Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The last thing Cassian could remember was an overwhelming feeling of despair and anger as he found himself sinking into the ocean in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, so—naturally—he was surprised, to say the least when he suddenly found himself on the floor of a school bathroom choking on toilet water.

‘Where—?’ His eyes widened as he saw his clothes. They weren’t what he remembered wearing.

“Fuck!”

Cassian swore as he tried to stand, only to trip over his own feet, landing hard against the floor—pain shooting through his right leg.

‘Shit is my leg broken?’

His stomach churned uncomfortably as he glimpsed his left leg twisted in a direction legs definitely weren’t supposed to go. Strangely, though, he didn’t feel any pain. And anyways, were his legs always that short?

A mirror. He had to find a mirror.

He tried a few more times to stand before eventually giving in and crawling over to the nearby sink—using it to leverage himself to a standing position.

His eyes widened when they connected with the ones staring back from the mirror. This wasn’t his face.

“What the hell?”

Cassian’s grip tightened around the edge of the sink as his head suddenly exploded in a blinding pain—images flashing past his eyes faster than he could register what was in them.

Memories. And not his own.

When the pain subsided, Cassian slumped against the wall, suddenly feeling incredibly weak, and too tired to continue supporting himself. His head was spinning.

“This has been one hell of a day—” Cassian let out a sigh as he pushed wet hair from his face—” so I guess I’m in Korea? And this kid's name is . . . Gangu? Shit, how did this happen?”

"I see you're finally awake, Cassian"

"Who's there?!" Cassian tensed, scrambling away from the wall. Being cornered would do him no favors in a fight, especially in his condition.

Cassian's hands tightened into fists as a shadowy figure emerged from the amulet dangling from his neck. He was surprised to see a strange black ball of smoke staring at him with one large eye, and—oh fuck the necklace! Jeff!

“Y-you! What did you do?!” Cassian tried to grab the weird orb only for his hand to phase right through it and he nearly fell flat on his face.

“My name is Moros! I’m a mighty soul from ancient times!” The weird orb spoke with an aura of smugness. “I reincarnated you!”

Cassian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Reincarnation? A mighty soul? He had to be dreaming. But—no he couldn’t be. The water—the pain? It all felt real. He pressed a hand against his chest. The pain of the bullet that killed him; he could still feel it, but there was no wound to speak of. No matter what he wanted to believe, the truth was: he wasn’t in his own body anymore. Those memories from that Gangu kid were proof enough of that—though Cassian was still a little suspicious of the whole ‘mighty soul’ thing.

“Ok. So you reincarnated me. What for?”

Cassian maneuvered himself back to the wall and rummaged through his pockets. His fingers found the mobile phone he’d been searching for and he whipped it out; unlocking it with ease.

“To protect you. Jeff asked me to.”

“Right. . . Jeff.”

Cassian’s stomach churned uncomfortably as he recalled his brother. How he’d—Nope. Cassian wasn’t going to think about that. Yep! Totally not going to think about it whatsoever.

“Huh??! The fuck is this??!” Cassian’s eyes widened when they skimmed across the title of the article on the news homepage.

‘Top-Class Psyker Cassian Lee: More Villain than Hero?’

“Bullshit! They’re saying I was helping villains?! I was a top-class Psyker, why the fuck would I do that? Those bastards!”

“Cassian—you’re!”

“WHAT?” Cassian rounded on the spirit with a snarl ferocious enough to startle both of them.

Cassian flinched as a sudden spark of electrical energy shot through his arms; His eyes widened as his hands started to change before his very eyes. Black gauntlets with sharp blue claws formed from nothing coating his arms up to his elbows. The energy escaping from them was eerily familiar yet horribly uncomfortable at the same time; he couldn’t decide which was worse.

“What—what is this?!” Cassian glared at Moros” What did you do to me?”

“It wasn’t me—it just happened to be what kind of body was compatible with yours.”

“Bullshit! You’re telling me a top-class Psyker was more compatible with a fucking villain?!”

“Huh? Is someone in there?”

Cassian flinched at the sudden voice from outside the bathroom.

Oh shit!

Cassian scrambled to his feet, quickly glancing around to gauge his options. Spying a window above him, he spared it little but a second of thought before lunging for it. It was easy to wedge open with the sharp claws of the gauntlet and he quickly slipped out through it as the door to the bathroom creaked open. He struggled to get much of a grip on the wall but managed to haul himself onto the roof despite the dead weight of the metal attached to his left leg. Gangu’s prosthetic leg. That’s right. The bullies responsible for nearly drowning him were responsible for its current malfunction.

Cassian pulled himself up to the edge of the roof and rolled over it, landing flat on his back a short distance away gasping for breath. He definitely wasn’t used to having so little stamina.

“Smart move hiding somewhere not many people would go,” Moros mused, easily following Cassian.

“Shut up, this was all your fault you floating prick!” Cassian huffed, dragging himself to the nearby wall so he could sit up.

He rolled up his left pant leg to inspect the hunk of scrap-metal Gangu had called a leg. It was a little lower tech than the stuff he’d seen as a psyker (seriously what gen was it?) and barely functioning from the looks of it; from what he could tell, the gears in the knee had locked up causing the whole hardware to malfunction. Of course, that would be just his luck, wouldn’t it? Being the brilliant tech whiz that he was: Cassian decided the best way to fix it would be to hit it. So he did.

There was a high-pitched whir followed by a loud clunk before the pressure he was feeling suddenly released and after a moment he found he could move the leg again, though not quite as well as he’d hoped.

Whatever. He’d just have to have a tech look at it when he got a chance. For now, though, he turned his attention back to the floating orb in front of him.

“Alright, you little shit explain yourself.”

“What else is there to explain? I’m pretty sure I’ve already told you everything?”

“Don’t bullshit me. Why the fuck did you bring me back?” Cassian snapped, tired of this, this—things high and mighty attitude. It was starting to give him a headache.

Of course, that probably was also due to the fact that he’d been drowning only five minutes ago but meh, potato potahto.

“As you know, villains are controlled by strong emotions. I can control yours—”

“So what? Doesn’t change the fact that I am a villain,” Cassian sighed, crossing his arms—albeit with a bit of difficulty given the heavy gauntlets.

“Yes, yes, now stop interrupting. Didn’t your parents teach you manners?”

“I mean they would’ve if I had any,” Cassian muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest.

‘I suppose the closest thing to parents would've been Jeff’. Cassian felt the familiar hot prick of tears in his eyes at the thought of his brother. They’d been separated for so long, only for them to meet again in such a way—no. He wasn’t going to cry. He couldn’t.

He took a deep breath. In for three seconds, hold for four, out for five. When he opened his eyes, the gauntlets had faded back to normal skin and bone.

“Hey, you fucker!”

Cassian looked up at the voice to find three boys approaching. Some prick with pink hair, a blond with a bowl cut, and a nerd with glasses. He recognized them from the new memories he’d gained.

“You should know by now, Gangu you shit, you come back when you wake up,” The pink-haired boy grinned darkly as he placed a cigarette in his mouth.

Man, they’re really going for that high school gang cliche huh?

Cassian let out a sigh and pushed himself up so he was standing, carefully testing his weight against his newly less-busted-than-it-was-before leg. It would do for now.

“I don’t usually beat up kids, but today I think I can make an exception.”

“Huh? What are you muttering about now you little shit?” The bowl-cut bro approached Cassian with a glare that was definitely something.

The bully raised his hand to strike him, but with his superior training, Cassian was easily able to land his punch first, knocking the boy flat on his ass. Unconscious in one blow. Cassian was a little surprised—sure he’d been able to knock out goons pretty easily as a Psyker but he’d expected a little more of a challenge given he wasn’t in his old body.

“It's because you’re a villain now,” Moros piped up as if he could read his mind.” Even as a civilian you have way more power than normal humans.”

Ah. That would explain it. No matter; he had two more punks to fry. Conveniently for him, the one with the bat made it easy by coming straight for him. Cassian easily dispatched him by kicking his legs out and slamming him against the rooftop, effectively knocking him out as well.

Cassian turned to the third of the bullies; he could see his smug facade slipping.

“Well? Are you gonna give it a go too?”

“Getting cocky just cause you got lucky, huh? Bring it on!”

The third boy charged forward, fists drawn. Rookie mistake. Cassian skillfully ducked under his telegraphed swing and quickly parried with an uppercut of his own, knocking the taller boy off balance before knocking him to his knees with a strong hit to the stomach.

“Come on, that couldn’t have been all you’ve got.” Cassian stepped forward and grabbed the boy by the collar.

“He’s pretty obviously beaten. Shouldn’t you let him go?”

“Was just teaching them a lesson, what’s it to you?” Cassian shot back at the red-haired boy who now stood in front of him.

Jeeze, he hadn’t even heard him come out, let alone get close. What was he, a ninja or something? Cassian tossed aside his prey and stepped toward the newcomer.

“Looks a little more like bullying to me,” the newcomer shrugged.” What with him being no match for you and all.”

“You punk! I’ll kill you!”

The pink-haired punk lunged forward at the ginger's words, though Cassian quickly countered with a swift round-house kick to his stomach. It sent the taller kid flying and the gears in his leg clicked ominously. It probably wasn’t smart to hit someone with something already so broken but he’d deal with it later.

“HEY!”

Cassian flinched as the ginger placed a hand on his shoulder and instinctively tried to punch him. The other was clearly more skilled than the bullies, however, and he easily dodged, though not without attempting to deliver a blow of his own. Cassian ducked under the kick and moved to close the gap between them.

“Cassian, careful! He’s a Psyker!” Moros shouted.

“Huh?!”

Cassian, briefly distracted, suddenly found himself moving towards the ground instead of his intended target, his feet a tangled mess below him.

“Fucking stupid leg!” Cassian groaned as he landed hard, hitting himself in the stomach with his own elbow and scratching his face on the pavement of the roof.

“Um. . .are you ok?” The red-haired boy eyed Cassian curiously—any hint of fighting spirit gone as quickly as it had appeared.

This is so embarrassing.

Chapter Text

"Hey, it's getting pretty dark. Where are you off to now?" Moros spoke up from a short distance behind him.

"Well this Gangu kid has a sister," Cassian replied quietly, glancing around at the people around him. They really didn't seem to see the spirit at all, just like he'd said.

"So, you're going to visit her?"

"Well, yeah, I—" Cassian was cut off by the sound of an explosion.

He spun around to find a building behind him lit with an impressive blaze; a crowd of people running away.

"Run!"

"It's a villain!"

’A villain?! Here?’

"Cassian! Where—? I thought you were going home?!" Moros shouted after him as Cassian took off towards the blaze.

"If it is a villain then I have to do something!"

"A Villain would be too strong for you in your current form! And besides, you're not a Psyker—"

"That's not it! I can't allow them to hurt people. Not because I'm a Psyker—because it isn't right! If I have to be a villain to do that, then so be it!"

"Cassian. . ."

"Shut up and follow me or get lost."

"Transform then! I give you my full support!"

Cassian nodded and burst into the building, seamlessly slipping into his villain attire.

. . .

Shit. That is a lot of stairs though.

"Cassian—hostages. They're on the fourth floor."

“Got it!”

Cassian took off towards the steps, jumping them three at a time in his haste. As he neared the fourth floor he picked up the sound of voices from a room ahead. Cassian carefully slipped inside, taking note of the three people on the floor slightly above him, he ducked down behind a railing where he’d be less visible. From what he could tell, the hostages were a woman and a child strapped down near a window—the villain stood between him and them. How to get to them though?

Cassian glanced around, eventually spotting a light switch not too far from his position. He crept over to it, avoiding the nearby staircase that was littered with objects that looked like spike-covered grenades. As he hit the lights, the villain suddenly spoke up.

“Oh? Has someone come to play~?” The villain cackled sinisterly.” Be my guest!”

“Gladly!”

Cassian leapt up from his hiding spot and tackled the unsuspecting villain, nailing him in the face with a solid punch.

It felt good to feel his fist hit something hard. He wouldn’t have to worry about breaking this one.

“Cassian! Bomb!”

Cassian looked down at his feet to find a bomb strapped to his leg.

Shit, I’m too close!

Cassian lunged away from the two hostages as the bomb suddenly exploded, sending him flying into a wall with a sickening crack. He sat dazed for a moment, his ears ringing. The blast had done little to his physical body, but his metal leg now creaked and groaned precariously under his weight as he tried to stand.

The villain—who seemed to have completely lost interest in Cassian—turned back to the hostages as he created another small explosive in his hand.

“I expected a little more, but oh well. You’ll do for my fun tonight.”

‘Shit! NO!’

Goddamn it Cassian, get up.

Get up.

Get up.

Get up!

“UUUUAAAAAAUUUUGHHH!! YOU BITCH!!”

Before he even had a chance to process what he’d done, Cassian was on his feet. Cassian dodged around the bomb that had fallen to the floor when the Villain’s arm was severed and dashed towards him. He snatched Blaster by the coat and slammed him face-first into the ground, effectively stunning the villain and sending Cassian a satisfying jolt up the arm. The way it felt was incredible.

“No you don’t—” Cassian grabbed Blaster's remaining arm as he raised it in an attempt to create another explosive”—once bitten, twice shy, fucker.”

Cassian was amazed by how effortlessly he was able to snap the bones in the villain's wrist. With his other hand, he delivered a heavy blow to his opponent's face, splattering blood across the floor as skin gave way underneath the metal of his claws. The crimson color against the ashy concrete was beautiful and the way each impact sent shivers up his arms—he wanted more.

More.

More.

More.

“CASSIAN!”

“Hu-h?”

Cassian’s vision blurred slightly as he was suddenly hyper-aware of the body underneath him. Blaster lay stained crimson and unmoving.

“Wha—Did I?”

Cassian’s stomach lurched at the sight of his hands coated a sticky red. He’d been injured? How? No, it didn’t hurt. So then—What has he done?

“You lost control, Cassian.”

“I—I didn’t—fuck.”

No. No that couldn’t be right. He’d gone overboard more times than he could count as a Psyker, and it was nothing like that! Whatever that had been? It was terrifying.

“Oh. . . the hostages.” Cassian tried to stand, wobbling slightly as he suddenly got lightheaded.

No matter. He had to make sure the civilians were safe first.

“Cassian . . .are you—?”

“I’m fine.” Cassian cut the spirit off.

It took him longer than he’d like to admit to navigate through the debris on the floor; The stupid hunk of metal Gangu had called a leg caught and snagged on every little thing (He nearly face-planted a couple of times) but eventually, Cassian made his way over to where the hostages sat.

A mother and a child were strapped to metal chairs with explosives taped to them from head to toe. He could practically smell their fear as he approached.

“P-Please—please just spare my child!”

Oh right, he was a villain now. It was only natural to be afraid. Cassian ignored her and moved to free the child first. He tried to ignore their screams and cries for help as he set to work sawing through the ropes that bound them. It wasn’t too difficult a task. Simply close the door and feel nothing until the job was done, just like he was taught.

"Cassian, the authorities are here. You should go." Moros' voice pulled Cassian from his thoughts and he glanced out the window to see that several police cars had surrounded the front of the building.

"Right, just a sec."

Cassian finished removing the rope from the mother and used it to tie up Blaster. Injured as he was, it would still be trouble if he woke up before the Psykers were able to handle him. Once he was satisfied with his handiwork, Cassian turned back to the two hostages, who still sat cowering on the floor where he'd left them.

"Please, spare us! I beg you!"

"I'm not—you two can go. My business is done here." Cassian couldn't stand to look at the two any longer. Their fearful expressions made his heart ache in an uncomfortable way. Sure he was used to seeing people’s fear—just not when it was directed at him.

Cassian waved them off as he moved to the window to examine his exit options. From what he could tell, the authorities had thoroughly surrounded the front of the building and were preparing to enter—just his luck.

"Cassian?"

"What?" Cassian turned to Moros, who was floating near one of the broken windows on the left side of the room, his eye trained on something outside.

"If you use your shadow skills you'll be able to get out from here, don't you think?"

Cassian moved over to the window to get a better look at what the spirit was seeing. He was right; the building next to them had a lower roof. One well-timed [Shadow Dash] would get him over to it easily regardless of his bad leg. The authorities hadn't yet surrounded that side of the building either.

He sent a fleeting glance toward the hostages before leaping out of the window. Activating his skill a few seconds later, he landed in a roll on the building below. He took a moment to examine the other side of the building to make sure the coast was clear before climbing down into the alleyway below. A second check to make sure no one was around and he changed back into civilian form.

Falling back against the wall, he was suddenly very aware of his body's exhaustion. It was clear Gangu hadn't done much physical exercise while he was alive—just one more thing to add to the list of steps to his revenge he supposed.

". . . are you in any pain?" Moros asked, almost hesitantly.

He'd be lying if he'd said he wasn't, but Cassian wasn't about to admit weakness to someone he'd just met—especially not when he wasn't sure if he could trust them. He ached all over, and the weight of the metal on his leg was horribly uncomfortable, but Cassian would manage.

"Hey, you."

"It's Moros."

"Whatever. You said you can control my emotions, right?"

Moros nodded," yes. I can keep you from losing yourself like before."

". . .I see."

~

Cassain was typically a pretty confident person, but now that he was actually standing outside of Gangu’s apartment, he was suddenly questioning every decision he’d ever made. Luckily for him, the building had a working elevator and he didn’t have to hobble up seven whole flights of stairs, but unluckily, he still had to walk all the way to the building itself. He really just wanted to curl up somewhere and sleep if nothing else, so he pushed aside his doubts for the time being and opened the door.

“Oh, there you are, Gangu! I was just about to call you!” A cheery, feminine voice called out from deeper inside and a girl with brown hair poked her head out from behind the corner. Yuri Gwon. Gangu’s sister.

“O-oh, sorry. I lost track of time,” Cassian replied, averting his eyes. He had hoped if he waited long enough, she’d be asleep when he arrived but no such luck; it was really awkward actually talking to her.

“Well don’t just stand there—come and eat!”

Cassian couldn’t bring himself to say no; he reluctantly joined the brunette at the table where a variety of food had already been set out. He recognized the soup and the rice, but couldn’t quite put a name to the other food on the table.

“Hold on—Did you hurt yourself?!”

Oh right. He’d forgotten all about the cut on his face from earlier. He moved his hand to cover the mark.

“It's nothing. I just tripped earlier.” Cassian lied, seating himself with only minor difficulty.

“You know, this is why I keep telling you to bring your cane with you to school,” Yuri sighed, standing. Before Cassian could give a reply, she’d disappeared down the hall.

He hadn’t been aware using a cane had been an option, though now that he thought about it it did make sense that Gangu would have one. There was a vague memory of one being broken by the three bullies he’d seen earlier. Gangu had used the excuse that he’d tripped and broken it and Yuri had fixed it with some pink tape she’d had lying around. Of all the colors in the world and she’d just had to use pink. Cassian didn’t really blame the kid for not wanting to cart it around like that, but that wouldn’t stop him from being salty about it.

“Here—at least put a bandaid over it.” Yuri’s voice pulled him from his thoughts as she set a box of bandaids on the table next to him.

Before he could even think about stopping her, she was already pushing aside his hair to tape it on herself. Yuri took a moment to admire her handiwork before returning to her chair.

“Alright, let's eat!”

“Right. Thanks for the food.”

~

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Cassian let out a groan at the shrill sound of the alarm; he fumbled around for the snooze button as he buried himself further underneath the blankets. It was too early to be awake.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Alright fine, I’m up!” Cassian threw off his blanket and smashed his fist down on the off button.

Cassian sighed and threw his legs over the edge of the bed to stand.

Thunk!

‘Oh right. I forgot about that.’ He paused, gazing down at the prosthetic.

The dark gray metal of the leg connected just above the knee of his left leg, which was scarred all the way up to his hip on the outer side. He rubbed a finger over the raised pink marks—leftovers from several surgeries and an accident he didn’t remember. The actual prosthetic had seen better days as well; it was covered in chips and cracks and looked to be held together by tape in some places. Cassian found himself wondering why the previous owner had even bothered to keep it in such a condition. Surely not for sentimental value, right?

He shook the thought away and retrieved a beaten-up wooden cane from where it had fallen between the bed and the nightstand. Like the leg, it had seen better days. It was chipped in several places and held together by a stripe of bright pink glittery duct tape in a couple different places; the rubber of the grip was also torn up and taped back together—seriously did this Gangu kid ever take care of his things? Well, whatever. It would do for his purposes, regardless of look.

Cassian retrieved Moros’ amulet from the nightstand and—after testing his weight against it—used the cane to stand before making his way to the bathroom. He propped the cane up against the sink as he glanced at the face in the mirror. It wasn’t his, and never would be. He’d hoped that everything with Jeff had been nothing more than a bad dream—that he could simply wake up and everything would be back to how it always was. He could still feel the sting of death; the burn of his anger and desire for revenge. His body may not be his anymore but his feelings would never change.

“Good morning, Cassian.” Moros grinned at him through the mirror as he appeared like smoke from the amulet hanging from his neck.

“Well it was until you showed up,” Cassian shot back, spitting water.

“What’s with that look?” Moros spoke with a feigned insulted tone.

“Nothing.” Cassian shrugged him off as he returned to Gangu’s room to get ready.

~

“Cassian—”

“I noticed them too,” Cassian interrupted Moros’ unneeded warning as he sent a sideways glance at the two following less-than-stealthily behind him.

‘I see they haven’t learned their lesson yet.’ Cassian sighed to himself.

Cassian pondered his options for a moment. If he really needed to he could simply run and lose them in the back alleys. Something about that option didn’t really seem very appealing, however—especially not when he wasn’t sure of the limits of his dysfunctional appendage quite yet.

“Hey, you.”

“It's Moros.”

“Sure, whatever. Are there any places nearby without a lot of people?”

“Hrm. I believe if you continue in this direction for a bit there should be a couple abandoned streets—why?” Moros replied, looking thoughtful.

Cassian nodded and started walking a little quicker. Sure enough, after maybe ten or so minutes, the quality of the buildings around him started to decrease and the number of other people around plummeted. The perfect location for an ambush—though not for the bullies.

He paused at the entrance to an alleyway that was wider than the others. It would do well enough, he decided, and he dashed inside. He went a short distance into the dead end before jumping up on a low-hanging balcony to wait. Sure enough, after a few moments, a group of four—no wait—five boys entered the area. Cassian held his breath as they passed below him, moving deeper into his trap.

“What the fuck? Where’d he go?!” a boy with orange hair spoke up suddenly, turning on one of the guys behind him.

Cassian didn’t recognize two of the group, but he could see the three from yesterday among them. The newcomers were likely hired muscle for revenge. As the group devolved into an argument, Cassian took the chance to climb down from his hiding spot.

“Looking for me?”

At his words, the group of bullies whirled around to face him.

“Well well. You don’t look surprised to see us,” the orange-haired one spoke up—probably the leader of the little group from the looks of it. Cassian had to look up a little as he got closer.

“Im gonna count to three you prick. Get on your knees if you know what's good for you, got it?”

Cassian stared him down as he counted. The guy wasn’t too much taller than him—it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to take him down.

“. . . one. Damn you really must have a death wish, huh?” The bully leaned closer—the stink of tobacco on his breath nearly made Cassian gag.

“You’re pretty bad at fighting, aren’t you,” Cassian sighed.

Before the bully had any time to react, Cassian drove his fingers into his eyes, causing the taller man to double over. Cassian took the chance to grab what little hair the boy had and smashed his face against the nearby wall, earning himself a satisfying jolt up the arm. He released the bully, letting his unconscious form slump to the ground as he turned to face the rest of the group.

“Don’t stick your face out to an enemy, dumbass.”

“Why you—you bastard!” the other newcomer lunged at him with a wide right-handed swing.

Cassian easily dodged and countered by shoving his cane in the way of the man's feet, effectively tripping him and allowing Cassian a chance to deliver a blow to his stomach with a hard kick.

“I guess you didn’t learn your lesson the first time, did you!”

Cassian drove his foot into the grounded bully’s face. Bone gave way like butter under the metal appendage with a sickening snap. As the boy under him slumped unconscious, Cassian sent a glance toward the three remaining prey.

“What’s wrong? Scared you’ll get your ass kicked by a cripple again?” He grinned.

“Hey, you bastard—I’m not done with you!” Cassian looked over at the first one he’d knocked down to see him struggling to stand.

The bully staggered slightly before falling into some kind of exaggerated martial arts pose. Cassian didn’t recognize the style, but it didn’t really matter; he’d be able to kick his ass either way.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” The bully lunged at him.

Cassian ducked under his swing and answered in kind—driving his fist full strength into the boy's jaw with enough force to send him flying backward, unconscious before he even hit the ground. Cassian wasn’t done with him just yet though. He took half a step towards the other boy but froze when he heard the others scream out.

“Oh, fuck! It’s a villain!”

‘A villain? Here?’ Cassian glanced around, his prey forgotten in favor of the newcomer. He quickly spotted the villain hovering over a nearby roof.

A man clad in pink stood atop a giant screwdriver, looking down on the group from his perch atop the roof.

. . .

Or was it a woman? Cassian couldn’t really tell—not that it really mattered.

“It’s Driver!”

“Shit, we’re screwed!”

“Run for it, man!”

Cassian dodged out of the way as the group of bullies sprinted past him.

“Awe, is the show over already?” The villain frowned, landing on the ground a short distance away.

“Y’know, I had originally planned to come to your rescue, but I must say, yours was a far better show.”

“Oh? So you were watching?” Cassian kept his eyes trained on the villain, watching their movements carefully.

“Hehehe, I was! Though, you don’t seem scared of me—” a grin flashed across the villain’s face—” Don’t you know who I am?”

“You’re Driver, right?”

“Oh-ho? So you know that much and yet you still want to pick a fight?” Driver raised their oversized screwdriver and pointed it at Cassian.

The device let out a high-pitched whir as it started to charge up a shot. Cassian was fully expecting the villain to shoot without hesitation, so he was confused when Driver suddenly lowered the weapon.

“Ah, man, you’re no fun,” they huffed, running a hand through their ginger hair. “Besides it wouldn’t be very cool of me to beat on someone disabled.”

“I’d take offense to that, but frankly, I don’t care for your opinion.” Cassian shrugged, bending over to pick up his cane from where he’d thrown it on the ground earlier.

“Wha—Hey! Where are you going?!”

Cassian shot the villain a confused look,” I’m . . . going home? What’s it to you?”

“Man, you really don’t have any friends, do you kid.” Driver chuckled, stowing away their screwdriver in one of the many pockets on their jacket. “You’re such a wet blanket.”

“Whatever. I’m leaving.” Cassian gave a halfhearted wave to the villain as he turned the corner to the alleyway.

“Cassian, it wasn’t very smart to challenge a villain like that—especially in your civilian form,” Moros scolded, suddenly appearing next to him.

“Hey, you—”

“Moros.”

“Use your analysis thing to give me that Driver guys stats,” Cassian ordered. Stowing his school bag and cane on a nearby wood pallet, he smoothly transformed into his villain attire.” I’m gonna fight them.”

“Cassian. . .why?” Moros gazed at him with a look of disbelief.

“This is my perfect opportunity to test my skills—plus I need to get used to fighting with this leg. Two birds with one stone, wouldn’t you say?” Cassian could feel the excitement of battle bubbling in his veins. It had been so long since he’d been able to cut loose against someone so strong looking—he couldn’t keep the grin from his face.

Cassian took off back toward where he’d left the villain. To his delight, their back was turned—he took the chance to jump on them. Driver—although visibly surprised—skillfully managed to block Cassian’s punch and quickly created distance between the two.

“What the hell, you dick? What was that for?!”

Cassian didn’t give them much of a chance to recover; jumping forwards again, he sent a [Shadow Slicer] out on the left side and swung at Driver with his right. The other villain easily leaped over both; Escaping into the air, Driver summoned their screwdriver and quickly fired off a few shots, which Cassian easily dodged.

“Eye for an eye, bitch!” Driver grinned wickedly as their weapon powered up.

Cassian’s eyes widened as the larger beam of energy came at him faster than he could manage to dodge. He blocked quickly with a [Shadow Slicer].

“Heh, not bad. Maybe you can be some fun after all!” Driver giggled.

They suddenly flew full force at Cassian, weapon back to take a swing at him. Cassian dodged with a moment to spare, causing Driver to hit the ground with enough force to crack the concrete beneath them. Driver immediately came at him with follow-up swings that Cassian managed to dodge with just as much ease. The other villain reeled back another large swing—instead of dodging, however, Cassian held his ground and caught the screwdriver as Driver swung it down.

Surprised, Driver pulled back but Cassian didn’t give them any room to breathe—he got in close and caught the villain’s leg with one of his own, effectively tripping them before they could launch another skill.

Driver tumbled gracefully and rolled to their feet before jumping backward a few paces to create distance.

Cassian moved to follow.

Craaaack!

Cassian suddenly found himself quickly approaching the ground faster than he could stop himself, his left leg unable to bear any more stress, snapped off the joint.

He ate shit, and he ate it hard. The jolt of impact squashed the air from his lungs and caused his head to spin precariously.

“Jesus Christ kiddo, are you ok?” Driver piped up.

Cassian took advantage of the momentary lapse in the villain's guard and made a grab for their legs when they got close.

“FUCK!” Cassian swore as Driver let out a shrill shriek, their free foot connecting with Cassian’s nose.

“Shit! I’m sorry! I panicked!”

“So this is where you’ve been, Driver Darling~”

‘Well, fuck.’ Cassian cursed at the sudden appearance of three other villains.

Chapter Text

Cassian glanced around at the three newcomers as he rubbed at his nose. It was definitely going to bruise but it wasn’t broken. He hadn’t expected his leg to snap like that though—wait shit! His leg! Where—?

Cassian whipped around in search of the lost appendage, spotting it quickly—fuck. Of course, it would be just his luck for it to land next to the villain behind him; some teen with a scarf and gauntlets.

He glanced between the metal and the villain, only to realize all four of them were staring at him.

‘Well, shit.’

“Are you listening, kid? Hey! I asked you a question!” Driver frowned, an aura of annoyance around them as they pocketed their weapon.

“I wasn’t listening, no,” Cassian replied plainly, shifting backward slightly. If he could just get ahold of his leg he could escape with [Shadow Dash] before any of the other villains would have a chance to attack. He’d signed up to fight one crazed murderer—not four.

“I asked you why you attacked me—” the purple-clad villain folded their arms—” do you have some problem with me? If so, I’d much rather we talked about it instead of fighting.”

“Oh, well I wanted to try fighting someone strong—you were in a convenient spot,” Cassian shrugged. “Plus, I heard you’ve been killing people so I can’t exactly let you run free anyway.”

At his words, a choked laugh came from the white-haired man standing behind Driver; he was quickly silenced with a smack from the woman clad in black.

“Uh, yeah, that’s not me.”

“Do you have proof it's not you?”

Driver scratched their chin thoughtfully for a moment before shaking their head.

“Well then—” Cassian tensed as a sudden sharp pain shot through his skull.

“Got you now, you bastard!”

Cassian turned at the sound to find the villain with the scarf inches away, fists raised to attack. Before his brain even had time to process what was happening, he’d grabbed the villain by the offending arm and launched him full force at the wall. The villain slumped to the ground, unconscious from the impact.

There was a low whistle from Driver as Cassian fell back on his hands. He pressed a palm against his eye, rubbing it slightly in a fruitless attempt to relieve the pressure building behind it. Everything was spinning.

“You feel dizzy, right?” Cassian glanced up at Driver, who was grinning down at him—” Not surprising. I’m surprised you got as far as you did with your measly 300 magic points.”

“Only 300?!” The woman with the hat—(who had previously been attempting to stare daggers at him from over Driver’s shoulder)—suddenly looked intensely interested.

“That’s a ‘D’ level at best, though!” The white-haired man exclaimed, head moving from one villain to the other.

Driver shrugged with a small chuckle,” it’s been known to happen. Magic points don’t always determine a fight. I think that much is clear after fighting you once, kid.”

“Hey! I’m not a kid!” Cassian tried to protest—sure Gangu may have only been 18, but he’d been 26 as a Psyker damn it! He wasn’t gonna stand for some 12-year-old calling him a kid!

Driver ignored him—turning their attention instead to the weapon they’d pulled from their pocket. They opened a small hatch on the handle and pulled out a small, golden diamond, holding it up triumphantly.

“You know what this is, right?” Driver grinned, tossing it at Cassian.

Cassian expertly caught it (and definitely didn’t nearly drop it). Did this prick think he was stupid? Of course, he knew what a magic stone was.

“Swallow that one. I want to make a deal with you.”

“Sorry no. My brother said not to take candy from strangers, and also I just generally don’t like you.”

“Oh, I’m hurt!” Driver bent over dramatically, placing a gloved hand over their heart. Yeah, they were definitely a theater kid.

“You seem tough, I think you’ll live.” Cassian let out a sigh and crawled over to where his leg had been lodged between bits of rubble. This seemed like it would be a long conversation so the least he could do was occupy himself.

“In any case, I would like you to catch the real killer for me.”

“Why? I mean—you’re a villain so why do you care?” Cassian winced slightly at the sudden pressure as he hit the lock on the leg. He’d heard nerve connection was not a fun process and it definitely was living up to its reputation.

“Well, you seem to have a vendetta against this guy already—given you came at me the way you did. Plus you were kinda kicking my ass so I think you can manage,” Driver shrugged, pocketing their weapon for a second time.

“Oh, but don’t worry—I’ll pay you for it! That magic stone is just a little gift. Oh! Speaking of—” Driver paused, rummaging through a small bag hanging from their hip. (seriously how many magic pockets did one person need?)

After a moment or so, they pulled a sleek blue-black cell phone from the pouch and held it up triumphantly. Cassian eyed them curiously as the villain approached, holding out the device.

“What’s this for?” He asked, examining the outside of the device. From what he could tell, it was just a normal cell phone. Though you could never be too careful—especially with villains.

“It’ll be a convenient way to keep in touch!” Driver grinned, pulling out an identical device from a different pocket of their coat. (seriously how many magic pockets did one person need?!) “I’ve got one too—it’s only set up for messages so I can send you all the files I’ve already got on this killer!”

“You seem weirdly determined to catch this guy,” Cassian sighed, pocketing the phone as he stood.

“I don’t like people dragging my name through the mud. I also don’t like killing, so catch him. I’ll do everything I can to help. Please.”

‘’Please’, huh? Something I never thought I’d hear from a villain of all people.’

“Alright. I’ll help—but only because I was planning to catch the bastard anyway.”

“Great! Glad to have you!”

~

No matter how hard he tried, Cassian couldn’t quite get Driver’s words out of his head. For his whole life (His Psyker one anyway) He’d been told that villains were nothing but evil—the lowest of the low—and yet, here he was being asked to help one. And politely too. The worst part was? Driver seemed genuine about wanting to catch the killer too.

“You know? For someone supposedly looking for a serial killer, you seem pretty zoned out.” Cassain glanced over at Moros as the spirit appeared at his side.

“I was just thinking about something,” he sighed, glancing down at the bustle of people on the street below.

He’d hoped that getting out and stretching his legs—well—leg would help him sort through the turmoil of his thoughts but it was proving more difficult than he’d hoped. Sorting through his final moments, on top of all the memories he’d gotten from Gangu—it was a lot all at once, even for him. It still hadn’t quite hit that he’d died.

“Care to share your thoughts with the class?”

“With you? No chance in hell. Why are you even here anyways? You don’t seem happy about it.” Cassian turned back to Moros, leaning his back against the railing.

“Even if I wanted to, I can't be that far away.”

“Ah, ok.” Cassian turned his gaze to the sky as the two fell silent. He could see a hint of purple left in the sky bleeding into the oranges and pinks of the clouds that painted a near-perfect picture of a sunset. He’d have to head home soon if he didn’t want to worry Yuri.

As the thought crossed his mind, Cassian felt his phone buzz in his back pocket. He pulled it out, fully expecting to find a ‘where are you?’ text from Gangu’s sister—only to be surprised to find that 1) there was no caller ID, and 2) this wasn’t his phone. It was nearly identical to his, save for the slightly bluish sheen to the screen protector that told him it was, in fact, the one Driver had gifted him.

He was equally surprised to see that the message was nothing more than a map and an address. There was no other context to the message save for a purple heart and a screwdriver emoji at the end of the text.

“Ok, what the fuck? Do they seriously expect me to go here with no explanation?”

“You’re going anyways though, right?”

Cassian let out an annoyed sigh, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, fuck it, why not?”

Cassian pocketed the device, slipped into his villain attire—realized he actually still needed the phone to tell him where to go—took it out again, and started heading toward the location, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

When he arrived at the spot on the GPS, Cassian found himself across the street from what looked to be some kind of arcade. From what he could see most of the shutters on the building had been closed, though a few of the windows were still uncovered.

‘Welp, I’m definitely in the right place.’

Cassian jumped down from his rooftop and, after a quick check to make sure there were no cars, ran across the street to the closed-up building. He was easily able to reach the ledge of the second-story window and pulled himself up to peek inside.

Two girls—high schoolers by the looks of it—were inside facing off against an absolute fashion nightmare of a villain. He had weird eyes running up and down half of his body and the other half was coated in a red liquid that looked eerily like blood. Like? Seriously dude, pick one. Eyes or blood you can’t have both.

“Cassian!”

‘Shit!’

In the time it took him to blink, the villain had attacked; piercing one of the girls through the stomach with a bright red spear.

“You bastard!” Cassian quickly smashed through the window, leaping over the pink-haired girl to stand between her and the villain.

He shoved the girl backward slightly as he sent a [Shadow Slicer] at the unsuspecting villain. The villain dodged both the skill and the punch that Cassian had followed up with; parrying with a hard kick of his own. Cassian easily managed to block it, though not without being sent skidding backward a good distance. He was surprised by the strength of the hit—this one was definitely stronger than Blaster. The hit had left his arm throbbing with a dull pain.

Cassian was half expecting the villain to come charging at him again, so he was surprised to find him keeping the distance between them. Was he a caster perhaps? But no—that hit was definitely strong so he was probably a striker.

“Well, I think that’ll be all from me today. You certainly ruined my fun. I’ll be back, though.”

“Hey, you dick! Get back here!” Cassian lunged at the villain, his form shifting into a strange liquid.

“You will all die inside of me—that I can assure you.”

“Fuck!” Cassian swore as his hand passed right through the villain as he disappeared into the floor.

He quickly rolled to his feet and glanced around but couldn’t see the villain anywhere in the room. Cassian was halfway to a window when a voice suddenly spoke up behind him.

“Wait! Please! My friend is hurt!”

Cassian turned to find the girl with pink hair looking up at him with tears in her eyes. She oozed of fear but held his gaze. Cassian debated the request for a moment. On one hand, he didn’t want to just leave them, but on the other, the authorities could arrive at any time and he really didn’t want to fight with any Psykers. Anyone who saw him would probably assume he was responsible for the blue-haired girl's wounds and that definitely wouldn’t go down well.

Cassian let out a deflated sigh. His pride was going to be the death of him one of these days.

“Alright, call an ambulance—I’ll see what I can do—” Cassian walked over and crouched next to the girls—” Do you have some extra fabric I can use to stop the bleeding?”

“What? Oh! Um. . .” the pink-haired girl rummaged through her bag for a moment. She pulled out a blue cell phone and a pack of something covered in plastic; she handed the stockings to him before busying herself with the phone.

Cassian was easily able to tear through the packaging with his claws and expertly wrapped the fabric around the wound. He’d had plenty of experience patching himself up after missions as a Psyker—and he’d watched Jeff do it plenty of times as a kid, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task.

“Um. . .”

The voice of the other girl pulled him from his thoughts.

“An ambulance is on its way. Will she . . . be ok?”

Cassian glanced at Moros. The spirit rolled its eye but nodded.

“Yes. She’ll live.” he nodded, tensing slightly as he picked up the sound of a siren nearby. Dang, they really did work fast here, huh?

“Wait where are you going?” The girl spoke up in surprise when Cassian stood.

“I can’t be seen by the authorities—they might be too scared to come help, and I don’t really want to fight any Psykers tonight.” Cassian shrugged. It was a half-truth. He really just didn’t want to be standing any longer than he needed to be; his leg was starting to get sore and he was starting to lament not having his cane.

He didn’t wait for the teen to reply before he jumped back out the window he’d come in. Taking a brief second to check for cars, he dashed across the street and melted into the shadows between buildings as the first few cars rolled up outside the arcade.

He took a moment to wait for the ambulance to show up as well before scaling the nearest building to traverse the roofs. When he was certain he was a safe distance from the scene of the crime, he paused on a rooftop—turning to face the drone that had been following him for quite some time now. He’d noticed it when he’d first arrived, but hadn’t paid it very much thought until now.

“Hey, you got any idea what that is?” He asked, glancing at the spirit beside him.

The spirit didn’t have a chance to reply as a sudden, sharp whistle interrupted him. Cassian turned to the source of the sound to see a familiar-looking villainess materialize in a smoke of black feathers on the ledge above him.

“Hello, dearest! Nice to see you again!” The villainess smiled down at him as she stroked the back of one of the birds perched on her shoulder.

“You’re that villain that was with Driver earlier, right?” Cassian eyed the woman cautiously as she jumped down to join him on the roof.

“I was, I was! Glad you remember! If you didn’t, I think I’d have to stab you!” the woman smiled, letting slip her intent for murder as casually as one would have mentioned the weather. A feat only a villain or a sociopath could accomplish that was for sure.

“So? What did you need from me?”

“First things first! I don’t believe I introduced myself earlier, did I? My name is Crow! And you are?”

“I don’t have a villain name yet,” Cassian replied sharply. He had planned to go home after losing the drone and here this woman was ruining that plan. He really needed to get home if he didn’t want to worry Yuri—plus he just wanted off his feet.

“Oh-ho? Well, we’ll have to fix that~! In any case, thank you for your help! We figured out who the killer was.”

“You know that prick?”

Crow nodded,” his name’s Bloodrain. A nasty fellow if I do say so myself. Oh, that's right—Driver asked me to give you this, speaking of.”

Crow fumbled through her jacket for a moment before producing a small blue box from inside. It rattled as she tossed it to him.

“What is it?”

“The promised payment. Well—half of it. Oh, and there’s also a GPS tracker in there too somewhere if you need it!”

Cassian slid the lid off of the box to find that—along with three whole magic stones—there was indeed a small circular device. He’d deal with it later—he was more intrigued by the fact that the magic stones looked to be of incredible quality. It almost seemed like too much for only half a payment, though he wasn’t about to say anything; he was going to need as many magic points as he could get after all.

“Oh! Driver said they sent you another file so you should check it out as soon as you can.” Crow paused, halfway to leaving.

“Ok? I’ll have a look.”

“By the way, I don’t expect much of anything from you, but my darling Driver does. You’d do your best to meet his expectations, kid.”

Chapter Text

Cassian groaned as he was besieged by both a harsh light and the shrill beep beep beeping of his alarm at the same time. Covering his eyes with one arm, he flailed the other around blindly in search of the offending device. When he found it, he smashed his fist down on the snooze button before rolling over to curl back up under the sheets. He was very nearly back in the sweet, sweet clutches of sleep when a sudden knock at the door jolted him awake again.

“Gangu! If you don’t get up soon you’re going to be late!” Yuri’s voice sounded muffled from the other side of the door.

Right. It had already been a week since his reincarnation, but Cassian was still trying to wrap his head around having to go to school again. Granted, Korean school was different from American school, but school was still school and he really didn’t want to go.

“You aren’t planning on calling in sick again, are you?” Moros’s voice sounded from somewhere behind him.

Cassian sat up suddenly—wincing as his phone thumped against the wall, thrown across the room in his haste. Whatever, he’d deal with it later.

“You, my friend, have excellent ideas.” Cassian grinned at the spirit, an idea spiraling in his head.

He got dressed quickly, throwing on a plain black shirt, loose jeans, and a blood-red knit cardigan. Taking only a brief moment to grab a granola bar from the kitchen before hastily tugging on his sneakers, he was halfway out the door before Yuri suddenly stopped him.

“Gangu, where’s your cane?”

“Oh, right.”

Cassian kicked off his shoes and ran back to Gangu’s room to grab the walking cane before briefly returning to the living room to give Yuri a hug.

“Ok, gotta go!”

“Be careful out there!”

“I will!”

~

“Cassian, where are you going? This isn’t the way to your school?” Moros sent a quizzical look toward Cassian as he started down the road in the opposite direction he would usually go.

“I’m going to check out one of those locations Driver sent me,” Cassian replied, taking a bite of his granola bar as he fished around for his phone. “Those girls from last night were from that art school—it seems suspicious enough. And that one with pink hair? She’s related to that red-haired psyker I ran into.”

“Oh? So you’re going to investigate then?”

“Yeah, gotta call school first though so Yuri doesn’t find out—” Cassian scarfed down the rest of his granola bar as he dialed up the number—” Hello? Yes, this is Gangu Gwon I’m—cough, cough—really sick. Cough I won’t be in today. Yes, thank you. Yes. Goodbye.”

“Wow, you are an incredible actor,” Moros rolled his eye, oozing with sarcasm.

“Do you want me to hit you?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me, bitch.”

“Oh look, we’re here!”

Cassian ignored the spirit's blatant attempt at changing the subject, focusing his attention instead on the large sign he’d pointed out. Now that he was actually outside the school, he wasn’t really sure what his plan was. His initial plan hadn’t gone further than calling out of his school and finding the art school. There was a reason he was rarely picked for investigation missions as a Psyker—that had always been more of Jeff’s thing, to be honest.

Wait that’s right! Jeff! Cassian may not have had his old phone, but he knew his brother’s number by heart! He could just call him! Oh, it was so obvious he was shocked he hadn’t thought of it before! He resisted the urge to smack himself as he punched the number into his phone.

He hit call and raised the device to his ear, listening to it ring.

No answer. He tried again.

. . .

No answer.

‘Damn it, Jeff! Pick up the phone!’

The line rang once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then. . .

“What?” A disgruntled, but familiar voice sounded from the other end of the line.

Right, the timezone difference! It was probably night for him. No matter! Cassian blinked back tears that had welled up from simply hearing his brother's voice again.

“Jeff! Thank god, ok you’re not gonna believe this! I—”

“Sorry, who is this?”

“It's Cassian! Cassian Lee! I’m alive!”

“That’s not funny, kid. How did you even get this number anyways? You know what? Nevermind. I’m hanging up.”

“Wait! Please—”

Click!

‘Well, fuck. That didn’t really work.’

“Smooth moves there, Cass.”

“Shut up, I’ll just call again,” Cassian grumbled, re-dialing the number.

“The number you called is currently unavailable, please try again later.”

‘Shit, did he block me?’

Cassian tried again, only to get the same result.

“What now, genius?”

“I’m thinking! Shut up!” Cassian flinched as his accidental shout earned him a few confused looks.

He groaned, resisting the urge to smash his face into the nearest wall. Getting angry wasn’t going to help. He could feel the familiar heat of tears welling in his eyes, but he quickly blinked them away. He’d rather die again than cry now.

He shook his head, trying to clear the turmoil of his thoughts. One thing at a time. He came to investigate so that’s what he was going to do. He could deal with Jeff later.

Cassian straightened, only to suddenly go tumbling as something hard smashed into him from behind. A jolt shot up his arm as the offender suddenly grabbed him by the bicep to keep him from hitting the ground.

“Shoot, I am so sorry I didn’t see you!” The brown-haired man apologized quickly, scrambling to pick up the pile of cardboard he’d dropped while also trying to help Cassian stay on his feet.

Cassian still dazed from the impact, fell back against the wall to support himself as the man continued to apologize while clearing up his mess. He was a villain. He looked just like any other average guy with glasses but here he was a villain in broad daylight.

“Cassian!”

By the time he’d shaken off his stupor, the villain in question had vanished, back into the convenience store he’d come out of.

“That was—” Cassian stared wide-eyed at moros. That jolt he’d felt when they’d made contact—he was certain of it. The mana of the villain was the same as Bloodrain.

Moros shook himself in a way akin to a nod,” Yes, that was a villain.”

Cassian couldn’t help the grin creeping across his face. He couldn’t believe his luck. This was turning out to be a pretty good day after all.

~

Cassian wasn’t usually one to enjoy himself on a mission, but he couldn’t really blame himself. With his [Shadow Dash] and [Shadow Hide] skills along with newly acquired magic points—courtesy of the magic stones from Crow—he was easily able to leap between the shadows of the rooftops. It felt great to be able to move without hindrance for the first time since his reincarnation, and the view of the sunset from above the city streets was definitely worth it. (Even if he would have to spend time fixing his windswept hair later.)

Landing across from the tall hospital building, he glanced down at his phone to double-check the GPS. He’d followed the glasses guy earlier and managed to slip the tracker Driver made on him. After that, it was simply a matter of following it to test out his theory. He was pleasantly delighted to find that it was turning out to be right.

“You should hurry if you want to catch him.”

“I know. I’m a ‘once bitten, twice shy’ kinda guy. I won’t let that asshole hurt those girls again.” Cassian grinned, jumping down from his perch.

——————————

Naeun was a tough girl. Being a popular model and all, she’d been in her fair share of creepy or dangerous situations, but this one definitely took the cake for worst so far. Sure she’d gotten away with only a couple of scratches this time, but Minyeong had been injured pretty badly.

They’d been lucky. She knew that well.

They’d been lucky that villain showed up to protect them.

They’d been lucky the serial killer decided to run.

They’d been lucky the villain left them alone.

She couldn’t help but recall the strange boy that had saved her. Black hair, sparkling dual-colored eyes—one a deep azure and the other a brilliant gold—plus those strange black markings on his cheeks. He was pretty—that is to say in an: I appreciate you face kind of way, but she didn’t recognize him from any of the villain logs she’d looked at. Either he was relatively new, or he wasn’t from Korea.

“Miss Kim? We need you and Miss An to come with us for a bit. There’re some tests we need to run.”

Naeun looked up at the voice as three nurses walked into the hospital room.

“Really? This late?” her eyes flickered to the nearby clock that read 7:48 pm.

“Yes. They’re very important, we need to do them right now. Please come along.”

Naeun wanted to argue, but the two male nurses were already lifting Minyeong onto a cart. Besides, who was she to argue with trained medical professionals? (even if she did have to squash down that nagging feeling in her chest)

As she followed the trio down various hallways—ones that were all eerily empty—that nagging feeling in her chest grew more and more into a tangle of unease. The final straw was when they exited the elevator into what looked to be an underground parking garage for the employees.

“Um, is there a reason we’re leaving? I thought you were doing tests?”

“Yes, a test of your loyalty.”

Naeun flinched, a shiver shooting up her spine causing the hair on her neck to stand on end. That eerie feeling she had—she recognized that voice. How could she forget it? It had hardly even been a few hours since their last encounter after all. She didn’t want to turn around—some part of her still hoped she’d been mistaken, or that all of this was some kind of elaborate prank.

She let out a choked gasp, her breath catching in her throat as the villain suddenly appeared in front of her. He grabbed her by the chin, his hand disgustingly slick with sticky red. He reeked of blood—the smell nearly made her gag.

"H-hands off!" Naeun tried to squirm away but the villain's grip was too strong.

"You know, I think I'll make you my bride; I admire that spirit of yours. I'd love to break it myself."

"Oh my god, enough of your cardboard cutout villain act, please. I'm gonna vomit!"

The villain's grip loosened slightly in surprise at the sudden sound of the voice; Naeun took that as her chance to get away. As she stumbled backward she watched—eyes wide—as a shadow of a person jumped over her. There was a sickening crunch as the newcomer's foot connected with Bloodrain's nose, sending him flying backward into a nearby pillar.

She couldn't believe her eyes.

It was him.

——————————

Cassian took advantage of Bloodrain's momentary lapse in concentration to charge at him with a surprise attack. Leaping over the pink-haired girl from the shadows, he lunged at the other villain. Bone gave way to metal as Cassian's prosthetic smashed into the villain's face. Bloodrain flew backward into a wall and Cassian followed, fist pulled back to strike.

The other villain was quick to dodge and returned Cassian's attack with one of his own. Cassian easily ducked under the villain's projected swing and returned it with a hard uppercut to the man's jaw.

Bloodrain stumbled backward, nursing his wound as he wiped blood from his mouth.

"Cassian!"

"Got you! You brat!" the villain's eyes flashed red as he turned on Cassian.

"Not this time!" Cassian didn't give the other a chance to pop off the skill, swiftly driving his sharp claws into the villain's eyes.

As the villain reeled back with a piercing screech Cassian grabbed him by one of his braids and slammed him down against the ground, cracking the concrete with the force.

"Time for a taste of your own medicine you son of a bitch!"

"Kekeke, I'd like to see you try you brat!"

"No!"

Cassian drove his fist down as Bloodrain's form quivered, melting into a sticky red liquid before he had a chance to make contact.

"Fuck! I hate it when he does that!" Cassian cursed, trying to shake the blood off his hand. It was disgustingly warm and reeked of iron.

"It looks like the hypnosis on those doctors was lifted so those girls should be alright now," Moros quipped, directing Cassian's eyes to where the pink-haired girl was talking to three men by an ambulance.

"Good, that means I can go after that bastard."

Cassian sent one last glance toward the group before taking off in a sprint toward the door he'd used to get in.

He stumbled slightly as he slid to a sudden stop, finding himself face-to-face with a pair of Psykers—an older-looking man with purple braids and a yellow coat and a red-haired kid in a red and white sweatshirt. The pair looked about as surprised to see him as Cassian was to see them, though the stupor didn't last long.

“Halt, villain!” the older-looking Psyker let out a battle cry as he launched his sword at Cassian’s head.

“Give a guy a little warning before you try to kill him, asshole!” Cassian easily deflected the sword with his gauntlet, sending it back to the sender with a well-placed punch, “Get out of the way!”

“Uchan, focus!” The purple-haired Psyker jumped in front of the other, expertly snagging his sword from the air before it could hit either of them.

The younger Psyker—Uchan apparently—seemed to snap from whatever daze he’d been in and dropped into a battle stance, bright orange flames dancing to life in his palm as he did so.

“All villains must perish!”

Cassian slid backward slightly as he lifted a large [Shadow Slicer] from the ground to block the impressive blaze the teen launched at him.

“Damn, it! I don’t wanna fight you guys!”

“Eat this!”

Cassian flinched, stumbling backward in surprise as the purple-haired Psyker lunged at him. He hadn’t even noticed him come up behind him; he narrowly avoided being completely skewered by the man's sword, though in doing so he left himself open to an attack from the other boy.

Cassian dodged another swing from the older Psyker as he slipped into the shadows under their feet, very nearly being singed by the onslaught of fire from the younger redhead.

Shit, he didn’t have time for any of this! Bloodrain was getting away!

Sticking to the shadows, Cassian used his skills to slip out onto the street and into an empty alleyway. He quickly ducked behind the barrier wall, collapsing against it as a metallic tang suddenly filled his mouth. Panting heavily, Cassian pressed a hand to his wounded side as he eased himself to the ground. It would be just his luck to run into not one but two Psykers while trying to chase down a villain, wouldn’t it?

“That wasn’t like you, going easy on those Psykers,” Cassian didn’t spare the spirit a glance as he appeared next to him.

“What do you mean? I was kicking ass like usual,” He forced a small laugh, though immediately regretted it as the movement sent a shot of pain through his side; he coughed slightly, doubling over against the pain. “Fuuuuuuuck that hurts.”

“You know, it wouldn’t hurt if you had actually fought against those guys.”

“Whatever, I’ll deal with it.”

Tearing off the lower edge of his shirt was easy enough with his claws; Cassian used the fabric to staunch the bleeding of his wound, wincing slightly against the sting of the sudden pressure.

“Alright, that should be ok for now—let’s see where that bastard went.”

Cassian pressed a hand to his side as he fished out his villain phone to check for the location of the GPS. From what he could tell, Bloodrain hadn’t gotten very far—that or he’d found the GPS device and lost it only a few blocks away. There was really only one way to find out, though and Cassian really wasn’t looking forward to it. Steeling himself, he grit his teeth against the pain as he used the wall to help him stand.

"You sure you'll be ok?" Moros eyed Cassian with an air of curiosity.

Cassian nodded, grimacing at the iron tang in his mouth. His limbs screamed in protest as he walked—he really wanted nothing more than to curl up somewhere dark and sleep—but the faster he got this done, the faster he could rest. The job took priority. He didn’t even notice he’d arrived at his destination until the stench of blood became overwhelming.

The building's front doors had been wrenched off their hinges and blood splattered the walls (and just about every other surface for that matter); Although the music was still playing and the lights were still moving, there wasn't another soul in the building that he could see. Well, actually—that was a lie as it turns out, rounding the corner Cassian's eyes fell on the crumpled form of a man in a yellow coat. He recognized him as the Psyker that had stabbed him when he got closer.

"He's not dead, is he?" Cassian muttered, unsure if he should actually check for a pulse. If the Psyker was dead it would risk leaving fingerprints that would pin the blame on him and not whoever was actually responsible. Wait—did he even have fingerprints as a villain? He hadn't actually thought about it before, but the gauntlets on his hands were some weird mix of metal and flesh; he could still feel things but the material was hard so he wasn't sure.

"Cassian, look at this!" Moros's voice pulled him from his thoughts and Cassian glanced over to see the spirit hovering a short distance away, eye trained on a weapon on the ground. A sword with a red handle and constellation-esque pattern running up the blade; it let off a soft blue glow and hummed with unnatural power.

"What'd you find?" Cassian walked over to it. Using his good leg, he kicked the sword up into the air to grab it with his hand without having to bend over. As soon as his palm touched the handle he could feel a surge of power from the blade. "Is this?"

"It's got a magic stone in it! You should try out that skill you got earlier!"

"You mean [Mana Stone Extraction]? Sure, I don't see why not." Cassian shrugged. Sure it wasn't really his to take, but the man had literally stabbed him, Cassian was sure he'd get over it.

After a bit of focus and about two minutes of awkwardly staring, Cassian found himself with not one, but two magic stones. He tossed the now dull sword aside and swallowed the stones, gaging slightly as the awkward feeling of them in his throat sent a shiver down his spine. Sure they helped give him power, but fuck if they weren't the most disgusting, horrible, uncomfortable things to swallow. He couldn't even chew them first, it was awful.

There was a brief moment that passed before he felt power surge through his limbs as the stones took effect. His eyes widened at the sudden spark of energy in his palms. This feeling—he knew it well. After all, he'd gone his entire life as a Psyker getting used to that spark of heat that lay dormant in his chest.

His fire was back, baby.

Chapter Text

His fire was back. Finally something familiar in the hellscape that was his existence. He could feel the excitement bubbling in his veins. He could fight the way he used to! Sure, it wasn't quite the same as when he was a Psyker, but it was unmistakably the heat of a flame attribute that he felt in his chest. He wanted to test it. He wanted to burn something.

"Cassian?"

Right. First things first. He had to find Bloodrain and beat the ever-living snot out of him. The bastard had been a literal pain in his side for far too long.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind did an explosion sound from outside. Cassian raised an arm to shield his eyes as a few bits of debris shook loose from the ceiling.

"Cass, that Psyker kid is fighting Bloodrain on a building over there," Moros piped up, floating over to a nearby window.

"He's what?!" Cassian quickly moved over to the spirit to get a look at what he was seeing. Sure enough, he spotted the red-haired Psyker on the roof of the construction building next door. "That idiot's gonna get himself killed!"

The ground shook for a second time as Cassian exited the club building. He could see fire spewing out from the fight from where he stood on the ground, but couldn't place the locations of the two combatants from the distance he was at. Shit, he needed to hurry! It would hurt like hell, but he would have to climb the outside of the building.

With his mind made up, Cassian dashed towards the building. Using a combination of his shadow skills to shorten the distance he would need to run, he expertly climbed the building's outer wall and hauled himself up to the roof.

"Shows over, you budget spirit Halloween Dracula!"

"Oh-ho?" Bloodrain released his hold on the Psyker trainee and turned toward Cassian with a wicked grin," I didn't think you'd come to play as well. Hrmph, always getting in my way."

"Says the one who ran when he got his ass kicked," Cassian scoffed, glad for the chance to catch his breath. Climbing a building while bleeding out from a stab wound had definitely sapped way more of his energy than he'd expected even with the help of his skills. He'd have to take care of this fight quickly.

"Hah! That was before you know! With all that blood I just drank I am now unstoppable! Not even an A-rank Psyker would match my might!"

"yeah yeah, ultimate power, blah blah blah. Can we skip to the part where my foot goes up your ass now? I'm hungry." Cassian feigned a look of disinterest as he peered past the villain to the Psyker on the ground behind him. Other than a few shallow claw marks across his chest, the redhead didn't seem all too injured.

"You will die tonight, boy!"

Cassian dropped into a fighting stance as Bloodrain conjured four red orbs of blood in his hands. He quickly raised two [Shadow Slicer] blades to block as four crimson spears shot forward from the orbs. With his vision temporarily blocked, he missed the villain's movement until he was behind him, though Cassian was able to quickly slip around the villain using a shadow skill.

Bloodrain looked shocked to suddenly find his hand empty and he swung at Cassian, who ducked and returned the hit with an uppercut to the villain's jaw. Knocking him up into the air with the force of the hit, Cassian twisted on his right leg and used his left to send Bloodrain flying with a solid kick to the abdomen using his metal leg.

"Weren't you gonna show me some 'divine power'? What happened to all that fire, huh?!"

Cassian grabbed the villain's arm and pulled him back toward himself before smacking him away again with a fist to the face. Bloodrain bounced twice off the concrete with the force of the hit before landing in a heap near the red-haired Psyker. He spat blood, sending Cassian a look of palpable disdain.

"Heh, I'll admit, you're strong. But next time—"

"There won't be a next time."

Cassian caught Bloodrain in a [Shadow Bind] as the villain started to shift his form to blood. He'd seen that trick twice already, of course by this point he'd have thought of at least a couple of countermeasures.

"I'm going to burn you to ash, bastard."

Cassian felt himself grinning as he felt the familiar spark of fire in his hand. It was a strange azure blue in color, but the unmistakable heat brought back memories. Bloodrain had said not even an A-rank Psyker could match his power, so it was a good thing Cassian had been top-class, huh?

"Die, scumbag!"

Bloodrain let out a shrill screech of pain as Cassian launched an impressive blaze of blue at him. With the shadow bindings still holding him in place, the villain was unable to dodge; he was knocked unconscious with one hit much to Cassian's dissatisfaction.

"Damn, it! I wanted to try that out some more," He grumbled, taking a step toward the unconscious villain.

"Cassian, careful!"

"Huh?"

Cassian blinked, a sudden pain in his lower body as he found himself on the ground. Had he tripped over something? No—the ground had been clear he was sure, so what?

Oh right. He was still bleeding. He looked down to find his clothes splattered with blood—some the other villains, but most his own.

"Hey, Psyker kid—you still conscious?"

"Uh, y-yeah." The redhead looked surprised to be suddenly addressed; he eyed Cassian warily.

"Call the police and tell them we caught Bloodrain." Cassian hissed slightly at the sting of pain as he pressed his hand against the wound on his side. The temporary bandage had completely soaked through and wasn't doing much in terms of staunching the bleeding anymore.

"Sure, but uh. . . what are you gonna do?" Uchan still looked skeptical, but dutifully fished his phone from his jacket pocket.

"Well for the moment I'm going to sit here and try not to vomit so if you wanna try and arrest me too or anything be my guest," Cassian shrugged.

"I'm surprised you even fought in that condition," Uchan chuckled, walking over to Cassian.

Cassian had fully expected the redhead to try to attack him, so he was incredibly surprised when instead the teen offered him his hand. His confusion was only deepened when Uchan hauled him to his feet, slinging one arm around his shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna help you down the stairs?" Uchan looked about as confused as Cassian felt.

"That won't be necessary."

The two of them flinched at the sudden sound of a voice from behind. Cassian turned to find a villain he recognized standing behind them. He couldn't quite recall his name, but he'd been one of the villains with Driver when they'd first met. Oh right, Red-Eye was his name.

"Are you with Bloodrain?"

"No, no he's with me, I think?" Cassian wasn't actually sure what Red-Eye's purpose was, but he could only assume he'd been sent to deliver more of the payment as Crow had been.

"Jeez kiddo, you took a beating, huh?" Red-Eye sucked in a breath as his eyes fell on Cassian's bloodied side.

"I'm fiiiiiine," Cassian waved off the villain's concern as he attempted to unhook himself from Uchan.

He succeeded but quickly found himself back on the ground, his legs refusing to support him at all anymore. Well, that would be a bit of an issue; he needed those to get home.

"Yep, OK. We are going to see Doc, you are most definitely not ok."

Red-Eye stepped forward and swept Cassian up in a princess carry faster than he could argue, leaving him dizzy and in incredible pain as the movement pulled at the wound on his side. Red-Eye gave a small nod to Uchan before leaping off the roof, landing on the building nearby. Cassian let out a small whine as the jolt of landing sent a shock of pain through his body. Red-Eye said something he didn't quite catch and Cassian suddenly found himself shifted to be on the villain's back instead.

The constant lurching of jumping from building to building left him dizzy and disoriented, but he could tell this wasn't the way home.

"Where're we goin'?"

"We're going back to the vilzone," Red-eye replied.

The vilzone? No, no Cassian had to go home! He had to get back to Yuri. She was going to be worried sick, especially since there was just a villain attack! Cassian tried to struggle free of Red-eye's hold on his legs.

"Wha—Kid, no, you need a doctor! Hey—Stop struggling!"

Cassian finally managed to get one leg free, but just as soon as he'd wiggled free, he was falling; unconscious before he even hit the ground.

——————————

Driver tapped their foot impatiently as they glanced between their clock and the horizon. Red-Eye was taking too long. They'd sent the other villain after their new recruit—dubbed 'little duckling' by Crow—because the younger villain had been ignoring Driver's texts. Ever since they got a ping from the tracker they'd given the little duckling, there had been radio silence from the villain for about three hours now, which was unusual considering he usually read every text at the very least. No one could really blame them for being a little on edge. Bloodrain was a dangerous villain, and usually, Driver would never send a newbie to fight someone like that, but they'd fought the kid themself and trusted his skill. There was just some nagging feeling in the back of their mind that was screaming bloody murder that something was wrong.

The ping of a motion sensor caught their attention; Driver switched their view to the camera that had been pinged to find Red-Eye approaching. Finally. They were going to have to give the hunter villain another lecture about punctuality—wait was that? Driver reached up to their goggles to adjust the range of the camera they were looking at.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

There was Red-Eye, the kid, and a shit ton of blood. Not good.

Driver adjusted their goggles as they quickly skimmed through their contacts. The line rang twice before the recipient picked up.

"Hello? What can I do for you boss?"

"Emergency. Bring your shit and meet me at my workshop."

"Wha—um, ok I'll be there in ten."

"Make it eight." Driver hung up as Red-Eye landed nearby.

As they got closer, the stench of blood was enough to nearly make them gag. Shit, what had happened in the few hours the kid had been gone?

"Oh good, you're here—" Red-Eye's worry softened slightly when he spotted Driver—"Kids out cold but still breathing for now."

Driver nodded, confirming the silver-haired villain's analysis with a quick scan of their own. They pulled their screwdriver from their pocket, tossing it up so it could grow full size. Red-Eye caught on quickly to Driver's intent and helped to secure the unconscious villain on the back of the weapon as Driver jumped up.

"You go ahead, I'll catch up—just need a sec to catch my breath."

"Right, I got him." Driver nodded, speeding off toward their lab as fast as they comfortably could.

As their building came into view, Driver leaped off their weapon, barely taking the time to shrink and pocket it as they dashed inside. With little care for the project they'd been working on, Driver swept their arm across the nearest table flinging everything to the floor before carefully setting down the villain on their back. They glanced at the time as they paced. It would take at least another four minutes for Diana to arrive—what the fuck were they supposed to do in the meantime?

Fuck.

If only they'd asked someone else. If they'd gone with the kid at least, or maybe sent Crow—no it wouldn't do to think of the "what if's". Damn it, Driver was a—the—tech guy; taking care of people was like the opposite of their job.

Scan.

They could do another scan—just to see if there was anything they'd missed the first time. Making Doc's job easier would be helping, right?

Right. Ok. they could do this. Shit that was a lot of blood.

Driver strangled their urge to run at the sight of the horrible red liquid coating the younger villain. Surely it couldn't all be his, right?

Wait.

No.

No no no no no—that couldn't be right. Their tech had to be wrong—it had to be. There was no way that. . .

Driver pulled off their goggles and pressed an ear to the little duckling's chest.

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

This can't be happening—how could they have let this happen? the kid wasn't breathing—he wasn't breathing.

"Alright, Driver, this had better be an actual . . . emergency. Oh shit, you weren't kidding."

Driver shot up at the sound of the voice to find Diana standing in the doorway. The vilzone doctor had looked to be barely awake until her eyes fell on the teen on the table. When she spied the wounded villain, she wasted no time vaulting over the railing to examine him, immediately moving to check for a pulse.

"He's not breathing—move."

"Yes, I know he's not breathing! Will you do something about it?!"

"Don't yell at me—I'm working on it!" Diana sent Driver a glare as she pulled a pink pocket knife from the pouch on her hip.

She sliced the blade across her palm and held her hand over the villain's wound. Driver winced and turned away as the stench of blood filled the room.

Noise filled the room and Driver was suddenly on their feet being dragged from the room by a blur of black. Crow. The villainess was speaking—at least—they thought she was. Her lips moved but Driver couldn't hear the words that left them. Why couldn't they—oh, their headphones? When did they put those back on? They didn't have much chance to think about it as Crow plopped them down in one of the kitchen chairs. She was speaking again as she pulled his coat off. Why? Oh.

Oh god, it was covered in blood.

That was—actually, y'know what? Driver wasn’t going to think about it. They were just gonna close their eyes and do the exact opposite of think about it! They were just going to put their head down and shut their brain off for a bit. Yeah, that would be nice. A system reboot fixes everything.

Chapter Text

Cassian couldn't really remember when—or why—he'd fallen unconscious, but when he found himself drifting back to awaereness it was to a strange buzzing in his ears. Like water washing over him, a chill crept up his body, starting at his feet and surging upwards—growing in intensity until it reached his chest. Suddenly he was drowning, choking on salt water and blood in a dark abyss.

Sinking as the black waves crashed over him, pulling at his clothes—his hair—dragging him down.

Down.

Down.

Choking as someone held him down and laughed. Pain bloomed in his chest as he found himself upright, retching as a metallic tang filled his mouth.

"whoa, whoa easy kiddo—don't get up," A woman's voice sounded in his ears as a swarm of purple entered his vision and suddenly he found himself being pushed down into something soft.

Purple? Wasn't Yuri's hair brown? Wait, where was he again? He'd been at some club fighting Bloodrain and then. . .

"Shit, what time is it?" Cassian tried to sit up again, much to the chagrin of the woman.

"Sit. You're going to tear out your stitches," the woman huffed, shoving him back down against the bed.

Stitches? What stitches? Cassian blinked at the woman confused.

How could he have gotten stitches? He wasn't in a hospital—and Red-Eye had said they were going to the vilzone. Ah, that must be it. He was in the vilzone, but who was this woman? He squinted through the blur in his vision as the woman returned to a chair next to the bed.

The woman in question had purple hair pulled back in a messy bun with two thick strands framing her face. It was probably dyed judging by the fact that her roots were showing through as black. She had several piercings, including snake bites and a bridge piercing, as well as a thin line tattoo running down her chin and chest, disappearing under her shirt. Speaking of—she looked to be wearing some sort of green medical coat over a cropped shirt that revealed several pale scars scattering her left arm and most of her stomach. Her other arm had a floral sleeve tattoo ending at a scar right below her elbow. From what Cassian could tell, she didn't look like a typical villain.

"What?" the woman glanced at him from behind her hand as she attempted to flick on a pink lighter to light the cigarette in her mouth.

"Sorry, I'm just confused. Who are you?"

"Ah, right. We haven't met—" the woman took a long drag of her cigarette as she returned the lighter to a pouch attached to her hip—"Name's Diana. I'm the reason you're still alive, no thanks to that idiot Driver."

". . .You're not a villain?"

"Astute observation."

Cassian frowned. He could tell he wasn't going to get much more of an answer from this person. In any case, he had to get home—well, he'd have to find Driver first, but then he had to go home.

"The blood I gave you took well enough, but I wouldn't recommend moving around too much for a while. Kinda surprised you're up this fast though, considering how long you were dead."

"Wait, I was dead?!" Cassian gaped at Diana. Surely he'd just heard wrong, right?

"You were for about three minutes, yeah," Diana paused to take another drag of smoke," I don't know what Driver was thinking, sending a kid like you after Bloodrain of all people."

"Hey, I'm not a kid! I'm at least 18!" Cassian huffed, wincing as the movement shot a spark of pain up his side.

“Ah, those pain meds are probably starting to wear off, huh? Not surprising—it's been about three hours since I gave 'em to ya.”

"Three hours? Wait—what time is it?" Cassian sat up quickly, ignoring the way the movement pulled painfully at his left side. "I have to go home!"

"Wha—kid no. I just stitched you up, you shouldn't be going anywhere."

Cassian ignored her warning as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Yuri was gonna kill him.

"Cassian, you should listen to her—"

"I have to go."

"Damn it, Driver come get your kid before he kills himself again!"

Diana grabbed Cassian by the arm as he tumbled—left leg unwilling to support his weight as he tried to stand. He pushed her off and stood—albeit more carefully this time—making it as far as the bedroom door before he was stopped again by a familiar-looking villainess.

"Oh goodness, you're up!" Crow beamed, slipping her arm around his waist to keep him from falling a second time. "Whatcha doin' dingdong? you should be in bed!"

Cassian tried to struggle free from her grip, but the villainess was surprisingly firm.

"I gotta go. . .my sister—she's waiting for me."

"Hrm, I see. We can't convince you to stay?" Cassian shook his head. Crow let out a hum of thought. "I suppose one of us could take him home—that would be alright, wouldn't it?"

Crow looked to Diana, who shrugged.

"He's not my problem once he leaves the vilzone—I don't work for non-members, this was just a favor for Driver."

"Well, you heard her. Still wanna go?"

Cassian nodded. He wasn't about to risk incurring more of his sister's—Gangu's sister's—wrath just because some villains didn't want him leaving.

"Right then, let's go!"

Cassian let out an involuntary squeak as Crow suddenly swept him off his feet, lifting him surprisingly easily for how thin she looked.

"H-hey! Put me down! I don't need to be carried!" Cassian yelped, trying to wriggle free from the villainess.

"Fine, fine, I won't carry you, but at least lean on me, ok?" Crow sighed as she gently placed Cassian back on his feet.

"Fine." Cassian could tell that he would get nowhere by trying to argue with Crow. He would humor her just this once. It was definitely not because she reminded him a little of Jeff—definitely not.

He didn't complain as Crow slung her arm around his torso a second time, allowing the taller villainess to guide him as they made their way toward the edge of the vilzone. As they reached the border between the city and the zone, Crow seemed more reluctant to let him go.

"Are you sure you won't stay? My Driver would like it if you joined us."

"I really have to get home. I appreciate the offer though," Cassian replied, carefully testing his weight against his prosthetic as he detached himself from Crow. It seemed mildly more cooperative now that whatever medication they'd given him was starting to wear off, though that also meant the pain relief was wearing off as well.

"Ah, was worth a try," Crow shrugged with a small smile," Well, you have my number so keep me updated, alright?"

"Uh, actually I don't think I do. I have Driver's but. . ." Cassian paused, fishing around his pocket to procure the device the ginger had gifted him.

He unlocked it and navigated to the contacts. As he'd suspected, Driver's was still the only number saved on it. Crow snatched it from his hands and quickly typed something in before handing it back. Cassian was even more confused when he saw that she'd input her contact name as "mama bird". Then again, Driver's was just a screwdriver emoji and a purple heart, so maybe it was just a thing with villains. He shook off the thought and returned the device to his pocket.

"Ok, I'm going now."

"Be safe getting home." Crow grinned, giving him a light pat on the shoulder.

Cassian nodded, giving her one last glance before using a shadow skill to leap onto the roof of a nearby building.

~

Getting home wasn't much of an issue with his shadow skills doing most of the work; It took him about half an hour to reach Gangu's apartment building. The real challenge would be sneaking in without Yuri noticing.

Cassian carefully crawled down into the alleyway next to the building and—after checking and double checking to make sure it was clear—transformed back to his civilian form. As soon as he did a sudden weight came crashing down on his shoulders and he fell back against the wall, vision spinning. He was suddenly very aware of his exhaustion. He glanced briefly at the street as he exited the alleyway and entered the apartments.

As he approached Gangu's apartment, he picked up the soft sound of a tv from inside. Of course, it would be just his luck that Yuri had stayed up for him—for Gangu. As he cracked open the door, he spotted Yuri stretched out on the couch. Her head was blocked by the corner of the wall, so he couldn't tell if she was sleeping or not, but he'd have to risk it. Better than just standing outside the whole night.

"Oh, Gangu—I didn't hear you come in," Yuri smiled wearily at him as he stepped up onto the carpet. She looked utterly exhausted; Had she stayed up just to wait for him?

"Uh, yeah. . . I didn't want to wake you," It wasn't necessarily a lie, but Cassian still found himself feeling bad.

"Care to tell me why you were out so late without so much as a text?" Yuri asked, muting the tv as she sat up.

"I was. . ." Shit, what was he supposed to say? He couldn't tell her he'd been gone because he'd nearly died fighting a villain. Well—technically he did die, but he wasn’t going to tell her that either." I was out with friends. We lost track of time, sorry."

He really didn't want to lie to her—some semblance of Gangu screamed in his head to tell her the truth—but it would be better for both of them if Yuri didn't know he was a villain. His memories from Gangu may have had total faith in his sister, but Cassian couldn’t bring himself to trust her just yet.

"Well alright, but next time at least text me, ok? I was worried with that villain attack downtown."

"Yeah, ok. I'll make sure to let you know next time."

"Good. I'll let it slide this once, but I'll ground you next time. Now get to bed, you have school tomorrow."

"Right. Good night."

"Goodnight, Gangu."

~

When Cassian finally awoke, it was to a blinding light and a splitting headache. Groaning, he threw a hand out toward the bedside table in search of his phone, the ringing of the device was not helping his headache. Blinking against the sudden brightness, Cassian squinted at the words on the screen. Why on earth would Yuri be calling him?

“Hello?”

“Hi sleepyhead, I’m assuming you just woke up?”

“Yeah? Why? What’s up?”

“I just wanted to see if you’d eaten yet—it's almost noon, you know.”

Noon? Had he really slept that late? Cassian glanced over at his alarm clock to see it read 12:23. Didn’t he have school? Wasn’t he missing it? If he remembered correctly, it was only Thursday.

“No I didn’t eat yet, but I can in a minute,” Cassian replied, sitting up. He winced slightly as the movement pulled uncomfortably at the bandage around his stomach. He’d admittedly forgotten it was there, though that explained why he felt like death.

“Ok, I made something for you before I left so you just have to heat it up, alright? Don’t worry about school, I called them to let them know you wouldn’t be in today so just get some rest, ok?”

“Yeah, ok. Thanks, Yuri.” Why had she called him in sick? Did she know about his injury? No—she couldn’t have known. So then why? Oh right, sometimes Gangu would stay home to rest his leg. That must’ve been it.

“Oops, gotta go, my boss is calling! I’m gonna be home late so don’t worry about waiting for dinner, ok? Love you, bye!”

“Ah—Yuri!”

Click!

. . .

Well, that was weird. Cassian wasn’t about to complain about a free sick day though. With the way his entire body ached and burned, he didn’t think he would’ve made it to school even if he had been up on time. Cassian pushed the thought aside and curled further into his blanket. Since he was staying home anyways, it wouldn't hurt to sleep a little longer right?

Of course, the universe would have other plans for him.

Cassian let out a groan as the phone rang next to his ear for a second time. What on earth would Yuri possibly want not even five minutes after the first time she called?

"What, Yuri? I'm up I swear," Cassian groaned answering the phone with a yawn.

". . .er, Yuri? No, darling, it's Crow."

Crow? Wait. . .Cassian sat up suddenly examining the device in his hand. Sure enough, he spotted the slight blue sheen on the screen. That meant this was his villain phone. That also meant he'd just outed his civilian sister's name to a villain.

"Uh, hi, sorry I just woke up I guess I'm still a little sleepy," Cassian lied, jumping out of bed." What's up?"

"You weren't answering our texts so I thought I'd call to make sure you got home ok last night."

Oh right, he was supposed to do that. With what happened with Yuri the night before, Cassian had forgotten his promise to the villainess.

"Yeah, sorry—my sister caught me sneaking in and I kinda forgot about it," Cassian replied, limping over to the closet to procure clothes for the day: a blue sweater and black sweatpants. Perfect for lounging.

“That’s alright. What? Yes. Ok, I’ll ask him—Driver wants to know if you’d like to join us for lunch?”

Lunch, huh? Well, he did still need to eat. As the thought occurred, Cassian felt his stomach rumble hungrily.

“Sure, ok. Where should I meet you?” Cassian bundled up his clothing and tucked it under one arm as he made his way to the bathroom.

“Hrm. How about at the edge of the zone? I can text you the directions—” Crow’s voice went softer, presumably as she turned away from the phone to yell at someone in the room with her—” Yes, I asked. He said yes, go put your shoes on.”

"That works for me, just give me like 20 minutes to shower first."

"Done deal, I'll see you soon!"

"Yeah, bye."

Cassian let out a small sigh as he deposited his pile of clothes on the bathroom counter.

"Got a date I see," Moros grinned at him through the mirror.

"Don't make it weird—It's just to get those mana stones they owe me," Cassian huffed.

He dug the first aid kit out from under the sink and placed it on top of the existing pile, pulling out a scissor, tape, and a roll of bandages. Sitting down on the edge of the tub with his quarry, he carefully unwrapped the bandage on his stomach. It was only slightly bloody, and he was pleased to find that the skin around his stitches—about seven in total—looked to be healing relatively well. From what he could tell it didn't seem like there was any kind of infection. He could thank Diana for that he supposed as he re-wrapped the injury with fresh bandages.

As he passed by the kitchen in search of his shoes, he was once again reminded that he hadn't eaten yet. Sure he was going to eat lunch soon, but it wouldn't hurt to have a granola bar, right? He could take some Advil too before he left if he did.

Mind made up, Cassian briefly returned to the bathroom to procure himself the pills, stopping briefly back in his room to grab his cane on his way back to the kitchen. He'd have to walk to the vilzone since it was still light out and he had a sneaking suspicion he'd probably need it.

After a whole week of living in Gangu's body, one would think he'd be used to the metal appendage by now, but Cassian still found himself forgetting about it regularly. It was actually surprising how easily forgettable it was, considering the leg was responsible for many a tumble in the short time he'd had it.

Honestly, most days he could barely make it from his room to the bathroom across the hall without tripping over something; It was frustrating, not being able to move the way he wanted—the way he used to. Always feeling a sense of unease in the back of his mind no matter where he was, knowing that he wasn't as capable as before. When was the last time he'd actually felt safe? He supposed it would’ve probably been. . .

“Cassian?”

"What?"

"You spaced out there a little—you ok?"

"Yeah. . ."

Cassian shook off the spiral of thoughts as he popped open the pill bottle and dumped two in his hand. He moved to put the lid back but paused.

. . .

Fuck it, a third wouldn't hurt; he shook one more pill out and placed them on the table before moving to the sink to grab a glass of water. Snagging a granola bar from the cabinet as he returned to the table, Cassian swallowed all three tablets in one big gulp.

"Alright, now we can go."

~

Cassian had noticed the first time he'd come to the vilzone, but for some reason, he never really noticed when the buildings started to change from the shiny well-kept skyscrapers to the run-down crumbling mess of bricks that scattered the vilzone. One minute you were in the bustling city and the next it was a dead zone of run-down shells of buildings; it was a little surreal if he was being honest.

He’d never get used to it—the decrepit buildings—scars of war, of neglect. It almost reminded him of himself in a way.

Abandoned.

Used, then discarded and left to rot.

‘I’ll never get used to this place’ Cassian sighed.

He tugged out his phone—cursing slightly as his claws snagged on the fabric of his pants—and clicked it open to double-check the directions Crow had given him, leaning idly against his cane as he did so.

“Oh, you’re already here! Darn, and here I thought I’d have you beat!”

Cassian looked up at the sound of the voice in time to see Crow appear in a flurry of black and magenta feathers further up the road.

“Driver not with you?” Cassian glanced around but didn’t see the small mechanic that was usually glued to Crow. Well—Crow was usually glued to them.

“Nope, they went ahead already,” Crow grinned in that way one did when they were plotting something,” I wanted you all for myself for a bit hehe.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Cassian eyed the villainess with suspicion.

“I can’t just want to have a chat with our new member?” Crow shrugged, putting on an innocent face.

“I highly doubt that—and what’s this about a new member? I don’t recall joining anything,” Cassian sighed, pocketing his phone as he walked over to the villainess.

“Oh? I didn’t know you had a cane too!” Crow peered curiously at the tool at his side. Cassian resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her blatant attempt at changing the subject.

“Oh, yeah. I wasn’t sure I should bring it, to be honest—feels a bit weird to be using a mobility aide as a villain, but I wouldn’t have made it here without it so,” Cassian shrugged, holding it up so Crow could get a better look.

The bird-themed villainess peered at it with a smile. Cassian could feel the slight heat of embarrassment flushing his cheeks as she closely examined the staff. He didn’t know why though.

“I don’t think there’s any shame in that, dingdong—we are human after all. In fact—” Crow waved her hand, snatching a thin black cane with a crows head from the air as it materialized in a puff of feathers—” I’ve got one too, hehe! Always nice to keep handy for when my chronic pain gets bad; bad knees and all.”

“Ah, I see.”

“What’s yours for?” Crow asked, returning the staff to whatever pocket dimension it had come from.

“Prosthetic,” Cassian tapped the cane against his left leg to accent his point. The rubber end of the cane thunked dully against the metal.

“Oh right, I vaguely remember that from your fight with Driver! Speaking of—we probably shouldn’t keep them waiting any longer.” Crow smiled, clapping her hands together, “god knows what that gremlin of mine can get up to when they’re bored.”

“I can only imagine.”

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they walked. Cassian allowed Crow to lead the way, falling a few paces behind her stride.

Eventually, they approached a set of buildings that looked far less run down than most of the others in the vilzone; Crow stopped outside one with a large sign hanging out front. ‘Heavon Pub’ it read in bright orange letters.

When the two of them entered, Cassian was surprised to find that there were several groups inside scattered around what looked to be a relatively well-kept restaurant of sorts. Driver—who had initially been dramatically laying on a table at a booth in the corner—suddenly shot up when they spotted Crow over the crowd.

“Oh yay, you’re here! Finally! I’m starving!” Driver grinned at them as Crow slid in next to them on their right. Cassian opted for the edge of the booth to Driver’s left with his prosthetic facing inwards. He wasn’t really sure why, but it just felt more comfortable that way.

“Sorry we took so long—there was a bit of a distraction.”

“Oh? Care to share?”

“That's for us to know, and you to find out,” Crow grinned, handing one of the menus to Cassian.

He was shocked to see a surprising amount of options, from breakfast foods to dinners, and even desserts. It was almost too many options if you ask him.

Just looking at the pictures of the food was making him lose his appetite. It wasn't to say that nothing looked appetizing, it was more like the thought of putting anything in his body right now would immediately come back out. His head was starting to feel foggy too—taking three pills on an empty stomach was not his smartest decision, Cassian would admit.

He hated to admit it, but he couldn't really read the menu well enough anyways to get a good enough idea of what was in the different foods. Reading Korean had never been his strong suit, especially after living in America for so long—plus the letters didn't seem to want to stay put on the page no matter how hard he stared—it was annoying.

"Know what you want?" Cassian jumped as Crow suddenly leaned over.

"Er—not really. I'm not super hungry." Cassian admitted. It was partially the truth, but he wasn't going to admit to these two that he couldn't read. Besides, it wasn’t that he couldn’t per se—it was just harder than English and he was used to that, or Spanish even.

"Oh, oh, you should try the grapefruit ade! It's super good!" Driver grinned.

"I usually get the chicken, but I don't always finish it all—we could split one if you want?" Crow suggested, pointing to a picture of what looked like fried chicken towards the bottom of the menu.

"Ok, sure."

Crow smiled, seemingly pleased with herself as she folded up the menus while Driver waved over a man in a suit. Cassian found himself tuning out the conversation struck up between Crow and Driver soon after—instead entertaining himself by watching the colors of the lights swirl across the tiled ceiling. He was pretty sure the swirling patterns were the actual lighting and not a side-effect of his earlier blunder.

". . . kid? You listening?"

"Hm?" Cassian looked down at his two companions to find both of them staring at him, a slight worry on their brows.

"Man, you sure are spacy, huh? We were talking about taking you for a tour of the zone after lunch!" Driver smiled, tapping their finger idly across the table.

"Only if you feel up to it that is," Crow added, glancing at the cane Cassian had left leaning up against the side of the booth. Damn, she was eerily perceptive, huh?

"Sure, but why would I need a tour?" Cassian couldn't really think of any reason they'd want to show him around. He probably wouldn't see either of them again after he got the rest of the payment Driver owed him.

Driver and Crow shared a quizzical look.

"Well, we always give new members a tour."

"I'm not joining the vilzone though. I thought this was a one-time job kind of thing." Cassian admitted.

"Oh dear, we just assumed you planned to join since you seemed to be a hatchling," Crow frowned, placing a gloved hand on her cheek.

"Will you at least think about it?"

"I just want the rest of my payment and I'll be out of your hair—not that I don't appreciate the hospitality—but there's something I have to take care of."

"Oh right, I knew I was forgetting something," Driver frowned as they fiddled with a dial on the side of their goggles.

"Honestly, you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached to your body, dear," Crow chuckled.

Procuring a small blue box from her pocket, Crow placed it on the table and slid it over to Cassian. He opened it to find three high-quality magic stones inside, just like last time.

"Say, can I ask you where you get these?"

"Oh, they get them from me."

Cassian flinched at the sudden voice from his right. He turned to find a pink-haired man in a blue fur coat standing at the end of the table with a large tray in one hand. Cassian didn't miss the small lampas logo hanging from his neck as he set out their lunch plates.

"This is Chaeha—he owns the pub here—and as he mentioned, I get all my magic stones from him," Driver grinned, eagerly snatching their drink before the man could set it down on the table.

A black market supplier then. Not surprising.

"Can I buy stones from you too, then?"

"Sure, if you're part of a vilzone." Chaeha shrugged, tucking his, now empty, tray under one arm.

". . . I'm not really interested in joining any of the zones though," Cassian frowned. He did want more magic stones if he could get his hands on them, but tying himself down? That could throw a wrench in his plans for revenge. That, and he didn't think Yuri would take too kindly to her baby brother hanging around with a bunch of villains on the regular (even if he was one himself now).

"Yknow, little duck, depending on how well you do on your entrance test you could even become the big boss yourself," Crow grinned as she slid half of her portion toward Cassian.

"Boss? Hell, I don't even wanna join as a regular member."

"You get lots of nice luxuries as a boss, y'know!" Driver piped up, halfway through chewing their bite of steak—" like, you get to buy magic stones, and uh. . . oh! You get paid for it too!"

"Hrm. . . I'd have to take the test to get in though, right? What's that about?"

"Oh, it's nothing too hard. You just have to fight three people, and if you win you get to challenge me!" Driver grinned," If you win you get to be the boss."

"Do I get to pick who I fight?"

"Nope! That's all picked by me as the boss. So, will you do it?"

"Can I think on it for a bit?" Cassian wouldn't lie and say he wasn't tempted, but he wasn't totally confident he could win in the condition his body was in. Hell, he'd barely been able to get out of bed. Plus he really wasn’t sure about joining up with a vilzone, no matter the benefits.

"Sure, there's no rush. For now, we should just enjoy our lunch!"

~

The three of them enjoyed a relatively quiet lunch. Cassian opted to simply listen to Crow and Diver more than he actually spoke himself. He was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite his initial fears, he managed lunch relatively fine—Driver and Crow had been spot on with their recommendations. If he ever came back, he'd definitely have to try it again.

Their brief tour of the vilzone ended a little shorter than Driver had wanted, however when Crow began to complain of her legs hurting. Cassian had suspected that wasn't the only reason she'd suggested cutting it short, however, but his own leg hurt as well, so he didn't complain. The two of them parted ways with the villainess with Driver offering to walk Cassian to the edge of the zone. While he really didn't need the escort, he wasn't able to shake Driver, so he resigned himself to listening to the chatter of the shorter villain as they flew.

"Right, here we are. Promise you'll seriously think about that test, ok?" Driver smiled as they lowered their screwdriver to the ground so Cassian could jump off.

"Sure, I'll let you know if I change my mind."

Cassian turned to leave but froze. Something told him they weren't alone.

He sent a glance toward Driver, but the other villain didn't seem to have noticed anything—that or they were just really good at hiding if they did. Honestly from what Cassian already knew about Driver, it could very well have gone both ways. Well, whatever—he could deal with it, whatever it was.

Cassian waited for Driver to disappear further down the road before he turned to face the presence he'd sensed.

"You gonna come out, or should I come to you?"

Moros looked surprised at his words, glancing around at what appeared to be an empty street.

After a moment or so of silence, two younger-looking villains emerged from the shadows between the buildings. Two shirtless teens, one with spiky blue hair and a large hammer slung over one shoulder, and the other with a large black scarf and gauntlets. Although he couldn't see them from where he stood, Cassian could tell there was a third still hiding behind him.

"All of you?" He sighed, glancing in the direction of the third presence.

There was a clatter of noise as a third villain jumped out from behind the corner, knocking over several boxes as they did.

"Man, I can't wait to knock that smug look off that brat's face."

"Nu-uh, man, I've got first dibs." The scarf-wearing teen elbowed the blue one.

Ah, Cassian recognized him now. He'd knocked him out when he'd fought with Driver. So this was some kind of revenge he could assume, judging by the way they seem raring for a fight.

Before anyone could make a move, however, a large barrel-shaped object crashed down from the sky between Cassian and the pair. He looked up as a red-haired woman dropped from the roof nearby.

"Hey! You drunkard! You nearly hit me!" the scarf-wearer cried out.

"That's your own fault for gettin' in my way, punk," The woman snickered, clearly not remorseful in the slightest. "You should know, this one's off limits, Black Hand."

"I don't care what the boss says, he's not even part of our zone! Who cares?"

"I'd be careful about what you say, dearie."

Cassian knew that voice. He wasn't at all surprised to see Crow suddenly appear on top of a roof nearby. What was with villains and suddenly appearing from rooftops today?

"C-Crow?"

"If you know what's good for you, the four of you are going to go home quietly. Am I understood?" Crow grinned wickedly at the group of villains, an aura of anger around her.

"Why are you defending this guy? He's not one of us!" the blue-haired boy yelled.

"Yeah! I just wanna kill 'im—"

"I'll take your stupid test." Even if he didn't pass, the looks of shock on the four villains' faces—well, three villains since one of them was wearing a mask—were worth the trouble at least in this moment. "In ten days, I'll take it."

"Ah, I knew you'd come around eventually," Crow grinned, her murderous aura gone. "Ten days it is then!"

Well, this would be a fine mess, wouldn't it?

Cassian watched as four of the five villains begrudgingly returned to the inner zone, leaving him alone with Crow for the second time today.

"I thought your knees hurt?" He watched warily as Crow jumped down next to him. Sure she hadn't done anything the first few times they'd been alone together, but that didn't mean he automatically trusted the villainess. He didn't trust anybody—the last time that happened he’d been literally shot in the back.

"Oh, I lied." Of course, she did. Cassian couldn't really bring himself to feel surprised. It seemed oh so typically Crow of the villainess.

"So?"

"I'm hurt you think I have some sort of ulterior motive here," Crow feigned a dramatic sigh. "Is it a crime to want my hatchling to get home safe?"

"I'm not 'your hatchling' or whatever. And I'm not a kid, I can get myself home," Cassian huffed.

"Well, I tried," Crow threw her hands up in a shrug," can't blame a girl for being curious, can you?"

"Yeah, I can actually."

"Oh, I'm hurt."

"So, did you actually want something or can I go?"

"Yes, yes, off you go. Don't make your sister wait or anything." Crow let out a sigh as she waved him off.

Strange. She almost reminded him of Jeff in some way. Maybe it was just the way she seemed genuine in her concern. Or maybe it was the way she carried herself—she had a sort of maternal energy to her, though he could've been mistaken. Still, despite wanting nothing more to do with any of the villains, he found himself hesitating to leave. Even if just for a few more minutes, he wanted to stay.

"Well, if you want. . . I suppose you could walk with me just for a little bit." The words left his mouth before he could stop them.

At the way Crow seemed to light up from the offer, he couldn't bring himself to take it back. Man, he had too much of a headache to deal with any of this; he was really starting to regret getting out of bed.

Still though, having the silent company of another body as he walked was. . . nice.

As the first few signs of civilized life started to pop up, he and Crow parted ways with a brief goodbye. Cassian waited until he was sure the villainess was gone before using a shadow skill to get on top of the nearest building. Even if it hurt, he'd have to run like hell to get back before Yuri did.

——————————

Well, shit.

Cassian froze when he spotted Yuri's work shoes tossed haphazardly across the floor when he opened the apartment door. It would appear he hadn't managed to beat her home—that or someone had broken in just to take a shower and happened to own the exact same shoes. An unlikely scenario.

He let out a sigh as he kicked off his own shoes, placing both them and Yuri's neatly into the shoe cubby as he closed the door. Maybe if he was quick about it, he could sneak back to his room before Yuri got out of the shower and just pretend he'd been home the whole time. No, she'd probably get even madder if he tried to lie to her.

Well, the least he could do was tidy up to try to get in her good graces. It might not get him out of a punishment, but at least it would be a good way to show he was sorry.

Cassian sighed. Tossing his cane against the kitchen table, he moved to pick up the clothes scattered across the couch. He folded them neatly and placed them on the coffee table before moving to clean up the contents of Yuri's purse, which had spilled when the bag had tipped over. Clearly his—Gangu's sister—had been in a hurry to wash up. Otherwise. . . huh?

He froze, spotting a white envelope with a red wax seal laying on the floor, half hidden under the table. He recognized the logo on the seal as the one for Yuri's workplace. A promotion letter maybe? He picked the envelope up and turned it over. The back side was blank, with no hint as to what could've been inside.

"Ah—hey don't look at that!"

Cassian let out a yelp as Yuri suddenly snatched the envelope from his hands. He hadn't even heard her come up behind him.

"What is it?"

"Er—it's nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"Yuri. . ."

Yuri let out a sigh, slumping down on the couch.

"Fiiiiiine. It's an invitation from the main branch of my job. They want me to transfer to America."

"That's a good thing though, isn't it?" Cassian couldn't see why she would think a promotion would be a bad thing.

"No, it's not! I'd have to move to America and leave you here! There's no way I'm going!" Yuri yelled, flinching inwardly when she realized her volume. "Look—i just—"

"I think you should go."

"Gangu! Think about what that would mean for you!" Yuri suddenly grabbed one of his hands—" If I leave you'd be living alone! You'd have to cook, do the laundry, take out the trash, school—I worry about you!"

"I'm not a kid anymore, I can manage."

"But—!"

"Yuri. Go. Don't let me hold you back from chasing your dreams, ok?" Cassian did his best to smile as he placed a hand over hers. He couldn't tell if it was the Gangu part of him or something he felt himself, but he really didn't want to be the one to hold her down. Besides, He'd lived alone for years as a Psyker, how hard could it be to do again? He had plenty of money from his spare bank account, and he could cook well enough!

"I—" Yuri frowned, her gaze falling to the floor. "Ok. I'll go—But you have to promise me you'll be good! Oh, and don't think I've forgotten about you going out today! You're still grounded, but . . . thank you."

"Ah, you noticed that huh? Could we perhaps negotiate that punishment?" Cassian chuckled, rubbing his neck. He’d hoped their little heart-to-heart had made her forget about that little transgression.

"Nope! If you really want me to leave you alone, you'll have to prove to me that you can do it! I'll be walking you to and from school for a week as punishment, and you'll have to make your own lunches or buy something at school—I won't make them for you. Got it?"

"Loud and clear."

One week? He could manage that long. Sure it would be a little embarrassing to be walked to school by his—er, Gangu’s—you know what? Fuck it. Yuri was his sister now, he could refer to her as such. He didn't have any friends at school that would care anyways, so what did it matter if his sister walked him for a week?

"Alright, now off to bed with you, mister!"

"Ok, ok, I'm going!"

Chapter Text

Cassian wouldn't lie and say he hadn't hoped otherwise, but as Yuri had said, she made him pack his own lunch and drove him to school the next morning. Packing lunch wasn't such a big deal, but she insisted he bring his cane to school and wouldn't let him leave without it. Sure it was nice to have sometimes but he hated having to actually carry it around. Well, he could just dump it in the classroom and leave it there until the end of the day—after their second beatdown of the bullies from his first day as Gangu hadn't so much as glanced in his direction, so it would be safe from harm.

"Alright, I'll come get you at the end of the day, so don't even think about sneaking out, ok?" Yuri smiled, pulling up at the front gate of the school grounds.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be on time." Cassian waved her off as he jumped out of the car.

"Oh, it's you!"

Cassian froze at the sound of the voice. No.

No no no no no no. No.

"Hey, Uchan."

"Friend of yours?"

Shit, he forgot Yuri was still here.

"Um, Kind of?"

"I'd say we're acquaintances," Uchan nodded, waving to Yuri.

"Thanks for looking after my brother. He's quite a handful."

"Oh, it's no trouble, really!"

Cassian wanted to die, again. He couldn't believe he'd let these two meet. Uchan was one thing, but the two of them together? That would be one hell of a friendship. Could he never escape the overbearing sibling energy?

"Oh, that reminds me, Gangu, I was going to ask if you'd be willing to come study with me after school? I heard you're pretty good at English and I'm struggling," Uchan smiled.

Fuck. What did he know?

"Um, I would love to, but I'm grounded so—"

"I don't mind!" Yuri grinned, giving Cassian a look.

Fuck. There was no getting out of this one, huh?

"Great! I'll see you later then!" Uchan waved as he turned to head inside," It was nice meeting you, Ms. Gwon!"

"You too!" Yuri waited for the red-haired teen to leave before turning to Cassian. "Be home by eight at the latest, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Right, off with you then!"

"A right mess you've gotten yourself in." Moros chuckled, clearly enjoying the show.

"I will find a way to punch you." Cassian groaned, dragging a hand through his hair.

He could probably just ditch the Psyker and wait around somewhere until it got late, then head home, right? Yuri probably wouldn't know the difference. Right, that was his plan because he really didn't want to spend any more time with the other teen than he needed to.

Of course, no plan of his ever went how it was supposed to. That became painfully clear when, as he was packing up his things after the last bell, he was greeted by the red-haired psyker trainee he was trying to avoid. He hadn't expected him to wait outside the classroom. That was his miss, but one that would cost him his precious afternoon.

"You were serious about wanting me to tutor you?" Cassian sighed as he joined the teen in the hall.

Uchan nodded, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm embarrassed to admit that my skills are abysmal."

Well, that was surprising. Most Psykers learned English or at least some other second language for ease of work. Plus it was a required class for their school, so hearing that Uchan of all people wasn't any good at it came as a bit of a shock.

"Alright, let's do this then. Where are we studying?"

"You'll do it? Really?!" Uchan lit up, if only slightly.

"Is that not what I just said? Besides, my sister expects me to go, so I don't have much of a choice."

"Ah—that's right you mentioned you were grounded. Can I ask what for?"

"No, you cannot," Cassian replied sharply, moving to walk in front of the teen.

"Fair enough. I thought we could go to a cafe if you're ok with that? It's a little bit of a walk." Uchan hurried to catch up.

"A cafe might be a little noisy, don't you think?" Cassian was a little offended by the last remark, but wasn’t about to admit it. What was with people thinking he couldn’t walk just because he limped a little sometimes? It was annoying.

"Oh, that's true. I just thought that maybe I could treat you to something as thanks, but you have a point."

A treat? Like something sweet? Hrm. Cassian couldn't say the promise of a free snack wasn't tempting.

"Ok, we can go, but if it gets too noisy we'll move somewhere else, sound fair?"

"Great!"

Ah, he did it again. Curse Gangu and his sweet tooth for getting Cassian to agree to shit under the promise of food. He sent a glare at Moros, who had been quietly snickering to himself during their exchange. He was seriously going to find a way to hit the spirit just out of spite.

——————————

As the two of them walked, Uchan eventually took the lead, Gangu falling a few paces behind him. Uchan found himself sending frequent looks over his shoulder to make sure the raven-haired boy was still behind him. He felt a little awkward about asking someone he hardly knew to help him with something as boring as studying, but he really couldn't afford to fail another English test, and he'd heard Gangu was one of the best in his class.

Speaking of—the church mouse of a boy was still dutifully following behind Uchan, albeit a bit slower than he had been earlier. Shit, they'd only been walking for ten minutes or so—was that too much for him? Man, Uchan really wasn't earning himself any favors here. Maybe he should've picked somewhere else? No, he'd heard this particular cafe was popular with the other students since it was a great place to study.

"Er, Gangu?"

"I'm fine, keep going," the other teen seemed to sense what Uchan was going to ask.

Uchan didn't push the issue further, though he did slow his pace if only slightly.

After about another ten minutes of walking, the two teens approached their destination. It was a cafe on the smaller side, tucked into the corner of an intersection with tons of flower beds and hanging plants decorating the outdoor seating area where a few people were seated. Uchan recognized a few of the faces.

The interior of the shop was just as decorated with plant life as the outside; Uchan could see why it was so highly recommended. Glancing around as they approached the counter, he could see several booths and tables scattered around, along with a few couches and comfy chairs in a back corner.

"Go ahead and get whatever you want—I'll pay for it."

"Ok, then I'll have a hot chocolate and. . ." Gangu paused, glancing over the sweets in the display—" wanna split one of those strawberry cakes?"

"Sure. I'll just do a regular black coffee, then," Uchan nodded.

"Alright, one hot chocolate, one black coffee, and one strawberry cake. Anything else?"

"Nope that's it."

"Right, it'll be 23.86." The black-haired barista smiled as Uchan handed her his card. "For here or to go?"

"For here, please." Uchan replied, turning to Gangu, he added," do you want to go pick out a table?"

“I might be crippled but I don’t need to be babied. I can stand,” Gangu huffed, a frown pulling at his lips,” besides you can’t carry three things at once.”

“Gangu, that’s not what I—“

“I know what you meant,” Gangu mumbled, his gaze falling to the ground.

Uchan felt his heart sink slightly. Was that what Gangu had been dealing with all this time? It hadn't been his intention in the slightest to make him uncomfortable—man this whole making friends thing was way more difficult than Naeun made it look.

"Sorry. I just thought you'd want to pick where we sit since I don't know your preferences and I wouldn't want to sit somewhere that made you uncomfortable since I'm the one who asked you out."

Gangu suddenly looked up in surprise, "wait, that's what you meant?"

It was Uchan's turn to be surprised now.

"What did you think I meant?"

"I—nothing! Absolutely nothing, never mind," Gangu turned his gaze back to the ground.

Uchan opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted when a barista suddenly called out their order.

Before Uchan could do anything, Gangu had already snatched up one of the plates and started marching toward one of the high-top tables. Uchan quickly grabbed their drinks and hurried to follow as the shorter boy crawled his way up into the booth with surprising agility.

"Alright, so what are we studying?" Gangu asked, dumping his bag out on the table.

As Uchan climbed up into his own chair, the other teen quickly produced two notebooks, a couple of pencils, and their English textbook before neatly throwing the remainder of his things back in the bag.

"Reading is my weakest part I'd say," Uchan replied, sliding the hot chocolate toward Gangu. The teen took it with thanks.

"Ah, ok—" the teen looked thoughtful for a moment while he flitted through the textbook. Eventually deciding on a page, he slid one of the notebooks and a blue pen toward Uchan—'' I'll write some stuff down then and you try to read it and we can work on the words that stump you as they come up."

“Sure, ok.”

~

The two teens fell into a comfortable silence as Gangu set to work writing out a few sentences for Uchan to translate. Although Uchan tried his best to strike up various topics of conversation, the latter seemed more inclined to sit in silence browsing his cell phone unless the question applied to the language they were supposed to be studying.

As time went on, Gangu seemed increasingly more interested in his cell phone, checking it every few minutes and sending brief glances outside. He seemed anxious about something—though as for what that something could be, Uchan couldn’t say.

“Is everything ok?” Uchan spoke up after about the 20th time he caught Gangu looking outside.

Crash!

“Oh shit!” Gangu swore as his cup hit the ground, shattering on impact.

Both teens jumped quickly from their chairs, though Gangu managed to hit the floor first. As the other teen scrambled to clean up the broken bits of porcelain, Uchan did his best to wipe up the little bit of coffee that had spilled.

“Ah, hold on you two don’t touch that!”

Uchan looked up at the sound of the voice as one of the baristas ran over, black towel in hand. She pushed the two of them aside and carefully collected the shards of porcelain underneath the thick cloth.

“Are you both ok? No cuts? Not hurt in any way?” The woman asked, glancing between the teens as she shoved the bundle of breakage into the pocket of her apron.

“No, we’re ok. Sorry about the cup—I can pay for it.”

“Oh that’s ok, it happens all the time! Just try to be more careful next time, ok?”

“Right, we will, thank you!” Turning back to Gangu, Uchan added,” Are you ok?”

Gangu didn’t answer—his gaze still stuck on the stain that now spotted the floor.

“Gangu?”

“I have to go.”

Gangu snapped up suddenly, practically lunging across the table to shovel his scattered things into his school bag.

“Wha—Gangu, is something wrong?”

“Sorry! We can continue another time. Thanks for the coffee.”

“Gangu?!”

Ah, he’s gone.

Chapter Text

"Gangu?"

". . . I have to go."

Cassian stood quickly, practically tripping over himself in his haste. The thump of blood in his ears drowned out the red-heads reply. Cassian didn't much care to figure it out; he was far more concerned with getting his shit and getting out.

As he exited the cafe, the chill in his chest deepened. He had to hide.

Had to hide.

Had to hide.

Get away, get away, get away.

Wait, what was he running from again? He was. . .where was he? Cassian whipped his head around desperately scanning his surroundings for anything that looked familiar. Nothing. The signs—they weren’t in English—where was he?

He had to go home, but where was it? There were too many people. He couldn’t breathe.

Quickly locating a less populated road, Cassian stumbled into an unoccupied alleyway and fell back against the wall. A mixture of blood and bile splattered the ground as he gagged, coughing up what little he’d eaten earlier.

When the trembling subsided some, Cassian finally noticed his hands. They weren’t flesh and bone, but rather a weird mix of flesh and metal digging deep gouges in the wall where he’d attempted to support himself. He hadn’t noticed transforming.

“Moros? How long was I—” Cassian was cut short as another fit of coughs wracked his shivering frame. Why did he suddenly feel so ill? Oh, right he was bleeding.

“Jeeze, kid you’re a right mess.” Moros chuckled, appearing next to him after a moment.

“I noticed,” Cassian sighed, carefully lowering himself so he was sitting up against the other wall of the alley,” Did anyone see me transform?”

“No. There wasn’t anyone around.”

“Well, I guess that’s one silver lining.”

Cassian shifted slightly and carefully lifted his shirt to check the state of the old injury he’d angered. From what he could see it was only bleeding a little from one side where a few of the stitches had been pulled loose—the skin around them angry and red. An easy enough fix given he could get himself home without passing out.

"You should probably go before someone sees you—unless you plan to de-transform?"

"Just give me a minute, ok?" Cassian huffed, pressing a hand against his side as he squeezed his eyes shut.

It didn't help with the headache, though it did help to quell his nausea some.

He waited for a few more minutes, just sitting with his eyes shut in an attempt to slow his breathing. It did well enough to calm his anxiety enough to motivate him to stand.

"Hey, Moros? How quickly do you think I could get home from here with my shadow skills?" Cassian asked, gathering his things from where he'd left them strewn across the ground.

The spirit looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, "Maybe 15 minutes?"

"Bet, ok."

Cassian took a brief moment to secure his school bag and cane over his shoulder before skillfully scaling the side of the building.

~

As Moros had guessed, it barely took 20 minutes for Cassian to reach his apartment building traveling across the shadows of the rooftops as he had. He found an unoccupied alleyway to hide in and de-transformed before scaling the steps to the building.

Throwing open the door to the apartment, Cassian threw his cargo down by the kitchen table and flopped down on the couch, dramatically throwing an arm over his face as he let out a tired sigh. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so exhausted—the panic attack from earlier definitely didn't help.

"Aren't you gonna fix your stitches?"

"Mmm, five more minutes."

"Ok, but you're getting blood on the white couch."

"Shit, am I?" Cassian sat up quickly, very nearly toppling over sideways as the action left him lightheaded.

He glared at Moros laughing as he stood. Seriously, one of these days he was going to find a way to punch him.

Thankfully, there wasn’t so much as a drop of red on the couch, despite the spirit’s statement. Cassian wasn’t sure how he’d explain that to Yuri.

Cassian kicked off his shoes and tossed them by the front door as he made his way over to the bathroom. As he procured the first aid kit from under the sink he found his vision going spotty as a sudden heat flushed his skin. Cassian fell forward, grasping for the counter in a desperate attempt to stay upright; the contents of the medkit scattered across the floor as the container tipped. Cassian followed quickly after, knees giving out as he fell to the floor gasping for air.

"Cass, are you ok? I heard—"

"GET OUT!" he screamed, hurtling a box of bandaids at the spirit. It thunked harmlessly against the wall, passing clear through the floating orb tormenting him.

Moros looked shocked between the offending object and Cassian; the spirit vanished in a puff of black smoke quickly, leaving Cassian alone again.

After a few moments, he was able to catch his breath a little and managed to peel his shirt off, lamenting the fact that it was now stained red from the wound he'd somehow managed to open even further. He tossed the soiled garment into the sink, filling it with warm water as he gathered up the first aid supplies he'd spilled. After wetting a washcloth, he turned the faucet off and left the shirt to soak as he seated himself on the edge of the bathtub.

Using the washcloth, he carefully dabbed away the blood coating his side. He flinched against the pain as he got to work pulling out the loose threads. Every slight tug felt like fire against the raw skin, but he managed well enough. The real struggle would be putting them back.

Procuring one of the dry towels he'd stacked up on the toilet seat, Cassian bit down on the cloth as he cleaned a curved needle with an anti-bacterial wipe. The dull fabric did well enough to muffle the pained groan that escaped him at the first pierce of the needle.

It was bad enough having Jeff do it, but actually doing it himself was worse than he remembered. At least with Jeff he could just turn his brain off and wait it out, but he had to focus on himself. He nearly gagged at the sensation of the thread pulling through his skin; His knuckles turned whiter than the porcelain they were gripping as he tried to blink back the black dots spreading through his vision.

He blacked out at some point during the process, but after what felt like an agonizingly long time, he was finally done making sure his insides stayed inside him. After securing the bandage, Cassian lowered himself to the floor, pressing his face against the cool tiles. It was a pleasant distraction from the fire in his side.

He still had to clean up, but it was tempting to just fall asleep where he was; Trying to explain to Yuri why he was lying on the floor surrounded by bloody objects and medical supplies did not sound like a fun conversation to have, however. Just a few moments to rest his eyes couldn’t hurt though, right?

“Cassian?” Moros’ voice sounded from somewhere above him.

“What?” Cassian turned to glare at the spirit who couldn’t seem to give him any peace.

“It’s almost 8. Didn’t your sister say she was gonna be home at 8?”

“No, she said she wanted me home at eight,” Cassian sighed, dragging himself over to the sink.

Using the counter to support himself, he finished cleaning up the mess of blood in the sink left over from his shirt. There was still a faint hint of pink to the cloth, but nothing a good wash wouldn’t fix—at least he hoped so.

After disposing of any other evidence of his wound, Cassian tucked the medical supplies back into their spot under the sink. He grabbed a few Advils from the closet before returning to the kitchen. He quickly filled a glass of water and downed the three pills in his hand before depositing himself on the couch. Draping an arm over his eyes to block the light he hadn’t bothered to turn off, Cassian found himself dozing slightly.

The next time he found himself conscious of the living world was due to the sound of a knock at the door accompanied by muffled voices. Cassian debated just staying put and pretending to still be asleep, but a second knock roused him from his nap.

He was made painfully aware of the stiffness in his bones from his awkward sleeping position as he suddenly found himself tripping over legs that refused to cooperate.

"I'm coming! Give me a minute!" Cassian huffed as a third knock sounded from the door.

He quickly untangled himself from the coffee table and threw open the front door.

"Oh, there you are Gangu! Sorry, were you sleeping?" A woman with long blond hair smiled at him from the hall, Yuri draped over her shoulder, clearly drunk out of her mind given it didn't seem like she could stand on her own—that and she was giggling to herself like a schoolgirl.

"I'm fiiiiine~ not drunk at all hic!"

"Sorry, she's a little, well—you can see."

"Yeah, I got it from here, thanks," Cassian put on a polite smile as he took over supporting his sister.

The moment she was released from the other girl, Yuri fell forward, nearly taking both herself and Cassian to the ground before he had a chance to get a good grip on her. Cassian winced as the movement pulled painfully at the stitches he’d just finished putting in. He was not going to be happy if Yuri pulled them out again.

"Christ, you're shitfaced, huh," Cassian mumbled, kicking the door shut behind them.

"I only had a few drinks," Yuri slurred through a crooked grin.

"Yeah, well, a few for you is like 12 for a normal person."

"Hey, I have an idea! We should cuddle, like old times! Come on it'll be fun! You used to do it all the time when you were little!" Yuri cooed, attempting to drag Cassian with her as she fell back against her bed.

"Hey—Yuri no!" Cassian tried to unlatch her arms but only succeeded in hurting himself as her grip strength was exponentially stronger.

He could hear Moros laughing at him from somewhere behind him.

"Come on, please? It'll be the last time I get to see you for a while, my cute baby brother."

"Wait, I thought you still had a week before you had to leave?"

"I did, but work pushed it up." Yuri sighed, suddenly looking down.

Somewhere on the line between his own memories and Gangu’s, Cassian felt a strange sense of guilt seeing Yuri's expression. He shifted so he was in a slightly more comfortable position and actually all the way on the bed, pushing Yuri further back.

"Ok fine, at least move so we can both use the blanket then," He sighed.

Yuri's expression brightened and she happily obliged, finally releasing the hold she had on his neck. Cassian took the opportunity to adjust the comforter they were laying on so most of it was draped over Yuri or shoved between the two of them. He would humor her until she fell asleep but that was it.

Well, that had been the plan at least, but he quickly found himself dozing off, sleeping before he even realized.

~

Cassian groaned as the shrill beeping of an alarm roused him from sleep. He attempted to swing his arm out in search of the offending device, only to find that both were trapped underneath something heavy. It took him a moment to shake off the sleep and remember where he was.

“Yuri, your alarm.” he groaned, attempting to wiggle free from his sister's hold.

“Hmm? Oh, shoot!”

Cassian let out a yelp as Yuri suddenly jumped up sending him tumbling to the floor. Well if he wasn't awake before, he most certainly was now.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Gangu, I'm gonna be late!" Yuri replied, quickly sprinting out to the hall.

Cassian watched her disappear into the bathroom before turning to search for his phone, which had fallen when he did. Once he found it he attempted to get up, but his wound said 'fuck that'; The fall probably didn't help much either. Left without much other option, Cassian reached up and grabbed the blanket off of Yuri's bed, curling up with it on the floor as she returned to the bedroom.

"Are you going to lay there all day?" Yuri mused, opening the closet.

"Yes, I think I will actually," Cassian replied, only partially joking.

"Is your leg bothering you again? You know we can always get it looked at?"

"No, I just feel a little sick," he lied, shifting so he could see what his sister was doing. She'd been banging around in the closet for quite a bit now.

Ah, that's right, she was leaving for the states today. The memory came back to him when he spotted the suitcase she was throwing clothes into sitting on the edge of the bed above him.

Yuri frowned as she glanced between her suitcase and her phone.

"Well, ok. . ."

"Aren't you going to be late?"

"Crap, I really gotta go! Ok, make sure you eat breakfast before you leave for school—I'll call you when I get there ok?"

"Yes, ok I got it. Get going already!"

"Right, ok bye!"

Before he had a chance to protest, Yuri quickly knelt down to plant a kiss on the top of his head before running out, suitcase in tow.

Cassian stayed planted on Yuri's floor for a while longer after she'd left, only moving when his own alarm went off about an hour later.

"You aren't going to school, are you?" Moros mused when Cassian finally emerged from his blanket cocoon, hair full of static.

"No, no I am not."

"Well if you're going to be staying home, maybe now would be a good time to take the rest of those magic stones you got from Driver?"

Oh, right. Cassian kind of forgot about those.

"Where did I leave those again?" he wondered aloud, crawling out into the hall.

"They're in your villain form coat pocket," Moros replied, following close behind as Cassian made his way over to the bathroom.

He barely bothered to kick the door closed behind him as he flopped down on the tiles.

He was exhausted; Sure he'd slept through the night, but he hardly felt rested. He could feel a headache building behind his eyelids.

"Cassian?"

"Huh?"

"The magic stones?"

"Oh right."

Cassian winced as trying to sit up pulled painfully at the bandage around his torso. Right, he'd have to change that too at some point.

First things first: the magic stones.

Cassian removed himself from his blanket and transformed into his villain attire. It was still little more than a plain black coat over a black shirt and pants, but fashion wasn't really something he was worried about at the moment. Normally yes he would've liked something a little more, but what he had was easy to move in, and it took a lot of focus to change—it was too much work when the basics would do.

Ah, right, he was getting distracted again; He shook the fog from his brain and retrieved the small box of magic stones from his pocket. Opening it, he popped one of the stones in his mouth, swallowing it with relative ease. He didn't have a chance to grab the second one before he suddenly found himself leaning over the toilet, coughing and gagging as his stomach emptied itself of what little he'd eaten yesterday.

His claws chipped little cracks in the porcelain as his grip tightened in an attempt to keep himself upright. His vision swimming, he barely managed to keep himself from falling over sideways.

When the trembling finally subsided, Cassian hesitantly reached for another magic stone. He could feel his stomach churn painfully at the thought of putting another one down his throat, but it would be better to get it over with quickly.

Straightening, Cassian popped the second stone in his mouth. He found himself lurching forward, gagging at the sensation of the stone on his tongue. He couldn't swallow, his throat wouldn't let him. He spat the offending stone back out into his palm, glaring at it as if that would do anything.

"Cassian, maybe you should stop—"

"No, I can do it! Just—just give me a second."

Taking a deep breath, Cassian tilted his head back and shoved the magic stone down with his hand, forcing it manually down his throat before his body had a chance to deny him a second time.

. . .

The vomit came more quickly than the first time; He barely had time to get his hand out of his mouth and his head over the toilet before bitter bile spilled from his lips. With nothing in his stomach to actually throw up, he was left with the bitter taste of acid on his tongue.

He fell back against the wall clutching his forehead—skull burning as if someone had taken a chisel to it. Fuck. Everything hurt—He couldn't. . . Cassian blinked rapidly, trying to clear the black spots swimming in his vision.

His view changed as he suddenly found himself tipping, leaving a smear of red on the blue paint of the wall as he slid sideways. He couldn't hold himself upright anymore—couldn't breathe. Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Blood splattered his hands and part of the floor as he coughed—pain blooming in his side as every small shiver or twitch pulled like fire against his wound. Blood dripped down his leg from the wound that had been torn open for a second time, staining the floor with red.

It was cold. So cold. Why was it so cold? He fumbled around the floor in search of the blanket he was certain he'd brought with him—Yuri's blanket—and pulled it closer. His claws poked small holes in the fabric as he flinched against another wave of pain. The fabric pressed against his face felt wet, why was—? Oh, he was crying. That's what that sound was.

The drumming in his ears was starting to hurt. Fuck, everything hurt.

Why did everything have to hurt?

What had he done to deserve this?

Fuck, it hurt. His head was killing him; He could feel the warmth of blood leaking out onto the floor underneath him but even if he wanted to he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Cassian squeezed his eyes shut, wincing against the pain as he curled in on himself around the blanket, desperate for its warmth. Why was he so fucking cold?

He could hear Moros above him, the spirit's voice too muddy and distorted for him to make out the words. He didn't bother to try. He didn’t care.

The water rushing past his ears drowned out every other sound but the drumming of his heart in his ears. Pain bloomed in his chest as he tried to scream, only for bloody water to fill his lungs the moment he opened his mouth.

It pulled at his limbs too weak to fight back.

Pulled at his clothes soaked in his own blood.

Dragged him down in a cold embrace, the light of the surface slipping further and further away as he fought to keep his eyes open—to stay conscious long enough for someone to come.

Help wasn't coming. He was going to die.

Alone and betrayed, he was going to die.

Alone in a bathroom, he was going to die.

'Help me, Jeff! Yuri! Anybody! I don't want to be alone anymore.'

He was sinking deeper now, the light gone. Squeezing his eyes shut, Cassian waited for the end—for the sweet release of pain that death would grant him.

It never came.

There was nothing but darkness and a numb feeling for a while.

A warmth brushed against his face, stark white in the vast blackness around him. A familiar touch, yet equally foreign. It was soft, yet somehow firm at the same time—Cassian found himself leaning into it, vaguely aware of the other body next to him, who's warmth he craved.

A pained moan escaped him as he suddenly found himself being moved. To where? He couldn't say, but regardless he didn't have the strength to fight back.

"Oh, sorry love, just trying to get you comfortable," A woman's voice danced past his ears.

"Yuri. . .?"

Wait, that didn't seem right. Wasn't she supposed to be at work still? So then who—?

Cassian flinched against the harshness of the lights as he attempted to peel his eyelids open. Through the blur of his vision still spotty with tears he could make out the face of a woman with short black hair. She seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place why.

. . .

She was warm.

As his eyelids slipped shut again, Cassian barely registered the woman's next words before falling unconscious, dead to the world.

Chapter Text

It had all started as just a regular day at work—cleaning tables, taking orders, handing out drinks--of course, this particular incident had to happen right as she was about to take her break; two teens who had spent a good three hours or so in the back broke a cup, and of course, Crow had to be the one to clean it up. That in itself wasn’t all that unusual. She was more upset about the timing than the fact that they'd broken something.

She hadn't expected to bump into one of the kids. She hadn't expected to feel a spark of mana from him either—one that told her he was a villain and a strong one at that. Seeing villains around wasn't that strange given she was one herself, but seeing one friendly with a psyker definitely was a peculiar sight; Crow found herself watching them out of the corner of her eye as she ducked behind the counter to toss the broken cup in her pocket.

She had only taken her eyes off the kid for maybe three seconds, but by the time she looked back, he was already halfway out the door. Crow quickly shook out the rest of the dust in her pocket and ducked into the back room as she summoned one of her Crows.

"Follow that one for me, Little Crow?" she instructed the mechanical familiar, releasing it out the back door of the shop. It nodded and fluttered away in a puff of black feathers.

Of course, there was nothing stopping her from following the villain herself to sate her curiosity, but she did enjoy having a job so a familiar would have to do for now. In the meantime, Crow got herself comfortable in one of the breakroom chairs. She only got 15 minutes of break and she was going to enjoy it.

~

She didn't end up getting a chance to visit the location her familiar had scouted that night—apparently, there were other people living with her suspect, and bursting into a civilian's apartment claiming one of them was a villain wouldn't go well for her especially if she'd been mistaken. So, as any normal person would do, she found a shop nearby the next morning and waited for one of the two residents to leave. You know, like a normal person.

It wasn't long before the Crow she'd planted inside picked up movement from the apartment. A few minutes later she spotted the brown-haired woman she'd been waiting for sprint down the front steps, pink suitcase in tow as she headed for the garages next door. Crow glanced down at her watch as the woman disappeared from view. By her estimate, it would probably be another hour or so before the teen left as well. that is—if he planned to go to school, and the website she checked hadn't lied to her.

Well. . . Driver had checked the website, but potato potahto.

She spent her hours wait browsing the meager selection of magazines the shop had to offer. When her clock hit 7:46 and there was still no sign of her prey, Crow was starting to get suspicious. It seemed she had no choice but to invade now. Crow took a brief moment to tidy the section of the shelf she'd messed with before slipping out to the street and into the apartments across the way.

By the time she got inside, it seemed like most of the residents had already left for the day—she managed to navigate the elevators and hallways of the 7th floor without running into a single person. A good thing too since she wasn't sure how she'd explain to someone that she'd come to break in should they question her.

Shaking off the thought, Crow approached the door she'd been searching for. Kneeling down next to the potted plant nearby, she retrieved the summon she'd planted and returned it to her void space before reaching for the door handle.

. . .

She'd expected it to be locked, so was surprised when it swung open instead. That was even more suspicious.

Cautiously, Crow entered, slipping the door closed behind her. At first glance, it seemed to be like any other ordinary apartment. It was a little neater than she'd been expecting, but nothing immediately jumped out at her as she removed her sandals to investigate the nearby living room. Well, she supposed it was a little weird that all of the curtains were closed and none of the lights were on, but the darkness was little issue for one such as herself thanks to her villain attribute.

Her next destination was the kitchen—or at least, it had been up until she heard a soft thud from deeper in the apartment. She switched directions to investigate the noise instead.

Crow wasn't sure why, but she found herself knocking on the closed door. There wasn't a verbal reply, but she could hear what sounded like muffled sobbing coming from inside. She tried the handle and was pleased to find that it was unlocked. The door swung open about a foot before slamming against something hard on the other side with a loud clang.

Confused, Crow attempted to push the door further—or at least—enough so that she could see what was on the other side.

She was immediately hit with the smell of blood so intense it nearly made her gag.

'What on earth—?'

Crow's eyes widened when they fell on a familiar mop of black hair half hidden behind a blanket, the floor underneath the darkness villain soaked in blood.

"Little Duck?!"

With more determination now, Crow shoved the door open far enough to squeeze herself inside the bathroom. Once inside she noticed a few things she hadn't been able to see from outside; The thing that had been blocking the door was none other than the villain's metal leg, though it was no longer attached to said villain. She also spotted a familiar blue box on the edge of the counter—two of its magic stones missing from their slots.

Crow knelt down next to the villain on the floor and gently placed a hand against his forehead. He was warm—no—hot. Feverish. His breathing was shallow too.

. . .

He was breathing though, which was miles better than any alternative. She could work with barely alive, it was dead that she got stuck on.

"Honestly, Little Duck, you are so reckless, you know that?" Crow mumbled, slipping an arm around her duckling's shoulder so she could prop him up. The raven-haired teen let out a sound of pain as Crow attempted to sit him up against the bathtub.

"I know love, sorry, just trying to get you more comfortable while I take a look at this."

Crow carefully removed the villain's jacket—struggling only slightly to get it off over his giant gauntlets—and tossed it aside as she used the blanket he'd been holding to support his head. Once she was certain he wasn't going to fall over, Crow carefully lifted the little duckling's shirt to examine the bandage underneath.

From what she could see, the wound itself looked to be . . . healed? More than she was expecting given the amount of blood. It looked more like a partial scar than a wound from only a few days ago, which was strange, but Crow wasn't going to question it. Despite that, it would still probably need to be rebandaged anyways, just in case. Ah, but she wasn't sure where the little duckling kept his medical supplies. No matter, she could just search for them herself—er, huh?

Crow froze, halfway to standing when she suddenly felt something tug down on the hem of her dress. She looked down to find her duckling staring up at her with tears in his eyes, brow furrowed in a pained expression. his death grip only seemed to tighten when Crow tried to shift so she wasn't practically falling over.

". .. d-don't—don't leave me. Yuri, p-lease. . ."

Crow felt a pang of frost in her chest at the sight of the younger villain's expression. That name again. Who was this witch and what had she done to Crow’s hatchling?

"I'm not going anywhere, love—I just need to find where you keep your—"

"No! Stay with me—please I promise I'll be good—I promise! Please don't leave me."

Crow lunged to catch the teen as he suddenly fell forward, eyes wide with genuine fear. Not expecting his sudden weight, both darkness villains tumbled to the floor—though Crow hit first and quickly turned to protect the other from any sort of impact.

She didn't care that her clothes were probably going to stain—she couldn't bear to see her hatchling in such a state. She curled herself around him, pulling the impossibly tiny villain closer as he cried silent tears into her shoulder. She was going to comfort the fuck out of him if it was the last thing she did.

~

After what felt like maybe ten minutes, the duckling quieted some, breath evening out in a way that told her he was asleep—or at the very least unconscious. Good for Crow. Slowly, she removed herself from the villain's grip; swaddling him in the large gray blanket, she easily lifted the villain into a princess carry.

The little duckling stirred slightly when she stood, but didn't awaken a second time. Crow took the opportunity to drop him on the couch before snooping through the bedrooms for all the blankets and pillows she could carry. She was going to build her hatchling the best fucking nest the world has ever seen—oh and food, she was going to make him something tasty too!

Thoughts swirling with what to cook, Crow deposited her cargo on top of the sleeping villain, carefully arranging it in a way she was happy with before turning to raid the kitchen. The boss wouldn’t mind if she stole a few things so long as he got to eat it, right?

——————————

To say he felt like shit would be the understatement of the century. Cassian felt like death. Which was saying a lot since technically he’d experienced it firsthand about three times now. It felt like someone had taken a scalpel to his brain and rooted around inside his head; He was perfectly content to simply melt back into the warmth of his cocoon.

. . .

At least, he had been until his nose picked up the scent of something . . . burning? Ah, Jeff must just be cooking something. But wait—Jeff didn’t live with him, did he? No, no that’s right he was with Yuri now.

. . .

No, that didn’t seem right either. Yuri had left, hadn’t she? So then who the fuck was in his kitchen?

He should probably find out, but—well, understandably—he really didn’t want to get up. Luckily for Cassian, however, it appeared he wouldn’t have to!

“Moros?” Cassian whispered, his voice thick and sluggish. He couldn’t actually see to know if the spirit was near or not.

He got his answer soon enough, however, when a familiar voice left its reply in his ear.

“Oh, are you awake now?” the voice got louder, presumably as Moros flew over from wherever he’d previously been hovering—” What’s up kid?”

“Who’s here?”

Cassian pried his eyes open to look at the spirit. He flinched at the sudden harshness of light, but his vision cleared soon enough. He could see Moros hovering nearby, half hidden by a blanket smushed against Cassian’s face, and past him, Cassian could see part of his living room lit partially by a faint light seeping through the curtains to the right, and a golden light from the kitchen to the left. He definitely missed school. Again.

“That’s right, you were dead for that part—Crow’s in your kitchen making soup.”

“Ah, ok.”

Wait a minute—disregarding the “being dead” part for a moment, how the fuck was Crow in his apartment?

Cassian found himself tumbling off the couch as he tried to stand up, only to find a severe lack of leg where it should have been. He fell hard, smashing his face against part of the couch before hitting the floor. Luckily for him, there was a giant pile of pillows and blankets to catch him, though the fall still left him winded and dizzy.

He let out a pained groan (that turned into more of a scream), which was muffled by the fact that he was still face down in a pile of blankets. This was fine, he could just live here now, right? Wait—where even was his leg? Why wasn't it attached to him? ugh, he'd have to crawl around to find it, wouldn't he? That wasn't going to be fun with—hold on.

Cassian quickly rolled over to a sitting position and lifted his shirt to inspect his side.

. . .

The bandages were gone, and so was any sign of the injury other than a faint pink scar that was barely visible between his hip and naval. How in the world? How long was he out?

Cassian turned to Moros, opening his mouth to question the spirit but before he had a chance to speak he was interrupted by the sound of a woman's voice behind him.

“Oh, you’re up!”

Cassian whipped around to find Crow standing at the edge of the living room, two steaming bowls in her hands. He noticed the villain was missing her signature hat and lace gloves as she walked over to set her wares down on the coffee table.

“Hey—What are you?!” Cassian tried to fight her as Crow attempted to put her—frankly, very cold hands on his face.

“Hold still!” Crow smacked his hand away as she grabbed him by the chin to keep him from pulling away.

After sitting very awkwardly with his face in her hands for what felt like a painfully long time, Crow seemed satisfied with whatever she’d been doing, and let him go.

“What are you doing in—”

“Here you go, I made rice soup! Well—I tried.” Crow interrupted him for a second time, handing him one of the bowls she’d placed on the table.—” Oh spoons! I forgot. Be right back!”

Before he could stop her, Crow vanished into the kitchen in search of the silverware. Cassian took the opportunity to question Moros.

“What the fuck is going on?” he hissed, glaring at the spirit hovering beside him.

“Well, you passed out trying to choke down those magic stones after I specifically told you to stop and Crow found you dying on the floor so she brought you out here.” Moros shook in a way akin to a shrug.

“That explains literally nothing.”

“What more do you want from me, kid?”

“I want a proper explanation you—”

“Whatcha doin’?”

Cassian turned to find Crow standing at the edge of the living room, two spoons in hand and a confused look on her face.

“Er . . . Nothing? Looking for my phone! I was looking for my phone!” Cassian lied quickly.

Crow looked thoughtful for a moment as she deposited the two spoons into the bowls on the coffee table.

“Well this one was in the bathroom with you—“ Crow reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a black phone with a blue screen protector—“there's a white one in one of the bedrooms though. Wasn't sure which one was yours.”

“Uh, both are actually,” Cassian replied, taking the device from the villainess. “Oh, speaking of—would you be able to get my other one? I seem to have misplaced my leg.”

“Sure can!” Crow grinned.

She quickly disappeared down the hall. Cassian watched her leave before turning back to Moros.

“Explain.”

“Fiiiiiine. From what I can tell you gained a healing skill from one of those magic stones, which stopped you from actually dying. I don’t know how Crow found your apartment. There, happy?” Moros rolled his eye.

“Yes, thank you. Was that so hard?”

Cassian didn’t get his answer as Crow reappeared holding his cell phone triumphantly.

“Found it!” Handing the device off to him, she added,” You have a lot of messages from some ‘Yuri’ person by the way.”

“My sister. Probably just to let me know she’s landed,” Cassian replied, glancing down at the number of text notifications. 32. Yeah, he definitely wasn’t reading all of those.

Cassian scrolled through the list of messages until he hit the bottom. He sent a quick reply and tossed both cell phones onto the coffee table with his bowl before leaning back against the couch with a small sigh.

“You should eat somethin’ little duck,” Crow mused, seating herself on the couch behind him with one of the soup bowls and the remote for the tv.

“You sure made yourself comfortable quick,” Cassian shot back. Which happened to remind him—” Hey how did you know this was my apartment?”

“Uhhhh . . . if I tell you you can’t get mad.”

Cassian turned to look at the villainess behind him with a frown,” I make you no promises.”

“Is it truly ‘breaking in’ if the doors were already unlocked?”

“Crow.”

“Ok, ok! I may . . . possibly have followed you home from the cafe yesterday. And then uh, I may have staked out the apartment this morning for a bit until that other girl left? In my defense, she didn’t lock the door so arguably this is on her not me!”

“Honestly? I can’t bring myself to be surprised.”

“I feel like I should take offense to that,” Crow frowned, reaching down to retrieve one of the blankets on the floor as she clicked on the tv,” oh, by the way, what’s your Netflic password? I couldn’t figure it out earlier.”

“What makes you think I know what the Netflic password is?”

“Fine, we’ll just use Driver’s then.”

Cassian nodded, leaving Crow to fiddle with the tv while he busied himself with creating a more comfortable mound to lay on with the pillows and blankets on the floor.

“What are you doing down there?” Crow piped up after a few minutes of silence.

“I’m building a nest,” Cassian replied plainly, noticing that Crow had managed to get into the app and was now searching for a show.

“Ok, but on the floor? You have a whole ass couch right here, love?”

“Yeah, but you’re on the couch. And I don’t wanna get up.” Cassian shrugged, selecting a fluffy pink blanket from the pile to cocoon himself in.

He hadn’t realized the villainess had moved until she was already lifting him off the ground; Crow dropped him on the other end of the couch and proceeded to dump all of the blankets on top of him before he had a chance to argue.

“Hey!” Cassian threw the blankets from his face to glare at the villainess.

“You’re such a drama queen,” Crow giggled, smacking him with a pillow.

“Do you want me to bite you? Cause this is how people get bit.”

“Such an angry little duckling! I’m so~ scared~!”

A grin crept across his face as Cassian was suddenly struck with an idea. He waited for Crow to settle back into her corner of the couch, carefully gathering up a good amount of blanket in his arms. Then . . .

“ANARCHY!”

Cassian lunged forward, throwing the pile at Crow. The villainess let out a squeak of surprise at the sudden weight of like ten blankets and an underweight teen. Cassian couldn’t help but laugh at the look of utter shock and confusion he earned himself from the other villain.

Crow was stunned for only a moment before throwing the blankets back in retaliation.

“You little shit!”

“Down with the patriarchy!” Cassian hurtled a second pillow.

Crow caught it easily and smacked him in the face with it, hard enough to knock him over, but not so much that it hurt. He had attempted to return the projectile only to smack himself in the stomach with the pointy end of his gauntlets. As he curled in on himself, coughing slightly, Crow halted her assault.

“Oh god, are you good?”

“No. Ow, shit those are pointy,” he groaned.

By some sheer dumbassery of luck, he’d managed to hit himself right over where his new scar was and holy fuck did it hurt. He glared at the offending gauntlets for a brief moment before remembering he could simply get rid of them, so he did.

It took him a moment to realize what he’d just done. He stared horrified between his civilian form hands and Crow’s shocked expression.

There were a few tense moments of silence as the two stared at each other. Then suddenly, Crow spoke up.

“Oh, are we doing civi forms now? Bet.”

Cassian was surprised to find that—similarly to his own—Crow’s civilian form wasn’t all that dissimilar to her villain one. Her hair was more of a black than a purple and he could see her eyes for once (one was a honeyed brown and the other a striking yellow-green) but it was definitely still Crow.

“. . . what?” Crow gave him a puzzled look as she retrieved her bowl of food and the remote from the end of the footrest.

“Nothing.”

Cassain wanted to scream. He settled for burying himself in the pile of blankets that was still very much on top of Crow. He ended up bumping into her leg in his attempt to burrow underneath the pile but didn’t bother to move when she didn’t. He was going to live here now.

“Are you good down there?” Crow chuckled. She seemed to have finally found her show if the sound of music from the tv was anything to go by.

“Leave me to wallow in my misery, woman.”

“You’re such a drama queen—” he could hear Crow audibly roll her eyes—” Come out and eat this food I made you. Might make you feel better baby bird.”

“Baby bird? Really? That was the best you could think of?” Cassian teased, crawling out of his fort to retrieve the bowl of soup from the table.

“Well you said you don’t have a villain name yet so I’ve just been giving you weird nicknames to see which one stuck,” Crow replied, looking rather amused by his staticky hair.

“Well baby bird is definitely a no, thank you. And it's Cassian.” he took a minute to try and flatten his hair, but when it refused to cooperate he quickly gave up.

“Really? You’re going with ‘Cassian’?” Crow made a face.

“What? What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing! It's just . . . I don’t know, kinda plain? Though I guess that's rather fitting for you, isn’t it?”

“I’m going to hit you with another pillow.”

“Careful not to hurt yourself this time.”

“You’re not gonna let me live that down are you?”

“Nope!”

“Of course, you aren’t,” Cassian sighed, taking a bite of soup as he sank back against the couch.

It had a faint burnt taste to it but was surprisingly good otherwise. To be perfectly honest, Cassian hadn’t pegged Crow as the type to enjoy cooking, but apparently, he was wrong. Better than Jeff who only seemed to be able to cook up “burnt apartment” though.

There were a few peaceful minutes of silence broken only by the show playing on the TV while the two villains ate. They didn’t last long, however, as Crow suddenly decided to speak up.

“Soooooo . . .”

“No.”

“What? I didn’t even say anything yet! Meanie~”

“No more questions. Please, my head hurts.”

“That’s probably because you decided to roughhouse without eating first,” Crow muttered, though not quietly enough that Cassian couldn’t hear.

“What are you, my mother?” Cassian shot back, nearly falling off the couch in his attempt to put his, now-empty, bowl back on the coffee table.

“I can be if you want me to,” Crow mused. She retrieved Cassian’s bowl along with her own as she stood, “Where’s your advil? I’ll get you some while I’m up.”

“I can get it myself you know. I’m crippled, not incompetent.”

“Nope, it's too late! I’m already up! Also, I’m raiding your fridge again.”

“Fine, do whatever you want then. Bottle’s in the bathroom.”

Cassian watched Crow disappear into the kitchen before flopping over sideways on the couch. He could hear the sink running over the quiet hum of noise from the TV that he’d, frankly, forgotten they’d turned on. He couldn’t really hear it over the thumping of blood in his ears.

Now that it was relatively quiet again, he was more aware of his headache, and the ache in his bones. Being full of actual food for once instead of protein bars was probably also contributing to the exhaustion pulling at him; Cassian found himself squirming into the vacant spot Crow had left on the couch. Curling up as small as he possibly could, he tugged her blanket around himself craving the warmth it still held.

He probably would’ve fallen asleep had Crow's voice not startled him back into awareness.

“Hey! That was my spot!” the villainess frowned childishly, dropping two mugs and a bottle on the coffee table.

“It was your spot. You didn’t quack though, so now it's mine!” He grinned, shifting the blanket so he could stick his tongue out at her.

“Quack?” Crow looked positively confused as she popped the lid off the bottle of pills.

“Yeah? Wait—have you never heard of ‘quack quack, seat back’?”

“No? What is it?”

“Spot claiming. You’re supposed to say it when you get up so people know you’re coming back for your chair. Do you guys not do that here?”

“Well, I’m gonna now,” Crow mused, handing Cassian one of the mugs and three advils.

Cassian took them with thanks and threw all three pills into his mouth before taking a large swig of water.

Except it most certainly was not water as he soon found out when he nearly choked on the fruity tang of the beverage.

“What the fuck? That’s not water.”

“Oh shit, that was the wine,” Crow glanced sheepishly between Cassian and the other cup in her hand.

“You found—? Nope, actually I’m not gonna ask,” Cassian sighed, snatching the other mug from Crow. He took a cautious sniff to make sure it was water before downing it.

“In my defense, you were distracting me,” Crow shrugged, sitting down in the spot Cassian had previously been occupying on the couch.

“I’m more curious to know where you found wine, to be honest,” Cassian replied, sinking back into his blanket cocoon.

Crow shrugged around her sip as she tugged a blanket over her lap. “It was in the cabinet above the fridge.”

“Huh. Guess I’ll have to remember that for next time.”

“Are you even old enough to drink?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy?”

“Ok~ I think those meds are kicking in, maybe it's time for you to sleep, huh?”

“Nah, I’m always like this what do you mean~?” he giggled, bumping his head against her shoulder.

“Alright, cass, if you say so,” Crow mused, patting his head with her free hand. “If you’re going to lay on me though can you use my lap? My arms gonna fall off.”

“No.” Cassian huffed, flopping dramatically across the villainess anyways.

He found himself leaning into the touch as her hands returned to his head, fingers lacing delicately through short hair. This was probably her plot all along—the gentle touch and comforting warmth made his eyelids heavy.

Crow was probably going to hold this over him later, but to hell with it. He’d gotten so used to sleeping in the cold that the warmth of another was welcome. He was full, he was comfortable, and he was warm. What more could you ask for?

~

For the second time in a row, Cassian found himself waking up to the smell of food. Well, it was actually closer to the smell of burning food, but it was food.

It took him a minute to remember he had company.

“What’d you burn this time?” He yawned, eyeing the villainess in the kitchen.

“Nothing! There’s no fire! Oh hi, you’re up!” Crow spared him a brief glance before returning to whatever abomination she’d created on the stovetop.

“Please don’t burn my house down, my sister will kill me.”

Cassian stood—or at least—attempted to. He had forgotten about the missing appendage, only remembering when he was already face down on the floor.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.” Cassian moaned into the pile of pillows he’d landed on.

“Are you ok?” He could hear Crow trying to hold back laughter.

“Leave me to my misery, Mother! I am dead.”

“Well, ok then? Wait—did you just call me mom?”

“No!”

“Oh my god, you did! You did! I heard it! Awe dang I wish I’d gotten that on video.”

“I did no such thing!”

“Your blushing claims otherwise, son.”

“I will end you!” Cassian hissed, hurtling a pillow at the woman.

“Hey! Have some respect for your mom!”

“Never!”

Cassian ducked as Crow attempted to hit him with the pillow and quickly skittered down the hall to his room, slamming the door shut behind him.

“Mom, huh?”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!”

“I thought it was cute,” Moros shrugged.

“I will destroy you.”

“How? You can’t stand to reach me.”

“Try me, bitch.” Cassian swatted at the spirit.

He was well aware he couldn’t actually touch him, but it made him feel better anyways. He tuned out the spirit’s reply as he crawled over to the closet to scavenge for new clothes. Definitely not struggling to get the shirt down from the hanger Cassian pulled on a new pair of pants and a pink sweatshirt over his t-shirt.

It didn’t take him long to check the room for the missing prosthetic. He didn’t end up finding it, though, which meant a crawl of shame back to the kitchen. Hopefully, he’d taken long enough that Crow had forgotten about his slip-up earlier. With a sigh, he exited his room—taking a brief moment to search the bathroom before returning to the living room.

He was surprised to find Crow setting out plates on the table when he returned; She glanced up as he came in.

“Nice sweater, Cass.”

“It’s Yuri’s and I stole it and it’s mine now,” He huffed, navigating into a chair.

“Uh-huh. I made breakfast by the way! And I only burnt half the eggs!” Crow grinned, gesturing to the plates she’d just set out.

“Don’t you work in a bakery? Why do you suck at cooking so much?”

“Hey! Cooking is hard ok? Bread is easy.”

“Fair enough,” Cassian shrugged, tearing into his toast, “By the way, when were you planning on leaving?”

“I'm not!”

“. . . You’re what?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m staying here!”

. . .

“Like hell you are!”

Chapter Text

“Cass, dear, your jacket is crooked.”

“You’re such a mom, you know that?” Cassian huffed, though he stopped walking so the villainess could adjust the blue garment.

Being forced to spend a week at home with the other darkness villain had given him plenty of time to decide on a new villain outfit. After much debate (mostly from Crow) he settled on a cropped navy blue jacket with white and blue stripes down the front and bottom hem, a belt, and black pants. It wasn’t too much different from what he’d had, but Crow had insisted on adding some color, and who was he to complain? The only real new addition was a bit of armor on his shins in a similar pattern to his gauntlets to ‘spice things up’ as Crow had said.

“I wouldn’t have to be if you’d just take care of yourself like a normal person.”

“I take care of myself!”

“Granola bars aren’t meals, Cassian.”

“Says you.”

“I know like one person that would agree with you—”

“What’s up fucker?!”

“Ah, speak of the devil, hello Driver.” Crow smiled at the mechanic as they jumped down from the air to join them, pocketing their shrunken screwdriver.

“Oh, hello love, didn’t realize you’d be here too,” Driver grinned, waving to the taller villainess. Turning to Cassian, they added,” Oh hey nice clothes kid!”

“Why do I feel like that’s sarcasm?” Cassian rolled his eyes.

“From me? Never~!” Driver let out a fake offended gasp. “Anyways, are you ready for your test?”

“I get enough of them at school so yeah, let's get it over with.”

“Oh, you’re a student? Never would’ve guessed,” Driver chuckled, fiddling with their goggles as they started walking further into the zone.

“Bitch I might be,” Cassian replied, moving to follow the ginger, Crow close behind. “So where is this test?”

“We’ve got an arena set up for you—well, technically it's just an empty lot but it’ll work—in any case, it's not too far.”

Crow stepped closer to speak into his ear,” You gonna be ok to walk that far?”

“Was spending a week pestering me at home not enough? I told you, I’m fine mo—Crow.”

“Oh? Was that another ‘mom’ I heard?” Crow snickered.

“No!”

Crow ducked as Cassian attempted to swat at her; She stuck her tongue out at him briefly before skipping over to walk next to Driver a few paces ahead.

“You seem very against the idea for how often you seem to call her that,” Moros mused with the aura of a smirk.

“Well yeah, 'cause she’s a villain,” Cassian hissed, eyeing the two lovebirds ahead of him for any reaction. He really didn’t want to have to try and explain his personal demon to anyone.

“Yeah, but you’re a villain too, you know.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey, kid, hurry up! We’re burning daylight here!”

Cassian flinched at Driver’s sudden call, looking over to find that the two villains had gotten way ahead of him at some point. Driver and Crow stared at him from where they stood at the end of the street.

“R-right, sorry!”

He sent one last glare toward Moros before running to catch up with the pair.

As Cassian rounded the corner with the two older villains, he suddenly found himself in quite a large open space. He could only assume it was the remains of some kind of park given the ground was dirt not concrete. He had to admit, it did seem like it would make a good arena given the whole square of land was surrounded by tall buildings on all sides.

From where they currently stood, he could see a gaggle of villains gathered on the opposite end of the space. His opponents, most likely. As the trio got closer, Cassian noted that he recognized most of the gathered villains, though not all by name. There was the doctor, the trio that had attacked him (well, it was more an attempted attack but whatever), and a red-haired chick that seemed vaguely familiar.

“Oh, goodie you’re all here!” Driver grinned, hopping up on top of one of the nearby mangled benches so they were standing over the crowd, “Listen up fives—and Crow—a ten is speaking.”

“Hey!” two of the younger-looking villains voiced their displeasure but were quickly silenced.

“Hush children, the adults are speaking—” Driver ignored the continued protests—” We all know the rules by now, right? K.O your opponent to win, no killing, no permanent maiming, and keep the property damage to a minimum if possible! Oh and kid, you gotta win three matches in order to challenge me!”

“Sure, easy enough,” Cassian shrugged. Not that he wanted to challenge Driver anyways.

“Alright, Juac, ready?”

“Bitch I was born ready! You made me wait a whole fuckin’ week for this, man,” the woman with red hair spoke up, cracking her knuckles as she joined Cassian out in the field.

“Okay, kiddos, try not to hit anyone with stray shots. Ready, set, go!”

“I’ll finish you off real quick, punk!”

“What I don’t get any warning?! Driver you bitch!” Cassian yelped, stumbling backward slightly as he ducked out of the way of the red woman’s wide swing.

“Quit squirming so I can crush you!”

Juac spun around, now wielding a large barrel of a weapon as she charged at him for a second time.

Cassian ducked under her swing, snagging the woman’s feet with a myriad of shadow bindings as he slid around behind her. In one smooth motion, he twisted around, nailing the taller villain in the back of the neck with his left foot. The blow knocked her down and Juac rolled a short distance, clearly unconscious.

“. . . oops?”

Cassian glanced between the unconscious form and the spirit hovering next to him, a silent question.

“She’s probably fine. But maybe next time don’t hit people in the head with 8 pounds of metal?”

“Good idea,” he muttered. Turning to Driver, he added, “So I win this one, right?”

“Uh, yeah—yeah you win. Wow, that took less time than I thought.” Driver pulled what looked to be a crumpled wad of paper from their pocket and handed it to Crow.

“So, who’s next?”

“I am.”

Cassian jumped out of the way as a bright red arrow came flying toward him, head whipping around to find the source. He quickly spotted the crimson-clad villain on a rooftop behind where Crow and the others were standing. Ah, he recognized this one too—Red Eye, if he remembered correctly.

“Let’s play a game: Survive.”

“Hah! I’m a bad bitch, you can’t kill me!”

“Start running.”

Cassian let out a squeak of surprise as another arrow landed dangerously close to his foot. That was all the motivation he needed; He quickly turned around and bolted down the street opposite the archer.

“I think he’s gonna give you a head start,” Moros piped up after a few moments.

“Good, his loss!” Cassian replied, ducking under a stack of metal beams.

He’d somehow wound up in an abandoned construction zone. Not ideal, but if he could trap Red Eye inside the building it would give him a better advantage. Of course, the first thing he ended up doing was tripping over a pipe sticking out of the ground. Cassian managed to save himself by landing in a roll, but still ended up covered in dirt.

Dizzy as he was from the sudden tumble, Cassian hadn’t noticed the approaching presence until a trio of arrows was flying toward him. He rolled underneath them, collecting even more dust as he ducked behind the nearby wall.

“Damn, kid, you got two left feet or what?” He could hear Red Eye chuckle from above and behind him.

“I’m disabled you prick,” Cassian shot back, throwing a loose stone to his right before darting out toward the wall to his left.

Two more arrows flew down from a roof to his right, piercing right through the rock he’d thrown. He had to admit, the guy did have some impressive aim. He was still a prick though.

“My apologies, princess.”

“Oh, ha-ha. I’m not falling for that trick!”

Cassian used a shadow skill to switch locations again as another arrow blasted away the wall he’d previously been occupying.

“Really? Cause you sure seem chatty for someone who’s supposed to be hiding,” Red Eye shot back, losing a few more arrows in his general direction.

“Ever think maybe that was my plan?” Cassian smirked, ducking into the shadow of the building across from the archer.

“If it is, your plan sucks!”

Another round of arrows. The stack of crates and metal piping blasted away as easily as the rock.

“Cassian, what is your plan? Because you’re going to run out of magic pretty quickly if you keep using so many skills.”

“I’m working on it, ok?” Cassian whispered, peeking out from his hiding place to scan the rooftops across the road.

It was true, his plan had been to reveal his location and have the other shoot at him. It was the perfect way to narrow down his location as well. And clearly, he wasn’t very bright given he’d been shooting from the same room the whole time, hidden partially behind a vent as he was.

“Hey, how structurally stable do you think this is?” Cassian asked, gesturing to the half-constructed frame of a building behind him.

Moros looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking in a shrug, “Probably not very, why?”

“You’ll see.”

Cassian sent one more quick glance toward RedEye before dashing out into the open space under the construction. He ducked and dodged the hellfire of arrows that followed as he weaved between the various pillar supports. With the knives he now owned instead of hands, he was easily able to slice through the metal posts like tofu.

He managed to slice through about half of them before the construct started to rattle; using [Shadow Dash] he escaped from underneath as the whole half a building came crashing down with a large crash and puff of smoke and debris. Taking advantage of the large smokescreen he’d created, Cassian sprinted for Red Eye’s building.

Using a shadow skill combo, he quickly scaled the building, jumping out right behind the unsuspecting archer. Before the other had a chance to react, Cassian jumped on him. He didn’t have a chance to get any semblance of a grip on the villain before he suddenly found himself flying toward the edge of the roof as Red Eye threw him off.

The younger villain let out a squeak of surprise as he just as quickly found himself being yanked backward by the collar of his jacket.

“Christ where’d you come from?!”

“Bitch, did you just try to throw me off a building!?”

“You popped out at me! I panicked!”

“Unhand me! You’re gonna choke me and not in the fun way!” Cassian shouted, trying to wriggle free of the hold the older villain had on his coat.

He let out a yelp of surprise as he suddenly found himself flat on his ass, red eye releasing his hold without any warning. Now on the ground however Cassian immediately spun around to make a grab for Red Eye's legs. The older villain, not expecting the sudden turn, fell like Rome to Cassian’s grip, landing hard on his back.

“Bitch.”

“Wow driver was right, you are fueled by spite and shitty jokes.” Red Eye chuckled between gasps of air, the shock of the hit having knocked the wind from his lungs.

“That rat said what?”

“Their words, not mine! Now put your knives away, please? I give up.”

“Huh?! Just like that?!”

Red Eye sat up with a shrug,” I’m a sniper—I can’t fight close range you know.”

“You aren’t even gonna try? That’s lame.” Cassian let out a sigh, falling back on his hands. “And here I thought you’d be a challenge.”

“Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t’ve challenged you if Driver didn’t ask me to. Plus I lost a bet, so. . .”

“What is with you people and betting on me so much? As if getting me stuck with mom wasn’t enough.”

“Oh, my god. You do call her mom. Damn it, I owe Crow money now.” Red Eye groaned, rubbing at his eyes through his mask.

“. . . I’m going to bite you.”

“Maybe save that for Black Hand, huh? I think he’s the last one you gotta fight,” Red Eye grinned, standing himself before offering Cassian a hand.

He took it and allowed the taller villain to haul him to his feet.

“Wait, that twink is my last opponent? But I knocked him out in one shot last time.” Cassian couldn’t say he wasn’t a little disappointed. His first chance for some good exercise in ages and it was gonna be cut short by some shirtless punk in tights.

. . .

Maybe he would challenge Driver after all. They were a pretty close match the first time.

“Right, well I’m going to go hunt down Crow; have fun with the rest.”

“Wait you’re just gonna leave . . . me here, shit ok.” Cassian didn’t have time to finish before Red Eye was already running away. “Well, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Go hunt him down?”

“No need, ya bastard. I’m right here!”

Cassian glanced around at the sound of the voice, but the nearby rooftops were empty. Cautiously, he stepped closer to the edge of the rooftop and peered down. Sure enough, the villain with the black scarf was glaring up at him from the street.

“How did you even hear me from all the way down there?” Cassian asked, leaning against the edge of the roof.

“I have good ears! Get down here and fight me!”

“Why don’t you come up here and get me?”

“No, please, we insist.”

Cassian flinched at the sudden spark of energy behind him. He ducked; a second later a rush of air stirred the dust in his hair as a large hammer swung by right where his head had been only moments before.

He swore as his foot caught on the edge of the vent. He fell, taking the knife-wielding villain behind him down in the process. They hit the ground hard, stunned. Cassian took the chance to free himself from the snare of building regulations, scrambling free just in time to dodge another swing from the hammer wielder.

Cassian didn’t bother getting to his feet, instead skittering across the roof on all fours past the two villains. He launched himself from the short building, rolling to soften his landing as he dropped between Black Hand and the rubble he’d created earlier.

“What gives? Weren’t these one-on-one?” he huffed, waving dust from his face. “Didn’t think you could beat me on your own so you called your buddies, huh? Sorry to say it’s not gonna help. Three isn’t enough to beat me.”

“Good thing we’re not just three then, huh, fucker?!”

Cassian barely had time to dodge the barrel of wood flying at him from the cloud of dust behind him. Distracted by the weapon, he wasn’t able to dodge as Juac suddenly charged at him from the smoke. There was a sickening crack as he was thrown clean through the crumbling stone wall; he bounced twice across the ground skinning knees and shoulders before rolling to a stop dazed.

“Take this!” the hammer wielder—now on the ground—lunged for Cassian before he had a chance to get up.

Cassian didn’t let him get far into his swing before grabbing onto the handle of the weapon, smashing his fist into the wielder's face before snapping it in two. The blue-haired villain went limp and Cassian tossed him at the oncoming black hand. Both teens tumbled to the ground as Cassian snatched up the lighter end of the blue one’s weapon.

Ducking under Juac’s barrel, he ducked closer to the villain; Leaping over her head—grabbing a fist full of her hair as he did—he used his body weight to tear the heavier villain down, smashing his knee into her face as she fell.

Panting slightly, Cassian glanced around at the four semi-conscious villains on the ground around him. None of them got up, contrary to his hopes; he tossed aside the makeshift weapon.

Sure it was only a test, but he had that tingle of battle in his blood now—such a measly fight wasn’t going to be enough to sate him.

He wanted more.

Cassian took half a step toward the downed redhead but paused as two new aura’s appeared behind him. He turned to find a villain in orange holding a spear and one clad in black with a hammer.

“More trash for the collector?” A grin crept its way across his face at the realization the fight wasn’t over. The new playthings looked rather interesting as well.

“The hell you say to me, punk?! I’ll kill you!” the orange one shouted. His bark was almost as terrifying as a chihuahua; Cassian hoped his bite wouldn’t be the same.

“Trash is trash. I called it what I saw. You’re not even good enough for recycling, which means I can just burn all of you, right?!” Cassian grinned, black flames flickering to life in his palms.

“You took the words right out of our mouths!” the one in black spoke up, launching some kind of ranged skill.

Cassian dashed forward, incinerating the metal projectile in seconds as he closed the distance between himself and his prey. He didn’t have a chance to go for the hammer guy, however, as the spear wielder jumped between them. For protection? No, they were arguing. Whatever, he could get both of them now.

He launched his second flame at the pair, turning quickly to throw a [shadow slicer] at the barrel weapon Juac had thrown at him. The wooden construct split in two like butter, giving way for the blue-haired villain to launch an attack with a freshly made hammer.

Like the first, Cassian easily snapped it in two before grabbing hold of the villain by one of the arms. He turned at the waist, snapping the limb in a way it wasn’t supposed to go as he hurtled the villain back at Juac. The sound of the bone snapping was quite . . . pleasant to the ear.

He wanted more of that.

More of the sounds.

More of the rush—the adrenaline.

More of the red that splattered his fists with every satisfying impact.

More.

More.

More.

He took half a step toward the pile of downed prey only to suddenly be yanked from the ground as a snare of sticky black strings entangled him. Another villain he hadn’t noticed. No matter, he would simply . . . huh?

He couldn’t move.

Cassian tried to struggle against the restraints, only to find them tangling tighter and tighter the more he tried to escape. The webbing stuck to his claws and pulled at his clothes, dragging him down. Defenseless.

“Now! Get him!”

Cassian struggled free of the restraints on one arm with seconds to spare to catch the spear that was thrown at him, only to receive a heavy blow from behind as yet another villain joined the fray.

Trapped still as he was, the others took advantage of the moment of weakness to deliver several blows of their own. A blur of voices rushed past his ears too muddied to process individual words. Like water.

Water.

Right, he’d been like this before.

Trapped like a rat, outnumbered and cornered.

He wasn’t going to die this time. He couldn't—he won’t.

Even if he had to take every one of these worthless insects down with him.

“Back off!”

All at once the pain and voices stopped. His bonds slipped, severed by the army of shadow knives he’d summoned. The gathered villains scattered, letting out fearful cries as they attempted to avoid getting skewered or burned.

Good.

Run.

Hide.

Struggle.

It would make it all the more satisfying to hunt.

Chapter Text

“Driver, dear, I think you’re overreacting just a little,” Crow spoke up over the roar of the wind speeding past them,” I’m sure Ca—the kid is fine.”

“I agree. After all, he beat me easily enough,” Red Eye added.

He truly had no idea why Driver seemed so worried about the nameless villain.

“It’s not the kid I'm worried about,” Driver replied, fiddling with the dial on their goggles as they searched for the missing crowd of villains.

As if on cue, a loud explosion sounded from the distance; the villain trio turned to find black smoke rising from behind a cluster of highrise buildings.

Ok, so maybe Driver did have a reason to be worried. That definitely hadn’t sounded like friendly combat.

“Hold onto your hat love, I think my hunch was right.”

Red Eye and Crow dutifully strengthened their grip on Driver’s weapon as the small mechanic sped up exponentially.

There were a few more loud crashes that sounded off before they got close enough to see what was happening. When they finally could, it sent a chill down his spine.

Juac, Black Hand, Crush, Double Blade, Hammer Boy—they all lay scattered around a large mess of pointed black pillars. One of Cassian’s skills—but had he always been able to summon so many?

“Oh god.”

Red Eye glimpsed Driver’s eyes widen behind their goggles.

“The kid—He almost has three thousand magic points. . .” The mechanic murmured, disbelief in their voice.

“T-three thousand?! That’s not possible! I thought he only had 500?” Red Eye’s mouth fell open. That much magic—it was easily S rank level.

“W-Wait! Crow—!”

Driver’s attempt to stop the villainess was wasted as Crow suddenly leaped down from their perch up on the roof.

“Damn it, Crow! Be careful, he’s dangerous!” Driver called after her, resummoning their weapon, “Come on, Red, we gotta stop him one way or another.”

“Right behind you.”

——————————

“Crow!”

Crow ignored the calls of her partner as she jumped down from the roof they’d landed on. She didn’t care for what they had to say—getting to Cassian was her only concern. A task that certainly was going to be more difficult than she’d initially thought.

A lesson she learned the hard way as she suddenly found herself assaulted by several shadow blades too fast to dodge completely. Crow let out a low hiss of pain as the blades slashed her, though not deep enough to be fatal.

“Cassian! Cassian, stop!” She called out to the teen, ducking under the fire he threw at her.

She was almost there! She just had to—shit!

Crow cursed, stumbling backward as Cassian’s claws raked across her cheek, nearly taking out an eye. They tore right through her mask and effortlessly across her skin; had she been even a second slower, she would have lost that eye.

“Crow! What are you doing? Use your skills, dumbass!” Driver huffed, grabbing her coat to pull her out of the way of another swipe as Red Eye swapped in to take agro.

“No, are you crazy? I’m not gonna hurt him!”

“Fine, then I will. Get out of the way.”

“Driver, please.” Crow latched onto the mechanic’s sleeve, stopping them from getting any closer to the rampaging villain.

“Ugh, fine,” Driver huffed, rifling through one of their inner coat pockets. After a moment, they pulled out a small, blue syringe full of liquid. “Really hoped I wouldn’t have to use this.”

“Will you two quit kissing and help me out here?” Red Eye shouted, ducking under a spray of fire.

“Red and I will hold him down, you get him with this and hopefully that’ll calm him down,” Driver handed the syringe to Crow as they summoned their weapon to full size.

“And if it doesn’t work?”

“Then I’m taking him down.”

——————————

Darkness.

That was all he could see—all he could feel.

A deep ocean of void.

What had he been doing? Where was he again? Who was he?

Nothing he could remember. Just like the void surrounding him, his mind was filled with a thick fog.

Wasn’t he supposed to be doing something? It was something important, he was certain, but . . . what was it? He couldn’t remember.

Something hurt.

No . . . everything hurt.

It was crushing him. He couldn’t breathe.

He had to get away.

Get away, get away get away.

He couldn’t—it was crushing him! The water.

The water, the water the water was killing him.

He was dying!

He tried to fight—to get the weight off his back—off his lungs. Struggling only made it worse. He couldn’t get out.

“Cassian!”

“H-uh?”

Cassian’s eyes flew open, falling on the sight of dirt and rubble, and blood. He was on the ground, but why? He’d been—what had he been doing? He tried to get up, only to find a very real weight holding him down.

That’s right! The test! He’d been fighting!

Cassian tried to get up again, more fervently this time, and managed some give to the weight on top of him. There was a sound of pain and then voices—what language was. . .? Right, Korean. He was—oh god.

No.

No, no no no no.

No.

He hadn’t. Had he?

Cassian sat up suddenly, wrenching free of the hold on his arms as he tried to scramble away from the villains holding him. Of course, he didn’t get very far before they tried to grab him again.

“N-no! Don’t! Don’t touch me!” Cassian kicked out against Red Eye as the older villain reached out.

“Kid, stay still—”

“No! Go away! I’m—” Cassian’s eyes widened when they finally registered the state of the three villains in front of him.

Torn clothes, covered in dirt—in blood. Claw marks. Burns.

The land around them was scarred as well, remains of long dissipated shadow blades scattered everywhere. Charred earth and rubble.

He’d done this.

“. . . I hurt you?” the words came out choked and strained. He hadn’t realized he’d been crying but now he was well aware of the hot tears that mixed with the smears of blood on his face. Their blood. “I didn’t—I—I’m sorry! I—oh god. Did I kill anyone?”

The trio looked surprised by his question, though Driver shook their head.

“No. Although, you did do quite a number on us kid—they probably wish they were,” Driver chuckled, shrugging off their battered coat.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“Cassian, it's ok. We’re fine.”

“No—No it's not ok! I hurt you!”

Cassian tried to stand. Tried being the key word; He found himself falling instead. There was a sound of tearing fabric as he found himself attached to Red Eye, claws sinking into the archer's coat sleeves in an attempt to keep himself upright as the other attempted to catch him. Fuck, he hadn’t meant to. He could smell the blood coating the villain.

It was gone.

His leg, it was gone. It was. . . fuck where was it? He didn’t remember it coming off? No.

No.

No.

He tried to push away from Red Eye but the other’s grip only seemed to strengthen around him, pulling him closer. No, he had to get away from them! He was gonna hurt someone again! Fuck he was still crying, no wonder he couldn’t breathe. That or it was the fact that Red Eye seemed intent on crushing him.

The villains were speaking again, but he couldn’t understand them—his ears refused to process the second language. He vaguely registered something heavy being thrown over his back, then someone moving him—more voices, then silence.

He hated the silence more than the waves of words he couldn’t understand.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the heaving, lung-crushing sobs died down to silent tears and he was finally able to breathe. It still hurt, but not as much as before. He was dizzy and suddenly very, very exhausted.

“Hey, darlin’, back with us now?”

“. . . Crow?”

“Oh good. You recognize me?”

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?” Cassian shifted so he could look up at the villainess still holding him. Her hat and mask were missing, and four angry red marks ran the length of her right cheek from her nose down to her jaw. Cassian’s marks.

“Driver said that desire suppressant might mess with your head since it was such a strong dosage. You seem ok, though.” Crow smiled softly, running gloved fingers through his hair.

Cassian found himself leaning into the touch, eyelids growing heavy.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm? For what?”

“Your face—I didn’t mean to.”

“Ah, these little things?” Crow traced a gloved finger over one of the lines on her cheek, a slight smirk on her face—” Nah, they’ll heal! And I might get some badass scars out of them!”

“Still, though . . .”

“Cassian. It’s not your fault. Shit happens, darlin’.”

Cassian frowned. He still didn’t quite understand what had happened. Moros said he was able to help control him, so why did he lose himself like that? With Crow holding him hostage the way she was, now wasn’t a great time to ask said spirit, but Cassian was definitely going to give it an earful later.

“. . . is this Driver’s coat?” Cassian asked having finally taken notice of the heavy purple fabric on top of him. He also noticed his leg was still missing; he’d have to go find that at some point.

“Yep! Actually—speaking of—I’m not sure where they went off to,” Crow looked thoughtful, glancing around at the rubble surrounding them.

“Ok, second question: You haven’t seen my leg anywhere, have you? I kinda sorta need that.”

“Nope, but I’m sure we’ll find it!” Crow grinned, suddenly lifting him as she stood up, “In the mean time though, you need a bath; you’re covered in dirt!”

“Ah yes, mother mode activated.” Cassian rolled his eyes. Though, now that she mentioned it, a shower did sound nice.

“So you finally admit it?”

“Yeah, sure, I admit it! You’d make a good mom.”

“Awe, you do have a heart! Man i wish i had my phone i’d record that for proof!” Crow giggled.

“I am a feral bitch, how dare you!”

“No, you’re a skrunkle! A wittle baby!”

“I think I’d rather you drop me.”

Crow laughed and the two of them fell into silence, broken only by the soft clicking of heels on concrete. Cassian could feel himself slowly drifting closer and closer to sleep. Hell, after this? He could probably sleep for a few days at least.

“. . . hey Crow?”

“Yes, duckling?”

“Thanks. For stopping me. And for everything else, too.”

“Of course. You’re family now, after all!”

Family, huh? That didn’t actually sound too bad.

Chapter Text

Cassian groaned, wincing at the harsh light that assaulted the outside of his eyelids. He tried to roll over away from the light, only to be met with a resistance he hadn’t expected. Begrudgingly, Cassian peeled his eyes open.

There were immediately two things he noticed

He wasn’t in his room.

This couch was exponentially too small.

“Where?” Cassian winced as a burst of pain shot through his body when he tried to move.

His legs had cramped horribly curled up as they were, and his head was thumping something fierce. His vision swirled nauseatingly as he tried to sit up, causing him to give up on the endeavor quickly. Cassian let out a groan—curling into the couch in a futile attempt to block out the light. It was not helping his headache.

Wait—why did he have such a headache?

“Oh, are you awake?” Cassian winced as the sudden sound of a voice grated against his ears. He glanced up from behind his arm to find Driver smiling at him from the other end of the couch.

“What time is it?” Cassian asked, noticing the dryness of his throat; it felt like someone had shoved a wad of cotton in his mouth.

“It is. . . 1:32 pm.”

“Oh, ok.” Cassian moved back behind his arm.

. . .

Wait.

“Fuck, I have school!” Cassian shot up quickly.

Cassian tried to stand, cursing as his knee smashed into the table—a considerable lack of leg where it should have been. He managed to catch himself, though quickly ended up on the floor anyway as a wave of nausea crashed over him.

“Shit, are you ok?!” Driver rushed over. They grabbed Cassian by the arm and helped him back up onto the couch.

“I guess I should’ve mentioned I took your leg while you were sleeping, huh.”

“You what?!” Cassian sent a glare toward the vilzone boss, who shrunk under his gaze. “Why?”

“Well, you seemed to have trouble with it, and I was curious what kind of model it was. So I took a look and when I saw it was a Nexus version six I got curious and kinda removed it while you were asleep so I could get a better look; then I noticed that it was kinda janky so I was gonna fix it up for you but I got distracted and—”

“Ok, stop. Stop!” Cassian groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. His head was seriously killing him and Driver was not helping.

Cassian let out a sigh and leaned back against the couch, wincing as the movement sent a shot of hot pain down his leg—the one that wasn’t there. He was tired, he was dizzy, he was nauseous, in pain and just generally felt like shit. What’s worse? He was in the company of a villain he barely knew. He really just wanted to go home. He didn’t want to be here—god everything hurt—he just wanted to curl up somewhere dark.

Dark. It was dark.

There were sirens—why were there sirens?

Fuck. Everything hurt.

Someone was talking—who? No, he was alone. Sinking. Being crushed.

Screaming—someone was screaming. Was it him? No, he couldn’t—he was drowning. Bleeding.

Suffocating.

Dying.

Cassian squeezed his eyes shut, choking on half a sob as another wave of pain hit him. Fuck, it hurt so much—why did it hurt so much?

Something was wrong.

Something was wrong.

Something was wrong.

Sacred—he was scared. Something was happening and he didn’t know what and it hurt. Why did everything hurt?

Damn it! He wanted Jeff—He’d know what to do. Fuck he just wanted his big brother if only for someone to hold him and tell him it was going to be ok, just like he always did.

——————————

Driver had been pleasantly surprised to find that the new boss was awake when they went to check on him. (of course, the kid didn’t know he was the new boss quite yet—Driver was going to tell him about it later)

That pleasantness turned to concern very quickly when the younger villain suddenly slumped over, a strangled cry of pain passing his lips. Had he hurt himself when he’d fallen? Or perhaps leftover wounds from the test last night?

“Kid, are you—”

“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!!” the teen cried out, kicking at Driver when they tried to get closer.

Driver took a few steps back, slightly stunned by the sudden outburst. They couldn’t see any visible injuries on the villain, even with a scan. There was nothing that told them what had caused such a sudden change, or how to fix it. Still, though, they had to try something. they were a mechanic—their whole thing was fixing things—and while they may not be much of an emotionally intelligent person, they could still try.

Making up their mind, Driver crouched down next to the couch.

“Hey, kiddo, it’s ok. Deep breaths. What’s wrong?”

“Don’t—stay away!” The little duckling curled further into himself, trembling something fierce. “Don’t touch me.”

“I won’t, just take a deep breath, ok?”

The younger villain nodded, and after a minute or so his breathing slowed slightly.

“There you go. Better?” The younger nodded. “Ok, so what hurts?”

“Uh . . . my head mostly. Just kinda achy in general,” he groaned, rubbing at his eyes.

Driver nodded, stretching as they stood,” Right then. One order of Advil and water coming up!”

The kid mumbled a ‘thank you’ at their back as they turned to embark on their quest. Actually—now that they thought about it—they should probably give the kid his leg back too. Oh, and food. Driver knew all too well the agony of strong pills on an empty stomach and from what they’d seen? The poor kid had had enough pain for one day.

Speaking of—referring to the kid as “the kid” was going to get old fast; Driver made a note to ask him for his villain name as they rummaged for the painkillers they were searching for. Well actually, now that they thought about it—they weren't entirely sure the kid had one yet. He still seemed to be pretty new so it wouldn’t surprise them if that was the case. No matter! Driver could just give him one if need be! They were great at naming stuff!

Driver pushed the thought aside for the moment as they found and pocketed the pill bottle they’d been searching for.

On their way back to their workshop to retrieve the leg they’d stolen—er . . . borrowed— Driver made a stop in the kitchen. They rescued a box of fruit snacks from their stash behind the pan cabinet and moved to search the fridge for something to drink. A quick scan told them that they were out of water bottles, but they did still have a couple of juice boxes that had yet to expire. Driver pocketed three of them before returning to the living room.

They were a little surprised to find the new boss curled up on the floor wedged between the coffee table and the couch. He looked to be sleeping, though Driver couldn’t actually tell for sure considering the kid had his face buried behind his arms and jacket. Strange for sure, but Driver wasn’t about to question whatever made the kid comfortable. They set their stash of goods out on the table and gently kicked the kid's foot to wake him.

“I’m back—brought some meds. I didn’t have water so I hope you don’t mind mango juice.”

The little duckling stared bleary-eyed at Driver for a few moments looking positively perplexed. After a moment, something seemed to click in his head and he sat up with a small yawn.

“Who the fuck drinks mango juice unironically?”

“I would take offense to that, but they’re actually Crow’s,” Driver shrugged. They grabbed one of the juices for themself and plopped down in the armchair. ”Oh, by the way: I already punished those guys that attacked you during the test. As the new boss that would usually be your job but I figured you wouldn’t mind!”

“Ah, ok—” the kid nodded.

After a moment of silence, the little duckling suddenly paused, a confused expression dancing across his face before he turned on Driver.

“—Wait, what do you mean ‘as the new boss’? I thought you were the boss?”

Driver couldn’t help but giggle at the younger villain's confusion.

“I was the boss, but I’m making you the boss now!” they smiled, reaching over to help the little duckling open the bottle of Advil. It had been entertaining to watch him struggle at first but it had gotten to a point now where it was just kind of sad to watch. Not that Driver was blaming him—those gauntlets looked pretty difficult to work with all things considered.

“I thought I was supposed to fight you for the right to be the boss, though? And what if I don’t want to be the boss?” The little duckling grumbled, busying himself with trying to open one of the juice boxes instead.

Driver popped open the lid to the bottle with only minor difficulty (child-proofing: their one weakness), dumped two pills into their hand, and offered them to the kid. The little duckling took the two and the bottle, dumping a third into his hand before swallowing all of them.

“Technically you did? Wait—do you not remember? Well, don’t worry too much about it. I’ll still do all of the actual boss stuff, you just get to look pretty!” Driver grinned, returning the bottle to the table.

“I don’t think anyone will like me being the boss though—I doubt anyone would like serving under someone that kicked their ass, let alone a cripple.” The little duckling gestured to the space where his left leg would’ve been had he had one. Driver recalled they were supposed to grab that a while ago—curse their stupid ADHD-tism.

“That’s probably true, but I think you’ve more than proved yourself. If no one else, you can guarantee that I’m backing you! Crow too, I’m sure!”

“Gee, that makes me feel so much better,” The younger villain rolled his eyes, shifting so he could lean against the couch.

“Oh! That reminds me: you don’t have a villain name yet, right? I’ve kinda been referring to you as ‘Little Duckling’ but I don’t think—”

“Cassian.”

“Huh?”

“My villain name; Its Cassian.”

Chapter Text

Cassian was tired. He knew he was tired—it was late, it was raining, he was cold and in pain. One couldn’t really blame him for rushing just a little too carelessly to get home. Of course, in the same thread, one couldn’t fault him for slipping. He’d misjudged the distance of his [Shadow Dash] and suddenly, faster than he could stop it, he was falling.

Cassian swore as he landed on a metal railing halfway down. His side exploded in pain as bone gave way under immovable metal. He bounced jarringly off of a few more objects before landing very unceremoniously in a heap of boxes.

“What was that?!” a female voice sounded over the roar of the rain and blood in his ears.

Of course, it would be just his luck for someone to run into him at a time like this. Winded and bruised as he was, he wasn’t able to muster the strength to hide as a blur of red and pink swam into his vision. He wasn’t quite able to place the faces of the two figures before promptly blacking out.

——————————

As a Psyker trainee, Uchan Kim was experienced in dealing with villains. He’d grown used to seeing them, sure, but he definitely wasn’t used to them falling out of the sky outside his apartment. Naeun had been the one to notice the sound over the roar of the rain and had positively begged him to investigate. Honestly, he’d been expecting a stray cat or dog, not a person. He definitely wasn’t expecting a villain either—especially not one he recognized. Even in the dark, Uchan would recognize that messy black hair and strange facial markings anywhere. This was the villain that had saved not only him but also his sister, Naeun.

“Uchan? Is it another cat?” Naeun piped up from where he’d left her on the street.

“No. It’s uh. . .” Uchan wasn’t really sure what to say.

“Oh hey isn’t that the villain who beat the shit out of Bloodrain the other day?” Naeun’s voice suddenly sounded from behind him, causing him to jump. He hadn’t heard her come up.

“1) language and 2) yes. Yes, it is.”

“Well is he ok?” Naeun peered at the unconscious villain from over her brother's shoulder.

“Uh, well he fell from the roof I think so I’d say probably no,” Uchan replied.

“We’re helping him.”

“How did I know you were gonna say that?” Uchan let out a heavy sigh. He’d never hear the end of it from her if he just left the villain to bleed out in the rain.

He handed Naeun the umbrella and crouched down to heave the villain over his shoulder. For someone so tall, the kid was surprisingly light, though a little awkward to carry with the large gauntlets on his arms and one of his legs. Uchan hoisted the villain over his shoulder in a flour sack carry and turned back to his sister.

“Ok let’s make this quick.”

If Uchan had thought that the villain was light at first, he was sorely mistaken. After carrying the dead weight up four flights of stairs to the apartment his legs and arms felt like they were on fire. He dropped the kid very unceremoniously on the couch as soon as Naeun got the door open.

“Uchan! Be careful with him!” Naeun scolded, smacking him across the arm, though not hard enough to actually hurt him.

“Naeun, he’s a villain. He’s probably had worse.” Uchan rolled his eyes, though he respected his sister's wishes and was more delicate as he adjusted the villain so he was better propped up against the arm of the couch.

He still couldn’t really wrap his head around the fact that he had willingly brought a villain into his house. Uchan grabbed the throw blanket off the back of the couch and half heartedly threw it over the villain.

“There, he’s fine. Now, what do you want for dinner?”

——————————

Cassian had suffered through many an injury as a Psyker, and even a few now that he was a villain, and he could definitely say: waking up with broken bones was still absolute hell to deal with. It was especially painful when some dumbass decided to move him immediately after receiving said broken bones.

He wasn’t exactly sure where he’d ended up after blacking out, but he was happy enough not to be out in the rain. Sure his clothes were still soaked through but at least the apartment had heat in it. He was tempted to just go back to sleep, but his curiosity was stronger than that urge. Steeling himself, he carefully peeled his eyes open and glanced around.

Although it was dark, save for a bit of light coming from another room, Cassian could make out enough of the room to gauge that he was in a living room of some kind. That is—if the couch and tv stand were anything to go by. It would be just his horrible dumpster fire of luck to be picked up by some rando after blacking out a block from his apartment, wouldn’t it? Well whatever, he could just sneak out before they came back. There was a window right there, it would be a simple task to—fuuuuuck.

Cassian let out a hiss of pain as simply shifting his weight slightly shot hot pain up his side, leaving him gasping for air. Ok so he seriously fucked up, but he could work with that.

. . .

Ok actually, fuck that.

It hurt just to breathe let alone move. He didn’t need more convincing that he was perfectly content to never get up from the couch (even if it was white and he most certainly was getting mud and blood all over it).

“Moros?” Cassian hissed at the air, glancing around for his personal demon of a spirit companion.

The spirit in question appeared in a puff of smoke looking very smug.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen, eh Cass?”

“Shut up. How long would it take to heal broken ribs with that healing skill do you think?”

Moros looked thoughtful for a moment before answering,” probably anywhere from a couple of hours to a day? You don’t really have a lot of magic to work with at the moment, so probably on the longer side of things.”

Of course.

Cassian squeezed his eyes shut, covering them with an arm as he thought about his options. He had a killer headache and his leg was starting to bother him again—he was cold too.

He let out a small sigh. It would cost more magic that he could be using for healing, but he wasn’t really vibing with the whole sleeping in wet clothes thing; he quickly magicked himself into dry clothes—a simple black t-shirt and pants—and got rid of his shoes, as well as the armor on his legs. Satisfied with the change, he pulled his hair loose from its ponytail and let it fall around his shoulders. It was damp but he was too tired to do anything about it.

“—gonna burn the whole building down.”

“Ok, ok, I’m going stop pushing me!”

Cassian looked up at the sudden sound of voices, locking eyes with a very familiar-looking redhead. The Psyker trainee was being pushed from the other room by his pink-haired sister, but both of them had frozen when they saw him. There was silence for a moment as the three of them simply stared at each other.

“Oh hey, he’s awake!” The girl was the first to break the silence.

“Uh. . . hi?” Cassian had been in many an awkward situation before, but this one definitely took the cake for the worst one. He, a villain, was in a Psyker’s apartment.

——————————

“Ahh! Uchan you’re burning it!” Naeun quickly shoved her brother aside in favor of the pan that was now smoking on the stove.

“Hey, I had it!” Uchan tried to argue as his sister grabbed a nearby cookbook to fan away the smoke that was rising from the pan he was supposed to be watching.

“Nope! You’re done, I got it just go sit down! You’re gonna burn the whole building down at this rate,” Naeun huffed, pushing Uchan in the direction of the living room as she removed the burning sandwich from the stove.

“Ok, ok just stop pushing!”

Uchan stumbled, tripping over the edge of the carpet as his sister suddenly froze behind him. He looked back at her to find her staring at something. Following her gaze, he spied the villain from earlier (that he totally hadn’t forgotten about) sitting up on the couch.

“Uh . . . hi?” The villain gave the siblings an unenthusiastic wave.” I am very confused.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” Uchan crossed his arms, attempting to put on a more serious expression. It wouldn’t do to show weakness in the face of a villain. “What were you doing outside our building? Planning to sneak attack me?”

A look of confusion flashed across the villain’s face.

“Your building? I was on my way to my apartment. Hell, I didn’t even know you lived here. And why would I want to attack you of all people?” The villain snorted, then immediately winced, curling in on himself slightly. “Fuck that stings.”

“Well, you villains are always up to no good—” Uchan paused. Now that he thought about it, the villain in front of him hadn’t really done anything illegal that he knew of. Fighting other villains and rescuing Naeun were the only notable achievements of his that he could think of and he could hardly call that despicable behavior.

“Hey, do you—er. . .” Uchan turned around to find Naeun hovering in the entrance to the kitchen behind him. She pointed to the villain on their couch. ”not you, him—do you want one or two pieces of cheese on your grilled cheese?”

“Uh. one?” The villain looked about as confused as Uchan felt.

“Wha—Naeun, you’re feeding him?!”

“Calm your tits, bro. It's fine.”

“Naeun!”

“It’s too late! It's already in the pan!” Naeun giggled in that way that she did when she was plotting something.

“That child is going to be the death of me,” Uchan let out a defeated groan and flopped down in one of the dining room chairs, putting his head down on the table.

There was silence for a while before the villain suddenly spoke up.

“So uh, could I get like some ice or an Advil or something? I’m kinda suffering over here.”

Uchan groaned, rubbing his face with his hands before standing.

“Do not move.” he pointed at the villain with a glare.

On his way over to the bathroom, he stuck his head in the kitchen where Naeun was still happily slaving away over the stove, a stack of finished grilled cheese on the pile next to her.

“Hey, when you’re done can you bring him an ice pack? I’ll be right back.”

Naeun nodded and Uchan returned to his quest for painkillers. As he was rummaging through the cabinet for the bottle he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket.

“Hello? What is it seonbae?”

“Oh, good you answered. Listen, are you home right now?”

“Yeah, we were about to make dinner. Why?” Uchan snatched up the pill bottle he’d been looking for and pocketed it, cracking his back as he stood.

“Great, I’m downstairs I’ll be up in a second.”

“Oh, ok—wait!”

Click!

‘Well, fuck.’

——————————

Cassian was loath to admit feeling comfortable in a stranger's house—especially when said stranger was a Psyker and he was currently a villain—but, well, he was really tired, ok? And the blanket he found was really fucking soft. His healing skill must have started taking some effect cause he wasn’t struggling to breathe anymore but he was still in a lot of pain—mostly due to the phantom aches in his leg but also because he literally had broken bones. He found himself snuggling further into the blanket drifting somewhere between consciousness and sleep.

“Hey, sleepy head! I brought the goods!”

Cassian looked up at the sound of the voice to find the girl hovering over him with two plates in her hand.

“Here—move your feet,” The girl pushed his feet aside and settled herself on the opposite end of the couch.

The movement caused a bit of pain, but Cassian wasn't about to complain in the face of the promise of food.

Setting one of the plates down on the end table next to her, pinky handed him the other plate with a smile.

“You seem rather comfortable for someone sitting next to a villain,” Cassian joked, taking the plate gratefully.

Truth be told, he hadn’t eaten anything but the fruit snacks and juice Driver had given him earlier, so getting some actual food in his body was highly appreciated.

“Well I figure if you wanted me dead you would’ve killed me the first time,” the girl shrugged, leaning over the edge of the couch in search of something. After a moment of loud shuffling, she triumphantly held up a remote and clicked on the tv, quickly navigating to the Netflix app.” What kind of movies do you like?”

“Uh, I don’t watch movies,” Cassian replied truthfully, taking a small bite of his grilled cheese. He was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually tasted pretty good! There was a nice mix of spices to it on top of just the basic cheese and butter.

“Wait—so you’ve never seen any kind of Disney movie then?”

“Uh. . .no?”

“We’re fixing that right now. . .er—”

The girl looked over at him. Admittedly, he wasn’t on his A-game and it took him a hot minute to realize what she was asking.

“Oh, uh, Cassian—you can call me Cass tho.”

“Cass huh? Cool! I’m—”

“NAEUN! HIDE HIM!” Uchan suddenly came skidding into the room from the hall looking very panicked.

Naeun didn’t have a chance to answer as a sudden knocking caught their attention. Uchan sprinted over to the door, giving the two of them one final pleading look before cracking it open.

“Hi~” Uchan greeted the person behind the door as he attempted to position himself in front of it.

Cassian considered using a skill to hide—it wouldn’t be too difficult even with his injury, but he was just a little bit too tired to bother. He was also curious to see how this whole thing played out anyways. Naeun didn’t seem too interested in upholding her brother’s request either so Cassian was perfectly content to simply sit and enjoy his grilled cheese.

“Oh, hey that reminds me—” Naeun reached into her sweatshirt pocket and pulled an ice pack from inside of it. She offered it to Cassian with a smile, turning back to watch her brother from over the back of the couch.

“Oh, thanks!”

Cassian took it and pressed it against his wounded left side, hissing slightly as the sudden weight sent a shot of pain up his spine. He was definitely making plans to break fewer bones in the future.

“—come on kid?”

“No, I’m serious, it’s like super messy, you can’t come in!”

“Damn it, Uchan just quit being stubborn!”

Cassian looked up at the sound of Uchan’s surprise to find himself locking eyes with yet another Psyker who looked about as surprised to see him as Cassian was.

There was a moment's pause before the purple-haired Psyker suddenly rounded on Uchan, wide-eyed.

“Why the fuck is there a villain on your couch? Are you ok? Do you need help?”

“Um, I’m here against my will, actually,” Cassian piped up, licking the last of the grilled cheese from his claws.” They kidnapped me while I was unconscious.”

“Hey! That is not what happened!” Uchan shouted indignantly.

“Oh really? What did happen then, oh wise one? Cause I distinctly remember passing out outside and then I woke up here. Isn’t that like the definition of kidnapping?”

“You fell from the sky in front of me, what did you expect to happen?” Uchan let out an exasperated sigh and turned back to the purple-haired Psyker. “Can we just go? I don’t have the mental capacity for this.”

“Wait, you’re just gonna leave that villain with your sister?”

“Yeah, I am. If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll behave,” Uchan stared pointedly at Cassian as he said the last part. Cassian ducked as a bottle suddenly came flying at his head,” Take those and go to bed!”

Cassian didn’t have a chance to argue with the other teen—he was dragging his mentor out the door and slamming it shut faster than anyone could process anything. He could hear Moros snickering to himself in the silence that followed.

“Soooooooo~ that happened.”

“Yep. That happened—oh hey, you wanna grab that bottle? I think it’s pain meds.” Cassian pointed to the white bottle that had rolled partway underneath the coffee table.

Naeun nodded and crawled down from her perch on the sofa arm to retrieve it.

“You want some juice with those or?”

“Nah I’m good.” Cassian popped the lid off of the bottle, dumped four pills into his hand, and swallowed all of them dry before tossing the bottle back to Naeun.

“Christ dude that was a lot—are you gonna be ok?” Naeun looked nervously between Cassian and the pill bottle as she set it next to the assortment of things on the table.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Naeun looked skeptical but turned her attention back to the tv to pick out a movie. Cassian was perfectly content to let her choose what they watched as he curled deeper into the fluffy blanket he'd managed to wrap around himself. He wasn't really too sure where he'd actually gotten it from but he did know it was his now and he was prepared to fight a bitch for it.

Listen, it was just so goddamn soft, and blue was kind of his color. He was sure Uchan would get over it.

After a half-hour or so, Cassian found himself dozing, his eyelids growing heavy and thick with sleep. He wasn't sure if it was because of the medicine or the food but he wasn't feeling much of his wound at all anymore either.

"Hey, are you sleeping?" Naeun piped up softly, nudging his foot.

Cassian glanced lazily over at her confused," No, why?"

"Oh perfect. I had a question for you—" Naeun leaned forward slightly, holding up her phone—“ Would you be interested in coming to a modeling job with me tomorrow?"

Modeling huh? Cassian had forgotten that Naeun was a model. He'd never really thought about it himself, but it sounded like it could be some form of fun.

"Great! We'll have to leave by 8 so make sure you're up!"

. . .

Wait, what?

Chapter Text

Cassian was pleasantly surprised to find himself feeling well-rested despite having fallen asleep scrunched up on a tiny couch. He was also surprised to find that when he awoke he was not on said tiny couch. He was even more surprised to find that half of his body was warmer than the other. Steeling himself for whatever horror he was about to find, Cassian carefully peeled his eyes open.

He couldn't see very well around the blanket smushed up against the right side of his face, but he was definitely pressed up against something.

No. . .

Someone.

Horror dawned on him when he realized he was sat curled in Uchan's lap, the other's head resting on top of his own. How did he get here? And why? He wracked his brain for some semblance of a memory that would explain his current predicament, but everything was a blur from the night before. The last vague memory he had was falling asleep on the couch with Naeun. That didn't explain how he came to find himself literally being held hostage by the Psyker trainee like some kind of stuffed animal though!

. . .

He hated to admit it, but it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. It wouldn't hurt to stay put for just a little bit longer, right? As the thought entered his mind, he found himself dozing again; Teetering on the edge of consciousness—that is, until . . .

Click!

Wait, was that?

Cassian peeled his eyes open for a second time to find himself face to face with the back of a blue smartphone right as another flash went off. He hissed against the sudden brightness and blinked rapidly to clear his vision as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

"Shit, sorry! Forgot the flash was on," Naeun whispered, looking anything but apologetic, a shit-eating grin plastered to her face.

Flash?

"Hey! Did you just take a picture?!"

Sleep forgotten, Cassian wrenched his hand free from the blanket prison and swiped at the teen. Naeun laughed as she stepped out of his reach, snapping yet another photo.

"Come on, you looked so adorable!"

"Get back here!"

Cassian lunged at her a second time, wiggling free of Uchan as he made a grab for her legs. Naeun let out a shriek of laughter as she fell, launching her phone down the hall to keep it from Cassian's hands.

"Never surrender!" Naeun cried out dramatically, writhing free from his grip.

"Delete those pictures, damn it!"

"FUCK!"

The two of them froze at the Psykers sudden cry. Cassian winced slightly when he realized that—in his haste to get to his sister—he'd accidentally smacked Uchan in the face with his metal leg. If the Psyker hadn't been awake before, he definitely was now.

Naeun hesitated for only a moment before she took advantage of the situation; Before Cassian could even think about stopping her, she dashed down the hall, grabbed her phone, and slammed shut the door to the nearby room.

Cassian let out a groan of frustration, muffled slightly by the fact that he had his face buried in the—frankly—very soft carpet.

"What is wrong with you two?" Uchan grumbled, massaging his jaw in the place Cassian had smacked it. He would bring himself to feel bad about it if not for the worry of what Naeun would do with the pictures she'd gotten away with.

"Sorry, I'm dead. Dead men tell no tales," Cassian replied, rolling over so he was flat on his back, though still wedged between the couch and the coffee table. His legs were still tangled up in the blanket but he didn't really care, he just wanted to melt into the shadows and never come back out. He probably could, actually—well at least until he ran out of mana but he’d bet he could last for quite a while anyways.

"Well can ‘dead men’ get off the floor so I can get up?" Uchan shot back.

Cassian let out another groan as he crawled the rest of the way off of Uchan before flopping dramatically on the floor in the middle of the hallway. He lay that way for a while, listening to Uchan shuffle around the living room behind him. It was probably another five minutes before he felt his stomach rumble hungrily.

"I'm raiding your kitchen," Cassian announced, peeling himself off the floor.

"What? Wait no—get back here!"

"Relax, I'll make something for everyone," Cassain waved off the Psyker's argument as he hobbled over to where he assumed the kitchen to be.

Uchan followed, still trying to argue as Cassian bent over to inspect the contents of the fridge. Something for breakfast that would be enough for three people . . . Cassian grabbed the carton of eggs, briefly glancing at the date to make sure they weren't expired before setting them on the counter next to the stove along with the container of butter.

"Got any bread? Also, where are your pans?" Cassian directed the question at Uchan as he inspected another cabinet. He was pleased to find that he'd scored the spice cupboard on his first try; he grabbed the salt, pepper, and dried parsley and added them to his pile of ingredients by the stove.

"I'm not gonna be able to convince you to stop, am I?"

"Nope!" Cassian grinned at the defeated look he earned from the redhead.

Uchan let out a sigh and produced a loaf of bread from a different cabinet. He handed it to Cassian as he pointed to a cabinet behind his legs, "Here. Pans are in there, spoons are in that drawer. Have at it I guess."

Cassian ignored the confused look he earned from Moros as he set to work searching for a suitable pan to use. As he started buttering a couple slices of bread, Uchan took to watching him from the dining room, which overlooked the kitchen through a small cutout in the wall. When the first few pieces of bread were starting to brown, Uchan got up again. Much to Cassian's surprise, the teen walked over to the coffee maker and pulled out two mugs from the cabinet above it.

"You drink coffee?"

"Huh? Um, yeah—sweetened but yeah." Cassian spared the psyker trainee a confused glance as he reached over to snag two eggs from the carton, adding them to the pan along with the spices.

"What's with that look? I can make coffee just fine!" Uchan preened, pulling a third mug from the cabinet.

"Are you sure? Cause I'm pretty sure your sister would disagree," Cassian chuckled, recalling how panicked Naeun had looked trying to get her brother out of the kitchen the night before.

Uchan rolled his eyes and turned back to the coffee maker. He filled one of the mugs—a pink one with a cat on it—with plain water and dropped a tea bag in it before filling the other two mugs—a blue one with he/him printed on it and a white one with a green gremlin looking thing—with coffee. Soon enough the apartment was filled with the pleasant aroma of breakfast.

Naeun must have smelled it too; she returned as Cassian finished plating the last of the toast—a towel in her hair and fresh clothes: a pink sweater with blue and white stripes running across the bottom and a pleated white skirt with thigh-high socks. She smelled pleasantly of something floral so Cassian could only assume she'd vanished to shower, though that would’ve been obvious to anyone given her hair was still visibly damp.

“Oh fuck yeah, you made breakfast?” Naeun’s eyes widened in excitement as she slipped into the chair next to Uchan where her mug had already been set out.

“Yeah. I was hungry, and I guess you could call it a ‘thank you’ for not leaving me out in the cold all night,” Cassian shrugged, carrying the plates of food to the table.

He passed them out as he sat down across from Uchan.

“Oh, speaking of—you remember that favor you owe me?” Naeun pointed at Cassian with her fork.

Favor? What favor? He didn’t owe her shit that he knew of?

“What favor?” he asked, curious, but also fearful of the answer.

“You know, you promised you’d come model with me today!”

“He what?!” “I what?!”

Uchan choked on his coffee, staring wide-eyed at his sister while Cassian tried to wrack his brain for that particular memory.

“Yep! I got it on video too! Plus, I still have those pictures of you from earlier,” Naeun smirked, wiggling her cell phone in the air.

“You cunning little fox. You took that while I was under all that pain medicine, didn’t you!”

“Guilty as charged,” Naeun’s grin widened. “Doesn’t change the fact that you’re coming with me!”

“There’s no way in hell I’m letting a villain go with you to your place of work, Naeun! Think about this for a minute!”

“I did! Cass is super pretty, and I needed to find someone to fill in Minyeong’s spot today! It’s a win-win!”

“That is not what a win-win is,” Cassian groaned, resisting the urge to smash his face against the table.

Actually—maybe he should do that. They wouldn’t want him if his face was all bruised up, right? Well, that probably wouldn’t work since any bruises he managed to make would likely heal too quickly to be useful. Curse him and his stupid useful skills.

“Oh, we’ll have to leave in like a half hour to get there on time so if you want a shower you should go now.”

“Fine, but I’m stealing your shampoo,” Cassian grumbled, quickly scarfing down the rest of his food.

He returned his plate to the sink along with the now empty mug (the coffee had been surprisingly good despite not having much time to enjoy it) After cleaning off the dishes, he made his way down to where Naeun had pointed the bathroom to be, collapsing against the door with a heavy sigh as he locked it behind him.

“A fine pickle you’ve gotten yourself in, eh Cass?”

“Shut up. I’ll just pretend to go along with it and then steal her phone on the way, that way I can delete that video and the pictures.” Cassian sighed, running a hand through his hair. He winced as his claws caught in various tangles, pulling painfully at his scalp when he tried to pull away.

Right. Shower first. He could deal with that whole mess later. Briefly struggling to figure out how to turn on the water, Cassian pondered if it would be worth it to change or not. Well, how hard could it be to shower as a villain? He could just magic himself some new clothes afterward, and it wouldn’t risk revealing his civilian ID to a psyker trainee.

With the help of his claws and the rose-scented conditioner he’d stolen from Naeun, it was surprisingly easy to pull out all of the tangles in his hair. He’d considered being nice and just using Uchan’s soap, but that thought was quickly abandoned when he discovered the bottle of men's 12-in-1 on the edge of the tub. Villain form or not there was absolutely no way in hell that abomination of a creation was going anywhere near his hair, so Naeun’s it was.

Once he was certain he’d gotten all the mud out, and was pleasantly soaked, Cassian got out to dry off. Wrapping his hair in one of the fluffy blue towels hanging up nearby he transformed back into his regular villain clothes, minus the extra armor on his legs. He wasn’t planning to fight anyone so he wouldn’t need it. Plus he probably wanted to tone down the villain vibes just for today. There wasn’t much he could do about his claws, but it would have to do.

Cassian finished drying off his hair and used the mirror to rebraid a section of his bangs before pulling everything back into a messy ponytail like usual. When he was satisfied with how it looked, he exited the bathroom to find the siblings ready and waiting by the door. Uchan had changed into his usual Psyker getup and Naeun had brushed her hair from the looks of it.

“Daewung says he’ll drive us,” Uchan spoke up when he spotted Cassian. “I don’t like this one bit, but it's better than having a villain wander the streets causing a panic.”

“Y’know I could just not go.” Cassian shrugged, joining the pair at the door.

“No way! You promised!” Naeun exclaimed,"Plus if you come I’ll treat you to something sweet afterward! There’s a shop not too far that has some awesome cupcakes!”

A treat? No, no no he couldn’t be bribed again. But, fuck if a cupcake didn’t sound really good. This damn sweet tooth was gonna be the death of him one day.

“Fine, but I take zero responsibility for any of this.” Cassian groaned, following the pair to the hall.

Cassian followed quietly as the sibling pair made their way downstairs. There they found a man waiting in the lobby. A Psyker Cassian recognized—he’d been the one to stab him a while back. Purple braids, a gaudy yellow coat? Those stupid-looking sunglasses? He was hard to forget.

“Thanks for this seonbae.” Uchan greeted the man with a small wave.

“Well, it was a favor from my beloved co-worker, I couldn’t just say no.” The psyker shrugged with a grin. His smile fell when his eyes flickered over to Cassian. “So this the guy?”

“Unfortunately.” Uchan threw up his hands in a ‘what can you do’ gesture.

“Like I said: I am perfectly willing to just go back to the vilzone.” Cassian shrugged, shifting his weight more toward his good side. Even though it was mostly healed, his ribs were still sore as shit.

“I already said no to that—I still have those pictures from earlier!” Naeun quipped, clearly proud of herself for reminding them of the blackmail she held. Honestly, Cassian was more scared of her than he was of Uchan.

“Well, you heard the lady.” Cassian sighed. He could already tell this was going to be one long day.

“Ah, Naeun’s got blackmail on you too, huh? Poor guy,” the psyker chuckled, though Cassian couldn’t see what he was so amused by,” Alright well if you wanna be on time we should go then!”

“I wanna sit in the front!” Naeun proclaimed, dashing out the door in front of everyone else.

Cassian followed behind Daewung and Uchan as the four of them filed into the car. Cassian would never admit it, but he did have a bit of difficulty getting the seatbelt on with his gauntlets in the way—seriously he’d have to do something about those, they were big and annoying. Wait, couldn’t villains control their weapons too?

Cassian stared down at his hands. The claws probably counted as a weapon, right? He was pleased to find that, with a bit of concentration, he was able to shrink the gauntlets to a more manageable size; They fit more like gloves instead of heavy armor, and the claws weren’t quite as sharp as before. Satisfied with the change, he tried the seatbelt again and managed it the second time with little trouble.

“I’m honestly surprised you didn’t think of that before, Cass.”

Cassian whipped his head around to glare at Moros, floating between him and Uchan, mouth agape. That bastard had known he could do that this whole time. Oh, Cassian was going to rip him a new one the first chance he got.

“What?” Uchan frowned at Cassian, probably assuming he’d been staring at him and not the spirit he couldn’t see.

“Nothing.” Cassian turned back toward the window.

“So . . .”

Cassian glanced up as Daewung spoke after a few minutes of silence.

“What’s the story with you three anyways?”

“These two thought it would be fun to kidnap me; Naeun blackmailed me into this while I was under the influence of painkillers and here we are,” Cassian spoke up before the other two had a chance. True they hadn’t actually kidnapped him—he was perfectly capable of leaving whenever he wanted—but it was funny to watch Uchan’s expression twist every time he mentioned it.

“That is not what happened!” The trainee cried out indignantly. “Stop telling people that, they’re going to get the wrong idea!”

“I know, that’s why it's funny,” Cassian smirked.

“It's not too late to turn you in, you know.”

“Hey! You two behave back there!” Naeun frowned, glaring at them through the rearview mirror.

Cassian threw his hands up in surrender,” He started it.”

“Did not!”

“Did too.” Cassian stuck his tongue out at the psyker, though quickly retracted it when he caught Naeun’s expression in the mirror.

Uchan opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by Naeun.

"Oh look, we're here!"

Cassian glanced out the window in the direction she pointed as they pulled up outside a tall building. A large sign hung from the middle of the building reading ‘AOE STUDIO’ in bright neon letters. Now that he was actually seeing it, he was starting to have doubts about not running while he could—hell, he probably could just get Driver to hack Naeun’s phone, right? That was totally something he could do since he was the boss now, right?

“Cass, c’mon! We’re gonna be late!” Naeun’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Cassian huffed, totally not struggling to get out of the car. He definitely didn’t nearly face-plant when his leg caught on the edge of the door.

Almost as soon as his feet hit the pavement, Cassian found himself being dragged toward the doors, Naeun attached to one of his arms.

“Come on, we gotta get you a guest badge first,” she grinned, clearly oblivious to the stares the two of them were getting from the other people in the lobby.

“Is it really necessary to hold onto me like this?”

Naeun’s face twisted into a pout,” I gotta make sure you don’t run away!”

“I’m not gonna run, but you are going to trip me if you don’t slow down—plus people are staring, you know?”

“Fine.” Naeun rolled her eyes, releasing her grip on his arm. Though just as quickly, she took hold of his left hand and continued to drag him over to what looked to be some kind of reception desk.

“Hey, Minjun, I need a guest pass, pretty please!” Naeun smiled sweetly at the young boy sitting behind the desk.

The worker looked up at her voice, halfway to a smile when his eyes suddenly landed on Cassian and they widened in fear. Well, Cassian couldn’t say he was expecting otherwise. If anything, Naeun was the weird one for how fearless she was in the face of a villain.

“I—um. . . miss Kim, behind you—there’s a. . .”

“Oh, right—This is Cass, he’s filling in today. Hence the guest pass?”

“R-right, of course! Should I call security?” the worker whispered the last part to Naeun, though not quite enough for Cassian to miss it.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Cassian groaned, wanting nothing more than to smash his face into the desk in front of him. This was going to be his whole day, huh?

“No! No, don’t call security! I can vouch for him, I promise!” Naeun exclaimed, latching onto his arm again.

Cassian had to grab the desk to keep himself from falling as her sudden weight threw him off balance. He was going to have a serious talk with this girl about self-preservation around villains, right after he made her pay for the desk he'd just damaged. Hopefully, no one would notice the slight claw marks that were now scratched into the wood.

“He’ll be on his best behavior,” she added, sending a look at Cassian.

Cassian raised his free hand in surrender,” Yes, yes I solemnly swear I will be on my best behavior.”

“Ok?” The worker—whose name Cassian had already forgotten—didn’t seem entirely convinced, but shrugged as he started shuffling through one of the desk drawers. “You’ll just have to fill this out then, and we can get a picture.”

“I can fill that out for him!” Naeun snatched the paper up as the worker tried to hand it to Cassian.

"Right, then if you could just step over here so I can take your picture?" the other teen gestured to a chair situated slightly behind the desk. It was shoved up against the wall with a large white fabric draped behind it and a few standing lights pointed at it.

Cassian crossed his arms as he sat down. After a moment, the boy walked over, camera in hand.

"Smile?"

"No."

There was a click and a flash—Cassian blinked rapidly to clear his vision, not expecting it to have been so bright. He rubbed at his eyes with his palms as he stood to join Naeun by the desk.

“Right, it’ll be about 15 minutes for that to process,” the receptionist smiled slightly as Naeun handed him the papers she’d filled out.

“Thanks!”

Naeun smiled at the boy as she nudged Cassian toward one of the couches in the lobby. The pink-haired teen took a two-person couch while Cassian opted for one of the single-person chairs. He draped himself rather dramatically across it, legs crossed and one elbow propped up on the arm of the chair.

While they waited, Naeun pulled out her phone—presumably to scroll through some kind of social media—while Cassian took to watching the various people bustling around. Several gave the two of them strange or fearful looks but none dared to approach.

After what definitely felt like longer than fifteen minutes, the receptionist boy walked over. He ignored Cassian completely and handed the pass to Naeun.

"Here you go, Miss Kim."

"Oh, thank you!"

Naeun waved at the boy as he returned to his desk. She handed the badge off to Cassian as she stood to stretch. Cassian will not admit that he struggled a bit to get it on. Between his claws and his ponytail, it was quite the endeavor—one he quickly gave up on, opting instead to simply wrap the cord around his wrist.

Naeun frowned when she saw what he'd done.

"That's not how you're supposed to wear those," she huffed, slipping her phone back into her bag.

"What more do you want from me, woman? I am a struggling teen," Cassian replied, dramatically bending over the arm of the chair, raising an arm to his face. He flinched slightly when the hard plastic of the guest pass smacked him in the nose.

"You are such a drama queen," the other teen chuckled, playfully smacking his leg," come on, we're gonna be late."

Cassian stretched as he stood, once again finding himself being led around by the hand as Naeun expertly navigated the maze of hallways. They jumped on an elevator and rode it up to the sixth floor, walking through yet another few hallways before the pink-haired teen stopped in front of a large double door with a number on it. 'Studio 9' it read.

As Naeun threw open the door, a few heads turned to look at the two of them as they entered. Cassian wasn't at all surprised he'd earned himself quite a few fearful looks from the staff.

"Oh, good, there you are, Naeun! You're late!" Cassian looked over as a taller woman with a clipboard marched over.

"Sorry! We were waiting for a guest pass," Naeun explained, maneuvering Cassian so he was standing next to her instead of partially hidden behind her.

"Hello?" Cassian waved at the blonde woman, not really sure what else to do.

"Hrm."

The woman peered at Cassian from behind her rose-colored glasses. Her gaze drifted around the details of his face, his hair, and then down at his clothes before turning back to Naeun.

"So this is the kid, then? I can work with that." The woman nodded. She offered Cassian her hand," I'm Da-Hee, the director for this shoot. You ever model before?"

"Uh, no. I was bribed to be here," Cassian replied, gingerly taking her hand. It would do him no favors to hurt someone even by accident and he did not trust his claws.

"Well, you're lucky you're pretty. Get to makeup and I'll explain the shoot when you're done ok." The woman waved them off, moving to strike up a conversation with one of the other workers.

"You're awesome, Da-Hee!"

"She did not seem bothered by the fact that I'm a villain—are any of you sane or does insanity just come with the job?" Cassain mused, following Naeun as she moved to one of the far corners of the room.

There was a long table with a mirror set up in the corner with three chairs set up next to it. The table in question was covered in various makeup pallets, brushes, and other similar supplies, which were being organized by a man with platinum-colored hair pulled back in a loose half-bun. He looked up at their approach, a slight expression of surprise flashing across his face at the sight of Cassian, though his gaze softened instantly when he spotted Naeun.

"Not like you to be late, Miss Kim," the man grinned, dusting his hands off on the apron he was wearing.

"Someone decided to take forever," Naeun mused, glancing at Cassian as she plopped herself down in one of the wine-colored chairs.

"Hey—you wanted me to come. I gave you plenty of chances to leave me behind," Cassian shrugged, dropping down into the chair next to her.

"Not a fan, I see?" the man chuckled.

"This rat decided it would be funny to blackmail me into this mess—" Naeun interjected with an offended 'hey!' “—I'm only here 'cause she promised me food."

"Ah, good old bribery, my favorite." the man paused to wave at someone outside of Cassian's view. "Noe, come give me a hand with these two!"

"Yes, Mr. Park!" a feminine voice replied as a younger-looking girl with bright orange hair ran over. Probably an intern of some kind judging by how young she looked—that and the fact that she was wearing what looked to be a school uniform of some kind.

"Right, you take Naeun, I'll take. . .er—" the man paused, glancing between Naeun and Cassian.

"Cassian," he replied, realizing he was asking for a name.

"Yes, sir." the girl—Noe, apparently—nodded and moved to grab some makeup from the pile before shifting over to Naeun.

"You seem pretty chill with me being a villain, uh. . ."

"Park Songhyon—and at this point, I've been in the business long enough that nothing really phases me anymore," Songhyon chuckled.

"Ah, that's fair."

"Can I ask what brand of eyeshadow you use? It's got some great coverage." Songhyon asked, peering closely at Cassian's face with a curious expression.

"I don't use eyeshadow?" Cassian replied, confused.

Ah—right, on top of the black markings on his cheeks he did recall having some blue coloring around his eyes. Honestly, you couldn't really blame him for forgetting—it was rare he looked in the mirror while in villain form.

"So it's just villain markings then? I see." the man nodded, looking thoughtful for a moment," Right, then I suppose we could get away with some highlighter, blush, and lipstick. I don't think I'll be able to cover these marks on your cheeks though—they don't come off, do they?"

"Uh, no, not that I know of?" Cassian glanced at Moros for confirmation, since the spirit seemed to know more about his villain form than he did. Moros shook himself no.

Songhyon nodded and turned to grab a few things off the table.

Since he wasn't getting as much done, Songhyon finished applying Cassian's makeup far more quickly than Naeun's was done. They were also able to style his hair relatively quickly as well—switching from a full ponytail to half-up-half-down with an extra braid so there was one on both sides of his head instead of just the left. Cassian opted to sit and scroll through his phone until Naeun was finished—they'd braided her hair in two sections framing her face and pinned a section of her bangs back with a strawberry-shaped hair clip. He had to admit, it looked adorably fitting.

"Alright, so slight problem. . ." Cassian looked up at the sound of the voice to find the blonde woman from earlier. She held up two hangers of clothing—one pink and one a sky blue," we planned to use dresses for this shoot, but. . ."

"Ah, I suppose that would be hard to get into with these, huh?" Cassian nodded, flexing his claws. Even though they were smaller than usual, he wasn't confident he could put on any sort of clothing himself without shredding it like paper.

"Well, yes but. . . that's not what I was going to say. Er—how do I put this?"

“Ah, I see. Don’t worry about that, I don’t mind wearing a dress; I’m genderfluid.”

"Oh, well I guess I worried for nothing then! Great, get ready quickly, we're burning daylight here." The woman promptly handed both hangers to him before marching off toward one of the camera techs.

“I didn’t know you were genderfluid,” Naeun mused, nudging him playfully as she stood.

“Well, you didn’t ask,” Cassian shrugged, moving to follow.

“So wait—what are your pronouns then? I haven’t been misgendering you have I?!”

“Well I don’t know, have you?” Cassian smirked, unable to pass up the chance to tease the other teen a little.

“Cass!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” he ducked as the pink-haired teen attempted to swat at him—” I’m a he/they so you’re good.”

“Ok good. Jeez, don’t scare me like that.” Naeun let out a visible sigh.

“Awe, but you’re so fun to tease though!” Cassian laughed, following as Naeun entered a nearby door.

The new room was significantly smaller than the first—there was a set of chairs on one side next to a small counter and mirror. On the other side of the room were three sets of blue curtains.

“I’m assuming I’m supposed to wear this one.” Naeun grabbed the pink dress covered in strawberries. “You can go change in one of those.”

The pink-haired teen pointed to one of the curtains while opening one of her own.

“See, I could do that—” Cassian smirked, taking a moment to examine the fabric in his hands—” or I could do this.”

Naeun looked confused for all of the two seconds it took him to magic himself into the dress he was holding. Being a villain was convenient for some things at least, and quick changes were one of them.

He hung the real dress on one of the nearby racks, twirling slightly to admire the flow of fabric in the mirror; He looked damn fine in a blueberry dress.

“Cheater,” Naeun stuck her tongue out at him before disappearing behind the curtain.

She came out a surprisingly short time later fully dressed in the new outfit. She dropped her bundle of clothing in one of the baskets on the counter—Cassian did the same—and the two of them returned to the main room for whatever fresh hell awaited them.

~~~

When he said modeling was hell, Cassian meant it. Fighting a group of seven villains solo was probably easier, to be honest. It didn’t help that Naeun had made it look so damn easy either. Two full hours of basically torture—and he wasn’t even getting paid—he definitely would not be doing it again regardless of whatever blackmail Naeun had.

As soon as the director lady had announced it was time for a break, Cassian quickly switched his clothes and found the closest unoccupied floor space to lay face down in.

“Ok, what do you—are you ok?”

Cassian glanced up at the sound of the voice to find Naeun standing over him freshly changed. The pink-haired teen looked positively confuzzled to see him on the floor.

“I am in pain, leave me to my misery, woman.”

“Well then, Mr. Drama Queen, do you want lunch or not?” Naeun snickered, visibly amused.

Cassian sat up, excited by the promise of food.

“I would kill for some chicken nuggets right now.”

“Actually that sounds really good, not gonna lie. Wait—you don’t mean that literally, do you?” Naeun’s expression twisted slightly, contemplating the meaning of his words.

“Poor choice of words. No, I don’t mean literally. What do you take me for?”

“A villain,” Naeun shrugged, typing something out on her phone,” anything else you want?”

“Hmmm, y’know what? One of those nugget meals with the fries and a drink would be nice. Just water though,” Cassian replied, shifting so he could lay flat on his back instead of his stomach.

“Will do! I shall return!”

Naeun struck a pose with her hands on her hips before quickly darting off to join a small gaggle of employees by the entrance.

Cassian took advantage of her absence to simply lay in silence with his eyes closed. He hadn’t been lying about the ‘being in pain’ part, but at this point that was for him to know and no one else to find out.

At least, that had been his plan, up until yet another came to knock on the door of his palace of woes.

“Hello, person who’s name I can’t remember,” Cassian greeted the silver-haired man as he took a seat on a nearby chair.

“Hey, boss. There a reason you’re on the floor?”

“Other than regretting every decision I’ve ever made? No, not really.”

“Fair. I’m surprised Crow even let you out considering.”

“She didn’t; I snuck out—wait . . . how did you know about that?”

“Uhhhhh . . . well shit I thought you knew.”

“Cassian. That’s Redeye.”

“Wait, what?! You’re—”

Now that he got a good look at the guy, Cassian hated to admit that there were some similarities between the archer villain he knew and the civilian sitting in front of him. Actually, like a lot of similarities; their hair was identical. Plus if Moros said so then it must be true.

“And you work here? Of all places?”

Redeye shrugged, leaning back in his chair, ”Pays, don’t it?”

“Those mental images do not line up.”

“Neither does you in a dress.” the other villain shot back.

“Bitch, I wear what I want! And for your information, I looked damn good in it!” Cassian huffed.

“I’m not saying you didn’t!” Redeye raised his hands in surrender, a slight smirk on his face, ”But I did send a picture to Driver and they thought it was hilarious.”

"Oh, you bitch! How dare you! I’m wounded you would do such a thing to a poor sickly teen,” Cassian raised a hand to his forehead, placing the other on his heart dramatically. He may not have been a theater kid himself but at this point, he’d spent enough time with Driver to know one.

“Those aren’t the words I would use.”

Cassian opened his mouth, intent to make a retort, only to be interrupted by one pink-haired teenager.

“I have returned! With food! Praise me!” Naeun beamed, running over with a drink carrier and a brown paper bag.

“Good job?” Cassian sat up, attempting to reach for the bag.

Naeun very stubbornly held it out of reach, cheeks puffing in a pout.

“Nope! Payment first!”

“Bold of you to assume a villain has cash.”

“No, not that kind of payment. I want a head pat.”

“You want—honestly at this point I don’t think you understand what a villain is. Fine, c’mere,” Cassian sighed, holding out his hand.

Naeun brightened immediately and quickly crouched down so he could reach her head. Cassian wasn’t at all surprised to discover her hair was in fact as soft as it looked.

“You are very weird, y’know that?” Cassian chuckled, snatching the food bag away from her while Naeun was distracted.

“I know! You love me anyway though, heh.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth, tiny terror.”

“Awe, ain’t you two adorable?”

Ah, Cassian had kind of forgotten Redeye was still there.

“I am darkness and vengeance—no part of me is cute.”

“Right, well you have fun with that; I’m gonna go find food.”

Redeye stowed his phone in his pocket and quickly disappeared to wherever the other’s had gone, leaving Cassian and Naeun more or less alone.

“So, what exactly in here is mine?” Cassian asked, opening the bag.

“Uh, they’re exactly the same so whichever one you want. Also, there’s a bunch of sauces in the bottom I think,” Naeun replied, scooching closer so she could see inside.

“Nah, I eat mine raw.”

“That is such a cursed way of saying that, oh my god.”

“Leave me and my nuggie eating habits alone, tiny terror,” Cassian huffed, finally managing to open the cardboard container. Everything was harder with the claws, despite their current smaller size.

“I’m stealing some of your fries as revenge.” Naeun snatched both containers of french fries, dumping all of one and half of the other onto the napkin she’d laid out in her lap.

“You are lucky I’m above hitting children,” Cassian sighed, skewering one of his nuggets.

“Children? Good sir! I’m not that much younger than you!” Naeun gasped dramatically, playfully smacking his shoulder. “Er—wait, how old are you? Villains don’t always look their age, right?”

“Older than you, that’s for sure.”

To be fair, Cassian wasn’t sure what his answer to that question would be. Gangu had been nineteen, but as Cassian Lee, he’d been 23 almost 24. So he could be either—or the third option: like 40-something since he had full memories of two lives he could add the two amounts together. Honestly, the first time he’d had to think about it was when Crow had asked and he’d bluescreened. It was one of those things you ignored to avoid a mental breakdown.

Naeun looked as though she wanted to press further, but thankfully for Cassian, she was quickly distracted by her food and phone.

The two of them ate quietly for a while before another thought occurred to him.

“Say, Naeun, why did you ask me to come with you today?” He found himself asking the question aloud before even a chance to stop himself.

The teen looked up at him, confused. A moment later her expression twisted in thought as she answered.

“Because I thought you were pretty and could do it?”

“I don’t buy that. You’ve worked here for a while, right? So you must have had plenty of other people to ask. Why me specifically?”

“If I tell you the real reason you can’t laugh at me,” she frowned, tossing her empty food wrappers into the bag.

“I will make no promises.”

“Cass.”

“Ok, ok, fine. I promise I won’t laugh.”

Naeun nodded, gaze dropping to the floor, fingers fidgeting.

“Well, it’s uh. . . it’s because I kinda, sorta. . . like you?”

“Come again?” Cassian nearly choked on his water.

“Not in that way! Sorry, wrong choice of words. I just mean—I thought maybe we could be friends? But I didn’t really know how to like, ask? So I figured next best thing! Trap you in a room with me for several hours and go from there?”

“Doesn’t your brother hate villains? I think he’d have a stroke if he heard you say that,” Cassian chuckled.

“I’m serious. You clearly aren’t like other villains! Plus you saved me and Minyeong twice. I can’t possibly hate you after that.”

“I’m going to make one thing very clear to you: this is a one-time thing. We aren’t friends. I’m only here because you have those photos of me.”

“Well, yeah right now we aren’t, but I think we could—”

“Naeun. I’m a villain. We’re dangerous.”

“Yeah? Well, then it's a good thing I know two strong boys that can protect me, huh?” Naeun smirked, eyes sparkling.

There was something about the way they looked; The confident sky in her eyes that was just so achingly familiar yet foreign. Her warm yet stubborn personality. All of it. Cassian knew he shouldn’t compare them, but . . . she reminded him so painfully of Jeff. He supposed that was the reason he wanted to keep her at length—he’d already killed one best friend, he didn’t need to add another to that list.

Cassian let out a sigh, rubbing an eye with his palm.

“You are impossible to argue with. I almost feel bad for your brother.”

“So I can have your number then?” Naeun pulled out her phone expectantly.

“Yeah, yeah I suppose you can.” Cassian was halfway to grabbing her device when he had a sudden realization. He didn’t actually know what his number was.

“Actually—here, put yours in mine.”

Cassian pulled out his villain phone. Unlocking it, he navigated to the contacts app, opening a new contact before handing it off to Naeun.

“Uh, Cass? You got a message from ‘4 foot 9 twink’? It says—”

“Don’t read that!”

Naeun squeaked as she fell backward, surprised by Cassian’s sudden lunge for the phone.

“Oh, oh, I see! Is it your boyfriend~?”

“NO!? Gimme my phone, tiny terror!”

Cassian made a second grab for the device.

Naeun dodged with surprising agility; scrambling to her feet, she was quickly off running.

“Awe, you’re blushing!” Naeun giggled as he jumped up to chase her.

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Naeun!”

Boom!

Chapter Text

Going on extended Hiatus.