Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first memory she has is blinding pain. Heat crawling through veins as lungs struggle to draw in breaths. A heartbeat too fast to register and eyes that wouldn’t work, not then at least.

Her second memory is running. It’s not her memory. Not really. It’s his. But she prefers that memory over any recollection of the soggy mush they fed her for the first few weeks of her existence. The wind through hair and moving past at a speed so fast that it cuts at her skin. The freedom of the world moving around her, too fast to experience but still see.

She wants to see it. See the world beyond these walls, beyond this laboratory she’s been confined too.

Her third memory is moving. First her head, then her arms, and eventually her legs. She’s shaking uncontrollably, each cell in her body moving with pent up energy from the last few, weeks maybe? She couldn’t tell how much time she’d spent in the lab after being ‘born’. And for the first time in weeks they let her move. They let her run, in a reinforced training room padded on each side that closely resembled a room she’d never been in but vividly remembered.

Her fourth memory is a panic attack. Hyperventilating, not enough air, not enough space. Not enough of anything and too much of it all at the same time. She collapses in the middle of the training room and screeches when the doctors get close to her. The sound is inhuman and dangerous, an animal backed into a corner. They hit her with something sharp. It stings on impact, but soon she’s too tired to worry about that, too tired to worry about anything as the world becomes fuzzy and fades to black around her.

Her fifth memory is a voice. “We’ve had coffee and noodles once.”. She’s not sure who says it, or why they’re saying it, but her relief at hearing this voice is immediate. In an attempt to make everything hurt less she focuses on the way this voice makes her feel. Safety. A part of her says. Home. Another adds. Protect him. A smaller part says. And she does. When the scientists come back for her memories she locks this one away. Locks it away in a place so they can never steal away this piece of her.

Her sixth memory is of a mission. She’s not sure how she got here, but she knows she must kill a man. This man has sharp features, blue eyes framed by long dark hair. He’s missing an arm, and he’ll know how to fight. She must be prepared for him to fight back.

When she finds him, he’s sitting on a couch, a cup of something that smells sweet in one hand, and his arm around a blonde man she vaguely recognizes. She watches this familiar scene, just to spare herself the trouble of fighting two people. Is her reasoning, though it is flawed. She has fought people before, or, no, that’s not her memory. That is a memory from someone else, someone taller and happier.

The memory freezes her for a few moments. Some small part of her says that she can be happy too, if she runs away. Gets away from the lab and the scientists. Another memory that isn’t hers, tells her she’s gotten away before. Encourages her to just run now. Get away. It screams.

But she can’t. She has a tracker, and a handler, they will find her, they will punish her. She must be smart about this. So, she comes up with a plan.

She attacks the man without an arm and his blonde friend. They fight back. In the chaos she hides a not inside of the man’s emptied cup. She hopes they will find it. When she retreats she is punished, but she knows this will not be permanent. Because now she has people looking for her.

Her seventh memory is another mission. This time she’s in the room of someone who looks like her, the girl has long dark hair. She cannot see the little girl’s eyes because she’s asleep. Her body is screaming at her, telling her that just killing this girl is better, better than what they have planned for her. But she does not. Instead she wakes up the little girl. Tells her to go and wake her parents, ‘give them this note’ she says to the confused little girl ‘tell them I need help’ she adds.

The little girl frowns at the note in front of her. ‘What’s your name?’ The girl asks. And she doesn’t have an answer. The scientists called her V10137, her tracker called her Mutt, her handler called her Maggot. She did not answer the girl, instead she moved around the room, the agents would expect her to cause a struggle.

‘You didn’t tell me your name.’ The girl says when she pushes her towards her parent’s room. So, she gives her the name the scientists call her. The little girl scrunches up her nose, ‘That’s not a name.’

She knows. But there isn’t time for names now, now there is only time for a plan.

Her eighth memory is freedom. She was injured, and crying, and bloody. But it was still freedom. She was being held in someone’s arms, close to a heartbeat. It lulls her asleep as they move her onto a large helicopter, the spinning blades whip her hair around her. It’s beautiful and terrifying, and she loves every second of it.

Her ninth memory is a name. Spoken from her own lips as adults she vaguely recognizes speak to her.

‘What is your name?’ They ask her over, and over.

‘V10137.’ She tells them, smiling through the pain. There is an IV in her arm, and a funny little robot catering to her. Memories are slowly floating back to her. Good ones. Bad ones. Some that make no sense, and others that do. She’s not sure what they’ll do with her, but she is free from them, and that is enough.

The little girl from weeks ago elbows her way into her room and smiles up at her bed.

‘I gave my daddies the letter!’ She announces proudly, the adults glance down at the little girl with horror. ‘My name’s Katie, what’s your name?’ She asks pulling herself up into her bed.

She glances around the room, seeing various names from magazines and a TV in the corner. But then she sees it. The thing that sparks something inside of her, Love, it says to her. Innocence, it adds. She smiles even wider.

A name had never been important to her before, she hadn’t needed one. She had the numbers. A name was just a signifier, a sound to represent a thing that existed even before that name. But now she was free, she could choose what happened to her next. She didn’t have to listen to them.

‘Violet. My name is Violet.’

Her tenth memory is a disappointment. She can hear them fighting in the next room over. The memories are almost all back now, and she wishes they weren’t. Because then he wouldn’t know, and he wouldn’t hate her.

‘I can’t do this! I can’t just walk around like there isn’t a fucking clone of myself running around!’ He yells, panicking. Violet knows that she would panic too. She remembers panicking before. ‘She’s killed people, and she’s only fucking six years old!’ He adds, she can hear the disgust in his voice, the fear.

She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t let them see how she’s affected by the words. If there’s anything she’s glad for, it’s knowing when to cry and when not to. Instead she continues to play with Katie. They’re playing with Barbies while a Barbie movie is playing in the background. Katie ignores the yelling, not knowing what the words really meaning, or just not caring. Violet wishes she didn’t have to know what they were talking about.

‘Tommy no one is asking you to take care of her! We’re asking you to talk to her, she didn’t ask to be made! She did what she could to survive! She needs someone to talk to, and you’re the closest we can get to that right now!’ Billy yells back, a memory of blue energy sparking around him comes to Violet’s mind. It’s not her memory. She knows that now, she tries to push it back. Tries as hard as she can, but it doesn’t work.

Tommy yells something Violet pretends not to hear before he runs away. Billy comes back into Katie’s room with a stressed smile. He doesn’t frown at Violet like she’s a problem even though she is. Instead he asks her if she’d like to stay with them for right now.

Katie smiles at her and urges her to stay. Violet says she will, if they wanted to keep her. Billy frowns at her choice of words before saying.

‘We will always want you.’

Chapter Text

“Katie I’m really, really, tired.”  Violet comments leaning into Katie’s stomach. Her limbs are weak, and Katie has taken up the responsibility of holding her off the too cold ground. Wetness is on her cheeks though she cannot tell if they are merely raindrops or a leak. She suspects it could also be someone crying but why would someone be crying? “I’m going to take a nap Katie.”

Katie’s violently shaking her head. ‘No.’ Katie says through layers of water. ‘No, you aren’t allowed to sleep, you’ve just got to stay awake until they get here. Please, for me?’. Violet attempts to shrug but her shoulders do not respond like they should. It upsets her.

The person holding her is saying something else, but the fog around Violet’s head is causing the words to twist and tangle until they are no more than letters and sounds without meaning. For the life of her Violet cannot remember who is holding her, or why her face is wet.

Maybe I’m swimming. She thinks, it makes sense because her body is wet. It’s a warm kind of wet, and unfortunately sticky. Maybe I am not swimming. Her brain supplies as a red hand appears in front of her face. After a few seconds she recognizes the hand as her own.

‘Violet please don’t, no! Violet!’ She is shaken away by someone who Violet deems annoying and stupid. Because she is tired, and therefore she should sleep.

Two Days Before

“You think what?” Katie asked from her spot on the beach. She’s wearing round glasses that make her look like a trendy hipster. Violet must admit the look works for her. It’s the first time since the incident that Katie looks anything close to normal which also helps.

“I don’t think I’m a just a clone. Or at the very least I’m not just Tommy’s clone.” She sits down on the sand next to Katie. “Remember how I ran off at Kate’s party? Before you were kidnapped?” Katie doesn’t flinch at her words and Violet takes it as a sign she’s getting better. Or getting better at hiding her feelings. “Well it was because I saw Tommy there. He was talking to someone, but he wasn’t flirting. He was doing that thing where he’s trying to hide something except he can’t figure out a good enough place to hide it so instead he just doesn’t hide it and hopes that everyone won’t notice. Which, by the way, everyone does notice. So of course, I had to find out who he was talking to because I didn’t recognize this man he was speaking too. He was familiar in a way that like Billy and Teddy and Kate are because they’re a part of his memories but he’s also not familiar. Like I know him but not that well. So, I followed them, and I took a picture of him.”

Violet handed over her phone with the picture already pulled up. It’s not a good picture by any means. The photo’s blurry, Violet could only make out the man’s face because she’d seen him. When Katie looks up at Violet her expression is strange. It’s not one that Violet remembers ever seeing on Katie.

“This guy looks familiar. I think I’ve seen him in some of my dads’ old photos.” She raises her head and stares at Violet. “But what does this mystery guy have to do with you being a clone?” Katie doesn’t sound dismissive like Billy does. Or, no, that’s not her own memory. That’s Tommy’s.

Shaking her head loose of the memory Violet jumps back into her story. “When I followed them, I saw this file that looked like the files they used to use at the HYDRA facility I was at. It was only open for a few seconds, but I was able to get close enough to memorize what it said. And it had more than one name for my DNA.” Katie bites her lip. “I know that’s not much but Katie what if there’s someone out there who might want to know that I’m their clone. Someone who might want to get to know me and they might want to stay. They might want me Katie! And I really need that. Like I really fucking need that.” She knows she’s babbled on too long when Katie’s eyes widen. Katie’s observing her, like she’s an experiment, which she is, but the thought still hurts her.

Violet remains silent as Katie appears to think through her offer. It’s not the first, and hopefully not the last, time she’s ever suggested they do something that could turn dangerous. There was one time when they were eleven Violet had convinced Katie to sneak into the avenger’s tower. Everything went fine until JARVIS’s security measures decided they were getting too close to something they weren’t supposed to know about. Then they had to race out and hope Katie’s dads didn’t ground them for the rest of their lives.

“Do you know whose name it was?” Katie asked. Violet swallowed. Because when she said his name something warm erupted in her, it felt like safety, warmth, it was something good. Something that her memories trusted, which meant Tommy felt the same way.

“His name is David. David Alleyne.”

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

David finds himself stuck behind an asshole at a Starbucks. The man is whisper-yelling at either his wife or his girlfriend about not getting balloons for their child’s birthday party. His voice is gruff, and David can’t help but sympathize with the woman on the other end of the line.

Tommy would just clock this guy and run. He thinks, granted Tommy wouldn’t have to worry about this guy catching up. Not to mention the thought of punching anyone makes David feel uneasy and launches a series of memories that aren’t his, along with experiences he’s never had. So instead, he waits behind the aggravated man and hopes that whoever the child is gets their balloons. When it’s his turn to order he orders two drinks under his name that will have Tommy scoffing.

“And the names are?” The barista asked twirling the pen in her hand with a smile. He gives only his name and reassures her that ‘Yes, I want this name on both drinks.’, before moving over to a table and pulling out his phone.

Tommy’s usually late to their dates. It’s a trait that both frustrates and amuses him. The self-proclaimed fastest man alive always running just a few minutes late. Who would’ve guessed? He’s stopped the apology texts a few years ago after David had insisted that if he had time to type then he had the time to explain why he was late in person.

Tommy hadn’t argued.

“Well hello hot stuff, is this seat taken?” Tommy asks as a mysterious breeze floats through the crowded coffee shop. David just finishes up his email before turning to his boyfriend.

“It is actually, I’m just waiting for my boyfriend. Maybe you’ve seen him? About this tall with crazy white hair.” He raises his hand and Tommy makes an indignant sound. The flirting is much more natural than it was when they’d first started dating. That flirting was no where near smooth, no matter how many times Tommy insisted he was the ‘smoothest flirter’. It was awkward and rushed, too many variables and too many near death experiences. But as Tommy slides into the seat next to him, curls into his side like an affectionate cat, he finds himself loving every awkward memory.

“Bobby Speed.” The barista calls out, David’s rewarded by Tommy’s laugh as he gets up to get their drinks. He wonders, for a fleeting moment, whether things could get better than this.

Then he remembers the file. It’d been left on his doorstep several weeks ago and they’d yet to talk about it. After Tommy’s sudden disappearance to help Billy and Teddy look for their daughter he’d decided to drop it. Then he’d seen how frazzled Tommy had been afterwards and dropped it again.

But now? Now he needed to talk to him about this file. It’d been years since this girl had been taken into the Avenger’s care and he hadn’t ever told David that she was his clone. He hadn’t told David that she’d been made in a Hydra laboratory. He’d never mentioned anything about this Violet girl, not specifically anyways. He had mentioned a new speedster had joined the team, and Billy wanted Tommy to take the girl under his wing. Which had caused a multitude of late nights where Tommy couldn’t fall asleep, now those late nights made so much more sense.

And now that they had the information about her DNA? All of it? He couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“Here’s your coffee Mr. Speed.” Tommy smiled handing over David’s coffee. David smiled in response. Would they need to talk about this? Yes, and soon, but right now all David wanted to do was enjoy the calm before the storm.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

They begin investigating that night and into the next morning. From the googling they’ve been doing they’ve deduced a few things about David.

The first is that he has almost nothing about himself on the internet. It takes them several hours to find more than a few bad pictures and a Facebook page long ago abandoned. When Violet finds a story posted on a girl’s blog about receiving tutoring from a guy named Mr. Alleyne they celebrate. Then they receive a picture of Mr. Alleyne and they groan.

The man is too old to be the guy Violet had seen at the party. By at least forty years. They discuss the possibility that he’s a shapeshifter but eventually throw away that theory when Violet admits it doesn’t sound right. The two stay up for a while longer, hacking into servers and doing as much research as they can whilst staying off as many watch lists as they can.

By the time they call it a night it’s three in the morning. Instead of sleeping, they talk.

“Do you think we’ll find him?” Violet asks, and Katie wishes that she didn’t know how to identify the sad notes in Violet’s words. But years of training herself to recognize pain in everyone’s words is hard to get rid of.

“I don’t know. I hope we do.” She admits. Which, isn’t the whole truth. Ever since the incident Katie finds herself wishing she’d never gone looking for her powers. Wishing with her entire being that she could just go back to a time where she was the unofficial leader of a team of super powered teenagers with a girlfriend that she really, really, really liked. Wishing she didn’t know so much. So much about her parents, about resentment, about having powers.

But you can’t just give information back because you don’t like what it means.

Violet shifts closer to Katie, taking her hand and squeezing it.

“Do you think you’ll ever come back to New York?” The question catches Katie off guard. Will she ever go back to New York?

It’s a question she doesn’t know the answer to. All she wanted to do after the incident was go home, with her dads and her team and her girlfriend. That, of course, wasn’t what happened. Instead, she came back to her parents that wanted to lock her away until she was safe enough for everyone else. A team that she’d insulted and needed their own time to get used to her powers. A girlfriend, well no, she didn’t come back to a girlfriend, she came back to a girl who deserved so much better than a panic attack every time Katie got annoyed, who flinched when Katie’s eyes shone a misty yellow.

So, instead of staying home she left. She got as far away as she could without leaving the country. Now she was going to the beach every day, flirting with cute surfers, and learning how to use her powers on her own.

She’s also pale green. Which is a change.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I can go back.”

“Why?”

“Everything’s different now. My dads, Virginia, me, I don’t know if I’m ready for everything to be so different, so fast.”

“We miss you. Not just your dads, but the team. Nash and Ingrid are super gross now that we don’t have you to call them out of their little love nest. The twins are just insanity, still trying to find their place on the team, and one of them has a crush at a boy from their school. So, Jack refuses to form Mr. Super until David asks him out. Which let me tell you, is not going to happen until he gets a pep talk. And none of us are really good at pep talks. Not as good as you anyway.” Katie sighs. She misses this. Having Violet tell her the local drama, explaining it whilst adding her own commentary. She misses Ingrid’s jokes. Misses Nash’s jokes on the adults unlucky enough to walk into their training room when he’s in a prankster mood. Misses Cara’s unrelenting pessimistic attitude towards life. Some small part of her misses the twins, even though they’re easily the most annoying people she’s ever met.

She misses her team. A lot.

In that moment she makes a promise to herself. She will find this David guy. She’ll help Violet through whatever insanity this plan will put them through. She’ll go back to New York. Fix what she can and then apologize for the things she can’t.

She will get through this. Even if it kills her.

Chapter Text

When she wakes up Violet finds herself on the floor. She’s not entirely sure how she got there. Or why she’s there, but her arm hurts from being stuck behind her body for so long. Slowly Violet shifts so that she can work the stiffness out of her shoulder. It’s strange for her to wake up by herself, usually Kate’s yelling at her to ‘Shut off your damn alarm!’. Then she has to speed through her morning routine and get to school in a matter of minutes, or risk being late.

Violet hears Katie snoring in the bed above her and moves to scare her awake. Then she sees it.

Laying on the bed where her cousin used to be is now a tiny human. She’s about the size of Violet’s hand, hidden in the giant waves of clothes around her. Her skin is a darker green, with tiny wings cocooning most of her body. Long dark hair spread around her like a dark halo.

Violet screams and backs away panicked.

“What?! What’s happening!?” Kate yells from downstairs, Violet’s too upset to answer and soon several thuds can be heard from the direction of the stairs as Kate stumbles up to Katie’s room. When she does arrive, Violet’s pressed against the wall staring, wide eyed, at the tiny being in Katie’s bed. “What’s happening?” Kate asks, Violet points to the bed.

The tiny thing moves inside of Katie’s shirt. Pushing against the fabric that must feel much heavier than it normally is. Kate and Violet watch in silence as the tiny thing finally finds its way out.

“Okay, so don’t freak out.” The tiny thing says, it’s face is familiar, it’s voice even more so. “But I might be able to shrink down to the size of like a Polly Pocket. Please don’t tell my dads!” She begs.

Violet gapes at what had moments ago just been a tiny thing sleeping in her cousin’s bed. But was now her cousin, with tiny green skin, and tiny green wings. Neither Violet nor Kate said a word. Violet didn’t even know that Katie knew how to use her powers. Let alone figure out how to shrink herself down to the size of a celery stalk and grow wings!

“Also, I won’t be able to change back for a while. Partially because I’m still really tired, mostly because I’m not sure how to do that yet.” She adds after a few more minutes of silence. Violet moves over towards her, slower than she’s ever moved before. A part of her tells her that she’s seen this scene before, that she should comfort Cassie, or risk her shrinking even smaller and then out of existence.

But that part of her isn’t her, not really. So, she ignores it and starts asking questions like the rest of her wants too.

“When did you figure this out? How long have you been able to do this? Do you have to wear Polly Pocket clothes since your so small? Can you use those wings? Can you fly with those wings? Have you asked Doctor Strange about any of this? Or like anyone at all?” A small smile appears on Katie’s face while Kate just groans in the doorway. Mumbling about how ‘I don’t get paid enough for this.’ and ‘Billy and Teddy are totally going to kill me when they find out their daughter got tiny under my supervision. Fuck being an adult. I should just run away to a different universe.

“You’re going to need to ask all of those questions in a normal speed or else I’m not gonna be able to answer them.” Katie replied, beginning their morning of procrastination. The task of finding the mysterious David Alleyne, at least for the time being.

They tested various ways to get Katie back to full size, along with making her an outfit so she wasn’t completely naked all morning. After pulling together an outfit make from Barbie clothes they start testing their theories, well, really, they’re Violet’s theories but Katie’s just happy to not be subjected to a multitude of questions she doesn’t yet have answers for.

She shows Violet that, yes, the wings do work, and yes, she can fly with them. Katie can’t fly very well, which leads to several new bruises and a few new dents in the walls. After a few hours they figure out how to get Katie back to her normal size.

“Violet, I love you, I really do, but if I don’t eat then I’m going to pass out.” Katie eventually said, laying back against the couch. Her stomach growling loudly in the quiet of the house. Violet wasn’t sure where Kate had gone but she texted every half hour wanting a status update and providing her own status update.

Kate ;P

Are you both still alive? And breathing?

Me

yes

fgrd out htg Katie bck 2 hr nrml sze

*figured

*how to get

*back

*her

*normal

*size

Kate ;P

Good, I won’t be home until late

On a mission,

Something about agents infiltrating something

I’ll update you when I’m on my way back

They got food from a nearby Five Guys and ate outside on the beach. Watching the waves sneak up on the beach before quickly retreating to the safety of the sea. They don’t say anything for a long time. Opting for a comfortable quiet. Violet glances over and notices how at peace Katie looks, eating a burger out on the beach. Even though she’s got tiny wings that she can only use when she shrinks. Even though she’s gone through the biggest change of her life only a month before. Even though she’s now a pale green.

It’s an insanity that Violet had never imagined.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

A part of her knows things will never be right after this. She knows that she’ll blow her cover after this stunt, she’ll break Katie’s heart, she’ll ruin her reputation at the agency after this, but someone needs to do this. Someone needs to get V10137 back to the laboratory before the file can get out.

She groans as part of her urges her to tell Mr. Kaplan or Mr. Altman about this. They’d forgive you! It said, they’d help you. They helped Violet! But after everything she’d done they would never forgive her. The same part of her wishes she could go back to a time before she’d accepted this mission. Before they’d wiped her memory and placed her into this team.

Giving her this stupid identity and stupid feelings. Though, she supposes the feelings happened on their own. Somewhat anyways. She wishes that she could go back to the laboratory and go back to when they would just test her and her powers. But she knows that’s as unlikely as her actually completing this mission unscathed.

She’ll be skinned alive after this stunt, by Hydra or the Avengers. The coin’s still up in the air about that for now however. Gifting her the time to set up the fake account, slip in her credentials on a different website and trick the two silly girls into believing she’s the real deal.

Oh, how silly teenagers are, she thinks typing a message to send to V10137 that will convince her to come back to the site. She smiles as the subject responds.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Tommy knows he shouldn’t freak out when David wants to talk about it. He should talk about it, admit it, apologize for everything he’s ever done to the poor kid. He should introduce them. But that doesn’t mean doing all of these things will be easy.

He’s lived for so long with these two separate worlds for so long that combining them seems like a disastrous idea. Especially after what happened when he told Billy, David and himself were dating. Granted that was several years ago, and Billy eventually got over his initial hesitance. But it still didn’t erase the years of passive aggressive comments, and hidden glares.

“Tommy.” David says in the mist of Tommy’s freak out. “Tommy, we need to talk about this. It’s not everyday that we get something like this-” He raised the file in his hand. Tommy knew that David had started to research Violet, from the moment he got that file he’d probably hacked into the Avenger’s database and learned everything he could about her. “- besides why didn’t you tell me she was a clone?”

If he were honest with himself, which he often wasn’t, Tommy would admit that he was scared. That he didn’t know how to react the first time Billy asked him to take Violet under his wing, and he’s still not sure how to treat her. Does he treat her like a daughter? A friend? Like another long-lost sibling? There are still so many questions he still needs answers too, and almost all of them involve Violet in one way or another.

Not only was he scared, but he was also ashamed. Not entirely, he still stands by his choice to have someone else, someone less damaged than him, take Violet. But he’s ashamed of how it all went down. How he freaked out, ran away, never came back, never apologized. Forced a child who’d been through too much already to face the reality that she wasn’t brought into the world to be just a child. To have someone raise her with gentle words and warmth.

 But when he looked at David he knew he had to be honest.

“I was scared. Ashamed. It’s not everyday you wake up and have a female clone made of you. I was also a lot younger, fuck, it was over a decade ago! I wasn’t even ready to take care of myself a decade ago. I couldn’t even take care of myself back then, and people expected me to take care of a child! I-I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’m still not sure how to deal with it.” His gaze fell from David down to his hands. In a different world he would’ve reacted better. He would’ve found a way to make things better before now.

David was silent.

They’d spent the last few years together and happy, after years of dancing around their mutual feelings. But they’d both acknowledged the fact that neither of them, was ready for a relationship, especially a relationship with each other. So, they left it alone, they stayed in contact over the years, one of the only people Tommy tried to keep contact with, and when the time came they found a way to acknowledge their feelings.

It was dramatic and amazing, and Tommy wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“We still need to talk about it.” David says, moving from the doorway of their room and onto the bed. Tommy leans against his shoulder and sighs.

“I know.” He replies after a few more minutes of silence. Tommy’s not ready to tell her. He’s not even ready to talk to her without someone else there. He’s never had that kind of bravery, but as David takes his hand and kisses his palm Tommy knows that as long as David’s there, he can fake the bravery he needs. “Do you want to meet her? Do you want to meet our daughter?”

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

“Do you think this person is serious?!” Violet asked, vibrating in her chair. Katie frowned at her sandwich, because it was all too convenient. Someone who knew this David guy and wanted them to meet up with them today? It’s one of those situations that her dads always told her to never trust.

“I think we should do more research about this person before we just go and meet them in some random spot in California.” She replies honestly, before going back to her sandwich. Her back is still sore from flying around so much, and her limbs are tired from attempting to use ‘magic’.

She’s not entirely sure what her power set really is yet, it’d taken her this long to figure out that she could unshrink herself after being shrunk down. For the first few times she’d just hid away from Kate and told her that she’d been out picking stuff up from the store or swimming on the beach. Eventually she’d fall asleep from walking across her room to get her phone and she’d wake up like normal.

But now she had a way to get big again! Granted she didn’t know how to get small, but she’d figure that out. Maybe she’d be able to ask Cassie how she does it, now that their powers are so similar.

“Katie, but what if they’re serious. What if they know him, what if this person is him! Katie, I know this isn’t ideal, but I need to know. I need to-” Violet’s interrupted by a knock at the door. The two girls blink at each other, neither of them are supposed to answer the door. Even though they’re both teenagers and now both of them have powers. They stare at the door again before Violet puts a finger to her lips, in the next second she disappears before reappearing.

Her eyes are wide now, panicked and terrified. Katie doesn’t get the chance to stand before something enters the house. Neither of them sees whoever’s at the door, it’s either too fast or teleports inside, and then it’s gone. Instead Tommy lays on the couch, bloody and unconscious, neither of them says anything. They just stare at Tommy.

“What was outside?” Katie finally brought the words out of her throat. She’s shaking, but it’s not the exhaustion anymore, now it’s just terror. “Violet, what was outside?” She turns and watches as Violet turns towards her. She looks like she’s seen a ghost. Katie moves to get out of her chair and stumbles over to Violet. She shakes her cousin, hoping to get some kind of reaction out of them. “Come on Vi, come on snap out of it, I need you. I really need you right now. I can’t do this by myself, come on!”

Katie thinks she might be yelling right now. Or maybe she’s whispering, nothing’s making sense. In her periphery she sees something move where Uncle Tommy is laying. Katie’s the only one to react.

“Uncle Tommy! Uncle Tommy! Are you okay? Come on, I need someone right now. I’m really out of my element.” She watches, through tears as he remains still under her hands. Watches in horror as she shrinks, further and further, the world becoming a place for giants around her.

“No!” She screams, but it comes out in a high-pitched screech. Glancing around she realizes she’d left her phone upstairs. “How the am I supposed to get up there?” She wonders aloud before something runs into her leg. She yelps in terror before realizing it’s her own wing.

“I don’t get paid enough for this.” She whispers to herself before flapping her wings.

Chapter Text

When she finally snaps out of her trance she sees someone curled up in a ball on Kate’s couch. The someone is groaning, waking up from a sweet dream turned nightmare. Something about this person is familiar and soon she realizes what it is.

Tommy moves slowly as he gets up. Blinking at the world around him as he orientates himself. Violet feels something in her chest rattle, dangerously close to something that’s probably repressed feelings. The room around her begins to shrink and like always she’s back to being like a child around him. The urge to hide under a blanket or a bed pushes her away from him.

“Violet! Tommy! You’re okay! Thank fucking god!” A tiny voice from behind her squeaks. She’s brought back to a few hours before when a tabby cat had gotten especially close to turning Katie into her midday snack. “I thought you guys were dead!”

Katie flies to the middle of the room. Violet hopes she’s wearing the tiny clothes from earlier, or else the upcoming growing will be unfortunate as hell. It’ll be unfortunate either way, she realizes. As Katie attempts to grow and fails, a few times. The largest she gets is the size of a Barbie doll before she flutters down to the carpet and sits.

“When did we get a green barbie doll?” Tommy asks, still dazed. Violet’s not glad necessarily, that he’s not entirely aware of what’s happening. But she is relieved that he’s not berating Katie with questions about how she’s tiny.

Violet knows how bad he can get when he gets new information.

“Uncle Tommy it’s me!” When that doesn’t get his attention, Katie tries again. “It’s Katie!” This time he perks up. He blinks a few hundred times in a second or two. It creates a small gust that nearly knocks Katie over. He’s yet to notice Violet, or he’s ignoring her.

“Holy shit! Katie what the hell happened? Where am I? Where is David?” The name makes Violet gasp. When she’d sped outside to see who was at the door she had noticed two men on the street. One girl standing outside of their door. The girl had seemed familiar, bringing a memory forward that Violet immediately wanted to forget. She’d had enough of a mind to get back inside before memories of things she wanted to forget came back full force.

“David. As in David Alleyne?” Katie asks. Violet finds herself, for the first time in a long time, unable to speak.

Because- Because if Tommy brought him here. Then maybe David wouldn’t want her. Tommy had already made his stance on her known. Quite a few times in fact. So, if Tommy and David were close, like Violet knew they must be, then it wouldn’t be much of a leap to assume that David felt the same about Violet that Tommy did.

“Yeah, has Billy talked about him?” Tommy looks genuinely confused. Violet feels like she wants to throw up. When Katie chances a glance at Violet she frowns, or Violet thinks it’s a frown. She’s trying so hard to keep the tears in that she can barely see.

“Kind of, they’ve mentioned him in a couple of stories.” She lies, and Violet’s thankful for her cousin. Luckily Tommy doesn’t question it. Instead he speeds out of the room. Then back into the room.

“Fuck. Fucking fuck.” He says running his hands through his hair. He’s pacing the living room, leaving scorch marks in the hardwood. Violet wants to ask what’s wrong. Figure out where David is. Run away. Run far, far, away. But she does none of this.

Instead she runs upstairs, into her room. Finds a box that holds a few Barbie dolls she’s kept around when she needs remind of better times. She finds the outfit that looks the most durable and goes back downstairs. Without a word she hands it to Katie, who looks at her gratefully.

“We need to find David. Now. He doesn’t have any powers, who knows what Hydra will do to him.” Tommy says, and in an instant Violet’s a child again. Scared, alone, in a dark cell with no one to talk to. Only a handful of memories to keep her company and a feeling that makes each day bearable. A plan that will get her out of here or killed.

Either option being better than this hell.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

David wishes he could say he wasn’t expecting what happened. But he can’t say he hadn’t considered the possibility as Tommy sped them to Kate’s house. After a brief, but awkward, conversation with Billy they’d figured out Violet had been with Katie for the last day. It took some pleading before Tommy was ready to go.

A small part of him knew that life wasn’t that simple. That for some reason or another he wouldn’t meet Violet with anything less than a dramatic near-death experience. So, when they arrive at Kate’s home to see a Hydra agent outside he shouldn’t be so surprised.

The agent was smaller than he expected, hair pulled into a high bun on the top of their head. He wasn’t sure how he knew the person was a Hydra agent, maybe it was the stiff nature of their shoulders, or the way the looked completely out of place in a purple sweater, black leggings, and fuzzy Ugg boots. It also could’ve been the ray gun hidden in their Ugg boots, or the ray gun strapped around her thigh.

Any of those could’ve warned him.

“Hey! Who’re you?” Tommy yelled out before David could tell him to wait. They’d worked together for ten years and he was still the impatient wildcard that David knew and loved. The agent didn’t turn around, instead they reached for something David couldn’t see from their shirt. Tommy yelled again, hoping for a good outcome, David knew. Unfortunately, that’s not what they got.

Tommy was the fastest person David knew. Faster than any speedster he’d ever known. But this agent? This agent disappeared, only to reappear behind them, shoot their gun, and end up back in front of them in under a second. Tommy’s speed didn’t stand a chance.

He hit the ground before David realized the agent had disappeared. David reached out and almost had Tommy before suddenly there was blood everywhere. He wasn’t sure how it’d happened, all he knew was the voice in his head telling him to get Tommy out of there. There was blood on the cuff of his jacket. It made him stop.

Which was apparently what the agent wanted.

In another second he too was on the ground, hearing a voice above him considering what to do with him.

“What to do with two troublesome mutants. I suppose I could leave him here, it would certainly rattle the pair. But you? The scientists would very much enjoy poking around in that pretty little head of yours.” It sounded feminine but the world around him was also spinning, so he wasn’t sure what was what at the moment.

A few seconds later he was unconscious.

When he awoke, what must’ve been hours later he was in a padded white room. He could tell it was a perfect square, a talent he’d received from someone a long time ago. He wasn’t on a chair, instead left on the ground with his hands zip tied behind him.

“Welcome to your new home Mr. Alleyne, my name is Delilah and I do sincerely hope you enjoy your stay here.”

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Kate pulls herself out of her car. Hissing when the seat belt hits a particularly bad bruise. She’s exhausted. Emotionally drained. Just wanting to forget this horrible day. All the horrible things that’ve happened. She tastes iron in her mouth and spits out some blood into Violet’s flowers.

Is it a little ironic that Violet has a flower garden? She wonders, and yeah, yeah it is. But Kate knows that she has trouble denying that kid anything. So, when she’d turned 12, claiming she had what it took to be a hero, Kate trained her. When she was 13 she asked to move in with Kate, so Kate cleaned out the guest room she’d used for storage and let Violet decorate it with pastel colors and hung glow-in-the-dark-stars from the ceiling.

She doesn’t know why. Not exactly. Maybe she relates to Violet. Maybe she feels bad for how she treated Tommy. Maybe it’s another reason entirely. Maybe she’ll never know.

Kate shakes herself out of her little daze and pulls out her house keys. Unlocking the door she groans.

“Aww living room.” She says, watching a blood covered Tommy burn scorch marks into her floor. A miniature Katie trying to fit into what looks like a pair of Barbie pants. And Violet staring, extremely upset, at both of them.

So much for that bubble bath, she thinks getting ready for another adventure.

Chapter Text

Katie would love to say she makes a good leader. She’s led a lot of things in her short life. Her science fair project in the third grade, designing her room to be exactly as she wanted it when she was in the fifth grade, redesigning it a year later when she realized having popstars faces on your walls could be really creepy. And her team. She’d led her team for over a year now, and no one had died yet!

She’d also love to say she could lead in the situation they’re in right now. To say she’s doing something to stop Tommy’s pacing and Violet’s internal panic attack and everything in between. But she’s also panicking, so she can’t.

“What the hell is happening in my living room?” Kate asked, Katie wasn’t sure when Kate had showed up. She could’ve been standing in the doorway for hours and Kate wouldn’t have noticed. Kate’s gaze shifts, from Katie, to Violet, then to Tommy, and then back to Violet. Katie can’t imagine what’s going through Kate’s head right now.

“Kate, I- he’s-he’s gone! They took him!” Tommy stops pacing. Speeds to a spot right in front of her and holds her shoulders like she’s the only thing keeping him upright. Katie wants to cry, or maybe scream? She wasn’t entirely sure. But instead of doing either she focused her energy on trying to get back to a normal size.

“He? Them? What’re you talking about Tommy? Who was taken? Who took them?” The look Tommy gave Kate was a mix of a panicked parent and a man who has been through too much in such a short amount of time. “David? Who would take David?” Which is when she glances at the rest of the room and sees Violet, who’s trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Oh, oh no, have you called Billy or Teddy or- have you called anyone to help?” The question is directed at Violet which is something that Katie very much appreciates. She’s currently the size of a shoebox, which is a lot closer to normal size than she’s gotten in her last few attempts. She’s draped a stretchy dress over herself that she’d grabbed from upstairs that’s covering her for the time being.

“No, everything happened so fast, I was on the ground, and then unconscious, and then I was on your couch.” He replied glancing around at the room around him. Eyes flickering over herself and landing on Violet. And Katie loves her Uncle, she does. He’s covered for her multiple times over the years. Taking the blame for accidentally blowing up both a microwave and an oven. But the way his eyes lock on Violet, like she’s to blame, like she’s the cause of all of this, makes her anger boil over, and her heart turn dark. “This is your fault.” He whispers. Eyes locked on her. Kate follows gaze and frowns.

“This isn’t her fault Tommy, she didn’t-” But before she can say anything he’s across the room, with his fists clenched in her t-shirt. She’s terrified, face paler than usual, frozen in fear. “Tommy! Put. Her. Down!”

To her relief Tommy drops Violet. To her horror she watches as her cousin crumples to the ground, a pile of bones and muscle too weak to carry on. She gasps and stops focusing on her size, rushing over to her cousin, who’s still quite larger than she is.

“Violet? Vi? Are you okay?” She pushes against Violet’s head. No response. She pushes again, even pinching what skin she can in hopes Violet will react. She doesn’t. “What did you do to her?!” She yells turning back to Tommy. For the first time in months she feels tears welling up in her eyes for someone other than herself. “What did you do?!” She moved towards Tommy, who’s giving her a look that screams anger, but she’s too tired, and upset to back down.

“I didn’t do anything!” He yelled back, waving his arms in the air.

“Well obviously you did! Or else she wouldn’t be on the floor like she’s- like she’s-” Katie chokes on her words before turning back to Violet. She searches for a pulse and almost faints when she finally finds one. Kate glances between herself and Tommy before finally stepping in to separate them.

“Katie go to your room and work on getting back to your regular size. Tommy, go and wash all that blood off of you and change into the spare clothes you left here. I’ll take care of Violet, I just need you two to calm down.” Katie doesn’t look at Tommy, instead she squeezes Violet’s hand and turns to flutter upstairs. She misses Tommy’s apologetic look.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

When he’s in the shower he takes his time. He thinks about everything that’s happening and tries to calm himself down. He feels the guilt stick to him even as the water pounds against his skin. The temperature is too hot to be entirely safe but it’s the only thing grounding him right now.

Without David- No, he can’t let himself think like that. They’ve been through much worse, with even less hope for a good outcome. But they’re still here. They’re still alive. Probably.

He hears the door squeak open and then shut, Tommy’s unsure if he hears the lock or if it’s just his imagination. Someone sits on the toilet, sighing and groaning. “Why were you two here?” Kate asks, pulling open a cabinet. She looked like shit when she’d walked in and she probably felt like it too. Even when he doesn’t answer she continues on with her questions. “Why were you and David here when you knew Violet was here? What was your plan?”

“I don’t know.” He replies. And maybe that’s the truth. Because what was he thinking? That Violet would just look at him and David and forgive him? For the years and years of shitty treatment. Not likely. If she was anything like Tommy, and she was, he knew that there was a part of him in her, she wouldn’t forgive him. Maybe ever.

“Were you going to tell her? That David’s her, uh, dad?” Kate asked, hissing again as she disinfects some of her wounds. Part of him feels bad, for wanting to spring all of this on Violet, add another layer of insanity to her already insane existence.

But, a bigger part of him knows that he’d want to meet David, if he were Violet. He’d want to know someone who could care about him, more than Tommy had anyways. Someone who might want to spend time with him, give him the attention he’d never had before. He sighs, letting his head hit the shower wall.

“I know she’s just, she’s just, a problem for you. But she’s a person. Violet has her own feelings, her own emotions. Throwing someone at her without any warning isn’t the best idea.” She says through gritted teeth. He guesses she might be stitching herself up. Though he’s unsure. Tommy feels a part of himself get angry with her, in that moment, a small part of him wants to yell at her.

‘How dare you.’ He wants to scream. ‘How dare you tell me not to do something, you did the same thing to me! Throwing yourself into a relationship and then fishing yourself out when someone better came along. How dare you tell me what to do.’

He doesn’t. Instead he hums in agreement. Because that small part of him is still young and angry. Angry at his parents. At his friends. At the world. At himself. That small part of him is immature. Too stubborn and upset to do much for anyone but himself. Selfish, he thinks, and it is. It is selfish. Which he guesses is why it’s so small.

Because it’s still young, and he isn’t. Not anymore. He’s growing up, something he’d never thought he’d want to do. But things change, and Tommy found that people change too.

When he shuts off the water he knows what he has to do. He doesn’t know how or when he’s going to do it, or how he’s going to get Violet to trust him enough to let him do it. But it’s what he has to do. It’s what he wants to do.

“I want you to know that she deserves so much more, than what you’ve given her. And if you lay a hand on her like you just did, ever again, I will make you regret it. Got it Tommy? Because she might just be some worthless clone to you. But she is someone’s friend, someone’s crush, she’s Katie’s cousin, and someone I consider family. And I know first hand that those friends would die for her.” He listens as he reaches out to grab a towel. She’s stopped hissing, stopped opening and shutting cabinets. Through the shower curtain he can see her outline, leaning against the sink. A white-knuckle grip on the tile countertop.

“I wanted her to have someone. Someone who wouldn’t be like me, who wouldn’t screw up, who got to know her and realize how much more she is. I know she deserves a lot better than me, which is why I brought David. I thought, well, it doesn’t matter what I thought anymore. We need to get David back.” She nods, wipes at her face, and goes to the door. He thinks she might turn back to him, examining his statement. But he’s sure it’s a fluke when he hears her open the door and a cold blast of air enters the room. Even though it’s entirely too hot with all the steam. Tommy finally feels like he can breathe again.

Chapter Text

 Maybe she should feel guilty. Maybe she should feel ashamed. Maybe she should feel upset. Maybe she should feel a lot of things. But she doesn’t feel much, instead there is a void. Probably where her heart should be, but it’s not.

One of the few feelings that haven’t been sucked into the void is annoyance. Which is what she’s feeling now. Mostly for the blood she’s getting on her clothes. She’d spent a lot of time convincing her superiors that she could keep her clothes clean. The man in front of her groans in pain as she wipes her knives on his pants. The blood comes off without much difficultly, she smiles. She hates when she gets dried blood on things. Makes it so much harder to get it off and hide the evidence.

“Why are you doing this?” He asks through labored breaths. He hasn’t spoken much, only weak whimpers and relieved sighs when she decides to take a break from using her favorite techniques. This is the first full sentence he’s spoken to her since she’d taken him.

“Why not? You’re, here aren’t you? Might as well have my fun while your still conscious, it’s much more boring when you don’t react.” She tells him, tracing a cut that will scar wonderfully. It’s on his arm, right above his elbow. She traces up, towards his shoulder, then down to his chest. Watching with delight as he flinches away from her blade. “Not to mention the scientists will run off with you and never let me have my fun. So, I must stock up on it now.” He doesn’t react. And after a few more minutes of fun she finds him not reacting to anything.

“You’ve broken down so soon? How boring, I suppose I must find another playmate now. Who shall it be? That child you were going to visit? Or maybe Kathryn?” He doesn’t blink at her threats. Fine, two can play at this game. “Or maybe Thomas, how fun will it be to watch him struggle against our chains. A master of speed sentenced to stillness for the rest of his time. It does sound like quite a fun time.” This gets his attention. It’s almost imperceptible, the tensing of his shoulders, the uncomfortable shifting of his bound ankles, but she’s been trained to tell when someone’s going to cooperate.

“Don’t touch him.” He says, at the same time a stream of blood begins to trickle down his chin from his mouth, or maybe it’s his eye. She’s not sure, and chuckles, leaning forward, close enough that their noses almost touch.

“Then play along.”

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

She’s not panicking. She’s really not. She’s not thinking about every little thing that could go wrong with this plan. She’s not thinking about how using her magic is a horrible idea. How she’s barely began to understand how she works, what powers she does and doesn’t have.

“IwanttofindDavid.IwanttofindDavid.IwanttofindDavid.IwanttofindDavid.” Is the sound track in her mind. She’s terrified to say it aloud. To bring the words into existence and watch in horror as they fall flat. Prove that she really isn’t her fathers’ daughter. That she’s really a dud.

Which is impossible. Because she has wings and she can shrink and then the electricity from the hospital. She has powers. She can almost use them. Katie is her fathers’ daughter. Even if she still feels like she isn’t.

Maybe that’s why she goes to the roof to try the spell. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t tell anyone. Maybe it’s why she writes a note and leaves it on her bed, just in case something bad happens.

The roof is hot underneath her bare feet. She’s wearing an old swimsuit that her dad had spelled so she’d never grow out of it. She prays that it’ll shrink down with her. Katie closes her eyes and raises her arms out in front of her. Then she says the words out loud.

Nothing happens.

A minute passes, she stumbled on the words at first, but now they’re leaving her mouth like she’s been using these words her entire life. Another minute passes and her arms feel like they’re burning. She tries to convince herself it’s the magic flowing through her veins. Another minute, no magic. Two more pass by and she lets her arms fall to her sides. With a sigh she falls to the roof and groans.

“Katie? Are- what are you doing up here? Why did you leave this note?” It’s her uncle’s voice. She doesn’t open her eyes or face him. She’s not sure what would come out of her if she did. “I know what I did was bad, but we don’t need you to go missing again. This situation is already bad enough.”

“Did you know that David was the other donor for her DNA?” She asks because she doesn’t want to say dad. She knows what a dad is supposed to be. Tommy’s not a dad. Not by a longshot. “Did you know that she has memories? Memories that aren’t hers? That she struggles to fight against those memories to be her own person? That she does that for you? Even though you won’t give her the time of day?”

If he’s shocked that she knows any of this information he doesn’t say anything. She opens her eyes and stares into the sun. It burns. The bad part of her hopes what she’s said hurts her uncle. Hurts him like he’s hurt Violet, time and time again. She feels the wind whip around her and notices her uncle’s silhouette in her periphery.

“I did, I knew that David was her dad. I’ve known for a while… but I knew he’d want to take care of her, and I didn’t want that. I wanted him to be mine, and I know that’s selfish. Really, really, selfish. And I can’t take all of those years back where I was a selfish dick. Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Because she grew up to be something so much better than I am. She relies on people. She tells them about her problems. She has a family. And this isn’t an excuse, it’s an explanation.” He says slowly, thinking through every word. It almost makes Katie forgive him, almost. She won’t forgive him completely. Not until Violet forgives him.

“Let’s go back inside.” She whispers into her arm. He nods, a second later and she’s laying on her bed. Her heart skips a beat before returning to normal. It always happens when she goes faster than light speed. The though reminds her of Violet, who usually keeps her going faster than light. She promises herself she's going to help Violet, no matter what.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

The guilt is too much. She can hear his screams in the next room over and knows she needs to fix this. All she needs to do is distract Delilah long enough to get David out of that room. Then she can, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do after that, but she knows from the horrible sounds he keeps making that she needs to do it quickly.

So she calls Delilah out, it’s using their boss’s signal so she knows Delilah won’t just ignore it. As Delilah leaves the room she hears her fellow agent complain about ‘never getting to have any fun with the hostages’ as she stomps away.

The window of opportunity is short, so she needs to make the most of the time she has. She already has her knife ready to cut his binds when she sees him unconscious. It throws a dent into her plans but not a big one. After discovering her powers she’d lucked out on having super strength.

“I’m so sorry about this dude. I’m so, so, sorry, and I know that this is all my fault and I’m really, really fucking sorry about that. But this is my penance and I’m going to make it up to all of you. I swear to god I will.” She’s not sure if she’s talking out loud or if everything’s just overloading her brain. A small part hopes she’s talking out loud, that he’ll hear her stream of consciousness and he’ll tell Katie everything she’s saying.

To tell her that she’s sorry. And she’s going to fix this.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

“What’s the plan?” Katie asks, sitting as close to Violet as Kate’s dining room chairs will allow. Violet is pointedly not looking at Tommy, though she notices him continually glancing over at her. She doesn’t let herself return the glances. Instead, she faces Kate, not letting her eyes drift away no matter how many looks Kate gives her.

“We’re still not a hundred percent on the plan.” Kate responds. Violet bites the inside of her cheek. A small voice helpfully adds that she could get them inside, she could find him. After all these years she still remembers how these compounds were generally set up, where they are, how to get inside undetected, then how to get out. “But we need to talk to Billy, with everything that’s happened-” Her gaze settles firmly on Katie. “-I think we need reinforcements. And we need people to watch you two.”

“No, you don’t!” Violet objects at the same time Katie leans back and nods in agreement. She gives Katie a look that conveys just how much she hates this plan.

“Vi, we don’t have another option, with my-” She gestured to her still green skin and over her shoulders. Probably towards her, now miniature, wings. “-we can’t afford to send us in. Besides this is too close to home for you, who knows what’ll happen if you get there and-” She doesn’t say the words Violet knows are on the edge of her tongue. ‘and you go back to them. Fight against us. Revert to your Hydra training.’. Violet can feel the knife in her back as Katie gives her a pitying look.

“That’s absurd! If anything, I’m the one who knows that place the best! I should get to go on this mission!” She slams the table and doesn’t miss when both Katie and Tommy flinch away. Violet can’t help the anger rising in her stomach, or the betrayal running through her veins. The table shifts under her hand as Kate scoots her chair back, ‘to strap you down’ the voice taunts. ‘To restrain your unpredictable mind’ it adds, and she doesn’t doubt it. Nor does she completely believe it.

“Come on! This isn’t fair!” She argues, watching as Kate moves around the table, towards her. At the last second, she moves away, ending up half way across the room. Tommy doesn’t do anything, just watches her, taking her in like it’s the first time he’s seen her. Like she’s some kind of malfunctioning experiment. And she’s not, she can prove it, show them she’s not some kind of malfunction.

Before the second’s up, she speeds away, towards the most logical place they’d take David. Towards a place she’d run from once before. Towards a place she’d burn to the ground if she had the chance. Towards an uncertain future, and a terrifying past.

Chapter Text

Tommy is staring at the spot where Violet was just sitting. He hasn’t moved. Hasn’t said a word. He’s too busy panicking because believe it or not he understands Violet’s reasoning. And he hates it, he hates the memories it brings up, the hurt it brings up. The years of misunderstandings and distancing that her little stunt brings up.

“We need to find her.” Katie hastily stands up and looks around the room, for something to locate Violet. “She-she’s not thinking clearly, and she’s going to do something really, really stupid. We need to find her like five minutes ago!” Tommy has seen Billy work himself into a panic enough times to recognize the destructive path Katie’s leading himself down.

“We need to stay calm, Violet’s almost an adult-” Tommy hears the words coming out of his mouth, but he doesn’t entirely believe they’re his words. He can swear he’s heard someone else say this to him before, but he doesn’t know who. Katie looks at him, it’s betrayal, and sadness, and anger, all mixed together with whip cream and a cherry on top.

And he gets it. Because these are the words he’d heard for years before actually turning eighteen. Foster parents arguing that if he was old enough to go to juvie then he was old enough to have his own apartment. With social workers arguing the opposite, pretending to care about where he ended up. So, he gets it, mostly, where Katie’s coming from. But it doesn’t make his words any easier to say.

“She’s sixteen,” The words are heartbroken. Katie’s voice cracking over the few syllables. “She’s sixteen, and afraid we’re going to abandon her! If we don’t go after her and punish her when she gets back then she’s going to add it to the list of reasons why she-” Her face bright red, her hands turned to white-knuckled fists. “We need to go after her. Please.”

Tommy doesn’t want to argue anymore. All he wants is his boyfriend back, to get the chance to use the ring he’d hidden away in Billy’s house, because David could easily find anything hidden in their tiny apartment. He wants to apologize, start on the road to recovery with Violet. He wants things to be better than they are.

Kate looks from Katie to Tommy before letting out a sigh. She stands up, reaches into her standard purple duffle bag, pulls out an ancient cellphone. Her fingers dance across the keyboard and Tommy can hear the telltale signs of her calling someone. He has a few guesses on who she’s calling, his suspicions are confirmed when he hears his brother-in-law’s voice on the other end of the phone. “Hey, we uh, we have a bit of a problem here. No, no, it’s not about Katie, not really anyway, but we do need your help.”

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Getting a call about needing help wasn’t the way Teddy thought he’d see his daughter again. He’d imagined a welcome home party, or maybe a dinner, or even just having Katie show back up at their home after several months. These were all scenarios he’d imagined and played out.

Getting a call from Kate, the woman in charge of keeping her safe, saying they needed help like someone had just been kidnapped? Not the way he saw their reunion happening. Yet, here they were, sitting in Katie’s living room, Billy magicking away the blood on her sofa and carpet that isn’t Tommy’s but is definitely someone’s. Tommy and Katie sitting on a loveseat to their left, with Katie, arms crossed over her chest and frowning, pointedly not look at Tommy.

“What’s happened?” He asks, and no one responds. “Seriously, Kate wouldn’t have called if this was nothing, what’s happened?”

“Violet ran away, to find David, David Alleyne, who’s the other half of her DNA, because aunt Kate suggested that we leave her out of the mission, and we both agreed to it. And now I want to find her but neither of them wanted to do anything until you were here.” Katie replied after a few more beats of silence. “So we need to go, soon, or else something bad is going to happen to her, I just know it will.”

And he agrees with his daughter, he really does. Except he has a lot of questions, too many questions to have them all answered and still save David and Violet. So instead of answering he looks to his husband.

‘Are we really about to jump into another rescue mission?’ He asks with a raised eyebrow. Billy only breaks eye contact for a second before responding.

‘It’s either that or watch Katie and Tommy jump into a rescue mission.’ His husband raises a good point, which is to say that he doesn’t want Katie anywhere near this and if helping will keep her safe then he’s willing to do anything. They stay staring at each other for a few more seconds before looking back to the room.

Kate is looking nervous. Tommy even more anxious, and Teddy’s heart aches for him. Losing someone you love sucks, having your underage clone going after them doesn’t sound like much fun either. Katie is… he’s giving them both a look that he recognizes from a few months prior when she’d been suspended from school. Stubborn and confident, like she knows exactly how this is going to play out.

She’s always been like that, he thinks, stubborn and unnervingly confident. Nothing like he or Billy had been in their youth. He’d always depended on others for his confidence, whether it was Greg’s ‘guidance’ or the outward appearance of celebrities and superhumans. Though he guesses she does get her stubbornness honestly, though from Billy or himself he’ll never be able to figure out.

“Do we have any idea where she went?” Billy asks, with a locating spell waiting on the tip of his tongue just in case. No one speaks up, and a second later Billy’s familiar magic is settling over the room like a fog. “IwanttofindViolet.IwanttofindViolet.IwanttofindViolet.Iwant-” And then it stops, with a sharp intake of breath. For a second he worries Billy’s choking up soon his words are filling up the room, picking each of them up and teleporting them somewhere else.

When they land in the middle of a fire fight he understands Billy’s shock.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

He was half delirious when he realized he was being rescued. Someone had thrown his arm around their shoulder and was dragging him through hallway after hallway, narrowly avoiding guards and agents. He’s not entirely sure who’s guiding him along, or if it’s anyone at all. He’s done stranger things under much more dire circumstances.

So, he doesn’t question it when the mysterious force guiding him along drops him in a chair right next to a door. He sits in the chair for a few seconds before glancing around him. The hallways on either side of him are completely empty. Void of life, long stretches of walls only broken up with a few doors every couple of yards.

His first attempt at standing goes about as well as expected, though he finds the floor to be disguisingly clean and cool against his wounds. Though an annoying voice reminded him that laying down on Hydra’s hallway floor was only going to lead to infections that he’d never fight off on his own. Reaching up he blindly waved his arm around, searching for the chair he’d been sat on.

When his elbow runs into a wooden leg he barely holds in a groan. He doesn’t let himself wonder who could’ve rescued him as he pulls himself up. He doesn’t wonder where Tommy is right now, who’s with him, what’s happening to him.

All of these wonderings are chased away as he sees a teenaged girl walking towards him. She’s holding what looks like a water bottle, glancing around nervously like she suspects they’ll be caught any second now. When she notices he’s alive and on the floor she runs the rest of the way to him.

“Fuck, I’m so, so, sorry, I needed to get this water because I was worried about your wounds. Please just sit up.” She can’t be any older than Billy’s daughter, with strong arms that easily lift him back into the chair. Something about her face is familiar in a way he doesn’t understand, the way her mouth forms the words overflowing into the air. She says some more things that he doesn’t fully comprehend as she begins to pour water over his wounds.

He hisses at the contact, unsure if this is medically sound or not. Judging by the way her eyes widen in horror he’d wager that she’s unsure as well.

“Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.” He manages to get the words out through gritted teeth and a wall of pain. She nods in agreement, saying something about a battle happening on the lower floor and that they need to be quick if they want to get out of here alive. They start down the hallway, the further they go, the more and more aware David becomes of his surroundings. He felt pounding under his feet, he heard grunts, most likely from people punching other people. “Who’s fighting?”

“I don’t know, someone ran in and- oh no, oh no of course, of course they’d come here! Fuck, fuck, I’m- I’m so sorry for what I’m about to do.” They only stand there for a few more seconds before the girl is stomping against the floor, he hears glass breaking and suddenly they’re falling.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Did Violet start a fight because she was emotionally unstable? Yes, yes she did. And it felt great. The feeling of her fists taking down someone else, a nameless person she’d never have to worry about again. Violet hadn’t thought about the fact that people she knew had suddenly shown up, she hadn’t thought about any of the repercussions about her actions, she only thought of how great it felt to attack someone who she wouldn’t need to feel guilty about attacking.

Around her she heard arguing, mainly from Katie who was zipping through the battle, summoning up electric shocks that Violet would find fascinating in any other situation. Teddy was giant and green, a contrast with his tiny and green daughter. Billy was acting as a coordinator, relaying updates to everyone, making sure they didn’t get too far away from the main battle. Tommy was, well, Tommy was doing exactly what she was doing.

Hitting and kicking and screaming faster than anyone else could hear.

“Vi! Do you know where David is?” Katie asks at the same time a pair of people fall from the ceiling. She sees someone that looks vaguely familiar and someone who looks very, very familiar. She rushes to their side, wanting to throw up when she sees David with- with.

“He’s really, really hurt, you need to get him out of here as soon as possible.” Virginia says through labored breaths, glancing around and seeing others with the same uniform as her, beaten to the ground. It takes everything Violet has to not kill her on the spot. “I know I owe you an explanation, but I can’t right now- if she finds me here then we’re all doomed, please just-” She ducks and kicks an agent heading for David. With a strength and agility Violet’s never seen on a human before, which must mean she’s not human. “-tell her I’m sorry, and I will come back, and I swear to god I’m going to fix this. I don’t know how just yet, but I will. I will.”

Violet doesn’t respond. Instead, she snakes her arms around David’s shoulders and pulls him into a bridal style carry. She gives Virginia a glare as the other girl turns towards a wall and punches it. A bright star that America Chavez usually makes appears and Virginia disappears.

“Fuck.” She whispers watching her cousin’s ex-girlfriend leave through a star shaped portal. This was going to take a long time to explain to Katie.

Chapter Text

The lighting bolts were new. Surprisingly, amazingly new. Flying in battle was also surprisingly, amazingly new. Every part of her felt charged and ready to take down every agent she saw. Above her she saw her dad keeping track of everyone, telling them what was happening and where it was happening.

She felt strange taking orders, aiming at specific targets and having a set goal put in place by someone who wasn’t her. Who wasn’t sitting in a desk several miles away, completely and utterly unaware of what it’s like to fight in a battle.

“Katie, watch out on your-” Whatever her dad was going to say was cut off by a stray ray gun shot. She turned in a hurry and watched her dad narrowly avoid the shot, the only sign he’d ever been shot at a momentary pause in his orders and a new clean-shaven line right above his ear. He frowned at whoever shot at him, quickly neutralizing the culprit. “Watch your left, someone’s going to take advantage that you’re favoring your right side. Got it?”

“Got it!” She responded, realizing that his voice wasn’t coming from above the battle, but rather inside of her own head. The realization stopped her for a second before an oncoming Hydra agent brought her back into the current battle.

In those moments she understood why her parents kept doing this when they were teenagers. Why they stuck together even after big name superheroes told them that they should stop, threatening to tattle if they didn’t. This was exhilarating, an adrenaline high like she’d never felt before, not to mention utterly terrifying. The perfect thing for the typical adrenaline junkie superhero, which is what superheroes tended to be.

Each blast with a specific target, although half of her shots missed, and the other half hit parts she hadn’t been aiming for. Each flap of her wings propelling her forward through the chaos, that on more than one occasion had almost resulted in her splatted against a wall or the ground.

She scanned the room quickly, looking for Violet to get her out of this situation before the Hydra agents completely overwhelmed her. From the corner of her eye she saw Violet with her arm around an older man, talking to- to.

Katie could feel her heart fall through her body and down to hell. Standing next to her cousin was Virginia. Wearing a Hydra uniform and looking distressed, she turned to the wall, that had a giant star on it. Katie wasn’t sure if that’d been there the entire time or if it was a figment of her imagination. Then Virginia punched the star and ran through it, Katie was still watching her when a Hydra agent came up behind her.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Maybe running away before explaining herself to the one person she loved was a bad idea. Maybe not telling anyone about finding out she was a sleeper hydra agent after Katie’s ‘awakening’ was a bad idea. Maybe breaking up with the only person who could ever help her was a bad idea. Maybe falling in love was a bad idea.

There were a lot of maybe this and maybe that running around in Virginia’s head. As she punched portal after portal she found herself further and further away from the place filled with people she knows and loves. Running through different universes and watching peoples and aliens fly by in her periphery.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Tommy watches everything unfold in slow motion. He watches Violet and David talking to someone who looks like Virginia in the corner of the room. He watches Billy narrowly avoid a stray run gun shot and get a new haircut. He watches Teddy accidentally hit an agent and then act like he’d done it on purpose. He watches the girl who looks like Virginia punch through a giant star and tumble through it. He watches as a Hydra agent reaches forward, to swat at Katie.

Time starts to move faster as he rushes to his niece’s aid. The agent is slow even by normal standards so he’s able to get there in time. He holds her in one hand before tossing her up towards Billy.

Agents began to swarm around him, tranquilizer darts already flying towards the places he’d been. He sped towards those darts and began aiming them back towards the agents who’d shot them. Thinking about what was going to happen to them made him laugh.

“Don’t get distracted Tommy, we need to find David and Violet and get out of here.” Billy’s telepathy always freaked Tommy out a little bit, ever since he’d learned the spell to keep up with Tommy’s faster thoughts anyways. He nods towards Billy before moving his attention back to Violet and David.

Which is when tragedy struck.

He feels the tranquilizer dart before he actually sees it. Normally he doesn’t slow down enough for anyone to hit him like that but being distracted will do that to a person. He turns and gets the dart out of his leg as fast as possible. Tossing it in the direction of a confused Hydra agent. Only half the dart went into his leg, but he could already feel the effects.

“Billy, we might have a slight problem.” He said aloud, before passing out.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Billy loved his family. He really did. Even though they were dysfunctional in all meanings of the word, and superpowered, driven by angst and pure unadulterated stubbornness. He’d grown to enjoy the strange situations they ended up in and cherish the emotional breakthroughs these situations usually brought around.

What Billy didn’t love, was the fact these situations put them in such dangerous battles. He needed to keep track of everyone and with Tommy’s announcement and the scene between Violet and Virginia keeping Violet stationary he felt any control begin to slip from his fingers.

“Everyone, get out of here. Now.” He thought, loud enough that Violet jumped in surprise and Katie veered off away from the agents she was currently fighting. Luckily, they all responded accordingly, Violet glancing around before heading off down a hallway. Teddy quickly found Katie and they flew off towards the hole they’d made in the compound.

Tommy started off running after Violet but tripped and stumbled forward. A gaggle of Hydra agents staring at him, shocked most likely. Billy frowned at the scene.

“Hey!” He yelled, and their attention shifted back towards him. “Take a picture, it’ll last a lot longer than you will!” Magic flowing through his veins as his mouth formed a teleporting spell, he wasn’t entirely sure where the agents would end up, but in that moment, he didn’t care. He just needed to get all of his family out of there, and safe.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

When Delilah spotted the girl running through the hall with her victim she frowned. Because her victim was not supposed to be in the hallways with a runaway girl. He was supposed to be in the cube room. It makes her angry, in a way that nothing has made her angry. Because he was her toy, not this running girl’s. Her anger sparked under her skin and ignited her bones.

She recognized the runaway girl’s hair. White as snow. She’s reminded of a test subject that used to run through the halls many years ago. Then it hits her, both literally and figuratively.

Delilah doesn’t waste time picking up the white-haired runaway and teleporting away to the cube room. She drops her off then goes back for the victim. She will make the runaway regret leaving, she will make the victim regret leaving.

Now one will ever leave her again.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Before she realizes where she is, Violet is back.

The room itself is tiny. A cube no bigger than 6 feet on any side. She remembers how the room almost drove her to insanity when she was younger. No windows. No doors. No light. Just the walls, the only time she got a glimpse at what the outside held for her was when the scientist appeared. Back then she hadn’t known how they got in, or how they got out. She’d wake up, not even remembering how she’d fallen asleep, with scientists bustling around her. The white light above her blinding.

For as long as she’d been alive she’d hated this room. With every fiber of her being she hated it, what it did to her mind, what it did to her emotions. She hated it.

And now, she was back.

The walls weren’t the same, and the room was a bit smaller than she remembered. They’d installed a light at some point or maybe there’d always been a light, but she’d never thought to look for it. David’s on the other side of the room. Peacefully sleeping on the small cot in the corner.

Her first attempt at standing is pitiful, she can’t get her legs to work the way they’re supposed to. They flop around uselessly whilst she tries to get them to move. Violet finds that lucky enough she isn’t paralyzed, a few hard smacks to her thighs prove that. It also grounds her. Gives her something to focus on while the world around her continues to spin.

What does work for her is her arms. She’s able to keep herself steady by swinging them out to either side of her, keeping her from falling back and losing the will to get up.

Violet gives herself a few more seconds of peace before starting another attempt to get up. It’s a little more successful this time, she gets to her knees before feeling like her stomach is actively trying to escape through her throat. A few more minutes pass and she’s finally crouching, knees clutched to her chest, barely keeping herself on her feet.

This cycle goes on for at least another half hour, alternating between moving and keeping herself from falling over. It’s a solid system if not a little rudimentary. But that’s something she’s willing to deal with for the time being.

The only steady thing in the room is David’s breathing. Blissfully unaware of what Violet suspects might be their impending doom. She’s not sure it’ll be their doom, but in that moment it feels like it will be. Her mind races with the things she regrets never doing, like sky diving, or learning a seventeenth language, or kissing Cara.

Her thoughts run cold. She’s kept that line of thinking hogtied in the back of her mind, she’s hidden away the fantasies and every flirty word that would’ve outed her feelings. All because she was scared. And now? Now she was likely going to die in a cube with a man she’s never met but contains half the chromosomes that made her. Thousands of miles away from the people that mattered, from the people who cared.

“Hello again Noodles.” A voice that triggers horrible memories says from behind her.

Chapter Text

Ignoring her dads isn’t the best idea Katie has ever come up with. Ignoring the very upsetting scene between Virginia and Violet also isn’t the best idea Katie has ever come up with.

So, she does neither.

“I think I saw- I saw Virginia.” She admits when they’ve met at the rendezvous point. They’ve been waiting for Violet, Tommy, and David for the last half hour. It’s enough to get her anxious, on top of everything else she feels her heart beating too fast.

Her dads don’t respond. Not at first, and she’s not looking at them, so she misses the ‘holy crap what do we do???’ look her parents give each other. They don’t get the chance to respond before Katie continues on, talking whilst staring into a cup of tea.

“I think she might be a Hydra agent. Does that mean she was playing with me? The entire time we were together, just a mission to get closer to you guys, or the team, or Violet.” She doesn’t say she wishes she’d had powers back when they first got together. Then at least Virginia would be there for her their relationship would be the central mission, not just a cover story to get to someone else. Katie knows that’s a horrible thing to think, especially if Virginia had been an agent this entire time.

Neither of her parents respond, which is somehow worse, because the silence means they can’t find a way to spin this situation, so she feels better. They can’t find some kind of loophole that proves Virginia hadn’t played with her heart for several months before just leaving. It means they think her line of thinking is the most accurate to what actually happened.

And that fucking sucks.

They sit in silence for a few minutes. Katie staring at her tea, both of her dads ordering off a menu she hasn’t bothered to look at. It hits her in those few quiet minutes that they’re sitting in some random diner in the middle of nowhere. That somehow this rendezvous point is safer than meeting back at Aunt Kate’s house, or the Avenger’s tower.

“When did you learn to shrink?” Her dad asks around a mouthful of bacon. She’s not entirely sure when the waitress had gotten them food, or how long she’d been sitting there. Staring off into a tea cup like it could give her the answers to all of her questions.

“A couple weeks ago. I had this weird dream, everyone around me just kept getting bigger and bigger, and no matter how much I yelled they couldn’t hear me. I was too small.” She misses the sad look her parents give her as she reaches for syrup for the pancakes they ordered her. It smells different than the kind she’s used to, but she doesn’t complain. Instead deciding to continue on with her story. “And when I woke up I was tiny, and really, really green. It took me a couple of hours before I fell back asleep, being tiny and flying without getting caught is hard. When I woke up again I was normal sized, still a little green-” She held up her hand, showing them the skin tone, they’d seen at least a dozen times now. “-but a lot paler and normal sized.”

“And you didn’t contact us because?” The question isn’t loaded. She isn’t going to trigger a land mine if she doesn’t answer exactly the way they want her to. End up grounded for the rest of her life. It’s curious, the kind of question a young child asks, the kind they expect you to answer honestly, even if it takes a few moments to gather your thoughts and say something they might not enjoy hearing.

Taking those few moments Katie compiles her list. There are a few reasons why, probably even a few more that she can’t pinpoint for various reasons. She takes those few moments and attempts to find a way to tell them what she wants without hurting them too much.

“I don’t know.” Is the response she finally comes up with, they don’t respond. Prompting her to fill the silence or to let it simmer. “I keep coming up with silly reasons, and they’re all kind of true. But none of them seem good enough now that everything is happening. That Violet’s revisiting the people who hurt her, and Tommy went to introduce David to Violet.” She cuts into a chocolate chip hidden in her pancake. It’s a welcome surprise.

“I keep thinking that if I just look a little harder then maybe I’ll find a good enough reason, but I don’t think I will.” She responds. Her face is a bit sad at the realization, that she’d kept all of these incredible/terrifying/thrilling things about her life a secret. When they’d strove throughout her entire life to make her feel included, like she didn’t need to keep anything from them because they trusted her.

Like she guesses, they don’t yell. They don’t raise their voices. They don’t demand for a better reason or demand for her to explain even further into her thinking. Instead they nod. Like her decisions make perfect sense and therefore will never be questioned.

She forgets how lucky she is to have her dads.

“I love you guys.” She says, raising her now cold tea up to her lips and sipping up the last of it. In all honesty she’s not sure when she’d drank most of it, but apparently, she has because when she glances back down at it she sees the tea leaves have formed an axe.

Hmm… Interesting. She thinks, asking the waitress for a refill when she comes back around.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Waking up to screams isn’t something unusual for David. The thought of waking up to screams should concern him, but it doesn’t. It does remind him of his childhood though, which does concern him. His first reaction is to jump out of bed and find an adult.

That’s when he remembers he is an adult.

Opening his eyes is a struggle. Every cell in his body is telling him that whoever’s screaming isn’t worth getting up for. His brain debates that whoever’s in trouble is worth it, everyone is worth it. This seems to win over a majority of his body because soon he finds his arms and legs responding once again. The screams continue though his body takes its time moving, every second passing by at the pace of a snail. He finds himself remembering that even though this person is worth fighting for, doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy fight.

Senses begin returning to him as he drags himself out of what might be a bed. He feels his back yelling at him, telling him that sleeping on something this rough is a horrible idea. Then he hears someone actually yelling and reminds himself that his back is not the person in danger.

The room around him is enormous. Padding on every wall, covering the floor and ceiling as well. He blinks away lingering exhaustion to look for the source of the screaming.

Which is when he sees her for the first time.

He’d imagined Violet almost a dozen times after realizing she was his clone? Daughter? Neither term felt right, though they could both be applied. He’d imagined her short and tall, with Tommy’s complexion, and with his own. He’d imagined her quick witted, and he’d imagined her slower, but still as thoughtful. And he supposes she fits some of those images, but she is also real. Unnervingly real.

“Fuck you!” She screeches attacking the spot where someone had been standing. Violet doesn’t waste time, speeding to the spot where she predicts the girl will show up next. David doesn’t think she notices him, or maybe she does but doesn’t care. After what Tommy’s told him about his treatment of Violet, David wouldn’t be entirely surprised if she didn’t want to know him at all.

“Show yourself you goddamned-” Violet’s cut off by the girl teleporting behind her. It’s a quick move, David’s eyes can barely track what’s happening. There might be a knife, or just her fists, all he can tell is that she sends Violet sprawling across the floor.

Towards him.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

He’s searched the surrounding areas a total of 34 times, with no sign of David or Violet. The dart’s effects had worn off almost half an hour ago, leaving him more energized than he’d felt in years. A restlessness settling in the very fiber of his being.

So, with a heavy heart and light feet, he goes back to the compound.

It doesn’t take him long to search the entire facility, once, twice, he even chances a third time before starting up and down each hallway. Searching for a hidden room, an invisible staircase, something, anything that could lead him to the people he needed.

He’s searching his 14^th corridor when he watches two people stumble out of a room together. It takes him a millisecond or two to recognize them as the couple he’s looking for. It takes a whole second for him to see the teleporting dick that shows up just behind them. Tommy gets lucky, he’ll later realize, he rushes towards them.

Faster. His mind urges. You need to be faster. His body complies. Ridding the teleporting asshole of her dagger a millisecond before she hits any of Violet’s vital organs. It’s a hollow victory he knows. David’s bloody and bruised, Violet not much better with the added bonus of bleeding out now.

He doesn’t hesitate to pick them both up and run. Running far away. His feet take him to the place his mind knows will be safe.

It’s a diner they’d visited back when they were stupid kids. Thinking the world would bend at their fingertips because they moved faster than light, aimed better than machines, felt more than they could comprehend. It was a diner he knew they stopped by when he’d been stuck inside of patri-not. It was safe. Anonymous.

He doesn’t go inside. Not trusting himself enough around unpowered humans or anyone really. He’s not sure if he’s breathing or if it’s Violet’s labored breaths that he can hear. Maybe both, maybe neither.

He moves away from her when Katie pushes her way to Violet. Falling to her knees, cradling her, he hears her holding back sobs. Terrified of what the future will hold.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

“Katie I’m really, really, tired.”  Violet comments leaning into Katie’s stomach. Her limbs are weak, and Katie has taken up the responsibility of holding her off the too cold ground. Wetness is on her cheeks though she cannot tell if they are merely raindrops or a leak. She suspects it could also be someone crying but why would someone be crying? “I’m going to take a nap Katie.”

Katie’s violently shaking her head. ‘No.’ Katie says through layers of water. ‘No, you aren’t allowed to sleep, you’ve just got to stay awake until they get here. Please, for me?’. Violet attempts to shrug but her shoulders do not respond like they should. It upsets her.

The person holding her is saying something else, but the fog around Violet’s head is causing the words to twist and tangle until they are no more than letters and sounds without meaning. For the life of her Violet cannot remember who is holding her, or why her face is wet.

Maybe I’m swimming. She thinks, it makes sense because her body is wet. It’s a warm kind of wet, and unfortunately sticky. Maybe I am not swimming. Her brain supplies as a red hand appears in front of her face. After a few seconds she recognizes the hand as her own.

‘Violet please don’t, no! Violet!’ She is shaken away by someone who Violet deems annoying and stupid. Because she is tired, and therefore she should sleep.

--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--

Katie doesn’t want to see what she’s seeing. She doesn’t want to hear what she’s hearing. She doesn’t want to run outside and find the girl she considers to be her sister gasping on the ground. Delirious. In pain. Hanging on by less than a thread.

She ends up on her knees. She doesn’t know how. Or why. She doesn’t understand. They’re superheroes. They get a little hurt, but they don’t bleed out. They don’t give their family looks like Violet’s giving her. They get a little hurt, and then they fight back. And then they win. They have to win. They’re the good guys. They’re the good guys.

“Katie, sweetheart you need to-” At first, she doesn’t recognize his voice. Then his hand is on her shoulder and she knows she should move. But it’s not what happens.

“No! NO! You don’t get to touch her! This is your fault! All. Your. Fault!” She turns to her uncle, eyes blazing a color too green to be normal. Too bright to be anything less than her heritage finally showing through. “She came to me, her fucked up emotionally unstable stupid as hell sister because she knew what would happen if she went to you! You would run away and hide! Yell at my dads, blame the world because ‘you can’t deal with her’ just a worthless clone! Well fuck you!” Her words drain from her mouth as a light green glow surrounds them.

She’s only felt magic from others. Only felt it when she was close enough to taste it in the air. It’d tasted like oranges for as long as she could remember. Her favorite fruit intertwined with something she could never have. Katie considered it ironic. But she could taste oranges now, she could feel the electricity flowing through her veins and into Violet.

Her parents don’t say anything, even if they had, Katie doubts she could hear them anyway. The magic, her magic, is too overwhelming. Convincing all of her senses they can take a break.

The first few seconds are filled with hope.

Then everything is painful. She can feel a sharp pain in her lower back, like someone was stabbing her. Which couldn’t be happening because Violet was the one bleeding. Or, as she looked back down at her cousin, she thought she had been. She looked fine now, pale and weak sure, but not bleeding out. Just peacefully sleeping. Like any second, she’d wake up, complaining about how badly she’d slept.

Her pain faded into a slight ache in a matter of minutes as her dads fussed over her. Violet still hadn’t woken up, and Tommy was giving her a look like he’d never expected her to say the things she’d said. And she hadn’t, if only for Violet’s sake. Though Katie didn’t plan to apologize. Not anytime soon anyways. Maybe in a few years from now. When this was all a distant memory, when they had more stories to tell, better stories to tell.

When Violet’s there to laugh with them. That’s when she’ll apologize