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Rating:
Mature
Archive Warning:
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category:
Gen
Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - Wildbow亜人 - 三浦追儺 & 桜井画門 | Ajin - Miura Tsuina & Sakurai Gamon (Anime & Manga)
Characters:
Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverDanny HebertBrockton Bay WardsLisa Wilbourn | Tattletale
Additional Tags:
Canon-Typical ViolenceCanon-Typical Body Horrorshard-altered psychologytags to be added as we go
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English
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Timballisto's Curated Works
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Published:2019-05-24Updated:2020-03-11Words:99,568Chapters:29/?Comments:226Kudos:730Bookmarks:266Hits:29,370
(Restricted) The Shadow Over Brockton Bay
Temeritous
Chapter 15: Lich 2.9
Chapter Text
I became aware of voices in my range. My Dust stirred, swirling into a new sensor automatically in response to my desire to hear.
"Jesus fucking Christ," Dauntless said.
It was Dauntless, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia. They stood at the bottom of the hill, staring up, in full costume. Armsmaster had his halberd out and propped up next to him like a staff, Dauntless' lance leaned against his shoulder. They had come armed, ready to fight.
There hadn't been a fight. They couldn't have helped even if they had been here, and I had purposefully left them behind. For a second I still hated them, irrationally but powerfully.
"Was this a new cape?" Miss Militia wondered. "A new recruit to the Empire?"
I stood up, but I already knew what they were talking about. What I'd done to Captain's Hill.
It looked like someone had carpet-bombed it from above, or taken a dozen amateurs in excavators and told them to go nuts. The grass was gone, mixed into the loose earth in the deep gouges and wide craters. There had been boulders underground that I had powdered into nothingness beneath a sandstorm of Dust. The hill was about four feet shorter than it used to be.
I wiped my face, where tears had dried and left salt behind. I checked the time; it had been forty minutes since I left Tattletale. I started down the hill as they started up it.
Coryn walked on all fours next to me, swollen up to twice her normal size so that she was as big as a small car. Some of my other Dust picked up loose dirt and draped it over her so that her shape could be seen.
Armsmaster stopped a few yards away from me, planting his halberd in the ground with force. I stopped too, taking it for the request it was.
"Lazarus," he greeted, "What happened here?"
"The girl who called you, is she okay?" I meant, but couldn't say, did I kill her too? I didn't remember it, but I wouldn't want to.
"I asked - " Armsmaster started to say.
Miss Militia interrupted him. "She's fine. She directed us here and said she'd clear out of the area."
I nodded. "Thanks. They killed my dad."
All three of them fell silent.
Eventually, Dauntless said, "I'm so sorry."
"Not your fault," I responded, simply. "Kaiser, two men, and one parahuman woman whose name I didn't get, are all dead. No bodies. They're dust now."
Miss Militia holstered her pistol and took a step forward. "Come with us," Her voice was gentle, soothing, caring. "We'll get you some help, a place to stay… This doesn't have to… you don't have to run away again."
"Last time someone put me in a cage, I had to watch my dad die. I don't think I'll be letting it happen again."
Who could they hold over my head now? The Wards? They wouldn't threaten their own kids to get to me.
"No. I'm leaving."
"Where do you think you'll go?" Armsmaster asked. "We can justify a lot, but not… this." His hand swept out, over the ruined hill. "We can't just let this kind of power walk around unchecked."
I sighed. My Dust swirled around us, undiminished. It was a cloud big enough to form thirty-seven of Coryn, so thick that it looked like a black fog around me no matter how small I made the particles, and there was enough to collectively blast the heroes with a wind that made all three stumble back a step.
"Please don't try to fight me," I said. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. I have so little left to lose, and nothing that you can take from me."
He was silent for a long few moments. Miss Militia's weapon shifted from a pistol to a knife to a sword to a handgun, darting into her hand. Dauntless stared at me from the slit in his helmet, eyes sad and apologetic.
Armsmaster finally spoke: "What are you going to do now?"
And I answered him honestly, "I'm going to sleep for a long time. Then I'm going to hunt down and capture the dregs of the Empire. After that, I don't know." Inspiration struck - something to do, something useful that they might stay off my back. "Maybe I'll go visit Ellisburg."
Miss Militia's eyes widened, and Dauntless said, "Huh?"
Armsmaster came to a decision. He nodded shortly and pulled up his halberd, folding it away. "I know your powerset and I agree that we cannot capture you at this time. We're willing to leave peacefully if you are."
I smiled at him, but it was just automatic. All the feeling had been wrung out of me, and not in a calming way. Every emotion was a bruise that I didn't want to poke.
Coryn wrapped me up, and we took off into the sky.
I flew blindly, going so high up that I began to get light-headed. Coryn dropped down a bit, and I stared at the familiar pattern of the streets below. There was my neighborhood, and my house - still easily identified by the lights. There was the Boardwalk, the PRT building, and out on the bay the PHQ sat, a glittering gem.
I drifted away. Arcadia and Winslow; from up here you couldn't tell that they were entirely different places. Lord Street Market, where Vista and I had laughed together hours ago.
I felt untethered. What kept me here, without my dad? What kept anyone anywhere? Imagined obligations, their group mentality keeping them in line with the rest of the monkeys. You could break the social contract so easily, but most never do.
I looked up. I wonder what would happen if I were to die in space. Is it like drowning, or suffocating?
I held my breath and went higher, to a place where there was no air, only the earth below and the stars above. My head was pounding and I'd be dead in a few minutes, but first I wanted to see more of the world.
I saw the sun begin to rise.
The sparse clouds cast huge shadows, nearly perpendicular to the earth, and the bay turned into rippled molten gold. The horizon was a thick stripe of rich cobalt blue over thinner stripes of red and orange and yellow. Behind me, the icy white mountain caps blazed so bright. Brockton Bay was a glittering gray spiderweb clinging to the edge of the fiery water, its highways thin gossamer strands stretching out along the shore and across the mountains.
It was without a doubt the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
All I could think was that my mom would have cried to see it, and I couldn't show her.
I found another empty house, this one in a more wealthy area farther from my house - Emma's neighborhood, in fact. I collapsed onto the bed in the master bedroom, startled to find that it was a waterbed. That was too strange, so I switched to what looked like a guest bedroom with a normal bed. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow, still in full costume.
As Coryn and my Dust, I restlessly combed through the entirety of my range. Just a lot of people beginning to wake up, some of them engaging in activities I didn't care to observe. Through dozens of eyes I watched every morning news program; they were reporting on my identity leak and the subsequent kidnapping, but they didn't have any new information.
That was, until a breaking news bulletin came up with footage from a traffic helicopter, hovering over Captain's Hill. It looked worse from above, and you could see the edge of my range as a border where the grass was relatively undisturbed. There were PRT trucks with their orange lights blocking off the walking paths and the public parking lots.
I didn't understand what the newscasters were saying about the destruction, and I didn't care to. If I could sleep for the next month, I would.
But it was only eight hours in when my phone started buzzing, a vibration right against my hip. I jerked awake, pulling enough Dust to form Coryn back into the room with me, and sat up in the bed.
The only people with this number were Tattletale and Clockblocker - and the Empire, I supposed, but I doubted they would be calling me. I wasn't sure which of them I wanted it to be.
I recognized the number as Tattletale's. After a moment of staring at the phone, I realized I already knew I was going to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Lazarus, get out of there. PRT's closing in. No heroes with them, yet."
All traces of sleep vanished. I scanned through my sensors, looking for evidence of her claims, but there was nothing… perhaps more cars coming in than going out? But how could I know that wasn't normal?
"How do you know? Actually, how do you know where I am?"
"Guessed. You looked for an empty house, not in your area but fairly close by, and you like familiarity. Sorry, but I do know about your ex-friend. The PRT knows where you are because all the stuff you have in the air is really fucking with air currents, and they've caught on."
Armsmaster . In our experiments he'd found that my Dust can be vaguely tracked because larger pieces, or smaller pieces in large amounts, disturb the air they pass through. He was also starting to look into a filter for his visor to possibly be able to see Dust, using data collected by a machine Dragon provided.
I supposed that it was fair, that I was technically an enemy or at least a fugitive right now, but it still stung like a betrayal. I liked him.
"Taylor? Are you leaving?"
"I was thinking I might just fight them," I admitted. "I don't want to be looking over my shoulder constantly… if I show them that they can't take me, wouldn't they back off?"
"Short term yes, long term no. Look, you know Lung? He had to fight the entire Brockton Bay Protectorate to a standstill to get them to realize it's better to leave him alone. Think you can do the same?"
Yes , I thought, Dust swirling as it coalesced into a dense aura around me. It was too thick to see through, so I posted sensors all around me. I can fight them.
But did I want to?
I felt sick. This was what killed my dad: not my carelessness, not my actions, it was my lack of commitment. I held back from asking the Wards for help because - why? Did I care about their careers more than my father's life? I refused Tattletale's offer of the Undersiders' help because I didn't want to be a villain, but wouldn't I kill for him? I was a villain now, or as good as to the PRT, and he was still dead.
I had lied to myself believing that I was weighing my choices logically. If I had truly believed he would die, I would have done things differently - called on the Wards, or if they couldn't help then Tattletale's team. Instead I fooled myself into thinking that I could handle it alone.
Piggot was right; my overconfidence got other people killed.
"Taylor, what you're thinking is a bad idea."
"Why?" Commit. Set the goal and do what you can live with. For real this time.
"Because you gain nothing from it! What's the objective? What will fighting them achieve?"
It'll make me feel better , I thought. It'll fill this void in me, for however long it lasts. Then I took a deep breath and pushed the emotions away so that I could think clearly, and realize what a mistake that would have been.
Coryn took us both out through the window just as two soccer-mom vans converged on the driveway of the house, spilling out troopers and a man with a megaphone.
"Huh, they want to negotiate," Tattletale said. "I'm watching from a bodycam. You look like hell, by the way."
"Lazarus!" the man with the megaphone called up to me. He started to say something else, but I covered his mouth with Dust and he froze.
I formed a couple dozen miniature Coryns, circled around the troopers. Through their throats I said, " Stop following me, stop tracking me. I won't be hunted like an animal. When I have something to say to you, I will find you. "
I took the Dust away from the man's mouth and waited for his answer. If they were smart they'd back off, but I didn't have much hope there.
"Director Piggot would like you to come in so you can talk," he replied, his face pale.
Neighbors peered out of their windows at our spectacle, cars slowing to a crawl on the street as they passed. I came to hover above the troopers and their speaker, Coryn easily holding me up.
" What I want, she can't give me. " I told him. " We have nothing to talk about. "
"You can't expect to just be left alone!" he exclaimed. "You know things."
I understood. I knew the civilian identities of all the Wards and half the heroes, I could identify the faces of the other half, and my own identity had been made public. I didn't have anything to lose, nothing they could hold over my head to keep me silent.
And, I was sure, there was nothing I could say to convince them that I would never use that information. It was like every time I told dad that he didn't need to worry about me dying: they were too scared of the alternatives to believe me.
I wasn't about to bend over backward trying to convince them otherwise.
" Stay the hell away from me. " I said, instead of arguing a point they would never concede. " I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you give me no other choice. "
"Spooky," Tattletale commented through the phone I had mostly forgotten about. "If you want a safe place to crash, hide your telekinesis-stuff - "
"It's called Dust."
"Your Dust, and come to the old south ferry station on foot. I'll meet you there."
"I don't need your help anymore." I told her tiredly. I had eight hours of sleep and somehow it felt like two. Maybe it was summoning all this Dust that had drained me.
"How exactly were you planning on tracking down the rest of the Empire? 'Cause I can guarantee you they've gone to ground, if they haven't run out of town entirely."
"...Fine. I'll meet you near the station."
"Great! Might wanna pick up some regular people clothes on the way. See you in a bit."
She hung up, and I looked down at the filthy costume I'd forgotten I was wearing. Great. More theft by Coryn.
Tattletale eyed me when we met, but wisely didn't comment on my appearance again. It was mid-morning and I had just barely had enough time to steal another hoodie and pair of sweatpants before the thrift shop opened. My Dust was a thick black fog at knee-height, spread over my entire range. Even Coryn was just Dust right now, so her massive shape couldn't set off any sensors.
"C'mon, this way. I've got an apartment near here, you can crash there."
"Thanks," I muttered, running a hand through my greasy hair. I hit a crusty spot and grimaced; Kaiser's blood. He'd sprayed a lot when I ripped his head off. "Got a shower there?"
"Yep. Water pressure's pretty decent, too."
"Y'know, the excuse that you're helping me because the Empire 'broke the rules' is wearing kinda thin at this point," I said, reluctantly. I really wanted that shower, but I also knew I wouldn't be able to relax until we hashed this out.
She shrugged and smiled at me, eyes half-closed with a smug look. "That's how it started, but I've kept going because I like you, Taylor. I don't want to see you caught by the heroes and forced into a bad position."
I'd never gotten this much attention before I became a parahuman. "Um, I don't swing that way. Just saying."
She laughed. "Me neither. People are allowed to like people as friends, you know? You've never seen someone and just wanted to get to know them better, no ulterior motive?"
Carlos, Dennis, Missy; they all made me laugh, something I valued highly. Armsmaster, Assault, and Battery to a lesser extent, more distant because of their age. They were all people I felt drawn to for one reason or another, but I wouldn't call my interest in any of them romantic .
"Yeah, I guess I get what you're saying."
"...I'm sorry you lost them."
My throat was almost too thick to speak through, and my eyes burned, but there weren't any tears. "Don't be. Nothing you could have done."
Tattletale didn't have anything to say to that, and we got all the way to her apartment door in silence.
She took a key out of her pocket and turned to me. "Hey Taylor, what made you decide to be a Ward?"
I shrugged. "Dad wanted me to. I wanted…." I trailed off with no good answer. "Something to do, I guess. And then I made friends there," I think. I hope. "And I didn't regret it. Why did you become a villain?"
She smiled thinly, without mirth, and unlocked the door to let me inside. "Oh, you know… the usual reasons. I didn't really have any other choice."
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