Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Trying to maintain an archive while being down two members proved to be more challenging than Jon anticipated. After giving constant assurances to Tim and Sasha that yes, he could keep up with both researching and recording statements, he found himself completely swamped in work. Now he found himself marching back to his office after tasking himself to go search for several books discussing the topic of spiders. 

God, how he wished he could push this assignment on Martin. At least he'd be able to distance himself a bit more from the idea of those nasty things. And instead of him listing those horrid facts about arachnids to Jon, he would go to Michael instead and go on about... well, Jon never put much thought into what, exactly. It wasn't like he stuck around them enough to find out what they chattered on about anyways.
But... After struggling for about a month now to keep up with everything, he did have to admit that Martin and Michael's presence at the Institute did make a difference after all. 

Though Tim more than made up for lightening the mood at work, there was a certain charm that the duo had that couldn't be replicated. It was a shame that they both had to take time off for matters that were both concerning in their own right. 

Maybe he'd be more considerate to them when they came back. 

Jon's face scrunched up a bit at the thought and shook his head to clear that thought away. If he was sympathizing for Martin, that meant he definitely was going insane.
The Head Archivist's office door clicked shut. He stared down at yet another stack of papers that he was left to make sense of. With a heavy sigh, Jon slumped down in his chair and rubbed at his face. Not wanting to doddle any more than necessary, he shuffled some documents together. His finger hovered above the 'record' button from his tape recorder. Then a knock came at his door.
God, couldn't he have a moment of privacy?

Without waiting for an answer, Daisy came inside his office.
"Hey."
She greeted, not announcing herself. She wasn't exactly in the mood for small talk right now. Not that she ever was.
"Ah, Daisy! ...Did something happen? Has someone tried to break into the institute or steal anything?"
The man asked, visibly confused at her arrival. 

"No,not that I know of. And even if someone was, I'm not here to play bodyguard this time around. Something's up. You remember that, hm, Michael guy? The one I saved from literally being mauled by an avatar because he was too stupid to realize that taking a statement from someone feeding the Hunt was a bad idea?" 

"Uh--yeah, I do. Why, did anything happen to him afterwards? Is he okay?" Jon pressed, having a bad feeling about the situation. He knew Daisy and Michael were not exactly the closest, so if Daisy brought it up... Something must have happened.
"Well. I went to the hospital that I dropped him to back then. I asked if they had any patient under the name of Michael Shelley, described his wounds, etcetera, and they said that they released him just about last night. Don't you think it's weird how he did not send any messages to anyone? I would have gone to his home, but they didn't give me his address."
Daisy stated. Her job was to protect the people of the institute since she left the police. If she failed to protect one of them.... 

"Did you remember to check your phone?"

Jon blinked at that.
"I... Ah, no, actually."
When he saw Daisy roll her eyes, he took the hint to rectify that.
"Look, I'm not the most-- I'm not glued to my phone all the time, unlike some people." He tried to reason, fishing the device out from his desk drawer. 

"You can say Tim, it's fine."
Daisy said nonchalantly. With a huff, Jon clicked the power button and scanned over his notifications. A majority of it was just system updates and other miscellaneous things that he didn't bother to clear. Another healthy portion of them were messages primarily from Tim and Sasha that were likely just memes. But what ended up catching his eye was an alert of an unopened voicemail from Michael. 

"Huh." 

"What?"
Daisy padded closer to Jon's desk, trying to get a look at the screen. Jon opened up his inbox before glancing up to the officer.
"Michael left me a voicemail yesterday." That earned him a curious look from Daisy.
"Well, go on then. Open it." Of course, that was the most rational option. 

Yet Jon hesitated to do so. 

Something about it didn't seem quite right, for some reason.
"Jon."
Daisy says again, and it's enough to snap him back to reality. 

"Yes, right."
His finger pressed the play button, and the beginning of the message instantly made the two listeners go pale.

"JON!! Jon, I'm begging you, please pick up!"
He looked up at Daisy, who shared an equally as uneasy expression.
"It's Martin, he was-- the corruption, it -- ack!'"
The sound of retching rang through the room, and Jon could feel his own chest begin to heave. That's when he was able to notice something else: buzzing. 

There was the sound of a scuffle, and Michael screamed in protest somewhere farther away from the microphone.
"I'm going to die, Jon! Martin isn't himself anymore--"  

"That's enough."  

The recording ended immediately after that.

"That..."
Daisy took a few seconds before speaking coherently again.
"That was Martin's voice at the end." 

"Oh,no." Jon said, the realization dawning on him.
"That's--"
Daisy suddenly grabbed Jon's shoulder tightly, not leaving him any opportunity to make any sort of commentary on the situation. Time was obviously not a luxury they could afford wasting right now.
"We're going to that Michael guy’s place right now ."
It almost sounded like a threat, but in this context, it was mostly something they had to do in an emergency.
They quickly exited Jon’s office, not bothering to close the door behind them.

Tim and Sasha saw the two of them rush past them
"HEY, BOSS! WHAT'S THE RUSH?" 

Daisy was running ahead, and Jon only turned his head to yell: "GET THE CO2 READY!" before he and Daisy exited the building.
They made a beeline to Daisy's car, and as they closed the doors behind them, its engine rumbled to life. Daisy managed to exit the Institute’s parking lot in record time, tires screeching as she made a sharp turn onto the road. 

"Give me the address!” She exclaimed, and Jon, not even having the time to put his seat belt on, scurried to go through his contact list and was able to find Michael's address. Daisy swerved the car so suddenly that it almost sent Jon flying to the other side of the car. 

They both knew it was already too late for Michael. Martin, too, most likely, but in a different sense than to his friend. If they let Martin run off, who knows who else could be attacked? 

Jon noticed the fire extinguisher at the back of her car. Daisy managed to bring them up before he had the chance to.
" Yes , I have prepared ahead of time. I don't exactly want to be eaten by bugs."
They arrived at Michael's home in a record time, Jon grabbed the fire extinguisher, and Daisy, her gun. She tried the knob at first, but it was locked.
"Maybe Michael left his key under the rug--?" 

Before Jon could check it for himself, Daisy had already broken down the door with her shoulder. She hissed, massaging her sore shoulder as she hurriedly stepped in.

 "I thought it would be less solid."

The two were now inside Michael's house. Daisy had already her gun out, alert at all times and scanning their surroundings.
"Watch your step."
She ordered as Jon nearly stepped on a puddle of… she didn't know, actually. Some sort of gross, unidentifiable liquid.
"Augh-- w-what the hell is that?"
Jon interjected, carefully stepping away. 

There was a huge pool of that odd liquid against the inside of the door and on the floor of the entrance.
"No idea, but it's definitely not normal blood. Probably best if we keep clear of that stuff." She noticed the dark puddle had a trail coming from it. Did someone try dragging themselves to the door and fail to escape?

"Keep the extinguisher ready. Don't lower your guard."
She warned, and proceeded to the rest of Michael's house,her gun pointed toward her. They arrived at the living room. 

It was an absolute mess. But Michael nor Martin were anywhere to be seen. 

There was more of that black goo seeping from the coffee table and onto the rug. Many more puddles could be spotted across the room. Many signs of struggle, too. Daisy examined the room, noticing the broken mugs next to the couch. Was Michael having tea with someone before being attacked? 

In the meantime, Jon spotted something on the floor.
"Found anything?"
She asked, and Jon kneeled next to something.
"I think I found Michael's phone."
She crouched beside him and eyed it carefully. The device appeared cracked, and the same dark slime present all over the screen. The battery appeared to have been dislodged from the height it was dropped, Daisy concluded.
"Looks busted. Probably best if we dont touch it. That slime is fucking everywhere."
She gagged a bit.
"Fuck, I didn’t realize how bad the smell was. What the hell?"
Indeed, there was a strong smell of sweet rot floating in the room. 

For some reason, the smell made her think of a decomposing corpse mixed with that of honey jars.
"I...I don't think we'll find much more there." 

"Should have brought some gasoline and matches as well to clean this place up." Daisy commented, lowering her gun.
"Daisy, you can't just--" 

" Jon, " she pressed, "They're gone . Both of them! ‘Least we could do is to prevent the Corruption from spreading. Come on, let's pack up and warn the others before the Institute gets attacked again."
Jon was about to nod along and follow Daisy out, his chest tight with remorse and guilt. If only he had checked up more on Michael and Martin,maybe it wouldn't have-- Jon came to a halt when he spotted something..yellow near a door he had not noticed before. 

"Jon?"
Daisy called out,noticing that Jon stopped following her.
"What are you doing?"
She saw Jon kneeling next to a door that looked unused, and he picked up something she didn't recognize at first. Jon held it a bit higher for her to see. It was the empty and dry shedding of what appeared to belong to a bee. 

"What the hell?"
Daisy said. She was aware the most prominent signs of the Corruption were worms, not bees. Jon remained silent and pressed his ear against the old wooden door.
"Im hearing... a faint buzzing sound, I think?" 

"You think, or are you sure?" 

"I mean that I'm sure! Don't speak so loudly, please . I think we aren't as alone as we thought we'd be." Jon stood back up, and widened his eyes when looking up at the ceiling. Above them were a bunch of honeycombs that seemed to be sprouting out from the small open space on the top of the door.
They looked at each other. The look on their face clearly said "as much as I hate it, we're gonna need to go in there." 

They indeed, might not be alone, after all.

Daisy let out a low growl that was a little too animalistic for Jon's liking.
"Right... On my signal, I'll open the door and you ready the extinguisher, got it?"

Jon gave her a nod, and Daisy noted how he was shaking. "Breathe." She instructed quietly. 

"R-right... I- Sorry..."
After taking a deep breath, he gripped the fire extinguisher closer to himself with sweaty hands. "Just let me know when."

With a curt nod, Daisy grabbed hold of the door knob with one hand. The other gripped on the handle of her gun tight enough to feel her pulse rage against it.

Deep down, something found that thought to be thrilling.

She took a deep breath to slow her heart.

"Alright, here we go."
Daisy muttered to Jon, now twisting the knob carefully. It gave way with little issue, and she eased the door open as quietly as she could.

Something that seemed awfully like honey strung itself along the opening before gravity let it sink down. Jon made a quiet noise of disgust.

He nearly gagged next. As the door swung open, the smell of sugary death wafted out of the room, and Jon made to cover his nose with his shirt.
"Good Lord..." Daisy breathed. "Jon, are you seeing this?"

The Archivist shifted to get a better view of the room and went rigid.

The first thing he noted was how similar it looked to the inside of a beehive. Hexagonal structures fought to take the wallpaper's place, and a dark substance that had a similar consistency to honey dripped freely from the ceiling and walls. The window at the opposite end from them had obscured the outside world with blackened curtains. 

Upon closer inspection, Jon found that the window panes themselves were entirely hidden behind even more honeycomb.

Occasionally, bees would flit out from the pockmarked structure, and Jon cringed.

Christ... There were so many bees. Some flew out of the door when Daisy opened it, though most of them preferred to stick close to the walls or dart around the room aimlessly. In any case, it was deeply unsettling to both of the intruders.

His eyes wandered around before looking toward the back left corner of the room. There was a bookshelf, no longer housing books, but insects. And beyond that... Jon's breath hitched. A bed.

An occupied bed.

It was hard to make out their details, but the silhouettes were distinguishable enough for Jon to know who (or what, he added grimly,) they were.
A large, well-rounded figure sat on the stained mattress, leaning down to press its face to the other. Additionally, a lanky body was draped on the bed, the head appearing to be cradled in the former's criss crossed legs. 

They were, without a doubt, Martin and Michael.

"D-Daisy?"

"I see them."
She spoke lowly. The officer gave the room one last cursory glance before she risked taking a step inside.
Jon flinched at the sight, expecting thousands of bees to suddenly be angered, but nothing happened. He turned his gaze back to the other two figures, now noticing that Martin appeared to be combing through Michael's hair absently.
They weren't aware of Jon and Daisy just yet.
"You got that extinguisher ready?"
Daisy asked while taking another tentative step.

"Y-yeah..."
Jon stuttered out, following a step behind her. His breath fought to pick up speed, but he forced his panic down with a swallow.
"Good."
Daisy took proper hold of her gun and readied it at one of the bodies. The cacophony of buzzing caused a sense of unease to root itself in the pit of Jon's stomach.
"Because you're about to use it."

Daisy was well aware that they had to use the element of surprise if they wanted to put them to rest.

But she had a feeling Jon was going to be hesitant.

They couldn't screw that up, otherwise, she knew this was going to cost them their life.

Their voices were low, in order to not alert what was once Martin and Michael of their presence.

They seemed… happy together.

Were they always that close before and were too busy ignoring them to notice? Or was it the results of the Corruption, making them drunk on love and not caring about anything else, aside from consuming others in order to feed their new patron?

Perhaps if Jon had paid more attention to them, especially Martin, perhaps he could have prevented them from becoming a husk of their former self.

As Jon felt guilt panging over his head for being so dismissive of his assistants for so long, the figures on the bed moved again, and he could see, despite the darkness, that Michael had raised his hand to meet Martin's face.

He was softly caressing his cheek, and Martin leaned into his touch, putting his own hand above Michael's.

Jon felt like he had no right to take that away from them.

More bees seemed to gather around them, as if admiring the sweet gestures they were doing to each other.

But Daisy started to get impatient,visibly aware of Jon's hesitation at the sight. She wasn't going to let him hesitate.

"Jon"
She hissed, low enough for the two others to not hear her.
"What are you waiting for?"

Was it her imagination, or did the bees start to get agitated around the bed? She wasn't about to sit around all day to find out.

"I, ah, I just--"
Jon's grip on the fire extinguisher's trigger briefly loosened. Daisy did not like that.
"I-I mean… don't they look pretty harmless right now? Maybe it's best if we just… leave."

"Jon, are you-- are you fucking kidding me? Are you hearing yourself right now? Look, I don't care if you feel guilty about the fact you could have saved them if you talked to them more before. Because right now, it's far too late for the both of them, for crying out loud!"
She gestured to the two of them with her gun.
"Just look at them! If it were any other avatars of the Corruption, we both know you would not have hesitated to end them right then and there. So pull yourself together and help me put them to rest, it’s the least we can do for them."
"I'm-- sorry."

Daisy was about to add something, but the buzzing suddenly became louder, as if the Hive surrounding them suddenly became aware of their presence.

"Fuck."

Daisy growled; she was most likely angry at Jon, readying her only weapon toward the ex-humans before them.

They had stopped coddling each other and had already stood up, now aware of the intruders. Michael still, however, had his arms wrapped around Martin's neck. The two of them stared at Jon and Daisy, dead in the eye.
“What are you doing in our Nest?"

"You'll lower your weapons if you know what's good for the both of you."

"Fuck you! You don't get to order me around." 

Daisy snarled back, locking her gun on Martin.

"The Hive does not love either of you, you know? We considered trying to teach you how to accept Her, but it’s clear that you are nowhere near being worthy enough to receive her love."
“It rather seems like you and the institute are working against her. We can’t let that happen.”
Michael added, eyes still fixated on the duo. It’s almost like Martin and Michael were in perfect sync, sharing the same thoughts.
Daisy must have felt the threat behind his words, because before Martin was able to raise a hand in her direction, a clear shot echoed through the room; Daisy’s bullet found its way through Martin’s chest.
“Huh?...”
Martin looked bewildered at his own wound, a visible hole encased in his chest with a dark liquid seeping through the fabric,the stain was growing by the second.
The insects beside them were starting to act up, as if in equal pain as their hive.
Michael had already released Martin’s neck, visibly alarmed by the sight.
Before Jon or Daisy could do or say anything, Michael turned his head sharply at them,totally enraged.

“What have you DONE?! ” Michael hissed out,fangs out, placing a hand over Martin’s gushing wound protectively, while Martin still appeared to be under shock, not realizing yet he would not die from a gunshot.
Old human survival instincts die hard,it seems.

“ You’re going to pay for hurting us .”
Michael’s growls were drowned out by a deafening buzz, a sign that the bees were now attacking.
Michael did not even need to raise his hand, as the bugs already knew what he was thinking.
“Shit.”
Daisy muttered, a cloud of man-eating bees circled the duo, obviously hungry for flesh and blood.
She covered her eyes with one of her arms in order to prevent the bees from digging into her eyeballs viciously. She was flailing her other arm around to shake the dangerous insects off, the persistants one were already biting through her clothes and soon reaching her skin.
“JON! EXTINGUISHER, NOW!”

Jon did not need to be told twice.
With a firm tug, he pulled away the pin and left it to clatter on the floor. He aimed the extinguisher’s hose toward the duo. His grip on the handle trembled.
“JON! DO IT!”

If his voice were to cooperate with him at that moment, he would have snapped back at Daisy, but instead he settled for squeezing the handle, ignoring the many bites from the bees his body was currently enduring.
He had to be fast or else nothing would be left of their bodies.

At that same moment, he saw Michael rise from the bed, glaring at the two with murderous intent.
“ STOP--! ” 

Michael never got to finish his sentence.
In an instant, CO2 flooded out from the extinguisher and began to drown the approaching insects in a deadly fog.
Jon waved the hose around the room, determined to ward both the swarm and his previous coworkers far from him.

Daisy ushered him to back up and he was more than willing to oblige.
He’d only started using the extinguisher moments ago, but the CO2 was already making him a bit lightheaded. But that was nothing in comparison to how it affected the rest of the room’s occupants.

Something screamed from beyond the fog, and the harsh buzzing began to get quieter. Jon didn’t dare let up on the extinguisher’s handle.
Daisy shot blindly in front of her, the bullet grazing Michael’s head as Martin had snatched his arm and pulled him away from its trajectory.

Jon could barely hear or even register the words he was hearing, but he could clearly tell that the two husks were talking to each other in a very panicked way.
Jon was confidently approaching them,swaying the hose around him, spewing more of the white poison.
The insects were falling by the hundreds, he thought, as he could feel the tiny dead bodies crushing and gushing under his shoes, stepping on a floor covered with bees.
Through the heavy fog, Jon was able to hear the sound of something being torn, quickly leading to the light of the outside world piercing through a window,and discern something being thrown at the latter, the sound of broken glass echoing through the room.

“They’re escaping!”
Daisy shouted, having removed her arm slightly from her eyes.

“ Do not let them escape Jon!”

As to emphasize her point, she aims her gun for the two who were already trying to climb out the window, ignoring the remaining shards slicing at their limbs as they went through.
Daisy shot one, two, four times, and most of the bullets landed on the wall, some landing on one of the avatar’s legs, given the shriek emitted from one of them.
Before Jon was able to approach them and spray more of the toxic foam directly on them, they had already hurriedly disappeared from the room.

They had escaped.

Daisy would have chased them herself, given she still had many bullets left in her weapon, but the CO2 was getting to her brain and she had a hard time keeping her footing steady, her vision currently swimming.

Jon seeing that Daisy wouldn’t be able to do much,he ran to the broken window,briefly thinking he could give chase to them, but he realized the extinguisher he was carrying around was finally empty after intense use.
Before Jon could worry about the implications, he felt relieved realizing the loud buzzing from before had ceased, signaling there were no more dangerous bees that would aim to eat them alive anymore.

Jon and Daisy were now covered in white foam, both severely light headed and dizzy from breathing in so much CO2 in such a small space, a moderate amount of dead bees sticking to their body.
There were much more tiny corpses around them, and inside the room as a whole, which ended up becoming big piles.
The sight was rather macabre.

Now that their adrenaline rush was gone, Jon hissed in pain as he looked down at himself to observe the many horrifying holes covering his arms, some insects still dangling from his wounded flesh by the strength of their mandible despite being dead.
Jon grabbed them and pulled them off like leeches, grunting as he did so.
Daisy was much less noisy than him when she removed them from her own body. With a dejected look on her face, she went over to the window, breathing in the fresh air in an attempt to clear her head.

Naturally, there would not be any signs of Martin and Michael nearby. They weren’t stupid. Of course they would run away, far from this place.
With now Martin and Michael on the loose, it left the institute vulnerable and very open for any sort of attacks from the Corruption.
And with the way they attacked two of its avatars, Jon highly doubted they would simply hide away in their new “nest” as they call it and never return.
No. It was obvious that they would come back for revenge. Perhaps to try and get the others to join them.
“What are we going to do now?” Jon asked.

“First, probably go to a hospital. And second... Get more extinguishers. You told Tim to prepare while we left, right? With these twos wounded, I doubt they’ll attack soon, so that’ll give us some time to prepare when the Institute will be under attack.”

Daisy said sternly, Jon guessed she was still upset at him for being so hesitant in harming those who used to be his assistants.
As they headed back toward Daisy’s car, her only regret was to not have brought any gasoline with her. They had to leave the place as it was, with the rest of the combs untouched, as much as she hated this.
Jon closed the door of the car behind him, and Daisy silently started the engine.

As Jon looked in the distance to the direction in which Michael and Martin had fled, he couldn't help but have a horrible feeling about this entire situation.