Summary - Elastigirl had never considered herself a weak person. But what if Violet had turned evil? And what would a confrontation between daughter and mother have been like?
Hints of Viydrome.
Warning! There is one swearword in this piece. You have been warned...
Disclaimer - I do not own The Incredibles.
The force field smashed her against the far wall before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. A grunt of pain passed involuntarily through her parted, cracked lips as she pulled herself up, body stretching ten feet in the process as a reflex.
Clutching at the wall behind her for support, Elastigirl scanned the area around her. It was just light enough to make out the shape of several large rocks, shadows cast by the pinhole of light against the ragged surface around her. The cave had stretched deeper than Helen had anticipated and she was now regretting following the villain alone, without backup, completely venerable to somebody that knew her every weakness.
"Show yourself!"
A rock flew in her direction, driven by a flash of purple. Caught off guard, Elastigirl barely dodged the boulder, and it scrapped her arm, cutting into flesh and leaving the blood to flow out onto her super suit.
Hissing in pain, she ran her hand over the wound."Violet, liste-"
"My name is Vicin." The younger girl appeared in a flash, inches away from her face. She looked no different. Same pale skin and sinister shade of straight, jet black hair, which hung loosely over her shoulders. Her eyes glowered into her own, and she could see the loss of youth and innocence that reflected in the plum orbs. She was so used to seeing the shade, so similar to her husband's, reveal kindness and love when she looked into them, so when she saw nothing but cold, she felt her heart break.
"I'm right here, Elastigirl. Nice to see you've stopped going by Mrs Incredible; that was comical." She snickered and sent another force field at her mother, knocking her off her feet before she could dodge it.
"It wasn't right anymore." She murmured, hoping to coax some light or regret from her only daughter. Anything to show she actually cared.
"Oh, how sentimental!" She threw her head back and Helen winced at the unnatural cackle came from her and bounced off the walls.
The shimmering of unshed tears stung her eyes, but she would not cry in front of 'Public enemy one'. Not in front of her baby. Violet stared into her eyes, as if reading the emotions that lay beyond the mask, pining her mother down to the floor.
Where did I go wrong with you?
"Brutal, terrorist, murderer, a threat to the public and their wellbeing..."
The tabloids would spit at them, their daily heartbreak and guilt weaved its way into their daily routine. Jack-Jack couldn't remember her; all he knew of his only sister was of the pain she had caused his family. Dash was quieter after she left, like a piece of him left with the slamming of the door. Over time, his sorrow had turned to resentment, followed by hate, followed by numbness.
"As Vicin strikes once more, we are forced to ask; will we ever be completely safe again?"
She could remember the day Violet left like it was yesterday, and rarely a day went by when she didn't replay the scene over and over in her mind, wondering how she didn't stop her from suddenly leaving, and becoming absent from their lives.
"I have had it with being part of this 'family'!" Violet screamed, the intensity of their previous argument still fuelling both group's frustrations.
"I can't even talk to people without being called out on some mission that I don't give a shit about!" she shot to her parents who were stood together, facing her.
"Violet, please. We can talk about this-"Helen reached out to her daughter, the severity of her words suddenly made her realise what might happen if they continued arguing.
"There's nothing to talk about!"
"She's right, Helen!" Bob shouted, "There is nothing to talk about. If she wants to go, then go!" He roared, flaring his arms accusingly and tensing his fists.
A flash of purple smashed against the fireplace, knocking down the collection of family pictures to the floor. Helen and Bob on their wedding day; Violet with Dash and Jack-Jack back when they were kids; the family portrait.
The glass smashed.
Stomping to the front door she turned only to wave sarcastically, before slamming the door shut, leaving an echo dying around the eerie house.
That was the last they heard from her, until about six months later, when the media had reported a new deadly villian had attacked a inventor's laboratory, killing him and his young assistant. The blame had immediatly been pointed to Syndrome, and The Incredibles had been called out to 'finish him, once and for all'. They didn't know they would later regret the split decision to kill him on the spot. This new villian, identified only by her jet black hair and super suit, had struck again, and again, and again. The police decided that it was time to call in the 'professionals'.
The very villain she and her husband had been sent to capture; their only daughter.
He had never meant what he'd said, and had spent every day since she left looking for her, sullen with guilt and regret. She didn't realise that it had been the heat of the argument that caused her father's outburst, and that her departure and transition to a spree of heinous crime and evil had broken his heart.
Violet leant over her mother, the betrayal suddenly lucid in her eyes. Raising her arms, she stepped back and beckoned over the nearest boulder to her, and hovered it above Helen's head.
"You won't kill me." Her voice wavered, betraying the confidence she tried to fake. She could easily get away, in a split second she could be on the other side of the room, with the upper hand. But she needed to know there was an ounce of goodness left the icy capsule of her daughter's heart; so she stayed put; with the boulder hovering over her head. What had forced her beautiful, innocent baby to turn against everything she had ever taught her?
How did I let this happen?
"Perhaps not. But how can I really resist..?"
The boulder hovered closer to the older woman's body, as she struggled against the sudden force of electric blue pinning her down. It inched closer and closer, until Violet threw it forcefully against the far wall, causing a crash that echoed ominously deeper into the cave.
Suddenly, Violet vanished and Helen suddenly felt herself being lifted higher and higher, until she plummeted to the floor, feeling her ankles shatter as she made contact with the cold rock beneath her.
"Why. Aren't. You. Fighting. BACK!" the young woman screamed and flared fuchsia force fields from her hands, each one getting bigger with each syllable. She skulked over to where her mother lay; not even trying to get up and defend herself.
Helen knew she could destroy her, and should destroy, her but how could she? She knew every one of Violet's weaknesses, every vulnerability, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt her.
"I've just got one question, and then you can finish me off; Why?"
The younger girl gave a low cackle, tossing the ink black hair over her shoulder and cocking her head to one side, "You really don't know!" She laughed again, shaking her head.
"Oh, come on! A blind man could've seen how unhappy I was being one of your unappreciated little puppets; I was disappearing into the background without being invisible. Ironic, really. I just bought myself back into the light. I mean, you always said how it was a 'man's world' and a woman should fight to stay up there with the big dogs. And that's exactly what I'm doing."
"By killing innocent people!"
"You killed the one speck of happiness I had!" Her voice was low, malicious, as she traced a gloved hand over the metallic wristband that sat heavy on her forearm. Burdening her, a constant reminder of her love lost.
"Look, I'm sorry about Syndrom-"she rose, ignoring the sharp pain emitted from her ankles.
"Liar." Violet took a step back, hissing at the mention of her beloved, her despair, and at her mother's vain attempt to reconcile. How dare she?
"He was evil. And you-"
"Shut up." Violet's voice was low and menacing. She had hit a nerve and Helen was planning to take advantage. They hadn't known that Violet was... engaged when they had been sent out to kill her fiancé until the deed had been done.
The dying man's last laugh and promise, "Oh, she's gonna hate you now." still burnt in Helen's mind.
"-Ran out, deserted your family. To become this?" she motioned to the sheer amount of nothingness that filled the cave they were fighting in. She worked alone, had no-one waiting for her, no one that cared if Elastigirl killed her right there and then, in fact, many would rejoice.
No-one except her family, the people that loved her and that she left behind. The same people that had been mourning their Violet for the last five years.
"I said shut up!" she screamed and raising both her hands she shot an electric amethyst force field towards the older woman, who dodged it easily using her elasticity.
"We used to save the world, help innocent people!" She wanted so much to understand what had made her only daughter turn against her family, against her. How she had let her.
"The world isn't worth saving."She said, anguish apparent in her icy voice.
"Who are you?" Helen snarled, finally letting all her frustrations of the last five years out in three words. The reply she got was not what she was expecting.
"Your daughter!" The younger girl screamed, knowing just how to coax a reply from her mother, and before Helen could control herself an elasticised fist made contact with the pale girl's face, knocking her to the floor.
She had known; Helen's one weakness had been herself.
It had been easy; fighting villains. But what happens when the person you are sent out to capture is you, your own flesh and blood? The one person you would risk your very existence protecting?
What if they hated you?
Helen sunk to the floor, disguised at herself for what she had just done. Drawing shuddered breaths, she crawled over to the body of the girl, still and silent and peaceful looking and held her in her arms, the way she used to, the way she had been deprived of doing for the past five years. She could have been sleeping peacefully, if it weren't for the darkening spot that stood out prominently against the girl's pale skin and the steady pounding of her broken heart against her mother's. Helen ran her fingers over the bruise, before leaning down to place a tender kiss upon the injury. Her tears spilled down onto the girl's face and traced the familiar pattern down her cheekbones.
Mummy won't let anything bad happen to you.
"I love you, Vi... And I'm so sorry."
She was content then, holding the still body of her only daughter, until she began to stir in her arms.
Pulling Syndrome's controlling wristband from her daughter's arm, she slid away from the trembling form and without turning back, she ran out towards the light, ignoring the excruciating pain that burned in her ankles and arm, ready to report how Vicin slipped through her fingers again, and managed to get away...
Author's notes:
I gave Violet the name Vicin because ricin is a deadly poison and the two combined sounded pretty good. And it sounds evil!
Sorry about the Bob OOC, but he seemed to have quite a temper in the film... I just enhanced it a tad.
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