Author's Note: Since a few of my challenge fics are following this trend, I figured they deserved a story of their own. These tales are from the Fission City Future-that-never-was, based on the episode 'Shark to the Future' where the brothers were sent through time, and thus weren't around to defend the city when Paradigm finally took over. For anyone who does remember how that turned out on the actual show, it'd be no wonder I'm warning for angst.
"Sickle moons and Cold Coffee"
Dread was a sharp, twisting feeling in his gut. Bends stared out the window silently, not even feeling the goosebumps rising on his arms as the glass sucked the final vestiges of heat from the room. Lena, quiet as a cat, crept in beside him and forced a cup of coffee into his numb hands. The ceramic scalded his fingers. He didn't even notice.
It took her a few minutes to work up the courage to break the heavy silence. "I don't think-"
"Shh," he hushed her absently. He didn't want to hear it. It wasn't quite real yet, and he didn't want it to be. Words were the construct for truth, and he was happier without it.
But she wasn't about to indulge his childish fantasy. "Bends, we have to talk about this. I don't think they're coming back."
"I know." He'd known since the afternoon news special that had shown the scorched crater that had once been on of Paradigm's labs. He knew it from the strangling humidity in the air, and the skin-tingling itch that seemed to protest all was not well in the world. He knew it because the sky was a sickly shade of green and the Moon was a silver sickle that cast neither light nor hope on the world.
He really did know. He just didn't want to think about what that meant.
Paradigm was, against all odds, revoltingly alive, and he'd made sure they all knew it. He'd played the role of unwitting victim perfectly in his interview, despairing over how frequently he was targeted by the terrible Street Sharks and making a few smug comments about how he didn't think they were going to be much of a problem anymore.
Self-Destruction, he'd called it. Creatures so full of hate they'd been completely consumed by it, constantly striving to find an end to their own existence. A tragedy, a terrible shame, but better for everyone. It was the only time Bends had seen Lena lose her composure and scream at the television, but all he could think about was how he'd known Clint since preschool. He'd been there when the brothers had lost their first dog, when Coop had made the football team. A huge chunk of his life had been ripped away, and he wasn't quite sure how to go on living without it. Better to pretend it was still there.
Lena was braver than he was. They were both suffering from the same wound, but somehow she'd found a way to carry on in spite of it. Vengeance was a powerful motivator, and beneath her cool tone of rationality he heard something that burned like molten lava.
Creatures so full of hateā¦
Maybe they weren't powerful like the brothers had been, but now the battle was deadly personal, and with the city at stake the couldn't afford to stay uninvolved for long. He finally tore his eyes away from the window and took a tentative sip of his cooling coffee.
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