. "I…I don't know," he said, confused.
Was there something that he was missing?
He took the message that his mother left him with a grain of salt. He didn't know what she wanted, but it was very possible that she did what she did to manipulate him. He couldn't let her do that. He wouldn't let her. She had hurt him enough.
Still, he wisely watched his teammates. They were the only they she could be talking about. Yes, she deceived to achieve a goal, and yes, she inclined most towards her personal benefit now, but he knew not to just discard what she said. He trusted the other members of his team the most. However, he knew not to rely on sentiments.
He was a man of science, and men of science rely on proofs.
Proofs like Skylar's reaction. Proofs like his teammates slightly drawing away from him.
If you were here, Horace, what would you have told me to do?
He smiled at that. The older doctor would've probably told him that he wasn't getting paid enough to give advice to teenagers. Then he would've probably yelled out something random, like tiramisu and how funny sounding but delicious it was. Then Alan would've jumped in with an unsolicited but snarky comment, like 'Normos are so strange' or something.
He sighed. He missed them both. He missed them a lot.
"Where are we going?"
"To a special place. We're almost there."
"Okay. But, uh, do we have to hold hands?"
She grinned. "You said you don't have flying fast down pat yet. I'm trying to make sure I don't lose you," she said. "Now let's quit talking. All this air in my mouth's hurting my throat."
They met up several more times for the next three months. All instances were purely coincidental, of course, but by the third time they met at the store's sidewalk she said she was convinced he was following her. (She was kidding, she assured him.) Later on, when he mentioned how flying remained tricky for him, she offered to teach him how to be better at it.
He refused at first, but after she brought out that they needed a different source of adrenaline to sustain their refusal to sleep, he agreed.
One of the first things he noticed about her was that she was touchy. Not short-tempered touchy, but touch touchy. Whenever she laughed heartily, she would lightly push him. Whenever she caught him thinking too deeply that he loses sense of his surroundings, she would softly bump him on the shoulder with hers. When she would instruct him how to fly, like right now, she would take his hand and hold it as if at that moment he was her most important thing.
She never did these things with malicious intent. Neither did she do this out of some romantic feeling for him. He didn't know her too well yet, but from those moments he could tell that that was just the kind of person she was. She needed physical interaction. It was almost like a reassurance to her that the what and when and who of there and then really existed. She also did so out of the abundance of affection in her heart.
He told himself that he wouldn't make another friend, but then she came and made herself an exception.
"Okay, we're almost there. You'll have to close your eyes!" she bellowed above the rush of the wind.
"How? I'm flying. I'm gonna crash!"
"Not right now! In a minute!"
They landed to their destination a moment later, and as promised he closed his eyes. She led him forward, farther and farther. They stopped. "Okay. Open."
He took in the dreary landscape ahead. Besides the admittedly homey structure obviously meant to be a watch post, the place offered nothing much to look at. The gravel beneath them abounded, and the clouds hung gray and brooding. "Where are we?" he asked, confused.
"On the map, it's called Green Town, but the locals call it Ryland Ruins," she proudly replied.
"What state are we in? Is this still Washington?"
"No. We're in Canada."
He gaped. "Canada?"
"Yup. My own little city. It's just got enough people, and most of them are troublemakers. Isn't it beautiful?"
He looked at her. One more time he glanced at the city then their location then the small home. Oh. He chuckled, now impressed. "You found your own spot," he congratulated. "That's awesome!"
"Isn't it? And I've got everything all figured out."
"Wow. You and planning. I never thought those two go together."
She playfully smacked him on the arm. "Seriously, though, I have you to thank for this."
"Me?"
"Yeah, I kind of lost hope after my application for your team got rejected. None in my family's really supportive, you know? And it also seemed to me that my efforts were being wasted. I almost called it quits. I'm really thankful I got to talk to you that night. You're the friend that I needed."
"I mean, I didn't really do anything."
"Yeah you did. You told me that even if there are already many of us out here, the world still needs me."
"I said that."
"Well, not exactly that, but you did say that even Centium City's Fantastic Five can't get to everything there is to get to."
He smiled. The feeling of being important to someone was honestly addicting.
She smiled at him sadly. "You'll come visit me, right?"
"Of course. I'll put it on a GPS so I won't get lost."
"It's not a real GPS if it doesn't get you lost."
"Right. It wouldn't be," he said. "Please stay safe. Maybe take in two more people to help you."
"Aw, you worried about me?"
"I'm worried about the bad guys. You need at least two people to hold you back."
She chuckled. "That's what they get," she said.
"That's what they get," he confirmed.
She exhausted a breath then gazed at him for a moment. "I will miss you. Very much."
"I'll miss you, too."
Unexpectedly, she hugged him. It didn't come to him until then how much he craved that interaction. His team hugged, and Kaz patted him on the shoulder from time to time. Skylar embraced him, too. But they all seemed…empty, devoid of the warmth and honesty that she gave him.
For a girl known for bringing disaster, she was the first one in years to piece some things broken inside him back together.
Seeing gratitude on his features, she smiled and said, "I told you, you can't fall in love with me, Oliver."
He laughed. She always did have a way of making even the brighter things brighter.
He lied awake in bed that night already missing their very early morning 'coffee breaks.' He did wish her the best because she deserved it. The Ruins was fortunate to have a protector like her. Her personality and love for others would be sunny enough to light even the bleakest and darkest of towns.
Still, he wished she had just stayed.
She's a good thing, Oliver. Good things don't stay.
He built his tower higher.
For the following weeks after the big break in and Rodissius' defeat, he started to see and hear his mother more and more. She appeared almost everywhere but then would disappear whenever he tried to get closer. At nights, the same troublesome feeling of having been watched came up more frequently. Kaz did notice his increased wariness, so he ended up telling him.
What does she want? Kaz had asked. I don't know, he had said.
The team did their best to make sure she would never get close to him. They even gave him a watch, one that was equipped with whatever he would need in case he found himself in a situation.
Then, one day, when he was out and about by himself, she showed up.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"To show you everything that you're missing."
He took in the gauntness and pallor of her face. She was not the same woman in the family photograph he kept in his luggage. That thought only brought back the disappointment and anger. "If you're here to kill me, then kill me now. I don't want to play your games anymore."
"I would never hurt you, Oliver. I need you with me. I can give you everything that you want."
"They'll defeat you."
"No one can stop me."
"You're right. No one can stop you. I begged you not to leave, but you left anyways," he said. "You're just like Dad."
The small, wily smile on her face didn't fade. "I did this for you."
"You did this for yourself."
"Is this how a superhero welcomes his mother?"
"You stopped being my mother when you chose the Arcturion over me."
Her smirk widened. "You trust your friends more than you trust me?"
"If you still care about me, please don't ruin the last good thing that I have."
"You're not a man of blind devotion, Oliver," she said as he turned to leave. "I know you want to know."
He thought about it. He hesitated.
And he knew those were his biggest mistakes.
His mother grabbed him by the wrist. "Pretty watch," she commented, smiling at it. Afterwards, a gray tornado suddenly swallowed them whole.
When it dissipated, he found himself by a quiet lakeside. Towering over the greening scenery at the distance was a tree, under which the four people that he considered as friends stood. A picnic blanket was messily spread on the grass. Food and drink littered the place. Kaz and Chase stood by it, both boys splattered and drenched with what must have been lunch. Meanwhile, though he couldn't see their faces, he identified Bree and Skylar standing speechlessly opposite them.
"Look, I – I know this is not what you were expecting to find," Kaz said to one of the girls. "Believe me, I had everything perfectly in place. But then a baby bear came, and we had to scramble and climb up the tree because Chase thought they were too cute to scare away—"
"It was really cute."
"—and when it left, it's just – everything's all over the place. I didn't have enough time to – to fix it," Kaz said, dejected. "This is not what you deserve. I'm sorry."
"He really did do his best," Chase vouched. "He baked a cake and everything."
Still, they lapsed into silence.
"I love it."
Kaz looked up at Skylar, surprised. "You do?"
The Calderian nodded. "It's the best anniversary lunch I've ever had," she said.
"Well, technically, this is the only anniversary dinner you've ever—"
Kaz swatted Chase on the arm. Then, at Skylar, he smiled. "Happy first anniversary," he said.
Skylar came to his arms and hugged him. "Happy first anniversary," she said.
His world fell apart. Oblivious now to everything else, his feet took him closer to his teammates. He didn't know when he stopped. He just knew that soon after he did, Chase noticed his presence. Sensing the change, Bree then Kaz then Skylar looked at him.
"You…you two had been seeing each other?" a voice sounding like his asked.
"Hey, man, look, just let me explain—"
"And you two knew about it?" he asked Bree and Chase.
The question mortified the siblings. Instinctively, Chase mouthed to his sister, "You're supposed to be checking."
His brows furrowed. Checking?
Pretty watch, his mother's voice echoed.
He stared at the gadget, dumbstruck. No. It wasn't meant to protect him. It was meant to protect them from being discovered.
A riptide of anger overturned the stagnant waters of confusion inundating him. "How could you do this to me?" he screamed at his best friend. "You knew how I felt about her!"
"Oliver, please," Skylar entreated. "We were going to tell you."
"When?"
Skylar tried to give an answer but found that she had not an honest one.
Furious, disappointed, and embarrassed, he ripped the watch off his wrist and tossed it to the ground. "I chose to trust all of you even when she told me not to. Ah, that was so stupid of me!" he said. "But I guess this is what I get. I guess it's all on me."
"Oliver—"
He took off, drowning out the voices of the people he wanted neither to see nor hear from. He sped through the muggy clouds, his lungs filling with the suffocating air. However, it didn't matter. His mind didn't register any of it. All he wanted now was to be somewhere else but that city.
How could he have let himself be that gullible? How could he let someone else do that?
He decided that he wouldn't let anyone fool him ever again from now on. He strengthened his walls, and finally sealed then cemented the door. He closed the only window to the world outside, too.
Solitude and darkness hurt much less.
The next two days in Mission Command filled up with tension. He spoke to none of them, and he thwarted any attempts of theirs to talk. He still went on whatever mission came in, did what he could to help while blowing off some steam. However, even those didn't suffice. Alerts came in too far in between, and he could only stand being in the headquarters with nothing to do for so long.
By the third night, he decided to leave and go to the one person he felt comfortable talking to.
"Do you have a minute? I really just need to let all of, whatever this is, out," he said when she opened the door.
"Uh, sure? There's a good coffee shop nearby we could—"
"No. It needs to be here. Right here, right now."
She blinked. "Um, okay? Let it rip."
So he talked. He talked and he talked in a way that he never knew he could talk before. He told her everything, from the start of the matter to the finish. Thankfully, the speed and the intensity of the words coming at her didn't faze her. She listened without judging and allowed him to be furious.
When he finished, he felt better. Briefly he wondered how wise it was to tell all of these to someone not too close to him. Then again, at this point in his life, he didn't care.
"Wow. Here I was thinking I'm having a tough time," she commented sympathetically.
"I don't know what to do now," he told her honestly. "What should I do?"
She smiled sadly. "Why are you asking me?"
"'Cause I can't think straight anymore. I'm too angry and confused and...And I don't know why I can't have anything when everyone else around me have everything." He exhausted a breath. "I don't see any point in anything anymore."
She gazed at him with empathy. "Maybe now's the perfect time to find out why you chose to do what you've chosen to do," she offered. "You owe it to yourself to step back and give yourself some room to breathe. There's no use trying to do the right thing when you don't know why it's the right thing. It's worse when being good doesn't make you happy anymore. If you don't stop, something in you will break, and you might just become the person you're scared to become."
He smiled, appreciative of her advice. "Okay."
She grinned. "Okay?"
He nodded. "Okay," he said. "I'll do that."
"Great. That's what I want to hear."
"But," he said, "I'll only do it once we get rid of this family-of-shapeshifters problem. Every superhero in that file is in danger."
"Including me?"
"No, not including you." Thankfully. "It just wouldn't be right to leave when there's something that needs to be done."
"Well, all right. In that case, I think I have the solution to your pest problem."
He stared incredulously. "You do?"
"Mm-hm. Been planning it since I've heard about it. If it works, we can neutralize every single family member's ability, from their most dominant to their most recessive," she said proudly. "I've got a biochemist and an extra deranged mad scientist on deck. Got an archer and a Kesilian, too. And you, if you're up for it."
He chuckled in disbelief. Months and months rolled by with no hint of an end to Centium City's plague. Now, he had just found the person and the plan that could save them. "You know, I could kiss you," he said.
"You kiss me, honey, you're gonna have to marry me," the teenaged girl wittily replied. "Now, come on. We can give you all the details inside."
Unlike the past three days, he spent the next few hours preoccupied with the formidable plan the small team had stacked up against Rodissius' brood. He listened to their tactics, pitched in with suggestions. He offered to supply them with the DNA sample that they needed (namely Reece's hair left on Perry's hair brush). Once done, he also spent some time with the Ruins' new team, hearing out their stories.
It was well into the morning when everything finished, but the trio wouldn't let him go.
So, he stayed with them—and he had the best sleep he'd ever had in weeks.
There came a small snag in the plan.
The rest of Centium City's super team found out about it, and they wanted in on the action. They had been insistent, especially the Davenport siblings. Their uncle had to live life blind now because of Rodissius' daughter, and they didn't take to that lightly. They wanted to bring justice for what happened. They wanted to take part in bringing the villains down.
The Kesilian from the other camp had been against it. No way would some teenage know-it-alls bust their strategy. The archer agreed. The more unexpected and unaccounted variables exist, the more likely things could go south. Their team leader, on the other hand, remained close-lipped about it. Nonetheless, it was evident that she sided with her team.
"It's our turf. Don't we at least have some right to take part in this?" Chase had argued.
"You will take part in this. Oliver is your representation," Gaia, the Ruins' archer, said smartly.
"But it's best if—"
"He knows the plan the best," reasoned Zul'Ah the Kesilian, the timbre of his voice low and earthy. "Our device, our plan, our team, our call. We did not come to ask for permission, we came out of courtesy."
"There must be a way we can reach some compromise."
"There is," Gaia told Bree. "We had made it, we had reached it. End of story."
And thus ended both camps' first and last attempt to establish an agreement.
He assured the Ruins' trio that he had not betrayed them. Thankfully, they believed him and had not a change of heart about taking him along. Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Mission Command soured into something less than congenial. Silence often filled the once warm and noisy home. There also existed anger and hurt feelings, this time in the other members of the team.
Perhaps that was why Kaz caved one day. After catching him at the balcony one afternoon, the other ex-doctor asked, "What is it going to take for all of this to stop? It's been weeks. Our team – it's falling apart."
"I can't just overlook what happened."
"Well, okay, what do you want? I know that sorry's not gonna cut it. Do you want me to break up with Skylar? 'Cause I could – I think I could shoot for that," Kaz said. "Oliver, we've been friends since we were little, and I've always thought that we're gonna be friends 'til we grow old. At this point, man, I'm willing to do almost anything so this fight would stop."
After thinking over it, he said, "Okay. I'm willing to let it stop, but under one condition."
"Yeah. Yeah, sure. Let's hear it."
"Convince Bree and Chase not to get involved in this mission. You and Skylar, you both can't get involved either."
That struck Kaz as difficult. Nonetheless, he acquiesced. "And after this, you'll try to forgive me?"
"I promise you that things here will go back to the way they need to be."
True to his word, he came to Mr. Davenport right before he left for the Ruins. He would be flying to the city to prepare with the team there for the mission. He wouldn't have time when he got back so he took the opportunity. "My decision is final, Mr. Davenport," he said when the billionaire expressed utter surprise. "I'll only be coming back to get the rest of my things."
"I mean, are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he said. "I'm officially withdrawing from the team after this mission. You can fill my place with whomever you'd like after that."
The mission went well initially. Then, it didn't.
They were caught off-guard. They prepared for the possibility of the family discovering their plan and putting up a fight, but they didn't count on what ensued. Complete and utter chaos reigned once Gaia triggered the countdown to their machine. Mists and smoke and screaming dominated the air. The Ruins' leader did her best to hold their opponents off. The shapeshifters were ready for them, but there appeared to be confusion on their side. It was as if an advantage they relied on suddenly vanished from underneath them.
He only really recalled that one moment, the one before he blacked out. He and the Kesilian had gone off to retrieve the extraterrestrial mineral powering the family. Then, all of a sudden, before they could even touch it, it exploded.
He woke up in Mission Command hours later, Kaz and Skylar by his side. The fight was over, they said, and they had won. The evildoers had been placed in a secure facility, and the information stolen had been retrieved. But then, he also learned that their victory had come with a price.
Zul'Ah didn't make it. The crystal that exploded turned out to be deadly to his kind. He bore the brunt of it to shield the teenager, but in doing so he brought himself the greatest harm. Catastrophe and Gaia were safe, but then they had to deal with the sudden seizure of their headquarters. Someone had tipped the government of their existence there, and now the rest of the team had to deal with false accusations and outrageous charges. They hadn't even had any time to mourn.
Somewhere along the stream of information given to him, he picked up on what Roman confessed. Bridget had promised to help them but then withdrew without warning.
He didn't really hear anything else after that, because he knew. He knew that all of what happened was his fault. A good friend had died again, and this time because of him. His mother continued to destroy everything because he resisted. The only girl that would listen was in trouble, and he couldn't even do anything to help her.
With those thoughts, something in him fractured, and he didn't know if what fell apart could ever be mended again.
He did his best to find some peace and understanding. He sought it by returning to the one place that, he believed, still offered him a degree of constancy: home. It gave him solace for a while. It didn't eradicate the numerous bad days, but it did give him something to go on with.
Then something began to change.
He started to lose control in increasing frequency. At first, he thought it was only a result of grief, but it only got worse with time. Little things start to irritate him, and he found that he progressively cared lesser and lesser about things and people that used to matter a lot to him. It worried him, especially after that one instance when he said something awful to Gus.
He was really, really sorry, and he told him so.
It claimed him physically, too. He noticed small spikes in his abilities. There were times when he was stronger than normal, flew faster than how he used to. The vortices he created at one time grew to a threatening proportion. The ice he generated plunged into dangerous degrees.
There was also the matter of his appearance. Jordan had once pointed out that he looked paler and sicker than usual. Even his hair, she said, changed into an unusual hue. "You're like Anna when she was getting frozen from the inside out," she said. And he couldn't deny it; he saw it, too.
But he excused that all of these were just temporary. Even if they were not, they wouldn't be something truly dreadful. After all, it did feel like his abilities were easier to control, and the sudden pallor felt like it was just a result of a seasonal cold.
Little did he know that these only served as distractions. It lulled him into apathy with ease.
When he least expected it, like sleep, it overtook him unyieldingly.
All of the vile, deep-seated anger in him rose to the fore. The bursts of anger stilled into permanent coldness towards anyone and everyone. Apologizing? Ridiculous. He had a right to be upset and do and say the things he wanted to. If his life would go down in flames, he was going to take everyone responsible for it down with him.
After an indeterminate length of time, his mother showed up again. He tried to contain her (she belonged in prison), but he failed. Still, his efforts seemed to please her. "You're almost ready," she said before vanishing one more time.
He kept his eyes towards the tower. Thanks to the efforts of Centium City's finest super team, he now knew where they hid Roman and Riker.
He must have really spooked them the last time he visited. All he wanted to do then was pay them a little visit and tell them his account of what happened the night Mighty Med fell. He might've tried to do a little demonstration of his increased abilities, too, especially the vortices. That wasn't wrong, though, was it? He just wanted to show them.
Either way, they must've been really thankful that Tecton jumped in to stop him.
He came back days later as promised, but the family wasn't there anymore. It took a little research to find out where they were. It was somewhat tough, he had to admit, but the little how-to-find-shapeshifters technique that he learned from Gaia came in really handy.
That was how he ended up coming back in Centium City.
The members of the Elite Force tried to stop him from coming any closer. Tried. They talked to him, reasoned, pleaded with him to stop the madness, but like them towards each other, he didn't listen. When talking didn't work, they resorted to using force.
He had to give it to them: they made him work hard for what he wanted.
"Oliver!"
"Oliver, please, stop! This isn't you."
It wasn't? He guessed they really wouldn't know. They were always too busy marveling over their own importance.
He left the trail of disaster behind and continued on. However, the arrival of someone he hadn't seen for a long time caused him to pause. "Oliver," she spoke to him after flying in. "Oliver, don't do this."
He watched her, mildly interested. "Are you here to keep them safe, too, Catastrophe?"
"I'm here because I care about you."
Truth or lie? It didn't matter. He walked on and continued past her.
"It's not worth it," she told him, keeping up. "Ending all of them is not the answer."
"I beg to differ."
She stepped in front of him. "Oliver, just stop! Okay? Just stop," she said. "Zul'Ah didn't save you to do things like these."
"I didn't ask him to save me."
She pushed him back when he tried to move ahead. "You didn't have to," she said, now almost as angry as he. "He saved you because he believed in you. He knew that even if he died it would be worth it. You would be worth it."
"He was wrong."
"No. He wasn't."
The smallest of smirks briefly pulled on his lips. She really was amusing.
"If they die in your hands now, that wouldn't be justice. You'd be giving them an easy way out," she reasoned. "I know you want them to pay for what they did to your friends, but this? This isn't it."
"One of them died in front of me, Catastrophe, but then I guess you really wouldn't know how that's like. After all, your mother didn't die in front of you," he said coldly. "Now move out of my way."
"Your mother is using you to bring everything down, can't you see?" she said. "You're sick because of her! That thing that killed my friend? She put it there to force you to do all these bad things because she couldn't get you to! You wouldn't do it! And the real you wouldn't. The real you would resist her and fight."
He glared at her when she caught up to block him. "Don't test me," he told her.
However, instead of retaliating with a similar glare, she looked at him with empathy. "Life must've gotten pretty lonely for you because this part of you has everyone shut out. You're keeping everyone away. I don't know everything that happened in your life, and I don't need to, but I'm sorry to see you're hurt and sad, Oliver. You sure don't deserve that," she said. She took a deep breath. "But you haven't lost everything. Bree and Chase are still your friends. Kaz and Skylar are here for you. They both care so much about you. And you have me. I care about you, too. I love you."
"Your love will just go to waste."
"I don't think love can be wasted on someone who gives so much of it."
He screamed when something sharp suddenly pierced him on the back of the shoulder. Uncontrollably, he weakened. He tried to root out the cause. He reached for his back, and then pulled out the object. By the time he saw the arrow, he had already staggered and was falling.
"It's okay, Oliver. I've got you," she said after catching him. She lowered him down the pavement and held him. "I got you."
There was a warm smile on her face as she promised to be with him when he woke up.
He didn't remember anything else besides that.
An indelible migraine welcomed him back to consciousness. It pounded against his skull so insistently that he spent his first waking seconds trying to block the pain out. He attempted to sit up, hoping the movement would allay it some, but one swift move reminded him of the wound sitting near the blades of his shoulder.
"Hey, hey," came a soothing call. "Easy. Does it hurt a lot?"
The aches ebbed away eventually. Soon, he was able to turn to the person sitting at his bedside. "Where are we?" he asked.
"The Sandstorm Dome, or as Gaia likes to call it, the place they stuffed us in as reparation for busting us for no reason."
He attempted a smile. "Sounds like a mouthful," he joked. She chuckled. "What are we doing here?" he asked.
"Do you remember anything?"
"No. At least not a lot."
"What do you remember?"
He did his best to recall. He wished he hadn't. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do any of it," he said.
She patted his hand warmly. "Don't worry. We know."
"Is everyone okay?"
"They'll be fine. Soon they'll be coming to see you."
He nodded. "How much trouble am I in?"
"Not a lot. We told them about the stone, that you didn't do those things out of your own initiative. They were willing to let you off with a warning."
"Am - am I gonna be okay? Is it gone now?"
"You'll be all right." She grinned. "And it's mostly gone. It'll take a while, but Gaia took a nice shot. It should be gone completely in a few hours."
He said nothing, only felt more embarrassed for the things he had said and done. "I couldn't stop it once it started happening. Everything just came out," he confessed. "I can't remember everything, but the ones that I do – it's all horrible. I've created a big mess. I don't know where to start now."
She smiled. "Do you remember what I told you? About your old team? About Kaz and Skylar?"
He thought about it. He did remember, however little.
"Start with that," she said.
And you have me. I care about you, too. That memory of her reminded him of how empty his hands were. He doubted he had much of anything worthy on the inside. "I have nothing to offer you," he told her honestly. "None that you or anyone would want."
"You have a lot to offer, many things that I and everyone else need," she told him.
He smiled. Then, he chuckled. Why must she be so sweet and kind? "You know I could kiss you," he joked, even if a part of him died at the thought that he could never be with someone like her.
She smiled. Then, she did what he thought was impossible: she leaned in and kissed him.
All those times of building his walls came rushing back in his mind. The feeling of having swept away the dark haze that clouded his many memories and replaced them with an extraordinary light. His heart beat fast because somehow, someway, he ended up being loved by the girl he didn't know he loved so greatly. It scared him because he didn't want to expect so much and be disappointed again.
But then she drew back and with a smirk told him, "I might have kissed you, but the condition still applies."
Brick by brick, his tower shattered to the ground.
Yes, he was definitely in love with the princess that saved him.
Kill the Cliché Prompt:
"The prince is waiting in his tower for the princess to save him."
Still planning on making a chapter image for Everly aka Catastrophe in the future. :)
Constructive reviews and comments are appreciated.