Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lightning flashed, briefly lighting up the dark alleyway. Billy glanced warily at the sky. A storm was rolling in and if he didn't find shelter soon he'd be in real trouble. Fawcett City was known for its storms, and tonight’s promised to be a bad one.

He distantly remembered a time when he feared nothing more than a thunderstorm, a time when he'd run for the safety of his parents’ bed at the first rumble of thunder.

That was a luxury he hadn't had for a long time. 

But he couldn't leave yet. Not until he had what he needed.

The first drops of rain fell from the sky, staining his sweater an even darker shade of red. His hood did little to keep him dry but he kept it up anyways. 

Billy ducked down, rummaging through his bag until he felt a smooth stone between his fingers. He brought it up to his face, its warm golden glow the only bit of light he had to cling too.

Holding it above his head, he held his breath, waiting for the next bolt of lightning to strike. 

One. Two. Three…

“Shazam,” he whispered.

Then the alley was filled with light.

Chapter Text

Magic always had consequences. 

That was one of the first truths Billy had discovered after he received his powers, it was a lesson that every magic user had to learn—oftentimes the hard way.

You could learn to levitate, but you'll feel an ache in your back from wings you don't have.

You could create fire to hold in your palm, but you'll lose the ability to feel its heat even when it's the only source of warmth you have.

You could heal a wound, but something will always be just a little off, an uncanny feeling to remind you of the unnaturalness of the unmarked skin.

You could become a god, blessed with divine power beyond your wildest dreams, but you will feel the magic burning through your body, a pain so intense that you’ll feel like you’re going mad.

So Billy knew when they asked him to undo the curse on their fallen comrade that the cost would be great—greater than he could ever let them know. 

But how could he say no? 

The hope in their eyes when he said, “I can fix this,” was the only thing that spurred him forward. They wouldn’t ask this of him if they knew, wouldn't dare trade one friend's life for another's, which is why he said nothing more. The courage of Achilles kept his voice and hands steady as he poured magic into the spell.

He could feel his very life force pouring out of him with it.

Death was coming for someone tonight—and with each pulse of magic, each spell undone, his own soul lost its tether until he was as much a shade as Shazam, maybe even more so. He would walk into Death's arms and let it take him.

After all magic always had consequences.

Chapter Text

Billy slipped into the abandoned subway, just as he had every night for the past month. It was dark and musty, a thick layer of dust and dirt covering everything.

People often told him this place was haunted, that there was something inside there, something evil. He heard about it in whispers, watched as people, even grown ups, skirted around the entrance, the more religious ones crossing themselves as they passed.

Billy wasn't so sure. He'd stayed in places like this for years, old and forgotten, overrun with rats and insects. Most ghosts and supernatural creatures were just people's imagination running wild with the greatest fears.

Not all, but most.

Regardless, he only ever got the normal amount of creeped out when he went inside. And the superstitions kept most people out, which gave him free reign of the station most nights.

Tonight he had no interest in exploring though, he just wanted to curl up and sleep away the chill of an October night.

Shortly after he laid down, a soft whistle cut through the silence.

Billy jolted back up, holding his threadbare blanket closer to his body. His heart pounded in his chest as he was hit with the sudden feeling that he wasn’t alone. He tried to tell himself he wasn't afraid, but the whistle got louder, closer. He scrambled to his feet, peering down at the tracks.

A small pinprick of light appeared in the dark.

Billy took one step towards it. Then another. 

He peered into the darkness of the tunnel, shuffling closer to the edge of the platform to get a better look. He swore it must have been a train, but this station had been closed down longer than Billy had been alive.

That’s when two invisible hands pushed him down onto the tracks.

Breathless and seeing stars, he could do nothing but watch as a shiny scarlet train car came barreling towards him.

Chapter Text

Billy grunted with the effort of flinging yet another shovel full of dirt over his shoulder. It had been hours and he still had so much work to do before the sun rose. Sweat poured down his face, blood seeped through the bandages on his hands, but still he dug deeper.

Who the hell decided that graves should be six feet deep? 

Just when he thought his body would give out on him, his shovel thumped against something hard. A smile stole across his face. He dropped his shovel, falling down onto his knees, flinging dirt away with his hands until he could see it: the bone white casket his sister had been buried in—just as shiny and ethereal as it had looked the day of the funeral.

He uncovered as much of it as he could then sat back on his heels.

He clutched his half of their heart shaped locket between dirty, bloodstained fingers. This was it, the moment he had been working towards for so long, the moment he got his sister back.

He hoped Mary could forgive him for taking so long.

Billy braced himself for what came next—digging her up was going to be nothing in comparison to seeing her corpse. When he cracked open the casket, the smell hit him hard, earthy and putrid, with just a hint of formaldehyde. It was enough to turn his stomach. Inside Mary was more bones than anything, her skin stretched tight across her skull, her eye sockets sunken and empty, her long brown hair brittle, her white dress discolored from age and rot.

But it was okay. She wouldn’t be like this for long.

Billy unwrapped one bloody hand and pressed it to Mary’s body, right where her own locket rested on her chest. He began chanting, letting his blood flow into her. They were siblings after all, twins, they had always had the same blood running through their veins. 

Spots danced in his vision but Billy pushed on.

Then Mary shuddered out a deep rattling gasp, her newly restored eyes flying open to meet his.

“Welcome home Mary.”

Chapter Text

“I don’t know Freddy,” Billy said. “This seems like a bad idea.”

Freddy just rolled his eyes. “Come on, there’s nothing to be scared of. There’s nothing in there that isn’t also there during the day.”

Billy bit his lip, glancing behind them to make sure no one had caught sight of the two boys loitering by the entrance to the Fawcett City Zoo so late. “Fine, let’s just make this quick okay?”

Freddy grinned and pushed up the bit of chain link fence he’d cut through, the hole just big enough for them to squeeze through without crawling. Billy climbed through first, his heart hammering in his chest at breaking the rules like this. There was something…forbidden about the zoo at night. Even if all the animals were merely sleeping, but couldn't help feeling like they shouldn't be there, and not just because they'd probably get arrested if they were caught.

As soon as Freddy was through, the two of them began walking down the paths, the eerie stillness of the night hastening their footsteps. From the way Freddy jumped at the squawk of an unseen bird, he was just as scared as Billy was.

But before he could voice his protests again, the two of them made it to their destination: the tiger enclosure.

Freddy pulled him close to the glass, peering inside for any sign of the zoo’s most infamous resident: Tawky Tawny. 

He wasn’t one of the animals kept by the zoo—more of an urban legend than anything, a story to explain away the zoo’s reputation for losing tourists. Billy didn’t think that a malicious, man-eating ghost tiger was better for business than run of the mill disappearances, but it certainly kept people from looking deeper.

“Let’s just get this over with.” Billy dropped his bag to the ground and produced the two store bought candles his best friend had instructed him to bring.

Freddy tore his eyes away from the glass. He took one candle and excitedly waited for Billy to light it.

“Less than a minute to midnight,” he said. “And no one in sight. Just like Travis said.”

“Travis is an idiot, this isn’t going to work.”

Freddy shrugged and held up his watch, counting down the seconds until midnight. His watch chimed the hour in time with his delighted shout of, “Zero!”

Both boys held their breath. 

“See I told you nothing would happen.”

Freddy opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a deep, low rumble—on their side of the glass.

Both boys turned to look—there was a flash of white teeth, a bloodstained maw, and matted orange fur.

They didn’t even have time to scream.

Chapter Text

Billy tugged at his clothes, not quite comfortable with the way the fabric stretched and fell across his adult body.

As far as disguises went his was…okay. He could probably pass for a normal man, even despite how awkwardly he held himself. It wasn’t as if his Captain Marvel body had any unnatural features—he just needed to wear different clothes and comb his hair into a different style and no one would ever mistake his for the World’s Mightiest Mortal. 

Probably.

Regardless, it should be good enough to get one of the jobs unloading ships at the docks that he’d seen advertised in the paper.

He’d made it to the waterfront, scanning the nearby buildings for the shipping company’s name or logo when he heard a gasp beside him.

“Dear god,” a man said, dark eyes wide with something akin to fear. “C.C.? Is that—? But that’s impossible! Theo, he—" Here he cut himself off again, voice trembling as he hissed out, "You’re…you’re supposed to be dead!”

Not even the courage of Achilles could stop his heart from jumping into his throat at the man’s words. He didn’t recognize him, definitely couldn’t put a name to his face, but still he couldn’t help but feel like he should know him.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have me confused with someone else,” Billy said delicately. “My name isn’t C.C.” But the name did sound familiar, tingling on the end of his tongue as he said it. Had he ever known anyone by that name?

The man’s pale face remained ashen as he sputtered out an apology before running off back the way he came, shooting fearful glances back towards what he had assumed was a dead man.

Billy reached up and lightly touched his face, doing his best to examine it in the reflection of the nearest window. There was nothing unusual there, nothing he hadn’t memorized from staring into the mirror. In his attempts at disguising himself he hadn’t tried to change his features. This face had always been Captain Marvel's face...but maybe it had belonged to someone else before that.

But that begged the question: why would the gods give him a dead man’s face?

Chapter Text

“Can you keep a secret?” Billy leaned forward into Freddy’s personal space, eyes shining in the dark of their shared bedroom.

“Of course,” Freddy replied instantly. He sat up straighter as if to prove his point. 

Billy didn’t move back like he expected him to, just cocked his head to the side as if Freddy were a curious little creature he found under a log. Then his face split into a wide grin, a flash of sharp white teeth just visible in the low light.

“Good,” he said. Then he scooted forward and pressed his lips to the shell of Freddy’s ear. “Because if you told anyone I’d have to kill you.”

Freddy shivered. He’d never been scared of Billy before, but there was something in his tone that made the threat sound less like a joke and more like a promise.

“What’s the secret, Billy?” he whispered, not trusting his voice any more than that.

Billy pulled back, just enough to look into Freddy’s face, eyes practically glowing in the darkness. How could his eyes be so bright? Freddy found he couldn’t look away.

Billy laughed, a low rumble of amusement in his chest that sounded nothing like his usual laughter. Then he slowly unzipped his hoodie. Freddy only had a moment to be flustered before horror gripped his heart.

A large, jagged hole sat right where Billy’s heart should have been, dark blood seeping through the fabric of his mangled t-shirt. Billy—or the thing that looked like him, the thing wearing his best friend’s skin—lightly traced the edges of the wound, his grin growing ever wider, his eyes, never leaving Freddy. He lifted one bloody finger and pressed it to Freddy's lips.

“There is no Billy—at least, not anymore.”

Chapter Text

“…They didn’t even have time to scream before the killer cut off their head with a single swipe of their blade.”

Billy shivered. He wasn’t a fan of horror stories, but Marcus was fairly good at telling them. And with the way the campfire made ominous shadows flicker across his face, the atmosphere was perfect. “What happened next?” he whispered, entranced despite himself.

Marcus stared at him for a long moment without saying anything. Then all of a sudden he slumped forward onto Billy’s chest. 

Billy grabbed his face to see if he was alright and then he just…fell apart. 

Billy screamed, stumbling back in horror, but never losing his grip on his friend’s head. The rest of Marcus’ body dropped to the floor with a harsh thud, blood spurting from where his neck had once been.

Bile rose in the back of Billy’s throat as slick red blood soaked into his clothes, into his shoes.

Marcus’ head blinked up at him, his face screwed up in a terrified expression. 

And then he laughed.

“Oh I got you good!” Marcus snorted. “You should’ve seen your face!”

“Wha—?”

Marcus’ body pushed itself back to its feet, brushing dirt off its clothes. Then it reached out and plucked his head from Billy’s trembling hands. He shoved it back into place on the stump of his neck, skin and muscles stretching out to reconnect like some sort of strange elastic silly putty. 

And just like that he was whole again, laughing harder than Billy had ever seen him laugh, the blood pooled at their feet and staining Billy’s clothes the only indication that he hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing.

“What the hell Marcus!”

“Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself,” he shrugged draping one arm over Billy’s shoulders. “I’ve been dying to do that ever since you found out about the Monkey Prince thing.”

“You’re awful.”

“It’s part of my charm.”

“Well you owe me a change of clothes,” Billy huffed. “And a pizza for emotional damages.”

“Fair enough.”

Chapter Text

The Wizard Shazam watched the boy from afar, never getting too close lest he ruin his last chance. 

He had to know if Billy Batson could be molded into the Champion he needed. 

His Champion needed to be dedicated, focused, incorruptible, obedient. Anything less would spell disaster for his plans.

So he tested young Billy at every opportunity, searching for the weakness of heart that had crippled his former Champions, making them unruly, unworthy of the gifts he bestowed upon them. 

He steered his parents’ plane into a sandy dune, ushering their souls to the afterlife many years too soon to see if the boy could handle loss. He stole away his sister, hiding her away from him to see if he could handle uncertainty. He sat and watched as the Enemies of Man twisted his uncle into an increasingly cruel version of himself to see if he could handle pain, betrayal. He guided Billy to the streets to see if he could handle adversity, loneliness, injustice in all its forms. 

With each hurdle he placed in his path, Billy grew, shaped by the tragedies that plagued his every waking moment, but he was never broken the way so many others before him had been. His life lay in shambles, but still he persevered. No one else had ever passed his tests so perfectly.

Yes, the boy would do nicely.

Like all good little lambs walking to the slaughter, Billy did as he was told. He followed Shazam’s voice into the darkness of Eternity, knelt at his feet, bowed his head and accepted his fate.

The perfect Champion indeed.

Chapter Text

“This is Whiz Kid calling out to any and all survivors. Know that you are not alone. We will get through this together. If you hear this message, please respond. We are located just south of Fawcett City at the old WHIZ radio station. Come find us.”

Billy clicked off the radio, listening intently to the static on the other end for any signs of life.

Nothing.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Freddy scoffed. “No one’s listening.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do,” he said. “Because there’s no one left out there to listen. They’re all dead.”

“They can’t all be dead,” Billy insisted. “We can’t be the only ones left.”

“Look around!” Freddy snapped, gesturing to the run down radio station they’d been squatting in for the past few weeks. He marched over to the window, roughly shoving the blinds up. Only the ones on the second floor weren’t boarded up. “Everyone else is a shambling, brain-eating monster. If anyone else is still out there, they sure as hell aren’t listening to a stupid radio!”

Billy hunched over, gazing past Freddy to the world beyond. Desolate. Broken. Empty. The man with the blue tie and the missing eye shuffled past their fence again, jaws snapping lazily at the air in lieu of the flesh he craved. They’d have to get rid of him soon before he became a problem.

Freddy stomped off when Billy didn’t respond, throwing himself onto the mattress in the other room.

Billy sighed and turned back to his radio.

“This is Whiz Kid calling out to any and all survivors. Know that you are not alone. We will get through this together. If you hear this message, please respond. We are located just south of Fawcett City at the old WHIZ radio station. Come find us. Please.”

Chapter Text

Billy curled his fingers into soft orange fur, one large paw settled onto his back. Tawny gently licked at his hair, making it stick up in all directions. Billy winced as he brushed against the cut along his temple.

“Are you alright, little one?” Tawny rumbled.

Billy just nodded, burying his face deeper into Tawny’s side. 

“Who did this to you?” The growl in his words spoke to the danger of Billy’s answer.

Billy shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. He knew what would happen if he did. Tawny would do the same thing to the boys at school that he had done to his uncle. And his his last foster dad. And that old man that harassed him on the subway. And so many others.

“Tell me Billy,” Tawny pushed. Billy could feel his claws digging lightly into the back of his sweater, twitching slightly with the desire to rip someone to shreds. “Tell me who hurt you and I will ensure they can never do it again.”

“Just…just some dumb kids at school,” Billy mumbled. “It’s not a big deal. They don’t need to be punished.”

“On the contrary, anyone who dares to lay a finger on my little cub has earned their fate.”

Images of the mangled mess Tawny had made of the others—blood and bone and torn meat that no longer resembled a human at all—came unbidden to his mind. He didn’t think anyone deserved that.

“Their names Billy,” the tiger growled, quickly losing patience. “Or I will simply get rid of all those worthless classmates of yours. Then you can stay home with me, where no one could hurt you. Where it’s safe.”

Billy felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes, fear twisting inside his gut. He thought of Freddy, of Scott, of Cissie, Dexter, Sunny, and all the other kids in his class who had always been so nice to him. The very thought of letting Tawny anywhere near them made him sick.

So even though he hated himself for it, he told Tawny the truth.