Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

ZuZu’s Cafe isn’t normally a bustling place. Lots of foot traffic in and out (and Caleb absolutely counts each person that sets foot inside the shop), but people rarely stay in the small cafe for longer than it takes to pick up their order. It’s one of the reasons Caleb doesn’t mind coming here too much. Being out of the apartment sets him on edge no matter what, but Veth insists that he get out every once in a while. The usually quiet cafe is a good compromise. They can get some good coffee and some lunch and get a bit of work done and there are few enough people that a baseball cap drawn low is good enough to keep anyone from recognizing Caleb.

The operative word being usually.

Today there is a rowdy couple of college students in the opposite corner of the room, a young man with a pale X-shaped scar over one eyebrow that stands in stark contrast to his dark skin and a shock of white hair in the middle of his forehead, and a younger woman with a splash of freckles across her tan skin and vibrantly blue eyeliner swept artfully under her eyes. They have their laptops open and three empty coffee cups between them already, and they’re yelling at each other, though good naturedly. There’s another woman with them, looking disinterested in their argument, stealing food from their plates. Her undercut looks like it needs some touching up, and the hair that’s not shorn off is slowly escaping the messy bun she’s tied it up in.

Veth gives them an angry glare, and Caleb can’t help but agree. The freckled young woman meets Veth’s glare with a too cheery smile and a stuck out tongue.

And then her gaze settles on Caleb. He tugs his baseball cap down a little further and hitches his shoulders up around his ears in an attempt to hide himself further, but it seems the damage has already been done.

“Hey!” she exclaims, her face lighting up in recognition and something like glee. Caleb grimaces, sinking into his seat and glaring at Veth. “Hey you’re--”

“Jester!” the young man with the X scar interrupts loudly, fixing her with a withering look. “Leave the man be,” he continues more quietly. “He obviously doesn’t want the attention. Read the room.” The young woman, Jester, looks like a chastised child for a moment, though the man’s words sounded like nothing more than a gentle reminder. She bounces back quickly though, and is smiling and turning back to her conversation as though nothing had happened,

The other woman, though, does not have the tact the young man does, nor does she have the ability to take a fucking hint.

“Oh shit, she’s right. You’re the fucking Blitz!”

Caleb barely holds back a full body flinch. As it is, he still gives a visible wince, tugging at his collar like it’ll keep the prying eyes suddenly on him from seeing that she’s right.

“Beau!” the young man admonishes again, this time with a heat to back his words. “Christ on a bike, you two have no decency I swear to god--”

Caleb tunes him out after that, the sudden buzzing of other voices blurring with the ringing in his ears. The people at the counter who were previously engrossed in their phones have a new interest in Caleb and Veth, their whispering growing into loud muttering, to full blown conversation as though Caleb isn’t there at all.

He can feel his breathing start to pick up a bit, but he doesn’t have a chance to worry too much, before Veth pokes at his shoulder with one long finger.

“Caleb, come on. Let’s just leave,” she says softly.

Caleb focuses on the odd pitch of Veth’s voice, the almost accent that by no means should be calming, yet still is, and takes a breath. He steadies himself and closes the compiler he had had open on his laptop, tucks the computer away into his bag, watches as Veth puts their dishes in the return bin and gathers her own things. His hands are shaking, but if he puts them in his pockets he can ignore that. He doesn’t hazard the glance back at the table with Jester and Beau and the young man, or at the others at the counter who now have their attention fixed on him, even as it all starts to turn into a ruckus.

He hears the typical questions, all the things that circuited the tabloids and gossip shows for weeks after Ikithon’s arrest. Wonderings of where Astrid and Eodwulf are now, and what Caleb’s doing now, and have any of them had any contact with Trent, and have they considered returning to the Academy since they left it. It makes Caleb’s stomach churn, but he pushes that feeling far down, and simply leaves the cafe with Veth.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Veth’s hands flicker and half melt for a second, but she solidifies again, and he finally takes a full breath when they step out the door.

They’re halfway down the block when a hand hits Caleb’s shoulder.

He reacts on instinct, seizing the person’s wrist with one hand and summoning flames with the other, ready to blast the stranger in the face before he can even see who it is.

It’s the young man from the cafe, his eyes wide as he leans back, straining a bit in Caleb’s grasp. He’s eyeing the flames licking up Caleb’s wrist warily, and the air around the young man’s own hands is beginning to shimmer, Caleb notices.

So he’s powered too, huh? Interesting.

Caleb releases him, but doesn’t let the flames die.

“What do you want?” Veth snaps, before Caleb can even open his mouth.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to apologize for my companions, back there. Neither of them seem to have a brain to mouth filter. They just spout whatever comes to mind soon as they think it. I’m sorry they called attention to you like that, Mr. Ermendrud.”

“Don’t--” Caleb hisses without thinking. He sucks in a breath through his teeth and lets it out slowly. “Caleb is fine.”

“Of course, I’m sorry. Anyway, I apologize for their antics, really. They didn’t mean to cause any trouble.” The young man truly does look apologetic, but Caleb long ago learned that appearances are often deceiving. Still, he went through the trouble of chasing them half a block just to extend an apology. That has to count for something.

“Well thank you, for the apology, uh…”

“Fjord. The name’s Fjord.”

“Well thank you for the apology, Fjord. Think nothing of it. Have a nice day,” he says, politely but still short.

The flames die down and Caleb straightens out his shirt, and turns to walk away.

That’s when the screams ring out from a block or two over. Screams, followed by a loud crashing sound, and car horns, and that is definitely not good.

Caleb tenses, the adrenaline flooding his system causing sparks to dance across his skin. He sees Fjord’s eyes go wide as the sparks skitter across Caleb’s face. Caleb doesn’t take the time to reassure him about it. He slings off the button down he was wearing and takes it and his bag and tosses them at Fjord.

“Take these for me please. Go back to ZuZu’s, ask the cashier to hold onto those until I can return, and stay inside. Go!”

And Caleb takes off running in the direction of the screams. Veth shoves her things at Fjord too, who stands there looking completely dumbfounded, and takes off after Caleb.

“Caleb! What are you doing? I thought you hated this sort of thing! What are you doing?” she calls after him as she struggles to keep up.

He turns just a bit to answer her, and instead of the Veth he’s expecting, he comes face to face with a panther. The animal has the same septum piercing that Veth does, so Caleb knows it’s her, but it’s still jarring to be expecting a fairly short human being and come up with a massive animal instead.

He shakes his head. There’s another crash, and that one sounded less like stone collapsing and more like a car colliding with something. Caleb picks up the pace.

“I cannot just let people get hurt. I can at least help until the proper authorities arrive! I’m not getting involved. I’m just going to lend a hand,” he says to the panther, because that really is all he is going to do. He doesn’t want to make this a hero thing, but this sounds like something big, and if it’s left alone, it’ll only get worse. He can help out a few civilians and leave when the cops or a proper Powered Response Team shows up.

“Is this even legal?” the panther screeches in Veth’s voice, and Caleb blinks at how strange that is before he can respond properly.

“I’m technically still a licensed Powered Responder. If the authorities show up, turn into a cat and leave. Or better yet, do not get involved. It is dangerous.”

Caleb didn’t think that panthers could look incredulous, but he is proven wrong at that exact moment with the expression Veth makes at him. And then she melts into another form, midstride, causing herself to stumble on her next couple of steps.

She curses as she finds her stride again. She’s a wolf now, but it’s one of her twisted forms, one of the ones that happens when she’s not totally in control. Bony protrusions follow the line of her spine, and she’s got monstrous looking fangs, claws that could almost be called talons.

Her curses come out slurred around the new teeth, which only serves to irritate her further. Caleb doesn’t say anything more, so she doesn’t have to respond.

He doesn’t bother to cover his face as they round the corner to the scene. There’s no reason to anymore. The public knows who he is, his civilian ID and his alias, they have for years, ever since the Ikithon Incident. They’ve known since Ikithon twisted his way into Caleb’s head, into Astrid’s, into Eodwulf’s. They’ve known since Ikithon made them villains, when all they’d ever wanted to do was help people. They’ve known since the three of them, mere children when it had happened, really, had had to stand trial to see if they should face the consequences for actions they never wanted to commit. For actions their bodies had taken without their minds.

Caleb shakes the thought from his mind as he comes to a halt and takes in the scene in front of him. His body goes up in flames as he sees that he was correct, this is an Incident. There is something in the middle of the road, atop a pile of rubble and smoking cars. Caleb would almost call it a lizard, except for the fact that it is easily almost fifteen feet tall, and walks on two legs, though it’s arms do reach the ground to act as support for it, its body is so massive.

Caleb groans when he looks at it. There is absolutely nothing he would rather do than turn tail and fucking book it , but there are innocent civilians here. There are people who cannot defend themselves and he can help.

After all of the evil he’s done, he owes it to the universe to at least try to help whenever he can.

Veth melts into another form again, or at least attempts to. All she really does is make the twisted wolf form larger, but that’s not nothing. The size will definitely help them in this battle.

Caleb’s arms are completely engulfed in flames now, small tendrils of it licking across his chest. Sparks dance through his hair. His eyes go red, shifting and changing like a burning ember.

His clothes burn away, leaving him in the uniform he keeps on, in case something sets his power off, in case something like this happens. It’s a very recognizable uniform, bearing a small logo of the Soltryce Powered Training Academy between his shoulder blades, a flame icon emblazoned across his chest.

When people see it, see him, half of them look relieved to see him. Half of them looked even more terrified, if that were even possible. Veth’s appearance isn’t really doing them any favors, but that’s not important.

What is important is that, as they watch, a handful of people nearest the beast drop to the ground, their bodies going lifeless within the span of a single second. Caleb doesn’t need to feel for a pulse to know they’re dead.

What is even more important is that, as they watch, the dead people’s bodies lurch where they lay on the ground, and slowly, jerkily, rise again.

Fuck , Caleb thinks. They are so screwed.

Chapter Text

Caleb releases a blast of fire at the nearest pair of zombies, incinerating them in an instant, but two more immediately take their place, and Caleb groans in frustration.

“Stay away from the creature! Everybody get back!” he calls.

It’s marginally effective.

He really wants to be able to be able to throw up a wall of fire, but the blast radius from that will only hurt more civilians and hurt Veth, and Caleb doesn’t want that. He can’t hurt any more innocent people, not again.

Instead of throwing up a wall, he lobs a ball of flames at another pair of zombies with one hand, and another at the beast. The zombies go up in smoke, but the thing barely flinches.

Caleb swears loudly in German. Veth the giant mutated wolf shoots him a withering look, and launches herself at the beast. Her fangs tear into its forearm, rending flesh, and she comes away spitting blood from her mouth and gagging. Caleb grimaces in sympathy. That can’t taste good.

He launches another volley of fireballs at the zombies, cutting another two down, and racks his brain for a way to fight this thing if his fire is barely singeing it.

As he’s debating simply fleeing, a Powered Response Team should be here soon anyway, a spear sprouts out of the beast’s back.

Caleb glances around for it’s source, and lands on a cluster of people appearing from an alleyway to his right.

There’s a group of five, two lagging further behind the other three. Caleb identifies the one who threw the spear first, because as she emerges from the alley, another spear appears from nowhere, and she throws it again with practiced precision. She has an undercut, remaining hair tied up in a messy bun, needs a bit of touching up. Despite the mask covering the top half of her face, Caleb instantly recognizes her as the woman, Beau, from ZuZu’s. He also recognizes that uniform. Sentinel, a graduate of the Cobalt Academy, Soltryce’s sister school. Caleb’s seen her a couple of times before. But he wasn’t aware she was a licensed…

Caleb glances behind her. Oh. No, she’s not here as a part of a PRT. The people behind her are not professionals any city would send out as part of a response team.

A man in beat up jeans, Timberland boots, and a plain black hoodie, with a bandanna tied around his face, and a woman in sapphire blue spandex, her face half covered in a severe black mask, flank Sentinel, and Caleb can identify the man right away.

The X-shape scar and shock of white hair give him away. From that, Caleb can only assume the woman in blue is Jester, though her uniform does a far better job at concealing her identity.

The two people behind them turn out to be a woman dressed like a flat out viking, massive sword and all, her identity concealed by smears of black face paint and the haze of black smoke that seems to hover around her face, and another person dressed in flowy silver and lavender, a gaudy mask across their face covering almost everything but their mouth.

Caleb doesn’t recognize the viking woman, but he has an idea about the last person. He’s fairly certain that she’s Platinum, half of a vigilante duo, twins, likely, who share a power set, and switch on and off in who responds to incidents. There’s a warrant out for their arrests, vigilantism is a crime after all, but Caleb’s almost certain that Platinum and Silvertongue’s powers will keep them from ever serving time. From what Caleb can tell, they have an ability to make people do anything, an ability that sets him on edge and brings up memories of Ikithon, though as far as he knows, Platinum and Silvertongue have never used their abilities for anything but the good of others and to keep out of jail. But still. There’s more he doesn’t know about them than he does know.

Now is not the time to be concerned about this.

He shakes his head to rid himself of the thought and incinerates two more zombies.

Platinum throws her arms wide and gives a confident smirk as she approaches.

“I’ve heard that you beasts tire out pretty easily, isn’t that right?” she calls out over the din of the chaos around them.

The beast immediately goes sluggish, moving like it’s going in slow-motion.

“That’ll only last so long, dears! I’d recommend doing your things quickly!” Platinum shouts to them as the beast slows.

Caleb doesn’t pay it much attention, instead focusing on the last three zombies.

He burns through them quickly, turning back to the beast just in time to see Fjord twist his hands, commanding a stream of water that’s appeared in the air to wrap around the beast’s face.  Veth tears through the beast’s other arm, as Jester leaps onto the creatures back. Her hands go black, like decay is crawling up her arms, and everywhere she touches, ugly, gaping wounds appear, leaking pus and blood in a truly disgusting fashion. Beau launches another set of spears at the beast’s chest, and pulls a bo-staff out of thin air to deflect when it tries to swat at her with one large hand.

The viking woman steps forward then, and calls at everyone to get back, which sends them all scattering. She says something that Caleb can’t make out, and plunges her sword into the ground, straight through the asphalt. For a moment, nothing happens, and Caleb’s heart sinks, because the beast is gunning straight for this woman, but just as Caleb thinks that’s it for her, something happens.

A single storm cloud manifests directly over the viking woman, a dark smear in an otherwise clear sky. She screams, a war cry if Caleb’s ever heard one, and rips her sword out of the ground. When she swings it this time, it crackles with electricity, and lightning arcs from her blade to the beast’s body. She barely nicks the thing’s arm as it makes a grab for her, but just that small touch is enough to sever the limb from the beast’s body.

It sucks in a surprised breath, but with Fjord’s bubble still around its face, it takes in only water, and as they watch, the beast convulses once, twice, and goes completely still.

Everything is blessedly, thankfully silent for a long moment. The silence is broken by the sound of sirens and screeching tires as the police finally arrive, no Powered Response Team in sight, and Caleb lets out an almost hysterical laugh.

He’s still got his license to intervene in incidents like this one, no matter how much most people don’t want him to have one, how much he doesn’t deserve it. Sentinel might have one too. But the others? Veth? They’ve just stopped a huge threat with minimal casualties, and almost no public property damage, and they’re probably going to go to jail for vigilantism.

“Hands in the air! All of you, on your knees, hands in the air!” a cop shouts, and Caleb sighs, and gets to his knees without protest.

Jester almost protests, before Fjord clasps a hand on her shoulder and brings her to her knees as he goes down too.

“Don’t give ‘em any reason to use those things,” Fjord mutters, and Caleb can see a slight tremor in Fjord’s hands.

Caleb whispers over his shoulder, “You have just committed an act of vigilantism and been caught. You are considered armed and dangerous to them, by virtue of what you can do. Do not argue. Not now. Say nothing. It is for your own safety.”

“Hey, pipe down!” another cop shouts at him as a few of them begin to approach.

Caleb faces front again. Recognition flickers across a few people’s faces.

“I have a Incident Response License, officer!” he says, loud enough to be heard without shouting. “It is in the front pocket of my uniform if I may reach for it?”

He gets the okay, and, slowly (he can see the guns still trained on them), he takes out the badge and ID that says he was allowed to do this, and tosses it towards the nearest cop. The woman looks it over, glances between it and him, and finally tosses it back to him.

“Your hair’s grown, Blitz. You’ll want to get a new ID picture taken. But you’re free to go.”

“I’ve got a license as well, officer,” Beau says, and the process is repeated again.

“Sentinel. You’re free to go, too,” an officer says, and Beau gets to her feet with Caleb.

As they back up a few steps, Caleb watches with a wince as Veth melts into another form again, her expression twisted in a way that tells Caleb that she didn’t really want to do that. Still, she seems to gather just enough control to direct the change, so she ends up looking like herself with a mask, though she does have mottled green skin. She groans in frustration.

“The rest of you have just commit an act of vigilantism. You are all under arrest on this charge. You all have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you all understand these rights as they have been read to you?”

There’s muttered assent from all of them, save Platinum, who stands, despite the direct order that had been issued before.

“Well officer,” Platinum says, and several guns move to train on her. “We’ve just done the city a great service. We contained the incident and ended it with shockingly few casualties, given the scale of this emergency. I mean, a beast of this size usually takes out a city block or two and injures or kills countless civilians in the process. When was the last time an incident was handled so efficiently in this city?”

As Platinum speaks, Caleb can feel the oppressive weight of her mind manipulation, even though it’s not directed at him.

“You know, she’s right,” Beau mutters.

“He, but thank you,” Platinum corrects, and Caleb sees more than hears Beau apologize to him. “I am right. I know you folks are just doing your jobs, but how about a meeting with someone who can do something about this? We do a truly remarkable job helping this city’s finest out. We really should be licensed, shouldn’t we?”

The cops around them, all looking just a touch dazed now, nod in agreement.

Caleb’s skin crawls.

“Fantastic, why don’t you get us that meeting then, dearest,” Platinum says, directly to the cop who had first spoken to them.

“Someone get Deputy Mayor Feelid on the phone!” the cop shouts, and Platinum lets out a breath Caleb hadn’t seen him holding.

“Oh thank god that worked,” he whispers as the cops around them all lower their weapons.

Beau raises an eyebrow at him. “That was impressive.”

Platinum scoffs. “It was. My influence doesn’t usually cover this many people. We’ll just be lucky if we can get that meeting with the deputy mayor so we can convince them to license us. Town Hall is shielded against powers. So we’d be on our own there.”

“I don’t want to know how you know that,” the viking woman says, with something like motherly concern in her voice.

There is little resemblance between her pale, hulking figure and Platinum’s lithe, tan form, so Caleb doubts any familial relation, but he doesn’t discount the strength of some friendships, ones like his and Veth’s.

Caleb sighs, a little long suffering and a little bit relieved. Veth is suddenly at his side, though she hadn’t been a second before. Caleb puts a hand on her shoulder, but quickly withdraws it at her wince.

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asks, just as Fjord and Jester join their little gathering.

“Oh no! Is someone hurt?” Jester asks, giving them all a quick scan.

Veth hisses out a short breath through her teeth. “It caught me in the side. I think it cracked a couple of ribs. Hurts,” she mumbles.

“Oh! I can fix that! Easy-peasy! Just hold still for a second, and I’m going to touch your side, if that’s okay!”

Veth regards her suspiciously with narrowed eyes for a moment before nodding once. “But don’t try any funny business missy!”

Jester nods solemnly. “No problem!”

She lays her hands gently on Veth’s side, and her brow furrows in concentration. Her hands begin to glow, a faint white light unlike the ugly rot from during the battle. Veth gasps and the light dies out.

“There we go! You had three cracked ribs, you were right, but they’re all fixed up now.”

“That’s incredible,” Caleb mutters.

“Oh, thank you! That means a lot coming from someone like you, Blitz,” she says, and no amount of her charming accent and pleasant demeanor can stop Caleb’s flinch at that name. “Oh, are you hurt too?”

Caleb shakes his head and sits on a large chunk of crumbled building.

Veth glances at him and then back to the group.

“Who are you people anyway?” she says, and that’s the perfect distraction.

“Well,” Jester says, “I’m Render! And this is Quartermaster and Sentinel,” she says with a gesture to first Fjord, and then Beau. “I don’t know them.”

Platinum laughs, and the viking woman smiles softly.

“I’m Silvertongue,” Platinum introduces himself, and Caleb actually looks up at that. He was severely mistaken about him, it seems. “Oh don’t look at me like that, sweetcheeks. It’s not my fault that the media loses it’s collective shit over the fact that I change how I dress occasionally. Sometimes I like to feel pretty while I fight crime, what can I say. Sue me.” There’s a moment where that thought almost takes root in Caleb’s mind as a command, but Silvertongue seems to realize what he’s done and he waves a hand. “Don’t actually. Pay that no mind. The power’s a little touchy sometimes.”

The viking woman shakes her head at him, and sheathes her sword as she takes a seat on a large chunk of rubble.

“I’m Sky Spear. Silver and I have known each other for a while. I have to admit, having more than just the two of us in a fight was pretty nice. Made things a lot easier, at least.”

“Teams have their benefits and their drawbacks,” Caleb mutters, and all eyes snap to him.

He curses in German, and Veth glares at him.

He sighs.

“I suppose you all know who I am.”

“I do not,” Sky Spear says, and Caleb’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “What? I’m Canadian.”

The response actually startles a laugh out of Caleb, it’s so unexpected. Caleb’s laugh sparks a response from all of them, after that, and soon enough they’re all giggling like children, sitting in a circle in the rubble, a mere few feet away from the corpse of a beast.

It’s entirely incongruous to their situation, but refreshing, nonetheless.

“Well, because you are the only one who does not know, I am Blitz. I’m somewhat infamous, to many Americans,” Caleb finally says, staring intently at his hands.

“Why is that?” Sky Spear asks.

“Perhaps that is a story for another day, my friend.”

“Ah. I understand,” she says softly, and turns to Veth. “And what about you?”

Veth’s eyes go wide, and her skin shifts rapidly through several different colors before it settles back into her usual tan.

“Oh, uh, I’m not, I mean,” she stumbles over her words.

“You’re Not?”

Veth grimaces, but still nods. “Uh, yes? Yeah. I’m Nott! Two ‘T’s. Nott the Brave! That’s what they call me! For sure.”

Caleb hides a snicker in a cough and Veth stares at him with a look that says ‘don’t say a word’.

Caleb stays dutifully silent.

“Hey, you lot!” a cop calls, and Silvertongue flinches, his eyes going wide. Caleb has a moment of panic along with him that his manipulation has worn off, but the cop simply continues. “What do you call yourselves? Deputy Mayor needs a PRT name.”

“We are, uh, The Mighty--” Fjord begins tentatively.

“Nein!” Caleb snaps. They are not a team, he does not want to tie more people into his issues, absolutely not, no.

“The Mighty Nine? But there’s only seven of you?” the cop says.

“Yep!” Jester says, gleefully.

Caleb smacks a hand to his forehead. Dear god, this has gotten out of hand.

“Yes,” Beau says, completely deadpan. “The Mighty Nein. Nein like the German ‘no’.”

The cop eyes them skeptically, but relays the information anyway. Caleb lets out a irritated sigh that draws laughter from the others, even Veth. He gives her a look that he hopes conveys ‘traitor’. She just laughs more.

“Deputy Mayor Bryce Feelid will meet with you all tomorrow to decide whether or not to license The Mighty Nein as a Power Response Team on a probationary status for the next six months. For tonight, you’ll all be under house arrest, but in the interest of keeping you in a singular location to keep better track of you, the Deputy Mayor has decided you’ll be confined to rooms at a hotel two blocks from here. Hope you lot don’t mind spending time in close quarters,” the cop says, and Caleb can see Silvertongue’s influence over him is beginning to slip in the curl of his lip and in the bitterness in his voice.

A grumble goes up through the group, but no one says anything in protest.

“Well, Mighty Nein! Your police escort awaits.”

Caleb curses in German.

~*~

Within forty eight hours, the Mighty Nein are an officially licensed Powered Response Team.

Chapter Text

Their six months goes by without much trouble, giant monsters and crazed powered criminals only grace the world with their presence once in a while, contrary to popular opinion. So they only have to get into the thick of things three times over the course of their probationary period.

However, one of the conditions of them receiving an official permanent license is that they must prove to Deputy Mayor Feelid that not only are they effective as a PRT, they have to prove that they are functional and stable. They have to prove that they truly are a unit, that they didn’t just slap a team name on their group to try get out of facing consequences for breaking the law.

Jester insists that this means that they need to have team bonding time.

Caleb hates team bonding time.

It always means he needs to leave the apartment and go out in public, because none of them really know each other. Even though he knows who Beau, Jester and Fjord are (though they don’t know that), and at least the three of them know who he is, none of them are willing to have the others over to their homes, not just yet. They’re just not that close yet, even though their deadline is fast approaching. They need to be a cohesive group in less than two months, and they’re just not there, and they don’t really know how to remedy that.

Which is why it comes as such a shock when, almost five months into being ‘The Mighty Nein’, Sky Spear invites them over to her house.

The second she makes the offer their group chat, which was already only barely functional, blows up.

[from zappy zap, 11:12 AM]

How would you guys feel about having team bonding at my place this week?

[from silver, 11:12 AM]

hey excuse me fucking what

[from doctor fancypants, 11:13 AM]

quartermaster and i are so in! he’s distracted playing a video game but he says yes

[from flame on, 11:14 AM]

This is a very kind offer, Spear. Nott and I would be happy to attend.

[from bo staff, 11:16 AM]

hey question: do you ever talk like a normal fuckin person caleb?

[from nott, 11:16 AM]

he doesn’t.

ever.

also, we’ll definitely be there spear, thanks for the invite.

[from zappy zap, 11:20 AM]

That’s great guys.

[from zappy zap, 11:24 AM]

My wife is excited to meet you all. She’s been hearing Silver and I talk about you for a while.

[from bo staff, 11:24 AM]

EXCUSE ME WAHT

WHAT

W H A T

SPEAR i have been flirting with you for MONTHS why didnt you tell me you have a WHOLE ASS SPOUSE

[from nott, 11:25 AM]

as opposed to only half a spouse?

[from doctor fancypants, 11:25 AM]

oh my gosh youre married?!

[from fish, 11:26 AM]

This is worth losin a video game. Spear youre married?

[from silver, 11:26 AM]

HEY SPEAR WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME THIS WAS HAPPENING HUH?

[from nott, 11:26 AM]

oh we’ll be there for sure now. i can’t wait to meet her.

[from silver, 11:27 AM]

HELLO??????

WHEN?????

[from zappy zap, 11:31 AM]

Silver, I’m two rooms away from you, come talk to me in person. I’ll see the rest of you on Saturday!

And that’s the last there is to say about that. Caleb certainly wasn’t expecting that, but it’s a pleasant surprise. It’s nice to know that at least one of them has at least a semi-normal life.

Caleb thinks that, and then grumbles and immediately turns back to his laptop and his coding. Computer code won’t make him think about why he cares about these people’s happiness. Computer code just makes him irrationally angry. Computer code is just facts. Computer code gives him an income, so that he’s not burning through the settlement from the Ikithon Incident because that would be irresponsible.

Caleb shakes his head and sighs.

Even computer code has betrayed him now.

Shit.

~*~

Saturday afternoon finds Caleb and Veth standing on the front porch of a small town home four blocks away from ZuZu’s Cafe, Caleb holding a bag with two bottles of wine and shifting from foot to foot nervously.

It’s Veth who finally rings the doorbell, her face melting into something just a little different, a black domino mask appearing over her eyes.

A woman with dark brown hair tied up on top of her head and soft brown eyes peering at them from behind a pair of large-framed glasses opens the door with a smile.

“You must be Caleb and Nott! It’s so nice to meet you, Yasha’s told me so much about you. Come in, come in.” She steps aside and ushers them in the door, instructs them to take their shoes off there, graciously takes the wine Caleb offers. “The others are through here in the kitchen. Already broken out the wine, I think. Oh! And where are my manners! I’m Zuala, I’m Yasha’s wife.”

“It’s lovely to meet you,” Caleb responds, a little taken aback by her overwhelmingly warm personality. He also can’t shake the feeling that he knows her from somewhere. She looks incredibly familiar.

“Caleb! Nott! You’re here!” Jester’s ever-cheery voice sounds out as they make their way into the kitchen.

True to Zuala’s word, Jester, Beau and Fjord are in there, sans their masks, for the first time, as is another young man with shoulder length purple hair twisted into elaborate braids, more piercings than Caleb can even count, and tattoos on every visible inch of skin, a peacock tail even crawling up the side of his face.

That’s Silvertongue, Caleb realizes. That tattoo on his face is the reason his mask covers so much, to cover the identifying mark. He looks familiar too, and Caleb still can’t pinpoint why, he’s so overwhelmed with the general chaos of re-meeting all of these people again.

They’re all crowded around the kitchen island, an empty bottle of wine already in between them, Silvertongue, Jester and Beau giggling while Fjord nurses what’s probably still his first glass.

There’s a woman at the counter, pulling a tray of pastries out of the oven. Caleb assumes this must be Yasha, Sky Spear, Zuala’s wife.

His friend.

God isn’t that a weird thought. Caleb hasn’t had a friend besides Veth in years. Not since Astrid and Eodwulf. Not since Ikithon.

He has a moment of blind panic where he worries that somehow Ikithon will fuck this up for him too, that he’ll find a way to corrupt these friends too, to ruin their lives too, but then he takes a breath and remembers. Ikithon is in prison. He’s in a power dampening cell in solitary confinement where he will stay for the rest of his life.

The kitchen smells like cinnamon.

Caleb focuses on that, and takes another breath. Zuala pats him on the shoulder and crosses the kitchen to kiss her wife on the cheek.

“Oh Caleb, Nott, you’re here!” Yasha says happily, setting the tray on the stove top and discarding the oven mitt next to it. She returns the kiss from her wife and crosses to Caleb and Nott with a wide smile. “So. Zuala and I have been talking about this for some time, and we decided that if we’re meant to be teammates, and friends, that it was best we stopped hiding behind masks. Not that I’m trying to pressure you into sharing your identity, Nott, but, I thought it was time for me to. So. It’s nice to meet you both. I’m Yasha Nydoorin.”

Without her armor and without the warpaint and the black haze concealing her face, Yasha looks wildly different. She looks soft. Her hair, a pale blonde, almost white, at the tips, fading into black at the roots, is tied into even more complex braids than Silvertongue’s, and Caleb thinks she must have done his hair for him. Caleb smiles at the thought. Without the haze and paint, Yasha’s face isn’t so harsh. Instead of a severe glare, her mismatched eyes are endearing, her gaze easy and kind. It’s a really incredible difference.

Caleb sticks out his hand, and Yasha accepts the handshake.

“Hello Yasha Nydoorin. I am Caleb Widogast. It is very nice to meet you.”

Caleb withdraws his hand and glances to Veth. She’s wringing her hands as she watches the two of them, nervously shifting her weight until she seems to come to a decision. When Yasha turns to Veth, Veth takes a deep breath, pulls out her hip flask and takes a deep pull from it, and extends a hand.

When Veth’s hand extends, her form melts, the mask disappearing, and features shifting back to the face she calls hers, though Caleb’s not entirely sure if that’s truly what she looks like, in all actuality.

“I’m Veth Brenatto. Nice to meet you all,” Veth says, shaking Yasha’s hand and glancing at the others in the kitchen.

Behind Yasha, Beau, Jester, Fjord and Silvertongue have gone silent, watching Yasha introduce herself to Caleb and Veth.

“Well,” Silvertongue finally says, reclining in his seat. “I suppose if even Nott-- Veth, sorry-- can give us her real name, the rest of us can do that too. Mollymauk Tealeaf, at your service, ladies, gents, others and Sentinel.”

Beau throws a wine cork at Mollymauk’s head.

“It’s Beau. Uh, Beauregard Lionett, technically, but really, it’s just Beau,” she says.

“And I’m Jester Lavorre!” Jester says, with just as much enthusiasm as she uses for everything else.

“I’m uh. I’m Fjord. Just Fjord really,” Fjord says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “We’ve actually-- That is to say, the three of us actually had a run in with Caleb and Veth at ZuZu’s down the street, the day we all met.”

“I recall,” Caleb says. “A word of advice, Fjord. Your scar is very distinctive. It may do you well to cover it. I’ve known who the three of you are since the beginning.” He smirks as he says it, a little self satisfied.

Fjord lifts a hand to cover the scar on his forehead.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Veth reassures him, smacking Caleb’s arm. “Just you definitely should cover it up when you go out to fight things if you want to keep your identity secret, like at all.”

Zuala laughs where she’s just finished plating the pastries from the tray.

“You super types are too sensitive. People have flaws, even superpowered ones,” she teases gently, as she sets the dish of pastries in the center of the kitchen island and pours two glasses of wine.

She passes one to Yasha, and keeps one for herself and Mollymauk gasps in mock confoundment.

“Nothing for me? Zu, I’m heartbroken!”

Zuala scoffs. “I employ you and house you, you can pour your own damn wine,” she teases. Caleb finally gets what he’s been missing.

Yasha, Zuala and Mollymauk look familiar to him like this because they run ZuZu’s Cafe, he’s seen them there before.

When he voices this realization, he gets matching looks of realization from Jester, Beau and Fjord. Veth laughs at him, and Mollymauk, Yasha and Zuala join in.

“Welcome to the party Widogast,” Mollymauk says mockingly, but there’s no real heat behind his words and Caleb, very hesitantly, lets himself laugh at the teasing.  “There we go! He does know how to joke!”

That makes Veth laugh too, and just like that, any remaining tension is cut.

Caleb feels at home with these people. Despite every reservation he’s had for the past few years about having friends, about letting people get close, about letting people in, Caleb finds himself truly enjoying being around The Nein.

He hesitates to say it, but these people are becoming almost like a family to him, despite the fact that he’s only known them for a few months. This is the closest he’s ever been to anyone, besides Astrid and Eodwulf, and he likes it. He likes not being alone.

It’s terrifying .

Caleb pours himself a very large glass of wine. He drinks it faster than he has ever drank anything in his life.

Okay that’s a lie, but he does knock it back impressively quickly.

It settles his shaking hands, and he pours a second glass a bit more steadily before they all move into the living room so they can all sit.

They talk a little before Fjord finally asks what’s on everyone’s mind.

“So, Yasha, you said you were from Canada, right? What brought you to the states?”

Yasha’s smile falls a little bit, and Zuala takes her hand in something like support, Caleb thinks. Maybe they shouldn’t have asked.

“Ah, that is…” Yasha trails off, squeezing Zuala’s hand in hers. “I come from a very large family, one that’s very traditional. They had a whole life planned out for me, had all but arranged a marriage for me. But I fell in love. They didn’t like it. They already took issue with my abilities and me falling in love with Zuala, it was a tipping point. So we picked up and left. Opened ZuZu’s here a few years back and got married not long after. It’s been, what, five years? Best of my life.”

Zuala smiles so softly at Yasha that it twists something deep in Caleb’s chest, and makes him feel so warm and content he almost doesn’t know what to do with himself.

That might also be the wine, but potato, tomato. It’s a good thing he and Veth took a cab here.

“What about you, Fjord?” Zuala asks after a bit, breaking the silence. “What brought you to the East Coast? If I remember right, Yasha told me that you and Jester both told her you were from California?”

“Oh yeah, we both grew up in San Francisco. We met through some Facebook page that was for our college, people looking for roommates and whatnot. Found out we’d lived a few miles away from each other almost our whole lives and had never met before through some stroke of luck, but we met up for coffee a few times, and decided that we could handle sharing an apartment, and we moved across the country together. Talk about moving fast, huh?” he jokes and Jester all but cackles at that. “But I think I’ll end up staying here. Nothing much keeping me in California, now.”

“Why not?” Yasha asks softly, her words ever so slightly wine-slurred. At that thought, Caleb pours himself another glass. He’s definitely had too much to drink already. He sips at this glass anyway.

“Well I, uh. Don’t got any family to go back to, really. Closest thing I had was a foster dad who I lived with most of my life, but he died just after I turned eighteen. That’s why I don’t really use a last name most of the time. My last name’s just the street that the church I was left at was on. I worked some odd jobs over there, worked on a boat for a while to save up for school, and I guess I could go back to any of those, but it’s nothing I’m real tied to, y’know? I like it here a hell of a lot more.”

“And I’m here now! And I really love my mama and I miss her, but I’m probably going to stay here too because I like it here, and you wouldn’t want to leave me, right, Fjord?” Jester says, with a bat of her eyelashes.

Fjord rolls his eyes, but still agrees. “Wouldn’t want to leave you for the world now. Went and got under my skin.”

Jester laughs again. “It’s really funny that we became roommates, when you think of it, especially cause you’re so old , Fjord, but I’m really glad we did, cause you’re a good friend.”

“Hey!” Fjord protests. “I’m not old! I’m twenty five! Caleb’s old!”

Caleb protests too, his words definitely touched by the alcohol. “M’not that old. M’only twenty nine.”

A lot of eyes swivel towards him all at once.

“You’re only twenty nine, Caleb?” Mollymauk asks, and Caleb nods, a sad sort of smile on his face. “What the hell happened to you to make you age like that?”

It’s teasing, and Caleb can tell it, but a combination of the honesty in the air and the too much wine Caleb’s had makes him answer, “Torture, mostly, I think. Maybe the brainwashing? The experiments probably? But definitely the torture. Yes, definitely that,” he says into his near empty wine glass.

The room is too quiet.

Veth takes the glass away from him.

With nothing in his hands to look at now, Caleb looks up, curious about the sudden silence.

“Oh. I’ve ruined the mood now, haven’t I? My apologies.”

“No, Caleb, Jesus, you… What the hell are you talking about?” Beau asks, and Caleb shrugs in response.

“Well you know, the whole,” he gestures to himself and then makes a vague wave at empty air. “The Ikithon thing.”

It occurs to Caleb now that he never really looked at how much information was released to the public. It was enough to identify him and Astrid and Eodwulf. It was enough that some people thought he should be in jail for what he’d done. But after everything, he’d avoided anything having to do with the case like the plague. He never looked at what had become a matter of public record. It was too painful to dig through all of that just to find out what was missing. People knew enough. That was all that mattered. People knew, and they knew enough.

Now though, Caleb kind of wishes he had checked to see what the public knew. Cause now he’s gonna have to talk about it.

Fuck.

~*~

“Caleb, what do you mean, the Ikithon thing?” Veth asks gently.

She’s wringing her hands like she does when she gets nervous, and Caleb hates that he’s making her nervous. Best get it over with then, right? He can get it over with quick? For sure.

“Ah, Trent Ikithon,” and just saying the name makes Caleb cringe, but he presses forward anyway, “selected me, and two others for scholarships to the Soltryce Academy when we were young. He took us from the foster home we were in and told us he was going to give us a real home at the Academy, and that he was going to make us the greatest heroes this country had ever seen. And he did. He trained us out of standard classes, gave us more extra lessons than even the worst remedial student so that we’d be in peak form all the time. But then we…” Caleb trails off and mulls it over in his head for a moment, and when he speaks again, the word is very slurred, “plateaued.”

“You hit a point where you had mastered your abilities at that time as best you could. Everyone hits that point when they’re young. Your powers probably weren’t fully developed yet,” Beau mutters.

“Sure. But he did not like that,” Caleb counters, because Ikithon really hadn’t. He’d hated it when they’d started making less and less progress with each week, even though there was no more progress that was physically possible to make. “So he started brainstorming ways to make us better, and then he started trying them and that was just… the worst.” Caleb sloppily pushes one sleeve up, without thinking, and pokes experimentally at one of the old scars there, still shiny and standing out against the rest of his skin. Nothing happens, not that he was expecting anything to.

Everyone around him gasps though, and he looks up, curious what’s surprised them all so much.

They’re all staring at him.

“Christ almighty, Caleb,” Fjord mutters.

“What did that?” Jester asks, with none of her characteristic cheer. That makes Caleb a little sad. He doesn’t like that Jester sounds sad.

“Ah, Ikithon did. It was one of his ways to try to make us better. He would put, ah, crystals? In our skin, to see if they would enhance our powers. They didn’t. But he tried for a while.” Caleb pokes at a couple more scars and then tugs his sleeve back down and sighs. “After a while he gave up with the experimenting and just became cruel, and then he got tired of that and decided to be more direct in his methods. Ikithon can control minds. Like Mollymauk, but more powerful. So he just, took us over for a while. Made us his puppets. We did some truly unforgivable things. That was when he was caught but the damage had already been done. That’s the Ikithon Thing.”

“Fuck, Cay.”

Caleb’s not sure who says that, Mollymauk maybe, but he can’t help but agree. A laugh that’s a little self-deprecating and a little hysterical bubbles out of his chest, and he is helpless to stop it for a solid few seconds.

“It’s not funny,” he says, through the tail end of the laugh.

“It’s horrifying.” There is more emotion contained in those two words from Yasha than Caleb knows how to deal with, especially with his level of drunkenness.

“So!” Mollymauk exclaims, cutting through the tension with all the grace of a speeding MAC truck. “Who else wants to share their deep rooted trauma?”

It’s a joke, just barely, and it does the job, though it lacks the usual finesse of Mollymauk’s humor.

“Well,” Beau says, with a sound that’s almost a laugh but really isn’t. “My parents only ever wanted a good son, and when they got me instead, they got so pissed about it that they shipped me off to Cobalt against my will and had a son to replace me. I think they even gave him the same name as me, cause they always wanted a son named Beauregard. Never met him though, so who knows. Doesn’t matter much. That’s nowhere near as bad as--” Yasha cuts Beau off before she can finish that sentence.

“Trauma is not a competition,” she says, quietly but firmly. She leaves no room for argument. “You wouldn’t tell me that what I’ve lived through doesn’t matter, because what Caleb’s experienced is worse. Don’t do it to yourself either.”

Beau looks properly chastised, but not upset by that. She looks almost happy, like she’s pleased someone’s finally acknowledged what she’s been through. Caleb thinks it might be the first time anyone ever has. That makes him sad, but there’s time to be sad later, Mollymauk’s talking now.

“Uh, two years ago,” Mollymauk says, and he twists his fingers together and looks as unconfident as any of them have ever seen him. “Yasha found me in the back alley behind ZuZu’s, beaten to hell and back and completely out of it. She brought me to the hospital and stuck around for a bit, to make sure someone came for me, but I had no ID, nothing on me, not even a phone. I could barely even talk. Yash brought me back here and helped me get back on my feet and even after I was starting to be a person again, she let me stay and gave me a job. Mollymauk Tealeaf is a name I came up with on the fly when I needed to get a new ID. I uh, I’ve got no idea who I am.”

“They couldn’t track your tattoos? Find out where they’d been done? Those are pretty extensive and specific,” Beau asks.

“No. I got these after. As a way to become… me, y’know? I just cropped up into existence one day in this body I didn’t recognize. Thought I might as well make it mine.” Mollymauk rubs his hands together and lets out a deep breath. “Welp, I never wanna have to talk about myself again and that’s saying something! Someone else say something.”

Veth takes a huge swig from her flask, drains it dry, and then says, in what seems to be all one breath, “I have a husband and a son who live right here in this city and I haven’t seen them in over a year because I got my powers then and I’m terrified that I’m going to lose control over my form and that my mind will go with it and I’ll hurt my family.”

All eyes snap to Veth.

“You have a son?” Jester asks, a little excited and a lot sad.

“His name is Luke, and my husband’s name is Yeza. I don’t quite remember how I got these powers, but I remember it was an accident that happened when I got jumped on the way to the subway station one night.  I fought back, and hurt a few of them pretty badly, but, something happened, and I just… I woke up like this. Melting from one thing to the next. Not myself anymore. And I was too afraid to go home, and that was when I found Caleb, and I recognized him, so I knew he’d be able to keep himself safe if I lost control, so I thought it was okay to stay. I thought he could teach me some control too, so that one day, I can go back to my husband and son. I text, sometimes, and I send them things, toys for Luke, or chemistry equipment for Yeza, he’s a very gifted chemist, but it’s not the same.”

There is a beat of heavy oppressive silence, before Caleb breaks it.

“I thought all that chemistry stuff was cause you were making drugs.”

Veth blinks up at him once, twice, three times, and then bursts into peals of uncontrollable laughter, that spreads through the group faster than any of them care to admit.

Before they know it, they’re all wheezing with, cackling and giggling and nearly rolling out of their seats.

And it feels good. It feels good to know these important things about each other, to know why they each are the way they are, and it feels really good to laugh like this with each other.

If Fjord and Caleb are a little teary-eyed and Jester and Veth have tears running down their faces, no one comments. How could they?

This is the closest they’ve ever been as a group, as friends , as a fucked up little family , and Caleb finally admits to himself, with no conditions added, that he likes this.

He likes this ragtag little family they’ve begun to build, in a rather pathetic attempt to create a team.

No ‘and’s, no ‘if’s. He just likes this.

Chapter Text

The Mighty Nein become an officially licensed Powered Response Team six months and two days after they almost got arrested. They respond to their very first official call four days later.

They’re all sitting in ZuZu’s during a mid-afternoon lull in business when they hear a voice crackle over the in-ear communicators they were each issued by the city, like tiny police radios.

“Any available PRTs, we have an incident on Twenty-fifth and Main, incident on Twenty-fifth and Main. Any available PRTs please respond,” the voice says. That’s only a few blocks away. The Mighty Nein all look up at each other with varying levels of excitement.

It ranges from Caleb’s pained ‘I guess we have a responsibility’ look, to Jester’s excited ‘hell yes, bad guys to beat up!’. From behind the counter, Zuala eyes them all with something like concern.

After he waits for the last of the other patrons to leave so the cafe is empty besides them, Fjord responds, “The Mighty Nein responding. We are en route to the scene, two minutes out.”

“Mighty Nein, the scene is yours, multiple hostiles sighted, witnesses report at least four large mutated spiders.”

Fjord freezes and shudders at that, before replying that he heard it, and they gear up to head out, leaving civilian clothes and belongings behind with Zuala before taking off.

Caleb’s grateful he doesn’t have to incinerate another pair of pants, at least, but he isn’t too happy about the running three blocks in the sticky heat of early summer.

He scolds himself for complaining about the heat when they come onto the scene.

There are four large spiders, just like the dispatcher had said. What they had neglected to mention was the one spider that’s phasing in and out of existence. It pops in and out of sight, lashing out at people with reckless abandon, every person it touches crying out in pain before seizing up, freezing in various states of agony.

Caleb stumbles when he sees them, these victims, these innocent people paralyzed, poisoned, but he regains his wits quickly, mostly thanks to Yasha’s strong hand clapping onto his shoulder in a reassuring squeeze. Yasha’s hand releases him, and his body goes up in flames, amber and gold flickering in his eyes.

The black smoking haze hovering around Yasha’s face crackles with electricity.

Veth’s form melts.

Beau and Jester flank Fjord as he pulls water from the air around them.

Molly smirks, silver and purple trailing behind him despite the distinct lack of breeze, and says, “Shall we?” and it’s almost as though his words take shape in the stagnant air.

As one, the Mighty Nein lunge.

Before the others can get into melee combat with the spiders, Caleb launches a fireball over the heads of the crowd, setting the spiders alight, just before the trouble spider zips out of existence again. The spiders screech, the ones still left in sight, at least. Their heads swivel as one in Caleb’s direction.

He’d be afraid, but his family’s there with him, Beau, Fjord and Jester hurtling forward into the fray before the spiders can reach him. His immediate job done, he turns to crowd control, as that one fucking spider pops into existence again near a disheveled looking man and his son.

Some protective instinct that Caleb doesn’t quite recognize rears its head, but he listens to it. He throws himself between the man and child and the spider. With a quick glance to be sure there are no other civilians around, Caleb runs his hands together and throws up a wall of fire in front of himself. The spider squeals, its wiry hair catching on fire as soon as it gets closer.

It reels back with another cry of pain, hissing and trying to find a way around the wall. Satisfied that it’ll keep the problem away for now, Caleb glances to his friends, his family. As he watches, Molly croons at a spider and Yasha drives her sword through its body into the ground. Beau sends a javelin through one and Fjord catches its body up in a sphere of water, lets her attack it while he contains its struggle. Veth, in the large twisted form of a bear, clamps her jaws around the third, and lets Jester press her hands to its back, inflicting wounds into it until the spider’s exoskeleton falls away with a sickening squelch.

At that, the spider by Caleb screeches again and disappears, reappearing closer to his friends with a wail.

Certain that the others have a handle on that situation for now, Caleb turns back to the man and the child, dropping the wall of fire behind him, and letting the flames dancing across his body die out. He intends to simply double check that they’re alright and move on, but when he turns around, his heart seizes in his chest for a moment.

The little boy is frozen in place, cradled in his father’s lap, his face twisted up, eyes wide with fear. Caleb hadn’t been quick enough to stop the spider from attacking him.

That makes his breath catch, sure, but it’s not what stops him in his tracks. What stops him is the little boy’s appearance.

Veth has taken that form before.

In the midst of a nightmare Caleb had woken her from a month ago, Veth had melted into this boy’s form.

He’d blame it on an imperfect memory, but his memory is without flaw.

No more than a moment passes while he mulls this over in his mind, though. That is all to be dealt with later. Right now, his attention is needed here.

He kneels in front of the man, reaching out his hands slowly.

“Hello,” he says softly. His accented is more pronounced, stressed out as he is now. “I am Caleb, you might know me as Blitz.”

“I’ve heard of you,” the man says shakily.

“I thought you might have. I’m here as a part of the Powered Response Team, The Mighty Nein. You are safe, now. My friends will finish off that last spider and then,” as Caleb speaks, the last spider gives it’s dying screech, “then my friend Render will come to our assistance over here, yes? She is a very talented healer. It will take a moment, she has to help those who were poisoned first,but she will be here very soon.” He’s not certain where it comes from, these words of reassurance. He thinks he’s saying everything he wishes someone would have said to him and Astrid and Eodwulf when they were in Ikithon’s iron grasp.

“He’ll be alright, won’t he? My son’s going to be alright?”

“What’s your name, friend?”

“Yeza. My name’s Yeza. My son is Luke. Pleasee, tell me he’s going to be alright.”

Caleb’s heart slams to a stop.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

For later, he reminds himself.

“Well, Yeza, I am not a man of medicine, but if you look around you,” Caleb points at where Jester is right now, her hands on a woman’s shoulders. “My friend Render is a very gifted healer. She is wonderful at what she does, and this seems to be a perfectly fixable condition. Luke will be okay, I am certain. Just let Render make her way here.”

Yeza nods, takes a deep breath, and Caleb, though he’s not entirely sure why he does it, reaches out and clasps a hand onto the man’s shoulder just like Yasha had done to him just before the battle had begun.

He squeezes once, and gives a probably very strained smile before dropping his hand. The man looks a little more calm though so Caleb considers that a win. He glances over his shoulder to see where Jester is in her progress towards them. Only a couple more people to go.

As he watches, they shake the toxin from their limbs and look at her in thanks, relieved smiles crawling across their faces.

Jester steps up to them and kneels. She’s sweating, and it’s not from the sticky stale summer heat.

Her hand is trembling violently as she reaches out towards the boy, Luke, but she pastes on a blinding smile anyway. Caleb places his fingers on her shoulder, in the place where her uniform is carefully cut away to reveal her tanned skin. She’s too cold, and Caleb knows that she’s overextending herself, but he can’t bring himself to ask her to take it easy now. Not when she’s so close to fixing everyone, not when the last one is a child, Veth’s child, lying in his father’s lap, fear in his eyes and his muscles tensed with paralysis.

He knows Jester would just refuse him anyway, so he stays quiet, wishes there was a way he could lend her some of his energy to help her do this. There’s nothing he could do, he knows that, too.

Jester lays her hands gently on the sides of Luke’s face, cupping his cheeks in almost motherly affection, and smiles.

Her upper lip trembles almost as much as her hands.

She pulls the toxin from Luke’s body, and lets out a small cry of pain, and slumps into Caleb.

An abrupt call of “Jester!” goes up from the rest of The Mighty Nein, and he hears the commotion of them scrambling to get to her. Yasha’s sword being sheathed, Fjord’s weaponized water dissipating, Mollymauk hissing at the newly arrived cops to stay away from them, the strange popping sound that echoes when Beau summons or dismisses a weapon.

He hears the sickening squelching sound of Veth’s form melting.

Fuck.

Caleb curses in German.

“I’ve got Render,” he calls back frantically,collecting Jester’s slumped form in his arms. Luke is stirring and Yeza is sigghing in relief, this is fine he has this under control, he can’t let Veth… “Yasha, keep Nott the Brave back, don’t--”

It’s too late.

Veth is standing there, her twisted bear form melting away, a look of shock on her half formed face. Staring at her husband and injured son, Veth doesn’t even have the wherewithal to control the change in the slightest. She melts from the bear straight into plain old Veth. No mask, no altered clothing, no nothing. She’s Veth, same face and same black jeans and ratty old t-shirt that she’d stolen from Caleb and hacked up into something she deemed more fun before they went out this morning.

For a split second, her skin ripples, and she has splotches of different colors up and down her arms and neck, almost like the vitiligo that dots across Fjord’s jaw and hands. But then it fades back into her normal deep tan, and then she’s just Veth.

In the middle of a crowd of civilians, in front of the husband and son she hasn’t seen in over a year.

Lots of things happen at once then.

Mollymauk turns back to the police to sure they really aren’t approaching. The black haze that usually just hovers around Yasha’s face suddenly extends to swirl in a vortex of almost opaque grey. Through the haze, Caleb can just barely see Fjord and Beau going to talk to the law enforcement to explain what had just happened and show them their licenses. Yasha kneels next to Caleb and Jester and helps him get her situated a little more comfortable while they work out this nightmare and wait for EMTs to get there to double check that Jester’s okay.

Veth, her hair blowing out behind her from the force of the haze vortex that Yasha’s kicked up, just stares.

“My god,” Yeza says, staring right back at his wife. “You’re… Veth, you’re alive! Is it you? It’s really you?”

Veth, still a touch dumbfounded, nods once, jerkily.

“It’s me,” she says, and Caleb’s never heard her sound so small.

On the ground, Luke stirs, and coughs a little, looks up at Veth and says “Mama? Is that you?” and melts.

Yasha gasps softly.

“Oh god, no,” Veth whispers, horror hanging onto her every word. “Please no, no, no, no. Not him, no.”

Making sure that Yasha has Jester safely in her lap, Caleb gets up, taking a few steps closer to Veth. She flinches back, hr eyes wide and still focused on her son.

“Veth,” Caleb mutters softly, putting a hand out to bridge more of the distance. He has to put out a couple of flames that spark across his wrists. “It is okay,” he tries.

“No it’s not! Look what I’ve done, Caleb! look at what I did to my son! I cursed him!” Veth shouts.

Caleb’s glad that Luke seems too out of it to be paying much attention at the moment. Yeza, on the other hand, visibly flinches, and as he does, Veth recoils.

Yeza is clearly torn between his son, still lying half in his lap, and his wife, despairing in front of him. Caleb knows this is not a situation he can help in, so he goes to try to do something he can help with.

He kneels beside Yeza once again, and carefully gathers Luke into his lap, holding the boy gently to him as he shivers. Caleb gives him a quick once over to be sure that Jester had healed him entirely, and when he sees that she had, determines that the boy just needs to rest and he’ll be alright. He half murmurs, half sings an old lullaby he sort of remembers from when he was very young to Luke as Yeza approaches Veth.

Veth visibly recoils as he nears, but he isn’t put off, reaching out to take her hands in a loose grip. He’s giving her an out, Caleb can see, leaving her room to pull away, to leave.

“Veth, I thought you were dead. I--I can’t believe that you-- I mean, you’re Nott the Brave! My wife is a superrhero! Would you look at that. I thought you were gone, really. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I texted,” Veth says softly, miserably.

“I know, but I still… I hoped, but some part of me-- you never came home one night, Veth! You just never came home!”

“I’m sorry. I am. I never-- I didn’t want you to see me. I didn’t want you to see… I got jumped by members of that gang, the Goblins, and they knocked me out and when I woke up I… I was a monster. I was cursed. I didn’t want you to see what they did to me.”

Oh. Oh, that makes Caleb’s heart hurt. Yasha gives him a sad look that resonates with how he feels just a bit too well.

“This is just another part of you, my dear,” Yeza says, almost too softly for Caleb to hear, and Veth scoffs. “Oh don’t give me that. This was something inside of you the whole time. That just brought it out. You know, stressful situations can trigger otherwise dormant powers in someone? That’s what happened to Luke when we thought we lost you.” Veth makes a distressed sound and Yeza places a hand so, so softly to the side of her face. “None of that now. Just. We’re just happy to have you back. We’ve missed you so much, Veth. I’ve missed you. I don’t care that you’re powered, and I don’t care how that happened. I’m just happy you’re okay. That’s all that matters.”

Veth lets out a watery laugh, just shy of a heavy sob, and sniffles miserably, before throwing herself at Yeza, looping her arms around his neck and holding him tightly.

As she does, her form melts again, and the fabricated mask is back on her face, her features just enough different that no one would be able to tell that it’s her. When she draws back, Yeza gasps, but he doesn’t so much as flinch in the face of it.

“Let’s get your boy out of here,” Yasha pipes up, gathering Jester in her arms. “He and Render both need to rest after this, and my home is only a few blocks away, we can head there. Platinum, Quartermaster and Sentinel can handle the police brief and meet us when they’re done.”

At the prompting, Caleb draws Luke to his chest and stands, only stumbling a little as he does.

He carries Luke over to Yeza and Veth and gestures the correct direction with his chin, and begins to walk.

Smaller now, and transparent enough to see through, but not be seen through, Yasha’s haze follows them, and they head for the back alley of ZuZu’s so they can change into their civilian clothing and head back to Yasha’s without drawing so much attention.

When the haze dispels and they open the back door, Zuala is there in th kitchen retrieving a tray of cookies from the oven. It clatters to the counter when she sees Jester in Yasha’s arms, Luke in Caleb’s, and Veth leaning heavily into Yeza’s side.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell happened? Who are they?” Zuala exclaims, reaching for the first aid kit they now keep here for emergencies.

Yasha waves it away and gives Zuala a brief rundown of the situation, and Zuala quickly shifts from confusion to resolve.

“Yasha, dear, go change and clear out the cafe, we’re closing early today. No one needs any immediate assistance?”

Caleb shakes his head. “No. They’ll need rest and for someone to keep an eye on them, but no one is terribly injured. Simply drained.”

“Good. We’ll tidy you all up and head back to the house so we can let them rest for a while, make sure they’re okay. The others are going to meet us at the house?”

Electricity crackles from the other side of the room as Yasha sticks the tip of her sword into a well-worn divot in the floor in the corner, and whispers a word, and her armor zaps away. The haze dissipates and the black war paint fades back into her skin and she’s left with the single blue line tattooed down her chin and the soft green flannel and denim cutoffs she was wearing this morning. Her sword is no more than a hilt, small enough that she can tuck it into the waistband of her shorts, and it’s like there’s nothing there.

She presses a kiss to Zuala’s forehead and heads for the front of the cafe to clear it out.

Zuala clears off the counter a little more so that Caleb can lay Luke down to rest his arms.

As Caleb sets him down, Zuala turns to Yeza and Veth.

“Hey, do you think you could gather the others’ things so that they can have their civilian clothes waiting for them when they get to the house?” she asks softly, and Caleb appreciates that.

A small, easily managed task is a good way to make sure Veth doesn’t zone out too far, that she stays with them well enough. It works. Veth nods and makes a noise of agreement and sets about digging out the clothes they had all tossed at Zuala before taking off. They’re stuffed in a little alcove mostly hidden by a cabinet, so it takes a minute, but it’s no issue.

Veth hands Yeza a worn button down that’s probably Fjord’s, and, in a voice the rest of them almost can’t hear, asks him to give it to Zuala so that she can cover up most of Jester’s uniform for the walk. Caleb takes his things from Veth and tosses his jeans and henley on over top of his uniform.

Veth prods at her own face, seems to realize that she hasn’t dropped  the altered form, and concentrates for a second to melt into her own face. Yeza watches in something like awe.

“That’s incredible,” Yeza breathes.

Caleb can’t help but smile. He knows Veth was terrified of what her husband would think of her newfound abilities, but everything Caleb’s seen so far says that Yeza does not care in the slightest. In fact, he seems to be fascinated with his wife’s powers.

Caleb would use the word enamoured for the way Yeza looks at Veth.

It’s almost sickeningly sweet, like the pastries Jester is so fond of.

Caleb abruptly feels like he’s intruding, and turns back to Zuala where she’s checking on Jester and Luke.

“They are not turning into pastries, are they?” Caleb teases.

Zuala, without looking up, laughs at him. “You know I’m a licensed EMT, right, Widogast?”

Caleb did not know that.

He tells her as much.

“I have been for a while. Before we moved to America, opened this place, that was my plan. Fell apart a little bit. But I still remember the basics. It seems like Jester and the kid are going to be just fine, I think you were right. They just need lots of rest and some fluids and they’ll be back on their feet in no time. Nothing to worry about if they stay this way.”

Caleb smiles. The Nydoorins never fail to surprise him.

“You are full of many surprises my friend,” he says to her, and she makes a noise that is almost a laugh.

Yasha returns to the kitchen with keys in hand to inform them that the cafe is cleared out, and that she’s gotten in contact with the others to tell them where to meet.

As Yasha talks, Yeza takes Veth’s hand and leads her gently back over to the rest of them.

Gently, like she’s afraid he’ll break if she touches him Veth places her hand on her son’s cheek. Caleb can see the shine of tears on her face and in her eyes but he doesn’t say a word. Veth deserves this.

“Let’s get him back to our place so that we can get him comfortable. You can stay until he’s feeling a little better before taking him home,” Zuala prompts.

Yasha hefts Jester’s still unconscious form into her arms. When Veth takes a step away, still holding her husband’s hand, Zuala lifts Luke.

“Thank you so much,” Yeza says, as they head for the back door.

Caleb takes the keys from Yasha and locks it behind them.

“Think nothing of it. Veth is like family to us. And you are her family. So that makes you important to us as well, ja ?”

Yeza nods and Veth tries valiantly to hide her smile.

“Well, I’m looking forward to getting to know my wife’s second family. Not every day you get to do that, huh?” Yeza jokes.

Veth groans. Caleb and Zuala chuckle. Yasha fixes him with an approving look.

Caleb thinks Yeza will fit right in with the rest of them, no problem.

Chapter Text

Caleb is helping Jester study for her math final at her apartment when Fjord comes out of his room, shouting at her for her rent money.

“Oh, Caleb, didn’t know you were here. What’re you two up to?” Fjord says, cutting off his shout as soon as he sees Caleb.

“I’m doing well, thank you. I am helping Jester study for her mathematics exam. How are you?”

Fjord shrugs, dragging a hand over his hair. He looks tired. The shock of white hair at the front of his head seems more prominent at the moment.

“Little stressed. Got a final in one of my major classes that I’m not feeling too confident on. Despite Jes’s best efforts I’m still a bit sore from that run in with those weird mutated hyena things last weekend. I’m just trying to get everything squared away for the apartment so Beau’s not left hanging out to dry, before we head out for the summer.”

“Ah,” Caleb says. “So you’ve both made your plans to return home for the break?”

“Well, technically,” Jester says, twisting her fingers together. “I have not made any plans to go home.”

“What?” Fjord’s hand stills on the back of his head. “Jester, you told me you booked a flight to go back to California two weeks ago!”

“I know! I’m sorry Fjord! It wasn’t supposed to be a lie, but I went to book a flight after we had that conversation, and I was looking at plane tickets and you know it’s pretty expensive, and I would hate for my mama to have to pay that much money for me to go home for just a couple of months, and I could just stay here and work and video chat with her every night and that would be just as good and then I would be making money, too which would be great! And I would still be able to do superhero stuff too! So Yasha and Molly and Beau and Caleb and Veth won’t be on their own!”

Caleb watches Jester’s sudden nervous fidgeting, and cocks an eyebrow.

“Jester, do you want to go home? If the finances really concern you, you know that we would all help you figure something out. I know you miss your mother,” he says.

If Caleb is being honest, he is a hermit. He stays home, and aside from rent and groceries and the Netflix that Veth insists on, he does not spend the money he makes on like, anything. He has the money. If he weren’t concerned about it sounding like a handout, which he knows Jester might resent, he would offer to purchase a plane ticket home for Jester right then and there. If she wants to see her mother, Caleb would help her do that. A good relationship with a parent is something Caleb wishes he had had. If he can help Jester have that, he’d be happy to do whatever necessary.

When she still says nothing, Fjord prompts, “Jes?”

“I don’t think I can go home,” she says, very softly.

“What?”

Jester very carefully closes her statistics textbook and slides it forward a bit. She takes her time closing her notebook, stacking it on top of the textbook, and her pencil and highlighters on top of it.

“Well, you know. My mama is the Ruby of the Sea, and--”

“Wait,” Fjord interrupts. “Your mom is the Ruby, like the famous singer? Like the won a Grammy, famous singer, Ruby of the Sea?”

“Yep! That’s my mama! She’s a really good singer, and lots of people want to be her friend, like some very powerful people all want to know her cause she’s like, super talented, and super famous, and if you know her it makes you super cool. And she was a great mom too. She was always really careful to never let people know anything about me so that I didn’t have to deal with paparazzi or anything. That’s why she only ever calls me her little Sapphire when she’s in interviews and stuff. And when she went away on tours, she got Blude to take care of me. He was like a nanny, I guess, when I was little, but he was more like my friend, so I’d never be all alone when she was gone.”

“Jester, why does this mean you cannot go home?” Caleb questions.

“Well, you know. Some of the people who want to know my mama are very rude and they suck a lot, so I used to play pranks on them a lot. And I was really good you guys. Like, really good. I never got caught. But a little bit ago, I played a prank on some guy who turned out to work for the governor of California, so he’s super important, and I guess I embarrassed him a lot and he got very mad and I got caught that time, and he was saying a lot of things about consequences for it, even though it was just a silly prank, so my mama told him I was going away to college soon, and I was, that wasn’t a lie, but I was going to go to school in state. But my mama told the guy that I was going to go to school on the East Coast, and that there would be no reason to be so angry at someone he’d never have to see again.”

“So she sent you away to school to make sure you’d be safe from that man.”

Jester gives them a sad sort of smile and nods. “She always is looking out for me. I miss her a lot. She says she’s going to come visit as soon as she can, but she’s been very busy lately, and so have I and it hasn’t worked out yet.”

Caleb and Fjord watch her in silence for a long moment.

Fjord is the one who breaks it.

“Well, you know. I was really just gonna go back cause… well I don’t know. Just seemed like the thing to do. I don’t really have anyone to go back for. There’s Sabien but that’s-- Well. Maybe neither of us really has a place to go back to in California. What’s wrong with that?”

“Fjord, who is Sabien?” Caleb asks, in a voice so soft it’s near inaudible. He’s almost afraid to ask the question. Caleb doesn’t like to pry, to begin with, and Fjord so rarely talks about his life before moving to the East Coast, Caleb’s worried this might bring the conversation to a screeching halt.

Fjord, to Caleb and Jester’s surprise, does not dodge the question.

“Sabien was, uh. He’s an old friend. We were--” Fjord’s voice gets very soft, and the accent he’s spoken in since the very day they met him is suddenly gone. The almost-Southern drawl that Fjord told them he picked up from one of the foster parents he had when he was very young simply disappears between one word and the next, and is replaced by an almost-English accent, soft and understated. Caleb is so taken aback he nearly physically draws back at the sudden change.

“I guess you could call him an old boyfriend?” Fjord continues, “I’m not quite sure. We were in the same foster home once when we were really young, and we kept in touch after I got moved to another home. When we got old enough, we started going out and doing things on our own, just dumb teenage stuff. He was… Sabien was my first kiss, actually, but I don’t know if you could really call what we had a relationship. I don’t know. Not important, anyway. He fell in with a bad crowd when we were still in high school, and got into some shit I wanted nothing to do with, so I stopped hanging around him as much. But we had… something, for a while, I guess.”

“It sounds like you really care about him,” Jester says, and she sounds a little disappointed.

“I don’t think he ever felt as strongly about me as I do about him. Or did. Did.” Then, as though it had never been gone, the Southern drawl is back, and Fjord pastes on a sad smile. “Funny, the kind of people that stick with you, isn’t it?”

“Were you going to go back to California for Sabien this summer?”

“I heard a couple weeks ago that he might’ve gotten arrested for something gang related, and I was worried. I was going to try to hunt him down, if I got back there. Starting to really think that I shouldn’t.”

“Fjord, if I may offer some advice?” Caleb pipes up. “I know it is hard to see people you care about go down bad paths. But you cannot always help them. There comes a time when it might be more of a detriment to you than it would be a help to them. And I think perhaps, the person that Sabien has become is not the same as the young man you once cared for.”

“I know that, Caleb. I do.”

“You know, he’s also not the only person you have, now. You’ve got us! You guys are what makes it not so bad that I miss my mama so much. We’re kind of like a family, aren’t we? We look out for each other and care about each other, even when we’re all getting on each other’s nerves and all of that?” Jester says, a little unsure, but still unwaveringly positive. “Yasha and Zuala are like the moms,” she jokes with a smile.

Fjord’s grin turns a little less sad.

“I suppose you’re right, Jes. Y’all have been better to me in the last few months than Sabien has been in years.”

“Some people are not forever, you know? Sometime they are just there to help you become who you are supposed to be, and then they need to go away, to become who they’re going to be. I think you guys are my forever people though. Or at least, I want you to stick around for a long time.”

“I’d say that’s about right,” Fjord agrees. “I still need your rent money though.”

Jester bursts into giggles at that, and Caleb breaks into a grin as well, something small, but genuine. He agrees with them both. He wants them, and the rest of the Nein, to stick around for a while.

Chapter Text

They’re sitting in a park watching Luke chase a duck when it happens.

Veth hasn’t been able to bring herself to stay at home most of the time, though she’s working up to it, so Yeza and Luke have been spending a lot of time with the Mighty Nein. The Nein are starting to help Luke with his abilities, teaching him the basics of keeping them contained until he can learn true control. They’re acting as a safety cushion for Veth, too. She’s still terrified that she's going to lose control of herself, and though they know she’s gotten so much better at maintaining her form, that she’s never once really lost control of herself. They know she’s got herself well in hand, but she’s so worried for Luke and Yeza’s safety that she’s near sick with it sometimes, so they’re all happy to sit on the sidelines and play babysitter for Luke while Yeza and Veth reconnect.

They’re family. It’s nothing, really.

Plus, Luke’s adorable.

There’s that too.

So they’re sitting in a park on a sunny summer Monday, Luke chasing a quacking duck and melting into a duckling with a squeal, while Yeza and Veth talk in hushed tones at another picnic table.

“Fuck,” Beau mutters and leaps up, chasing after duckling-Luke, trying to catch him before he can slip into the nearby pond with the duck he’s chasing.

She can’t quite catch him in time and she ends up on her knees at the edge of the pond, fishing the duckling boy out of the water. She clutches him to her chest, laughing as his dripping little feet kick against her hands.

“Got him!” she declares, spinning around and almost bowling into a couple of people standing near her.

She takes a split second to pause, her mouth making the shape of an apology, and her body poised to run back to them, and then freezes entirely. It’s like all of the energy leaves her all at once. Her free hand clenches into a fist, though she’s careful about the hand she’s still holding Luke in. She straightens up, her spine going rigid. She curls Luke in closer to her chest, protective almost, and sparks dance over the back of Caleb’s hands.

Beau looks afraid.

Beau never looks afraid.

The air around her free hand warps, and for a split second, Caleb sees a mace flicker into existence before disappearing just as fast as it had appeared. Whoever these two men are, they’ve got Beau flustered enough that her careful control is faltering and that, in and of itself is fucking terrifying.

Yasha reaches for the hilt of her sword, where it’s tucked away in Zuala’s bag. Jester’s eyes hone in on Beau. Fjord tenses, at the ready. Veth’s attention is drawn when she notices the sudden tension rippling through the rest of the Mighty Nein. Molly stands, and dusts himself off like he’s going to stride over to Beau and the two men, when someone finally speaks.

“Father. I didn’t expect to see you walking around like this,” Beau says, her voice tight and strained.

One of the men scoffs and Caleb turns to really look them over.

The one who had scoffed is an older man, the same tan skin as Beau, with salt and pepper hair and a stern set to his jaw as he brushes imaginary dust from the lapel of a suit it is too hot to be wearing. The other is a boy who can’t be older than thirteen. He looks just like Beau, but he’s dressed in a crisp button down and pressed slacks. His face is as pinched as Beau’s.

“Ah. Beauregard,” the older man, her father, says, and Beau visibly flinches away from the sound of his voice. “What exactly are you doing on the ground plucking fowl from the water?”

The disgust in his tone is obvious, and out of the corner of his eye, hee sees Yeza set a hand on Veth’s arm to hold her in place when she hears Beau’s father call Luke ‘fowl’.

“Babysitting,” Beau responds without hesitation, and immediately recoils as though expecting a physical blow.

Flames lick up Caleb’s hands, and Fjord has to extinguish them before they catch Caleb’s sleeves or cause a scene.

The boy speaks up then. “You said Beauregard? Is she-- Are you my sister?” he asks, eyes wide.

“You… Are you serious? You’ve never even shown him a picture of me? He’s thirteen and you haven’t even shown him a single picture of his sister? What, do you just pretend I never existed?”

“Maybe if you hadn’t disgraced our family with your shameful behavior we wouldn’t have had to take such drastic measures to insure it didn’t impact our reputation.”

Beau looks stricken. “Shameful behaviors? Wh-- I was eleven! I was eleven when you shipped me off to Cobalt and started leaving me with a nanny during the summer. That’s not… I was child, behaving like a child! If you had taken the time to be a halfway fucking decent parent, maybe it wouldn’t ha--”

Beau cuts off abruptly when her father raises his hand, twisting to shield Luke the duckling from the blow.

It never comes, though, because, faster than any of them can track, Jester is across the path, her hand locked in an iron grip around Beau’s father’s wrist.

Around her fingers, his flesh begins to blacken, skin curling away from muscle as she gets in close and hisses in his face.

“You don’t touch my sister like that.” Jester, normally so cheery and bright, even in the face of exhaustion and monsters and mayhem and the worst life can throw at her, has never sounded like this before. She sounds terrifying .

Caleb approaches then, carefully drawing Beau away from her father, making sure not to touch her without warning. He gently removes Luke from her hands and passes him off to Zuala, who returns him to his parents. Yasha moves to flank Jester, shielding what she’s doing from any passersby. Fjord steps in and pulls Beau’s brother away. Mollymauk hovers just off to Jester’s other side.

“You don’t deserve Beau, you evil, evil man,” Jester bites out, and Beau’s father lets out a grunt of pain as the necrosis creeps down his hand, so, so slowly.

“I’d suggest that you never try to speak to our friend like that ever again. And if you even so much as think about raising a hand against her…” Mollymauk trails off, getting in close and whispering something into Beau’s father’s ear that makes him go pale.

Molly’s smile is snake-like when he draws back, and Beau’s father is near shaking. Jester raises his hand to he has to look at it as she heals the damage she’d done, then drops it abruptly and storms over to Zuala, Yeza and Veth who are halfway through coaxing Luke into his normal form.

Yasha steps over to Fjord where he’s checking in with Beau’s brother.

“I’d advise you not to forget this.”

Caleb can hear the power, the intent in Molly’s voice as he says that. It sends a shudder down his spine, but he does not pay attention to that. He’s got a hand on Beau’s arm and he’s leading her away and he has… no idea how to handle this.

He asks the first thing that comes to mind.

“Has he done something like this before?”

Stupid question. Fuck.

“No, he never… I mean, he used to threaten me a lot but he never… it’s never gotten that close. But fuck, he… I haven’t seen him in thirteen years, Caleb. I haven’t… I felt so… I shouldn’t have been so weak. I saw him and all I could think of was what if Luke got caught in the middle of it and I… I should’ve done something! Fuck! I just stood there!”

“You protected Veth’s child. You thought you were going to be harmed and your first instinct was to protect Luke. Beauregard, that is not cowardice. That is courage, in the face of the man who caused you pain. Bravery like that is not common,” Caleb counters.

Before he’s even finished with his last word, Beau flings her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. Immediately after, she stiffens, and so does he, because they don’t do things like this. Neither of them are particularly tactile people in this regard.

But, overcoming his own reservations about touch, considering the situation, Caleb hugs her back after only a beat of awkwardness.

Well, it’s still awkward, but Beau sags against him and lets out a shaking breath before drawing back and straightening herself out a bit. She rights the crop top she’s wearing and readjusts her leggings and takes a deep breath.

“Thanks, Caleb.”

“Anytime, Beauregard. You are deserving of people caring about you. You are worthy of it, and I mean every word I said.”

“Alright, alright, buddy.  You’re getting too sappy on me now,” she teases with a watery laugh. Over Beau’s shoulder, Caleb watches her father and brother walk away.

Her father is rubbing his wrist and scowling.

Her brother is watching Caleb and Beau.

He looks, Caleb thinks, a little sad.

~*~

A week and a half later, they’re sitting in Caleb and Veth’s apartment cleaning up after dinner, Yeza and Luke getting ready to go home and Veth debating whether or not to go with them that night when Beau’s phone rings.

Beau freezes for a second, patting herself down to actually find her phone, muttering, “Who the absolute fuck is calling me right now? Who calls people anymore?”

And then, for all her complaining, she doesn’t even check her caller ID, opting to simply pick up right away and shout, “What do you want?” into the receiver.

When the person on the other end of the line speaks, Beau pales.

“What? No, you--” Beau cuts off, putting her hand to her chest. She listens a second more, and the hand reaches out wildly. Jester’s the one who catches it, and Fjord steps up to Beau’s other side to offer silent support for whatever is happening.

Veth watches for a second, and then says quiet goodbyes to Yeza and Luke, telling them she’s needed here right now, and that she’ll see them soon.

“No! No, don’t-- Yes, stay there, stay where you are, kid, come on. Tell me where you are and just… you stay put. Stay put, I’ll be there faster than you can think. Don’t move kid, just don’t move, it’s gonna be okay, I swear. I’ll be there soon,” she says, voice tinged with desperation. She starts scrambling for her shoes and her bag all at once and almost drops her phone, shoves the bag at Fjord so she can tug on her sneakers, not even bothering with the laces. “Someone write down… fuck, Caleb, remember the address 919 Water Street, apartment 3B. No, not you,” she says, into the phone again. “Not you, I’ll be there in half an hour. Less maybe. Less than that. Soon as I can. Fuck!” she shouts, as she nearly trips over her shoelaces.

Yasha catches her before she can fall, and rights her carefully, hr own brow furrowed in concern.

“I’m gonna hang up now, okay? I’m gonna hang up and I’ll be there soon, okay? Okay. Okay.” She hangs up, and turns frantically to Caleb. “Your car. You have a car. I need to borrow your car, now, right now.”

“Beauregard, slow down. Take a breath, please. Let me get my keys, and I will drive you wherever you need to go. Just tell us what happened.” He doesn’t wait for an answer before heading to get his keys from the counter, but he still listens for her to start speaking, as he retrieves them and moves to put on his shoes.

“My brother. I… he’s powered. He’s powered like me and my dad found out and he lost it so the kid ran and I’m… fuck, shit, I don’t know what he can do and I don’t know if he accidentally hurt my dad and what that monster will do if that happened and I need to go get the kid right the fuck now, Widogast, let’s fucking go, I’m not leaving him alone for longer than necessary.”

“He’s alone right now?” Mollymauk asks, his worry reflected in his expression.

“Shit, fuck, no, he’s not alone, he ran to his friend’s place, but the friend’s parents are probably friends with my father and the kid was already thinking about trying to go back home and I need to get there before this turns into a worse situation.”

“Alright,” Fjord says, holding out his hands in a placating gesture, ever the peacemaker. “Okay. Beau and Caleb, go get the kid. Take Jester with you. That way, in an absolute worst case scenario, she can help if the kid’s hurt, yeah? I’ll take the others back to our apartment and I’ll set up my room so the kid can stay there for a night or two, okay, Beau? So we’ll be all set for him to crash with us if he needs it. This is gonna be fine. We’ll make sure he’s safe, okay?”

Beau nods, and takes a breath and glances down and finally ties her shoes.

“Okay. Okay,” she says.

She lets Jester take her hand, and they follow Caleb out of the apartment.

~*~

When they get to 919 Water Street, apartment 3B and knock on the door, a girl about the same age as Beau’s brother opens the door.

“Are you Theo’s sister?” she asks quietly.

They’re taken aback for a moment, as Caleb realizes that none of them have ever heard the kid’s name yet. After only a brief pause, Beau nods.

Far more calmly than she had spoken at Caleb’s apartment, she says, “Yeah. I’m Beau. These are my friends Jester and Caleb. Is your mom or dad home?”

“Yeah, one of my dads is with Theo. He told me to come get the door.”

“Good, good, that’s great. Can you take us to them?”

The girl leads them into the apartment, far nicer than any of their places, and down a hallway to a bedroom, obviously her own.

Beau’s brother, Theo, is sitting on the edge of the bed with the girl’s father crouching in front of him. He’s holding an ice pack to Theo’s brow, and looks up when they enter the room.

“You must be Theo’s sister,” he says, and introduces himself as Horris Thrym, and it almost goes entirely over their heads, because right then they all see the black eye Theo’s sporting, and go blank with sheer rage for a split second.

Beau kneels next to Theo and begins looking him over carefully, her face a good few shades too pale.

“Hello sir,” Caleb says, while Beau is preoccupied. “Caleb Widogast. This is Jester Lavorre. We are friends of Beau’s. Thank you, for looking after Theo until we could get here.”

“It’s no trouble. Theo’s a good kid, and a good friend of Kara’s. I hate to see this happen.” He sounds sad. Good. He’s on their side in this. “I wouldn’t have expected it out of--”

“The man’s a monster,” Beau growls, and Theo almost flinches and Horris starts.

“Well. It’s a good thing Theo’s got you then. I had no idea Theo had an older sister. He’s lucky to have someone looking out for him.”

“Yeah, he… My father doesn’t like to talk about me much. Listen, thank you so much for looking out for him, and for not calling my dad when Theo showed up. I… just… thank you.”

“Think nothing of it. Really.” Horris thinks for a moment, then says, “I don’t mean to pry into your personal business, but can I ask what you’re planning to do now?”

“I’m going to keep my brother far away from our father, so there’s no chance of this happening ever again.”

“I hoped so,” Horris says. “Well, my husband, Dolan, he’s a family court lawyer. If you end up going down a legal path, I’m sure he’d be able to find time to take your case.”

“Thank you, Mr. Thrym, but I’m not exactly in a position to hire a fancy lawyer.”

“For a friend of the family, he could consider it a pro-bono case.”

Beau, after a long, pregnant pause, says, “If you have his information, I’d really appreciate that.”

Horris pulls out his wallet and hands Beau a shiny business card. “Theo is a good kid. He spends a lot of time over here, and he’s good friends with my daughter. I want to see him well, too.”

“Thank you, Mr. Thrym, really, I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

Caleb’s honestly a little shocked at the level of gratitude Beau is displaying, as she’s never been one much for showing her emotions too blatantly, but one look at her hand, grasped tightly in her brother’s, explains that all away. Beau’s always taken protecting her family very seriously. This is no exception.

“Document those bruises when you get home, and make sure he gets plenty of rest to heal up. We hope he’ll be up to visiting again soon. He’s always a joy to have over.”

Caleb smiles, and Jester shakes Horris’s hand, and Beau leads Theo from the room and they depart, with a promise to be in touch.

As soon as they get into the car, Jester snaps pictures of the black eye and the bruise blooming on Theo’s collarbone, and then reaches very slowly for his hand.

“Want to see something neat?” she asks. Theo tentatively nods.

Jester heals him with a smile on her face, and Theo watches in awe as her hands glow bright white for a split second and the bruises fade.

“Are you feeling better?” she asks, as Caleb begins to drive.

Theo’s nod is more enthusiastic this time.

“Much, thank you,” he says softly. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going home!” Jester says excitedly. “To the apartment where me and Beau and our friend Fjord live! He’s the one you met in the park with the really cool scar on his forehead and the funny accent that doesn’t make any sense cause he’s from California like me.”

Theo eyes her in confusion at that, and Caleb smirks in the rearview.

Jester sticks out her tongue.

“You’re gonna stay with us for as long as it takes, alright, kid? I’m not letting dad hurt you again. It should never have happened in the first place, and I’ll be damned if you have to grow up the way I did. You’re getting a loving family whether you like it or not,” Beau huffs.

Theo seems a bit taken aback by that, but after a second, he gives them a relieved sigh.

~*~

Three weeks later, it turns out that a legal battle for custody of Theo is more than their father wants to deal with, and with very little fighting, Beau signs the papers to make herself Theo’s permanent legal and physical guardian.

As they exit the courthouse, all of them, together, their little fucked up family, Jester stage whispers to Theo, “Welcome to the Mighty Nein!” and they all watch as his eyes go wide with realization.

“Holy shit,” he mutters. “My sister is a total badass!”

Chapter Text

It becomes apparent a week after Beau gains custody of her brother that they’re going to need to do something about the living arrangements in that apartment. Fjord can’t keep sleeping on the couch, and with the way he and Jester are starting to dance around the beginnings of what might turn into a relationship, he’s been debating whether he should keep living in the apartment at all.

When Veth declares one day that she’s decided to move back home with her family, something occurs to Caleb.

A week later, they’ve gotten Veth moved back into her home, Theo completely moved into Fjord’s old room, and Fjord moved into Veth’s. It takes two days, and every car they’ve got between the seven of them and Yeza and Zuala, and they’re all sweaty and tired by the end of it, but they’re all happy, too. Fjord feels more comfortable with whatever might be happening with him and Jester now that he’s not living in close quarters with her, Theo’s starting to feel more welcome among them now that he’s definitively got his own space, and though Veth’s not happy about what she feels is leaving Caleb behind, she is thrilled that she finally feels confident enough to go home for good.

They haven’t had to respond to an incident in a month, and they’re beginning to help Theo with his powers, and Luke is gaining more control over his form and things are going well for the Mighty Nein.

Naturally, that’s when things have to go bottom up.

They’re gathered up at Yasha and Zuala’s place, walking Theo through an exercise to help him learn how to control when he manifests the translucent constructs he can form and bend to his will, when there’s a knock at the door. It startles Theo enough that the construct he’s holding falters. Luke, who had melted into the form of an otter to use the construct as a slide, chitters unhappily as he tumbles to the ground. He melts back into his own form with a sniffle and a disgruntled look at Theo, who immediately kneels to check that he’s okay, muttering an apology.

Zuala smiles at the scene, and goes to answer the door.

“Can I help y--” She doesn’t finish her sentence, and Caleb and Yasha both immediately raise their guard.

“Take Theo and Luke into kitchen,” Yasha says, and Veth and Beau go without argument, Jester trailing behind them. Fjord, looking between Mollymauk and Jester with indecision, eventually follows into the kitchen wordlessly.

Sparks crackle along Caleb’s knuckles, and Yasha draws her sword hilt.

“Go see what’s up. We’re here if you need us,” Mollymauk says, and Yasha heads for the door without further prompting. Caleb follows though he hangs back a few steps, hovering behind Yasha as she goes to see who’s at the door.

What he’s not expecting is for Yasha to take one look at the woman on the doorstep, and let her sword hilt clatter to the floor, her hands both slack at her side.

Caleb’s about to ask who this woman is when Yasha takes a measured step forward.

“Mother?”

Oh boy.

“Ah. Yasha, you are here.” The woman, Yasha’s mother, shoulders past Zuala as if she’s not there, shoving her back into the still open door. “I’ve come to discuss some business with you, because you can't seem to even do something as simple as pick up a telephone when someone calls.”

“You traveled to another country to discuss business with me?” Yasha asks, and she sounds incredulous and incredibly, terribly tiny all at once.

Mollymauk rounds the corner, a glint in his smile and ice in his eyes. His hands are closed into such tight fists that his tattoos stand out even starker against his tan skin.

“Mrs. Pelletier, what a lovely surprise,” he says, all bite and broken glass. Mollymauk sounds dangerous, like this. Caleb feels dangerous in this moment, watching Yasha’s mother trample all over Zuala, watching her storm in unannounced and start demanding things.

Caleb is suddenly very glad that Jester, Beau and Veth are in the kitchen, because he thinks Beau would’ve thrown a punch or six already, and that’s to say nothing of what Veth or Jester might have done after Beau let that first fist fly.

“Mother, what is it that you want?” Yasha asks, her gaze fixed on the door jamb just to the side of her mother’s shoulder.

“See this is what your father and I were worried about when you picked up and left the family. You have absolutely no manners, not even the decency to invite your mother in after she’s traveled hundreds of miles to see you. How rude of you.”

“We invite guests into our home when we've asked them here. We don’t extend intruders the same courtesy,” Mollymauk snaps. Yasha closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Zuala makes an aborted move towards Yasha, like she wants to reach out and takes her wife’s hand, but can’t do it in front of Mrs. Pelletier.

Mrs. Pelletier sneers at Mollymauk. “I see your choice in companions still hasn’t improved.”

Mollymauk grins wickedly in response. Zuala tightens her hands into fists.

“Mother, what do you want?”

Mrs. Pelletier sighs. “Well, if you’re going insist on being horribly rude like this…” she says, trailing off as she reaches into her massive purse and pulls out a large manilla envelope. “Your aunt Alyssa passed in an accident two weeks ago, and for some unfathomable reason, she chose to leave her shares of Spear Technologies to you.” She slaps the envelope onto the table by the door, hard enough to rattle the bowl of keys. She tosses a pen from her bag on top of it.  “You weren’t answering any calls, so I came here to have you sign them over to your father and I, as they are obviously rightfully ours.”

Yasha, though Caleb thought it wasn’t possible, goes even more pale than she already was.

“Alyssa’s dead?” she says softly, her eyes shining, even as her jaw sets. Yasha has resolve unlike anyone Caleb has ever seen. She’s not going to let a single tear fall in front of this woman claiming to be her mother. Still, sadness sticks uncomfortably close to Caleb’s heart watching Yasha learn about this.

For a moment, Caleb is thrown violently back to the day he and Astrid and Eodwulf were finally freed from Ikithon’s control. When an officer sat them down, a group of barely-more-than-children, and told them of the atrocities their bodies had commit while their minds were locked away in boxes in the backs of their own heads. The destruction Astrid wrought, the fires Caleb set, the places Eodwulf popped in and out of that he had no business being. Instead of Yasha’s pain and Zuala’s anger, he sees Astrid’s despair and Eodwulf’s carefully contained dread. Instead of Mrs. Pelletier, he sees the officer who coldly laid out every crime they had unwittingly committed, and the details of how they were going to trial for them.

He feels like the breath has been punched out of him for a second, and when he feels Mollymauk’s hand on his elbow, he nearly jumps out of his goddamn skin. But Mollymauk doesn’t grab or pull or push. He just lays a hand on Caleb’s arm, and leaves it there, lets him come back to himself on his own, as Yasha speaks.

“--come to my home and insult my family and just drop this on me like--”

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Pelletier says, sounding affronted. “Your family? These degenerates are not your family! We were your family until you turned your back on us for this backwards lifestyle!”

“You were my family until you shunned me for falling in love! Alyssa was the only one who accepted me and Zuala, the only one who accepted that I’m Powered--”

“Alyssa was a fool! What you can do is unnatural, and you shouldn’t go flaunting it around like you do! You think I don’t know that you are the Sky Spear that’s been running around with this band of--of freaks! What do you call yourselves, the Mighty Nine? What do you think you’re doing taking the company name and using it as part of your ridiculous alias? You realize if you were ever to be found out, you’d humiliate this family!”

“Nein,” Caleb says, as Yasha shies away from her mother a bit. All eyes snap to him. Sparks skitter across his skin and leave scorch marks where they cross over his sleeves. “We are the Mighty Nein. Not the number. The German ‘no’.”

“This is a family matter, Mister…”

“Ermendrud,” Caleb hisses. A flame flares in his palm and he snuffs it out before it can cause issue. This is no time to be losing control. Mrs. Pelletier’s eyes still go wide, and Caleb knows his point has been made.

“You’re one of that man’s--Trent Ikithon’s--projects, aren’t you? You should’ve gone to prison years ago. You stay away from my daughter you--”

“I’d recommend you don’t finish that sentence,” Mollymauk warns. Caleb can hear the power in his voice, and Yasha’s mother snaps her mouth shut. She looks at Mollymauk in utter disgust.

From the kitchen, Caleb hears a clatter, and imagines that Veth heard that, and someone is currently holding her back so she doesn’t try to do something reckless.

“Whatever you may think of me, feel free. It is of no consequence. But the woman you are insulting right now is as good as family to me. Certainly she is more my family than yours, if this is how you see fit to treat her.”

Yasha’s eyes widen and she stares at Caleb for a moment, blinking in surprise as though she wasn’t expecting him to speak up for her like that. To be fair, Caleb wasn’t entirely expecting himself to get involved until he opened his mouth. This is none of his business. It really is a family affair. But he couldn’t let himself stand there and see Yasha look so fucking helpless . She should never look like that, he thinks. She doesn’t deserve it. She deserves to be happy.

It seems, too, that she’s regathered her thoughts, in the moment her mother’s attention was on Caleb, rather than her.

As Mrs. Pelletier looks back to her, Yasha draws herself to her full height. She reaches out and takes Zuala’s hand.

“If you want my shares of Spear Technologies, you are welcome to purchase them from. But if you think you can show up her, and insult my wife and my family and bully me into giving them up in my own home, you’re going to leave disappointed, Mother .” Yasha’s voice is steel and iron, stronger and sharper than her blade. Mollymauk’s grin is positively giddy as he watches this happen. “I am done letting you walk all over me. I am your daughter, not some underling you can order around. If you’re not going to treat me like family, I won’t extend you the same courtesy. You can take care of whatever you’ll need to do to request to purchase my shares of Spear Tech, and I’ll gladly sell them. You’ll send along the details about where Alyssa is buried as well, so that I can visit my aunt. Now if you would kindly get the fuck out of my house, you interrupted a family gathering.”

Yasha scoops up the pen and the manilla envelope and shoves them both into her mother’s hands, throwing the front door open and standing by it with crossed arms.

“I really did have higher hopes for you. It’s such a shame that you’re such a disappointment.”

“Bigger shame that I don’t care. Don’t ever show up unannounced like this again.”

Yasha slams the door shut behind her mother, hard enough to shake the frame it sits in, and takes a few deep breaths staring at the blank surface of it.

“Yash?” Zuala says laying a gentle hand on Yasha’s elbow.

Yasha spins and buries her face in the crook of her wife’s neck, and lets out a shuddering gasp.

Caleb, suddenly feeling like he’s intruding, turns, and heads for the kitchen to tell the others what’s happened. He abriges the story, both for the children’s sake, and so that he’s not telling them anything Yasha might want to tell them herself. By the time they’re all caught up, Mollymauk is coming into the kitchen, snatching up two bottles of wine, and instructing them to grab glasses and come into the living room.

“Yasha!” Jester exclaims, the second that she lays eyes on Yasha and Zuala where they’re sitting together on the couch. “I didn’t hear all of it, but what I heard was super badass and you’re so cool and I’m sorry that your mom isn’t a good mom, but we’re all still here for you, for whatever you need cause we love you!”

Fjord puts a hand on Jester’s shoulder, and gives Yasha a soft smile. “That took some guts, Yasha. I’m impressed,” he says, which is high praise from Fjord.

“This is too sappy,” Mollymauk interrupts, finally, popping the corks on the wine bottles. “Lets drink.” Then, with a glance at Theo and Luke, he adds, “Drinking is bad and should only be done after you’re twenty-one and only on special occasions. Stay in school.”

Theo nods solemnly, Luke looks confused.

With a tug on Veth’s sleeve, Luke whispers, or at least tries to whisper, “But, Mom, aren’t you supposed to drink water?”

Beau starts absolutely cackling .

The laughter is infectious, and soon they’re all in hysterics, the tension shattered like fragile panes of glass.

Yasha isn’t taken with the laughter so much, but she’s smiling and looking around the room with warmth in her eyes, and Caleb knows this’ll all be alright.

Chapter Text

Summer is coming to a close and the Mighty Nein are all gathered in the Brenattos’ backyard, celebrating a victory with a barbeque when Jester checks her phone and blanches. She goes so pale, Fjord reaches out as if to catch her, even though she’s sitting down.

“Caleb,” she says softly, and all eyes snap to her.

“What is it, Jester?” He fights to keep his voice level, and mostly succeeds.

Veth glances over at Jester’s phone screen, ever curious, and looks to Yeza, with her jaw set seriously.

“Take Luke and Theo inside. Jester do they have a live report going on?”

Jestr nods wordlessly, and Caleb’s heart drops before she even pulls up the news feed.

He knows what this must be, without needing to hear it.

The back door closes behind Yeza and the kids, and Jester cranks the volume on her phone.

A reporter’s voice crackles over the speaker. “--following a hearing last week, Ikithon, who was convicted on counts criminal use of superhuman abilities, among other crimes, has been granted parole. After serving ten years of a forty-two year sentence, Ikithon recently filed for parole. The approval of this appeal has sparked some controversy about whether or not Ikithon should be released, given the nature of his crimes. NBC has been unable to contact the Soltryce Academy students who faced trial with Ikithon for comm--”

Jester shuts her phone off and slips it into her pocket with a slight tremble in her hand.

“Caleb are you…” she starts to ask and trails off. Caleb’s sure his face is all the answer she needs. “Oh Caleb.”

“I am--I am fine,” Caleb says, but even to his ears it’s shaky and weak.

“If he’s on parole for criminal misuse of powers, he’ll be fitted with a dampener so that he can’t use them. You’re using a different name, you’re with a different team now. He’s not going to find you,” Fjord assures, but Caleb barely hears it.

Ikithon is free. Caleb has no idea where Astrid and Eodwulf are. He doesn’t know if Ikithon knows how to find him.

And he is absolutely certain that a power dampener won’t stop him.

~*~

They make it three weeks before something happens. Caleb’s on eggshells the whole time. Every loud noise makes him jump, he’s having nightmares like he hasn’t in years, Fjord uses his abilities to clean up a spill and Caleb has a panic attack so bad he makes himself sick.

It is a rough few weeks for everyone. Caleb most of all, but the others too. Veth’s constantly texting Fjord to check up on Caleb, because Caleb’s gone all but radio silent. Fjord is afraid to leave the apartment to go to work because Caleb is so shaky. Beau’s worried about leaving Theo with Caleb while she goes to work, because Caleb keeps checking out on them. Whenever she’s around Caleb, Jester can’t stop wringing her hands, like she wants to reach out and use her powers, try to heal the wound causing Caleb so much pain, even though there’s nothing there for her to actually heal. Even Mollymauk, usually so full of life, bringing the party with him just by virtue of being in the room, seems dimmer when he’s around Caleb, like he’s purposefully trying to contain himself. And Yasha. Yasha is hovering . The whole thing is deeply unsettling.

Caleb is unsettled by the fact that this seems to be affecting his friends so much. It is a strong reminder of how attached they’ve all gotten to each other, which is… something he doesn’t want to examine quite yet. Not when his mind is so clouded with fear. He can wallow in his discomfort for a while. It’s going to be fine.

Or so he thinks.

Three weeks, four days, twenty one hours, and fifteen minutes after Caleb finds out that Ikithon was released, the Mighty Nein are once again gathered at Zuzu’s, quietly hunched over hot beverages, despite the waning heat of summer’s end. Theo’s got a summer work packet open in front of him, half paying attention to some math problems, more focused on trying to see if he can use one of his invisible constructs to use his pencil. It’s almost working, and there’s no one else around, so no one tries to stop him. Caleb is giving him quiet pointers on how to keep his construct more solid when the door chimes go off. Mollymauk makes to get up, half to go man the register, like he’s supposed to be doing, and half to block the view of Theo while he drops the construct.

“Oh, don’t get up on my account,” the man says, and Mollymauk sits back down.

Beau turns to give him a weird look, and as she glances at him, her eyes widen. “Molly?” Her voice cracks in a truly worrying way, and everyone snaps their attention to the two of them.

Mollymauk’s eyes are wide with fear, and he is frozen in place, gripping the table like he’s trying to push himself up, out of his chair, and yet, he’s going nowhere. As Caleb looks over, Mollymauk meets his eye, and gasps out, “Run!”, just before Caleb’s gaze travels just over Mollymauk’s shoulder, to land on Trent Ikithon.

“Ah. Well, you were more difficult to find than the others.”

And in that moment, there’s no power holding him there, but Caleb is frozen in place.

He sits there and just stares at Ikithon for a beat. Two. Three.

Then Theo whispers, “Who is that, Uncle Caleb?” and he can think of no other option but to spring into action.

He shoves Theo out of his chair and to his feet, thanks whatever gods are out there that Luke and Yeza are not there too, grabs Theo’s hand and takes off towards the back of the shop.

He shouts nonsense at the top of his lungs, loud enough that he and Theo won’t be able to hear if Ikithon tries to use his influence on them, thinking of nothing but getting Theo to safety. The others are adults, and he hates them getting tangled up in his baggage, getting into trouble because of him, but Theo is a child. He cannot let a child get hurt because of his own foolishness, his own carelessness.

When they come crashing into the back of the cafe, Zuala looks up at them in surprise.

“Caleb? Theo? What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

“He is here,” Caleb gasps, breathlessly, pushing Theo towards Zuala. “Ikithon has found me, he is here, and he already has Mollymauk under his command, I need you both to leave, please. Get him to safety. I will fix this, I promise I will. I will get Yasha back to you safely just please get Theo out of here.”

Caleb has shifted into crisis mode. He knows there is only one way this is going to end. He is going to become the Blitz again. He is going to be Bren again. He knows Ikithon wants him back, and Caleb will bargain himself away if it means the rest of the Nein get away from this safely. It’s hardly a choice, honestly.

Him or them?

They’re all so much more important than just him. It’s not a question, in his mind.

“Do not take him back to your home. Go somewhere with lots of foot traffic. Get lost in a crowd. Call Yeza if you can.”

Zuala nods, pulling Theo closer to her. She snatches her phone off a counter and her bag off the hook by the door, and takes Theo’s hand tightly.

“Be careful,” she says, a warning in her tone, and concern in her eyes.

“I will get them home safely.”

“You better get yourself home safe too.”

Caleb stumbles over a word or two.

“That’s not a suggestion, Widogast. Come on, Theo. Let’s go.” Without so much as a goodbye, Zuala is gone, Theo with her, and Caleb can breathe just a bit easier.

He takes a deep breath and tries to steady the tremble in his fingers, and strips off his civilian clothes in quick, practiced movements. When he steps out of the kitchen a moment later, the front of the cafe is empty, but the door is open a crack, and Caleb can hear screams from outside.

No, he thinks, he can’t have made them…

He all but stumbles out onto the sidewalk, and what he sees is worse than what he imagined.

Fjord, Jester and Beau are standing at Ikithon’s back, completely listless, the air around Beau’s fists shimmering in that strange way it does when she summons or dismisses a weapon. But nothing comes, and the shimmer does not fade. Fjord and Jester are each caught halfway through summoning their powers as well, concern in Fjord’s brow, water hovering over his hand, and rage in the curl of Jester’s lip, black creeping up from her hands and over her wrists.

Veth is a few feet away from them, trapped mid-melting, her form half human, half twisted, snarling wolf. Her mouth is dropped open in something like pain, and Caleb cannot imagine the discomfort she is in.

The most concerning thing, however, is the state Yasha and Mollymauk are in. Mollymauk is on his knees, hunched over Yasha, almost like he is trying to shield her, partway through reaching for her. Yasha is on the ground, face contorted in pain, her legs both bent at unnatural angles. She’s in her armor, unlike the others in states of partial hero dress, faces covered, but not much else in terms of uniforms, which means she got to her sword, and Caleb thinks that’s what got her into this predicament.

The black haze that hovers around Yasha’s face, obscuring her identity, and sometimes others as well, has condensed around her ears, almost solidified. Caleb is certain that it had plugged her ears, preventing Ikithon’s influence from taking hold in her. It was evident that Ikithon did not like that.

But breaking limbs was not his style, which could only mean one thing.

“Hello Bren,” a voice purrs in his ear.

Fuck, he hates being right about these things.

Astrid and Eodwulf are both standing behind him, twin blank looks in their eyes, and predatory smiles curling their lips. Caleb had not heard them approach, which means Eodwulf’s teleportation skills are still up to snuff, and the state Yasha is in puts Astrid’s destructive capabilities on full display. This is already going so sideways Caleb hardly knows what to do.

“So nice of you to finally join us, Bren!” Ikithon’s voice rings out, and Caleb nearly flinches just from that. He contains it though, just barely, and turns to really face the man who has haunted his nightmares for years.

“Ikithon.” Caleb’s voice does not waver, but it is a very near thing. “Let them go. They have nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, but my dear student, they mean something to you, so they have everything to do with this. Isn’t that right?” Ikithon spins on one heel to look at the rest of the Nein. Caleb can’t even protest before he speaks again. “What do we say to the pathetic bargain Blitz brings to the table, hm?”

As one, the Nein begin moving again, and it is straight out of a nightmare.

Fjord conjures a sphere of water that makes for Jester as soon as it forms, and she responds in kind, reaching for him with blackened hands, injury in her touch. The water affixes around Jester’s mouth as she grabs Fjord’s wrist and sends his entire arm into necrosis in a split second.

Veth finally makes it into the wolf form, snarling and frothing at the mouth, and the weapon Beau had been trying to manifest, a wicked tipped spear, appears in her hand. She launches the projectile right into Veth’s side, and Veth all but roars, lunging for Beau’s throat with her massive fangs, claws extended.

Mollymauk leans over Yasha, crooning to her, trying to persuade her to stand on her broken legs, the black haze the only thing keeping her from further pain.

Caleb watches in horror, as he stammers out, “Stop! Stop it! It is me you want, not them!”

Ikithon lets it happen for a moment more, lets Beau hit Veth once again, lets Veth tear into Beau’s side. He lets Jester struggle for breath for that much longer, lets the necrosis creep further up Fjord’s arm.

Then, only when Caleb is a half second away from dropping to his knees and outright begging, does Ikithon raise a hand. The Nein stop immediately, all of them looking horrified at themselves, frightened and disgusted in equal measures.

“It is me you want. Not them. You can have me. I will go willingly. You always said an open mind is easier for you to manipulate, correct? My mind is open. I will go with you again. But let them go. They have done nothing to you. They are not worth your time.” It hurts him to say, but he has to convince Ikithon somehow, has to play into his line of thinking. Ikithon cares for efficiency above almost all else, Caleb remembers well.

With one finger, Ikithon beckons him forward, and even without the oppressive influence in his mind, Caleb steps towards him.

There is a quiet whoosh , and Astrid and Eodwulf are standing behind Ikithon in a blink. Oddly, Caleb feels a bit better with them there. Even though there is a mere few feet of distance between them, it still gives him a bit more of a reaction time, before Eodwulf tries to teleport him miles into the air, or before Astrid tries to shatter every bone in his body or cave in the ground under his feet.

Ikithon mirrors Caleb’s steps forward, and any sense of ease that he had just regained, disappears again. Ikithon reaches out with one hand, seizing Caleb by the chin. He looks Caleb over like a prized dog, in a way that makes Caleb’s skin crawl, before snatching up one of Caleb’s arms, peeling back his uniform sleeve. Caleb, though he hates this, says nothing, and allows Ikithon to take his arm.

“You removed your crystals as well. All three of you, such a disappointment. Testifying against me in court, removing your crystals, negating years of hard work I put into making you worthwhile people. Such a shame. Well. It’s not too late to start back up again. And maybe once you’ve made some progress again, you can help me teach the next generation as well.”

Caleb’s eyes go wide, because no, that can’t be… he’s trading himself for others’ safety, he can’t be playing into doing this to another group of children too young to understand what is being done to them, to see how they are being manipulated and hurt.

But Caleb can already feel Ikithon’s presence in his mind, and Ikithon was called Influence for a reason.

There is little Caleb can do to fight it, and he watches from the back of his own mind as Ikithon takes a few steps backwards, and Caleb’s body, after a pause, follows.

Caleb is lamenting the fact that he didn’t get to say goodbye to his family, when he hears a pair of muffled shouts, and a sickening squelch, followed by a heavy thud.

Very suddenly, his mind clears completely. None of the slow drag that had happened when they broke Ikithon’s control the first time. One second, Caleb’s body is not his own, and the next, it is his again, and as he flexes his hands, settles the sparks zipping across his forearms, he looks up to see the tension bleeding from his friends as well.

When he looks to where Ikithon should be, what he finds instead is Zuala, breathing heavily, spattered in red, and holding Yasha’s bloodied sword, as though she’s just finished swinging it. A half step behind her, on either side, Astrid and Eodwulf have their hands pressed to the walls of invisible boxes trapping them in place. A couple yards behind them, Theo stands, one hand outstretched, sweat beading on his forehead, eyes covered with his other hand, peeking through his fingers. Caleb glances down to see Ikithon’s body slumped in a pile at his feet, head no longer attached to its shoulders.

“Nobody fucks with my family,” Zuala spits at the body, and follows it up by spitting on the body.

And then she drops the sword with a clatter and rushes to her wife’s side.

Caleb simply stares for a long, long moment.

Ikithon is dead.

Ikithon is well and truly dead.

There will be mounds and mounds of paperwork to deal with, and a story to concoct so that they can leave Zuala out of the circus and a police investigation, he’s sure, because he was human, not a monster terrorizing the city.

Well, he was a monster, but that’s a philosophical debate Caleb does not want to have with himself at the moment.

There will be much to handle, soon.

But for now, Ikithon is dead, and they are hurt but alive.

His family is okay, and Astrid and Eodwulf are here and they are okay, and this is more than Caleb could have hoped for.

“Hey can I stop doing this now?” Theo calls, and Beau, disregarding the still bleeding wound in her side, beelines for her brother, who drops his constructs as soon as Beau takes his face in her hands to check that he is alright.

As the constructs around them drop, Astrid and Eodwulf look around in confusion and concern, before they both finally look to Caleb.

“Bren?” they ask in unison. They seem to be pleasantly surprised. Caleb hopes that’s right.

“It is actually Caleb, now. If you don’t mind.”

“Of course we don’t mind,” Astrid replies, without hesitation, and all Caleb can think is how much he missed hearing her speak.

Her accent, so much softer than his, molding words into something beautiful even when she stumbled over them. Beautiful just like her.

Whatever used to be between them, Caleb knows has long since fizzled, but still. There is a certain nostalgia, remembering these things.

“It’s been years, Caleb,” Eodwulf says.

There is a pause where none of them speak, Caleb doesn’t know what to say, and it seems that neither do they, and then Eodwulf strides forward. He drags Astrid with him by the wrist, and wraps both Caleb and her into a tight hug, exhaling a little shakily as he does. Astrid lets out a wet laugh, and Caleb can’t help but mirror it.

God he’s missed them.

“Caleb, we were so worried about you, we didn’t know where you were or how you were doing, and, fuck, it’s good to see you again,” Astrid finally says, after they’ve been holding each other for far too long.

“Not the best of circumstances, but the bastard’s dead, so, I suppose it turned out alright in the end?” Eodwulf draws away, glancing to where the rest of the Mighty Nein are gathered around Yasha, Mollymauk on one side, Jester on the other and Zuala cradling her head as Jester heals her broken legs.

Beau is ushering Theo towards the group, carefully shielding his view of Ikithon’s body as she does. She looks up as sirens start to sound in the distance, but ultimately ignores it, and leads Theo to sit on the curb by the others. Once Yasha is back to rights, Jester goes to sit with them, a frown on her face as she heals Beau’s side and give Theo a once over to make sure he’s alright.

“We need to apologize,” Eodwulf says, and strides over to where the others are gathered before Astrid or Caleb can say a word.

Eodwulf stops a good few feet away from the Mighty Nein and opens his mouth to speak, and doesn’t get a word in edgewise before Mollymauk cuts him off.

“Don’t you dare apologize, dear. This wasn’t you.” There’s no power in Mollymauk’s words, but there is weight behind them.

It would be very impactful to watch, if it were not so ridiculous to see Mollymauk, all five foot ten of him, poking a finger up at Eodwulf, who is a good half a foot taller than him.

Eodwulf nods sheepishly, mumbling something that Caleb can’t quite hear.

Mollymauk pats Eodwulf on the chest then, as Caleb and Astrid approach, and says, “Good lord, you’re attractive.” Then to Caleb, he calls, “Caleb, you didn’t tell me your old friends were so nice to look at!”

Eodwulf flushes wildly, and Astrid laughs, something very near an outright cackle.

Caleb chuckles, and guides Astrid closer to the group.

“Astrid, Eodwulf, I would like you to meet my family, the Mighty Nein.”

“The Big No?” Astrid teases, elbowing Caleb lightly in the ribs.

“I did not choose it.” After a quick glance to be sure there are no civilians close by, Caleb continues. “This is Mollymauk, Yasha, Zuala, Beau, Theo, Fjord, Jester and Veth.”

“It is very nice to meet you. I’m glad Br-- Caleb has had people watching his back when we could not. We are very sorry for what we did.”

“Not your fault,” Beau grunts, hardly looking up from Theo.

“Still. We apologize. That was a smart play, boxing us in like that. How’d you know I wasn’t going to be able to teleport out of that construct?” Eodwulf asks Theo and Zuala.

Zuala looks to him in surprise.

“You can fucking teleport?”

“Language,” Theo mumbles, and Mollymauk absolutely loses it.

Within seconds the rest of the Nein are taken with laughter, and it takes a good minute or two for them to calm themselves.

Eodwulf still looks confused. “I thought… I mean you must know who we are. I don’t think I’ve ever met an American who didn’t know us.”

Zuala just shakes her head and shrugs. “I’m Canadian.”

That sets off the laughter again, and the only thing that settles them all this time is the arrival of police and EMTs.

They send Theo and Zuala back into the cafe, and Yasha takes up her sword again, and with a few hushed remarks they come up with their cover story. Just in time too.

Just as they finish sorting themselves out, and stepping up to meet the first responders, they are met with the first of the emergency services people. Usually the EMTs wait for police to secure a scene, and usually they come in pairs, but this very tall man simply strolls out towards them like nothing is wrong. They meet right over Ikithon’s body, and the man gives them a wide grin, before crouching to look at the corpse between them.

His long pink hair is secured in a bun at the base of his neck, but a few loose strands still fall in front of his face as he leans over.

When he gently touches Ikithon’s head where it lies on the ground, a fine dusting of pink moss begins to grow where the head used to attach to a body. Tiny mushrooms, too clean and white to be growing from a bloodied wound, sprout around the edges of it.

The man grumbles a bit to himself, like he didn’t mean to do that, then rights himself, and brushes his hands off on his pants, still smiling at them.

“The Mighty Nein, right? Heard a lot about you. I’m Caduceus Clay. I know you’ve got Miss Render there to do some healing for you--” at her alias, Jester blushes, “--but I wanted to be sure that you’re all doing alright before the vultures descend on you. This looks like--Well it looks like a real mess. Wanted to be sure you’re taken care of before this turns into a circus.”

Caleb can’t help but smile.

“It is very nice to meet you, Mr. Clay, but I think we’re all just fine, now. Thank you.”

“Well, let’s get this circus going, shall we?”

Caleb glances back at his family, at his old friends, and looks back to this very kind man that he already likes, from just this brief interaction, and he cannot help but smile.

“Let’s get the circus going,” he agrees.

Mollymauk whoops, and the others laugh, and with his family at his back, Caleb steps forward.