A/N: Just to clarify, Iku is to blame for the plane crash.
Chapter 13: Jared^2 (plus a random cameo with no context)
Things had been perfectly normal for Zoe. Flying a private jet wasn't hard—the things the learned when under Gabriel's care as his ward back before he knew who she was…it was crazy—so she knew it wasn't her fault when the plane suddenly went on a downward spiral.
She alerted the others and then transformed into Heartless to shield herself and used her powers to steer where they crashed, settling for a small clearing. Unfortunately, they crashed into a tree, and said tree fell on top of them.
Zoe woke up after about ten minutes, knowing she had the start of a concussion.
"Guys?" She went to the cabin and gasped at the sight.
The tree had crashed into the center of the plane, and Gizmo was using her hair to lift it. Jared was slumped against the damaged cabin wall with blood dripping from his temple.
It was her Dad she worried about most. He seemed to have pushed Joselyn out of the way, but in the process had been caught under the massive tree.
"Dad!" She used her telekinesis and lifted the tree enough for Gizmo to get him out, before putting it back down, "Dad!" She shook him, "Please wake up."
He was by far in the worst condition, with clear internal bleeding and bruising and a nasty head injury, but he was breathing.
Gizmo sat down next to her, "Is he alive?"
"Yeah. But…it's bad…" Gizmo got up and shook Joselyn,
"Jos?" Joselyn woke up after a moment of shaking, and rubbed her head,
"Ow…" She moved to get up, but shrieked in pain and looked down at her swelling wrist, though it was more out of being startled at the pain than actually being in pain. So she still got up and looked between Jared and her Dad, before deciding the latter was in worse condition, "Is he…"
"No." Zoe assured, "He's not dead. But he's in a bad way. Do you think you can get Iku to…" she gestured to the scar on Joselyn's throat to prove her point, "heal him?"
"I can try." But five minutes of frustrated noises proved Iku would not be assisting. Gizmo brightened and dug into her bag for a vial identical to the one they used to save Joselyn. It had Eden's healing magic, plus magic from Zoe and Eli.
"This made Iku help last time. I did research, the chemical compound works in a way that forces out Iku's powers, and since Eden's is in the mix, it forces out healing."
"Well don't just sit there!" Zoe demanded, looking down at her Dad's pale face, "Do it!" Joselyn took the vial and downed it. Her eyes shifted to pure black and blue sparks shot out from her hands. The tan returned to Kelly's features a little, but not to normal. At least the internal bleeding stopped and any spinal injury mended. He still wasn't awake though, and that was worrisome.
"Hello?" Zoe turned and heard someone enter the jet on the other side of the tree, "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah!" Gizmo replied.
"How many are there? Any injuries?"
Joselyn answered this time, "There are five of us, two unharmed, one broken wrist, and two unconscious via head injury."
"Can you get out?"
Zoe couldn't move, "Giant tree is a problem. I have a flamethrower. Give me a second." She gently set her Dad down and changed to Heartless, burning a hole in the tree through the center and then changed to normal.
The man turned out to be a scrawny kid with glasses, wearing a polo shirt and dirty jeans. His eyes widened at the flamethrower Gizmo was holding—which would have been easier—before coming in and looking Kelly and Jared over.
Other people came as well, none of which saying their names, and helped the team out, but decided to not leave the jet because Kelly was still not in great condition and moving him could make it worse.
Jared woke up not long after, but then clutched his head and started whimpering. Joselyn, worried for her older brother, stayed close to him. Zoe was the only one who knew the reason for the warrior's pain, other than Kelly who was still unconscious. A headache—like say a head injury—removes all control of mind reading, so Jared was hearing the minds of everything in a fifty mile radius, which would boil down to a whole lot of screeching and as such a worse headache. There was also the possibility he would start hearing colors.
Kelly started moving a little after about an hour, and their first rescuer ran over, "Sir?" Zoe sighed in relief when her Dad opened his eyes and blinked a few times.
"I'm up…Thank you." The young man smiled.
"I'm glad you're okay." He looked back at Zoe, "I'm Jared Brock." Kelly gaped,
"What?" Joselyn blinked,
"How?!" Now, this was going to be confusing to identify. And now that Zoe had a name, this young man did look like Jared—albeit scrawnier, shorter hair, glasses, different attire, and overall having a less threatening aura to him—but the hair and eye color was there, as the basic facial features.
Gizmo was not bothered by this at all, getting excited, "Awesome! Other world versions really do exist!" When she put it that way, Zoe realized this made sense. It was like what Miracle said back on the Tangled world, that different worlds had different versions of people. The Jared she knew was from Blight, not the Quantic world, so obviously there was a Quantic Jared. There wasn't a Quantic version of her because she was of both worlds.
Quantic Jared looked Gizmo over, "Um…are you sure you don't have a head injury?" Zoe then smirked,
"Dad?"
"On it."
"On wha—" Quantic Jared passed out, and the other team members vanished. Joselyn looked to her wrist,
"Okay. So now we have another Jared. So what?"
"So not only can we study his behavior and how they contrast to the Jared we know," Gizmo said, "He lives in the area and can be a guide!"
"Wouldn't you need at least five Jareds for the experiment to be worth a damn?" Kelly asked, rubbing his head and taking an Advil. Gizmo shrugged,
"Yeah. But two is better than nothing. Should I be fixing up the jet?"
Zoe frowned, "You can do that?" Gizmo pulled out a laser pointer,
"This thing possesses molecular regeneration and a memory file of design. Meaning I can make the ship look like it was never damaged. Just give me an hour." She stepped out of the jet and went off to work.
"Those other people won't bother us." Kelly said after a moment, "I sent them back to their camp and made them forget this version of Jared was with them. Or that they saw a plane crash here."
"Cool." Zoe pulled out her phone, "According to Sam, the most likely place is the Ciudad Perdida in Columbia." She looked at the psychic Jared wrapped in a giant blanket—he got wrapped up by Joselyn—who was curled into a ball, "So…can we help him?"
"No." Kelly replied, "If he had more practice, yeah, but this is the first time and me helping him will only hurt him." Jared rolled over and threw up a little. And Zoe turned to her Dad,
"Really? It's like when I got migraines as a kid. Are you telling me I got that from you?!"
"You didn't figure that out already?"
"FUCK YOU DAD!"
"Please be quiet…" psychic Jared murmured weakly from where he was on the floor, "It's too loud…" The fact this version of Jared had said 'please' that confirmed for Zoe that it was really really bad.
…
When the migraine struck, Jared was it's prisoner, quite helpless in his cage of pain. He was blinded with flashing colorful spots and craved darkness, quite and stillness. Occasionally the nausea would overwhelm him and he would vomit. Pain throbbed so violently around his skull that he wondered why it didn't just crack open. Joselyn was curled up right next to him on the floor and waited until he could compose enough thought to move his legs and make it to the bed.
If Kelly had told him that waking up would lead to excruciating pain after being left in the magic wash too long, and Joselyn having attempted suicide, he wouldn't have agreed to wake up.
…
After about an hour, there was a flash of light and another Jared appeared. This one looked older, and like he had been through shit.
Joselyn was surprised to see Kelly and Zoe recognized him.
"Hey Unlucky!" Zoe grinned, "Long time no see! How's other me?"
"She's okay." He looked down at both other versions of himself—one simply sleeping and the other whimpering in a blanket—"What the fuck?"
"Jared," she gestured to the psychic one, "got left in the magic wash too long. And Other Jared," she turned to the skinny one, "came to check on us when the jet crashed, and now we have kidnapped him."
"Why am I not surprised?" Zoe was surprised to see the most mature of the Jareds actually look scared for a split second while looking at Kelly, before relaxing. He sighed,
"Things have gone to shit in my timeline. There was an incident and Zoe and I lost our Miraculouses. Because we've met before, and I know things won't go to hell without them…I need the Bear and Dragon. I'll bring them back, but I need them for a bit."
Zoe smirked, "Can I have Willbreaker if I agree?"
"No. It's mine now."
"Damnit!" Multiverse Jared bent down to his psychic counterpart, slipping the Bear Miraculous off. Psychic Jared opened his eyes a crack,
"No…" Joselyn just gave him a smile and he fell back asleep. Zoe was really weirded out.
"Jared, did your luck get worse?" Multiverse Jared nodded.
"Yeah. As I said, things really went to shit." Zoe pulled the Dragon Miraculous out of her backpack—because while she didn't use it, Blazze and Viirus liked to spend time together—and handed it to him. Multiverse Jared looked down at the two, "I almost wish I didn't have to go back."
"You're lucky you came when you did." Zoe said, "Three weeks earlier and Jared—the one in the blanket—would be comatose in a magic castle nobody can access."
"Damn my timing was good." He then frowned, "Why was he comatose in a magic castle?"
"I can be to blame for that." They both turned and saw Iku had taken control of Joselyn again.
Kelly sprayed her with a squirt bottle, "Maya, what are you doing here!"
"What?" Kelly shrugged,
"Sorry, force of habit. Maya Blackwell would always show up uninvited, so it's a running joke in the Blackwell family to just refer to an unwelcome guest as 'Maya'."
"Oh fuck you, Kelly! It's not like I died for you or anything!" A high-pitched feminine voice surrounded them.
"You kept trying to get Harrison and I to hook up for your horny Yaoi-loving scheme!" Multiverse Jared just blinked.
"Uh…" Kelly huffed,
"Sorry about that, Maya tends to come down from the afterlife if someone says her name. She's gone now."
"Okay then." Multiverse Jared sighed, "Kelly, stay like this. Don't ever change." And then he was gone.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Zoe turned and saw Gizmo with a camera. Then she put it away and started using her fancy tech in her hair to recreate the roof.
It was another two hours before they were ready to fly. Kelly had created a GammaCore machine and used it on Jared, which made the migraine calm a little. Using it every twenty minutes had him awake for longer than a few minutes by the time they were flying again.
"So should we wake up Quantic Jared?" Joselyn asked, and Kelly turned.
"Yeah…I probably should do that." His eyes changed to rainbow and Quantic Jared woke up.
"Wha—gah!" He scrambled back against the wall, "What the heck?! Don't kill me!" Joselyn smiled warmly,
"We're not going to hurt you." She looked to Kelly, "Dad, wanna explain this?"
Three hours later
Quantic Jared gaped, "So the Multiverse is real? The huge muscular guy is another version of me?" Then his eyes legit started sparkling like an anime girl, "You have superpowers!"
"Can you guys shut up." Joselyn said, "I just got Jared to sleep."
"Yeah…" Quantic Jared looked at the other Jared, "Is he okay?"
"No." Jared replied quietly, "I think if I went to a hospital, I would be allowed to say ten without 'broken femur ward' coming for me." Coming from this version of Jared, that was saying a lot. Though he had been vomiting and slipping from consciousness consistently at this point. This was the longest the two Jareds had interacted because of it.
"Jared, you're going to be fine." Kelly assured, "When we land, we'll get a hotel room and stay there for a bit so you can recover. A hospital is actually the worst place for you in your condition, because there would be so many people around."
"Why does he have a crippling migraine? You left off at Zoe, Eli and Other-Me returning from the Realm of Darkness. And what was that like?"
"Well…" Gizmo chimed in, "About a year after all of that, Joselyn started displaying…weird cravings. Like eating souls. Jared followed her and decided to bring her to Blight, where they met me. Things went well for about half a year, then Iku took control of Joselyn and banished Jared's soul, leaving him in a coma unable to wake up."
"Iku?"
"Oh yeah." Kelly bit his lip, "We don't know how yet, but the Enchantress Iku managed to latch onto Joselyn when she was a baby, and has lately become strong enough to take control. This current quest we're on is to kill her. As to why Jared has a crippling migraine, I placed him in an enchanted chamber while he slept, and accidentally left him in the same room as a magic stone full of superpowers. So he, like me, has powers over the mind. But it's not fun when you get a headache, which can cripple you. When he isn't vomiting anymore, I'll give him Advil, but not until then." Quantic Jared looked at Joselyn, before speaking,
"Okay, I've been looking into ideas of the Multiverse for a long time, and the superheroes are proof of magic. But demonic possession is a stretch, even for me." Gizmo turned to Joselyn,
"Iku?" Joselyn sighed, nodding. Then she shifted into her other form—which was actually her normal Worldbender form, but Iku had an easier time controlling her in this form—and discarded the cat mask, allowing the pure black eyes to be seen.
"Are you allowing me a meal?" Iku asked, lunging at Quantic Jared, who shrieked like a little girl and fainted, before Kelly sprayed her with the squirt bottle.
"No Maya, go away!" The squirt bottle had holy water in it, which didn't burn Iku, but wasn't pleasant.
Joselyn came back and reverted to her normal form, and cried out when she saw Quantic Jared out cold on the floor. She scrambled backwards,
"Did I—?!"
"No." Gizmo assured gleefully, "He fainted in terror. And pissed himself." Kelly allowed a faint chuckle at that, and noticed Gizmo's inner turmoil. She cared about Joselyn, genuinely, deeply, more than anything. She was scared of it. And she knew nothing of her past. Kelly did. He knew everything about her, and her parents. After all, he had been the one to kill the Blight version of Viperion.
"Well, guess I have to get him cleaned up." Kelly rolled his eyes, "If Jared," he gestured to the Jared suffering from a migraine, "starts vomiting blood or has a seizure, get me immediately. But I'll only be gone for a minute."
Thanks to the power of reality warping, he was able to change Quantic Jared into new clothes that fit.
Then he hears a 'caw' sound, and turned, seeing a large crow starting at him inside the plane. He jumped a little in surprise. He hadn't seen that bird in over thirty years! Since…Since…
Since Morrigan died.
The last thing he had ever seen as a normal teenager—as normal as teen superhero could be—still haunted him.
They had been running for a while. Or rather, Amelia was carrying Kelly, who was too weak to do much in the way of anything, even staying awake was remaining a struggle. His wrist burned, oh gods it burned.
"Come on Kels…" Amelia begged, "Stay with me. We'll be at Harry's soon. Jaay, Let's Fly!" Jaay emerged,
"Mia…I'm exhausted…" Jaay said, "I haven't eaten yet. Holding out long enough to get to the manor was a struggle."
"Damnit!" Amelia cursed, crying as she saw her surrogate brother get closer and closer to death. It had been her idea to get Mercy's help for him, not thinking about Mara inevitably telling Regina before actually attacking them, and as such all the sisters had known and they had walked right into a trap.
"Ame…" Kelly looked up through half-lidded eyes, "Leave me here. You can get away."
"No. Not a chance."
"This way!" Amelia turned and saw Molara, Makane and Macy. Macy froze the path behind them, and helped support Kelly, "Come on, Harrison's house isn't far, and he knows the family secret."
"You're helping us?" Amelia asked, and Makane nodded.
"Come on," she grabbed Kelly and carried his entire teenage body in her hands, "Morrigan is stalling as much as she can." The large woman looked down at Kelly, "Kels, you gotta hang on for a little bit longer. And that burn is gonna be a nice scar. Just…" while they all knew Makane was a big teddy bear underneath it all, seeing her cry was something nobody expected, "don't die."
Kelly wanted to say he would try, but his entire body felt like he was freezing. So he just leaned in for warmth.
It was maybe ten minutes before they realized Kelly would die without immediate help and decided the hospital was the best bet, and just feed Jaay so White Sparrow could protect him.
"We should probably detour through that old warehouse." Molara said, "It's a less known route." She placed her hand on the ground and some plants assisted in making things more difficult for any attackers.
"Kelly?" Macy looked to him, "Are you still…"
"I'm alive…" it was barely a whisper, but it was there.
"Not for long." They turned and saw Morrigan emerge from the shadows, "Mo, Macy, Makane, you need to go. Mara will be here any second!" Makane stood firm,
"Nope. I'm done taking orders from that little bitch just because she is mother's favorite. Kelly's our brother and I'm not gonna let him die!"
"Please," Morrigan begged, removing one of her gloves for the first time in years, "I have a plan. Just hide." Macy sent Makane a pleading look, and the elder relented, giving Kelly back to Amelia, and hid in the shadows.
"Morrigan," Amelia looked up and saw Mara standing above, "Turns out you are good for something." She jumped down and summoned a fireball, "And it looks like I just need to execute Amelia, and Kelly will just die on his own." She walked towards them menacingly, "You have no idea how many sisters liked you two. Mother even had to punish some for letting you get away. Such a shame you ended up being traitors." To the surprise of Amelia and the semiconscious Kelly, Morrigan stepped in front of them. It was heartwarming, it really was, they just didn't expect their twin—because the three of them had the same birthday, they counted themselves as triplets—to stand up to Mara.
"Morrigan? Having a change of heart?" Morrigan lunged, tackling Mara to the ground and pinning the witch with her foot, the threat of her exposed hand which housed the power of instant death preventing a fight.
"There, are you happy now?" Morrigan asked, "I will never betray them! They've been nicer to me than you or mother have ever been!"
Mara laughed, "Right back at ya."
"Huh?"
"Violence against mother's favorite and allowing the traitors to get away is prohibited." Mara explained with a smirk, "This is a violation. Heed my call, O spear of legend, Gungnir! Come to thine master's aid!"
Dozens of spears appeared out of nowhere and all stabbed Morrigan at the same time.
"MOR!" Amelia shrieked, and Kelly wanted to scream but just didn't have the energy. Morrigan's eyes went wide as she looked at the spears through her body,
"Huh? What…? That doesn't make sense… Why… me…?" Then she fell to the ground and moved no more.
That was the last thing Kelly saw before slipping from the realm of waking.
Ah yes, what a traumatic memory that had been. He desperately wished to forget that day. While Makane had had enough and knocked Mara out with a bat right after that moment and finished the escape, he wanted Morrigan to still be alive.
"Raven?" Kelly walked towards the crow slowly, holding his hand out. The bird softened, before vanishing into a puff of smoke.
They landed, and Kelly used his powers to conceal the jet. Zoe was helping support Jared, while Quantic Jared was still shellshocked.
"Okay…so at this rate, Jared is gonna start vomiting blood." Zoe said, "So what's the plan?"
"Come along." Kelly said, "I know what to do.
They walked to and checked into the Click Clack Hotel (A/N: Which is actually a real hotel), well… by check in, Kelly really mind-controlled the manager into giving them the best available suite, which was a small penthouse.
Once in the room, Kelly started using a sharpie to draw symbols on the walls.
"What are you doing?" Gizmo asked.
"Warding the room. Jared's powers won't be able to get past it, so he will be able to recover." Gizmo skipped over and started helping put the wards on the room.
Quantic Jared was rocking back and forth in the corner, and Kelly decided to leave him be, since the other Jared was now sleeping rather peacefully.
"Zoe…" Zoe turned to her Dad,
"Yeah?"
"Can you watch them. I need one of the bedrooms to myself for a few minutes." Zoe raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Kelly walked into one of the bedrooms and used more wards to soundproof the room.
Once alone, Kelly sighed, "Death, I know you're there. We need to talk." He felt the wind pick up in the room and felt the person behind him.
"Hello Kelly. What did you need?"
A/N: So that is now three Jareds. If you need context on Morrigan, go check out Another's Beginning. And Kelly knows Death.
Remember to review, they make my day—and Cheeto's.