Work Text:
There was a fine purple mist over everything, and Disgust wasn't entirely sure what it was. She held up her hand to study it, her eyes narrowing as she watched it thicken, turn her from green to some sickly shade that she didn't know a name for. It made her churn, made her sick to think about trying to find a name for it, and she looked up from her nails to the screen that the others were all crowded around.
Anger's hands were still on the controls, but there was something...
«You are a sight to behold. Isn't she amazing?»
Disgust pushed herself up slowly, crossing the room to look up at the screen with the others. The purple mist thickened as she approached, and she scowled.
"What is this?" she muttered, waving her hand in front of her face. It didn't help. If anything, it just got even thicker, and her frown deepened. "Ugh."
«Leave him. He's fine.»
Joy reached over, nudging Anger out of the way, and Disgust watched her, lips parted slightly. She couldn't remember the last time Joy had touched the controls when Trish wasn't near their girl, and seeing it happen now, with some stranger on the screen in front of them—
«Yeah,» their girl said, voice soft and easy in ways that it hadn't been since the wreck, since those weeks they'd spent trying to sort everything out, «He's fine.»
Disgust glanced over to the edge of the screen, where the guy they'd saved was still crumpled up on the ground and decidedly not fine.
"Joy, what are you doing?" she snapped, and she reached out to catch Joy's shoulder, pulling her back. "The guy is not 'fine', no matter what—"
«C'mere. Let me have a look at you.»
Joy's hands moved over the controls without the hesitation she normally had, and Disgust's eyes narrowed as she watched that mist thicken around Joy, seemingly guiding her. The buttons were so heavy with purple that the only thing they could see were the walking controls, and Joy moved their girl closer to the man. She didn't smile, at least, because they'd all decided a long time ago that their girl's smiles would be reserved only for the people who mattered. And this guy, whoever he was, whatever he was, hadn't—
«Jesus, you're a vision.»
Disgust looked up at the screen again, and there was a flicker of something at the edges of her senses. Something purple and thick and moving, and she nearly gagged for the feel of it sliding against her. The console was so dark they couldn't see it, couldn't do anything. She reached for a button, deciding now was the perfect time for an eye-roll because who the hell even spoke like that? But the button didn't push under her hand, and more importantly, she couldn't see it, couldn't feel it.
She stopped short, her eyes dropping down to look. Something thick and sludgy had wrapped around her hand, kept her from pushing anything. Kept the console out of her reach, and when she spun to look at the others, she realized that they were all coated in it. Purple and dripping, so thick that their glow was nearly smothered.
She bit her lip and snatched her hand back, using everything she had to get away from that console. The purple didn't let her go easy, and when she finally wrenched herself free, she cradled her hand close to her, watching helplessly as Joy, so heavily coated that Disgust wouldn't have recognized her, moved across the console. Speaking to this stranger, talking to him like he was a friend, like he was Trish.
No one mattered more to their girl than Trish.
But the only glow in the room was the faint yellow peeking out from under the sludge. It had peeled back to let her touch the console. Disgust shuddered for the implication, and she checked her own hands and her arms quickly. Still green, still bare, and that sludge seemed to realize it at the same moment she did. It surged, lunging for her, and she snatched back, running across HeadQuarters.
When she hit the glass, everything stopped. The islands they'd worked so hard to cultivate for their girl were dark, dark and crumbling around the edges already, and how could they be doing that so fast? It had happened before, right after the car wreck, but to see it again, to see it now when it had taken so much work to put their girl back together—
"Marvelous, isn't it?"
The voice made her jerk, and she spun around, her back against the cold glass. The sludge had shaped itself into a likeness of the man on the screen, and it wore the same too-wide smile, the same edges and shark-like teeth glinting in the faint light. Only, it was here, inside HeadQuarters, and while Disgust had never read all those stupid manuals, she was pretty certain that he wasn't supposed to be here.
"She's mine now. You are all mine."
"You can't do this," Disgust snapped, and she lifted her chin. Her hands made fists at her sides, and while she'd never understood how Anger could slam against the console every time, if the feeling was anything like this running through her, she thought she might understand it now. "You can't have her. She's ours."
"And you're mine. Marionettes to play with however I wish." He reached out, and his fingers brushed against her cheek. "Disgust is always the last one to fall, but you will fall. You always do."
"I've never seen you before," she snapped back, and she reached up to wrench his hand away from her face. The purple squished in her hand and she scowled all over again, shaking the sticky mess free of her. So gross.
He laughed, leaning back slightly as he folded his arms. "So violent! She spent time nurturing you, didn't she?"
Disgust's eyes widened. There had been weeks where she and Anger had been the only two with enough strength to touch the console. After the wreck. When all any of them could think about was the guilt, the fact that they'd survived when everyone else was dead, the fact that they had lost everything, and what good was any of this power if they hadn't been able to use it?
Then Trish had entered their life, and for the first time in months, Joy had looked at the console again. Disgust could still remember Joy's hesitation, her unsurety of where the buttons were because she hadn't touched the upgraded console that had been installed while they were sorting everything out.
Disgust looked up at the man inside their HeadQuarters, and she smiled. Too sharp, too wide. It was the smile their girl had perfected after the wreck. It had been the only defense Disgust could give her until Anger had been strong enough for the controls again.
"You have no idea," she breathed. "And I will end you."