Chapter Text
The Black and White was cold. The Black and White was hot. The Black and White was angry and empty and comfort and fear. It was everything and it was nothing and it twisted those who found themselves within it into a form they would not recognize in life. If they were lucky, a kind being would give them a peaceful eternity, but not all were lucky in the constant and everlasting war between the Good and the Bad. Some mortal souls were taken and turned into something dark, something angry, something that hungered for life and was willing to kill anything that came in the way of that goal. Those souls, feral and vapid, simply need a way free, a guiding light to lead them back into the material plane. There was a being who was happy to assist.
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It was October, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was her favorite month, Lex would be hating everything. Over the last few months, the majority of the town was in a phase of recovery, enough of it that day to day life had returned with a few differences. Not everyone recovered so there were maybe 4,000 or so less citizens walking around. It was a huge loss for a town that had previously had around 100,000 people living in it, but businesses and schools were literally coming back to life.
That meant school was a thing. Not only did it mean that school was a thing, it also meant she was doing 12th grade AGAIN. As if it hadn’t been bad enough the first time! Things were better now, Tom would sit with her every day after school and help her understand what her teachers were trying to teach her. She didn’t have to take as many hours at Toy Zone because she didn’t need to pay the bills and feed her sister. Hell, she didn’t even need the job anymore since Tom footed the bill. Lex only kept it to have her own spending money without having to rely on Tom.
There was a difference between independence due to neglect and independence due to nurturing. Sure, she could do whatever the hell she wanted before, nobody was going to yell at her for missing curfew (it wasn’t like there’d been one anyway), nobody was going to be disappointed in her grades (aside from herself). But that life had no safety nets, that life was shaky and terrifying. No teenager should be forced to raise themself AND their sibling. Now they had structure, structure Lex didn’t have to keep, and rules to follow that made her feel like someone actually cared.
It was October, and Lex loved the month of October. She just… vibed with it, you know? She loved the oranges and reds and yellows that the world became. She loved the crunch under her feet and the smell of pumpkins. What she did not love was repeating her senior year while taking special ‘you’ve got powers yay’ lessons from the General. It was weird to call the guy by his first name given his title and his job, but everybody called him John and she was 18 and theoretically he was not her boss or anything. Sure, he’d offered her a position as a field agent in the organization after she went to college.
Frankly, it was real fucking tempting. He was offering to make her a spy if she went to college, and they’d pay for it. A spy! Sure, being an actor had been the original goal, but she could totally act while being a spy, and she could be a total badass! Like, how much cooler could you get? Plus, PEIP had great benefits and she could help save the world and stuff, how much cooler could it get?! Ethan thought the idea was really cool too, they’d made out in a janitor's closet in the Headquarters building and everything.
Still, becoming a spy was basically another job form of school and it was just as boring.
“When was PEIP founded?” John asked, not looking up from the papers in front of him.
“Do we really have to know all this?” Lex asked, putting her feet up on his desk and crossing her arms.
John paused and looked up at her with a patient expression. “Alexandra Foster-Houston, you have inherent and potent potential, not just as an agent but also as a leader. You have a good heart and a strong desire to protect those you care about. I firmly believe you could one day take over my position in this organization. You have the mind and the strength it takes. I know you can do it. To get there, you need to take your future into your own hands and take this seriously. If you want to get there, and you can, but you need to put in the effort to get there. If you want my position you have the duty to know everything there is to know about it. That is why this is important.”
Lex was quietly, thinking about what he was offering her. She took her feet off the table and put her elbows on her knees. “PEIP was founded in 1961 by a former member of the CIA who uncovered information about extraterrestrials and the paranormal through his attempt at taking down a big bad tech thing, specifically when the first guy in space saw an alien in space. It was covered up to keep people calm, and he, with the help of the American military, founded PIEP to keep ahead of the Russians in the field and to protect America against potential threats.”
“He was a part of the American Secret Service not the CIA, but the rest is correct. What was his name?” John asked.
“Agent Curt Mega. He had assistance from the C- I mean the Secret Service and a Russian defector. They decided to found it here because their research found that this island is right on the point where two ley lines cross and weird shit happens here all the time, making it a great place for this kinda thing,” Lex said. “Am I doing well?”
“You are. I’m proud of you,” John said, giving her a small smile and nod.
Lex scratched her cheek, unsure how to react to that. “Thanks?”
“Tomorrow we’ll work on your powers. Keep up the good work, Lex,” John said with a smile.
“You too?” Lex said, giving him an awkward salute as she exited the room. John was an alright guy, she supposed.
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“Guess whooo found the cotton candy vender!” Becky said cheerfully as she appeared behind Tim and Hannah.
“Oh hell yeah!” Tom said as he helped her hand out the treats to each of the children.
Lex and Ethan had wandered off on their own to enjoy the faire together as a date, leaving Tom and Becky with the younger two. Becky had taken a role in their little family, going with them on family events such as the one they were currently in. She helped with groceries and homework, as well as with teenage girl problems and bedtimes. They weren’t dating, but she was around a lot, and was truly trying to be involved in their lives.
Tom watched as she knelt by the kids, entertaining them with a story he wasn’t listening to. He remembered when they were in high school, when they were young and fresh and clean. He remembered how pretty she’d looked under the lights of the stadium, when they kissed as they won the championship. Yeah, he remembered how things were, but God, in the warm glow of the fall faire, with her hair pulled back in a fall jacket, smiling at his children with such a light in her eyes, Tom knew with no uncertainty that this was the most beautiful she had ever looked.
Jane. He never stopped missing Jane. Tom was sure that he never would. It was going to be two years since the accident when Christmas came around, and the amount his life had changed since that night was startling. He wished she was still there, he wished he’d seen the other car and that Jane was safe, but wishes were dreams, and dreams were pretend. Jane wasn’t coming back, and he hadn’t died with her. She would want him to be happy.
Tom could see a future with Becky, for real this time. They’d been together the way they were now since January, and he thought, maybe, he was ready to… maybe start holding hands in a not just friends way? Perhaps he’d even be ready for a kiss, if she was also interested in it. He resolved to talk to her about it when she came over tomorrow to help with homework. After the younger ones went to bed and Lex was busying herself in her room like she always did.
For now, he would just enjoy the lights and smells and sounds, the smiles on his children’s faces and the warmth of her hand in his.
---
Charlotte smiled warmly at Ted as he attempted to carry their new television in its box like a strongman. Ted’s recovery had been quite easy, as the only real damage he’d received was directly before he was infected, and it was a shot to the chest rather than the brain. Her own recovery had reached the point where she couldn’t get any better than she was, and everyone had come to accept that, including herself. No amount of physical therapy made her legs work right, and that was okay.
There were worse things than a wheelchair after all! And really, it wasn’t so bad, it didn’t really change much. Sure, she needed help with certain tasks, but her independence wasn’t terribly altered. Her hands shook, but there were special utensils and things that made that not so bad either. It could make work difficult, but they got her a special keyboard, and if she needed to dial an extension she could ask for help. Really, it wasn’t all that bad!
Besides, once Ted had gotten well enough, he’d moved into her temporary apartment with her so that he could help her. The whole thing just worked out swell, and they’d resolved to move somewhere together that was wheelchair accessible when everything blew over so they could keep it up. Ted had been an absolute dear about it all. When he’d first gotten cured and he was still out of it, he would stare at her like she was an angel or a miracle or something, and she would still catch him looking at her like that when he thought she didn’t see.
He was an asshole, of course, but he was… gentle… now. Far more gentle. He’d always been gentle with her, in day to day situations not when it was called for during their… snuggle times… Ted never squeezed her arm too tightly, never brushed her off like her thoughts didn’t matter. Yes, he’d hated Sam, and he’d killed Sam, but it was to protect Charlotte. Now, after whatever happened when she was infected that he remembered but she did not, he...
Ted was a different man than he had been before the Apotheosis, and it wasn’t a bad thing. He still said awful things, never about her but in general. He still made bad jokes and teased people and played a bit rough with Paul and Bill, but when she would break down in tears, when everything came down on her and was too much, he’d hold her hands so gently, and brush her curls out of her eyes, and tell her that she was still the most beautiful, funny, and intelligent woman he’d ever known. He’d kiss her hands and her lips and make her feel like she was still alright.
He’d matured, she decided. He’d seen something terrible, and he’d died, and he learned something from it. Ted told her time and time again that he would never let anything like that happen to her again, that he would be there from now on and she would never have to hurt like that. He told her he’d had his ‘come to Jesus’ moment, not when he said he did to Emma and Paul, but when he was shot, and realized that nothing he’d ever done mattered, and that if he could do it all over again he would have done whatever it took to save her that day.
Charlotte liked this new Ted. He was more open, more honest. He was still a rascal and a nuisance but he wasn’t going to leave her now that she wasn’t the same as before. Ted was invested in her in a way Sam never had been, and she couldn’t help but love him. It was real this time, not that it wasn’t real before. It was desperation before, a desperation for love, for companionship, for touch. They’d filled what the other needed. Now it was… there was something softer there, something she had never had with Sam. It was like that day outside Beanies when he held her while she cried, but happier, and all the time.
“Ted, Sweetie, you’d better put that down before you break your back. I know you are a very strong man without us having to go to the chiropractor tomorrow,” she teased, rolling herself a bit closer.
Ted finally sat the box down on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall. “I swear I’m strong, really strong. That TV is just… awkwardly shaped is all.”
“Well you pick me up all the time with no trouble so I never doubted you,” Charlotte said warmly.
Ted gave her a wink as he pulled out his box cutter and began to open the cardboard. “That’s ‘cause you aren’t awkwardly shaped.”
Charlotte laughed and said, “We can’t deny I am a little awkward.”
“Yeah, but that’s what makes you hot,” he quickly replied, giving her a smile before turning back to fighting the box.
“You need a hand there?” she asked as she watched him.
“Yeah! Here,” Ted said, quickly handing her the instruction manual and the remote. “You start looking up how to get it all connected, I’ll get the damn thing out of the box.”
Charlotte smiled and nodded, beginning to do so. Things were better now, better than she could have imagined them ever being. Yes, she had problems with her legs and her hands and yes it made things difficult, but she was still alive, and she was thriving for the first time in years. She had Ted, and they’d make it through it all together.
---
“John? We’ve got a problem,” Xander said, quickly throwing on his sunglasses which doubled as blue light blockers so that it was easier to read the screen he was looking at.
“What is it?” John asked, quickly making his way over to him. John was doing better than he had been. He was still regaining weight and muscle tone, but finally, after months of work and hours in physical therapy, he was well enough to stand tall and do his job as normal, as long as he actually took his breaks.
“The portal seems to be on the fritz or something. Look at this data,” Xander said, pulling his husband closer and pointing out what he was talking about.
John’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the data coming in. “The electrical systems are going wild, what’s causing it? We need to shut it down so nothing bad happens.”
Xander shook his head, not saying no, just purely confused. “It isn’t coming from our end, the readings are indicating it’s coming from the other side, but that shouldn’t be possible, right?”
“Not unless something with immense power is disrupting it from the other side. Turn it off, now!” John ordered the scientists in the room.
They all knew that if something was trying to force its way through the portal, it wasn’t going to end well. Even if the thing couldn’t get through, which it shouldn’t be able to do, it could cause a massive amount of damage to the base and to the town, simply due to the amount of energy that was going through the portal at the moment. Everyone was rushing around and John drew his gun, just in case.
“Sir, it isn’t turning off!” a young woman squeaked from her desk. “I tried everything on my end and it’s still doing this!”
“Same thing for me!” another scientist called, his voice panicked.
“Shit,” John muttered, turning off the safety and aiming his gun at the portal. “Everyone stop touching your devices!”
Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a bright light, and everything began to slow down. All of the electrical equipment in the room suddenly seemed to explode with electricity. Beside him, Xander made a quick sound as the electricity coursed through his body, sending him to the ground. As that happened, the room went dark as the entire power grid went out, causing screams of shock to come from all over.
The portal be damned, John put the safety back on his gun and knelt beside his husband. Xander wasn’t breathing, his body spasming from the electricity. John hesitated to touch him, but reached out to feel for him mentally. To his horror, there was nothing there. Xander wasn’t there. If he wasn’t there, if John couldn’t feel him through his connection to the Black and White… No no he could feel Xander, but not on their plane of existence. No.
“Fuck no,” John growled, ignoring the scientists as he barreled past them, through the portal.
Xander. His soul was asleep still, not aware that it had passed due to how it happened, but it was so recent that he was right by the entrance. John quickly grabbed a hold of his husband’s soul and turned to leave, only to be stopped by a familiar laugh. No. As if the day couldn’t get any worse. Of course it was the doing of the demon lord himself.
“Johnny, leaving so soon?” he asked, biting into an apple.
John froze, though he knew every millisecond he hesitated was death to him. “Don’t do this, Wilbur. Whatever it is. Let me bring my husband back in peace.”
“You didn’t even invite me to the wedding,” Wilbur scolded. “Father of the groom and I didn’t even get a card.”
“I don’t have time for this,” John growled. “Let me leave in peace, Wilbur.”
“Our time is coming. Wiggly will rise. You’re just gonna help me out some in the meantime,” Wilbur stated. “I’m not stopping you from returning to your reality with his soul, in fact, I want you to. It is exactly what I want you to do.”
John turned the safety back off of his gun and quickly shot the man’s apple out of his hand. “I won’t let your plans succeed,” he said, putting the gun away once more and storming back through the portal with Xander’s soul.
The moment he stepped through the portal, the soul returned itself to its body, and John fell to his knees, screaming in pain as the exposure to the Black and White caught up to him. It was as though he had been drenched in acid, but rather than burns, it was as though the flesh had simply been eroded away. Xander sat up from behind his desk with a gasp, and John smiled with relief as scientists began to try and talk to him, to help him or something.
John paid them no mind though as the smile fell from his face. He was entirely focused on the swirls of energy that were flooding from the portal that no one else seemed to be able to see. Souls. Damn it. By bringing Xander back he’d opened the door for other souls like him to return as well, just as Wilbur had wanted him to do. He spared one more glance in his husband’s direction before the pain became too much and everything went to black.