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“I don’t know if we can do this babe.” Craig said into the silence, finally letting slip the one thought that had been eating him alive for days now. Although he had said it quietly, Tweek heard him and glanced over at his pacing husband. It troubled him how unlike himself the man he called his partner, his lover, his home was right now. The strong, dependable hero known as Super Craig looking already so defeated, despite the battle having yet to be fought.
Tweek immediately moved from behind his makeshift desk, where he’d been pouring over schematics of the building that housed their fate for days now. As if something he hadn’t seen before, something he could have missed would suddenly jump up and give him all the answers he was searching for. It would never take much for him to tear his eyes away, especially when that something was Craig, and he surrounded the taller man, embracing him in his arms.
“Craig, we can do this! We have to, everything we know hangs in the balance right now and we have the power to save it all. Our friends, our family. If we’re not doing this for everyone else, we’re doing it for them.” Craig gripped Tweek’s arms tightly, embracing the warmth of his body against his.
“We could just leave you know? Run away from it all? We don’t have to fight.. you could be safe.” A part of Craig meant this...if anything should happen to Tweek he would never forgive himself, let alone the world who put them in this position in the first place. There was no part of this life he wanted to save, if Tweek wasn’t a part of it. No matter what he said however, or how he felt, he knew that the blonde hero he loved so dearly would never back away from a fight. Not when the stakes were so high and the cause was this great.
Jade green eyes softened. “I know you like to think you could live with yourself if you ran away from this, but you wouldn’t. You’re a lot braver than you give yourself credit for Tucker, and I believe in you, I believe in us . We will win, in fact, we’re gonna kick Company ass. You know there’s no other choice.”
Craig looked around the sanctuary they had made and called home during these last few months as the world had gone to shit. When they had first gone into hiding, Craig was so angry. They had lost everything they had built over the years and traded it for a derelict bomb shelter that they were supposed to call home. It became very clear however, that none of that had really mattered. The Company had gone after the superheroes first, hunting them like wild animals, locking them up and throwing away the key. Sometimes, death was the luckier option.
They had targeted those directly that would have had any chance of stopping the atrocities they had planned to commit, especially when there were whispers of rumours that all supers were teaming up. Super Craig and Wonder Tweek were definitely on the radar and top of the hitlist and it had been a quick decision and a thankful heads up from FastPass that had allowed them to disappear in the dead of night to this dilapidated bunker. A refuge against the world and tonight, it would be the last night they stayed there, for better or worse.
Craig swallowed, feeling like he was choking on his own words, “I just want you to be safe. That’s all I care about.”
“I will be Craig, I’ve got you to protect me.” Tweek tried to give him a convincing smile, but Craig knew his husband well; he was shit scared too. Still, Tweek summoned up as much reassurance as he could, laying a hand on Craig’s cheek. “We will have each other’s backs. With you by my side, nothing can stop me...and I’m incredibly hard to kill, you know that.” Tweek winked at him.
“Okay… now you’re just being cheesy.” Craig chuckled, so desperately needing to join his husband in breaking the tension in the room, his mind relentlessly crawling with what ifs and worst case scenarios. Tweek and Craig had lived like this for so long now, their lives so bleak that they longed for these moments when they crackled with nervous energy.
Tweek took the joke for what it was, a way to lighten the mood, and gave him a soft tap on the shoulder with a false frown. “Gah! I’m just trying to be nice. Jesus no need to be a dick!”
“I know and I love you for it.” The words came out with the seal of honesty.
“Pffft and you call me cheesy. That was pure cheddar man.” The smile that was now on Tweek’s face was now truthful, bright and dazzling just like the first time he had ever seen him. The first time he fell in love with him, asked him to marry him, said their vowels. He could always count on his wonderful husband to make everything better, even in the direst of situations.
“You know you love me for it.” The dark haired man winked, an amused grin now lining his face.
“I do.”
They found comfort in one another’s bodies that night, as they had done so many nights before. This night was different though, each touch each whisper, it meant so much more and they were going to drink in every memory they could. Their movements started slow, and lingering, so sure in the safety of each other's arms, but it wasn’t long before it became urgent. The realisation that this could truly be the last time, to feel and to hold, to kiss.
They were scared, scared for the world but mostly each other, because they knew that neither could live while the other was gone. Their souls were entwined, two halves of the same coin. You couldn’t simply have one without the other.
That night there would be little to no sleep, not with the possibility of their world ending in the morning, so Craig and Tweek decided to spend the time in the best way possible; joined as one.
~
A blood curdling scream ripped from his mouth before he could even register that it was him that had made the noise. Mysterion, a trusted friend and comrade, fell to the ground, his body obliterated by the enhanced bullets the Company fired, scientifically enhanced with the capability of piercing through a superhero’s skin.
Tweek didn’t have time to process the shock as the same soldiers turned their sights to him, aiming their weapons with deadly accuracy. It was fight or flight now, and as his friends lay in pieces on the battlefield, Tweek wasn’t sure that the fight was going to go in their favour.
He’d lost sight of Craig a while ago, when the enemy had charged in a surprise ambush, driving their forces apart as they scrambled to their nearest point of safety. It seemed to be the Company’s favoured tactic; split them up and pick them off one by one. As a group, the heroes could achieve so much, but singularly they were massively outnumbered.
So Tweek was alone as he faced the men in their military black uniforms. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to bring the power that dwelt deep within him to his fingertips but he’d been at this for hours, he was drained and the time taken to recharge was increasingly ever longer. Come on , he willed himself, desperately willing the electricity that coursed through his veins to something, anything. Come on, don’t fail me now . Still, nothing, just a spluttering spark that tingled and lit pathetically around his fingertips. It wouldn’t have been enough to light a lightbulb, let alone cause enough damage to the oncoming assault of soldiers, steadily closing the gap toward him.
“SURRENDER NOW WONDER TWEEK.”
He laughed, these people had killed some of his closest friends, innocent civilians. They had torn apart families and homes. Destroyed life after life without second thought. There was nothing on this planet that would ever make him surrender to them, no, he would rather die.
“Argh...No! I won’t!” Tweek yelled definitely, making his position clear. He was surrounded, any hope of a last minute escape dwindling fast. He would not show them fear, he would not allow the satisfaction of it. He held his head up high, puffing his chest out. This was going to be it, cornered and alone he would meet his end and part of him was quietly thankful it was this way, if it had to be. Death at the hands of human soldiers as his powers failed him, because this was his fault. Craig would find his body later, he would mourn but know there was nothing he could have done, that Tweek had walked this path himself. Better this way than having Craig watch, or have any thought that there would have been something he could have done.
The soldiers raised their weapons, a hundred red laser dots aimed directly at Tweek’s head. He closed his eyes, thinking of nothing but Craig. Craig on their wedding day, Craig asleep so peaceful and always so beautiful in the early morning. Craig lounging on the couch or playing video games with Mosquito as if their lives weren’t action filled enough. He allowed everything about the other man to engulf him.
Craig I hope you are safe. I will see you again someday. I love you.
Though they didn’t have telepathic abilities, Tweek prayed that Craig understood that in his final moments, he had only thought of him.
With his eyes closed, Tweek did not see the figure that came hurtling towards him. Nor did the attacking soldiers, caught completely unaware of the dark blue figure charging in their direction, as though summoned by Tweek’s desperation and barrelling at full impact into the enemy.
The blonde’s eyes fluttered open at the unexpected commotion. “Ngh.. Craig?!”
“Of course babe, didn’t think I would let you go that easily did you?” Craig gave him a lopsided smile, it was tight, tension coursing through his body. There were open wounds scattered across his face, his clothes splattered in purple markings as the blood mixed with the blue of his outfit, but he paid them no mind. He gripped hold of Tweek, dirty and sweaty but alive all the same.
“This isn’t over yet. Call Girl’s so close to shutting them down. We’ve just got to last a little longer okay honey? Now get off your ass and fight!”
Tweek wanted to believe that he had it in himself. That he wasn’t exhausted mentally and physically, that the strength and confidence he had was still there inside him. He was too far from there however, far too depleted and he’d seen too many friend’s cut down in front of him today. The Company was too strong, and while they weren’t prepared for the secondary attack that Tweek had spent hours organising with Call Girl and Tupperware on the inside, they had been too prepared out here. Their brutal numbers and force overwhelmed the heroes out on the streets like Tweek and now he couldn’t help but feel the churns of fear that this was it for all of them, forever.
“Craig...I...ngh, I don’t think I can. I don’t think we can keep going like this, they’re too strong and there’s too many. I don’t want to keep losing people, and I can’t lose you. Not like the others.” Craig watched his husband tremble with fear and exhaustion. Knowing the place that this was coming from, knowing that he himself had his own doubts hours before, but had been kept strong by Tweek, and now it was his turn to return the favour.
“We’ve got this Tweek, we are strong together and I’m not letting those assholes have the satisfaction of victory.”
“But my powers are failing Craig! I can’t- can’t keep this up!” There was so much of him that wanted to give in right now, that had surrendered himself to death when he had been cornered with no way out. Now, he was struggling to shake that exhaustion as it rippled through him. He replayed Mysterion going down in his head again, cut through like butter, the memory would be seared in his mind. Craig cupped his face, wiping away stray tears he didn’t know had been falling.
“Listen to me Tweek, you are capable of more than you think. Remember what you said to me last night? That we’re in this together, till the last man? We are going to keep going out here so we can give Call Girl and Tupperware a chance in there. If we go down, we go down fighting knowing that every second we bought out here was another second in there for them to take the Company down.” Craig kissed him, as passionate as he had done last night. He allowed his warmth and his love to overwhelm Tweek. His own body was so desperate to rest, his vision blurring and undoubtedly his body was running out of the adrenaline that was keeping him up on two feet in the first place. If he was doomed to die however, then he was going to die fighting for Tweek’s life.
Tweek looked into Craig’s electric blue eyes and saw the courage he needed. He gave his husband a small nod, a signal of let’s do this and then they were off, running into the war that still waged ahead. There was still a fight to be had, and neither Craig nor Tweek were going to quit until it was over or they were both dead.
~
The weather wasn’t right, the sun shone brightly and birds flew through clear blue skies. It was hardly fitting for the time and place Tweek found himself. He wanted it to rain, he wanted the weather to represent as much of the turmoil as he felt on the inside. Instead the sun continued to shine down on him belligerently, reflecting on the smooth surfaces of newly bedded gravestones, lined up in neat rows.
Tweek shook his head, willing the tears to not fall again, how much could one person cry after all? This wasn’t why he came here, sometimes he wasn’t sure why he still did. The fight was over, the battle won and it would do him no good to move forward, if he kept taking several steps back and finding himself in this exact spot.
Sighing, he made his way over to the centrepiece, the place where the honoured deceased had been engraved on the large stone slab. So many names, so many people that would never live or laugh again. His eyes drifted across names of people he had shared treasured memories with, a couple he had grown up with. One who he had been-
Maybe he should be happy that the fight had been won, but was it worth what it had cost them? How many comrades, friends and loved ones had to die for this outcome? The government may have built this memorial garden in commemoration of the fallen heroes, but Tweek was still so angry, bitter at the sacrifices that had had to be made for the Company to have finally been stopped.
A rustling of the wind sent shivers through the blonde’s spine; it almost masked the sound that came from the crunching of autumnal leaves underfoot. Tweek whipped his head around, his eyes still watering from emotion, though he tried to tell himself it was the cold air.
“You back here again?” His husband struggled to make his way over, his gait impaired by the injuries that still hadn’t healed fully. Perhaps they never would. Tweek drank in the entirety that was Craig, knowing that no amount of time with the man he loved would be enough.
“Yeah sorry.. I should have called to tell you I was going to be late... It just… helps.” Craig understood though, there was no explanation needed. It was almost every day that his husband came to this place, where they had fallen. He said that he didn’t want to forget them. Craig knew that neither of them would. His eyes drifted to one name in particular.
KENNY MCCORMICK
“MYSTERION”
His death had hit closer to any of them that it should have done. Mysterion had a trick, an ability that always meant he got back up again. He often would have joked that he could never die, simply because no matter what happened, no one had successfully been able to put him down and keep him there. They had known Kenny for years, too many Craig would often have said. He was a good man, he left behind a younger sister, who Craig’s own had taken under her wing.
They both stood there silently for a while, reading the familiar names on the epitaph like they’d done countless times. Then Craig cleared his throat, still facing forwards. “I think...they’d be happy you know? That the world’s finally at peace again.”
“Yes but for how long? How long until we are drawn back again? Until peace is destroyed once more. We can’t do this forever Craig.” There was definitely anger in his tone, this battle had hurt him dearly and some wounds took longer to heal, especially those that weren’t visible.
Craig squeezed his husband’s hand. “I can’t tell you, my love. I guess we start training the next line of heroes, and they do the next. We can’t protect the world forever, but we can make sure that there is still a world to fight for and we’ll do it together. I’ll always have your back.”