Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark- Cycle 3

Aug 26, 2014 23:37

Title: Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark
Fandom: Young Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard
Rating: T+
Pairing: Billy/Teddy, Loki/Teddy, Billy/Loki
Warnings: suicide, temporary character death
Summary: Billy has lived this morning too many times. At least he's not alone.

cycle 1 and 2 - cycle 3 - cycle 4 - cycle 5- cycle 6- cycle 7 - cycle 8 - cycle 8 (part 2) - cycle 9 - cycle 9 (part 2) - epilogue

Last Time:
The tendrils of Mother’s power aren’t the white of snow or clouds. There is no shadow, no texture, no form to them. They are the white of blank paper, unbleached cloth: empty, but with infinite possibilities (none of them good).

The tendrils engulf Billy and drain him dry.

Billy’s body does limp and falls

falls

falls

CYCLE 3: DAY ONE

Billy’s body hits the ground. His head bounces against the floor and his eyes open in surprise.

He is alive. He has eyes to open. He-

Not a dream. Not a vision. He’s died, twice, and came back to this moment in time.

This Time:

It seems no matter where they headed from the Kaplan’s apartment in Chelsea, Mother will catch them.

Billy takes Loki’s offered hand and squirms out of his cell made of white and nothingness. He takes a moment to look at the cheerful face of the boy who betrayed him and drove him to suicide in one life, the boy who he, in turn, died betraying in another.

“Let’s make a suitably hasty escape,” Loki says, and Billy follows.

Upon arriving at Joe’s Diner, Billy dutifully pays off the manager and slumps into a booth, grateful for a moment to rest after all the action of the past day (all three of them).

The next thing he knows, Teddy is shaking him awake with that old concerned look on his face.

“B, are you ok?” he asks quietly, and Billy doesn’t answer because seriously, what kind of question is that? All Billy feels is numbness, dread, and a kind of bone-deep exhaustion as he turns to face Loki, the God of Fucking Shit Up.

“Can you fix this?” Billy asks.

Loki contorts his face into an exaggerated ‘thinking’ expression.

“If I can figure out how Mother is controlling them, maybe,” Loki says, “but while I have the skill to do so, I am but a child, and my body hasn’t the power for a spell of that magnitude.” He spreads his arms wide as if to say ‘look at me, I’m tiny’.

Billy sighs, and because the one thing he really wants at this point is for everything to stop, he says,
“What if you had my power?”

Loki freezes, and a manic grin blooms on his face. “Why Master Kaplan, I do believe that might be enough.”

Teddy looks from one boy to the other, eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, what? Billy, you can’t trust him. He’s Loki,” he says as if that explains everything, and it really does. Billy ignores him. There will be time to explain after they defeat Mother, and if they don’t, well. It won’t matter what he explains.

Billy blinks slowly and looks down at the table. “I’m tired,” he says, “Can I sleep first?”

Loki looks around the diner, inspecting each of the other customers, “Ah, well that depends on how fast Mother finds us and takes control of our fellow diners, doesn’t it?” Billy groans.

“Look sharp, Wiccan, you can rest in the realm of the dead!” Loki declares, but Billy just rolls his eyes and rests his head in his hands.

“I wish.”

Billy’s head slumps onto the table, and slowly, his eyes close.

“We’re not trusting you with Billy’s magic.”

“Live a little!”

Billy falls asleep there, to the sound of Teddy and Loki arguing.

He wakes up maybe fifteen minutes later, to the sound of Mother’s goo-parents attacking. The manager and one of the waiters have become infected sometime while Billy was asleep, but the rest of the customers and employees seem completely nonchalant about the attacking group of monstrous parents.

They’re surrounded, and the diner makes a very confined battlefield.

So Teddy breaks down a wall to compensate. Unfortunately, it turns out that wall was load-bearing, and the ceiling collapses on everyone, including the innocent diners.

“Shit!” Billy yells, throwing up his arms to protect his face. He’s still too tired and too discouraged to try his own magic, but luckily Loki has no such issues, as a muttered Norse word envelops Billy and Loki in green light just as the drywall, wood, and plaster falls onto their table.

When the light disperses, they are halfway across the city, inside a club that Billy barely recognizes from the first cycle. A bouncer in a tee-shirt asks to see some ID, and Billy looks around blankly for Teddy. He isn’t there.

“Teddy,” Billy hisses urgently to Loki, “where’s Teddy!”

Loki, busy creating magical fake IDs, spares him a glance and says casually, “Oh. We must have left him at the diner.”
“What! We need to go back for him!”

Loki gives him a patronizing smile, which should not be possible on a face that young. “And what will we do there? Be captured by Mother again? You’re still exhausted and I’m not even sure I could manage another teleportation spell, let alone anything greater.”

“I’ll give you my power,” Billy offers desperately. “We just- we need to get back there and help Teddy.” He knew this was a bad idea. But even if he has to go around again, that is preferable to than living in a world without Teddy.

“Ok,” Loki agrees, “That could work.” And he gives up on completing the fake IDs. “We’ll just be going,” he mentions to the bouncer, who is still squinting at Billy suspiciously. Loki smiles at Billy like he has done something sneaky. “Any time now.”

“I want to give my power to Loki, I want to give my power to Loki, IwanttogivemypowertoLoki, IWANTTOGIVEMYPOWERTOLOKI-“

There is a rush, as if Billy had been full of ice water this whole time and had never known it, but now that ice water is cascading down his arms and out his hands, leaving not warmth in its place, but numbness. Billy breathes out carefully.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Loki says as he studies his hands, dancing with the blue sparks of Billy’s magic.

“Before you run off, save Teddy,” Billy demands through gritted teeth.

Loki huffs. “If you insist-“ and he disappears, leaving Billy alone in a dimly-lit night club.

Billy never gets the chance to figure out whether Loki would do as he asked, because twenty minutes later, as Billy runs down unfamiliar streets hoping to get to Teddy in time, the world dissolves from under him

And he falls-

falls

falls

CYCLE 4: DAY ONE

Billy’s body hits the ground. His head bounces against the floor and his eyes open in surprise.

He is alive. He has eyes to open. He-

He hadn’t died, that time. So why is he back here again?

be careful making wishes fanfic, young avengers, fanfic

Previous post Next post
Up