A World Turned Upside Down
(Ward/Worm Powerswap AU)
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"So here's what I got after sifting through hours and hours of
nothing," Kenzie huffed as she shifted her laptop to face the team, "Is just a few minutes of Tattletale talking to Snag before they both went inside and I'm really really sorry I couldn't get anything else and this stinks."
I floated closer, just a little higher so I could get a better look at the computer and
Kenzie, who was smiling even as I could hear-
It was Sveta who answered, "Kenzie, it's more than okay. We all know you have other obligations to your team, and the fact that you're helping us at all is massive."
"Most of the time I spend doing Tinker stuff which means I can just transfer it over to helping you guys! Besides, my team leader wants me to hang out with my friends and stuff, 'what a girl my age should be doing,' even if I'm pretty sure she wasn't thinking of me also doing hero stuff with my friends."
In the background, I could hear Ashley's signature spike at the mention of Kenzie's unknown friends, and the subsequent angry buzzing was reminiscent of a Geiger counter in the aftermath of a Behemoth attack. I know she cared about Kenzie, but wasn't it a good thing she knew folks outside of therapy and was willing to respect boundaries?
Dammit, I
wish I could do more than just sense basic distress; it might have made me a little less shitty with people, but… Dean's an empath, and even from my shattered memories, I knew he certainly could put his foot in his mouth. Dork.
Blessedly oblivious to his pressure cooker of a teammate and
allof that, Rain piped up.
"Well, tell her thanks; all this stuff could be a lifesaver." As he said that, he looked over all of us with a smile and… I still didn't know exactly what to think after
that reveal, but… if Sveta was willing to go out on a limb, I could, too. After all, Victoria hadn't left even after she'd found ou-
I felt a squeeze on my hand, the now familiar feeling of her prosthetic hand gently clasping over a fist I hadn't even realized was clenched. I looked at her, her eyes brimming with worry, and I responded with a slight
pulse of happiness, following it up with a soft smile.
"Can we start already? We don't want to inflate Kenzie's ego too much; otherwise, she might float away." Chris less than helpfully added from his little corner of the room.
"Don't be a butt, Chris!" Kenzie grumbled, even as she hit a key, and we all began to watch as the video began playing.
Most of it was stuff we already knew, surface-level bullshit, but God! Even just the sight of that stupid, life-ruining, know it all
bitch was still enough to get my blood boiling. At some point, Sveta put her arm around my shoulder, tugging me into a hug even as I remained watching because I was the one who knew how that evil harpy ticked when-!
I noticed it; Tattletale shifted, her attention momentarily broken, before she interrupted Snag, "It appears we've got some unwanted little birdies keeping an eye on us. Care to continue this conversation inside, hash out the details with
Flechette's people there?"
And with that, Tattletale looked straight up the camera, gave the most infuriating god-awful smile she could as just dropped that bomb on us before walking away and-
I-no, I needed to use my words, not my aura like my therapists and Carol and-
"Holy fuckity fuck," was the eloquent choice of words that spilled out of my mouth, and now all eyes were on me, which was fan-fuckingtastic. Especially given there were
kids here.
"Amy?" Sveta's voice came out, a whisper, and I realized I was now easily about half a foot off the ground. I'dve likely floated to the ceiling if she hadn't been holding me. Just like she would have
"I'm good," I lied, and I took stock of everyone else. All except Tristan were taking stock of me with a mix of concern and curiosity. Tristan was making the sign of a cross, unspoken curses on his lips while his emotions
crackled. I guess he also knew.
"You two seem awfully spooked for someone
I haven't heard a thing about, and I know of every villain
worth knowing about," Ashley said, arms crossed and giving me a look that suggested she wasn't impressed. Bitch.
I frowned, "You do. She's just known a bit better by her current name because she's been the current
Butcher for three years now. Tattletale was just saying that because she knows I know and probably knows I'm watching."
Everyone's emotions were going off with that, likely fear and concern if I could sense more than just the
intensity.
Blessedly, Ashley interjected, keeping the focus on the conversation rather than letting it devolve into directionless worrying or panic now that everyone knew the type of psychos they'd set after Rain: "Sounds like there's a story there, then. Care to explain?"
"I know the basics, but I don't understand how a mastermind like Tattletale would have ties with a bunch of lunatics like the Teeth," Tristan added.
"Being a manipulative monster who probably gets her kicks from tormenting orphans or something is how that situation happened in the first place. A lot of this is second hand given I was…"
Being poked at for being a sudden miracle of Parahuman sciences, the girl with three coronas? Relearning how to walk and talk and wondering where-?
A pulse of loneliness escaped me, and I felt it wash over everyone else. Stupid, stupid Amy, focus!
"Sorry," My voice was far too weak for my liking, but I saw everyone nod and I exhaled in relief before continuing, "You know the basics, Tristan. Ward tragically becoming the Butcher… but well, there was a lot more going on there than just that. Tattletale managed to get some Jezebel ex-rogue, Parian, on her side." I spat out the term. Rogue. An implied middle ground, even as the very name suggested their villainous, moral cowardice. Being a hero was hard; it was a sacrifice, and both rogues and villains took the easy way out. Not hard to see why
I cleared my throat, "Anyways, Tattletale had her seduce Flechette, probably some sob story engineered to get her on her side. Flechette was… she was lonely." The like
me left unsaid before I continued, "Butcher tries to move into Brockton, Tattletale maneuvers Parian into a spot where Flechette
has to take the shot to save the poor damsel in distress from the monster… Butcher immediately picked up and left town right afterward. A threat disposed of and turned into an asset she probably used to sick on rivals outside the city."
"That's awful…" Sveta's voice was soft, and I gently bumped against her. I wish I could return her hugs once my own, but… I didn't trust myself. My strength I could never turn off now after all, so instead, I simply gave her a small pulse of emotions, the closest approximation of the
feeling that came with a hug, and she smiled.
Unfortunately, with the explanation out of the way, the gravity of the situation was now
fully on the table, and everyone was looking at me even as I could see them begin to move closer to Rain to offer comfort, and fuck, I…
"Give me a second; I'm thinking about some stuff I…"
I couldn't think of anything! No ideas beyond the ever-trite 'let's ask the Wardens!' to help diffuse the situation. I was never the smart one; that was Victoria.
She was the one who
knew about powers, whose mind would race for a solution to the superpowered lunatic gunning to chop Rain to bits in the twisted, sick sense of justice his Cluster was seeking out. It was why she got her power, which was only limited by her imagination and living biomass at hand, and I… I could fly and hit stuff…
But I-I… I couldn't give up. She wouldn't want me to; she always believed in me more than I did! It's why she'd brought me back after the Siberian had-. I felt my insides twist at that line of thinking. Focus! If I gave up here, if I failed this team of people who were genuinely trying to be good, if I failed Sveta... I'd be giving up on Victoria's belief in me, giving up on seeing her again, becoming the hero who was capable enough to be at her side. She'd saved the world the last time around, and Crystal mentioned after Victoria had messaged her that my sister was 'doing the same thing as last time! I'd do it, find her, and finally,
finally, be a good sister to her like she always was for me.
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Cross posted from SB. I've been rereading Ward recently and wanted to play around with writing some stuff for it as I really really adore the story (Justice for Goddess, though) and Breakthrough's entire dynamic. I wrote this short blurb/snippet to destress and primarily to try and nail Amy's voice for a larger story idea, so SPAG is questionable. Specifically, it's a Worm/Ward AU idea I've been sort of bouncing in my brain for a while as I've slowly begun to coalesce it. In a full fic, I'd bounce between Amy in the present and Victoria in the past, playing around with the memory bleed from others we've seen in canon for folks like Ashley. Not a ton here, but thoughts, critiques, and feedback are welcome.
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