March 21, 1986

Kraken waded through the waist high grass. He moved stealthily, but he knew he didn't need to. The simple fact of the matter was that no one ever came up here. They hadn't in years, which explained the tall grass and the lack of a path anywhere in sight. The tree that overhung the small clearing was near dead, even though it did manage to produce leaves every year. It also shed them frequently which turned the ground to a rather slippery mulch, making the whole place feel even more like a crypt. If, of course, that was possible.

He shook his head once, as if to attempt to clear it. The Nix's questions from earlier had hit uncomfortably close to home for him. While he gave both girls a grudging admiration, that girl was something else. For some reason he felt fairly well disposed towards her. However, she really was too observant.

Her words from earlier were still with him. They were making him think things, things he didn't like thinking. Those thoughts in turn were making him feel things, again, things he didn't like feeling. And, when he was feeling like this, there was only one real place he could go, a place he wasn't quite sure whether he hated or loved.

Vanya and he hadn't been together very long before she died in the accident. He wished that they'd had years, but in truth all they'd had was the Summer and Christmas vacation before the accident. Even then they'd only had stolen moments that were hidden from everyone else. Back then he'd thought it was enough. Now he knew that it wasn't anywhere near that.

Kraken couldn't place the date when it had started. He knew that he should've been able too, but he couldn't. One night they'd just been sitting together and something had made him lean in. When their lips met he hadn't been shocked to feel her respond. It was like he'd known all along that she'd felt something similar.

Not particularly romantic, he knew that much. As he travelled through the grass he thought about that. No, it hadn't been romantic. Nor had it been perfect. With his temper and her sarcasm they'd gotten into many fights. Now he regretted each one of them. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It didn't amount to anything now. What it had been was…good. Strangely enough they'd gone from being friends one day to him feeling like she was his world the next. Then he'd gone from feeling nervous about the situation to knowing exactly how she felt the next.

That was at least some cold comfort, the fact that their relationship had by no means been in infancy at the time she'd died. It was good to know that once together, they'd never wasted a minute. However, many things had been left unsaid when she'd been taken. At least he'd told her he loved her. His memory tended to go a little fuzzy around the edges, but he knew he'd told her that. Kraken also knew that she'd said it back. It was something that was good to remember at two a.m when you were going through your third or fourth bottle of whisky.

With that thought he shoved his way angrily past a rather large clump of grass.

"Run away with me."

Vanya turned around to face him, the sheets rustling slightly.

"Now you're joking," she said.

"I'm serious," he protested, sitting up, "Let's just get on my Harley and get the fuck out of here."

"Diego," Vanya sighed, "You…you're saving people…you belong here…"

"No I don't."

"We both know you do. Remember last time we tried to run away?"

"…yes. So maybe I belong being a 'superhero'," he admitted grudgingly, "But not here. Let's just get away from this. Just the two of us."

"And do what?" she asked, blinking back tears and rolling on her side, facing away from him, "You probably don't do domestic. I can't imagine you in a 9 to 5 job and then coming home for dinner with your kids."

He paused. He couldn't really either. Even so he placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling the smoothness of her skin against his calloused hand. After thinking for a moment he leaned over so that he could whisper;

"If that's what you want then I'd give it to you. Anything I can. You're the best damn thing that's ever happened to me."

"You say that now but in a couple of years everything will be different-" she started.

Shaking his head he'd picked up her hand and placed it on his bare chest.

"Do you feel a heartbeat?" he'd asked casually, "Probably not, because I'm literally heartless."

She'd opened her mouth to protest but he silenced her by tracing her lips with his free hand.

"Do you wanna know why that is? It's 'cause you took it a long time ago when I wasn't even looking. By the time I realized you had it I couldn't get it back. And do you know what? I don't want it back. Keep it for as long as you want it, because I'm sure as hell never going to try and take it."

She'd smiled then and moved her hand up to his cheek.

"Alright, you win."

As the memory washed over him he closed his eyes. Sometimes, if he concentrated very hard, he could conjure up images of how her skin felt, even how it smelled. Mostly it was just the lotion she was wearing or something, but when it was just her…sometimes he'd thought she'd smelt of lilies. Occasionally it would be interspersed with redwood from her violin, but only occasionally.

Or was it orchids that she'd smelled like? He opened his eyes and once again cursed his memory for letting go of this vital detail. Briefly Kraken wondered if he was losing his mind as he continued through the grass. He did that a lot. Going crazy would certainly be much better than the alternative; that he was forgetting her. However, he knew he couldn't forget her. She'd stamped herself on him in a way that he couldn't describe.

Kraken had never actually been happy with Vanya. No, happiness seemed superficial to him at best and a lie at worse. What he'd had with Vanya had run much deeper than happiness. It was like when he was with her he'd entered the eye of the storm while villains, siblings, Hargreeves, and other shit had raged all around him. Yet, with her, they'd all been rendered meaningless. Try though they might, they couldn't penetrate that eye. It was like it was a vacuum, keeping the two of them in but everything else out.

Ah yes. Now he had a word to put to it; peace. She'd given him peace in a way that he had never really known before. With only a few minutes, metal, and speed, that peace had been forever ripped away from him, taking part of his heart and soul with it. There had been nothing left in its place until the day of her funeral where he fought his first battle in a long war.

It wasn't as though he could quite blame them for her death. It had been a car accident. The fact, though, that they didn't care and had made her life miserable pissed him off. All it had taken was an inopportune incident and the place where the peace had been kept was filled with rage, with chaos, with, hah, Havoc.

After that he'd run away and struck up a deal with Lupo. Now he continued saving people as he always had, as Vanya had said, but by himself. Leaving had crippled the Academy, and he knew it. At the same time though, he still felt the urge to hurt them like he'd been hurting for nearly twenty years. He still felt a vendetta, not so much for himself, but for her.

After struggling in the grass for a few more minutes he finally found where he was going. It was fairly easy to find, just far away. After all, it was the only place in the entire damn field where the grass was evenly trimmed and the weeds were taken out. He knew this because he'd done it out himself.

Almost reverently he picked up the dead roses from his last visit and threw them in the grass. Then he gently placed the roses he'd brought onto the grave. Crouching down he let his hand run over the stone writing.

Vanya Hargreeves

1950-1968

When she passed, so did the music.