Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A figure stood in front of a building, one cloaked in blue flames.

The fire danced in their eyes as they stared up, up, up, as the screams of innocents filtered through their mind. They didn’t even really know why they had done it. All they knew was that they were supposed to do so. So they did. There was nothing more to it.

But that was then. That was their mission. They were done with it. It was time to make their exit. They’d had run-ins with heroes before, and honestly, the fights were more of an annoyance than anything. If they could avoid it, they would. Heroes would show up any minute. They needed to leave.

The figure kept their expression neutral as they opened a portal in front of them. Cold air seeped out from the crack in the world, though the figure felt none of it. They were used to it, after all. That’s where they lived. And even if it wasn’t their home, they wouldn’t be able to feel it anyway. It wouldn’t make sense for the dead to have any connection with the material plane. They took one step into the portal.

That was when they felt a hand grip their forearm, stopping them from making their quick getaway. They turned around quickly, the portal closing behind them. Internally, they cursed themself. How had they been so careless that they didn’t pay attention to their surroundings? As they turned around, the fire reflected in their eyes seemed to actually transfer to them, a faint trail of sparks becoming an after-image.

Holding onto them was a… civilian. Not even a hero or one in training. The civilian had bright red hair and a determined look on his face. Oh, they’ve seen this type before. Desperately wanting to emulate the heroes they idolize, they rush blindly into danger. Well, they would crush that hope. It’d be easy. They wouldn’t even break a sweat. Maybe it would even be fun, not like they’ve felt that in a few years.

“Stop, villain!” The civilian exclaimed. “I won’t let you get away!” Through the mask, they just rolled their eyes. Like this random guy could stop them. They went to pull their arm out of his grip, but they couldn’t. Now that confused them. They tried again. This time, it felt like the grip got tighter. What the hell? How?

They turned to fully look at the person holding them. They’ve faced off against quite a few of the heroes of New Haven and researched even more. This person wasn’t a hero, sidekick, or even a villain. This was straight up a civilian. “Who are you?” Their voice was crystal clear, as if they weren’t wearing a mask at all. That was a problem, because they definitely sounded their age. One of the staples of their identity was that they didn’t talk. That was why it shocked both of them when they did speak. Curse their insatiable curiosity.

The civilian recovered quickly, however. “Dakota Cole! Now, Wisperer, you are going to jail!” Ah, so Dakota did know who they were and just ignored their past actions. Interesting. They raised an eyebrow, though no one could see it through their mask.

“Really?” They asked, their smirk coming through in their voice. They jerked out of Dakota’s grip, causing him to stumble backwards but remain upright. “Will you truly?” They stalked towards him and raised their hand. In the blink of an eye, it was ignited with the same blue flame as the fire roaring behind them. That caused Dakota’s eyes to widen, just slightly, almost with fear. Good. That was the correct response.

The Wisperer surged forward and grabbed Dakota by the throat. Now that forced a scream from him. Even better. They squeezed, just a bit harder, causing him to have a hard time breathing. He instinctively reached up and tried to claw their hand off of his throat, but all that achieved was getting his hands burned. If they were feeling just a bit crueler, they would have laughed at his misery. They didn’t feel cruel. They didn’t feel anything at all.

However, before they could hurt Dakota even more, they heard the heavy footfalls of multiple people rushing towards them. Damn, they thought they had more time. The Wisperer released Dakota to the ground and turned back around. They created a portal back to the Spirit World and stepped through before anyone could stop them.

Well, that was fun, they supposed. But it was done now, for better or worse.

The heroes in training Winter and Virion were going as fast as they could. The Wisperer had attacked again, and they were the only ones who could help, seeing as most of the Prime Force were Off-World. Again. Unfortunately, they were on the other side of town and neither of them had money for a taxi. So they had to run. Or, well, use Demon Heelys and hold onto the other for dear life. Even then, it didn’t feel like they were going fast enough.

Once they were close enough, Winter put their Heelys back in his book and ran. Virion was right next to them. The two of them could see the smoke and the telltale fire, reaching up to the sky. They turned the corner to see a small crack in reality close and someone on the ground, clutching their throat. The pair didn’t even need to look at each other to know what to do.

Winter rushed over to the person on the ground while Virion entered the burning building. He was looking for any survivors. It was tough, trying to see through the smoke and avoid the flames or any debris. Unfortunately, all he found were charred bodies. Gods, he hated the Wisperer. Their attacks never had any pattern other than senseless destruction and they were almost always gone before heroes could get there. Not only was it aggravating, it was horrifying. Virion couldn’t even put himself into a mindset that would let him kill one innocent person, let alone as many as the Wisperer did. Dejectedly, he returned to Winter’s side.

Speaking of Winter, he was crouched next to the civilian. There was a handprint-shaped burn mark on their throat, indicating that the Wisperer got up close and personal with this specific person. They could question them later, first, they needed to heal them. The hero opened their book and summoned the biblically accurate angel. With some ominous words, it healed the civilian and disappeared back into the book. The healing clearly worked, considering how they stopped thrashing on the ground. They closed their eyes and let out a breath. Their chest slowly moved up and down. Good, they were still alive. Footsteps broke him from their trance.

Winter looked up to see Virion walking toward them with a solemn expression. So, they were too late. The other knelt next to them. They were both looking down at this red haired person, as if they would give them the answer to their problems. With a sigh, Winter raised their wrist and dialed their mentor.

It barely even took one ring for him to pick up. “Hello? Ashe, is everything alright?” Tide’s familiar voice filtered through their watch. That caused Winter to sigh again. If everything were alright, they wouldn’t be calling. 

“No, everything isn’t. The Wisperer got away again. We were too late to save anyone inside,” Winter said, their voice a despondent tone. “But we’ve got someone that seems to have confronted the Wisperer and lived. Should we bring them back to the base?”

“Yes, that’d be a good idea,” Tide responded. After a few moments, he continued, ”Don’t blame yourself for not catching The Wisperer. There wasn’t anything you could’ve done. Even pro-heroes couldn’t catch them,” Tide reassured. Winter muttered an affirmative and hung up.

Virion tried to pick the unconscious person up with a bit of trouble, but eventually was able to. They started the long trek back to the warehouse in silence.

Elsewhere, a boy sat in his room in a castle, one that was too big and too quiet. His mask lay on the floor, discarded without a second thought. He was curled up on his bed, his eyes wide with panic. Tears dripped down his face constantly, as unstoppable as the ocean. He couldn’t calm the torrent of emotions flooding through his mind.

This happened every time he returned from a mission. Every single time, he took off his mask and was forced to confront the unspeakable horrors he committed. It hurt, even if he knew that he didn’t really deserve to feel like this. A monster like himself shouldn’t panic for what they did. He didn’t want to continue hurting people. But he had to. Where else would he go? Who would he turn to? He barely knew how to live, muchless on his own. His inability to live is what landed him in this situation in the first place.

Even through his panic, a thought cut cleanly through his mind. That person that tried to stop him. Dakota Cole, if he remembered correctly. Why did he do that? What gave him the guts? He needed to know. Because, before anything, William Conway was a detective. He would get those answers, one way or another.

Chapter Text

When Dakota woke up, something felt strange. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there certainly was something different. He certainly felt different. Usually, when he wakes up, he’s pumped and full of energy after a good night’s sleep. But now he just felt drowsy and sore. 

Slowly, Dakota opened his eyes. Well, that was probably why it felt different. He had no idea where he was. He was laid out on a couch in some kind of living room. There was a television with a variety of game consoles and video games for said consoles. There were no windows, which did strike him as odd.

With a yawn, Dakota sat up. But yawning... hurt, for some reason. He reached up and tried to feel his throat. On it was what he could only describe as a handprint. It felt warm, but when he touched it, a spark of pain flashed through his mind, causing him to gasp. Okay, the big question was how did he get a new scar?

Thinking back, the memories came rushing back. Oh, yeah. He got choked out by the Wisperer and then… what? Passed out? It made sense, but it didn’t feel good to know that he got taken out by just one attack. He shook his head. That wasn’t important right now. He needed to get his timeline straight. He tried to fight the Wisperer, passed out, and ended up here. That was easy. Alright, new goal. He needed to figure out where ‘here’ was.

Dakota swung his feet over the side of the couch and pushed himself off of it. He was a bit unsteady, but quickly regained his balance. He was fine. This was like a fun mystery, even if he never was a big fan of them. He preferred things to be straight forward, the ideal answer to anything being ‘kick it and hope it went away’. He shook his head. He couldn’t kick his way out of this one. Unless he was kidnapped by a supervillain, then he’d be able to kick them to the moon! And it’d be cool as hell! Turning around, to find what he could only assume would be a villain or an exit, he saw a doorway.

Taking a step towards it, Dakota called out, “Hello?” He heard some crashing and what he could only assume were curses from the room over. After a few moments, a man walked out of the doorway. Dakota’s eyes lit up, as he immediately recognized them as the hero Tide, except in a pink apron. Okay, scratch the whole ‘kidnapped by a villain’ idea. This was way cooler! Heroes took him back to their super secret, ultra cool hero base! Holy shit! Dakota was basically vibrating with excitement at that point.

“My apologies, I thought you would’ve been asleep for longer. Let me get the other two, then they can explain why you’re here. By the way, I’m-” Tide tried to explain. However, his introduction was cut off by Dakota yelling.

“You’re Tide, you’re like- water guy! You are so cool, dude!” Dakota was grinning like an idiot as he spoke. It wasn’t every day that you met your heroes, especially for him. If he hadn’t just gotten injured and wasn’t in pain while he spoke, this would have been the best day ever. Unfortunately, he had made a decision that had landed him in danger. Again. Like he did countless times before.

Tide looked slightly confused by Dakota’s outburst, but then seemed to realize that he was a famous hero. He nodded. “That’s me. I need to get Winter and Virion, then you can ask all the questions you want,” He assured before disappearing back into what Dakota could only assume was a hallway. 

Dakota was ecstatic. Tide, Winter, and Virion? This was like Christmas in… March. That didn’t flow off the tongue as well as Christmas in July, but that wasn’t the point. What was the point was that he was going to meet the people he looked up to. Screw the saying that you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Surely it wouldn’t apply in this situation. If he hoped enough, maybe they’d even let him join their superhero organization! If he remembered correctly, they were called the Prime Defenders. He was totally Prime Defender material!

It felt like Tide was taking forever to get the other two heroes, but maybe that was just Dakota being impatient. So, to get off the extra energy, he ran around the room a few times. It really just looked like a red blur tracing the perimeter of the room. It barely even took a second for him to finish his little jog. Damn. If only he were normal and didn’t have superpowers that absolutely qualified him for the title of Prime Defender, hint hint wink wink. Winter was relatively new to the hero scene, so he wasn’t sure if they had any mind reading powers. If they did, Dakota was just thinking about the things that would make them a good fit. He was cool and he had superpowers. Plus, he already had experience helping people and saving the day! He’d been doing  ̶v̶i̶g̶i̶l̶a̶n̶t̶e̶ off-the-books superhero work for the past few years! Actually, maybe admitting that wasn’t such a good idea.

With a sigh, Dakota plopped back down on the couch. After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality just a few minutes, Tide returned with two teenagers in tow. One had ash-grey hair and clearly just woke up while the other had purple hair and pointed ears. That confused him. Tide said that he was going to get Virion and Winter, but neither of them were Virion or Winter. Maybe this was a supervillain merely pretending to be Tide to lure him into a trap!

“Yo, dude. You said you were getting Virion and Winter, but these people aren’t Virion or Winter? Are you actually Tide, or are you secretly a supervillain and you just wanted to lower my guard?” Dakota asked Tide, a challenging look in his eyes. That was one hundred percent what actually was happening here. It was the only thing that made sense!

The one with ash-grey hair just sighed in response, as if what he just said was absurd. “I’m Winter and that’s Virion. I don’t think Tide can become evil, even if he was, like… mind controlled, or something.” If Dakota squinted, he could see the resemblance between this person and Winter. They trusted him enough not to be in masks around him? Even more evidence that he should be a Prime Defender.

Dakota zipped over to Winter and shook their hand faster than what was strictly necessary. “Dakota Cole! It’s real cool to meet you, dude!” That certainly woke Winter up. Their eyes widened, as it probably felt like their whole body was shaking. Or maybe they were just realizing how much they wanted him on their team. In all honesty, it was probably the latter. Who wouldn’t want him on their team? Every superhero organization he contacted, apparently, but that’s besides the point.

After a few moments, Dakota ceased his handshake and stood back, a huge grin on his face. “So, what’s up? What’dya need from me? Oooh, don’t tell me, I’m psychic.” He closed his eyes and put his fingers to his temples. “You want to…let me join the Prime Defenders.” He opened his eyes and looked at the three. They all had a particular look on their faces, one that he couldn’t place.

Dakota leaned over to Virion and stage-whispered, “I’m not actually psychic, I’m just super strong and fast. You totally should let me join, though.” With that, Dakota whizzed back to the couch. In the blink of an eye, he was sitting down. “I was totes serious though, dudes. What do you need me for?”

The trio looked like they had whiplash, probably from how fast he moved and how fast he bounced from one topic to the other. The first to recover was Winter, who came and sat next to him. “We found you outside the site of the Wisperer’s latest attack with a burn mark on your neck. As you… probably know, almost nobody survives a confrontation with them, especially not a civilian. We, well, I was wondering how you managed that,” They explained. That seemed to snap the other two out of their trance, both of which took the opportunity to sit in armchairs that he hadn’t noticed. Dakota took a moment to think over Winter’s words.

“Well, I was walking around the city and saw the Wisperer standing outside of the building so I thought that I could stall ‘em, other heroes would get there and we could take them down! But they made this weird portal to, like, a bedroom. I knew I couldn’t let them get away, so I grabbed them. We exchanged a few words, then they choked me with a fire hand. Pretty simple,” Dakota explained with a shrug. 

It was Virion’s turn to chime in. “What did they sound like?” That caused him to think for a few moments. It was the heat of the moment and, honestly, they just sounded… forgettable. It was a real head scratcher, if he said so himself.

“I don’t really remember, sorry,” He said with a shrug. That caused a round of sighs. But, hey, what was he gonna do? Figure out how to project his memories for the group? That was silly. Absurd, even. He had super strength and speed, he didn’t have mental superpowers.

“How did they make the portal?” Tide asked. That caused Dakota to stop and think. How did the Wisperer make it? Now he could remember that, for certain.

“With their hands, I think. Like this.” He demonstrated what he saw. He made a triangle with all his fingers extended and then pulled his hands apart. Each of the heroes in the room watched with rapt attention. It felt nice, for them to finally look at him with something other than a general pity. It felt nice for them to look at him like he had the answers to their questions.

They stared at each other before Virion broke the silence by saying, “Alright, Prime Defenders and Tide, sidebar for a second.” They stood up and huddled on the other side of the room. Fun, another time he had to wait. He hated waiting. Everything felt like it went at a snail’s pace while he was going at Mach 4. Every so often, one of them looked back at him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have super hearing, so he had no idea what they were saying.

After a few minutes of restlessness, the heroes returned to their seats. This time, Tide spoke. “So, Dakota, we’ve talked it over and we want to offer you an invitation to join the Prime Defenders. Of course, this would mean leaving your old life behind and registering as a hero, but that’d be easy to figure out. So, what do you say?”

It took a full minute for Dakota to register what was just said to him. After that, though, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. Wow, he’s used two separate Christmas similes. He supposed that he just really wanted Christmas to come early. He shook his head a bit. It was March, it was not the time for festivities. It was time for celebration.

In the blink of an eye, Dakota had swept the other three people in the room up into a hug. “I accept!!” He exclaimed. Once they realized what was happening, they relaxed and hugged back. And iff Dakota was crying, who would know?

Vyncent was at the library. Not by any choice of his, but Ashe had homework to catch up on and Dakota needed to get settled in. So, that left him stuck with the stupid job of researching. He could barely read the language here, much less read the complex books and texts they needed.

Tide had said that, if they wanted to catch the Wisperer, they should probably figure out where they were escaping to. So, he said that they should figure out everything they could about the portals they were apparently making. Personally, Vyncent wanted nothing to do with the Wisperer. If they could make portals like the Lich could, then he thought they should all steer clear of them and let them do whatever they wanted. It wasn’t like anyone could fight them, they were too powerful, especially for the group whose nemesis was a villain named Le Frog. 

(In the back of his mind, he considered the possibility of asking the Wisperer to send him home. Surely, one as powerful as them would be able to.)

Vyncent shook his head, trying to get the errant thoughts out of his mind. Even if he really didn’t want to fight this person, this was still an assignment. He wasn’t just going to ignore and disobey his pseudo father figure. So, with some mumbled complaints, he went to the public library. He stood in an aisle filled with academic books and research papers.

After roughly half an hour, Vyncent had a sizable stack of various books or papers that contained information about portals. He didn’t know if they were credible, but they seemed to be real to him. Tide could figure out what was needed later. His brain was fried from the amount of words he just read. His eyes hurt and, honestly, he really just wanted to go back to the base.

Carrying the stack with one hand, Vyncent rubbed his eyes with the other. He exited the aisle and was on his way to check out everything, but was stopped when he saw someone struggling with a computer. His superhero instincts kicked in. He needed to help this person. Now, he wasn’t the greatest with technology, but surely he could help. Ignore how he would probably make it worse. He’d probably be fine.

Vyncent walked up to them. “Hey, I saw you were struggling a bit. Do you want some help?” He asked. The person let out a slight yelp of surprise. Whoops. He smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

The person took a few deep breaths to try and calm themself, but… Vyncent noticed that their chest did not move up and down as they did. Like they were just faking it. But who would fake breathe? That’d be stupid. Who would need to fake breathe? He probably just didn’t see it correctly. 

“N-No, don’t worry about it. Electronics don’t really… like me,” The person said, chuckling a bit nervously. “I just n-needed to charge my laptop and f-figured that I could do some w-work while it charged… hah..” 

Looking at them now, Vyncent noticed the stark black streak that went through their white hair and the piercing blue eyes. A chill ran up his spine as he made eye contact. This person was… creepy, he decided. But it felt like he was drawn to them, for some inexplicable reason.

Vyncent nodded and put his stack of papers and books on the table. “I’m Vyncent Sol, and you seem cool. Wanna hang out sometime?” He offered his hand out for a handshake.

The person looked up at him and then down at his hand. After a few moments, their eyes widened like they realized something. They looked back up at his face, then at the stuff that was just put down. Their eyes only seemed to widen more. Then, they realized what they were doing and set their face back into its neutral expression.

“I-I’m William. William Conway. It’s a p-pleasure to meet you, Vyncent. I’m kinda b-busy right now, sorry..” They said, reaching out and shaking his hand. Once that was done, they pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled some digits down on it. Then, they handed it to him. “J-Just, like, give me a c-call…if you want! Hah..” They looked to the side, as if they were embarrassed, though no blush spread across their cheeks.

Speaking of how they didn’t blush, their skin was a worrying state of pale. Their hand was cold as ice. Vyncent’s interacted with dead bodies before, and William felt like one. But that didn’t make sense. They were upright and talking to him. Zombies weren’t real, so that theory was out the window.

“Well, it was nice to meet you. But I’ve gotta go now,” Vyncent said as he tucked the paper into his pocket. He picked up the stack of texts and walked to the counter to check them out. 

He didn’t see William smirk to themself as soon as his back was turned. And, earlier, he didn’t see them slip a mini tracker onto his sleeve. He wouldn’t see them open a portal to the Spirit World as soon as their laptop was finished charging.

William was wandering around the empty castle, as he did every time he either got bored and didn’t have a project to work on or needed to figure something out. Mal usually never interacted with him while in this aimless state of his, which was honestly a godsend. Even if Mal was kind of sorta a father figure to him, he was also really fucking annoying. He was probably up in a tower somewhere scheming about how to make William more miserable or figuring out how to sound even more evil. God, he just wanted to leave and never look back.

Each step created what seemed to be a deafening echo throughout the barren halls. Sure, it was all decorated nice and pretty, but it had no life to it. He supposed that’s because the castle was located in the Spirit World, but that’s stupid and he hated it. Puns sucked. 

But William wasn’t wandering just so that he could complain mentally. He needed to figure out some things, especially after what happened earlier. Honestly, it was still fucking with him that his luck was that shitty. 

Okay, one thing at a time. He met and was in contact with a hero, specifically Virion. He got a tracker off on his sleeve. Virion was… really cute, actually. He’ll know where their base was located the next time he checked his watch. Virion wanted to be friends with him. The Prime Force knew about his portals, somehow. He gave his phone number to Vyncent.

He punched a wall, if only to get the thoughts out of his head. The wall didn’t so much as dent. Was he really that weak? No, the walls here just sucked. He should probably train his strength anyway.

Next thing, the big mystery of that day. Dakota Cole. Someone named Dakota Cole did not exist in any power registries that he checked, much less in any birth registries. Dakota Cole might’ve seen him create a portal, which would then make him go and tell pro heroes. Specifically that offshoot branch of the Prime Force. The Prime Defenders, if he remembered correctly. He knew that Virion was a part of it, so they surely had some sort of connection. He just had to figure out what sort of connection they had.

Maybe William could hang out with Vyncent and get information that way. That totally wasn’t an excuse to spend time with him. Why would it be? That’d be silly. He was cold and emotionless and didn’t get dumb crushes on heroes. 

Alright, even he knew that was a bad lie. But this was the first thing that was even close to a feeling that he had since he died. Let him have this.

Chapter Text

William was sitting in his bedroom, a frantic expression on his face. His laptop sat on his desk while he was basically hunched over it. It showed clips from security camera footage, all of them from New Haven. There didn’t seem to be any tie between them, except for a certain red haired boy. Each scene was of his various heroic acts. He was trying to build a psychological profile of Dakota. If he was going to be a hero, then William wanted to know exactly what made him tick. He’d done it to as many other heroes as he could. It was basically the right of passage.

Watching the cameras confirmed his suspicion: Dakota definitely joined the Prime Defenders. Winter and Virion had carried him back to their base. But he… didn’t actually know where the base was. There didn’t appear to be a lot of cameras around it, but he could make out that it was in Rockfall. He could check the tracker once he got back to the Material Plane and figure out the exact location, but for now, he could work off of the general area.

If he set fire to the school he knew that Virion went to and then placed himself in the… bathroom? Yeah, he acted weak and timid in his civilian form, surely he’d hide out in the bathroom if a sudden case of arson happened. Then, he’d be able to get saved by Vyncent and the Prime Defenders. Then he’d be able to get closer to them. He could even start it from the bathroom and nobody would even know. His flames couldn’t be put out, the only end to them being when they burned out. There’d be no evidence for the police or the heroes to track. Maybe he could even-

William’s  ̶s̶c̶h̶e̶m̶e̶s̶ thoughts were cut off by a knock at the door. There was roughly one person that that could be, and he really didn’t want to talk to him. But Mal would get all pissy if he didn’t, and honestly? He really didn’t want to deal with a pissy Mal. He’d probably try to have more ‘family dinners’ even though both of them know that William doesn’t have a stomach and can’t eat. At this point, he’s pretty sure that Mal just likes to watch him squirm with discomfort. What a bitch, honestly.

His door creaked open behind him, which led to William letting out a groan of annoyance. He could sense the familiar and malevolent presence behind him. Heh, mal-evolent. “I’m kinda in the middle of something here, Mal,” He said, unable to keep the genuine tiredness out of his voice. Even if he couldn’t sleep, he was in a perpetual state of exhaustion. It took a lot of energy to keep a dead body going, alright. It definitely didn’t help that he rarely relaxed. There was just so much to do. He kept flipping through the security tapes, if only to distract himself and appear aloof.

“Well, Wisperer, I’ve got a new mission for you,” Mal started. William rolled his eyes. It’d been a few days since his last mission, he thought he’d get more downtime. And don’t even get him started on the Wisperer thing. They’ve known each other for years at this point, he felt like he should be given at least a little respect. But, alas. 

William turned his chair to look at Mal. Yup, still as evil looking as ever. He raised an eyebrow in an unamused way. “Oh, really? I never would’ve guessed. Do you need me to go grab groceries, or get your car cleaned, Mal?” The elder just continued to stare at him. He averted his eyes from Mal to a decoration on the wall. A missing poster for one William Wisp, age fourteen. He should really take that down soon. It was honestly just depressing. Though, to be fair, the rest of the castle was just as depressing. He sighed and seemed to deflate, making the power dynamic extremely clear. William was not the one that had control here. 

“Fine, whatever. Just… what do you want me to do?” The feigned emotion had drained from his voice and face. Now all that was left was a chilling neutrality.

Mal smirked. “I knew you’d come around. You always do.” William couldn’t even bring himself to hate the other right now. It was just futile. He knew that he would always succumb to whatever Mal wanted, for one reason or another. 

“This is quite time sensitive, so you might want to get going soon,” Mal said. “On Harttawa Island, there will be a research facility. Inside, there will be research that would be helpful to get, but that isn’t your main objective. Get in contact with a man named Wavelength. He will be there.” There was something to his tone that made William suspicious. But, to be fair, everything that Mal did made him suspicious. He nodded. 

With that, Mal turned and left. Well, William- No. The Wisperer had his mission. He better get to it.

The three passengers of the helicopter were in varying states of energy. Dakota was basically bouncing off the walls with excitement, Vyncent was trying to do… something on his phone, while Ashe was looking out the window and daydreaming. There wasn’t one specific thing that they were thinking about. They were really just letting their mind wander while they travelled to the island. 

Vyncent poked their shoulder, causing them to turn around to face him. He had a puzzled expression on his face as he held his phone and a scrap of paper. The dots didn’t connect in their head. “Yeah, what’s up?” They asked.

“Someone gave me this and told me to call him. How?” He asked. Ashe peaked over at his phone and saw that he somehow navigated to the settings menu instead of the phone app. That was when they registered what Vyncent just said. They looked at him with their mouth agape.

They realized that he probably didn’t know the significance of giving another your number. “Vyncent, someone gave you their number ?” They asked, almost in a shock. Then, their eyes narrowed slightly. “Who?”

Vyncent cocked his head to the side. “This guy named William. He seemed cool and he gave this to me and said to call him,” He explained. Dakota, on the other side of the helicopter, bursted out laughing. He turned to look at the other boy with confusion. Ashe just sighed and held their hand out.

Vyncent gave them his phone and the scrap of paper. It barely even took them a minute to get the number in his phone. “Do you want to call them right now?” They asked. He nodded. They just sighed again and hit the call button on the new contact. They held the phone up to their ear.

It rang just one time before the other end picked up. “Hello? Who is this?” The person on the other side asked. They could hear the sound of wildlife and the ocean in the background. Strange.

“Are you William?” Ashe asked. There was a sharp inhale from the phone. This whole situation radiated bad vibes to them. Talking to this person felt the same as when they used their book. It felt cold and impersonal. If they were honest, it kind of scared them.

“Did Mal give you my number? He totally did, that’s in character for him. Oh, I’m going to kill him when I get home. Look, tell him to fuck off. And, honestly, you can fuck off too.” William sounded… incredibly angry. Whoever this Mal guy was seemed to be at the top of his shit list. Wait, but they needed to get Vyncent a date. They couldn’t let him off the line! Screw their social anxiety, this was important, damnit.

“Wait, before you hang up, I’m Vyncent’s friend Ashe. He was having some trouble getting your number into his phone, so I helped him. I don’t know who Mal is,” Ashe said. They didn’t know who Mal was, but the name definitely sounded familiar. Like they read it in their book before.

William let out a breath, though it sounded distorted through the phone. “Shit, fuck,” He muttered. They heard a groan from the other side. “Sorry about that. Just… forget you heard me getting angry at Mal. He’s my dad and thinks I need more friends, even though I don’t. Give the phone to Vyncent, I guess.” The fury seemed to have drained from his voice like it was never there at all. The bad vibes were, honestly, off the charts. But Ashe obeyed. They handed the phone to Vyncent.

Dakota didn’t seem to care about the situation anymore. He was looking out the window incredibly excitedly, which made sense. This was the Prime Defender’s first official mission, and he basically just joined. Maybe Ashe would be doing the same thing if they hadn’t watched the slow descent of their father into… whatever he does now. But that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

Once the phone was no longer their responsibility, they slumped in their seat. That took so much of their social battery. They didn’t really want to even do the mission anymore. It was times like this they wished they were still in their room. It was so quiet and peaceful. The only sounds were those that they controlled. But this was better. Having friends was great. Getting out of their comfort zone was fun. They just had to remind themself of that. If they said it enough, it had to be true.

Oh, right. This Mallard guy. Book. Yes. The helicopter was roughly halfway to the island, so they had time. Ashe pulled the book out from where it rested at their hip and set it in their lap. In the M section, it should be at the beginning.

But, as they flipped through it, there felt like… a foreign presence in the book. Something that resisted their sleuthing. That was strange and incredibly concerning, considering that hadn’t happened before. The words shifted around on the pages. Like the book was trying to hide something from them. After a few minutes of brute forcing it, they eventually got to the page that felt familiar.

The page displayed the image of a hulking mass of pale flesh with too many mouths. It looked grotesque. According to the book, the creature was named Lucifer. But if that was its name, why wasn’t it in the L section? Ashe had barely a second to ponder that before the book shut with a thud . Well, that was all they were allowed to do, apparently. God, they hated the book, even if it was the only reason they were here. 

With a sigh, they put the book back in its pouch and slipped their headphones over their ears. This was going to be a long flight.

Chapter Text

Fuck this island and fuck this mission.

He’d already had to kill two guards that attacked him because he wasn’t supposed to know Wavelength was there, apparently. They didn’t think that this was going to be a murder-y mission, and they really didn’t want to kill those guys. That situation did make him curious, though. Why did Mal want him to get in contact with this Wavelength guy, anyway? Eh, he’d probably see soon enough. That didn’t stop his mind from considering the endless possibilities. It was a fun thought exercise, trying to piece together the clues and solve the small mystery before he directly confronted the solution.

Unfortunately, he had a grand total of two clues; Mal might know Wavelength and he wasn’t supposed to know Wavelength’s location. With the lack of evidence or context, there wasn’t really any way for him to figure anything out. It was a bummer, not being able to solve the mystery.

Maybe this was just a side effect of him spending most of his time in the Spirit World and not in the Material Plane. Maybe this Wavelength guy was a super famous hero- or villain, if Mal knew him. Maybe it was his fault for not knowing this person. He could watch security cameras all he wanted, it didn’t hold a candle to actually experiencing it in person.

Going intangible, the Wisperer walked through the facility. The first level was mostly barracks for this… B.A.D. Militia. Honestly, he was kind of in shock that they called themselves bad. That just didn’t seem like good marketing to him, but what did he know? He was just a ghost. That level was incredibly uninteresting, so he went down a floor by phasing through the ground. 

Immediately, he was confronted with a cacophony of animal sounds and cries, ones that shouldn’t be together, like a bear and a monkey. Even if he could barely remember his life before he died, he knew that things like those did not share a climate. But he just couldn’t think with all this noise. Considering the fact that he was used to the deafening silence of Mal’s castle, this sucked. Even in the city, he could mostly block all the sound out by focusing on his mission. But here? Here, he was investigating. He had to be conscious of everything.

The Wisperer wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor with his hands over his ears. He wanted for it all to stop. That was when he realized, hey, he could make literally anything he wanted with his powers. So he made some noise cancelling headphones over top of his costume. Slowly, the noise level faded to a more manageable level. It wasn’t gone, but it was certainly better. They let out a sigh of relief. Now he could get on with his mission.

Looking around, he could see countless animal hybrids in cages. So this was what Mal wanted. If he could still feel fear, he would be very afraid. But, luckily for all those involved, he couldn’t feel. Who cares if his mentor decides to do some extremely unethical experiments on some innocent ghosts? He should probably care, considering he was the Wisperer, or whatever. He barely even knew what that meant.

He could also see many more animals around the room with a blue-ish tint to them. They looked… less polished, than the ones in the cages. If the live specimen looked bad, the dead ones looked worse. He barely even spared a glance at them. It wasn’t his concern, even if he kind of wanted to comfort them and let them pass on. He was pretty sure that was in his skillset. But he couldn’t. That wasn’t part of his mission.

Right. His mission. Find the research, and then find Wavelength. He pushed onwards, through the facility. Though, when he walked, the rhythm of his steps and when he actually moved forward did not match. He didn’t notice. His own movements weren’t something that mattered to him. This was an investigation, not some internal examination.

After a few minutes of walking, the Wisperer found himself in a room filled with people. He dissipated the headphones, seeing that the animals were gone. He didn’t feel the low buzz of sound through the floor. Thank goodness for that. If he had to sleuth with constant noise, he was pretty sure he’d go insane. With a sigh, he went up to one of the scientists.

They were still moving, albeit extremely sluggishly. They had huge bags under their eyes, like they hadn’t slept for years. He waved his hand in front of their face. They didn’t even react. If he hadn’t consistently dealt with spirits for the past few years, this would definitely scare him. Luckily, he lived with something that was more concerning than this. That was the one good thing that Ghoul did for him. God, he hated Ghoul.

“Hello? Are you, like, conscious?” The Wisperer asked. Now, his mask had an audio mangling filter, so he could freely talk to people when in costume. Luckily, he usually didn’t want to, but he slipped up with Dakota, so he needed to make up for it. He needed to be more careful. The researcher did not respond. Score. He could do basically whatever he wanted in the room.

He took his sweet time, collecting the research that seemed important. He was fairly certain that he collected everything would be even remotely helpful to Mal. With one hand, he opened a small portal to his bedroom by miming a little zipper in the world. Once it was open, he placed his findings on his bed.

Suddenly, before he could even take his hand out of the portal, a mechanized voice rang out through the room. “Who’s there?!” They called. The Wisperer bit back a curse. Either they had gotten extremely lucky and had Wavelength find them instead of the other way around, or he got extremely unlucky and this was a separate super villain. He really hoped that it was the first option. Fighting was not in his agenda, and really, he didn’t have the energy to fight.

Carefully, they removed their hand from the portal. When he looked around, he saw the origin of the voice. It was a man with red goggles and some reptilian skin. Definitely not a scientist like everyone else around them. Then, before they could react, the man was charging at them. He couldn’t sidestep fast enough. He grabbed their throat and tried to squeeze. But he didn’t stop, no. He kept charging until they were slammed against the wall.

The Wisperer smirked a bit. That was the good thing about only using one or two of your powers when you were out and about. This guy didn’t know that they didn’t have to breathe, therefore nullifying the chokehold. Very faintly, he could feel the pain from basically being used as a battering ram. But it was fine. It didn’t really hurt. Compared to the fall, this was nothing. A light breeze, maybe.

“Who are you?!” The man shouted, anger clear in his voice. Strange. They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t think. All they did was infiltrate the top secret research facility and steal some stuff. Oh, that was probably it. People were always so protective of the things that they declared as theirs. The Wisperer couldn’t even conceptualize it. It just didn’t make sense to them.

Oh, right. They were in a situation that really required their focus. “Would you happen to be Wavelength? If not, totally cool. Just point me in the direction of him and I’ll be out of your hair.” They sounded disinterested as they spoke, though that was just because he didn’t really feel like faking emotion in his speech just to sound more normal. That was really just something they did as William.

The grip around their throat tightened. Still, they just stared the man down. “Who’s askin’?” There was a hostility in his voice that the Wisperer didn’t understand. They weren’t being aggressive, but perhaps they looked intimidating. Or maybe he mixed them up with someone else, someone scarier. No, surely not. They were pretty sure their costume didn’t look similar to anyone’s. Forget the last mystery, this was the one he wanted to solve.

“The Wisperer, on behalf of Mallard Conway,” He said. “I’ve come to extend an olive branch to Wavelength. But, again, if that isn’t you, please just show me where he is and I’ll be on my way.” They didn’t do well in social situations. He mentally questioned why Mal didn’t just come and find Wavelength himself, but honestly, he liked being on the Material Plane, so he really didn’t mind.

Behind the goggles, the man seemed to glare. The Wisperer just stared back. After a few moments, he released them. They dropped to the ground but quickly stood back up. They dusted off their clothes while trying to gauge the situation. This was probably fine. “I’m not accepting anymore allyships, kid. Now scram, before I make you.”

The Wisperer let out a sigh. “I don’t suppose I could persuade you to reconsider? Surely this would be beneficial to the both of us. I’m not asking for anything in return, all I’m looking for is some way to contact you. Of course, I have that. You don’t have to do anything.”

Wavelength seemed to start saying something, but before he could, the Wisperer heard footsteps running at the two of them. Immediately, they turned invisible, hopefully before whoever that was saw them. Wavelength, seeing that something was amiss, turned around just in time to get a foot to the face.

Oh, good. A fight. Maybe if they didn’t help, this would help emphasize his point. So, they sat back and watched.

Wavelength got his ass beat by three teenagers. Honestly, the Wisperer was really glad that his suit always recorded, so that they could watch it back and laugh. Even if he was definitely holding back, it was kind of pathetic.

One thing stuck out to him, though. All throughout the fight, Wavelength kept looking at them. Like he could actually see them. Maybe it was because of the reptilian eye? He was pretty sure that lizards could see heat sources or something. Or maybe there was a tracker on them. They really had no idea.

But none of that really mattered. What mattered was that Wavelength was unconscious on the Prime Defenders’ airship, likely to be captured and interrogated. Virion was knelt beside him, probably checking for vital signs and things like that. Hopefully the villain- the Wisperer still wasn’t sure about that, but he seemed like a villain- wouldn’t spill the beans about their little meeting.

Oh, fuck. Their meeting. The one that definitely wasn’t a success. He failed his mission. Maybe they could just… lie to Mal about it. No, that would never work. But it was fine. He’d deal with the consequences when it was staring them in the face and about to eat them. Everything would be fine. 

The Wisperer stepped out of the helicopter and walked into the forest. Once they were safely out of sight, they opened a portal back to their room. Once he was safely on the other side, the rift closed behind him. They took off their mask with a heavy sigh and changed back into their lounge wear. He collapsed onto their bed. Oh, how they wished they could sleep. At least they could pretend.

He closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like to be normal. What a joke. 

Chapter Text

William still hadn’t taken the missing poster down. He knew that he should, but every time he tried to, their hands would start to shake and he’d have to stop. It was like something in his mind was holding him back. It felt like whenever a ghost was nearby in the Material Plane. He never could figure out why such a weird miasma surrounded the poster.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew that, once, he was William Wisp. The resemblance between them and the kid on the poster was uncanny. The only issue was that he didn’t remember a second of being William Wisp. Sure, he could still faintly recall things from before his death, but never anything important. Like his identity. He wasn’t even sure how they knew their name was William. All he remembered was the fall and Mal finding him. But he really didn’t want to think about that. It… hurt, in a way. Even if he hadn’t felt much of anything since he died, they always knew that, if he could, he’d have a raging headache.

There was a phone number on the poster. William’s almost called it a few times in the years since his death. One time he even managed to, but instead of saying anything, he just hung up. There was a woman’s voice on the other end, one that was painfully familiar. They knew that they were a coward, but he didn’t really care. He just knew that they couldn’t face whoever was on the other side. And maybe he saved it as an emergency contact in his phone. No one needed to know that fact.

That was where he was; sitting on his bed and staring at the poster pensively. It was never good when he thought too hard, as he’d usually end up having to confront the atrocities he’s committed, but he had literally nothing else to do. Mal hadn’t given them a new mission after they basically failed their last one and he really didn’t feel like training or wandering around the castle or watching a movie or or or-

William’s thoughts were cut off by his phone ringing. Either it was Mal in the Material Plane- extremely unlikely, considering the fact he could count the number of times Mallard was there on one hand- or it was Vyncent. If their heart still worked, it would’ve skipped a beat. Vyncent was calling him. Holy fuck, Vyncent was calling him . He scrambled for the phone, profusely thanking his past self for figuring out how to get wifi in the Spirit Realm.

He picked up the call. “Hello? What’s up?” They asked, trying their best to sound nonchalant. Interestingly, they felt a sliver of nervousness in their mind. It felt so nice to feel again, even if he knew it would be this one small emotion. 

“Hey William, me and my friends are going to Lickety Splits in Rockfall. Wanna come?” Vyncent’s voice filtered through the speaker. Not only did Vyncent call William, he wanted them to hang out with him and his friends? This was like a dream come true. Oh, hey. Another emotion. He was pretty sure this one was excitement.

“Sure!-” William started, before coughing and trying to wrangle their tone back into neutrality. “Sure. My apartment’s in New Haven, so it might take me a few minutes to get there. Uh, I’ll see you there. Bye!” They hung up the phone before he could embarrass themself more.

Quickly, he pushed himself up and packed their bag with the essentials he might need. Like money. Or a knife. You never know. Things happen, he could get his powers taken away somehow. They didn’t know how that could happen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

As they packed, they muttered to themself, “An apartment in New Haven? Seriously, William? What the fuck?” Now they had to actually get an apartment in New Haven. To sell the lie, of course. Totally not because he really did not want to live in the Spirit World anymore. That would be absurd. What would be even more absurd would be not telling Mal that he was moving out. That’d be crazy and totally not something he would do. Nope.

William created a portal to a back alley in New Haven, one that he knew very well. Whenever he needed to get to the city, this was usually the place he came to. They stepped through the portal, the rift closing behind him. With a sigh, he slung the bag over his shoulder.

Why couldn’t he have just said that he’d be there in a few minutes and not specified where exactly he was? The first rule of lying was to not offer up more details than you needed to. If you did, then the person you were lying to would be able to find out the cracks in your story. So all William needed to do was patch those cracks. Then no one would know his secrets. Vyncent wouldn’t hate him. Everything would be fine

He hailed a taxi and got the driver to get him to Rockfall. He just hoped that nothing would go wrong.

After some amount of time, the cab arrived at Lickety Splits. William paid the driver and stepped out of the vehicle, a sigh on his lips. He really should’ve done more research on this place before he agreed. A simple Google search would’ve been fine! But no, he hadn’t. And he was suffering for it. This was totally an ice cream place. He couldn’t eat. This was.. fine. All he needed to do was just say he wasn’t hungry. 

William shook his head. They didn’t need to overthink this situation. Vyncent had invited him to hang out with his friends. Normal teenagers didn’t get freaked out because of this. Well, William nor Vyncent and his friends were normal, but it was fine. And, if it wasn’t? He’s handled much worse than whatever this little ice cream shop could throw at him.

They walked forward and pushed open the door. A quick scan around the building yielded him what he was looking for. He saw the easily identifiable purple hair of Vyncent. Unfortunately, right next to Vyncent, he also saw the easily recognizable bright red hair of Dakota. Fuck, of course they’d become friends. Why didn’t he just think before they accepted the invitation? Dakota might recognize his voice and then their cover would be blown wide open.

Breathe, William. Stop overthinking this. Dakota might be stupid. Actually, scratch that. Dakota probably was stupid, considering that he tried to stop the Wisperer alone. He forced himself to mime the act of taking a deep breath. It was calming, even in their state of undeath. Perhaps it was a remnant of his life before the fall. 

Maybe he could just tell Vyncent his dad said that they couldn’t go. This definitely seemed like more trouble than it was worth. He could make up an excuse, like not putting the dishes away and therefore not being able to go out. But, before William could turn around and leave, a familiar voice called, “Will, hey!” 

Vyncent was looking at them with a smile on his face. William clenched his fists. No getting out of this one, then. He forced a smile onto their own face as he looked at the group. He was just a normal teenager going to meet his friends. He needed to believe it, if only for a short time.

He walked over to the booth and sat next to Vyncent, ignoring how their metaphorical heart fluttered as he did. Dakota and the other one stopped their conversation to turn and look at him. William gulped. Was he seriously that out of touch that he was nervous about meeting new people? Wait, he felt nervous?? Okay, nevermind, this situation was great. They loved feeling things.

“Hey, guys! Um, I’m William Conway. It’s a pleasure to meet you two.” He stuck his hand out to shake, their smile weakening. The name Conway felt sour on his tongue, like it was a curse. For all he knew, it might be.

Dakota cocked his head to the side. “Do I know you from somewhere?” Even with the headband on his head, William could tell that one of his eyebrows was raised. He wasn’t as stupid as they hoped. Fuck. All they needed was to be confident in a lie. Even if he knew that they were lying, if they were confident enough, Dakota surely wouldn’t question him.

William laughed nervously. “Uh- I don’t think so? I think I would’ve remembered seeing you before– no offense, of course!! Hah..” He trailed off, cringing a bit. That wasn’t confident at all! Dakota was totally going to connect them to the Wisperer and arrest him on the spot. There go his hopes and ambitions.

Dakota thought for a moment, then grinned. “Hm… well, if you insist! I’m Dakota Cole!” He reached forward and shook William’s hand. It felt like he was getting whiplash from how fast they were being shaken.

After a few moments, Dakota ceased his assault and leaned back in his seat. William held their head as they reeled in shock. Blinking the world back into focus, the one with grey hair was looking at him with narrowed eyes. Did they know that he lied? Hopefully not, even if it was a weak ass lie. For any of this to work, all three people needed to believe him. They seemed like a tight knit group, if one caught on they’d surely tell the other two.

Vyncent nudged them. “Ashe, c’mon, introduce yourself. Will’s really cool.” Ashe was their name, apparently. William chose to ignore how his stomach did flips at the compliment from Vyncent. He didn’t even have a stomach! What the hell!

Ashe rolled their eyes and pushed their bangs out of their face. “Ashe Winters, they/them pronouns. It’s cool to meet one of Vyncent’s friends, I guess…” Wow, he was feeling real welcome right now. William shrunk in on himself, just a bit.

The awkward silence was interrupted by a waiter coming over. “Can I get you guys anything?” They asked, an incredibly fake smile on their face. The others at the table ordered, and then it was William’s turn. Oh shit.

“Um… I’m not, ah, I’m not hungry. Nothing for me,” They tried. He hadn’t tried to eat anything since he saw his stomach speared on a stalagmite and he really didn’t feel like trying now. He didn’t even know what’d happen. 

“Not even a water?”

“N-No thanks.”

The waiter walked away and the awkward silence returned. William really hated this. The silence of Mal’s castle was a different kind of silence to this. At the castle, it felt all-encompassing and oppressive, something that was sacred and should not be messed with. But this silence just felt bad.

“So, William, where do you go to school? You’re around our age, why haven’t I seen you at Centurion High?” Ashe asked, curiosity written all over their face. All that William had prepared was that he lived in New Haven with his dad. He was quick on the uptake and very good at lying, but his mind was a little scrambled right now. Definitely not because of the man sitting next to him.

“Ashe, you go to online school-” Vyncent cut in. That was interesting to William, though. Why would Ashe attend online school? It was definitely strange.

“I haven’t seen ‘em either!” Dakota exclaimed.

Ashe had a small smirk on their face. “See, Vyncent? My curiosity is warranted by someone that actually goes to Centurion High.” They sounded smug as they spoke.

“I go to New Haven High. I don’t actually live here in Rockfall, I moved to New Haven a few years ago.” William was fumbling with this. He definitely couldn’t tell the truth, but he also couldn’t tell an outlandish story that would make them start snooping.

“Where didja’ come from?” Dakota asked, an oblivious smile on his face.

“Blue… brooke. I came from Bluebrooke. It’s really far away and small, you probably wouldn’t know it,” William said. They cursed himself internally for that stutter. If he thought he fumbled this scenario last time, he was definitely fumbling it now. What the hell was a Bluebrooke, anyway?

Ashe’s eyes lit up at that. They one hundred percent knew William was lying. Vyncent wouldn’t be too upset if they suddenly died in a Wisperer related accident, right? “Why did you move from so far away to New Haven?-” 

“Lay off him, man. You can’t just interrogate people,” Vyncent admonished.

“No, it’s alright. To be honest, I really don’t know. My dad wanted to move, for some reason, so I came with him. Simple as that.” William celebrated a little bit. This was probable! Many people probably did the same. “What about you guys, then? Where did you grow up?”

“Born and raised in New Haven, baby! I’m what you’d call a city slicker.” Dakota smiled and slicked his hair back. He popped the collar of his flannel.

Ashe sighed. “That’s not… that doesn’t mean what you think it means, ‘Kota.”

“Psh, whatever, dude! You’re just jealous that I’m cooler than you!”

“I’m really not, actually. You can go parkour around the city all you want, you can be cooler than me. I’m fine being uncool.” Ashe sunk in their seat a bit.

“I will, actually! But, between you and me,” Dakota started. He leaned over to Ashe and stage whispered, “You’re really cool, too. Not as cool as me, but still cool.”

“...Thanks, Dakota.” Ashe had a small smile on their face, like that was a really nice compliment. 

There was another lull in conversation, but this time, it didn’t feel awkward. This time, it felt natural. It felt like a bunch of friends running out of things to say while hanging out. It was nice. William hadn’t experienced it since his death, and he really didn’t think he experienced it before, considering his personality.

“William! Will, my guy! I have a super uber mega important question for you! It’ll determine the future of our friendship, so answer wisely!” Dakota seemed serious, the smile gone from his face. Strange. They were curious about what he was about to say.

“Yeah, what’s up?” William raised an eyebrow.

“What’s your favorite animal?” Jesus fucking Christ.

“It’s… actually? I have no idea. I’ve never really given it much thought. Rats and raccoons are cool, but so are magpies. Oh, but cats are really cute too. I can’t choose.” William shrugged. They were all really cool.

Vyncent laughed. “You are so emo, oh my Gods.”

“No I’m n- wait, am I? Wait, holy shit, am I emo? How have I never realized this??” William was genuinely just realizing that, yes, they totally were emo. A mini crisis was occurring in their mind.

Dakota groaned. “I can’t have another emo friend, Ashe is enough!” He exclaimed.

“I’m barely considered emo. I just wear black and a beanie often. Is that really the line?” Ashe asked, sounding kind of annoyed, though the softness in their eyes said otherwise.

William made peace with the fact that he was emo. He knew he needed to get Ashe into being emo, too. “It totally is, Ashe. Join me in being emo. We can go to raves and listen to emo bands together.”

“Why are you making it sound like being emo is a cult?” Dakota tilted his head.

“It is! It’s ‘cause it is,” William exclaimed with a grin.

Dakota turned to Vyncent with a horror filled expression. “Vyncent help, they’re scaring me. Soon they’re gonna try and dye my hair black and make me be edgy!”

“Hm… nope. This is really funny.”

“VYNCENT!”

The group continued to talk until the sun went down and the workers were getting annoyed with them. But none of them really cared. They were too absorbed in their conversations, their laughter ringing out throughout the store. But, unfortunately, all things had to come to an end. William knew that, every moment he spent away from the Spirit World, the chances of Mal coming into their room and finding them not there increased. That situation only happened once before and William didn’t want it to happen again.

“This’s been really fun, thank you for inviting me to hang out, Vynce. We should do this again soon.” William felt… content, in a way that they hadn’t in three years. Maybe it was being around real things, or maybe it was the people he hung out with. Either way, he’d been feeling things the entire time. It felt amazing.

The three of them looked at each other, as if what he just said was insane. Then, they started whispering like crazy. William didn’t have super hearing, so he could only hear bits and pieces of their conversation. He overheard something about asking someone, presumably their guardian, and beef stroganoff? They did not know how those two things connected. He probably just misheard them.

After a few minutes of whispering, Dakota, Ashe, and Vyncent turned to face William. He raised an eyebrow at them, curiosity written all over his face.

“We, as a group, have decided to invite you to a sleepover,” Vyncent said. Ashe and Dakota nodded in agreement.

They wanted- They wanted him to have a sleepover with them? Like friends? They wanted to be friends with him? It felt like William’s mind was short circuited by that information. 

“You’ve gotta wear a blindfold, though! Our house is, like, super secret.” Dakota sounded proud of that. William shook his head slightly to get it out of the funk.

“But… but why? That doesn’t make any sense. Unless you guys’re, like, secretly superheroes.” William thought he was funny, at least. If they weren’t going to be secretive about it, he wasn’t going to be secretive about the fact that he knew they were superheroes.

Dakota laughed loudly at that. “HAHAHA That’d be absolutely crazy! Right guys?! Why would we be superheroes?! What gave you that idea Will?” He smiled nervously. Wow, he was bad at lying. It was almost impressive.

“Okay, wow, big reaction. It was just a joke.” William paused, as if to realize something. “Wait, are you guys secretly superheroes?”

Ashe sighed once again. “No, Dakota just really wants to be one. We’re living with a superhero, though, and the Prime Force really doesn’t want anyone to know where he lives. So you’ve got to wear a blindfold, sorry Will.” They shrugged.

William didn’t think that was true, but didn’t know enough about the Prime Force to determine whether that was true or not. “Oh, interesting. Who is it, by the way? Actually, nevermind. I’ll see soon. Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

William wished oh so much that he could feel physical sensation.

He was wearing a blindfold and being led to the Prime Defenders base. But that didn’t matter. What did matter was that he was being led to it by the hand. Normally, that would be great! They didn’t get a lot of physical touch in the Spirit World. He didn’t get a lot of interaction in the Spirit World, period. They craved the contact, even if he couldn’t feel it. Some deep part of him that remembered being alive must want it, they mused.

So, William was already in a wonderful scenario. He was getting more attention than he had in a while and he was being touched? This was a better outcome than he could have ever dared hope. But that wasn’t the end of the wonderful events happening. The person that was guiding them? None other than Vyncent Sol. When he realized who exactly was touching him, they felt like he was going to die twice over. 

It was strange. William had barely felt anything since his death, and along came this random hero and suddenly it felt like his non-beating heart was having palpitations. Suddenly, they were having feelings. He couldn’t understand what changed. It didn’t change when he met Dakota, certainly. What was special about Vyncent?

Well, he was incredibly attractive, for one. His voice was basically music to their ears. He was kind and compassionate but was also really cool. That’s not even mentioning his work as Virion. Even if William knew he could never be a hero, they couldn’t help but slightly idolize him. It’d be different when they were in his Wisperer mindset, surely, but as William, he was awe-inspiring. Doing good for good’s sake? They couldn’t even imagine. What was also a plus was that his hero costume was hot as hell-

This was what William was talking about! Where did these feelings even come from? It made no sense! Maybe it was because Vyncent was from a different world. Yeah, that had to be it. Some kind of magic that came along with him through the portal. They ignored how that definitely wasn’t the case, considering the amount of times he’s popped into other worlds to hang out. But that was literally all that differentiated Vyncent from the rest of the world. The dots just weren’t connecting. You can’t solve a puzzle with two pieces and no picture.

The hand in his suddenly pulled them to a stop. “We’re here,” Vyncent said, weirdly close. It made William want to jump away in shock or get even closer  ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶k̶i̶s̶s̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶p̶s̶. Woah wait who said that? Hahah that’s crazy William would never do that. That’d be an insane thing to do. They were a villain and Vyncent was a hero. Even if William may want to, he definitely didn’t deserve it. Vyncent was just… so much better than him. It didn’t feel fair-

William was suddenly broken out of his thoughts at a sudden light invading his sight. They instinctively covered his eyes before he realized the blindfold was taken off. Slowly, he lowered his hand, ignoring how the other was still holding Vyncent’s. He could analyze that when he was alone. Or, perhaps, he would ignore it and pretend nothing was different.

William’s gaze swept over his surroundings. The walls and ceiling were a cold, impersonal grey, though the three (four?) had clearly tried to make it more home-like. There were many rugs on the floor as well as pieces of art on the walls. The four of them stood at the mouth of a hallway, probably with some kind of elevator behind them. There was a large opening a bit further down and, across from that, a smaller but still open doorframe. There were a few doors as they traced the walls.

“It isn’t a lot, but it’s home, so-” Ashe started to say, before they were cut off by a loud and boisterous voice. Ashe, Vyncent, and Dakota all flinched slightly. If William had to guess, this was the superhero they lived with.

“Boys, is that you?” The voice called from down the hall. The three grimaced at each other, their eyes wide. It was honestly pretty funny to watch them freak out. They probably didn’t tell their mentor that they brought a ‘civilian’ back to their secret superhero base and were probably banking on him not being home.

Vyncent let out a breath. “Yeah, Tide, we’re back!” He turned to William. “Okay, I’m going to- we’re gonna go talk to Tide. Uh… you stay here. We shouldn’t be long.” They nodded in an affirmative manner. The other three started to walk towards where Tide’s voice came from. 

William leaned on the wall as they waited. He resisted the urge to go snoop around the base. He didn’t sleep and this was a sleepover. They could just do it while the others couldn’t catch him. He had no idea when they would get back. He didn’t want to risk it.

With a sigh, William pulled out his phone. He probably had to tell Mal where they were before he decided to… “check up” on him. He just didn’t want to deal with Mal, if he was honest. Plus, a guy with hair that looked like horns coming out of nowhere would not be good for his cover as a completely average person. 

They pulled up his messages with Mal, a small scowl rising to his face. Even if he could feel a little bit, he didn’t feel like trying to figure out what he felt about Mal. Other than hate and annoyance, of course. Those were a given. He was just worried that, if they examined it, there would be positive emotions associated with the man. His dad? He ignored the warmth in his heart when they thought about Mal as his father. That definitely wasn’t good.

Okay, he wasn’t going to message Mal, apparently. There was a web of feelings that really was not in the mood to unpack. He wanted to have fun with their friends and not worry about anything stupid, like the person that trained him into whatever he is now. 

They stuffed his phone back into his pocket with a bit more force than necessary. Hopefully the trio would come back soon, so that William didn’t have to think anymore. It was interesting, though, that they were even in a place mentally to get upset by their thoughts. If he wanted to do their best Mal impression, he’d say that it was most fascinating and then spout some evil shit. Unfortunately, if he ever decided to imitate Mal, then their will was long gone and it didn’t matter what thoughts he was thinking anyway. 

William pressed the heels of his hands to their eyes. He needed to do something productive. Tide was the hero that the Prime Defenders lived with. What did he remember about Tide…? Their eyebrows scrunched up as they tried to collect their thoughts.

He was a clone, for one. There were… five other clones? Yeah, that sounded about right. They all presumably were related to an element like Tide was. His powerset wasn’t that hard to guess, even if they hadn’t fought him before. Oh, they did fight before. Huh. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, he did remember seeing something about a hero mentoring some kids. Vyncent and Ashe were presumably those kids, since Dakota was a new addition to the Prime Defenders. Speaking of Dakota, how was he able to join so quickly? Surely it wasn’t as easy as just asking. Maybe it was because he had superpowers. But, if William showcased some of his own powers that he didn’t use while they were the Wisperer and asked to join the Prime Defenders, they would totally turn him down. It’d be illogical not to.

No, William was not going to join a superhero team, even if he really wanted to see what they said when he asked. That’d be stupid. He never wanted to be a villain, but being a hero was worse. You had to comply with rules and couldn’t do whatever you wanted. Sure, they did Mal’s dirty work for him instead of what they actually wanted to do, but it was different. And that’s not even mentioning what a huge commitment it was.

“Will?” A voice called, snapping him out of his mental complaining. They looked down the hall to see Dakota leaning his head out of an open doorway. Presumably from where the rest of the group were. William started walking over to him, their hands stuffed in their pockets. Dakota nodded and stuck his head back inside the room.

When William got to the doorway, he looked inside before entering, an instinct he remembered learning. There was a quite spacious kitchen and small dining room area. Dakota, Vyncent, and Ashe all sat at the dining room table, all looking extremely uncomfortable. There were two empty chairs. In the kitchen, however, was a black man in a dark blue wetsuit, though with a frilly pink apron over top of it. William recognized him as Tide. 

“So you’re William, hm?” Tide asked with an eyebrow raised, the warmth he heard before gone. Yeah, okay. They understood why the Gang was nervous about this. Tide was intimidating as hell. Well, he supposed one had to be if he wanted to make it as a hero. They nodded a bit. “Good, come sit down.” He gestured to a free seat at the dining table.

William sat down at the indicated seat. Tide wasn’t intimidating like Mal was. Tide clearly had pure intentions, while Mal decidedly… did not. Even beyond the obvious evilness, William was pretty sure that he’d been manipulating them? He wasn’t sure. This wasn’t about his fucked up father-figure, though. This was about the Prime Defenders’ cool father-figure. He didn’t want to even think about Mal until he had to.

Tide walked over and sat in the final chair. He kept his eyes on William at all times, making them shift a bit uncomfortably. The scrutiny was getting to them. “I won’t lie and say that I fully approve of you being here, but they,” He gestured to Vyncent, Ashe, and Dakota. “Have claimed that you’re trustworthy.”

William wanted to laugh. No, they weren’t trustworthy at all. He’s just that good at lying. Though, he did kind of wish that they could be worthy of the faith these heroes placed in him. But that’d never happen. He’d killed too many, ruined too many lives. If they knew what he truly was, they’d hate him.

“So,” Tide continued. “I am putting my trust in you as well. This base is top secret. Do not share the location to anyone. Dakota has told me that you wore a blindfold on the way here, but that does not mean you can’t retrace your steps. We will know if you tell anyone. The Prime Force will get involved, William.”

William smiled a little shakily. He only had to play up the nervousness a little bit. As the Wisperer, he could deal with heroes no problem, but as William? It was hard. “D-Don’t worry, Mr. Tide. These are my, like, first f-friends. The only person I could realistically tell is my dad, who’d probably say s-something like ‘I really don’t care, go do the dishes.’ I don’t know.” They lied, shrugging.

At his comment about their dad, Ashe’s eyes widened a bit. William couldn’t imagine why. Maybe a bad relationship with their own father? More research was needed. When he got back to the Spirit World, he was definitely going to figure out all there was to know about Ashe Winters.

Tide eyed William warily, before a smile broke out over his face. “Good! Would you like some beef stroganoff?” William just looked at him, confusion written all across their expression. What kind of person basically threatens someone then offers them food?

“Uh, no thank you. I’m not hungry.” William shrugged again. It wasn’t technically a lie, they weren’t hungry. He ignored the little voice in his head that told him lying by omission was still lying.

“Are you sure? You didn’t have any ice cream earlier,” Vyncent asked, tilting his head a bit. William grasped at their pants and ignored how cute that was. Curse these new emotions for making him feel things. It was stupid and he hated it.

They nodded. “Yup! I ate a pretty big meal before I went to Lickity Splits with you guys.” Okay, that one was a lie. What was he supposed to say? That he was a ghost and couldn’t eat anymore? Yeah, right. They were sure that’d go over smoothly.

Tide raised an eyebrow. “If you’re sure.. Well, would the rest of you like any?” He gestured to a pot on the stove. William was pretty sure it contained beef stroganoff. Unfortunately, they couldn’t smell, so they had no way to verify.

Dakota grinned, his eyes lighting up in excitement. “Oooh, oooh, oooh, me!!” In the blink of an eye, he was at the pot with a bowl and was eagerly helping himself to some beef stroganoff. William looked at him, looked at the spot he was just sitting, and then back at him. Okay, so Dakota definitely had superpowers and super speed was on the list. If they had to guess, so was super strength. That was probably how he kept them from leaving. Absolutely fascinating, if he had to say so himself.

Tide coughed. “Wow, Dakota, I didn’t know you could move that fast!” Despite how obviously he was trying to lie, it just wasn’t convincing at all. It just sounded incredibly forced. William felt a little bad for him. “You must really love my stroganoff!”

Dakota looked like an absolute deer in the headlights, caught doing something he should not be doing. If William had to speculate why, they’d say that Tide told them not to reveal their powers in front of him, a presumed civilian. And yet, at the literal first opportunity, Dakota used his powers. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

“Haha, yeah! You know me, Tide! I’m crazy for your beef stroganoff!” Dakota said a little too loudly, a strained smile on his face. Next to William, Ashe facepalmed. William really wanted to do the same. This was honestly just painful to watch and listen to.

William stood up. They couldn’t deal with this anymore. Despite how nice it was to feel again, it sucked in moments like this. The awkward tension in the room was unbearable. “I’m gonna… I’m going to go set up a movie, actually. Where… is your living room?” 

Tide silently pointed across the hall, into the open doorway that William hadn’t looked into. He nodded and walked into it, leaving the extremely tense group behind him. The moment they left the kitchen, he heard hushed conversation behind him. Usually, he’d be nosy and wait near the door, but this really wasn’t the time. They were pretty sure what it was about, anyway.

The living room had a couch and a few armchairs, as well as a coffee table. There was a large television mounted on the wall with a TV stand under it. A few video game consoles were on the stand, the games for said consoles packed neatly onto a small bookshelf. This room, too, seemed like it was cookie-cutter with every single other secret hero base. Though, like the hallway and kitchen, the Prime Defenders clearly tried to make it more home-like. All in all, it was quaint. Something William could see himself having a good time in.

William sighed. In the back of his mind, they worried. Worried about Mal finding out what he was up to, worried about the Prime Defenders finding out who he was, worried about their general state of undeath. They forgot what it was like to worry. He wanted to stop, but he couldn’t? They’d like a refund on emotions, actually.

Rummaging around in the cabinets under the television, they found a few movies that sparked their interest. It looked like they were horror movies, at least from the covers. One was labeled Get Out while the other one was entitled The Ritual . They both looked interesting, but he really couldn’t choose. Maybe they’d let one of the others pick? Yeah, that made sense.

William sat down on the couch, the two CD boxes in his lat. From the way it shifted under him, they were pretty sure it was a soft couch. It was… nice, to have their surroundings be affected by what he did, he decided. In the Spirit World- or at least in Mal’s castle- the only thing that changed was anything that he brought in from the Material Plane. It was almost haunting, how static it was. But here? Here, it was different. Here, everything changed so, so quickly. William never wanted to leave.

He was so caught up in their thoughts that he didn’t notice the footsteps behind them. Before he could react, he was tackled to the ground. The box sets were scattered on the ground. They yelped in surprise, their instinct causing him to try and elbow his assailant in the face. There was a small cry of pain from whoever tackled them, even if they definitely did not feel the contact of skin on skin. Hopefully he didn’t accidentally become intangible, like he was prone to do when they first got their powers. 

William rolled over, only to see the familiar raspberry hair of one Dakota Cole. Fucking hell, why can’t he just leave them alone and stop attacking them? This was the second time, for God’s sake! Well, God wasn’t real. 

Oh, right. They just hurt their friend, he needs to be sympathetic, even if he definitely did not feel it. “Oh, shit. Are you alright? I’m so sorry,” He said. Dakota was holding his cheek, a small frown on his face. Like he was trying to figure something out. What he was trying to figure out, though, William didn’t know.

A sudden grin broke out on Dakota’s face. “It’s alright, dude!” He held out his hand for a fist bump. Hesitantly, they bonked their hand to his. Even if Dakota was surprisingly good at hiding his emotions, William could tell that something was still bothering him. There were two more pairs of footsteps from the doorway. Ashe and Vyncent, if they had to guess.

“So, what movie did you settle on?” Vyncent asked, leaning over the pair. Oh, they were still on the floor. The two portions of hair that normally perfectly framed his face were now away from his cheeks, allowing William to see Vyncent’s pointed ears. Somehow, that only caused their mind to race even faster. If he had blood, they were sure they’d be blushing right about now.

William coughed lights, noticing how Ashe raised an eyebrow out of the corner of his eye. Oh, they for sure knew about his feelings. That… That was fine, surely. He gestured at the two CD boxes on the floor. “I-I couldn’t decide, so I was gonna wait for you guys. Which one are you all feeling?”

Dakota stood up, just a little bit too fast to be natural. “Hm… That one looks cool!” He pointed at the one titled Get Out . “I’ve never watched that! What’s it about?” William shrugged a little bit. They hadn’t exactly read the synopses. The covers just looked interesting.

“We can find out together, I guess,” They said, unable to keep the slight fondness out of his voice. He wouldn’t trade this time for the world, Spirit or Material. William picked up the box and took the CD out. He stood up and placed the object in the CD player, a sigh escaping them as he put the box on the TV stand.

William sat back on the couch. Dakota and Vyncent sat next to him, squishing them in the middle. Even if they couldn’t feel the physical sensation, the pair’s mere close proximity was enough for them. Ashe curled up in one of the armchairs.

William was sure this was going to be a good night.

As the movie played, the energy level in the room significantly decreased. Each of the teenagers began to fade to sleep, their dreams mostly peaceful. Well, each of the teenagers, except for one. A grey haired hero was still wide awake.

Chapter Text

William was suspicious.

Ashe knew that from the moment he walked into Lickety Splits. He was shifty eyed and nervous, but that wasn’t even the worst part. He gave them the same vibe as some of the more malevolent spirits from their book. They didn’t think that Vyncent or Dakota could tell, but they could.

The hairs on their neck stood on end whenever they looked at him. It felt bad, all things considered. He even looked suspicious. What kind of normal person had pure white hair? They’ve watched anime, there was nothing wholesome about that. Either William was some sort of god-like figure (unlikely) or he was secretly a villain. They were willing to bet on the latter.

The half-baked lies were simply that- lies. Ashe caught onto that fact easily. What reason would he have to lie about where he lived or where he went to school? They genuinely could not fathom why. Unless… Unless it had something to do with that father figure he talked about. Maybe he lied because he was in trouble.

Mal was his dad’s name, they were pretty sure. Mal Conway. First, William claimed that this Mal would give out his phone number to people in hopes of getting him friends, which in hindsight was probably a lie, then he says that his dad wouldn’t care about what he spoke about? Ashe had some experience dealing with toxic fathers- hell, theirs was sitting somewhere in the base right now (and they weren’t going to think about that , no way). This situation definitely rang some warning bells in their head.

Honestly, they couldn’t decide which option was worse. William secretly being a villain was bad, but so was his dad hurting him. Both possibilities led to some… rather horrific questions. If he was a villain, then why? Why would he decide to lie to Vyncent, and by extension, to them and Dakota? Why would he want to have a sleepover with them? But, if some issues were going on in his home life, why would he lie? Unless he knew that they were superheroes and would go to beat up his dad, but that was super unlikely.

That was why Ashe stayed awake while the other three fell asleep. They wanted answers. The movie was long over, the TV turned off. If they had to guess, they’d say it was roughly midnight. For a gamer like them, this wasn’t that late. But this wasn’t about their sleeping habits. This was about their definitely not creepy investigations.

Carefully and quietly, Ashe stood up. The floorboards didn’t creak underneath their weight, thankfully. They released a quiet breath. As long as they did this correctly, no one would know. Especially Dakota. Even if they hadn’t known Dakota for as long as they knew Vyncent, they knew that he would object to this morally questionable course of action they decided on. 

This wasn’t that bad, actually. They weren’t, like, killing someone that they were close to and driving their father to a life of crime. That’d be crazy. They clenched their fists at their side. It was fine. They had probable cause, anyway. All they needed to do was check William’s phone. Easy as pie. They just hoped that it had a fingerprint sensor.

Ashe slowly crept over to their three (two?) sleeping friends. The three of them were cuddled up with each other, William clinging onto the other two. Before they went to sleep, they definitely needed to get a picture of the scene. Mostly for their personal enjoyment.

They carefully reached into William’s pocket, looking for his phone. They rooted around in it for a few minutes, though they came up empty. Ashe suppressed a sigh. That was… fine. This was all fine. William had other pockets. It was probably in there. They took their hand out of the pocket, freezing when he stirred.

Luckily, William just shifted his position to be more comfortable. Ashe let out a breath of relief. Before they tried again, however, they decided to just… study how he slept. This wasn’t creepy, they swore. Maybe he’d talk in his sleep and reveal something. They didn’t know!

Ashe’s eyes widened as they watched. William wasn’t breathing. His chest didn’t rise and fall as Dakota or Vyncent’s did. He was as still as the dead. Hell, he even looked like a corpse. Deathly pale and cold. They could feel it through the fabric of his clothes. Maybe their comparison to a spirit wasn’t as far-fetched as they thought. Or maybe his clothes were just too baggy to accurately see his breathing. That was probably it. They totally weren’t just trying to make excuses.

Slowly, Ashe reached their hand to William’s neck. They tried to feel for a pulse. Absolutely nothing. Almost desperately, they lowered their hand to his chest. They needed to find a pulse. The idea that this still moving person was dead was… certainly a concept that they didn’t like. They felt no movement, no pulse, just the gentle stillness of death.

Okay, William was cold as a corpse, did not breathe, and did not have a pulse. This was fine. Maybe he just ran cold and had a slow pulse. He wasn’t dead. That was a stupid idea. Ashe removed their hand and took a deep breath. They weren’t investigating whether William was alive or not, they were trying to figure out if he was a villain.

Right, William’s phone. They needed to find his phone. Him being a corpse wasn’t their business. Sure, they were totally going to look in the book when William left, but that was neither here nor there. 

Ashe, ever so delicately, felt around in William’s other pocket. Nothing there either. They bit back a curse, frustrated. Where could his phone be? They wracked their mind, just trying to figure out where the phone could be stored.

Suddenly, it felt like a lightbulb went off. William had a bag. He definitely kept it there. Ashe wanted to facepalm. They looked towards the door. Sure enough, a small duffel bag was thrown carelessly on the floor.

Ashe suppressed a sigh. Of course they didn’t think about the bag before they started sifting through William’s pockets. Honestly, they were glad that no one else was awake purely so they could keep this oversight a secret. 

They crouched down next to the bag and unzipped it, freezing in their tracks at how loud it was. You never realize the noise level of something before you have to do it at night. It took a few minutes, with them pausing every so often in order to not wake the others. But, when it was fully opened, they let out a sigh of relief. 

Ashe pulled out their own phone and shone a light in the bag. There, like a holy grail, was William’s phone. They ignored the very obvious knife sitting right next to it. That was… probably fine. He probably wasn’t going to use it on any of them. He’d have done it already if he wanted to. Hell, there were three to four sleeping superheroes in the base. They were vulnerable. But all William did was go to sleep as well. 

Ashe turned off the flashlight on their phone and slid it back into their own pocket. They picked up William’s phone, inspecting it as they did. When they noticed the fingerprint sensor, they wanted to cry out with joy. Finally, they were taking W’s. It had been non stop L’s from the moment they came in contact with William, but this? This was a definite win.

Standing up, they walked over to William’s sleeping form. Well, “sleeping”. He could just be dead. Ashe shrugged. It was fine. They didn’t care that they kept repeating themself. Everything was fine. All they had to do was unlock William’s phone and snoop a little bit. What could go wrong? They ignored how their stomach churned when they thought about what they might find.

First, before they potentially ruined their friendship with William. Ashe grabbed their own phone. They quickly snapped a photo of the three. They put it safely back in their pocket and took a few calming breaths. 

A little shakily, Ashe raised William’s hand to his phone. They pressed his finger to the censor, the screen lighting up as they did. A breath of relief. Thank God. They placed his hand back around Vyncent, the way they found it. They ignored the urge to laugh. It was clear that William had some kind of crush on Vyncent, which endlessly entertained them. That did make them a bit doubtful about the whole villain theory, but they couldn’t rule it out yet.

Ashe meandered towards the door, their focus not on the world around them. Where should they start…? Surely the messenger app would reveal some juicy secrets, so not there. The photo app? Maybe William took pictures of his crimes, like an absolute psychopath. Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time they saw a dead body, so they clicked on the photos app.

It was mostly nature photography, with a few selfies thrown in, though those looked accidental. The nature was mostly dead or dying, but it was honestly kind of beautiful. Along with that, there were pictures of medieval architecture. The nature photographs made up around half of the pictures while the architecture photographs made up the other. Honestly, it was kind of boring.

But then, Ashe paused on a particular image. It didn’t fit in with the rest of the photos. It was a picture of a fairly ornate gravestone, though they couldn’t make out the information from the preview. When they clicked on it, their jaw felt like it dropped. 

“ WILLIAM CONWAY TAKEN TOO SOON 2128-2142 ” was what it said. There were clearly more gravestones around it, though that was the one in focus.

Okay, so there were a couple things that Ashe could figure out from that. First of all, William was definitely dead. Having a gravestone with your name on it didn’t leave much to the imagination. Second of all, those dates would imply that William died at fourteen. Horrific, but 2142 was three years ago. If he followed normal aging, he’d be seventeen. He definitely looked and acted seventeen.

It was as they were contemplating mortality, the phone in their hands started to buzz. Ashe let out a squeak of surprise, fumbling to keep a grip on it. Once they had it under control, they saw that someone was calling William. Someone that he put in his phone as… “Bad Liarman”? What kind of contact was that? Ashe’s curiosity was sparked, though, so they went out into the hallway to answer it.

“Where are you?” came a sharp voice from the speaker. It was crisp and accented, which made Ashe raise an eyebrow. Never before had they heard a voice like it. It was also, like, midnight. Who could this guy be? They decided to stay quiet, to see if this person would keep talking.

Keep talking, he did. “ Answer me, Wisperer. Where. Are. You?” This time, it was harsh, the words coming out like a whip. Like he was impatient. Even still, Ashe could hear a hint of… anxiousness, in his tone. But for what, they couldn’t say.

Wait.

What?

“Wisperer...?” Ashe murmured, the words said just registering in their mind. They were calling on William’s phone and this mysterious person called him the Wisperer. You know, like the infamous and ruthlessly cruel villain. Even if they thought he was a villain, they would never have guessed he was the Wisperer. 

“Oh, hello!” The voice almost instantly switched to a more friendly tone. Ashe could even hear the smile through the speaker. “And who may you be, hm?” He sounded genuinely curious, but there was just something under the tone that made Ashe skeptical.

Despite that, they automatically responded. Even if they grew up basically alone doesn’t mean they didn’t have manners. “Ashe- Wait, who are you? What do you want with William?” 

“Why, Mallard Conway, of course!” There was a cheerfulness to his tone that Ashe didn’t trust in the least bit. It felt dangerous, in a way. “Now, I really must insist that you let me speak to the Wisperer, Ashe. I need to… have a little chat with him, if you will.”

Oh, fuck that.

Ashe didn’t care that William was the Wisperer. They were going to keep him as far away from this creepy ass man as they could. No wonder he always talked about Mal the way he did. If they had that as a father, they’d be absolutely miserable. Also, the contact name made sense.

“ William is asleep right now, Mallard,” Ashe said sharply. It was a little funny, they thought, that this guy’s first name was Mallard. Who names their child that? Better yet, who names themself that? It was quite stupid, if you asked them.

But, instead of… whatever reaction Ashe expected, all Mal did was laugh. “ William ? He told you his name was William ?!” Mal exclaimed, his joy evident. “Oh, that is simply hilarious!”

They clenched their fist. Actually, they wouldn’t be miserable if they had Mal for a father. They would be in jail for manslaughter. “What do you want with him?” They asked. They knew that he probably had the worst intentions, but it helped to hear it from the man himself.

“My intentions? I merely want what’s best!” Ashe could still hear the shit eating grin in his words. They wanted to smack that off of his face so badly. They didn’t even know what he looked like, and yet they just knew that he had the world’s most punchable face.

Mal’s words struck something in Ashe’s mind. “The best for him or the best for you ?” They asked, their own tone harsh. They kept their voice quiet, though, in case any of the others woke up because of them. They didn’t think they’d ever be able to live that one down.

There was a pause. “...Very clever, aren’t you, Ashe? Asking the right questions?” Mal’s previous friendly tone was gone, a cold and dead one in its place. Ashe shivered, just a bit. No, wait. It wasn’t cold that they were hearing. It was hatred.

This conversation quickly spiraled out of control. All Ashe wanted to do was make sure William was safe. “I won’t let you get close to William. Leave him alone.” They tried to match Mal’s hateful tone, though they were shaking. It was hard, talking to people, but they felt this urge to protect so, so strongly.

“Well, Ashe,” Mal started, his tone back to cheerful, though now they could tell it was false. “It truly was lovely talking to you. You’ve truly given me quite a bit to think about. Tell the Wisperer that I need to talk to him when he wakes up, hm? Ta ta, now!”

Then, before Ashe could respond, the line went dead. They cursed under their breath. They closed their eyes and leaned against the wall. Inhale, exhale. They just needed to convince William to… stay in the base for a few days? Until they figured out how to break the news to Tide and The Boys. Basically, they just couldn’t let him go back to Mal. Easy enough.

Ashe pushed themself off of the wall and re-entered the living room. They carelessly slipped William’s phone into his bag, zipping it up after they did. They sat back down in their arm chair, closing their eyes. It had to be fine. They ignored the buzzing thoughts in their mind.

Slowly, ever so slowly, they faded to a fitful sleep.

William Wisp sat in a treehouse, one incredibly familiar to him.

He was surrounded by his friends, even if that was just three other people. There were miscellaneous posters on the walls, ranging from video games they all liked and bands. There was an old couch and a television.

Scattered around the floor were various pieces of equipment that they used in their investigations. Ghost hunting equipment, exorcisms, the like. If William was a bragging man- he wasn't, but ignore that- he'd say that it was a good collection they managed to amass.

He was curled up on the couch with the others basically laying on top of him. The four of them did this all the time, so he really didn't mind. He also didn't mind the extra body heat, considering the fact that he ran cold. There was some kind of shitty horror B movie running on the TV, though none of them paid attention to it.

"Hey, Will?" One of them, Casity, asked. William turned his head a little to the right, to look at them. 

Casity had brown hair that fell in front of an eye. Their clothing was baggy, though clearly well loved. They were the only one in the Unwitness Protection Program that knew the troubles of being emo in Deadwood.

William made a small noise of acknowledgement. Casity continued on. "We're gonna be friends forever, right? I know you want to leave- I do too, I think we all do," They paused, laughing a bit. "But you'll keep in contact, right?"

"Of course. You guys are my best friends, I'd be stupid to not." William laughed as well. "Unless I, like, get replaced by a spooky version of me that isn't really me. But that's only in movies, so I think I'm okay. You aren't getting rid of me that easily."

"I wish we could," groaned another. Ira was his name. He had his arm over his eyes, his blonde hair spilling over the side of the couch. 

William gasped in feigned shock. "Wow. I can't believe you'd think so low of me. I'm a delight, thank you very much." He placed the back of his hand to his forehead, like those Victorian ladies in the novels.

The last one lightly slapped Ira on the arm that rested next to him. "Be nice." His name was Logan. He swept his gaze over to William. "And stop being dramatic. We all know that, if we wanted to stop talking to you, we would."

Logan had thick framed glasses and short black hair. The three of them always got a kick out of teasing him for how nerdy he looked. To be fair, his favorite hobby was reading, so it wasn't like it was unwarranted.

William rolled his eyes. "Sure, uh huh. Like any of you would want to miss my incredible charm. But, for real, I'll never stop being your friend. Any of you."

"Okay, Wisp. Stop being sappy. It was a simple question," Ira said, though his tone did not convey any of the anger that statement would usually come with.

The four of them laughed together, though, as William's gaze swept over the room, his eyes widened at what he saw.

William Conway stood near the entrance, their own eyes wide. Like he just saw something that he couldn't believe. Well, he did. 

They took a step towards the group. "Are you... me?" They asked, their head tilting a bit. He certainly looked like them, sans the white hair and the corpse-like quality they had to them.

Wisp looked at his friends, semi desperately. "Uh, guys? Haha, uh, a little help here??" Unfortunately for him, it was like the rest of the scene was frozen. The three were stuck laughing, as if someone had pressed pause on them.

"They called you Will and Wisp. I used to be called Wisp. My first name is William," Conway explained, ignoring the hint of joy they felt when Wisp became increasingly scared. That was definitely something Mal imprinted on them. "Where am I? If you're me and I'm you, why don't I remember this?"

"L-Look, buddy, I don't know who you are." Then, Wisp jumped up and grabbed a water gun. Although, to him, it was probably as fast as he could go, Conway could easily have stopped him in his place. Compared to some of the things that their guardian trained them with, he was almost sluggish.

Wisp pointed the water gun at them. "I don't care if you're a demon from Hell or from the woods, but leave us alone! This little thing is filled with holy water! You'll die if I shoot this!"

"I promise I don't mean to harm you," Conway said, putting their hands up. "My name was William Wisp before I died. I don't remember anything before that. If you're, like, my subconscious, you legally have to tell me."

"Wait." Conway lowered their hands, a small smile rising to their face. "I'm not a demon. I... think I'm a ghost? Kind of, I guess. Technically."

"You're not making any sense!" Wisp cried. "You aren't me, you can't be! I'm me! I don't care if you have the same name as me! I'm not your subconscious or whatever!"

Conway simply tilted their head to the side, their smile fading away. They clasped their hands together behind their back. "This must be a memory, then. This place feels familiar. You look like the one on the missing poster."

It felt like they came to their senses. They shouldn't be whimsical in this situation. Despite their hatred for the man, imitating Mal's demeanor in a situation like this was ideal.

Then, Wisp seemed to... glitch. His hair morphed into theirs, his scared expression now resembling their neutral one. After a few moments of that, though, the room cracked once, twice, before shattering entirely.

William was in an empty void. Well, empty was an overstatement. It was a void, though there were stars all around him. Every now and again, scraps of paper showing memories floated past him, only to land on the ground and disintegrate. 

As he slowly walked around this space, there were some parts of the void that seemed… destroyed and crudely put back together. Some of the stars seemed to be cut in half, the small differences in the color of the void inconsistent. If William had to put a word to it, he’d call it patchwork.

William pensively watched as a small paper fell beside him. As it fluttered down, he caught a glimpse of a man with hair like horns, grinning devilishly. They scowled, just a bit. He didn’t want to think of Mal. He wanted to figure out what was going on and where he was.

Presumably, this was where his memories were stored, if only metaphorically. But why was it ripped apart and hastily reassembled? Why did they just watch a memory, one that they didn’t have before? The him in the memory had black hair. That was what he looked like before he died. Probably.

Carefully, ever so carefully, William walked up to one of the cracks. It looked like if you put one piece of paper on top of the other. He could clearly see where one end of the pieces of void ended. What interested them, though, was how recognizable the energy signature that seemed to tear apart the void was. He couldn’t place where he felt it before. It felt like the memory was just out of reach, the edges of their fingers just barely grazing the edge.

William closed their eyes, focusing inward. He needed to figure this out. It was like an itch, ever present and all consuming. They clenched their firsts. Why did it feel so familiar? They scoured their mind, searching for whatever they could.

It felt like a lightbulb turned on when he realized why. They remembered a devious smile and hair shaped into horns, using the exact same kind of magic to teach him how to use their own powers. 

But, the second before he could put a name to the face, he woke up. The realization was gone to the wind, like it was never there at all.

Chapter Text

William woke up with a gasp.

He could still clearly remember watching themself with three others, though it wasn’t exactly him. The three reminded him of the people he was with now, actually. Casity would be Ashe, Ira would be Dakota, and Logan would be Vyncent. It kind of made their heart hurt when they thought about it, like they had lost something important.

But why? Why was he suddenly remembering his past- something, mind you, that he could barely even recall a flicker of- now? Did it have something to do with his feelings coming back? Surely, it must have. What other explanation was there? These two inaccessible, unreachable things had to be connected. 

William blinked a few times, pulling themself back to reality. They could figure it out when they weren’t in the presence of literal superheroes. Ones that, if he wasn’t careful, would catch onto the fact that he’d been lying the entire time they’d known each other. That would be really sad.

On their left, Dakota was basically curled around them. Okay, that was interesting. He turned his head a few inches to the right. On that side, they were the one curled around Vyncent. He had his arms wrapped around both them and Dakota. If William had blood, he would be blushing up a storm. If his heart still beat, the rhythm would rival that one song by Eminem. Rap God? Maybe. Whatever its name was, his heart would be beating extremely fast.

William took a few moments to savour in the presence of these two. It felt nice to finally be surrounded by people after so many years alone. Well, mostly alone. Mal was also there, he supposed, even if he absolutely hated him. And he was only alone for like three years in Material Plane time. Not even that long. They let out a fake sigh. He was not going to be thinking about that right now, please and thank you. That was the past, one that they (hopefully) would never be going back to. 

Right. That’s right. He needed to make sure that they could stay here, where people actually cared about them and not what they could do for said person. Were they vaguing Mal in their thoughts? Maybe. But who could blame him? Mallard caused roughly 95% of their problems in life. The other 5% were definitely his own fault, like how panicked they get after committing unthinkable atrocities. Maybe if he just calmed down or got used to it, he’d be fine.

Actually, do you know what? William was not going to be thinking about that either. He’s moved on from his time as the infamous villain the Wisperer. They never even wanted to be a villain in the first place. He didn’t exactly know what he wanted to do in life, but killing countless people was definitely on that list. Now, he could just be William Conway, a not-so-average teenager. Did they even want to continue using the last name Conway? Or did they want to start using the name Wisp again? These were decisions he never would’ve thought about before he met Vyncent and the rest of the Prime Defenders. It was exciting; imagining a life free of Mal’s influence.

He was getting ahead of himself. He couldn’t be free until he made sure Mal couldn’t contact him. They couldn’t exactly stop the man from dropping in on them randomly, but they could at least discourage it. Maybe if the older man received only silence when trying to call or text them, he’d give up. Probably not, though. That was a pipe dream. Until he was more like Clarence, Mal would never leave them alone. They thought the name Clarence with as much venom and hate as he could. He hated Clarence.

It was always, ‘Wisperer, you need to be more like Clarence’ or ‘Clarence would have listened to me, Wisperer’. Like, he understood that Mal missed the man. It was so incredibly clear. But maybe comparing your student to your dead ex boyfriend wasn’t the greatest way to win them over to your side? Absolutely bonkers, he knew.

Actually, William didn’t want to think about Clarence. If he thought about Clarence too hard, his powers would inevitably lash out and spiral out of control. He was pretty sure the only reason he had such good control over them was because of his previous apathy. That was an interesting theory that they didn’t feel like testing right now. When he had an apartment all to themself, he could fuck around with powers as much as he wanted. But, as of the current moment, he was supposed to be completely powerless. If he was alive, that’d be their reality. Unfortunately, he was full dead no take-backsies.

Apartment. Right. William needed to find an apartment. He didn’t… exactly have any money, at least currency that could be used on Prime. He had tons of ghost money. He was practically swimming in it. But, in the eyes of the law, they had a net worth of twenty dollars. Actually, fuck the law. He was legally dead! Who cares if he decides to commandeer an apartment!

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find an apartment from his place on the couch, surrounded by Dakota and Vyncent, so they had to get up. Ew. On the bright side, all they had to do was find a suitable apartment on Google, then he could get back into this position. Easy as pie.

Slowly, William slipped out from under Vyncent’s arm. He didn’t even stir. Epic win, if they were to say so themself. Now, all he needed to do was get himself out from Dakota. That would probably be a challenge, considering the fact that he was basically on top of them. But it was fine. If he needed to, he could just turn intangible . None of the others were awake. No one would know Unless they had, like,cameras or something. That would really not be good.

William pried Dakota off of themself. He made a small noise, in protest, but did not move. William let out another breath. Good, good. They stood up and ignored how their bones creaked. He took a step away from the couch, but stopped when he felt a hand grab his shirt.

Startled, he turned around. Dakota was grasping it while still asleep. “Don’ go…” He murmured. As gently as he could, they took Dakotas’ hand off of them.

“I’m just going for a few minutes. I'll be back soon,” They promised, a small smile rising to their face. Dakota slipped back into whatever dream he was having. 

William looked around, trying to remember where he put his bag. He spotted it near the door. They slowly floated over to it, not even bothering to walk. Why would you, when you didn’t have to? Seemed silly, if you asked them. 

Once William reached it, they knelt down to the ground. They didn’t even bother to unzip it; they just turned their hand intangible and reached inside. He fumbled around with it until he found what he was looking for - their phone. Pulling their hand back out, they could see the screen lighting up to claim it was around four in the morning. William shrugged. Time really didn’t matter, not when he lived in the Spirit World. In the pale light of the LED screen, they could also see the few cuts on their hand. Oh, right. He forgot that he packed knives. Silly move on their part. Oh well. He couldn’t feel it.

William floated out into the hallway and started down it. He peeked his head into every doorway. Eventually, they found their target. The bathroom. Thinking on it now, he totally could’ve just done this in the living room, but he was already here. No use going back. 

William planted his feet on the ground and went through the wall. Inside was a fairly large bathroom, though they didn’t really know what constituted an average sized one. Spirits didn’t really need to use the bathroom, so there wasn’t one in Mal’s castle, and he didn’t remember if he’d ever gone into one before that.

The ghost sat down in the bathtub, stretching out their legs. A small smirk was placed on their face as he opened the phone. The first sight that greeted him, however, was the photo he took of his grave in his domain. He definitely did not leave that open. The last thing they had open was Doodle Jump, which.

William’s eyes widened. One of the Prime Defenders had gone through his phone while he slept. He had literally no way to tell which one it was, either. It felt like a weight dropped in their (non-existent) stomach. Oh, fuck. They were absolutely and totally screwed.

And that probably wasn’t the worst part. Mal hadn’t contacted them while they were awake, so he totally did while they were asleep. That was totally a Mal move. In a fit of paranoia, he opened the messaging app he used. Luckily, the last message he received was still from Vyncent. They released a breath. Thank God. Even if one of his friends knew he was dead, they probably didn’t know about the fact that Mal was involved with them.

Especially because Mal always called them the Wisperer. You know, like his villain name. Maybe, for the first time in his un-life, he got lucky. William blinked a few times, shaking his head. Everything was fine. He could just say that the grave was an art project he had to do for school. He was pretty sure he put up a facade of someone that would make their own grave for a school assignment. Actually, now that they were thinking about it, they probably would. 

William took a few minutes to bring his anxiety down to a normal level. Right. He was here to find an apartment, not fervently search for any proof of his secret getting outed.. 

He opened up the search browser and then just… stopped. What the hell would you search for if you wanted an apartment, anyway? They had literally no life skills nor social skills. So, they just searched up ‘apartments in New Haven’. They could scroll the images and find one that they liked.

Easy as pie.

It took about half an hour to find one that was up to their standards. It was cozy, but still big enough to live comfortably. Sure, it was already owned, but who was going to stop him? It was a funny notion, trying to stop a ghost from moving in somewhere. They were totally about to haunt that place. 

Actually, they were probably just going to convince the current owner to move out. However, the idea of haunting somewhere was a hilarious idea and they totally were going to do that sometime soon. 

With a sigh, William stood up from the bathtub. He found an apartment and he knew its address. That was his goal for this little endeavor. That was all. He could go get comfortable with Vyncent and Dakota again while pretending to sleep. no matter- They really didn’t think they’d be getting another wink, considering the fact  that this was the first time they’d slept since they died.

They floated through the wall and made their way back to the living room. It was quiet, though it wasn’t bad. He could clearly still hear the signs of life in the base. It was comforting.

Once William got to the living room, they skipped their phone back into their bag, making sure not to accidentally cut themself on another knife. Then, he made his way back over to his previous spot on the ouch. Ever so slowly, he moved Dakota and Vyncent  so that he was cuddled up against them again.

He smiled once more. It felt just so, so nice to be surrounded by people that actually cared for him, cough cough Mallard.

William closed his eyes and let his mind wander until morning, the sounds of their friends sleeping soothing their mind and heart.

Ashe hadn’t been successful in convincing William to stay with them in the Prime Defenders’ base, seeing as he had left about half an hour ago. Even though the excuse William gave was an incredibly obvious lie, they didn’t mention it.

The Prime Defenders were sat around their dining room table, each one with a meal in front of them. Tide and Dakota had a bowl of beef stroganoff each, Ashe had a bowl of Cheerios, and Vyncent just… had a rat on his plate? Actually, you know what? Ashe wasn’t going to question it. They’ve seen weirder.

Ashe had to speak up about what happened last night. Maybe they wouldn’t mention that William was the Wisperer, but they could totally try to get Tide to pull some strings and get William away from Mallard. Surely that was something heroes could do; admittedly, they didn’t really know, but surely there was something they could do.

After a moment of extreme anxiety, they finally said, “I think William’s being abused.” They could feel their heart rate spike, their limbs beginning to feel like they were buzzing. Three pairs of eyes turned to them.

“And what makes you say that, Ashe?” Tide asked, an inquisitive eyebrow raised. Ah, shit, yeah. Ashe needed proof beyond a hunch.

They took a shaky breath. “W-Well, last night, I w-was, uh,” they coughed. “snooping into Will’s stuff. B-But it was for a good reason! Some of his responses to simple things like where he lived and why he came to New Haven were strange, and I was worried.”

They took a bite of their cereal to stall. “A-Anyway, while I was trying to get into their phone for totally understandable reasons, he got a call. Now, me,being curious, answered it. The contact name was suspicious, too. Like, who names someone ‘Bad Liarman’?” They shook their head as if in disapproval.

“Well?” Vyncent asked, a little bit of blood on the corner of his mouth. Did he seriously just eat a rat raw?? They needed to ask Vyncent why exactly he did that later.

“Turns out it was Will’s dad. He was demanding to know where Will was. Like, demanding demanding, not like when you ask us for anything.” They gestured to Tide. “And when I tried to get answers from him, he said some pretty concerning things. I… I’m just worried for William, is all.”

Dakota nodded his head. “Yeah! And when I tackled him yesterday, his first response was to elbow me in the face! Without even knowing what I was doing or who I was! If it were a superhero, I’d get it, but Will isn’t a superhero! Not that I know of, at least.”

Ashe cringed internally. Yeah, Will wasn’t a superhero alright. He was a villain, so that wasn’t really a weird happenstance. Or, hey, maybe it was. Heroes didn’t really ambush the Wisperer. He was usually gone before they could. Why would William’s instinct be attack first, ask questions later? Curious.

Tide brought a hand up to his chin. “Hm. This is all concerning information.” As he said that, an idea popped into Ashe’s head. One that might actually work.

“Could we maybe, I don’t know, hang out with Will a lot to try and gather more evidence and not patrol literally every night? This is totally super hero stuff, I swear.” They nodded their head for emphasis.

Dakota turned to Tide and gave him his best puppy dog eyes. Ashe wanted to laugh. No one could resist Dakota Cole’s puppy dog eyes. Tide was also, notably, a huge pushover.

This time, it only took a few minutes for him to cave. “...Oh, alright. In a few days, though!” Tide said. “You still need to make sure this city is safe, you know!”

The three teenagers around the table cheered in triumph.

Chapter Text

A hand, covering a man’s mouth, dragging him into a dark alleyway.

A knife, one made of blue flame, summoned into the other hand.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

The now lifeless corpse dropped to the floor, blood pooling under it.

Standing over it was a boy with pitch white hair and haunting blue eyes, covered in the blood of this man.

The boy bent down and placed a hand on the body. Blue flames, ones similar to the knife, enveloped the man.

It was burned to a crisp in just a few minutes, the ashes scattering in the wind.

A few tears ran down the cheeks of the boy as he watched.

William was having a great day, actually.

He still hadn’t been able to get the blood out of his hair, but he wasn’t planning on leaving his new apartment (one that he got completely legally, mhm), so it wasn’t that big of an issue. It’d fade in time, he was sure.

They weren’t really sure how to feel, now that they didn’t live in the Spirit World. Mallard hadn’t dropped in on them yet, they thanked their lucky stars. He couldn’t bring himself to block Mal’s number in their phone, though. Whatever. The duck probably wasn’t going to come back. And, if he did, they were going to fight him. They’d probably lose, but honestly, the catharsis of punching Mal in the face would be unmatched.

William sat on the couch, a journal in his lap. There was a soft song coming from a speaker, one that he hummed along with. Usually, this wouldn’t be one that he’d listen to, but it was a love song and he was actively yearning. 

Said yearning was the reason why he was journaling. Well, journaling was a bit of a stretch. He was writing poetry about a certain elf. He gripped the pen a bit tighter at the thought. Though no heat rose to their cheeks, it certainly felt like they were blushing. He really was absolutely lovesick, huh?

William shook his head a bit. It didn’t matter how in love he was. There was no way they were actually going to act on their feelings. That would be wildly out of character for him. He was an overthinking coward, through and through. They weren’t sure if they could open portals to the multiverse, but if they could, he was pretty sure there wouldn’t be a single world where he and Vyncent were together. It would be funny if it didn’t hurt so much.

He jotted down another verse to the poem. This would (hopefully) never see the light of day, so he felt no reason to be embarrassed about it. Even still, there was a heaping lot of embarrassment sitting heavy on their heart. It’d been years since they’d felt so much emotion. They didn’t know what to do with it! So, he wrote about his crush. It helped get the excess energy out.

William read back what he just wrote and groaned. It was so unbelievably cringey they didn’t want to even look at it anymore. They buried their head in the book, the pen clattering to the ground. He didn’t really feel like picking that up, so he just left it.

William spent a few minutes there; sitting on the couch with their forehead resting on a journal page, hiding the intense yearning on it from the world. Maybe he could get rid of his feelings for Vyncent if he stayed there for a bit. They were pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but it just felt so overwhelming. What more could he do?

That was, until they heard a sharp knock at the door. His entire body stiffened up, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly. That was either their friends (the best outcome, though unlikely, considering the fact they hadn’t received a text from anyone) or it was friends/relatives of the previous tenant, unaware of his unfortunate passing. It probably wasn’t Mal, considering how he would just show up. Unless he was trying to lull them into a false sense of security… What the hell.

Slowly, William stood up, placing the journal open and face down on the coffee table. In one hand, he made a ghostly gun. Just in case the person on the other side of the door was someone that wished harm on him, of course.

He crept over to the door and braced himself. They angled themself so that, when they opened the door, the arm holding the gun would be hidden. With his free hand, he opened the door.

There, standing on the other side, were their friends. Vyncent, Ashe, and Dakota. Dakota was the one at the front, a bright grin on his face. Vyncent was fiddling around with a Rubik’s Cube. Ashe was playing on their phone. He instinctively released a breath of relief, a small smile coming to their face.

“Hey guys, I didn’t know you were coming over today,” William said, opening the door wider. In the motion of that, they also unsummoned the gun, though he clearly didn’t do it fast enough, if Dakota’s widening eyes were anything to go by. Haha. Fuck.

Ashe put their phone back in their pocket. “Yeah, sorry we didn’t text you. It was kinda an impromptu idea-” They were cut off by Dakota.

“Will, what was that?” He asked, the grin dying down into a stoic line. Dakota’s tone was on the edge of… anger? That probably wasn’t good. Behind him, Ashe looked anxious and Vyncent was still trying to solve the Cube. Why would they feel nervous?? He didn’t really have time to ponder that, considering the sudden social situation he encountered.

William was faced with a choice. Either he could lie and potentially dig himself into a deeper hole, or he could come clean and tell the three of them that he wasn’t powerless. Based on how Dakota reacted to catching a glimpse of the gun, they could safely bet that he wouldn’t be happy in either situation.

“Hm? What’re you talking about?” William tilted their head a bit, as if they were confused by the question. Of course they lied. They were already in deep shit with Dakota, what was one more nail in the coffin? All they had to do was play innocent.

Dakota narrowed his eyes. “I hate liars, Conway. Tell me the truth. What was that?” There was a sharpness in his voice, like he wasn’t afraid to hurt them if they showed even a hint of lying. Considering his status as a superhero, they didn’t doubt it. They had to be careful, now.

Vyncent had finally put away the Rubik’s Cube and was watching the interaction with rapt attention. If only he paid that much attention to William’s feelings. They totally weren’t salty, haha. Why would they be salty? That would be stupid. Anyway! Ashe looked incredibly disturbed and on edge, though he couldn’t place why. Maybe because their two friends were fighting? Probably. William opened his mouth to respond, but before he could-

“It doesn’t matter, actually!” Ashe butted in, a strained smile on their face. “Whatever it was, William had a reason for it. Anyway, can we come in?” They were desperately trying to change the subject, with varying levels of success. Vyncent and William were both ready to move on, but Dakota clearly did not.

William nodded and stepped to the side, allowing the three to step inside. Ashe grasped Dakota’s hand and dragged him into the apartment. Vyncent followed them. Once the three were past him, William closed the door, though he did not lock it, as a sign to Dakota that he did not mean them harm and that they could leave whenever they wanted. Dakota didn’t even notice.

William sat down on the couch, Vyncent and Ashe sitting next to him. Dakota stayed standing, his eyes focused on William. That was fine. They just had to prove that they were harmless, even if he really wasn’t.

The group sat in silence for a few moments, before Vyncent spoke up. “Nice place you have here. Where’s, uh, your dad? I thought you said you lived with him.” Oh fuck. What was a normal person's reason why Mal wouldn’t be in the apartment?

“Oh, he’s out getting groceries. But it takes him, like, forever, so you guys can stay for however long you want,” William responded. That totally made sense. He was confident in that lie. Vyncent nodded in understanding. Dakota’s sharp gaze softened, just a bit, though they noticed it. Ashe raised an eyebrow. Did they not believe it? At least they weren’t saying anything on the contrary.

William needed to change the subject. “Oh, I’ve been so rude, haven’t I?” They chuckled nervously. “Do you guys want anything to drink? I’m not sure what we have, but we definitely have water.” Without waiting for an answer, he got up and walked to the kitchen, turning off the music on their way. Hopefully the previous owner had… literally anything drinkable.

Once safely inside the kitchen, he put his head in his hands and screamed internally. They just committed at least three separate social blunders. But they could fix this. Of course he could. Dakota wouldn’t be mad at them, Vyncent would reciprocate their feelings, and they’d figure out what was up with Ashe. He didn’t exactly know how to accomplish any of that, but he could figure it out. They had all the time in the world.

The sound of quiet laughter brought him out of his thoughts. William’s friends didn’t stop talking the moment they left the room, that’d be silly. He didn’t know why he expected them to, though. Right, drinks. He needed to get drinks.

William opened the fridge to find what they could only describe as the holy grail of beverages. Did the last guy survive exclusively on liquid? It wasn’t their place to say, but the evidence points to yes. Now they just had to figure out what kind of drinks the others would want.

They grabbed a pitcher of chocolate milk and a pitcher of apple juice. They then grabbed two glasses, pouring each into one of them. Once those two were sorted out, he then went back to the fridge and grabbed an energy drink. They positioned the glasses so that the can could be held using just the pressure. William walked back to the living room.

The sight that greeted him was honestly something out of his nightmares. Dakota had their  ̶d̶i̶a̶r̶y̶ journal open and was showing it to Ashe with grins on both of their faces. Vyncent was trying to peer over the edge of the book to get a peek of the contents, but Dakota wasn’t letting him do that. The two of them that read the entry clearly knew that it was in reference to Vyncent.

At the sound of William’s footsteps, however, the two unwanted readers turned to look at him. Their expressions slowly morphed into that of a child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Two pairs of wide eyes met one extremely tired set. He sighed in disappointment.

Casually, as if he wasn’t just prying on private information, Dakota closed the journal and slid it back onto the table. Ashe averted their gaze. Thank goodness at least someone had the common sense to feel guilty. 

William rolled their eyes and handed out the drinks.  Chocolate milk for Vyncent, apple juice for Dakota, and the energy drink for Ashe. If they pretended this didn’t happen, maybe the others would pretend they didn’t know about his crush. He then sat down next to Vyncent and tried to avoid eye contact.

The four sat in silence, though this time, it wasn’t filled with as much tension. It made William feel better about his status with the others. Dakota wasn’t as angry at them anymore. Another W. A soft smile rose to their face. Even if Ashe and Dakota did invade their privacy, this finally felt like a normal teen experience. Hanging out with his friends in a peaceful quiet.

Then, as if to further prove their point, Vyncent spoke up. “Oh! I just remembered. The reason we came here is ‘cause Ashe wanted to make friendship bracelets-” He was cut off by noises of protest from Ashe, blush filling their cheeks. Why would they be embarrassed about that? He was pretty sure that was a normal thing to do with your friends.

“Oh, sure!” William exclaimed. a bright grin on their face. This sealed the deal- he was never going back to the Spirit World if he could help it. “I’m not sure how to make those, but you guys can totally teach me.” 

The chatter faded into a low buzz as the camera moves past the group. It focuses on the shadows, which suddenly become just a bit darker and deeper. The only point of light are the two dull red eyes, staring out at the white haired teenager. The only emotion seen in them is hate.

Chapter Text

Unfortunately, Ashe was on patrol.

Tide had insisted that one of them had to go, considering the fact that it’d been a few days since their initial conversation. Once he had declared that, Vyncent had immediately announced that he was not going on patrol. Dakota copied him a few moments later. They were pretty sure it was part of his superpowers, but Dakota had crazy fast reflexes. That left them as the one that had to patrol.

The only redeeming part of it was that they could listen to music while strolling across the rooftops. They didn’t have the volume in their headphones so loud that they wouldn’t be able to hear if someone was screaming, but it did put them at ease. It blocked out the ambient sounds of the city, much to their delight. They seriously couldn’t understand how someone could live here; everything was so loud and bright at night. Maybe it was just because they grew up in the suburbs, where it was nice and quiet save for the crickets or the occasional drunk stumbling down the street, but New Haven was just too much in literally every aspect.

Ashe slowed down to a stop on a random roof. The song that was playing wasn’t one that they wanted to listen to, so they pulled out their phone in order to skip it. The silence in between songs startled them, though in hindsight, they were glad that it happened. The void of noise was suddenly filled with a shout, one that had an incredibly familiar cadence.

“-- don’t care, Mal! I’m not coming back!” William’s voice rang out. Ashe basically jumped out of their skin. They hit pause on their phone, looking around wildly. The surroundings were familiar. They were definitely on top of William’s apartment. How had they not noticed?

Ashe peeked over the edge. Sure enough, a couple stories down, a window was clearly open. Presumably, that was William’s apartment. He probably just forgot to close the window. Perfect. They ignored the pang of guilt as they summoned the ice fairy and made steps down to right outside the window. They couldn’t be guilty right now. Their interference could be the difference between Mal killing William and him not. This was important.

Ashe peeked into the window. William had his phone pressed to his ear and was gesticulating wildly. He looked furious. Actually, thinking back on it now, they were pretty sure they'd never seen him display so much emotion. That probably wasn’t a good sign. Currently, though, it seemed that Mal was speaking, considering the fact that William was silent.

“I’m going to stay right here with my friends , who don’t treat basic kindness as a fucking reward!” William responded. As he spoke, a few small bursts of very recognizable blue fire flew out of him and into objects around him, making them float. It didn’t look like he noticed. If Ashe needed any more proof that William was the Wisperer, well, there it was.

His fist clenched as he supposedly listened to Mallard. “No- What are you, insane? Wait, don’t answer that. We both know you are-” It seemed that he was cut off by the man on the phone. Judging by how his scowl deepened, whatever Mal said couldn’t have been good.

“You’re going off about Clarence again, really?! Shut up about how he would’ve listened to you! I’m never going to be like him and you know it!” Another wave of wisps burst out from William as he exclaimed that. Ashe was… really curious about who this Clarence guy was. “Also, like, I’m not the one who kept his head after he passed on? Still weird as hell if you ask me.” Haha. Um. What?

William was silent for a few minutes, pacing the whole time. Ashe was pretty sure that Mal was monologuing like the villain he sounded like. The decorations around his apartment bobbed up and down in the air harshly, as if it mirrored William’s emotions. That sure was an interesting observation that they made, though they were pretty sure they’d never be able to confirm unless something drastically changed.

“Oh my God, Mal. Shut up. I don’t care! I don’t care. Literally no one cares. I’m not coming back. You can’t make me,” William said. He sounded a bit calmer, though the anger was still in his voice, the scowl still present. It worried Ashe, if they were honest. The fact that his dad could inspire such rage was really concerning. Even they didn’t get this mad with Mark. They let out a soft sigh at the thought. Even if he wasn’t the greatest father, they knew he still tried-

Nope, they weren’t going to be thinking about that right now. Their own issues weren’t the problem right now. William was actively having an argument with his dad. That was the most important thing. They needed to focus.

William rolled his eyes. “Yeah, uh huh. You do realize that I’m friends with the Trickster, right? I could totally just sic him on your ass, you know. It wouldn’t even be hard! You were the one who advised me to get on his good side, too! He’d literally rip you in half.” 

Ashe felt their heart stop as the words sunk in. What… What did William mean, saying that he was friends with the Trickster? They knew that it was part of the Spirit World, but- but William was friends with the monster that ripped their mom apart? They gripped the cursed book tighter, a frown forming on their face. There had to be an explanation. The only reason they didn’t climb through the window was because they needed to know how this conversation ended.

“Oh, yeah, sure. You’re totally more powerful than him. I believe you, mhm. Tell me why he’s confined to the Chaos Zone and not, you know, dealt with, if you’re stronger? Seems like a lie to me.” William clucked his tongue. “For shame, Mal. For shame.”

Suddenly, William stilled, the decorations pausing with him. A crestfallen look appeared on his face. “No, you wouldn’t- you wouldn’t do that,” He said. The anger was gone from his tone, replaced by disbelief and despondence. His free hand, which had been gesturing as he spoke, now hung limply at his side.

“They didn’t do anything to you. Leave them alone, Mal,” William pleaded. “They don’t deserve to die for the sole crime of being friends with me.” Die? Was Mallard threatening Ashe and the others? Actually, that wasn’t hard to believe. Considering the brief interaction they had with him, it made sense.

There was silence for a few moments. Then, William sighed, though Ashe could see that his chest did not rise and fall like it should. “Fine.” His voice was small, as if he had accepted his position. “I’ll do it. Just… just text me the details. Don’t hurt any of them.”

After a few moments of silence, William pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at it with tired eyes. He put it in his pocket and sank to the ground. He curled up into a ball, placing his forehead on his knees. Ashe could see his shoulders shaking. Okay, this definitely felt like where they had to intervene.

Carefully, Ashe stepped through the window and down to the level William was on. It didn’t appear that he heard them. They didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse, but they couldn’t dwell on that further. They had to comfort their friend, even if he didn’t know that they were his friend.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ashe- no, Winter asked. William’s head shot up, a small screech escaping his throat. The floating objects all around the two of them suddenly fell to the floor as if they had never moved in the first place. William scrambled backwards, his eyes wide with panic. Winter put their hands up in a placating manner.

It took a few seconds for him to calm down. But, when he did, William placed his hand over his heart, as if he was trying to slow it. Now that he wasn’t moving around, Winter could see the tear stains on his face. Whatever Mal was having him do that warranted tears could not be good for literally anyone.

“I’m not here to hurt you. I was just- uh-” Winter fumbled. They hadn’t come up with a lie. Fuck. “I was just passing by and saw you being sad. So, are you okay?” They lied. Despite how bad of a liar they were, William didn’t seem like he noticed. Probably too distracted to notice.

William wiped the tears away and stood up. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine,” He said, very obviously lying. Winter just raised an eyebrow at that. He was very clearly not fine. But why would he hide it? They understood if he hid his pain from his friends, but from a hero? It didn’t make any sense.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Winter said, taking a step towards William. He took a step backwards. “I’m not going, like, arrest you if it’s something bad. That’d be pretty hypocritical of me.” Change of plan. They sat down on the couch, looking behind them to see William. His shoulders lowered a bit, as if he wasn’t as on edge. If they didn’t know he was a villain, that would be concerning.

William sighed again and sat down next to them. It took him a few minutes to respond, though they were more than happy to wait. Winter wanted to be there for their friend. They’d be a shitty person if they weren’t, not even mentioning the heroic responsibility.

“My, um, my… mom got upset at me for failing a math test.” Another lie. Why was he lying so much? “It’s nothing special, I just have to study more, hah..” William rubbed the back of his head, his eyes downcast.

Winter wrapped their arm around him. He was as cold as death, even through his clothes. They ignored it. “Well, if you ever need any help with your ‘mom’, come find me. I’ll be around.” They felt William nod next to them.

The two of them sat in silence, though it was a comfortable silence. That is, until Winter felt William’s head fall on their shoulder. They craned their head to look at him. His eyes were shut and he was unmoving. Asleep, if they had to guess. They smiled slightly. 

Winter knew they didn’t do the greatest job at comforting William, but that was okay. Everything was going to be okay. As long as he got help from them or one of the other Prime Defenders, then he’d be fine.

William dreamt of the same group of people. Casity, Ira, and Logan, all sitting with him in the same treehouse. He still didn’t know who the three were to him. He still didn’t know how they were even remembering anything.

But it wasn’t unwelcome, no. Anything they could glean of their past would be welcome. Was it really a crime to want to know what happened to you?

William went along with the memory, as if he were acting. But, as all things do, the memory ended.

When William woke up, he was alone.

Chapter Text

“Vynce? You awake?” Ashe asked, knocking on a door. Beyond the door, they could hear faint snores. That answered their question, then. They sighed. They, Dakota, and Tide were already dressed and ready to leave, and Vyncent wasn’t even awake yet? If they had a bit less self control, they would be so ready to scare him awake. Actually, scratch that. They didn’t have very much self control.

A particularly mischievous idea popped into Ashe’s head. Slowly, they opened the door to Vyncent’s room. Numerous posters of different JRPGs adorned the walls, each crammed together so that the off-white paint was barely visible. It felt like whiplash, going from the sparse decorations of the hallway to the bright colors of Vyncent’s room. Ashe steeled themself against it. Everything was quiet (sans the snoring), so the colors weren’t too overwhelming.

Ashe crept over to the sleeping form on the bed. Vyncent stayed still as they did, the blanket on top of him rising and falling with his breath. They smirked at the sight. Perfect. They reached for the book at their hip, their mind already recalling what page the spirit they wanted was on.

As quietly as they could, they flipped through the well-loved book. The various tabs and bookmarks sticking out of it were sort of a hindrance, but to be fair, they always were. They really should work on taking them all out, but that seemed like a lot of work. It was easier to just work around the tags. 

After flipping through the book for a few moments, they found what they were looking for. Ashe began to mutter under their breath, their hair beginning to float as they did. They closed their eyes; they didn’t even need to read the summoning passage. They’ve done it enough for them to have it ingrained in their memory.

As they reached the end of the paragraph, they opened their eyes. Hovering on the other side of Vyncent’s bed was a cloak covering what could only be a skeleton, if the skeletal hand holding a scythe was anything to go by. Ashe smiled at the sight. This was sure to wake Vyncent up, one way or another. They tapped Vyncent’s shoulder.

It took a few tries to wake him up. Blearily, Vyncent raised his head, blinking a few times. He sat up, the blanket still on his shoulders. Ashe closed the book and placed it back in its holster, ready to watch the inevitable commotion. After a few moments of the elf getting his bearings, he finally saw the omen of death at his bedside.

Though Ashe couldn’t see his face, they could imagine what it looked like. Eyes blown wide and constricted pupils, horror filling his expression. At least, that’s what they’ve seen in the past, when they used the death omen on villains. But who knows, maybe Vyncent wasn’t fazed-

That hypothesis went out the window when he started screaming in terror. Ashe started laughing at the sight, unsummoning the skeletal figure. Vyncent whipped around to look at them. He had gone pale and his mouth was agape, like he had just- well, seen his death. They laughed harder. They then realized that it was kind of shitty to laugh at their friend witnessing his demise, but their self-awareness kicked in a little too late to take it back. Oh, well.

The screaming died down once he realized what had happened. The color returned to Vyncent’s cheeks as he placed a hand over his heart. He glared at them, though they just shrugged in response. This wasn’t the first time that Ashe scared him awake and this definitely won’t be the last. They’d just never used the death omen before. Usually they’d just press a bit of ice from their fairy to his hand or cheek, but they felt a bit rambunctious today. Hence the death premonition.

Ashe took a step closer to Vyncent. They extended their hand to help him up. “It’s 10 in the morning, Vynce. We’re going to Will’s soon. The rest of us are ready,” They explained, ignoring the anxiousness seeping into their tone. Were they super on edge about the call William took yesterday and what he was doing right now and why he accepted whatever Mal told him to do? Maybe. But that doesn’t matter. This was just… them going to hang out with their friend while also bringing their super hero father figure just in case anything was weird. Totally normal stuff.

Vyncent took their hand, using it to help him stand up. The blanket fell to the floor as he did so. He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted when the door to the room slammed open.

Dakota stood in the doorway, his mask already over his eyes. His eyebrows were furrowed and his gaze was sweeping the room. Oh, shit. Ashe hadn’t woken Vyncent up since Dakota joined the Prime Defenders. He had no idea that random screaming in the morning was a totally normal occurrence in the base. 

“I know you’re there! Come out, villain!” Dakota shouted, despite the fact that both Ashe and Vyncent were clearly fine. Ashe face-palmed and sighed. They didn’t know what they were expecting, honestly. This was totally in line with what they knew about Dakota.

Ashe let go of Vyncent’s hand and walked over to Dakota. They placed a hand on his shoulder, looking him dead in the eyes. “There’s no villain. I needed to wake Vynce up and did that by scaring him. I do this a lot. No one broke into the base. Everything’s fine, ‘Kota.” They were trying to be soothing but… they weren’t sure if it was working? They knew that it definitely didn’t work yesterday, if the tear stains on their shoulder were anything to go by.

Dakota let out a breath. He took off his mask, stuffing it into his pocket. He looked anxious and jumpy. They understood. If they thought that their friend was getting attacked or murdered, they’d feel a lot more than anxious. Maybe they should stop scaring Vyncent awake.

Wordlessly, Ashe pulled Dakota into a hug, wrapping their arms tight around his torso. Almost immediately, he hugged back. He rested his forehead on their shoulder. That was completely fine with them. They made sure to take slow and even breaths, hoping for Dakota to mirror them. They closed their eyes and let themself be calmed.

After a few minutes of hugging, Ashe felt another pair of arms wrap around their left side. They didn’t have to open their eyes to know that Vyncent had joined and made it a group hug. They smiled. While they usually didn’t like touch, this just felt… right. Like the three of them were meant to be together, though it also felt like they were missing something that they couldn’t put their finger on.

Of course, the peace could never last, especially not in the Prime Defenders’ base. Like a foghorn, cutting through the calmness of the sea, Tide’s voice broke the silence. “Boys? Are you all ready to leave?” He called from what sounded like the living room. Oh, shit, right. That’s what started this whole fiasco - waking Vyncent up to go to William’s.

Reluctantly, Ashe let go of Dakota and Vyncent. Dakota looked a lot calmer, thank goodness. Vyncent, on the other hand, looked kind of nervous. Why would he be nervous? All they were doing was going to William’s apartment. Sure, Will might have a crush on Vyncent, but how would he know that-

Realization struck Ashe like an arrow through the heart. Vyncent had a crush on William and had no idea that it was reciprocated. That made the poetry they and Dakota read so much deeper, because William clearly believed that Vyncent did not love him back. That was… kind of sad, if they were honest. Imagine thinking that your crush didn’t feel the same way. That literally could not be them. Just ignore the way their heart rate picked up when they hugged Dakota. That didn’t mean anything at all.

Vyncent was also wearing the same thing he wore when he first met William. An attempt to impress, maybe? They didn’t know. But it didn’t really matter. If today went well, they needed to try to get William and Vyncent together. They didn’t know a thing about matchmaking, but that was fine. They could figure it out.

“Yeah, Tide!” Dakota responded. “We’ll be right there!” He gave Ashe and Vyncent a look before sprinting (at a normal human pace) towards the living room. The two of them caught on immediately, each sprinting after him.

Unsurprisingly, Dakota beat Ashe and Vyncent by a wide margin. 

The Prime Defenders sat in an SUV on its way to an apartment in New Haven, the car silent except for the music coming from the radio. Tide sat in the driver’s seat and Vyncent in the passengers while Ashe and Dakota sat in the back. Ashe was looking out the window, hoping and praying to whatever higher power there was that William was okay. 

The four of them continued to ride in silence. That was until a loud beeping came from the watch on Tide’s wrist, attracting the attention of the others in the van. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and put it in park. Ashe watched as he read whatever alert he got. They watched as Tide’s face became paler and paler as he read. If they had to guess, it was from shock or fright. What could inspire such feelings? They didn’t really want to find out.

Tide turned in his seat so that he could look at each teenager in the car. “A-Alright, boys, I need to go… do something! Yes, there’s something I need to do. You all have fun with William. Tell him I said hi. Vyncent, you’re driving.”

“What do you need to do?” Ashe asked with a tilt of their head. They were skeptical of Tide; after all, he was famously a horrible liar. And, like clockwork, he lied horribly in this instance. They just wanted to see what Tide would come up with when put on the spot. Maybe it would give them a clue towards what was actually wrong. 

Tide unbuckled his seatbelt, his eyes wide. “Oh! Just, uh, I remembered I did not turn the stove off after I made beef stroganoff this morning, is all! Now, if you’ll excuse me-” Without warning, he opened the door and ran out of the car. Once he was a little bit away, he summoned a large wave and started riding it the way they came. So it was something at the base. Interesting.

The three of them sat in a confused stupor for a few moments before Dakota spoke up. “Did that seem weird to you guys?” He asked. Ashe and Vyncent nodded. They all knew that the only reason Tide would ever leave them so abruptly was if something urgent happened.

“I don’t… I don’t think we should follow him. We shouldn’t mess with whatever’s enough to get Tide so scared,” Ashe responded. Were they just nervous about William and needed to make sure he was okay? Maybe. But their sentiment still did ring true. Tide was scared. Tide doesn’t get scared often. Anything that could make Tide that scared is something that Ashe didn’t want to deal with.

Vyncent sighed in a bit of disappointment. “I guess. But we went after Wavelength and we were fine!” Ashe cringed a bit at the mention of Wavelength. Now that was a complex statement. While they knew that Mark wouldn’t (seriously) hurt any of the Prime Defenders, they also knew that no one else would know that. The only reason that any of them lived was because Mark was holding back. 

Ashe rubbed the bridge of their nose. They couldn’t just tell Vyncent that capturing Wavelength was not the accomplishment he thought it was, but agreeing with him would just make him turn the car around and follow Tide. They couldn’t let that happen. They needed to keep this vehicle on its course.

“But what if this is bigger than Wavelength? What if we just got lucky when we fought him?” Ashe asked rhetorically. “If Tide needed our help, he’d say so. But, for now, he’s handling it by himself. We have to respect his wishes.” They didn’t know if their words were really effective, but they didn’t have a driver’s license, so they had to rely on persuasion.

Luckily, it did look like they got through to the others. Dakota slumped in his seat, clearly pouting. That was fine, they could do damage control later. What mattered was that he accepted what they said. Vyncent looked between Ashe and Dakota for a few moments then silently slid over to the driver’s seat. They let out a breath of relief.

The anxiety that Ashe felt was still there, but it calmed slightly. As long as everything at William’s went fine, they’d be happy.

The rest of the car ride was silent, save for the occasional cough or clothes rustling upon an adjustment. The radio wasn’t even on. The car was tense, but not overly so. Maybe that was just Ashe, honestly. Maybe the others weren’t tense at all and were very happy. They didn’t know.

Before long, they arrived at William’s apartment.

This time, Ashe took the lead. They stood in front of William’s door with Dakota on their left and Vyncent on their right. Their heart was beating out of their chest as they raised their hand to knock. They had no idea what they were going to see when the door opened. William draped over the sofa with a knife in his chest? William actively killing someone? They didn’t know, and it scared them.

Finally, they got enough courage to knock. They rapped at the door, ignoring how shaky their hand was. Everything was going to be fine. William was going to open the door like normal and Ashe wouldn’t have had any reason to worry.

What they didn’t expect, however, was the door creaking open when they knocked. Like it was unlocked and open just a bit, almost as if for this exact scenario. It felt like a weight was dropped in Ashe’s gut at the thought. The hope that William was fine waned by the second.

Ashe took a step inside and swept the room with their gaze. Absolutely no sign of life. It was as if no one had lived here for a long time. The only things out of place were sat side by side on the end table. A piece of paper and a familiar book. The book was the same one that held William’s poetry (if you could call it that). Ashe could see that the paper had writing on it.

Almost automatically, they stumbled forward. They could hear Vyncent and Dakota following behind them. They needed to figure out what was on the paper. They needed to figure out where William was. Ashe picked up the paper and began to read. The two others did the same over their shoulder.

"Dear Dakota, Vyncent, and Ashe:

If you're reading this, I'm already gone. I'll be gone for a long time. I don't know when I'll be back, but I will be. I may not be the person you know when I return. I’m sorry. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t leave at all. If it were up to me, I’d say right here with you all.

I knew who you all are. D.C., Virion, and Winter. I've known it since before I met you. But, when I was with you all, I felt normal. I felt human, though I'm not exactly that. Thank you for taking me to your super secret super hero base and letting me have friends for the first time in my memory. Tell Tide thank you for the beef stroganoff, even if I didn’t eat it.

You all showed me kindness that probably wasn't deserved. Before this, I really couldn't remember what it felt like to have someone be kind to me just for the sake of being kind. I didn’t and still don’t understand why you all liked me so much. But thank you. I know I keep saying it, but I genuinely can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.

My name isn't actually William Conway. Well, my first name is William, I think. Conway is just the last name of the dude- my dad- that found me and took me in. My real last name is Wisp. I'm pretty sure, at least. 

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for leaving. I'm sorry for lying, not just about my last name but about everything else. This entire friendship was built on a lie. My whole life was built on a lie. I'm sorry for everything and anything I did and or will do. I'm so fucking sorry. I just hope I'll see you all soon.

With love,

William Conway"

Ashe could see tear stains on the page, smudging the ink. They could see how shaky some of the letters were, as if William was trembling while writing. They placed the letter back down on the table, still trying to process the contents.

“He knew that we were heroes..?” Dakota asked out loud. They didn’t know if he was expecting an answer. Probably not. How could any of them possibly respond? William, known villain, had understood that he was becoming friends with superheroes and continued pursuing the relationship anyway? Even knowing the risk of imprisonment or death, he still craved companionship. They felt sick to their stomach

Distantly, Ashe could hear Vyncent and Dakota discussing, but they were lost in their own world. They fucked up. If they had just stayed with William last night instead of leaving, could this have been prevented? Hell, if they had gotten here earlier, this could’ve been prevented. They knew that Mal had threatened him, and yet, what did they do? Nothing. They did absolutely nothing. They wanted to pretend that Ashe and Winter were separate people with separate lives, and look at where that got them.

William was gone and he wasn’t coming back. If Ashe had just been a better person, a better hero, this wouldn’t have happened. If Ashe had taken responsibility, William would be here now.

Chapter Text

William had made a very, very bad decision.

That is not to say that he had any other choice, but it was a bad decision nonetheless. What was he supposed to do, just stand back and let Mal kill the Prime Defenders? The very people they were defying him for? There was no world that they’d let that happen. The mere thought was hilarious. 

He placed the familiar gas mask on his face, a sense of finality accompanying the action. It almost felt like he was sealing his fate. They had no idea what said fate would be, though he knew it couldn’t be good. How could it be, when he was going along with the whims of Mallard Conway? They shook their head. No use dwelling on the future when he needed to stay focused on the present.

A quiet ping broke William out of his thoughts. Curious, he raised his phone to check. There was a notification from his monitoring app, showing that one of their trackers was on the move. The only active tracker was the one he placed on Vyncent the first time they met, so that must be him. 

He opened the app. The tracker was moving at a fast pace, much faster than a human- well, an elf, could walk or even run. A car, most likely, then. They truly did not believe that Vyncent knew what a car was, much less how to drive one, so it had to be someone else driving. Tide struck him as the only one who knew how to drive. If they were lucky, it wasn’t just Vyncent and Tide. If they were lucky, it would be all of the Prime Defenders. That was what they were betting on, anyway.

William placed his poetry book and the note they wrote earlier on the table closest to the door. Even if the Prime Defenders weren’t coming over right now, the three of them were bound to at some point. The note was self explanatory. It was a goodbye letter, easy as pie. The book was so that they wouldn’t forget him while he was gone. He walked over to the door and opened it, just a crack, so that their friends would be able to come in without a key.

With a bone deep sigh, they opened a small portal to their gear cache. It had been a monumental effort to  ̶s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶ collect as much as they did, one that they really did not want to do again. Even if he was reluctantly going on this mission, a small part of him was glad that he was using something from what can only be labeled as his horde. The collection had been sitting there for a couple of years, unused and forgotten about. 

William reached into the portal and felt around. They didn’t really know what they’d be walking into, but it never hurt to be prepared. He knew what he wanted, he just had to find it. After a few moments of feeling around blindly, they grasped the device that he’d been looking for. They pulled it out and closed the portal. It looked like an incredibly simplified remote control with only a few buttons, though it was a lot more than that. Such a small thing was able to fry all electric devices in a 3 mile radius when turned on. Was it permanently borrowed from the W.A.T.C.H.? Perhaps. But did it really matter, when they had more than enough to fill the gap? He thought not.

He tucked it into his pocket. In the Wisperer suit, they couldn’t have their duffle bag, so they had to put pockets in the suit. Alas, the woes of having a secret identity. Plus, a duffle bag didn’t really go with the calm and mysterious facade the Wisperer had. So, the bag had to go.

He shook his head. He didn’t want to be the Wisperer. And, if everything went well, they wouldn’t have to be for long. It was just this one mission and then they could flee. If their friends were in danger just by being near him, it was better if he left. Of course, that wasn’t accounting for if the mission went south, but they really didn’t want to think about that. Everything was going to go smoothly and they’d go live in the forest for a few months until Mal thought that he was gone forever. It was easy. 

With a wave of his hand, William opened a portal to an extremely familiar location. The Prime Defenders’ base, more specifically their living room. He didn’t see anyone on the other side, but you can never be too safe. They turned invisible.

With an unneeded sigh, he stepped through.

It didn’t take the Wisperer very long to find the prison Wavelength was being kept in, considering the fact that their suit was able to sense souls. It let him figure out exactly where the supervillain was. He had dropped the invisibility when he saw that there was no one else in the building. Their hunch was correct, it seemed.

He phased through the fake wall in the kitchen. Honestly, he had to hand it to Tide. If they didn’t know that someone was back there, they’d have no way to tell there was anything strange about it. No secret passageways or hidden prisons, no sir. Just a completely ordinary kitchen that three teenagers ate in regularly. Did they even know that Wavelength was right there, just beyond the wall? If he had to guess, probably not. Why would Tide tell them? No, it made more sense if the three of them were clueless.

The hallway was dark, the atmosphere oppressive. If the Wisperer was a normal person, he’d go running with his tail between his legs. Unfortunately, he was anything but normal, so they continued floating onwards. Honestly, it reminded him of the hallways in Mal’s castle. The dreariness was familiar in a way that nothing in the Material Plane had been so far. It kind of made him want to stay here for a while- but no, they couldn’t. They needed to continue on with his mission: free Wavelength. He still didn’t understand why Mal had decided that was going to be what got them back on his side, but it didn’t really matter. He’d do anything to keep his friends safe, even if it meant going along with Mallard.

After a few moments of floating, there was another door, though this one was very clearly a door instead of a fake wall. They shrugged. Not like the last one stopped him. He landed on the floor and phased through the door.

The juxtaposition between rooms was astounding. The one that the Wisperer stood in now was brightly lit with LEDs while the hallway had no lights. It was almost like a flashbang, though that was being generous. He shook his head. No use thinking about the differences in lighting. It was thoughts like that, the silly, unnecessary thoughts, that Mal had tried to get him to stop thinking. They needed to be focusing on the task at hand. They scanned the room, trying to find where Wavelength was.

When he saw it, he felt like facepalming. Almost the entire right side was sturdy glass, with a wall separating it into two. There were highly secured doors on either side of the interruption with a keypad in the middle. If they listened closely, they could hear the quiet hissing of some sort of machinery that they couldn’t see. Inside one of the glass cells was a familiar man with a mask similar to their own, though there was a chunk taken out of the upper left side.

Wavelength sat against the wall, breathing slowly, as if he were asleep. Strange. Why would he allow himself to be unconscious in the midst of the enemy? That was when the Wisperer saw the smoke in the cell and how it was being pumped out by a pipe near the ceiling. Ah, that was probably the machinery they heard. Some sort of sedative was their guess, but it really could be anything. Maybe Wavelength was straight up dead. They didn’t know! Hopefully not, but it was always a possibility. No, wait. That didn’t make sense, considering the fact that he only found this place because of the soul sensing, and the fact that he was breathing. Anyway.

The Wisperer pulled the remote off of their belt. If luck was on their side, the gas would be affected by the EMP, but his hopes weren’t high. They weren’t lucky often, and when they were, it was usually inconsequential things like no heroes being around when he needed to attack somewhere or Vyncent offering to help him when the computer went on the fritz. They shook their head. If they could just stop going on mental tangents for one minute, maybe he’d be able to get something done. The Wisperer pressed the green button on the remote.

It wasn’t like he could feel the EMP. The human body, even if he wasn’t exactly human anymore, did not have the right receptors to sense such things. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t see the changes it made. The bright LED lights flickered once, twice, and then shut off. The small glowing numbers on the keypad were gone. And, like a heaven-sent miracle, the hissing faded into nothing. A small smile crept to their face. Lady Luck was on his side for once in his life.

Un fortunately, that wasn’t the only sound that changed. From the now powered-down keypad, an androgynous robotic voice spoke. “Unauthorized shut down. Alert sent.” Once it was done speaking, the room was silent. Well, fuck them, right?  Why else would an alert be sent out? The Wisperer sighed. If Wavelength could just wake up, the both of them would be out of there quickly, before anyone else showed up.

As if his thoughts were a miracle worker, the man in front of them began to stir. Somewhat of a surprise, considering they didn’t expect the sedative to work out of his system so fast, but it was a welcome one. The Wisperer walked forward until he was standing just in front of the glass, their mask allowing no emotion to show through. He was a blank slate, the very image of impassivity. The less Wavelength knew, the better.

It took a few minutes for him to fully awaken. The Wisperer stood in front of the glass dutifully, waiting oh so patiently. If need be, they would have waited years. This was their assignment and, for better or for worse, they needed to complete it.

The one eye of Wavelength’s that was exposed, the one surrounded by scales, cracked open. They saw the slitted pupil before they realized what that meant. But it hit him like a brick after a couple of seconds. The gene research, the hybridization, the half-dead scientists and mutated animals, all from where he used to work. Surely it had to have been tested on humans somewhere . And, apparently, that somewhere was Wavelength himself. That was… interesting, and not at all disconcerting.

Wavelength squinted, trying to make out the figure on the other side of the glass. When he did, though, he groaned. “Kid, can ya’ just leave me alone?!” While the obvious fatigue was still in his voice, there was an undertone of exasperation and frustration. Like he couldn’t believe the Wisperer would go to such great lengths to get what they wanted. It’s as if he had never heard of their work, of their persistence, of how they would always get the job done, no matter what.

“No, Wavelength, I will not. The offer is still open. I would still like to extend the olive branch. Your incarceration does nothing to dissuade me. If anything, it encourages me,” The Wisperer explained, their voice neutral. If they wanted to get through to Wavelength, they needed to remain objective. He wouldn’t listen otherwise. “I’m able to set you free. You could leave this prison behind. That hero… Tide, was it? He would never know. All you have to do is accept this alliance.”

The man seemed to roll his eyes at their words, though the Wisperer only could glean that piece of information because of the subtle eye movement. Could lizards even roll their eyes? They weren’t sure. Something to look into later, surely. After Wavelength accepted their deal and the mission went well. 

“What’s in it for me?” He asked. That… was a very good question. One that the Wisperer didn’t have the answer to.

Well, they weren’t a stranger to bullshitting the answer to questions such as this. “Well, you would be granted protection by a very powerful entity. I do believe I mentioned him the first time we met. Mallard Conway. And me, though Mallard is much more powerful than I,” they responded.

“And who’s that? Never heard of ‘em.”

The Wisperer shrugged a bit. “That’s understandable. He usually does not bother himself with matters of the mortal coil. But, I can assure you, he has more power than you could ever imagine.” They didn’t know if that one was true. Mal’s power level seemed to be pretty in-line with what he seemed, though that freak ass thing he turned into sometimes was a whole different beast entirely.

It was silent for a few moments. Wavelength was presumably thinking the arrangement over. The Wisperer didn’t mind one bit. Like before, they didn’t mind waiting. As long as their assignment would be completed to the preferable outcome, they didn’t mind one bit.

“Open that door, and then we’ll talk. I’m not about to be coerced into agreeing. If you want us to be allies or whatever, then we need to be equals,” Wavelength decided on. His mask, just like the Wisperer’s, gave nothing away. His intentions were well-hidden, his reasoning veiled behind cold metal. It was quite impressive, actually.

The Wisperer, for one, agreed with him. Alliances are based on trust and equality. One side shouldn’t have power over the other. So, they did as told. Taking a few steps to the right, they pushed the door open. It wasn’t hard. The locking mechanism was probably electronic, so that went away with the EMP. 

Wavelength slowly stood up. He wasn’t slow for the sake of being slow, but rather the way an older human would have to move deliberately. That train of thought made the Wisperer curious. Why was Wavelength moving like he wasn’t in his prime? After all of this, they’d have to do some research into who, exactly, Wavelength was. It wouldn’t be hard to find his civilian identity. And, if they knew who he was, they’d be able to learn how old he was. They filed the thought away for later. Gaining insight into their new allies would probably be for the best.

“How about it, friend?” They asked, cocking their head to the side a bit. Surely, they’ve been logical and objective enough. Surely they can add a bit of human connection to the conversation. 

With a wave of their other hand, the Wisperer made a portal to a random alleyway in New Haven. That’d be the secondary ideal place for drop off, the first being in the Spirit World directly. They just didn’t want to scare him. Wavelength took a few steps to the door, opening his mouth to respond-

But before he could, the door into the room slammed open. Both heads snapped to look at it. In the doorway stood the owner of the base. Tide was wearing civilian clothes, though they were water-themed. It was like he had just walked out of an aquarium and bought the entire gift shop. 

Every single person there was shocked. The Wisperer for having their plans foiled, Wavelength for Tide even knowing that something suspicious was going on, and Tide for the fact that there were two villains in his secret prison room, one of which was helping the other escape. The three stood in silence for a few moments, the only sound being Wavelength’s mechanized breathing. A pin drop would be able to be heard there.

The Wisperer was still for a second longer than the other two, their instincts a bit rusty. They hadn’t had to react to an ambush in a while. Tide started to rush at them, but the room was large and he wouldn’t be able to get to him in the time it took to get through the portal. But Tide wasn’t the one that they needed to be worried about.

No, what the Wisperer needed to be worried about was the rapid footsteps thundering in the cell towards him. In a split second, the presence of Wavelength was behind them. Everything was happening too fast for them to comprehend anything, much less react.

However, there was one thing the Wisperer was able to comprehend. From behind them, the familiar voice of Wavelength uttered two words. “Sorry, kid.”

There was a sharp pain in the back of the Wisperer’s head, and they were out like a light.

Chapter Text

An extremely familiar forest is what greeted William when he woke up.

On instinct, he did a mental checklist. He was pretty sure that he had no wounds, check. They moved their arms and legs a bit. He wasn't restrained, check. He conjured a small wisp in front of him, one that bounced playfully around. He still had his powers, check.

Alright, they were (mostly) fine. The only problem was that they had no idea where they were. William felt around where he was laying- wait, he was laying down? Okay, interesting. He then felt a little dumb for trying to feel around, considering the fact that he couldn't feel physical sensations, but he dismissed the thought. Now was not the time to be self critical. Not when he was in an unknown situation, one that might possibly be dangerous.

William sat up and looked at the ground. They were just laying on grass in the middle of the forest with no clue how he got there. A spike of anxiety went through his mind. This probably wasn't Mal; they'd be in the castle if it was. Or maybe a spirit zone. Either way, he'd definitely know if it was Mal.

The last thing he remembered was... breaking Wavelength out of prison. Oh, shit. he really did that. The Prime Defenders were going to hate him. No, it doesn’t matter. They didn't have to like him, they just had to be alive. That's what he told himself, ignoring the grief he felt at the thought. It was fine

But his recollection wasn't specific enough. Anything could've happened after they convinced Wavelength to come with them. They narrowed their eyes in concentration, conjuring the memories in their mind.

Wavelength had stood up and was walking to the door. A rift to his trusty alleyway was open behind William. All he needed to do was get wavelength through the rift.

Then, the door to the room had slammed open, and Tide was standing there. William had stared at him in shock before they heard rapid footsteps behind them. The world then went dark.

That was when he woke up here. William could assume that Wavelength had knocked him out, even though they couldn't feel it. That little trip down memory lane didn't help him figure out how he got wherever here was. The only way to know was to find out themself, they supposed. 

William stood up and only startled a little when he went up a lot higher than he wanted. Looking down, they could see that their body was blue and translucent, wearing his lounge wear instead of the Wisperer suit.

Oh. They'd separated from their body. That hadn't happened in... damn, almost a year? He'd gotten a lot better at staying in whenever something injured the corpse he haunts. But, then again, it wasn't every day that they were hit over the head by a juiced up supervillain.

The second thing they gleaned from their movement was that they'd also lost control of their powers. The ground was a few feet below him. Clearly, he was floating, and they didn't make a conscious effort to do so. It was strange. To their knowledge, the only times he'd lose control were when he felt extreme emotions. But all they felt now was confusion. Could it be a side effect of the whole body separation? Possibly. It wasn't like he could test it. They didn't have a body to test it with currently.

Right. They needed to figure out where the hell he was. The forest was familiar, but when he tried to recall why it was familiar, they just pulled blanks. A gap in his memory, a throbbing in their temples. Typical. Aside from the little snippets he got whenever he went to sleep, there was nothing. A not-so-blank slate.

William groaned. Debating about his situation internally wasn't productive. He needed to get out there to try and find civilization. Actually, maybe not, if their ghostly form was anything to go by. Exorcisms didn't work on them, but it was a generally awkward situation for everyone involved. Best to be avoided if possible. They'd found that out with experience.

An idea popped into his head. If he was in his lounge wear, he might have their belongings. Specifically, they'd have their phone. Phones had GPS tracking. There, boom. A way to figure out his location without encountering anyone. A swell of hope entered their heart-

Which was promptly crushed when William found nothing in his pocket. With a sigh that was more force of habit, they rubbed their eyes. What were they expecting, honestly? The universe would never let him have something good. He couldn't keep his life, they had to leave their friends, and he was forced to do Mal's bidding.

No, they weren't going to dawdle on the bad right now. He really didn't want to cause a forest fire, not when this could give them more information about their past. He just had to pick a direction and keep going.

William floated forward. It was a bit disorienting, not taking physical steps, but he adjusted quickly. They made sure to keep their eyes and ears open, just in case there was anyone around. It was doubtful, but possible.

The trees were tall and imposing, the leaves almost completely blocking out the sun. They could see scratch marks on the trunks of various trees. Even when they floated closer to one, he couldn't identify what creature made it. While they were stopped, he noticed how utterly silent it was. Sure, he didn't remember ever being in a forest, but they knew that it was supposed to be loud. Wind rustling across the leaves, birds chirping, or animals walking across the grass all made sounds you'd find in a forest. There was none of that. All that he could hear was faint rushing water from somewhere far away.

Just then, William heard footsteps. Cautious and slow footsteps, but footsteps nonetheless. That sparked his curiosity. Who could be in this dark, decrepit forest of their own? There certainly wasn't another pair if their ears were to be believed. Of course, senses couldn't always be trusted, but it was at least a jumping off point.

He was very, very curious about whoever was making the steps, though. It overrode his training and carefully placed instincts. If wasn't so curious, he'd realize how strange it was for him to do such a reckless action. It would only be later, when they examined this strange circumstance that he'd realize that it felt like something was pushing him to investigate.

So, William did just that. He floated closer to the footsteps, keeping to the shadows as best he could. It was hard to be stealthy when you were glowing blue, but they were trying. At least his feet didn’t make a sound when he walked in the air. The leaves above him were giving him some trouble, though. The dark of the forest only enhanced how visible he was. Troubling, but what could he do? He can't really turn the glow off.

Peeking through the trees, he saw a man with a flashlight. Dark brown hair and light brown eyes. Black dress shirt and a black tie. A civilian. He was familiar, for some reason. Just as familiar as the forest. Just as familiar as the treehouse from his dream/memory combos. William was curious about that, for sure. There wasn’t a lot in this world that could make him nostalgic. Was this man a remnant of what he once had before his death? It was likely.

The man’s gaze shifted to them and their floating, glowing blue form. His eyes widened, swinging the flashlight’s beam over to them. They squinted against the harsh light. The LEDs of the prison in the Prime Defenders’ base were bright, but there were at least other lights around them. They weren’t going to go blind just being in there. Looking directly at the flashlight, however? There were no other lights around, other than the glow they gave off. It was a dark forest. Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Could they even go blind with no body currently attached to their spirit? They didn’t know, and they didn’t want to find out.

The two stared at each other for a few moments. The man looked at William with an inscrutable gaze, the emotion not clear in his eyes. They never were the best at reading people. Mal didn’t express many emotions other than apathy, false cheerfulness, and wrath. They were looking at the man with confusion, trying to scry out how they knew each other. Their facial features weren’t similar, so they probably weren’t family. Not that he knew much about familial relations. The most that they had and remembered was Mal, which… was not much of a familial relation at all.

Then, the man gasped, his eyes widened even further. With fright, perhaps? Shock? They didn’t know. He dropped the flashlight, though both of them were still able to see. 

“Will?” He asked quietly, his voice almost breaking. And- yeah, that voice sounded very, very familiar. From where?

William blinked a few times, cocking his head to the side. “Do I know you? I feel like I know you.” They floated a bit closer, inspecting the man more. He looked professional, but sad. Why was he sad? It didn’t look like there was any reason to be sad. Unless he knew them. He was kind of a ghost. If he knew them from before, then seeing them as a ghost would probably be distressing. Or not. They didn’t really remember much about emotions.

The man nodded unsteadily, taking a couple steps closer to them. He reached out, trying to take them into a hug by their shoulder. His hand passed straight through. His face, if possible, fell further. 

“...You’re really gone, huh?” The man seemed really, really sad. This guy definitely knew them. He seemed close, if he was getting this upset over William being dead. But why? Mal had said that any family he had was gone. So how was this guy here and probably something closer than just knowing him?

William shrugged. “Well, I’ve been a ghost for three years, so yeah?” This was a really awkward situation that they really, really did not want to be in.

“We couldn’t find your body, Will. We just found blood and intestines on a stalagmite. It was like you got up and walked away with no stomach.” The man chuckled, but there was no humor in his voice. “It looks like you did.”

There were a few seconds of silence. “Are you okay? I don’t really remember a lot before my, y’know, death, but you’re familiar. So I had to’ve been close to you. If I was close to you, then I probably cared about if you were okay then, so I’ll care about if you’re okay now.”

The man rubbed his face. “I’ll be fine. I was… I’m David. David Bell. I’m your step brother. Ma thought that there was a chance you were alive. Guess I can go back to her and tell her that you’re not really gone.” 

David. Mal lied about that. He had family. David mentioned a mother, too. They had a mom. Maybe even a dad. Not that they remembered, but if he could get away from freak ass horn hair, he could go back to wherever this is. And he had a jumping off point! Not only did he know his own name, but they now knew David’s name. They could search up whoever this David Bell fellow was. They could figure out more about their life.

“You already know me, so there’s no use in introducing myself. It’s a pleasure to meet you again, David.” William did a little bow in the air.

They felt freer. Their emotions flowed more freely. His movement was more lax than usual. Normally, he’d be on guard, always looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was sneaking up on him. Now, he didn’t need to do that. He could just be. It was amazing. He never wanted this to end. He never wanted to go back to the Spirit World. He never wanted to go back to Mallard. Fuck, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to the Prime Defenders!

What a sobering thought. Of course he wanted to go back to them. They were here because of them. Because of how much he cared about them. He didn’t know David Bell or his parents. He knew Dakota, Ashe, and Vyncent. Tide, too, though to a lesser degree. He was honestly glad he hadn’t spoken to the clone much. He’d totally figure them out. Well. Not like it mattered much now, not when something happened around the man.

William really needed to figure out why they were in the forest. They needed to figure out what happened to their body. But they couldn’t do that when they were talking to David. They especially couldn’t tell him about their status as a supervillain. What would he say? Oh, I know that you used to know me and I’ve been missing for several years, and we both know that I for sure died, but I got adopted by a creepy megalomaniac who persuaded me to be one of the most wanted criminals in all of Prime just to serve his own interests? Yeah, right. He didn’t even tell the Prime Defenders in his goodbye letter. There was no way that they would tell David.

With another mimed sigh, William pretended to dust off his knees. “Well, it was nice talking to you. But I gotta figure out why I’m like, here, and not in Rockfall. Next time I get a hold of a phone I’ll call you. I’m pretty sure I’m being put in prison right now, though, so it’ll be a bit.”

“Wait, Will!-”

David didn’t manage to finish his sentence before they went invisible. Not even their glow remained. Good. They didn’t want him to know they were still here. They weren’t lying, though. They would be looking up who David Bell was when they managed to escape. Or, well, have Mal break them out. Relying on that man for anything made their skin crawl.

William floated away from David, closing his eyes as he did. That was a lot. He wasn’t sure if he’d get a moment to unpack that for a while, what with the whole getting knocked out right in front of a superhero in his Wisperer suit.

But that was fine! That was fine. Mal would know he tried to complete the mission and he wouldn’t hurt the Prime Defenders. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. If he did, then William got himself trapped and abandoned his only friends for nothing. Actually, wait. If Mal killed the Prime Defenders, then William would just find them in the Spirit World and hang out with them. It’d be very, very hard to explain to them why they were in the Spirit World in the first place and why everyone was looking at him with awe and admiration. Yuck. They really, really hated doing their Wisperer duties. They didn’t like people viewing them as this savior who could do no wrong. That wasn’t him. He was a villain. He couldn’t be redeemed, no matter how much he wished he could.

When William blinked, the forest was gone. Replaced by cold steel and the soft hissing of some kind of machinery. He was sitting on a floor against a wall, staring straight ahead past a glass wall. On the other side of that glass was Tide Lambert. Well. They were right about the whole ‘getting put in prison thing’, at least.

Chapter Text

“Wisperer.”

“Tide.”

The Wisperer sat against the wall, their gaze level and flat and utterly emotionless, trained on the man on the other side of the glass. This was a bad situation, of course. They could barely hold onto control of their body. Their spirit wanted to float up, up, and away. It was merely the sheer force of will and their concentration that made sure their body remained occupied. It was probably something with the cell they were put in; it’d make sense. It wouldn’t be smart to allow supervillains to have their powers when they were meant to be contained. They understood this. However, it was extremely inconvenient, considering their powers were what allowed them to remain on the Material Plane.

Tide stared right back, his eyes hard. More so than the Wisperer ever saw with the Prime Defenders. The atmosphere of the situation was incredibly tense. Rightfully so, but still. It was like one of those ‘family dinners’ that Mallard insisted on having. He usually did it when he was trying to teach them a lesson or, really, whenever he got sort of upset with them. It was so deeply annoying, but what could they do? Mal was more powerful than them. That’s what he said, at least. Who were they to disobey and disregard what he said?

The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. It sucked. If they weren’t in their Wisperer mindset, they were sure that they’d be trying to get out of this situation by any means possible. But all they could do was think of Tide as an obstacle to be eliminated the second they were able to do so. Once they were able to escape from this cell, Tide would be dead. It wasn’t like they had any aversion to murder; they did it all the time. It didn’t faze them that he knew them as William. 

But William was a facade. He didn’t really exist. He might’ve, at one point. But not anymore. Not since their fatal fall; the one that they still couldn’t remember. Not since Mallard got his wretched hands on them. The Wisperer was the truest reflection of who they were. Almost. It was closer than William Conway, at least. Damn, they hated names and identities.

“You have been able to evade capture for quite a while, Wisperer.” The way that Tide said their name reminded them way too much of the way that Mal said their name. Barely disguised vitriol with a splash of loathing. Understandable coming from a hero who has had to deal with them before. Absolutely devastating coming from the person who trained them. “If you hadn’t caused so many people’s deaths and property damage, we would have offered you a spot on W.A.T.C.H. But-”

“I never would have accepted, Tide,” The Wisperer cut him off. There was absolutely no emotion in their voice, no inflection in their tone. “I did not want this life, Tide. I did not want to be a villain. I would not have these powers had it not been for my sponsor.”

“Sponsor?”

Shit. Mallard was going to beat their ass when he learned that they spilled the beans about the fact that they weren’t acting alone. That had been the heroes’ assumption for the longest time. While it did appear that the Wisperer had an unknown goal in all of their senseless violence, it was thought that they worked alone. Surely a villain of their scale and magnitude worked alone. If there was someone more powerful than the Wisperer, then Prime had a much bigger issue. The Wisperer, at least, left once their work was done. The Wisperer, at least, did not seem to want to fight. Who knows what the person that pulled the Wisperer’s strings could do? Who knows what they would want to do?

There was no way that Mal would let them go out to the Material Plane for a while once he knew. Did this matter anymore? Did anything really matter? Probably not. Who knew how long the man was going to keep him away. That rendered their goodbye letter moot. They promised the Prime Defenders that they’d be back eventually, but now, that was not a guarantee. All three of them abided by a mortal lifespan. The Wisperer did not. They could be forced to wait in the Spirit Realm for centuries upon centuries, only seeing the Prime Defenders again in a Spirit Zone.

The Wisperer did not take a breath with lungs that did not work. Those actions, the facsimile of an action taken by those who have not seen the underbelly of the world and come out changed, belonged to William. They were not William. Perhaps it should stay that way.

In a small, hidden motion, they tapped three times onto the inside of their wrist. There was a small microchip implanted there. It would send out a signal, one that they had insisted upon when they were first designing their suit. Just in case something bad had happened, they could activate it and it would alert Mal that something had happened and that they needed help getting out of wherever they had landed themself. The Wisperer did not want to use it before. Not here, not now. They had hope that they’d be able to get out of this one on their own. They no longer held such frivolous ideas.

“Yes. A sponsor.” Their heart did not skip a beat at their upcoming reveal, as it had not moved in three years. “One by the name of Mallard Conway. He gave me my powers and trained me. He molded me into what I am now.”

The Wisperer reached up and removed their gas mask. Tide’s eyes widened to pinpricks, though did not show any other signs of shock. They were impressed. They expected something more, something bigger. He just found out that he had let one of the most notorious and dangerous supervillains into his secret base. He just found out that mentioned notorious and dangerous supervillain had slept under his roof and spent time with his wards. Surely that would require a much greater reaction.

The Wisperer stood up, their spirit trying once again to escape from their corpse. They refused to allow it. They took a few steps towards the glass, not breaking eye contact for even a second. Face absolutely blank. They were sure that it was pretty disconcerting to Tide. William was, after all, a pretty expressive person. All nerves and no sign of calming. But that wasn’t them. Not now, anyway. Now, they were almost completely cut off from their emotions.

“I am aware that I painted a rather… unflattering portrait of Mallard in the time I spent with you and your pupils. Unfortunately, most of those descriptions were lies. I was not to be suspected, especially not by your ilk. My apologies for breaking this very delicate news to you. Do not attempt to find Mallard. He is not of this plane. Your ventures will only end in failure and death.”

The Wisperer was lying again. It was like that was all they could do these days. All of the ways they talked about Mal were lies? They wished they were lying about it all. But Tide could not know that. If Tide knew that Mal was actually as shitty as they said, he’d try to get them out and redeem them or whatever. That couldn’t happen. If they were caught going against Mal’s orders, then there was no doubt that he’d harm the Prime Defenders. Even if the Wisperer did not feel the care and affection they previously felt for those three right now, they knew they would again. Soon. They just had to hold on.

Tide took a breath. He was shaking a bit, they noticed. “William, how could you?” He asked quietly.

“William? You want to call me William?” The Wisperer chuckled humorlessly and put their gas mask back up. Their mechanized voice only separated them from their alias even more. Thank goodness for that. “William is not me. Continue to call me Wisperer, Tide. Or do you want to take pity on me for the mere fact that you know me as a civilian? Surely you are not that bad of a hero.”

“You did not answer my question, Wisperer. How could you?” Tide looked about ready to explode. From rage or shock, they did not know. “The Prime Defenders trusted you. Ashe- Winter was so worried about you after your little sleepover. D.C. was too. They thought you were their friend. How could you betray that?”

The Wisperer shrugged a bit. “Well, they are heroes in training, are they not? This is a good lesson in never trusting anyone, even a so-called civilian. I am sure that they will not make the same mistake again. You should be thanking me, honestly.”

Tide took a breath, seeming to calm down. A shame. The Wisperer had been looking forward to him getting so angry that he started yelling. “You are going to be depowered, Wisperer. You will never be able to hurt another person again. I don’t care that you are close to the Prime Defenders. If I can help it, they will never see you again.”

“Harsh.”

“Wisperer, listen to me right now. Everybody that’ll be handling you from this point forward will not hesitate to use measures that you may not be accustomed to. I do not know who trained you, but W.A.T.C.H will not be gentle. You are one of the most dangerous villains in the Prime. If one of the Sovereign Five was in my place, you would have been depowered immediately. They wouldn’t have wasted time trying to talk to you or see your point of view.” There was the anger the Wisperer was hoping for. It was well hidden now, yes, but it was there. Perfect. If Tide got upset enough, he’d probably leave.

The Wisperer cocked their head to the side slightly. They could almost feel smug satisfaction rising in their chest. They squashed it down. No time for that. “Then this is a teaching moment for you, too. Now you know to stop questioning the villains that you capture and send them straight to your superiors. You wouldn’t want to find out any other villains are people that your children trusted enough to bring to your base, huh? That would really suck.”

Another deep breath from the superhero. Mal always said that their attitude would get them in trouble someday, but jokes on him, their attitude would be the thing to get them out of trouble. They just needed him to stop being busy and come break them out of prison. What could he even be doing? Monologuing to Clarence’s head? Thinking up more ways to make their life hell? Or maybe he wasn’t even busy and was just deciding to let them face the consequences of their actions. He is so annoying, they swore.

“What do you want, William? What’s your purpose for getting close to the Prime Defenders? Why betray their trust?”

Honestly, the Wisperer was getting fed up with the questions. They just wanted to leave. “What do I want? Now, that is a good question.” They hummed quietly, pretending to think. They were really just trying to find the thing that would get the most rise out of Tide. “Oh, the usual. Chaos, destruction, and death. That is about it. I betrayed their trust because I wanted to hurt them. It is as simple as that,” they responded. Despite their words, there was still no inflection in their tone. They were sure it was pretty weird, but that was their brand. If it wasn’t creepy or off putting, then why do it?

Tide shook his head at that retort. “We both know that isn’t true. You wouldn’t have stayed the night and put up with it when they dropped in on your apartment if you just wanted to hurt them. You would have left while the other three slept. You would have turned them away. So why didn’t you?”

“I needed them to trust me. Simple as that. If they liked and trusted me, then the reveal that I was a supervillain would hurt worse. My-” The Wisperer was cut off.

“I’m not going to tell them.”

“Huh?”

“They won’t know that you’re the Wisperer. They’ll think you left New Haven and lost your phone. They will not have to live with the betrayal.” Tide seemed so sure about that. He was taking their supposed treachery away from them. And softening the blow for the Prime Defenders. Huh. What a concept.

Mallard would never in a million years soften any blow for the Wisperer. If anything, he’d exaggerate and make it worse for them. So why was Tide pretending like they didn’t double cross the people he was assigned to protect? Why was he doing the exact opposite of what Mal would do? This made no sense to them. But it really wasn’t the time to be pondering why their interrogator decided to be nice. They could deal with it later when they got out.

The Wisperer decided that it was probably not a great time to tell Tide about their little goodbye letter. They didn’t want to take away from his moment. Maybe it’ll even sew some discontentment between Tide and the Prime Defenders; the difference between their story on the note and his story would surely be noticed by at least Ashe, who would hopefully tell the other two. But on the other hand…

The Wisperer really didn’t want them to suffer. They didn’t want them to become estranged from their mentor. Tide was nice. Tide was really, really nice for seemingly no reason. They wanted the Prime Defenders to hold onto him for as long as they could. Have what they couldn’t. 

Fuck, they missed just hanging out with those three.

The Wisperer took a few moments of staring at Tide through the sturdy glass wall before turning away and walking back to the wall, sitting down. “I am done answering your questions, Tide. Go call W.A.T.C.H or whoever you report to. Tell them that I am ready to be picked up and depowered. Or, perhaps, go figure out a better lie to tell the Prime Defenders about where I am. The one you told me sucks.”

Tide opened his mouth a few times, trying to formulate a response to that. However, after a couple tries, he just sighed. “Goodbye, William. I hope for your sake that you are merely depowered and put in prison.” With those final words, he walked away.

The Wisperer sat there for some unknown amount of time, just staring forward. The hissing of the machine pumping sedative into the cell was back, though it didn’t do much. Even if they didn’t have the gas mask on, they didn’t need to breathe. Something in the air would never affect them. But, they supposed, it worked on Wavelength, and most villains that were captured breathed air and would be affected by the drug.

They had tapped out their little SOS signal a few more times onto their wrist touch pad. They knew it probably annoyed Mal to no end, but the longer he took to rescue them, there was a greater chance for Tide’s promise of depowerment to come true. They were pretty sure they’d pass on if depowered, but that was just a hunch. 

The Wisperer blinked, just once, and there was a figure bleeding into existence on the other side of the glass. It was all black and red energy, the force seeming to drip upward from the figure before fading from existence. This energy formed a vaguely humanoid shape. It rolled its neck a few times, making a quiet but sickening popping sound, before opening its eyes and looking at them.

They rolled their eyes. Mal loved to make an entrance. The adjectives used to describe that man was long and dramatic was at the top of the list. Alongside evil and creepy, of course. But no, they were at fault when they let their fire spread to other buildings, saying that they made too much of a scene. Like he wouldn’t do that for fun!

“Wisperer. What a predicament you’ve found yourself in.” His voice was almost slimy. To be fair, it always was, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that it was so, so different than how Tide said their name. They preferred the clone, please and thank you.

The Wisperer stood up and walked right up to the glass, making sure to remain completely impassive. Even if Mallard didn’t explicitly say that he preferred when they let their emotions fade to the background, he certainly looked pleased whenever they fulfilled a job without stopping to think about the repercussions. They made every possible effort to not examine that further and just keep Mal happy. If Mal was content, then they would have more time in between missions. They didn’t have to hurt or kill anyone when they weren’t on a mission.

They knew Mal was just going to take this opportunity to gloat and hold his position of power over them. Fine. If that was what it took to get out of here, they’d oblige. “Mallard, please just let me out of this thing. Preferably before the heroes arrive to take me away.”

He raised his eyebrows in apparent shock, though his mouth was still pressed into a thin line. “Oh? Asking things of me now? Have you forgotten your place so quickly in your time away?” Okay, maybe appealing to his superiority complex wasn’t the best idea. He seemed kind of pissed, which was definitely not their intention. They really did not want Mal to be mad.

The red energy from his entrance crackled in the air, threatening to lash out at any second. They needed Mallard to be calm and collected. The Wisperer did not not know what kind of alarms or sensors this room had, but they didn’t want to find out. Tide could have set something up to detect if any powers were used in the room, they didn’t know! Maybe Tide was already alerted to Mal’s presence and would then die at Mal's hand. That wouldn’t be ideal. The Prime Defenders would definitely never forgive them if their mentor slash father figure ended up dead.

The Wisperer forced the panic down. Now was not the time to panic. It was not the time to feel much of anything. “My ap-apologies. I did not mean to insinuate that I forgot my place. I remember well. The hero that had captured me just promised to call W.A.T.C.H. and-” They cut themself off when they could feel themself start to ramble. They themself needed to calm the fuck down. This was fine. They were glad that their powers were dampened in this cell, otherwise they would have definitely started a fire in the Prime Defenders base.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you were to free me, Mallard. I was able to release Wavelength from this cell, though he was… less than cooperative with my attempts to convince him to join us,” the Wisperer explained. “I did what was asked of me. If you do not wish to let me out of here, I at least implore you to stay away from the Prime Defenders. That was our deal.”

“You did not fulfill your end, Wisperer. You were to recruit Wavelength. You did not. I am under no obligation to keep those that you cherish unscathed.”

The Wisperer winced at that. If he didn’t fulfill his end of their agreement, then they isolated themself away from their friends, got themself captured, and either depowered and imprisoned or taken back to the Spirit World for nothing. No gain, and so, so many losses. They wished they could go back in time, just to yesterday, and warn Ashe to get everyone to safety. They wished they would have refused his deal. They wished they would have gone with the Prime Defenders.

They sank down to their knees, looking up at him on the other side of the glass. “Mal, please. I do not- I do not know how to cater to your whims. Just let them be safe. I do not care what happens to me. Just do not hurt them,” they borderline pleaded. They felt so, so defeated. This sucked.

The demon hummed quietly, probably thinking it over. “You’re lucky that you still have use.” He placed his hand on the keypad next to the door before letting out some magic. Immediately, the keypad began to spark and fizzle before shutting down completely. The door unlocked, the mechanism inside completely dead.

If the Wisperer had working lungs, they would let out a breath of relief. But, unfortunately, they didn’t. They remained on the floor, watching Mal with their eyes. Sure, this situation wasn’t remaining at rock bottom, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t try something. You always had to be on your guard around him. Just in case, y’know.

Just in case what, you may ask. The Wisperer… didn’t know. Another blank spot in their memory. Why was being on guard around Mal so important? Why did they feel the briefest flashes of fear and vulnerability whenever they looked at Mal? This, certainly, could not be explained away by forgetting everything before their death. Not like everything else. They knew for a fact that Mal had picked them up after they died, not before. They’d definitely remember if they met someone like that in life.

But also, they thought that they’d remember having parents and a stepbrother, but apparently that was incorrect. That encounter with David felt a lot more real than the brief memories they got when they were able to sleep. That couldn’t be altered or messed with. Whatever happened to their mind couldn’t touch the present. Only the past. So maybe they had met Mal before their death. They didn’t know. It was so, so frustrating.

Mallard walked over to the door and pushed it open, staring down at the Wisperer. “Well? Are you going to stand? Or shall I leave you here? Please be aware that I do not mind losing you. If you are depowered, then I will simply find the next Wisperer and let them carry on our work.”

The Wisperer shook their head and pushed themself up. It wasn’t nice to hear how replaceable you were, especially from the person that trained and molded you. With quick strides, they left the cell, the door closing behind them. They felt their spirit tether itself to their body again, the connection strengthening once more. Thank goodness. If they had to hold onto it by concentration alone for longer, they weren’t sure they’d be able to do it,

Mal gestured to the air in front of them. Right. He always mentioned how their portals were nicer to use than his method of transportation. They felt the urge to ask if they were a shuttle service now, but they refused to say anything. He could easily put them back in the cell and forget about them. He literally just got finished explaining why he didn’t really care about them. It would be stupid to disparage his savior and mentor.

The WIsperer made a portal back to Mal’s castle. He wasted no time stepping through. He didn’t even look back to see if they were following. Rude, but understandable. The two of them needed to leave as soon as possible. It wouldn’t look good if this previously unknown but evil looking guy was caught helping the Wisperer, known supervillain, escape from captivity. They took a few steps towards the portal, stopping at the precipice. Their heart told them to close the portal and flee to the Prime Defenders. They were right beyond the wall, after all. They could explain the situation and beg for the forgiveness they’d never receive. 

They shook their head. Mal would have their spirit out of their body and contained in an object in seconds if they did that. That way they would remain in constant half-consciousness without being able to do anything. So, they muttered a quick and quiet apology to the Prime Defenders. They stepped through the portal, closing it behind them.

Chapter Text

The first time William killed someone, he was fifteen years old.

It hadn’t been on purpose, of course. How could it be? She was just collateral. A mere step in his- or, well, Mal’s plans.

That hadn’t made him feel any better.

He had been wrecking a lab, or something. Maybe an office building. Maybe it was a warehouse. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be sure. It was really blurry. All he knew was that it was a medium sized building.

He had walked up those stairs, trailing his hand across the wall. Pops of blue flame followed. The entire lower portion of the structure had already caught fire. They were hoping there’d be more flammable objects on the upper floor. Or maybe there wouldn’t be and he’d have to wrangle the Wisps into being more destructive than what was in their nature. God, that’d be annoying. It was always annoying when they had to convince the spirits to help his cause.

They had gotten to the landing. She had run into him. He had his Wisperer suit on, surely making his visage seem scarier than he actually was. At that time, the W.A.T.C.H. had classified them as a low level villain. The first few times he had committed any kind of crimes in the Material Plane, it had been non violent. Destructive, yes, but not violent. She probably didn’t recognize him.

“What are you doing?! Was this you?!” She had demanded. She was screaming at them. That was fine. The smoke was starting to clog the room. She would merely exhaust herself in her effort to place blame.

The Wisperer had remained neutral. Carefully and precisely neutral. This was fine. This woman was a mere hindrance. This creature was going to stop them from completing his mission. This mortal could not even comprehend what he was.

So he had lit a fire under her. The Wisps almost seemed to scream at them, to say that they wouldn’t comply with their orders. These commands went unheeded. He simply pushed harder. They would comply, or they would be forced to move on. Was this tyrannical? Was he abusing his power? No. Not by his standards and definitely not by Mal’s standards.

She had screamed. Loudly. They could still hear that scream when nights were quiet, just like how he could still hear his flesh be ripped open by a stalagmite, just like how he could hear birds calling above him as he slowly faded from consciousness. 

Her flesh had started to pop and sizzle. Her plastic heels had melted into the floor and into her feet, leaving her stuck in place, unable to leave or run or do anything but burn alive. Even still, they remained neutral. This was fine.

The building had been burned to the ground. He was pretty sure the firefighters had found her remains. That was probably what had gotten him bumped up to the high tier villain list, in hindsight. It wasn’t like they could deny it, either. He had control over some pretty distinctive blue flame.

After he had finished with that, he had gone to the Spirit World and had puked his imaginary guts out. He couldn’t taste the bile, of course, because he didn’t have a stomach to produce the acid, but he could remember what it felt like. Bitter and disgusting and absolutely wretched to feel in his throat and mouth.

That response hadn’t gone away. It had merely lessened with time. He’d only really felt the need to dry heave after slaughters instead of individual killings. 

That was how he existed. She was merely collateral. She had to be.

The car ride back to the Prime Defenders HQ was tense.

Dakota had taken the note and the journal. He was sitting in the backseat, staring down at the tearstained page like it could give him the answers he sought. It wouldn’t. All it could do was show him the same heartbreaking words, over and over and over. If they had to guess, they’d say that it wasn’t doing him any good. They’d say it was merely tormenting him further. They also could not say anything against it in fear of being a hypocrite, considering how often they had caught themself staring at the page for the Trickster, still splattered with their mother’s dried blood. How often they traced the words etched onto the page, the jerky font and the depiction of the beast.

Vyncent was white-knuckling the steering wheel. Was he upset? Probably. To be fair, he had just learned that William had known about their secret identities and had pretended to not. Ashe knew there was a way bigger secret that William was hiding, one that would hopefully never come to their attention. If the other two were this torn up about him merely leaving, who was to say how upset they’d be if they learned he was the Wisperer, if he was the one that had scarred Dakota with his flames?

As for Ashe, they were sitting quietly in shotgun. They were staring out the window, trying to sort out their thoughts. How would they be able to try and find William when he had some otherworldly connection? How could they find him without tipping the other two off about his secret identity? He was never the best with that particular aspect of secrets. Trying to keep his dad’s identity hidden from everyone else was hard. But they’d manage. They had to. 

It was a very long twenty minutes. At some point, Ashe had pulled their headphones up and over their ears, just trying to block out the world. Their thoughts always returned, of course. They thought about the fear in William’s voice when they overheard him talking to his father. They thought about how they didn’t bring him back to the base after they saw him crying, how they just left him to sleep. They thought about their own father, locked up somewhere in the Prime Defenders H.Q.

Speaking of headquarters, Vyncent pulled the SUV into the vehicle storage. There were many high tech vehicles in there, such as fighter jets and armored tanks. It always made Ashe laugh when they saw all of those, and then just… a normal SUV. Today was not a day for laughs. They were mourning, they thought.

Yeah. That’s what this emotion was. Mourning. William may or may not be dead. That was up to interpretation. They’d seen his gravestone, but that didn’t mean he was actually deceased. At this point, he might as well be, though. He’d had to do something awful for an even worse person, someone that was undoubtedly horrible for him. He was gone. He was gone and he likely wasn’t coming back. They’d felt this before, yes, but that was mixed with a heavy, heavy dose of guilt. They’d been the one to read the incantation on the page for the Trickster, after all. They’d been the one to kill their mom. They were-

Now was not the time to think about that baggage. Once they were alone in their room, they could cry about it. And they would! Rest assured, they would. That just required getting to their room first.

The Prime Defenders got out of the SUV. They made their way back inside the base. No one spoke to each other. No one stepped with any urgency. Everything was quiet.

That was probably why Tide didn’t hear them enter. He was speaking pretty adamantly on the phone in the living area. The door to it was open, like he had forgotten to close it. There was immediately an uneasy atmosphere almost seeming to ooze from that room. Half of Ashe wanted nothing to do with it. They wanted to remain far away from that room. They wanted to go to their room and not get up for several days. They wanted to fade into their bed and become the mattress. 

The other half of Ashe, the half that seemed to be winning, wanted to find out what Tide was so animated about. They wanted to know. Maybe it was something important. Maybe it’d help them figure out where William went. Maybe Tide had a lead.

So, Ashe turned to their teammates and put a finger to their lips and gestured to the open door. They both looked confused for a few moments before finally realizing and nodding. They crept closer until they were close enough to the door to hear inside without being seen. 

“- rime Defenders and I had captured the notorious villain Wavelength, we do not have custody of him anymore. I-” There was a pause, like some had interrupted him. Ashe felt their stomach drop, though. Their father was out? Where did he go? How did he escape?

Tide cleared his throat. “We do not have custody of him anymore, though I captured a much bigger adversity. I imprisoned the Wisperer.”

Ashe had to put a hand to their mouth to stop the gasp from coming out of their mouth. William got caught. Mark was free and William was in custody. Did Tide know his secret? They hoped not. They really hoped not.

Dakota looked at them and tilted his head, silently asking if they were okay. Oh, they probably looked extremely uncomfortable, almost fearful. They couldn’t stop themself from making those expressions, though. They knew the truth of what had happened. They knew that they had definitely lost a friend today.

“The probing I attempted didn’t yield many results. I managed to pry out that they have a sponsor, though they did not disclose his name. They cautioned me to not seek him out, for ‘he is not of this plane’. This was the only thing I was able to gain. I-” Tide appeared to be cut off, someone on the other end probably responding.

After a few moments of that, the older hero sighed. “Depowered, yes. There’s just… one problem with that plan. Once I had left the room, the Wisperer’s sponsor apparently… broke them out. There’s currently no villains in this base.”

Faintly, Ashe could hear yelling, like the person (people?) on the phone had gotten so mad they needed to yell. Tide didn’t respond. He merely took the verbal assault. Though Ashe couldn’t see him, they were pretty sure he had his head in his hands.

“Yes, I am aware of how bad of a look this is. I- No, I can assure you that I do care about Prime. I… understand. One more chance.” Tide took an audible breath. “Right. That was the end of my report. I will be in-”

There was the sound of cloth moving, like someone sitting on the couch. Ashe looked at the other two. Vyncent grimaced while Dakota shrugged. Their shoulders slumped. That was informative, yes, but contained absolutely horrible news. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t William have gotten the help he needed? Why did he have to be a villain?

They didn’t know.

They rubbed a hand down their face and silently trudged to their room. The other two followed. There was a silence to the base, a missing presence. Something none of them could fill.

It was about to be a really, really bad night at the Prime Defenders’ HQ.

Chapter Text

Cloaked in his more official Wisperer garbs, William was wandering the Spirit World.

Or, no. Go back, cross that out.

The Wisperer was roaming the Spirit World.

William didn’t exist anymore. William hadn’t existed for many, many years. Sure, he pretended to be that person, but he wasn’t. It was a lie.

If you couldn’t tell, they had a lot of time to think.

This was all part of serious Wisperer duty. He really didn’t enjoy doing this particular one. It was long and tedious and nobody actually saw them while they were doing it. Everybody just saw a means of escape, a means of rest.

The Wisperer was going around to all of the documented Spirit Zones and allowing any spirits inhabiting these Zones to pass on.

Based on what he could tell, this was an ability that only he had. Nobody else was able to pass on by themself. Hell, they were pretty sure that even Mallard Conway didn’t have the power to do this. Hence why the man had sent him on this quest.

They’d worked against him, they were pretty sure. Did something he didn’t like. And so, after a period of time they didn’t exactly remember, Mal had told them to go around and do what he was created to do.

How long ago had that been? How long ago had he been out here? He didn’t feel real. Maybe he wasn’t real at all. Maybe he was never real in the first place. He was passing through this strange world like a ghost in the wind- hah.

Everything felt hollow.

There wasn’t anyone to joke around with anymore. There wasn’t anybody to look forward to seeing. Nobody to reassure him that everything was okay.

His head hurt.

No, it didn’t.

They could faintly sense what should have been a searing pain in his temples, but he felt nothing. How could he?

He didn’t have a body to feel things with. No nerves to connect to a brain, no brain to send signals to muscles. They didn’t have eyes to wince against the pain, no mouth or vocal cords to groan with. They didn’t have hands to rub their temples with, no legs to use to grab any medication that could help.

When he’s on the Material Plane, he would have those things. He’d be able to feel as deeply as mortals could. He’d be able to feel the pain, the loss, the soul deep loss when having to let go-

But now, but here, he was a mere shape. Something indistinct. Something you had to squint at to figure out what, exactly, you were seeing.

The robes were helping define his figure. It wasn’t a perfect solution, of course, but it helped.

Maybe he had a more defined ghostly shape at one point. Maybe he could force himself to take on a humanoid form if he really tried. Maybe he could if he were on day whatever of solitude. This was a punishment, they knew. They did something Mallard didn’t like, and now he was being isolated for it.

He didn’t know what he did. Everything was so fuzzy. Everything was always so fuzzy.

They barely even realized when they stepped into a Spirit Zone.

Nothing felt real.

There were spirits crowding around him. Clawing at him. Begging him to release them from eternity.

Suddenly, they missed the silence of the spaces between. This was too much, too much.

The spirits were ripping into him as their voices synchronized into one.

Let us out.

They felt nothing.

He honored their requests, placing a hand-like appendage on as many as he could see. They focused their will and allowed the innocent to pass on.

Every time he released one, two more took their place. It was overwhelming. Finally, something. Something other than the suffocating nothingness.

The Wisperer tried their best. Really, they did! But there were too many of them and only one of him. One person could only do so much. Or, well. One “person”. 

They released as many as they could, but they had to move on. There were simply too many Spirit Zones. He couldn’t linger like he wished to. He couldn’t fulfill all of the requests he so dearly longed to.

They shook off the spirits that were clinging onto him and left the Zone.

Back to the emptiness of the inbetween. Back to the solitude.

He preferred this, if he were honest. Too many people in a situation always made him want to crawl out of his skin, doubly so when they were all looking at him and asking him for something that only he could give them.

That’s why he never liked the city. There were too many sights and smells and sounds and people. Whenever they had to return to their stolen apartment, they wished they were numb again.

Those memories felt like ages ago. Something he could only barely recall. How long had he spent in this infinite wasteland? How long ago had he left the Material Plane? There was no way to tell here.

With nothing else to do here, he began to walk..

And walk.

And walk.

And walk.

And walk.

The Wisperer was zoning out while they walked. There was nothing else to do except pretend he wasn’t here, nothing to do except hope and pray that he was almost done.

In the last Spirit Zone, things felt real. Or, well, more real than before. Everything was so much that it was bringing him back down to reality. As much as they could be in reality while being in the Spirit World, of course. There was always a barrier between him and what was happening. Always a viewer in his own life.

Now, in the silence, it was bad again. The barrier was stronger. He wasn’t just a viewer now. They were barely even watching. Their amorphous body just kept going and going and going, no input coming in from their mind.

None of this was real.

He wasn’t real.

He wasn’t real.

This world wasn’t real.

He wasn’t-

“Boo.”

The Wisperer screamed like a child and fell backwards. The sudden noise was too unexpected for them to expect, even if he was still fully planted in reality. 

They did not place a hand on their chest to steady their breathing, because he did not have a hand nor lungs nor the ability to breathe. Even still, their mind wanted to. A side effect of pretending to be human for a short time. Apparently, he’d picked up and kept more than he thought.

Looking up, they saw a familiar form. Twisting smiles and wings became a vaguely humanoid shape. It had a mouth that acted as an eye, though that mouth could change depending on whatever it felt like. That particular fact was something he found out during an incident that he would really rather not think about.

The Wisperer was looking at the Trickster in all of its glory.

They sighed. They hadn’t noticed walking into the Chaos Zone, which was really an achievement in its own right. Everything in the Chaos Zone was, well, chaotic. Nothing felt right. Right was left, left was down. Wrong was right. Etc, etc. 

He stood up and brushed off his robes. “Greetings. I was… unaware of where I was. My apologies. If you do not wish for me to be here anymore, then I can leave.”

All of its wings flared out, perhaps in surprise. “No! Don’t leave! We’ve been so lonely here… all by ourselves…” Its voice grew quiet as it spoke.

“You have your legions of demons. Surely they keep you company, Herald of Chaos. I could not begin to compare to them.”

“Oh, but you do, you do! You’re new, you’re interesting, Wisperer! Your instinct towards order cannot be replicated by anything here!” It was grinning, the smiles seeming to grow grotesquely. It’d be gross if they weren’t so familiar with it. 

The Wisperer let out a breath it did not have. “I am not new, Lord Bedlam, nor am I interesting.” He started to walk away, to get back on track. “Now, I really must be going. There are many others on my journey that will wish to pass on. I must fulfill these requests, you see-”

He was cut off by a single word. “No.” The power behind it shook the ground beneath their feet, cracking and breaking. Any of the being’s servants that were milling around the scene turn and run. The creatures could sense their master’s discontent, opting to leave the situation entirely than face its wrath.

The Wisperer tried to run, to get away, to even just take a few steps away from the Trickster. Unfortunately, even a being with supernatural strength and powers can’t compare to a being made of pure chaos.

The Trickster grabbed the other just as soon as he realized what was about to happen, wrapping them up in its wings and taking them into its being. He couldn’t see much of an escape route from here. He couldn’t see much of anything from here, actually.

Nothing he could see made sense. Nothing he could hear made sense. Nothing he could feel made sense. 

Probably because they were entirely encased in the living embodiment of chaos. 

He didn’t try to struggle. The amount of times this has happened is more than they wanted to remember. It wasn’t too many that they had a hard time remembering, no. It was more that any amount of time spent here was not a fun time and very truly something not worth reminiscing on.

They spent… some amount of time like that. Being subjected to the whims of a creature with more power than one could imagine. Being subjected to more sensation than anyone should experience at one time. Once they were out, they were going to savour the absence of everything on the walk to the next Spirit Zone.

Then, something changed.

The Wisperer felt themself being extracted from the Trickster, felt themself be gifted a corporeal form once again. Hands and legs bound together once more, restoring the body he had before his untimely fall and subsequent impaling.

They saw a disembodied hand reaching forward towards the Trickster, palm up and offering. The Wisperer couldn’t help but feel as if that hand was familiar, as if that hand had performed that same gesture to them at one point.

“AHAAHAHAHhahaHA!!!! FREE!!! I’M FREE!!!!!!! WE’RE FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The screech of the Trickster was overpowering. Even though he had just been encased in overwhelming sensation, this was worse. This scream felt like it dug into his very soul. He hated it. He slapped his hands over his ears, curling in on himself a bit as they winced. 

The Trickster, too, was gaining a humanoid form. Red skin and horns and large eyes and a grin stretched too wide for it to be comforting. Those were still the only features they could make out, though. You can’t be completely normal when you originate from the Spirit World, after all.

It took the floating hand in its own. There was a flash, and then a bang. The Wisperer was knocked onto their back. Swirling red energy was everywhere. Chaos demons were rising in the dozens. They were running around and making a ruckus. He was pretty sure he was kicked more than a few times.

Once they managed to stand, he saw an absolutely terrible sight. There were rifts everywhere. The previously mentioned Chaos demons were crawling through them. Purely from where he stood, he could see so many different worlds being accessed. 

He didn’t know what to do.

If these demons were able to crawl through to the different Material Planes, then they were definitely able to get to the rest of the Spirit World. Mallard always drilled in about how the Spirit World was his responsibility, that’s why he was making this little pilgrimage of his in the first place. They were to tend to the spirits that reside here. Order was being disrupted.

So, with very little options remaining, the Wisperer made a portal to Mallard Conway’s castle and ran through it.

-

The sight that greeted him was something straight out of his nightmares. The castle was in ruins.

Only about half of the structure remained. The entire upper part was completely gone. The spire that they liked sitting in was gone. The training hall was gone. Hell, his entire room was gone! Only the skeleton of it remained. Chaos demons were crawling up the walls. Some of them hissed at him as he came through.

They didn’t even think as they ran through the open front door. If Mal was in the castle when it was attacked, then he might be dead. They couldn’t deal with the thought. They wouldn’t know what to do if Mal was gone. He was their entire life, their whole purpose for existence. If the demon was gone, then they’d be alone. They couldn’t be alone.

Luckily for them, as they were running through the halls of the castle, they collided with him. It almost sent them sprawling, but both of them managed to stay upright.

“Ah, Wisperer. It is good that you returned when you- hm?”

Mal was cut off when the Wisperer hugged him tight. If he had a mortal’s body, the force would probably have shattered bones. Luckily for them, they were both ghosts and therefore did not have bones or any internal structure.

He placed a hand on their head, ruffling their hair. They could hear a smile in his words. “If you wanted to do this, you could have just asked, Wisperer. I am not cruel enough to deny you physical affection.” For some reason, they felt like he was lying. But probably not. Mal wouldn’t lie to them.

“I am aware. I just… was worried. About you. With the destruction of this place and all of the Chaos demons around, I didn’t know if you were gone. I’m glad you aren’t.” The Wisperer could feel something akin to actual emotion welling up in their throat. Were they going to cry because their mentor was still with them? Maybe. They didn’t even know if they had tear ducts in this more humanoid form they resided in. They hoped not. He didn’t need to see them cry.

Mal hummed quietly. It vibrated through his chest and to their head, which was resting there. “These weaklings could not imagine harming me, Wisperer. My castle, as you can see, was not afforded the same luxury,” he paused for a second, pulling away from them. “Speaking of. I would like you to put up a barrier around my domain, one that will let you and I through, but not the beings of Chaos.”

“I… was unaware I could do that.” 

Mal’s smile widened. “You can do just about anything, as long as you believe you can. That is part of being the Wisperer, after all. Doing things the vast majority of people cannot.”

That made sense, they supposed. They just never would have guessed it’d be Mal who said it. They just never would have guessed Mal would encourage them like that.

-

The Wisperer did what Mallard wanted.

They enforced a barrier around the castle with his guidance. It was strong, too; during the time spent to make the barrier, they had stopped to watch as a Chaos demon attempted to get past and was incinerated by the magic. If his first attempt at making a barrier was this successful, he wondered why Mal never tried to tell him he could do this before.

After that, everything got a little fuzzy. 

Sure, they were generally aware of what was happening, but there were bursts where they knew for sure that they’d been in a daze for some amount of time. Hell, there were times when they’d go to sleep and wake up in a different room of the castle. He didn’t really have anything to do, which only made his dilemma worse.

Something changed, they just weren’t sure what.

Every time they looked at Mal, it was almost like the hairs on the back of their neck stood on end. When they spoke to him, their instincts were screaming at them to run. They didn’t understand why. Before they left for the Material Plane last time, it wasn’t like this. Before, they’d just felt uneasy around him. They were pretty sure that one was just because he was an inhabitant of the Spirit World and their still sort of human brain wasn’t a fan of it. 

And then there were the… other changes. The ones that he really didn’t want to think about.

Ever since the Trickster was freed, he’d gotten his body back. This was pretty good for them. They always felt more real when they were possessing their corpse, compared to how loose and unconstrained they were when it was just their spirit.

The second, more physical set of changes started not longer after he started to fear his mentor. He didn’t know what to think of it. He didn’t know how to feel. He didn’t even know what to do about it!

But it was fine. Everything was fine.

It wasn’t like they could feel the sensations of what he was sure was happening, so he wasn’t freaking out about it.

Everything was fine.

Some weeks– months, maybe– into this stasis, Mallard approached the Wisperer with an offer.

“I still have not forgiven you for choosing the Material Plane over your duty, Wisperer,” Mal started. They weren’t exactly sure they’d done that, but it didn’t make sense for him to lie about this, so he was telling the truth. “However, I am willing to forgive you if you do one more mission for me.”

“I’m listening.”

And so, they received their mission details. And so, they knew what to do, even if they weren’t exactly sure why they were doing it at all.

They began to put on their Wisperer gear again, the suit made for missions to the Material Plane. It was like a second skin to him, almost. Almost.

Mallard bid him goodbye as they made a portal to the mortal realm. Mallard gave him a promise of seeing him soon.

As the Wisperer stepped through their rift, they looked at the sky. Looked at the sun and the clouds. Looked at the birds flying overhead. Looked at the towering skyscrapers.

He didn’t know he missed this place as much as he did.

With a confident step forward, they began to fulfill their master’s plan.