Stay of Execution
Aug. 27th, 2026 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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marysuevirusTitle: Stay of Execution
Chapter Four: Trouble is Afoot
Fandom: the Marvel universe
Rating: 18 and up
Warnings: graphic violence, language, sex, dark themes, anything else i can toss in.
Disclaimer: the recognizable characters and places contained herein are the property of Marvel. i'm merely borrowing for the sake of entertainment. no money is being made from this venture. Haley belongs todazzledfirestar Morgan belongs toginevra Roxxy belongs tonanaeanaven Jehnna belongs to silverfox_chan and Dare belongs to me. the concept and title of The Mary Sue Virus are used with permission from dazzledfirestar .
Author's Notes: have i mentioned lately that i hate my brain? because i hate my brain. this idea came to me about midway through Among the Strong because i am stupid and a glutton for punishment. so... this one is going to be dark. at least, that's the idea that was in my head when i came up with it. because apparently we live here now. so heed the warning up there and just know that it will likely be so much worse than that. i will do my best to add any additional warnings when i get to it. right now, i'm not entirely sure just what all those warnings will be. so... yeah.
Stay of Execution - The Index
It felt like a losing battle. Running. Hiding. Just… existing. Everything felt like a losing battle. A year on the run. A year trying to stay one step ahead of a looming shadow that seemed to be drawing ever closer. It was enough to make her crazy. And she was starting to wonder if maybe she wasn’t just a little crazy. After all, who would keep uprooting her family and moving to some new town in the hopes that this time, this time, would be the last time and they’d be safe from whomever, or whatever, was hunting them. Running as they were, hiding as they were, felt like a slap in the face to everything she believed in. To everything she’d ever wanted to be.
Fuck, how she hated this life. This was not what her life was supposed to be. This was not what the lives of her friends were supposed to be. Living under assumed identities. Avoiding people at all costs. Wondering if they’d last through the night. If tomorrow would be their last day of freedom. If one could even call this freedom. They weren’t free. Not living like this. Hell, some people didn’t even consider them to be human. They sure as hell didn’t think she and her little family had a right to exist.
That thought saw her swinging her axe down with far more force than she’d intended. The log standing on the flat tree stump before her split in two with the blow. And the head of her axe embedded itself deep into the stump. Sighing, she tugged the sharpened edge of the blade free of its wooden prison. There were several grooves in the wood made by the bite of that very sharp metal edge. Chopping wood was the only time she was able to use her full strength. It wasn’t nearly enough.
Taking a deep breath, she set the axe down and allowed herself to study her surroundings. Tall trees towered around her, offering a kind of fragile shelter from the greater world for her and the girls. Not that they were safe by any stretch of the imagination. But being so far out of town, living in a cabin in the woods, was safer than being within city limits. And, if she was being honest, they were lucky to have the privacy. They were, all of them, less on edge here within the safe arms of the forest. The trees didn’t judge and they didn’t pass sentence.
Since leaving Edie’s, they’d settled in a few cities. Los Angeles had been the first. Probably the best location. It was so large and sprawling that it should have been easy to get lost. And, for a time, they’d had the illusion of safety within all those people. She and the girls had even managed to have some kind of life there. They’d been able to kind of live their lives. They’d gone to clubs on occasion. And they’d even been able to go out for a meal here and there. Those were small things, but it helped to keep them feeling connected and human. Having to uproot themselves and leave the city of angels had been a staggering blow.
After that, they’d moved to Eugene, Oregon. Not a particularly large city. Not small, either. There’d been less of that sense of safety, but they’d found an apartment and jobs and things had been good. For a while. Then had come another of Nicole’s warnings. And they’d up and gone again, seeking refuge in Washington state. It had taken her a little longer than she’d liked to realize that the warnings came with the loss or misplacement of someone’s personal item. She could only lay the blame for her late realizations on the panic and fear that had crowded into every crack and crevice of her soul.
There’d been the jacket, stolen out of Edie’s backyard. Then a warning. After that, it had been a pair of shoes. Ashley’s most favored pair. They’d gone missing at a club. And then had come a second warning. Sarah’s journal. A third warning. The last warning had coincided with one of Wren’s wigs going missing. The red one she’d favored over the others. And then another warning.
Which was how they’d ended up in this cabin in the woods, somewhere outside Twin Falls, Idaho. On the plus side, the cabin was roomy, large enough for all five of them. And they were close enough to the city that running out for groceries wasn’t a problem. Nor was getting everyone to work. The only problem that she had with their latest location was that she was living with the idea that this place was no safer than any of the others where they’d stayed. She expected their shadowy followers to simply appear out of the ether and grab them up.
At least out here in the woods, they’d be able to protect themselves without worrying about giving themselves away.
Muttering a curse at the rapid-fire way her brain just kept cycling, she hefted up another log and set it upon the stump. Then she lifted the axe and swung down. The log split into two with ease. Again and again and again, she swung the axe she held in the hopes that it would calm the chaotic chatter in her head. And she hoped it would exhaust her enough to fall into a dreamless slumber that evening. Maybe even before Wren could offer up whatever she had planned for the evening meal.
Half an hour and a quarter of the trunk of a large tree later, she still hadn’t quieted her mind. It still spun with what-if scenarios and half-whispered accusations. Her brain kept telling her that she was no good. That she’d failed as a leader and she’d failed her girls. A good leader would have met the problem head on. A good leader would have found a solution that amounted to more than hiding out with their tail tucked between their legs. A good leader would have found a way to fix the issue so things could go back to normal. A good leader would have ensured that no one else had been killed or had been forced to die protecting the weaklings and the cowards.
She muttered a curse and swung the axe again. The swing had so much strength behind it this time that it left the head of the axe buried deep and nearly split the stump in two. “Fuck!’ she spat and tugged the axe free of the terribly abused stump. The axe thumped when it hit the ground. Not more than a moment later, her knees hit the forest floor. Her shoulders slumped forward and her arms came to rest on her denim-clad thighs.
It took a good five minutes of breathing exercises to calm her racing heart. To calm herself and find some semblance of peace. Because she knew that those whispers were lies. At least, she knew it on a rational level. But she wasn’t being rational. Nothing about this entire fucking situation was rational. It had been an emotional issue from the very moment it had started. And she was full of emotions, which made it hard to believe anything but those horrible whispers. Because she was reacting with her emotions and those emotions made her think there was nothing she could do to help anyone. It was because of her emotions that she’d run and hid. That she’d taken her girls and run toward what she’d thought would be safety. And she’d hid from the terror stalking her community. She’d hid from her responsibilities. She’d buried her head in the sand and she’d let other people die when she should have been the one leading the charge. Instead, she’d taken the coward’s way out.
Because she was a coward.
She was scared of what would happen to them. To her and to her girls. Because she knew somewhere in the back of her head that they wouldn’t be able to hide forever. She had no doubts that the hunters would find them eventually. One of them would slip up, either with their names or with their powers, and a mundane would turn them in. She wasn’t going to be able to protect them when such a thing came to pass. And it wasn’t like they could go to another country to hide, The purges were happening everywhere. She was weak and useless and she was going to get them all killed. She was going to fail her family because she couldn’t protect them. She couldn’t keep any of them safe. She was fucking nothing.
There were so many doubts and they were so strong. When she was with the others, she could keep them at bay. She could keep her head up and tell herself she could fight anything that came her way as long as she had her family by her side. But when she was alone, like now, the truth hit her like a ton of bricks. The truth came and it whispered in her own voice and it always mocked her. And maybe that voice, that truth, was right? What business did she have thinking she could keep her girls safe? They weren’t even a real team. They’d never gotten to really train in the Danger Room. They’d never really gotten to do anything beyond play pretend. A bunch of women out in the trees surrounding the school, playing at training to be heroes. Looking back at their efforts, she found the whole thing pitiful and pathetic.
She understood now what Scott had been trying to get at so long ago. They’d had a discussion, a serious discussion, when she’d told him that she wanted to run a team. That she wanted to handpick and lead her own team. Of course there’d been the obligatory conversation about Harper and what he would have wanted for her. Scott had pointed out that he felt Harper would be proud of her ideals but possibly not of the fact that she wanted to risk herself by leading a team. She’d accepted his opinions because Scott and Harper had been good friends. It had been something to consider, because Haley knew that Harper wouldn’t want her to use his death as an excuse to pigeon-hole herself or to stop living her life the way she should. And she was pretty sure that Harper would consider the idea of Haley running her own team to be a bad one. Harper had never been interested in being a hero. Haley respected that. She always had and she always would. She’d never wanted to run her own team until Harper died and she’d realized that she might have been able to save him had she been there. That had been the thing that had set her on the course she was on now.
But then Scott had said something she hadn’t understood. Not until recently. He’d told her that she should think long and hard about building a team out of her friends. Because there would come a time when that idea would prove to be a bad one. That it would come back and bite her in the ass. Not might. Would. And now she realized what he’d been trying to tell her. Running a team was hard enough when it was a random group of people. But it was that much harder when those people weren’t so random. It was fucking harder than hell when the members of your team were close friends. Friends close enough to be family. While she’d never want to lose a team, she sure as hell didn’t want to lose a team of friends. The thought of losing a team comprised of her friends terrified her. The thought of losing her family…
She couldn’t put into words how that thought made her feel.
She wished, for a moment, that she was as level-headed and capable as Scott. She had no doubt that he’d have figured out a way to keep his people safe. The man had been in charge of every single team of X-Men and he’d managed that role with an ease and a dignity that she’d always envied. She felt it was certain that she didn’t even come close to being as capable as he was. As he would be if he were in her situation. Like he would have ever ended up in her situation. The man could fell fucking Godzilla without breaking a sweat.
She wanted to believe he’d found a way out of the fight at the school. Because she was certain he’d been there. But she wasn’t so certain that he’d managed to walk away from that fight. The scenes from the school had been awful. Yes, she’d seen bodies. She hadn’t seen anything to identify anyone with any accuracy. And the papers, pledged to tell the truth so long as you fit neatly into one single box, hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the names of the mutants who had died defending themselves. While Scott was powerful, and he was also principled. If he’d been at the school during that last fight, there’s no way he’d have left his people behind. Since there’d been bodies on the ground in that news report, she had to believe that one of them had been his. The man would have fought until his very last breath.
That idea brought a rush of anger that saw her reaching for the stump. It pulled free of the ground with such ease that it kind of surprised her. She should have been there. She should have been at the school. She and her team. Maybe they’d have fallen, but better they’d fallen defending their people than hiding out like a bunch of cowards. Then again, if they’d stayed and fought, maybe they’d have helped make a difference. Scott Summers had been the best of the X-Men. Maybe, under his leadership, she and the girls could have helped turn the tide of that battle.
Guilt ate at her. She should have been there. If she had, she could have helped Scott lead the rest of the X-Men. The two of them would have known just how to position her team and make the best use of them. She wanted to say that Dare might have been able to put an end to things before it started, but that was possibly wishful thinking on her part. She had an idea what Dare was capable of. Scott, however, hadn’t been as sure Dare was suited for field work as she was. They’d talked about it more than once and he’d always expressed concerns that putting Dare in the field could be a bad idea.
It had been a fair assessment. None of the tests the professor had run on her had ever proven anything conclusively. All they’d really learned was that Dare was a powerhouse with little to no control over her anger. Which meant little to no control over her fire. That had been one of the things she’d worked on with the other woman. Learning control of her powers had meant learning control of her temper. And, most of the time, it had worked.
She wondered for a moment if Ororo, had she been at that fight, would have had the same concerns as Scott. Ororo was powerful in her own right. Her control over the elements was nearly perfect. There was a reason that there were people who called her a goddess. And there was a reason she’d headed up her own team of X-Men. Maybe, if Ororo had been there, the X-Men wouldn’t have fallen. But she’d long ago seen the writing on the wall and had taken any student who had wanted to go to Wakanda. And, smart as she was, she’d stayed there.
Maybe Haley should have tried to get in contact with her and asked if she and the girls could hide out in Wakanda…
Coward. The word echoed around her head loudly. And it echoed in Harper’s voice. For a moment, the accusation made her heart and mind freeze in place. But then she shook off the paralyzing fear those words had brought to life. Harper would never have called her a coward. Her brother had always told her he wanted nothing but the best for her. He’d always encouraged her to be exactly who she was. And he’d always told her to listen to her heart. To let her instincts guide her. She’d always tried to follow that advice. She’d always tried to follow her instincts. Because the one time she hadn’t…
Maybe, if she’d ignored Harper’s command to go hide with the rest of the kids, he wouldn’t have died. Haley felt certain she’d have been able to stop the Juggernaut before he’d taken one of the most important parts of her life from her. While she wasn’t as strong as, say, the Hulk or even Colossus, she was still pretty damn strong and she would have been able to meet Juggernaut head on. She would have been able to stop his rampage. She would have been able to save Harper. But she’d listened to him. She’d gone and hid with the rest of the school’s population. And she’d left her brother to face his death. Alone. She’d failed him in the most spectacularly worst way imaginable.
And now she was doing it again.
She’d taken her small family on the run, assured that she would be able to stay one step ahead of the hunters. Assured that she was all they needed to keep them safe. Her gut had told her that running was the only way to survive. And, at the time, she’d trusted in the warning it had given her. Now, after nearly two years in hiding and faceless danger inching ever closer, she was second-guessing everything she’d thought and done. She wasn’t keeping anyone safe. She wasn’t saving any of them. She was only prolonging the inevitable. They were going to be found. And caught. And they were going to suffer unimaginable pain and anguish.
Because people like her? Like Dare? Like Roxxy? They were prized by the government. If the government, any government in the world, could leash and harness their powers? That would be a fate worse than death. As Icon, Haley would be made to battle and fight and destroy. Catseye would be made to track and hunt, to rend flesh and bone. And Dare… She’d be trapped in a nightmare from which she’d never wake up. She’d be forced to use her flames to destroy towns and hamlets and villages and cities. Hundreds and thousands of people would die at her hands. Possibly even millions. Death was preferable to a life of servitude and destruction.
Hell, if any of them were turned into government death machines, it would destroy them so thoroughly that they’d beg for the end. She had to hope that all of the records kept at the school, the ones that detailed powers and abilities, had been destroyed before the humans had taken the school. If not… A shudder ran up her spine. They couldn’t afford to get caught.
She couldn’t afford to be a coward and she couldn’t afford to fuck up. Too bad she wasn’t the leader they deserved. Too bad she wasn’t Scott. Or Ororo. Or even Harper.
Tears came. Tears that were hot and painful, that felt as if they burned their tracks into her skin as they rolled over her cheeks and down to her chin. She wasn’t enough. She wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t smart enough. She wasn’t… She just wasn’t enough. So she knelt in the dirt and leaves and sticks and let the tears of frustration and helplessness fall. She let the fear and the hopelessness run out of her in those hot tears of shame. She cried and let them fall until her eyes were swollen and gritty. Until her throat was so tight that it was hard to breathe and it hurt to swallow. She stayed there, kneeling in the dirt, her muscles limp and soft, as she tried to pull herself back together.
She did what she could to push the voices aside. The ones that called her a coward. The ones that said she was useless. The ones that named her trash and unimportant. The ones that kept stressing just how much she was going to fail. The ones that told her she was going to lose everything that had ever been important to her. It took so much effort to shove all of that noise aside. Almost too much effort. She was spent and exhausted by the time she dragged herself to her feet.
It took Herculean effort to drag her heavy feet across the ground until she could step inside of the cabin. She was drained, so lifeless that it almost felt like she was merely a shadow of herself. She stared around the interior of the cabin, at the brightly woven tapestries that decorated the walls and brought warmth to the space, both the physical and the emotional kind. She stared at the plump couch that was very obviously older than she was and the chairs that were mismatched but well loved. It was home. As much as they had a home anymore. She’d kept the five of them out of the hands of hunters for two years. She could keep doing it until someone found a way to change the world for the better. She had to. Any other option was simply not allowed.
”You can do it, sis. You can do anything you set your mind to. It was Harper’s voice once again. This time, there was no coldness in it. No accusation. This time, it was filled with warmth and love. And hope. Something she needed desperately.
“Yes,” she whispered, letting that small kernel of hope fill her with its golden warmth. “Yes, I can.”
Tonight, after eating whatever it was Dare was going to call dinner, she would sit her girls down and they would make plans. It was time to stop running. It was time to stop hiding. It was time to do what it was they’d been training for. It was time for them to rise up and be X-Men. It was time to change the world. Together.
That thought lifted her spirits, saw some sense of purpose filling her again. It made the ache in her hands and her arms and in her heart seem unimportant. She couldn’t wait for tonight. But first, before the others got back, she needed to shower the sweat and dirt and sorrow off her skin. What better way to face their new purpose than with a clean body and a clean mind?
~*~
The cabin was quiet and so was her mind. The shower had gone a good, long way toward helping her settle the chaos inside and find some kind of peace. She couldn’t change the things that had already happened, but she could change the things that had yet to come. And that was the plan. She was fairly certain most everyone would be on board with the ideas that were stewing quietly at the back of her brain. She’d settled at the kitchen table with a pad of paper and a pen and she was pulling those thoughts out of her head and putting them into some kind of order. Maybe organizing them would help her make sense of all of them.
She was in the middle of getting down one thought that seemed particularly thin and wispy when the door to the cabin slammed open at force and hit the wall loudly. It was enough to startle her, making her pen jump and slide across the paper in fright. She looked up to find that two members of her family had entered the cabin. Nicole’s face was blank, though a hint of tension showed at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Wren, on the other hand, seemed to be seething with rage and, for a moment, she had the thought that it was a good thing that Wren was wearing a wig, otherwise her hair might be floating.
“Why the fuck didn’t you answer your goddamn phone, Haley?” The question came laden with the anger present on Wren’s face, the voice sharp and biting. She set her pen down and rose from her chair in order to face the other two women with a touch of disapproval on her face.
“Maybe you should remember where you are, Wren.” she responded pointedly.
“And maybe you should answer your fucking phone,” the other woman shot back. She swore the temperature in the cabin’s main room inched up a little bit.
“Dare, calm down.”
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” Dare retorted. Haley let her gaze slide toward Roxxy. She still looked calm, but more of the tension was leaking into her expression. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so calm, Roxxy.”
“What the hell is going on?” Haley asked, letting her voice settle into that lower register that belonged to Icon. Her gaze shifted back and forth from one face to the next. Then she realized that there should have been two more faces there. She knew the routine was for one of the girls to keep the vehicle and then pick up the others as they got off work. They didn’t come back to the cabin until everyone was off. She frowned as a bad feeling skittered its way down her spine. “Dare? Roxxy? Where are Morgan and Jehnna?”
“We went to pick them up after their shifts were over. According to a coworker, Jehnna went to a local coffee shop on her lunch break. She never came back. And Morgan stepped outside for a quick break. She told one of the girls she works with that there were too many people in the diner and she needed to catch her breath,” Roxxy explained softly. Dare was glaring, rage burning in her eyes.
“And did you try looking for them?” Haley asked, that part of her brain that worked out plans and problems taking control.
“Of course we did,” Roxxy replied. Emotion rolled across her face, a mixture of remorse and fear and displeasure that told Haley more than she needed to know. “There were too many scents, Haley. I couldn’t find Morgan and Jehnna’s scents. But nothing else that was remotely familiar. I didn’t smell anything metallic to suggest weapons. And I didn’t smell anything similar at either the coffee shop or the diner. I thought I caught a faint whiff of something I recognized, but it was brief and fleeting. I can’t even say it wasn’t desperation that made me think I smelled it.”
“Were there any clues to be found at the diner and the coffee shop?” Haley asked, trying to slot together as much information as she could. Maybe, if she could do that, she could find some kind of hint or clue to tell her what had happened. To explain just what the hell was going on.
“The barista at the coffee shop said Jehnna was sitting by herself at a table by the window. And that some hot blonde wandered over to her table and struck up a conversation,” Dare told her. The way the woman’s fingers kept flexing suggested she was hanging on to her control by a thread. “Then the barista got busy with a customer. When she looked back, both Jehnna and the hot guy were gone. There wasn’t anything personal left behind. And Roxxy couldn’t get a clean scent from the guy. It was almost like he hadn’t been there.”
Haley frowned. That didn’t make any sense. How could Roxxy not have picked up a clean scent? Every person left a unique scent behind. Roxxy had told her once a long time ago. It was how she could track her classmates when she wasn’t paying attention to them. “And Morgan?” she questioned, fear tightening in her gut.
“No one saw anything,” Dare said. There was disgust in her voice. And, buried beneath that and the rage, was fear. “One of her coworkers did say she saw some guy hanging around. She said he came into the diner about an hour into Morgan’s shift. He ordered coffee and not much more, but he left a big tip on the table. She said he was there when Morgan mentioned she was taking a break. But when she went out to deliver food to a table, she said the dude was gone.”
Haley frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Nothing we’ve heard about the hunters suggest that they would work in such a way. They’re open in their confrontations. They wouldn’t have lain in wait the way the guy at the diner did. And they wouldn’t have struck up a conversation with Jehnna like the guy at the coffee shop did.”
“And that doesn’t make any sense,” Roxxy said, her voice heavy with confusion. “Who other than hunters would have any reason to grab Morgan and Jehnna?”
“We’re assuming that these are people who know who they are.” It was the only thing that made sense, but Haley didn’t like the implications. Because it was no coincidence that two of her friends were grabbed in broad daylight by two different men and it happened without any kind of confrontation. “It is entirely possible that they were taken by strangers.”
“Haley.” Roxxy took a breath and paced across the floor of the cabin before coming back. It was a sure sign she was upset with how things were going. “That doesn’t make sense at all. Because that would mean this was premeditated and that there might be other ominous reasons for these men to have taken Morgan and Jehnna.”
There was silence a moment. Then Dare snarled out a curse and light and heat flooded the cabin as the wood on the hearth exploded into flames. “Find them for me, Roxxy, and I’ll be sure there’s nothing left of them for the authorities to identify.”
“You know we can’t risk it, Dare,” Haley responded gently.
“Fuck that noise. This is our family,” the pyrokinetic spat. “This is my family. I will not let some assholes destroy what you built. I will not let them hurt our family. I will scorch the earth and heaven and hell to keep you all safe.”
There was such vehement loyalty in Dare’s voice and Haley wondered what it was she’d done to ever deserve that. As far as she knew, she’d only fucked up time and time again in her capacity as the team’s leader. In all honesty, they hadn’t even been together as a team all that long. They’d spent more of their time together on the run than actually being a team. Haley swallowed the words that wanted to tumble out of her mouth, the ones that would proclaim she didn’t deserve such loyalty. She knew it would only hurt Dare’s feelings. Instead, she tried to get her brain locked on to some kind of master plan.
“Despite the way things look, we need to go look for them.” Haley glanced from Dare to Roxxy. “It could all be coincidence, though I don’t think it is.”
“Someone should be here. In case the two of them show up,” Roxxy suggested. Dare nodded in agreement.
“I’ll take Morgan. I can try to use our link,” Dare told them. She didn’t sound confident in using the link, but Haley said nothing. She had to believe that Dare would find a way.
“Then I’ll look for Jehnna. Maybe I’ll catch a hint of her scent somewhere near the coffee shop and it will give me a trail to follow,” Roxxy said. Haley nodded at them. Their logic was sound, no matter how much Haley’s gut was telling her that they’d only be going through the motions at this point. And then there was the idea of just sitting around, waiting. She wasn’t good with doing nothing. But Roxxy was right. Someone needed to be here just in case. And both Roxxy and Dare had advantages that Haley did not. She didn’t like being the one left behind, but she would do it. She knew it was a good idea.
“Where do you plan on looking?” Haley asked. She went to the shelf against the wall and pulled the map of the area she’d purchased when they’d moved in. Spreading it across the table, she motioned the other two over so that they could study the map in detail. Twin Falls wasn’t a huge city, but it wasn’t small, either. The population was around thirty thousand. But Haley didn’t think it would be possible for two people to cover the entire town.
“I’m going back to the diner,” Dare responded. She put a finger on the map in roughly the same area where the diner was located. Then she traced a path away from the diner, toward an area of town that most people stayed away from. It wasn’t exactly a bad area, but it wasn’t exactly a good area, either. “I’ll go this way and see if I can’t find some hint as to where she’s at.”
Haley noted that Dare didn’t say anything about the strange man or Morgan being taken. She thought she could sense a touch of panic on Dare, but she couldn’t see it on the other woman’s face. Haley nodded, then turned to look at Roxxy. “I’ll go back to the coffee shop. Maybe I can get something there that will be useful. Perhaps one of the local businesses has a camera that caught something.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Haley nodded. She didn’t comment on the fact that Roxxy sounded like she didn’t believe she’d find a camera that caught something. They needed to hold on to the hope that they’d find something, that they’d find their missing family, because the alternative was too horrible to contemplate. “Keep your phones on you at all times. Call me if something happens. Anything. Do not engage in anyone who gives you a bad vibe. Just get the fuck out of there and come home. We can figure it out after.”
Haley let her gaze slide from Dare to Roxxy and back, her green gaze sharp and filled with just how serious she was. She half-expected rebellion from Dare, but the woman simply nodded her head. The grim look on her face suggested she wasn’t exactly happy with Haley’s instructions. But Haley didn’t worry that Dare would ignore it. She knew well what could happen if someone took her captive. They all knew. “Alright. I will keep my phone right beside me. Call me the minute you find anything. Or if things are going tits up. I’ll come running.”
Both Dare and Roxxy nodded and turned for the door. Even before they could move, Faye appeared before the door leading outside. She was fuzzy and static-y. Haley was reminded of the holo-image from the first Star Wars movie, when Princess Leia was asking Obi-Wan for help. Faye blipped and fritzed and generally didn’t become solid. And while that was worrying enough, the look on her face had the hairs on the back of Haley’s neck standing on end.
“Faye?” Dare asked, taking a step toward Morgan’s double. Faye hadn’t made many appearances of late. Maybe she understood the danger they would be in if she did. Maybe she’d found something better to do. But her appearance was unusual and the panic she wore sent a ripple of unease down Haley’s spine.
“Dare. Don’t go,” Faye began, her voice a whisper when it should have been louder. More forceful. The image of her spazzed again, her form temporarily disappearing before appearing once more. This time, she was even more insubstantial.
“Faye? What’s going on? Where’s Morgan?” Dare asked, crossing the cabin floor in a handful of strides. She reached out to take hold of Faye’s shoulders, but her hands passed right through the other woman. “Faye? What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
“You can’t go,” Faye said, her eyes wide and filled with fear. Or maybe disbelief. She let her gaze shift around the room so that it touched on both Haley and Roxxy, then she shifted her attention back to Dare. The smile she offered the other woman was filled with sadness. “I love you, Dare. Don’t go. Its—”
Faye disappeared before she could deliver her message. Dare stared at the spot where Faye had stood a moment, then turned back to Haley. “She’s gone. I can’t feel her. I can’t feel Morgan.” For a moment, Dare looked lost. She looked like she was going to crumple. Then her eyes blazed with anger and fire and she tore out the door. Haley glanced at Roxxy, who frowned but followed after their friend. Another finger of fear traced its way up Haley’s spine.
The door slammed shut behind Roxxy. The sound was loud and sharp, like a gun shot. And Haley was assaulted by the certainty that time had just run out.
For all of them.
Chapter Four: Trouble is Afoot
Fandom: the Marvel universe
Rating: 18 and up
Warnings: graphic violence, language, sex, dark themes, anything else i can toss in.
Disclaimer: the recognizable characters and places contained herein are the property of Marvel. i'm merely borrowing for the sake of entertainment. no money is being made from this venture. Haley belongs to
dazzledfirestar Morgan belongs toginevra Roxxy belongs tonanaeanaven Jehnna belongs to silverfox_chan and Dare belongs to me. the concept and title of The Mary Sue Virus are used with permission from dazzledfirestar . Author's Notes: have i mentioned lately that i hate my brain? because i hate my brain. this idea came to me about midway through Among the Strong because i am stupid and a glutton for punishment. so... this one is going to be dark. at least, that's the idea that was in my head when i came up with it. because apparently we live here now. so heed the warning up there and just know that it will likely be so much worse than that. i will do my best to add any additional warnings when i get to it. right now, i'm not entirely sure just what all those warnings will be. so... yeah.
Stay of Execution - The Index
It felt like a losing battle. Running. Hiding. Just… existing. Everything felt like a losing battle. A year on the run. A year trying to stay one step ahead of a looming shadow that seemed to be drawing ever closer. It was enough to make her crazy. And she was starting to wonder if maybe she wasn’t just a little crazy. After all, who would keep uprooting her family and moving to some new town in the hopes that this time, this time, would be the last time and they’d be safe from whomever, or whatever, was hunting them. Running as they were, hiding as they were, felt like a slap in the face to everything she believed in. To everything she’d ever wanted to be.
Fuck, how she hated this life. This was not what her life was supposed to be. This was not what the lives of her friends were supposed to be. Living under assumed identities. Avoiding people at all costs. Wondering if they’d last through the night. If tomorrow would be their last day of freedom. If one could even call this freedom. They weren’t free. Not living like this. Hell, some people didn’t even consider them to be human. They sure as hell didn’t think she and her little family had a right to exist.
That thought saw her swinging her axe down with far more force than she’d intended. The log standing on the flat tree stump before her split in two with the blow. And the head of her axe embedded itself deep into the stump. Sighing, she tugged the sharpened edge of the blade free of its wooden prison. There were several grooves in the wood made by the bite of that very sharp metal edge. Chopping wood was the only time she was able to use her full strength. It wasn’t nearly enough.
Taking a deep breath, she set the axe down and allowed herself to study her surroundings. Tall trees towered around her, offering a kind of fragile shelter from the greater world for her and the girls. Not that they were safe by any stretch of the imagination. But being so far out of town, living in a cabin in the woods, was safer than being within city limits. And, if she was being honest, they were lucky to have the privacy. They were, all of them, less on edge here within the safe arms of the forest. The trees didn’t judge and they didn’t pass sentence.
Since leaving Edie’s, they’d settled in a few cities. Los Angeles had been the first. Probably the best location. It was so large and sprawling that it should have been easy to get lost. And, for a time, they’d had the illusion of safety within all those people. She and the girls had even managed to have some kind of life there. They’d been able to kind of live their lives. They’d gone to clubs on occasion. And they’d even been able to go out for a meal here and there. Those were small things, but it helped to keep them feeling connected and human. Having to uproot themselves and leave the city of angels had been a staggering blow.
After that, they’d moved to Eugene, Oregon. Not a particularly large city. Not small, either. There’d been less of that sense of safety, but they’d found an apartment and jobs and things had been good. For a while. Then had come another of Nicole’s warnings. And they’d up and gone again, seeking refuge in Washington state. It had taken her a little longer than she’d liked to realize that the warnings came with the loss or misplacement of someone’s personal item. She could only lay the blame for her late realizations on the panic and fear that had crowded into every crack and crevice of her soul.
There’d been the jacket, stolen out of Edie’s backyard. Then a warning. After that, it had been a pair of shoes. Ashley’s most favored pair. They’d gone missing at a club. And then had come a second warning. Sarah’s journal. A third warning. The last warning had coincided with one of Wren’s wigs going missing. The red one she’d favored over the others. And then another warning.
Which was how they’d ended up in this cabin in the woods, somewhere outside Twin Falls, Idaho. On the plus side, the cabin was roomy, large enough for all five of them. And they were close enough to the city that running out for groceries wasn’t a problem. Nor was getting everyone to work. The only problem that she had with their latest location was that she was living with the idea that this place was no safer than any of the others where they’d stayed. She expected their shadowy followers to simply appear out of the ether and grab them up.
At least out here in the woods, they’d be able to protect themselves without worrying about giving themselves away.
Muttering a curse at the rapid-fire way her brain just kept cycling, she hefted up another log and set it upon the stump. Then she lifted the axe and swung down. The log split into two with ease. Again and again and again, she swung the axe she held in the hopes that it would calm the chaotic chatter in her head. And she hoped it would exhaust her enough to fall into a dreamless slumber that evening. Maybe even before Wren could offer up whatever she had planned for the evening meal.
Half an hour and a quarter of the trunk of a large tree later, she still hadn’t quieted her mind. It still spun with what-if scenarios and half-whispered accusations. Her brain kept telling her that she was no good. That she’d failed as a leader and she’d failed her girls. A good leader would have met the problem head on. A good leader would have found a solution that amounted to more than hiding out with their tail tucked between their legs. A good leader would have found a way to fix the issue so things could go back to normal. A good leader would have ensured that no one else had been killed or had been forced to die protecting the weaklings and the cowards.
She muttered a curse and swung the axe again. The swing had so much strength behind it this time that it left the head of the axe buried deep and nearly split the stump in two. “Fuck!’ she spat and tugged the axe free of the terribly abused stump. The axe thumped when it hit the ground. Not more than a moment later, her knees hit the forest floor. Her shoulders slumped forward and her arms came to rest on her denim-clad thighs.
It took a good five minutes of breathing exercises to calm her racing heart. To calm herself and find some semblance of peace. Because she knew that those whispers were lies. At least, she knew it on a rational level. But she wasn’t being rational. Nothing about this entire fucking situation was rational. It had been an emotional issue from the very moment it had started. And she was full of emotions, which made it hard to believe anything but those horrible whispers. Because she was reacting with her emotions and those emotions made her think there was nothing she could do to help anyone. It was because of her emotions that she’d run and hid. That she’d taken her girls and run toward what she’d thought would be safety. And she’d hid from the terror stalking her community. She’d hid from her responsibilities. She’d buried her head in the sand and she’d let other people die when she should have been the one leading the charge. Instead, she’d taken the coward’s way out.
Because she was a coward.
She was scared of what would happen to them. To her and to her girls. Because she knew somewhere in the back of her head that they wouldn’t be able to hide forever. She had no doubts that the hunters would find them eventually. One of them would slip up, either with their names or with their powers, and a mundane would turn them in. She wasn’t going to be able to protect them when such a thing came to pass. And it wasn’t like they could go to another country to hide, The purges were happening everywhere. She was weak and useless and she was going to get them all killed. She was going to fail her family because she couldn’t protect them. She couldn’t keep any of them safe. She was fucking nothing.
There were so many doubts and they were so strong. When she was with the others, she could keep them at bay. She could keep her head up and tell herself she could fight anything that came her way as long as she had her family by her side. But when she was alone, like now, the truth hit her like a ton of bricks. The truth came and it whispered in her own voice and it always mocked her. And maybe that voice, that truth, was right? What business did she have thinking she could keep her girls safe? They weren’t even a real team. They’d never gotten to really train in the Danger Room. They’d never really gotten to do anything beyond play pretend. A bunch of women out in the trees surrounding the school, playing at training to be heroes. Looking back at their efforts, she found the whole thing pitiful and pathetic.
She understood now what Scott had been trying to get at so long ago. They’d had a discussion, a serious discussion, when she’d told him that she wanted to run a team. That she wanted to handpick and lead her own team. Of course there’d been the obligatory conversation about Harper and what he would have wanted for her. Scott had pointed out that he felt Harper would be proud of her ideals but possibly not of the fact that she wanted to risk herself by leading a team. She’d accepted his opinions because Scott and Harper had been good friends. It had been something to consider, because Haley knew that Harper wouldn’t want her to use his death as an excuse to pigeon-hole herself or to stop living her life the way she should. And she was pretty sure that Harper would consider the idea of Haley running her own team to be a bad one. Harper had never been interested in being a hero. Haley respected that. She always had and she always would. She’d never wanted to run her own team until Harper died and she’d realized that she might have been able to save him had she been there. That had been the thing that had set her on the course she was on now.
But then Scott had said something she hadn’t understood. Not until recently. He’d told her that she should think long and hard about building a team out of her friends. Because there would come a time when that idea would prove to be a bad one. That it would come back and bite her in the ass. Not might. Would. And now she realized what he’d been trying to tell her. Running a team was hard enough when it was a random group of people. But it was that much harder when those people weren’t so random. It was fucking harder than hell when the members of your team were close friends. Friends close enough to be family. While she’d never want to lose a team, she sure as hell didn’t want to lose a team of friends. The thought of losing a team comprised of her friends terrified her. The thought of losing her family…
She couldn’t put into words how that thought made her feel.
She wished, for a moment, that she was as level-headed and capable as Scott. She had no doubt that he’d have figured out a way to keep his people safe. The man had been in charge of every single team of X-Men and he’d managed that role with an ease and a dignity that she’d always envied. She felt it was certain that she didn’t even come close to being as capable as he was. As he would be if he were in her situation. Like he would have ever ended up in her situation. The man could fell fucking Godzilla without breaking a sweat.
She wanted to believe he’d found a way out of the fight at the school. Because she was certain he’d been there. But she wasn’t so certain that he’d managed to walk away from that fight. The scenes from the school had been awful. Yes, she’d seen bodies. She hadn’t seen anything to identify anyone with any accuracy. And the papers, pledged to tell the truth so long as you fit neatly into one single box, hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the names of the mutants who had died defending themselves. While Scott was powerful, and he was also principled. If he’d been at the school during that last fight, there’s no way he’d have left his people behind. Since there’d been bodies on the ground in that news report, she had to believe that one of them had been his. The man would have fought until his very last breath.
That idea brought a rush of anger that saw her reaching for the stump. It pulled free of the ground with such ease that it kind of surprised her. She should have been there. She should have been at the school. She and her team. Maybe they’d have fallen, but better they’d fallen defending their people than hiding out like a bunch of cowards. Then again, if they’d stayed and fought, maybe they’d have helped make a difference. Scott Summers had been the best of the X-Men. Maybe, under his leadership, she and the girls could have helped turn the tide of that battle.
Guilt ate at her. She should have been there. If she had, she could have helped Scott lead the rest of the X-Men. The two of them would have known just how to position her team and make the best use of them. She wanted to say that Dare might have been able to put an end to things before it started, but that was possibly wishful thinking on her part. She had an idea what Dare was capable of. Scott, however, hadn’t been as sure Dare was suited for field work as she was. They’d talked about it more than once and he’d always expressed concerns that putting Dare in the field could be a bad idea.
It had been a fair assessment. None of the tests the professor had run on her had ever proven anything conclusively. All they’d really learned was that Dare was a powerhouse with little to no control over her anger. Which meant little to no control over her fire. That had been one of the things she’d worked on with the other woman. Learning control of her powers had meant learning control of her temper. And, most of the time, it had worked.
She wondered for a moment if Ororo, had she been at that fight, would have had the same concerns as Scott. Ororo was powerful in her own right. Her control over the elements was nearly perfect. There was a reason that there were people who called her a goddess. And there was a reason she’d headed up her own team of X-Men. Maybe, if Ororo had been there, the X-Men wouldn’t have fallen. But she’d long ago seen the writing on the wall and had taken any student who had wanted to go to Wakanda. And, smart as she was, she’d stayed there.
Maybe Haley should have tried to get in contact with her and asked if she and the girls could hide out in Wakanda…
Coward. The word echoed around her head loudly. And it echoed in Harper’s voice. For a moment, the accusation made her heart and mind freeze in place. But then she shook off the paralyzing fear those words had brought to life. Harper would never have called her a coward. Her brother had always told her he wanted nothing but the best for her. He’d always encouraged her to be exactly who she was. And he’d always told her to listen to her heart. To let her instincts guide her. She’d always tried to follow that advice. She’d always tried to follow her instincts. Because the one time she hadn’t…
Maybe, if she’d ignored Harper’s command to go hide with the rest of the kids, he wouldn’t have died. Haley felt certain she’d have been able to stop the Juggernaut before he’d taken one of the most important parts of her life from her. While she wasn’t as strong as, say, the Hulk or even Colossus, she was still pretty damn strong and she would have been able to meet Juggernaut head on. She would have been able to stop his rampage. She would have been able to save Harper. But she’d listened to him. She’d gone and hid with the rest of the school’s population. And she’d left her brother to face his death. Alone. She’d failed him in the most spectacularly worst way imaginable.
And now she was doing it again.
She’d taken her small family on the run, assured that she would be able to stay one step ahead of the hunters. Assured that she was all they needed to keep them safe. Her gut had told her that running was the only way to survive. And, at the time, she’d trusted in the warning it had given her. Now, after nearly two years in hiding and faceless danger inching ever closer, she was second-guessing everything she’d thought and done. She wasn’t keeping anyone safe. She wasn’t saving any of them. She was only prolonging the inevitable. They were going to be found. And caught. And they were going to suffer unimaginable pain and anguish.
Because people like her? Like Dare? Like Roxxy? They were prized by the government. If the government, any government in the world, could leash and harness their powers? That would be a fate worse than death. As Icon, Haley would be made to battle and fight and destroy. Catseye would be made to track and hunt, to rend flesh and bone. And Dare… She’d be trapped in a nightmare from which she’d never wake up. She’d be forced to use her flames to destroy towns and hamlets and villages and cities. Hundreds and thousands of people would die at her hands. Possibly even millions. Death was preferable to a life of servitude and destruction.
Hell, if any of them were turned into government death machines, it would destroy them so thoroughly that they’d beg for the end. She had to hope that all of the records kept at the school, the ones that detailed powers and abilities, had been destroyed before the humans had taken the school. If not… A shudder ran up her spine. They couldn’t afford to get caught.
She couldn’t afford to be a coward and she couldn’t afford to fuck up. Too bad she wasn’t the leader they deserved. Too bad she wasn’t Scott. Or Ororo. Or even Harper.
Tears came. Tears that were hot and painful, that felt as if they burned their tracks into her skin as they rolled over her cheeks and down to her chin. She wasn’t enough. She wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t smart enough. She wasn’t… She just wasn’t enough. So she knelt in the dirt and leaves and sticks and let the tears of frustration and helplessness fall. She let the fear and the hopelessness run out of her in those hot tears of shame. She cried and let them fall until her eyes were swollen and gritty. Until her throat was so tight that it was hard to breathe and it hurt to swallow. She stayed there, kneeling in the dirt, her muscles limp and soft, as she tried to pull herself back together.
She did what she could to push the voices aside. The ones that called her a coward. The ones that said she was useless. The ones that named her trash and unimportant. The ones that kept stressing just how much she was going to fail. The ones that told her she was going to lose everything that had ever been important to her. It took so much effort to shove all of that noise aside. Almost too much effort. She was spent and exhausted by the time she dragged herself to her feet.
It took Herculean effort to drag her heavy feet across the ground until she could step inside of the cabin. She was drained, so lifeless that it almost felt like she was merely a shadow of herself. She stared around the interior of the cabin, at the brightly woven tapestries that decorated the walls and brought warmth to the space, both the physical and the emotional kind. She stared at the plump couch that was very obviously older than she was and the chairs that were mismatched but well loved. It was home. As much as they had a home anymore. She’d kept the five of them out of the hands of hunters for two years. She could keep doing it until someone found a way to change the world for the better. She had to. Any other option was simply not allowed.
”You can do it, sis. You can do anything you set your mind to. It was Harper’s voice once again. This time, there was no coldness in it. No accusation. This time, it was filled with warmth and love. And hope. Something she needed desperately.
“Yes,” she whispered, letting that small kernel of hope fill her with its golden warmth. “Yes, I can.”
Tonight, after eating whatever it was Dare was going to call dinner, she would sit her girls down and they would make plans. It was time to stop running. It was time to stop hiding. It was time to do what it was they’d been training for. It was time for them to rise up and be X-Men. It was time to change the world. Together.
That thought lifted her spirits, saw some sense of purpose filling her again. It made the ache in her hands and her arms and in her heart seem unimportant. She couldn’t wait for tonight. But first, before the others got back, she needed to shower the sweat and dirt and sorrow off her skin. What better way to face their new purpose than with a clean body and a clean mind?
~*~
The cabin was quiet and so was her mind. The shower had gone a good, long way toward helping her settle the chaos inside and find some kind of peace. She couldn’t change the things that had already happened, but she could change the things that had yet to come. And that was the plan. She was fairly certain most everyone would be on board with the ideas that were stewing quietly at the back of her brain. She’d settled at the kitchen table with a pad of paper and a pen and she was pulling those thoughts out of her head and putting them into some kind of order. Maybe organizing them would help her make sense of all of them.
She was in the middle of getting down one thought that seemed particularly thin and wispy when the door to the cabin slammed open at force and hit the wall loudly. It was enough to startle her, making her pen jump and slide across the paper in fright. She looked up to find that two members of her family had entered the cabin. Nicole’s face was blank, though a hint of tension showed at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Wren, on the other hand, seemed to be seething with rage and, for a moment, she had the thought that it was a good thing that Wren was wearing a wig, otherwise her hair might be floating.
“Why the fuck didn’t you answer your goddamn phone, Haley?” The question came laden with the anger present on Wren’s face, the voice sharp and biting. She set her pen down and rose from her chair in order to face the other two women with a touch of disapproval on her face.
“Maybe you should remember where you are, Wren.” she responded pointedly.
“And maybe you should answer your fucking phone,” the other woman shot back. She swore the temperature in the cabin’s main room inched up a little bit.
“Dare, calm down.”
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” Dare retorted. Haley let her gaze slide toward Roxxy. She still looked calm, but more of the tension was leaking into her expression. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so calm, Roxxy.”
“What the hell is going on?” Haley asked, letting her voice settle into that lower register that belonged to Icon. Her gaze shifted back and forth from one face to the next. Then she realized that there should have been two more faces there. She knew the routine was for one of the girls to keep the vehicle and then pick up the others as they got off work. They didn’t come back to the cabin until everyone was off. She frowned as a bad feeling skittered its way down her spine. “Dare? Roxxy? Where are Morgan and Jehnna?”
“We went to pick them up after their shifts were over. According to a coworker, Jehnna went to a local coffee shop on her lunch break. She never came back. And Morgan stepped outside for a quick break. She told one of the girls she works with that there were too many people in the diner and she needed to catch her breath,” Roxxy explained softly. Dare was glaring, rage burning in her eyes.
“And did you try looking for them?” Haley asked, that part of her brain that worked out plans and problems taking control.
“Of course we did,” Roxxy replied. Emotion rolled across her face, a mixture of remorse and fear and displeasure that told Haley more than she needed to know. “There were too many scents, Haley. I couldn’t find Morgan and Jehnna’s scents. But nothing else that was remotely familiar. I didn’t smell anything metallic to suggest weapons. And I didn’t smell anything similar at either the coffee shop or the diner. I thought I caught a faint whiff of something I recognized, but it was brief and fleeting. I can’t even say it wasn’t desperation that made me think I smelled it.”
“Were there any clues to be found at the diner and the coffee shop?” Haley asked, trying to slot together as much information as she could. Maybe, if she could do that, she could find some kind of hint or clue to tell her what had happened. To explain just what the hell was going on.
“The barista at the coffee shop said Jehnna was sitting by herself at a table by the window. And that some hot blonde wandered over to her table and struck up a conversation,” Dare told her. The way the woman’s fingers kept flexing suggested she was hanging on to her control by a thread. “Then the barista got busy with a customer. When she looked back, both Jehnna and the hot guy were gone. There wasn’t anything personal left behind. And Roxxy couldn’t get a clean scent from the guy. It was almost like he hadn’t been there.”
Haley frowned. That didn’t make any sense. How could Roxxy not have picked up a clean scent? Every person left a unique scent behind. Roxxy had told her once a long time ago. It was how she could track her classmates when she wasn’t paying attention to them. “And Morgan?” she questioned, fear tightening in her gut.
“No one saw anything,” Dare said. There was disgust in her voice. And, buried beneath that and the rage, was fear. “One of her coworkers did say she saw some guy hanging around. She said he came into the diner about an hour into Morgan’s shift. He ordered coffee and not much more, but he left a big tip on the table. She said he was there when Morgan mentioned she was taking a break. But when she went out to deliver food to a table, she said the dude was gone.”
Haley frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Nothing we’ve heard about the hunters suggest that they would work in such a way. They’re open in their confrontations. They wouldn’t have lain in wait the way the guy at the diner did. And they wouldn’t have struck up a conversation with Jehnna like the guy at the coffee shop did.”
“And that doesn’t make any sense,” Roxxy said, her voice heavy with confusion. “Who other than hunters would have any reason to grab Morgan and Jehnna?”
“We’re assuming that these are people who know who they are.” It was the only thing that made sense, but Haley didn’t like the implications. Because it was no coincidence that two of her friends were grabbed in broad daylight by two different men and it happened without any kind of confrontation. “It is entirely possible that they were taken by strangers.”
“Haley.” Roxxy took a breath and paced across the floor of the cabin before coming back. It was a sure sign she was upset with how things were going. “That doesn’t make sense at all. Because that would mean this was premeditated and that there might be other ominous reasons for these men to have taken Morgan and Jehnna.”
There was silence a moment. Then Dare snarled out a curse and light and heat flooded the cabin as the wood on the hearth exploded into flames. “Find them for me, Roxxy, and I’ll be sure there’s nothing left of them for the authorities to identify.”
“You know we can’t risk it, Dare,” Haley responded gently.
“Fuck that noise. This is our family,” the pyrokinetic spat. “This is my family. I will not let some assholes destroy what you built. I will not let them hurt our family. I will scorch the earth and heaven and hell to keep you all safe.”
There was such vehement loyalty in Dare’s voice and Haley wondered what it was she’d done to ever deserve that. As far as she knew, she’d only fucked up time and time again in her capacity as the team’s leader. In all honesty, they hadn’t even been together as a team all that long. They’d spent more of their time together on the run than actually being a team. Haley swallowed the words that wanted to tumble out of her mouth, the ones that would proclaim she didn’t deserve such loyalty. She knew it would only hurt Dare’s feelings. Instead, she tried to get her brain locked on to some kind of master plan.
“Despite the way things look, we need to go look for them.” Haley glanced from Dare to Roxxy. “It could all be coincidence, though I don’t think it is.”
“Someone should be here. In case the two of them show up,” Roxxy suggested. Dare nodded in agreement.
“I’ll take Morgan. I can try to use our link,” Dare told them. She didn’t sound confident in using the link, but Haley said nothing. She had to believe that Dare would find a way.
“Then I’ll look for Jehnna. Maybe I’ll catch a hint of her scent somewhere near the coffee shop and it will give me a trail to follow,” Roxxy said. Haley nodded at them. Their logic was sound, no matter how much Haley’s gut was telling her that they’d only be going through the motions at this point. And then there was the idea of just sitting around, waiting. She wasn’t good with doing nothing. But Roxxy was right. Someone needed to be here just in case. And both Roxxy and Dare had advantages that Haley did not. She didn’t like being the one left behind, but she would do it. She knew it was a good idea.
“Where do you plan on looking?” Haley asked. She went to the shelf against the wall and pulled the map of the area she’d purchased when they’d moved in. Spreading it across the table, she motioned the other two over so that they could study the map in detail. Twin Falls wasn’t a huge city, but it wasn’t small, either. The population was around thirty thousand. But Haley didn’t think it would be possible for two people to cover the entire town.
“I’m going back to the diner,” Dare responded. She put a finger on the map in roughly the same area where the diner was located. Then she traced a path away from the diner, toward an area of town that most people stayed away from. It wasn’t exactly a bad area, but it wasn’t exactly a good area, either. “I’ll go this way and see if I can’t find some hint as to where she’s at.”
Haley noted that Dare didn’t say anything about the strange man or Morgan being taken. She thought she could sense a touch of panic on Dare, but she couldn’t see it on the other woman’s face. Haley nodded, then turned to look at Roxxy. “I’ll go back to the coffee shop. Maybe I can get something there that will be useful. Perhaps one of the local businesses has a camera that caught something.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Haley nodded. She didn’t comment on the fact that Roxxy sounded like she didn’t believe she’d find a camera that caught something. They needed to hold on to the hope that they’d find something, that they’d find their missing family, because the alternative was too horrible to contemplate. “Keep your phones on you at all times. Call me if something happens. Anything. Do not engage in anyone who gives you a bad vibe. Just get the fuck out of there and come home. We can figure it out after.”
Haley let her gaze slide from Dare to Roxxy and back, her green gaze sharp and filled with just how serious she was. She half-expected rebellion from Dare, but the woman simply nodded her head. The grim look on her face suggested she wasn’t exactly happy with Haley’s instructions. But Haley didn’t worry that Dare would ignore it. She knew well what could happen if someone took her captive. They all knew. “Alright. I will keep my phone right beside me. Call me the minute you find anything. Or if things are going tits up. I’ll come running.”
Both Dare and Roxxy nodded and turned for the door. Even before they could move, Faye appeared before the door leading outside. She was fuzzy and static-y. Haley was reminded of the holo-image from the first Star Wars movie, when Princess Leia was asking Obi-Wan for help. Faye blipped and fritzed and generally didn’t become solid. And while that was worrying enough, the look on her face had the hairs on the back of Haley’s neck standing on end.
“Faye?” Dare asked, taking a step toward Morgan’s double. Faye hadn’t made many appearances of late. Maybe she understood the danger they would be in if she did. Maybe she’d found something better to do. But her appearance was unusual and the panic she wore sent a ripple of unease down Haley’s spine.
“Dare. Don’t go,” Faye began, her voice a whisper when it should have been louder. More forceful. The image of her spazzed again, her form temporarily disappearing before appearing once more. This time, she was even more insubstantial.
“Faye? What’s going on? Where’s Morgan?” Dare asked, crossing the cabin floor in a handful of strides. She reached out to take hold of Faye’s shoulders, but her hands passed right through the other woman. “Faye? What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
“You can’t go,” Faye said, her eyes wide and filled with fear. Or maybe disbelief. She let her gaze shift around the room so that it touched on both Haley and Roxxy, then she shifted her attention back to Dare. The smile she offered the other woman was filled with sadness. “I love you, Dare. Don’t go. Its—”
Faye disappeared before she could deliver her message. Dare stared at the spot where Faye had stood a moment, then turned back to Haley. “She’s gone. I can’t feel her. I can’t feel Morgan.” For a moment, Dare looked lost. She looked like she was going to crumple. Then her eyes blazed with anger and fire and she tore out the door. Haley glanced at Roxxy, who frowned but followed after their friend. Another finger of fear traced its way up Haley’s spine.
The door slammed shut behind Roxxy. The sound was loud and sharp, like a gun shot. And Haley was assaulted by the certainty that time had just run out.
For all of them.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-08-28 01:34 am (UTC)Poor Haley... she is her own worst critic 100% of the time. I do love that in this verse Scott wasn't on board per se but was not a complete asshole. lol I feel like she's probably downplaying a lot of the work she did put in because... well, it wasn't enough, right?
I kinda want to see what's in that notepad. What was she planning to do? Start a revolution? That would kind of be awesome. lol
Oh boy... mysterious men are never a good sign. The anger and frustration from Dare and Roxxy are palpable and the slide back into Haley's belief that she's failed makes perfect sense. FAYE! ALWAYS JUST SAY THE IMPORTANT PART FIRST! god damn. LMAO
Great work, hun. Can't wait to see what's next.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-08-28 02:44 am (UTC)i can only imagine just how much Haley puts on her own shoulders. and in a situation that feels as hopeless as the one they're in, its all too easy to say 'i failed' and 'i am not enough' even though she's done the very best she could to just keep everyone safe and together. two years is a long time to keep hidden and keep together when darker forces are trying to close in. she needs to give herself some credit. and a very big break.
honestly, i'm pretty sure Haley was plotting a way to bring the whole world to its knees. and i have no doubt she and the girls could do it.
no. mysterious men are never a good sign. and it is very likely that both Dare and Roxxy are having their own moments of feeling like they failed. yeah. Faye should always say the important part first. but it wouldn't be Faye if she got right to the point. she and Morgan are a lot alike, yeah?
glad you enjoyed it, bb. i'm eager to see what comes next, too! <3
(no subject)
Date: 2026-09-07 11:13 pm (UTC)And poor Haley! So, so hard on herself. So much pressure to be perfect. She's kept them all safe for two years when the world wanted to kill them. That's not nothing. And, yeah, it would be BAD if some government turned them into weapons. Especially Dare. Ye gods.
Kudos. I enjoyed it muchly, hon. *smooches*
(no subject)
Date: 2026-09-08 10:29 pm (UTC)yeah. Haley has been bashing herself up one side and down the other about all the choices made. and considering that she has kept them safe for two years, she's done a hell of a lot more than she gives herself credit for. it would be so super bad if the government (any government) got their hands on them. but, yes. Dare in the wrong hands... leeeeeeeeeeet us not think about that one too much.
i'm glad you enjoyed, sweetie. thanks for the kind words! <3