And we're getting closer and closer to the end... Oooh, scary~
Now, some people were getting on me about Brygida's apparent 'drastic change' from loving her friends, to not caring if they were alive or not. I guess I need to explain a little. I've already showed that she can make bad decisions, yes? She turned Laurie away, and then felt terrible about it for a long time.
Is it not impossible to feel good about something one day, and then feel terrible after everything goes wrong...?
And no, I have not turned her heartless, there is a point to everything that I do in this story, even the drastic age difference.
Anywho, this is the penultimate chapter, next one will be the last of this series.
Enjoy!
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It had been two hours.
Two hours of unbearable silence.
Brygida felt that she would go insane and start tearing her hair out if she had to endure such a silence much longer.
"So Dan..." She said. The brown haired man looked back at her, the hood of his costume hanging from his collar. She continued, "When you said that you were Rorschach's liaison... You meant his partner?"
Dan gave a small smile, "Yes. Sorry I didn't tell you that I was Nite Owl, but..."
She smiled back at him, "Don't worry about it, I understand..." She looked out the window of Archie and twitched with unfamiliarity as a fish swam by, "What I don't understand is why we're in the fucking ocean of all places. I mean, it's nice and murky, sure, but... Still very strange."
He pressed a few buttons, "It's better for Archie to be underwater than above the clouds for now; takes less energy and it's easier to explain an unidentified object underwater than it is in the sky. You don't want people adopting the 'It's a bird, it's a plane' thing with us. Because after they can't figure out what it is, next instinct is to shoot it down."
Brygida shuddered, "Point taken."
... And the silence settled again.
But after a while...
"How much longer? Tired of skulking down here. Impatient. Work to be done." Rorschach complained in his ever-present monotone.
"Rorschach, we just got you and Bridget out of prison. Everybody's looking for us, and unless we all want to go back there, we'd better be careful." Daniel replied.
"Down here hours already. Need to collect spare uniform and personal effects, so that we can proceed."
"And can I get my glasses? I still can't see a thing, and I doubt you want a blind girl on your hands right now..." Brygida chimed in.
Daniel sighed, "Alright, we'll go to Rorschach's first and then get your glasses. I'm taking her up."
"At last." Rorschach said, "It feels good to be working with you again, Daniel. Pity Miss Juspeczyk wouldn't stay with us."
"Yes. Yes, it's a pity."
Archie floated silently to the top of the wharves at the edge of the city, and Daniel opened the hatch at the top of Archie. When Brygida tried to follow them, he put a hand up to stop her, "Stay here. We don't know what may happen, and if we end up having to fight the police, you're not going to want to see it or be anywhere near it."
"Oh yeah, like it'll be any better if the police find me in Nite Owl's damn hovercraft. I'd be safer with you, Dan." She shoved past him and grimaced at the smell of dead fish and dead sea, "Gross..."
Walking a good yard behind the two as they talked, Brygida took in her surroundings. She was slightly surprised; this place was only a couple blocks from her parents home. Who knew that superheroes could be so close to home, literally. It was a beaten and decrepit part of the city, the sidewalk looked like it had never been without dirty shoes. It looked like the kind of place where people went when their dreams died.
They stopped at a fire escape on the worst looking of the buildings, and Brygida climbed up after Dan and Rorschach, hearing the very end of the conversation.
"Some of us have always lived on edge, Daniel. It is possible to survive there if you observe the rules: Just hang on by fingernails..." Rorschach jumped down to the uppermost window on the right side of the building, "... And never look down."
Daniel helped Brygida swing in after Rorschach, and she tumbled in before standing up and looking around the...
Well, it wasn't much of an apartment. It looked disgusting. She could see scraps of the New Frontiersman stuck in the floorboards; cracked china plates littered around the small room.
"Oh god!" A woman shrieked from the doorway, making Brygida jump inside her skin.
She could see the woman start to shake as she started rambling, "I—It's you... Oh god, what are you doing here? I... look, please, I don't want any trouble, okay? I..."
"Mrs. Shairp. Long time no see." Rorschach said as he gathered his things into his arms and approached the poor woman, "Told press I'd made sexual advances on you. Not true. Very bad."
"No! I never said that, I got misquoted! Oh god, please don't..."
Daniel put a hand on his shoulder, "Rorschach? Come on, man. Leave it..."
Rorschach pulled away, "Can't. Serious business. Slur on reputation. How much did they pay you to lie about me, whore?"
Brygida looked at the woman's children who were crowded about her feet, whimpering and sobbing. None of them looked alike, she figured that they all probably had different fathers.
"Oh please," Begged the alleged Mrs. Shairp, "Don't say that. Not in front of my kids. Please, they... They don't know."
And Brygida watched what she thought was impossible. The look on Rorschach's, on Walter's face, was sympathetic. Empathetic. It was a once in a lifetime, once in a millennium, opportunity to behold. But it was soon gone. He turned around, "Got what we came for. Finished here now. Let's go."
Brygida looked back at Mrs. Shairp, on the ground with her kids, crying her eyes out. She walked over to her and brushed her shoulder. The woman jolted, looking up at her with a craziness in her eyes until she saw that it was her.
"I'm sorry..." Brygida said, and then walked after the other two. Daniel took her hand and hoisted her up onto the rooftop.
"I'm not too heavy, am I?" Brygida asked, "That's not a trick question, by the way."
Daniel chuckled, "No. After all the fighting and getting Rorschach back, you're light as a feather. I could use some weight training, though. Get back to what I used to be."
Brygida smiled, but didn't say anything.
Back at Archie, she stood up in front of the ship, and pointed down the street to where her parent's building would be. Though near Rorschach's part of the city, this part was cleaner, or rather, less disgusting. Brygida's parents lived in a medium sized apartment complex in a nice room on the top floor, where her mother ran her book clubs and did her interior designing.
"Sorry that there aren't any lakes or oceans or anything that you can hide in nearby." Brygida said as she crawled in through the window.
"There doesn't seem to be anyone on the street. It's not a problem." Daniel replied as he and Rorschach followed her in.
"You guys didn't have to come." She mumbled, rolling her eyes, "Momma!! Are you here?!" She heard the dull clink of a bottle on wood flooring and followed the sound into the bedroom.
And on the bed, was of course, her father. She sighed, "Hello Patrick."
He didn't respond. She heard crying and her eyes widened, "Dad? Are you okay?"
"Y-Your mother..." He said, holding out a note. She snatched it from his hand and read it allowed:
"Brygida and Patrick:
I am sorry that I must leave you both now. The vibrations in this place are dark, heavy, and unhealthy. I am running away for a couple of weeks, and will be back as soon as I can collect myself again. Do not try to follow me, I need to be alone right now.
Love you both,
Rasia."
Brygida sighed and crumpled up the note, sticking it into her front pocket. Her mother was always so dramatic, she always had to do something that would make her look like a hero, or a villain. Not intentionally of course, it was just in her nature. But Brygida could practically see her writing the note, the back of her hand up to her forehead as she cried her crocodile tears.
"Mother was a hippie?" Rorschach asked.
"Still is..." Brygida replied, her voice thin and wispy. She looked at her father, "I'm sorry dad, I—"
"It's your faul' that she's gone..." Her father slurred. He was drunk beyond the point of reasoning. Tears streaked his cheeks, snot bubbled and crusted just over his upper lip. His sobs were wet and thick. Brygida found herself stepping back slightly so that she didn't have to look so closely at him. She could see all this even without her glasses, and she found it utterly disgusting.
"Dad, where are my spare glasses?"
"S'that all you came for? Your damn glasses? What about me?!" He choked, "You never come to see me!"
"What was there to see, dad?! You're always in bed watching the television! You never wanted to do anything with me, I might's well have not even been your daughter!" Brygida replied sharply, and then regretted it when she had the misfortune of hearing him moan in pain.
"You were always so cruel to me! And now, you're going to take you glasses and leave with these..." He looked behind her and saw Rorschach and Daniel, one in costume, the other covered in blood.
He let out a scream, "Who are they?! Brygida, come here, they're going to kill you!!"
Brygida reddened, "Dad, they're my friends... Leave them alone, they're not here to kill me, they're here to help me. Which is more than I can say for you."
Rorschach walked towards the bed and opened a drawer in the bed stand, all while Brygida's father was sobbingly begging him for his life. He pulled out a glasses case and looked at her, "Can leave now?"
Brygida nodded, "Yeah, let's get out of here."
They all turned to leave, and Patrick flew into a drunken rage, "You get back here, Brygida! I didn't say that you could leave!!" He chucked an empty bottle at her. It hit her in the back of the head.
"Son of a bitch--!" She sucked in air through her teeth and held the spot where it hit, "Ah, fuck, that hurt..." Rorschach was about to go back and give him what for, but Brygida told him to stop.
"Just let him drown in his own alcohol and unhappiness..." She said, looking up at him, "Please."
The red head nodded, and the three of them loaded back into Archie, listening to her father yell his apologies. Brygida sat in the corner of the owl ship, her head in between her knees, "I'm gonna be sick..."
Daniel patted her back, "I'm sorry about your parents..."
She shook her head, and then stopped, deciding against it, "He doesn't usually get like that. My mother was his anchor, I guess now that she's gone, he'll just attempt to kill himself with alcohol poisoning... I'll come back after we're done with all this craziness and set him straight."
Daniel nodded, "We're going to go back underwater, why don't you try to get some sleep?"
She sighed, "Yeah... That sounds good..."
Daniel pulled the white snow owl suit from the wall and handed it to Brygida. She laid it down in the corner and yawned, curling up and almost immediately falling asleep from complete and utter exhaustion.
Thankfully, she didn't dream. She had no out-of-body experiences, she didn't hear anything that was going on around her; she simply slept. All the bad things slowly bled their way out of her mind and her body snuggled closer into the lovely folds of warm blankets, her mind inching closer and closer to nirvana. The shifting silvers, white golds and black pearls turned the insides of her eyelids into fairy forests, endless plains of simple color, beautiful and impossible in the real world. She smelled infinity.
In her sleep, she felt a hand on her head, and she thought that perhaps she would purr and rub up against the hand, treat it like an old friend and invite it into her dreams. But it left before she could so anything, so she sank back into the light and forgot about the hand, thinking maybe there was no hand, and simply a dream come to bid her farewell.
She was suddenly jerked from the light in her head by the sound of birds cracking their beaks at each other. Yawning, she stood up and stretched, unhappy that she was greeted by the city sights in all their dingy green and matted brown glory. She looked out the window of Archie and just caught Rorschach and Daniel walking into a bar...
Two stories below where she was. Archie was apparently parked on top of a building. Brygida sighed, mussing out her wavy hair and pulling it back into a neater high ponytail before attempting to climb down the side of the building via fire escape. She succeeded, but not without scratching her knee up a little on the terrible landing. She looked both ways and hastily crossed the street, taking a deep breath before entering into the bar...
"Da- Uh, Nite Owl...?" Brygida halfway stuttered, watching the man in the owl costume ringing another guy's neck.
"Not in front of civilians. We have the knowledge that we wanted..." Rorschach said calmly, suddenly in costume.
"Yeah. And then some. Let's get the hell out of here." Daniel growled. He looped his arm around Brygida's shoulder, "Sorry you had to see that..."
"S'fine..." She replied, slightly bewildered.
"Hey!" Some guy in the bar yelled, his hand bleeding, "Take my blood, scare my customers, but dear god man, she's just a little girl!"
Brygida was suddenly pulled aside by some woman from the bar who crooned, "Don't worry sweetheart, they won't be taking you tonight..."
She raised an eyebrow, guessing that they didn't know that she was with them.
"Please don't touch me." She said, yanking her arm away from the woman, quickly following after Rorschach and Nite Owl. The woman blinked and grabbed Brygida's arm, dragging her back.
"Listen cupcake." She said, and Rorschach stopped to see what the hold up was, while Daniel cursed himself for not noticing Hollis's death, "I know that most girls your age develop Stockholm Syndrome real easy, but you have to see, these men are not nice people. Stay with us, we'll take care of you."
"Like you took care of him?" Brygida pointed to the man with the bleeding hand, "I don't trust you people. Now please let me go."
The woman sighed, "For you own good, I—"
Her wrist snapped under the weight of Rorschach's fist, and she stood there for a moment, staring at the oddly shaped appendage before she started screaming. Her friends rushed to her aid, hissing like alley cats at Rorschach and Brygida as they ran out.
"Thanks." Brygida said with a quick smile to Rorschach, before turning to Dan, who was cursing at himself.
"Hollis... Oh Christ man, why? W-We must have missed it on the news, probably not important enough for repeat bulletins... Some useless old guy... Oh shit." He handed a remote to Rorschach, "Take this and bring Archie down. I can't see."
"Unidentified gang murders Mason. Supports mask-killer theory." Rorschach pressed a few buttons on the remote and a high whirring sound pierced the air before slipping into a low hum.
Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Look, I don't care! Right now I don't care about whose theory is best! Just shut up and bring the ship down."
Brygida was slightly taken aback by Dan's hostility. All Rorschach seemed to talk about was how great it was to work with him again, and Daniel was yelling at him for something that wasn't his fault. She crossed her arms, "You know Dan, I don't think that Rorschach was trying to spite you. In fact, I think he was trying to comfort you with the fact that the closer you get to this..." She waved her hand around, "Mask-killer, the closer you get to avenging your friend." She looked at Rorschach, "Right?"
He nodded, "Basically."
Dan opened his eyes, "Comfort me? I don't..." He sighed, "Yeah, okay. Thanks Rorschach. Really, thank you."
"You're welcome. Now know who paid to kill Adrian Veidt. Information should convince him to help us." Rorschach replied as Archie hummed to a stop on the street in front of them.
"Sure..." Dan said as the three of them approached the owl ship, "I can't believe he's dead. I remember Adrian telling me that the Egyptians regarded death as a voyage..."
"Hurn. Nice idea if you can afford to go first class with the pharaohs... But judging by our departures, most of us travel steerage."
Brygida laughed a little at Rorschach's comment before Archie opened up and she stepped inside, asking, "Who's Adrian? Was he another mask with you two in the olden days?"
"Well I wouldn't call them olden days... But yes. You may recognize the name Ozymandias, AKA Adrian Veidt, owner of Veidt Industries..." Dan replied.
"... Oh wait, the blond pansexual guy with the bad cologne?"
"Uh... Pansexual?"
Brygida cleared her throat, "Meaning, he can find beauty in everything, and/or he can be attracted to anyone. I know that there are speculations about him being gay, but I don't think that's all he is." She sat down in one of the chairs in Archie, "I mean, the guy's basically the vegetarian Caligula of modern culture."
Rorschach made a noise, "Hurm. Good way of putting it. Parents dead, only child, self-proclaimed emperor of a large syndicate. Don't want to picture him having orgies, though not an improbable happening."
Brygida laughed, "I think you're one of the few people who doesn't want to picture that kind of a thing. Though, Caligula's reign was quite short comparatively."
"Never know. Empires have tendency to fall. Will be able to ask him about inevitability of decay when we see him."
"... W-wait. We're going to... see him??" Brygida was practically speechless. It wasn't everyday that you...
'I'm not even going to think about the many things that you don't do everyday that I'm doing right now...' She thought to herself.
Daniel nodded to her question, slipping on his goggles, "There was an attempt on his life a little while ago. We need to ask him some questions, and we may or may not need to bring him along to help us."
"Oh... Alright." She found it hard to imagine a casual meeting with the playboy billionaire. Found it even harder to imagine Dan and Rorschach at said casual meeting. They all had turned out to be such different people; or maybe Adrian Veidt was just as crazy as Rorschach, and just used it in a different way.
Archie held a comfortable silence as she flew over the city and above the dream clouds. While Dan drove, Brygida stared out the window, Rorschach staring with her. After coming to terms with the fact that Rorschach was, in fact, not the monster under the bed, Brygida had become a lot more comfortable with him. He had been helping her a lot that day as well. And when you broke through those single and double worded answers, he was quite the conversationalist.
And she was happy.
Daniel too, made her very happy. He was becoming more of a surrogate older brother, instead of just some friend. Brygida found it hard to believe that these men were most likely in their forties. They were so much more lively than what their ages gave off. And god, could they kick ass. She found herself smiling out to the city, thinking that none of them knew what they were missing when they passed the Keene Act...
They finally reached the Veidt building. There was an open window, strangely enough, in the front of the building, and Brygida found it odd that Rorschach and Daniel didn't find it odd and just took advantage of it to worm their way into the topmost room. The two of the leapt over the gap between Archie and the building, and Daniel held out his hand for Brygida.
She shook her head, "I want to do it."
Daniel, pleasantly surprised, nodded and moved away. Brygida bit her lip and backed up a little bit. With a running leap, she propelled herself forward and just barely landed on the thin rimming of the window.
She let out a sigh of relief, and smiled, "That felt good! I should start doing things on my ow—" A slight breeze made her lose her balance and she started falling backwards...
A gloved hand caught hers.
"Not very good at keeping your balance." Rorschach pointed out, pulling the girl back into the room with a slight tug.
She sighed, "I was doing fine up until that point..." She glanced up at him, "Thank you..."
Adrian apparently wasn't there. While Dan and Rorschach attempted to figure out what was going on, Brygida wandered the room. There were Ozymandias action figures, their expressions blank and nameless behind their glass casing. There were other models, too. Rorschach, Nite Owl, Dr. Manhattan... The whole gang was there. The Comedian as well, whom she had heard died earlier that month. She opened the case, removing the Rorschach model. His hat popped off, and there was a grappling gun in his hand that could be removed as well.
She was soon in her own little world, making sound effects and creating childish plotlines for the group of superheroes to play out.
"Quick, Silk Specter! Kick him in the junk! It's the only way to save the world!" The tiny Nite Owl screeched as the tiny Silk Specter moved her foot into Moloch's crotch. The tiny Moloch leaned over in pain as the other tiny superheroes jumped around and cried out happily.
"Now Laurie, I can tell you about my true feelings." Tiny Dan said, on his knees in front of tiny Laurie, "I love you!"
"I love you too! Let's run away together!"
The one-woman audience 'aww'ed.
"To where, dearest?"
"Erm... Back to the glass case!" The tiny Laurie cried as two shadows overcast the bunch of superheroes, and their antics and missions would soon be no more.
Big Dan chuckled, "Come on kiddo, put them away. We have to go."
"Where are we going?" She asked, picking up the tiny figurines.
"Antarctica."