A/n: omg, we'll surprise I'm back with a new chapter. I hope you guys like this one. It's gonna be a dooise. Strap on your seatbelts and get ready to rumble.
Without further ado
I give you
Chapter 10: Larney Zhang II
"Evil is just a point of view."
Anne Rice
Overlookers POV
Joe Masters had what you would call a sixth sense, or rather a feeling a powerful one. It was a feeling he couldn't shake that moves were being made—the type of moves that could bring down an empire.
His father viewed life as a game of chess, and honestly, so did Joe. In his mind, someone was always making moves. The question was, were they a threat? And if they were, were they formidable.
If so, he would have to make moves of his own. He wasn't going to let everything he held dear slip through his fingertips.
He still hadn't told his father about Larney. He'd indeed have the whole family killed. So he needed to be smart about this. He couldn't go kill an entire family of humble ice cream shop owners, but then he couldn't let any more people find out about his and his father's dealings, so what was he to do?
Well, currently, he found himself driving aimlessly, but not really going anywhere. This was New York, after all. Traffic came with the territory. Then it was as if before he knew it, he found himself going to the Banks residence. He had found that they were listed in the yellow pages. It was all too easy, and it all happened way too fast.
All he had to do was go in there and talk to Larney, maybe scare her a little, and then she'd back off, and he could go on his way. No one had to get hurt.
It seemed so simple.
Unfortunately, things were rarely ever as they seemed.
He must have sat in front of their house for hours. Joe was shaking in his boots. He had done worse things than this per his father's request many times before. This was different. This was him doing it on his own accord. Which made him uncomfortable.
He never wanted to believe his acts were anything more than his father's sins carried out by his own hand. Never once had he let himself think that he had his own sins to account for.
Gathering his composure Joe, exited his car and went to ring the doorbell. Conveniently Larney was the one to answer the door.
"Mrs. Banks, good evening, my name is-"Joe began his hand outstretched for hers to shake before she cut him off. "Zhang-Banks and I know exactly who you are, Mr. Masters." said the woman coldly. She didn't know why Joe had come to her home, but she knew he had some nerve.
She knew exactly who he was, and he didn't scare nor impress her one bit. "I don't know where you think you get off coming to my house like this, but you should leave. You have no business here." the woman said, still not letting the man into her house. She knew better than that, of course.
But what she didn't know was she should have been afraid of the man before her. She had no idea what he was capable of.
Joe didn't let anyone speak to him the way this woman was. He couldn't tell if he liked her for her gumption or hated her for it. He knew he wasn't going to let her get away with it. "Look, Mrs. Zhang-Banks, I just want to talk. That's all," he said, trying to reason with her. He couldn't very well force his way in her house in broad daylight.
Though the irritation the woman seemed to wrought in him definitely made the thought cross his mind once or twice.
"You May have everyone else in this city, hell even the whole godamned world fooled, but I know the truth. Your father is a pompous sociopathic ass, and you're no better, now get your sorry ass off my porch." Larney said with a fire in her eyes, a fire that Joe knew was a threat.
He very may have met his match. Joe Masters didn't work this hard to be undone by this infuriating woman. He had tried pleasantries, and she wasn't so easily sold. So he had to up the ante.
"Look, lady, I came here as a courtesy to you. If my father ever finds out you went to the press, he'd have your entire family killed. Believe or not, I'm trying to protect you." Joe said, trying to stay calm. If he could just get her to see reason, no one had to get hurt.
"You came here to shut me up so you can keep sitting in your ivory tower with your silver spoon in your mouth, while innocent kids suffer. Don't try and pretend you give a damn about any of us little people." Larney said with a fire in her eyes. Truth be told, she was terrified of Joe and his father. Not for herself but for her family. That's why she was scared to go to the press.
But she wasn't going to give Joe the satisfaction of seeing her shake. Perhaps if she showed she wasn't afraid, she could take the Master's down.
What she didn't know or perhaps what she had allowed herself to be blind to, was that she was in way over her head. Larney had never been one to bow. She was a fighter born and bred. Her birth parents had literally thrown her in the trash because they had wanted a boy, but she survived that and foster care in America.
She fought her way through life with her now-husband by her side. She felt as though they were a team. It was them against the world, and nothing could ever tear them apart.
Her problem was she didn't know when not to fight. When it came to fight or flight, she chose to fight every time. The problem was anyone who defied the Master's tended not to live very long.
Joe had it. He saw now she wasn't going to stop. His last resort was to scare her. If he put the fear of God in her. He wouldn't have to kill her. She'd be too scared to open her mouth again but still alive to be a mother and wife. Everyone would win.
Joe's face darkened. He knew what he had to do. He pushed Larney back so she fell, and he flung open the door then closed it.
For the first time, he saw the fear in Larney's eyes. She crawled backwards from her spot on the floor, as she began to try and stand and fight. Joe grabbed her by her hair. He threw her into her own wall as she struggled against him kicking and punching. She got a good scratch across his cheek, which drew blood and only seemed to anger him more.
He pressed her to the wall using all his strength as she tried to break free to no avail.
"Listen here, you vile bitch, you are going to keep that pretty little mouth of yours shut, or I'll shut it for you." Joe gritted out as he expected the fear to take over and for her to beg and say she'd keep her mouth shut if he just let her go. She however, did no such thing.
Instead, she mustered every ounce of fight in her and spat in his face. "Fuck you," she screamed loudly in his face as she continued to struggle. He slammed her hard in the wall, then wiped her saliva from his face. "I won't ask you again, bitch. If you want to live, you are going to give me your word that your mouth will stay shut!" Joe growled.
Some part of him hated hurting her. He felt like the monster Larney thought he was. What was he to do? He couldn't go to jail. He couldn't let Larney keep shooting her mouth off. He couldn't lose Paulina. So what was he to do?
When he killed at his father's behest, he felt like he was playing a role; The loyal son. But this felt different. This felt wrong every ounce if him wanting her to stop fighting so he could stop hurting her. This was the last thing he wanted
Larney didn't answer right away. She ignored the pain in her head and her back, not to mention her arms where Joe had his iron grip. She found the fight in her, and said, "I said fuck you, you son of a bitch. I will never stay silent. So go ahead and make my day." She bellowed, showing him not an ounce of fear.
She struggled against his grip as he began choking her. She fought him every step of the way. She felt herself slipping, but still, she fought. She wasn't going to let him kill her. She wasn't going to die.
Joe had come here with the intention that no one was going to get hurt. He somehow found himself choking Larney. He was only supposed to scare her.
He felt her hands fighting him the whole time until he didn't. A sickening taste of reality washed over him. Why had she stopped fighting? He removed her hands from her neck, and she fell lifeless to the floor.
Joe realized what he had done. He had killed Larney Zhang. Tears slipped from his eyes. Bile rose in his throat as he ran out of the house, and hurriedly got in his car.
it was all too easy, and It all happened way too fast
What the hell was he going to do? He couldn't go home, he couldn't look Paulina in the eye. So he drove around aimlessly until he ended up in a bar. He didn't go to his regular upscale bar. He didn't want to risk running into anyone he knew.
Instead, he drove until he was in a part of town where no one recognized him and had more scotch's than he could count. He stayed until the bar closed, and they kicked him out.
He decided to sleep in his car for about 2 hours, then finally opted to head home, hoping against hope Paulina would be fast asleep.
He slowly crept in their condo and changed his clothes. He was sick to his stomach. What had he done? How could he look at himself in the mirror? How could he sleep next to Paulina? How could he sleep at all?
He tiptoed into their bedroom and saw that she was fast asleep. He opted to go out of their balcony and try and pull himself together. All he could see was what he had done. His own guilt was consuming him. It was suffocating him. He felt as if he couldn't breathe.
The alcohol was still affecting his mind heavily. It was a miracle he made it home without any mishaps. He put his hand on the ledge then the other before he knew what was happening, he was standing on the ledge.
The guilt was too much; this was all he could do to atone.
"You don't get to just kill your self!" Came a voice. At first, Joe thought he was hallucinating. He thought surely his guilt had driven him mad. Even more, the reason to jump. He figured. That way he couldn't hurt anyone else, and no nobody could ever hurt him again.
Before he could jump, he felt himself being lifted into the air, he screamed now terrified. He looked around wondering what or rather who had picked him up. Ghost ran rapidly through New York, but this voice sounded familiar in some off way.
This voice was angry. He didn't know what to make of him, but he wished the apparition would just get it over with already. The ghost turned Joe around to face her so he could look into her eyes and know who was going to send him straight to hell.
Fear turned to shock then back to fear when Joe saw that his captor was none other than Larney Zhang. It was at that moment Joe realized he didn't want to die. He knew he probably deserved it, but he wanted another chance. "Larney, please, this isn't you", Joe begged.
Larney was different in appearance but not by much. Joe chalked this up to being a new ghost. Her hair was still the same color, and she was wearing the same clothes, but her skin was chalky white, and the only color she was where the red Welts around her neck where he had straggled her.
Larney laughed maniacally. "Maybe this wasn't me, but you killed me Joe. You took me from my family. I screamed at my husband for hours as he held my broken body and wept. I wanted to tell him I was there, I was still there, but he couldn't hear me. I tried to touch him, but my fingers went right through him. You took everything from me. Give me one reason why I shouldn't put the world out of their misery." Said Larney, rage in her, in which Joe had never seen.
Joe began to rack his brain for a reason that he could tell Larney that would stop her from killing him. Then he blurted, "I can bring you back!" She shouted as she dangled him in the air. She seemed to mull it over.
"I swear if this is a trick…" she began before Joe cut her off to start his sales pitch. "No trick, no guarantees either, I think I can bring you back with some stuff in the lab because you're newly dead, but I'm not sure. I'll make you a deal; if I can't, then, you can kill me." Joe said, laying it on her. He was telling the truth. The lab held wonders beyond human comprehension. It was possible there was something there that could give her her life back.
He had to try. Not just for him but for her too. He didn't know how he was ever going to live with himself if he didn't save her.
Joe had Larney turn invisible as he enters the experimentation lab. Larney wanted to throw up. Humans and ghost alike were strapped to tables with muzzles on their mouths and old bloody hospital gowns. They had all been cut open and sewed back up 10 times over the whole place held the stench of death.
"My god, you're a monster", Larney said in disbelief at the sight before her. Ignoring her comment, He walked over to the refrigerator, where they kept the blood samples. There was one sample that looked like human blood but it had flecks of green ectoplasm in it. Joe grabbed it and decided to take a gamble.
"I'm going to inject this into your heart." He said gently. Her eyes held fear, but she nodded. She figured there was no way it would kill her, and if it didn't work, she would kill him. It was a win-win situation.
He had her lay back on one of the empty tables and as he readied the syringe. They both prepared themselves for the inevitable. He stuck the needle in her heart.
There was a moment of quiet before a loud gasp was heard. Then Larney was engulfed in a flash of light. Now her chalky skin was gone, and so were the welts on her neck. She looked as she did that day as if none of this had ever happened. Though it did, and both parties were forever changed.
Larney felt her heartbeat and noticed she was breathing. She was alive. It had worked. She looked at Joe, now puzzled. She had to understand this enigma. "why kill me just to bring me back?" Larney asked, genuinely curious.
Joe paused for a second. He needed to mull it over.
Finally, he said, "because I'm no hero, but I'm not made of Stone." Before Larney could say anything else, Joe added. "And you better go before my father finds you here.
Without another word, Larney teleported home to her husband. Even though she was alive again, her powers had remained.
Sam Manson pretty much always worked late, but for her to be at the times at 3 am was a feat even for her. Yet here she was.
She and Danny were pretty much the last people in the office, even Petey had gone home hours ago. But Sam was determined to get Vlad. She couldn't just sit here and wait for Paulina to get the key. She felt as helpless as someone with a broken foot.
Danny felt himself snoozing as Sam snapped her fingers to wake him. "No time for snoozing nowheresville, if we want Vlad, we gotta him ourselves" before the tired Phantom could respond, a bright flash of light engulfed the room; when it died down, there stood Larney.
This definitely woke Danny up. She was a ghost or at least part of one anyway. Danny looked sadly at Larney. "What happened to you?" He said, slowly afraid of the answer.
"There isn't much time, my husband and I are taking the kids, and we're blowing town. We have enough saved up to be on the run for a while. He's waiting out in the car, but I couldn't leave without warning, you guys. I was wrong to think I could save the world. So I'm trying to make sure the two of you don't make the same mistake. Don't go after the Master's." Larney said, looking over her shoulder. She had inadvertently put a target on her family's back because of her own damn hero complex.
Now she had to think of them. She believed Joe wouldn't come after her, but Vlad was another story. However, as bad Joe was, she knew Vlad was worse. If Danny and Sam went up against Vlad, they'd lose just as she had.
Danny and Sam looked sad; where was the nervous but tenacious woman they meant days ago? The woman before them had lost her fight. It was as if she had met her match.
"What Happened to you?" Sam said her mouth agape. Larney gave off a sad smile, trying to give the reassurance that she would be okay, even though she didn't know.
"I went toe to toe with a God, and I lost." She said darkly. They both had so many questions but as quick as Larney came and with yet another flash of light she was gone.
There were certain truths this world held. There were certain questions you could never know the answers to. There were certain sins you couldn't escape, and there were certain monsters you couldn't outrun.
No matter how fast one goes or how far they run, they can never escape the demons rooted in their very core.
They need not look for the monster under their bed but rather in their own mirrors.
Danny and Sam stood for the truth. They stood for fighting for it at all costs. Never before had they honestly considered the price. There were no lengths Vlad wasn't willing to go to, and at that moment, they feared for their loved ones.
Danny voiced the elephant in the room. "What are we gonna do, Sam?" Danny said, terrified that the tenacious woman before him wouldn't stop until it killed her or got her killed.
"We fight!" She said all the strength in her showing. Danny sighed and said words he'd never thought he'd say. "What if we lose?" Danny said, afraid of her answer. Sam seemed to really search for a fitting reply.
"We can't afford to lose, we can't afford to even entertain the idea. We have to fight innocent lives are on the line. Children are on the line. Someone has to take Vlad down. Someone has to remind him that he isn't God; he's just an insecure man grasping for power. And he can't win. He won't win. We have to fight because if we don't, who will." Sam said, truly inspiring Danny. Danny was afraid he didn't want what happened to Larney to happen to Sam. He loved her too much.
He was deeply impressed by Sam's words. She inspired him more than she'd ever know. Sometimes he thought she could save the world more than he ever could. If he had to pick one thing he loved about her the most, it would be her heart.
He could tell though she tried to hide it, her heart ran deep and it stretched far. She loved everyone, and all she wanted was for the world to be a better place. He didn't know her full story, but he knew her childhood wasn't like what he had growing up.
He could tell by her hardened outlook on the world. Perhaps that was why her heart was so big because she was no stranger to pain, and she didn't want anyone else to have to go through that.
Still, because her heart stretched so far, he figured she didn't have much left to give to herself, and that's the part that worried him.
But atlas he knew as much as Larney had been determined to take Vlad and Joe down Sam was, perhaps even more so. That's what terrified him. He couldn't lose her.
Still, he knew he couldn't stop her. He had to protect Sam from her own gumption even if it killed him.
"I know you won't stop Sam. I know you want to get him, and I know we will, but I need you to promise me right now that you won't do anything rash." Danny said, a plea in his eyes. His baby blues had welled with tears that he wouldn't allow to spill over. He needed her to be okay for him to even have a shot.
For a second, Sam felt guilty. She thought about spilling the beans with her arrangement with Paulina, but Danny would probably tie her up until she agreed to call it off. He would think it was too dangerous. So she couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him until after they had given the intel, then she'd bring him in.
If she promised she wouldn't do anything rash, she'd be lying to her partner. Since she couldn't exactly tell him the truth, she had to say to him a half-truth, or a different fact to keep from telling him the other fact.
"I promise that I won't do anything that I can't get away with", Sam said gently, hoping he didn't press her for more.
Danny knew Sam was keeping something but decided not to press. What right did he have to press for her secret when he was holding his. So instead, he made a mental note for Phantom to keep an invisible eye on Sam.
"Sam, look just whatever you do, be careful." He said, a stern look in his eyes. Sam put a hand of comfort on Danny's hand and said, "listen to me, I'm a survivor born and bred. You don't have to worry about me."
Danny gave off a smile though her attempt at comfort did nothing to ease his worry. This woman was infuriating, but he couldn't help but love even the parts of her he hated.
More and more, he cursed his burden. More and more, he fell for her. How long would it be like this? How long would happiness keep evading him. Would the last son of Zona Temporis ever find the solace he had been searching for his entire life, or would he always live in this constant state of unrest, this limbo that seemed to surround him every time he tried to live?
The truth was the people who got close to him were forever changed. His family held the burden of protecting his secret, and because of his secret, Valerie lost her mom and got her heartbroken. His burden was like a cancer, and it could spread.
Sam deserved better than that. She deserved someone who didn't come with all the baggage that he did. He couldn't touch her. He couldn't hurt her in that way. Still, how was he supposed to resist?
A/n: omg, so I finally got this chapter out. This will be the last one for a while. I'm taking four classes this semester, so I'm swamped. You guys may get a new one during my fall break in November. We'll see. Hope you guys enjoyed this.