Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Caspian felt the ice-cold concrete floor while trying to listen for any foot steps her footsteps he new she hadn’t come by since the new prisoner Athena had arrived. The optimist who gave him at least a little bit of hope of getting out of this place. More hope than he had in the last 4 years, after 1 year of being here he gave up on hoping things would get better. Gave up on hoping on see his best friend god she probably thought he was dead.

Even though a teenager shouldn’t be in a place like this he was glad Athena was here he was glad that bitch hadn’t come to just torture or experiment on him in a week. In the 5 years caspian Solcrest had been here hadn’t gotten a break from Perix before. He heard Athena yawn and looked over to her cell and saw them sitting up. “morning old man,” he teased “I’m not old your just a teenager,” caspian stated

“We’ve been over this you have white hair your old,” they exclaimed he didn’t want to explain what it was from actually so he simply stayed silent.

“Have I told you about my uncle Rae yet?” She asked caspian shook his head “well technically he isn’t my uncle by blood but I’m his assistant and he teaches me alot of things he was actually the person who taught me how make gadgets I just call him my uncle, and he barely ever sleeps he just ends up passing out at his desk I cannot count how many times I have had to shove a pillow under his face so he doesn’t get an indent on his cheek,” they explained he continued to talk about her uncle for probably a hour.

He sat there in the cell glancing at Athena occasionally seeing them hugging their knees shivering he felt bad for them he could tell they were less used to the cold than a normal person was being a nether hybrid. Then he started to hear footsteps coming down the hallway towards them.

What if she’s here what if she’ll- he looked up and saw that most of the people had come into view.

A man with long black hair, a slopch of dark purple on the right side of his face, light mask looking sorta of like a blindfold made out of a lot of tiny lace stars and a purple cloak with constellations on it.

A person in a yellow and purple trench coat with lots of potions fingerless gloves and what looked like a glitched out affect on the upper half of their face and bird wings.

A person with brown fluffy hair with flowers looking like they’re covering their eyes.

And then he finally saw the final person he saw “mombo?” he asked she looked towards him her red hair cascading down her shoulders with flowers imbedded in it almost the same as it was when he last her saw. He didn’t think he would ever see her again his best and only friend The lady of the world. She chimed in sounding like they were on the brink of tears “Caspian oh my god you’re not dead!”

“You to know each other?” Athena wondered.

Mombo replied “yeah old friends, he actually came up with my vigilante name.”

“Oh Astro I called you in sick for tomorrow because you need to go to sleep,” revealed the third person . Astro replied “my sleep isn’t that bad deltavera.”

“Who much sleep have you actually gotten since I got kidnapped?” Athena questioned Astro didn’t answer Athena stated “your silence concerns me.”

“I’m gonna get this door unlocked,” the second person walked towards Athena’s cell door. Caspian assumed that the person would pull out lock pics or a stolen key but instead the just touched the padlock and it turned into a pile of beads. “What the fuck?” Caspian muttered Athena then stood up and ran over to them giving the second person a short hug while whispering “thank you Quixsis.”

Once Athena released them from the hug, Quixsis started to walk over and changed the lock into beads. Caspian weakly stood up leaning his hand against the bars keeping himself trying steady. He noticed the concern written on their faces as he stepped out of the cell Astro asked anxiety etched into his voice “are you okay, I mean you’re clearly not okay but do you like need a health potion or something like that?”

“No I’ll be fine don’t worry,” Caspian replied trying to reassure all of them it didn’t seem to help that much though. He really didn’t think he could deal with the sound of glass shattering he always associated that sound with her. Currently the potions on Quixsis all looked like splash potions which made sense for the type of job they were in.

They all started walking down the hallway when they passed the rooms she experimented on him in a shiver ran down his spine. It all kinda felt unreal that he would actually finally be able to leave to finally see the outside world. Going up the stairs past the main room then at last finally reaching the outside Caspian noticed the beautiful star filled night sky.

They alls started heading towards what seemingly was their getaway vehicle, they stepped inside a black van with tinted windows presumably waiting for them out front. “I’ll drive,” Quixsis volunteered and stepped into the front seat. Everyone else stepped into back of the van Athena and Deltavera sitting on the right side next to Astro. Caspian sat next to mombo “well now since everyone’s out of there we should probably introduce ourselves since you knew who mombo was already and since some of us were easy to figure out,” deltavera spoke up.

Quixsis wiped their head around “look not all of us have powers that aren’t easily recognisable!” Caspian glanced at Strawberri before saying “to be fair I only found out because she came into our apartment 3 days after starting as a vigilante while I was home after getting stabbed at 2am.” 

Deltavera began as they moved their flowers “hi my name is jamie,” oh right mombo adopted 2 kids he almost forgot he hadn’t interacted with either of them, they both kept to themselves a lot. “Oh yeah mombo’s mentioned you before,” Caspian commented Astro removed his mask and said “my name’s rae it’s nice to meet you wish it was under better circumstances.”

Quixsis went next saying “I’m sherbert an alchemist if you need any potions come to me.” Jamie, Athena and Rae started talking about something else he wasn’t paying attention to, “so what have I missed in the last 5 years?” Caspian asked her. She began “Jamie started working at a bakery called the flour graden I’ve expanded my greenhouse, Easton is currently at college working on their degree in real estate.”

After Strawberri finished explaining Caspian felt himself slowly feeling more drowsy and his eyes closed as he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Caspian wiped the tears out of his eyes as he ran forward quickly trying to find the fastest way to the hospital turning through alley ways and other kinds of shortcuts urban exploring sure did have its precks. He was going to see her, he saw fight on the news she almost died for fucks sake he didn’t care if the shortcuts he was taking where unsafe and had high crime rates but he didn’t care about that maybe he should’ve. However the only thing on his mind at the moment was making sure Strawberri was ok.

The Dim lighting of rusty street lights lit the way as he rushed into the alleyway trying to catch his breath. As he was catching his breath he heard a vehicle of some sort pulling up and footsteps approaching him.

Then suddenly Caspian felt a fingerless gloved hand come over his mouth, he tried to get free from whoever had been restraining him but was unsuccessful. He tired to scream but barely a sound came out he heard the person behind him say while chuckling “shush, it’s almost funny seeing you struggle… almost,” the last part of the sentence sounded like she was annoyed. He felt a prick in his neck as the person let go and stepped back, his knees buckled and he collapsed onto the ground.

His head was spinning, his vision started going blurry and Caspian felt like he could barely breathe, his limbs felt weak he couldn’t move. He heard more footsteps behind him and she came into view a figure a figure he had heard about from lady of the world… Perix, he didn’t really focus when she was explaining it to him. He really regretted that now.

She sadistically smiled and crouched down she taunted “you know, you really were in the perfect place I was in the need for new test subjects.” Oh shit oh shit he couldn’t get away he couldn’t godamn move he was powerless in this situation, he just wanted to see his friend he should’ve chosen a different route or something he was probably never gonna see Strawberri again.

She scooped him up and walked towards the back of her car and shoved him in as she closed the boot he finally lost consciousness.

Then Caspian awoke and sat up abruptly rapidly breathing and trembling once he got his breathing under control he realised that he wasn’t laying on cold concrete. He felt a soft duvet he was in a bed? Where the fuck was he? this wasn’t his cell was this one of that bitch’s illusions? He looked around the room. There was a clock on the wall he glanced at it a couple times trying to see if the handles didn’t move or if they did to a time that didn’t make sense but it just behaved like a normal clock… this was real, it wasn’t one of her illusions this was real holy crap this was real he was out.

He the realised he wasn’t wearing his jacket and his arms were bandaged. Where was his jacket? He was clearly in Mombo’s house since there about 10 flowers in this room alone. It looked like it was daytime since the sun was up, he walked towards the door checking it was unlocked before opening it. He wondered who bandaged his wounds because strawberri usually came to him for help, maybe they actually learned how to take care of wounds.

As he went down the stairs he noticed strawberri turning on the kettle probably brewing some herbal tea she used to drink it a lot. “Hi Mombo do you know where my jacket is?” Caspian asked mombo turned to look at him and replied “oh hello Caspian good to see you awake, yeah Rae was patching the rips in it up since we weren’t exactly sure when you would wake up.”

‘Weren’t exactly sure when you would wake up’ how long was he asleep for? “How long have I been asleep for?” Caspian asked. “2 days some of your wounds looked infected so Easton went to get some antibiotics from the pharmacy, I’m still not good with that kind of thing so the others patched you up,” strawberri informed he heard the kettle go off she then grabbed a mug from the cabinet and a tea bag then poured the hot water in.

After that she set a timer for steeping the tea. “What exactly happened when you got kidnapped?” She asked he paused trying to think how to word it correctly, he explained “remember how you got into that really bad fight the one where you ended up in the hospital…” her eyes widened as he said that. He continued “I kind of ended up panicking and tried to run to the hospital I may taken some unsafe shortcuts near some abandoned places which in hindsight was not the best idea.”

She gave him that look he stated “Look in my defence I didn’t get arrested I did get kidnapped by the Perix but in my defence I was panicking.”

“I missed you,” Caspian spoke up “I missed you too, I may have allegedly struck some of the people who treated you badly when we lived together because I thought they might have done something to you,” mombo confessed. The timer went off she then took the teabag out, threw it into the garbage and poured in the sugar. Strawberri stirred the tea, once it was ready she began to drink the tea. Mombo glanced up towards him, seemingly about to continue the conversation then she just stared at him. He could hear rain drops in the background and the beaming sunlight coming through the windows had dimmed severely wait rain drops oh that’s not good she was upset but by what she was looking up at his face at the white streak in his hair.

It had been as wide as a pencil before the end prison it had gotten bigger because of what she did. “It got bigger,” she murmured they both understood what meant anyone whose heart stopped and was brought back would be left with a mark it wasn’t a pleasant experience in well anyone’s opinion.

“Did she?” strawberri inquired he looked away not meeting her eyes, they stood in silence for awhile until he heard turn unlock turning around to see Easton 1 of mombo’s kids. They chucked a bottle of antibiotics in his direction and went up the stairs, he caught them and took 1.

“Can I have some food all the food they had there was drugged and somehow tasted like nothing?” Caspian asked mombo nodded and started cooking some scrambled eggs.