Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I wake up in the hospital bed, ribs feeling like shit, at least it wasn’t the face, haha.

  “Oh my god, you’re awake!” Hartley exclaimed, it’s like you told a little kid they could finally get a puppy for Christmas, except Hartley was way happier.

  “I thought I was never going to see you again.” Colby stated, wrapping me in a hug. It was unexpected from the normally sarcastic kid to show emotions, especially towards me.

  “Ow.” I grunt, Colby letting me go from the hug.

  “Are you ok?” Hart asked, looking at me as if I had survived a burning building, which knowing how I was out before they stopped my beat down, the building could’ve burned down.

  “Yeah, now that you guys are here.” I answer, hiding my unmeasurable pain that’s literally in my side. Jake and starling were there soon after, both in civilian clothes.

  “I mean I do make everyone feel better.” Jake jokes, popping up the collar of the jacket that he definitely found off Pinterest.

  “Of course you do Jake.” Colby remarks, back to their normal sarcasm. Jake’s smile turns into a frown while Judith just tries to comfort him.

  “It’s fine, you make me happy and that’s all that matters.” She states, which cheers him up slightly.

  “Bleh.” Colby comments, which I would’ve done the same if I had the energy.

  Dad and Mom soon came, worried   looks across their faces. Dad looked like he had barely slept in months, his suit still neat though as if he was still trying to look healthy.

  “We came as soon as we could.” Mom stated, looking at me as if I was revived from the dead, a look I had gotten used to at this point.

 “As you can tell I’m doing dandy, so I’m just going to leave.” I state, Hartley pushing me back down when I tried to get up.

 “You still need to heal, it may have been 3 months that you’ve been out but your body still hasn’t properly recovered.” Hartley stated matter-of-factly, wait 3 month?!?

 “3 months?!?” I exclaim, now I get the looks.

  “Yeah, at least summer just started, need anything Love.” Hartley replied, looking at me with a soft expression.

  “Just you.” I answer, I knew what I had said and it felt good to be able to say it to Hartley.

  Jake looked us up and down with an annoyed look. Dad put out his hand and Jake put $20 in his hand.

  “How long until I’ll get out of the hospital? This place reeks of death and suffering, in a bad way.” I say, if this was at any other time Hartley probably would’ve made a comment about how liking people’s suffering is bad but currently she seemed to happy to do that.

  “A few weeks at the most, those ribs of yours still gotta heal.” A nurse replied, walking into the room and kicking everyone else out. They asked me a ton of questions and were doing some other annoying test that made the pain worse.

  “It’ll be over soon, now what may have caused these injuries in the first place?” A Doctor asked, out of all the questions I knew this going to be the hardest to shrug off or find an excuse for.

  “I got mugged.” Was the excuse that I used, ah yes that’s what happened when people got mugged, they have burn marks, slit wrist, cuts everywhere, and a few broken bones.

  “This all happened during a mugging, sure….” the Doctor replied, not believing the lousy excuse I had used. The test were over soon and I could finally relax, or well be as relaxed as you I could be.

  Hartley was with me the rest of the time, only leaving my side when needed. Celia even came once that first day of being awake, it wasn’t like a visit more like an interrogation.

  “Hello Moody.” Celia states, sitting in a chair in front of my hospital bed.

  “My name is Amy.” I answer, fully awake now.

  “I don’t care about that, all I do care about is what happened to you and what it has to do with what happened to Hartley.” She asks, glaring daggers at me as if this was a FBI interrogation.

  “No clue what you’re talking about.” I answer, she couldn’t learn the secret, every time that happens life gets shittier.

  “I know you do, I’ve looked into your family and you, the only records of you are from when you moved in, props to you guys you put a lot of effort into covering it up. It took even me months just to find that, one thing you should know is if I find out you had something to do and I know you do with Hartley getting hurt, I’ll do a lot worse than what caused you to be in this position.” Celia states, hissing the last part.

  The whole interaction was way scarier than dealing with Stormur and her crew. I didn’t get much sleep that night, maybe because of Celia or maybe because my side was killing me.

Epilogue
———————-
It was nice Amy was finally awake after months, it felt right even. The only thing that didn’t feel right is that the people who had kidnapped us were still out there.

Chapter Text

The days following were much the same old, I woke up and Hartley would be there and sometimes someone else, and then I would have to be checked in on by the doctor.

“Do you know what sounds amazing?” I comment, Hartley’s eyes go wide at the thought.

“What?” She asks, her tone and expression soft.

“A picnic after a walk through the park.” I state, thinking of a time in the hopefully soon future when I would be out of the hospital.

“You hate the park, why would you choose to go all by yourself?” Hartley questions.

“You want to come to the park with me, it’s a date.” I answer, Hartley finally got the gist of my point. “Also, have you been skipping school all these days?” I ask, looking at the pretty girl in front of me, wondering.

“Yeah.” She recalls, finally going on with her train of thought. It was odd the thought of little miss perfect skipping school to be at the hospital, it always shocked me when Hartley showed even an ounce of care for me.

“Your grades are shit because you came to visit every day, all for lil ol’ me?” I reply, she gave a small smile my direction as she said her next words.

“Why would I not come visit you?” Hartley’s smile grew bigger the moment she saw my reaction to the words.

“It’s time for your girlfriend to get out so we can check in on you to make sure you’re doing well and healing fine.” A new Doctor stated, I wasn’t unfamiliar with them though. They were at some Centropolis hospital that Jake had accidentally demolished when he was Chaos a few months back.

Another nurse followed behind him. The test were like the past few days, unnecessary painful.

“Good news, you’re healing well and at this rate, you should be free to go in a week or 2.” The nurse stated, it very much didn’t feel like I was getting better but at the same time I didn’t feel much.

The rest of the Day was uneventful and I just slept. Sleeping always resulted in nightmares as Hartley would call them, she had gotten similar nightmares after she got kidnapped and beaten.

The sleep filled day felt like I had lost more than I gained. This kept happening but the terrors brought to me by my self conscious kept getting distorted in the worst ways.

It all ended the same whenever I slept the whole way through it. The dark room looking like it went on forever, pairs of eyes locked all on one thing, me, Dead bodies all across the floor all of which were the people I cared most about, Hartley would always get killed in front of me.

Stormur would be hissing in my ear about how this was all my fault, it would always work. It was like the never ending dream except the only wish I got at the end was it being over and Hartley to be right next to me.

Maybe this was the dream and I was actually dead I had thought multiple times, but god this pain is way to bad for this to be my dream.

“Are you ok?” Hartley asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“I’m fine.” I respond, I wasn’t fine but I couldn’t worry her.

“You only have a week left, and you can go back to school.” Hartley chirps, as if going to school was a good thing.

“Yay, school.” I mutter, at least it was better than sleep but I could never escape my slumber.

“It’s not that bad.” Hartley said, checking her phone.

“Oh shoot, gotta go.” Hartley stated, packing up all her stuff, the only people left in the room was me and the pair of eyes I felt on me. It was probably my imagination, but then again.

Sleep went horribly, but at least I woke up before it got bad. Hartley wasn’t here though, nurses would sometimes be there though.

Even after being there for so long it felt as if I was on autopilot. The first time I felt like myself was the day I was let out of the hospital.

Chapter Text

The first day I got out was a Saturday, which fit perfectly with my plan. That plan being to do a picnic date.

“You got everything?” Jake asked as I triple checked my list.

“Yeah.” I answer, grabbing the stuff and walking briskly to a nearby park with a surprisingly nice clearing. I found it awhile back. The clearing was not really a clearing as it was a square of cement with trees overhead, covering you from all angles.

Hart was at the house, from what I inquired from Jake. I check, making sure everything is perfect, I got all of her favorite snacks, it was set up neatly, and looked great.

I rush off to go and bring Hartley to the picnic.

“Where are we going? This feels like the beginning of a murder podcast.” She commented, looking around at the scenery of the park.

“Local girl gets kidnapped and murdered at a park, barely any remnants left of her corpse.” She jokes, finally getting to the spot.

It did look pretty good, the cement ground was a nice contrast to the trees and greenery that incapsulated the space around us.

“I would never kill you, Celia would kill way before I put my plan into fruition.” I reply, if I had made that comment at any other moment she probably would’ve responded negatively, but nothing about this spot could be ruined.

“You got my favorites?” Hartley commented, surprised that I remembered.

“You think that I wouldn’t know my girlfriend’s favorites?” I respond, as she unwraps a sandwich. It was one of those sandwiches with cream and strawberries in the middle.

Jake tried to explain it to me as he showed me how to make it, but all he really did was giggle loudly as he had when he was obsessed with our band.

“Are you ok?” Hartley asked, her face still mesmerized and covered with a joyful grin.

“Now that you’re here, I’m more than ok.” I state, since when was I this sappy?

“Aw, you really are going soft on me.” She said, her joyful grin shifting into a smirk as she punches my arm in a friendly way.

“In your dreams.” I state, looking at the overly confident girl in front of me.

“Sure, love.” She replies, raising one of her eyebrows inquisitively. We soon finish up our picnic and start walking back to the house holding hands.

“Oh shoot, Grandma needs help with something I gotta go.” She states, kissing me on the cheek goodbye as she rushes in the opposite direction of her house.

Chapter Text

Summer was soon over, and so were the long days I would be able to spend with my family and Hartley. Hartley would be busy a lot of the time due to something about the sunshine club.

When we got back to school, Emma and her friend group were avoiding me. No matter which hall I was in, if they saw me they’d speed walk in a different direction.

It was as if they were trying to hide something, whatever it was I didn’t have enough time to ask about before I could ask. Odd.

They’re probably busy, Junior year has been shit already. They’ve assigned about 20 assignments just in the first 5 hours of the year starting.

“How’s class been?” Jake asked as I sit down next to Hartley.

“Shit, what about you?” I reply, I could feel 13 pairs of eyes on me but couldn’t see anyone who was staring at me.

“Pretty good, aside from some of my teachers not liking me and a few students staring at me.” He stated, failing to put his straw in the juice box he had.

“Here.” Hartley chirps, doing it for him. I heard someone mumbled something about me, a rumor I assume. Dad came over to bother us, but only really bothered Jake.

Afterwards, me and Hart went to Art class together. Gem was there as well but wasn’t paying attention to us.

“Since school just started, we’re going to do a piece that represents us as a whole.” The teacher stated, showing us a slideshow of previous works. The teacher gave us a week to do the assignment and then told us to start on a draft.

Art wasn’t really my strong suit, unlike Hartley who was paying close attention to the teacher but being out of it at the same time.

The rest of class was calm, the only noise was the clacking or pencils against the tables.

“Hey Amy.” Milo said as me and Hart were on our way to study hall.

“Hey Milo.” Hartley replied before I could say anything. Milo just walked away, somewhat scared. Weird.

Next period was study hall, which I actually studied in. Hartley was doing some research on something but she didn’t give me any exact details, it’s probably nothing. The assignments I was given were finished pretty quickly.

The period ended and I had to go to English. This teacher was known to be a pain throughout the whole school, she can’t be that bad. I get to the class, Hartley holding my hand as we walked there. Jake was sitting in the classroom already, patiently waiting for the class to start.

“I’m your teacher Mrs. Smith.” She states, her outfit a beige color, matching the walls. She starts doing attendance, a bland tone across all the names aside from mine and Jake’s.

“Would your Dad perhaps be Mr. Madden?” They ask, already knowing the answer. We nod in response and she continues to glare at me the whole period. Hartley sitting next to me was the only bonus to this class.

The English teacher gave us a few articles and told us we had an essay due and then she stated that we had to read 20 pages of a supposedly good book. A great start to the year.

Hartley was cheery the whole way home, holding my hand the whole time as she walked briskly home.

“Why are you so cheery currently?” I ask, looking at my lovely girlfriend.

“Why would I not be?” She answers, her cheery grin covering her whole face.

“Good point.” I reply, walking into the living room of my house. We watched a show she heard was good. She ended up falling asleep in the middle of the first season, but I couldn’t, I just kept getting deja vu and thinking about why Emma would possibly ignore me when she was talking to me continuously a few months ago.

Epilogue
———————
I felt bad hiding this from Amy, but it’s for the greater good. Hopefully, she’d understand.

Chapter Text

“Want anything from the vending machine?” Amy asked at lunch, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Really?” I question, Amy nodded.

“Yes, and I intend on keeping my word.” She said, looking at me attentively as Jake stared at us with a smug but small smile.

“A coke.” I answer, she nods and walks off to acquire the object. I continue doing whatever research I could on the topic at hand.

“Hartley, you’ve been on your phone this lunch. Are you ok?” Jake questioned as Amy came back with my coke.

“Here you go.” She says, sitting down next to me.

“Yeah, just looking at something.” I answer.

“Wow, looking at something other than your girlfriend, are you cheating on me?” Amy jokes, pretending to be taken aback.

“Can’t get better than you.” I respond after chuckling at the comment.

“Hartley, stop feeding into her ego.” Jake comments, looking fed up with us.

“Wow Jake, really trying to put down my ego like that?” Amy states, sarcasm oozing from her voice.

“If it can go down, I’ll make it.” Jake states as the bell rings. Soon enough, we’re at the door to the art room.

“Thanks.” Gem states, walking in before we had the chance to go through the door we just opened. I continued to try to get into the wiki that Amy did a few weeks prior when I asked a question about it.

“How much research do you have? You mentioned that same project for a few weeks, Love, are you listening?” Amy asked, looking slightly worried.

“I haven’t been able to find enough information about a certain person, and I’m always listening to you.” I answer, which wasn’t a lie I was researching a person I couldn’t find information about, I just didn’t tell her that said person has tried to kill both of us on multiple occasions.

“Ok, also make sure to remember to do the assignment.” She reminds, continuing to do hers.

The rest of the day went by quickly, especially since I was only thinking about that one thing. Amy would never allow me to do any of the research I was doing since it was the Villian world and is super dangerous. Even knowing all that, I still got to do this research, if I don’t do it, I don’t even want to think of what they could do.

Amy was busy after school today as well, working on some research of her own.

I told Hartley that I was doing my own research, I never specified what topic. That topic being where the hell Stormur and Shadow are.

Shadow wasn’t in the villain database, but Stormur was, so that’s where I started. The only thing that was in her description was how she was found following me when we were villains and the little known information we know about her powers. That being that they’re unstable as fuck.

The rest of her family were plumbers, like my Mom’s are, all of whom having some form of power that would help make their lives easier. I never interacted with her much, only when she listened to my band did I talk to her.

Finally, I got into the wiki, it wasn’t that Hard. The Stormur passage isn’t that long, the only real information is her just mentioning Amy or at the time Havoc.

“Shit!” They said at the same time, realizing what was right in front of them the whole time.

Chapter Text

I saw Luna for the first time in awhile, and I finally realized where I recognized her from. She noticed that I noticed of course when we looked eyes.

“What’re you staring at?” She hisses when I walk by, Hartley seemed to have the same knowing look.

I would’ve replied if Hartley didn’t drag me along to reading. The class like always was quiet, aside from those 3 people that needed to scream across the room every 5 seconds. I almost fell asleep once on Hartley’s chest in one of the teachers long, meaningless lectures.

Hart shook me awake as the teacher continued on the rest of the period.

The rest of the day was more or less the same thing as it had been the past few days, aside from the death glares from Shadow. Dad took forever to get ready to leave for home, so me and Hart chose to go get some snacks from the 7/11 down the street.

“You didn’t get me anything?” Jake asked, as if I would let him use any of the money I snatched off someone. That someone was an ass, so he deserved it.

“Are you paying?” I reply, looking up at him.

“Hart never has to pay.” Jake counteracts, looking up from his phone.

“That’s because she’s my girlfriend and you’re a loser, so the answer is no.” I respond, he ends up looking defeated and goes back to looking at his phone.

On the car ride home, I could feel a few sets of eyes glaring at me but when I looked around to find them, they weren’t there, it was as if they were shadows.

Once I was home, the sensation vanished. It was around 4:30pm when we got home.

“My grandma needs help with something, gotta go.” Hart states after checking her phone, kissing me goodbye.

“We get it you’re happy.” Jake comments, going upstairs to do who knows what. Colby was sitting comfortably on the couch when I sat down next to them.

The show they were watching was pretty good. It was a show he had been binge watching due to the new show coming out, I forgot the name.

The actor on the show looked really familiar to Declan. The show looked decent enough. Awhile Later dinner was ready and I got ready for bed plopping down on my bed.

As I fall blissfully to sleep I feel a pair of eyes glaring at me, but the only thing outside was a storm brewing.

Chapter Text

I went to school today, but Amy wasn’t there.

“Jake, where’s Amy?” I ask him, he gives me a confused look.

“I thought she was going over to your place in the morning.” Jake answered, his confusion turning into concern.

I woke up in my old base, in restraints that were done way better than they were last time. Cuffs keeping my powers from being used were keeping my hands and rope tying my legs to the metal chair. No cuts were evident and my head wasn’t throbbing, surprisingly.

No one else was in the room from what I could tell of the base, I was sat right by my mom’s charger. Right then, I see a cloud coming from an entrance nearby. That cloud wasn’t just a cloud it seems as it formed a human figure, that human figure wasn’t the only one. 20 henchmen came flocking in, Shadow behind all of them.

“Hello again, Amy.” Shadow hisses, using my name as if it was a slur, the only thing it did was stain my name.

“I wish it wasn’t, now can you speed this up?” I reply, Hart had planned a date after school and I couldn’t miss that. I intended to keep that promise to her, and I couldn’t break that promise.

“No, I waited my whole life to be a Villian, the leader of all villains and you take that from me? This’ll be far from quick.” Shadow stated, Stormur grabbed my throat from behind and put a knife to it.

Shadow signaled for Stormur to do something, and the next moment she made a slice beside my vocal cords. Nothing too big, just enough for it to bleed down my scarred arms from their last few attempts on my life.

“This is getting repetitive, now how long exactly?” I questioned, my voice scratchy. The next moment I was gritting my teeth after Stormur burned my arm.

“This’ll be long and painful.” Shadow hisses, walking closer to me, staring my down with her cold, dead eyes staring me down.

Trying to untie the rope they used for my hands to keep them behind my back was harder than I thought it would be.

“Hand it over.” Shadow states, her voice softer than what you’d normally expect from a villain. Stormur hands her the amazingly crafted knife. The knife that she uses to cut it the burned part of my arm, slowly sliding it down the cut, pushing it deeper in the further she goes down my arm.

“Oh, does that hurt?” Shadow mocks, a grin spreading from one corner of her mouth to the other as she watched me squirm in pain.

Stormur looks over expectedly, waiting for her next order so that she too can watch me be in pain. The henchmen stand off to the side, murmuring and looking at me as if they were disappointed, Strager being the only one looking at me with a different expression.

“Does it hurt? Couldn’t tell.” I reply, failing at getting the rope off my wrists.

That’s when I heard a thunderous sound from behind me, the next few moments were a blur as I get thrown at the wall by Stormur. I fall on my side, my heading hitting the wall on my way.

Blood went everywhere, mainly from my arm and neck which were bleeding onto the floor. It looked like how I normally left crime scenes, if I wasn’t caught by Starling before I could finish committing the crime.

“Why are laughing?” Shadow questions, picking up my chair to face me, stopping my flashback.

“I was looking at you.” I answer, staring her in the eyes again, sadly. Her green eyes as unsettling as they always were, a trait most villains priding themselves in.

A chuckle I hear coming from Strager which was soon cut off by Stormur glares. I had finally gotten my hands free, my first move was punching Shadow, not my best move but it felt really good. In the confusion I was able to almost get my legs free.

“No.” Stormur stated, picking me up by my shirt.

“No what?” I respond, moving my hands to my pocket to see if I had anything useful in there, which I didn’t.

“Don’t even try to run, since no matter how much you run the sky and your shadow will follow you forever.” She answers, looking down at me, blood staining the clothes I was in.

I try to state something, but it was cut off by the loud snapping of the metal chair legs. The next snapping sound of legs were mine, which she had stepped on.

The pain was short lived, whether it be adrenaline or my head throbbing being more than enough pain for one day, I was thankful. I moved my mostly fine arm to my legs, slowly undoing the tight rope which was holding them together.

The henchmen finally start doing their job, something I wish they wouldn’t have. They pick me up, with less ease than Stormur had.

There were two at each of my arms and legs, barely holding me up with their scrawny arms. My vision was blurry as I tried to get one of my arms free to get off the collar.

The next few moments before I could get it off was getting kicked and punching in the stomach relentlessly, a few of my ribs collapsing in, making a domino effect. My lungs were barely usable as I gasped for air, then stopping every few seconds to look at how my cold, almost dead body was reacting.

I finally was able to get my arm out, clicking the collar off my neck. The next scream was weak, barely blasting the people in front of me away as I crawl over to Shadow, punching her as hard as I could while my vision was blurred. I stopped after awhile, too weak to move my arm or body for that matter anymore.

We lay next to eachother only time would tell if the body I was laying next to was dead or not, god I hope it was, then I could rest in peace. If I was dying that is, only time could tell the truths that I will probably never be able to. God, why couldn’t I have left this alone? I was happy, Hartley was happy, but like always I just had to fuck it up. The pain I was feeling physically was nothing compared to what I felt mentally.