Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Part Two: Goodnight Moon
Summary: Gilbert is a small town superhero raising his kid brother by himself, the love of his life against him, clueless of the truth. Elizaveta has found out her life was a beautiful lie, and she must find the White Knight to clear her memories up.
"No." Her voice resounded in the silent kitchen, and he looked shocked.
"No?" He asked, confused. "But I thought you loved me."
"Just because I date you, doesn't mean I'll marry you." Elizaveta said, firmly.
"Why on earth is that?"
"Y-You're stuffy, arrogant, and always assume I'm on your side, even when I'm not." To be honest, she was stealing a little bit of her argument from Gilbert. But that would be alright, it would just be another ego boost for him. "And I don't think I'm ready to marry."
She felt a little guilty for saying all these things, as Roderich looked genuinely hurt about her words. "I won't force you," He mumbled, putting away the ring. "And I'll give you time to think about it. But I love you Elizaveta, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
But Elizaveta was quietly thinking to herself, you love the me you created from a previous person. Not the real me.
The White Knight was standing where Roderich had been two seconds before, and lifted his mask up to smile at her. "Well done, Erzébet."
God, she hoped she was doing the right thing. Roderich started cleaning up the rose petals on the floor, and she knelt down to help him.
She had to hurry, because she was going to be going out to patrol, and hopefully would run into a certain someone. Someone who she was going to get, and they would be happy again.
That night when Gilbert patrolled, he was mulling over the deep resounding sadness inside of him. While Elizaveta had rediscovered her Super powers, she still hasn't remembered who Gilbert was. That was the most disappointing thing, to be honest. What should he do, what could he do? He could try and bring her home to him, but that could backfire and she would leave him forever.
He wouldn't know what to do if that happened.
He tried not to think about it.
He saw his prey then, a thief stealing from a jewelry shop. He unsheathed his sword, and jumped down into the alleyway to catch him, only to be surprised. Someone jumped in front of him.
"I got this one partner." Elizaveta said cheerfully as she raised her fists up, to fight. She was in sweats, a tank, with her hair in a bun and a ski mask on her face.
Jesus, this was going to be rough.
"What on earth are you doing!?" He hissed, "Leave this to the professionals!"
"I just want to help you." She seemed disappointed in his reaction to her showing up. "Come on, I can do this!" She caught the robber by the arm, and swung him around to face her. Gilbert winced as she punched the guy.
"Hey, watch it! You're going to give him brain damage!" He called out, shaking his head as she looked surprised. He huffed, and took the dazed criminal from her. "You don't know your own strength. You've lost years of experience, and you don't know how to use your powers properly."
"But..." She began, before he raised a hand.
"No buts. It's excellent to see you fighting again, but for goodness sake, take a class or something. They say fighting always comes naturally, but yikes. You are rusty, Iron Maiden." He picked up the criminal in a fireman's lift. "Now you take the jewels, and I'll drop off this fucker at the hospital with a note." And then he would get outta dodge. Elizaveta couldn't find out it was him until the right time-if it came.
"Wait for me!" She called back, running as fast as she could. He started walking despite her protests. She caught up quickly. This made him groan internally, shaking his head. Couldn't he catch a break? This whole week had been bad luck central.
He didn't want her to fall in love with a fake persona. He wanted her to love him for Gilbert, the true him. That was how they had done it last time, and it had been so amazing to love her like that; as intimate as they were last time.
"Jeez, are you trying to lose me?" She had to speed walk to keep up with him. "I wanted to ask you. Did you and I date before?" He couldn't see her face, but her body language gave away her hopefulness.
"Yes. We did." He said, curtly. "Before you were brainwashed and taught to hate me. Yanno. That kinda hampers a relationship."
"See, about that." She began. "I'm starting to remember things from before, and I wanted to know if you could take off your mask so we can meet face to face." She took off her own, smiling. Gilbert really was tempted. He really was. He loved her, after all. But this could go sour in a heartbeat, he knew.
So he had to wait
"The Erzébet I loved died four years ago." He said, plainly. "And until I know you are out from Roderich's thumb, l can't reveal myself to you. It could be a trap." He was telling her the truth. This would be dangerous, after all.
She had let her hopes get too high, only to crash now. "I thought we were partners..."
"Note the use of the past tense." He was gruff with her. "That's all that needs to be said."
They had walked in silence for a long time after that. "How can I prove it to you that I'm no longer under Roderich's control."
"You can't. Not to me. I have my own way of watching you, alright? Trust me, I'll know when it's safe to trust you." Gilbert told her flatly, turning his head towards her as he dropped off the criminal. "Here's where we part ways."
"What. But….I just got here." She said, disappointed again.
"You're untrained. A danger to yourself and others. Take a class on it, okay? Then maybe I'll consider it." He jumped onto the fire escape of the alleyway by the hospital, and again to make it to the roof of the building beside it. Elizaveta watched him right up until he disappeared under the cover of darkness.
He stayed out until three, and then decided to go home, knowing his little brother would need him there in the morning, in some kind of decent condition. Gilbert sighed softly, before he realized he was being followed by someone.
"Who's there?" He asked, warily.
"It's us, dumbass." A distinctly accented voice called to him, and Francis Bonnefoy stepped out into the light, unmasked. He was a Super that had gone into hiding. Next to him was Antonio, and both were old friends during the Golden Age, the early 2100s.
"You've put on the pounds." Gilbert said, bluntly, noticing a fair bit of chub on Francis' belly.
"Yes, yes, delicacy was never your strong suit." He said, sounding a bit ticked off. "Still keeping up the old routine, I see."
"I'm not one to stop fighting." He grinned, going over to him happily. "What are you two doing here for?"
"For you, amigo," Antonio said, easily. "You should move over to Europe with us. The situation there is so much better-one by one, they're finally lifting the laws against Supers, you know, and are helping those whose memories were erased."
Gilbert was shocked. "How come I didn't hear about this?" He asked, quietly, concerned about his and Lutz's safety.
"American news is keeping it quiet, they don't want unregistered Supers getting away." Gilbert nodded, humming.
"That makes sense." He said, thoughtfully. "I haven't seen you guys in years, how about you two come over to my place?" He invited, grinning at them- though they couldn't see it, they knew he probably was.
"We'd enjoy that." Francis said, and they went their separate ways, meeting up at Gilberts home, once he was changed and fit for guests.
"Why were you guys out at 4 in the morning?" Ludwig asked, crankily after Gilbert had introduced him to his two old friends.
"I had a hot date." He lied easily. "And it went on a little too long. Then these idiots found me, and here we are." He grinned as he picked up his little brother. "Let's get you back to bed, silly, you still have two whole hours before you need to get up.
He tucked Ludwig back into bed, and went back out to his old friends. "I dunno if I wanna leave this place. There is an unchecked amount of Supers that are dangerous because they aren't in control of themselves, and I want to be a part of the change that will take place."
"Think of your little boy." Antonio pleaded. "He's a super, isn't he? It will be safer if he leaves America's tattered states and head for the safety of Europe."
That…however, was something that was definitely important to him.
"Where's Erzébet?" Francis asked, suddenly looking a little curious and worried.
Gilbert looked down, face sad, and it dawned on both of them what happened.
"Gilbert, I'm so sorry." Antonio said, quietly. "She was a wonderful woman."
"I'm sorry we didn't come back. If we had, perhaps Erzébet would still be among us." Francis said, looking grim.
"That's yet another reason I can't leave yet." He said, voice soft. "I have unfinished business left here."
"Gilbert, you know that Supers under the thumb of the city never remember." Antonio said, sternly.
"But that's just it." He mumbled. "She hasn't remembered, but she knows that her life is a lie, and she's actually the Iron Maiden." Gilbert sighed, rubbing his temples.
"What?" Francis looked surprised and interested. "She knows, how?"
"I said her name." He grumbled. "I slipped up and revealed how much I know about her, and we got into an argument about Roderich, and she looked in the records of Supers that employers use if they're hiring someone. She discovered her life was a lie." He used his hands to then rub the nape of his neck.
"Mi amigo," Antonio said, brightening up. "That means you can win her over again."
"I doubt I could." He looked sheepish. "Elizaveta-what she's called now- hates my guts."
"She hated your guts before too." They said in unison. "You still found your own special way to charm her."
"The real difficult thing is, she's infatuated with the White Knight."
They shared sympathetic looks. The worst thing about being a superhero were the crazy groupies.
"She's not that bad, though. Just wants to get back into the swing of things with me, and I don't want her to love that self, I want her to love me." Gilbert explained.
"You sound so gay right now," Francis chuckled, "But I understand the workings of love."
They chatted for a little while longer, before Francis looked at Antonio, and they nodded. "We're going back to our hotel room, and will be getting some rest. We're tired. We'll stay here until you make a decision."
"Who looks gay now?" He smirked, and they all laughed again.
It was good to talk with old friends again.
Elizaveta was groaning as she took off her clothes, having sneaked back into her room through the window. She was tired. And it sucked, since the first impression she made on the White Knight was someone who had no idea how to fight. That meeting had been completely messed up!
She flopped down onto the bed, not bothering to take her sweats off as she curled up. "I fucked up." She said, flatly, shaking her head. "I looked so stupid. And he wasn't as interested as I thought he would be."
"I wonder what he meant by 'watching you'." Her memory of the white knight asked, looking contemplative. He flopped down onto the bed beside her, face becoming blurry as he became naked in bed.
"Yeah, that was bugging me too." She agreed. "I wonder who..."
And then it hit her.
Gilbert Beilschmidt had the answers.