Comics, Cookies and Revenge

By Lejindarybunny

A/N: Fanart announcements!! You go see Crittarka's deviantart account. She has a lovely, lovely portrayal of Syn from the first chapter, and RavensHaelo did a great rendition of Syn and Vex. It's in her scraps section.

As for me, I put up a little piece of Vi fanart.

This is a rather short, but very important chapter.

Disclaimer: The Incredibles, Syndrome and all affiliated characters and ideas are property of Disney/Pixar.

Chapter 17: Inner Dialogue, Inner Demons, Identity

Vex sat hugging the back of the chair, her body shaking with fear, and hurt. Glass shattered on the floor, blood on her hands and lips.

"What's wrong with me?" she whispered to herself, staring at the glittering pieces of glass. 'Something's wrong with me...'

Blood and glass, dizziness. The mirror she'd dismissed. There wasn't a way to dismiss this, not when it felt like someone had taken a hook and dragged it up her larynx. Vex dragged the tips of her clean fingers across her throat, unable to sooth the pain inside.

'You should tell Syndrome,' one part of her whispered. 'He'll know what's wrong. He'll know what to do.'

'No! That's stupid,' another part insisted. 'There's nothing wrong. So you coughed a little bit, so what? Why is that suddenly so scary for you? Don't be such a weakling.'

She sat shuddering as her inner demons warred between panic and self reliance. She must look ridiculous now, hugging a chair like some frightened little girl in a Halloween costume. Her chocolate colored locks falling in front of her mask, obscuring her vision. There was nothing she wanted to see at the moment anyway.

'If I tell Syndrome, he'll be upset. I don't want to make a big deal of this. Whatever is wrong will go away by itself like every other medical issue I've ever had. After all, I never stay home from school when I'm sick, why should this be different?'

'Well gee, maybe it's the glass that somehow mysteriously fell out of the hand you were clutching it with? And it's not like you were grabbing it so hard it broke, otherwise your hand would be cut, and it's not, now is it?'

Well, no, it wasn't. Come to think of it, it wasn't cut when she had been bleeding in the changing room either, and she hadn't coughed anything up that she recalled that time. The logical, pattern seeking creature inside her naturally tied the two events together, trying to determine what common elements they had.

Blood, obviously, though the difference between them was the apparent source. Glass also might be a factor, the mirror and the cup... Dizziness, and the feeling of passing through something.

Vex felt better now, with her mind focused on solving the problem instead of simply whining to herself about it, detachedly logical, instead of scared and emotional.

Now, what seemed to be the strangest element of all? That would have to be the blood that seemed to have been caught inside Maurice's mirror. She had rationalized that away before, but now she wasn't so sure she should.

She stood up from the chair, and knelt down on the floor beside the glass.

'There shouldn't be any blood at all on the glass,' she thought, 'because I didn't cut myself, and the worst of the coughing didn't start until after I'd dropped it.'

She pulled her white gloves back on, wonderful, impervious material that they were made of, and began to pick through the glass, looking for any blood. At first, she didn't find any, and her this-is-weird-o-meter was dropping to a nice, comfortable level. After all, there was nothing particularly out of the ordinary with just coughing up blood.

The glittering shard of red-stained glass just about dashed that thought to as many pieces. She picked it up in her hand, and held it to the light. The blood was not on the surface, neither dry nor wet, but again, tiny flecks of red seemed to be imbedded inside the shard.

Vex felt her insides freeze up. Once could be rationalized, but twice? That was enough of a pattern to really frighten her. It was as if her hands had passed through both the mirror and the glass, but, left something behind.

Vex grimaced. 'Ridiculous! How could my hand go through a solid object? It just wasn't possible. Solid objects could not exist in the same place at the same time. Not in conventional science, anyway. But weren't there things in this world that insolently defied conventional science? Maybe she couldn't rule out anything.

She took a deep breath, as she stood, composing herself, and not allowing herself to be frightened. She walked purposefully over to the cup board. Taking her glove off once more, Vex braced herself, tensing her shoulders for pain, and picked up another glass.

Nothing happened. The glass felt firm and solid, even though she held it quite gingerly, her fingers trembling slightly.

'See? Nothing is wrong. Your hand didn't go through the glass. Everything is fine.'

'Is it really? Test it.'

'There is nothing wrong, Vex. Walk away, and go back to your duties.'

'Test it.'

'Walk away.'

'Test it!'

As always, her curiosity got the better of her caution. Vex pursed her lips, frowning, and set the cup down on the counter. She stared at it determinedly, and rested her fingers tentatively on the rim of the glass. She stared at the back of her hand.

'This isn't going to work.'

'Why not? Why is matter solid? Should it be solid?'

'Well...'

'You know there's no good reason for matter to be solid. The atoms in your hand should have quite enough room to pass comfortably beside the atoms in that glass, to go straight through it. Anyone ought to be able to do it.'

'But they can't. Matter is solid.'

'Are you sure?'

'What if I want to be sure?'

'Be sure then. Be sure you can't do it. Walk away.'

'I shouldn't be able to do it.'

'But what if you can?'

Vex took a deep breath. She firmed her hold on the glass, pressing down just a little harder. 'Pass through,' she urged the molecules in her hand. 'Pass through'

The glass stayed as solid as ever.

Vex closed her eyes, lifted her hand a little, off the lip of the glass.

'There's nothing there.'

She brought her hand down, and met no resistance.

Blind panic gripped her heart, and she jerked back her arm, clutching it to her chest before she opened her eyes. The glass just sat there, mocking her. Vex leaned forward, and inspected it. There was no blood, on or in it. She felt fine.

So how the hell was she supposed to tell if she'd just missed the cup completely?

'Good going Vex,' she congratulated herself. 'I loved the part where you shut your eyes like a frightened puppy.'

Vex swung her arm angrily, intending the negligent gesture to knock the glass from the counter, and join its brother in pieces on the floor. But her arm passed straight through the glass, and this time she saw it happen.

First she just stared, disbelieving what her eyes had told her. There was no way. No way...

She put her hand through the counter, and pulled it out again. The only thing she felt was a slight tingling sensation. She did it again.

"Having fun?" a cold, harsh voice demanded behind her.

Vex turned. Syndrome was standing in the doorway. His sparkling blue eyes were aglow with the fire of fury behind his mask.

"Syndrome I-" she began. She had to explain, before he thought-

"You're a super," he snarled, advancing on her. His boots crunched on the broken glass.

"I-"

"You tricked me!" he roared, shoving her roughly back against the wall with one hand.

Vex winced in pain, and stared up at him pleadingly. "I didn't know!"

"You lying, treacherous bitch." His face came closer to hers with every word, and she could see herself reflected in his wrathful eyes, as he held her pinned.

"Please, don't hurt me," she begged, genuinely frightened, tears welling in her dark eyes.

"Why shouldn't I?" he growled, sneering at her. "You know what I do to supers."

"Let me explain!"

"What's there to explain? I thought we were alike. I trusted you. God, I fell in love with you, damn it," he pounded his other fist against the wall, just inches away from her face. "What I fool I've been."

"No," she insisted, her voice shaking, the tears rolling down her face. "Syndrome you have to l-listen to me."

He glared at her, and his grip didn't relax the slightest bit, but he said nothing.

"Think about my fanfiction, Syndrome," she urged, searching in his eyes for something besides mistrust, and hate. "Why would I write that if I h-had any real powers? Syndrome, please, trust me; I didn't have any idea that I could do a-anything until just now. Do you remember when I screamed in Maurice's? That was because my fingers went through the mirror. I convinced myself it didn't happen, until it happened again. And, and I-I had to figure out what was going on."

Syndrome's fingers tightened against her shoulders for a moment, and then he released her completely, turning away in disgust. Vex slid down the wall, collapsing to her knees on the floor, shuddering and crying.

"Syndrome, I'm s-sorry, I didn't-" Vex's words were cut off by a fit of vicious coughing, that horrible tearing sensation in her chest returning, and she gasped, and choked violently, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

000

Anger and bitter jealousy churned in Syndrome's heart like bile, warring with the newer tender emotions he had for Vex. A very large part of him wanted to hate her, wanted to hate her because she had something that he didn't. He felt betrayed by the fact that he had gone, and he had rescued her, only to find out she didn't need it. Even if she hadn't known until now, it didn't matter. She was a super.

He couldn't kill her. He had been close to it, in his burst of temper, but now that rational thought crept in, he knew he couldn't. But he couldn't have her near him, either, a constant reminder, a constant potential threat.

He'd have to send her home; that was all. Just forget he'd ever known her. What business did he have being in a relationship anyway? They never worked out. He couldn't rely on anyone but hims-

Syndrome stopped rigidly, as he realized where his thoughts were taking him, what he sounded like in his own mind. Send her home? Rely only on himself?

'Fly home, Buddy.'

If he did that, wasn't it just like Mr. Incredible sending him away because he didn't have any powers? He clenched his fists. Why did life have to be this complicated?

Syndrome was jolted from his thoughts, as he heard a raucous fit of coughing. He turned suddenly, and saw Vex shaking, and choking on the floor.

"Are you alright?" he demanded.

She shook her head, and flattened herself further against the wall, unable to speak through her wheezing and gasping. Syndrome knelt down, and put one hand on her chest, and one on her arm, trying to sooth her. He felt a stab of guilt and self-loathing as she shrunk back, cringing in fear of him, even through her coughing.

"Shhh, it's okay," he said, his face softening.

Her coughs were subsiding into generally hiccups and panting. She was crying again, and she hugged her arms around herself, holding his arm to her chest, and crying against it.

"I'm sorry I frightened you," he whispered. "Please, please stop crying."

"It's not that," she whispered, her voice hoarse from the fit. "There's something wrong with me..."

Syndrome felt ashamed. "Vex there's nothing wrong with you being super, I'm sorry I said-"

She shook her head, and held up one of her hands. It was covered in blood.

"What the hell?"

"Remember in the changing room?" she asked, resting her head on his arm. "I said I cut myself? I didn't I don't know where the blood came from. And- and when I looked again, there was blood trapped inside the mirror, where my fingers went through it. And just now, when I thought I dropped the glass, there's blood inside that too."

"And you're coughing up blood."

"Yes."

Syndrome did not want to be thinking what he was thinking. But before he'd come down to see where Vex was, as she wasn't on any of the cameras, he had been looking through Rasputin's files. One of the first symptoms that Rasputin had noticed, that made him think something was wrong with his elder son's powers, was prolonged coughing, often with blood.

All the color drained out of Syndrome's face as he put his arms around Vex, and pulled her to her feet. "Vex, baby doll, we need to get you down to the lab. Now."

To be continued...

Maya Beebop: Sorry to leave you with yet another cliffhanger. I'm sadistic like that.

WormmonABC: Haha, something like that. Its nice to have another Evo fan aboard. Now I'll go and hug my Toad plusie.

Shadow Fox Forever: Hehehhe. Dooom. Doom and France.

Artymas: Really? Funny, I've actually never seen that movie. Not really up my alley. My friend who's in a Sith club really loves it though.

RavensHaelo: Dun, dun, dun. I wish I had her pendant.

Til next chapter fanboys and girls.