The Ballad of Julie Jenkins [Non-BB][Fusion][Worm/The Ballad of Sara Berry]

[YseultNott]

Sara doesn't resurface.

Julie isn't sure how she feels about it. Isn't sure if the risk of Sara coming back is better or worse than the knowledge she killed her.

Sara doesn't resurface, and the street slowly fills with sirens and the green and white lights of the PRT.

Someone wraps a blanket over her shoulders. Agent Dunn.

"I'm sorry," Dunn says.

Julie doesn't understand.







Julie is brought to the hospital, and Julie starts healing.

Agent Norris isn't dead. She almost died, but she isn't dead.

(Julie left her behind all the same. She will always wear the weight of it.)

It's over. The college said Julie could still come. It might be hard to catch up what she missed, but she gets to try. She gets her new beginning.

It's over. Two days after the attack, the PRT found Sara.

She drowned.

 

[punster lv1]

Spoiler: typo

but she gets to tried.

Click to shrink...

gets to try

Irrelevant question time! Did she drown because she didn't know how to swim or because her diamond form was to heavy to float and she can't dismiss it at will?

 

[YseultNott]

Irrelevant question time! Did she drown because she didn't know how to swim or because her diamond form was to heavy to float and she can't dismiss it at will?

Click to shrink...

The latter. Thanks for pointing out the typos!

 

[YseultNott]

On the anniversary of her senior Prom, Julie visits Sara's grave. She has a bouquet in hand. Roses, red.

Tyler is there.

"Julie," he says, awkward, hesitant. "I didn't expect you to be here."

She killed Sara. She killed Sara, and Sara killed Patricia, killed Raquel, killed Anne and Marianna and Quiara and Eunice, and Julie…

Julie didn't die, and she's not quite sure if she came to say sorry or to remind herself that Sara is well and truly dead.

"Yeah," Julie says, because it's far easier than trying to explain any of that.

They stand in silence for a while. Julie puts her bouquet on Sara's grave.

(Sara liked roses, didn't she? Roses and silver and crystal and pretty things.)

"I'm sorry," Tyler says.

"It wasn't your fault," Julie says.

Tyler opens his mouth, closes it. Hesitates.

"I wanted to make her jealous," he blurts out, like a dam finally bursting. "She'd been ignoring me, not answering my calls and always doing other stuff without me, and I thought… You didn't have a partner for Prom, and I thought maybe she'd get jealous and talk to me again, and…"

Tyler is crying.

"I didn't think she would do that," he chokes out. "I didn't… I didn't want anyone to die! If… If I'd been smarter, or a better boyfriend, or, or…"

"It wasn't your fault," Julie repeats, mechanically. She's not sure she believes it.

She's not sure she cares either way.

It's over. It's over, and… Julie doesn't want to stay on it. To ponder the could haves and the should haves and the what if. To dwell and to wonder and to never move on.

High school is over, and there is more to the world than yet another night at prom.

Spoiler: Author note

And that's a wrap! I hope you all had fun!

 

[punster lv1]

I hope you all had fun!

Click to shrink...

It's always a treat to finish one of your stories, thank you for sharing.

Anyway, here are a few irrelevant questions. How did Sara find Julie? What kind of injury did agent Norris sustain trying to stop Sara and will she still be a field agent after she recovers?
Also because somebody gotta ask, what is Sara's power?

 

[YseultNott]

How did Sara find Julie?

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I have no idea, to be honest. It wasn't really what the story was about for me, I was more focused on Julie's state of mind and the imagery. Feel free to imagine anything you want!

What kind of injury did agent Norris sustain trying to stop Sara and will she still be a field agent after she recovers?

Click to shrink...

Agent Norris got slashed across the ribs and thrown into a wall. She hit her head pretty bad, which is why she wasn't able to pursue Sara, but she will make a full recovery. She won't go back to being a field agent, because she was about to age out of field work anyway.

Also because somebody gotta ask, what is Sara's power?

Click to shrink...

Sara is a changer. Her transformation is started by a focus on a particular target or goal, with an associated body-part changing first before the transformation extends to the rest of her body. The transformation is based on crystals and gems, tough, enough for her to withstand gunfire, but slowing her down. At first, the changes have a royalty imagery (crown, gauntlets, jewelry,...) but as the transformation progress, they become more beastly and grotesque (bulging crystal muscles, claws, distorted maws, horns,...), predatory, but in an ugly way, not in the way actual predators can come off as elegant or beautiful.

 

[punster lv1]

Thank you for answering these question.
I'm glad agent Norris won't be permanently (physically) impacted by her introduction to Varmint Regina. As for the way Sara found Julie, I'll settle for my own head canon.