Mirror Match (Ward: Victoria/Bianca Two-shot)

[Nyx -Nyx-Nyx]

Mirror Match

Victoria​

I was smiling, sprawled over the couch, a sigh of contentment escaping my lips while one of the most dangerous people in Gimel gave me a telekinetic back massage. The power gently grasped the back of my shirt, and the lack of restriction to only two hands allowed her to work on releasing the tension all at once rather than needing to be so limited. Given everything happening these last few weeks, there… was a lot of it.

"Enjoying yourself, V? And to think you doubted my skills." The voice's owner smirked as she laid back on the recliner across from me, one hand practically dancing like she was controlling a puppet while the other rested on the chair's arm, fingers tapping. Bianca, better known as Goddess, former dictator of Earth Shin, and my… friend? Roommate? Partner in trying not to get killed or brain panned by fucking Teacher?

I chased away that line of thinking before giving her the best smile I could muster. "You were right. I'd have thought, given your previous…" I tried to keep my voice as nonjudgmental as possible, " Work, I'd thought you'd have been too busy for such mundane applications of your power."

I'd always noticed with Parahumans that those who were sterner, more formal, even with complete and utter privacy, rarely tended to play around with their powers or flex them for more mundane usage. My mother and Aunt Sarah had both actively tried to limit everyone's use of powers at home, while Crystal forwent owning knives and scissors in her own home because she lasered everything, and Dad used his own to flash-cook food with… mixed success. Someone like Bianca felt like she should be squarely in the former, and yet she used telekinesis that allowed her to juggle apartment blocks to give me a massage.

"I am a woman of many talents, Victoria." She smiled, free hand gesturing to herself like that was all the explanation she needed before her smile dropped, "Besides, the fetters of leadership were tiresome. Letting someone get that close to me while I was relaxed would have been the height of idiocy, and the servants we'd created never quite got it right. Thus, I figured out a way to do so myself."

Her expression flickered briefly, a slight frown appearing before it smoothed away to her usual neutral confidence. I felt the grasping of my shirt slacken, and I frowned. It'd been these moments, the vulnerability, the slight edge of playfulness, that had spurred me on, that convinced me her attempts to use the amnesty for some sort of second chance was serious and that I wasn't naive to believe that anyone could change. That I could change for the better and not make the same stupid mistakes over and over again like before. That this time when someone was a bomb about to go off that I would fucking notice and-!

"Victoria!" Bianca's voice was sharp, and she'd leaned over, ready to get up, brows furrowed. She'd always seemed to recognize when those stormclouds threatened to take over, prepared to puncture that morass of twisting, spiraling thoughts that'd always accompanied me whenever my mind inevitably drifted in that direction. She knew better than to ask if I was okay, to engage in that humiliating dance of poking and prying me under a microscope when it just bubbled over like that. After a moment of silence, she said, "You said you were going to cook for me, and I remember you mentioning it would take some time for the food to prepare…"

"Yeah, I'll get on that." I cringed at how fragile my voice still was, and I got up, making my way to the apartment's kitchen. I opened her fridge to pull out the necessary ingredients, all of which had been bought only a few days after I'd moved in.

It took a few seconds to remember that there was more to this arrangement tonight than just making her some food and then watching some movies. "Don't just sit there; remember what we agreed upon?" I said, a teasing lilt entering my voice.

"And here I had thought you'd forgotten that part…" She pouted even as she made her way over to the kitchen to join me.

I couldn't help but huff with amusement; for a former ruler of an entire planet, she certainly didn't act the part, at least when it was just the two of us. However, when anyone else was nearby, it was all Goddess from her.

I looked back at her as she hovered over my shoulder, figuratively and literally. "B, you might be a 'woman of many skills,' but cooking certainly isn't one of them."

Before I'd come along, it was either canned and processed junk or going out to eat for her. I'd planned to cook her chili. It was cheap, delicious, and something relatively easy.

She'd started to protest, but I cut her off, "And knowing how to boil water before throwing pasta into it does not count as cooking, especially when you somehow managed to ruin the one pot I had while doing so."

"I did replace it, along with getting you an entire kitchen's worth of cookware." With a flick of her wrist, the cabinet doors flung open, revealing an array of new pots, pans, knives, and more. All imports from other Earths rather than simply the old family cookware people were now bartering away.

"And thank you for that," I said, even as I slightly teared up from the onions I was chopping into tiny pieces. When I suddenly had to move from Dad's, it hadn't been like I'd had much of anything in the kitchen to call my own, especially with our limited space. Bianca certainly had the space, but it'd been woefully sparse until our little shopping trip.

From there, we mainly worked in silence. I handled most of the ingredients while B used her powers to grab pots, pans, knives, and even to switch the faucet on so I could wash my hands after handling raw beef. It had been a long, long time since I'd felt so in tune with someone; I hadn't felt like that since Dean had died, since everything had all started falling apart with-

No, I wouldn't let her or let Teacher's insulting 'advice' ruin what may be the last night of normalcy for us before the wake of her power, her history, dragged us both back in.

But… she couldn't be blamed for all of it. My power and upbringing as a heroine did the same thing to me. The community center had left me completely jobless, which had nothing to do with her. Just bad luck on my end to be assigned to be out on the field, bad luck some assholes had decided to go after a team of heroes, and bad luck enough people had seen me. Fuck, it was downright horrid luck for poor Fume Hood, who was trying to be a hero, to be better, and yet you still had people going after her for it.

That's why they were doing this. Our last bit of defiance before we separated… or before I jumped back into the deep end with her, back into fighting the worst of the worst, the same types of monsters who'd put me into the asylum in the first place.

///​

"Eliza… Where in the Devil are my slippers?"

I lifted myself from my sprawled position across the couch as the sonorous, upbeat music that followed crackled through the speakers, a combination of the film's age and the relatively low quality of the TV.

I turned to look over to Bianca. Her blonde hair was messily laid across the back of the sofa while she was wreathed in fluffy baby-blue pajamas, eyes still locked to the dim light of the TV. She wasn't usually this quiet, this still, usually immediately moving to provide her immediate judgment on the quality of whatever we'd watched as soon as the ending rolled into view.

"B?" I asked softly.

She looked over slightly, and I could see the faint tears welling in her eyes before she looked away, trying and failing to hide her attempt to wipe them away with her arm as she shifted positions on the couch.

She cracked a weak smile, "I never found myself able to enjoy Shin-ite film all that much. This was surprisingly emotional, nostalgic even. Tis all it is."

Ah, that was why. If I hadn't known any better, I'd have found it a bit amusing she'd got so emotional over My Fair Lady, but from what she had divulged to me about her life before she'd donned the mantle of Goddess… Some of this probably struck a bit too close home for her.

"I'll… clean up the remaining dishes, then we can settle in for the night?" I moved to get up, knowing that sometimes she needed her space to have a 'brooding break,' as much as she loathed that name for it.

As I moved, I felt a hand grip my arm, and I tensed, breath hitching for a moment before I looked back. It was Bianca. Of course, it was; who else could it have been? Fuck me, I wouldn't let her ruin this for me...

She must have seen the look on my face and felt how I'd gone clammy at the touch because she pulled away as if burned before she spoke instead.

"Stay, I-" her voice wavered briefly before the unsaid command turned into a halting, "Please."

I paused briefly before nodding, sitting back down, and waiting silently. I watched as the telltale fractals of her telekinesis flashed briefly. It gripped empty bowls and cups, which rushed to the kitchen, settling into the sink before I heard the telltale sound of the faucet running.

"Thanks," I responded. She smiled slightly before the conversation faltered back into an uneasy silence, and I knew better than to try to push it.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke up. "I want to discuss how we'll be moving forward. It's been… weighing on my mind, and I doubt I'll be able to properly rest with that hanging over me."

"If you want to talk about it now, I'm game," I said.

"To put it bluntly, have you made your decision, Victoria? Whether you're willing to get involved with this business or take the offered way out. I'm too powerful," she glared, "I've always been too powerful to rest… but you… I want you at my side, but I also know how much this period of rest has meant to you, not getting tangled up with your previous… career path."

Staying away from being a heroine, from falling into the same traps that had led to everyone thinking Glory Girl had died to the Slaughterhouse Nine. If only…

I took a deep breath, centering myself, before I stared directly into those blue eyes that mirrored mine in so many ways. "How much has this meant to you, being away from your previous activities?" How much did giving up being a tyrant, giving up an entire world, mean to her?

Bianca snorted, "You know… for a long while, I told myself this." She gestured to the living room, to our apartment, "was just a way to lay low until the time was right, or that I was simply punishing my former subjects until they'd realized how much they needed me, to hear them cry and beg for me to return before I made my way back…"

She froze, and I could see her opening and closing her mouth, the word frozen on her tongue.

"But?" I added softly, coaxing that scarred bit of vulnerability out, giving word to what she wanted to say.

She nodded, pausing for a few seconds before continuing, "I don't find myself believing it. Not anymore. I went from having an entire planet in the cusp of my palms to only having a shoddily built apartment to my name, and yet I'm sad this is going to end, Victoria. I knew it would never last that I was keeping my head in the sand, and yet I feel fucking sad I'm going to be losing it!" Bianca's voice had risen to a near shout before she went quiet again, a look of shock passing over her face as if she couldn't even believe she'd even said that .

"It's not wrong to feel emotions, to feel pain for a loss even if you knew of it ahead of time, even if it's for something that seems small. What matters is how it makes you feel." I reached slowly but surely, her slight nod encouraging me. I placed one hand atop hers, giving it a gentle squeeze, and she gripped back like a woman drowning.

"Besides," I continued, "You won't be losing all of this B . We'll still be friends, and I also don't want to lose this either, lose this apartment, to stop spending time and…" I took a breath, "I don't want Teacher to hurt you, and I certainly need to give him what he's due after that 'recruitment offer' that asshole gave me."

Her furrowed brows lasted only for a few seconds as she finally realized just what I was saying before they leaped up in shock. "All it takes is one answer, and you'd get involved. Be my partner in this war?"

I snorted, "I've been thinking about this for a while, Bianca, because this is a big decision." I'd been thinking over every aspect of our relationship since the very beginning when I'd simply known her as a temporarily retired villain in some capacity who I'd meet for lunches and dinners.

Bianca smiled briefly before her face contorted into a frown, "If only it were that fucking simple I-"

She stopped, and before I could respond to unpack just what exactly had gone on to cause that shift, I saw her hand move, fingers pulling inwards in one of the many Shin-ite gestures I'd learned from her, the best approximation being a mix of 'come with and I'll explain,' but an added element of trust she'd impressed on me. It was also almost identical to 'stay here and wait and see.' It was something I knew after a rather embarrassing misunderstanding on my end.

I followed her into her room, and I couldn't help but feel my curiosity pique. She had her personal space and had made it abundantly clear she didn't enjoy snooping when she'd laid out the house rules as we'd been moving my stuff.

Unsurprisingly, blue was still the dominant color, with the bedding, dresser, and nightstands all sharing a similar hue to the royal blue she preferred. The same television and bookshelf from the living room were also here, and while I could understand the desire to stay in bed and watch TV, I didn't exactly see the need for another bookshelf when there was plenty of space on the one in the living room… up until my eyes drifted across the spines of the books. With such titles as Lilies of Desire, Princess of Pillows , and the ominously titled Choke , I could see why Bianca needed the extra shelf.

Overall, however, there were hardly any personal effects despite how long she'd been living here… which made the photo with its gold-colored frame all the more noticeable. Perched on the nightstand, it was at such an angle that it was facing the bed, away from the door. Was it someone from before she got her powers, someone from Shin she'd actually cared about?

I shifted to give Bianca her space as she began rifling through her closet with her telekinesis, and finally got a look at it, and… it was a picture of her and I. From our first outing to one of the newly opened malls together. I'd gotten someone to take it for us after she'd joked about it. She'd gotten it printed and framed, and-

I was broken from my thoughts at the sound of cloth fluttering, and I couldn't help but tense up, breath hitching and posture shifting when I saw it. I'd only ever seen it in a few scant photos while researching, but Goddess's cape was instantly recognizable. A deep royal blue fabric that I could tell would have been worth a small fortune even back on Bet. It was trimmed with silver, with complex designs extending outward from it, and knowing Shin culture, it probably contained layers of symbolism entirely lost on me.

"When you were asking me about whether I liked this life I had, you were asking the wrong question. It's never been about what I've wanted , Victoria. I've never gotten what I've fucking wanted. It's not like I particularly wanted this mantle in the first place, but it's what I am now and what I have to do." The cape settled onto her shoulders as she finished speaking.

"There is a pretty big difference between having to fight because of self-defense and taking over an entire planet." My tone was firm, and I crossed my arms to avoid clenching my fists at how quickly things had gone wrong .

Her tone, her expression took on an almost manic hue as she began to pace . "I go for the fucking throat because I have to because it's either being controlled or seizing control, Victoria. You take power because those you rely on stab you in the back because those who want you will encircle you until there is nothing you can do! Remaining small gets you squashed by those with power, those with control, a mere pawn on the board."

It felt like the air was knocked out of me at that, at the reminder of my own situation, my hometown being torn apart, and the person I'd trusted-

"Victoria, I hadn't meant to bring that up; apologies." Bianca's tone and expression had softened, manic fury shifting to genuine concern.

I nodded. If Bianca had meant to poke at it, she'd have directly referred to it rather than simply make allusions and parallels, and her apology would have sounded anything but sincere if she'd have even given one. She may have looked and sometimes sounded like someone who could wield words as a knife to get what they wanted, but in reality, Bianca was about as subtle as a brick through a window.

I caught my breath, reorganizing my thoughts back into coherence, "There's more to it than that, Bianca; just because it's the most direct, the easiest solution doesn't mean it's the only one."

I spotted the flash of surprise on her face before it smoothed away, and she delivered her riposte, "Our circumstances, our agents shape us, Victoria, roles forced onto us that we have become . If I hadn't gotten powers, perhaps I'd have gone to college, gotten that degree in fashion, or whatever else had caught my eye. Perhaps if your circumstances had been different you'd have expressed your desire to help as a teacher or a therapist or something. But we had people, groups, and the agents linked into our brains that desired otherwise, limiting our options."

"That isn't an excuse to make those mistakes, to hurt people; it just means we have to fight all the harder to overcome it because, yeah, we drew a short fucking straw! Isn't this what this all started about? Us trying to overcome that, break those roles and move on from cape stuff?" I couldn't help the anger that had begun to slip into my response at her just… accepting that!

"Neither of us has been very good at keeping ourselves from slipping back into who we are. This was enjoyable, but we failed Victoria."

"You think I've… " I trailed off as I realized just what she meant as she gave me that practiced, imperious look of judgment that she usually reserved for… frankly, everyone but me.

"You know I didn't want to go; it's more complicated than that," I said, and I couldn't help but grimace, the pain of that mess still fresh in my mind.

Her tone softened, a hint of affection creeping into it, "Victoria, one of the things I like about you is how wonderfully dogged you are when you set your mind to it. This entire partnership of ours is proof of that. You could have dug in your heels; it's not like the Patrol has a glut of personnel, especially someone as overqualified as you. Even if you felt you had to go, you could have held back, not played the hero the way you did, focused on the people you were in charge on.

"They sent people with known biases against capes and nearly not enough training to protect a team of capes against a mob of protestors, and that's before the squad of fucking villains decided to show up. I had to do something I couldn't just-!" I stopped as I saw the look on her face, like a cat who'd just caught the canary, and goddamnit, I'd walked right into that one.

"I'm not blaming you. We are what we are, and we're good at it. We revert to our instincts to survive ."

"And if we'd refused to even try, we wouldn't have ever met. I wouldn't have been willing to give you a chance, and I'd probably be out there with Foresight or whatever team took me. You wouldn't have bothered trying to make a play for a normal life, and," a smile crept onto my face, "you certainly wouldn't have put up with my 'irreverence' if you continued to play at being a dictator."

"I simply find it endearing." She crossed her arms, eyes failing to meet mine.

"You said you like that I don't give up; what about yourself? You were exiled to an entirely different world to avoid becoming a problem, and you conquered it. Why would you give up now? Why should we give up on this just because we didn't do our best on our first go around because outside circumstances are fucking with us?"

I paused as my tone had risen to just below a shout, taking a second to breathe, to level out my thoughts. "We're both still in one piece, still alive, so why not discuss our mistakes and compromise with one another to help keep each other from falling back into who we used to be while we are in the deep end of cape stuff?!"

"Compromise… of what sort?" Her eyes met mine, and I could practically see the interest, the hope in them.

"Well, we continue to be partners; we fight Teacher together. You don't make a play for tyrant to regain your throne in Shin, and I…"

I offered her the in because it wouldn't be a compromise if I simply laid out the terms, no input on her end, and she practically leapt for it. "You don't play hero; get caught up in saving cats from trees and such; we just focus on crushing Teacher and any other fucker who wants to take this from us."

I quirked an eyebrow at the comment about saving cats in trees. Bianca grew up in Bet, she should know better that heroics was more than that, but I rolled with it. "And when we finish, we go back to this," I couldn't help but smile a bit, "shoddily built apartment. Figure out what we want to do together?"

"I…" She stopped, sitting on the bed, clearly contemplating before she stared me in the eyes. "This is absolutely mad, insane, but when it's coming from you... I…I'm actually going to agree to this, aren't I?"

"If it's any help, for a mastermind like Teacher, us pulling something this unexpected will probably throw him for a loop in a bad way, but… I'm glad you feel that way."

I gestured towards the bed, and when she nodded in affirmation, I joined her, sidling next to her.

"You know we'll need assistance, and it won't likely be coming from the heroic types you prefer being with."

"Yeah, I knew that from the start; it's not like allying with petty villains against the bigger threat is a new thing," I murmured. The Wardens certainly weren't going to help, and… for something this serious, maybe it was better to avoid having other heroes involved, avoid some poor soul from suffering the same fate Glory Girl had.

Bianca hmmed in response, and we sat there for another minute as I just… processed. Even with all the preparation involved in ensuring I'd be armed with information like the warrior monk I'd aspired to be, there was still a gravity I felt as I passed through the proverbial gate to the other side, perhaps even more so as I knew the stakes involved, just what exactly could happen if I made a wrong turn, another misstep.

The slight tremor, the clenching of teeth, and the bunching of the blue comforter into fingers weren't just on my end, and I looked over and asked, voice unsteady, "Would… you mind if we hugged? I think I could use one." 'And I think you could use one more' was left unsaid.

Bianca looked bewildered before she nodded vigorously, and I gently pulled the cape off her shoulders before gently pulling her into a hug, which she immediately reciprocated. Her arms awkwardly wrapped around my torso, and her head found its way into the crook of my shoulder. I felt the tension of my decision, of this argument I'd been preparing to deal with for weeks, slowly draining away as we just… stayed there, clinging to each other after we'd both been preparing, dreading that eventuality where we'd had to separate.

Eventually, I heard her speak, only audible because of how close she was: "Victoria, would you mind perhaps staying like this for the night?"

I shifted, looking at her with eyes widened in surprise at the request even as I also felt that similar desire for contact, to be close to the woman I'd tied myself to after making a monumental decision; that desire for some level of positive contact, of intimacy with someone you could actually trust after so so long without having anything resembling either.

I felt her pull away, as she must have begun to mistake my silence for refusal, and I moved back into our hug. "I'd be happy to spend time; I… think I'd rather not be alone either."

Bianca nodded, and before I knew it, the covers flung open for us as she flexed her telekinesis. As soon as we both were under the covers, the light switch turned off with a snap of her fingers.

I huffed in amusement even as I hugged her, and she leaned into me, her back pressed against my chest. I knew she never needed to make those gestures, both small and grand, to activate her power, and as much as she said it was about presentation, I knew Bianca well enough to know it was just because she was a dork. I probably was the only one who knew her like that, who didn't just write her off as a lost cause, to consign her, consign an entire planet to that fate. Instead, she trusted me, fuck, I trusted her enough to take on one of the scariest monsters out there head-on.

And yet, despite that looming over me, coming closer with every second as we approached tomorrow, here, with B in my arms, feeling her breathing settle into a slow, rhythmic snore, I could only feel satisfied, feel happy. Maybe it was because planning to fight Teacher was a problem I'd mentally put off for tomorrow, but for once, it finally felt like things were headed in the right direction, and it was with that pleasant thought that I drifted off to mercifully dreamless sleep.

///
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Hello, just now crossposting this from SB/Ao3! So this is like, my first time typing into writing Parahumans fanfic outside of snippets on SB. I started with a doozy of a oneshot thats now probably gonna be a two shot, as the first iteration of this is now sitting in my drafts for a potential longfic in the future, but I'd set out to make a oneshot for a character (Bianca) I really like who has literally nothing anywhere devoted to her, and a super rarepair I've actually come to adore? It's definitely one of those ships that initially came from that. "Hah, it's a bit funny to pair Victoria with the mirrored version of herself. They both even got betrayed by Amy in a crucial moment where they put all their trust in her... wait a minute!" and now here I am... a full-blown shipper for it.

As always, thoughts, criticisms, and questions/feedback are always handy. The next shot/chapter will be a Bianca one, focusing on what is bouncing around in that head of hers/her thoughts on Victoria.