Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High or 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash.
A/N: I heard the song and thought it was so beautiful and sad all at the same time that I had to write something about it.
Warren slowly slid to the floor, his back dragging down the white walls of his house that he shared – had shared with Layla. He sat completely motionless, his face pale with shock for hours on end as the scene that had just played out ran over and over through his mind. The images were imprinted on his brain. He knew he would never be able to escape them. The green and the red, and the black, all mingling into one colour that screamed only one word. The one label he'd never wanted to attach to himself.
I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain,
the only thing that's real.
He couldn't believe now that it had started because of something so stupid. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at the scene before him but as he did so, the scene replayed again in his mind.
'Layla!' he'd shouted as he'd stormed into the house, banging the door behind him. 'Layla where the hell are you? Get out here!'
He'd been furious, he remembered. Felt so violated and made so vulnerable by his own wife.
'Warren? What's the matter?' she'd asked as she'd appeared in the doorway of their kitchen drying her hands.
'Oh don't you 'what's the matter me'! You know damn well what's the matter!' he'd screamed back at her.
'Warren, please, you're scaring me. Tell me what's going on. Why are you so angry with me?' she'd pleaded, not the only time she was going to do that that evening.
'So you don't remember calling the prison today and finding out my father was dying and then pleading with them to allow my father a final phone call to me? Are you telling me you don't remember that Layla?' he'd yelled.
He'd been so angry. His arms were heating up rapidly and he knew that his emotions only fuelled his power. If he ignited now, who knows what would happen.
'I know, I thought you'd like to talk to your dad -,' she had said with a frightened look on her face.
'Oh you thought, you thought!' he had said, half laughing, half-serious. 'Well you thought wrong!' he'd snarled. 'You thought that just because we're married now you can go poking around in my family. Things that don't really concern you right now but no, you just had to go fiddling around to see if you can fix it. Well guess what Layla, you can't fix us, no one can! My mother died trying to do that, or do you not remember our wedding?'
Memories of that day flashed through both their minds. His dad had been allowed out for two hours to attend his son's wedding only if he was wearing all the power dampening gear in the state, collar, cuffs, helmet, everything. But somehow, someone knew he was being let out, crashed the wedding and freed him from the restrictions. Baron Battle had gone crazy as the full extent of his powers rushed over him. He made a beeline for his son, arms wielding great chains of fire. Warren had powered up to protect his new bride but he was no match for his father.
Mrs. Peace had tried to use her powers of peace on her husband but to no avail. He'd killed her without a second thought and it was only when all the superheroes at the wedding teamed together that they could restrain him enough to reattach the power dampening restrictions.
'So what made you think I'd want to talk to the man who killed my mother and almost killed us both as well as a room full of heroes?'
'He's dying Warren. I thought you'd want to have one last conversation with him before he went.'
'You know what Layla, this is exactly why I was hesitant about marrying you. Did you know I had doubts? Well yeah, I did and I worried that you'd try to interfere. Mess with things you don't understand, namely my family. We are too damn complicated for an outsider to understand and we'd just got a nice balance going where I don't talk to him anymore when you go and upset that? Now tell me Layla, what the hell is going to happen now?'
Warren remembered how he'd felt at that moment. Rage and hurt and pain were coursing through him stronger than any emotion he'd ever felt before. Even stronger than the love he had for Layla.
Layla had looked into his eyes and seen a Warren she had never seen before. This Warren was mean, felt no compassion and would destroy you for anything. This was the Warren that was saved for supervillains.
He had stared at Layla long and hard, neither of them saying anything to the other but all he could think of was how angry he was with her. Her intrusion had caused him so much pain. Hearing his father's voice on the phone had stirred up so many negative feelings.
'Warren, sweetie? Let's sit down and talk about this. We can work it out, I'm sure, please, we need to talk.'
'No Layla, we don't need to talk. I need to talk, and you need to listen.'
The needle tears a hole;
the old familiar sting,
try to kill it all away,
but I remember everything.
Warren powered up and this was no longer the two flaming arms of his childhood. This was his entire body. He could shoot fireballs, create tendrils of flame, firewalls, pretty much anything.
'Warren, please, no! Don't do this, we can work it out. I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!'
Layla had pleaded for her life. But Warren couldn't hear her anymore. He wasn't Warren either. He'd tapped into some dark side. One that had always been there, hiding quietly, consciously suppressed by Warren for many years in a desperate bid not to become his father. But something had set this free and the power and villainous tendencies of his father coursed through his body.
What have I become,
my sweetest friend?
Everyone I know,
goes away in the end,
Layla continued to plead as he chased her with tendrils that snaked out from his fingers and sent wall after wall of flame at his wife of only a year. She stumbled, tripped and fell, tried to get up again and found herself backed into a corner, staring up at the man who had used to be her husband. She was blinded by the light that radiated from him and the heat singed her hair and clothes. She screamed as the first ball of flame caught her on the shoulder but as more and more rained down on her from above she gave up screaming as she passed out from the pain.
And you could have it all:
my empire of dirt,
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.
Warren opened his eyes as tears streamed down his cheeks, dampening his clothes and he looked over at the blackened corner of the room that marked Layla's final resting place. He hadn't meant for any of this to happen. Something inside of him had just snapped and he'd turned into his father fifteen years ago. Now he just wanted to die. The pain inside of him numbed him and he was filled with such remorse for his actions.
I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liars chair:
full of broken thoughts,
I cannot repair.
Layla had been the one person in his life since he was fifteen that had always been there for him. Ever since they'd defeated Royal Pain together in their freshman year the two of them had grown closer. It was after Layla broke up with Will that they became more than friends and after graduation and a few years as superheroes they got married. They had never been so happy as they were on that day. All their friends had come to the ceremony and it had been such a magical day as the destroyer and bringer of life joined together.
Beneath the stains of time,
the feelings disappear.
You are someone else,
I am still right here.
He thought beauty was meant to stay the hand of the beast but this time it had just enraged him further. He couldn't believe the transformation that had led to this moment in time. In trying so hard to shut out his father and convincing himself that he would never become him, he had never thought of what to do should the unthinkable happen and he did change. He felt so stupid and alone. So alone. What could he do now? He couldn't run, couldn't hide, someone would find him. They always found the bad guys. No matter where they hid or what they did, they were always found and made to face up to their actions. He would end up in jail, probably next to his father knowing his luck.
What have I become,
my sweetest friend?
Everyone I know,
goes away in the end,
Warren sobbed silently as the pain of losing Layla by his own hand suffocated him. He couldn't breathe. He was drowning in his sorrow, in his pain, in his guilt and it all hurt so much. He would give anything to take back what he'd done. His house, his powers, his friends, anything so the actions of the past hour would be erased and they could live together happily again.
And you could have it all:
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.
But he knew it didn't work like that. He knew Layla was dead and nothing could bring her back to him and that he would have to face his punishment. People would want retribution for what had happened here today. His neighbours would hear the fake story cooked up to protect the secret that superheroes lived among the people and want him away from their children. The superheroes would want him locked away too, in case anything like this ever happened again.
If I could start again,
a million miles away,
I will keep myself,
I would find a way.
'Layla, Oh God Layla I'm so sorry,' he sobbed. 'Please Layla, please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you…'
He hugged his knees to his chest and sobbed unrestrainedly onto them. Then he heard the click of the front door and as a little boy wandered into the room in which Warren sat, he heard a little voice ask,
'Daddy? What's the matter? Where's Mommy?'