Title: Masks
Rating: T
Genre: Drama, angst, friendship, tragedy
Characters: Kaz, Oliver, a few others
Pairing(s): None
Summary: It was always KazandOliver, at least until it wasn't.
Warnings: Character death, non-graphic depictions of torture
Notes: Inspired by the symbols on a keyboard and some DC supervillains.
It's AU. I thought of the idea right after Elite Force aired, but it didn't fit in with that storyline so I decided to canon-diverge. This picks up about a year after "Mother of All Villains", but Roman and Riker don't attack the hospital, Mr. Terror is never captured, and the Elite Force is never formed. However, Mighty Med does keep in contact with the Davenports. Enjoy!
Mask (n): a covering for all or part of the face, worn as a disguise, or to amuse or terrify other people.
I. Comma
"They're back!" someone yelled distantly, and the statement was punctuated by a large boom and the usual accompanying screams.
"Oh, not again…" Kaz extinguished the fire in his fists and waved a hand to get the target to retract. Solar Flare hit the alarm, and the sirens began blaring, just like they had every month for a year.
"Let's go, Firestorm, we need to get to the safe room!" she shouted, yanking open the door of the rec room. Outside, heroes filed down the halls as quickly as possible, though the close-quarters didn't do them any favors. There was a sharp "ow!" followed by a zap.
"Surge, the pinch from Mr. Quick was an accident, no need for electrocuting," Kaz called to the hero, flipping up the high collar on his superhero suit to cover his face and pulling on his gloves.
"Don't bother," Solar Flare told him, rolling her eyes. "Even in a crisis, they're useless. Come on." She plunged into the fray.
On the other hand, Kaz didn't want to get crushed in the mob, so he elected to wait and bring up the rear. Even Mr. Terror would have to take more than fifteen minutes to get through the new and improved hospital defense system. He jumped into the messy line as the last few people passed, Solar Flare grumbling as she wound up in the back of the crowd despite her best efforts. As he followed everyone else, he listened to the names as they passed through the door equipped with special sensors.
"Spotlight," the voice recited. "Four heroes remaining on the premises. Alley Cat. Three heroes remaining on the premises. Solar Flare II. Two heroes remaining on the premises." Kaz stepped through, and the computer recited, "Firestorm. One hero remaining on the premises." He turned around, but there was no one behind him.
"Horace!" he yelled to the back of the room.
"Yes?"
"We're missing someone!"
"Who?"
"I don't know, it doesn't say! You had Mr. Davenport design this thing, you should know!"
Horace sighed. "Code three-twenty-seven, lockdown initiative. Missing status?"
"One hero remaining on the premises," the computer droned.
Kaz groaned. "Yeah, but—"
Before he could ask, the computer interrupted. "Skylar Storm."
That quieted people. Everyone knew and respected Skylar, even if she wasn't Super anymore.
"Horace, we have to go back and find her," Kaz said immediately, though he couldn't see the man.
"We can't risk it, my boy," Horace replied, regret heavy in his voice. "We only have about eight minutes left until Mr. Terror bursts through the defenses and ransacks the hospital trying to find us. Again."
"Horace, please," Kaz said. "Please."
Horace didn't respond for a moment. "Okay," he finally said. "You can go. No one else. If you don't find Skylar in eight minutes, come back here immediately because Mr. Terror and Silver Snow have gotten her, like they did to Oliver. And if you're not back by then…" The unspoken we can't go after you was clear.
"I understand, Horace," Kaz replied, voice going cold at the mention of Oliver. "I'll be back soon."
II. Question Mark
Six and a half minutes later, he still hadn't found Skylar. He'd checked every room other than the main one, so that was where he headed. When he reached the double doors, however, he paused because they were already flung open.
And there was someone standing there.
Their back was to him, but as far as he could see, they were just standing there. And… wait. He knew the costume. Blue, white, and silver.
This is the person Mr. Terror had killed Oliver for, and still, no one knew who was under the hood.
III. Asterisk
Eight Months Earlier
"You put up a good fight, Kazimieras," Mr. Terror's distorted voice called from the other side of the roof. "But I am in control! The days of 'Kaz and Oliver' are over! Oliver's powers are mine, Oliver's life is mine!"
"Oliver's life is no one's but his own!" he yelled back, afraid his words might get lost in the wind between them. Mr. Terror did have super hearing, though, so she didn't disappoint.
"Oh, please," she laughed. "You've all been running from me for four months, and you yourself have been trying for a week to steal my son away again. You can't escape."
"Oliver can stop you!" he shouted.
Mr. Terror grinned. "Oh, can he?" She snapped her fingers.
The air became frigid, and Kaz heard the sound of windows crunching. He'd heard that sound once on a mission with Snowstorm—the glass was shattering from the sudden temperature drop. Frost built up beneath his boots.
"I am pleased to introduce my new associate," Mr. Terror announced, sounding very pleased indeed. A figure in a hood suddenly jumped over the edge of the roof to land on solid flooring, and Kaz could see the ice bridge they'd made to get to the roof's level. "This is Silver Snow. Silver Snow, I don't believe you've met Kazimieras." She didn't wait for an answer. "You see, Kaz, I figured out a way to remove a person's powers and give them to someone else. Oliver is a normal boy once again, and Silver Snow here is now a valuable asset."
Kaz balled his hands into fists, and the ice melted in a perfect circle around him. "Let. Oliver. Go."
"An interesting proposal," Mr. Terror mused, holding out a hand. A figure, sandy-haired and limp, appeared in her hand, hanging by the neck.
"Oliver," Kaz choked out. After a full week of searching, his friend was there, dangling in his mother's hand, dangerously close to the edge of the roof. "Give him back to us!" he shouted.
She smirked. "Well that wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it?"
Kaz gritted his teeth, and the ice retreated even more. "Let him go!"
Mr. Terror shrugged. "If that's what you want." She let go.
IV. Grave Accent
Present Day
We never even got a body to bury, Kaz thought bitterly, stepping inside. He shivered as the temperature drop kicked in, working its way past even his superhuman temperature resistance. He forged ahead anyway. She took him away before I could even get to him lying on the ground.
Silently, flames wound up his wrist to form a spear, and he crept into the room. Shoes making no noise—thanks, Davenports—he reared back his arm to put the weapon to good use.
A white light suddenly formed right in the path of the spear, and it shattered into frosty dust on the floor.
"Good try," Silver Snow said, an icy razor-tipped edge echoing around his (Kaz was pretty sure he was a he) words. He turned around. "But you're no match for me." In his hand, he suddenly held an extremely sharp icicle, and the tip was level with Kaz's throat.
Kaz backed up, but still tried to get a good look at him. Most of his face was shrouded in shadow from the hood, but white hair fell across his chalky-pale forehead and cheeks, sticking to his blue mask. Pinpoints of icy, poison blue peered out from where eyes should, not quite meeting his gaze, and his lips were dusted blue as well. Like hypothermia. Something troubled him about all this, but he had to ask. "Why are you doing this? Mr. Terror stole my friend's powers and gave them to you. Why?"
Silver Snow didn't answer, just took another step forward before asking something completely different. "What did she say eight months ago, after she dropped your friend off a building?"
"I don't know what you mean," Kaz lied. He hadn't thought about it in months, because he repressed it more than anything else.
A smirk appeared on Silver Snow's face. "Well, I do. She said, 'the pain you're going to feel one day soon will be nothing compared to this'. You know what?" He took a big step forward, and Kaz took another one back. "She was right." He reached up behind his head, and in one tug, the hood came down.
Kaz stumbled into the wall behind him.
No… no, it couldn't be. This simply could not be his best friend. Oliver would never do the horrible things Silver Snow had done. Never. But the eyes… he could see it now, even behind the mask. His eyes were the same. Colder blue and colder emotionally than he remembered, but the same. "Oliver…" his voice broke. And the horribly familiar (yet so alien) gaze turned on him, blue glow brighter than ever.
"That's not my name," Oliver said, shaking his head and throwing showers of ice from his white hair. "My name is Silver Snow. You see, my mother had a good plan. She thought that if we could convince you that Oliver was dead, she could take me to train until the time was right to destroy all superheroes. The person she dropped off the building was her nephew, not her son. And you fell for it."
Kaz gaped. "She killed her nephew, Oliver, your cousin, and you're not even mad?"
"Sliver Snow," Oliver corrected. "And no, I'm not. Because the time it bought us was just enough for her to train me for our final siege."
"Final?" Kaz repeated. "What are you going to do?"
Oliver smirked. "I'm going to end this, of course."
V. Backspace
"Ah! My dear, I see you've handled the pesty-hero quite well," Mr. Terror laughed, striding into the lobby. Both boys—Oliver from where he stood, blinking his glowing eyes, and Kaz, feet frozen to the floor—just stared at her.
"I have to say, that was not one of your best one-liners," Kaz told her.
She growled at him. "No matter. I still have to find wherever the other superheroes have hidden, but I found one running around the halls. I couldn't catch her, but in three, two, one—"
A pink blur smashed down through the skylight, glass raining down. Skylar landed on her back, screaming unintelligible words as she scratched at the contraption that had locked itself over her eyes.
"It absorbs light completely," Mr. Terror told them, looking pleased. "She won't be able to see at all with those on. Not only that, but they're feeding back the darkest black in the galaxy—Vantablack 2.0! That has to be painful to a Calderan!" Oliver chuckled along with her.
"Oliver!" Kaz yelled, unable to take it. "Oliver, look at me! This isn't you. You hear me? This isn't you!"
Oliver ignored him, but Mr. Terror spoke instead. "Oh, but it is him. And I think we're going to have a little fun." She pulled a remote from her pocket and pressed a button. In turn, Skylar's screaming got louder.
"Leave her alone!" Kaz shouted. "Leave her alone!"
She turned to him, a wicked grin on her face as she echoed her sentiments from their last meeting. "Well that wouldn't be as fun, would it?"
VI. Ampersand
"You next, fireboy."
Buzzing painfully from the electricity crackling under his skin, Kaz waited until Mr. Terror was gone (she apparently could get bored torturing her prisoners) before trying something else.
"Oliver," he choked out, voice rough.
The other boy appeared directly in front of him. "No. Oliver may not have been dropped off of a building like you thought, but he is dead."
"No," Kaz shook his head. "No, Oliver, please. You're my best friend, please."
Oliver's face didn't change, but something seemed to alight in his glowing eyes. Kaz's hope spiked, then plummeted back down all the way to Mighty Max when Oliver's hands began to trail frost. "Oh?" he replied. "Would your best friend do this?" He raised his hands and blasted—Kaz's wrists were immediately encased in ice, stuck to the wall behind him. Oliver reached forward and patted his cheek, leaving no wound but a steaming angry mark. Without waiting for an answer, he grinned. "Didn't think so."
But if there was one thing Kaz was (besides Oliver's best friend), it was stubborn. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he tried again. "Oliver, please. You're my best friend. You have to remember." He got no positive affirmations, but no shut up, either. He took it as a sign to continue. "Oliver, I'm your best friend. And Skylar is, too. It's been so weird and so hard for the last eight months that you've been gone. You missed almost a full year of school. We had to cover for you, and even then it wasn't the same because we've always been KazandOliver but I had to get used to people just saying Kaz. I missed my best friend because it's not Kaz or Oliver that's the most important but it's the and, Oliver, it's the and and I don't know how I've made it through the last few months alive." He's fully aware that he's babbling, but the gates are opened now and he can't stop. He laughs hopelessly. "I think of all the good memories I have, and you're in every single one of them, Oliver. You were the one who taught me how to use all the different writing symbols so I didn't totally fail English class, you taught me the asterisk and semicolon and parentheses and ampersand and Oliver, you are my best friend and eight months and an evil mother will never change that because we are Kaz and Oliver." He stopped, pain wracking him as the excess electricity traveled up and down his torso. "You are Oliver, not Silver Snow. You were my best friend before your mother ever started trying to be a mother." He closed his eyes. "Please, Oliver." Please.
"Oh, well done!" Mr. Terror said, striding back in. Waving a hand and throwing Skylar's unconscious body back into the nurse's station, she approached Kaz. "Well done restraining him, Silver Snow. Now, as for you…" she grinned, turning her gaze to the trapped pyrokinetic. "I want you to know two things before we do anything else. One: Oliver was weak. He was weak because of you. You killed him. You are the reason Silver Snow exists. Two: you are going to watch your friends all die, starting with the galaxy's precious Skylar Storm."
"No, no, please." He couldn't stop this. He couldn't do it. "Please…"
Walking back across the room, Mr. Terror leaned over Skylar, tapping her forehead. "Time to wake up, my dear. And time to die."
Skylar jolted up with a start, immediately beginning to hyperventilate again as she batted weakly at the device blocking her sight.
"Oh, enough of that," Mr. Terror dismissed, bored. She waved a hand and the device fell onto the ground.
"Kaz," Skylar gasped out, finally seeing him. Her eyes locked on the other boy, hood down and showing his face. Oliver remained unmoving. "Kaz… and Oliver? Oliver is Silver Snow?"
"No, dear," Mr. Terror laughed. "Oliver is dead. Just as you're about to be." She raised a hand, glowing Arcturion purple, and Kaz exploded.
"No!" His hand smashed through the ice, and fire burst forward. His bolt collided with Mr. Terror's plasma ball, and it exploded, casting orange and purple shadows onto the walls. The villain was forced back a few steps. The nurse's station was knocked completely over, and Skylar skidded back, singed but relatively unhurt. Oliver stood completely still, glowing eyes wide.
"You!" Mr. Terror growled, regaining her balance. She whirled and aimed right at Kaz, and time seemed to slow for a moment.
Then a blast of ice collided with the villain's chest, and she was flung into the back wall before she could loose her bolt.
Oliver was standing there, one hand extended, eyes wide and confused. His eyes weren't glowing.
"Oliver!" Kaz yelled, and the sight of his friend standing there like that snapped something within him. The ice trapping him to the wall shattered, and he stumbled forward. "Oliver!" He ran to his friend and grabbed him by the shoulders, ignoring how cold he was.
"I…" Oliver seemed to be at a loss for words. "I'm sorry."
Kaz laughed shakily. "For what?"
"I don't know," Oliver muttered, eyes unfocused. "Everything." Oliver pushed him to the side and threw another bolt of ice at Mr. Terror, who had just gotten back to her feet.
"What is this?" Mr. Terror shouted, blocking the bolt. "Where did your loyalty go?"
Oliver just shook his head, readying his arm to throw, but Mr. Terror flicked her wrist and sent him crashing back. In less than two seconds, she had Skylar in the center of the room, an arm locked around the girl's neck.
"Guess we're doing this the hard way," Mr. Terror growled, and Skylar finally caught Kaz's gaze.
I can save you, Kaz tried to tell her without making a sound.
She shook her head, glancing down at the hidden panel that hadn't been opened since Alan's fight with Catastrophe, and Kaz knew what she was going to do.
"No," he said out loud. "No!"
Skylar stamped her foot on the hidden button Horace had placed for emergencies, and the panel slid open to reveal the hospital's super-charged energy core.
"What are you doing, girl?" Mr. Terror screeched, trying to pull away but failing. The supernova was sapping her strength. Skylar flipped them around, forcing the villain into a headlock, the extreme gravity of the core pulling them in.
"No," Oliver groaned, sluggishly stumbling up next to Kaz. "She'll die. She'll die."
"I have to. I'm sorry," Skylar said, loud and clear. Then she pushed, with all her might, and both she and the supervillain toppled into the gap.
"No!" Kaz yelled as the light began to increase.
"Kaz," Oliver said dazedly, tugging his sleeve, "shield. Now."
Together, they held up their hands and created a shell to surround them as the supernova exploded and the energy filled the room.
VII. Ellipses
One Month Later
"You know, she would have loved this," Horace told him.
Kaz looked up at the sky, letting the rain fall onto his face through the branches of the tree they were standing under. "I know. She loved the rain. I wish we had a body to bury, if only to show her the sky one last time" He paused. "She would have wanted him here too, though, and he's not."
Across the grass, Titanio—or Henry Tidwell, as he was presenting as for the occasion—was finishing his speech to the small crowd of superheroes in civilian clothes. He looked stoic, but Kaz knew it was a facade.
"I'm sorry," another voice said, walking up from the side. The Davenport kids approached, dressed to impress. Leo, the one speaking, fidgeted awkwardly with his cufflinks. "We wish we could have done more to help."
"You gave us the technological protection to keep all the other heroes safe," Horace assured them. "You did just fine."
"We're sorry about Skylar, though," Chase muttered. "We didn't know her very well, but we know she meant a lot to you guys."
"Yeah," Bree added. "I wish we could have gotten to know her better. I think we would have been friends."
Adam opened his mouth, then closed it. "I don't know what to say," he admitted. "I'm not good with words. But I am sorry. And we're sorry about Oliver. We heard he ran."
Kaz shrugged half-heartedly. "Not your fault. But thanks."
"Stay in touch, man," Leo said as he grasped his hand briefly. "Call if you ever need anything." Bree took a hold of her brothers and in a flash, they were gone.
"I think they're wrapping up," Horace told him after a moment. "Do you want to go back?"
Kaz gave him a lopsided grin. "Go on ahead. I'll be there in a minute."
As his boss made his way back to the gravesite, Kaz sighed and leaned back against the tree. Two friends in a year. What were the odds?
"Hey."
He spun around as the temperature dropped, because this was a familiar voice and a familiar feeling. "Oliver. What…?"
Oliver looked different. His hair was still white, but his eyes were a normal, human blue. His face was still chalky, but his lips had returned from looking like he was on the verge of death. He no longer wore his icy ensemble, instead dressed in black jeans and a black jacket over a high-necked black shirt. Black gloves encased his hands. His voice was back to normal, no longer tinged with an icy edge. "Hi."
"Good to know you're not shopping at Villain's R Us anymore," Kaz remarked, finding his voice. "But I'm not sure how to feel if you do start buying clothes from Emo Twenty-One."
"I'm sorry I ran, after the whole thing," Oliver said, one side of his mouth pulling up into a half-grin. "And I'm sorry for just showing up."
Kaz shook his head. "It's okay. She would have appreciated you being here."
"Yeah." Oliver shifted his weight from foot to foot, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I, uh. I'm sorry."
Kaz new he was talking about a lot of things: for Skylar, for the thing he'd done, for hurting him, for his mother. "Me too."
Oliver offered him a small grin, gaze sliding down to his black high-tops. "Yeah."
"You know," Kaz said after a moment, "you can come home."
Oliver stopped fidgeting, instead smiling sadly at him. "I don't have a home."
"You do," Kaz insisted. "With us, with me." He gestured to the crowd of superheroes behind them. "You belong. You can come home."
"I can't."
"Why not?" Kaz asked. "She would have wanted you to. No one blames you for what you did. It wasn't your fault. You still have a place, Oliver."
Oliver winced at the sound of the name, but didn't object. "I can't."
"You're not Silver Snow anymore," Kaz said.
Oliver shook his head. "No."
"But you're not Oliver, either." It wasn't a question.
Oliver forced a smile. "Whatever my mother did to me… it's never going away. This is me, this is my life now, and I need to figure out what it is, what it's going to be. I think I need to do it alone."
Kaz closed his mouth, the last word shooting down the suggestions he was going to make. He bit his cheek. "Okay." He took a breath. "Okay. Just remember, you're always welcome with me."
Oliver stepped forward, then awkwardly did a double-back. Instead of opening his arms, he held out a gloved hand.
Kaz's heart felt like it was being squeezed. He shook Oliver's hand. "See you around, man."
Oliver's eyes swept the scene: the crowd, the tombstone, Kaz. "See you."
Kaz watched his silhouette vanish into the distance, then turned and made his way up to the others.
(VIII. Parentheses)
Kaz hears the stories, about slides made of ice appearing under people fallen out of windows to deliver them safely onto the ground, about the raging fires extinguished in an instant, about the people being pulled out of falling buildings and planes.
Sometimes, when he really can't stand it, he'll fly to a roof nearby the disaster and watch, wait for a glimpse.
And some of those times, after a particularly good save, he'll make his way to the site to talk. This is one of those times. Flipping his collar up, the cops recognize him as one of the well-known heroes and lets him through the barricades.
Oliver stands in the street, at the exact spot where the cracks spread around the concrete originate from, hood of his new suit pulled down so he can stare at the stars.
"Hey," he calls, and the other boy looks over.
He's wearing his old mask, the one his mother gave him, but his eyes are still normal.
"Hi," he says warily.
Pushing down his collar, Kaz steps forward. "I saw what you did." He'd pulled two people out of an out-of-control helicopter, then frozen the machine and smashed it into dust before it could crush anybody down below. He grins. "Good save."
Oliver smiles back. "Thanks."
Kaz steps forward. "So. You found what you're looking for?"
It's not the first time he's asked him that question—he asks every time—so he already knows the answer.
"No," Oliver replies, tilting his head.
Kaz nods. "That's okay." He turns to leave, because this is always how their conversations end.
"But," Oliver says, and Kaz stops. "But… I think I'm getting there."
Kaz is afraid to turn, like if he does Oliver will fade away. "You are." This is a question, phrased like a statement.
"Yes," Oliver says. "I'm getting there."
And Kaz finally turns, and Oliver is still there. "Good," he says, smile full-blown for the first time in months. Years. "Good."
Oliver lifts off the ground into the night sky, and Kaz watches his silhouette get smaller and smaller until it's gone. Then he turns and strides in the other direction, disappearing into the darkness.
Reviews are appreciated.