Author's Note: Not a crackfic. Probably a one-shot.
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"Hey!"
At the end of the...
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"Hey!"
At the end of the...
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My henchman boyfriend is from another world? (WORM SI)
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Chapter 1 / Original One Shot
Resquicios
Surviving on leftovers of sleep and sanity
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Author's Note: Not a crackfic. Probably a one-shot.
"Hey!"
At the end of the filthy alley, the two would-be muggers stopped their attempted assault of a scared young black girl and turned around to face an even younger, somewhat asian looking man, dressed in a thick black leather jacket. They didn't stare for long before one of them stepped up to him with foul bravado.
"Tha fuck you want, assface?!"
"Heh. Nice breath stink! Are you former merchants or something? In case you don't know, this is Skitter's territory and she doesn't take well to muggers."
They looked at eachother with bugged out - and drugged out - eyes, but didn't relent.
"What the fuck you talking about? Is the bug whore gonna give us a few stings? Fuck off unless you wanna get gutted with this here knife!"
"Maybe he likes penetrations? Bitch looks like a fag, if you ask me." said his companion with a nauseatingly nasty yellow smile.
Swiftly, the young man grabbed hold of a revolver and pointed it at the two criminals who had the decency to finally start looking nervous.
"Not only merchants but homophobic ones at that. You're just the gift that keeps on giving aren't you? I'm not sure just a few stings will suffice, but Skitter should have manpower enough for your tastes. Hear that boss?"
In barely a second, a veritable black cloud of chitin descended on the two criminals, attacking them with wanton abandon and it didn't relent until they were both whimpering messes on the ground with more welts than visible skin. It still disturbed him after all this time, but the victim looked truly shaken. Whether she was shocked by their attack or Skitter's retribution, he didn't know.
After making sure she was fine, at least physically, he called the BBPD, who said they'd send a car to arrest the downed ex-merchants.
Task accomplished, the henchman resumed his patrol, ruminating on the talk he'd had the day before. He didn't wanna do it but it was past time already for him to come clean. Tattletale was right, even if she didn't know what she was right about. As irritatingly usual.
His walk around the boardwalk done, Mark started the long way towards the building where the local warlord resided.
In spite of his internal turmoil, he held his head high and silently greeted the people with a small nod and the inhabitants of the territory did the same. Skitter's people knew him, or of him, and they respected his position as a lieutenant of the Boardwalk's resident supervillain.
The construction efforts were going well. Most of the Boardwalk was well on its way to recovering from the endbringer's attack thanks to the hard work of its inhabitants and the watchful millions of eyes of its unlawful protector. Truth be told, the last month had been the most safe he'd felt walking down the streets of Brockton Bay.
And it only took four consecutive tragedies to accomplish it. He thought with a small ironic chuckle.
Charlotte, the petite brown haired girl Skitter had saved from the Merchants, was inside the lair as always, entirely occupied with her responsibilities as another of Skitter's main minions. Currently, it seemed she was cooking something in the kitchen, in between caring for the little ones.
She noticed him standing in the doorway and addressed him with a cheeky smile.
"Hi Mark. Here to see the boss again? You two spend an awful lot of time together, you know? Sometimes I wonder what you do up the-" She yelped suddenly, and started massaging her left arm. An innocent looking ant dropped onto the table between them. "Guess the boss doesn't like me gossiping."
"Hehe, probably not. Taylor is private like that... you should remember, she doesn't have a lot of good memories concerning gossip."
Colour draining from her face, Charlotte turned around, returning her focus to the vegetables on the board. "Yeah, you're right. Sometimes I forget what happened at Winslow. Seems like a lifetime ago."
"Yeah, better not to dredge up bad memories." Spoken like a true hypocrite. "I'm going upstairs."
"Ok, tell Skitter dinner's ready in 15."
With a nod, he resumed walking up the stairs.
The second floor consisted of a large room that doubled as an insect warehouse for the rarer species in Skitter's arsenal, as well as her office for official villain work. She hadn't returned long ago from her own regular patrol of the territory so it was likely that she would still be working in there.
With a deep breath to steal himself, he knocked on the door.
His girlfriend's voice sounded from the other side. "Enter." she said in the soft tones of an unmasked Taylor Hebert.
He did.
Glass cases filled with big and weird specimens of insects and arachnids spanned the length of the dark painted walls on both sides of the long room, along with mannequins and many sewing utensils. A deep, dark brown wooden desk filled with papers and bits of costume stood further ahead, near the grey curtain-decorated back wall. Overall It was a work room that very quickly could be turned into a very official looking and intimidating supervillain throne room of sorts.
And there she was. The tall, beautiful, socially awkward girl he had fallen in love with.
I'm not worthy of her.
She was standing up from behind the desk to greet him with a carefree smile on her large, expressive mouth.
I did nothing to deserve that smile.
"Hi, Mark. I'm glad to see you."
You wouldn't be if you knew why I'm here.
"What are-"
He held a hand up and she stopped talking. A look of confusion crossed her face.
"Is something wrong?"
He swallowed his nervousness and pressed forward. There were things he needed to say and he couldn't delay them anymore.
"I'm- I'm here to talk to Skitter."
With that simple phrase, everything jovial and happy about Taylor disappeared.
In her place, there was now the warlord. The ruthless villain who had faced down Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Protectorate and had lived to tell the tale. Her face was a mask of seriousness and focus, just as much as her actual mask was one of terror and intimidation.
Bugs started to make noise around them, but it was soft for now.
When I'm finished, they'll probably be making a ruckus. If I'll be even alive to hear it.
She walked the few steps back behind her desk and addressed him coldly.
"Are you being mastered? B Tomato"
Oh right, I'm acting weird right now, aren't I?
"I'm not. Hum... N Cherry. You, huh, you have a pair of Armsmaster panties and you… heh, you put them on one time when we-"
"Alright, alright! So you're not mastered. What's going on, Mark?"
He sighed.
"I. I prepared speeches and dialogues in my head for this moment, but it all seems to slip away."
He looked at the powerful young woman that was his girlfriend and his boss. His eyes began to moisten.
"You have grown so much. You stopped being a victim and learned to stand up for yourself and now you are stronger than you could have ever expected. Nevertheless, you didn't stop being the compassionate person I know you are. You are still the hero you wanted to be. I'm so proud of you. I love you. But I don't deserve you. I did something... unforgivable."
Taylor remained mostly impassive but the skittering bugs gave away her troubled state of mind. With a soft voice she finally asked.
"What did you do?"
"You know how I've always tried to help you and give you advice? Sometimes you even say it seems like I know the future because of my predictions and then I chuckle or brush it off..."
It took a moment but she nodded stiffly and once again asked with somewhat less restraint in her voice.
"Mark. What. Did. You. Do?"
"That... is because I did know. The future, I mean. I knew about Lung and Bakuda and the Undersiders and Leviathan and... Everything that happened ahead of time. So, I tried to help you without giving myself away. But that is not exactly why I'm here."
By now, Taylor had started letting her mask fall and instead looked confused. And hurt.
"Have you been a cape all this time?"
The earnest question surprised him somewhat. Somehow he hadn't thought about how his backstory might sound to someone else. Of course she'd jump straight to him being a parahuman as well.
"No! No, I'm just a regular person but... The truth is that I'm not from around here. I'm not from Earth Bet. Before I appeared in this world, I didn't even think it was real. This world was a story. I knew you and Lisa and Brian and everyone as characters in a book."
Taylor was dumbfounded. Whatever she might have expected, this certainly wasn't it. As stupid as he would have been to do it, she wouldn't have been entirely surprised if he had cheated on her. After all, despite the circumstances, she was still a tall, skinny teen with bland facial features and few curves to speak of. Most of the time she actually remained surprised that Mark had wanted to be her boyfriend at all. Even something more serious like giving away her identity would have been easier to swallow than... this.
"What? Whe- where are you from, then? "
"I don't know. Some other alternate earth out there, I suppose... and I don't know how I came to be here. I just woke up one day as a student of Winslow and slowly realised I was in a world I thought was fake. Then I became your friend and then I fell in love but I was always scared of what you would think of me if you knew. I'm sorry Taylor. I'm sorry I didn't help you before. I-"
"You knew."
Two words that carried so much information. So much emotion. It was almost suffocating.
He closed his eyes and hung his head in shame.
Slowly, with restrained fury, Taylor, no, Skitter got up from behind her desk and once more made her way towards her minion. The only one who she had trusted implicitly so far.
Seems like I never learn my lesson.
Her emotions fought for control and she did her best to disperse them out to her swarm.
She could feel people outside starting to get nervous at the erratic behaviour of the bugs but she didn't care. She held her focus on the young man standing still in front of her with guilt eating away at him.
"You knew... about my trigger event. Before it happened."
Please say no. Please, please say no. Say it's something else. PLEASE!
Her silent pleas were dashed when he slowly nodded his still hanging head.
The coward didn't even have the courage to look her in the eyes.
"I did but... you weren't real. Before. I didn't let myself think of you as real. I just let the story play out. Then everything started happening and I couldn't think that anymore. When you were in the locker... Your screams were too much. Too real. So I got you out long before you were supposed to and I started to help you out of a sense of duty until it later became genuine and..."
He looked up at Taylor who had, by now, the most horrible expression of pain and rage twisting her features. Her lips were trembling and her teeth were clenched. Her hands were enclosed in shaking fists and her beautiful, terrible eyes were burrowing holes of shame in him.
In that moment he wanted nothing more than to grove and beg for forgiveness.
But he knew Taylor.
He knew her better than she knew herself.
And he knew she would not accept weakness nor betrayal.
He got down on his knees and took a deep breath. He had made his decision. This may be the last thing he ever said but he was ready.
"Taylor, you are the person I love and trust the most in both this world and my old one. I have my justifications but they are no excuse for my betrayal of your trust and my inaction before you knew me. I'm sorry it took me this long to confess but I am now at your mercy. Whatever you decide to do to me, I will accept the consequences."
Closing his eyes, he waited for his fate. Maybe his life would end in bites and stings and poison and he would wake up in another world.
Maybe I'll get to be a pirate in Luffy's crew, next. Wouldn't that be something... he thought darkly.
A minute became five and none moved until she spoke a single word:
"Mark."
He opened his eyes and looked up just in time to suffer the most horrendous slap in the face he had ever experienced. Taylor may still be skinny but she was fit and had more strength than most might expect. The chitin of the gloves she wore scratched his face while the small but sharp claws at the end of each finger cut deep grooves in his cheek that soon began to bleed copiously.
He brought a hand to his cheek instinctively, but Taylor grabbed his wrist, twisting it towards her. Mark looked at her again, with the pain fresh on his face forcing him fully awake and to pay attention. After a moment of looking silently at each other, she released him. He didn't look away.
The bugs were making a ruckus like he predicted, but they were staying still for now. No sudden death would come, hopefully.
Absentmindedly, he thought that Charlotte should be curious and not a little scared about the noise by now, but she probably wouldn't check on them, out of either fear or trust.
"Why is my life nothing but betrayal?" Taylor's voice was barely a whisper. "Dad couldn't force himself to actually be a dad after mom died. Then, Emma turned against me and made my life miserable for two years. Then, Coil broke our agreement and tried to kill me because of Dinah. Now you. You let me have the worst day of my life because apparently I wasn't a real person to you. You all have excuses. You all did it, anyway." Taylor closed her eyes and asked with a snarl "Why did you tell me, Mark? Why didn't you just keep your dirty fucking secret?"
It took him a moment to answer because of the pain, but the answer itself he didn't need to think about.
"Exactly because I didn't want to be just another silent betrayer in your life. Took me long enough but I want to be completely honest with you. You deserve at least that much."
Skitter stood still for a long time, silently watching. Judging him. After not dying for the past 10 minutes, he hoped she would not find him wanting. At least not as much as he found himself to be.
He knew the girl in front of him would have trouble processing all this information on an emotional level. She should probably be trying to compartmentalise and remain rational but the cracks forming in her facade were becoming bigger and bigger until suddenly there was no more Skitter and only Taylor remained.
She was looking at him with pain in her moistened eyes.
Skitter was a powerful warlord so she couldn't cry. Taylor, after the past 4 months was a traumatised girl, made strong by adversity and she, too, didn't cry. Not anymore. What Taylor did was collapse on her knees.
The deafening sound of the agitated bugs fell silent as she relinquished the spread of her emotions over the swarm. Then, as if marionette strings holding her up had been cut, Taylor fell suddenly, sitting haphazardly on the floor in front of Mark who looked at her with such sincere concern.
"How dare you."
"Huh?"
Taylor hugged herself in an attempt to stop the shaking, but it continued regardless.
"If you knew so much about me, how could you take advantage of me? Use your knowledge to... get close to… use…"
She choked on her words, unsure even of what to think. She felt… violated. Used. Her entire existence had been at the mercy of someone else this entire time. Someone she had grown to trust. And she had been none the wiser.
Mark spoke softly. His voice was sad but his words were said with conviction.
"I knew of the you from the story, yes. But that was a character, not a person. I didn't know the real you. Not really. Only when we became friends, I learned what you like to read. What kind of tea you like to drink. How intense your gaze is. How much you like to laugh at silly jokes. How… how peaceful you look when you sleep… Fuck. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before, Taylor."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence, still slightly apart.
Mark wanted nothing more than to hold her but didn't want to force himself on her, especially because she probably hated him by now. Taylor wanted nothing more than to be held by her boyfriend but wasn't sure if she knew him anymore. Or if she ever knew him at all.
"Why did you help me and stayed with me, then?"
"Because I love you." was the answer. Like a slap across her face, it only served to enrage her once more.
"You don't get to use that line right now, you bastard! Why did you help me if you just wanted to keep that stupid fucking story you keep talking about?! Why did you give me advice and helped me and kept close to me, then? Was I just that helpless? Was I going to die a fucking loser like those bitches wanted?! Is that it? Why-"
"Because you may be the single most important person on the entire planet."
In a surprised daze, her tirade fizzled out into incoherent mumblings before shutting up entirely. In any other situation, he'd be cackling at the look of utter confusion that crossed her face but at this moment, Taylor required dealing with tact. If he didn't remain entirely serious, she would think he was mocking her, and who knows what could happen after that.
"That is why I knew about you beforehand, and why I decided to help you. Everything after we met was because I genuinely came to really like you."
After a moment to think, her face twisted in a flicker of irritation before she settled on a sardonic smile and crossed her arms as a subconscious measure of protection. She had thought him better than trying to pull shit like this.
"Congrats, Mark. You almost surpassed Emma. The two of you might have been made for each other after all. Next time, don't overreach so much, though. Makes the joke a bit too unrealistic."
Mark stayed entirely serious throughout her ribbing and suddenly she started to doubt. And hope.
"I mean, you've got to be joking, right?"
There was the slightest of head shakes, but he remained otherwise impassive. If what he had just said was true then…
"You can't be serious."
He allowed himself a small smile before nodding.
"Taylor, I swear to you. I've never been more serious in my life. I can't promise the timeline I knew of has not gone to shit already because of my interference, but if I'm still right, you are one of, if not the most important person in the world."
"I- I'm not sure what to say to that, Mark. Why? How?!"
With a sigh, the boy broke the staring contest for the first time in a while and let his head hang in relief.
"I promised to be honest and I intend to follow through, but if you don't mind my saying so, I think we both need to be in a better emotional state and I'm not even sure where to start. Besides, my face is still bleeding and hurts quite a lot."
That seemed to sober her up from her stupor and after the suspicious look she sent him for a few seconds, she nodded, got up and walked to her desk.
For his part, Mark did try to stand up but his legs had fallen asleep and he fell back down, enduring the uncomfortable sensation of pinpricks. At least he still had legs. Though he had trusted Taylor would do the right thing, he remained acutely aware that she could've just killed him, instead.
The original Skitter perhaps would have.
Taylor returned to his side carrying a first aid kit. Not so carefully, she wiped the thin rivers of blood running down his cheek and neck and cleaned the wounds. His cheek would probably swell a little, but in the last months of helping her, the idiot had suffered much worse.
He'd… suffered for her. Aside from her teammates, who else had done something like that?.
It hurt. It hurt bad. But maybe this betrayal wasn't like the others. After all, she was trying to forgive her dad and rebuild their relationship. Could she do the same with Mark?
"I'm sure it's long past the time, but Charlotte said to warn you, dinner was almost ready."
With a tired chuckle, she stopped wiping and gave him a box of band-aids.
"Help yourself to those." Sigh "She's probably getting worried by now. Go downstairs and talk to her. Bring up some food if there's any left."
The look of surprise and relief on his face pulled at her heartstrings but it was too soon to feel anything resembling love right now. She wasn't that forgiving that a few pretty words and a pretty face swayed her so immediately.
"This conversation isn't over. But we can both use some food right now. Don't take too long."
He got up with a nod and walked briskly out of the office. There was a bathroom at the bottom of the stairs and he stopped there first, taking the time to put a fair number of band-aids on his cheek and to carefully wash his face.
The second most important of Skitter's minions was still in the kitchen, clearly trying to keep herself occupied, despite everything being already very tidy. There was a look of surprise or relief when she saw him coming in.
"Mark! I was getting so worried! What happened? The bugs started making a racket and flying around and the children got so scared!"
It still impressed him how dedicated the girl had become to the poor orphans Taylor had sheltered in her lair. Though she would never say it, he was sure Taylor had lots of faith in, and cared a lot for their former Winslow colleague.
"I'm really sorry Charlotte. I'm sure Taylor is as well. We had a very difficult talk and she was suppressing her emotions for a while."
The hardworking girl gave him a look over before settling her eyes on his cheek with a look of concern.
"What happened to your face? Did she hurt you?"
"It was a very difficult talk. Nevermind that. I'm… I'm ok. Is there still something to eat?"
His reassurances clearly didn't reassure her much, but there was only so much he could say. Besides, he really wasn't in danger just because of a few scratches. She sighed heavily and nervously. Though it had been more than a month since her rescue, she clearly still got anxious about being around Skitter. He could sympathise. Before waking up in Brockton Bay, Mark - as he was known now - had never imagined anything like this happening in his life.
"If you say so. Huh, yeah, I kept your dinner portions. You eating here?"
"No, just gotta grab a couple of plates and return upstairs. Hopefully the rest of the night isn't as… tumultuous."
She didn't seem to find any humour in his little joke and focused on serving the leftovers while he grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge.
"So long as she is careful not to wake the kids. Took me long enough getting them to sleep with all the buzzing."
"Sorry about that again. Can't say much, but it was something very personal and emotional for us both and you know how she deals. Can't really fault her, considering what she went through."
Charlotte didn't seem impressed with the excuse but whenever anything about Winslow was mentioned she retreated a bit into herself. Mark wasn't the only one filled with shame.
"Well, thank you for the food. Goodnight Charlotte."
"Night, Mark."
As he walked up the stairs, with food and drinks in hand, he pretended not to notice the gazes full of longing she gave him, and she pretended she wasn't hurting.
He tried to pry open the door to the office but it remained stubbornly shut. Thinking it over, he resolved to go up the second flight of stairs towards the third floor penthouse - now Taylor's home, perhaps moreso than her father's house.
He made sure to knock and wait for Taylor's approval before entering her room with a shoulder push to open the heavy reinforced door.
Taylor - and she was truly only Taylor now - was dressed in baggy grey sweatpants and a large black hoody whose hood nearly hid her entire face and most of her hair. She was sitting down in a chair by a simple white desk that stood near the big bookcase she kept filled with many, many books - some she had already read and many more she wished to start when she had more time. Therefore, never.
"Foods here!"
"...Thanks…"
They ate in terse silence, before Taylor sighed and returned her attention to the boy in her room.
"Are you ready to start telling me why you think I'm so important, after all?"
"Well, I can try. Before I start, Taylor I need to give you a few warnings. First, as unbelievable as some of this may seem, to the best of my knowledge I'm being entirely truthful. Second, I will not be able to tell you absolutely everything I know-" Taylor began to open her mouth in irritation "NOT because I don't trust you!"
She closed her mouth but remained with a raised eyebrow. She gestured for him to get on with it.
"Thank you. It's not that I don't trust you with the information. But there are certain details I can't share with you or anyone. They relate to Cauldron, who have ways of finding out if I said anything about them. And if they do, they will not hesitate to kill me, kill you, kill our families and friends and anyone else, if it means they remain safe in their secrecy. Even if the Triumvirate were outed during the fight with Echidna, it doesn't mean they're not still dangerous."
Taylor didn't look happy but seemed to accept his explanation.
"Ok then. If anything's too dangerous to share, then don't. But I really hope you have at least something to justify this whole circus, Mark."
"Oh, I do. So, to start. You remember Dinah's prophecy?"
"Yeah. The end of the world in two years. But we stopped it, right?"
"Not exactly. Fortunately we are operating on a bigger time frame since I was able to kill Jack Slash, but it still doesn't leave us a lot of time to prepare for it. Instead of two years, now we have ten."
"Wait. I thought Jack Slash was the catalyst. You're saying it'll still happen?"
Mark looked aside in shame and sadness.
"It's… inevitable."
That was enough to leave the girl beside him ruminating in her thoughts for a bit. He let her have her time to process. It's not everyday we have to re-confront our mortality.
"I'm not sure how this relates to me, but it feels like you're winding up to tell me you know what will cause the prophecy. Do you? Mark?" her breath hitched at the end. He pretended not to hear it.
"It does. And yes, I know. I don't have any evidence to prove it but I know it with as much certainty as I know my own body and mind."
With a calming breath she seemed to steal herself.
"Ok. Ok, then. Tell me."
"Think back to when parahumans first started appearing. What came before the first heroes and villains?"
She thought for a bit before realisation hit her with the full force of existential dread.
"Scion."
"Who is considered the strongest, fastest, toughest parahuman?"
"Scion."
"Who acts so erratically, not even thinkers than predict him?"
"Scion."
"Apart from the endbringers, who else is so abnormal to the point people are even unsure they're human?"
"Sci-"
Taylor's eyes were wide with fear and she was breathing hard. It cost her a lot to form words, but she had a question she needed answered immediately.
"Scion's not human, is he?"
With a sad smile, Mark shook his head minutely.
"No. Neither are the endbringers, as Lisa so wisely deduced during the fight with Leviathan."
With a nod, Taylor seemed to reach another conclusion to her thought process. She wasn't sure if this terrified her more or less than the previous one.
"Powers didn't exist before Scion. They're his?"
"Yes. There's more details than that, but Scion basically has all the powers. Millions, possibly billions of them. And they're not the weaker variants that we humans can use, but way more powerful ones."
They kept in silence for a while. This sort of information wasn't much easier to say than it was to hear and both needed a while to re-compose themselves. Finally, Taylor asked the biggest question.
"That is all kinds of flavors of fucked-upness but you still haven't told me why I'm so important."
"To tell you the truth, I… I really don't wanna say, but for good or ill, you should know...
Taylor, I know your frustrations with cape life. I know your irritation at the stupid black and white mentality that most people have and their inability to compromise for the greater good. 'Why can't we all work together?', I've heard you say a couple times...
Well, I just told you that we humans can only use very diminished versions of our powers. You control bugs, but your true power is administration. Absolute multitasking. Absolute control."
Taylor was listening but she wasn't liking what she heard. She feared the worst was yet to come.
"I'm almost certain this will not happen anymore, if only because I told you, but in the original timeline that I have knowledge of, during Scion's attack on countless alternate versions of earth, you became unshackled. You and your power fused in such a way that you controlled every parahuman in a sixteen feet radius of you. With the use of portals, you ended having complete control of every single parahuman in the entirety of earth. And you finally made them all work together.
Under your extremely fine guidance, you made tinkers tinker, blasters blast, brutes hit, etcetera, all in perfect harmony, such that in the end you were able to defeat Scion by using his fake human emotions against him."
Taylor blanched. She felt cold sweats running down her back and her eyes were on the edge of tears. What she was hearing, what she supposedly had - would do. It was horrifying so far beyond anything she could have imagined.
Why did it seem like that wasn't the end of it?
"What- what, then?"
If Mark had been sad before, he was downright beaten by now. Nevertheless he continued. Taylor would handle it. She always did.
"Powers are not supposed to be unshackled in a human. They're too powerful. Too alien. Your power slowly took over your mind, corrupting you. It followed your final objective to destroy Scion, but by the end you weren't yourself anymore.
You lost the ability to speak, and then the ability to understand speech. Then you forgot about body language. Then you lost your memories. In the end, you thought you were being attacked when people were actually celebrating. But still, when you felt utterly vulnerable and confused and had all the reasons to keep control of people as pawns for your own protection, you still had enough presence of mind to let everyone go. A true hero to the end.
And Taylor Hebert, or Khepri as she ended being known as, the true saviour of countless earths and trillions of lives died to a mercy killing. With two shots to the head and the world fearfully trying to forget her."
As Mark finished the tale of the Taylor he had read, the Taylor he knew had grabbed the trash bin and was desperately trying not to vomit, though her persistent retching sounds made it seem like a losing battle. Eventually, she put it and herself down and curled in on herself, crying and sobbing greatly for a version of her she hoped never to become and the dreadful tale of her glory and fall.
She could feel Mark on the ground, hugging her ,but didn't really pay attention. She was crying the cry she hadn't had in years and nothing else mattered. Tears ran free and as an afterthought she mentally thanked Coil for making this building soundproof, so loud were the ugly sobs she couldn't hold onto. After a long time, though, she slowly calmed down to the soft voiced comforts and careful back rubbings of the boy who had bestowed such terrible knowledge upon her.
"I won't let it happen again."
With sore red eyes, the girl forced herself to look at him, confusion evident in her face.
"What?"
The steel in his eyes shocked her and comforted her in equal measure. This wasn't the jokester he usually acted the part of, or the guilt-ridden boy she had been angry at, barely an hour before. This was a warrior.
"I don't know how or why I'm in this world. But whatever the reason, I won't let you destroy yourself, even if it's to save the world. If I wanted that, I'd have left you to rot in the locker like you were supposed to. I'm telling you all this because I already know you will save the world, but together we'll find a better way. You don't deserve a shallow grave for all you have done or will do. More selfishly… I don't want to lose you."
No words came out of Taylor. She was too exhausted. Too heartbroken. Too burdened with knowledge she shouldn't have. But for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. The strong arms that enveloped her wouldn't let her slip and she found herself trusting them. There were still lingering issues that they had to deal with, but overall, the hero turned villain thought things might turn out alright. At least for a short while.
It took a long time until both calmed down, but eventually they found themselves resting on top of the wide, comfy bed at the back of the room with its cute and entirely appropriate spiderweb pattern.
Taylor sat gingerly on top of her boyfriend and they hugged with even greater abandon, firmly pressing their bodies together, as they tried to feel as close to each other as they possibly could.
It took a few more minutes before Taylor decided to let go of him and the small metallic clink made Mark realise what she was doing instead. Almost absentmindedly, her long, delicate hands fiddled with his belt, slowly pulling it apart. He grabbed her wrist and they looked at each other. In their near half a year together, he'd come to know her face quite well. She was somewhat flustered, of course, but there was barely any lust in her eyes.
Rather, her expression was one of desperate need.
Among those who knew her well, Taylor was infamously bad at dealing with her emotions.
Instead of talking or crying, whenever she craved affection, she often tended to resort to physical expressions of it. Sometimes, shorter or longer hugs, or even fist bumps. Sometimes, something rather more physical. To her, he thought, having sex right now wouldn't be so much an act of passion, as just a means of relief from stress and emotional distress.
Not that he didn't need some stress relief right about now as well. Emotions were running high on both of them, after all.
Since the beginning of their relationship, he had tried to reassure his girlfriend of his compliance with her feelings, so she knew he wasn't particularly bothered with the speed at which they developed their romance. Taylor as well wasn't someone to be forced, so he knew this was something she truly wanted. Still, he needed to ask.
"Are you sure?"
There was a nod.
Then a kiss.
And then clothes started flying.
The room wasn't silent for long after.
When morning came, it found the two teens sleepily cuddling in a mess of tangled sheets.
Against their wishes, they forced themselves apart and prepared to exit the room. The world wouldn't wait for them.
But still, before they had to become boss and minion once more, Taylor asked something that had bothered her all night.
"Why tell me now?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You could have told me at least parts of that more than a month ago, or you could have waited for years until my position was more stable. So, why now?"
He thought for a moment before slapping himself in the face, which caused him to grunt in pain at the forgotten injuries he had on his cheek.
"Fuck! I completely forgot to tell you about that. Ok, ok. So, in the original story, this, when we are right now, is a major turning point. You have become too powerful, too quickly. You, a sixteen year old villain who already confessed to killing people and have extreme facility in doing so, are basically the top boss of the criminal world of Brockton Bay along with six more, very powerful, very dangerous teens that nobody trusts outside your own territories and even then you're an outlier. Following me, so far?"
It was a very unflattering way to look at herself, but she guessed from the outside, it kinda looked like what he was describing. Taylor nodded.
"Ok. Within a week, Arcadia will open again and take in the students of Winslow. I know you don't put much faith in the unwritten rules, but the PRT, and especially the new Director Tagg absolutely despise them. They already know your identity and if you go to school, they'll out you and force a confrontation. They hope to either capture you, or make you lose face by forcing you to take hostages among the students and lose your civilian identity in the process."
Blind rage was already an old friend to Taylor and she felt her friendship returning with a vengeance.
"The absolute fuckers! They dare out me?!"
"Yes, they will. It would force you to take drastic measures that would have big consequences. I'm not sure how, yet, but I wanted to warn you so you can have more and better options ready, hopefully. We already know how it worked out the first time."
With that sobering reminder of last night's talk, Taylor thought and pondered. This was too big for her and Mark to tackle alone. She needed her team. Her friends. She needed to get the Undersiders together.
"Ok. Mark, go downstairs and prepare breakfast with Charlotte. I'll be down in a minute. I'm going to call Lisa; organise a meeting. We need all hands on deck to plan ahead. I want you there as well."
"I don't like the idea of telling Tattletale all my secrets. Especially when it's so funny to see her frustrated that she can't tell what I'm keeping secret."
With wide eyes, Taylor recalled all the times Lisa had seemed displeased at being in the same room as Mark.
"Wait, THAT'S why she doesn't like you?"
"Of course. She can't handle not knowing something. And I've been very good at keeping my secrets… even from you…"
That dampened the mood, but Taylor was too energetic and too pissed for it to stop her.
"I just thought she didn't like you much for some other reason. I don't know. Not being technically part of the team or not being a cape. Anyways, that's not important right now. Maybe we don't tell them the whole truth. Leave out some parts of the end, or at least my… role in it. But we can't do this by ourselves, Mark."
He didn't like it, but it was obvious the others would never be kept out of it, and he was ready to deal with them. Lisa wouldn't leave her best friend hanging, and even if he had to endure a few pointed words every now and then so wouldn't he.
"Alright. I'm going then. See you downstairs, Taylor."
As Mark shuffled towards the kitchen, Skitter picked up her phone and typed a well remembered number.
Like always, the call was answered on the second ring.
"R Lemon."
"L Banana."
"Heya, girl. What's this, so early in the morning? Lover boy couldn't let you sleep?"
Taylor felt her cheeks redden and she knew Lisa would somehow pick up on it.
Damn it Lisa. Stop distracting me.
"Lisa, gather the troops asap. Me and Mark have extremely important and urgent information that you all need to know and then we need to plan our next steps. There will be a lot of talking today."
"Oh? Sounds exciting. Ok, got it, boss. Any hints you wanna send my way, in the meantime?"
Tattletale wants hints? She will get some hints, alright, Taylor thought with not a little mirth.
"Short term, we'll figure out how to stop the PRT from outing me. Long term? The Undersiders are going to save the world."
It took almost a minute before Lisa replied the only way she could.
"Fuck."
- - || - -
"Hey!"
At the end of the filthy alley, the two would-be muggers stopped their attempted assault of a scared young black girl and turned around to face an even younger, somewhat asian looking man, dressed in a thick black leather jacket. They didn't stare for long before one of them stepped up to him with foul bravado.
"Tha fuck you want, assface?!"
"Heh. Nice breath stink! Are you former merchants or something? In case you don't know, this is Skitter's territory and she doesn't take well to muggers."
They looked at eachother with bugged out - and drugged out - eyes, but didn't relent.
"What the fuck you talking about? Is the bug whore gonna give us a few stings? Fuck off unless you wanna get gutted with this here knife!"
"Maybe he likes penetrations? Bitch looks like a fag, if you ask me." said his companion with a nauseatingly nasty yellow smile.
Swiftly, the young man grabbed hold of a revolver and pointed it at the two criminals who had the decency to finally start looking nervous.
"Not only merchants but homophobic ones at that. You're just the gift that keeps on giving aren't you? I'm not sure just a few stings will suffice, but Skitter should have manpower enough for your tastes. Hear that boss?"
In barely a second, a veritable black cloud of chitin descended on the two criminals, attacking them with wanton abandon and it didn't relent until they were both whimpering messes on the ground with more welts than visible skin. It still disturbed him after all this time, but the victim looked truly shaken. Whether she was shocked by their attack or Skitter's retribution, he didn't know.
After making sure she was fine, at least physically, he called the BBPD, who said they'd send a car to arrest the downed ex-merchants.
Task accomplished, the henchman resumed his patrol, ruminating on the talk he'd had the day before. He didn't wanna do it but it was past time already for him to come clean. Tattletale was right, even if she didn't know what she was right about. As irritatingly usual.
His walk around the boardwalk done, Mark started the long way towards the building where the local warlord resided.
In spite of his internal turmoil, he held his head high and silently greeted the people with a small nod and the inhabitants of the territory did the same. Skitter's people knew him, or of him, and they respected his position as a lieutenant of the Boardwalk's resident supervillain.
The construction efforts were going well. Most of the Boardwalk was well on its way to recovering from the endbringer's attack thanks to the hard work of its inhabitants and the watchful millions of eyes of its unlawful protector. Truth be told, the last month had been the most safe he'd felt walking down the streets of Brockton Bay.
And it only took four consecutive tragedies to accomplish it. He thought with a small ironic chuckle.
Charlotte, the petite brown haired girl Skitter had saved from the Merchants, was inside the lair as always, entirely occupied with her responsibilities as another of Skitter's main minions. Currently, it seemed she was cooking something in the kitchen, in between caring for the little ones.
She noticed him standing in the doorway and addressed him with a cheeky smile.
"Hi Mark. Here to see the boss again? You two spend an awful lot of time together, you know? Sometimes I wonder what you do up the-" She yelped suddenly, and started massaging her left arm. An innocent looking ant dropped onto the table between them. "Guess the boss doesn't like me gossiping."
"Hehe, probably not. Taylor is private like that... you should remember, she doesn't have a lot of good memories concerning gossip."
Colour draining from her face, Charlotte turned around, returning her focus to the vegetables on the board. "Yeah, you're right. Sometimes I forget what happened at Winslow. Seems like a lifetime ago."
"Yeah, better not to dredge up bad memories." Spoken like a true hypocrite. "I'm going upstairs."
"Ok, tell Skitter dinner's ready in 15."
With a nod, he resumed walking up the stairs.
The second floor consisted of a large room that doubled as an insect warehouse for the rarer species in Skitter's arsenal, as well as her office for official villain work. She hadn't returned long ago from her own regular patrol of the territory so it was likely that she would still be working in there.
With a deep breath to steal himself, he knocked on the door.
His girlfriend's voice sounded from the other side. "Enter." she said in the soft tones of an unmasked Taylor Hebert.
He did.
Glass cases filled with big and weird specimens of insects and arachnids spanned the length of the dark painted walls on both sides of the long room, along with mannequins and many sewing utensils. A deep, dark brown wooden desk filled with papers and bits of costume stood further ahead, near the grey curtain-decorated back wall. Overall It was a work room that very quickly could be turned into a very official looking and intimidating supervillain throne room of sorts.
And there she was. The tall, beautiful, socially awkward girl he had fallen in love with.
I'm not worthy of her.
She was standing up from behind the desk to greet him with a carefree smile on her large, expressive mouth.
I did nothing to deserve that smile.
"Hi, Mark. I'm glad to see you."
You wouldn't be if you knew why I'm here.
"What are-"
He held a hand up and she stopped talking. A look of confusion crossed her face.
"Is something wrong?"
He swallowed his nervousness and pressed forward. There were things he needed to say and he couldn't delay them anymore.
"I'm- I'm here to talk to Skitter."
With that simple phrase, everything jovial and happy about Taylor disappeared.
In her place, there was now the warlord. The ruthless villain who had faced down Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Protectorate and had lived to tell the tale. Her face was a mask of seriousness and focus, just as much as her actual mask was one of terror and intimidation.
Bugs started to make noise around them, but it was soft for now.
When I'm finished, they'll probably be making a ruckus. If I'll be even alive to hear it.
She walked the few steps back behind her desk and addressed him coldly.
"Are you being mastered? B Tomato"
Oh right, I'm acting weird right now, aren't I?
"I'm not. Hum... N Cherry. You, huh, you have a pair of Armsmaster panties and you… heh, you put them on one time when we-"
"Alright, alright! So you're not mastered. What's going on, Mark?"
He sighed.
"I. I prepared speeches and dialogues in my head for this moment, but it all seems to slip away."
He looked at the powerful young woman that was his girlfriend and his boss. His eyes began to moisten.
"You have grown so much. You stopped being a victim and learned to stand up for yourself and now you are stronger than you could have ever expected. Nevertheless, you didn't stop being the compassionate person I know you are. You are still the hero you wanted to be. I'm so proud of you. I love you. But I don't deserve you. I did something... unforgivable."
Taylor remained mostly impassive but the skittering bugs gave away her troubled state of mind. With a soft voice she finally asked.
"What did you do?"
"You know how I've always tried to help you and give you advice? Sometimes you even say it seems like I know the future because of my predictions and then I chuckle or brush it off..."
It took a moment but she nodded stiffly and once again asked with somewhat less restraint in her voice.
"Mark. What. Did. You. Do?"
"That... is because I did know. The future, I mean. I knew about Lung and Bakuda and the Undersiders and Leviathan and... Everything that happened ahead of time. So, I tried to help you without giving myself away. But that is not exactly why I'm here."
By now, Taylor had started letting her mask fall and instead looked confused. And hurt.
"Have you been a cape all this time?"
The earnest question surprised him somewhat. Somehow he hadn't thought about how his backstory might sound to someone else. Of course she'd jump straight to him being a parahuman as well.
"No! No, I'm just a regular person but... The truth is that I'm not from around here. I'm not from Earth Bet. Before I appeared in this world, I didn't even think it was real. This world was a story. I knew you and Lisa and Brian and everyone as characters in a book."
Taylor was dumbfounded. Whatever she might have expected, this certainly wasn't it. As stupid as he would have been to do it, she wouldn't have been entirely surprised if he had cheated on her. After all, despite the circumstances, she was still a tall, skinny teen with bland facial features and few curves to speak of. Most of the time she actually remained surprised that Mark had wanted to be her boyfriend at all. Even something more serious like giving away her identity would have been easier to swallow than... this.
"What? Whe- where are you from, then? "
"I don't know. Some other alternate earth out there, I suppose... and I don't know how I came to be here. I just woke up one day as a student of Winslow and slowly realised I was in a world I thought was fake. Then I became your friend and then I fell in love but I was always scared of what you would think of me if you knew. I'm sorry Taylor. I'm sorry I didn't help you before. I-"
"You knew."
Two words that carried so much information. So much emotion. It was almost suffocating.
He closed his eyes and hung his head in shame.
Slowly, with restrained fury, Taylor, no, Skitter got up from behind her desk and once more made her way towards her minion. The only one who she had trusted implicitly so far.
Seems like I never learn my lesson.
Her emotions fought for control and she did her best to disperse them out to her swarm.
She could feel people outside starting to get nervous at the erratic behaviour of the bugs but she didn't care. She held her focus on the young man standing still in front of her with guilt eating away at him.
"You knew... about my trigger event. Before it happened."
Please say no. Please, please say no. Say it's something else. PLEASE!
Her silent pleas were dashed when he slowly nodded his still hanging head.
The coward didn't even have the courage to look her in the eyes.
"I did but... you weren't real. Before. I didn't let myself think of you as real. I just let the story play out. Then everything started happening and I couldn't think that anymore. When you were in the locker... Your screams were too much. Too real. So I got you out long before you were supposed to and I started to help you out of a sense of duty until it later became genuine and..."
He looked up at Taylor who had, by now, the most horrible expression of pain and rage twisting her features. Her lips were trembling and her teeth were clenched. Her hands were enclosed in shaking fists and her beautiful, terrible eyes were burrowing holes of shame in him.
In that moment he wanted nothing more than to grove and beg for forgiveness.
But he knew Taylor.
He knew her better than she knew herself.
And he knew she would not accept weakness nor betrayal.
He got down on his knees and took a deep breath. He had made his decision. This may be the last thing he ever said but he was ready.
"Taylor, you are the person I love and trust the most in both this world and my old one. I have my justifications but they are no excuse for my betrayal of your trust and my inaction before you knew me. I'm sorry it took me this long to confess but I am now at your mercy. Whatever you decide to do to me, I will accept the consequences."
Closing his eyes, he waited for his fate. Maybe his life would end in bites and stings and poison and he would wake up in another world.
Maybe I'll get to be a pirate in Luffy's crew, next. Wouldn't that be something... he thought darkly.
A minute became five and none moved until she spoke a single word:
"Mark."
He opened his eyes and looked up just in time to suffer the most horrendous slap in the face he had ever experienced. Taylor may still be skinny but she was fit and had more strength than most might expect. The chitin of the gloves she wore scratched his face while the small but sharp claws at the end of each finger cut deep grooves in his cheek that soon began to bleed copiously.
He brought a hand to his cheek instinctively, but Taylor grabbed his wrist, twisting it towards her. Mark looked at her again, with the pain fresh on his face forcing him fully awake and to pay attention. After a moment of looking silently at each other, she released him. He didn't look away.
The bugs were making a ruckus like he predicted, but they were staying still for now. No sudden death would come, hopefully.
Absentmindedly, he thought that Charlotte should be curious and not a little scared about the noise by now, but she probably wouldn't check on them, out of either fear or trust.
"Why is my life nothing but betrayal?" Taylor's voice was barely a whisper. "Dad couldn't force himself to actually be a dad after mom died. Then, Emma turned against me and made my life miserable for two years. Then, Coil broke our agreement and tried to kill me because of Dinah. Now you. You let me have the worst day of my life because apparently I wasn't a real person to you. You all have excuses. You all did it, anyway." Taylor closed her eyes and asked with a snarl "Why did you tell me, Mark? Why didn't you just keep your dirty fucking secret?"
It took him a moment to answer because of the pain, but the answer itself he didn't need to think about.
"Exactly because I didn't want to be just another silent betrayer in your life. Took me long enough but I want to be completely honest with you. You deserve at least that much."
Skitter stood still for a long time, silently watching. Judging him. After not dying for the past 10 minutes, he hoped she would not find him wanting. At least not as much as he found himself to be.
He knew the girl in front of him would have trouble processing all this information on an emotional level. She should probably be trying to compartmentalise and remain rational but the cracks forming in her facade were becoming bigger and bigger until suddenly there was no more Skitter and only Taylor remained.
She was looking at him with pain in her moistened eyes.
Skitter was a powerful warlord so she couldn't cry. Taylor, after the past 4 months was a traumatised girl, made strong by adversity and she, too, didn't cry. Not anymore. What Taylor did was collapse on her knees.
The deafening sound of the agitated bugs fell silent as she relinquished the spread of her emotions over the swarm. Then, as if marionette strings holding her up had been cut, Taylor fell suddenly, sitting haphazardly on the floor in front of Mark who looked at her with such sincere concern.
"How dare you."
"Huh?"
Taylor hugged herself in an attempt to stop the shaking, but it continued regardless.
"If you knew so much about me, how could you take advantage of me? Use your knowledge to... get close to… use…"
She choked on her words, unsure even of what to think. She felt… violated. Used. Her entire existence had been at the mercy of someone else this entire time. Someone she had grown to trust. And she had been none the wiser.
Mark spoke softly. His voice was sad but his words were said with conviction.
"I knew of the you from the story, yes. But that was a character, not a person. I didn't know the real you. Not really. Only when we became friends, I learned what you like to read. What kind of tea you like to drink. How intense your gaze is. How much you like to laugh at silly jokes. How… how peaceful you look when you sleep… Fuck. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before, Taylor."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence, still slightly apart.
Mark wanted nothing more than to hold her but didn't want to force himself on her, especially because she probably hated him by now. Taylor wanted nothing more than to be held by her boyfriend but wasn't sure if she knew him anymore. Or if she ever knew him at all.
"Why did you help me and stayed with me, then?"
"Because I love you." was the answer. Like a slap across her face, it only served to enrage her once more.
"You don't get to use that line right now, you bastard! Why did you help me if you just wanted to keep that stupid fucking story you keep talking about?! Why did you give me advice and helped me and kept close to me, then? Was I just that helpless? Was I going to die a fucking loser like those bitches wanted?! Is that it? Why-"
"Because you may be the single most important person on the entire planet."
In a surprised daze, her tirade fizzled out into incoherent mumblings before shutting up entirely. In any other situation, he'd be cackling at the look of utter confusion that crossed her face but at this moment, Taylor required dealing with tact. If he didn't remain entirely serious, she would think he was mocking her, and who knows what could happen after that.
"That is why I knew about you beforehand, and why I decided to help you. Everything after we met was because I genuinely came to really like you."
After a moment to think, her face twisted in a flicker of irritation before she settled on a sardonic smile and crossed her arms as a subconscious measure of protection. She had thought him better than trying to pull shit like this.
"Congrats, Mark. You almost surpassed Emma. The two of you might have been made for each other after all. Next time, don't overreach so much, though. Makes the joke a bit too unrealistic."
Mark stayed entirely serious throughout her ribbing and suddenly she started to doubt. And hope.
"I mean, you've got to be joking, right?"
There was the slightest of head shakes, but he remained otherwise impassive. If what he had just said was true then…
"You can't be serious."
He allowed himself a small smile before nodding.
"Taylor, I swear to you. I've never been more serious in my life. I can't promise the timeline I knew of has not gone to shit already because of my interference, but if I'm still right, you are one of, if not the most important person in the world."
"I- I'm not sure what to say to that, Mark. Why? How?!"
With a sigh, the boy broke the staring contest for the first time in a while and let his head hang in relief.
"I promised to be honest and I intend to follow through, but if you don't mind my saying so, I think we both need to be in a better emotional state and I'm not even sure where to start. Besides, my face is still bleeding and hurts quite a lot."
That seemed to sober her up from her stupor and after the suspicious look she sent him for a few seconds, she nodded, got up and walked to her desk.
For his part, Mark did try to stand up but his legs had fallen asleep and he fell back down, enduring the uncomfortable sensation of pinpricks. At least he still had legs. Though he had trusted Taylor would do the right thing, he remained acutely aware that she could've just killed him, instead.
The original Skitter perhaps would have.
Taylor returned to his side carrying a first aid kit. Not so carefully, she wiped the thin rivers of blood running down his cheek and neck and cleaned the wounds. His cheek would probably swell a little, but in the last months of helping her, the idiot had suffered much worse.
He'd… suffered for her. Aside from her teammates, who else had done something like that?.
It hurt. It hurt bad. But maybe this betrayal wasn't like the others. After all, she was trying to forgive her dad and rebuild their relationship. Could she do the same with Mark?
"I'm sure it's long past the time, but Charlotte said to warn you, dinner was almost ready."
With a tired chuckle, she stopped wiping and gave him a box of band-aids.
"Help yourself to those." Sigh "She's probably getting worried by now. Go downstairs and talk to her. Bring up some food if there's any left."
The look of surprise and relief on his face pulled at her heartstrings but it was too soon to feel anything resembling love right now. She wasn't that forgiving that a few pretty words and a pretty face swayed her so immediately.
"This conversation isn't over. But we can both use some food right now. Don't take too long."
He got up with a nod and walked briskly out of the office. There was a bathroom at the bottom of the stairs and he stopped there first, taking the time to put a fair number of band-aids on his cheek and to carefully wash his face.
The second most important of Skitter's minions was still in the kitchen, clearly trying to keep herself occupied, despite everything being already very tidy. There was a look of surprise or relief when she saw him coming in.
"Mark! I was getting so worried! What happened? The bugs started making a racket and flying around and the children got so scared!"
It still impressed him how dedicated the girl had become to the poor orphans Taylor had sheltered in her lair. Though she would never say it, he was sure Taylor had lots of faith in, and cared a lot for their former Winslow colleague.
"I'm really sorry Charlotte. I'm sure Taylor is as well. We had a very difficult talk and she was suppressing her emotions for a while."
The hardworking girl gave him a look over before settling her eyes on his cheek with a look of concern.
"What happened to your face? Did she hurt you?"
"It was a very difficult talk. Nevermind that. I'm… I'm ok. Is there still something to eat?"
His reassurances clearly didn't reassure her much, but there was only so much he could say. Besides, he really wasn't in danger just because of a few scratches. She sighed heavily and nervously. Though it had been more than a month since her rescue, she clearly still got anxious about being around Skitter. He could sympathise. Before waking up in Brockton Bay, Mark - as he was known now - had never imagined anything like this happening in his life.
"If you say so. Huh, yeah, I kept your dinner portions. You eating here?"
"No, just gotta grab a couple of plates and return upstairs. Hopefully the rest of the night isn't as… tumultuous."
She didn't seem to find any humour in his little joke and focused on serving the leftovers while he grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge.
"So long as she is careful not to wake the kids. Took me long enough getting them to sleep with all the buzzing."
"Sorry about that again. Can't say much, but it was something very personal and emotional for us both and you know how she deals. Can't really fault her, considering what she went through."
Charlotte didn't seem impressed with the excuse but whenever anything about Winslow was mentioned she retreated a bit into herself. Mark wasn't the only one filled with shame.
"Well, thank you for the food. Goodnight Charlotte."
"Night, Mark."
As he walked up the stairs, with food and drinks in hand, he pretended not to notice the gazes full of longing she gave him, and she pretended she wasn't hurting.
He tried to pry open the door to the office but it remained stubbornly shut. Thinking it over, he resolved to go up the second flight of stairs towards the third floor penthouse - now Taylor's home, perhaps moreso than her father's house.
He made sure to knock and wait for Taylor's approval before entering her room with a shoulder push to open the heavy reinforced door.
Taylor - and she was truly only Taylor now - was dressed in baggy grey sweatpants and a large black hoody whose hood nearly hid her entire face and most of her hair. She was sitting down in a chair by a simple white desk that stood near the big bookcase she kept filled with many, many books - some she had already read and many more she wished to start when she had more time. Therefore, never.
"Foods here!"
"...Thanks…"
They ate in terse silence, before Taylor sighed and returned her attention to the boy in her room.
"Are you ready to start telling me why you think I'm so important, after all?"
"Well, I can try. Before I start, Taylor I need to give you a few warnings. First, as unbelievable as some of this may seem, to the best of my knowledge I'm being entirely truthful. Second, I will not be able to tell you absolutely everything I know-" Taylor began to open her mouth in irritation "NOT because I don't trust you!"
She closed her mouth but remained with a raised eyebrow. She gestured for him to get on with it.
"Thank you. It's not that I don't trust you with the information. But there are certain details I can't share with you or anyone. They relate to Cauldron, who have ways of finding out if I said anything about them. And if they do, they will not hesitate to kill me, kill you, kill our families and friends and anyone else, if it means they remain safe in their secrecy. Even if the Triumvirate were outed during the fight with Echidna, it doesn't mean they're not still dangerous."
Taylor didn't look happy but seemed to accept his explanation.
"Ok then. If anything's too dangerous to share, then don't. But I really hope you have at least something to justify this whole circus, Mark."
"Oh, I do. So, to start. You remember Dinah's prophecy?"
"Yeah. The end of the world in two years. But we stopped it, right?"
"Not exactly. Fortunately we are operating on a bigger time frame since I was able to kill Jack Slash, but it still doesn't leave us a lot of time to prepare for it. Instead of two years, now we have ten."
"Wait. I thought Jack Slash was the catalyst. You're saying it'll still happen?"
Mark looked aside in shame and sadness.
"It's… inevitable."
That was enough to leave the girl beside him ruminating in her thoughts for a bit. He let her have her time to process. It's not everyday we have to re-confront our mortality.
"I'm not sure how this relates to me, but it feels like you're winding up to tell me you know what will cause the prophecy. Do you? Mark?" her breath hitched at the end. He pretended not to hear it.
"It does. And yes, I know. I don't have any evidence to prove it but I know it with as much certainty as I know my own body and mind."
With a calming breath she seemed to steal herself.
"Ok. Ok, then. Tell me."
"Think back to when parahumans first started appearing. What came before the first heroes and villains?"
She thought for a bit before realisation hit her with the full force of existential dread.
"Scion."
"Who is considered the strongest, fastest, toughest parahuman?"
"Scion."
"Who acts so erratically, not even thinkers than predict him?"
"Scion."
"Apart from the endbringers, who else is so abnormal to the point people are even unsure they're human?"
"Sci-"
Taylor's eyes were wide with fear and she was breathing hard. It cost her a lot to form words, but she had a question she needed answered immediately.
"Scion's not human, is he?"
With a sad smile, Mark shook his head minutely.
"No. Neither are the endbringers, as Lisa so wisely deduced during the fight with Leviathan."
With a nod, Taylor seemed to reach another conclusion to her thought process. She wasn't sure if this terrified her more or less than the previous one.
"Powers didn't exist before Scion. They're his?"
"Yes. There's more details than that, but Scion basically has all the powers. Millions, possibly billions of them. And they're not the weaker variants that we humans can use, but way more powerful ones."
They kept in silence for a while. This sort of information wasn't much easier to say than it was to hear and both needed a while to re-compose themselves. Finally, Taylor asked the biggest question.
"That is all kinds of flavors of fucked-upness but you still haven't told me why I'm so important."
"To tell you the truth, I… I really don't wanna say, but for good or ill, you should know...
Taylor, I know your frustrations with cape life. I know your irritation at the stupid black and white mentality that most people have and their inability to compromise for the greater good. 'Why can't we all work together?', I've heard you say a couple times...
Well, I just told you that we humans can only use very diminished versions of our powers. You control bugs, but your true power is administration. Absolute multitasking. Absolute control."
Taylor was listening but she wasn't liking what she heard. She feared the worst was yet to come.
"I'm almost certain this will not happen anymore, if only because I told you, but in the original timeline that I have knowledge of, during Scion's attack on countless alternate versions of earth, you became unshackled. You and your power fused in such a way that you controlled every parahuman in a sixteen feet radius of you. With the use of portals, you ended having complete control of every single parahuman in the entirety of earth. And you finally made them all work together.
Under your extremely fine guidance, you made tinkers tinker, blasters blast, brutes hit, etcetera, all in perfect harmony, such that in the end you were able to defeat Scion by using his fake human emotions against him."
Taylor blanched. She felt cold sweats running down her back and her eyes were on the edge of tears. What she was hearing, what she supposedly had - would do. It was horrifying so far beyond anything she could have imagined.
Why did it seem like that wasn't the end of it?
"What- what, then?"
If Mark had been sad before, he was downright beaten by now. Nevertheless he continued. Taylor would handle it. She always did.
"Powers are not supposed to be unshackled in a human. They're too powerful. Too alien. Your power slowly took over your mind, corrupting you. It followed your final objective to destroy Scion, but by the end you weren't yourself anymore.
You lost the ability to speak, and then the ability to understand speech. Then you forgot about body language. Then you lost your memories. In the end, you thought you were being attacked when people were actually celebrating. But still, when you felt utterly vulnerable and confused and had all the reasons to keep control of people as pawns for your own protection, you still had enough presence of mind to let everyone go. A true hero to the end.
And Taylor Hebert, or Khepri as she ended being known as, the true saviour of countless earths and trillions of lives died to a mercy killing. With two shots to the head and the world fearfully trying to forget her."
As Mark finished the tale of the Taylor he had read, the Taylor he knew had grabbed the trash bin and was desperately trying not to vomit, though her persistent retching sounds made it seem like a losing battle. Eventually, she put it and herself down and curled in on herself, crying and sobbing greatly for a version of her she hoped never to become and the dreadful tale of her glory and fall.
She could feel Mark on the ground, hugging her ,but didn't really pay attention. She was crying the cry she hadn't had in years and nothing else mattered. Tears ran free and as an afterthought she mentally thanked Coil for making this building soundproof, so loud were the ugly sobs she couldn't hold onto. After a long time, though, she slowly calmed down to the soft voiced comforts and careful back rubbings of the boy who had bestowed such terrible knowledge upon her.
"I won't let it happen again."
With sore red eyes, the girl forced herself to look at him, confusion evident in her face.
"What?"
The steel in his eyes shocked her and comforted her in equal measure. This wasn't the jokester he usually acted the part of, or the guilt-ridden boy she had been angry at, barely an hour before. This was a warrior.
"I don't know how or why I'm in this world. But whatever the reason, I won't let you destroy yourself, even if it's to save the world. If I wanted that, I'd have left you to rot in the locker like you were supposed to. I'm telling you all this because I already know you will save the world, but together we'll find a better way. You don't deserve a shallow grave for all you have done or will do. More selfishly… I don't want to lose you."
No words came out of Taylor. She was too exhausted. Too heartbroken. Too burdened with knowledge she shouldn't have. But for the first time in a long while, she felt safe. The strong arms that enveloped her wouldn't let her slip and she found herself trusting them. There were still lingering issues that they had to deal with, but overall, the hero turned villain thought things might turn out alright. At least for a short while.
It took a long time until both calmed down, but eventually they found themselves resting on top of the wide, comfy bed at the back of the room with its cute and entirely appropriate spiderweb pattern.
Taylor sat gingerly on top of her boyfriend and they hugged with even greater abandon, firmly pressing their bodies together, as they tried to feel as close to each other as they possibly could.
It took a few more minutes before Taylor decided to let go of him and the small metallic clink made Mark realise what she was doing instead. Almost absentmindedly, her long, delicate hands fiddled with his belt, slowly pulling it apart. He grabbed her wrist and they looked at each other. In their near half a year together, he'd come to know her face quite well. She was somewhat flustered, of course, but there was barely any lust in her eyes.
Rather, her expression was one of desperate need.
Among those who knew her well, Taylor was infamously bad at dealing with her emotions.
Instead of talking or crying, whenever she craved affection, she often tended to resort to physical expressions of it. Sometimes, shorter or longer hugs, or even fist bumps. Sometimes, something rather more physical. To her, he thought, having sex right now wouldn't be so much an act of passion, as just a means of relief from stress and emotional distress.
Not that he didn't need some stress relief right about now as well. Emotions were running high on both of them, after all.
Since the beginning of their relationship, he had tried to reassure his girlfriend of his compliance with her feelings, so she knew he wasn't particularly bothered with the speed at which they developed their romance. Taylor as well wasn't someone to be forced, so he knew this was something she truly wanted. Still, he needed to ask.
"Are you sure?"
There was a nod.
Then a kiss.
And then clothes started flying.
The room wasn't silent for long after.
When morning came, it found the two teens sleepily cuddling in a mess of tangled sheets.
Against their wishes, they forced themselves apart and prepared to exit the room. The world wouldn't wait for them.
But still, before they had to become boss and minion once more, Taylor asked something that had bothered her all night.
"Why tell me now?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You could have told me at least parts of that more than a month ago, or you could have waited for years until my position was more stable. So, why now?"
He thought for a moment before slapping himself in the face, which caused him to grunt in pain at the forgotten injuries he had on his cheek.
"Fuck! I completely forgot to tell you about that. Ok, ok. So, in the original story, this, when we are right now, is a major turning point. You have become too powerful, too quickly. You, a sixteen year old villain who already confessed to killing people and have extreme facility in doing so, are basically the top boss of the criminal world of Brockton Bay along with six more, very powerful, very dangerous teens that nobody trusts outside your own territories and even then you're an outlier. Following me, so far?"
It was a very unflattering way to look at herself, but she guessed from the outside, it kinda looked like what he was describing. Taylor nodded.
"Ok. Within a week, Arcadia will open again and take in the students of Winslow. I know you don't put much faith in the unwritten rules, but the PRT, and especially the new Director Tagg absolutely despise them. They already know your identity and if you go to school, they'll out you and force a confrontation. They hope to either capture you, or make you lose face by forcing you to take hostages among the students and lose your civilian identity in the process."
Blind rage was already an old friend to Taylor and she felt her friendship returning with a vengeance.
"The absolute fuckers! They dare out me?!"
"Yes, they will. It would force you to take drastic measures that would have big consequences. I'm not sure how, yet, but I wanted to warn you so you can have more and better options ready, hopefully. We already know how it worked out the first time."
With that sobering reminder of last night's talk, Taylor thought and pondered. This was too big for her and Mark to tackle alone. She needed her team. Her friends. She needed to get the Undersiders together.
"Ok. Mark, go downstairs and prepare breakfast with Charlotte. I'll be down in a minute. I'm going to call Lisa; organise a meeting. We need all hands on deck to plan ahead. I want you there as well."
"I don't like the idea of telling Tattletale all my secrets. Especially when it's so funny to see her frustrated that she can't tell what I'm keeping secret."
With wide eyes, Taylor recalled all the times Lisa had seemed displeased at being in the same room as Mark.
"Wait, THAT'S why she doesn't like you?"
"Of course. She can't handle not knowing something. And I've been very good at keeping my secrets… even from you…"
That dampened the mood, but Taylor was too energetic and too pissed for it to stop her.
"I just thought she didn't like you much for some other reason. I don't know. Not being technically part of the team or not being a cape. Anyways, that's not important right now. Maybe we don't tell them the whole truth. Leave out some parts of the end, or at least my… role in it. But we can't do this by ourselves, Mark."
He didn't like it, but it was obvious the others would never be kept out of it, and he was ready to deal with them. Lisa wouldn't leave her best friend hanging, and even if he had to endure a few pointed words every now and then so wouldn't he.
"Alright. I'm going then. See you downstairs, Taylor."
As Mark shuffled towards the kitchen, Skitter picked up her phone and typed a well remembered number.
Like always, the call was answered on the second ring.
"R Lemon."
"L Banana."
"Heya, girl. What's this, so early in the morning? Lover boy couldn't let you sleep?"
Taylor felt her cheeks redden and she knew Lisa would somehow pick up on it.
Damn it Lisa. Stop distracting me.
"Lisa, gather the troops asap. Me and Mark have extremely important and urgent information that you all need to know and then we need to plan our next steps. There will be a lot of talking today."
"Oh? Sounds exciting. Ok, got it, boss. Any hints you wanna send my way, in the meantime?"
Tattletale wants hints? She will get some hints, alright, Taylor thought with not a little mirth.
"Short term, we'll figure out how to stop the PRT from outing me. Long term? The Undersiders are going to save the world."
It took almost a minute before Lisa replied the only way she could.
"Fuck."
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Shinichi07
Versed in the lewd.
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I have to say id definitely be interested in this if it's continued, you're way to writing Taylor and the si's relationship is actually really sweet and I'd really enjoy seeing more, even if it's just a series of flashbacks to key moments in their relationship forming, especially with how lovey dovey Taylor is at least as lovey dovey as Taylor can be. Plus it'd be neat to see how the Mark managed to kill Jack slash even if it was literally something as simple as snuck up on him with a shotgun it'd be amusing to read.
Thorfaxdragonkin
(confirmed ark survivor)
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- Jun 21, 2016
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I must say that I have enjoyed this little nugget and I do hope that it turns into a full novel
S T 0 |2 M
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Im gonna assume you do not have anything else drafted besides this chapter
Xanderhunter
Know what you're doing yet?
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- Nov 27, 2019
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Throwing a watch on this in the hope it gets expanded into a full fledged story.
Resquicios
Surviving on leftovers of sleep and sanity
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Done! Thanks for the reminder.
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Crazael
Could be wittier.
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You did notice that this is in the Safe For Work section of the site, correct?
Axcart
Not too sore, are you?
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I forgot that even existed
Grimmouse197
Experienced.
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I was completely burnt out on worm fanfics but I guess I'm now interested again.
Fitsdreia
"If the shoe fits". Well yes is my shoe, thank you
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Watched and want more of this! Yes i enjoyed it!
StoryRighter
Versed in the lewd.
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That's heavy. Chuck full of details. To Lisa? To Tattletale even more LOADED.
[Appropriate.]