Chapter Text
Egg was bait.
Prism gave him the order, it was a stupid plan. A stupid, simple, and terrifying plan. But it was one nonetheless. His job was to run around the warehouse screaming and grabbing everyone’s attention hoping that it gave the heroes enough time to get the hostages out. It was stupid. But he still agreed for Gambit.
He was scared, more scared than he had been on his first mission as Gambit's sidekick.
Gambit ran up to him before he was thrown into the mess giving Egg a tight hug, “Angel! You’ll do great! Okay? Once this is over let’s go out and go shopping! I bet you want more books.” He hugged him back giving him a quick squeeze, “You promise right?” Gambit nodded, letting go.
He never broke his promises. If Egg was being honest the only thing keeping him from rushing out the door was Gambit’s promise. It was funny, Egg never trusted someone so much before.
~
Egg pulled the trigger, the bullets began flying randomly. He’d never shot a gun before, Egg flinched slightly at the shaking of the gun in his hands. He knew some hit their marks from the screams of pain but he also knew that most missed. The power to see a few seconds into the future was pretty helpful.
Soon the first few gang members started running towards him with their weapons drawn, that’s when Egg knew he was doing a good job.
Then he was running.
Egg ran faster than he had ever run in his life, for the first few minutes he was able to avoid the attacks but the warehouse was too small and he’d never had great stamina. And it seemed like his wings wouldn’t respond to him.
A cut here, a bullet graze there. He choked back a sob that was slowly getting harder to stop.
Then he heard it, his savior.
Click “Hostages secure. Get the hell out of there.”
He did it! He had kept them distracted for long enough, long enough for the mission to be accomplished. A spark of pride ignited in his chest. Finally he could go home with Gambit, have a nice drink, maybe even drag him along on his long book shopping sprees. “Thank go—”
Squelch
The sound was sickening, and before Egg could react he was falling. His head hit the floor with a thud, and then his brain felt like putty, his whole world was spinning. He couldn’t focus his eyes, he couldn’t even move.
But he knew what happened. They had got him.
His still unfocused eyes flicked down to his shirt and the ground that had a slowly growing puddle of his own blood. It’s fine, Gambit will save me!
Right?
He couldn’t breathe.
His angelic healing was working overtime trying to keep him alive.
Soon thick warm coppery liquid was filling his lungs. He coughed slightly and blood splattered in front of him. The liquid stuck to the back of his throat with a stubbornness Egg thought was almost commendable. Almost.
His arm moved like it was wading through slush, he tapped on his earpiece slowly trying to get words out of his ruined throat, “ Gam— Gambit?”
It was a stupid attempt. He couldn’t even hear himself over the chaos around him. The heroes hadn’t just rescued the hostages, they had set the damn warehouse ablaze. Smoke flowed into his already filled lungs making Egg start coughing. The same smoke stung his sensitive eyes that had barely regained their focus. The heat around him was horrible, it kept licking at his wings causing him to grit his teeth in an attempt to keep his scream down.
Suddenly the warehouse’s heavy door swung open, and just barely he could make out the hero's silhouettes, and in the middle of the group was Gambit. His purple hero suit was soiled with dark blood, Egg’s breath hitched, he prayed it wasn't his Gambit’s own.
Egg knew he looked a mess, his once pure white hair was matted with blood, his white wings also gained a red color. On top of that his wings were slightly black from the soot and ash in the air. He could feel the blood pouring out of his mouth and the sharp pain coming from the hole in his chest. But it all didn’t matter as long as Gambit was okay!
They locked eyes through the mess.
“FUCK NO LET ME GO! EGG PLEASE!”
He heard his name, that was nice. Egg squinted through the smoke and saw Prism and Inferno holding Gambit back. He wondered why they were grabbing him.
“Hi Wemmbu.” He tried to talk but his throat refused to work, it seemed like it already gave out. The noise only came out as a whisper.
Then the heroes dragged Gambit away, closing the door behind them.
Wait what? Egg watched it happen, he watched the moment Prism’s eyes went cold and a small smile spread across the avian's face. He watched the moment when Inferno turned away in an attempt to block out the guilt. He also saw Gambit try to escape even as the doors closed.
But it still happened. The door closed on him. Leaving him in this burning building. Bleeding out. Alone.
Why? His brain begged for an answer. Why couldn’t they help me? It’s not like I’m going to die!
He forced his body into a crawl, his fingers dug into the rough concrete peeling his skin off, behind him a trail of blood followed. Soon his fingers were bleeding, the skin ripped off and the soft flesh exposed. But he kept crawling, to the exit. To freedom.
It’s fine! He lied to himself, I’ll go home to Wemmbu and I’ll go shopping with him! And uh I’ll walk through the library for hours while Wemmbu complains behind me. It’ll all be fine.
His entire body was screaming at him to stop. His wounds weren’t healing fast enough and his wings were practically burnt off. Tears flowed freely down his face as he dragged his body through the place. The ceiling was cracking, glass shards breaking on the floor. Egg would dig his hands into them trying to keep himself awake.
He was almost there though! He saw the light under the door, he saw freedom. He saw Gambit and everyone standing behind the door smiling at him telling him he did a good job.
…
Egg isn’t stupid.
The illusion of happiness broke leaving him alone with the reality of the situation. He was alone in a burning building with life threatening wounds. He wasn’t getting out of here alive. He was going to die a stupid death in this stupid warehouse with his stupid mistakes.
Not even Wemmbu could save him. Not like he would want to.
A short breathy laugh escaped Egg’s throat. He only became Wemmbu’s sidekick because of him. Wemmbu said it would be fun. Now he was dying a fool, a fool with foolish dreams and foolish friends. He wouldn’t be remembered for shit. He failed to save anyone. He couldn’t even distract some gang—
Wait
Why did they get Egg to distract these people? Those heroes had dozens of other heroes who were much better at distraction like Jumper who literally ran faster than normal people and jumped higher. So why send a guy with no fighting experience and zero stamina.
Unless…
Oh.
They planned this. They wanted Egg to die. Was he that useless? Was killing him really the only way? They couldn’t just get him to resign? They had thousands of other options but was death really the best one for him? Was he that… bad?
A small wet laugh came out of his throat, it then quickly turned into a coughing fit.
Maybe he should just stop. Give up. Let himself die in this fire. He was already halfway there anyway. It’s not like anyone was waiting for him out there.
Then a voice blasted in his head. It didn’t sound like Egg’s voice, no, it sounded like an outsider standing over his broken body screaming at him the words echoing in his empty head.
‘No’
He blinked, ‘what? What do you mean no?’
‘I meant what I said. We aren’t dying on this stupid fucking mission,’ the voice screamed into his skull, ‘so move your damn body!’
Egg let his head rest on the cold concrete, ‘We are useless. We should die. I mean like, we couldn’t even do this rig—’
‘Shut up.’ The voice said coldly, ‘we are getting out of here. Alive.’
Egg opened his mouth to respond but he couldn’t think of anything to say, ‘…okay.’
He forced his tired broken body into a crawl. His hands were raw and bleeding and he could barely think straight but he still moved.
Egg finally made it out of the warehouse, the sunset was beautiful. The pretty reds and blues mixed together to make a perfect picture.
He used the last of his energy to maneuver himself up onto the place’s external metal wall. He leaned on the wall like it was the only thing keeping him alive, maybe it was. His ruined burnt wings lay uselessly attached to him.
A shaky ragged breath escaped his throat, his face was dry, all his tears were spent.
Now Egg was alone. In a world that had done everything to kill him.
It was lonely out here.
Egg sat there for a while, he pushed his angelic healing to its limits over and over again in an attempt to heal himself, the warm light once bright and powerful was now only a flicker against his wounds. It was barely dulling the pain of the constant retearing of the injury when he shifted.
After what felt like hours he could stand up and walk around without crumpling back down onto the concrete.
Egg walked around the burnt down building, a random crowbar he found held in his hands. The place smelt horrid like ash, burnt plastic, and gasoline.
Every step he took he stepped on something, like burnt wood or broken glass. He tried to avoid the glass though, and he almost slipped a few times from the ash and soot that coated the floor.
He looked around for a bit, he needed something better than his old rusty crowbar he'd picked up, sadly he lost his gun after he was stabbed. In the heart. How was he alive right now? Did angelic healing really do that mu—
“AHHHHHHHHH” he turned around suddenly just to see a random guy with a knife charging at him, Egg’s vision locked onto the sharp soot covered knife, ‘fuck.’
Egg held onto the crowbar with both hands, knuckles tuning white from how hard he was gripping the poor thing. He swung the crowbar then realized he swung too soon, missing the man by a foot. The momentum of the swing drove him forward, almost getting Egg sliced by the knife. Thankfully he shifted out of the way right before falling face first onto the ground.
He scrambled up still holding the crowbar, the man lunged at him slicing him on the arm, he cried out in pain. Egg tried to swing the bar just barely missing the attacker.
He ran away from the attacker for a bit, trying to heal himself. Somehow during that time Egg managed to avoid all of the guy’s attacks while healing himself AND while he was holding a heavy metal crowbar. Props to him. Then he finally decided to try to get a hit in.
Egg slammed his body into the man then he tried to hit the attacker but he took too long, the guy slashed him on the wing tearing through and chopping off some feathers. He fell backwards landing on his but. He gritted his teeth at the pain, but he knew it would be okay. Angelic healing or whatever. Egg shakily grabbed the crowbar that he had dropped, and by pure luck managing to dodge another strike while getting up. He backed up from the man hopefully to get more time before his next attack.
The attacker, when he was starting up another attack, got his foot caught on a piece of metal. He tripped, taking a second to get back up. Egg only needed that single second. He sprinted up the bar raised high, then it crashed down on the man’s vulnerable neck with all he had left.
The crowbar sank into the tight muscle of the neck, the flesh tearing and pulling under its crushing weight. Then the metal met bone with a sickening crunch. The crack echoed through the space, followed by blood running down the rusted metal onto his hands staining them with the bright red color. The pungent scent of copper cut through the room and filled his lungs.
The violent vibrations of the bone snapping rushed up the crowbar into Egg’s hands stinging his palms with the weight of what he just did.
The man’s eyes rolled back and his body went limp. Then the man crumpled to the floor with a brutal thud.
Egg stared down at the body, he felt like he was going to throw up— he dropped the crowbar and it landed on the ground with a screech that made him flinch.
A wave of horror washed over him like a tidal wave, it bled into his veins and spread through his body like a virus, “Oh no, no no no no no…” Egg felt bile at the back of his throat. His body began shaking violently, “No no no… I— I’m an angel! I— I no no no!” His heart slammed itself against his ribs and his legs gave out. They hit the floor with a painful scrape but the pain was nothing compared to the horrible feeling in his chest.
Angels were holy beings of light and grace! They didn’t break someone’s bones or— or kill! That just wasn’t what they did.
But as he was panicking a sick disgusting thought slipped through the noise.
Egg looked down at his blood stained hands, the stinging from the vibrations of the bones snapping was still fresh on his palms, and it didn’t feel all that bad. It felt good.
In that single moment when Egg smashed the metal into his neck, he felt— not like an angel who had been forced to be a graceful healer who did no wrong. He felt completely and truly powerful. When the attacker fell, when Egg saw the light leave his eyes, he felt an unexpected thrill rush through his veins.
It all clicked in his brain in a single horrifying second, he didn’t just like it, no he loved it.
The realization hit him hard, harder than the horror that lingered in his veins, but it was pushed to the side in place of this new feeling.
Egg started wiping the blood off his hands onto the ground hoping to scrub the thought out of his skin before heaven noticed what he had become. He hadn’t realized when the man’s blood had become his own, when his skin had been ripped off his palms, and when his soft flesh was being torn off his hands.
End of chapter 1