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Chapter Text

The arrow sailed through the air and pierced through the rabbit, killing it instantly as crimson blood began seeping into the white snow. Feet crunching on the ground, the auburn-haired teenager plucked the now dead rabbit from where it was impaled near a rock, pulling her arrow back out of it. 

“ Oh, this won’t last very long” she sighed, attaching her prey to her horse. It’s the middle of winter and fucking freezing, Joel is still unconscious in the basement of the house she sewed his injury up in. At Least it’s hidden enough that she doesn't have to worry about hunters or infected finding him like that. No, she just has to worry about getting them food, and these rabbits aren’t going to last long. Hopefully, she will keep finding them, if she hunts enough of them then maybe- 

She quietly gasps in excitement. A deer. Now that would last, or it will at least until Joel wakes up. The unknowing deer started walking away, without missing a beat, she loops the horse’s reins to a nearby branch 

“you’ll just startle it” she says, before jogging in to the direction she saw the deer go.

Nocking an arrow onto her bow, she aimed at the unaware deer and held her breath before releasing the string. Watching the arrow fly, her face falls as the arrow lands on the ground beside the deer, startling the creature as it dashes into the woods with its newfound knowledge of being pursued.

 “Shit” she exclaims, running to grab her discarded arrow before chasing after the deer again. It’s the only reason she is using the bow, the fact that she can reuse the arrows and -well- it's silent. Bullets will only cause infected to come running to her location, even if she has better aim with the gun and would have killed the deer first time. 

However she did take Joel’s hunting rifle before she left. What was she meant to do if a bunch of clickers started chasing after her? She might be immune from the infection but she isn't immune to having her fucking throat ripped out! Also what if she runs into a group of hunters? Yes, she could take them out stealthily with her switch knife and bow, but what is she meant to do if they realised she was there? oh wait a second you pieces of walking chicken-shit, I just need to go grab my arrows out from the bodies of your dead friends, then you can carry on trying to kill me. No, she needs the rifle, just in case, and besides Joel never needs to find out.

She can’t see the deer anymore but she can see the trail it’s hooves have left. If she just keeps going in that direction, she’ll definitely catch up to it, it already knows she’s here so she might as well break out into a run. 

She hadn't sprinted a few metres before she heard the bang and everywhere went a blinding white. It couldn't have been a gun, they aren’t that loud, but neither could it have been a bomb, they aren't that loud either. All that she knew was that it was loud and that meant infected were on their way. She had to get back to her horse, Callus, and get out of here; the pitiful amount of meat from the rabbit will just have to do for now. 

Dazed and still a bit blinded from the flash, she ran back in the direction she knew she had come from, unaware that the forest is not the same one she was just in, nor that the snow that she was just trudging through is no longer there.

***

“Hey it’s me, tell me this isn't who I think it is” Hughie hears Annie’s voice say from his phone. Her hushed voice indicating she is probably in Vought tower and trying to keep their conversation discreet. 

“Probably exactly who you think it is” Hughie returns, urgency evident in his tone. Him and Butcher walk briskly down the street, avoiding the other New Yorkers around them. 

“Oh, my god”,  

Hughie sighs before responding to her 

“Look, we’re coming up on the site now. Can your Crime Analytics people look for him?” 

“I'm on it. Just be careful, Hughie.”

Hughie hangs up as the whirls of helicopters above them and sirens down the street begin to take over his hearing. As they approach the police tape holding the journalists and onlookers back, Butcher pulls out his fake FBI badge, granting them entry to the cordoned off area. As Butcher holds up the tape, passing it to Hughie to slip under, the younger man finally takes in the scene around them. The building had been completely destroyed, the gaping hole in the side of it darkened with ash. They both stand there in shock for a moment, Butcher removing his sunglasses just so he can confirm that he is seeing this correctly.

 “Fucking Hell”.

***

Whilst Hughie was off chatting up some bird, Butcher decided he would go and investigate. Pulling out his Geiger counter, he started reading the burning building. Fucking thing is practically radioactive. Hughies come over to him now, after sharing a look they both agree on who must have caused all this: Soldier Boy. Staring into the distance, Hughie has to double take when he sees MM arrive. Feeling like a kid playing piggy-in-the-middle between two divorced arguing parents, Hughie looks between the two of them during the heated conversation. Finally, they agree to work together to find Soldier Boy. 

“Knowing you, you already got a lead?” Butcher addresses to MM, 

“Course I fucking do,” the latter snaps back immediately. 

“Word on the street says he ran in the direction of the woods after the explosion. If we’re quick, we might be able to catch him whilst he's on his little hike. If not, then look around, where do you think he's going next”

Butcher looked around him, then smirked “The Legend”

“Want to bet Soldier Boy plans to pay him a visit next?”

***

She had been running for a few minutes now but still couldn’t find Callus. Has she been going the wrong way? None of this looks familiar but at least she can’t hear any infected, or people. For a moment she debates turning back, perhaps the deer is still there? Or at least if she goes back, she can use the deer as a checkpoint and go in the right way this time. Yes, she’s going to turn back, all she has to do is follow the snow tracks- 

“Where’s the snow gone?” she exclaims to herself. Okay, something really weird is going on here, she pulls out her rifle from where it sticks out of her backpack, assessing the area around her. Snow can’t just disappear, right? Silently, she creeps through the forest, listening out for any signs of danger.

“So you think Soldier Boys is here? Why would he run into the fucking woods?” She hears a man say in the distance. There’s something different about his accent, something not American. British maybe? 

“Who knows man, maybe he hid some weed or something here back in the eighties that he's trying to find” She hears another man say, definitely American. She darts behind a tree, trying to quietly reload her gun. Peaking out slightly, she notices there are only three of them, thankfully they haven't noticed her yet. One of them, the younger of the three, looks in her direction. Shit, she thinks, ducking back behind the tree for cover, maybe he didn’t see her. 

“Uhm guys, I don't think we’re alone” shit, shit, shit.  

“What? Is it Soldier Boy” The British one questioned. 

“No, no I don't think it was, how tall is Soldier Boy again?” 

Shit, here goes nothing. She runs out from where she was hidden, aiming her rifle towards the younger one who had first seen her. 

“Oh shit!” he exclaims, leaping backwards whilst the other two pull out their pistols. 

“Drop your weapons, hands where I can see them, or I'm blowing this one's brains out!” she yells, eyes flitting between each of them. 

“Jesus, how old are you? You can't be older than thirteen.” The older American one says 

“I’m fourteen!” she spits, internally scorning herself for revealing anything about herself to these random strangers. 

“Fourteen? Where are your parents?” he returns, a look of concern flooding his face. This time, she chooses to ignore his comment and return her attention back to the rest of the group.

 “Kick your weapons over here” She motions to a spot beside her with a tilt to her head, not daring to take her gun off the younger one, who had gone about as white as the snow still clinging to her clothes. 

“Just do it,” the older American sighs, dropping his pistol and kicking it over before looking at his friend, whose gun is still pointing at the teenager. Trying not to show any nerves, she regards the firearm by her feet quickly before returning her attention to the group. 

“And put your hands in the air-” 

“- And wave them like you just don’t care?” The British one interjected with a smirk. 

“JUST DROP THE GUN, BUTCHER!” 

The younger one squealed. The British one- Butcher - gave his younger friend a look of annoyance before exaggerating the movement of placing his gun on the floor, kicking it towards her as well. 

“And any knives you have” She states, the rifle still aimed and the younger one. Sighing dramatically, Butcher reaches into the inside of his trench coat and pulls out his knife, kicking that towards the pile of their artillery. She doesn't believe for a second that they have no more weapons on them. So she moves her aim away from the younger one, instead aiming towards the group as a whole.

“I said-” she looked down at them through the barrel of the rifle, shaking slightly from what could be the cold or nerves “-drop your fucking weapons, I mean it, I will shoot”

Butcher saunters forwards, hands thrown up in a mockery of surrender.

“Look kid, we’ve dropped all our guns, even chucked my knife in there for ya. Now, do you want to tell us where the fuck you came from and how a fourteen year old girl got a hold of a gun? I knew you yanks were backwards bastards, but this just takes the fucking cake.”

How I got hold of a gun? She thought.She can’t tell them about Joel, hopefully if she just says something, they won't get suspicious and come snooping around. 

“I took it from the body of some dude that used it to blow his brains out. Judging from the note he left, he was infected anyway” that sounded believable, right?

The three of them stared at her like she had just told them she had slaughtered a crate full of kittens. The older American stepped forward slightly, 

“infected? Infected with… what exactly?” 

Are they joking? She thought, first the flash, then the snow, now these three dudes haven't got a fucking clue what the Cordyceps is. 

“Wait” she says, racking her brain for a way to prove to these guys that something weird is going on. 

“What year is it?” Joel says the outbreak happened in 2013, maybe the deer was some sort of alien creature -like in her comic- that sent her back in time. The younger one answered this time, in that confused and nervous tone. 

“Uhm, it’s 2022”  

What. The. Actual. Fuck? This isn't even time travel, this is universe hopping, multidimensional travel. To a universe where the outbreak never happened. This is all she ever wanted; she could live a normal life, go to a normal school, get a normal boring job. But, what about Joel? He’s still unconscious in that basement. Even if he did make it after being impaled by that rebar and her shit attempt to sew him up, how long until the wound gets infected? Or he catches something in his defenceless state. She can't leave him, she needs to get back. 

“Look, this is going to sound weird, but do any of you know anything about a really loud bang and a bright light?” Butcher’s the one that speaks this time 

“Look Kid, do you want to tell us what is going on? You appear out of nowhere covered in snow, shoved a rifle in Hughies’ face, now you are bangin’ on about infected and what year it is. What's that got to do with the explosion Soldier boy caused?” She doesn’t trust these guys, not yet anyway. She needs to get back to Joel, but to do that she needs answers. 

“Listen,I don’t know how I got here and I don’t know why, but I'm not from this universe; and I need to get back. Also, what’s a Soldier Boy?”.

Chapter Text

It’s safe to say that in the last few years, Hughie has been in some fucked up situations. From having A-train running through his girlfriend, to being inside a dead whale. But having a fourteen-year-old who looks like she’s just stepped out of a blizzard point a rifle at him, saying that she’s from a different universe? Yeah, it's not the weirdest thing to happen to him, but it's definitely up there.

“The fuck you talking about a different universe?” Butcher questions the girl, punctuating his words by jabbing a finger at her. 

“Maybe you shouldn't use that kind of language around a kid” Hughie awkwardly tells Butcher. He knows Butcher and the rest of the boys have an… interesting choice of vocabulary. 

“Are you deaf or something Hughie? That kid has been using worse language than I have” Butcher complains, rolling his eyes and gesturing at the girl. 

“Yeah fuck you man, anyway you haven’t answered my question? What’s a Soldier Boy?” 

The girl finally lowers the rifle, pointing it towards the ground, still having her fingers near the trigger. If the tension in her body is anything to go by, then Hughie knows that she definitely doesn't trust them. What if she’s telling the truth about being from a different universe? But what universe would that be? What could be so different from where she is from that a teenager is by herself and holding them at gunpoint?

“Soldier Boy is a supe from the eighties. Everyone thought he was dead, but he’s alive and dangerous; We think he’s here in these woods. You should probably get out of here kid, you could get hurt” MM tells the girl. The parental instincts in him have clearly taken over, Hughie thinks, as he speaks to her in a gentle tone that he has only heard him use around kids. 

“Have you even been fucking listening to me? I can’t leave, I'm stuck here. Whatever that Soldier Boy dude did, it blasted me here. Maybe if I find him, then he could blast me back or something, I don't fucking know.” The girl was pacing now, distressed as she clutched her gun in what Hughie could only describe as a death-grip. 

“I believe you” Hughie tells her, earning him glares from both Butcher and MM. He knew the girl wasn’t insane, as the other two probably thought she was, but she does need their help. 

“Look, why don’t you come with us? We’ll find Soldier Boy, together, and if that doesn't work then we’ll find another way to get you back.” Hughie offers, giving her a reassuring smile. Even if finding Soldier Boy doesn’t help, maybe Annie would know what to do. Perhaps Vought has had hundreds of cases of kids being teleported across the multiverse, who knows? The girl regards him with a sceptical glare, 

“and how do I know that you don’t plan on chopping me up into tiny little chunks and eating me?” she quickly looks Hughie up and down, 

“well them two, at least”. This earns her a snicker from Butcher and MM, of which Hughie tried to brush off. 

“Well, you have our guns - and Butcher’s knife. If you think we're going to pull something, you could easily shoot us.” -another glare from Butcher and MM- 

“But we’re not going to hurt you, you’re safe with us.” 

For a few moments, she didn't say anything. Then she scooped the weapons into her backpack quickly, checking the safety was on all the guns, whilst not taking her eyes off the 

group. Zipping up her backpack, she started walking towards them, rifle still in hand. 

“I’m not happy about this” she exclaims, leaving a few metres between herself and the trio. 

“Yeah me either, Kid” Butcher retorts.

***

She doesn’t trust them. But if this really is a different universe where the outbreak never happened, then there’s no reason for them to want to kill her, right? Still, call her cynical or whatever, but she isn’t giving them any information that they could use against her. They’ve been walking for half an hour now through these woods and there’s still no sight of that Soldier Boy. 

“I don’t think your friend is here, wouldn't we have seen him by now?” She says to the group. Apart from the younger one- Butcher had called him Hughie- throwing her nervous smiles every so often; she has been ignored for the most part by the other two, until now. 

“The kids right, we would have seen him by now. Let’s just go to The Legend’s, we might be able to catch him before he goes wherever he plans to next. So much for your fucking lead MM” Butcher turns to the man in question. 

“Well maybe if we didn't waste our time getting held at gunpoint by a teenager, who thanks to Hughie, we’re now having to babysit, we would have got to him in time.” MM exclaims, pointing at her like she doesn’t still have a rifle in her hands, and all their guns. 

“Fuck you man, I didn’t ask for this!” She yells at him. Yeah she’s offended, she doesn't need ‘babysitting’ as he puts it, she just needs help getting back to Joel.

“She is like a mini Butcher” Hughie mumbles to himself, loud enough that the two in question hear him. They both flip him the finger, ironically proving his point even more. Swapping the rifle to her other hand, she walks towards the group, swinging the gun like an umbrella. 

“So, you said that Soldier Boy is a supe. Someone gonna tell me what a supe is?” Once again, she gets that ‘killed-a-bunch-of-kittens’ stare again. Hughie cleared his throat before answering, 

“A supe is a person with super powers-” Butcher held his hand up before interrupting 

“-So you live in a universe with no supes? No wonder you want to go back so bad, sounds like a fucking eutopia”

“I wouldn't exactly call it that” she mumbles. 

“Pretty sure I've heard of ‘supes’ though. I heard they were all killed at the start of the outbreak.” Joel's definitely mentioned them a few times, especially when they were on their way to Tommy in Jackson. Butcher straightens up and whirls round to face her, 

“So you're telling me that supes are dead where you’re from? How?” A way to kill supes? All supes? Butcher needed to know. 

“I don’t know, it happened years before I was born”. They had started to walk out of the forest now, are they going to a car? Is she finally going to be able to see a city not blown up? She can’t wait.

“Okay, start from the beginning, you’ve mentioned an outbreak, infected, and that all supes are dead . What, are you from a fucking zombie apocalypse then?” Butcher chuckles at the end; it’s implausible, it’s impossible. The dead can’t just rise up and eat people. 

“Yeah, I guess you could call it that, but they aren't zombies. As in not the type that raise from the dead-” she lifted her arms up in a frankenstein pose, rolling her eyes to the back of her head and groaning 

“-braiinnnsssss” she dropped her arms and giggled. Come on, that was funny , she thought. “Well it's not that type of zombie, they’re called infected. The person might not be all-there anymore, but they have no control over their body. They just kill anyone they see” She shrugged, Hughie looked horrified, more so about how nonchalant the girl was about all of this. 

They fell into silence after that, as they made their way out of the woods. She was bored of the silence and her whistling was quickly met with a “shut the fuck up” from Butcher. Joel is much more fun than this. An idea formed in her head, dropping to the floor and sifting through her backpack, she managed to find what she was looking for. 

“Okay, we need to lighten the mood” she says, holding up her copy of ‘No Pun Intended; Volume Too’. A collective groan escaped from the group as she turned to a random page in the book. It was hard doing it one handed since she didn't feel comfortable putting the gun away yet, even if it was big and heavy, maybe she should swap it to one of their pistols? Later, she’s got puns to read right now.

“Okay, Some aquatic mammals at the zoo escaped… It was otter chaos. Otter, get it? because they live in the sea” She giggled, no one responded or acknowledged her pun. Dicks .

“Long fairy tales have a tendency to dragon.”

“My friend’s bakery burned down last night. Now his business is toast.”

“I can’t believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off”

“Becoming a vegetarian is one big mistake- wait no I read that one wrong. “Becoming a vegetarian is one big missed steak.”

“To the guy who invented zero, thanks for nothing.”

“Kid” Butcher said in an exasperated tone. 

“Yeah?” she said, looking up from her book. 

“Shut the fuck up.”

***

“So, where are we going when we get to the car?” She questioned, are they going into the city? Could she finally have a McDonalds? Or see a plane?

“Who said that you are coming with us?” Butcher questioned the teenager. Smirking, she motioned towards Hughie, who had zoned out of the conversation, jumping when all eyes had landed on him. 

“He did,” She said mischievously, Smirking to herself. “Look, I understand that memory loss comes with old age-”

“I’m forty-six you little shit” Butcher retorted.  

When did I let a little kid get under my skin? 

Straightening himself up, Butcher chuckled, 

“Besides, I've got plenty of good years left in me.” Smiling, she turned to face him,

“mmm-hmmm, just keep telling yourself that.”

On the outskirts of the woods, parked at an interesting angle was the car. Well she would barely call it a car, it looked like a pile of junk. Butcher reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, turning to them. 

“You seem disappointed kid, not what you were expecting?” he chuckles, turning to unlock the car doors. 

“I thought it was going to be a super futuristic car. Y’know, flying, shiny; not-” she regards it with a face of disgust,

“This pile of shit, I've seen nicer cars rotting for twenty years in a city that's been bombed.” 

Butcher opens the driver's door, getting into the driver’s seat. Still with a look of disgust, she watched as Hughie and MM clambered into the vehicle, before she opened her door and scooched into the back next to Hughie. Awkwardly, she shoved the rifle back into her backpack, moving one of their pistols into the waistband of her jeans. 

“So, are you going to give us our guns back yet?” MM asked the girl, turning round in the passenger seat to see them in the back. 

“Nope” she said, popping the ‘P’ as she reached to put her seat belt on. MM turns back to the front with a sigh. Teenagers .

“Well, are you going to tell us your name?” Butcher says whilst starting the engine, looking up at her in the rearview mirror. 

Ah shit, she knew this was coming. She doesn't want to give them her name; Joel wouldn’t, so she won’t either. She turns to look out of the window, at the forest she was just in. 

“Nope” She pops the ‘P’ again. Butcher sighs, 

“Well, do you want to give us a name? Just so we can call you something other than ‘girl’ or ‘kid’. That's reserved especially for Hughie,” the man in question gives him a look of annoyance. 

“Especially ‘girl’” Butcher smirks. 

“Hey” Hughie complains, smiling slightly though when the girl laughs.

‘A’ name? Yeah, she’ll give them a name. But what? Shit, she needs to think. It needs to be something she’ll remember, so a name with meaning. Riley maybe? No, too much meaning, too much power. If they find out how much Riley meant to her, then they could use it against her. She needs a middle ground: meaning but not too much meaning.

“Tess”

“ Tess? Is that your final answer? I will warn you though, it will stick until you tell us your actual name.” Butcher says lightheartedly. Pulling off from where he was parked, the car jolts slightly, struggling to plod along with the weight of the people in the vehicle.

Pile of shit, she thinks.

“Yep, Tess. That's the name you’re getting.”

“Well then Tess, whilst we are driving to The Legend’s place, why don’t you tell us all you know about supes in your universe? More specifically, the mass genocide that wiped all the fuckers out.”

She didn’t know much about these ‘supes’. What she did know she learnt from comics that Joel gave her, and the stories Riley would tell her at night and when they would sneak out of their dorm. Riley had told her that one of the powered women that wasn't killed, was actually one of the founders of the Fireflies. The woman was eventually publicly executed, sometime during their lifetime apparently. Man, she wonders what she would’ve thought if she knew how close they were to finding a cure. 

Would Riley have been proud?

“Well, they’re all dead. Most were killed in the beginning, the rest later on. Never heard of them being referred to as ‘supes’ though.”

“What do you know them as?” Hughie asked.

“Just… ‘Powered’ or ‘Person with powers’. Guess they lost the ‘Superhero’ status when the outbreak happened.” She shrugs, “I heard the world leaders didn't want to risk them getting infected. My friend told me they were given a choice: lose their powers, or die.”

“Most supes have bullet proof skin, how would an infected bite them?” MM questioned, once again turning to face her in the back.

“Well, no-one knows how the virus started, but it was believed to have started from the crops. Anyone can eat, so they thought anyone could turn. You think having an infected run at you is bad? Imagine them flying at you- wait can supes actually fly?”

“One fucker can,” Butcher spat.

“So fucking cool” She stated, staring out the window. They hadn’t seen any other cars yet since they’re in the middle of nowhere but she can see the main road approaching. Holy shit, they are going to be in the city soon! No overgrown trees sprouting up from the ground, no crumbling buildings. Just a real city full of people that weren’t trying to kill her, and cars. Maybe cars do fly now and Butcher was just fucking with her?

Undoing her seatbelt, she leaned forward until she could grasp at the driver’s seat Butcher was sitting on, causing the older man to jump and curse at the teenager.

“Wait, can we go to McDonalds?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because if we don’t go to The Legend’s now, then we won’t know where Soldier Boy plans to go after.”

“Okay, but can we go to McDonalds after?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I fucking said so!”

“But i’m hungry”

“Don’t care”

“Come onnnnnnn, I’ve never been before”

“Wait, Tess has never been before? Come on Butcher, we’ve got to take her to McDonalds.”

“Stay out of this Hughie”

“No, listen to Hughie, you need to take me to McDonalds. You agree don’t you MM?”

“Don’t get me involved in this.”

“Alright, if I say that I'll take you to McDonalds after we find Soldier Boy, will you promise to shut up?"

“Maybe”

“Thank fuck for that” Butcher mumbles, pulling out of the junction onto the main road that leads back into the city. For a few minutes there was blissful silence and Butcher allowed his mind to wander for a bit as he relaxed into the driving. With just the rumble of the engine, he could imagine that it was just him and Becca driving along the countryside. He misses her all the time, but times like this, he especially misses her smile and her laugh. God, that laugh could light up a-

“Tess, silence means no whistling either.”

“ Dick”

“Seatbelt on, or no Maccies for you later.” Deciding that the girl needs a bit of culturing, Butcher reaches down and fiddles with the control panel on the dashboard as he hears Tess pop her seatbelt back in. Once he finds what he is after, he turns the volume up and relaxes back into the driver's seat. Satisfied as the lyrics to ‘Wannabe’ blast through the car.

Chapter Text

“So, who is The Legend? Is he a supe?” Tess asks, jogging up the stairs behind them. Hughie thought it was quite heartwarming when he saw her reaction to the city. She had a huge smile plastered on her face the whole journey with pure, unadulterated excitement. Even when they were stuck in traffic.

“You seem happy” Hughie had told her with a smile,

“Dude, do you hear all that noise? And there’s no infected! Look at all those people, they’re just going about their normal lives! So fucking lucky.”

Smiling, Hughie had watched her bound out the car, leaving her backpack on the backseat- of which MM deposited in the trunk- and ran towards the door to the building; blissfully unaware of the New Yorkers she had just inconvenienced with her barging.

It’s the little things you take for granted, you know.

“Nah, he’s not a supe.” Butcher says, as MM knocks on the door to the apartment.

“Then what the fuck is he then? Why is he so important in helping us find Soldier Boy?” Tess complains, scuffing her boots against the hardwood floor impatiently.

“Just leave it!” The voice of an old man calls from the other side of the door.

“What?” MM calls back confused.

“Leave the goddamn clams casino at the door!”

“This ain’t Grubhub, motherfucker. Open up.”

The door unlocks revealing the man that Tess assumes must be The Legend. Greying hair indicating he is probably in his sixties or seventies, he takes a quick drag of his cigar before he realises who was standing in front of him.

“Marvin?” he says with a shocked laugh, he chuckles “Hey” as he brings the man in for a hug. He then notices Butcher, gesturing towards him with the cigar. He exclaims,

“I see you still got this piece of dog shit stuck to your boot” He took a drag from the cigar.

Butcher regards him with a fondness Hughie is unused to hearing Butcher use; It’s almost unnerving.

The Legend then casted his eyes down at the 5 '3 teenager besides Butcher. Flitting his eyes between her and the British man, he takes another drag before using the cigar to gesture at them. 

“So, is this your love child or something then, Butcher?” he asks.

Butcher seems to splutter at this, for once in his life not being prepared with a sarcastic or witty comeback. Luckily for him, Tess decides to step in,

“In his fucking dreams” she says rolling her eyes. Yet in the corner of her eye, she noted the way Butcher’s body relaxes, breathing a subtle sigh of relief. This comment causes The Legend to laugh, taking another drag from his cigar.

“She’s definitely yours” he mutters with a shake of his head. 

“This is Tess,” MM says, gesturing at her. He then gestures to the other person in their group,

“And this is Hughie, do you know who this is?” 

Hughie in turn goes to answer, but the lack of an answer causes the words not to leave his mouth,he shakes his head slightly ‘no’. Tess turns to him with an incredulous look,

“Come on man, it’s all they’ve been on about the entire way here”- she throws her hands up to create the gesture of chatting with her hands. Looking at each one as she mimics Butcher’s british accent “-The Legend this-” then MM’s American accent “-The Legend that”

“He doesn’t know who I am? Read a fucking book, kid. Even Mini-Butcher knows who I am.” The Legend states offendedly, yet he casts Tess a look of respect.

MM turns to Hughie, gesturing towards the older man,

“This…this is The Legend”

“ No Shit”

“Oi Tess, pack it in.”

“That’s, uh, quite a nickname” Hughie replies. In all honesty, Hughie didn’t realise this was The Legend. He didn’t know what he was expecting, maybe a supe like Tess had asked about earlier? Maybe he was expecting someone more mysterious, like Black Noir? This guy just seemed so laid-back, and friendly. He clearly knows Butcher and MM well, Hughie just thought this guy was The Legend’s fun-uncle or something, not The Legend!

“No, It’s not a name. It’s a level.” The man in question said, using his hands to mime the rising in hierarchy. MM goes to speak,

“Legend we need to talk”

“Not him”

“He’ll behave, you’ve got my word.” Butcher gave The Legend what she would describe to be his ‘Shit Eating Smirk’.

“This is important, and you owe me.”

Grumbling in defeat, The Legend walks back into his apartment, the act of giving no answer in being their signal to enter. MM and Hughie entered first, Tess decided to hang back though.

“You good man?” she asks Butcher, who seemed to be lost in thought.

“Never fucking better” he replies, forcing a quick grin on his face as he gestures for her to walk through the door first.

***

Okay now she’s bored.

The other three were sitting on this dude’s couch, talking about celebrities that she has never heard of. Groaning, she paces the room, swinging her arms in boredom. I thought a world with no infected was meant to be fun, she starts picking things up off the shelf as their conversation dwindled on. Seeing a weird looking glass ornament, she picks it up, rotating it in her hand to get a better-

“Shit!”

The shards of glass exploded across the room as the ornament shattered on the ground. MM was the one to jump out of his seat to check the damage. Call it parental instincts, but he had a gut feeling something bad was going to happen when a teenager was bored and curious. 

“Tess be careful! Did you cut yourself?” He quickly checks the girl over with his eyes; no injuries. For the briefest of moments, he sees the way the girl grasps the sleeve of her forearm pulling it down and over her hand. It's probably just a scared response to glass shattering, but still, weird.

“I’m fine, besides I've had worse anyway,” The girl respondes. MM sighs when he sees that the ornament is unsalvageable. He turns to The Legend,

“Was that expensive?” He questions dejectedly, knowing that he can’t afford to reimburse the man if it was anyway.

“Nothing that can’t be replaced” he says, making a gesture to MM and the girl to sit down and leave the mess. 

As she sat down, she noticed the little packet that had been in The Legends hand throughout the exchange. The man then opened it to reveal a white powder, casually snorting the substance.

“He was here, wasn’t he?” MM asked him.

The Legend ignored him, humming an offering of the substance to Hughie, of whom seemed caught off-guard by the question.

“Oh,no, I’m-I’m good. I’m-I’m full. Of cocaine” Hughie stammers. Accepting the answer, he turns to offer it to her.

“Holy shit, yeah” she reaches out to grab the packet.

“Not happening”

“Come onnnn, Butcher”

“You’re fourteen”

“Got to start them young”

“Nope, its not fucking happening. Do you want a maccies or not?”

“Ugh fine”

The conversation then got too boring for her, but she did pick up on what The Legend actually is, or was. Something about being a retired VP of something at a place called… Vought? She’s heard Joel talk about them, they were a superhero company, made people with powers into A-list celebrities. Well, she thinks , they ‘are’ now… not ‘were’.

“Legend, Soldier Boy came to see you, I need to know what he said.” MM asks slowly, as if talking to a child.

“What, are you crazy? Marvin, he’s a fucking doornail”

MM and The Legend exchanged conversation for a bit whilst she zoned out. Has time stopped in her universe? Speeded up or slowed down? Is it the same? 

Is Joel Okay?

“Don’t worry. Soldier Boy’s not gonna trace this back to you. Trust me.”

“Oh, Trust you. Like I trusted him?”

The Legend then proceeds to show his prosthetic leg that… Butcher managed to cause?

“You can’t trust a man like that!” The Legend states, pointing his prosthetic leg at Butcher.

“I do,” She says, earning her shocked looks from everyone in the room. Especially Butcher, whose mouth twitches upwards slightly for the briefest of moments.

“He could have left me or killed me, same with Hughie and MM; fuck knows I would have if I were them.What i’m trying to say is, if you’re going to take anyones word about this, then take mine; you can trust him, and you can trust them.”

The Legend nods, popping his prosthetic leg back in as he tells them about Soldier Boy. He blabbers on in his drugged-up state, but she hears him say something about a beard and not ageing? This guy sounds fucking weird .

“Why was Soldier Boy here?”

“Came to pick up his super suit. I held onto it. You know me, I’m sentimental.” 

What do people even get from McDonalds? Joel says it’s mainly burgers and fries. She heard him talk about ‘Big Macs’ a lot, yeah she’s going to get one of them. And something called a McNugget.

“He also came for his girlfriend’s address. He’s headed there.”

Fucking finally, she thinks, We know where he is. I can get some antibiotics, he can blast me back then I can save Joel, we’ll go to the fireflies and they can make the cure. Then no more infected, ever again.

“...But mostly, get the fuck out of here.”

“Alright, come on Tess, we’re leaving”

“Where are we going?” she asks Butcher as she follows them out the apartment door.

“We’re going to Soldier Boys misses’s place, it’s not too far a drive.”

“Okay” she says, turning to MM now as they walk back down the stairs 

“So your name is Marvin?”

“Yeah, MM is just what everyone calls me”

“Huh, I just assumed your parents were big fans of that old rapper”

“Old rapper?... No, that’s Eminem.”

“Then why do people call you MM?”

“It’s my initials; Marvin Milk, MM”

“Milk? Your surname is milk, that’s sounds fucking stupid”

“What, like yours is any better ?”

“I Don’t really have one, but the FEDRA orphanage that I grew up in did call me by one. It’s just a normal surname though.“ Shit, was that too much information?

They fell into an awkward silence then as they exited the building and started walking back to where they parked the car. She was still in awe of the city, it was just so beautiful. All the lights, all the noise, she even loved the fucking sound the car horns made every five-seconds. As they got to the alley where their car was parked, MM turned back to her,

“You’re not going to tell us what your surname is, are you?”

She decided not to answer, instead she just pulled her backpack back out of the trunk of the car-noticing it wasn’t where she left it on the back seat before- her hand ghosted over the pistol in her waistband under her jacket. Hughie pipes up this time,

“But back there, you said you trusted us” he states in a confused tone

She avoids their eye contact, instead fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket; the one covering her bite.

“We needed Soldier Boy’s location, I said what I needed to say to get the information.”

She wants to trust them, they haven’t given her a reason not to… but they also haven’t given her a reason to . She just keeps asking herself what would Joel do? It was so much easier with Sam and Henry; they had a kid, so they could be trusted. This universe is so confusing.

MM sighs, putting the phone down, he’d been trying to call someone during her conversation with Hughie, Butcher had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout all of this, instead sifting through the contents of the trunk of the car. 

“Frenchie’s not answering, Kimiko’s out of commission, Soldier Boy’s already got a head start. We’re gonna need some backup.”

“And here it is,” Butcher states, having found and unzipped the bag he was looking for.The was a small case in the bag, containing needles and.. Green liquid?

“I thought you were out” MM exclaims, giving Butcher a disappointed stare.

“Nipped into the Duane Reade, got some more didn’t I?”

They continued to talk about the substance, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Hughie staring at it, almost as if in a trance. She turns to him, though he still hasn’t noticed her.

“What is this shit?”

“Oh, uhm- it’s ‘Temp V’, it turns you into a supe, for 24 hours”

“Holy shit, you’re fucking with me dude, no way is that real.”

“It is… trust me”

She was going to make a comment about how dejected Hughie sounded in that last bit, but then she saw him look up at Butcher and MM, suddenly very interested in their conversation

“...They ain’t drawing no line”

“Which is why we’ve got to.”

“I’m in, give me some.” they all turn to him in shock.

“Kid, didn’t you just hear a goddamn word I said?”

She notices how Hughie stammers over his words, trying to convince them. If the powers are going to help him, then he definitely needs it. 

She needs it.

“Lad can think for himself,” Butcher states, handing Hughie one of the little capsules holding the green liquid.

“Me too” She says, turning to Butcher, he looks uncomfortable at her request, as if he didn’t want to respond. He eventually shook his head, muttering a quick,

“No”

“Why do you keep telling me I can’t do something, like you’re my dad or something? You’re not, I met you a few fucking hours ago. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you, I'm taking it.”

“Listen here kid, because that’s what you are, a fucking kid. As the adult here, I'm telling you you’re not taking it, end of story.”

“Why can he take it? You clearly care about him and yet he can take it, so it can’t be that bad.”

“Just get in the fucking car were leaving!”

Making a sound of annoyance, she storms up to the back door of the car, getting into the car before slamming it shut. Butcher rolls his eyes at the display, but feels his shoulders physically relax when she doesn’t argue about taking the Temp V. Shaking his head, he hears her sighs of annoyance from the backseat of the vehicle. Teenagers.

Chapter Text

“Oi, you gonna cheer up anytime soon”

Butcher looks at the sulking teenager through the rear view mirror, sighing, he pulls up outside Crimson Countess’s place. He knows he isn’t in the wrong; it’s Temp V, it’s dangerous. Hughie is a grown lad, he can think for himself, make his own decisions. Besides, their going into the fucking lion’s den, they need all the luck they can get. And luck isn’t a powered up fourteen year old, who swears like a sailor and doesn’t trust them enough to even tell them her real name.

“Alright, Tess, stop being mardy, we need our guns back” Butcher sighs, unclipping his seatbelt to turn and talk to the girl. She still isn’t looking at him, her gaze going out of the window towards the Countess’s place. Butcher watched her face as she squinted her eyes in confusion, finally turning her head towards the older man.

“Mardy?” 

“Fuck knows kid, it’s some sort of Britsh slang.” MM replies, shaking his head as he leaned over to undo his seat belt.

“But he’s right, we do need our guns back.”

“You think that I don’t know you’ve got more in the trunk?”

“Yeah, well I like that one, so”- Butcher gave her a ‘hand it over gesture’ with his hand “Come on.”

Butcher noticed how she lowered her face away from them, the slight twitch of her facial muscles being the only visible indication of her internal dilemma. Sighing dramatically, she unzips her bag, pulling out one of the pistols and placing it in his hands hesitantly. She makes a show of staring at him with a hard glare when he gestures for her to pass the other. Okay, one gun was better than neither of them, Butcher thinks, as he gets out of the car and walks round to the trunk. And if it makes her feel safe- He opens the trunk, stopping his trail of thought - when the fuck did I become such a push over?

“Hughie, you stay with Tess. MM, come and help me with the Countess.”

MM grumbles an agreement, getting out the car to meet Butcher by the Countess’s place. The British man had already collected the other firearms from the car and hands one of the pistols to MM as he approaches.

Hughie sits awkwardly in the vehicle next to the girl, twiddling his thumbs in his lap as he tries to think of a way to start a conversation. 

“I wasn’t lying before” he states, as the girl turns to face him. He couldn’t pinpoint her exact expression, but there was tension and stress in her features that just shouldn’t be present on someone so young.

“We aren’t going to hurt you. I have no idea what… messed up situations you have been in in your universe, that you feel like you can’t trust anyone. But believe me, when I tell you that we won’t hurt you.”

“Why should I believe you?” The girl says, there’s a heaviness to her voice that Hughie has never noticed before, like she’s carrying the fate of the world on her shoulders. 

“Well er…” Hughie sputters, trying to form a justifiable answer. He shakes his head,

 “In all honesty, I haven’t really got a reason why. But, they were there for me, when no one else was. When I lost… the person I loved, it felt like the world was against me; like no one was truly on my side or who saw what happened my way. They did. We have been in some messed up situations together, but we went into them together, and came out of them together. We're like a… an extremely dysfunctional family.”

“A family?” she questions incredulously.

“I did say extremely dysfunctional”

“Alright then, who is everyone in this ‘family’?”

“MM is the responsible dad who is a bit of a neat freak, I’m the kid who knows all about technology.”

“Butcher?”

“He’s like the British uncle, who only turns up to family events, gets drunk and into fights and manages to set fire to the rug. Kimiko - wait you haven’t met her yet, but you’ll love her - she’s like, the quiet cousin who everyone loves and just plays with the family dog. Frenchie - you haven't met him yet either - he’s like the french cousin, who is always high but who also solves all the arguments. Then there’s you… the moody teenager”

“Fuck you, man” she laughs, flipping him the finger. Hughie laughs with her.

“Oh and there’s Terror, Butcher’s dog, he’s the family dog.”

“Holy shit, you have a dog, and you're only now just telling me?”

They heard a commotion from inside the condo. Butcher then emerges, holding a thumb up to them, grinning. Hughie muttered something about that being “their cue” and hopped out the car. She followed closely behind, pulling the pistol out of the waistband of her jeans. MM mentioned that some supes are bullet proof, but he didn’t say all of them are. She watches as MM hands something to Hughie,

“We’re sure halothane will work?”

“Looked that way in the Reds’ video. We knock him out, we keep him out, then we figure out what to do with him.”

“And then-”

“Yes Tess, then you get your Maccies” Butcher smirked, happy to see that the teenager had cheered up a bit.

“I need antibiotics” She says quickly to the group. “Before soldier boy… fucking blasts me back or whatever.”

“What do you need antibiotics for?” Hughie asks in concern, he definitely hadn’t noticed her with any infection before. 

“I just…need some medicine that will get rid of infections”

“Alright kid, we’ll pick you some up on the way back,” Butcher says to her, noticing the relieved look on her face.

She watches as they sort through the artillery in their bags, as she fiddles with the pistol in her hand. It's just a soft crinkle of leaves on the ground, but it's enough to put her paranoid brain on alert as she whips round, flicking off the safety and pointing her gun at the person approaching the group. She was a petite blonde woman, couldn't have been that much taller than her. There was something weirdly familiar about her, the name falling off her tongue through the pristine haze of the woman. Maybe if she had a few more scars and less softness to her features, then she would have known who she was. 

“Put your fucking hands where I can see them!”

The trio whip around to see the commotion, MM and Butcher instinctively pulling their guns out. Hughie is the first one to fully process who the fourteen year old was threatening, stretching his arm out to put himself in between the gun and the woman. 

“Woah, woah woah Tess, it's fine, it's fine! This is my girlfriend Annie.” Hughie gestures towards the woman- Annie - again, there’s something familiar about that name.

“Annie, this is Tess. Well, her name’s not actually Tess, she won’t tell us her actual name. But, yeah, this is Tess, she- we found her. “

“You- found her? Where are her parents?” Annie demands, turning towards her significant other before looking at the girl. The girl shrugged, frowning in an exaggerated manner to show her lack of answer. Annie sighs, turning back to Hughie.

“What are you doing here anyway, Annie?”

“MM called me.”

“Did he?”

“Just told her we might need some backup. That’s all.”

Okay this just got awkward. She thinks, lowering her gun as Hughie and Annie bickered about how dangerous this was. Absent-mindedly, she rubbed the bitemark over her sleeve, grounding her to the realities of the danger they’re going into. Immune, not immortal.

“Oi, you lot, take your little tiff somewhere else. We're on the job here.” Butcher told the pair. Hughie scooted him and Annie away from the group to talk, leaving Tess with Butcher and MM. Butcher took a swig of his bottle of water, looking up at the girl and scolding himself for not bringing another plastic bottle for her. Wiping the top of it, he points it towards her, silently questioning if she wants some.

“Thanks” she mutters, taking the bottle from his hand, taking a few swigs before wiping the top and handing it back to him. Moving to sit down next to the pair, she laughs slightly to herself, earning her a look from the two of them. 

“You know, I was about to say the same fucking thing to them; to get a room, I mean.”

Butcher chuckles, taking another drink from the water,

“Great minds think alike.”

He turns to the girl as she swings her legs back and forth on the edge she was perched on.

“Why do you want to go back so bad, kid?”

She looks up at him, shaking her head as she goes to answer-

Butcher’s geiger counter suddenly started clicking, the sound progressing into a low humming sound. MM got to his feet, only to fall back down. She stood up quickly,

“Shit MM, are you okay?” she asks, shaking his shoulders. She looks up at Butcher who's doing… nothing?

“The fuck man, why arent you helping?” she screams at Butcher, as MM grunts and lunges towards the man.

“What’d you do?” He pants, grasping onto Butcher’s coat.

“I know you never gonna forgive me, but you left me no choice.”

“Why?”

“I can’t draw no line, M. Not with what I've got to do. I’m sorry, you’ll be alright in the morning.”

Butcher lowers MM towards the ground gently as the other man begins to fall unconscious. He feels something smacking against his arm, turning, he sees the girl battering his arm with her fists, yelling profanities at him. 

“Listen kid, do you wanna go back or not? Because MM here would’ve tried to kill Soldier Boy on the spot. Now, keep your gun on ya, keep quiet, and stay close to me; I won’t let anyone hurt ya. I promise.”

She nods quickly in agreement, looking up as a man in a green suit and holding a shield walks up to them. Holy shit, it’s actually a superhero! Despite everything she’s been through the last day, being teleported across the multiverse and all, there was a small part of her that doubted this was all real. Like it was her mind playing some sort of sick joke on her. Heck, that everyone was lying and the universe she was transported to didn’t have powered people at all. But standing in front of her was an actual superhero, from way before the year 2000 let alone before the outbreak! Man, Joel would flip right now if he was here. She thought.

“You’re that asshole from the lab” he says to Butcher, either he hasn’t seen her or is choosing to straight up ignore her. Butcher saunters forward, his body language matching that of when he first met her.

“That’s right, I'm the arsehole that let ya out.”

Butcher then goes on to tell Soldier Boy about the Countess being tied up in the condo. Explains all that noise earlier , she thinks. Butcher then motions for her to stay where she is, as he walks towards Soldier Boy even more.

“I was thinking that you and I could come to a little arrangement. What you lot call, a team up.” Butcher smirks, watching Soldier Boy’s face as he considers the proposition. His eyes then wander to Tess behind him, like he’s just noticed her as he squints his eyes in confusion.

“Ignore the teenager with a gun” Butcher sighs as he sees her raise the pistol to point at the hero out of the corner of his eyes. 

“Kid, lower your gun, he’s bullet proof” He focuses his attention on Soldier Boy again, gesturing towards the condo. 

“She’s in there, go on, have at it son.”

Soldier Boy quickly nods his head, turning to stride towards the condo. Butcher steps forward, putting himself between the man and Tess. The door closes and it’s just the two of them again.

“Help me move MM, will ya?” he asks her, grabbing the unconscious man by the armpits. She grabs his legs, as they move him further away from the condo. Call him sceptical, but after Soldier Boy’s incident earlier, he isn't convinced that this is going to be a happy reunion of two long lost lovers.

“I've got someone who needs me, he’s hurt really bad; sick. “ She sighs, holding her arm, “to answer your question from before.”

Butcher smiles at the girl, a genuine smile. He doesn't know why he is happy that the girl is starting to trust him. He’s known this girl for barely a day, he doesn't really care if people he's known for years trust him. And yet the slightest sign that this teenager trusts him has him smiling like a kid at Christmas. Maybe he sees himself in her? Fuck knows-He hears it, a rumbling sound that starts to resemble that of a jet engine. Butcher’s smile falters and falls as he realises what was happening.

“Tess!”

Butcher throws himself around the girl, using his body to shield her from the blast. Luckily they were far enough away to not get burnt or injured from it. Once it was over, Butcher lets go, seeing the look of shock on the girl's face at the burning building. Through the smoke, she sees the Countess’s body. Now, seeing a dead body is a daily occurrence for her now, but this body was burnt . It was a fucking skeleton, her flesh melted to the bone. This is what Soldier Boy’s blast did, it didn’t zap the Countess to another universe, it killed her.

How was she going to get back now?

Butcher looks at her and sees that thought plastered across her face.

“We’ll find another way, Tess.” He tells her, looking up as Hughie and Annie run towards them. 

“Its Ellie, by the way.” 

Butcher smiles quickly to himself, progress, he thinks. Hughie and Annie have run up to them now, her eyes falling on MM.

“What happened? Is he hurt”

“Keep an eye on him. He’s had four or five mgs of Rohypnol.”

“You fucking roofied him?!”

They hear footsteps approaching from the burning building as Soldier Boy emerges from the rubble, unscathed. Ellie looks at Annie as a quick flash of fear passes across her face. She quickly composes herself before staring at Soldier Boy with a hard glare. Her eyes glowing white- wait.

“When you're lost in the darkness, look for the light.” Ellie whispers to herself, suddenly piecing together where she knows the woman from. No one seems to hear her, too caught up with making sure Annie doesn’t try to kill Soldier Boy. Butcher motions for Ellie to follow him and the hero. She does, looking back at the couple as Hughie argues with one of the founders of the Fireflies.

*** 

Ellie walks ahead of Butcher as he hangs back to wait for Hughie. The man in question runs forward, a look of guilt on his face. They walk in the direction of the car, Butcher telling Hughie how they ‘finally know her name’. 

It’s a sound that she’s become very familiar with in the last six months. She shushes the men, pulling out her pistol and surveying the area. Then it emerges, it’s body contorting in a way that no body ever should. It screeches, stumbling forwards as the fungus exploding out of it’s head has long removed it’s ability to see.

A fucking Clicker.

Chapter Text

Its safe to say that in the last few years, Hughie has been in some fucked up situations. Having a person with fungus growing out of it’s head who has also lost the ability to see jump on top of him, trying to rip his throat out? Yeah… it’s not the weirdest thing to happen to him, but it’s definitely up there.

Top five give-or-take.

A few moments before

Hughie goes to ask Ellie what is wrong but is given an aggressive shake of the head and finger to her lips. Then he sees the creature, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! He feels the blood run from his face as mouth falls agape. He looks up as Ellie gestures to him and Butcher, she makes a walking motion with her fingers then points at the creature. He gives a look of confusion which is met by a silent but frustrated sigh. Sneak up behind it she mouths, repeating the actions again. She then acts mimes a stabbing motion before pointing at her own neck. Ah, Hughie gets it now. Sneak up behind it, stab it in the neck.  

With a nod of agreement to Butcher, the two of them sneak around the back of the creature. Butcher pulls out another knife from his trench coat - not the one that Ellie currently still has- and passes one to Hughie before pulling another one out for him. Ellie aims her gun at the thing, silently releasing the safety. Okay, Hughie thinks, They can do this. Him and Butcher are almost in arms length of it now-

“The fuck is that thing?”

FUCKING SOLDIER BOY! Butcher leaps backwards, just as the creature whips around, straining it’s vocal cords with it’s screeching. Hughie wasn’t quick enough, falling backwards as the creature landed on top of him. Screaming, Hughie uses his arms to hold the creature and its gnashing jaws away from him. Once the initial fear wasn’t clouding his thoughts, Hughie teleports himself away from the creature and behind a large tree. 

Ellie and Joel have dealt with these fuckers hundreds of times over the last six months, but she’s never done it without Joel before. What would Joel do? After watching Hughie narrowly miss getting bitten or his throat ripped out by the clicker, Ellie watches it fall into the space where Hughie was, before scrambling up and flinging its arms around trying to find them. Just as her fingers ghost over the trigger to shoot it, she sees two thin lasers pierce through the air and just miss the infected. The noise the lasers make get’s the clickers attention as it starts clambering towards Butcher. 

Butcher’s starting to get used to his lasers that come with using Temp V. Well, he is when it comes to people, since their movements are predictable. But this thing? He’s ashamed to admit that each of his lasers have managed to miss it. Just as he goes to slice the thing with his lasers like fucking Homelander does, he is startled by the sound of a gunshot, watching as it hits the creature in the head

Then another, then another, then another, then another, then another, then another.

The thing is on the floor, Ellie’s had emptied a whole fucking clip into it, eventually it got past the creatures armour on it’s face and killed it. Butcher looks down and sees the blood pooling out from the things head, almost black in colour, as it begins to seep into the dirt below. Butcher looks up at the girl as she lowers her gun. He shakes his head,

“You know what I'm about to fucking ask” 

“That was a Clicker. It's what happens when someones been infected for a year” Ellie replies, walking back towards Butcher again.

“ That was a person?” Hughie’s voice pipes up. Ellie couldn’t see him at first but then sees his face peek out from behind a tree. Ellie calls out to him,

“Check your arms! Make sure it didn't bite you anywhere”

“It’s all good, think I managed to get out of there just in time”

Hughie still peeps out from behind the tree. Butcher sighs,

“Come on Lad, it's safe now.”

“No, no, I-I think i’m going to stay here for a bit”

“Hughie, why aren’t you coming out?”

“Uhm, when I teleported, I lost… my clothes”

“Well come and get them then”

“All-all of my clothes”

“Hughie, you fucking killed Translucent and this is when you care about decency?”

“Yep, I’m drawing the line somewhere… and that is exposing myself to a teenager. Could you just bring me my clothes?”

“I don’t know dude, their covered in Clicker blood”

“Ellie’s right, Hughie, you’ll just have to teleport back to the car, there’s spare clothes in the boot.”

Butcher chucked the keys towards the tree Hughie was hiding behind. Ellie watched as Hughie’s arm shot out from behind the tree and grabbed the car keys before shouting a quick “thanks” and something about getting the car heated up. Butcher turns to Ellie once Hughie had gone,

“How do we know if there's any more are coming?”

“Well, the fact we aren’t dead would mean no more are coming. They run towards wherever they hear sound.”

Suddenly remembering the other person in their group, Ellie turned round and saw Soldier Boy with a bored expression plastered across his face. The man held a cigarette to his mouth, Butcher’s packet in his other hand - fuck knows where or how he got that - as he inhaled the smoke. Ellie shook her head in disgust,

“What the fuck man, why didn't you help us?!” she yelled, flinging her arm out to indicate towards the dead infected. Soldier Boy shrugs nonchalantly, taking another drag of his cigarette before putting it out on the floor with his boot.

“Was going to, but you guys seemed to have it handled.”

“Well next time you use your powers and blast another one here, use that fucking shield or something. They still die like humans at this stage, just takes a bit of extra work” Ellie spits out, turning to resume walking back to the car in a huff. I’m not fucking sitting next to him.

“What do you mean? Are you saying my powers caused this” she heard Soldier Boy call to her, she turns to respond but notices that the man has about caught up to her. Butcher trails behind, ambling back at his own pace. However, Ellie notices the tension in his body and the way he keeps his eyes fixed on Soldier Boy; as if he doesn't trust the man.

“Uhm yeah, your glowy powers fucking blasted me across the multiverse.”

“So you’re not from here?” Ellie thought that he was way too calm for someone who just got told they could rip holes through the multiverse.

“Nope” she stated, she can see the car in the distance now, with an awkward looking Hughie sitting in the passenger seat sideways, door open with his legs sticking out.

“I take it you’re from whatever universe that thing, what did you call it, a Clicker, was from?”

Ellie hummed a reply of confirmation. Just before they reached the car, she turned to him.

“You knew all this already, didn’t you?”

“No.” Soldier Boy said with a shake of his head, “I didn't know my powers could do that. But I knew they experimented with multiversal travel. Sometimes, they even tried to test it on me, but who would have fucking thought it would actually work?”

Ellie was briefly stunned into silence, a million questions running through her head. There was so much she wanted to say; wanted to ask.

“So why my universe?”

“It was the eighties, guess they wanted to see what the future could be like.” Soldier boy said with a shrug.

“Who-”

“Everyone into the car. Hughie you're in the back with the kid, we’ve got a quick stop to make first then off to the cheapest motel we can find.” Butcher bellows out the commands to the group, swinging his body into the driver’s seat. Ellie scooches into the back of the car next to Hughie, taking in the atrocity of the man’s outfit. Clearly he was uncomfortable being naked in public, but come one, if you are going to throw clothes on at least choose clothes that match!  

With a jolt, the car’s engine jumped to life. The car somehow managed to struggle even more compared to this morning as it toodled along the road. Staring out the window, Ellie couldn't help but think how the world looked beautiful; artificial but so mesmerising. She felt like she could spend the rest of her life staring at the multicoloured lights.

“Get some shut eye, Ellie. We’ve got a little while until we get to where we’re going,” Butcher whispered, Ellie then realised the other two were also dozing in their seats. She nodded, resting her head against the window, listening to the rumble of the engine and the people in the outside world.

***

“Alright everyone, rise and shine, we're here.”

Hughie and Soldier Boy grumbled in annoyance of their abrupt awakening. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Ellie yawned as she sat up, expecting them to be outside a gas station or something. Then she sees the fluorescent yellow arches.

“Holy shit! We’re actually getting McDonalds?”

“Promised, didn't I? What do you want, kid?”

“Uhm… a Big Mac! And a McNugget”

Nodding his head, Butcher pulls the car into drive thru, winding the window down by the microphone.

“Right, can I get… four, wait, better make that five Big macs, four large fries, one medium fries, nine piece McNuggets, and a hamburger happy meal?”

The was a sound of confirmation from the server, Hughie leaned forward to talk to Butcher,

“No drinks?”

“Bottles of water in my bag if you’re thirsty lad.”

Butcher pulled the brown paper bag through the window, shouting a “thanks” to the cashier as he pulled into the car park so they could eat. 

“Alright, Soldier Boy, two Big Macs for you and two large fries - supe metabolism - Kid, here’s your Big Mac and McNuggets, got you some fries too . And Hughie, since you’re a growing lad-” Butcher grinned mischievously ”-Here’s your happy meal”.

Hughie flipped Butcher the finger, the other man chuckled as he chucked the Big Mac and large fries at him.

“ Holy shit, this is amazing!” Ellie exclaimed in delight, the flavours were so unnatural and she could feel the burger slicking her hand with grease, but she didn’t care. The food was warm and tasted so good.

“Everything you thought it would be?” Butcher asked the girl.

Ellie hummed in agreement, polishing off her burger and starting on the McNuggets and fries. Looking over at Hughie, she watched him dip the fries in some kind of red sauce. 

“Can I try?” she asked him, indicating to the pot. Nodding his head and making a noise of agreement, Ellie reached over and dipped a fry in the sauce before eating it.

“Man, every time I saw one of these buildings, I always wondered what it was like. I still can’t believe I actually just ate a McDonalds, fresh food that didn’t come from a long-life can!”

“‘Fresh’ is a bit of a stretch”

“Right, we’ve had food now, our next stop is whatever motel I'm willing to pay for. Could be morning by the time we find one so I’d catch a few winks before we get there.”

“Want me to drive for a bit, Butcher?”

“Hughie, take this in the most nicest way possible, but I'd rather shit in my hands and clap than ever get in a car with you behind the wheel.”

***

They reach the motel by the early hours of the morning, having made another stop as Soldier Boy had demanded they get him some ‘proper’ fast food and stuff, not ‘the crap they just gave him’.

Ellie trailed behind the group as they walked into the motel room. It wasn’t the best place she had ever seen, but hey, the walls weren’t crumbling and there was no wildlife so not the worst place she’s ever had to stay in. As Hughie and Butcher turned to collect the bags out of the car, Ellie turned to Soldier Boy, who had sat down at the kitchen table, having just changed out of his superhero costume.

“You didn’t answer me before, about who experimented with multiversal travel. I mean, if you can’t send me back, maybe whoever gave you the powers could."

Soldier Boy sat there in silence for a moment, Ellie opened her mouth to repeat herself, just in case he didn't hear her question.

“It was Vought.”

Chapter Text

There was so much she wanted to ask. 

She wanted to know why? If they wanted to know about time travel, why her universe? Why not just go into their future? She wanted to know how they did it? How did they break the multiverse? How did they not fuck it up and end up creating a portal or something where hundreds of infected swarm this world and destroy it like they did hers? She wanted to know why him? Why does he have the ability to blast people into another universe?

But she sees the uncomfortable look on his face as he turns his head away after answering her question. So she’s not going to ask any of those questions. She pulls out one of the wooden chairs at the table.

“So, why are you called ‘Soldier Boy’” Ellie questioned, pulling her switch knife out of her pocket and twirling it in her hand absentmindedly. Soldier boy shrugged, fiddling with the handle of his own knife.

“It was the war, they wanted a hero that would inspire others to fight.”

“What war?”

“Jesus Christ, you don’t know about the world wars? What do they teach you in schools?” Ellie stared at him for a moment, debating how she wanted to answer his question.

“To kill. I went to a military boarding school.”

Soldier Boy smiled to himself, using his knife to gesture to the girl,

“You know what? I went to a boarding school too. I mean, I got kicked out eventually, but man, me and my friends used to sneak out past curfew. We’d fuck about in the town, pick up a few girls, get a bit of action in an alleyway if you know what i mean?” He chuckled.

“Me and my best friend used to sneak out too. One time we found a mall, best night ever, we had a brick throwing competition, we even got a photo booth working.” Ellie says excitedly.

“I fucking hated drills, getting up at stupid hours, running laps and shooting practice.” Soldier Boy nodded, making a noise or agreement.

“I used to hide cigarettes and whiskey under my bed, somehow managed to avoid anyone finding it whilst I was there. There’s probably still a half-drank bottle under there now, if the building isn’t fucking gone.” He said to the girl, she smiled to herself.

“You get into many fights?”

“Fucking daily. Started most of them, but I finished the all. Did you, kid?”

“Last day there I put a girl in the infirmary” She grinned, turning to see Soldier Boy giving her an impressed smile. Laughing, she placed her knife on the table and held her hand up to him in a high-five gesture.

“Fuck boarding school” She exclaims with a laugh. Soldier Boy stares at her hand for a second in confusion, before realising what she wanted him to do and connects his hand with hers. 

“Yeah, fuck boarding school, kid” He chuckles pulling a cigarette packet from his pocket, lighting one before taking a drag. Ellie bites her lip in thought, as she thinks of other thing to ask him.

“So, can you fly?”

“No”

“Can you turn invisible?”

“No”

“Can you shoot lasers from your eyes?”

“No”

“Can you read minds”

“No”

“So what are your fucking powers then?”

“Strength, durability, those radiation blasts you’ve seen.”

“Kid, stop interrogating Soldier Boy” Butcher bellows, as Hughie and him trudges in with all their bags. 

Hughie hands Soldier Boy another bag of fast food, she watches as he dumped the contents of it onto the table they were still at. She heard Hughie mutter something to himself, turning her head away from the pile of food on the table to look at him. Then she saw the clump of blood on Hughies finger . Shit he wasn’t bitten yesterday, was he? She panicked for a second before she calmed down. No, it’s been a day, if he was bit he would have started turning by now, and he wouldn't still be bleeding.

You good? She mouths, raising her eyebrows towards his finger. He smiles quickly before nodding unconvincingly. Ellie shrugs off the movements, turning her attention back to Butcher and Soldier Boy.

Soldier Boy ignored her silent question to Hughie, turning towards the man himself and demanding to know “where half his food is”.

“Did you get the other shit?”

Butcher walks over to them, pulling the contents out of the paper bag he was carrying.

“Here you go, guv.” He then reaches back into the bag, turning towards Ellie.

“Right kid, penicillin, syringe and a round of antibiotics. That should cut it for your friend.” Ellie smiles at him, running towards the pile of bags and placing her items into her backpack. Clutching the bag, she looks up at the British man,

“Thanks Butcher” she smiles, sitting back in the chair.

She turns back to the table to see Soldier Boy crushing pills with the handle of his knife. He sighs, staring longingly at the powder on the table.

“Man, I missed Bennies. It’s how we won D-Day, you know. We were wired to the fucking gills.” He then proceeds to snort the powder. Butcher turns to the man.

“Now, let's talk about this little team up.”

She half listened as Soldier Boy and Butcher discussed the “team up”. Fiddling with the handle of her switch knife, she thought about Joel. She had antibiotics now, he would survive, but if time hadn’t frozen, or it had sped up since she got here, then she needed to get back. 

“Hands off the fucking shield.” Hughie backed away from the shield he had been trying to pick up.

Joel’s not going to die.

“You see it’s a whole different world out there now, son. We’re here to help you find your way.”

“Well, I can find them on my own.”

“Uh, are you sure? I mean, do you even know what a GPS is? Or-or Bluetooth? Or, I mean… the internet.”

Soldier Boy chewed through his food, pointing at Hughie in accusation,

“You made those words up” Hughie sighed before turning to Ellie,

“Do you even know what those words mean?” Ellie shrugged her shoulders.

“No, but it doesn't… fucking matter anyway, because i’m going back.” Hughie nods solemnly.

“Okay -” he turns back to Soldier Boy “- but those are real words and you need those to find them. All right, you need us.”

She picks at the wooden grains in the table with the end of her knife for a bit, before closing the knife and flicking it open repeatedly. They weren’t including her in any of the conversations, just going on about some dude named “Homelander” and Butcher asking Soldier Boy to “add another one to the list.”

“Alright. You help me find the rest of my team, and I'll help you with this Homelander.”

“So… who are we starting with?” Hughie said nervously rubbing his hands together. Butcher turns to Hughie.

“The TNT twins are the closest, dunno their exact location though. I’ll find it.” Butcher looks over at Ellie, before casting his gaze to Soldier Boy.

“Hughie, you stay with Soldier Boy. kid, you're with me.” Ellie gets up out of her chair, muttering a quick confirmation before flinging her backpack onto her back.

“And bring that knife with you, could be quite useful.”

***

“Holy shit, kid. Where did you learn that?”

Ellie sat in the passenger seat, resting her legs on the dashboard as she cleans the blood from her knife… and her hair… and her hands. Butcher’s hands were covered in it too, the red liquid staining the steering wheel he was clutching. Ellie shrugged, chuckling at the proud tone in the older man’s voice. He turns to her again with a face of awe,

“I mean, torturing one guy, making him point at the location, then threatening the other guy to point at the same location on the map to make sure they were telling the truth? Fucking diabolical.”

“Why, thank you” She states in an exaggerated manner, laughing as she twirls the now clean knife in her hand. Switching it closed, she turns to Butcher, bringing her legs down off the dashboard of folding her arms across her chest.

“Joel taught me the technique to get information out of people. He’s my friend, the one that’s sick.”

Butcher mouth twitches up briefly into a genuine smile, before turning back to the road.

“So Joel, is he your boyfriend or something?” Butcher mocks.

“Ew gross, no. Besides he like in his mid fifties”

“Why are you hanging out with someone so much older than you?”

She turns her head towards him slowly.

“Okay, don’t answer that one.” Butcher answers quickly. They weren't too far from the motel now.

“So Ellie, what are your plans, y’know, if we can’t get you back?” Butcher cringes inwardly the moment he says it, feeling the air around them turn icy cold.

“What are you saying?” she asks slowly, the bite in her voice laced with anger. Yet Butcher picked up on the hurt in her voice. Shit.

“I mean, what if you’re stuck here?”

“You said you would help me.”

“Yeah, and I'm going to, as much as I can. But Soldier Boy was our plan, and if he can’t zap you back then i don’t know what else to try”

“Soldier Boy said Vought was the one to experiment with multiverse travel, maybe they could send me back.”

“Well, me and the boys aren’t exactly on the best terms with Vought. So that’s out of the question.”

“Well, then we break in and force someone to help us.”

“Fine, after we take out the TNT Twins, then we’ll make a quick pip-stop to Vought before taking out Homelander. Kapeesh?”

Ellie felt her stomach drop, after? Joel could be dead by then.

“No, no, we're going now.” They’d just pulled up outside the motel. Butcher parks the car, pulling the handbrake up before turning to Ellie.

“As much as i would love to drop everything, drive into the sunset with you to Vought tower, and wave you happily back to the fucking apocalypse; I can't, i’m on the job.”

Ellie wants to scream at him to “fuck off” and she was about to, having every intention of storming out of the car, slamming the doors and smashing something up. But she had a better idea.

As they got out of the car, Ellie turned to Butcher, faking a sigh of acceptance.

“You’re right, let’s just get this job done. Can I have a hug though?” Ellie asked, holding her arms out. Butcher offered her a smile, holding his arms out after a few seconds with a sigh.

“Sure kid, why not?” Alright, maybe Butcher was starting to get attached to this girl. He’s never really liked kids, never wanted ones even with Becca. But this kid, Ellie, has changed his whole view on them. Maybe, when all this is over, if they can’t find a way to send her back, he could even look at adopting her.

The hug lasts a few seconds, but it makes his heart warm in a way that he tries to brush off before going back into the motel room. Butcher opens the door, holding it open so Ellie can enter first. He watches as the two men’s eyes fix on him before falling on the girl. Hughie’s mouth opens as if he wants to say something, but the words don’t leave his mouth.

“Oi, oi” Butcher addresses the men.

“You’re both bleeding” Hughie splutters.

“Not mine. Got an address, we’re off to Vermont” Butcher then turns to Ellie.

“It’s a few hours drive, why don’t you go and wash that out.” Butcher gestures to the blood that she’s covered in.

Butcher takes the opportunity of the impressionable teenager going into the bathroom to load up the syringes for him and Hughie to dose up on Temp V. Fuck, he knows it makes him just as bad as any supe, but the power he feels taking the stuff is just incomparable to anything else he’s ever had in his life. He feels the heat as soon as he pushes the liquid into his skin, the power surges through his veins and explodes out of his eyes. Suddenly, he’s strong enough to do this, to take on Homelander or any supe.

“Right, kid, are you ready?” Butcher shouts into the bathroom, only to be met with silence. 

“Kid, you alright in there?”  Okay he’s starting to get concerned now, what if she’s injured or fallen unconscious in there?

Throwing himself against the door, Butcher manages to bust the lock easily, only to see the bathroom empty and the window flung wide open.

“Shit, Kids done a runner. Right, it hasn't been that long, if we’re quick we could still catch her-” Butcher had been fumbling his pockets for his keys, only to find the pocket that he left them in empty.

“Shit” Butcher exclaims as he runs to the main door, flinging it open and looking outside. Cursing, he turns back to the other two men.

“The kids taken my fucking car.”

Chapter Text

“Right, lets get this fucking straight. The kids gone on joyride in my car, and you won't teleport to her? So not only are we down a vehicle, but we also can't get to Vermont, so we’ve just wasted a round of Temp V. Anything else I'm missing?” Butcher spat at Hughie, jabbing a finger in his direction. Hughie choked down the nervous comeback that the old him would have stuttered back. Instead, he took a deep breath and held the older man's eye contact.

“No, no, I'm not teleporting to the car because I'll lose my clothes. And again, I'm not exposing myself to a teenager. Why don’t we just teleport straight to Vermont?”

“Can’t go in there weaponless, and we’d stick out like a sore thumb if we turn up in the nude.” Butcher sighed.

Soldier Boy interjects, taking a drag from the cigarette he had held to his lips, judging by the smell, Hughie assumed it was probably not a regular cigarette.

“Why don’t we just steal a fucking car?”

“No, I was planning to cycle there. Of course we're going to steal a car. Once we’ve sorted the TNT twins out, then we’ll go find the kid and my car.” Butcher states to the group.

“Will she be okay until then?” Hughie asks in concern.

“She survived fourteen years in an apocalyptic world, plus she doesn’t have a licence. She’ll be fine, she probably won't get very far anyway.” 

***

“FUCCKKK!”

Ellie swerved round the car coming towards her as it slammed on its breaks and held the horn. Okay, so maybe driving in her universe where there are no moving cars on the road is easier than driving here where there was.The driving part is easy, it’s just two pedals: accelerate and stop. The road part was hard, how does anyone learn how to do this?

Vought, that's where she is going. How to get there? No fucking clue. Ellie looks up at the building and skyscrapers as she drives by. God, they look so different here, so pristine. She’s still so in awe of seeing nature and humanity living a peaceful co-existence, trees and plants where they are meant to be.

Continuing to drive through the city, Ellie keeps an eye out for anything indicating it could be the Vought building. She sees billboards as she ambles down the road, movies for heroes, she sees one for a group of heroes called… The Seven? She recognises one of the heroes there to be Hughie’s girlfriend Annie. Ah, so in this universe, she was famous, but not for the… Firefly reasons. By the looks of the advertisement for her solo movie, she still goes by Starlight in this universe. 

There’s advertisements for so many of these heroes, a memoriam for some guy called “Supersonic”, solo movies, most are for a guy named “Homelander”, she's pretty sure she remembers Butcher mentioning him quite a few times. There’s one’s for someone called Queen Maeve, A-Train, more for Homelander. 

Peeping above the other buildings, Ellie sees what she assumes is the Vought Building. Well, she assumes it is based on the huge ‘7’ and ‘Vought’ on the building. If there’s a way to get back to Joel, it's in there.

She attempts to pull into an alley a few blocks away as gracefully as she’s seen Butcher do it, however she mistook the speed to turn into the alley. Feeling herself lurch forward upon impacting the wall, she gets out of the car to check the damage. The front of the car has dented and squished like an accordion. It’s still driveable; just. 

Walking round to the back of the car, Ellie hoists the trunk open and begins to prepare the artillery. Guns, she needs a pistol, her rifle and enough bullets to get her through what she imagines is tight security. She thinks about Joel, if they were facing FEDRA or hunters, what would he use? Fishing through the contents of the trunk, Ellie grabs her bow and arrow. Okay she needs something close range and with power, scanning the firearms, she equips herself with what she recognises as a shotgun. 

Now, she just needs something she can use hand-to-hand as opposed to just her switch knife; maybe something she could swing. Muttering a quick sound of happiness under her breath, Ellie picks up a crowbar and some old, broken knives. She quickly pulls some tape out from her backpack and binds them together, the way Joel showed her. Almost content with the weapons she scavenged, Ellie grabs as many scraps of weapons from Butcher’s car as she can fit in her backpack. It’s light, so she can move quickly, and she can craft. 

Slamming the car trunk, Ellie decides to take the keys with her, assuming Butcher could always get another one for his car. She can’t go through the front of the building, someone will definitely see her. So sneaking round the back is going to be her best bet. Okay, if she had a portal to a different universe, she wouldn’t keep it on the top floors, no, she would keep it below the building, where the public wouldn’t know of it’s existence. 

Weaving through the city, Ellie sneaks round to the back of the tower, crouching behind a short decorative wall. Pressing her ear up to the wall, she concentrates on listening for how many security guards are there. She pinpoints five, between footsteps and hushed voices. Okay, five, that’s easy.

Reaching into her backpack, Ellie pulls out a little bag of explosive powder that she borrowed from Joel’s supplies before she went hunting for food, a packet of nails, blades and a tin can. Combining the supplies, she quietly assembled them into a Nail bomb like Joel taught her. Peeking over the wall slightly, Ellie threw the bomb towards the centre of the group, startling them. One of them moves closer to inspect the object, reaching out to grab it, setting it off in the process.

The bomb detonates, firing nails in every direction, slicing and killing all the security guards and piercing through the glass of the building. Shit, that was loud. She’s got a few seconds now before more people flock to the area, she needs to be quick and hide in the building. Running as quietly as she can, Ellie dashes through the busted window, ducking behind a counter. She seems to be in the staff area behind the main lobby. She needs to get to the stairs or an elevator; that will take her down to the bottom levels.

She hears more people approaching, three security guards this time. She stays crouched where she is, she waits for them to split off in search of her. Using his gun to scan the room, Ellie watches as the man closest to her turns his back to her unknowingly. Silently, Ellie creeps out from behind the counter, pulling out her knife as she jumps onto the guy’s back and stabs him in the neck. The guy gurgles on the blood as his body falls to the ground, Ellie takes the opportunity to dart across the room, pulling her bow and arrow out of her backpack whilst hiding behind a sofa. 

One of the other security guards circles back around to the sight of her friend’s twitching body, her breath hitching into a gasp. 

“Oh my god, someone got Derek '' She exclaims, darting forward and checking the pulse of his now still body. Quickly nocking an arrow, Ellie aims for the woman's head, firing the arrow and instantly killing her. The other guard dashes towards the sound of her friend’s voice, only to be met with their gory remains. The woman was short, a couple of inches shorter than Ellie, meaning she has the advantage of height for once. 

Pulling out her knife again, Ellie sneaks up behind the woman, grabbing her round the neck with her arm and holding the knife to the woman’s neck. The woman chokes back her gasp, stilling her movements to avoid the blade by her throat.

“Take me to an elevator, one that goes down.” Ellie snarls, deepening her voice slightly so that it loses its youthful pitch.

“But I'm not allowed down there, I don't have clearance.” The woman squeaks out in panic.

“Find a way then.” Ellie demands, pushing the woman forward by the small of her back. Nervously the woman shuffles them towards a door that leads down a corridor, taking them down it before turning to a large marble door. Breathing heavily, the woman pulls out a little ID card from her pocket, swiping it on the pad on the wall. The doors to the elevator open slowly, Ellie shoves the woman in with her, pushing the down button until it glows a gentle blue. 

“It-it won’t take me down all the way, just a few floors.” She stumbles over her words in fear. Ellie debates letting her go once she gets there. Joel wouldn't, but this isn’t their universe, not everyone is trying to kill her here. The woman suddenly moves to shove Ellie’s arm away, pulling the knife out of Ellie’s hand and flinging herself forward to slash at Ellie, the blade rips Ellie’s jacket sleeve as she jumps out of the way of the attack, pulling out her pistol before shooting the woman.

Moving to retrieve her knife, Ellie feels the Elevator come to a stop before the doors slide open. A woman with ginger shoulder length hair with bangs stands steps into the elevator before letting her mouth fall agape as she processes the scene in front of her. Ellie points her gun at the woman gesturing to her not to make a noise.

“Do you have clearance for the bottom levels?” Ellie quietly, but firmly asks. The woman nodded her head quickly, entering the elevator as Ellie gestures her to with her gun.

“Take me down, not a word to anyone and you don’t have to die.” Ellie states keeping her gun on the woman as she swipes her ID card, and scans her face, before the elevator starts to glide down.

When the elevator reaches its destination, the doors open to reveal another marble corridor, Ellie turns to the woman, whose face has lost all of its colour,

“You stay here.” Ellie tells her, as the doors begin to close again.

Now that she’s at the bottom level of Vought tower, it finally hits Ellie that she has no fucking idea what she’s actually looking for. Vought might not even have a portal or a universe-hopping ray. They’ve got to have something, she just needs to look for something odd or heavily guarded. 

Turning down the curved corridor, Ellie sees six security guards stationed outside a large metal door. That must be it. She takes note of the code-pad on the wall by the door. Pulling out her backpack, Ellie pulls out a bottle of alcohol, a scrap piece of fabric and a lighter. Combining the two, Ellie flicks the lighter, catching the flame of the molotov before throwing it at the security guards. Four of them crumble to the ground, shrieking in agony as they burn alive. The other two, who narrowly missed the flames, leap back and pull out their weapons; looking around in confusion. Ellie quickly pulls out her rifle, shooting the one closest to her dead and shooting the other in the knee.

She walks up to the one she left alive, pointing her gun at him,

“What’s the code?” she spits, tilting her head towards the code-pad.

“Please- I-I don’t want to die '' He whimpers, staring down the barrel of the gun.

“Then tell me the code.”

“No- you don't - they’ll kill me if I tell you!”

Ellie doesn’t answer, instead she just shoots his other knee, causing the man to scream in agony and clutch at his leg.

“FUCK! OKAY okay I - fuck- One-Nine-Three-Nine! That-it’s- that’s the code” The man is breathing heavily now, grimacing through the pain. Turning her head away, Ellie puts a bullet through the man’s chest, clenching her eyes as she hears the man's laboured breaths cease.

Shoving the digits into the keypad, Ellie grasps the handle of the door and pushes it open. In all honesty, she has no idea what she was expecting to see. Maybe she was expecting crazed scientists huddled around a glowing contraption. Maybe she was expecting vials of liquid-injections that allow the subject to universe hop.

She wasn’t expecting a bland white room with a red haired woman staring back at her. Ellie points the rifle at her, as the woman stands up,

“What the fuck ,kid? How did you get in here?”

“Doesn’t matter, why are you here?”

The woman chuckles slightly, tilting her head towards the ceiling.

“Me and Vought don’t exactly see eye-to-eye anymore.”

Eye-to-eye Ellie thinks her words over in her head, looking round the room of which she now realises to be a cell.

“Do you know Butcher?” Ellie asks, lowering the gun. The woman gives her a look of confusion, before the ghost of a smile haunts her lips.

“I do, i'm assuming you do as well.” The woman's face falls as the distant sound of footprints echoes in the distance. The woman shoves past her, looking down the corridor at the charred and bleeding bodies. 

“Shit, what were you thinking? They’re going to fucking swarm us!” She turns to Ellie, masking her fear with a focused, confident stare.

“Okay, we can do this, we’ll take them out, then we’ll get somewhere safe.”

“No! Look, I broke into here because I need to get back to my universe. That Soldier Boy dude said that Vought- that they would- I don’t fucking know, have some way of sending me back.” Ellie quickly says, listening to the sound of footsteps approaching closer. The woman blinks at her,

“None of what you just said made any sense, but if we don’t get out now, then you’ll never get back to… wherever you need to go.”

Ellie looks up at her, she doesn’t know why, but something about the woman’s determined expression makes her feel… safe. Like she can trust her. Well, trust her enough to know she’s telling the truth right now.

“Okay.”

***

They’re shrieking behind him, clawing their hands towards his body as he sprints towards one of the houses covered by a thin layer of snow. Flinging open the door to one of the houses, he dashes inside, slamming the door and moving the sofa closest to him in front of the door. He collapses against the wall, shuffling himself up into a sitting position.

“Jesus- fuck!” he howls in agony, grasping at his arm and holding it up to the sunlight seeping in from the window. The bite stares back at him, blood oozing out from the jagged teeth marks.

Gritting his teeth, he feels tears prick at his eyes, blinking as they begin to cascade down his face. He’s not ready to die, its all because of that stupid fucking explosion. Whatever it was, it got the infected's attention and his group had no chance at surviving. Using the palm of his hand to swipe away the tears, he pulls himself up, yanking open the drawers of the furniture until he finds what he is looking for; a sheet of paper and a pen.

He apologies, explaining how he got bit and that no one else in their patrol survived. He writes about how if they have found the note that they must go on without him, how they need to find the intruders and how he knows the group will make him proud. 

Sighing, he pulls out his pistol with a shaking hand, loads a single bullet and releases the safety, clenching his eyes as resignation.

But he can’t do it.

Screaming through the tears, he chucks the pistol away from himself, grasping for the pen and dragging a cross through what he wrote. Whimpering in defeat, he scrawls another message onto the paper, folding it up and placing it in the pocket of his jacket.

He can’t fucking do it.

Chapter Text

“Do you need a gun or something?” Ellie asks the woman, fishing through her backpack for supplies to make more nail bombs. The woman shakes her head, attention averted from Ellie as she stands behind the door ready to ambush Vought’s security currently approaching the corridor.

“I won’t need it, but listen, here’s the plan kid; these fuckers are going to be here any second. i’ll take them out, but shoot as many-” She turns back around to find the girl isn't in the cell with her anymore. Further up the corridor, the girl had placed the makeshift bombs outside all of the entrances to the corridor, before pressing herself up against the wall, hiding herself from the Vought security guards.

Ellie listened as their feet knocked the touch-sensitive cans, the sounds of their screams and choking on blood filled the air, as the nails fired out and pierced their bodies. Ellie then darted up the corridor, shooting each remaining person with her rifle as they stood in a dazed shock at the massacre they had just witnessed at the hands of the young girl; not knowing whether to attack her or not. 

Pulling his face into a sneer, Ellie looks up to see one of the guards snap out of his trance, aiming his gun at her. Thinking quickly, Ellie ducks out of the way so that the bullet misses her vital organs. Blinking hard, Ellie looks down at the ground to see a droplet of blood drip onto the marble tiles, darting her eyes up at her arm to see that the bullet grazed her arm in the process.

Gritting her teeth and hissing slightly at the pain, Ellie quickly shot a bullet in the man’s head, pulling a bottle of alcohol and a rag from her bag, before wrapping it around her arm and tying it off tightly. Through her concentration, Ellie doesn't notice the security guard that has snuck up behind her, making a show of releasing the safety and aiming the gun at her. Ellie freezes

“Hands where I can see-”

Ellie turns round as his words abruptly choke and stop. She watches as the woman snaps the man's neck one handed with the flick of her wrist; barely batting an eye as his body crumbles to the ground.

“Holy shit, how did you do that?” Ellie asks her in awe, chasing after the woman as she starts to make her way towards one of the marble elevators, slightly further up the corridor to the one Ellie originally took.

“Just my powers, kid.” She mutters nonchalantly, pressing the button to the elevator and scanning her thumbprint for entry.

“Wait, you’re that ‘Brave Maeve’ person, from the billboards!” Ellie exclaims in realisation.

“Billboards? Where are you from, kid?” The elevator doors slide open “But yeah, I am” she says turning to smile at Ellie as they both enter the elevator and press the button for the ground floor. 

“So, is “Brave Maeve’ your superhero name then?”

“No, it’s Queen Maeve”

“Woah, so what country are you queen of?”

“I’m not, it’s just my superhero name.”

“So is Maeve your actual name then”

“No.”

“Then what is your actual name?”

“What’s yours, kid?”

Ellie debates whether to tell her or not. The woman saved her life, and she knows Butcher, apparently.

“How do you know Butcher?” Ellie asks her quizzically, tilting her head up to meet Maeve’s gaze.

“Who do you think gave him the Temp V?” Maeve smiles, the numbers on the elevator starting to near zero. Maeve’s expression becomes serious, turning to look at Ellie. 

“Listen to me this time kid, stay behind me and follow my lead. We’re on the main floor so the public can see us, we just need to get out of here quickly, got it?” Ellie nods her head, looking up as the elevator doors slide open to the lobby, revealing a blonde man in a blue suit staring back at them. There was something deeply disturbing about his hard stare.

“Maeve, glad to see you’re back from rehab.” He says, his friendly tone of voice not meeting his eyes as his lips twitch upwards with a malicious expression.

“You can’t do this here. There's people around, they’ll see.” Maeve says firmly, keeping her arms stretched out to hide Ellie behind her.

“I’m not doing anything, just having a catchup with an old friend.” Homelander’s grins, flashing his teeth the way Ellie imagines a shark would before attacking it’s prey. His eyes flicker from Maeve’s to her.

“So, this is the girl that just wiped out half of Vought’s security.” He chuckles as he watches Maeve move her body to protect her even more. Ellie didn't understand why, she’d just taken out a bunch of security guards with a few guns and weapon’s she crafted from her backpack. So why is Maeve so concerned about this one superhero guy?

“Come on, you don’t think I didn’t hear Ashley asking for more backup when a teenager threatened her with a fucking gun?”

“Fuck you dude, we’re leaving now” Maeve feels herself die on the inside as the girl pipes up from behind her.

“Woah-ho-ho, didn’t your mother teach you not to use that kind of language, young lady?” Homelander takes another step towards them, reaching around Maeve quickly to grab Ellie by the wrist.

“And you two are going to come with me if you know what is fucking good for you.” Homelander sneers in a hushed tone. 

Shit, if she goes with him, then she’ll be stuck here and will never get back to Joel. After everything he’s done for her, she can't abandon him now. Ellie thinks quickly, a plan formulating in her mind. She yanks her arm out of Homelander’s grip, noticing the shocked expression on the man’s face

“Oh my god, it’s America-man – I mean Homelander! Oh my god, can I get your autograph?” Ellie screams, forcing her voice into a high-pitched girly tone. She internally congratulates herself when the lobby security starts to make their way towards them. 

A tired looking man stops in front of them, sighing before gesturing to her,

“Come on kid, stop bothering Homelander. There’s been an intruder in the tower, don’t worry we’ve got it under control, but it’s still not safe for you here right now. You and your… mom need to follow me and I’ll escort you out.” the man tells them. Homelander open’s his mouth to say something but Maeve quickly mutters something to him; Ellie picks up on her hushed words,

“Do you want people to know that a teenager got through Vought’s security?” 

Homelander smiles at them, pulling on his public mask by slipping his face into a cheerful, carefree smile. 

“He’s right, it’s not safe here, I’ll get you an autograph next time kid.” Homelander exclaims, using his arm to guide Ellie out of the elevator, Maeve following behind, unrecognisable in her civilian clothes.

As the security guard escorts them out of the building, Ellie looks back to see Homelander staring back at them, his face still stretched into a sharp public smile. Ellie felt his eyes glaring into them, swearing that she saw a slight twinge of red to them.

***

Laying on the crumbled ground, Butcher thanked every fucking spiritual being, above and below, that he didnt bring Ellie to the TNT twin’s place. Not only because of Herogasm, but the kid probably wouldn't have survived the blast that Soldier Boy released. Butcher felt his eyes snap open.

Soldier Boy’s blast. 

Infected.

Butcher peels himself off the ground, shaking off the rubble from the collapsed building. Steadying himself, Butcher stumbles towards MM’s motionless form, checking his pulse with two fingers: steady, still alive.

He looks up as he hears Soldier Boy walk down the stairs, clutching the wall as he stares round the room in confusion.

“Sorted?” Butcher questions him.

“What happened?” The man drawls, Butcher turns to him slowly. Shit , he thinks, so if something triggers his blasts, then he loses his memory. So triggered explosions mean an amnesiac war hero, and people being blasted across the multiverse.

Turning his head in the direction of the new set of footsteps, Butcher watches as Homelander strolls into the room.

***

Joel knows he hasn't got long left.

He’s dying, but he tried to fight. Tried to fight the infection, tried to fight the blood loss; but he’s losing. He hasn’t got the strength to keep his eyes open anymore, all he can feel is the pain.

No.

He’s going to keep fighting, for Ellie, he’s got to make it for her. He forces himself to focus on breathing and staying alive. Endure and survive, or whatever quote Ellie keeps repeating from her comic. One breath in, one breath out. He can do this.

Joel hears a door open from upstairs, for one moment he thinks it's Ellie, back with food or even medicine she’s scavenged. But instead he hears the deep voice of a man, cursing and crying, followed by the metallic sound of a gun crashing across the floor. 

There's not much noise for the next few hours, besides the occasional cries and sniffles from the man upstairs. One breath in, one breath out . Then Joel hears it. The tears morphe into moans of pain, screeching as it darts back and forth erratically in the small space upstairs.

Shit, that man had been bitten.

Joel listens to the footsteps above, continuing to focus on his breathing, until he hears a loud bang. The brightness of the bang flashes past his closed eyelids, engulfing his vision in a blinding white light.

***

Butcher walks out of the building with Hughie and soldier Boy after their fight with Homelander. Looking up, he sees Starlight and MM helping those who were injured. He should help, he helped cause it after all, but the glare that the two gave them made him rethink. They aren't enemies, but they are fighting opposite battles. Butcher turns to Hughie and Soldier Boy.

“Keep your eye out for more of those infected. If the kid is right, then your blast means more are on the way.”

“Should we check the area? Just in case, y’know?” Hughie suggests to the other two, earning him agreements from the other two.

The three of them fan-out into the woods, scanning the greenery for any sign of infected. They can't see anyone or anything with fungus sprouting out from its head, so maybe nothing happened this time?

Butcher sees it first. A person, hunched over and twitching by the tree. It wasn't clicking like the well- Clicker did, but it was moaning as if it was scared or in pain. Butcher motioned to Hughie and Soldier Boy to go round it and sneak up behind it like they did last time.

As Butcher creeped around the thing, he realised a second too late that, unlike the Clicker from before, these ones could in fact see. Screeching, the infected man ran towards him, flinging its arms around manically. Butcher beat the creature with his fist, before jumping back and slicing it in half with his lasers, watching its body squelch into the floor.

Butcher dusts his hands off on his Trench coat, turning back to the other two men that were dashing towards him to help.

“Think that’s the only one,” Butcher sighs. Hughie squints his eyes as his gaze falls onto the top half of the man’s body.

“What’s that?” Hughie asks, pointing towards the piece of folded paper sticking out of the man’s pocket. Bending down, Butcher pulls the note out and reads the letter outloud to the group.

“The original letters been crossed out but it says: I’m sorry, I couldnt fucking do it. I’m going to turn into one of those things because I was too much of a whimp to end myself whilst I still had my mind. Please forgive me.” 

“God, does it say who wrote that?” Hughie asks in horror.

“Some fucker named David. Come on back to the car, we’ve got to go find the kid”

***

Annie walks along the front of the house, feeling sick at the sight of the myriad of white body bags; this morning, they were all alive. A muffled whimper emulates from somewhere in the woods surrounding the house. Annie strains her ears to pinpoint the person's exact location. She couldn't save all those other people, but she could help this one.

Jogging through the trees, she spots a man - fully clothed, she notes - lying prone on the ground, eyes squeezed shut in pain. Annie runs over to him, checking the man for his injuries.

“Sir, it’s me, Starlight- Annie January. Everything is going to be okay, I'm going to call an ambulance over now.” Annie tells the man urgently, checking his body over for wounds. She notices a wound, like something had sliced through the man’s middle. But this wasn't fresh, it looked like it had been sewn up quite recently.

The man turns to look at her, mouth opening and closing as if he wants to speak, but can't. Swallowing hard, the man croaks:

“El-El”

“It’s okay, everything is going to be okay. Save your strength, the paramedics are going to be here soon.”

Annie watches as the man is carried into the ambulance, still confused how he is the only one wearing clothes. As if he appeared only after Soldier Boy blew the house up.

Weird.

Chapter Text

A few hours earlier

Maeve briskly walks out of the Vought building with the girl, grasping her hand the way a mother would as the security guard waved them off. She couldn't remember his name, she probably should. But they’ve done it, they’re alive. She’s out of that cell, they survived Homelander. Maeve guides them through the streets of New York, pulling them behind a building away from the public view.

“How did you do it?” She asks the kid, watching as the auburn haired teenager scrunched her face up in confusion.

“Do what?” she questions, staring at the older woman’s face to try and gauge her trail of thought. She rolls her eyes,

“I’ve done a lot of things today, so you've got to be more specific. Like, are we talking about how I took out all of the security? Or my incredible quick thinking-”

“I’m talking about Homelander, how did you pull your arm out of his grip?” Maeve asks, staring at the young girl incredulously. Ellie looks down at Maeve's hand still gripping hers, before moving her eyes back up to meet Maeve’s.

“Like… this?”

Ellie yanks her hand out of Maeve’s grasp, faking a gasp of shock in mockery of the situation. All she’s done is yank her hand out of someone’s grip, she should see her and Joel with a hoard of Runners. Ellie chuckles at the look of genuine shock on the woman’s face.

“I - We have super strength… Homelander is the strongest man alive, but you were able to escape his grasp, how-” Maeve stops her thought-track as she sees the blood seeping through the makeshift bandage on the girl’s wrist.

“You’re hurt, when did this happen?”

“Bullet grazed me, it’s fine though.” Eliie attempts to reassure her, only to be met with a sigh.

“Let’s get out of here, I know somewhere we can hopefully go. She’ll patch you up properly.” Maeve says quickly, nodding to herself. Ellie agrees, telling Maeve that she has a car parked in an alley a few streets away. The two of them walked through the quieter part of the city in relative silence, besides the occasional confirmation of where they were going. It's a comfortable silence, not like the awkward one she had with Butcher and the others when they first met.

“Wait, is that Butcher’s car?” Maeve exclaims when she sees the vehicle. Shit, that thing looks a bit worse-for-wear, she thinks, turning to look at the girl. Ellie pulls her face into an exaggerated frown as she regards the car.

“Would you believe me if I said he happily handed over his keys, and let me borrow his car?” Ellie asks her with a mischievous grin.

“No”

“You got me, I tricked him and stole his keys. But I'll give him the car back! I promise.” Ellie says, pulling out the keys to the car.

“He’s gonna be pretty pissed off when he sees the car” Maeve says, gesturing to the teenager to give her the keys. Ellie ignores her, unlocking the car and hopping into the driver's seat.

Maeve sighs again, before climbing into the passenger seat, watching as the girl fiddles with the rearview mirror.

“You barely look fourteen, how do you have a license?” Maeve says in confusion, squinting her eyes at the girl as she turns on the ignition in an effort to hide the nervous tone from her voice.

“What’s a license?”

Maeve feels the colour drain from her face as the teenager slams her foot on the gas and floors the car down the road.

***

“Nope, that’s it. Get out, I'm driving,” Maeve exclaims, throwing her hands up in a defensive stance as the girl swings the car around the tight corner, slamming her foot on the break and throwing them both forwards as she narrowly misses the car in front.

“Ugh, fine.” Ellie moans, yanking the car up onto the curb, causing the other woman to mutter a “Fucking hell” at the impact. Maeve quickly opened the passenger door, undoing her seatbelt and flinging herself out of the door. Ellie undid her seatbelt, crawling over to the passenger seat and almost kneeing the handbrake whilst Maeve hisses her a warning.

Ellie plops herself into the passenger seat, making herself comfortable as a grey-faced Maeve slinks into the driving seat.

“Soooo, where are we going?” Ellie asks her as they start driving down the road at a more sensible speed.

“My friend’s place, Homelander doesn't know where that is, so we’ll be safe.”

“Yeah, what’s that Homelander guy’s deal anyway?” Ellie asks, flinging her legs up onto the dashboard. Maeve twitches her lips downwards as she debates how to answer the girl’s question.

“He’s my ex, I mean, we dated a few years ago. He’s psychotic, manipulative, obsessed with being loved by everyone and hates the idea of me being happy, or not having power over a situation-”

“-So that thing I did earlier-”

“You’re lucky to still be alive.” Maeve stops the car as they pull up to a set of streetlights. 

“What about you kid? I mean, you didn't know who Homelader was, or me, and that thing you were rambling about earlier- who are you?”

Ellie debates whether to tell her the truth or not. She’s a hero, like a real fucking hero. And she knows Butcher and the gang. Taking a deep breathe, Ellie answers her,

“I’m not from this universe. That Soldier Boy dude, his powers blasted me here. In my universe, there was an outbreak in 2013, Cordyceps-”

“-Isn’t that the one that infects ants?”

“Yep, well it mutated to infect humans, it sends them insane. I guess you would call them zombies.”

“2013? So you were young when this outbreak happened?”

“Actually, I wasn't even alive. I don't know what year it is, but my friend said it’s been about 20 years since the outbreak.”

“Fuck, so what about supes? Clearly something happened to them.”

“They’re either dead or they had their powers taken away. So no powered people”

“So what you’re saying is there is a way of taking down Homelander?”

“I guess, dunno how though.”

“There’s a way, that’s all that matters. What’s your name kid?”

Eliie chews on her lip for a second, before turning to the red-head.

“You first” for a moment, Ellie doesn't think she hears her, mainly due to the lack of reaction from the woman. Just before she could ask her again, the woman chuckles quietly.

“Margaret Shaw, or Maggie. Most people just call me Maeve though.”

“I’m Ellie, Williams. Well, I don’t know if that’s actually my surname, but it’s what the FEDRA orphanage called me.”

“Orphanage? God, you’ve had it rough Ellie. What’s FEDRA?”

“How long do we have until we’re at your friend’s?”

“About 30 minutes”

“Eh, we’ve got time. So September 27th 2013…”

***

The busted up car pulls up outside an apartment block, screeching to a halt as Maeve parks it in one of the unoccupied car park spaces.

“...So the Fireflies are seen as the terrorists, but FEDRA were the ones who were fucking keeping rations for themselves when there wasn't enough food.”

“So what you’re saying is everyone in your universe are selfish dicks?”

“Yep”

“Yeah, same in this one. Okay, we're here.”

Ellie undid her seatbelt as she pulled herself out of the car, chucking her backpack on from where she dumped it in the backseat of the car. Maeve indicated for her to follow her into the building, leading them both up the flight of stairs. Maeve stopped them, approaching the door cautiously, Ellie thought, as if it was going to set on fire. 

Ellie watched as the woman raised her hand slowly, before dropping it back to her side. Shakily, she took a deep breath before raising it again and knocking on the door gently.

After a few seconds, a dark haired woman opens the door, blinking in surprise at the sight of Maeve, mouth falling agape into a slight ‘o’.

“Maeve I- are you okay? The news, it said you were in rehab.”

Maeve shook her head silently, swallowing down the tears that were threatening to fall. 

“I wasn’t, I’m sorry Elena, I know you said you needed space, but I didn't know where else to go. The kid, Ellie, she’s injured. Please, could we stay here for a bit?”

The woman, Elena, looks past Maeve at Ellie standing in the hallway. She smiles at her, before her eyes fall onto the bloody bandage around the girl’s arm. She grimaces at the sight, looking at the teenager with sympathy.

“Oh, that looks sore. Come in, we’ll get you patched up.”

Ellie shuffled behind Maeve into the apartment, it was nice, modest. It was still so weird to her to be walking around buildings that hadn't been affected by the outbreak. Just being able to walk around somewhere, and it being lived in. No rotting furniture, no rotting bodies, no infected. Just decor and clutter; it was cosy.

Ellie walked around the apartment for a few minutes, whilst Maeve and Elena were talking in the kitchen. Ellie had a slight suspicion that their relationship wasn't exactly platonic, if the adoration in Maeve’s eyes was anything to go from. 

Elena and Maeve walked back into the living room area. Elena indicated for Ellie to sit down on the sofa as she bought over the green first aid kit. 

“I’m going to take the bandage off now, just to see if the bleeding has stopped.”

Ellie nods a reply, watching as she unwraps the makeshift bandage from her arm. Elena gives her a sympathetic ‘ow’ when she sees the blood still oozing from the wound. Pulling out the medical needle and thread from the green box, she tells Ellie that she's going to need to sew the cut together. Ellie watches as she methodically treats her wound, carefully sewing it together before cleaning it with an ‘antiseptic wipe’. She then wraps a clean bandage around the wound, telling Ellie to try and keep it elevated and not to aggravate it. Ellie thanks her, before Maeve turns to Elena with a gentle smile.

“Really, thank you Elena, we really appreciate this. I hate to do this, but can I borrow your phone?” Maeve turns to Ellie with a grin “Need to tell Butcher that you’re okay and that we have his car.” 

Elena agrees, fishing into her pocket for her phone before handing it to Maeve.

Maeve gives the two of them a quick smile, bringing the phone to her ear whilst muttering how she “won't be a minute”. Elena turns to Ellie, gesturing for her to raise her arm, of which Ellie obliges with a groan.

“Where was she when you found her?” Elena asks her after a moment of silence between the two of them. Ellie blinks at her in surprise,

“How did you know that?” the teenager asks her. Elena smiles to herself,

“Maeve doesn't like kids, she probably thinks she owes you, or something.” Ellie nods at her.

“She was in some weird fucked up cell in Vought’s basement” Ellie watched as fresh tears sprung to Elena’s eyes, giving them a glassy look. She blinked them away quickly with a sniff.

“My- god” the woman choked.

“You can swear in front of me, I dont fucking mind” Ellie tells her with a nervous giggle. Elena looks up at her and attempts to smile in response. Elena swipes at her eyes and masks her hurt when Maeve struts back into the room where the two of them are.

“Butcher’s not picking up, Starlight’s our next best bet, she’ll at least know where that twink Hughie is.” Maeve tells the girl, noticing the look of anger and hurt on the girl's face when she said that Butcher didn’t pick up.

“She could also get you into Vought tower, y’know without having to slaughter all of Vought’s security.”

Ellie slumps off the sofa, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room whilst Maeve and Elena exchange goodbye. Ellie throws her a quick “goodbye” and “thanks” before making her way to the door with Maeve. Elllie walks ahead of Maeve uncharacteristically quiet, in Maeve's opinion. 

“I know Butcher picked up, I heard him on the other end of the phone.” Ellie tells the older woman. Maeve feels herself freeze, before a wave of confusion floods over her.

“I was on the other side of the apartment, how did you hear him?” Maeve questions her, giving the girl a sceptical look. She knows that this girl has had a difficult life, but there is something that the girl is hiding and not telling her.

“I couldnt hear what he fucking said or anything, just that it was him speaking!” Ellie exclaims to the woman. Maeve slips her face into a stern stare, masking the emotions she could feel bubbling inside of her.

“You said you wanted to get back to your universe, right Ellie? We could waste our time going to find Butcher, or we could go find starlight and get you back. It’s your choice.”

“I need to get back” Ellie mutters, walking over to the passenger door and chucking herself in. Maeve settles into the driver's seat again, having just retrieved one of Butcher’s burner phones from the car trunk and tapping out a message to Starlight that it's her and to send  her current address. Maeve pops the directions into the car’s GPS, rolling her eyes when she hears a repetitive raspberry noise.

“The fuck is that sound, kid?”

“I’m whistling”

“That is not whistling”

“Well I'm learning.”

“Can you learn another time? Preferably back in your own universe.”

“Ugh fine, wait” 

Ellie reaches into her backpack that she was keeping by her feet, sifting through the contents until she found what she was looking for,

"I heard about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda… he is lucky it was a soft drink."

***

Present

Annie watched as the ambulance pulled away, blurring into the night sky as it flew down the concrete road. Gulping back the guilt, Annie turned to look at the bodies lining the pavement behind her. She turned to MM, swiping her hand across her face to stop the tears that were threatening to spill. Hands shaking, she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone, unlocking it, handing it to the man. 

“Could you- urm- record this for me? Please?” she stammered. MM nods in reply, opening the phone to record the confession for Annie.

“You might want to hold fire, Vought’s calling you.” MM tells her, holding the phone out to the woman. Annie battles with herself internally about whether to pick up, but reluctantly grasps the phone, holding it up to her ear with shaky, white knuckles. 

MM watches the woman’s face as she talks to the person on the other side of the phone. Eventually muttering an “I’m on my way” before hanging up. She turns to the man,

“That was Ashley, there’s been a security breach, almost all the security guards are dead. Homelander’s called all the seven down to the tower.”

“What about Maeve?”

“Well she’s ‘out of rehab’-” Annie says, making quotation marks with her fingers. “- but she won’t go. Is it alright if I tell her I'll meet her back at your’s?” Annie asks the older man.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me. I’ll give you a lift back into the city.” MM says, starting to walk in the direction of the vehicle.

***

“Butcher? It’s me, Maeve”

“Fucking hell, are you alright? You’ve been gone for days.”

“I’m fine, that girl Ellie, she broke me out of the cell that Vought had me in”

“The kid managed that? Is she alright?”

“She’s got a flesh wound, Elena’s stitching her up now. Where are you Butcher? I’ll bring her and your car.”

“In all honesty, I was about to come lookin’ for her. But Soldier boy wants to go on and find the next supe on his list. It’s too dangerous for her, but he’s the only way we have of killing Homelander.”

“What do you want me to do with her, Butcher?”

“Make up some excuse, go find MM and Starlight, just don’t let her come here.”

“Okay, yeah I'll do that.”

“Thanks love, appreciate it.”

“You owe me though.”

“Yeah, put it on the tab.”

Chapter Text

“I was wondering why the ball was getting bigger… then it hit me.”

It was at that moment - and the past 45 minutes - that Maeve decided that she was never having kids. Feeling her will to live slipping away with every pun that Ellie read out, Maeve flayed a hand across her face and groaned.

“Ellie I swear to god, that book is going out that window if you don’t shut the fuck up in the next five seconds” Maeve complained, grasping her head as she felt a migraine starting to come on. Ellie looked towards her from where she had her nose buried in the pun-book, blinking her eyes in a mockery of innocence at the older woman. Ellie paused for a moment nodding her head as she silently counted.

“Annnd five seconds is up '' she flicked to the next page “I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory… All I did was take a day off.-”

“- That’s not what I- just please, can we have five minutes of silence?” Maeve sighed, merging into the traffic ahead. They weren’t far from MM’s place now, judging from the address that Annie had quickly sent her after their call.

Ellie opened up her backpack, placing the pun book back into the bag gently; careful as to not bend the pages. Zipping her bag back up, Ellie rested her cheek on his fist, sighing dramatically as she stared out the window.

“How long will Starlight’s meeting be?” Ellie questioned, breaking the silence barely 15 seconds into it. Maeve resigned herself to the fact that her hope for a peaceful drive wouldn't be a possibility, given the curious teenager in the car with her. Maeve quickly flicked her eyes down to the time on the dashboard, before responding to the girl.

“A few hours, maybe? She’s meeting us at MM’s so we might as well freshen up whilst we’re there.” Maeve told the girl, half concentrating on what she’s saying as she manovers her way around the busy city traffic.

“So let me get this straight, it’s a Vought meeting?” Ellie asked her, sitting forward in her seat. She’s not used to sitting down for long periods of time; it was kind of boring, if you ask her.

“Yeah, why?” Maeve mutters.

“So why aren’t you there? You’re one of their heroes.” Maeve chuckles slightly to herself, not so much due to the humour of the situation, more the morbid reality of it.

“If I go there, they will put me straight back into one of those cells. Doesn’t matter what the rest of Vought or The Seven say; Homelander will make that decision. They’ll just tell the public i’m ‘back in rehab’ or something”

“What’s rehab?”

“Nevermind kid. Besides, Starlight said the meeting was about a ‘security breach in the tower’” Maeve said, making air quotes with one hand as she kept the other on the wheel. Maeve turned to Ellie, watching as a wave of realisation washed over the girl, muttering a quick ‘oh’ .

“So, the meeting is about me?” Maeve nodded to the girl in confirmation.

“We both need to lay low for a while. Don’t worry, Starlight will be able to sneak you in somehow, we’ll get you back to your own universe, you can trust me.” Maeve flashed the girl a quick smile, before turning up the music. In true Butcher-fashion, Spice Girls blasted out of the car speakers as they drove round the streets of New York.

***

Homelander was the only person in the meeting room when she arrived. 

He was sitting in his chair at the head of the table, red and white cape spilling out across the back of the seat and onto the floor, smiling at her with his wolfish grin as she entered.

“Well Starlight, looks like we’re the first one’s here, Love.” Homelander stood up as he talked to her, slowly walking towards her as she started to make her way towards her seat at the table. Perhaps he just didn’t want to be below her, even for a second when she was stood up and he wasn't. Starlight didn’t know, but every fibre of her body was screaming ‘DANGER’ at her from being in a room by herself with Homelander. 

“You don’t have to do that whole ‘Love’ thing, it’s just us here.” Starlight tells him, debating whether she should take a step back to maintain the distance between them, but ultimately she stood her ground, crossing her arms so as to not seem weak in front of the man.

“Call it method acting then.” Homelander says with a chuckle, watching as the younger woman doesn’t reciprocate his laughter. He gestures towards her chair, pulling it out from where it is tucked into the table.

“Wanna take a seat? The others should be here soon.” Annie makes no attempt to move, instead holding the man’s gaze.

“You said there was a security breach, what happened?” Homelander dismissed her questions with a flick of his hand.

“I’ll discuss it in the meeting when everyone arrives, have a seat.” He says, once again gesturing to her chair.

“As co-captain of The Seven, I want to know what happened, now.” Starlight commanded, concentrating on breathing steadily and keeping her heart rate down so Homelander wouldnt be able to sense her fear.

The metal of the chair creaked as it was crushed in Homelander’s grip. Curling his lips back into a sneer, he closes his eyes and before swallowing back his anger. Annie fixates her vision on the deformed structure of the chair, knowing that it could have easily been her head if Homelander had decided it would be. The man looks up at her, all attempts at feigning animosity having dissipated in that instant.

“As if you don’t already know what happened.” Homelander scoffed, watching as the woman’s face twists into a look of confusion. Annie opens her mouth to protest his allegations, before he shushes his with his hand.

“Come on, I know you’re still in kahoots with Butcher and his gang, you know, with you and Hughie. Every time that we have an issue here at Vought, it always has something to do with them.” Annie walks towards Homelander, dragging a newfound confidence from deep within her.

“I can assure you, Hughie has nothing to do with this-”

“-Woahhhh, lover’s tiff alert!” Annie looks up as The Deep ambles into the meeting room, walking up to a stiff Homelander and dragging him into a quick hug, muttering something about his “First meeting back” before releasing his grip on Homelander when the man hisses him a warning.

The Deep relaxes into his old chair, staring up at the two gleefully as he taps his fingers against the table. Starlight walks towards her chair before sitting down, ignoring the chill that runs down her spine when she feels the dent in her chair. As much as she despises The Deep, she is thankful that it is no longer just her and Homelander in the room. 

“So, who are we waiting for?” The Deep questions, flicking his eyes between the two captains of the seven. 

“Noir, A-Train and Ashley.” Homelander answers quickly, looking down his nose at the other man as he remains standing in the middle of the room. Deep stares up at the man in confusion, furrowing his brows.

“Is Maeve not joining us?” The Deep asks. Annie feels herself groaning inwardly at the lack of social awareness Deep has, Can’t he read the room? She thinks. Homelander ignores his question, instead, he begins to pace around the room until Noir and Ashley walk into the meeting room. A guilty looking A-Train jogs in a few minutes later, apologising to Homelander and everyone “for being late.” Homelander regards the man briefly with a turn of his head, before clasping his hands together and addressing the room.

“Glad to see you’re all here!” Homelander greets them with an eerie smile, walking towards the table and plucking from it the remote for the screens. 

“Now, as you all know, I called you all here because yesterday, we had a breach of security here in the tower; they managed to wipe out most of our security.” Homelander turned to the screens that were positioned along the walls of the room and clicked the button.

Fuck.

It was Tess, the girl that was with Hughie and Butcher. The picture was zoomed in, so Annie could only see her head and torso on the screens. She tried to mask her recognition, instead attempting to mirror the confused look on A-Train and Deep’s face.

“What’s that kid got to do with the security breach?” A-Train questioned, squinting his eyes as if the answer was going to leap out of the screen towards him. Homelander clicks his finger and points at the man,

“Excellent question, Ashley, why don’t you answer this one?” The woman, who still hasn’t spoken since she entered the room, looks up as the next image flashes onto the screen. It’s Ashley in the elevator, a terrified expression plastered over her face as the girl points the pistol at her head.

“Uhm, well, she’s the one that-that broke in.” Ashley stuttered, still clearly processing the attempt on her life yesterday. The Deep pipes up this time, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why can’t you just run her identity through the system, y’know face identification, fingerprints? Get her arrested and be done with it.” Homelander turns to the Deep, a look of anger flashing across his face as the man once again interrupts his meeting. As quickly as the look is there, it is gone though, as he turns slowly to The Deep and the rest of the Team.

He holds up a finger as a gesture to wait a moment, walking out into the corridor before walking back in a minute or so later with a young blonde woman; Annie thought she couldn't be older than twenty-one. Homelander leads her into the room with a hand on the small of her back.

“Team, I would like you to meet the new forensics intern, Sarah.” Sarah gives the seven a nervous “Hi” and waves of her hand, looking towards Homelander as if seeking his approval.

“Sarah, why don’t you tell the team what forensics and Cyber security found?” Homelander asks the girl, smiling as she flips through her notes in the flipboard she brought with her.

“We took her fingerprints from the keypad and the droplets of blood that were on the floor. Tried to run them and her face through the government database and our own. And… there was nothing. Legally speaking, she doesn’t exist.”

A look of shock flooded over the faces of the remaining members of The Seven; well Annie assumed Noir was shocked, she couldn't tell otherwise. Homelander chuckled at their reactions,

“So we have a ghost, no way to track her down, except…” Homelander pointed the remote at the screen again, it showed a video this time. It was short, but that didn't matter. The security footage showed Tess running down the corridor with Maeve, the next a photo of them both leaving the building with a security guard.

“Wait…. I thought Maeve was in Rehab?” A train questions, eyes scanning the room for answers. Homelander shakes his head before answering.

“A-Train, A T-rain, a-Train. Are you really that fucking stupid? Maeve is a traitor, she was never in Rehab, but she’s one of us so I couldn't kill her.” A look of realisation covers A-Train and the Deep’s expressions. Annie already knew what happened to Maeve, as the woman briefed her on the situation in their phone call the night before. But she didn’t realise that Tess had been the one to bust her out of the cell, or that she was with Maeve now as opposed to Butcher. MM would figure it out at least when he sees the girl at his place along with the hero he agreed to meet there. One thing that Annie couldn’t work out was why? Why had Tess broken into the Tower in the first place?

“We can’t let the public know that we are hunting down a teenager. They’ll think we’re fucking useless if a child can get past Vought security. But if we find Maeve, then we find the girl. So, we bring them in, chuck them in a cell and that’s that. Everyone clear?”

“But Sir, we can't put a child in a cell.” The Deep states, immediately regretting the words as they leave his mouth.

“Well we’re not Deep. Didn’t you hear forensics? She doesn’t exist.”

Chapter Text

Maeve looked over at the sleeping girl in the passenger seat. It had taken a bit of persuading to convince Ellie that she should get some rest; as it was late at night and they had had a long day. Ellie had tried to argue back that she had gone longer without sleep and that she ‘wasn’t tied’ but within ten minutes of ‘resting her eyes’ she was sleeping silently.

Maeve noted how peaceful the girl looked, realising in that moment that she had never taken in how tense the girl's face normally was; a hard mask that she has only seen used by herself and the rest of the seven, perhaps other Vought employees too. She had to hand it to Ellie, she did hide it well, with her sarcastic humour and awful puns. Whilst she did look peaceful, there was still a rigid appearance to her prone body, with her hand resting over the gun in the waistband of her jeans. She was motionless, besides the gentle rise and fall of her chest. No tossing or turning, not even a light snore. It was quite unnerving, in Maeve’s opinion, to see a young girl sleeping as if she had trained herself to be silent and unseen. 

And then, Maeve realised: it was survival, not rest.

She was almost like a wild animal, sleeping in a way to hide their presence from the bigger, more dangerous predator. In the day, the animal can defend itself, but at night, it just has to sleep lightly and be prepared to pounce or run at any moment. 

No child should have to think like prey.

Ellie sits up as they drive over a speed bump, barely stirring herself awake as she surveys her surroundings. When she realises who she is in the car with, Ellie relaxes her shoulders, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hand with a yawn. 

“Are we nearly there yet? It’s now light outside.” Ellie moans, pulling the sleeves of her jacket down her arm. 

“Only a few minutes away, had to stop for gas and the New York traffic was awful.” Maeve answered Ellie, turning her head slightly towards the girl. She took in the sight of her clothes, before looking down at her own.

“We do need fresh clothes, perhaps we should go to the mall if we have time before Starlight gets you back home?” Ellie smiles slightly when Maeve mentions the ‘mall’, blinking her eyes harshly to prevent the tears she could feel in her eyes threatening to spill. She bites her gum slightly before responding.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Would be nice to have clothes that haven't been moth eaten.” Ellie chuckles, trying to joke her way out of her emotions. Malls just make her think of Riley, and that night. 

Shit, would Riley even have been born in this universe? If she was, she would be about six years old. Her parents were together before the outbreak, so it's possible. If she is, Ellie hopes she is happy. That she’s out there, going to school, making friends, playing with skipping- ropes. That’s the life that Riley deserves, it's the life that her Riley deserved. 

Maeve pulls up outside of MM’s apartment. Exiting the car and grabbing their belongings, the two of them make their way up the stairs, to the apartment that Starlight had stated was MM’s in her conversation with Maeve.

Maeve knocked on the door, waiting a few moments before MM creaked the door open slightly. His large frame took up the entirety of the small gap that he had created, as if he was trying to hide his apartment from the eyes of an unexpected guest. Upon seeing the red-headed woman, he breathes a sigh of relief and fully opens the door. 

“Maeve, it’s good to see you, glad that you’re okay.” He smiles, turning his body to welcome her into his home. He then casts his eyes down to the small auburn-haired teenager, startling back as if he wasn't prepared to see her.

“ Tess? Annie didn’t say that you were coming. What are you doing with Maeve? Why aren't you with Butcher?” He questioned the girl, looking between her and Maeve. The teenager chuckles, walking past MM into his apartment.

“Heyy, Milk-Man, I guess we’ve quite a bit to catch you up on. And it’s Ellie, just thought you should know.” Ellie looks around the apartment, taking in the decor. It’s spotless, to say the least, probably not a speck of dust in the entire place. Ellie trudges up to the sofa and sits down, not bothering to take off her boots, as she grins up at the tired looking man.

“Please, never call me Milk-Man ever again. And take your shoes off, you’ll get footprints everywhere.” 

“Whatever you say, Milk-Man.” Ellie pulls her boots off with a sigh, watching as Maeve walks in and takes off the shoes she was wearing. When Ellie had found her, she had been barefoot. Thankfully, she had found a spare pair of shoes in her backpack, y’know just in case a runner ripped hers or something. She had handed the pair to the woman before they had entered the elevator, earning her a thanks. They weren't much, just a pair of pumps that she had scavenged from a wardrobe that she assumed had belonged to an adolescent girl in her universe. They were comfortable, the pair that Ellie likes to wear during summer and the warmer months. However, if their shopping trip goes ahead, Ellie thought she would like to get herself a new pair, perhaps a pair of ‘Converse’ that she’d heard Riley mention a few times.

MM closes the door, before turning back to the two of them,

“Care to explain what happened?” MM asks softly, guiding them to sit on the sofas in his living room. Maeve explains the situation to him, about how Homelander had imprisoned her below the tower, how Ellie had helped her escape the cell and they had gone to Elena’s first for medical attention. MM eyes widen in shock and fear before scowling when Maeve tells him how Ellie had killed a significant amount of Vought’s security. In total, she had killed a couple hundred. This had shocked Ellie, in the moment, it had only felt like a handful. But shit, no wonder Vought had called a meeting , Ellie thinks.

MM listens to Maeve, but turns to grab the tv remote and switch the channels over to the news. Apart from the people killed during Herogasm, there’s no mention of any other major stories.

“So if the kid killed that many people, why isn’t it on the News?” MM questions, Maeve answers this one with a humorous shake of her head.

“Do you think Vought wants the world to know that their security is that pathetic, that a teenager was able to break into the most protected levels of the Tower?”

Whilst the two adults continued to talk, Ellie decided to walk about and explore the apartment. It's pretty open-plan, with a few rooms off to the side. Ellie walks up to one of the rooms, the door is closed, but MM doesn’t notice so she walks in there.

It’s pink. But not the overwhelming kind, no, the walls were a gentle pink like candy floss or a wildflower. The bed was pristinely made, the quilt folded back at the corner so the owner can easily hop in, decorative pillows placed purposefully along the bed. There were dolls and toys on little shelves and tucked away in drawers. Ellie’s eyes were drawn to the large doll house in the corner of the room, it was beautiful, handcrafted with a glossy varnish covering the wood. 

“Woah” Ellie exclaimed, walking up to the dollhouse and running her fingers along the roof. Hearing footsteps, she turned round to see MM stood in the doorway, looking at her like a deer in headlights. Ellie fidgeted nervously, quickly removing her hand from the structure,

“So you, uh, have a daughter then?” Ellie asked the man, watching as he released some of the tension from his shoulders. A smile twitched his lips as he tore his eyes away to look around the room. 

“Yeah, I do. Janine, she's a couple years younger than you.” The man smiled to himself now with adoration for his daughter. Looking back up at the auburn haired teenager, he noticed the longing and sadness in her eyes when she looked around the room and the dollhouse.

MM internally scorned himself. Of course, growing up in an apocalypse she probably never got the chance to be a kid and play with toys. Another thought crosses his mind, she probably doesn't even have parents, or family. Softening his gaze he, addresses the girl,

“You can play with the dolls if you want, I'm sure Janine won’t mind.”

Ellie snaps her hand away from the doll house, pulling her sleeves down past her wrists as she stuttered her way through her excuse,

“Uh- it’s fine. It’s just cool as fuck, that’s all.” MM just smiles at the girl, walking towards the little drawer where he keeps some of Janine’s dolls. He picks up three of the dolls and places them on the bed. Silently, he walks back out of the room, allowing the girl to have some privacy.

Ellie waits until MM has left the room before walking over to the dolls on the bed.

“Dolls, how old does he think…” Ellie’s muttering dwindles off as she picks up one of the dolls, rotating it in her hand. The doll reminds her of Hughie’s girlfriend Annie. It’s not her, as Ellie caught sight of the actual Starlight and other superhero dolls on her shelf. Still, this one had long blonde hair, a huge smile and a little pink frilly dress.

Ellie fiddles with the doll's arm, grinning to herself when she makes the doll wave at her. She’s never played with dolls, never had the opportunity to do so. But she does now, and Starlight could be back from her meeting at any moment…

“OH NO! We’re surrounded by man-eating dinosaurs! We need to use our future alien powers to defeat them.” Ellie says in an excited yet hushed tone, not wanting the adults to hear her. She picks up another doll, a male one with similar blonde hair. It reminded her of that superhero guy she met earlier with Maeve: Homelander , she reminds herself. Both him and the doll had that artificial forced-grin look to them. Ellie sits on the floor and crosses her legs, grinning whilst she makes the dolls talk back and forth to each other.

***

Annie feels her fake smile fall as she leaves the meeting room. Muttering an excuse to Ashley that she’s got to go and call her mom ‘to see how her doctor's appointment went’. Annie quickly changes into her civilian clothing, before hurrying out of the Vought tower, and making her way into the crowded city centre to ensure that Homelander doesn't hear her. Pulling out her phone, Annie scrolls through her contacts until she finds the one she is looking for. The phone rings a few times but goes to voicemail. Cursing, Annie calls again before leaving a message:

“Hughie, it’s Annie. I need you to call me back, this is an emergency. It’s about that girl, Tess, she’s in danger, Homelander and the rest of the Seven are after her and Maeve. Just, please call me back.” 

Annie ends the voicemail, scrolling through her contacts again until she reaches the next best person. Once again, the phone rings then goes to voicemail.

“Butcher, I swear to fucking God either you or Hughie better pick up your phone’s….” Annie leaves him a similar message to the one she left Hughie, cursing again when she calls the both four more times with no luck. 

Fuck them, Annie decides, swiping out of the phone call app and sliding her finger across the screen. Still pissed off with Hughie and Butcher ghosting her, Annie angrily taps the screen of her phone, ordering herself an Uber to take her to MM’s apartment. She knows Maeve and Tess are safe there, but she's got to get there quickly so the can devise a plan to ensure they stay that way; at least until the next big thing pisses Homelander off and the attention is away from them.

The uber is three minutes away, so Annie swipes through her contacts until she sees MM’s name. The phone rings twice before the man’s voice answers

“MM, it’s me, Annie. Are your doors locked?” Annie asks quickly, relieved that someone picked up at least. 

“ Yeah they are, what’s happened? What did they say in your meeting?” MM asks, urgency evident in his voice.

“I’m about 15 minutes away, I'll explain everything when I'm there. But Homelander and the rest of the seven are after Tess and Maeve. Just keep them away from windows until I get there.” Annie says, watching as the uber arrives in front of the restaurant she inputted into the app.

Annie hops until the vehicle, telling MM she will talk to him once she gets to him and hangs up the phone. She can’t risk the taxi driver eavesdropping on her conversation and having the information get back to Homelander somehow.

The uber pulls up outside MM’s a few minutes later, Annie throws the driver a quick “thanks” before running up the stairs to the man’s apartment. Knocking three times on the door, Annie announces that it is her and the door opens a few moments later. MM greets her, stepping aside to allow her in before quickly locking and bolting the door. 

Maeve stands up off the sofa as the younger blonde woman walks in. Annie’s expression softens into a look of sympathy at the sight of her friend. Annie lets out a small gasp, whispering her name in shock as she runs forwards to lock the redhead in a tight hug. Maeve smiles, returning the hug gently before they break away,

“It’s good to see you, Smurfette.” Maeve says after their embrace.

“What’s a Smurfette?” They hear a young girl say, turning round to see Ellie walking out of Janine’s room. The dolls have been long abandoned, Annie assumes that MM has told her that The Seven are after her, as the teenager clenches a switch knife tightly in her right hand, ready to attack at any moment.

“How do you not know what Smurf is?” Annie questions the girl, determining that there is definitely something weird about her. The teenager chuckles turning to the other two adults in the room whilst twirling the knife around in her hand.

“Do you guys wanna fucking tell her, or should I?” Ellie asks, laughing to herself when she sees Annie’s reaction to her swearing. Maeve fills her in, that her name is actually Ellie and she is from a universe that is post-outbreak. Annie blinks her way through the rundown, her mouth opening more agape with each sentence.

Just as Maeve finishes the rundown there is a loud rasp on the door. Everyone in the room freezes as the knocking becomes faster and more aggressive. Ellie reaches into her rucksack that is still on her back, pulling the makeshift blade-crowbar out of the bag before zipping it back up. Annie allows her eyes to glow white as she prepares to use her powers. Maeve - in turn grabs the gun off MM’s table, knowing that if the fight became hand-to- hand then she would easily win. She hands the other gun to MM, who nods a silent thanks as he walks to the door quietly, looking through the small peephole in the door. Sighing in relief, MM unbolts the locks before unlocking the door.

“What the hell happened to you two?”

Chapter Text

A man and a woman stood at the door.

Pain etched their faces as they grasped each other for support. Hunched over, Ellie could see the dark haired woman's laboured breaths as they shook her lithe body. The man worked his jaw before answering MM, looking up at him briefly before unfocusing his gaze and pulling the woman closer to him.

“It is but trivial” He answers softly, trying not to startle his companion or further damage his vocal chords. Ellie noticed that he had a slight accent, definitely not american. She then suddenly recalls Hughie telling her about another duo in Butcher’s gang. Ah, so this must be Kimiko and Frenchie, She thinks, remembering the times when Joel would pretend to have an accent when cooking food they had scavenged from longlife cans or had hunted in the woods.

“Dude, the fuck is that accent?” Ellie had giggled, watching as Joel cooked the meat of the rabbit they had just killed over the fire. He laughed, lifting his hand to pretend to twiddle an imaginary moustache.

“It's French” He told her, still maintaining his awful attempt at the accent. Ellie hunched over, laughing at his actions, listening to him ramble on about how the “apocalypse doesn't have enough spices” and about how they need “garlic baguettes with their spiceless meal”, all the while pretending to twirl a moustache.

“Okay, what the fuck does the moustache have to do with the french?” Elllie asks between tears of laughter. Joel turns to her grinning, turning over the meat to cook on the other side.

“Every French person has a moustache, they’re all born with them.”

“Wait, really?”

“No.”

Ellie watches as Annie pushes by them towards the woman Ellie assumes is Kimiko. MM was saying something to Frenchie before being cut off by Annie beckoning them in,

“Oh my god, you shouldn’t even be on your feet.” Annie exclaims, gently taking Kimiko’s arm from Frenchie and guiding her through the living room. She mutters epithets of reassurance to her as she leads the dark haired woman towards MM’s spare room. 

The woman either ignores her, or is in too much pain to notice Ellie, as she doesn't even acknowledge Ellie’s existence during the events. Ellie stood there idly, looking towards Maeve as she lowered her blade-crowbar. Frenchie walks into the living room with MM, his back turned to the two women so he hasn't noticed them yet,

“Butcher is everyone’s problem now, we’re here to help.” The man whispered to MM, finally turning around to see the other people in the room. 

“Merde!” Frenchie exclaims, jumping slightly in shock. After a few moments, a wave of familiarity crashes over Frenchie as he recognises the red haired woman.

“Queen Maeve, glad to see you’re alive, assumed that whole rehab thing was a cover by Vought.” Frenchie told her, smiling when he noted the lack of injuries on her. His gaze then falls on the girl that he doesn’t recognise. Squinting his eyes, he turns to the other two adults in the room.

“Who is this, how’d you say adolescente- er tiny-woman?” Frenchies asks, gesturing to the auburn haired girl as he speaks.

“Do you mean teenager? Frenchie, are you high?” MM asks the man.

“Well, that goes without saying.” Frenchie answers without hesitation. Ellie chuckles at his response, walking towards the dark haired man.

“I’m Ellie,” she grins, taking her backpack off in order to slide her melee weapon back in. Frenchie regards her backpack full of artillery with admiration. 

“You’re Frencie, aren’t you? Hughie mentioned you.” Frenchie grinned softly whilst letting out a small laugh. He nodded, confirming her assumptions.

“You should consider yourself lucky, Frenchie, she’s not normally this open with people when she first meets them.” MM says with a smile, watching as the girl turns to him and playfully flips him the finger, telling them that if everyone trusts the duo then she can too. Ellie turns to look at Frenchie, narrowing her eyes as she stares at his face intently. Suddenly, her face lights up, 

“No way, you’ve actually got a moustache!” Ellie exclaims excitedly, pointing at his facial hair. The man scrunches his face in confusion, turning to look at the other adults in the room. They shrug as a response, not knowing what the girl is referring to. Ellie ends the suspense,

“Oh, my friend told me that all French people have moustaches.” 

MM steps forward, scratching his face as he tells Frenchie that Ellie is from an apocalyptic alternate universe, so she doesn't fully understand culture or modern society. Perhaps it was the drug induced state, but Frenchie doesn't seem that shocked about the revelation.

Just as MM finishes what he was saying, Annie walks out of the spare room.

“She’s asleep, I gave her a few strong painkillers to take the edge off.” Annie tells the group firmly, trying to bury the worry she feels for her friend; she had always been good at masking her emotions. Ever since she was a little girl, she always had to be the strong one between her and her mom. So apart from who she has to be strong for, not much has changed. 

“I’ll go and watch over her for a bit.” Frenchie mutters, throwing the gang a quick “Thank you.” before running in the direction of the spare room. Before he pushes the handle down, he stops and turns back around to face them:

“By the way Ellie, your friend was telling the truth, we do all have moustaches.” Frenchie tells her with a smirk, throwing the rest of the group a mischievous wink as he walks into the room Kimiko is in.

“Fucking knew it.” Ellie exclaimed with glee, pointing at the door that Frenchie had just disappeared from. Throwing her backpack onto the floor by the sofa, Ellie walks over and sits down, sinking into the leather. Leaning forward, Ellie folds her arms across her lap,

“So, Voughts after me and Maeve then?” Ellie asks, resulting in the others in the room to turn towards her. Ellie sits back into the sofa, causing her legs to dangle off the seat, barely scraping the floor. Watching the girl stare up at them with saucer-like inquisitive eyes, Annie can’t quite believe that she had caused the deaths of hundreds of Vought employees less than a day ago.

“They are, Vought, The Seven. Homelanders got Ashley wrapped around his finger now that she’s CEO, it’s whatever he says goes. He doesn't want the News getting ahold of this and having the whole world find out that a teenager got through their security.” Annie pauses before turning to Ellie.

“The Seven are after you, but they’re trying to do it out of the public eye.”

Ellie nods as she takes in the information, what she is taking from this is she can go outside, she just has to avoid The Seven.

“So… if I wore a disguise, you could sneak me into the tower?” Ellie asks her slowly. This whole thing with The Seven won’t stop her from getting back to Joel. Pulling on the sleeves of her jacket to hide the slight tear, Ellie looks towards Annie.

“My friend, back in my universe is dying, and-um Soldier Boy said that Vought were the one’s experimenting with multiversal travel. So there must be a portal or I don’t fucking know a universe- hopping gun or something in the bottom levels of Vought. I tried to go looking for it but I ended up busting Maeve out of that weird cell.” Ellie tells her, swinging her arms out to emphasise her words. 

Annie takes a moment to process what she said, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t the craziest thing she has ever heard. But sneaking Ellie back into the Tower will be nearly impossible, especially since Homelander is already suspicious of her involvement. But Ellie’s friend is dying… Annie never liked abandoning someone who needed help. It's why she became a hero in the first place, to help people.

“Okay, I’ll go back to the Tower, find out whatever this thing is that Vought supposedly has to send you home and where they are keeping it. Then I'll sneak you in and get you back home.” Annie hopes that her voice sounds more confident then she feels. She’s never seen or heard anyone talk about multiversal travel at the tower, perhaps it’s something new?

MM nods his head through the exchange, stepping forwards once Annie had finished talking,

“Do you want anything to eat before you go Annie? I put some food on before you arrived. Nothing special, just chicken, rice and mixed veg.” Annie smiles at him in appreciation of his kind offer, but ultimately shakes her head.

“Thanks MM, but I’m not hungry. I’ll see you all soon, okay? Please look after Kimiko, and you two-” she indicates to Maeve and Ellie “- don’t leave this apartment, keep the door locked, and stay away from windows.” Annie replies, slinking away towards the door and pulling her denim jacket back on from where she had hung it up MM’s hallway. She shouts a quick “Bye” before leaving the apartment. 

Maeve walks across the living room, sitting on the sofa next to Ellie and resting her head in her hands.

“Staying away from windows. Fuck, what has my life come to.” Maeve says with a sigh, dragging out each word into a sneer of annoyance. It’s not directed at anyone in particular, more the situation as a whole.

On the other side of the sofa, Ellie groans in boredom, throwing her head back as she sighs dramatically. A few seconds later she snaps up, sitting up straight before leaning forwards to grab her backpack. 

“Kid I swear to fucking God, if you so much as open a page of that pun book, I will put it in a blender and snort about five weeks of birth control.” Maeve threatens casting a glare in the direction of the fourteen year old. Pouting, Ellie drops the bag and rolls back into the sofa.

“So… how long is the chicken going to take?”

***

“Find something”

“Find something, anything! I don’t care what, the girl can't just not exist!”

She’s been hunched over the microscope in Vought’s lab for the last six hours. She hasn’t left since she was dragged into the meeting room with The Seven. Once she had returned back to the lab, Ashley - the new CEO of Vought-  had stormed into the room and demanded they find something on the girl.

Find something

Sarah’s boss says she has potential. After Ashley had left the room, he walked up to the forensics intern and handed her a slide with the girl's blood on it and her fingerprint from the keypad in the bottom levels of Vought.

“You have an eye for detail.” He had told her, placing the items in front of the blonde woman.

“You’re driven. If anyone can find something on the girl, it will be you.” He smiled at her in encouragement, telling her to come find him if she needs help.

Find something

She zooms in closer on the fingerprint. Her boss is right, she is driven. All she wants to do is make her Uncle Tommy proud. He’s the one that took her in and helped her get to where she is today. She likes to think that her dad is looking down on her proudly. Of course he is, She scolds herself. Everything she does is for them, to make them proud and to make the world that bit better.

“Holy shit.” she blurts out quietly in shock, her Texas drawl seeping into her voice. She blinks harshly, as if the miracle in front of her was going to disappear as if it never existed.

“Oh my g- Holy Shit!” she yells this time, almost falling off her chair as she pushes away from her table. Running up to her boss, she tells him gleefully that she did it, she found something. She drags him towards the microscope, urging him to look through the eyepiece. She watches as his body tenses up once he processes what she found. 

“Oh my god.” he whispers in disbelief, transfixed on the sight before him.

“Wait, there’s more.” Sarah says, fiddling with the setting on the microscope before gesturing to him to look again. He looks down the eyepiece again, staring for a few seconds before pulling away and locking eyes with the girl, confirming with their gaze that they saw the same thing.

“Fuck.”

Chapter Text

“This Chicken is fucking amazing.” Ellie says around a mouthful of food, barely swallowing before taking another bite. Is this what Joel meant by spices? If so Ellie thinks she’s in love. Can you marry chicken?

“Y’know, kids your age in this universe don’t really swear as much as you do.” MM tells her, shifting uncomfortably in his chair after hearing the girl curse again.

“Yeah, I don’t fucking care, so just take the compliment dude.” Ellie stabs another piece of chicken, smiling when she hears Maeve laugh at her comment. The red-haired woman slouches in her seat at the little dining room table they were sitting at, pushing the vegetables around her plate as she takes small mouthfuls of the food. MM had given her a quizzical look earlier when she had started eating that way, but Maeve was quick to reassure him that she was just eating slowly since she hadn’t eaten properly for days in the cell and didn’t want to risk bringing it back up. 

They suddenly heard a loud knocking on the door. Cautiously, MM stood up from his chair and stared down the corridor to where the spare room is. The door was closed and he could hear the faint sound of hushed talking so he knew Frenchie and Kimiko were still in the room, so who was at the door?

“Ellie, Maeve please go into Janine’s room, and arm yourselves.” MM says quietly, so that the person knocking won’t be able to hear him. Pulling out his gun, MM crept towards the door before looking through the peephole. Sighing, MM lowers his gun and flings open the door.

“What are you doing here Hughie?”

The man in question stands awkwardly at the door, shuffling his feet side-to-side. He stretches his face quickly into a tight smile in greeting before letting it fall back into a stressed frown.

“Hey, is Ellie-uh Tess here?” Hughie asks, leaning nervously against the door frame, trying to use his lanky limbs to take up as much of the space as possible. MM stares at him carefully, tilting his head in suspicion. Folding his arms, he stares down his nose at Hughie.

“Who wants to know?” MM interrogates him, in turn using his body to hide the corridor to his living room. It’s not a standoff, but MM thinks that if it was he would be winning. Hughie sighs, tapping his fingers against the door frame.

“Come on, don’t be like this man. Annie called and said she was in danger, something about Homelander and The Seven? Assumed they’d be here since you two are best buddies now.” MM chooses to ignore his friend’s pissed off tone and jealous shrug, silently stepping to the side to gesture for Hughie to come in. 

“Annie left about an hour ago, trying to find something to help send Ellie back to her universe.” MM says whilst walking back into the living room. Turning round, MM notices that Hughie has made no attempt to move, instead, he nervously turns his head to look down the corridor outside MM’s apartment. His gaze snaps back up when MM starts speaking,

“What are you hiding, Hughie?”

Hughie walks down the corridor and into the living room following MM, sighing as he scrunches his face up in defeat.

“Just… please don’t be mad…”

***

“...And it was throwing fucking spore bombs at us! It literally took three of us and nearly all of our ammo to kill it.” Ellie whispered to Maeve, still clutching her gun in preparation. Closing her eyes, she could hear that there were three people by the door. MM, a man - was that Hughie? - and someone else who hasn’t spoken yet.

“And these things are called Bloaters?” Maeve whispers back in morbid curiosity.

“Yep, infected for about fifteen years at that point. My friend said that they kill by ripping a person’s head from their jaw” Maeve scowls in confusion.

“I thought you said that there weren't any supes in your universe anymore?” Maeve questions the teenager. Ellie gives the woman an incredulous look.

“There isn't. Bloaters, Clickers, Stalkers, and Runners, they were all humans before.”

“Then how-”

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” Maeve and Ellie both run out of Janine’s room as they hear MM’s shout followed by the sound of fighting and commotion. 

MM had Butcher pinned to the wall with a knife held up to his throat. The man in question had a bruise forming on his face and his face tilted up into a smug smirk. 

“Drop the knife mate, we’re here to help.” After a few moments MM’s furious expression pulls back into a snarl, as he pushes the knife harder into Butcher's neck, causing a droplet of blood to ooze from the new wound and run down his throat. Butcher shoves the other man as hard as he could without Temp V, causing MM to stumble backwards as Butcher dodges a punch aimed at his head. 

“Merde!” Frenchie shouts, dashing out of the spare room he was in when he hears the tumult. Standing back from the action, he watches as Butcher dodges the blows that MM keeps throwing at him in rage. After a few moments of this, Butcher throws a punch of his own, hitting MM square in the nose and causing a sickening crunch to echo throughout the living room. Cursing in pain, MM clutches at his broken nose as blood runs down his face. 

The sound of a gunshot pierces the air, followed by Butcher swearing and clutching his arm. It’s just a flesh wound, but he looks up to see Ellie staring at him down the barrel of his pistol; the one that she had taken from him when they first met. Maeve moves forward to grab at the gun in Ellie’s hand, causing the younger girl to jump in shock and rip the rest of the sleeve of her jacket off through the motion of tugging the gun back towards herself. Reluctantly, Ellie places the gun in Maeve’s hand when she is given a stern look by the older woman.

“Good to see you too, kid. Now, what the fuck did you do that for?” Butcher says gritting his teeth into a pain-filled smile. 

“She probably thought you were Homelander or one of The Seven.” Maeve tells Butcher, walking towards him with a makeshift bandage. Butcher clenches his eyes, but otherwise doesn't flinch whilst Maeve treats his wound. Frenchie does the same for MM’s nose. Butcher looks up at Ellie once he thanks Maeve.

“So you thought I was a fucking Supe then?” Butcher chuckles, smiling at the girl in an attempt to lighten the mood. Ellie doesn't meet his grin, instead she sulks and shrugs her shoulders.

“I heard fighting, so I shot” Butcher senses that there are more feelings lying beneath her tone but decides to shrug it off for now. Shifting his weight to the other side, Butcher holds out the hand of his good arm to MM.

“Truce?”

MM glares at him for a few moments before reaching his hand out to shake Butcher’s hand, gripping tightly. Butcher gestures his head towards MM’s kitchen, silently asking him for a word in private. Once they’re out of earshot MM jabs Butcher’s injured arm over his bandage causing him to wince. 

“You fucking roofied me!”

“Had to mate, you would have died trying to kill Soldier Boy.”

“So you work with the guy? You know what that Motherfucker did to my family.”

“I do. Now, let me tell you the plan, alright?”

“Fine, what is it?”

“Ellie and Maeve are in danger, Vought is coming for them. We need to work together-”

“I am not working with Soldier Boy.”

“ Homelander needs to die. Once he’s gone it will just be Starlight in charge of The Seven and the rest of the seals will clap along with whatever she says. Soldier Boy is going to kill Homelander for us .”

“I’m not-”

“We not going to let that fucker live, not after what he’s done to you. After that, he’s yours to kill. Until then just pretend, or ignore him, ‘cause for now we need him alive. So what do you say?”

“I get to kill him myself.”

“With your bare fucking hands if you want.”

“Then I'm in.”

Butcher grins at MM. 

“The Spice Girls are back in business.”

***

Ashley knew what she was doing.

Ashley hoped she knew what she was doing.

Okay, maybe Ashley didn’t know exactly 100% what she was doing most of the time. But you fake it until you make it, right?

After the meeting with the Seven, Homelander had pulled the new CEO of Vought to one side for a private talk. In that moment, she had felt like a Goldfish being stared down at by a Great White Shark. 

“That brat attacked you- attacked Vought. That in itself is a direct attack on me. Now, you’re going to find something on the girl, something we can use to get her and Maeve locked  back in a cell beneath Vought for the rest of their fucking lives. You got that?”

Ashley stood up from her desk when she had heard a knock at her door, smoothing out the creases of her suit with her hands, she beckoned the person in. A tired looking man in a lab-coat stood at the door, flashing her a quick smile as he ran his hand through his grey-streaked hair.

“Ms Barrett? I was wondering if I could borrow you for a second down in the lab? The intern - you met her I believe in the meeting before - she’s found something on the girl. You’re going to want to see this.”

Ashley hears Homelander’s words echo through her brain as she follows the forensics lab technician down through the levels of Vought to the lab where the blonde girl - Sarah , Ashley reminds herself - sat in front of the microscope with a huge grin across her face. Her head perks up when the two adults enter the room, standing up to shake Ashley’s hand.

“It’s nice to see you again Ms Barrett. Please sit down, if you wouldn’t mind taking a look at the microscope, I'll explain what it is we found.”

Ashley listens to the girl, feeling her blood run cold when she explains what she is looking at on the first slide. When Sarah changes the slide, telling her that there is more Ashley feels herself splutter and her heart stops for a moment. She looks up at the two of them slowly.

“And you’re sure of this?” she asks quietly, feeling her eyes dart between them as she comprehends what she has just been told. They agree, telling her that there is no shadow of doubt in their mind. Ashley just nods, thanks them for everything they have done and walks out of the lab. 

Only when she is back in her office does let herself fall apart.

“FUCK!” she screams, throwing herself into her office chair and grasping at a chunk of her hair. Splaying her hands over her jacket, Ashley frantically searches her pockets until she finds her phone. Grasping the device, she quickly dials the number she is after.

“Mr Edgar? It’s Ashley Barrett…”

***

Soldier Boy was in his house.

He was fucking sitting on MM’s sofa and smoking a joint, like he has no idea what he has done to him. He doesn’t , MM recalls Butcher telling him as he left the apartment to collect Soldier Boy from the car they had stolen. 

They were all sat in MM’s living room as Butcher devised a plan of getting to Homelander. MM took the sofa with Ellie and Maeve whilst Soldier Boy and Hughie sat at the table by the living room. Frenchie sat on the floor with Kimiko, the latter having regained some of her strength, but still recovering from her injuries. The British man paced around the room as he spoke.

“We need some way to get the fucker by himself, no Seven or Vought. And before anyone suggests it were not using Ellie or Ryan-”

“Then use me.” Maeve says, standing up off the sofa she was sitting on next to Ellie. “Homelander wants me just as much as he wants Ellie, you know that I want him dead just as much as you or anyone else does.”

Maeve walks towards Butcher as she says this, stopping just in front of him with her back to the sofa she was just sitting on. After a few moments, Ellie jumps off the Sofa as well,

“Wait, whose Ryan?” she asks, gesturing towards Butcher since he was the one who brought his name up. Butcher turns his head to look past the red-head in front of him to answer the auburn haired teenager.

“Ryan is my wife’s son, but Homelander is his biological father-” Butcher’s sentence chokes in his throat when his eyes land on the girl. Maeve squints her eyes at the abrupt stop, turning her head to follow the man’s gaze, only to feel her heart drop into her stomach.

“What is it?” Ellie asks, nervously chuckling as the rest of the group turns to look at her.

“Ellie,” Butcher says with an uncharacteristic tenderness, “your arm.”

Chapter Text

“Ellie, Ellie your arm”

At first, she didn’t even comprehend what Riley’s statement meant. Naively, she looked down at her arm expecting it to be cut or broken; thinking that the adrenaline from being chased by the hoard of infected had made her body oblivious to the pain. But as she looked down, she saw the blood trickling down her arm like raindrops against a window.

And the teeth marks.

It was at that moment that Ellie had felt that her life had ended, her knife falling from her hand as she stared at the blood oozing its way out of gaps in her flesh that was made by the bite. She rubbed at it, desperately wanting to believe that it wasn't real and that if she rubbed hard enough that it would just disappear.

It didn't.

“No.” Ellie whispered in disbelief, scrubbing at her arm now in a panicked desperation. “No, no, no, no.” Ellie looked up at Riley frantically, searching her eyes for an answer. There wasn’t one. The older girl turned her head away slightly, breathing deeply before hesitantly raising her hand, revealing her own bite to Ellie.

And it was in that moment that Ellie felt her whole world shatter. 

Nothing mattered anymore. Everything they had done, every laugh they had shared, every joke they had made, every moment that they had spent together and everything they had done in life, even their kiss that Ellie hoped would be the first of many, it was all for nothing. In two days they would be one of those things, more-than-likely less than that. 

Ellie didn’t know what to do, or how to cope with the pain and panic that was now rising in her chest. She wanted to wail, she wanted to fall to the ground and cry and just be held by a mother and comforted by a father that she never had. She looked over at Riley whose gaze was fixed on the ground in an effort to hide her tears. 

Ellie felt her panic turn to anger as she scorned the universe for the situation they are in. Why them? What had Riley and her done to deserve this? They had their whole lives ahead of them. Their childhood was taken by the aftereffects of the outbreak, and now their future was being taken by the Cordyceps too. It wasn’t fair. 

Ellie casted her eyes down and saw a pipe laying on the ground. Grasping it off the floor, Ellie let out a scream of frustration as she brought the pipe down onto a plant pot that sat innocently on a table nearby. The pot shattered, causing chunks of terracotta to fly across the room. It didn’t help the situation, or make Ellie feel any less empty or useless, but she couldn't stop herself. She felt her body go numb as she unconsciously continued to smash apart each pot. Feeling herself scream and curse as she brought the pipe down harder, eventually chucking the pipe across the room. 

She still felt hopeless, and lost, and scared. Listening to the pipe clank as it landed on the other side of the room, Ellie crumbled to the floor next to Riley, trying to catch her breath and calm the fear that was starting to take over her body and mind.

“There’s some more stuff over there that you can break.” Riley mumbled dejectedly. Ellie turned her head slightly to look at the girl, before feeling the tears build up in her eyes. Sniffing, she rubbed the bank off her hand across her face trying to push away the tears before they had a chance to spill. Flaying her hand across her eyes so that Riley wouldn't see her cry, Ellie breathed in deeply.

“What are we going to do?” Ellie murmured in a small, frightened voice. She just wanted a solution, anything to help the dread she felt at the thought of an empty future. Riley sat up a bit straighter, turning towards Ellie as she swallowed down the guilt and fear lodged in her own throat.

“The way I see it, we got two options. Option one” Riley held up her pistol, “we take the easy way out. It’s quick and painless.” Looking back down at her gun, Riley quickly placed it on the floor in front of them. “I’m not a fan of option one.”

“Two: we fight.” It took Ellie a few moments to comprehend what she said, her eyes fixed on the gun in front of her.

“Fight for what? We’re gonna turn into one of those things.” Ellie told her, feeling the sick feeling of dread pushing down on her chest. Riley thinks for a second before responding,

“There’s a million ways we should’ve died before today. And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight, for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it’s two minutes, or two days, we don’t give that up. I don’t want to give that up. My vote? Let’s just wait it out. Y’know, we can… be all poetic and just lose our minds together.” Riley looked towards Ellie hopefully, not even daring to glance at the gun by her foot. Ellie hadn’t reacted to her speech, just sat there with her head bowed.

“What’s option three?” Ellie finally muttered, turning to look at Riley. They caught each other's eyes for a second, Riley looked at her resignation.

“I’m sorry.” They broke eye contact again, neither of them being able to handle the pain in the other’s eyes. Ellie looked down at the pistol again, it would be quick and painless; the easy route. But she didn’t want to. She wanted to be with Riley for every second that she possibly could. Riley tapped Ellie on the shoulder tenderly before standing up,

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They walked out of that room and back into the mall. The infected were gone now, either dead or trapped in another part of the building. It was just the two of them now, alone to lose their minds together. Should they leave a note? The last words of two romantics cursed to never get their happily ever after? No, no one had the right to their love story. One day, someone will come along and put a bullet through their heads. Ellie just hopes that it after her mind is no longer hers.

They stopped when they reached the carousel. It was still so beautiful, Ellie wished that she could have ridden one before the outbreak, or just gone to a mall altogether. But looking over at Riley, she is so grateful that she could have experienced some part of normality. 

Ellie walked up to the horses, turning back to hold out her hand to Riley. It was a silent request, but Riley knew what it meant. Jumping onto the horses parallel to each other, they both held onto the horses’ manes solemnly. The carousel wasn’t as breathtaking as it was earlier, but Ellie blames their situation for that.

“Y’know,” Riley breaks the silence, causing Ellie to look towards her, “I think we could do with some puns right now.” Ellie smiled at her, pulling the book that Riley had given her out of her rucksack. With each pun Ellie read out, Riley laughed more, then Ellie laughed, then they were both laughing and nothing else mattered because they had each other.

Riley looked up at her as she jumped off the horse. Planting a quick kiss onto Ellie’s lips, she walked over and sat against the centre of the carousel, holding her arms out as an invitation for Ellie to join her. She did, Ellie flew off the horse and dove into Riley’s arms, they held onto each other tightly for at least an hour, as if the other would disappear if they let go.

“I want to grow old with you.” Ellie whispered as a single tear ran down her cheek. She looked up at Riley, whose bottom lip was wobbling as she tried to hold back her tears. She couldn't answer, so she just nodded, blinking away the water from her eyes. 

“We were never going to grow old.” Riley whispers back, choking on her tears as she starts to cry. Once Ellie stops her own tears, she looks up at Riley again, pulling them both down so that they are lying on the carousel. 

“I want your face to be the last thing I see before I lose my mind, you’re so beautiful.” Riley held back her tears with a smile, wiping her eyes as she stared back at Ellie. Lacing their hands together, they fell asleep facing each other on the carousel.

Ellie didn’t expect to wake up. She knew her body would, but with the placement of her bite she was sure that the infection would have reached her brain by now. Ellie was laying by herself on the carousel, the absence of Riley quickly noticed.

“Riley.” Ellie exclaimed, sitting up as she searched for the girl. After scanning the area, Ellie saw her standing on the other side of the room, facing away from Ellie. Without thinking, she starts to walk over to her, starting to let herself smile as she gets nearer. Holding out her arm, Ellie goes to tap her on the shoulder,

“Riley-” The other girl turned around, screeching as she lunged at Ellie, flinging them both onto the ground. Screaming, She held her arms up as she fought to keep the girl’s animalistic gnashing jaws from her neck. Riley clawed at Ellie’s skin as she frantically tried to attack the girl. Clenching her eyes shut, Ellie reached into her pocket, pulling her switch-knife out and stabbing Riley in the neck with a scream.

Riley’s body slumped on top of Ellie’s, the twitching and gurgling eventually coming to a stop as well. Ellie pushed the body off her, sitting up as she looked down at the pool of blood starting to form around Riley’s lifeless frame.

Ellie felt herself curl up in a ball and sob, screaming and wailing as she is now truly alone in this world, waiting for her mind to go too.

***

“Ellie, your arm.”  

Ellie looked down at her arm,  realising that between the attack on the tower and the scuffle with Maeve after shooting Butcher the sleeve of her jacket had been ripped clean off, revealing her bite mark to the group.

“Fuck, listen to me-” Ellie goes to say before being cut off by Butcher,

“That Clicker from a few days ago got you didn’t it? Shit, we should have realised sooner-”

“Fucking listen to me! This is six months old, people turn within two days!” Ellie held out her forearm to the group “Look, it’s healed. If I was lying about how old it was, then wouldn’t it still be scabbed over or something?”

Maeve walked over to her cautiously, silently gesturing to her to ask if she could look at her arm. Ellie nodded her head, Maeve gently took the girl's arm in her hand and raised it towards her eyes. 

“She’s right, there’s no scab or blood. And you’re telling the truth, that it takes two days to turn?” Maeve asks her. Ellie nods in response, opening her mouth to say something before Maeve cuts her off.

“So if it takes two days and it's been six months, then why haven’t you turned?” Maeve asks her quizzically, watching as a brief look of sorrow crosses the girl’s face before she quickly snaps out of it. Ellie turns to Butcher, holding eye contact with the British man.

“Remember how I said that I was travelling with my friend Joel, the one that’s sick?” She asks him, earning her a confused but certain nod. She then turns to direct her answer to the rest of the group.

“Well, he’s taking me across the country to the Fireflies - wait most of you don’t know who they are. They are, uhm, a group of people that are trying to find a cure, they just have radical -kind of explosive- ways of going about it. Anyway, he’s taking me to them because I'm immune, they think that my blood could be the cure!”

“But why haven’t you turned if everyone else has?-”

“I don’t. Fucking . Know.” Ellie sneers, pronouncing each word slowly, after briefly composing herself, she looks back at the woman with a new exhausted look to her eyes. “Believe me, I didn't ask for this.” Ellie sighs, ghosting her hand across her face. Maeve softened her gaze and offered the girl a sympathetic smile. Maeve had never asked to be given Compound V and have powers, so she somewhat knew how Ellie felt.

“Why don’t you go and have an early night?” MM asked the girl, watching as she rubbed the back of her hand across her face. “Come on, you’ve had a long day. You can have this room for the night.” He said, gesturing to Janine’s room. Ellie blinked her eyes furious as she held back a yawn.

“I’m not even tired.” Ellie mumbles, glancing away from the group to hide her half lidded eyes. MM chuckled at this response, his parental instincts taking over since when a child says they ‘aren’t tired’ they always are.

“Well, why don’t you lay in the bed and rest your eyes for a bit? Or you could watch a movie or read a book?” MM offers, watching as the girl nods her head slightly.

“I don’t think I've ever read a book for fun before… well besides my pun book.”

“And what a great time to start,” Butcher explains, guiding the girl into Janine’s room. “My wife Becca used to rave about a book, I think it was called 50 Shades of Grey…” The door slammed, cutting off the rest of Butcher’s sentence. Hughie turned to the group with a horrified look on his face.

“Are we actually going to let Ellie read 50 Shades of Grey? I swear that book is for adults.” Hughie questioned them, flicking his eyes across them all frantically.

“Actually, I found it quite boring.” Maeve said with a shrug. “I prefer books that have a bit more… fantasy aspects to them… Like A Court Of Thorns And Roses.” Frenchie choked slightly on the water that he had been drinking when he hears this, before giving Maeve a nod of agreement and smirking in admiration. No one else reacts to her statement besides a hum of acknowledgement of her speaking.

“Besides, the best he’ll find in there is the Harry Potter or David Walliams books.” MM states, knowing that the few books that Janine has were tailored towards children.

Hughie had been staring down and tapping on the screen of his phone for a few minutes before he looked back up at the group.

“Annie said she hasn’t found anything that could send Ellie back yet, but she’s going to sleep in her room at The Tower and have another look in the morning.” As Hughie was finishing his sentence, Butcher tiptoes out of Janine’s room, quietly shutting the door before walking back into the living room.

“Kid’s out like a light, ‘not tired’ my arse” Butcher whispers with a chuckle, recalling how Ellie’s head had barely hit the pillow before she had started to softly snore. Butcher walks into MM’s kitchen, grabbing himself a Strongbow from MM’s fridge (that he had put in there earlier, he needed some good British cider, not the crap they had over here) and plonked himself back onto the sofa as he cracked the can open.

Maeve chuckled to herself before looking back up at Butcher when he gave her a quizzical look.

“I forgot to ask, have you seen your car yet since the kid borrowed it?” Butcher shook his head as a no, before a look of urgency washed over him when he realised what Maeve was implying. Downing his cider, Butcher leaped off the sofa and ran out of MM’s apartment to the little parking area outside. The windows were shut, but a faint “WHAT THE FUCK?!” could be heard from where they were.

Butcher dashed back into the apartment after a few minutes, ignoring the muffled snickers from some of the people in the room. Butcher walks back to MM’s fridge and grabs himself another cider.

“Honestly, I'm not even really mad. I’m more impressed that it’s still driveable whilst looking like the cat from Tom and Jerry drove it into a wall.”

“Tom. You literally had a 50/50 chance of getting the name right, and you still went with ‘the cat.’” MM complained, using his hands to make quotation marks when saying ’the cat’. Tutting, MM rolled his eyes before turning to the rest of the group.

“Now that the kid’s asleep, we need a plan of how we are going to kill Homelander.”

“I said it before, use me as bait.” Maeve said, pulling her hair up into a claw clip so that it was out of the way. “And before you say anything, he wouldn’t hurt me. He’s still fucking in love with me from all those years ago. Why else do you think he locked me in a cell beneath Vought when he found out I betrayed him? If it was anyone else he would have just killed them.” 

“Let’s see if we can come up with anything else first, we’d rather not use anyone as bait.” MM tells her with a smile. With the seven of them working together, they’ll definitely come up with something.

After a few hours, they still hadn’t come up with anything else. Turns out trying to find a way to lure Homelander out by himself was more difficult than it originally sounded. There was a lot of ideas thrown around, most of them involving blowing stuff up.

“I’m just saying, if someone released all the lions from Bronx Zoo then-” Hughie had started to say.

“Vought would just send A-Train, maybe The Deep if it was the Crocodiles that were released.” Maeve said interrupting Hughie, they were running out of ideas.

“What if we released all the eagles-?”

“Hughie, lad, we are not releasing any animals from any zoo!”

They all sat in silence for a few moments pondering their next move. After a few seconds Maeve quietly speaks from the sofa she is sat on.

“I’ll tell him that I want to speak privately and that I want us to get back together. He’s delusional, so he wouldn’t even second guess it.” No one responded to Maeve, no one wanted to. They knew she was right about it and that the method would work but the thought of putting one of them in that much danger was sickening. Butcher sighs as he rubs a hand across his face.

“It’s late, let's just sleep on it. We might have some more ideas by the morning.”

***

The sleeping situation was weird to say the least. MM took his room, he had offered it to someone else but everyone agreed that since he was letting everyone stay at his, that he should have his own room. MM was slightly unnerved when Soldier Boy agreed with the suggestion but he tried not to let it show, he would get to kill the man one day, mark his words.

Frenchie and Kimiko retired to MM’s spare room since she was still healing from her injuries. This left Maeve, Hughie, Butcher and Soldier Boy. There were suggestions thrown about whether someone should go in with Ellie, but it was quickly agreed that going into the room of a teenage girl that has grown up in an apocalypse without warning her about it prior was an awful idea. So the four of them took the lounge, Maeve slept on the Sofa whilst the other three slept on the floor, making makeshift beds out of pillows and blankets.

By the morning, Butcher’s back killed. Yawning, Butcher rolled his shoulders back to try and ease the ache between his shoulder blades. Slowly, everyone else stirred awake as well.

“Anyone want breakfast?” MM asked once everyone had gathered back in the living room. Well, almost everyone, Ellie was still asleep in Janine’s room.

“Sure.” Butcher said, getting up to pour himself a cup of tea. He turned to the rest of the group whilst he did so. “Could someone go and wake the kid up?”

“I’ll go.” Hughie said, walking towards the room the girl was in. Maeve watched the twink slip into the other room before turning to Butcher.

“You know I was right yesterday, that using me as bait is the best way of getting Homelander alone.” Maeve told the British man, watching as he turned his head away. He didn’t want to admit it, but right now they have no other ideas. They weren’t going to use Ryan and that’s that. Butcher opens his mouth to speak before Hughie dashes out of Janine’s room, his face having lost all of it’s colour.

“Ellie’s gone!” he screams, causing the others in the room to turn towards him.

“Oh for fuck sakes, again? How?” Butcher shouts back as he runs into Janine’s room with the rest of the group in tow. The window was wide open, which means that Ellie must have jumped out of it and scaled the building during the night. But why? Scanning the room Butcher sees that the TV in the room is on and blaring The News. Butcher watches it for a few moments before turning to Soldier Boy and gesturing to the TV.

“Did you do this?” He seethes out the question to Soldier Boy. The man shrugs before answering.

“This wasn’t me.” He replies. Butcher feels a slight amount of fear building in his chest due to the implication of this, but ultimately pushes it down. Maeve tilts her head in confusion before looking at the TV screen to see what they are talking about:

“...Breaking News: reports say that a small group of people have attacked the patients and staff at a local hospital. The building is now currently under lockdown as witnesses have said that ‘it’s as if the people were possessed’ and have been described as ‘screeching’ before attacking. More updates to come.”

Chapter Text

A-Train likes to think he’s a good person.

Yes, he’s done shitty things in the past, but he’s a hero for god sake! He could have easily killed Blue Hawk the other day during Herogasm, the dude was right there, and he was going to, A-Train was going to run the man through the ground. But he didn't. For some reason, he just decided that Blue Hawk was going to die in another way and not that day. 

A-Train was walking down the hallway of the tower towards the gym when Ashley ran by him frantically. A-Train stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder gently causing her to leap a foot into the air.

“Woah, is everything okay? Is it something to do with what was on the news this morning?” He asked with concern lacing his voice. A-Train had seen the report, people going insane and attacking patients at a hospital? He could help!

“Yes, have you seen Starlight? Or The Deep?” A-Train thought that she sounded stressed, but when isn’t she? He shook his head.

“No, but you got the A-Train standing right infront of you. Let me go on this-” A-rain was cut off by Ashley dashing away from him as The Deep swaggered down the hallway.

“Deep, meeting room, now.” Ashley pants at the man, the points of her heels clipping on the floor as she toddles towards him. Deep looks taken aback as he takes in the woman's dishevelled appearance. He nods quickly as Ashley returns to her search for the other hero. Deep squints his eyes in confusion, stopping to talk to a flabbergasted A-Train who stands slack-jawed in the middle of the hallway.

“Do you know what that was all about?” The Deep casually asks him, causing A-Train to snap back into reality and turn back to him.

“Ashely wants you and Starlight on a mission to that hospital where the people have gone fucking nuts.” A-Train scoffs. The Deep is oblivious to his tone though, instead he grins to himself whilst A-Train rambles on.

“She wants me to go on a mission with Starlight?” The Deep smugly asks, posing the question as more of a braggy statement to A-Train. Grunting in frustration, A-Train turns to stomp back down the hallway, stopping briefly before turning back to The Deep.

“Haven't you got somewhere to be?” He sneers, turning on his heels to continue his journey to the tower’s gym, muttering to himself about being “The A-Train” and “The fastest man alive.” 

The Deep shrugs off his teammates hostility, smiling as he trots off down the hallway towards the meeting room. His first mission back in The Seven, and with Starlight! Yes, she is the reason he got kicked out in the first place, but if the public sees them doing a mission together, then they’ll think he’s changed and they’ll all love him again!

The Deep waltzes into the meeting room where Starlight and Ashley are causing the two women to turn towards him. Starlight and him hold eye contact for a few moments. For a split second, she looks terrified, her eyes widening like a deer in headlights or like she’s seen a ghost. But then that expression is gone and a look of pure, unadulterated loathing washes over her face.

“No, no, no! I’m not working with him!” She seeths, jabbing her finger in The Deep’s direction. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t half expecting this reaction.

Ashley sighs, squeezing her temples with her fingers.

“Deep, you sit down. Starlight, can we have a word outside, please?” They both agree. Annie trails behind Ashley as the two of them walk just outside of the meeting room. Starlight stares at her in desperation as the doors slide closed.

“Anyone else, I will work with anyone else but him.” Starlight tells Ashley. The ginger woman breathes deeply before stating in an overly professional voice.

“There isn’t anyone else. Maeve’s out of The Seven, A-Train’s heart could give out any second.”

“What about Black Noir or Homelander?” Annie asks in desperation.

“Both on a different mission-”

“A mission to find that girl?” Starlight spat. She then takes a second to breathe before looking back up at Ashley. “Please Ashley, if there is any humanity left in you, please don’t make me work with him,” Annie begs, purposely holding eye contact with the woman in hopes of prying a sense of guilt out of her. Ashley trails her eyes downwards in a moment of weakness before snapping them back up to meet the blonde hero’s gaze.

“I’m sorry. But please, Starlight- Annie, if you work with him today, then this will be the last time you ever have to work with him, I promise.” There was a degree of certainty to Ashley’s voice, it chilled Starlight almost to the bone, but she believed the woman.

“Fine.” She sighed, silently turning to walk back into the meeting room with Ashley chasing behind her.

***

Ellie didn’t take Butcher’s car this time.

There were a few reasons why she didn’t. Firstly, judging by the noise she could hear down the road, the hospital wasn’t that far away. Secondly, if the building was surrounded then she needed to be inconspicuous. The police and FEDRA were essentially the same, so finding a weak link and sneaking into the hospital shouldn't be that hard. 

It was a long shot, the infected could just be the aftermath of one of Soldier-Boy’s old blasts that has just appeared now. But what if they weren’t? What if these ones did come through a portal or something? She had to try, she owed it to Joel that much not to give up any chance she got to get back to him. And if it wasn’t a portal, then she’ll save this world from the fate of her own.

She jogged towards the direction where she heard the noise coming from. After 15 minutes,  she had arrived at what she assumed was the hospital building in front of her, as it was surrounded by police cars and had the words ‘Hospital’ printed onto the bricks. Now she just needed to get in.

She needed the weakest link… or a distraction. After weighing up her options and taking in the sight of the armed police officers effectively surrounding the building, Ellie decided that the distraction route would work best. After ducking behind a bush and pulling her rucksack off her back, Ellie fished through the bag’s contents until she found what she was looking for. Quickly crafting the scrap metal and explosive powder into a nail bomb like she did back at the tower.

She threw the pipe bomb away from the hospital, far away enough that it wouldn’t injure anyone this time but close enough to be a threat. As she expected, the police reacted, creating a few seconds window which allowed her to slip into the hospital without detection.

She heard the infected as soon as she entered the building, and there were a lot of them. Ducking behind a wall Ellie crouched down and pressed her ear up to the flat surface to try and pinpoint how many are in the building. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9 there were more than that, but she didn’t just hear infected. There were people still trapped in the building, whether it be staff or patients she didn’t know but she had to help.

Just up the hallway, she heard the first Runner. It was hunched over and twitching, murmuring as if in pain. She’s killed hundreds of Runners, so what’s one more? Quietly tiptoeing up the corridor, Ellie snuck up behind the infected and pulled out her switchblade, before jumping on the thing’s back and stabbing it repeatedly in the neck. It went down quickly with only some almost inaudible gurgling.

One down… way more to go , she thought to herself as she continued her pursuit up the corridor. Halfway up, she stopped dead as she heard the doors to the building slam open, the sound echoing up the corridor. Ellie cursed before ducking behind a piece of hospital equipment, waiting for the inevitable.

“I said to wait for my cue.” Ellie heard Starlight hiss as she entered the building with a man in a green costume. Ellie’s sure that she’s seen his poster somewhere. He threw his hands up dramatically with a smirk.

“Whatever, we’re here now. What’s the worst that’s going to happen-” The man’s sentence cut off as the runners started to throw themselves down the corridor towards the two supes, screaming and flailing their limbs about whilst clawing at the two.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Deep screamed, dashing behind Starlight when a runner tried to grab him. Neither the two supes or the infected had noticed Ellie yet, the teenager assumed that there were more infected in the building but probably behind sets of doors. Peeking out from behind the equipment she was crouched behind, Ellie could see four runners pursuing the supes. Okay, four she can deal with.

Pulling out her pistol, Ellie stood up from behind the equipment and proceeded to shoot two of the infected in the head, including the one closest to the two heroes. In that moment, her presence became known to everyone in the room, causing the two runners to turn their attention to her.

“Fuck!” Ellie exclaims as one of the runners turns on its heels to charge at her. Ellie shoots this one in the head too, watching as a beam of light hits the last one, and sends it flying across the reception area of the hospital. This gives them a few moments before the infected clambers back up from the ground and start to run towards them again. Ellie puts a bullet through this one’s head too, before reloading her pistol with more bullets. The Deep blinks in shock for a few seconds before pointing at Ellie.

“You’re that girl that broke into the tower, the one that doesn’t exist!” He splutters, turning towards Starlight for either backup or reassurance. Ellie looks over at Annie and grins before turning back to The Deep.

“Well I do exist, and I just saved your fucking ass, so you’re welcome.” Ellie says, punctuating her statement with a tilt of her head and a gesture of her hand. Starlight takes that moment to look around the room and survey the situation. Those people weren’t just insane, they seemed almost…ravenous. Dread pools into Annie’s stomach as she locks eyes with the girl.

“Those are the infected that you were talking about, aren’t they? The ones from your universe?” Annie asks carefully, feeling her fear spike in her stomach further when Ellie nods.

“Those are runners, they’re the first form of infected. There's more in the building, I don't know how many but there’s a lot, and I don’t think they’re all runners.”

“And bullets will kill them?” Annie asks whilst nodding towards Ellie’s pistol.

“Most of the time they will. But depending on the type of infected and how many there are, different tactics are needed. We need to work together.” Ellie tells the two heroes. Deep hasn’t said anything since asking who she was, so she turns towards him to see him flicking his eyes between the two women in shock.

“Wait, you two know each other? And what do you mean ‘infected’ and ‘your universe’?” Annie groans at his questions, turning to Ellie to roll her eyes. Ellie takes this one.

“I was blasted to this universe a few days ago. There was an outbreak in my universe of a fungal brain infection that turns people into, well I guess you would call them zombies. You guys don’t know the first thing about killing these things, so if you want to save the people trapped in this building, then you need my help.”  Ellie says slowly, as if talking to a child. 

The Deep opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out, he turns to Starlight

“What about Homelander? He’s not going to like us working with her.” The Deep tells her, fear lacing his voice at the thought of Homelander’s reaction.

“He never has to know.” Annie says with a shrug before turning to Ellie. “Okay, what should we do?” Ellie smiles before handing them both guns from her bag. She still got a few weapons in her bag, so she hands Annie a revolver and The Deep her hunting rifle.

“So, I doubt we will see any stalkers, but if the infected are running at you, then shoot it in the head. If they haven’t seen you then keep it that way and try and sneak up on them. If there’s fungus coming out of it’s head then follow my lead, those are Clickers and they use echolocation to see. Any questions?” Ellie says, Annie shakes her head whilst The Deep stares quizzically down at the weapon in his hands.

“I’ve never held a gun before” he mutters, rotating the rifle in his hand. Ellie ignores his sombre tone and walks up to the man. 

“You point it, you shoot it, and you make every bullet count.” Ellie tells him, remembering how Joel said something similar back in their universe. She also thought about the night before and the conversation she had with Butcher when he put her to bed.

Butcher had fished around in Janine’s bedside cabinet until he found the remote for the tv, his book searching had long been forgotten after he couldn’t find the book he was after. Turning on the tv, Butcher watched as Ellie climbed into Janine’s bed, smiling softly before turning to look through the show’s on Netflix.

“What’s that?” Ellie asked, pointing at one of the movie posters. Butcher went back to stop on the movie she was referring to.

“It’s a classic, is what it is. It’s called Jurassic Park, it’s about a theme park island full of dinosaurs.” Butcher tells her, watching as her face lights up in wonder.

“Dinosaurs? Fuck yeah, put that on!” Ellie laughs, pointing at the screen as Butcher presses play on the movie. They sit there for a few moments as the title screen and the opening scene play. Butcher turns towards Ellie from where he sat on a chair in Janine’s room.

“I’ve seen you shoot a Clicker in the head from half a field away, aim like a sniper. You don’t miss, so you clearly didn’t think I was a member of the seven. I’m not mad, but I just want to know, why did you do it?” Butcher asks the girl. She doesn’t say anything at first or even acknowledge his question, but her face suddenly splits into a shit-eating grin before she turns back to Butcher.

“Joel told me to always make every bullet count. So you’re right, I didn’t miss; that’s for being a dick earlier.” Ellie tells him, watching as Butcher holds her stare before breaking into laughter.

“Touché, kid. Tou-fucking-ché .”

***

Ellie, Starlight and The Deep walked through the hospital, weapons at the ready. Despite neither of the super never having held a gun before, neither of them seemed out of place with the artillery. Ellie had explained to them that there were people trapped in some room of the hospital. Crouching behind the wall and closing her eyes, Ellie managed to deduce that some of the people were trapped not far from them, whilst the rest were on the other side of the hospital.

Annie slinked behind The Deep, whispering into the girls ear,

“I said to stay away from windows and the public, what are you even doing here?” She whispers, looking up to see if The Deep has noticed their private conversation. He hasn’t.

“These infected might not have been from Soldier Boy, and if they weren’t then whatever sent them here could send me back.” Ellie whispers back to Annie. The blonde accepts this as an answer but just hisses something about “being careful”.

As they walk up the corridor, the trio stop just before a set of doors. When Ellie had listened earlier, she had heard that there were about five runners and three clickers in the next area. Ugh, she hates when it’s not just one type. Ellie turns to the other two, whispering out her plan.

“There’s five runners and three clickers in there. Clickers can't see you but the runners can, not a good combo. When we go in there, duck behind whatever you can, take out as many runners as you can stealthily, then go for the clickers. Shoot them in the head. Starlight, if they spot us, use your powers on as many as possible and we’ll finish them off with the guns. Once these ones are all gone, we need to help get those people who are in those hospital rooms out. Everyone clear?”

They all nod, slowly creaking open the door and dashing behind a hospital gurney, it’s not much cover, but it will do for now. Ellie notes the nauseous look on both their faces when they see the Clickers. For a second, she forgot that this is not the norm for these people, and that both the supes had never seen an infected at this stage until now. They had ever seen any infected until about ten minutes ago, her brain reminds her. Ellie watches as the hands that were covering their mouths slowly fall as they remember the urgency of the situation. Breathing evenly again, they start heir attack by taking out the runners as they planned. The Deep grabs the one nearest to the gurney, strangling it and pulling it to the ground before snapping it’s neck. He seems pleased with himself for taking one out, but it’s one down and seven more to go. 

Ellie suddenly has a plan. Reaching into her rucksack, Ellie pulls out a bottle of alcohol, a scrap piece of fabric and a match. Combining the objects, Ellie creates a molotov quickly, grabbing an empty bottle from her bag, turning towards her companions.

Get ready. She mouths, peeking over the top of the gurney to throw the bottle into the centre of the room. They all screech and clamber to the place where the sound came from. They don’t have long until the runners figure out their location, so Ellie quickly throws the molotov into the centre of the crowd, causing the infected to burn. They watched as all the ones closest to the flames burnt to death, leaving a runner and two clickers who were now aware of their presence in the room. 

The runner locked onto them quickly, screaming as it dashes towards them. Ellie puts a bullet in it’s brain, watching as Starlight and The Deep fumbled with their guns and tried to shoot the Clickers. It was clear that neither had any experience with gun’s as most of their shots missed, instead ending up somewhere in the clickers’ body. Both clickers were now very aware of the location of the people in the room, flinging their arms around in an effort to try and grab one of the trio. Ellie dashes to the other side of the room, putting enough distance between herself and the infected that she is able to shoot them in the head a few times until they are both down.

Ellie breathes heavily then in relief, turning to the two stunned supes, she tilts her head towards the hospital rooms just down the corridor.

“There’s people trapped in those rooms.” Ellie says, Starlight and The Deep both know what she is implying, running down the corridor towards the rooms until they’re out of sight.

It all happens quickly.

One second she is watching the two supes run out of sight towards the innocent trapped civilians, the next second she is being pinned to the floor by a clicker. Whether it was in a different room of one of the one’s from before that still wasn’t dead she doesn't know. But she’ll be dead in a minute. Ellie screams, unable to reach her gun or knife as she holds the frantic jaws of the thing back as it’s teeth try to rip her throat out. Ellie thinks she hears footsteps and hopes it is Starlight or that other man comes to save her.

Someone shoots the clicker from the side, causing the body of the infected to be thrown in the other direction away from the girl. Ellie doesn’t realise that this happens, too busy hyperventilating and breathing heavily to notice the absence of the clicker. The person that shot the creature is talking to her, but she can’t make out what they are saying. The person holds her by the shoulders, allowing her to ground herself to the situation and the person in front of her.

Ellie feels tears of relief spill down her face,

“Joel.”

Chapter Text

“Joel” Ellie choked past her tears, latching onto the man like her life depended on it. He hugs her back, whispering calming words into her hair as she clung desperately onto his hospital gown. Later on, she would realise that this means that she no longer has to go back to her own universe or have to carry the fate of a world on her shoulders anymore. All she can think right now is that she is no longer alone in this universe, because -as it has been for the last six months- it is the two of them in this together. Always.

***

A few days before

Joel knew that he was dead. That was the only explanation that there could be for what had happened. He had heard that person turn, though he had been too ill to move from his catatonic state, then saw that bright white light from behind his eyelids. That’s what they say happens when you die, you see a bright light, so he knew that his time had come.

Then everything changed.

He wasn’t lying in a basement of some abandoned house anymore, he was on the hard ground of some sort of outdoor area, if the sounds of chirping birds were anything to go by. He then tried to muster up the strength to open his eyes.

And what he saw was beautiful.

He was in the woods somewhere, but the trees weren’t out of control like he had become so accustomed to over the last twenty years. No, the trees were… neat. Nature and humanity seemed to be intertwined, as if the plants and weeds had not reclaimed the land from civilisation.

The pain in Joel’s stomach grew worse, and squeezing his eyes closed only helped slightly. Breathing deeply, he heard someone run over to him, hands ghosting over his neck before pressing slightly - checking for my pulse- his brain helpfully supplies. Joel creaks his eyes open as their hands leave his body. 

‘Sarah?’ he thinks when he sees the blonde girl kneeling over his body. It wasn’t Sarah, but the woman looked vaguely familiar.

“Sir, it’s me, Starlight- Annie January. Everything is going to be okay, I'm going to call an ambulance over now.”

He was definitely dead if Starlight - one of the founders of the fireflies - was talking to him. The woman had been killed five years ago, publicly executed by FEDRA after attacking a QZ. But wait, something was off. The woman was pristine, her hair a light blonde as if it had been artificially bleached as opposed to lightened by the sun, and her skin seemed…soft. The usual scars that littered her face and body were gone, as if they never existed. Not only that, but the yappy little dog wasn’t with her either.

Starlight and that dog were always inseparable. No-one really knows how they became a pair, but the story he’s heard the most is that she had found the dog a few days after the outbreak, a little puppy no older than about 9 weeks old sat inside a large empty house desperately sniffing and scratching the door. Apparently, the previous owners had abandoned the dog and young teenage Starlight couldn’t help but fall in love with him. No-one knows what breed he was, some sort of white fluffy lap dog that tried to bite anything that moved, except Starlight. He had heard that the dog had passed away due to old age, a feat for anyone in the world they live in let alone a dog, and that broken-hearted Starlight had followed not long after.

So lying there on the ground, Joel had known that he was in fact alive, and that something wasn’t right. Was Ellie okay? He was worried about the kid being by herself. After all, you don’t just travel across the country with someone for half a year and not gain some level of fondness for them. 

He tried to communicate with the woman, to ask where Ellie was, but his ill state caused the words to slur and to wash completely over the woman's head. Before he knew it he was being loaded into what he thought was an ambulance, but that was impossible.

Because there were no ambulances anymore.

The next few days passed by in a blur. Joel still drifted in and out of consciousness, each time he felt his strength come back even more until he was able to open his eyes fully; and he had never been so confused in his entire life. The room looked like it was pre-outbreak, clean, neat and loud. This all couldn’t be real, or maybe it was? Perhaps some group had found them and restored a hospital to resemble pre-outbreak times.

It’s still impossible, it’s too loud. Noise means infected, so unless you are in a QZ or some sort of guarded community area, then you aren't safe until you’re somewhere quiet. That must be it then, he was in some sort of community zone, still he was slightly unnerved by the similarity between this hospital room and a pre-outbreak one. 

Nurses flitted in and out of his room for the next few days, checking him over and refilling his IV.

“Where’s the kid?” He slurred, blinking into consciousness as one of the nurses checked his stitches. She had removed the quick patch-up that Ellie had done for him, cleaning the area before carefully and precisely sewing the wound up. The nurse seemed pleased as she smiled up at him.

“Looks like your body is recovering well from the sepsis. It’s a good job that you came in when you did, any longer without the medication and we might have lost you.” She said, pulling out a needle to give him his next round. Joel was starting to feel more awake now as he tried to ask the question again.

“The kid, where is she?” Joel tried again. The nurse pulled the needle out of his arm before responding.

“Sir, I unfortunately don’t know what ‘kid’ you’re referring to. You were by yourself when you arrived here. Is there anyone I can call? Is she your daughter or relative? The nurse gently asked, professionalism leaking through her voice. Her answer worried Joel, because if Ellie isn’t here, then where is she?

Joel’s ill and panic infused mind causes him to ignore some of the things that the woman says, instead, the fear of something having happened to Ellie causes him to thrash about and the nurse having to subdue him. Joel falls back into a state of unconsciousness, worrying about the safety of the girl that he had travelled across the country with.

When he came to again, everything was quiet. As if the last few days were all just a fever dream and he was back in the nightmare that he had lived in for the last 20 years. With a new-found strength that he had lost the last few days, Joel sits up in the hospital bed, reaching over to pull the IV out of his arm. 

Ellie.

His concerns for the safety of the girl took the forefront of his brain as he threw himself out of the hospital bed. He didn’t know where he was or where he was going, but something inside of him told him that she was nearby and she was in danger. 

Joel crept up the corridor of the hospital, hearing his heartbeat in his ear as he surveyed the area. He felt his body stop dead in its tracks when he saw the dead body of a woman on the floor, her neck having been torn out by some stage of infected - probably a clicker. Upon closer inspection, Joel realised that it was the nurse from before, the one that had been giving him the medication. Joel reached over to close her eyes, feeling that the woman deserved to be able to rest after everything that she had done for him. 

He noticed that there was a gun in her hand, nothing special, just a small pistol. Carefully picking the weapon up off the ground, Joel checked to see how many bullets were in the gun. There were five, that will do for now. Besides, he’s had to survive on less in the past.

He then continued his pursuit up the corridor, keeping an eye out for the girl.

And then he heard her scream.

“ELLIE!” He roared, sprinting towards the direction the sound came from. Rounding the corner, Joel saw red when the sight of the clicker trying to kill Ellie met his eyes. Without sparing a second-thought, Joel held up the pistol and shot the infected in the head, watching as it was thrown to the side onto the floor. He quickly knelt down to Ellie’s level, trying desperately to get the girls attention and break her hyperventilating breathing. 

“Ellie? Ellie? It’s me, it’s Joel. Look at me, you’re safe, you’re safe.”

After a few moments, the reassurance worked, causing her to look up at him with a tear-streaked face.

“Joel.” she choked, surging forwards to latch onto him. Sighing in relief, he hugged her tightly, thanking anyone above him for not taking her too.

“Oh baby girl.” He whispered into her hair. Feeling tears well up in his eyes when he realises that he was able to save her the way he wasn’t able to with Sarah.

***

Present

Starlight and The Deep had just led a group of civilians out of the fire exit when they heard Ellie scream. Annie felt her heart drop into her stomach as she dashed up the corridor back to where Ellie was, Deep in tow. What she doesn’t expect to see is Ellie hugging a middle-aged man with an infected - one of the ones without a face- dead on the floor. Something was familiar about the man, but Annie couldn’t place her finger on it.

“Ellie!” she shouts, running up to the girl. The teenager pries herself out of the hug to look up at Starlight, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

“Hey, I'm okay. I promise.” Ellie says to the woman. Annie flicks her eyes over to the man quizzically, before The Deep decides to butt in.

“Who’s the dude, I swear he wasn’t here before.” He says, causing Annie to groan inwardly. Joel leaps up off the floor, pointing his gun towards the two supes.

“You have five seconds to tell me who the fuck you are and how you know the kid.” Joel calmly demands, releasing the safety on the pistol Both the supes are unfazed by the threat, but Ellie decides to jump in. 

“This is Starlight and Green Fish Dude, they’re powered-people, and they’re with me, Joel.” Ellie says gesturing to the two. Joel squints his eyes slightly before answering,

“Kid, they’re clearly lying to you. All the powered-people are dead, and I was there when they executed Starlight-”

“In our universe yes, but in this universe they aren’t. Look, I promise that I'll explain everything later. But for now we need to clear this building, this place is fucking infested with infected and there’s people trapped in the hospital rooms.” Ellie ignores the horrified look on Annie’s face when she hears what her fate was in their universe. Joel opens his mouth to speak before the guttural sounds of a clicker echo from a few corridors up. Joel turns to the two supes, seemingly to have accepted Ellie’s answer for now, but he’ll probably have questions later.

“We go in quietly, and we take them out. If you’re spotted then keep your distance, and make every shot count.” Joel whispered, gesturing for the group to follow him up the corridor. Ellie follows close behind, pulling her own gun out at the ready. Joel double takes when he sees it.

“Jesus Christ kid, when did you get that?” Joel sighs, groaning even more when Ellie proudly shows off her artillery in her backpack. Joel recognises one of his rifle’s but not the rest.

“I borrowed them.” Ellie grins, watching as Joel seems to gain more grey hairs. 

“From who?”

“A friend.”

“Do they know that you ‘borrowed’ them?”

“Eh, they should have worked it out by now. Apart from this one, I did steal this one from him.” Ellie says, referring to her pistol. Joel suddenly holds up a finger, causing the group to stop and stare at him. They are stood by the services counter for the ward that they are in, Joel jumps over the counter and searches the contents of the office. After a minute, he returns the the group with his backpack full of weapons, strapping his gun holster around his hospital robe. Ellie stifles her laugh at the sight,

"You look like you're wearing a dress" She giggles, watching as Joel rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, well, I figured that they had to be keeping it somewhere." He said with a shrug, indicating for the rest of the group to continue following him.

Pushing open one of the sets of doors, they follow the sound of clicking and moaning until they are crouched outside another set of doors that - according to the signs - leads to a cafe.

Gently pushing open the doors, the group quickly and quietly slips behind the counter before the infected in the room are able to process their presence. Joel closes his eyes to try and work out how many infected are in the room, his sense of hearing has significantly improved since the outbreak. He holds up five fingers, making a running motion with his hand before holding up three fingers. He places his hand in front of his eyes before removing it and holding up two fingers.

Three runners, and two clickers.

They nod as they start their plan of attack. Joel fishes through one of the utility draws, grabbing a few knives that he presumes were used to prepare food. One of the clickers walks close by the counter, close enough that Joel is able to grab the clicker, dragging it back and stabbing it in the neck, allowing him to silently take it out. The Deep does the same for a runner that passes by on the other side, snapping its neck like he did the previous one. This leaves three infected left, two runners and one clicker.

Starlight sneaks forward, using the table and chairs as cover to creep up behind the clicker and blast a beam of light directly into the back of the head of the clicker. The sound of the blast gains the attention of the two runners, Ellie shoots them both straight in the head before they get a chance to run towards Starlight.

“I think that’s all of them.” Ellie exclaims, scanning the room for any sign of more infected. Ellie sees something shoot past her vision. Before she gets a chance to question it, a man dressed in rainbow leans against the counter.

“Whatssup fuckers?” He greets. 

Starlight and The Deep scream in shock, masking the sounds of gun-shot’s and Ellie and Joel both instinctively shoot in A-Trains direction. He manages to evade the bullets by dashing to the other side of the counter but not before chucking his hands up in anger.

“What the fuck? What are you shooting at me for?” A-train states defensively. Annie surges forward, jabbing a finger in A-Trains direction.

“What are you doing here A-Train, this is supposed to be our mission!” Annie hisses at the man. The Deep nods along with Annie’s words.

“Yeah man, like i said this morning, this is mine and Starlights mission-”

“-Shut the fuck up Deep!”

“Okay…”

Annie slinks her hand through her hair in frustration, before the girl chimes in.

“And who are you supposed to be?” she questions, both her and Joel still having their pistols aimed at the man.

“Who am I supposed to- Are you serious? I’m the A-Train! Fastest man alive, ring any bells?” A-Train scoffs, rolling his eyes when he sees that the guns haven’t moved.

“Listen, I’ve come to help. Whatever is happening here, it’s big, I overheard it at the Tower. I didn’t get a lot of details, but I know that it’s more than what Vought’s originally let-in on. So I want to help.”

“You want to be the hero that saves the day, don’t you?” Starlight sneers. A-Train laughs, flashing his luminescent white teeth

“Of course I do.” He scoffs as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. Starlight rolls her eyes in response, preparing to tell the hero to fuck off when they hear a crashing sound followed by a deep bellowing coming from the children’s ward. Ellie and Joel’s eyes widen, turning to exchange a look of realisation before the thing bursts through the doors. 

“HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?” A-Train screeches, falling away from where the infected had busted through the door. Starlight and The Deep both scamper back in shock, exclaiming their own horror at the sight of the thing in front of them.

Ellie’s only seen one of these once, at the gym in the school when they were with Bill. It was disturbing, the fungus on it’s body having completely taken over passed the stage of even the clicker, forming a protective armour across it’s skin. Its large body lumbered forward as it roared at their presence. 

“It’s a Bloater” Joel states, pulling out his gun and unloading almost an entire clip into the body of the thing. Ellie follows, shooting as many bullets as she could into it before dashing away as it started to pursue her location. The Deep and Starlight fumbled with their guns, attempting to shoot it with a few of their bullets hitting home. A-Train seems to catch on quickly to what they are doing, even if the creature in front of him is freaking him out. 

“Why don’t I just run up and kill it?” he asks, watching as his teammates dodge the thing’s heavy grotesque body. Joel pulls a shotgun out of his holster, hammering the bloater with bullets before turning to the speedster.

“I said DON’T get close to it!. Those things over it’s body are spores, if you breathe them it it will either turn or kill you!” Joel answers him, turning his head in time to see the bloater pull a spore-bomb off it’s body and throw it in the direction of the three supes. 

“Look out!” He shouts, watching as A-Train grabs the other two and runs quickly away from the spores, depositing them outside the double doors. A-Train splays a hand over his heart as he looks up past the bloater they’re fighting, feeling his face fall.

“We’ve got company!” He announces, the group looking up as a hoard of infected dash through a set of unlocked doors. Fuck , Annie thinks as she attempts to quickly count how many infected have just arrived. There’s at least fifteen of them, runners and clickers.  She turns to the other,

“Me and A-Train will handle these. Deep, you deal with that thing with them two!” Annie declares, sending a blast of light into the face of a clicker as she speaks. They both nod in agreement, A-Train moves to catch the gun that Starlight tosses to him. 

“What even are these things?” He asks between shooting the creatures. Annie answers him without turning towards him. 

“They’re infected with a fungal infection, zombies from a different universe. I’ll explain it all later, just help me kill them!” A-Train turns to her with his mouth falling in shock, but ultimately doesn't argue with her answer. He shoots as many as he can in the head whilst Starlight blasts the others with her powers, more continue to pour out of the door seemingly endlessly. It takes Starlight more effort to kill them with her blasts than they did with the gun, more power and energy needed to kill them than it would the average person. A few of them don’t die the first time, simply getting blasted across the room only to stand back up to charge at them again. A-Train continues to shoot until he feels something barge into the side of him. 

He’s on the floor with one of the ones with no-face above him, his gun has been knocked from his hand in the scuffle. Annie notices his struggling quickly, blasting the clicker on top of him directly in the head, splattering it’s brain and ending it instantly. She takes out the last two infected before helping A-Train off the floor.

“You good?” She asks, watching as he dusts off his costume. 

“Yeah, are they all dead?” A-Train asks between breaths, looking at the bodies of the infected that were surrounding them. Starlight nods with a slight relieved smile.

“Yeah, just the big guy left now.” She says gesturing towards the bloater. A-Train looks up at the rest of the group fighting the large infected, they have fallen into a rhythm now of running and shooting, throwing the occasional molotov and avoiding the spore bomb.

Starlight is about to suggest that they should go back over to help them finish it off, but that is before The Deep misjudges how long he shoots the infected for before running away, leaving it a second too late as the bloater manages to grab the green-clad hero. They all watch in horror as it rips The Deep's jaw apart before discarding the supes body.

Chapter Text

Ellie had faced Bloaters before, but never seen one kill. 

She watched as the fungal-armoured arms of the infected smacked into the green-wearing hero - The Deep, she had heard Annie call him - knocking him completely off balance. The bloater wrestled with The Deep as the man frantically struggled, his hands scraping at the arm suffocating his neck. For a second their eyes met, and Ellie saw the complete unadulterated terror behind them. He opened his mouth to scream, in terror or for help, she didn’t know. 

But she did know how these things kill.

The Deep’s scream was cut off the moment it started with the fingers of the bloater digging into his mouth and grasping either side of his head. The squelches of his ripping flesh only echoed louder the further the bloater pushed its fingers into the roof of his mouth. The Deep gargled out for help incoherently, trying to break away from its hold, but it only resulted in it snapping his head back before tearing his head from his jaw with a sickening crunch. The bloater then chucked the remnants of The Deep’s body away, like a child discarding a toy once it was broken.

This was the world that Ellie and Joel knew: violence and survival. Infected kill, people kill, they can’t spend more than a few seconds thinking about the man they were just fighting beside, they’ve got to keep fighting.

A-Train and Starlight stare frozen in shock at the sight of the brutal death of their teammate.

“That can’t-” A-Train heaves, “That can’t have just happened- Deep is-was - a supe! We can’t die, we can’t die like that, like people.” A-Train breathing picked up as Starlight looked over at him. The colour had drained from her face and she was unable to make any noise.

“Say something!” A-Train practically begged, hoping the woman could give him some level of reassurance.

“That was a person.” Annie whispered, almost to herself. A-Train gave her a confused look.

“That thing that killed Deep, it used to be a person, not a supe.” A-Trains face fell in realisation when he realised what Starlight was implying.

“It shouldn’t have been able to kill him-”

“MOTHERFUCKER” Annie’s sentence was abruptly cut off by Ellie’s shouting as she narrowly misses a spore bomb thrown in her direction. Breathing it in wouldn’t hurt, but it still stings her skin. A-Train and Starlight run over to help them, dragging their eyes away from The Deep’s mangled body as they run past it.

“Something’s not right.” Joel says, throwing another molotov at the bloater. This causes it to roar as the flames singe its skin, but it soon begins to pursue them again.

“It should be dead by now, but it’s not going down.” Joel exclaims, firing the last of the bullets from that gun into it. He’s down to his last gun now, and his last few bullets. They were running out of options. Joel tries to rack his brain, to come up with an idea of how to take this bloater down. He makes his way over to the man in the rainbow suit,

“Hey, you said that you can run fast?” He mutters, trying to keep his voice down so that the infected doesn’t hear him. Joel is sceptical about these people claiming to have powers, especially ones that were claiming to be Starlight from the Fireflies and A-Train from that old super hero group from before the outbreak. It was a bad costume at best, The A-Train’s suit was blue anyway, not multi-coloured. Still, if there was a chance that they were telling the truth about having powers, then they needed all the help they could get.

“Yeah.” the man responds, “Why, what are you thinking?”

“I need you to go and find a gas mask.” Joel murmurs, grabbing whatever he could now to throw in the opposite direction in hopes of confusing the bloater of their location.

“Why do you need a gas mask?” A-Train questions, causing the bloater to charge at them. He shot at the thing a few times before copying Joel’s technique. They both run quietly to the other side of the room whilst Starlight continues to blast it.

“It will mean that one of us could get near it without breathing the spores.” Joel answers his previous question. This bloater seemed to be radiating spores, more than any other one he’s ever faced. With all the spore bombs that the thing has been throwing, it could start clogging up the room real soon, which is the last thing that they want.

“Okay, you guys keep fighting this thing, I'll go and see if I can find one.” A-Train declares. Starlight furrows her eyebrows for a second before turning to shout at him.

“Wait! You’re not supposed to be r-” He was gone. Annie grits her teeth in frustration before turning back to shoot a beam of light at the bloater. It doesn't do much damage against it, but it does knock it back for a few seconds, giving the other two a window of opportunity to fire more bullets into it.

“Ellie, could you go and find us more ammo from somewhere?” Joel asks, cringing inwardly when he realises how low on bullets he is. Ellie nods, running in the direction that she thinks they could be in. Joel throws another object in the opposite direction before talking to Annie.

“You really do have the same power as Starlight.” He says whilst crouching down to craft a nail bomb. Annie blasts the bloater again before responding.

“That’s because I am Starlight…” she says slowly. Joel laughs at her answer humourlessly.

“That’s impossible, everyone knows that Starlight is dead-'' His sentence was cut off by the sound of an assault rifle firing bullets into the bloater. The sheer force of the bullets manages to knock the bloater down for a few seconds, just long enough for Joel to look up at who joined them.

There were four people, three men and a woman with red hair. They were pretty far away, but Joel could tell that one of the men was dressed up like Soldier Boy and that the woman looked like that other hero from The Seven ‘Queen Maeve.’

What is it with this place and people dressing up as dead heroes from before the outbreak?

“Oi, oi.” The man in the trench coat greets, is that a British accent? Annie steps forward groaning in frustration, she flings her arm out to gesture to the group before sending another blast into the bloater.

“Did anyone listen when I said to stay away from windows?” she complains as her eyes land on Maeve. The red-haired woman shrugs before responding.

“We figured the kid would be here, but first it looks like we’ve got to deal with that.” Maeve declares whilst nodding towards the bloater. The infected pinpoints the newcomers location, roaring before charging at them. Joel throws the nail bomb that he had been crafted before in the direction that the bloater was running in, causing it to detonate before it could reach the group. 

“Yeah we’re working on it.” Joel mumbles in response, deciding to ignore the fact that these people also knew Ellie. He needs to have a serious talk with the girl about who she decides to trust.

It’s safe to say that in the last week, Hughie has seen some fucked up things. He didn’t think that it could get worse than the clicker that he saw a few days ago, with its deformed, fungus exploding face. But no, this was so much worse. The thing in front of him, it's beyond disturbing, Hughie feels his skin crawl at the sight. It lumbers towards them again once it gets up from the ground. Hughie leaps out of the way to dodge its attack when he sees a figure run silently down the corridor, Ellie, he realises when he sees the teenager toss a few packets of bullets towards the older man.

“Is that thing still fucking kicking? Oh, hey guys! Wait, did you follow me here?” Ellie asks over the room. The bloater charges at her again, causing Ellie to pull out her reloaded gun and shoot at the infected, Joel follows, shooting the infected as well. 

The blurred figure of A-Train running back into the building passes over Ellie’s eyes. He stands in the room, proudly holding up the gas mask.

“I found one!” He wheezes, grasping his chest over his heart as he breathes heavily. He looks over at the new people in their makeshift group in confusion before Ellie runs over to him. Smiling in thanks, she plucks the gas mask from his hands before handing it to Soldier Boy. 

“Put this on, get close to it and use one of your blasts. Not a full one, just fire it up, trust me on this.” She says quietly. Soldier Boy nods in agreement, waiting until Starlight shoots another one of her blasts, stunning the infected briefly, allowing Soldier Boy a window of opportunity to run up and use his attack. As Ellie said, he only fired up his blast, engulfing the bloater in the light before punching the dazed infected and running away before it had a chance to grab him. 

Two thin lasers sliced through the air. It took a few seconds for them to pierce through its armour, but it eventually did and split the Bloater in half, causing its guts to spill onto the ground like wet pasta. Ellie looks up at Butcher whose eyes are still glowing red. 

“To answer your question, kid, we did, and you’re welcome.” Butcher says with a smirk, crouching down into a mocking courtesy for his actions. Ellie goes to roll her eyes, before she looks past the group.

“Look out!” she screams, causing the other to turn around. One of the clickers Annie and A-Train were fighting before was charging at them, clearly not dead like they originally thought. Butcher goes to use his lasers again before Soldier Boy dashes towards the clicker, firing up his attack again like he had with the bloater, before grabbing it behind the head with skill and precision that only someone trained to kill would be capable of and slamming it into the ground. Its brain explodes across the floor, painting the marble tiles a crimson red.

“How did you know that would work?” Maeve asked Ellie as she walked over to the teenage, gesturing towards the bloater with her head.

“I didn’t.” Ellie answered her. “I thought, since his blasts were able to bring people and infected over here from our universe, then maybe it would - I don't know- de-power the infected? Also thought he would be a bit more durable than Deep over there.” Ellie said, referring to the mutilated corpse of the hero. The others were suddenly aware of the body in-front of them, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Wait.” A-Train says after having stared at Ellie for the last few minutes. “You’re that girl that broke into the Tower-”

“That Homelander isn’t going to know was here. Or Maeve.” Annie interrupts him, raising her eyebrows at him. A-Train thinks it through for a second, he doesn’t want to be on the bad side of Homelander, but he never has to find out, and the girl did just save his life.

“Fine,” he says, ending his contribution to the discussion. Annie turns to them. 

“You guys should get out of here, we’ve got to call Vought here and get the civilians out. You need to be gone before they get here.” They all nod in agreement, moving to leave out the back of the hospital where the fire exit is, there were less police around there so they should be able to escape undetected.

Starlight watches as the group leaves before she turns to her teammate.

“Okay, if you search the rooms on the right, I'll search the ones on the left. Let’s hope that there aren’t any civilians still trapped here or that need medical help.”

“Speaking of which.” A-Train responds, clutching at his bleeding arm, “think I must have sliced my arm on something earlier, think you could cauterise it for me?” He asked as the droplets of blood cascaded down his arm and splattered on the floor.

***

“Ellie, what’s going on?” Joel asked whilst still using his pistol to scan the room, they were walking a little behind the others so that Joel could make sure they weren’t going to try anything whilst his back was to him.

“Do you remember seeing a flash?” Ellie asks him.

“Yeah.” 

“Well, that flash was some sort of energy blast that sent us to another universe. In this universe, the outbreak never happened.”

“ What?”

“I know it’s fucking crazy, but in this universe the out-break day just… never happened. And it’s 2022.”

“Did these guys tell you that? Ellie, you can’t just believe anything that anyone tells you-” Joel’s hushed sentence was quickly cut off as Butcher flung open the emergency exit door and Joel was able to see the city.

Joel felt as if he was frozen in place, the city was… intact. The skyscrapers weren’t crumbling, and it was loud, loud in a way that made his head spin with nostalgia and reminiscence. Slack-jawed, Joel turned to the smug looking teenager.

“You’re right.” 

“Of course I am” 

***

It was a short walk back to MM’s, well short for Ellie and Joel’s standards. Joel was still in a state of shock whilst he stumbled through the city, staring at the people and busy-setting with wide-eyed awe.

Ellie talked at him the entire journey, telling him all the events of the last few days and how they could all be trusted. Joel hadn’t had a full conversation with any of these people yet, so he expressed that he would make that decision himself. 

“Ellie, did you say that Vought is after you? Vought?” Joel questioned her as they walked up to MM’s apartment. 

“Yep, Vought and that fucking Homelander dude too. But the public doesn't know so it’s not that bad.” Joel stops Ellie just before they go through the door to the apartment building.

“Ellie, we don’t know these people-”

“-I do-”

“You met them a few days ago. For all we know they could be serial killers, or dangerous.”

“And we’re not?”

“Ellie!” Joel flayed a hand across his face. By this time, the other four had stopped to see what had happened. Butcher stepped forward to talk to them. Whilst giving him a sceptical glare, Joel stood in front of Ellie slightly.

“Now mate, Ellie seems to know you, so I’m willing to believe that you are the one that she wanted to get back to her universe for. So why don’t we all go up these stairs, we can all have a cuppa, and we can come up with a plan of how to take down Homelander and Vought?” Butcher proposes, offering Ellie a quick smile. His eyes return to hard when they land on Joel, the other man’s stare remaining as cold and untrusting.

“Come on Ellie, we’re leaving.” Joel responds, holding his glare with Butcher. He starts to walk away from the group. Ellie stands for a moment, not knowing whether she should stay with Maeve, Butcher and the gang or go with Joel. In the end, she turns to face the group.

“Thanks for everything… I guess I'll see you around.” She tries to smile at them but it doesn't reach her eyes. She starts to walk in the direction that Joel is walking in.

“Kid!” She hears Butcher call her. She turns around to see him throw a rectangular object at her. She catches it, rotating the thing in her hand.

“It’s a burner phone.” He says, “Got mine, Maeve’s, Hughie’s and a few other number's in it, incase of emergencies.” Ellie smiles as she shoves the phone in her backpack.

“Thanks.”

She runs to catch up with Joel.

***

“Where’s the kid?” MM asks as they return to the apartment without Ellie, the person they had gone out to find.

“Plans have changed, the kid's gone now. We’ve got a more serious problem on our hands.” Butcher goes into MM’s fridge as he says this, pulling a Strongbow out and throwing himself onto the sofa whilst cracking the can open.

“Well what is it?” Frenchie pipes up from where he is perched in the lounge next to Kimiko.

“There were infected in that hospital, the ones from Ellie’s universe. Someone’s laced a few of them with V.” Butcher responds, earning him a concerned glare from those who weren't at the hospital earlier.

“Not all of them” Maeve says, “and not enough to give them powers. Soldier Boy only needed to fire up his blast to burn the V out of them, so it couldn’t have been more than a drop or two.” She pauses what she was saying for a few seconds, seeing all eyes in the room staring at her. She swallows before responding,

“This wasn’t an accident, this was intentional. Someone wants to make sure that these infected are a threat to supes as well as people.”

Chapter Text

“What are we going to tell Vought?”

Starlight turns to face A-Train as he speaks, still struggling to fully comprehend the situation. All the infected are now dead, leaving just Starlight, A-Train and the remaining Civilians in the building.

And The Deep’s body.

“The truth.” Annie says, pulling her sleeve up to reveal the device on her arm “Minus the kid and Maeve. You go and rescue the civilians, I'll call Ashley.” 

“And what if Homelander finds out that girl and Maeve were here and that we lied to him? He’ll kill us-”

“He’s not the captain of The Seven, he’s the Co- Captain. If he finds out- which he won’t- then i’ll just say that it was my call to let them go.” Annie watches as A-Train fidgets with the bandage around his injured arm before nodding reluctantly.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll go find the civilians.” A-Train jogs in the direction of the patient rooms, leaving Starlight standing in the middle of the ward. Annie taps on the screen attached to her arm until she hears the line ring.

“Ashley Barrett speaking.”

“Ashley? It’s Starlight, the hospitals cleared, the -uh- insane people are down. But The Deep’s dead-”

“ How dead?”

“Uh…very? His head has been torn in half so beyond the abilities of medical. We might need medical for A-Train though, he was bleeding quite badly-”

“ A-Train? I told him not to go-” Annie hears Ashely sigh.”Okay this is fine, I’ll send medical and a cleanup crew for the bodies.”

“Ashley, can we have a meeting when I get back to the Tower? It’s about the people that went insane at the hospital.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ve had someone make a cancellation, so how’s 4:30pm today?”

“Sounds good.”

“Great, cleanup and medical will be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen, got it.”

Ashley ends the call after that. Annie lets her arm drop back to the side as her eyes fall onto the still, mangled body of The Deep.

How is Vought going to cover this up?

***

Ellie’s hand ghosts over the burner phone in her pocket as she jogs to catch up with Joel, which isn’t hard since the man is walking extremely slowly down the street as he stares up in awe at the city around him. Ellie shoves him on the shoulder once she reaches him, causing Joel to spin around to face her.

“What gives man? Why won’t you just take my word for it and trust them?” Ellie complains, watching as Joel’s eyes eventually meet hers. He sighs as he tries to reason with the teenager.

“Ellie, you don’t know this world, and there’s no guarantee that I know it either. There may well have just never been an outbreak here, or maybe this is a completely new world all together, we don’t know-”

“But you believe me that this is a different universe?” Ellie smirks slightly.

“Yeah, I believe you. Cities don’t just un-blow up overnight, after all.” Joel responds rolling his eyes slightly in fondness. “But if we plan to stay in this universe, then we need to find Tommy, he’ll be able to sort us out with a place to stay and we can see Sarah. You two will love each other, she’s very…”

Ellie didn’t fully listen to what Joel said after that, but she did feel her heart sink a little, although she tried not to let it show on her face. Of course Joel would want to find his daughter, his real daughter. He said it himself back in their universe, after their argument:

“I’m not her, you know.” Ellie had mumbled, causing Joel to turn around to face her.

“What?” He had questioned her in confusion, the anger from their dispute a few moments ago still evident in his voice.

“Maria told me about Sarah, and I-” 

“Ellie.” Joel cut Ellie off abruptly, swallowing back the pain in his throat at the mention of his late daughter. He took a few moments to regulate his breathing again before continuing. “You’re treading on some… mighty thin ice here.” 

Ellie noticed that there was a distinct tone of dread laced in his voice, although it was hidden beneath a layer of anger. But she needed to reason with him, needed him to realise how she felt.

“I’m sorry about your daughter Joel, but I've lost people too.” Ellie states calmly. Joel squints his eyes in anger before sneering in response,

“You have no idea what loss is.” Ellie has never seen him respond so passionately about something, it takes her back a bit, but she knows that he means no malice about it and that the feelings that he had been repressing for all these years were just pooling to the surface. 

But she knows what loss is: she never got a real childhood, she never knew her parents, all that she has from her mother is her name and a note that she wrote for Ellie after giving birth. She had to kill her best friend and the person that she loved the most in the world. She had to wait days in that mall, watching Riley’s body decay as she waited to turn herself, but she never did. 

She had lost Tess, Henry and Sam, she hadn’t known them long, but they had shown her kindness in this awful world and she had to watch as they died. 

Ellie did know what loss was.

“Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me.” She paused before shoving him in the chest, causing him to stumble back a bit. “ Everyone - fucking except for you. So don’t tell me that I'd be safer with someone else, because the truth is that I would just be more scared.” Her voice had broken slightly on the last word. But looking at him, she really hoped that she'd gotten through to him.

“You’re right.” Joel responded with a nod, although his eyes and tone were still hard. “You’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your dad. And we are going our separate ways.”

Yes, Joel had said that she wasn’t his daughter, but he still wants her around, so that must mean something, right? She looks up at him as he finishes what he was saying, about to ask him something else but stops herself short.

For the first time since she met him, she sees hope in his eyes. A new kind of spark that she doesn’t think that she’s ever seen in anyone who knew the world before the outbreak. She couldn’t take this from him, even if he did ditch her after he found his real daughter.

“Yeah, finding Tommy and Sarah, sounds good to me.” she responds to him with a smile, reaching into her backpack to fish out the keys to Butcher’s car. Her hand flits over the folded piece of paper that is the note that her mother wrote for her.

Make me proud Ellie.

She will.

 “So where would Tommy- and Sarah - be then?” Ellie pipes up with her head still buried in her rucksack.

“Austin, Texas. We just need a way to get there. We don’t have passports, so getting there on a plane is out of the question-”

“What about a car?” Ellie announces, holding up the keys to Butcher’s car in the air and giving them a jingle. “Beep-beep, motherfucker.”

“Ellie, where did you get that?” Joel questions the teenager. Ellie shrugs her shoulders but maintains her mischievous grin.

“‘It’s Butcher’s, I borrowed it last week but he never asked for the keys back soooo…” Ellie jingles the keys more as she walks in the direction of the parking lot. Okay, maybe she wasn't telling the whole truth since Maeve did drive the rest of the way to MM's, but she'd just left them on his table so Ellie decided just to take them again when no one was looking. Butcher hasn't said anything so he can't have noticed yet. Joel sighs before following the girl.

“I’m guessing that Butcher’s the British one?” Joel asked as he walked towards the squished car. “Jesus Christ, how is that thing still on the road?” he asks when he catches sight of it. Ellie chuckles as she unlocks the car, leaning against the hood as she waits for Joel to catch up with her.

“Yep, that’s him. Okay, how do we get to Texas?” Ellie says as she throws open the driver’s door, only to be stopped by Joel’s arm obstructing the seat.

“Uh-uh, no licence, no driving.” Joel says, earning him a groan from the auburn-haired girl.

“Why does everyone always bring up licences? Do you even fucking have one?” Ellie complains as Joel’s face breaks into a smile. Joel pulls off his own backpack, shuffling through the contents until he pulls out an old leather wallet from the bottom. The wallet opens easily from water damage and time, the little cards, shrivelled notes and coins are still sitting neatly in the inside, as neat as they had been before the outbreak. Joel never threw away his wallet, even after the old currency became unusable. Call him nostalgic or delusional, but he just wanted some connection to his old life, even if it is tucked away at the bottom of his bag.

Joel pulled his old licence out of his wallet and held it up so that Ellie could see it.

“Although, I can’t guarantee that it hasn’t expired.” Joel grins as he steps past the teenager and jumps into the driver's seat, gesturing for Ellie to sit in the passenger seat. She slinks into the other seat, kicking her feet up onto the dashboard with a carefree smile. She looks over at Joel before wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“We need to get you some actual clothes, not just that weird thing you’re wearing from the hospital. I think I saw some of Butcher’s in the trunk.” Joel nods in agreement, hopping out of the car to sift through the contents of the trunk. After finding the clothes, Joel quickly pulls on the trousers and Hawaiian shirt, before discarding the hospital garment. He then jumps back into the car, throwing Ellie a comment about how he will borrow some from Tommy’s clothes when they get to Texas. He leans forward before they set off to fiddle with the dashboard, until he connects to a radio station that he likes.

“It’s about a day’s drive to Texas without stopping, so maybe 2-3 days with stopping for food, sleep and gas. Now I've got about 150 dollars in cash in my wallet from before the outbreak, it's not in the best condition but it's still in one piece, that should just about cover us to get there.” Joel starts the engine of the car, listening as the car rumbles to life.

“At Least it’s faster than walking.” Ellie chuckles, pulling a comic book out of her bag as the car pulls out of the parking lot.

***

“Why would someone be lacing these infected with V? Surely there's an easier way to wipe supes out without dragging zombies across the universe?” MM questioned, sipping from the mug of coffee in his hand. Hughie sits forward slightly, holding his finger up to make his point,

“Technically they aren’t zombies, since according to Ellie, they aren’t actually dead or undead-”

“Hughie lad, time and place. This is neither fucking one of them.”

“MM is right, there's easier ways to wipe out supes. This isn’t a direct attack, it’s a universal threat, against supes and people. No one is safe.” Maeve mumbles in response, swilling the water around her glass.

“Didn’t you say that the girl said that there weren’t any supes left in her universe? Perhaps this is why, no?” Frenchie asks Butcher between drags of weed. The British man nods in response.

“She said that they were given an ultimatum: lose their powers or die. Guess they didn’t want to risk them turning and having infected supes running round.” Butcher responds to Frenchie, leaning back into the sofa as he finishes his Strongbow. He debated going back and getting another can, but he knows that he’s got work to do that can’t be drinking on the job. His eyes cast over to Maeve who sat on the sofa next to him. Yeah, he remembers the last time he got truly drunk a week ago. How they were both gone and one thing led to another… Maeve’s a good friend, so he doesn’t regret it.

“Whoever is doing this must have access to V. But with the supe terrorists around nowadays, that could be anyone…” MM’s words dwindle to silence at the end of his sentence. Everyone knows what he is implying though, that it could really be anyone.

“Bullshit.” Soldier Boy pipes up from the table that he’s sat at, taking a long drag from his weed for using the joint to gesture at MM and the rest of the group. “Of course it was Vought, they were the ones that were messing with multiversal travel, clearly for a reason.” Butcher hums in agreement.

“He’s got a point, it’s got to be those fuckers over at Vought. ‘Why?’ That is the big money question. We need to find that out and stop whatever it is that they are using to bring those things to this universe. Hughie, call your girlfriend and see if she could help with this, find a portal or a whiteboard with their evil plan on it or something.”

“I’ll ask her, but last time she didn’t find anything. She thinks it might be on a level or a place that she doesn't have access to.”

“I know someone who does.” Maeve pipes up, rising off the sofa and pulling one of her burner phones out of her pocket. She holds up a finger before pulling open the door and stepping outside of MM’s apartment, dialling a number that she knows all too well.

“Who is this?”

“John, it’s me, Maeve.”

“Maeve? What are you?- ”

“I fucked up, I miss you, please, could you meet me in the park, at our old spot?”

“I- of course. I’ll see you there in ten minutes?”

“Ten minutes, I'll see you then.”

“ See you then…Beautiful…”

Maeve thinks that she is going to be sick.

Chapter Text

Their spot was in an old, small park in the city. No one ever really goes there or knows that it exists, besides from the occasional dog walker or a husband taking his secret mistress on a late night stroll, it was just Maeve and Homelander that used to go there. Specifically, their spot was a tree that overlooked the city. They used to joke about how the leaves formed a perfect circle, making it look like a green lollipop.

Maeve could feel her phone blowing up in her pocket, her main phone, not the phone that she called homelander from. She knew that it was Butcher and the rest of them wondering where she was and what was taking her so long. Or perhaps they had figured out what she was doing and were trying to stop her before it was too late. But it was too late

Maybe this is a bad idea?

But what other choice does she have?

If anyone has any knowledge on what’s going on at Vought, it would be Homelander. Despite him and Starlight being co-captains of The Seven, he still has access to more places and levels than Annie does. Probably because everyone is too afraid to tell him no, especially Ashley. 

And if they didn’t stop this outbreak, then their world would crumble just like Ellie’s. 

She feels her heart stop for a moment when she sees him standing underneath the tree. As always, he’s wearing the blue suit and flag cape that make up his outfit. Maeve is just wearing a pair of grey joggers and a white shirt, yet he still seems to recognise her immediately.

“Maeve.” He says cooly, but she swears that she hears him choke on her name slightly. She walks up to him, swallowing her dignity and feelings for the fate of the world as she throws her arms around him like she used to do when they were together.

She always was a good actress.

“John” she says as she hugs him tight, choking down the bile rising in her throat. He stands frozen for a second, and Maeve panics thinking that she’s fucked this up and that her plan won’t work. But slowly, he snakes his arms around her waist.

“What-what is this?” he asks gently, still not breaking their embrace. Maeve takes a moment to try and level her heartbeat and breathing before raising her chin to look at him.

“I still love you… I never stopped loving you.” Maeve thinks about her Oscar that she has sitting on her shelf back in her room at the tower. “Please-”

Homelander cuts off her sentence by pressing his lips to hers. Maeve hates every second of it.

“I never stopped loving you either.” Maeve knows that he means every word that he says. “Come back to the tower with me, we can start how we left off.” He says with a smile.

“We can’t make this public, the world still thinks that I'm a lesbian and that you’re dating Starlight.” Maeve responds, hoping that this will all be done long before the world finds out about them ‘getting back together’

“We’ll tell them that me and Starlight broke up and that you’re bi.” Homelander shrugs in response.

“I am bi.” Maeve says, Homelander smiles as he lifts Maeve into his arms and rises into the air.

“That’s the spirit.”

This is a really bad idea.

***

Annie watched as the Vought employees flooded into the hospital. A-Train had already evacuated the remaining civilians from the building before they arrived, and he was now sitting on a pull-out chair as the medical team tended to his injured arm. Thankfully, Starlight managed to cauterise the wound before he bled too much or needed serious medical assistance, all he needs now is to get the wound checked and cleaned.

“You’re all set.” The Vought medic says as she gently pats A-Train on the shoulder. He thanked her before shooting up out of the chair that he was sitting on and making his way over to Annie. A-Train leaned in to speak to her,

“Hey, um I think I'm going to head back to the Tower. I’m not feeling too good and I don’t want the public to see me injured.” He tells her in a hushed tone.

Annie was standing at the back of the room, diverting her eyes from the scene and bunching up the ends of her hair over her face to subtly block her nose from the stench of blood. She never did like the sight of blood, even as a kid the smell was always enough to cause her to gag and heave. She sees a lot more dead and mangled bodies now with her line of work, so it normally doesn’t affect her anymore. But having been around the bodies of the infected and The Deep for about an hour now, the smell had started to make her feel queasy.

“Yeah, you can go.” Annie nods, dropping her hair as she prepares to walk over to the team of Vought employees. 

They are all wearing hazmat suits, as Annie had called Ashley back after she had hung up the call to tell her that there were dangerous substances in the air at the hospital. She didn’t tell Ashley over the call that they were spores, way too much explaining to do, besides, she planned to break it to Ashley gently in their meeting later that day.

Annie and A-Train had then sat in one of the back office rooms away from the spores emanating from the dead bodies of the infected from the other room in relative silence, until they heard the Vought employees arrive, resulting in them having to leave the small office.

Annie watched as A-Train left, figuring that she should follow suit. Although she was standing far away from the bodies, she didn’t want to risk breathing in too many spores.

Did Ellie say you can turn from breathing this stuff in? Annie couldn’t remember.

“Hey, thanks everyone for your help, we really appreciate everything you do. I’ve got to get back to the Tower now, but thanks again for all your hard work.”

Starlight heard a cacophony of replies as she threw the crew one last thank you and walked over to the exit.

As she walks towards it, she catches sight of them zipping The Deep’s body up into a body bag.

***

Annie weighed up her options on the walk back to the tower, she knows that Homelander is inevitably going to find out about The Deep’s death. Now, should she let Ashley break the news to Homelander, or tell him herself. The petty, emotional side of her wants nothing to do with the man that killed Alex and threatened Hughie and would rather not have to communicate with him at all. 

But the professional side of her knows that it would be best for the information to come from her.

Reluctantly, she calls his number, listening to it ring for a few moments before going to voicemail. Of course.

“Hey, Homelander, it's Starlight. I need to have an urgent meeting with you today. I’m on my way back to the tower to have a meeting with Ashely so can we arrange for 5:00pm? Please let me know.”

Annie had just entered the tower when she felt the notification ping on the communication device on her arm. She looks down at the message.

“K”

Annie’s not actually surprised that Homelander is a blunt messenger.

***

Thanks to her long range attacks, she didn’t get that much blood or grime on her white outfit. But nonetheless, Annie still felt better once she had cleaned herself off in the shower and put on a fresh costume. Before she knew it, it was 4:10pm, so she started to make her way over to Ashley's office, only having to wait a few moments before the ginger woman beckoned her in.

Ashley sat at the chair in her office, smiling at starlight with all teeth, but the smile wasn’t fully reaching her eyes, just creasing the corners as if she was trying to force the happiness to them.

“Starlight, right on time. Please, have a seat.” Ashley motioned to the chair, filing away the documents that she had been working on before pulling out a different folder, she ran a tense hand through her hair as she stared at the information in front of her and waited for Starlight to sit on the chair by on the other side of the desk.

“Ashley.” Annie began, causing the woman to snap her gaze up from the folder she was frantically flicking through the documents in it. Starlight cleared her throat before continuing,

“Well… as you know The Deep was killed today. But, what he was killed by wasn’t… exactly… an insane person, like your typical insane person. It was someone who was infected with a fungal infection, called Cordyceps, the one that infects ants.” 

Annie watched as Ashley nodded along with what she was saying, although there was something quite unnerving about her reaction. Her face never fell, a lock of shock never passed her face; her eyes didn’t widen and her mouth didn’t gape. 

It was almost like none of this was new to her.

“...The Cordyceps mutated to infect humans, but the thing that killed Deep had been infected for a really long time… These things aren’t from our universe, they are coming here from a different universe.” Annie continued, watching Ashley’s face again for any sign of shock. But the ginger woman just continued to nod, pressing her lips together before continuing.

“Thank you, Starlight, for this information. Unfortunately, I can’t say too much on the matter as it is highly confidential, but rest assured that as a company, Vought vows to resolve the issue. You just and the rest of The Seven just need to keep on doing what you’re doing, and everything will be fine.” The forced smile is plastered across her face again, as if she is trying to give another answer with her eyes. 

“Ashley, this infection destroyed this other world, and you are seriously doing nothing about it? If it can kill supes, then it can kill regular people-”

“As I said Starlight, Vought will resolve this issue. Now, I have a few things that I need to discuss with you as we are in a meeting now, so is that all that you needed to say?” She asks, attempting to move the conversation along. The fake smile is back again, although Ashley makes more of an effort to try and make it reach her eyes. Annie nods her head before Ashley continues.

“Now, firstly, lovely rating, your numbers are up at the moment, people love you! Now I have some good news, and I have some bad news, which would you prefer to hear first?” Annie blinks a few times before answering.

“Uh, the good news?” Annie says, although it does sound more like a question.

“So Mattel have been in contact and they are making a Barbie movie next year, and they have asked for you to play Superhero Barbie-” Ashley’s smile stretches into a grin as she taps her hands together as if she was trying to gently clap enthusiastically. “-Yay.”

“Okay, that… sounds good. And the bad news?” Annie hesitantly asks, internally dreading the answer that Ashley may have. Ashley pouts dramatically before forcing her face to drop.

“It is with great regrets that we have to tell you that you are now single-” 

“What have you done with Hughie?!” Annie exclaims jumping up out of her chair. Ashley pauses before resuming with what she was saying.

“- You and Homelander have now broken up. Homelander and Maeve are now back together, she’s back in The Seven.” Annie squints her eyes in confusion as she sits back down.

“What?” Annie mentally plans the message that she is going to send to Maeve once her meetings are done.

“They are dating each other again as of today. Now, we are planning to sell this as a huge break up between the two of you. I’m talking about throwing drinks, screaming at each other in a restaurant. Oooo, perhaps we say that you’re pregnant and that he’s the father!”

“NO!”

“Yeah, people will get suspicious in nine months when there’s no baby… How about you slap him round the face at a public event and announce your breakup?”

Annie’s not really listening to what Ashley is saying. Her mind wanders as she thinks about how she is going to tell Homelander about The Deep’s death. Suddenly, she feels her breathing hitch as her heart falls to her stomach, when she remembers Ashley’s words from earlier:

“if you work with him today, then this will be the last time you ever have to work with him, I promise”

***

“-GONNA PLAY, PLAY, PLAY PLAY, PLAY. AND THE HATERS GONNA-”

“You know what Ellie? I think I prefer the puns to your singing”

“Ha ha, fuck you”

They had been driving for about a day with the occasional stop for the toilet, gas and to sleep. Joel specifically chose gas stations with the cheapest prices, and luckily, the car seemed to not consume too much petrol. 

“How do you even know this song?” Joel asks, his eyes not leaving the road in front of him.

“It’s played about three times on the radio already.” Ellie answers around a mouthful of gas station sandwiches that Joel had brought them ‘because it’s cheaper than restaurants.’ Ellie suddenly lets her hands fall into her lap as she stares down at them.

“You're not going to leave me when we get to Texas, are you?” She mumbles, causing Joel to break his gaze from the road. Thinking back to their argument they had back in their universe, Joel curses himself inwardly. Of course if they were going to find Sarah, Ellie would think that he was giving up on her; it still hurt nonetheless.

“You’re right. You’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your dad. And we are going our separate ways.”

“Ellie, of course I'm not going to leave you. We’re in this together, me and you. Once we find Tommy, we’’l get some documents created, one’s that say that you’re my daughter and we’ll get you enrolled in school.”

“Really? Thanks Joel that honestly means a- wait, school?”

“Yes, you’re fourteen so you’ve got to go to school until you’re at least eighteen.”

“Fine.” Ellie says with a relieved laugh, “I guess that means that we aren’t going back to our universe?”

“God no.” Joel responds with a shake of his head.

“What about the cure?” Elie asks, guilt seeping into her voice. Her hand grazes over her bite as Joel responds,

“The fireflies will find another immune person like you. But that’s their problem now, not ours.”

Ellie nods in response, taking the final bite of her sandwich before throwing the packaging onto the backseat. She continues to hum and sing along to the songs on the radio for a while until she gets bored. Turning over the radio station, the song from before starts playing again. Ellie turns to face Joel as she watches him stare intently at the road ahead.

“So, what’s a player?”

“It’s uh, someone who is known for cheating in relationships.”

“So why doesn’t she just say cheater then?”

“I don’t know, she released this song after the outbreak so i’ve never heard of it.”

“Well, I like it.”

Ellie smiled as she sang along to the song, staring out of the window as she watched the life-filled world shoot by.

“Are we nearly there yet?”

Chapter Text

The previous day

Homelander entered the meeting room at bang-on 5pm, his cape blowing in the air as he walked swiftly into the room with a gleeful look on his face.

“Starlight,” he greets Annie as he sits down in his chair adjacent to her’s “what was so urgent that it couldn’t wait until our weekly Vought meeting, hm?” Homelander huffs. Annie opens her mouth to answer before Homelander holds up a finger with a chuckle,

“Is this about our break-up? I promise there’s no hard feeling-”

“No, it’s not that.” Annie interrupts, taking a deep breath when Homelander’s hard eyes land on her.

“Okay, as Co-Captain of The Seven, I thought that it was best for this to come from me. The Deep is… dead.”

Annie looked at Homelander in an effort to gauge his reaction. She watched as his face twitched as he breathed through his nose, leaning back into his chair. Furrowing his eyebrows, he stuck out his chin as his face twisted into an array of emotions: shock, anger, confusion, rage…fear? After a moment, he looked up at Starlight with a look of disbelief.

“What?” He demanded, spitting out the single syllable word as if it was on fire.

“It happened on our mission earlier, to the hospital with the insane people-”

“Was it a supe?” He asked, seemingly coming to terms with the situation now. Annie shook her head as a response.

“No, it wasn’t….exactly… but it wasn’t a normal person either…” he gave her an incredulous look as she paused before continuing. “The person that killed him was infected with something called Cordyceps, well… the thing that killed Deep had been infected for a really long time and when that happens they look more like monsters than people, it …ripped his head from his jaw.”

Homelander stood up calmly, placing a hand on his chair. His face was emotionless for a second, before his lips twisted into a snarl, grabbing the chair and launching it to the other side of the room and through a few walls. He hadn’t used all of his strength, if he had then the chair would be on the other side of the city.

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier, Starlight?” He sneered, his eyes glowing red as he stared down the young woman. Annie fought internally to regulate her breathing, having had no idea how Homelander would have reacted to the news but not shocked at the outcome.

“I told you as soon as I could-”

“NO you didn’t! You went to fucking Ashley first. That’s what the meeting was about, wasn’t it?”Homelander is now pacing around the room in frustration. Annie watches him before answering.

“Okay, yes it was.I had to make sure that Vought knew about these things travelling across the multiverse that can kill supes like they were paper! And then I told you, because- like it or not- we are co-captains of The Seven, that means we have to communicate with each other, especially when another member of our team is dead!” Starlight responds firmly, feeling proud of herself for holding her ground against Homelander verbally.

That’s until she looks up at Homelander and sees him laughing behind the fury etching face.

“Wow.” he laughs in mockery, walking up to the blonde woman until he was only inches away from her. “So how long have you been planning that speech for?” He laughs before walking across the room to the water dispenser. Starlight watches him carefully as he grabs a plastic cup and fills it full of water, taking a few sips before walking back over to Annie. She thought that he was going to say something about the fact that these things are from a different universe, but instead he said something else:

“Is this because I brought Maeve back into The Seven without asking you? Someone getting a bit jealous?”

“I don’t know who or what you are using to threaten Maeve into joining The Seven again and date you-”

“Threaten?” Annie was shocked when she saw a look of hurt wash over Homelander’s face. “No,” he said in a quick, small voice that was extremely unlike him, “No, she… she declared her feelings for me. She said that she missed me, and that she wants us to get back together. She said that she still loves me .”

Annie tried to hide her confusion, Maeve has to have a plan, right? She hates Homelander, she would never willingly date him.

“Fine, okay. Maybe you aren’t threatening her. But if you hurt her in any way-”

Homelanders eyes flare red again as he pounces on Annie, holding her in the air by the throat. He’s shaking with fury as he snarls at her,

“I would NEVER hurt Maeve! ” he growls, squeezing his fingers tighter around Annie’s throat. Choking, she scratches at his hand, until he lets go, causing her to drop unceremoniously to the floor coughing. Homelander calms down again, plucking his cup of water off the table and thrusting it into Starlight’s hand as she stands back up again.

“You on the other hand…” Homelander trails off as he smiles up at her. Grinning with too many teeth as a flash of fear crosses her eyes before they start to glow. “Are you and Hugh Campbell still going steady? It would be a shame if anything were to happen to him.. Like Supersonic-”

There was water all over Homelanders face, dripping from the tips of his hair and nose down to his chest and his costume and onto the floor. 

Annie looked down at the empty cup in her hand and realised with an overwhelming sense of dread that she had chucked the contents of it over Homelander in her rage. 

They both stood there for about a minute or so, motionless. Annie’s mouth had fallen agape whilst Homelander stood blinking with wide eyes. Neither of them said anything or moved for what felt like forever, until Homelander ran a hand through his wet hair, pushing the strands back across his head.

“Good aim, but save it for the camera. The Press will eat this dramatic breakup up.” He responds calmly, smiling at the still frozen Starlight, although it never reaches his eyes. 

“Oh and team meeting tomorrow at 12 noon. We need to discuss what’s going to happen moving forward with Deep’s death, ‘Kay?” He pats Starlight on the shoulder as he walks out of the room.

Annie knows that she got out of that one way too easy. So he must have something else planned.

Shit.

***

“You lobbed a glass of water over Homelander?” Butcher cackled, throwing his head back and clutching stomach as he howled with laughter. Annie was curled up in her pyjamas next to Hughie on MM’s couch, resting her head against his shoulder.

“He was about as shocked as I was” She sleepily chuckled, rubbing the back of her hand against her eyes and smudging her mascara across her face. Hughie smiled softly at her, licking his thumb before wiping the makeup from across her eyes.

“Panda-eyes.” he whispers, placing a kiss on her cheek. Annie laughs as she snuggles closer to him before she hears Butcher cough from the other side of the room, placing his cup of tea on the coffee table.

“Maeve should be here any minute, she said that she would be here at about 11” 

Well, that’s what they had gathered from her message anyway. After hours of them all frantically calling her when she had walked out earlier, Butcher had finally got a message from her. It was clearly typed quickly and secretly, since it was barely literate.

So the three of them decided to stay up and wait to make sure that she was okay.

“Are you sure the message said 11?” Annie yawned, blinking her eyes in an effort to wake herself up a bit.

“I have no idea what the fuck it said, your boyfriend was the one that managed to decipher it.” Butcher responded, pointing at Hughie. The man shrugged,

“Well… it wasn’t exactly hard-”

“At first, I thought that she had just sat on her phone.” Butcher punctuated his sentence with a sip of tea. As he placed it back on the coffee table, they heard a repetitive rasping against the door, causing the three to leap out their seats and dash towards the door. Butcher opens the door to reveal Maeve, who totters into the apartment in 6 inch heels and a black, form-fitting dress.

Annie pushes forwards and brings the woman into a tight hug, Maeve returns the hug, before Butcher spins her around to check her for any injuries.

“You alright, love?” Maeve nods in confirmation. “So what? Are you baiting yourself out to Homelander then?” Butcher clears his throat as he pulls out his phone and reads the message that she sent him back to her:

“Fak d8ing Hmlndr, bak in 7. I will B @ MM l8r tn, 11ish. GTG”

“I’m pretending to date Homelander and I'm back in The Seven. I will be at MM’s later tonight, around 11 ish. Got to go.” Maeve and Hughie said at the same time. Maeve turns to point at Hughie.

“See? The twink got it! I had to send the message quickly in the Vought toilets before our ‘date’ because Homelander was getting suspicious that I was on the toilet and messaging someone. He accused me of still being in contact with you guys.”

“What did you tell him?” Annie asked tentatively.

“Just that you needed some advice on ‘women issues’, that shut him up right away.” Maeve smirked as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a drink from the fridge. “I told him that I needed a girls night with you and that I would see him in the meeting tomorrow.” Maeve threw herself onto the sofa before turning to talk to Annie again.

“By the way, I'm pretty sure that he thinks that that is the reason you threw that glass of water over him.” Maeve tells her with a smirk, leaning forward to rest her chin on her hand.

“Did he talk about it then?” Annie groans, walking to meet Maeve on the sofa.  Maeve nodded,

“He told me about it at the restaurant. He didn’t seem mad just… baffled. I don’t think that he ever thought that anyone would have the balls to do that.”  They sat there in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Annie piped up.

“This is going to sound crazy, but I think Vought knows more than they are letting in-on about this whole Cordyceps thing.”

“Well that goes without fucking saying.” Butcher mumbles in reply.

“No, like… I think that they might have had something to do with it.” Annie explains, causing everyone to turn to stare at her.

“I know it sounds crazy, but Ashley said something really weird earlier. She promised that this would be the last time that I had to work with The Deep. And in our meeting earlier, she just… didn’t seem shocked about how The Deep died or what killed him. Also Homelander was completely unfazed when I mentioned the infected coming from another universe. It’s just… It’s like they know about Cordyceps and the infected travelling across the universe” Annie looked at the others once she finished her rambling.

“I’ll ask Homelander about it tomorrow. Trust me, If he knows or if he has overheard anything, he will tell me.” Maeve says, half to herself and half to the group.

“How could you be positive that he will?” Butcher asks, gagging when he takes a sip from his tea, only to realise that it was now cold.

“Please, we haven’t even been dating again for twenty-four hours yet and he’s already talking about marriage.” Maeve chuckles unhumorously, gagging herself internally at the thought of walking down the aisle to him. Gross.

Butcher placed his cold tea onto the coffee table before slapping his hands onto his thighs.

“Right, I think it’s time we all got to bed, ‘cause you guys look fucking zonked.” He says, nodding towards Annie who was fighting to keep her eyes open. Annie looked up with half-lidded eyes and nodded. 

“Yeah, I don’t know about you guys, but i’m ready for bed. Plus we’ve got that team meeting tomorrow.” Maeve nodded, standing up with a slight smirk,

“How much do you want to bet that something is going to go wrong tomorrow?”

***

“Where the fuck is A-Train?!” Homelander growled, impatiently slapping his hand on the table in front of him. The meeting had started twenty minutes ago, and A-Train was still nowhere to be seen. Homelander had been the first to arrive, having already been in the meeting room when Annie and Maeve walked in together. He didn’t mention the water incident from the day before, however, he did avoid eye contact with Starlight when he got a glass of water each for just him and Maeve, pressing his lips to hers before handing her the cup. 

“Good morning, Beautiful. So how was ‘girls night?’ Did you watch Chick Flicks and paint each other's nails?” He asked her with a smile. She smiled back as she sat down in the seat next to him. 

“Girl’s night was good, we watched Bridget Jones’ Baby and-” She nodded towards Annie’s nails as she held her hands up, of which had been painted a solid pearly white. Annie had been confused when Maeve had pulled out the nail polish that morning whilst making grabby motions at Annie’s hands. 

“Homelander always used to ask if we had ‘watched Chick-Flick and painted nails’ whenever I had told him I was having a Girl’s Night. I'm pretty sure that’s all he’s been told happens at them. Just got to cover up our tracks.”

“Nice colour.” Homelander responds, placing a hand on Maeve's hand as he sits in the chair next to her. They look up as Noir walks into the room five minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. He nods to the group as Homelander and Starlight welcome him to the meeting. A few minutes go by before Maeve pipes up.

“Who else are we waiting for?”

“Just A-Train. No Ashley today since she is in another meeting.” Homelander responded gently as he stroked Maeve’s hand on the table. Then another fifteen minutes passed and there was still no sign of A-Train. Annie sighed when Homelander started getting impatient,

“I’ll go check his room, he’s probably overslept.” she says, getting out of her chair and walking out of the door. Homelander shakes his head as she disappears up the corridor.

“I swear to fucking god I want him out of The Seven! I don’t care what his ratings are!” Homelander seethes, Maeve squeezes his hand in what he believes to be genuine affection.

“Don’t do anything you will regret once you have calmed down.” Homelander opens his mouth to speak but Maeve stops him. “I know that you’re very passionate about things, but I’m sure that everything will be-”

Maeve’s sentence is cut off by a blood-curdling scream echoing through the building.

Chapter Text

Walking briskly down the corridor, Annie contemplated what she was going to say in her mind when she reached A-Train’s room. 

That was until she stopped dead in her tracks.

Blood. There was so much blood, it was pooling on cold ground and spreading towards her from further down the corridor through the gaps in the tiles, like a snake sizing up its next meal. The smell made her gag immediately, although Annie quickly tried to push it down. Snapping her eyes away from the crimson liquid on the ground, Starlight raised her gaze to the source of the blood.

A-Train was hunched over a woman laying on the ground. Annie couldn’t see the extent of her injuries from where she was standing, but she could hear the woman’s gargled cries, so A-Train must be performing first-aid on her- 

The woman’s head rolls over and makes eye contact with Starlight, all she sees is desperation. The woman opened her mouth as she choked on blood to try and say something to her, but then the woman stilled. Annie didn’t realise she was moving until she had made halfway towards the scene, as she heard A-Train mumbling incoherently behind quiet, harrowing cries.

“A-Train? What hap-” Annie stopped when the man turned to her screeching, dropping the woman’s intestines from his jaw as he wailed. Annie knew from that second that he was infected and that she was going to be the next to die. 

In less than a second, A-train had dragged himself off the ground, ran at Annie and had tackled her to the ground. Annie screamed as a sickening snap echoed around the room whilst his jaws gnashed too close to her neck. Lifting her hand up, Annie charged up a blast and aimed it at A-Trains head. This brought her a few seconds as it pushed A-train off her slightly and blasted him a few feet away. But as Annie shuffled back, she knew that she had only brought herself a few seconds from the infected speedster.

But he didn’t run towards her.

A-Train once again flailed his arms around, throwing his weight off the ground as Annie continued to shuffle back, in too much shock to stand up and run away. He tried to stand and run towards her again, only for that disturbing snap to reverb around the room again followed by crunching as A-Train fell back to the floor in a heap of limbs. Snarling, A-Train clawed his way towards her using his speed in his legs to propel himself across the ground as that loud crunching sound only seemed to get louder with the ring of squelching flesh. 

Annie sent another blast in A-Trains direction, of which knocked him back again a few feet. It wasn’t much but it gained her a second or two whilst she shuffled back and screamed for help. She couldn’t keep this up forever, she was running out of distance  between her and the wall and she would never make it to the door that she had entered the corridor from.

Annie’s back hit the cold wall, sealing her fate as A-Train clawed his way towards her again. Blasting him one last time, she had nowhere to go and not enough time to fire up another blast before he was pouncing on her. Annie quickly said a prayer in her head, hoping that it would at least be quick. A-Train was mumbling between the snarls as Starlight attempted to hold his head back. In a moment of clarity between the panic, she realises that the mumbles weren’t incoherent, guttural noises, but words:

“I’m-…sor-….-ry….” 

Suddenly A-Train’s head is yanked backwards and two thin beams of light pierced through his face slowly, searing away his skin and flesh until it eventually reached his brain and split through to the otherside. Homelander regards the bloodied, lifeless body of the once fastest man in the world with disgust as he crumbles to the ground in a heap of limbs. Annie stares in shock, still trying to regulate her breathing when she realises that she is still alive. Suddenly, Annie feels a pair of arms gently wrap around her into a comforting embrace. Assuming it’s Maeve, Annie sinks into the supportive hug, until she sees the woman talking to Homelander over A-Trains body. Squinting her eyes in confusion, Annie turns her head to see who the source of the embrace is.

Noir.

Annie offers him a gentle smile in return before her eyes fall on A-Trains body. She doesn’t know how he’s dead.The infected in the hospital earlier that were laced with Compound V took so much effort to kill, and it took Soldier Boy burning the V out of them before they died. So how did Homelander manage to kill A-Train so easily?

Well, not easily.

Annie had seen Homelander’s lasers pierce through metal and people like they were butter. Killing A-Train wasn’t necessarily quick for Homelander, but he didn’t struggle . Maybe it was because he was a supe before he was infected, not an infected on V… Annie thinks about asking Butcher in case Ellie had told him more about how the infection actually works.

“Hey, Starlight, are you okay?” Annie looks up as Maeve walks towards her. The blonde woman nods quickly in response, taking Maeve’s hand as she offers her help up. Maeve’s face shifts slightly, scrunching slightly when she sees the blood on Annie’s outfit. It’s not her’s, it was from that other woman and A-Train-

“A-Train- I heard a… crunch… when he was.”

“Legs snapped.” Homelander states in disgust, twisting his lip back into a grimace. Homelander's eyes remained on A-Train, dragging his gaze across the body until he reached the head. Homelander stops, cocking his head to the side as he stares at A-Trains head for a few moments.

“Starlight, that infected person that killed The Deep, you said that the Cordyceps infects their brain, correct?”

“Yes, he was turning. He must have gotten bitten on the mission.”

Homelander’s eyes widened slightly before composing himself. 

“So, the one that killed The Deep bit A-Train?”

“Well, I didn’t see him get bitten. But I think it might have been one of the ones that had recently turned.” Homelander didn’t say anything in response, just nodded as he walked towards Maeve, silently taking the woman’s hand and beginning to walk down the corridor.

“Starlight, Noir, could one of you send forensics and clean up down? We’ve got to break the news to Ashley.”

***

“‘Cause I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more…” Joel sang quietly to himself, tapping his hand on the steering wheel of his car as he waited for Ellie to emerge from the diner. He had pulled over when the teenager told him that she was desperate for the toilet, knowing that it would be a while until they stopped at a gas station to fill up again, he agreed. Ten minutes had passed, and Joel was starting to get a bit worried, but hey! there might be a queue or something? 

Just as Joel was about to go in to check on her, Ellie dashed out of the diner, backpack swaying with the force of her sprint. Ellie excitedly threw herself into the passenger seat, grinning as she plonked her backpack down by her feet. Joel gave her a quizzical look as he turned the engine on and pulled off from the parking lot.

“What’s got you smiling kid?” Joel asked as he pulled out of the junction.”Found Narnia in those restrooms or something?”

“What’s Narnia?”

“Nevermind”

Joel watched from the corner of his eye as Ellie fished around in her backpack, before grinning up at Joel.

“Okay, so you know how you said that you were worried that we wouldn’t have enough money to get to Tommy’s? Well… look what I found!”

Joel quickly glanced at what was in Ellie’s hand, feeling his eyes widen as he flays the hand that wasn’t on the steering wheel over his eyes

“Ellie, tell me that's not what I think it is.” Joel sighs, glancing briefly over at the purse in Ellie’s hand

“I didn’t fucking steal it, or anything!” Ellie declares, throwing her hands in the air. “I promise, I found it on the floor of the cubicle I was in. There was no one else in the bathroom… so I just picked it up.”

“Ellie, things here aren’t like how they are in our universe. You can get arrested for stealing here, it's against the law.”

“It’s a good job I didn't steal it then.” Ellie smirks, opening up the purse. “Wanna know how much is in here or not?”

“Sure.” Joel sighs again.

“$200. There's some sort of card in here too, it’s got numbers on it.”

“Okay, $200 would get us to Texas, and the card’s useless if we don’t have the pin. Contactless payment won’t get us far, and I'm sure the owner’s bank will close off the card.” Joel said the last part half to himself, knowing that Ellie wouldn’t know what he was talking about.

“We’ll be in Texas in about a day, let's just hope that Tommy’s not moved house in this universe.”

***

“Hey Sarah, you got much planned this weekend?” Sarah popped her head up from the microscope when she heard her name from across the room. Her boss was in the room with her, yawning as he prepared more slides for her to analyse.

“Yeah, off to Texas to my uncle Tommy’s for the weekend. It will be 8 years since…”

“Shit, is that this weekend? Look, I completely understand if you want to finish for the night, all the rest of the Vought employees have gone home. And i guess you’ll want to finish packing if you leave tomorrow”

“No, no. I’m fine, honestly. I'd rather just get the work done.”

“How is your Uncle Tommy anyway?”

“He’s good! He’s dating a new lady that he met on Hinge, I think he said that her name is Maria? Anyway, I'm meeting her this weekend.”

“Glad to hear he’s doing well! I’ve got another slide.”

He walks over to her and places the little slide beside her. Sarah thanks him, hesitating for a moment as he starts to walk to the other side of the room before asking.

“Is Vought going to do anything about this? First the girl has this mutated Cordyceps that can infect humans in her blood, and now it’s in A-Train’s blood? This is serious-”

“Shhhhh” Her boss shushes her quickly, eyes darting around the room frantically. “This information is extremely confidential, if you weren't so good at your job and the first one to find the information,then you wouldn’t know anything at all. Vought will sort this, but the rest is extremely classified information.-”

He cut off as his phone began to buzz, tapping his pockets, he searched for his phone before plucking it out and looking at the name of who was calling him.

“Sorry Sarah, I've got to take this. It’s my wife, my son had a hospital appointment today.” Sarah nodded that it was fine as he left the room, catching the start of his conversation as he left “Hey Hon, how did Owen get on…?”

Sarah was left in the lab by herself. After a few moments, she decided to turn off the large artificial lights and to just use the natural light from the main windows. Popping her earphones back in,she decided to listen to some music whilst she studied the slides and waited for her boss.

After a few minutes, the door to her lab opened, but it wasn’t her boss, it was another guy that she hadn’t met before. He slipped into the lab, darting his eyes around to see the lack of lights turned on, eyes missing Sarah. He pulled a chair over to the corner of the room, using it as a stool to reach the security camera at the top of the wall, turning it off whilst it was facing away from him so that he was never seen. Sarah looked up at him from her microscope in confusion, quickly dropping the volume of her music.

“It’s Robert, I can speak now.”

She knows that she shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but…

“ Listen, we're almost ready to initiate Stage Two of the plan.  We just need a few more samples of the mutated Cordyceps…”

So they are doing something about this.

“...That’s correct, but if we want this to work, then we need to announce it soon. Look, Stage One was a success! Yes, A-Train may have been the one to get bitten instead of The Deep, but he wasn’t going to make it out of this anyway, so it's just sped up the timeline a bit…”

Sarah felt like she was going to be sick…

“...I hear you, Mr Edgar, we need to have it finished before we reach Stage Four. I’ll reach out to the Boston Laboratory and make sure they do whatever it is they did last time to bring more of those infected people here…”

Sarah listened, breathing as quietly as she could, afraid that if she made any movement then he would hear her and become aware of her presence.

“...I’m sorry, could you repeat that please Mr Edgar? It sounded like you said… I did hear you correctly then. Yeah, I'll get them on it. Okay, look after yourself, Mr Edgar,  and stay safe.” 

The man - Robert - hung up the phone quickly, turning the camera back on before leaving the room. Sarah sat there in shock for a few moments, pushing the lenses of the microscope around as she tried to comprehend the situation. After five minutes, she looked up at the sound of her boss walking back into the room.

“Sorry about that- Sarah, is everything okay?” he asks her in concern when he sees the hyperventilating young woman. Sarah nods quickly before replying.

“Yeah, everything is- everything is great . I forgot that I'm playing six-a-side soccer tonight so I better get going.” Grabbing her things, Sarah shouted a goodbye before quickly dashing out of the lab.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

“So what are you going to do when you see the other version of yourself? Y’know, the one from this universe.” Ellie asked Joel as she absentmindedly flipped her burner phone in the air before catching it with the same hand, looking over at the older man as he stared silently at the road ahead like he had been since they first saw the sign that they had entered Travis Country.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Joel mutters, eyes not leaving the road in front of him.

“Well, that bridge is approaching pretty fast and it's looking pretty crumbly. Hey, do you think you’ll be able to read each other's minds?”  Ellie asked Joel enthusiastically, causing Joel to chuckle slightly as she made “Woooo” sounds and wiggled her fingers. Joel suddenly stopped the car outside a house, pulling the handbrake up before taking a few shaky breaths.

“We’re here.” Joel muttered, staring at the house with wide eyes, as if he was worried that it was going to disappear.

“Do you need a moment?” Ellie asked tentatively, her voice holding a heaviness far too mature for her age.

“No, I'm- I'm good, honestly kid. Let's go.” Joel swung open the door and quickly exited the car before Ellie had time to even blink. Joel walked up to the door, waiting for Ellie to join him before he knocked on the door.

“COMING!” A deep - male - voice shouted from the other side. Ellie closed her eyes slightly and listened, hearing the man mutter other curses between grumbles of “ Where are my fucking keys. ” A few moments later, a man opened the door. He was young, well, younger than Joel. Ellie wanted to place him somewhere in his mid thirties, although there was that energy and life in his eyes and face that was unlike anyone of that age in her universe, after all, they had lived through the outbreak and remembered what the world was like before.

His eyes land on Ellie first, before drifting across to Joel, flinching backwards slightly before using the frame of the door to steady himself. For a split second. Ellie sees something flash over his eyes, she couldn’t tell if it was shock, happiness, fear, confusion, or all of the above or none of them, but the emotion was gone as soon as it was there. Just as Tommy began to shut the door, Joel grabbed ahold of it, the years of living in an post-apocalyptic world having made his grip and strength greater than Tommy’s causing the door to stay open.

“Tommy, it’s me Joel-”

“Don’t-” Tommy chokes, looking up at Joel with a hurt glare “Did someone put you up to this or something? Whatever it is they're paying you… I'll double it if you leave now.” 

“Joel… what’s he talking about?” Ellie asks, scrunching her face up in confusion. Okay, this was not the reunion she was expecting, where’s Joel’s double? Joel ignores her, keeping his attention on Tommy. 

“The hell you on about someone setting me up? Tommy it’s me, your older brother Joel-” Joel's sentence was cut off as Tommy flung the door open again, the momentum causing Joel to stagger back.

“I don’t know who you are or why you are pretending to be a middle aged version of my brother, but it ain’t fucking funny. My brother died 8 years ago from a freak accident on a site we were doing a contract for.”

“Well at least we don’t have to worry about that bridge.” Ellie stated with a click of her tongue.

“Ellie” Joel scolded her, secretly thankful, however, for her breaking him out of the mental spiral he was feeling himself slipping into when Tommy revealed his fate in this world, and the guilt that in this world, Sarah had had to grow up without her dad.

“Tommy, this is going to sound really weird, but we ain’t from this universe. Where we are from, it’s around 2034 and it’s after the outbreak of Cordyceps-” Joel sighs before continuing. “After a zombie apocalypse.”

Tommy doesn’t answer, instead, he breaks his gaze away from the two and starts to silently close the door again.

“We were born in Arlington. A few years ago for your birthday, we both rented Harley-Davidson bikes and went for a ride cross-country.” Joel looked up at Tommy as the other man snapped his gaze back to him. “How would I know that if I weren’t telling the truth?”

“Joel?”

“Bring it in, little brother,” Joel said, bringing Tommy into a one-armed hug. The latter returned it carefully, as if his brother would disappear if he blinked too hard. He pulled away and stared at Joel for a few moments.

“What- What the hell is happening?” He whispered, dragging his gaze across Joel as if he was checking for injuries. “You were dead! But now you’re old!” 

“You ain’t no spring chicken yourself” Joel chuckled. “You gonna let us in? I could really do with some coffee right now.” 

***

The Previous Day

Sarah dashed out of the Vought Tower as if it was on fire, running a few blocks away before leaning against the wall of a worn-down building. She stood there for a moment trying to calm her breathing. Yep, she was definitely hyperventilating. Vought had planned for The Deep and A-Train to die, and they want to bring more of those infected people here. Sarah felt her head spin as she fought down the bile rising in her throat. She leaned back fully into the wall to steady herself. Vought were supposed to be the good guys, that’s why she had applied for an internship with them in the first place! To gain experience working for the best of the best. She just wanted to do something that would make her dad proud, and to make her uncle Tommy proud. She remembered when she first told her Uncle Tommy that she had been picked to do the internship for their forensics department:

“If I know my brother, then I bet that he’s looking down on you and smiling right now, Kiddo. We always knew that you would go far and make the right decisions in life.”

Make the right decisions.

Sarah closed her eyes for a second, allowing herself to calm her breathing. She knew that she would have to make a decision soon on what that right thing was.

“Dad” She thought “If you can hear me right now, then please send me a sign, what should I do?”

“Hughie, it’s Annie.” Sarah jumps when she hears Starlight's voice, looking around the alleyway created between the two buildings that she had ducked between, Sarah spots the young hero in her civilian clothing, clutching her phone as she frantically scans the environment around her. Sarah stays in the shadows for now, just tucked out of sight until she knows if Starlight can be trusted.

“Sorry it’s taking me so long to call you about this, i’ve only just been able to leave Vought Tower” 

Sarah remembers how Starlight had run to find her and the rest of the forensic team earlier that day after A-Train’s death. Sarah had been completely starstruck when the hero had talked directly to her , and that was in a room full of people; this is just the two of them in an alleyway… with Sarah eavesdropping on her idol.

But what if Starlight was in on it too? Sarah had idolised Vought just as much as she did the blonde hero. She had to find out what side Starlight was on, or if she even knew what was going on.

“A-Train’s turned, he’s dead now. Listen, it was really fucking weird and a long story but it was almost like the infection didn’t know how to control his powers, he tried to run towards me and his legs snapped. Have you guys got anything? Any leads on why Vought or someone is trying to create infected that are a threat to supes? Nothing? Okay I'm coming over now, Maeve is going to meet us at MM’s after her ‘date night’ with Homelander, hopefully she might be able to get some information out of him or at least be able to tell us what happened in their meeting with Ashley. Okay, I’ll be there in 10, I love you.”

Sarah heard Starlight end the call. She was relieved, Starlight was on the right side and trying to do something about all this. Just as Starlight made to walk out of the alleyway, Sarah made the decision on what the right thing to do was.

She would be able to find a new job anyway.

“Hey, um Starlight?” she tapped the woman on the shoulder, causing her to leap a foot into the air, her palms lighting up as she stared around in panic. The light dims when her eyes land on the blonde girl

“Are you okay? Are you in danger?” Starlight asks her before her eyes widen in recognition. “Wait, you’re that new forensics intern, aren't you? Sarah?”

“Yeah, that’s me”- SHE KNOWS MY NAME! Sarah’s brain unhelpfully supplies. “But that’s not what I- well… I know what’s going on with those infected people, and I overheard your conversation on the phone. Vought’s not doing anything about this.” 

“No, they’re not.” Starlight confirms with a shake of her head. “I don’t know what they’re planning, but if you know what’s best for you, then you would quit that job and leave New York-”

“I want to help you!” Sarah blurts out, causing Starlight to startle back; a small, almost non-existent smile twitched her lips. “I just, I want to do the right thing. I mean, I know this shit is pretty serious, I’ve overheard some conversations that I definitely wasn’t supposed to have.”

“Sounds like you’re making a habit out of that.” Starlight smirked with a soft chuckle. Sarah laughed gently in response, chewing the inside of her lip before continuing.

“And I've had to analyse this hell out of this mutated Cordyceps, and find anything I could from that girl’s DNA-”

“Wait!” Annie exclaimed, a look of urgency washing over her face. “The girl? Are you talking about the one that broke into Vought Tower?”

“Yep, the Jane Doe. So what do you say, can I join ya?” Starlight jutted her chin into the air in contemplation. The girl does have information that could help them, and she’s inconspicuous at Vought unlike her and Maeve, but…

“Trust me Sarah, this is a dangerous game, I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into-”

“I don’t care. I just want to be on the right side.” Sarah knocked her chin into the air in an upwards gesture. “Wanna make my dad proud.” Starlight’s mouth falls into a soft ‘oh’ of realisation. Starlight turned to Sarah and silently getured for her to follow her.

“I can’t guarantee the rest of the gang will be on board.”

***

“Oh no, please just bring more random people into my house.” 

MM announced dramatically with a roll of his eyes, sarcasm seeping through his voice like water through his hands. He gestured for Annie and the girl to walk in - He’s pretty sure that Annie had called her Sarah when she had called to debrief them of the situation and the new member of their gang. The girl flicked her wide eyes around the room quickly, flashing them a quick smile. Annie guided her further into the room. 

“Guys, this is Sarah, she’s the girl I was talking about on the phone earlier. Sarah, this is my boyfriend Hughie, Frenchie and Kimiko, you’ve already met MM, this is Butcher, and I'm sure you’ve heard about Soldier Boy.” Annie watched as Sarah’s eyes widened when she gestured towards the 80s hero. “He’s not a ghost, I promise, he was never dead, just captured by the Russians.” Annie spoke quickly in an attempt to calm the girl. Sarah nodded silently as she offered them all another smile.

“It’s nice to meet y’all- is that Coke?” She asked when she watched Soldier Boy snort a line of white powder from the table.

“Fuck yeah it is, want some?” Soldier Boy offered her, gesturing to another line.

“Uh, no thank you… but thanks for asking.” she answered carefully. 

“Suit yourself” Soldier Boy shrugged, turning back to his task at hand.

Sarah nodded to herself whilst taking in the sight of the group. These seemed so intimidating, but Sarah could also see a few dolls laying around the house and pictures of the MM guy with whom she assumed to be his daughter. These guys looked like they would kill without a second thought… but they were fighting to stop Vought and whatever it is that is happening with the mutated Cordyceps, so they have to be the good guys…

Right?

“How do we know that she ain’t just a spy for Vought?” the british guy pops up, brandishing a knife as he wiped it clean with a cloth. He gives Sarah a hard glare as she gulps back her nerves. Chuckling in what she hopes to be a natural way, Sarah chewed her lips before continuing.

“Believe me, I'm so low down in the ranking at Vought that if I wanted to get any intel up to Ms Barrett, it would have to go through at least 5 people and by then it would basically be Chinese Whispers. I’m a nobody, I don't even get paid to be there. The higher up’s didn’t even see me when they were turning off the security cameras.” Sarah let out a short, half suppressed laugh about this. 

“But I've got information that would be useful to you if you’re planning to stop this infection before it turns into an apocalypse.”

Butcher looked up at her with a look of contemplation. Sheathing his knife into his trench coat, he lent down to pluck his cider from the coffee table, bringing it to his lips to take a sip before holding it off to the side to talk. 

“Well darling,” he started with his signature shit-eating grin plastered to his face. “We’re all ears.”

“Vought’s got a plan.” Sarah looked up as Butcher squinted his eyes, before opening the again with a raise of his eyebrows and a smirk. Sarah took in a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t know what it is, but they planned to kill The Deep and A-Train, I overheard them say that Stage One is complete and that they just need a few more samples of the mutated Cordyceps before they can start Stage Two.”

The entire room had fallen silent as they stared at Sarah; engrossed. Even Soldier Boy had lifted his head up from the white lines on the table.

“I fucking could’ve told you that.” Soldier Boy exclaimed with half-lidded eyes as he gestured to Sarah with his hands. “Vought were the ones to experiment multiversal travel on me .”

“Okay that is… a lot to unpack.” Sarah said, blinking slowly. “But, they said that there's a lab in Boston which they were using to bring those infected people over.”

“Do you know where in Boston? It’s a pretty big place after all?” the guy whose apartment they’re in asks, Sarah shakes her head no. MM sighs before reaching to grab a glass of water from the table. Sarah notices as the young dark haired woman - Kimiko - turns to the man next to her, quickly signing something to him before he smiles at her fondly. As he turns to face Sarah, the tender smile he had just given Kimiko slipped into something more cunning. Sarah didn’t want to call it evil because it wasn’t, it was sly and tactile, the same look you would give your opponent when you figured out the exact move you needed to make to checkmate them in chess. So no, it wasn’t evil, but if the glint in his eye was anything to go by, then a plan was forming in his brain.

“The guy who you heard this information from,” Frenchie said, his mouth twitching up into a grin. “Do you remember his name?” he asks Sarah, cocking his head as he waits for an answer.

“His name is Robert.” Sarah said with a nod. Starlight furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“Robert, I've never heard of a Robert at Vought…” Starlight says to the group before turning back to Sarah. “Are you sure that’s his name, I’ve not seen or heard of a Robert, especially not from Ashley.”

“Maybe, Starlight.” Butcher says directly to the young hero, sneering slightly. “It’s because Vought doesn’t want you to know about this so-called Robert.” Butcher stops for a moment before turning to Sarah grinning widely. A chill runs down Sarah’s spine because, unlike Frenchie's, this smile was definitely evil. 

“So, Our Invisible Vought Intern, you are going to go back to work tomorrow.” Butcher says, standing up from the sofa, he walks over to a briefcase that was lying beside the dining room table, sifting through the contents until he finds what he was looking for, with a quick ‘Ah-ha’ to himself, he turns to walk towards Sarah until he was barely a foot away from her. “And you’re going to find out exactly who this Robert guy is.” Butcher pushed something into the palm of her hand. “And when you do, you’re going to download all the information onto this.” 

Sarah looks down at the USB Flash drive that was now in her hand.

***

Present Day

Sarah was starting to get used to being around the group of people that she had joined. 

‘Starting to’ being the big words there.

They were a weird group of people, but they functioned semi-well together. Queen Maeve had joined them last night, which was weird in itself. Sarah had looked up to Starlight because she was the hero of the people, she was the girl next door who was blasted into fame, she was someone she felt strangely close to despite not having met her until yesterday. 

Queen Maeve on the other hand was basically a goddess.

Like Homelander, she just felt far above everyone else; untouchable. Sarah looked up to Starlight, but seeing Queen Maeve in person felt like meeting royalty or a higher deity. 

Wait, was she royalty?

Sarah had already turned in for bed when Queen Maeve had arrived that previous night. Sarah had walked out from what she assumed to be MM’s daughter’s room that she had slept in for the night, wearing nothing but a pair of joggers she had borrowed from Starlight and a football shirt that she always kept in her bag, when she saw the red haired hero sat at the kitchen table.

It was strange to see her not wearing her superhero outfit, her face almost seemed bare without the usual metal crown. Yet here she was, slumped over a bowl of cornflakes and a mug of coffee. She looks up when Sarah walks into the kitchen area, tilting her head as she looks at the girl with a sly smile.

“So you’re the Forensic Intern that I've heard so much about.” She states, taking a sip of her coffee as she holds eye contact with her. Sarah shifts excitedly from foot to foot, grinning up at the redhead.

“Hi, uhm, yes that's me. My name’s Sarah… Miller.” Sarah enthusiastically flung her arm out. Maeve stared at the hand for a few moments before chuckling humourlessly.

“The one that analysed the blood of the girl that helped me escape the Vought cell.”

Sarah felt the colour drain from her face when everyone's eyes turned to fall on her. But Butcher’s eyes, he looked murderous.

“You fucking what ?” He seethed, staring at her as if he could pierce her face with his eyes.

“Homelander said that we would lose our jobs and he’d make us unemployable for the rest of our lives if we didn’t; he’s really scary. I-promise.. If I knew that Vought weren’t the good guys, then I would’ve quit there and then.” Sarah was sure that she could hear and feel her heart beating out of her chest.

“He is.” Maeve smiled back at her, genuinely this time. “Better you learn the truth about Vought now rather than later.” Maeve scooped a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth as Sarah breathed for the first time in about a minute, before her eyes shot back up to Maeve’s.

“Shit, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that about him- I mean you’re with him after all-”

Maeve cut her off with a waggle of her finger, holding it up as a gesture to pause before swallowing her cereal.

“Uh-uh. No, he and the rest of the world just thinks that we’re together. And don’t worry, you’re like what? Twenty-one? You’re not going to get everything perfect. I mean, I believed in Vought when I was your age. But tell me, does Vought know the girl’s name? Or do they still not know her identity?” Maeve said whilst pouring herself another bowl of cornflakes, using the milk from her previous bowl. MM stared at the act as if she was pouring literal notes of money into the bowl.

“She’s still a Jane Doe to them.” Sarah said with a shake of her head. Sarah turned to the two members of The Seven “I saw A-Train’s body, and I analysed his blood. This Mutated Cordyceps, I don’t know but when I heard that Robert guy talk about the Boston lab bringing more here, well, I assume that relates to the multiversal travel thing you guys were on about” She directs what she is saying back to the rest of the group.

 “This is hard to explain, but let's say a human is infected with the mutated Cordyceps, the fungus will create a hard encasing and burst out their face like you see with the infected ants. We know that, but as the fungus grows around the person's brain, it cuts off the part of the brain that creates self preservation. It’s like the idea that when their kids are in danger, a mother is able to exert strength that she never normally would be able to do.

So these infected humans no longer have the part of the brain that tells them to stop to protect the body. But even then, their teeth and the power of their jaw still wouldn’t be able to penetrate the skin of a supe. But we’ve seen with A-Train, when a supe becomes infected, the fungus doesn’t know how to use their powers because the fungus hasn’t mutated to do that , it just uses muscle memory, and as we’ve seen it caused A-Trains legs to snap.” 

Sarah took a breath and looked around the room as everyone’s faces. 

“I either think that Vought is using whatever is in the Boston lab to bring these infected humans over from another universe, and then lacing their body with compound V so that they’re just stronger, no crazy powers or anything. Or, this other universe has a strain of mutated Cordyceps that can infect supes and control their powers. If you guys could get me a sample of the blood from the infected from this other place, then i could analyse it, and we could find out what is happening with it.”

Butcher nods along from the sofa, taking a sip from what Sarah assumes to be tea.

“Nice theory Invisible Girl. I’ll call the kid, if there were any infected supes from her universe, she’ll know.”

***

“You wanna tell me what the hell is happening? Because I distinctly remember watching you die 8 years ago.” Tommy says as he joins the two of them in his living room, placing the two cups of coffee in front of him and Joel and placing a hot chocolate by Ellie.

“It’s a long story, but we were both somehow blasted to this universe- You won’t like coffee.” Joel watches as Ellie freezes midway through leaning across the coffee table to grab the mug in front of Joel.

“Fuck you, this smells amazing.” Ellie grins as she scoops the mug into her hands.

“ I know it does, but you won’t like it.” Joel chuckles to himself as Ellie defiantly raises the mug to her lips, taking a sip of the hot, bitter drink. Her smile falls when it reaches her taste buds. Ellie blinked furiously as a frown played at her lips. Squeezing her eyes tight, Ellie swallows the coffee quickly, letting out an involuntary ‘ Blah ’  with a shake of her head. Forcing a smile onto her face, Ellie looks at Joel with joyless, regretful eyes. 

“It was good.” she croaks. “So good in fact, that I think you should have it back.” Ellie says as she hands the mug back over. Joel laughs as he picks up his coffee, drinking a few swings whilst Ellie stares at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“Who is this girl Joel? Is she your daughter or something?” Joel tenses up for a moment before responding to his brother.

“Tommy, this is Ellie. She’s uh…we’ve been travelling across the country together for over half a year. Since we're staying in this universe, I’m going to adopt her, or at least become her legal guardian. Might need your help with that since I'm legally dead here and Ellie doesn’t exist.” Joel stutters through the last sentence slightly, swallowing back the lump in his throat before looking up to Tommy’s face, only to see the man staring back at him sympathetically.

“Something happened to Sarah in your universe.” Tommy says, phrasing the utterance more like a statement than a question. Joel drops his gaze down to his mug of coffee.

“September 27th 2013.” He mutters, fiddling with the strap of his watch before picking up his mug in an effort to hide his emotions.

“She’s doing well for herself.” Tommy tells Joel with a soft, gentle smile, watching as his older brother picks the paint off the handle of the mug he was drinking from. “She’ll be 22 in the next few months, she still plays soccer, she even got an internship working at Vought-”

“Wait!” Ellie urgently interrupts, slamming her now empty mug of hot chocolate onto the table, using her sleeve to quickly rub the chocolate-foam moustache from her face. “She’s not a… security intern is she?” 

“No… she’s a forensics intern-”

“What does that mean?”

“She analyses things like blood and DNA in a lab-”

“Oh thank fuck.” Ellie sighs in relief, earning her confused stares from both the brothers. “I’ll explain later.”

“Anyway, she was meant to come down this weekend, but she called yesterday evening to say that somethings come up-”

Tommy was cut off by Ellie’s screaming as she stared down at the little ringing burner phone in her hand.

“What should I do?! Why is it making that noise?!” Ellie exclaimed, staring down at the phone with large, saucer-like eyes.

“Someone’s calling you, you need to answer it.” Joel responded calmly, trying to hide his laughter behind his mug of coffee.

“How do I do that?” She asks, turning the phone around in her hand as it continues to ring.

“Press the green button and hold it to your ear.”

Ellie followed Joel's instructions, holding the phone up to her ear before she heard a familiar voice.

“Ellie? Kid, it’s me Butcher.”

“Hey Butcher, this thing is so fucking cool by the way!”

“It sure is. Listen kid, I need to ask you something about this Cordyceps infection in your world.”

“Sure, fire away.”

“Did the infection ever mutate to affect supes, uh powered-people?”

“I’m pretty sure it never got the chance to, since the government executed anyone who wouldn’t give up their powers, well apart from Starlight, but she was eventually executed since she was one of the founders of the Fireflies. But I'm pretty sure she was the only powered person who wasn’t taken out within the first few months. Hold on, I'll ask Joel - Hey Joel, did Cordyceps ever mutate to infect powered people… Okay - He said no.”

“Thanks for checking anyway, how’s Texas?”

“It’s pretty good thanks, I think we’ll be coming back soon though since Joel’s daughter works for Vought or something.”

“You sure you didn’t kill her when you shot up the place?”

“Nope, apparently she works with Deanna-Nay or something at Vought? Definitely in a lab.”

“No idea what you are talking about kid. But let me know when you’re back in New York and you can come and stay with us.”

“Thank’s Butcher, I’ll see you soon!”

“See you soon, kid.”

Butcher put the phone back into his pocket before looking up at the rest of the group. “Kid said that the infection never had the chance to mutate to infect supes; not that it can’t. But why would Vought want infected supes if they have killed off two of their most popular ones? They don’t, it looks like they’re creating this super-infected to kill off the supes, not just be a threat to them like we originally thought.”

“That kid you were speaking to.” Sarah says, walking towards Butcher with a tilt of her head. “Is it the girl that shot up Vought, the one I had to analyse the DNA of?”

“Well, look at you.” Butcher sneers, throwing his hands up into the air in a mockery of enthusiasm. “Adding 2 and 2 to make 4, well done!” 

Sarah just nods to herself, grabbing her glass of water off the kitchen table before continuing. 

“I mean, of course you would have her phone number” She says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, taking a sip of water before gesturing to Maeve and Butcher. “She is your daughter after all.”

The room falls silent, not just quiet. It’s the type of silence where the world just seems to stop and even your breathing seems to drop to an almost un-hearable sound. 

“I’m sorry,” Butcher states slowly, as if the words didn’t seem real in his mouth. “She’s our fucking what now?”

Chapter Text

2007

Maeve chewed her lip nervously as she stared anxiously down at the little stick in her hand, jumping slightly when she felt John place his hand on her shoulder in what she assumed to be his heavy-handed attempt at comforting her. 

God, they had been so stupid, so fucking stupid. She had barely just started in The Seven, the new superhero group started by Vought that was going to be: ‘Even more popular than Payback’. Her parents had been so proud when she was accepted in the group as the second member. Her career and life was so bright and incredible, but also so, so terrifying. She was going to be admired by young girls everywhere, on the cover of every news story and magazine. But that was all to come once the group was officially formed, for now, she was just living at the brand new skyscraper that is the new Seven Tower. But she was lonely, that huge building all by herself.

Well, almost by herself.

There was also John. He was the other member of The Seven. With blonde hair and blue eyes and that charismatic, bright-white smile that was all teeth and no lips. There was something so different about him, as if the loneliness of the tower didn’t affect him or if it did, he hid it very well. He’d introduced himself within her first few days of being there, and then suddenly, the tower hadn’t seemed such a lonely place.

They clicked, as much as two strangers who were forced to share the same space and work together as a team could. They would get lunch together most days, train together, plan meetings and what they were going to say in interviews together, laugh with each other, relax with each other…

John didn’t look at her like she was a possession to show off, he looked at her fondly, like an equal. Like she was a person with emotions, feelings, and desires…

And then one thing led to another…

Although it hadn’t only been one night, she had only missed one pill. But then her period was late, and she had thrown up that morning, and then that sudden alarming thought had crossed her mind, so she had called John.

And now they were both sitting on the edge of her bed wondering if the test would show one line of two.

“We’ve fucked up. We’ve fucked up so badly… What if there're two lines and i’m…?” Maeve left the question in the air as she stared down intently at the stick.

“I mean, I can't hear a second heartbeat, but I guess it would be too early for that anyway… I could always X-Ray-”

“No, it can hurt the baby if there is one in there. It’ll only take a few more minutes.”

They both sat there silently for a few more moments, only the sounds of their breathing filled the air.

“How many lines are we hoping for again?” John asks tentatively.

“One, one means negative.” Maeve responded quickly, watching from the corner of her eye as John nodded at her answer.

What would they even do with a child? She was not even 23 yet, how could she possibly look after a child and remain in the public eye? She couldn’t. They couldn’t. Vought would just get rid of her. John - Homelander - was the hero they wanted to market primarily. He could fly, shoot lasers, super-human abilities and senses. Maeve was strong, as strong as John. But he’s a man, if Vought had to choose between which one of them got to have a superhero career, she knows that they would choose him.

“Would it be such a bad thing if we did have a child?” John asks in an uncharacteristically small voice. Maeve broke her gaze away from the pregnancy test to stare at him profoundly. “I mean,” he continued, “Our child would be strong, and powerful, perhaps even stronger than Soldier Boy ever was.”

“I don’t think Stan Edgar would be very happy with his first two members of his superhero group getting knocked up before they had been there for a full month.”

“Then we’d run away!” John exclaims, twisting his body to face Maeve. “We could leave all of this behind, it would be just you, me and our baby.”

“John,” Maeve says, looking at a hopeful spark in his eye that Maeve is almost certain that she’s never seen before or atleast never noticed. “We barely know each other yet, we can’t just throw our careers away over a-” Maeve looks down at the stick in her hand “-a mistake.”

“Maeve- Maggie,” John says, taking one of her hands into his. “I’ve never met someone like me before, not until I met you. We’re stronger than them, than all of them. We belong together. You’re special, just like me.”

Maeve didn’t know how to answer, she stared at him for a few moments before clutching the stick, staring down at it quickly whilst John’s gaze still remained on her face.

One line.

Thank fuck.

“It’s negative.”Maeve announced, standing up a little too quickly as she clutched the test to her chest. Something flickered across John's eyes, almost like regret and sadness rolled into one glint. It was gone before Maeve truly had a chance to process it, but definitely there.

“That’s… that’s good.” John said as he stood up. Maeve continued to hold the test close to her chest as she turned to face Homelander.

“Thank you for being here whilst I did that. But I- I need a bit of time to myself just to- er-” 

John stood up as Maeve spoke, planting a kiss onto her forehead. 

“That’s fine Maggie, take your time. I’ll be in my room or around if you need me.” He said before leaving the room. 

Maeve let out a breath that she didn’t realise that she was holding when she heard the door close as she sat back down on her bed before looking at the stick again.

One line.

A Few Days Later

Maeve still hadn’t left her room after her close call. She didn’t know why. She guessed that he was just feeling too overwhelmed with everything and couldn’t bear to see John yet. Maeve had just got out of the shower after washing her hair, chucking her red locks up into a towel as she left the bathroom in her dressing gown.

“JESUS FUCK!” Maeve screamed, leaping a foot into the air when she saw a woman standing in the middle of her living room pinching something between two of her fingers. She quickly recognised who this woman was after a few moments

“Queen Maeve,” Madelyn Stillwell exclaims, examining the thing in her hand with a raise of her eyebrows, lifting the small object up to show Maeve. “Care to explain what this is?”

Maeve knew what it was, she felt that she would recognise that little stick anywhere. Madelyn Stillwell was standing in her living room holding her negative pregnancy test.

For a moment, she felt panic grasp at her like a hand around her neck, cutting off her breathing and oxygen from her lungs. But just as quickly as that moment came, it was gone and Maeve had quickly composed herself, forcing her face to fall into an emotionless expression. Madelyn probably saw the fear in her eyes, but Maeve took pride in how quickly she was able to compose herself.

“I think you know exactly what that is.” Maeve held the woman’s stare with a cold glare, tilting her chin slightly as an act of defiance.

“I think it’s pretty fucking stupid.” Madelyn says with a shake of her head as she starts to approach the young supe. Sighing, Stillwell flayed her hand across her face before tutting in response, “I knew you and Homelander had become pretty much inseparable over the last few weeks, but I didn’t think that you would jeopardise your career for a bit of fun-”

“I’m on the pill if that means anything to you.” Maeve spoke up over the blonde woman. “I just forgot to take it one day…” Maeve let her sentence trail off as she cast her eyes down to the stick in Stillwell’s hand. 

“I guess you’re going to kick me out of The Seven now, right?” Maeve brought her gaze back up to the other woman as she spoke.

“We haven’t got a lot of choice. If Vought had to choose between you heroes , then they would always choose Homelander '' Stillwell answered. Maeve just nodded in response, mentally preparing what she was going to tell John and her parents.  

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Maeve uttered as she felt her shoulder deflate. Madelyn silenced her with a raise of a finger.

“I said that we haven’t got a lot of choice, not that that was our only choice.” Stillwell smirked at the red-haired supe. “You’re going to be admired and idolised by girls everywhere of all ages. Young pregnancy after you only met Homelander a few weeks ago is not something we want to encourage or advertise. Maybe it's a story we could use in a few years, but not now.” Madelyn lets the hand holding the pregnancy test fall dramatically to her side. “I’m happy to not tell Stan Edgar or the rest of Vought about this. But we can’t have you near Homelander, not until we can get these urges of yours under control and get you on another form of birth control.” Madelyn paused, staring up at Maeve with a smile that looks almost too perfect, like it’s something she practised way too many times.

“So how about we send you on a national tour: Queen Maeve’s Solo Tour of all The States. You could meet all your new fans, save a few people, attend a few interviews and meet and greets, how does that sound?” 

“How long would I be gone for?”

“About 10 to 11 months. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to leave The Seven and kill your career before it’s even started? or are you going to go on a solo tour?”

“...When do I leave?”

“Pack your bags, it will take me a few hours to get everything in place, but you’ll be leaving tomorrow or the day after. But until then you’re to stay in this room as you have been doing and someone will bring you food up. Sound good?”

“Yeah, Okay, that sounds… good.”

2013

Maeve needs to stop sleeping with Homelander.

Okay, they may be technically in a relationship, but it’s all for PR! 

Well, mostly for PR.

At the beginning there was… something. It wasn’t like how they were when they first met, before Maeve’s Solo Tour.

Not for Maeve anyway.

When Maeve started her tour, all she had wanted to do was see John, train with him, jump into his arms and have him make love to her.

But something had changed over those 10 months, he had changed.

They had started the relationship in 2008 about 6 months after Maeve had returned from her tour. The second she stepped through the doors to Vought Tower, The doctors had very discreetly called her down to the surgery, popped the implant inside of her, told her she was now ‘safe’ and sent her on her way. Despite this, Maeve still avoided John for about a week. Well, until she was called into a meeting with Stillwell and John where Madelyn confirmed that they were going to be America’s new favourite couple in a few months.

But Maeve wasn’t excited. She had looked over at John but just didn’t feel that… spark anymore. His movements seemed more calculated, as if he worked out exactly what to do to hold everyone’s attention in a room, make his presence as big as possible and receive a positive reaction out of everyone.

But Maeve saw through his front. 

She knows what he is really like behind closed doors, how he sees everyone but her as being completely and utterly below him. He can control everyone in a room through his strategic charm.

He looked at her like she was a challenge.

But Maeve knew how to play his games.

“You’ve changed.” Maeve had told him in a hushed voice as they left the meeting.

“I could say the same about you.” John had replied, matching her tone. Strategic.

“10 months is a long time.” Maeve said as they both stepped into the elevator. They both paused for a second to allow the doors to close before Homelander threw both himself and Maeve against the elevator walls, diving in to envelop Maeve’s lips in a deep kiss. Maeve allowed herself to melt into his embrace, deepening the kiss as she snaked a hand up past John's head, nestling it into his light blonde locks. Biting his lip, Maeve grabbed a handful of John’s hair, yanking it back to expose his neck. Maeve leaned in to whisper into his ear.

“So are you going to fucking rail me or not?”

The sex was good, not as slow and meaningful as making love to him used to be, but passionate and exhilarating. He was definitely better at it since she came back from tour, Maeve wasn’t going to deny that. 

In all honesty, it was the only reason that she was still with him.

Well, that and Vought. But he didn’t need to know that.

But my God, sex with him is her weakness. She may not like being around him most of the time and is itching for the chance to break up with him, but one flash of that manipulative smile and she suddenly finds herself in bed with him.

But she’s recently been chucking up quite a bit, especially in the mornings. It’s probably just a sickness bug, but she is due to have her implant changed soon…

Fuck. Shit. Fucking-shit-Fuckity-Fuck.

Maeve really needs to stop sleeping with Homelander.

Because now she's here, alone, sitting on the floor of her bathroom at Vought with her legs tucked up to her chest as she waits for that stupid stick to determine her future. 

‘Please, just one line’ Maeve thinks, feeling a single tear roll down her cheek and hit the cold, marble tiles. It’s not fair, why is she always ending up here? Staring at a stick that is going to tell her if she is pregnant with Homelander’s child. Vought would make her keep it, that's the worst part. The offspring of Queen Maeve and Homelander is an opportunity that Vought would never pass up, too marketable. Homelander would love having a child, but would he be a good parent? Or would he swoop in and take all the glory from the press and leave her to do most of the work.

Maeve looked down at the little test in her hand, guessing that now would be about the right time to know if she was pregnant or not.

One line.

Negative.

Crushing the test in her hand, Maeve opened her window in her bathroom, chucking the remnants of the test out of the window before closing it again quickly. Maeve tidied up herself in the mirror, redoing her hair and topping up her makeup before blinking and staring at herself to make sure that she didn’t look like she had been crying. 

Briskly, Maeve then headed back down to the Vought charity auction that was taking place downstairs. 

“Are you okay my love? you look like you’ve been crying.” Homelander asked her as she entered the auction, bringing her in for a kiss before holding her face between her hands.

“I’m fine, I just went up to top up my makeup, but I started to think about all those farmers who would have lost their crops to the wildfires this week.” Maeve was always a good actress, just ask her Oscar.

“Well, that’s what this charity fundraiser night is for, to raise money for the farmers and people affected by the fires.” Homelander places another kiss on her cheek before leading them into the charity auction.

“You women can be so emotional sometimes. Come on darling, come and sit down. We can donate a million dollars or so if that will make you feel better?”

***

“I’m sorry, she’s our fucking what now?”

Sarah flicked her head between the two of them for a moment with a humorous smile, before dropping it quickly when she realised that they weren’t joking.

“Your…daughter. Did you guys not know that?”

“She- she can’t be our-” Maeve felt herself choking around the words. Swallowing down the anxiety building in her throat, she takes a deep breath before looking up at Sarah. “Why- what makes you think that she’s our…” 

“When I analysed her DNA, I compared it to the DNA that we have on file at Vought. Her DNA matched with that of Margaret Shaw and William Butcher. Margaret Shaw is the legal civilian alias for Queen Maeve,” Sarah turns to face Butcher, “and your face matches the photo we have on file for William Butcher.”

“That could be a coincidence, right? It doesn’t mean that we… have a daughter.” Butcher replies with an uncharacteristic nervousness. No one but Maeve noticed how he gnawed at the side of his gum as he spoke.

“Technically, you may be correct. Her DNA does match both of yours, but the ones that reproduced and gave birth to her are the Margaret Shaw and William Butcher of that other universe.” Sarah explained to them both, watching out of the corner of her eye as everyone else stared at them dumbfounded throughout the correspondence.

“Well… isn't that fine then?” Frenchie pipes up through the silence, snubbing out a roll of weed against the bare table. “I mean, she's your daughter, but not really your daughter. So it's fine, no?” 

Maeve isn’t completely listening, instead she has started to pace around the room slightly in an attempt to calm her nerves. 

“Sarah.” Maeve quickly exclaims, causing everyone in the room to stare at her. “I just need to- check… if me and Butcher had a child in this other universe… Does that mean that we are going to have one in this one?”

Sarah fidgets with her sleeve for a few moments, dropping her gaze before answering “I don’t know, I'm afraid, I just work in forensics. But if I had to guess… then I'd say you may have more of a chance, given how similar the two universes are.”

“Well we can work with that.” MM says as he walks up from where he was sat to the conjugation in his house. He looks between the increasingly paling figures of Maeve and Butcher with a smile. “We’ve just got to make sure that these two don’t get up to any funny business.” 

MM waits for a few moments, waiting for either of them to react or quip back something sarcastic as a response. Slowly, both their heads turn to stare at each other as their eyes widen as if they were saucers. MM flays a hand across his face when he realises what their lack of answer implies.

“Oh for fuck sake! When?” he exclaims in a judgemental, exasperated tone.

“Yeah, When?” Annie pipes up, smiling over at Maeve and waggling her eyebrows.

“About…three weeks ago.” Maeve looks over at Butcher for confirmation, who nods reluctantly in response. “I’ll take a test.”

***

MM walks through the door to the apartment, slinking off his coat before holding open the shopping bag.

“Okay, I've got a box of Guinness for Butcher, chewing gum for Annie, sweets for Hughie, bar of chocolate for Kimiko, beers for Frenchie, and the pregnancy test for Maeve.” MM placed the products on the kitchen counter as he announced them. “Y’know when I said ‘does anyone else need anything?’ I said it more out of courtesy than an actual offer.”

“Hey, where’s the things I asked for?” Soldier Boy pipes up from where he was lounging on MM’s sofa.

“They ran out.” MM sneers back in response.

Maeve stood up from the chair that she was sitting at and plucked the box containing the test off the counter.

“Guess I better go and take this.” Maeve mumbles, flicking the group a quick, unenthusiastic smile before walking towards MM’s bathroom.

“Maeve,” Annie pipes up, “do you want some company?” 

Maeve’s never been asked that before. For a second, her mind falters as she tries to come up with a response. She nods to the blonde in reply.

“I’d- really like that actually.” 

Annie followed Maeve into the bathroom, perching on the bathtub as the red head unboxed the test.

“Do you want me to read the instructions?” Annie asks tentatively. Maeve turns to the blonde, letting out a small laugh in response.

“Don’t worry, it’s not my first time taking one of these.” Annie’s mouth falls into agape as she listens to Maeve’s confession.

“What? When? With who?”

“Yep. First one was in the late 2000s, I think it was 2007, I had just started out in The Seven. The other was 2013. And it was with Homelander. Both were negative.”

“Hopefully this one will be too.” Annie says. “Wait, we are hoping for a negative, right?”

Before Maeve can answer there's a knock on the bathroom door. 

“Come in '' Maeve shouts to the person on the other side. Slowly, the door creaks open to reveal Sarah holding a glass of water with a soft smile gracing her lips.

“I thought that you might want some water, for the test y’know.” She says, her Texas drawl seeping through. Maeve accepts the gesture, smiling at the girl from where she was sitting on the closed toilet seat.

“Thanks Sarah, do you wanna stay here? I’d appreciate the company.”

Sarah nodded enthusiastically, thanking Maeve as she sat crossed legged on the tiled floor. Maeve regarded the young blonde with a reassuring smile, she sees a lot of her younger self in that girl; happy, full of life.

“Never noticed your accent before, Texas?” Maeve asked, before drinking the water that Sarah had given her.

“Yeah, only moved to New York a few months ago.” the forensics intern replies, watching as Maeve places the now empty glass of water on the counter of the bathroom.

Another knock raps on the door, Maeve beckons them in. The door opens slowly to reveal a grinning Kimiko, holding up a packet of Mini Eggs that Butcher had sent over from the UK.

“You can join as well.” Maeve says, making a grabby-hand motion towards the chocolate as Kimiko tore open the packet and offered an egg to the red-head. Maeve crunches through the hard shell of the egg as she watches Kimiko offer the chocolates to the rest of the group. Her gaze eventually lands back on the unused test.

“Guess it's time to take this.” She sighs, standing up to lift up the toilet lid. The girls turned around whilst she took the test. Placing it on the counter when she was done then setting a 3 minute timer. Maeve lowered the lid back down silently, pulling her legs up to her chest as she perched on the toilet lid. 

“It takes about 3 minutes.” Maeve mutters before biting her lip. The room fell silent for a few moments, before a voice filled the room.

“Never have I ever!” Sarah declares, causing each of the girls to stare at her. “I just thought- it will fill the time.”

“Isn’t that a drinking game?” Annie asks with a laugh.

“It is. But we can always…” Sarah holds up ten fingers, making a show of holding up ten fingers before tucking her right thump in, following it with the adjacent pointer finger, then middle, then ring, then pinky, before doing the same on the other hand.

“Never have I ever… gone skinny dipping.” Sarah starts the game, watching as Maeve immediately drops one finger, followed by Annie, who feigns a mock-innocent look on her face before the room erupts into laughter.

“Good-little Annie's gone skinny dipping?” Maeve asks through her laughter.

“I was drunk, Okay?” Annie replies through her own tears of laughter. She quickly composed herself before deciding that she was going to go next. 

“Never have I ever… gotten a tattoo” 

Sarah lowers her thumb as everyone stares at her in shock before a cacophony of ‘show us’ resonates through the bathroom. Sarah pulls up her shirt to show the tattoo on her ribcage. 

“It’s for my dad.” Sarah states. The tattoo is a clock face, with a date written underneath. “I got my dad a watch for his birthday one year, he never took it off. So I got the watch tattooed for him with the time he passed away with his birthday underneath. I also got this guitar too.” She turned her hand around to show the little guitar tattooed on her wrist, where you would wear a watch.

“That’s beautiful.” Annie said with a soft smile. Annie then turns to the red head sat on the toilet lid, “it’s your turn Maeve.”

Maeve let her legs fall down from where had them tucked up to her chest, allowing them to fall to the ground. 

“Never have I ever… fired a harpoon into someone's face.” Maeve pulls the random answer out of thin air. Kimiko tucks a finger down. Annie turns towards Kimiko with a smile before cringing away.

“Shit, sorry Kimiko. Do you want us to go and get Frenchie or-” Kimiko cuts the blonde off with a shake of her head. Pausing for a second, Kimiko shakes her finger back-and-forth in a gesture of ‘no’, or in this case ‘never’. She then points at the packet of mini eggs before pointing into her own open mouth. 

“Never have you ever eaten a Mini Egg?” Sarah asks, making sure that's what the dark-haired woman was referring to. Kimiko nods with a smile, laughing when everyone puts a finger down.

“Got us all there.” Maeve smiles, watching as Kimiko plucks one of the chocolate eggs out of the bag and pops it into her mouth, popping a finger down herself. They went around the room like this, each announcing their own answers.

“Never have I ever smoked a cigarette.” Sarah states, watching as Maeve and Kimiko each put a finger down.

“Never have I ever… given someone food poisoning.” Annie says, watching as Kimiko places a finger down. The dark haired woman pauses for a moment, raising her finger up again as she holds up another finger to Annie as a gesture to wait. She drags a finger across her throat, sticking her tongue out before making an ‘or’ motion and miming throwing up.

“No, no, not food poisoning like poisoning someone's food, food poisoning like undercooked food.” Annie answers. Kimiko makes a face of realisation, thinking for a second before putting her finger down again with a nod and a smile.

“OMG, who?” Annie giggles. “Frenchie?” Kimiko nods, pointing downwards before flapping her arms up and down. 

“Undercooked chicken?” Annie asks, watching as Kimiko nods again in response with an absent minded grin.

“Never have I ever cut my own bangs.” Maeve declares with a smile. Before anyone can answer a cackle rattles around the room followed by Annie folding in on herself in laughter.

“That’s bullshit, I saw - and own - the magazines from 2010 with your side bangs ‘How To Cut Your Own Bangs At Home With Queen Maeve.” Annie said, using her hand to gesture to the invisible magazine article title in the air.

“More like ‘How Vought Hired Professional Stylists To Cut My Hair And Hired More People To Create The How To Guide.’” Maeve responded, copying Annie’s gestures with a small jazz hands at the end.

“Always wondered why mine didn’t end up looking yours.” Annie mumbled with a smile, folding down a finger as she spoke. Sarah followed, saying something about how she got bored one night and decided to cut them.

Kimiko sat forward with a grin, shaking her finger before pointing at her eyes and miming a ballerina pose.

“Never have you ever watched a ballet?” Annie asks, watching as Kimiko nods. Sarah, Annie and Maeve all put a finger down. “We’ll go, all of us.” Annie promises the dark-haired girl. Kimiko nods, gesturing to all of them before miming a sleeping motion followed by a drinking and a party motion.

“Girls night? Sleepover?” Annie asked, trying to determine which one she was referring to. Kimiko just nodded with a grin, dancing to herself on the spot.

“Never have I ever…” Sarah paused for a second to think “had a pregnancy scare.” Sarah says before freezing, watching as Maeve raises her eyebrows. “Shit sorry.” Maeve chuckled as she flipped a finger down.

“Never have I ever slept with a celebrity who wasn’t a supe.” 

Maeve had just flicked her finger down when the timer went off.

“That is a story for Girl’s Night.” Annie declares as Maeve reaches for the test.

Chapter Text

“Where the fuck are my Mini Eggs?” Butcher growled, hauling open the cupboards in MM’s kitchen and throwing the contents across the floor in the search for his missing chocolate

“Butcher-” Hughie started, only to be cut off.

“I swear.” Butchered hollered over Hughie, “If one of you Fucks has taken my Mini Eggs, i will personally shoot you in the face.”

“Butcher-” MM tried.

“Actually no, shooting isn’t personal enough. I will stab you through the balls, if you have gone anywhere near my Mini Eggs.”

“Butcher-” Frenchie began.

“I had to have those fucking sent over from England-”

“THIS ISN’T ABOUT THE MINI EGGS!” MM shouted over the British man, watching as he stopped his pursuit of MM’s cupboards to turn to the man in an uncharacteristic silence. 

MM stared at Butcher for a moment, his body language remained his usual cocky self, with that laid-back smirk plastered over his face. But MM clocked onto the jittery flick of his iris’, as if he couldn’t stare at one place -or one person- for too long.

With a flick of his head, MM beckoned Butcher away from the rest of the group, deciding to walk into Janine’s room. MM waited until the door clicked close before turning to Butcher.

“You’re scared.” MM quietly stated, watching as Butcher attempted to shrug off the accusation.

“Scared, pfft. MM, have you met me? I’ve gone fucking toe-to-toe with Homelander and those bastard Clicker things. I don’t get scared.”

MM chuckled slightly with a shake of his head.

“I was scared when Monique told me that she was pregnant with Janine, and I don't think that I've ever slept properly since. Everyday, you learn how to be a parent, because no one truly knows how to be one. Everything you're feeling right now is completely normal, and I know that you have a rough relationship with your father, so if you need dad advice, I'm here.”

“Let's just hope the test’s negative…” Butcher mumbles in response, casting his eyes away from the other man.

“She’s still your daughter Butcher, even if she’s from another universe. She’s still your flesh and blood-”

“DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT? How am I meant to be a parent? I can barely look after Ryan, and he ain’t even mine!” Butcher diverts his gaze after his little outburst, turning to look at the dolls Ellie had left on Janine’s bedside cabinet, picking up the male one and rotating it in his hand.

“Hughie.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Hughie, I bet he was the one that ate my Mini Eggs! I saw the way the little shit was eyeing them up earlier.”Butcher turned on his heels, discarding the ken doll gently onto the bed as he straightened himself up before stomping off towards the bedroom door.

“HUGHIE!” Butcher bellowed, flinging the door open in a single fluid motion as his eyes landed on the confused man.

***

“So Sarah’s in New York?” Joel asks, watching as Tommy swaps their empty coffee cups for Ciders. Joel’s brother set a glass of orange juice in front of Ellie before taking a sip of his own drink and replying.

“Yep, ‘long way from Texas.”

 “You’re telling us! We’ve just driven all the way here from New York!” Ellie piped up, wiping her orange juice moustache from around her lips. Joel raises his eyebrows in an act of agreement, enjoying the taste of his beverage.

“Well prepare yourself kiddo, because we’re going back soon.”

Ellie slowly turned to face him, her mouth falling agape.

“You’re fucking kidding me.” Ellie gestured to the door with a dramatic throw of her arm. “The tyres have barely stopped turning! It took us two days last time to get here, you can’t put me  through that again so soon!”

“It’s Ellie right?” Tommy asks, watching as the auburn haired girl nods her head in agreement. Tommy makes a sound of acknowledgment as he leans forward in his seat.

“Well, Ellie, don’t worry. We’ll take a flight, won’t take long at all.”

“Ellie’s not got a passport or a form of ID.” Joel pipes up after a sip of his cider.

“Shit.” Tommy sighs, jutting his jaw out in thought. “I’ll drive us then. Been a while since i've seen Sares anyway.” 

Ellie groaned in annoyance, throwing her head back with a mumble Joel thought sounded like a grumble on how boring long car-journeys are when you aren't allowed to be the one who drives because you don't have a ‘stupid licence’. Joel let out a laugh, downing the rest of his beer before turning to the pouting teenager.

“Trust me kiddo, it won’t be a long car journey if Tommy’s driving, the speed limit is a suggestion to him at best.” Tommy laughed along, pulling out his phone to look at the journey on his maps. He squinted his eyes in concentration for a second, following the line with his finger.

“Okay Ellie,” he says after a few moments, lifting his eyes up from his phone to look at the girl. Joel knew that look, it was the look that Tommy used to always use throughout their childhood when he realised he knew what to say to their parents to get his own way. It's a cunning, calculating little brother look. “If you promise to not complain about the journey, or make any comments about my driving, then we can go to Disney World for the day.”

“OMG NO WAY!” Ellie squealed, leaping up from her chair. “FUCK YEAH! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO THERE!.”

“Are you sure Tommy?” Joel asks, eyes flitting over to the overjoyed girl, keeping his voice hushed in an effort to keep their conversation unheard. “It’s about an 8 hour detour, and that's without the amount of time we're at Disney World for.”

“I’ll drive quickly and we’ll barely be at Disney World for 6 hours.” Tommy said with a shrug. “Plus, if you take over whilst I sleep, then we don’t need to stop ‘besides for food. So, 2 days ish to get back to New York.”

Joel nods in response, turning to look at Ellie who was now slumped on the sofa, eyes fluttering closed for a few seconds.

“We’ll leave tomorrow, kiddo needs to rest.” 

***

Ellie woke up in a soft, comfy bed in a room she doesn’t know.

She can’t fully remember how she got into the room. One second she was sitting on the sofa, the next she was waking up in this… room.

It’s definitely Sarah’s.

The room was painted a calm, mellow pink; but a warmer pink than what was in Janine’s room. The bedsheets were a bluish-green ‘turquoise’ her brain helpfully provides. You don’t really get turquoise anymore in their universe.

Ellie took note of the other things in the room: trophies, perfume bottles, pictures in frames stuck onto the wall, the teddy bears perched on chairs. It’s a cute room, fun-

OMG THEY’RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD TODAY!

Ellie launched herself out of the bed, taking note of how she was still fully dressed besides her jacket and boots, noticing the items laying on the chair next to the cuddly toys. Ellie looked at the boots that she wore everyday, staring at the numerous holes and scuffs decorating them.

 I should probably get a new pair now that I'm in this universe. Ellie thinks to herself, lifting her arm up to her nose before screwing her face up from the smell, 

…and have a wash.

 Ellie looks down at the dressing table decorated with different makeup and perfume brands, her eyes landing on a little hand-written note Joel or Tommy had obviously left for her, telling her how the shower works. Ellie’s not had a real shower since she was at FEDRA, usually her and Joel would just wash wherever they could.

Sarah’s shower was pretty easy to use, and Ellie enjoyed feeling the hot water run down her back as she tips her head back to allow the water to cascade down her head. The shampoo smells really good too, not out of date or thrown together in a FEDRA factory, it smells like strawberries, sweet and happy.

Stepping out of the shower and walking back into Sarah’s bedroom, Ellie picked up her jacket from the chair only to see a pile of clothes that were not hers underneath. Don’t get her wrong, they were definitely her style -Joel must have picked them out- but they were too new and smelled too good to be hers. Still, she wasn’t complaining. 

After shucking them on and pulling up her boots, Ellie walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen where Joel and Tommy were hunched over mugs of coffee. Tommy looked up from his mug and smiled at her as Ellie pulled a chair back to sit at the kitchen table.

“Hot chocolate there for you Ellie, ‘remembered how much you enjoyed it yesterday.” 

Ellie made a noise of appreciation as she pounced on the hot chocolate, smiling when she finished the sweet, rich drink in 30 seconds.

“Thank’s Tommy.” She said, grinning around her hot chocolate moustache as she wipes the remnants away on her sleeve. 

“Morning Kiddo.” Joel mumbled around his coffee, scrubbing the back of his hand across his eyes to wipe away the sleep. He sipped on his coffee, enjoying the warm bitter taste as it ran down his throat. God, he missed coffee in the apocalypse. 

“Hey Joel, thanks for the clothes by the way.” Ellie says, watching with a look of delight as Tommy places a bowl of cereal in front of her. Picking up the spoon, Ellie scooped a mouthful of the crunchy concoction into her mouth. Sighing with happiness when the sugary coating hits her taste buds.

“I’ve always wanted to try this.” Ellie announces between mouthfuls, cleaning the milk out from the bowl with a spoon. Joel picks up the cereal box, turning it around in his hand as he reads the label.

“You still eating this shit, Tommy?” Joel laughs, shaking the box as if to emphasise his point. Tommy, in turn, scrunches his face up as he leans over to snatch the box out of his older brother's hands.

“Hey, it’s good stuff. Plus Sarah likes it.” Tommy attempts to justify himself, huffing in frustration as Joel lifts the box further over his head whilst using his other hand to hold his younger brother back.

“I’m sure she does. This is pretty much pure sugar.” Joel laughs, throwing the box back at Tommy when the younger brother starts to give up trying to retrieve his cereal.

“Well, I'm up scaffolding most of the day… so sugar doesn’t affect me anymore.” Tommy declares, opening the cupboard up to put the box back whilst ignoring Joel’s tut in response. As he turned back around, Tommy pulled back the sleeve of his shirt, lifting his arm up to look at his watch.

“Right, it's 9:35 right now, and it's a 16 hour journey to disney world if we leave at 11:30 and stop for some food then we’ll make it to disney world for opening time tomorrow.”

Ellie makes a noise that sounds something like a gurgled, excited agreement as she scoops the rest of the cereal into her mouth.

She’s going to Disney World.

***

The Next Day

Ellie’s pretty sure that she’s never seen so many people in one place without them either trying to kill each other or run away in fear.

“Y’know what? This place is pretty magical.” Ellie says, biting into her Mickey Pretzel with a sound of delight. She definitely loves pretzels, and cereal, and chicken, and McDonalds. God, food in this universe is just… so good, So much better than the bland shit that they survive off in her universe. Here, well, Ellie never wants to stop eating.

“‘Everything you thought it was gonna be Kiddo?” Joel asks her as he takes a bite of his own Mickey Pretzel, enjoying the salted, savoury flavour. Joel never thought he’d be back in a theme park after the outbreak… or after Sarah’s meltdown at Universal Studios, resulting in him having to carry the screaming 5 year old out of the park over his shoulder and earning him some very strange looks from the people around them, and him declaring once they were back in the car that they are ’never going to another theme park again!’. 

To this day, he still doesn’t know what that meltdown was about. He probably said no when she wanted ice cream.

“It is, but why are all these people in weird costumes walking around?”

Joel hears Tommy laugh from behind them, jogging up to the duo from where he had been dragging behind carrying their abundance of carrier bags containing all the stuff they brought from the park.

“Those are the Disney characters. It’s kind of a thing to ‘meet’ them and have pictures with them.” Tommy explains to Ellie, watching as she made a face of understanding with a soft ‘ah’ sound. Ellie looks down as she finishes the last bite of her pretzel.

“Can I… go and meet them?” she asks quietly, darting her eyes away from the two brothers as she avoids their eye contact. 

“Sure Ellie, Joel can take the photos on my phone since he isn’t carrying anything and doesn’t own a phone.”

“Hey, you offered to carry the bags.-”

“Could I have a photo with that giant mouse in the red and white dress?” Ellie asked, cutting off Joel by pointing at the character in question with a joyful grin. Joel smiled back at her, feeling an overwhelming sense of happiness wash over him when he realised that she finally gets to just be a kid, not a child forced to grow up and survive.

Endure and Survive, or whatever she always says.

“Go for it Ellie. She’s called ‘Minnie Mouse’ by the way” Joel replies, giving her a slight nudge with his elbow of encouragement before watching the girl bolt towards the character. Joel startled slightly, turning towards Tommy when he heard his younger brother making clicking noises with his tongue, before feeling himself visibly relax when he realised that he was gesturing to the phone pointed at him, dangling from his brother's hand.

Joel took the phone with a hesitant smile, walking towards the auburn haired teenager as she interacted with the characters, turning towards him with an absentminded grin of joy as she heard his footsteps approaching. After a few moments of tapping and dragging the screen in confusion, Joel eventually managed to take the photo. Giving the girl a thumbs up once it was done.

“Right.” Tommy announced as he jogged up to the other two. “Frozen, there's a meet and greet we can do with the characters over there. I think you’ll like it Ellie, it's one of Sarah’s favourites even though she was a bit older than the target age when the movie first came out.”

“Frozen…” Joel mumbled, as if he was practising how the word fit around his lips. “Hey, I remember seeing the trailer for that the day before the outbreak happened… well day-of, but it hit us during the early hours of the morning on september 27th.” Joel stops for a second, tipping his head back in thought. “Didn’t it have a red head, and a talking snowman?”

“It does, it’s really popular. Like the most popular kids movie ever made. I think Ellie would enjoy meeting them, both characters have a lot about them.” Tommy exclaimed, placing the bags on the floor and stretching his arms with a loud crack. Ellie moved forward to shuffle through the bags, pulling out a pair of mickey mouse ears and placing them on her head like she’s seen others do at the park.

“They sound really fucking cool, I wanna meet them.” Ellie exclaims, blissfully unaware of the sour looks she’d just received from a mother walking by. Joel watched as she hunched down like a witch over a cauldron to clasp her spindly hands around her otherwise unbothered 4 year old son’s ears. The child continued to devour his candyfloss regardless, with most of it ending up around his face or in his hair.

“Sounds like a plan El, but you might want to cut back on the language, mothers in this universe are outraged when you use language slightly past PG-13.” Tommy explains as he scoops up the bags previously deposited at his feet, before steering his brother and the teen in the direction of the Frozen meet and greet place.

Joel felt his shoulders move with the chuckle he let out whilst he watched his teenager break from a stroll to a full-on sprint once they arrived at the queue for the meet and greet. Joel smiled when Ellie held her mickey-ears to keep them from falling from her head as she joined the queue. At least being here, she managed to figure out what a queue was, and didn’t just barge to the front. Now that he’s thinking about it, did she already know what a queue was? Joel can’t imagine that the FEDRA orphanage was a carnage, animalistic bloodbath when it came to breakfast and other meals. 

Joel thought about this - and other, equally important things - as they made their way through the queue, with Ellie practically vibrating from excitement as they got closer and closer to the Disney princesses. Before they knew it, they were at the front of the queue and Joel watched the girl stop for a second as she tried to decide how to approach the greet.

The princesses smiled gleefully when they saw her, waving as they spoke to her. 

“Hi, what’s your name?” The blonde one in the blue dress asks. Joel notices how the kid flusters for a second, looking back at him as if to ask if it is okay to reply, but quickly makes up her mind that the two princesses are in fact safe and won’t use her identity against her. 

“Hi, uhm, my name’s Ellie.”

“Hi Ellie, I'm Queen Elsa.” The blonde one replies with a soft smile, turning to look at her red haired companion.

“And I’m princess Anna, it’s lovely to meet you Ellie! Now, is that princess Ellie or…?” the princess leaves that question hanging. To anyone else, the kid was just stood there listening to the Disney princesses, enveloped in the magic. But Joel knew better. Joel didn’t miss the way the girl flinched when the redhead introduced herself, or how she masked her emotions with a false bravado of happiness. No one would have noticed because kids are supposed to smile at Disney World and princesses.

But Joel did notice.

“Yeah, Princess Ellie. Let’s go with that.” 

***

“Got you an overpriced ice cream, Ellie.” Joel said with a chuckle as he sat down on the bench next to the girl, passing her the ice cream cone.

“At least it’s not your money.” Ellie replied with a forced smile, as if she was struggling to hold her lips in an upturned expression. After sampling her ice cream with a sound of delight, she turned her attention to the accessory currently situated on Joel’s head.

“I see you caved and bought the ‘Extortionately Priced Trademarked Piece-Of-Shit Headband That You Could Buy For Half The Price On EBay.’” Ellie exclaimed, using hand quotations around the words. 

“Well, I figured if you can’t beat them, then join them.” Joel laughed before gesturing to Ellie’s Mickey Ears that she was wearing “and I heard that they are quite fashionable” Ellie laughed at his response, but again, it felt forced, not a genuine Ellie-laugh.

“What happened in there kiddo?” Joel asked tentatively, switching his tone as he looked at Ellie in concern. “Tommy is buying food so it’s just me and you.”

“It’s stupid” Ellie mumbled, her eyes staring off into the park, unfocused.

“Ellie, I can assure you that it’s not stupid. And it’s me you’re talking to, no judgment.” 

“My mom’s name was Anna.” Ellie says, biting her lip to conceal her emotions as she turns to look at Joel with big, wet eyes. “ I don’t know much about her, she left me a note when I was born with her name and telling me how much she-she loved me.” Ellie swipes her sleeve across her eyes as she stammers around the words. Joel feels his heart swell for the teenager. 

“Do you think-“ she starts “-Do you think my parents are out there in this universe? My Mom and Dad? Do you think that they are happy? And if I exist, do you think they love me?”

“Ellie,” Joel starts “If your parents are out there, then i'm sure that they are really happy, and if you exist, then I know that they love you so much.”

***

The Previous Day

“HUGHIE WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY MINI EGGS!” Butcher bellowed, holding the man in question up by his neck. Hughie clawed at the hand around his throat desperately, choking out his defence. 

“Butcherrr *ackkk* I haven’t takkk *ackkk* your- candy-“

“Biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard you cashew-brained, ferret-looking cu-“

“It’s negative!” Maeve announces as she waltzes into the room with her female entourage in tow. Butcher breathes a sigh of relief as he releases Hughie from his clutches, with the lad falling unceremoniously to the floor, sucking in sweet gaspfulls of oxygen.

“Oh thank fuck for that!” Butcher exclaims, flexing the cramp out of his hand. Turning around, Butcher eyes up the empty packet of mini eggs in Kimiko’s hand.

Butcher blinks for a second, and considers how much he actually values his life… which is admittedly not very much, but someone’s got to avenge his wife.

“Nah” he decides, waving the culprit off with a flick of his other hand. Hughie follows the hand’s path, his eyes landing on the empty packet of chocolate;

“WHATT?” He screeches, still hacking up a lung from his prior attack. Butcher couldn’t work out whether this was from the betrayal of the female members of his team for getting him in the situation, or because Butcher had decided against his revenge rampage for the theft of his top-quality British chocolate. Either way, Butcher decided to ignore his outcry and turn his attention to the redhead in the room

“Can I get a quick word, Maeve?” Butcher says with a twitch of his head, indicating for them to talk privately in MM’s room. Maeve nods in agreement, discarding the pregnancy test in the bin as she passes the kitchen. Butcher opens the door to allow her to walk through, throwing a quick glance to the other people in their team as he closes the door behind them with a click.

“So… no baby then?” Butcher chuckles nervously, watching as Maeve bites her lip in thought.

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Maeve mumbles, looking up at Butcher with heavy, tired eyes.

“Something clearly happened between us in that… other universe. I don’t know if Ellie has told you the”- he flicked his hand in a gesture-“time differences in that universe, but she was born in about 2019, so I don’t know how, why or when our paths crossed, but they did.” Butcher takes a deep breath, opening his mouth again to continue, before getting cut off:

“When are we going to tell Ellie?” Maeve asks, crossing her arms across her chest. She looks up at Butcher not as if he holds all the answers, but like she genuinely wants someone to agree with her thoughts. Butcher flicks her a quick smile before shaking his head.

“Not now, when the time’s right we will tell her.” Butcher declares, folding his own arms across his chest. “That means in person, and when this whole Cordyceps-Vought situation is over.”

“Yeah.” Maeve replies, a look of relief washing over her face. She turns to walk out of MM’s room, before turning to look at Butcher again. “Just make sure that you don’t push her away.”

“When do I ever do that?” Butcher chuckles, although there’s some trace of uncertainty to his tone.

***

The Next Day

“Was it really the best idea to send her out into the field on her first day on the job?” Frenchie asks, taking a drag of the spliff MM handed to him and passing it up the line to the next person on the sofa. This person was Hughie, who regarded the drugs carefully, internally battling with himself before gently taking the spliff. He started to raise it towards his lips, before quickly changing his mind and passing it over to Butcher who accepted it gratefully. He took a drag before responding,

“Unofficial first day. But of course, she analyses DNA, how hard can it be to download this Robert guy’s information onto a USB without anyone noticing?”

“For Hughie-for us-this isn’t difficult. That poor girl looked petrified walking out of here this morning.” MM states standing up from where he was sitting on the sofa, he had visibly relaxed once Soldier Boy had left with Kimiko and Starlight (who had a day off) for a snack run. Soldier Boy looked like any other man when wearing civilian clothing, so they weren’t worried about him being spotted.

They were worried about the wrath of Kimiko, who had now gained a taste for British chocolate, if she couldn’t find the treats she was after in the British section of the supermarket.

“Besides, Sarah’s got a burner phone with our numbers on it, and Maeve is at the Tower. If she runs into any trouble-which she won’t- then she’ll be fine.”

A few seconds later, Butcher's own burner phone started ringing. The name ‘Sarah’ flashed up on the screen, and for a second Butcher felt his heart stop but he composed himself quickly, hoping none of The Boys caught his pause as he answered the phone with his usual chilled tone.

“Hey Sarah, are you alright-?”

“BUTCHER I NEED YOUR HELP, I ACCIDENTALLY KIDNAPPED ROBERT!”

Fuck.

“Whatever happened to ‘Hello, how’s your day-”

“THIS IS SERIOUS! I’m freaking out right now there's a man in the trunk of the car i'm driving! I-”

“Okay Sarah, breathe. Did he see your face? And how do you accidentally kidnap someone?” The three men in the room perked their heads up when they heard this. Frenchie stood and threw his arms up in a gesture Butcher translated as ‘I Told You This Wasn’t a Good Idea.’

“Well, I was downloading the information like you asked, and then I heard a voice behind me and it was Robert, so I panicked and then I knocked him out. Then I panicked even more, because I didn’t know if someone would see me, so I dragged him to the car Frenchie let me borrow, tied him up with some rope I found in there, gagged him, then put him in the trunk… and drove off”

“Wait, how did you knock him out?”

“I uh, I was scared so I punched him.”

“First day on the job, and you’ve already committed at least three crimes-”

“SERIOUSLY MAN, I'M FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW”

“Did he see your face?” Butcher calmly repeats himself, hearing the girl try to regulate her breathing. He could imagine her white-knuckling the steering wheel right now.

“Yeah-yeah he did.” Sarah says with heavy breathes. Butcher nods his head slightly as he starts his response.

“Okay, that’s fine, don’t worry.” Butcher pulls the phone away from his ear to talk to The Boys “We’ve got to kill him.” The group nod in response as Frenchie and MM begin to search for their weapons. Hughie stands up as well, in search of something that Butcher doesn’t know what, but he would put money on the fact that it is not a weapon. 

Then again, the universe has already proved him wrong today.

“WHAT? DID YOU SAY THAT WE’RE GOING TO KILL HIM?”

“Of course not!” Butcher responds to the hysterical girl, looking up at his team mates that have just turned back round to face him. He nods at them mouthing a silent ‘we are’ whilst dragging his thumb across his throat dramatically. Accepting this answer, The Boys turn back to their tasks.

Butcher hears commotion and muffled speech from where he assumes is the boot of the car.

“I thought you said that fucker was unconscious?” Butcher asks, watching MM collect the tools and Hughie pull out a fold-up chair, bleach and some rope. Frenchie started to make his way towards Butcher as Sarah answered.

“Well he was!-“ Whatever Sarah said after that Butcher didn’t hear, as Frenchie plucked the phone out of his hand, bringing it up to his own ear.

“Right Sarah, you took my car yeah? There’s a taser in the glove box. I need you to taser him, then put the directions for the place I'm about to send you into the uh-navigation system. We’ll, how you say uh…interrogate him there.” Frenchie paused for a moment as he tapped the location into a text and sent it to Sarah. He held the phone back up to his ear.

“Okay, that should have sent. Did you just ask why I have a taser in my glovebox? Well it’s in case I decide to kidnap someone.” Butcher moved to stand close enough to Frenchie that he could hear some of what was happening down the phone. He heard what sounded like the boot of a car opening, muffled male shouts followed by both female and male screams along with the sound of a taser. 

Maybe he did chuck the girl into the deep-end a bit on the first day of the job.

He heard the boot slam, then the sound of her clambering back into the car with fast, heavy breathes. Frenchie handed the phone back over to Butcher with a smirk.

“You did good Sarah, we’ll meet you over at that location in 10 minutes.” Hearing the girls muttered confirmation, Butcher hung up the phone, slipping it back into his pocket with a pat.

“Assume we’re taking your car MM? I’m telling you now, I’m not listening to any of Janine’s Disney songs on our way to the warehouse”

***

Butcher likes to think that it would have been quite ominous and terrifying to come back to consciousness- after being knocked out and kidnapped- tied to a chair, hearing your captors humming as they collect the weapons of torture that they plan to use on you.

Well, it would have been ‘terrifying’ and ‘ominous’ if they weren’t humming Hakuna Matata.

“Wha- where am I?” Robert starts to say, tugging on the ropes with growing urgency when he realises the predicament he’s in. Sarah stays back out of the way, too nervous to get too close and get in the way of the other guys. Hanging back, she flips the taser around in her hand, taking comfort in the weight of it. It’s not heavy and lethal like a gun, it’s a weapon of defence, a warning in pain without taking the person's life.

Sarah doesn’t think she could ever kill someone.

“Hey-up sunshine, so you must be Robert?” Butcher questions the man like he doesn’t already know the answer.

“Yeah I am, and who the fuck are you guys?” He slurs, spitting the curse word like it was venom. Clicking his tongue, Butcher crouched down so that he was eye level with the other man, baring his teeth into a threatening grin. The other man pushes himself back as far as his limited mobility would allow, his face taking on a pale, sickened look when Butcher pulls out a serrated knife from the pocket of his coat.

“We’re the guys who are going to make your life a living hell, unless you tell us the information we want.” Butcher nicked Robert’s cheek with the knife as he stood back up, watching as the droplets of blood started to run down his cheek forming almost parallel lines to each other, like a grotesque mockery of a tiger's stripe.

Robert’s eyes darted across the group frantically, as if trying to silently beg one of the group to help him. That is until his eyes landed on Sarah.

“So what? You got the female of your group to break into Vought, steal my information and kidnap me?” Robert asks, still tugging on the ropes.

“There was no ‘breaking’ involved” Frenchie answers, approaching Robert whilst swinging his crowbar. He chuckles when he sees Robert’s wide-eyed yet confused look. “And ‘The Female’ of the group is out right now, trust me, you’ll want to have this finished up before she gets back. She’s- what you would call- a force to be reckoned with.”

Sarah decided to stay hanging back where she was, her gaze falling on the box of brightly coloured vials -green and blue- and syringes she saw Butcher carry in earlier. When she had asked him what they were, he explained that they were called ‘Temp V’, and that they were able to turn a regular person into a supe for 24 hours.

“Normally we’d take some before a confrontation, but since this guy is not a supe and looks like he couldn’t throw a punch to save his life, we decided not to waste the stuff.” Butcher had told her when she’d asked. When she asked why he brought it in the first place, he explained that it was so that they had a supply of the stuff here, either as backup stock or in case they needed to interrogate a supe.

Sarah had accepted the answer, but still her eyes were fixated on the bright colours in the vials. It made a nice change from the dreariness of the warehouse.

“So mate, why does Vought want to bring these ‘infected’ over to this universe?” Butcher asks, watching as Robert’s face drops in shock.

“Wait- how do you know about AGH-“ his question was cut off by Butcher swinging the crowbar into his knee, causing him to let out a strangled scream and Sarah to cover her ears. MM flicked sympathetic eyes over to her quickly, before they fell back into the cold, hard stare he had been using. 

“Let’s try that again shall we Robert? Why is Vought bringing these things over to his universe?”

“Okay, Okay! They want to turn the public against supes! Stan Edgar has been planning to turn Vought back into a Pharmaceutical Company for years, but the supes are too strong and popular. The infected- Vought are creating these super infected to not only kill supes, but to scare the public! If they know supes can get infected, and that this could wipe out civilization, then they will want all supes gone!”

“The Stages” Sarah says, walking towards Robert and the group. “That’s what you were talking about on the phone. Stage one was getting the Deep infected right? But A-Train was the one to get bitten, and The Deep was killed. You said Stage Two was ready to commence, but that you needed more of the infected to be brought to that universe to the Boston lab. How are you bringing these things over?”

“How the fuck did you hear-ARGHH OKAY OKAY!” Butcher had his hand ready to swing the crowbar into his shin, only to be beaten to it by Sarah jabbing the taser into Robert’s ribs. She was learning quickly, Butcher was impressed. Sarah jumped back after her attack, passing the taser over to Hughie as she passed. Slipping quite far back behind the four men . “JESUS FUCK I’LL TELL YOU. I don’t know how they’re doing it, but there’s a girl in the lab from that universe, she’s able to bring them over. Mariana! Her name is Mariana.”

“Where’s the Boston lab?” MM asks, making his voice sound more threatening than Sarah has ever heard. 

“How about you untie me and I’ll take you there now? Fuck Vought, we’ll take them down together.” Robert attempted to bargain, grinning nervously in an unsuccessful attempt at confidence as he nodded at the group.

“No.” Butcher replies plainly. “You’re going to give me the address now or I’m cutting your fingers off with my knife.” Robert quickly gave him the address, Sarah watched as he tapped it into his phone, he pulled up the location on maps, turning the phone to show Robert.

“This the correct place?” Robert nodded frantically in response.

“Okay, from what you were saying, it sound like Vought have a plan or a way to de-power supes, wanna say what this-“ Butchers interrogation was cut off by Robert shooting up out of his chair, having managed to wiggle his hands free of the rope whilst he was being questioned. Kicking Butcher between the legs, Robert turned to Hughie, landing a punch between his temple as MM and Frenchie mobbed to attack him. Robert was slippery, ducking out of their advances as he started to make his way towards the door.

Sarah couldn’t let Robert escape, if he goes back to Vought with what she has done, then she is, well, done for. She can say goodbye to any chance at a normal life if she's behind bars, and what about her Uncle Tommy?

What would her dad do?

Sarah sprinted towards the box of vials, pulling one of them out as she injects the liquid straight into her arm. 

It burns. It burns like nothing she’s ever felt before, like there’s a fire inside her veins, as if her body was trying to rip its way out of her skin. It was pure pain… but she had to push past it.

She ran, she ran straight at Robert as he fled towards the door and punched him, punched him with as much passion as she did the first time, but this felt stronger, as if her body wanted her to punch the man.

A sickening crunch filled the air.

It reminded Sarah all too much of a raw carrot being broken in half. The boys started to crowd around her staring down at the crumpled-heap of a man at their feet, the smell of blood tinging the air.

“Oh my god- oh my god! Is he-is he alive?” Sarah asks as she starts to pace around in a small circle.

Butcher knew the man’s neck was snapped, if the unnatural angle of the head and the protruding bone were anything to go off.

“Yes.” Butcher answers after a moment's hesitation. He doesn’t know how confident his answer sounded, but the other three men turned to give him a strange look.

“I’ll take him into one of the back rooms and finish the job.” Butcher declared as he picked Robert’s mangled carcass up by the armpits, dragging him towards one of the smaller rooms out back. The door slammed shut with a heavy bang once he was in

“Um Sarah?” Hughie shouts up as he leans down to inspect the discarded empty vial that she used to inject herself with. “What colour liquid vial did you use?”

“Uhm the blue one. Butcher said the liquids in that box were Temp V, so this should wear off in 24 hours right?”

The room went silent as the others stared at Sarah incredulously. Hughie looked up at her with what Sarah could only describe as an internal dilemma. He looked like he didn't know what or how to say what he wanted to. In the end, he swallowed back his emotions as he choked out his response.

“Sarah, that wasn’t Temp V.”

***

Butcher is definitely going soft, protecting the girl's emotions like that. Perhaps it was the parenthood talking, but either way he’s now got a dead body on his hands and not all of the information they need.

But he does know the location of the Boston lab and the name of that girl, Mariana.

Butcher stares down at the corpse he dumped on the floor as he pulls out his pistol and puts a bullet between the man’s dead eyes.

Call him petty or whatever, but he did want the information on Vought’s weapon to depower supes. Perhaps Vought aren’t the enemy after all. But Homelander still is.

As Butcher left to walk out of the room, he put another bullet into the man. He didn’t see where it landed, but he knew it felt good.

Maybe that one was petty.

Chapter Text

“What do you mean? Of-of course that was Temp V. Butcher said-“

Sarah’s rambling was cut off by MM shaking his head, clearing his throat before answering.

“That was Compound V, Maeve must have slipped some into the box when she dropped off the last supply.”

“What are you saying…?” Sarah mutters. She knows what he is saying. Not that she wants to believe it.

“You’re a Supe, Sarah.” Hughie says, attempting to do an impression of Hagrid followed by a nervous laugh. He stops when everyone looks over at him in annoyance.

“I get it, not the right time.”

Sarah half collapses in on herself as she drops to her knees, before sitting in a heap on the floor. She-she doesn’t know what to do or what to say. She wants her uncle Tommy to hug her and tell her everything is going to be okay, like he did the day her dad died…

She wants her dad.

Sarah misses him so much. Right now, she would give anything just to see him again, for him to hold her after a long day or to just laugh and talk to him about everything. 

But her dad is not here anymore.

She’s alone, in a room full of men that she’s just met, but that are now her colleagues, but who are also all criminals. Technically, she is also a criminal now, but she’s also a supe. 

“A supe.” She mutters to herself, looking down at her arms. God, now the scary realisation is out of the way, Sarah can’t help but wonder what her powers will be. Do they develop slowly or is it a POW and they are there? What if her powers aren’t cool and they are super dangerous, like the ‘Head Popper’ or turning everything she touches into skittles like that old advert? She doesn’t want to turn things into skittles. What if she’s back at her apartment, goes to have a cup of coffee and POOF her mug turns into skittles? Or if she goes to stroke Ravioli, then POOF , she turns into skittles-

“Sarah, you need to get your breathing under control. We can’t have your powers breaking out-“ MM starts, trying to calm the girl down only for her to look up at him with frantic eyes.”

“I don’t want to turn things into Skittles.” She declares with a shake of her head. The three men exchanged a look of confusion, before they all silently agreed that she was having a mental breakdown .

“No, we don’t want you turning things into skittles.” MM ducks down to Sarah’s eye level, but still maintains a decent distance. “But you need to calm your breathing. Follow me, in…”

Sarah breathed in with him.

“… and out…”

Sarah breathed out with him.

“…and again, in…”

Sarah breathed in with him again.

“…and out…”

Sarah breathed out with him again.

“Okay, do you feel any be-“ MM started only to be cut off by Sarah waving her hand and beginning to stand up.”

“-I need to feed Ravioli.” Sarah declares, watching as MM starts to nod before stopping himself with an inward scowl.

“You-“ he starts before pausing, turning to look at the other two men in the room. Frenchie and Hughie both shrug their shoulders. Not helpful . MM turns back to Sarah slowly,

“You want pasta?”

“Nooo,” Sarah drawls, flexing her hands in case something happens. “Ravioli is my cat. I found her in a dumpster, now she lives in my apartment.”

“Was she…. eating Ravioli out of the dumpster when you found her?” Hughie asks, eyes fixated on the girl's hands, as if expecting sparks or something to shoot out of them.

“Nooo, I was listening to the audiobook of Twilight Breaking Dawn…. And I couldn’t call her Bella.”

“We’ll feed your Kitty-Cat as soon as we get rid of the body. Are there any pig farms around here?” Frenchie pipes up, turning to look towards the room that Butcher was in with the body. His brain was clouded with drugs- as it always is- but Frenchie knew that pigs were the most effective way to get rid of a dead human body.

“Nooo,” Sarah drawls again, “but we can always dump it in the ocean on the way to my apartment. Y’know, since The Deep is dead now…” Sarah paused when she felt everyone’s eyes fall on her. “I’m not a psycho, I just like Criminal Minds.”

“…is it bad that I forgot The Deep was dead?” Hughie pipes up after a few seconds, wringing his hands out in embarrassment. “A lot has happened over the past few days- I swear, aren’t The Seven down to like… 4 members now?” They’re going to have to hire some new people soon-“

“-Hughie lad, stop rambling and help me lift this body into the boot. Sarah’s right, we’ve got to dump this body in the ocean.” Butcher spoke up, kicking open the door to the little back room as he dragged the body in. Sarah took note of the new bullet holes in the body and the blood smeared on the ground as Butcher pulled the lifeless form of Robert across the room by the ankles. Hughie darts towards him with a grumble of agreement, hoisting the body up with arms under the armpits. Hughie sighs internally when he feels the blood soak into his shirt, knowing that he’s just lost another one to blood staining.

“How much of that did you hear?” Sarah asks, tucking her hands behind her back.

“I heard enough.” Butcher responds, him and Hughie falling into a rhythmic pace of synchronised footsteps as they make their way towards the exit. “How does it feel to be one of those bastard supes?” Butcher asks.

“I thought it was Temp V” Sarah mumbles in response, following behind Butcher and Hughie as the group leave the building. Butcher lifts the body a bit higher when they near the car, popping the trunk as they chuck Robert in.

“Don’t have to explain yourself, Love; you’re still useful to us.” Butcher explains as he slams the trunk shut, only to realise when a sickening crunch fills the air that Robert’s lifeless hand was not in the small space. Popping the trunk again, butcher shoves the now mangled hand back in with the rest of the body, before slamming it shut again.

“Now, let’s go dump this body and feed Lasagna.” Butcher says with a smirk as he opens the driver’s door.

“Ravioli” Sarah corrects him.

“Eh, close enough.”

***

“Ellie, are you sure this is a good idea?” Joel asked over his shoulder to the girl in the back of the car. It was his turn again to drive again whilst Tommy slept, his head leaning against the Stitch neck pillow he had purchased earlier. 

Joel fought the urge to turn up the music to drown out the sounds of his snoring. But god, had he missed the sound of snoring. Snorers didn’t survive long after the outbreak, Joel likes to think it’s natural selection (or that most of them started taping their mouths shut at night), but then again, there’s people who still think that society will go back to how it was before if a cure can be created.

“I know trust doesn’t come naturally to you Joel.” Ellie says as she marks the page in her comic, looking up to meet his eyes in the rear view mirror. She sees something in them, something she’s not seen in him before. There’s a gleam to them, like he’s starting to see a future for them here, like he knows that there is hope after all. Ellie coughs slightly before she continues. “But I’ve known these guys for a while and… they’re on our side.” She wanted to say that they’re good people, but she’s 99% sure that they’re all wanted criminals.

“Just because you’ve known someone for a while, doesn’t mean you can trust them-“

“Joel” Ellie starts, “This. Isn’t. Our. Fucking.World.” Ellie states carefully, feeling the determination in her gut stir when she sees Joel’s shoulders relax slightly.

“You don’t have to trust them, fuck, Tommy doesn’t even have to trust them… but I hope that you trust me enough to know that we’d be safe with them and that they want to help us.”

“Kiddo….” Joel starts, Ellie holds her breath whilst she waits for his response. “You're 14, and yet I trust you to cover my back with a rifle when we run into danger. If that ain’t trust, then I don’t know what is.” Joel looks up at her in the mirror and smiles.

Ellie chuckles, they sit there in relative silence for a few minutes, with the sounds of Tommy’s snores rattling the car.

“So this car, it belongs to the British pri- guy.” Joel asks Ellie, scratching his face with the hand that is not on the steering wheel.

“Yep, I’m guessing he’ll want it back once we’re back in New York.” Ellie says, not bothering to look up from her comic this time.

“And you said his name is Butcher?”

“Yep, why?”

“Name rings a bell is all, from the first few years of the outbreak.”

“Well… what was he doing?”

“Can’t completely remember. But I do remember people talking about a British guy they called The Butcher. He was brutal, I remember that.”

Ellie’s definitely never heard of The Butcher. She hopes nothing bad happened to him in their universe.

***

“Guys, we’re back!” Annie announces as she enters MM’s apartment, placing the keys that she borrowed on the kitchen island. She is followed by Soldier Boy and Kimiko, each holding two shopping bags full of candy.

Silence. Annie tries again, announcing their arrival with a knock on the wall. Still silent. Becoming concerned over the lack of presence in the small apartment, Annie decides to look around, to make sure that they weren't all unconscious or pulling an elaborate prank on them. Kimiko and Soldier Boy drop the bags and follow suit, searching the rooms with Starlight.

“Doesn’t seem like they’re fucking here.” Soldier Boy states, pulling out a bar of chocolate and a packet of white powder that Annie was certain wasn’t sugar.

“No shit. I’ll call Hughie, I’m sure he’s got a reasonable explanation for where he is.”

Annie pulls out her phone, tapping the call button for the first contact, before holding it up to her ear. It rings for a few seconds before a frantic sounding Hughie picks up.

“Hey Annie, is everything okay?” He says in a rushed, mock-calm tone. Annie can hear through it, though.

“Yeah…everything is fine. We’ve just got back to the apartment, where are you guys?” Annie could hear muffled cursing in the background of the call, and was that… the sound of water?

“Uh…BAR. YES, we’re uh, down the bar.” 

“Uh huh. And does the bar have a water feature?-“ Starlight’s accusation was cut off by what sounds like an engine turning on and…water splashing?

“Hughie, are you on a boat?”

“WHAT-I mean… no,  we’re definitely down the bar, I’m just standing in the bathroom”- Hughie's excuse was cut off by the sound of something heavy hitting the apparently non-existent water.

“Hughie, what did you just dump in the sea?” Annie asks, only to be met with silence and heavy breathing. She opens her mouth to ask again only for Hughie to stutter an answer.

“Umh…. Robert….”

“You dumped a PERSON in the ocean?!”

“Technically he was- dead when we dumped him…”

“You dumped a DEAD BODY in the ocean?!”

“…. When you say it like that it sounds bad….”

“That’s because IT IS Bad!”

There was another heavy pause where neither one of them knew what to say. It was bad that this was just becoming mundane to them. But whose fault is that really? Probably A-Train’s fault for running through Robin, but he’s dead now. Or maybe The Deep’s fault for what he did to Annie? But he’s dead too. Man, there’s a lot of dead supes now who were in The Seven. Vought must be starting to run out of supes-

“Sarah’s a supe now.” Hughie blurts out, causing him to hear Annie splutter in a shocked response.

“Okay, that’s…where did that come from?”

“I don’t know, my mind wandered.” Hughie sheepishly admits, looking up at the concerned look that Sarah gives him. He mouths to her that he’s on the phone to ‘Starlight’ . Sarah nods in response, seemingly accepting this as an answer. She turns back to the ocean. Watching as the waves still ripple from the aftershocks of the body they just dumped. She hears Hughie talking to Starlight about something but she wasn’t entirely listening. She just stared out into the ocean for a little bit, allowing herself to forget that she has committed multiple crimes tonight that would land her a lifetime in jail with a bunch of guys that she’s just met.

Living the fucking dream.

Hughie hung up the phone after a few i love yous, and deposited the phone back in his pocket.

“That was Annie. Ellie arrived at the apartment whilst she was on the phone to me. Apparently she had two guys with her. One was the friend from her universe, the other was his brother… from this universe.”

MM sighed as he ran a hand across his face.

“Great even more fucking people in my apartment that’s just fucking great.”

Sarah listens as the boat's engine roars back to life, taking them back to land. Butcher hands them all masks to cover their faces on the ‘off chance that someone sees them’ when they are exiting the boat. They pull up in a discreet, out-of-the-way docking bay that looks like it hasn’t been used in years. No one around. Frenchie offers her his hand to help her out of the boat.

“My place isn’t too far from here.” Sarah states once they have all left the boat. “20 minute drive, tops.”

Frenchie, in response, pulls his car keys out of his pocket. Tossing them in the air as he approaches Sarah. She watches as he chuckles his face into a smile, clicking his tongue before speaking.

“Okay, so Sarah, you come up front and direct me and tell me how to get to this apartment of yours so you can feed your uhh…. Risotto? No no, uh…. cat.”

Sarah nods in agreement as she clambers into the front seat. After taking a moment of consideration, she decides to scoot her chair up so that whichever guy is behind her will have more leg room.

“Hughie, that means you’re in the middle you lanky twat.” Butcher declares as he slips in behind Sarah. She hears Hughie mutter a disgruntled sound, but ultimately he scooches over to the middle seat of the car.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at Sarah’s apartment. Although, it felt like it took hours with all of Hughie’s complaining.

“All I’m saying is-“ Hughie continued as he scooched out of Frenchie’s car -“ why didn’t we take both cars? Then we could have been evenly spread between two cars instead of cramped into one.”

“Two cars would have been too suspicious. I’ll collect it from the warehouse later” MM states, crossing his arms as he waits for Sarah to tap in the code to enter the building. The place was… nice. Quaint. It was so unlike the New York he was used to, it looked like a building out of a hallmark movie, so clean, pristine, yet it had character that was so lacking in the buildings that construction companies are spewing out in the masses recently.

Posh, it was posh.

They followed behind Sarah as she led them down various corridors, each seemingly decorated as beautiful as the last. Annie would love this place Hughie thought as they approached what he assumed to be Sarah’s apartment.

She unlocked the door; apartment is the wrong word.

A Penthouse is more what it is.

It’s huge, stunning. But also nothing like they thought timid, laid back Sarah would have. The walls and the furniture were so brightly fluorescent, it almost made the place resemble a hand drawn cartoon or a funhouse at a carnival. But somehow, the contrasting styles, patterns and colours worked, creating a beautiful maximalist space. Hughie couldn’t help but look around the room and notice how even the decorative items had been specifically picked to enhance the space, nothing looked cluttered or out of place. 

Sarah casually strolled into her home, throwing off her shoes onto a floating shoe rack that was nailed to the wall and popping on her pink fluffy UGG slippers. She beckoned the men in, gesturing for them to sit on the cow print sofa in the middle of the open-plan living room.

“I won’t be a moment” she declares over her shoulder as she walks into the kitchen, throwing open one of the green cabinets and taking out a small, coral dish. She then crosses the room over to another cabinet, pulling out a tin of cat food before emptying its contents into the bowl.

“Ravioli! Dinner!” She calls, placing the food on a small multicoloured mat on the floor. She didn’t have to call a second time, within seconds a chunky black cat materialised from one of the adjacent rooms, meowing in a way that Hughie could only describe as a dramatic screech. As the cat prowled in, her attention was dragged away from her precious food as she stared at the men invading her home. The cat wasn’t fat in Hughies opinion, well, not the fattest cat he’s ever seen. But she stared at the men with a type of judgmental annoyance that made Hughie think that if she were a human being that she would be insulting every life choice they ever made. 

Butcher thought that if the cat had laser vision, then they would all be sliced and diced right now. He was definitely more of a dog person.

The cat turned away from them, plonking herself on the ground next to the food before shoving her face into the bowl. Sarah smiled in response, refilling her water bowl that was situated next to the food and placing it back down next to the cat. By the time she had refilled the water, Ravioli had demolished all her food and was meowing sadly for more.

“No Rav’s you’ve had enough.” Sarah answered warily, but ultimately gave in by the second meow. She pulled out a bag of cat treats before giving Rav’s five. Smiling sweetly, Sarah turned to the four men also in the room.

“Isn’t she the cutest?” Sarah asks as she strokes the cat. The men nod in an unconvincing manner, eyes drifting between the girl and her cat.

“I mean, she’s not a huge fan of men….”

“Oh really?” Hughie nervously laughs “I, uh, hadn’t noticed.”

Sarah continues to stroke her cat, feeling her hand glide through the cat’s black fur, ghosting over the skin underneath. After a few moments, the hand that is stroking Rav starts to feel weird; it tingles like a dull pins and needles sensation. Then suddenly, her hand disappeared into Ravioli’s fur. The skin her hand was grazing seemed to give way like quicksand, and yet she could feel. Sarah could feel Rav’s heartbeat thumping through her hand, not organs or her heart, just an overwhelming presence. 

Sarah pulled back her hand and-

Her arm ended at the wrist.

Panicking, Sarah shoved her handless arm back towards the cat, looking between the men to see if any of them had noticed. They hadn’t, too enthralled with looking around her apartment and the various nicknacks and decorations adorning each shelf.

Carefully, she pulled her arms away again, examining the missing appendage. Her hand was gone, but she could still feel it. Sarah rotated her wrist giving her fingers an experimental wiggle. She could feel them move, could feel the skin and ligaments flex and pull, and yet her hand wasn’t there.

Perhaps her powers are like Translucent’s then? She must just be able to turn her body and limbs invisible-

Her thoughts are abruptly cut off when the other hand she experimentally tried to use to grasp the invisible hand passed straight through the limb, as if it wasn’t there.

But Sarah felt it pass through. And it felt like that dull, pins and needles sensation again. Okay, this is just weird, so she can make herself disappear but not disappear? She needed her hand back. Okay, maybe if she put the intent in she could will her hand back into existence? She pushed, feeling the dull tingling feeling again in her hand as it re-materialised into existence. Phew, Sarah was glad that was over.  She considered summoning the so-called ‘The Boys’ to let them know that she thinks she discovered what her powers are, but ultimately decided that it should wait until later.

MM had decided to look around the place, taking in the large size of the rooms and expensive looking decor. He returned to the kitchen where Sarah had stayed after feeding her cat

“So Sarah, how do you manage to afford a place like this, I thought you said you were a Vought forensics intern?”

MM looked over at the girl as he asked, who had jumped up to sit on top of the kitchen counter. She reached over to the bowl of fruit, plucking an apple from it and taking a bite, she swallowed before answering.

“Dead dad. Left me a lot of money, and that doesn’t include the insurance payout.”

MM spluttered at the bluntness of her answer, his eyes darting around the bright space again. Suddenly, the maximalist, over the top decor made a lot more sense. The girl was buying things that made her home feel full and happy. There’s something beautiful about that in his opinion, the way that she’s trying to make the most out of such a horrific situation.

“Yep, that would do it.” He chokes out as an answer. Sarah, unbothered, carries on eating her apple, speaking to them between bites.

“I mean, my room at my Uncle Tommy’s isn’t like this. It's a lot more mellow.” Bite, swallow. “But I figured that I might as well express myself the way I want in my own home.” Bite, swallow. “Y’know? And moving across the country felt like the right time to figure out who I am, start fresh.” She finished the apple, jumping off the counter to throw the core into the striped, brightly coloured bin.

“Right, Rigatoni has been fed-“

“-Ravioli”

“ Ravioli has been fed, now let’s get back and see the kid and her friends.” Butcher answers, already making his way back over to the door. 

The journey back went smoothly, Hughie hadn’t complained this time as Sarah had taken the middle seat, allowing him to sprawl out in the seat by the window. Frenchie parked the car up down the street as the space where he parked last time was now occupied by Butcher’s barely road-worthy car. The British man smiled to himself slightly as they passed it, although no one in the car picked up on it.

“I’ll be in in a minute”. Sarah answers, shifting uncomfortably in the seat. “I’ve just got to pick up a few things from the corner store down the road.” Frenchie nods, saying that he will join as ‘he’s low on cigarettes and forgot to ask Kimiko to pick him some up.’

As the other three men enter MM’s apartment, they hear quiet hushed talking coming from the lounge. Annie, Soldier Boy and Kimiko are sprawled on one sofa whilst Ellie, her friend and another man are sat on the other. The younger man was staring at Soldier Boy with an almost childlike wonder, whilst the one from the other universe regarded Starlight warily, scrunching his face as if he was trying to place what was missing from her appearance.

“What? Have I got something on my face?” Annie asks awkwardly, trying to shake off her feelings of uncomfortableness.

“Nah, it’s just weird to see you with both eyes.”

“BOTH??”

“And without that yappy dog” Ellie chipped in.

“DOG?”

“Evening Cu-“ MM gave Butcher a pissed off look. “Okay, I won’t say it with the kid around. But she’s worse than me!”

“‘Sup fuckers!” Ellie bellows, jumping over the back of the sofa towards the men. Butcher turns to give MM an ‘I told you so’ look before being tackled by Ellie running full speed into him for a hug. For a second, Butcher stumbles back, not knowing what to do. Tentatively, he returns the embrace, carefully wrapping his arms around his daughter for a few moments. He pats back as he pulls away from the hug.

“It’s good to see you too, kid.” He chuckles. Daughter, that’s a weird concept to think about. And yet here she is, with half his DNA and all of his bad language, and trust issues, and sense of humour, yet she is so much better than him.

“Hey Hughie, Milk Man, good to see you both too.” She hugs both of them too, smiling gleefully at the men. MM points at her Disney Ears headband as he clears his throat.

“How was Disney World then kid?” He asks, watching as her smile pulls back into a grin of innocent glee, she rambles on about how amazing it was and all the characters she met.

“Wait-“ Butcher starts “didn’t we tell you to stay away from windows? Why were you at Disney World?” Ellie’s eyes fly open as if this fact had slipped her mind only to make a horrifying comeback. Joel’s head snaps towards her, opening his mouth to start scolding her.

“Okay, I may have forgotten that tinyyyy detail, and I did tell you Vought were after me,-“ she directs this part at Joel “-but no one caught me, and i had a fucking amazing time soooooo…..” she makes a ‘so-so’ motion with her hands.

“By the way, me, Joel and Tommy are going to stay here for a bit until Joel finds his daughter, apparently she lives here in New York.”

Tommy stands up as she says this, making his way over to the men that had recently entered the apartment. He holds out his hand to them, shaking each man’s hand when they stretch out their own. 

“I’m Tommy, this is my brother Joel.” He says, gesturing to the other man. 

Reluctantly, Joel stands up and makes his way over to them as well. His hand shake was a lot less friendly than Tommy’s, a firm yet quick motion before returning to the Sofa. Tommy sits back down too, but points his finger at the men as he speaks.

“For the record, I do know where my niece lives. I messaged her earlier and she said she was out with some new colleagues. ‘Haven’t got a key to her place yet though.”

“You can stay here as long as you need, but we are leaving for Boston soon. There’s a lab there with a girl that they are using to bring these infected across from your universe.” MM explains, leaning against the living room wall. He watches as Ellie and Joel exchange urgent looks of concern.

“Then shouldn’t we fucking be going as well?” Ellie asks, gesturing between her and Joel. “We know these things, we’re used to killing them every fucking day!”

Joel stands up before speaking to the other men. “Ellie’s right, we know these things, you don’t. What do you know about this girl? Is she from our universe?” Joel asks the others in the room, although, it mainly seems directed at Butcher.

“Not much, mate” Butcher starts “but we know her name’s Mariana and that she is able to bring these bastards across from your universe.”

“Mariana…” Ellie says with a click of her tongue “does that sound like a sea themed name to you Joel?” She asks the man with a raise of her eyebrows. Joel, in turn, thought for a few moments, squinting his eyes before he threw his head back with an exasperated sigh.

“I don’t get it, sea themed?” Annie asks, staring at Joel’s reaction with a look of confusion.

“They call themselves ‘The Chosen’” Joel says in a half bored tone, as if talking about them is the last thing he wants to do. “‘ Bunch of religious nutters-“

“- but not the kind that kill everyone and burn them at the stake-“

“No, Ellie’s right, they’re quite friendly when you meet them, but they are obsessed with their leader - they call him The Saviour. Again, we don’t know much about The Chosen, only they came across the sea in rafts a year or so ago, and they all those stupid sea themed names.”

“And they’re all thick as pig shit!” Ellie piped up, again.

“Yeah that too-“ Joel stopped what he was saying mid sentence, staring up at the front door to the apartment as it creaked open. Joel looked like he had seen a ghost, his face portraying a mixture of raw, pure emotions. Ellie turned to see what had caused this reaction from him. 

Ellie knew who she was looking at the second she saw the girl's blonde hair.

“Dad?”

***

“Jesus Christ” Maeve mutters through deep breaths as Homelander rolls off her. Time has changed nothing, he’s still just as good in bed. 

“Maeve darling, that was… wow!” Homelander breathed heavily in amazement, turning to look at the love of his life. Opening his arms up, he beckoned her in to lay on his chest for a snuggle.

Maeve placed her head on his chest, sighing with contempt as she felt him lace his fingers through her long, red hair. His fingers felt like heaven as the danced across her scalp-

What was she doing? She hates Homelander. Hates him for everything that he has done to her and the people she loves over the years and yet he feels like familiarity. She sits up as quickly as she can whilst making it look like a natural motion, not an act of repulsion. She sits up and leans against the headboard of the bed. Homelander copies her motion, turning his body to look at Maeve.

“So” he says, flashing Maeve a wide smile. Too much teeth, way too much teeth. “ Who's the girl?” Homelander asks, catching Maeve off guard. Shit, has he seen through her act?

“W-which girl?” She tries to act stupid, play dumb, he might believe it.

“Y’know, the girl that broke you out. The one who shot up Vought, who Noir is still searching for.” The smile never drops, although there is no happiness behind it. Accusation, but not happiness.

Maeve tries to keep her face neutral, although she’s half convinced that Homelander knows.

“I don’t know” she answer’s carefully, swirling a finger across his chest playfully, hoping that flirting may save her in this situation. “She found me, busted me out, but after that we parted ways…” Maeve looks up at Homelander, trying to read his expression, but she can’t tell what he’s thinking.

“See Maeve,” his face twitches in a way that he only does when he’s feeling some level of hurt or anger. “I don’t believe you-“

Fuck it ! Maeve thinks, passionately pressing her lips onto Homelander’s, climbing on top of him to straddle his thighs. Relief fills her as she feels him relax under her, however inwardly, she feels disgusted when he pushes his tongue into her mouth.

Looks like things haven’t changed at all since they were younger; time to distract him with round 2.

Chapter Text

“Sarah?”

“Sarah?… Baby?…”

She was gone. logically, Joel knew that when her whimpers stopped and her body stilled that she had gone to the Better Place… but he didn’t want to believe it, he couldn’t.

She was here, she was just here not even a moment ago how could she just… not be here?

Her lifeless eyes, almost peaceful face, stared up at him.

No… no-no-no.

He didn’t want to believe it, didn’t want to accept it 

He couldn't- he just couldn’t

His Sarah, his sweet baby girl-

He pulled her closer, trying desperately to hold onto the little warmth that still clung to her lifeless frame.

“Don’t do this to me, baby. Come o-“ his voice cracked as his tears finally fell.

He was never going to see her smile again. Never going to hear her laugh, or hear her cry, or watch her grow, fall in love, walk her down the aisle, hug her or hear her voice-

“Dad?” 

He’s pulled out of the horrific memory, the one that haunts his dreams and thoughts all the time.

She is there.

In front of him, she’s older than the Sarah he remembers, but he knows his daughter's face anywhere, could have spotted her in a crowd of a thousand people. Joel never thought he’d get to see his daughter again or hear her voice. 

But now he has.

His body goes to autopilot, before he even registers that he has taken a single step, he is across the room, holding his beautiful, incredible and alive daughter in his arms. His memory of her is suddenly untainted from the stench of blood and those empty eyes. Sarah is life, she is warm, floral and vanilla…

Hughie watched the display with his jaw jutted in confusion.

“I thought Sarah said her dad was- ohhhhh that makes so much sense.”

“I never thought i was going to see you again-”

They stilled, breath hitching simultaneously as they pulled away to stare at each other. They had said that at the same time, which meant-

They didn't need to say it, just looking into each other's eyes they were able to silently communicate this fact they both know.

“So uhm.. I'm assuming you've come across from this other universe?” Sarah humorlessly laughed, she didn't feel the need to say the whole ‘or you've miraculously come back from the dead’ since if he really was her dad, then he would know that is what she is thinking. One look, and he laughed himself, rustling her hair with a smile.

“Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be, I was worried I was going to have to draw it out for you.”

“Oh thank the lord, because you can't even draw a straight line” Sarah drawled, genuinely laughing this time. Suddenly, an auburn haired teenager darted over to them.

“I know right, he’s so shit at drawing! Oh hi im Ellie, i'm assuming you’re Sarah?” The Blonde girl looked her up and down, eyes widening in recognition as she took in the girl’s features. Sarah felt her eyes shoot over to her dad, who was looking between them both fondly. Her eyes then darted over to Butcher, who subtly shook his head ‘no’. Sarah pulled her eyes back to the other girl, forcing a smile onto her face.

“Yeah, that's me.” Sarah then scanned the room properly for the first time. “Oh, hey Uncle Tommy!” She ran over to him and they exchanged a quick embrace, before Sarah walked back over to her dad.

“Oi, invisible girl, aren't you going to tell your dad and uncle the good news?” Butcher pipes up, taking a swig from his can of Strongbow that somehow materialised into his hand at some point during the conversation.

“Oh yeah!” Sarah states, turning back to Joel. “Dad, uh Uncle Tommy, I'm a supe now.” 

The room was then full of the sounds of the two texas men spluttering through similar expressions of ‘who? What? When? Where? And Why’s?’ Their shock was then cut off by the abrupt, harsh laughter of Butcher doubling over as he chokes up his amusement.

“I was referring to you now being a member of The Boys! But I guess there's that too.” Sarah laughed off her embarrassment after Butcher finished howling with laughter. Lifting her eyes up, her gaze met with Frenchie, who was leaning against the wall by the front door that they had recently walked in. his lips twitched slightly, the slight, subtle movement communicating a million warnings to her.

Earlier

Sarah and Frenchie hurried along the path towards the corner store she had spotted on the drive down. Silently, she was relieved that Frenchie had decided to join her, feeling safer walking these streets with a man she knew wouldn't hurt her.

Even if he has shown that he is capable of extreme violence.

The French man turned to her as they neared the shop entrance, his hands twitching towards his pocket where he normally keeps a packet of cigarettes. The stress of the last few days has meant he has blown through them much quicker than normal. They walked in, walking between the cramped aisles as they spoke.

“So Sarah, what is it you needed from here?” He asked, before his eyes quickly widened with a flinch as he verbally backtracked. “Unless you need women's things… and I probably should not ask.” 

Sarah chuckled at his panic.

“No no, not here for that.” She drawled. “I’m actually here for cat food.”

It was at that moment that Frenchie noticed her oversized coat rustle, as if something was moving around in there. Sarah pulled him behind one of the shelves, looking around warily before pulling her zip down slightly, revealing a familiar, fat fluffy face.

Frenchies face lit up as he looked from the girl to the cat, gasping smally with joy.

“You brought Ravioli!” he shout-whispered with excitement. “MM is going to hate you, he’s uhh -how’d you say- a bit of a freak with wanting things neat.” Sarah giggled at his statement, softly scratching Ravioli with one hand. Hesitantly, Frenchie reached over to pet said cat, remembering how Sarah said she did not like men. He was pleasantly surprised when the cat didn't bite him like he thought she would and instead leaned into the touch.

“She likes you” Sarah sounded surprised, a smile glazed her lips. “Did you want to hold her whilst we go back to MM’s apartment?” she asks him, watching as he mirrors her expression.

“What kind of question is that?” he chuckles, watching as she shucks off her coat, passing the fluffy little bundle to Frenchie as he zips his own coat around the cat. He smiles to himself when he feels Ravioli nestle into his hoodie.

Frenchie walked with Sarah to the next aisle, watching as she picked out Ravioli’s “favourite food and treats” before making their way towards the checkout. 

“I haven't got my ID on me” Sarah declares once she finishes paying. “You go get your cigarettes, I'll wait outside.” Frenchie nodded his agreement as Sarah walked out the door. Her hand motioned towards the pocket where her phone was before she heard a sickening voice come from the left.

“Hey Sweetheart!” Sarah felt her stomach drop as the leering voice of a strange man shouted at her, the voices of his friends followed, jeering him on. Sarah glanced a look over, there was a group of at least 5 big men. She was about to go back into the shop before one of them had made his way behind her and started to put an arm around her waist.

She let her waist disappear quickly, feeling the man’s hand slip through what would be her organs, before pulling her waist back into existence. Ignoring that weird pins-and-needles feeling, she quickly pushed herself away from them in disgust. 

“Dont you fucking touch me, leave me alone!” Sarah shouted, pushing the man away. She hoped Frenchie would hear the commotion and come outside.

“Oh come on, don't be like that darling.” one of them sneered as he lunged to grab her.

“I SAID DONT FUCKING TOUCH ME!” 

Frenchie heard Sarah shout, dropping the cigarettes he was just about to buy. He ran out, ready to throw hands at whoever thought they could go near the blonde girl - fuck or any girl- like that. He saw them, they were further up the street now, most likely from trying to chase after her. Frenchie wasn't having that. Drawing the gun that he always kept on him, he ran in their direction.

Only to watch Sarah disappear just as one of the creeps grabs her. His hand slipped through the space that she just occupied.

Frenchie felt himself stop in confusion. Where was she? She was there a second ago?

Suddenly, one of the guys goes down, clutching the spot between his legs in agony. Then the next guy spins, his head thrown as if he had been punched straight in the face. Before he knew it, each of the creeps was getting systematically annihilated by an invisible force.

As quick as the fight started, it was over. Each of the guys were either unconscious or immobilised by agony and embarrassment. Suddenly Sarah rippled back into existence. Noticing the dumbfounded Frenchie she ran back towards him. Frenchie broke into a jog himself, meeting her half way. Frenchie didnt know whether he should offer the girl a supportive hug or not. Ultimately, he decided it was best to not overwhelm her.

“Are you Okay? Are you hurt?” He asks, scanning the blonde woman for any injuries. Sarah quickly muttered out her reassurance that she was fine, watching as Frenchie slumped in relief. With a jolt, Frenchie furrowed his eyebrows before looking up at Sarah, she swore she could hear the cogs turning in his brain.

‘You disappeared,” he exclaimed. “Not like when Translucent would make himself uh invisible. You, you actually disappeared-

His eyes locked on to Sarah’s outstretched hand as it rippled from existence. She passed her other hand through the space where her hand should have been before indicating to Frenchie to do the same. His face stretched into an expression of shocked amazement.

“-like a shadow” Sarah finished Frenchie’s prior statement, grinning up at him.

Frenchie’s expression fell, his face taking on a serious countenance.

“If you want my advice.” he uttered in a hushed tone. “Don't tell anyone that you've discovered what your powers are. Keep it to yourself until the time is right.”

Sarah nodded her agreement, Watching as Rav rustled under Frenchies coat as they started to walk back to MM’s apartment.

Present

Joel crossed the space over to Sarah, gently taking her by the arm before taking her to one side for a somewhat private chat. The conversation is going to be about her powers, Sarah knows that. She thinks back to the conversation she and Frenchie had earlier. No, she's not going to tell her dad what her powers are yet, but she will when the time's right. For now, she’ll keep the conversation to how and where she got the powers… minus the illegal and morally dubious parts.

“Anyway.” Butcher starts, turning his attention back to his group. He can hear the hushed chatter between Joel and his daughter, but ultimately allows them to have their privacy. Plus he’s got a job to do “This Boston Lab, we know where it is. but more importantly, the person that knows that we know, is dead. So we don't need to worry about anyone coming after us.

“And what about when we get there?” MM asks, gesturing towards Butcher as he speaks. “I mean, how are we supposed to get in?”

“Well that's easy mate.” Butcher starts to make his way over to the sofa, stopping behind Hughie before slapping his arm on his shoulder, causing the younger man to jump a foot in the air and curse under his breath. “Either Hughie can hack his way in,-” he gestures towards Frenchie “-Frenchie can break his way in. or if all else fails- “He chucks a bottle of beer to Soldier Boy, who catches it effortlessly; popping it open with his teeth, before chugging the contents.”-That fucker will blast our way in.”

Hughie cleared his throat looking nervously at the war hero before making his point.

“I thought we didn't want Soldier Boy doing his…blasts. Well, because of… y’know…” Hughie mimed an explosion gesture, making a ‘boom’ sound with his voice. He then brought his hands up into a claw like motion near his face before making a clicky sound with his tongue.

“That impression is more like a vampire than a Clicker.” Joel piped up into the conversation. “And I should know, I was forced to endure the absolute horror… of watching all the twilight films with Sarah before the outbreak.”

This comment earned him a chuckle from the group. Maybe these people aren't that bad. Joel still doesn't fully trust them, but at this point in his life, hes half convinced that there aren't many people he would trust.

“Besides-” Joel gestured to himself, Tommy and Ellie “-were coming with you. We kill these things all the time-”

“No we don't, I don't even know what these Clicker things you're on about are.” Tommy interrupts Joel, looking frantically between his brother and the group. Joel sighs in realisation.

“Shit, I forgot” -That you aren’t my brother Tommy- “That you didn't go through the outbreak… sorry.” 

“I’m going too!” Sarah declares, jutting her jaw as she looks up at her dad. Joel just shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut to force that memory out of his brain again.

“No”

“But-”

“-I said no!”

“I’m. A. Supe. Now. Dad… I can't die, I can take care of myself.”

With that, Sarah turned to Frenchie, pulling the gun that she spotted him with earlier out of his pocket, turning it towards her stomach before shooting herself in the stomach. Her abdomen rippled out of existence, allowing the bullets to pass through the space like butter and hit the floor, causing MM to cringe at the new dents in the floorboards.

Sarah looked up at her dad. She was expecting to see… she didn't know what, but he just looked like a deer in headlights. He was completely out of it, staring at her stomach with wide-unblinking eyes.

“See dad? I’m fine- Dad… DAD?” His eyes had rolled back into his head, as he swayed and crumpled to the floor. Tommy caught his brother quickly, muttering something about him passing out from the shock.

Sarah glances a look over at Frenchie, who just shakes his head gently, muttering something about how ‘no one ever listens to him’. Shit so much of waiting until the right time to reveal what her powers are. Actually, Sarah decided right then, when else would have been ‘the right time’? At least she could be of help to The Boys.

Butcher clears his throat before speaking.

“Looks like you’ve found your power then Invisible Girl . Or is there another Alias you’re going to go by? since you’re clearly not just invisible.”  

Sarah can’t tell if he’s being rhetorical or not. But as she opens her mouth to answer, Butcher walks off towards the fridge, popping another can of Strongbow.

Just as Annie was putting Joel into the recovery position, Maeve burst through the front door, opening her mouth to greet everyone before her eyes landed on Sarah’s missing stomach, the new bullet holes in MM’s floor and the unresponsive Joel.

“I’m not even going to ask- wait isn't he the guy from the hospital? Ellie’s friend?” Maeve, asks, pointing at the unconscious man. 

“He’s also my dad.” Sarah pipes up, guiltily passing the gun back to Frenchie, who pops it back into his pocket. Maeve raises her eyebrows at her before scrunching her face in confusion.

“I thought you said your dad was…ohhhh.” Maeve made a noise of realisation, before her eyes fully took in the sight of the hole in Sarah’s mid-section. Her eyes widened, tilting her head as if the change of perspective would make it magically appear.

“Wanna explain that?” Maeve asks, pointing at the girl's abdomen. Sarah frowned in mock innocence as a response, bringing her stomach back into existence.

“...Im a supe now…” Sarah admits, smiling at the older hero.

“I can see, did you take Compound V then?”

“Yeah…”

“Hm, I'm surprised you're still alive.”

“WAIT, WHAT?”

“Hey Maeve.” The red head feels her body still when she hears that voice, turning her body in the direction the voice came in. Ellie, all those negative pregnancy tests over the years and yet here her… daughter… is. It physically pains her to know that she can't just tell her the truth… not yet anyway. Besides, what if, by some small chance, Sarah’s wrong and Ellie isn't her daughter. She can't go giving that girl false hope. Not until she knows for sure and this whole vaught-infected thing is over.

“Hi Ellie”, she says, returning the embrace when Ellie pulls her in for a hug. For a brief second, she takes a moment just to breathe in the smell of her hair. Vanilla and floral, she's clearly washed it. Maeve pulls back and looks at her, reaching her hand up to wiggle the Mickey Ears.

I see you didnt listen to the ‘stay away from windows’ lecture from Annie as well.” Maeve states smirking when she hears Starlight’s grunt of frustration from somewhere behind her. Ellie chuckles, rearranging the Mickey Ears back on her head.

“And I hear that you’re back with Homelander.” Butcher barks out a laugh at the bluntness of his daughter and the way Maeve’s eyes shoot open. “I heard it on the radio on the way back here.” Ellie defends herself.

“Fuck, he’s already gone to the media about it?” Maeve growls in frustration as she flays a hand across her face. Suddenly, she turns to the group, evident in her face that the reason why she even came over here had abruptly returned to her.

“Which reminds me.” Maeve declares to the group. “I managed to get it out of Homelander-”

“- dont you mean you managed to fuck it out of him?” Soldier Boy phrases his question more like a statement, gesturing to her messed up hair with a wrinkle of his nose. Maeve doesn't deny it, just shrugs a silent agreement.

“Vought is going to make a nationwide announcement in the next few days. He hasn't said what about, but it's got to be about these V’d up infected.”

“So that's our cue to leave for this Boston lab, we can be there and back in less than a day, but we need to get going before morning breaks.” Butcher declares “We should only take one car, mine can hold five; Hughie, Frenchie, Soldier Boy, you’re coming with. That's four of us, I can fit one more so who’s coming?”

“I’ll go.” Ellie decides, laughing as she crouches down to take the keys out of the still unconscious Joel’s pocket, before placing them in Butcher's hand with a grin. “It will be like our car Journey from a few weeks ago, just less awkward.” 

Butcher opens his mouth to agree with her and to tell everyone to get moving, but he’s cut off by Maeve whistling out a sound of shock. Pointing down at Ellie's feet, she shakes her head in disapproval.

“Ellie, what happened to your shoes?” she asks, gesturing to the ripped, barely-holding-together maroon Converse trainers on the girls feet. Ellie hid her face sheepishly, her face turning a deep shade of red as she tried to hide her shoes behind each other.

“I found them when my feet got too big for my old pair.” she muttered her response with uncharacteristic softness. Maeve silently cursed herself. Why did she say it like that? Of course she’ll be embarrassed by something like that. Maeve composed herself before she embarrassed the girl even more.

“We’re going to get you a new pair. Right now.” Ellie’s face suddenly lit up in what could only be described as uncontainable joy. As quick as it was there, it was gone. Her face fell as sadness washed over her.

“But, I said i’d go with them to the Boton Lab-”

“Nope, your friend over here can come with us.” Butcher quickly piped up as Joel started to stir back into consciousness. “He can fight them just as well as you can.” Butcher couldn't ruin this moment of happiness for the kid.

“But, Homelander is still after me…” Ellie states in a deflated tone.

An idea struck Maeve like a train. It was probably a pretty fucking stupid idea, but it might just work…

“Well, technically he’s sent Noir to look for an auburn haired teenager… but he wouldn't be looking for, say, a blonde teenager…”

She looked at Ellie expectantly, but the girl just looked back at her in confusion. Maeve cleared her throat before continuing.

“What i'm saying is, if we got you a wig-”

“-Then he wouldn't know it was me.” Ellie's mouth stretches into a grin when she realises what Maeve is implying. She could go shopping , to a mall, in New York!

Joel began to sit up with help from Tommy and Annie. Dazed and disoriented, he started to blink the foggy memory of what happened from his brain. Butcher strutted over to the barely conscious man with Hughie and a flagging Soldier Boy in tow.

“Rise and shine mate, you’re coming with us-”

Butcher had barely finished his sentence when Joel suddenly leapt up from where he was slumped on the ground, grabbing Hughie before holding him up by his throat against the wall.

“Not…Again…” The lad chokes out, a wave of deja vu hitting him from the Mini-Egg incident a few days ago.

Between the group, they were able to coax Joel into releasing Hughie and explain that what they actually meant was that he was coming with them to the Boston lab, and that they weren't planning on kidnapping or killing him or Ellie. Butcher watched as Hughie collapsed to the ground in a heap of limbs, struggling to catch his breath as he declared that he was not sitting next to the ‘Crazy, Pedro Pascal-Looking, Apocalypse Guy’

“Don't be ridiculous mate.” Butcher says, watching as Hughie slumps in relief.

“He doesn't look anything like Pedro Pascal. Frenchie’s on directions up front, you're in the middle.”

Chapter Text

“I look fucking Ridiculous.”

In Maeve’s completely unbiased opinion, she thought Ellie looked absolutely adorable.

The young girl pulled at the golden locks that cascaded down from her head, giving them an experimental flick. It was weird, Ellie thought, seeing herself with a different hair colour than what she has always had. She never thought she would have access to hair dye, and wigs were extremely uncommon in her universe.

So she didn’t know how to feel when Annie had walked in with one of her ‘spare wigs’; excited? Nervous? A strange mix of both? But when she first saw herself in the mirror with blonde hair… all she could think was that the wig was itchy and that she couldn’t wait to get it off later. But apart from that, she didn’t recognise the girl in the mirror. In the few weeks that she had been in this universe for, the small cuts and bruises that she was used to acquiring back home had healed up and not been replaced, making her skin seem soft and young.

Quickly, Ellie stole a glance at Maeve. The older woman was leaning against the wall next to the mirror in Janine’s room they were currently occupying. For once, she wasn’t wearing joggers or her Queen Maeve costume. Instead, she adorned a long denim skirt, with a white fitted jumper and a brown oversized jacket. It was so unlike how she normally dresses, and yet she didn’t seem uncomfortable in how she was styled. But, Ellie assumed that was the point, to keep the attention away from them.

Maeve pulled her hair back into a quick up-do as she spoke.

“You look lovely. Come on now, you need to get changed.” If Maeve was being completely honest, the blonde didn’t suit her. Her complexion looked washed out and dull against the blonde, whereas her natural auburn made her glow. However, most girls of Ellie's age in this universe make that mistake, only with bleach and hair dye.

Maeve had asked Starlight to pick out some basic clothes for Ellie so that she would blend in at the mall. Nothing too out-there, just some black leggings and a hoodie. It was simple, but if Noir was to look in the mall, then it should fool him. And if not, Maeve had stuffed a packet of Almond Joy in both of their pockets.

For a brief moment, Maeve thought about inviting some of the others, but there was something about the look Annie gave her when she handed over the items that said ‘you need to do this just the two of you.’ 

If that was the case, then she was right. Maeve and Ellie haven’t spent time together just the two of them since the girl busted her out of the Vought cell. So it could be nice, just to enjoy each other's company for a bit… maybe get some more details about Ellie’s childhood.

Maeve’s thoughts were interrupted by Ellie’s small puff as she neared the door.

“Well, are you ready?” Ellie asked, bouncing from one leg to another. She must be excited, Maeve thought. 

Maeve smiled, accepting the ride on Uber. 7 minutes away, not bad.

***

Well, this is sufficiently awkward.

Hughie thinks as he is sat squashed between Soldier Boy and this Joel guy. They were about 2 hours or half way through the journey to the Boston Lab, and no one had yet spoken a word.

Well, Hughie was going to change that.

“So what’s the apocalypse like?” Hughie blurted out, ending the silence.

Frenchie sighed, taking a $20 bill out of his wallet, and slid it into Butcher’s waiting hand as it dangled off the steering wheel.

“What do you want to know?” Joel answered, cutting through the tension. Hughie’s mind faltered for a second, in all honesty, he wasn’t expecting an answer. He spluttered for a moment, before throwing his hands up and slapping them on his legs.

“How did it start?”

There was another lengthy pause. Hughie was about to open his mouth again to ask when Joel’s reply filled the silence.

“No one really knows for sure. Everyone was fine and then… they weren't. But, best guess is that the mutated cordyceps got into the food supply, probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar, something that's sold across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal… Pancake mix…” They all noticed the way he hesitated before the last one, but no one mentioned it. Hughie shuffles uncomfortably before butting in

“And all the contaminated food hit the supermarket shelves at the same time?” Hughie asks. Joel nods his agreement before continuing.

“On Thursday, they brought the contaminated food. Ate a bit Thursday evening, maybe Friday morning. Day goes on, they start to get sick, afternoon, evening… it got worse.”

“Shit.” Hughie muttered. “I mean, that all happened so fast.” Joel made a sound of agreement, scratching at his face before responding.

 “And then they started biting. I’m sure you know, but if you get bit, then you will turn-”

-”Apart from Ellie.” Hughie blurts out. Slowly, Joel’s head turns towards him. There's a murderous look in his eyes, but it almost tinged with… fear?

“She told us what happened,” Butcher explains from up front. “We thought she had been bitten during the fight with a clicker whilst she was here, but she told us how she was immune, and how you were taking her to… the group that were making the cure.” If his silence was anything to go by, then Joel accepted this answer.

“Y’know, I only accepted the job because the Fireflies took our guns, but promised us double if we got her to their base safely.” Joel said with a small chuckle “If you told me when I was back in the Boston QZ that I would be in a car driving back to Boston with my childhood hero, I wouldn't have believed you.”

“What’s a ‘QZ’?” Soldier Boy pipes up, clearly now engaged in the conversation. 

“Quarantine Zone, there’s quite a few of them around the country, run by FEDRA. They were under Martial Law, so you live and work under their rules. If you broke those rules, you’d be killed.”

“Sounds like fucking Germany in-“

“Why would anyone want to live there?” Hughie asks, cutting Soldier Boy off and pulling a bottle of coke out of his bag and taking a swig.

“Protection. Those areas were safe from the infected. But you had to work hard to stay there. I used to… move and burn dead bodies. In fact we gave up on dollars, we use these ration cards, can be exchanged for food.” 

Joel reached into his pocket, pulling out a ward of coloured cards, each with a designated number on it. He handed them to Hughie, who inspected them incredulously. 

“So was this the only form of currency you had?” Hughie asks, still turning the cards over in his hand.

“…no.” Joel answers carefully, glancing at Soldier Boy with a tinge of nervousness. He clears his throat before continuing.

“We also had The Hunts.”

***

Ellie fiddled with a stand of the blonde wig as she trotted beside Maeve through the mall. When they first arrived, Maeve had seemed cautious, scanning the space with a subtle flick of her eye before allowing Ellie to proceed. After a few minutes of this, Ellie decided she had had enough, and tugged gently at Maeve’s hand.

“Hey, enough. There not going to fucking be here, it’s a mall.” Ellie had exclaimed, throwing her hands up slightly.

Maeve opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it, sighing heavily in defeat.

“I just… I don't want to risk letting my guard down.” Maeve had admitted, scrunching her lips into something resembling a pout.

Before she knew it, Maeve had guided her towards the shoe store. The smell of leather and obnoxiously loud music filled her senses.

“Okay, Rugrat, go crazy!” 

Ellie’s eyes opened in wonder, before a look of confusion crossed them as she turned back to Maeve.

“Rug-?”

“-just pick a pair of shoes.”

So Ellie started to look around the store. She picked up a funky looking scandal-like shoe, it was covered in holes and feverishly bright. She gave it a whack in her hand, listening to the loud thump the clog made.

“Please don’t tell me you want a pair of crocs.” Ellie heard Maeve groan behind her. Ellie made a comment about them being impractical, before placing them back on the shelf. She made a similar comment as she passed the Ugg section; warm, but not good in heavy rain or snow.

“You don’t have to worry about them being practical” - anymore- “ just… pick a pair that’s comfortable and your style.”

And that’s how they ended up in the converse section. Ellie looked at the array of options: big soles, high tops, low tops, thigh-highs, rainbow, patterns, heels. There were too many options, she wasn’t used to having this many options to choose from. What if she made the wrong choice? And what if-

Then she saw them.

They were dark green, coming up past the ankle. They would be comfortable, but the sole would mean she would be able to run if need be, the style would support her ankles. And she loves dark green.

“Can I try these on?” She asks Maeve, holding up the shoe delicately, as if it were made from gold. Maeve smiles her response, beckoning an assistant over to help. The assistant takes the shoe away, returning with the same shoe in 4 different sizes as per Maeve’s request.

“Pick whichever feels comfiest. You don’t need to worry about growing into these.” Maeve tells her, watching as the teenager tries on each pair multiple times, before deciding on the correct size.

“Come on, let’s go and pay.”

Ellie jogged to keep up with Maeve, clutching the shoes to her chest as they approached the counter. 

“Hey you never told me what a Rugrat was-“ Ellie was cut off by a woman’s voice.

“Mags?” Her voice was familiar, turning around, Ellie looked at the woman trying to get Maeve’s attention.

Marlene?!

She looked younger, obviously. her face lacked that starved, scarred-guantlessness she used to carry. Instead, her face seemed lighter, softer, as she smiled gleefully at Maeve. But definitely Marlene, there was no two-ways about it.

“Long time, no see, Merle.” Maeve exclaimed, pulling the woman into a tense embrace. 

Wait, Merle?

“How’s life been treating you then?” Maeve asks the so-called ‘Merle’, Ellie looks at her skeptically. Maeve casts her eyes down, noticing the look of recognition in Ellie’s eyes as she stares at her friend.

“Same-old, same-old. I’ve not been arrested again for a while though, so that’s something.” Merle laughs

“Y’know, you might actually go somewhere with these protests if you kept them more under the radar.” Maeve quips back, although, not all of that humour reaches her eyes.

“I know, but where’s the fun in that.” Merle responds, chuckling slightly to herself. “Perhaps we could have a catch up over a drink?” Merle, tilts her head in an attempt to reach Maeve’s eyes, but the red haired woman quickly diverts her gaze. 

“Sorry, I can’t right now Merle. Having a day out with the kid you see.” Suddenly, it’s as if Merle realises Ellie’s presence throughout their conversation.

“Looks like you’ve been busy since Godolkin.” Merle smirked. Maeve swallowed back her splutter, keeping her demeanour cool. She looped an arm around the small teenager, softening her face into an emphatic expression.

“She’s from Make a Wish…” Maeve lied, pulling the girl closer. Although the terminology confused her, Ellie got the impression that this statement would get the other Marlene to leave. So Ellie nodded her head with all the sadness she could muster. Merle flustered in response, her hand flying to her mouth.

“Oh I’m sorry- I won’t disturb you anymore! We’ll catch up over that drink at some point though Maeve, yeah?” Merle winked as she winked her goodbye. Once she had left, Maeve cast her eyes down at Ellie.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Maeve observed, watching as Ellie’s gaze lingered on Merle as she disappeared into the crowd.

“Something like that.” Ellie muttered in response. “Remember how I mentioned about the fireflies back in my universe?”

“The terrorists rebel group that are looking for a cure?”

“Yep, well she-“ Ellie nodded in the direction Merle went “-is their leader.”

“Merle?” Maeve mulls it over for a second “yeah, that checks out.”

“She goes by Marlene in my universe though.” Ellie looks up at Maeve as she says this, watching as an unreadable emotion crosses over Maeve’s face. If she had to pinpoint it, Ellie would almost say it was a look of bitter sadness and confusion. 

“You okay?”

Maeve snaps out of her daze, releasing Ellie from the embrace. She quickly forces a smile onto her face masking the expression she was displaying a moment ago.

“Y’know what? I want a Frappe. I haven't had one in forever and I'm willing to bet you've never tried one, so let's go and have one, right now.” Maeve took Ellie's hand as she started to weave them through the mall to a large cafe with ‘Starbucks’ written in green over it.

And whilst she hopes a so-called ‘Frappe’ tastes better than the dirt Joel calls coffee, she just can't shake Maeve’s reaction to hearing Marlene’s name.

Weird… But apparently they have a ‘Cookies and Cream’ flavoured Frappe. And Ellie now loves cookies… and cream.

***

“What do you mean ‘The Hunts.’?” Butcher was… intrigued to say the least. He watched as Joel squirmed subtly before answering.

“Before I… you need to know how bad it got. For the first few years, we had no food, people were starving to death. When you have no quality of life, nothing to live for… you get desperate, you’ll take anything just to live … And then FEDRA turned round, and said…” Joel stopped, closing his eyes as he breathed deeply.

“Im not going to claim that my life was perfect, but when you had everything, and then that was suddenly taken from you… it makes you angry, angry at the world. And then you find out that there were so many supes that evaded having their powers taken away. And… I get it…its part of them, but that selfishness of not wanting to protect what was left of humanity…” Joel stopped again, his jaw twitched as he turned his gaze towards the window and away from the group

“We all started to hate supes. Stopped calling them that abbreviation of ‘superheroes’ all together actually, and just referred to them as ‘Powered People.’ FEDRA kept telling us how evil and selfish these ‘less than human’ individuals were and then…” Joel sighed, turning back to the group. 

“They said if you started to bring them in… dead or alive… then you and everyone in your group would be rewarded. When you can't remember the last time you ate, but delivering one body to FEDRA gets you more food then you’ve seen in over a year; then you do it. My brother and I got really good at it. When you brought in enough of them, you got connections, you could start asking for more than just food. But after a while, you stopped seeing them as people, more like animals-“

Butcher barked out a laugh before Joel could continue. All the men in the car turned to look at him.

“Mate,” Butcher said between laughs. “You do know what we do, right? We’re literally doing all this to kill Homelander and bring down Vought. Trust me, we ain’t judging ya. Even Soldier Boy is tracking down his old team.”

The man in question nodded at Joel in response. They all watched as the man relaxed, his shoulders slumping in relief.

“What weapons did you use to kill them?” Frenchie pipes up from the front, twisting a small blade that he materialised from god knows where.

“We didn’t.” Joel answers honestly. “We had the tools to effectively trap and subdue them from various trades. But the dead ones? We found them like that.” Joel ran a hand across his face before continuing.

“There was a guy that would kill them and just leave their corpses for others to find… I can’t remember much, It was at least 15 years ago for me. But he would slaughter powered people, everyone thought he was working with FEDRA, but he’d massacre those guys as well.-“ Joel huffed a laugh before looking up at the British man driving “-They called him The Butcher.”

***

Ellie definitely preferred these ‘Frappe’ things to Joel’s coffee, she happily slurped on the ice cubes as Maeve passed her a brightly coloured sweet smelling thing on a stick.

“It’s a cake-pop.” The older woman said as she watched Ellie cautiously take a bite, before her eyes lit up in glee and she devoured the whole thing. Maeve watched the girl in wonder as she gazed around the mall. Could this teenager really be her daughter? Could they really share the same DNA? What happened in that universe? Why was Ellie travelling around with some random middle aged man?

What happened to Butcher and her?

“Ellie, can I ask you something?” Maeve asks cautiously as the young girl looks up at her.

“Yeah, go for it. Shoot.” Ellie replies, making small finger guns at the woman. Maeve leans forward on their table in an effort to compose herself.

“What…do you know about your parents?” Maeve expected a different emotion from Ellie, but the girl just shrugged as she started to eat another cake-pop.

“Don’t know anything about my dad. I guess he died, or left? I don’t know, but I never met him.” Ellie answered, finishing off her second cake pop and reaching for a third. 

“These are good” she says around her mouthful. “My mom, I don’t know much about her. She was friends with Marlene, so she was the one to tell me about her. She died just after I was born, but she left me a note, I carry it with me at all times.”

Maeve nodded along as Ellie spoke, taking it all in. So she’s dead then in that universe. What happened? How did she die?

“The only other thing I know is that her name was Anna.”

Wait… what?

My name is not Anna.

Margret can’t even be nicknamed into Anna.

“How do you know… that your moms name was Anna?” Maeve splutters out her question. Ellie’s face remained nonchalant as she reached for Maeve’s half-drunk Frappe, dragging it out of the woman’s hands.

“Well, that’s the name she signed off on the note she left me.”

Maeve nodded in response, bringing her hand up to take a sip from her drink that was no longer there. She looked down at her empty hand in confusion before noticing her frappe being happily slurped by the teenager. Maeve smiled before taking it back. Ellie grinned mischievously before clutching her stomach.

“Maeve, I think I need the toilet.”

“No shit.”

***

It didn’t take long for them to finally arrive at the Boston lab, and the place checks out. Sketchy building, heavily guarded. Yep they were in the right place. 

Hughie, Frenchie and Soldier Boy had left to find a way into the building, leaving Butcher and Joel in the car. Not awkward at all, although Butcher got the heavy impression that this guy wasn’t his biggest fan.

“I’ve been meaning to say thank you.” 

Okay, maybe Butcher was wrong

“What for?” The British man responded, turning around still in the drivers seat to speak to Joel.

“For looking after Ellie when I couldn’t.” Joel answered “she may not be my own flesh and blood, but she might as well be y’know?”

“I do, I have my own. Ryan, he’s my late wife’s kid. but fucking hell, I care for him like he’s mine. They’d get along, our two.” Butcher smiled, a genuine smile, not the fake one he usually gives people. Joel smiled himself, undoing the seatbelt he had previously been wearing.

“I do want Ellie to get some more friends her own age. She needs to stop hanging out with middle aged men.” Joel laughed, only laughing harder when Butcher barked his own laugh. He looked at Joel for a moment, and realised how much this guy genuinely loved his daughter. Butcher felt close to the girl after just a few weeks of knowing her, but Joel had spent months knowing her. He could look after her…

Better than Butcher could.

He can’t take a father like this away from Ellie. If he was anything like his own father, then he could never put another kid through that.

So he’s decided. He’s not going to tell Ellie that he is her biological father. 

Suddenly, Butcher felt his phone buzz. He looked down subtly, only to see it was Maeve messaging him:

‘Ellie said her moms name is Anna.’

But Maeve’s name is not Anna

None of her names can be fucking nicknamed to Anna.

Butcher replied with a quick tap:

‘What???’