The Revelation (bendy-timed before the Meet and Greet)

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

The Sub-Visser was dying. It was obvious to anyone in the MedBay, from the way Paco was shuddering and moaning in his restraints. The last hold-out of the Yeerk infestation was dying. It would all be over soon.

He looked up as Superboy and Robin entered the MedBay and laughed, baring his teeth in a grin.

"Hey Superboy, want to know a secret?" he asked. "It's a good one. A real kicker, that Francisco and Jaime and Speedy have been keeping from you and your little friend there."

And before Jaime can stop him, he spits it out:

"You're dead when you go home. Dead! Had a nice funeral, too bad you weren't there too enjoy it. Oh!" he rolls Paco's head to look at Robin. "And I wouldn't get too attached to your little buddy Kid Flash either. Oh wait, too late isn't it? Ah well. At least Superboy goes out saving the world. Flashy drops the 'kid' off his name and goes out like a punk."

Comments

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Aw, no."

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda's eyes pop wide and she darts forward and slams her hand over the Sub-Visser's stolen mouth seconds too late. He's probably going to bite her but he can go right the hell ahead.

Part of her wants to punch Paco but she knows it's not his fault. He's been fighting this thing for days, he's exhausted... So she looks toward Jaime with worry etched on her face and bites her tongue because she can't say anything that isn't summed up by 'Aw, no' anyway.

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

"...huh?"

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim glances from Paco, to Kon, and then to Jaime. It's just the Sub-Visser being a jerk, right? Only... The look on Jaime's face.

It's not.

He feels like he's been punched. By Superman.

The look he gives Jaime is one of utter betrayal.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"I didn't--you have to understand--"

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

"...He's serious? When you're from, I'm dead?"

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Ha haha, hahaha--nnnngh, shutupshutupshutup--"

Paco shudders again as the teenager and the Yeerk battle for control of his body.

"What's the matter Francisco, afraid of the truth? Afraid your best friend is keeping secrets from you too? Shutupshutupshutup!"

[mrsarcastic003]

"You lied." Tim's face is blankly furious. "When I asked you if they'd be all right. You lied to me."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"There are millions--no, billions of lives at stake here. I wasn't sure how to handle this without altering the timeline. Until I figured it out, I didn't know what to do, and wanted to keep it secret until I did..."

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda laid her hand on Paco's chest, rubbing gently back and forth over his heart as if she could ease it's pounding somehow.

"Shhh, it's alright. Just breathe, it's almost over."

She wants to look in his eyes, reassure him somehow, but she's fixated on the roll of slimy grey flesh eking it's way out of his ear instead.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"--Get out get out get out, want you out, die die die die--"

Paco's eyes were squeezed shut but tears still leaked out anyway.

Yeerks absorbed bits of their hosts. Not physical pieces, but the Sub-Visser had more than memories of all of the hosts he'd infested over his life. In fact, he didn't even remember the vast majority of the hosts whose pieces were suddenly popping up as he died.

And now, all that was going to Paco. Gedd, Taxxon, Hork-Bajir, and dozens upon dozens of species that the Yeerk couldn't name -- everything the Yeerk had absorbed was being downloaded to Paco's brain.

"--out out outoutoutout--"

The Sub-Visser fell the rest of the way out of Paco's ear, shuddered once, and went still.

Paco was free.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda reachs down and squeezes Paco's fingers, sliding the hand on his chest up to touch his cheek and turn him toward her, searching his eyes for a moment before she can relax.

"Hey you." she gives him a weak smile. "It's out. You're alright now."

Aren't you? Please?

"Just take it easy for a second and let me unstrap you."

She slips her fingers under the bonds at his wrists, refusing to acknowledge the nervous shudder than runs through her as his hands are freed. But she leaves the ankle bonds to him once he can sit up and takes a moment to make good on a personal promise, looming over the Sub-Visser's corpse for a moment before reeling back and pounding it into the exam table with one fist. It makes a supremely satisfying crunch/squish noise under her knuckles.

"Bastard..."

Even with it dead in front of her she's still angry.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco shot up into a sitting position as soon as Brenda unstrapped him, grinding the heel of his palm against his ear where the Yeerk had just been, muttering fragments of prayers in English and Spanish. He wanted to get as far away from that thing as possible. Yanking himself free of the ankle bonds, he hopped off the table and began to pace, clenching his hands at his temples and breathing hard.

Oh man. Oh man, he had really screwed the pooch there.

He needed a hug. Paco was man enough to admit it to himself, even if he wasn't going to say it out loud. He turned and threw his arms around Brenda and just held on.

"Sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "Sorry."

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda leans into the hold, just burying herself against his chest and squeezing her arms around him. Thoughtlessly she reaches up long his spine, threads her fingers into his hair and strokes with her thumb along the soft space just behind his jawbone, trying to be soothing without lifting her face from the crook of his neck right now.

"Shht, it's alright. Don't apologize." She murmurs. "It wasn't you. We all know it wasn't you. It's gonna be okay."

She swallows the desire to cry pretty well all things considered.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco took a deep breath and let it out. Then did it again. Third time around, he felt like he could let go of Brenda without collapsing. He scrubbed a hand over his face and chuckled, wincing a bit at how unhappy it came out sounding.

"Man. Epic fail there," he said. He forced a grin and spread his arms wide, to indicate the whole of the Med Bay and beyond.

"Welcome to the meatship, Brenda!"

It's sort of a joke. A really, really crappy joke.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

She gives him a slightly sad smile, hands still resting at his waist.

"I feel totally welcomed, really. I got to tackle a werewolf right off the bat and Brainy's called my stupid at least once so I think I'm initiated by now."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Oooh, we got werewolves? That's new. I just got shot at because Jaime freaked everyone out." And got tackled by Kate. Paco sobered a bit, then smiled again. "I'm told that's how Brainy shows his affection. Speaking of, I've never actually spoken to him without a slug. This is going to be a hell of a lot more fun now."

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

When Jaime and Robin leave, Kon sits there on the floor with Cassie, holding her close, touching her as if to verify she's really there: rubbing her back, brushing his hand against her cheek, threading a hand through her hair.

And kissing her breathlessly at every opportunity. Because he can.

"When are you from? Are you from...after? I just fought out--the fight--that I'm... y'know. Mailing in my clone warranty card. 404 error, pulse not found. Kinda...thing."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

She kisses him back like someone who needs that kiss, clinging to him. The way he talks hurts, because it feels like it was only minutes ago she was sobbing over his dead body, and she’s still so stunned it happen (along with everything else) that she almost hasn’t hit the point where she can really let go completely.

But she touches her fingertips to his lips to shush him, and she tries to break it to him, seriously, even if she doesn’t really want to say it.

“Kon, I was at the tower. You smashed that other Superboy into the tower, and it fell, and... when I dug you out...”

She swallows, hard, and closes her eyes. She smiles, relieved.

“But you’re alive now. I though that was the end, but... you're here.”

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

So that's how it's going to happen.

"I'm not alive now. I'm just not. I'm not...dead yet."

A deep breath.

"Cassie, that hasn't happened for me yet. It means when I get out of here, if we all get sent back to the times and places we left, I go back, into that fight and...it means..."

That's supposed to happen.

"I'm kinda living on stolen time here."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

It’s hard to pinpoint how she feels; relief, sorrow, regret. She examines his face, concerned, and looks away for a moment.

“You’re alive here,” she says, pointedly.

She realizes, with a pang, what he has to go back to. What she has to go back to. Neither is happy for either of them, but she hurts more for him.

“Can’t we change things? We can find a way where you'll still save the world and live to see it again.”

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

"Maybe. But if we can't, I'll still--y'know. I'll still have to..." A deep breath. "And if there's people from ahead in time, and in all this time I haven't been there... We change the future, and it might change our past, won't it? Like if we change things, it changes the people here from the future because different things happened, and it changes our past on the ship that involved them, and..."

He buries his face in his hand. All this...all this is so damn complicated. Give him a bad guy to punch please. He wants to do the brave face, for her, but she's crying, and he's had everything dropped on his head at once.

She's the only person in the world he'd just...let see him like this. Everyone else gets the brave face.

"All I know is...it's not fair. I'll do what I have to, but it's not fair."

When he looks up at her again, tears are streaming from his eyes.

"Five years is not enough time."

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

It’s all impossible to think about, or make sense of; she can’t imagine how they’ve already broken the timestream, or what’s changed to let any of this happen. Something’s gone very wrong, and Cassie’s not sure if it will ever be right again.

She cups his face with her hands, gently, and brushes a tear out of the way with a thumb. It kills her to see him cry.

“I know. I know it isn’t. Oh, Kon. But... we’ll try. We have to try. And if we can’t...”

She doesn’t want to think about that.

“Then we’ll make the best of what we have.”

[supertshirt.livejournal.com]

He just...holds her, face pressed against her neck, and for a little while, he's just...very quiet.

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

She rests her chin on the top of his head, fingers running through his hair, fingering the nape of his neck soothingly. Cassie closes her eyes, and doesn’t say anything.

What is there to say, anyway?

Holding him now is all that matters.