Day 100 of 100
Volume 2, Chapter 50
MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
(ARGUS designation)
HOME OF SAMANTHA & RUBY ARIAS
For how much she had not wanted to have Ruby find out what she did out there with Jim and Kendra and the others, Samantha had discovered a side of her daughter in those four and a half days that she would never give back. The only downside had been, in the long run, that after getting to spend most of that time at ARGUS headquarters, and getting to participate in the process as much as she was allowed – and that was already much more than she might have expected at her age – now that it was over, she would walk around like everything else the world had to offer was not good enough anymore.
"Hey, come on," she laughed as she leaned over the kitchen island, getting at eye level with the twelve-year-old. "I get that this was probably way more exciting than school, but that can't be every day. You need to just be a kid sometimes, because that's what you are now, and believe me, it'll be over sooner than you realize.
Ruby looked up at her, her eyes saying 'I know,' but the rest of her face still saying 'Can't I just go back?'
"You get to go back to school tomorrow, finally, that'll be good," Samantha tried to cheer her up.
"But I don't get to tell them what I did," Ruby countered. That was true. Before she'd left, the director had made it a point to remind her that everything that happened in headquarters was to be kept private. Ruby might not have been about bragging, but it was still one of the best times of her life, mixed up with the worst as it was.
"So you have a secret identity," Samantha told her. "Maybe we need to find you a name, too. Personally, I'm very attached to 'Squeaks,'" she whispered. A laugh, victory!
"Squeaks?" Ruby repeated, still laughing.
"When you were a baby, all little in my arms, and you'd sneeze, you would make these little squeaky sounds like this…" her mother explained before giving a quick imitation. Another laugh.
"Not Squeaks," Ruby insisted.
"Fine, fine," Samantha sighed, 'disappointed.' "We'll just have to find you another one later."
X
BREACH EARTH, HAVEN QUARTER
After spending a little over a week in Haven, Thea was finally headed back to Main, along with Oliver, and along with their parents. Everything was in order here, and from what they'd been hearing, Anatoly had been preparing for his old friends' arrival on his side, too. It was finally happening, and she couldn't wait… They were coming home. They were all going home.
Yet for all her excitement about her parents, there was one thing she wasn't looking forward to. All this time she had been in Haven with them, she'd been getting to know Iris and Wallace West, and she'd been getting to know her half-brother Tommy. They had all been growing stronger as friends, her and the Wests, sure, but it was with Tommy that she'd unexpectedly found a very easy friendship was starting to form.
She didn't know why, but she had been sure that bonding with this brother she had never known, from the father she hadn't known was hers and who had done so many terrible things, was going to be very hard, if not entirely impossible. But then he would be funny, and he'd listen to her, and help her, and… and she would look at him and just see in his eyes how much he was feeling it, too. They were becoming family without hardly trying.
There was one subject she had been meaning to talk to him about, so many times, and she still hadn't done it, but now… Now she was leaving soon, and she didn't want to let another chance go by. It was only a curiosity, really, and it might end up that they brushed over the whole thing and moved on, but she had to ask. So, she'd gone to meet him, and they had started on a walk, coffee in hand.
"Can I ask you something? And, really, feel free to just… brush me off or something," she insisted. He smirked.
"That bad, huh?"
"It's just… You know Slade Wilson, from the Waverider? He came over to Main near the end to help us out."
"The speedster, yeah, I remember," he nodded.
"Right." She paused. "The thing is, he wasn't born a speedster. He got it after an incident in a lab. They've never been able to get it to happen the same way it did for him, all the others who tried, they just… well, they died in the end," she explained, bowing her head. Maybe this was a bad idea. Well, she'd gone this far, hadn't she? "I was just wondering, I know you didn't get it, but… if you had the chance, do you think you'd want it?"
"To become a speedster?" he asked. She nodded after a few seconds. He let out a breath, not annoyed, just actually considering it. "I wouldn't," he finally replied.
"No?" she was surprised.
"No," he repeated, smiling. "And believe me, there were years, years, where it was all I ever wanted. I did some very reckless things for a while, trying to trigger something in me. I can show you the scars. After a while, I just decided I didn't need it. I got to a place where I knew it wasn't me, and that whatever I could do would be my own thing. I think I did pretty good, right?"
"Did so good, bro," she teased, and he chuckled.
"Also, if you ask me, I'd say the reason it worked for Slade and not for the others is maybe that he was just… predisposed for something like that, and the others weren't." She thought about that… It actually sort of made sense. "Look at this here, right now, you and me, taking a walk, talking… There's no rush."
X
MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
HOME OF SAMANTHA & RUBY ARIAS
It should have been more fun than this, getting to be home on what was supposed to be a school day, but really her mind was too far gone to really get to enjoy it. Her mother had gone off to work, and Ruby was supposed to go to the neighbor's if she needed anything. She half suspected that her mother hadn't just made her go to the neighbor's out of some attempt to let her know that, even though she was too young to go back to ARGUS or to do anything else like that, she was being shown this trust by her mother that she could stay on her own.
She must have really wanted to make her feel better, because the whole time she'd been about to leave, her mother had been going back and forth, coming back for some thing or another that she'd forgotten… like ten times, or asking her if she had enough food, or money, or if she remembered all the numbers, and if she knew what to do in case…
Finally, Ruby had had to stop her and tell her to get going or she'd be late for work. Her mother had looked at her then, and there'd been something in her eyes like the same old mom worry, sure, but at the same time… more. After what had happened not two weeks before, she could guess that was what it was for. She'd gotten one good hug, several kisses, and then her mother had made for the door and actually left for work.
The first hour had been spent, in what would probably have made every last one of her mother's concerns melt away, walking around the house and trying to come up with something she could do that would fully reflect her status as 'pre-adolescent girl, establishing her independence'… before finally coming up empty, grabbing the book she was in the middle of from her nightstand and plopping down on her bed.
When the doorbell rang, she hesitated. All she could hear was her mother saying 'don't open the door for anyone, anyone who's meant to be here has the key to get in.'
Slowly, quietly making her way to the top of the stairs, she'd started to go down, just far enough that she'd be able to see who was outside through the window by the door, and they wouldn't be able to see her. She thought maybe whoever it was had gone away, but then the bell rang a second time, and she could just see someone through the window. They were too far away for her to see more than an arm, but she was almost sure it was a man.
She wasn't going to answer. If they were selling anything, she didn't want it. They would go away. They…
He moved to the left, and she saw his face. She gasped and… he turned and locked eyes with her. Had he heard her? He couldn't have, except… She'd only ever seen his face in a picture, an old one, but she knew it was him, and right then all judgment went out the door. Her father was outside the door, and he was smiling at her.
X
BREACH EARTH, SOMEWHERE…
They were surprised it had taken this long. It had been over a week now since the whole mess had come to an end, over a week since they'd crossed what they figured would be Vandal's deadline before he came to a decision on how to punish them after the capture and release fiasco. But the days had passed, and in all that time none of them had been called in, nothing had come of their discovery… Raymond and Nate had been cooling their heels, literally, in Frozen Quarter, debating on where they might settle, where they might resume their proper lives and activities, the way they had been before they'd gotten involved in this mess.
Involved… Tricked, more like. It had all been some ploy, to use Nate against his grandfather, and in the end none of that had even really happened. In the end, they had seen for themselves the plain truth of it. They had not been chosen for their skills, they had been chosen for Nate's surname and bloodline. And that was not alright. No, as far as they were concerned, they needed to come up with some way to show Vandal Savage, to show all of those men, just who it was they were dealing with.
And then the summons had finally come.
If they had ever entertained the thought that 'maybe this would be good news,' they knew that it wouldn't from the moment they stepped through the breach and into the room where Vandal Savage stood, in much the same position he'd done after the two of them had returned post-escape, his hands joined behind his back. This time however he was not standing in front of a window, and he didn't have his back turned. He was looking right at them, and they knew what a face like that meant. There wasn't even a point in running.
And then there was the other man. As far as they were concerned, he was introduced to them as Curtis Holt. Whether or not that was his actual name, they didn't know, and they didn't assume they'd ever find out one way or the other. All they knew was that, in War, they referred to him as the Enemy. Also, from the moment they'd met him, there was no doubt: this was the man in charge.
They never even got a chance to explain themselves.
They each felt a hand grab them by the shoulders, pulling them back, and the next thing they knew, they were… Where were they?
Then Lily stepped out. She stepped out… They were in a mirror? She'd come to rescue them, she… No. No, she had not come to rescue them. She had come to deliver their sentence. They were in the mirror, and she wasn't. They were in the mirror, and without her they could not get out. They would be in here… until they were deemed to have done their time… if ever at all.
X
MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
HOME OF SAMANTHA & RUBY ARIAS
She had told herself she wouldn't do this. She had made the decision, she was going to allow Ruby to stay here alone, just for today, and tomorrow she would go to school again, and everyone would win… or something. But in order for it to accomplish what she had intended it to accomplish, she had to follow one rule: she couldn't show up in the middle of the day to check up on her. Well, she wasn't doing that, was she? It was lunch time, she was coming here to have lunch with her daughter instead of having her eat all alone, and then she would go right back. Easy.
"Ruby?" she called, walking through the door. "It's me! Just came in for lunch, thought you'd enjoy the company!" She shook her head, not believing a single word she said. But how else was she supposed to act? She had gone against every instinct in her body, telling herself that it would be alright, and that Ruby needed this. She didn't have to like it.
She climbed up the stairs, thinking maybe headphones had made her shouts pointless. But Ruby was not in her room. She wasn't there, or the bathroom, or her room, like she would be sometimes, deciding she preferred to read on her bed. She hadn't been in the living room downstairs, she would have seen… Samantha went back down the stairs and into the kitchen. If she went out to the neighbor's she was supposed to leave a note, or…
No note. No note and no Ruby, but there was something. There was a ring, on the kitchen island. She recognized it easily. It had once been hers. It had been the one she'd worn after Julian had proposed and she'd said yet. It had been the one she'd given back to him when it had all ended. Now it was here, and her daughter was not.
She couldn't breathe. She couldn't… Her hands were shaking so hard that she missed and had to start dialing again four times before she managed to put in a call.
"Jim? Jim, he has her. He has her, he took her. He has Ruby… Help me…" A sob ripped free, and she had to hold to the counter so she wouldn't fall. "Please."
X
BREACH EARTH, SOMEWHERE…
As Lily Stein was joined by her partners, Jesse Wells and Lyra Star couldn't help but look to the tall mirror now sitting at the back of the room, holding the two who had joined their little band near the end, at least, as far as they'd known. The way the girls had seen it, keeping them at their side made things easier for them, and it gave them the ability to use this mistake they'd made to their advantage.
Along with the mirror, they found themselves standing across from three men now. Vandal and Curtis had been joined by a well-put sort of guy, with blond hair and a look on his face like he feared absolutely nothing. This one would be Julian Albert, he of the magic idol. They didn't seek to give him any reason to prove just what that could mean, because with a look like that, he could probably do a whole lot of terrible things.
The three girls were being congratulated. After all, they had done the job they had been hired to do, in every part. They had helped pull some people's focus here and there by kidnapping a friend or loved one. That was little more than a side quest. The real job, the most important one, for the likes of those three, who wouldn't go scouring the quarters on their own, had been in finding this most valued hidden treasure.
This had involved a lot of coming and going, not all of it with any actual purpose except to bury the lead, all the while working off of what information they had in order to track down what their bosses were looking to find. That was sort of the biggest problem, the whole reason why they'd needed the bells and whistles. If not for that, people would have caught on before they reached their target, and if that happened it would all be over. They'd never get the chance again.
Lily, Jesse, and Lyra had done their job. They had found what they were asked to find, who they were asked to find, and they had enabled their taking.
X
MAIN EARTH, THE CITY BENEATH THE BREACH
HOME OF SAMANTHA & RUBY ARIAS
The breacher invasion, the Mist weapon, they had been all hands on deck sorts of situations, and as Samantha had called Jim Olsen, he, Wild Dog, had rallied as many people as he could, the Waverider, the Queen speedsters, the Green Arrow and her people, all of them, heroes near and far, even Deathstroke… especially him. Ruby Arias had been part of their extended team. Just a kid, but her spirit had been essential. And now she'd been taken. The thing they'd feared all along. Her father had found her and taken her away.
All of them closest to the Arias family, all of them calling themselves aunts and uncles especially, looked as though a piece of their heart had been ripped out, and they wouldn't feel right again until it was returned.
There was nothing to stand in their way now. No great disasters looming, no crisis. All that mattered was Ruby, and finding her, and bringing her home.
X
BREACH EARTH, SOMEWHERE…
Curtis Holt looked through the small square windowpane in the door through which his prisoner sat quietly in a corner. After a moment he opened the door, stepping into the cell, poised and curious.
"You were not easy to find," he said. "You hid yourself very well, I must command you on that, but then I guess it was all my fault for misinterpreting the situation. I was left to believe that you would not yet possess any control over the power that sits in you. But then… I suppose you really don't have that, do you? No control at all, and that is how we came to this."
He crouched, looking at the man in the corner of the cell, closed in, face hidden.
"I think it's possible you didn't understand it was your doing, not right away, but… over time, evidently, the signs were there. You were not like them. You did not age like them. And you did not grow frail, and sick, you didn't die like them. Death did not come to you. You… brought… death. You brought sickness, and poison, you brought Mist. You made it what it is now, didn't you? The air, the water, all you," Curtis gave a low, ponderous laugh. "I think you figured that out, I think you felt so ashamed, and yet you could not die. You would not die, no matter what you did. So you hid yourself away, until my young friends found you. Tell me, what do they call you in Mist, what did they call you, when you lived within the city itself?"
The man looked at him. He was angry, he wanted to lash out, but he didn't. He only sat there like the coward that he was… for now at least.
"You don't want to tell me, that's fine, I understand. It was only a formality, I know who you are. Your name, the one they gave you, when they found you, was Clark Kent. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Kent, truly, it is nice to finally meet you, so much so that I will call you by the name you were born to carry, the name you earned the day you created Mist," Curtis stood tall again, looking down to the man in the corner. "I shall call you… Worldkiller."
THE END (FOR NOW)
