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bloodynereid · 6 months

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Reapers & Ravens

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pairing: jordan li x oc

tw: trauma ! literally sm of it - this ep was just trauma central, also trauma response, mentions of torture, experiments, soldier boy flirting ??, swearing, seizures, mentions of death, morally iffy, murder, manipulation - i think that's it ? lmk if there's more

description: the story of a girl. a girl cursed by compound v to live a life without touch.

a/n: so i'm actually proud of this chapter yayy! it's also officially the longest chapter in the series - second place goes to chapter one. it's insane to me that i took one of the shortest episodes and made it into this beast. also yes i have a crush on soldier boy - i don't support his values, he's the kind of man that would be better if he just sat around and looked pretty. I LOVE jensen ackles tho, that's my man - supernatural is my fave so apologies for that longish scene. hopefully you enjoy! asks are always open and lmk ur thoughts <3

I stood in line right behind Marie as Cate pulled her bare hands away from her temples with an apologetic smile, she only smiled and moved out of the line - allowing me to be in front of Cate now.

“Hey.” I said with a sad twist of my lips, Cate mirrored my expression with her sad puppy dog eyes before raising her hands.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Cate’s soft hands gently encased both sides of my face and I felt my power struggle for a few moments before finally surrendering to hers. The combination of feeling actual skin and raw power was dizzying to my senses.

“Remember the past few days.” Cate utters under her breath and an onslaught of memories makes me even more disorientated… but everything makes sense again. All of the strange pieces that I had been missing had been filled.

“Woah.” I sort of stumble out of the lineup and collapse onto the sofa, rubbing my temples through the leather of my gloves.

“Hey you okay?” Jordan asks as they settle down next to me, I crack open my eyelids and smile weakly at him.

“Yeah, just sort of dizzy. I should be fine in a bit.”

“If you’re sure?”

“Yup, you wouldn’t mind if I leaned on you for a second would you?” A surprised expression overtakes their face which instantly makes me regret even asking the question.

“You know what forget-”

“No, no it’s okay. I was just taken by surprise is all. Go ahead.” I smiled at him before lying my head on their shoulder. The soft material of his jacket caresses my face and a contented sigh leaves my mouth.

“Thank you.” I don’t notice the giddy smile that appears on Jordan’s face as I settle into the comfort.

We watch as Cate gives Emma her memories back and the spinning in my brain starts to slow down. My powers are getting itchy though and after getting everything back, there was no way in hell I would try to take those pills again. An involuntary shudder runs along the length of my body. Fucking Vought.

“Jesus, thanks. I don’t know if I really wanted to remember all that. I have to go see Sam. Also you’re a cunt.” Emma exclaimed before she walked out of the room.

“Ah young love.” I said, making Gemma snort and Jordan chuckle from beside me.

“So what… Shetty made you do this?” Marie asked as she stood up and started to approach Cate. I patted Jordan’s arm lightly before standing up and wobbling slightly on my feet, making Jordan’s hand fly out and grab my forearm.

“Woah you okay?”

“Uh hmm.” I said as I weakly smiled at them, something felt off.

“Cate, look what you’ve done to Vic. You were in our fucking heads. Why the fuck did you do that?” Jordan asked as he made me lean onto them more.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t-” As much as I loved having Jordan be all hot and protective, they really didn’t have to be like that with Cate.

“Woah guys-” I started to say.

“No, Vic. She didn’t have any fucking right to do that. Look at yourself.” I rolled my eyes before I turned back to the blonde. Cate’s eyes were not just bloodshot, her irises were surrounded by pools of blood.

“Guys…” I started to warn everyone in the room, I understood that expression in Cate’s face - it was all too fucking familiar.

“I thought I was help-” Cate started to collapse, her arm extended towards the bar to find some stability.

“Woah, Cate.” Marie reached out towards her but Cate waved her off as she clutched onto the bar. I pulled away from Jordan, ignoring their protests and made my way to Cate.

“Cate, I need you to breathe.” She was staring at Jordan, Marie and Gemma’s faces with slight panic in her eyes. She started hobbling away from them, leaving their faces exasperated before going over to one of the armchairs.

“Cate! Look at me.” I walked over to her place in the chair, crouching down next to her. My slightly harsh tone made her eyeline turn towards me and I smiled gently at her before placing my gloved hands on her face. “It’s okay.”

I heard a quiet discussion happening behind me and turned to see that Marie had left the room in the same direction that Andre had headed out. Gemma and Jordan stood talking and occasionally shooting glances at me - Jordan’s filled with worry and Gemma’s filled with confusion.

“I just- I can’t do it anymore.”

“Can’t do what, Cate?”

“I- I-” My eyes widened when her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she started seizing in front of me. Shit, shit, shit.

“Guys! Help! Help me, please.” Jordan rushed over to me and helped grab Cate. They lowered her down onto the soft carpeting and I watched, helpless, as she continued to convulse. It’s happening all over again. I heard Marie and Andre rush over and kneel down next to Cate.

“What happened?”

“When she pushes too much, it fucks with her head!” Andre exclaimed as he cradled Cate’s head.

“Did any of you learn CPR?”

“Where?”

“At fucking super hero school!”

“VIC! Do that thing you did the other night.” Andre said as he looked up at me with pleading eyes, I felt everyone’s eyes on my panicked face.

“I- I can’t.”

“What the fuck do you mean you can’t?” Andre yelled, making me jump.

“My powers are on the fritz, Andre! When she gave me my memories back- I don’t know how to fucking explain it. Cate’s too fucking strong!” I yelled back, I felt fucking powerless. My powers weren’t going to cooperate this time, I had a strong fucking feeling that if I touched Cate again - I might kill her.

“You did it before!”

“I’ll kill her! I can’t control my powers and I haven’t taken-” My mouth snaps shut before I can finish my sentence. My brain brings back a memory from when my dad first handed me the pills - it’s blurry but it’s there.

“Vicky, you’re going to need to take these now.”

“Why?”

“You want to make your daddy proud right?” I nod quickly and a smirk encases his face.

“Never tell anyone about these though, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Oh my darling girl.”

My body snaps back into reality when Jordan gently shakes my shoulder. I focus on Marie holding her hands in front of Cate with a look of pure concentration on her face.

“Are you okay?” Gemma whispers from beside me.

“Uh yeah. Sorry about that.”

Cate, thank god, stops convulsing. I slip my hand into one of her still ones and Andre leans over her to see if she’s still breathing.

“She’s breathing!” I let out a sigh of relief the same moment basically everyone else does.

“When is she going to wake up?” Jordan stutters out and I lean my head on their shoulder as a hand comes to circle around my own shoulders. Their hand traces circles on my clothed collarbone and the world slows down.

I catch Andre’s eyes from across from me and he is about to open his mouth to hopefully apologize but I just shake my head and start standing up. Jordan realizes what I’m trying to do and pulls their hand away from my shoulder and instead encases my gloved one.

Andre ends up carefully moving Cate’s still, almost too still, body to one of the couches. We watch anxiously as she just lies there.

“Can you hear us? Cate, can you hear us?” Maire asks pleadingly. This was getting to be too much. My empty hand tightens in an effort to ground myself. Fuck.

“Has she ever pushed this much before?” Jordan asks as he squeezes my hand, their obviously worried tone bleeds into his words.

“Who cares? This is what she gets for mind-raping her friends.” My jaw drops as I turn my head to look at Andre.

“What the actual fuck, Andre?” I don’t recognize my friend at all, I understood his anger but this was to a fucking extreme. Right as Andre is about to respond, Cate’s eyes fly open and she disappears with a pop. What the fuck?

“We all saw that, right?” I ask into the now dead silent room.

“I mean I’m pretty high right now, but I think so.” I looked up to see that Dusty had joined our little vigil.

“Hey Dusty.”

“Vic! This is probably the most I’ve seen you in ages.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyways, does anyone know where she went?” Gemma’s voice echoed through the room.

“Uh-” I look back at Dusty who now has his back turned and is looking at the bricks of the house floating away? Huh.

“What the-” Marie starts to ask as the group starts making its way over to Dusty. Of course, Marie starts to venture out first into the forest.

“Right yup let’s just walk through the creepy floating hole.” I add sarcastically but following after her anyways. Jordan let go of my hand but still walked next to me. I found that I actually missed the warmth that their hand had been emanating. God I’m really gone for them, aren’t I?

Sunshine streams through the leaves and gives the whole forest an actually pleasant atmosphere. I twirl around with a confused look etched on my face, before focusing back on the way we came in… only to find Dusty’s house completely gone.

“Ok… this is really fucking weird.” I say as I run a hand through my hair.

“Maybe Cate’s more powerful than we thought.” I turn towards Marie and make a sound assent before walking over to Gemma.

“You okay Gemma? I know this is probably fucking insane and I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”

“Whoa no, it’s totally fine. I volunteered to help okay? Don’t worry yourself about it.”

“If you’re sure…”

“100 percent.” After my little check in with her I turn back to the group, only to see Andre stomping off into the woods. How much more of an idiot can this man be?

“Andre! Andre, stop! We don’t know where the fuck we are, you can’t just go off into the bloody woods.” I exclaim as I try to catch up with Andre, everyone following after me. I could hear the crackling of the leaves under my boots and the sound of thunder made my nerves jump. Strangely I couldn’t feel my powers, I brought my hand towards my face and realized that my skin wasn’t itching like normal.

What the fuck was going on?

“Caleb? Caleb!” I furrowed my eyebrows and hid behind a random tree along with Andre and the rest of the group.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked into the clearing, a woman and a policeman stood arguing in the middle of the fallen leaves.

“Caleb… Caleb is Cate’s brother’s name.” Andre utters and my eyes widen. This wasn’t real. We were in a fucking memory.

“Mommy? Mommy!”

“Holy shit! This is a memory.” Marie utters from beside me and I let out a deep breath before sharing worried glances with Jordan. This was bad.

“I don’t feel safe with her.”

My head snaps back to the scene and realization tickles my brain. So many people in my life had said those exact same words to my face. It didn’t matter that my dad was famous, he was the one who uttered those words for the first time. That phrase has followed me throughout my life. I closed my eyes, hard. Trying to keep the tears at bay as the memory continued to play in front of me.

“Hey!” Fuck! I jumped and swiveled my head around to see… Soldier Boy?

“What are you greasy sack of fuck nuts doing here? Not you, sweetheart.” He looked over at me when uttering the last sentence and sent me a wink, making my jaw drop as Jordan stiffened next to me.

“Soldier Boy?”

“What the fuck?”

“What are you doing in here?” Marie asked as I was just getting over the fact that Soldier Boy winked at me. Okay Vic stop, your childhood crush is showing.

“Uh hi?” I stuttered out and Jordan swiveled to look at me. I could feel their incredulous expression.

“Hi sweetheart. Anyways, to answer your previous question, I’m Cate’s imaginary friend when she was a kid. Boyfriend, really. I taught her how to jerk off…”

The next barrage of words that left Soldier Boy’s mouth left my jaw dropped and an horribly vivid image in my head. Not that I don’t love Cate but UGH.

“It was pretty romantic.”

“Hell yeah brother.” Dusty said as he held up his fist, making me slap his shoulder. “Hey!”

“You fucking deserved that.” Soldier Boy said as he smirked in my direction and I felt a blush start to creep up my neck. Nope, no. He’s not even real. That’s when I felt an arm encircle my waist and pull me into solid warmth. Jordan.

I spied a look up at them and he had a murderous look in their eyes directed at Soldier Boy. Oh. Oh my God. Jordan was jealous. A smile appeared on my face as I focused back on the man standing in front of us.

“I- I’m pretty sure she didn’t like Jonas Brothers, that's all.” I lean around Jordan to look at Andre with a confused expression on my face.

“Dude how is this relevant?” I asked.

“I know you. You’re Cate’s newest little fuckboy. She really loves you… but not to worry - boys come and go but she’ll always come back for some… pillow talk. Which you’re welcome to join anytime.” Soldier Boy said as he winked at me again. Jordan’s hand tightened and an incredulous giggle left my mouth.

“Oh fuck off. You’re literally a Russian agent, you fuck.”

“Andre. Bigger shit going on right now.” Marie said.

“Exactly!”

“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Soldier Boy asked as he looked at us with a calculating expression on his face.

“You were supposedly radicalized by the Russians.” Jordan said in response, their tone was laced with jealous venom.

“Fuck you. I’m not a godless, dickless, fuckwad of a commie. I’m red-blooded. The American kind. Red-white-and-blue red. I can fart “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The last sentence made my nose scrunch up, god I had forgotten how old this man actually was.

“You’re a fucking weirdo, dude.” Andre said, literally the one sentence that he had uttered tonight that actually had some merit.

“Knock, Knock. Who’s there? Go fuck your face.” An incredulous snort left my mouth and I raised a gloved hand to stifle my giggles.

“Ok! Ok! Let’s get back to the point.”

“Yeah, why the fuck are we here?” Gemma asked from where she was leaning on the tree.

“How should I know? Cate wants you in here for some fucking reason but if you don’t figure that out soon you’ll be stuck in here.”

“What?” We all simultaneously exclaim, this situation was getting worse by the fucking minute.

“That wasn’t all that thunder and lightning bullshit.” Soldier Boy adds as the sky flashes gold, making me gulp. “It’s one of Cate’s blood vessels bursting. So if you don’t get out of here before Cate turns into a vegetable then you will all become one with her.”

“Shit!”

“Exactly, so if you want to live, the single most important thing to remember is-” Soldier Boy was interrupted when he was blasted into a pile of black ash when one of those gold lightning rods hit him. Oh shit.

“Oh my god, Soldier Boy is dead.”

“If that’s what happens to her imaginary boyfriend… what will happen to us?” Jordan asks with concern as they start tracing shapes on my arm, not that I was complaining. Touch was something I fucking missed - in any form.

“We should probably go.” I say as my voice strains and shock runs through my spine. Mutters of assent come from the group and we start heading away from the clearing as Jordan pulls me alongside them with his hand clutching mine.

“That guy was a fucking dick right?”

“Only to you, Andre.” I said while rolling my eyes and scoffing.

“Well he was flirting up a fucking storm with you so I can clearly see why you’re disagreeing with me.”

“God will you shut up?” Jordan exclaimed towards Andre, who made a choked sound and looked at Jordan with a bewildered look on his face.

“Everything okay?” I ask as we continue to trek through the leaves and broken branches.

“Just didn’t like how Soldier Boy was talking to you.”

“Hmm really? I thought we weren’t going to make this a ‘thing’.” I uttered with a teasing undertone, a smirk already making its way to my face as I squeezed Jordan’s hand.

“We are having a long talk about that later.”

“Oh really?”

“Hmm.” My laughter fills the space and out of the corner of my eye I can see Jordan’s smile grow.

My everything hurts. It felt like we had been walking for hours, which was weird because we literally were in Cate’s brain. I was somehow able not to lag behind because Jordan was basically pulling me by the hand at this point. Hey don’t blame the supe stamina! Blame my stupid fucking boots.

I kick another branch out of my way before taking a deep breath and soldiering on (putting a bit more energy into the whole situation, not letting go of Jordan’s hand).

“What if Cate is dying in the real world?”

“Like you even care.” I quipped in response to Andre’s question.

“Woah, what gave you that idea?”

“Dude have you been around yourself at all today?”

“OKAY! And I thought Jordan and I had been bad.” Marie intervened, as she tried to mediate whatever fight Andre and I were in. I remembered that even as kids when one of us got mad at the other person we would either explode in large fucking rages or ignore each other for weeks on end.

“God could you bitches slow the fuck down?” I heard Dusty mutter from behind us, making me look back at the brunette who was breathing loudly and leaning against a tree. I chuckle and turn back around only to be greeted by the sight of Cate sitting in some sort of floating window surrounded by wooden panels.

Everyone watched on as the memory with Dean Shetty played out. The memory almost felt like something that could have - and sort of did happen to me. The amount of manipulation that Shetty was able to exercise just because of how horrible Cate’s parents were made my heart ache. My hands clenched harder and harder with the contained anger I was trying to suppress.

A gasp left my mouth when Shetty presented Cate with the flask of pills. They reminded me so much of my own little neon atrocities. Something in my head itched, but it wasn’t my powers. Weird.

The memory suddenly ended and I looked around to find that we were standing in one of God U’s classrooms. A place I had been in just a few days ago.

“I haven’t been in a classroom in years.” I heard Dusty utter as I pulled out one of the wheeled chairs and sat down in between Jordan and Gemma.

I stretch out my fingers in my gloves as I try to pay attention to the scene that was happening in front of me. Luke looked so… alive. It was sort of creepy.

“All the way to the top.” That was when I heard Andre stand up and exhale loudly.

“We- we should leave. I- I can’t be around here.”

“I miss you, man.” Luke’s voice makes us all freeze, I watch as Andre turns around and looks at Luke in pure happiness.

“I-I miss you too. So fucking much.”

“But… you know what? I don’t fucking believe you. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?” Andre’s face falls and he takes a step back, I feel my eyebrows furrow and suddenly all the screens in the classroom turn on.

“Andre…”

Each screen begins to show Andre and Cate’s biggest hits. I feel my jaw drop for probably the millionth time today. Andre what the fuck have you done? You don’t sleep with your best friend’s girlfriend. Oh my god, we were so doomed. I start peeling off my gloves as the videos click off and Luke turns back to face us.

“How many times?”

“Uh- I-”

“How many fucking times?” Luke repeats but this time with a much angrier tone. I take off the last of the leather and neatly stack my gloves on top of each other. Gemma turns towards me and looks down at my bare hands and then back up to my face. I just give her a shrug and she nods slightly.

“Andre, you can’t be fucking serious. Was that real?”

“She didn’t make you do it, did she?” Luke asks as Andre just holds a hand up towards Jordan who is now stalking towards him. I pull myself up from my own seat and the cold of the metal almost makes me jump. Jesus my senses were going insane without my gloves on.

“You wanted to do it. All behind my back.”

“I’m-I’m sorry.” Andre stuttered out, making a scoff leave my mouth as I put my ungloved hand on Jordan’s shoulder. They turn towards me and he raises his eyebrows at my hand. I shake my head before pointing to Luke, who is very much starting to flame out.

“Woah, woah, out of my way cunts!” Dusty screams as he flys out of his chair and towards the door. Luke doesn’t hesitate to send a ball of fire towards him which makes him explode in a bloody cloud.

“Oh God, Dusty!” I yell as I push past Jordan as I extend my hand towards Luke’s uncovered face but I realize my mistake when I hear Jordan’s voice.

“I- I can’t switch.” My eyes widen, panic fills my body and then I feel something pull me away from Luke. I turned to Gemma who was now holding my very bare hand in hers. We both look up at each other in surprise.

“Guys! Run, we have to fucking run.” I don’t even venture a glance back towards Luke or my gloves before I start sprinting after Marie. We run through different hallways until we’re suddenly in Brink’s office.

“Fucking hell. Do you think we’re safe now?” I ask as I lean against the TA desk.

“I hope so.” Jordan answers as they turn towards me and smile. I smile giddily back. I can actually touch things holy shit!

“Seriously, Andre? You’re that guy?”

“Hey look, you don’t think I feel like a piece of shit?” Jordan and I both scoff at the same time before I start inching my pinkie towards theirs. “I loved her.”

“Are we just not going to talk about Dusty?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from Andre’s stupid issues.

My attention is drawn away as loud shouting echoes through the closed wooden doors. It was Luke and Brink. I moved away from the desk and followed Jordan as they made their way to the doors. The voices became clearer and almost angrier. I felt a force hit my right shoulder as something barrelled between Jordan and I.

“Hey!” Jordan exclaimed and I was about to voice a similar sentiment when I noticed that it was literally Jordan who had bumped into us. Well, memory Jordan not actual Jordan?

“Oh? Ok.”

“Is Cate in there?” Marie asked as I saw Jordan’s face slowly morph into one of panic.

“No, no this isn’t her memory. It’s mine.”

“How? How the fuck would that happen?” Andre asked as he turned towards us. I just put my hand on Jordan’s shoulder and tried to call them down. He looked devastated.

I turned to look as memory Jordan opened the doors and we followed behind them. Brink was standing in front of a furious looking Luke, holding a syringe in his hand. Oh shit. It felt like the events of the memory played out in slow motion.

I watched as memory Jordan picked up some kind of canister and put it over Luke’s face, making him collapse. A moment later a response team brought in a stretcher and quickly got Luke out of the office.

“What do I always say, huh? Being a hero, it’s not about the glory, it’s about the…”

“Sacrifice.” Jordan muttered and a strange tension appeared in the back of my brain. I had heard that before. Somewhere.

The conversation continued and a little part of my heart broke. Being in the supe business was to be manipulated but this… fucking hell Cate and Jordan deserved better. I watch as Jordan’s face contorts through multiple levels of pain and sadness. I hesitantly put a hand on their shoulder and they put their hand over mine.

“So you knew! You knew Golden Boy attacked Brink before.” Marie said, almost yelling. We both turned to look at her and I was about to open my mouth to defend them when Jordan’s voice cut me off.

“I didn’t- I didn’t know what all that meant.”

“Of course you did.” Out of the periphery of my eye I saw Jordan’s eyes start to well in tears, they moved away from my touch and instead let out a sigh.

“He said he was juicing Golden Boy!”

“And you just believed him.”

“What would you have done?”

“Something, Jordan!” Andre screamed out and I felt my nerves harden.

“Oh like you’re just the perfect saint Andre. Just fucking imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes for a single second.” I exclaimed, sending Andre a harsh glare.

“We could have stopped everything right here.” Memory Jordan’s voice resonated off the now almost completely silent room. I felt fucking helpless. Again. It seemed like a recurring thing today.

“You’re a coward. And you always will be.” I saw tears form in memory Jordan’s eyes which finally caused me to move. I walked up to them and leaned down next to Jordan.

“What do you need?” I asked quietly, almost hesitating to break the silence of the room. Jordan basically lunged at me and I put my arms around them. Clenching my eyes shut I moved a hand up to their hair and started to massage his scalp. Supposedly it was something that was meant to help calm people down. I had never done it or had it done to me so I was going off of pure instinct here.

“Oh shit.” Marie blurted out and I opened my eyes to a hallway lined with doors… and a mural of the woods. Fuck. It all felt a little too familiar.

“Hey Jordan.”

“Hmm, oh.” Jordan left my embrace and looked around the new location, slightly trying to avoid Andre, Marie and Gemma’s eyes.

“This is The fucking Woods.” I stuttered out as I started to massage the inside of my wrists.

“What I don’t get is how we saw my memory, not Cate’s.” Jordan said as we stopped marveling at our surroundings. “It’s like all of our collective shit is blending together.”

“That means bad things for us.” Gemma added as she leaned against the hellish mural. God that thing gave me the creeps. Those little beady eyes seemed to be following my every move.

“How about we talk about your shit, Jordan?”

“Yeah!”

“Marie, Andre, come on!” I exclaimed as the tingle in my head resurfaced. Something was really wrong.

“No, I-I’m sorry okay? I bought into all of Brink’s bullshit and propaganda. I didn’t want to see the fact that he was just like Shetty. Fuck this place! Come on, Vic.” Jordan pulled out one of their hands from their pocket and encased mine before starting to walk down the hallway.

“I’m going to make it right… for Luke.”

“Ow, fuck!” I exclaimed as a sharp pain went through my body. It felt like my brain was being smashed against a cement wall over and over again.

“Vic!” Everyone shouted as everything became blurry. I turned around and looked through the open doorway. And suddenly things started to flood in. I knew these rooms. I knew the fucking mural.

“I-I’m fine. Just a small headache is all?”

“You sure?” I nodded stiffly and turned to look back into the room.

In the room, laying side by side were Luke and Sam. Both hooked up to some kind of machine. As Marie, Gemma and Andre joined us they each let out a gasp.

“What the fuck is going on? What are you fucking doing to me?” Luke yelled out as he sat up instantaneously.

“Hurry.”

“Sam! Sam!”

“Luke! Sam! Fucking stop. Open this door. Open the fucking door.” A familiar voice screamed out, muffled slightly by something. Slipping away from the group I walked over to the only other open door in the hallway.

Peering into the room a scream tore through my body. Lying, tied down like a lamb to the slaughter was me. A fucking muzzle like the one worn by Hannibal Lecter was encasing the lower half of my face.

My natural brunette locks lay messily around memory me as she thrashed and screamed. The first person to reach me was Jordan. I stood frozen with a horrified expression on my face, no longer breathing.

I could distantly feel Jordan shaking my shoulders, the rest of the group soon joining him. But I felt like I wasn’t in my body anymore.

Memories seemed to corrode my very sense of self. Snippets of previous conversations, standing in the middle of a sea of dead people, my dad yelling in my face… all of the fucking experiments.

The only thing that actually seemed to bring me back to my body was the sound of Dean Shetty’s voice ringing like nails on a chalkboard through my brain.

“Oh my God, Cate, please go shut her up!”

“But-”

“It’s probably what’s making Luke worse. Please.”

“Yeah uh okay.”

I watched as the blonde made her way into my grimy little cell and carefully placed just her fingertips to my forehead. Memory me seemed like she was trying to bite Cate but the fucking muzzle stopped her. I-I didn’t feel like that person but she was me. I was her.

“You are going to forget about Luke and Sam. You are going to forget the torture. Please forget.” Cate said the last two sentences in a much lower voice, making memory me’s face instantly calm and Cate made her way out of the cell.

“Vic? Victoria? Are you okay?”

“Andre! What the fuck kind of question is that?” Jordan screamed at Andre before turning to me. They let out a sigh of relief when he realized I was kind of back.

“Vic?”

“Yeah Jordan.”

“What do you need from me?”

“A hug would be nice.”

“Of course, darling. Come here.” I weakly smile and put my arms around them, letting my face (which was still somehow devoid of tears) burrow into the soft fabric of their shirt.

“Victoriaaaa. Vickyyy. Viccc.” I hear the sound of my name coming out of my own mouth, well memory me - who no longer had a muzzle muffling her words. I take a deep breath, inhaling Jordan’s calming scent before pushing myself up and walking into the cell.

“You called?”

“I’m actually surprised you didn’t totally break. I mean look at me, we are cuckoo crazyyy.”

“Victoria, we are not.”

“Oh really? I thought you saw my little exchange with your dearest friend Catey.”

“Victoria…”

“Aww you care about the little supe don’t you? Even after you realize everything that she did to you.”

“She had her reasons…”

“Did you ever even think about the fucking time gaps in your memory? You’ve been in this damn cell for months now. Dearest dad put you in here and left you to fucking die.”

“And yet here I am.”

“Yes, there you are. Still sucking up to the fucks that run the school. You are stronger than you think you are, Victoria.”

“I-”

“No more time to talk. Need to go burrow back into your subconscious. I really wouldn’t want us to die.”

“Us?”

“You and me, are the same person but…” Before the girl could speak anymore the room dissolved into an office space and everyone was left to stand in front of Shetty and Brink.

“Vic, if you-” Marie started to say before I turned to look at her.

“Look can we just not talk about it? Shit happened. It’s in the past. We move on.”

“Victoria…”

“God, Andre no. I don’t want to hear from you right now.” I exclaim before I feel a strong weight around my shoulders. It’s lighter than Jordan… it was Gemma.

“Hey.”

“Hey. I’m really fucking sorry.”

“Same, my dad is worse than I thought.” I say as I let out a deprecating chuckle. Fuck me.

“Vic…”

“Yeah I know.” I feel Gemma’s weight disappear before I’m pulled into Jordan’s side. Their arm feels safe. They just feel safe.

During my tiny spiral I didn’t realize that the memory had ended and now we were standing in front of a white door. We weren’t even standing in the office anymore… instead I felt myself being slightly dragged towards the door.

“Wait, we can’t- I know this place.”

“Marie…” She opens the door and we are suddenly greeted with a murder scene. Marie’s parents. Shit.

I zone out once again, everything feels so numb. Like the world is sort of foggy. I watch distantly as Marie talks to her sister and then randomly starts screaming at Cate? God, smarten the fuck up Victoria. No time for your little breakdowns right now.

The next thing I know we’re back in Cate’s childhood bedroom and I’m staring right at her. Her eyes are red from crying and her hair is kind of a mess.

“You shouldn’t be here!”

“But we are. We’ve been trying to wake you up.” Marie says, trying to keep her tone as calm as possible. Jordan still has their arm around me and I cuddled into his side.

“Look, you can all go now, I’ll let you wake up.”

“Come on, Cate. Let’s all just wake up and get the fuck out of here.” Jordan said with a hurried tone.

“Yeah, Cate. Come on. We can go binge a bunch of Soldier Boy movies if you want?” I finally manage to say in a low voice.

“I’ll join!” Gemma adds.

“Fucking hell, Vic how are you still nice to me after everything you know?”

“Cate, it’s fine. I forgive you okay? I. forgive. you. We’re all a little fucked up okay? You’ve shown us that.” I sent her a strained smile as energy seemed to be zapped from my very soul. I slightly lose my footing, and instead try to hold onto Jordan’s arm for balance.

“I don’t want to wake up.” My heart dropped, the first tear of the night finally slipped from my eyes and I quickly wiped it away. The fog was starting to leave the sides of my eyes.

“No. Fuck that. Cate, you don’t get to be selfish here. It doesn’t fucking matter what you want.”

“Andre… I’m sorry.”

“You don’t get to be sorry, it doesn’t cut it. Do you think you can just stay here and forget all your fucking problems? Fucking Victoria just figured out her entire life has basically been a lie. So, fuck you.”

“Andre… don’t you dare use my problems to state your fucking point but other than that I agree. Cate you have to come with us. We’re in this together.” My voice started out with a passionate amount of anger before it mellowed into something softer.

“You fucking burrowed into my brain. You manipulated all of us. And- and I know you had your reasons and I wish you had done something different. Because I fucking love you and I wish I didn’t but I do, even if I won’t trust you ever again. You have a choice now, you finally have a fucking choice. So wake the fuck up.”

A moment later I feel myself on the carpet, my gloves are back on my hands and the itchy feeling is back. It’s almost welcoming. Then it all comes flooding back. God my entire fucking life. I bring my hand up to feel the skin of my lower face. It’s almost like I could feel the fucking muzzle still on me.

I push myself off the floor and look around at the face’s of my friends. I actually had friends now, no wonder I never had them before - being basically stuck in a torture chamber for months on end. I watch as Cate looks at Andre, completely defeated by his anger. I turn to look at Jordan and find them already looking at me. They smile weakly and I answer back with a pained expression before a few tears start falling from my eyes. Fuck.

“Vic, come-” I walk over to him and just hug them as sobs start ripping through my vocal cords. I feel them shift and let out a weak chuckle before looking up at her joyous expression.

“We’re back.” Everyone lets out a collective gasp of relief as I try to pull away from Jordan, only for them to pull me into a one sided hug. I’m careful not to touch any of their exposed skin… the one good thing about that whole dream situation was that I could actually touch her.

A moment later, the door bursts open and Emma walks in with Sam in tow.

“Oh thank God you guys are still here.”

“Holy shit you actually found him.” A memory seems to resurface the moment Sam’s eyes meet mine.

“Ok favorite movie?” I ask through the little crack in the wall. I huddled against the cold tile and slightly moved the chains around my hands.

“Waterworld.”

“Huh? Really? Never watched it.”

“WHAT? We need to.”

“Great, definitely scheduling a movie night soon.”

“You bet your ass.”

“Oh, we should invite Luke.”

“He’ll probably just want to watch Star Wars.”

“I mean can you blame him? It’s one of the best movie franchises out there.”

“Ok fine, Vics. I agree with you.”

“Yes I finally did it, Sammy. You owe me 10 dollars.”

“What!”

I’m brought back to reality only to find multiple people trying to hold Sam back from getting to Cate. My eyes widened and I was almost tempted to jump into the fray when I remembered our secret signal.

“Sammy, white rabbit.” He instantly stopped struggling and turned towards me with an awed expression on his face.

“Vics.”

“Sammy.” He rushes towards me as shouts echo from the group but instantly stop when he engulfs me in a hug.

“God, I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too. God you look so fucking old.” I said as I pulled away from him and got a good look at his features.

“That’s what happens with time. So you remember now?”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

“Fuck, Vics. I’m sorry.”

“Hey I’m sorry about Luke. You know you two were like brothers to me.”

“Wait- you’re? Huh?” Emma’s expression morphed through different stages of confusion.

“Oh right we should probably catch you up Emma. Well I just kind of found out that I was down there. The Woods with Sam… and Luke.”

“You mean that- how did you not remem- Oh Cate…”

“Yup.”

“Jesus, I’m sorry.” I shrug as everyone starts to gather around a nervous looking Cate.

“Look, I know that you might never trust me again but I want to try.” Cate said as Sam continued to look at her with a murderous expression on his face.

“We know that so why don’t you start by telling us what The Woods is?” Marie asked with a reassuring smile on her face.

“They were using Sam to augment Luke’s powers and Vic too. Actually I’m not entirely sure why you were in there in the first place.” Cate said as she swiveled over to me. “They were doing all kinds of weird stuff to them.”

“Not just us. There are other kids down there as well.” Sam added.

“Wait, so what were they doing to you down there?”

“Bad shit.” I said at the same time as Sam.

“Shetty hates us.” Sam added.

“She was directing it all.” Cate said, agreeing with Sam.

“So she has to be the answer. Remember, there is no going back if we do this.” Marie said, with a slightly ominous tone lacing her voice.

“I don’t have much else to lose.” I say cheerily, making Cate cringe back and Jordan look over at me again. This time with a pretty concerned look on their face.

“I saw we do this thing. They need to pay.”

so... yeah. hopefully u enjoyed that little insight into vic's past. if you've seen my post about her powers lowkey being sentient - that's who was kind of talking to her - like it's her but it's not? ANYWAYS that was really fun to write for some reason, I got a bunch of inspo yesterday. lmk if u want to be added to the taglist and hopefully everything is still pretty canon compliant and makes sense lol.

taglist: @neapolitantoebeans @scorchedfangirl @losers-club6 @vvyuqi @bubblebuttwade @fix5idiots @ponypickle @nellyboosworld

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