2013.07.25 - I can't decide

Dreams are odd things. Both real and unreal at the same time. The mundane can give away the fact that things are not right, while the fantastical can be ignored and forgotten as if it were an every day thing.

His name was Victorious, a Super villain that could bend the fundamental forces of reality to his will. Gravity, magnetism, light, all of them obeyed his will. He had fought a long battle hardly breaking a sweat taking on the Justice League, the Avengers, swatting Batman away as if he were a fly. No one had stood against him till the Allies came into the fight. Older, adults all with live and increased powers befitting them they rose up and were lead into battle by one man.

Wielding a staff made by the Gods of Asgard for him known as the Dawns Ray Axiom, God of Hope, led his friend s into battle with the enemy and after a glorious combat defeated him. As if by fate alone there were no deaths, despite the devastation of much of New York.

Standing triumphant over the vanquished Villain his voice finally can be heard. "...you! Damn you..it is your...fault...always...your....fault." Victorious coughs as he curses Axiom barley able to speak.

The dream is a familiar one. Sure the details are different each time...different bad guys, slightly different costumes and team configurations, sometimes not even New York. But the general play is the same. Giving his staff a quick spin, Axiom smiles and rests it on his shoulders. "Me or other heroes. You bad guys just can't win," he says. Yes, in his dreams Eddie's gotten over the stutter. "You should probably not talk though. The medics will patch you up in jail," he says to the villain.

The villain spits blood at Axiom and gives a sharp laugh. Something in his voice is..familiar like something that Axiom should know but does not. "No, not them. Never cared about...about them. You, your fault. Always your fault Eddie."

There is a cruel sneer on the villains face as he reaches up to snatch the mask off revealing a face that Eddie would definitely know. "...ruin everything...faggot little brother. Ruin everyone around you." He coughs again, and then again before his breath stills and he stops moving entirely.

It is at that moment that Anole arrives. Older, taller, far better built as if what had happened to just one of his arms was now his whole body. "Axiom, a bit of over kill with that last strike wasn..." He trails off as he sees the villain laying there, now dead.

The voice makes Axiom frown. It's got that weird familiar quality but he can't place it. When he hears his name, the power booster jumps. The staff shrinks down to a compact size and is clipped to his belt. "Who're..." and then that mask comes off and pieces fall together. "Kalvin!" he almost squeaks. As his older brother dies, the color drains from Eddie's face and he crouches down. "Kalvin! Get the medics here!" he calls out. Anole's appearance makes him jump. "I didn't mean...it was an accident. He was fine a second ago..." Axiom rambles a little. "Where are Channel? Or Wiccan? Maybe a healer can....can do something."

Anole's face is a mask of grief for a second. "Don't, you know Channel has been dead for years. Died protecting you from the dark elves and Wiccan..." He closes his eyes and looks away. "Another one Ax...Eddie...can't we once take in a villain alive?"

There is a pin in the green man's voice, and a little fear. Fear that he seems to have from Axiom. Sirens can be heard in the distance, the police and EMTs are speeding to the location. "Go." Anole says. "Quickly. You can't be here standing over another corpse, not again. I...I'll tell them something just go."

Axiom looks up at Anole in confusion. "What? A-...Vic what're you talking about?" he asks. Standing up, he takes a step towards his boyfriend. "We always take them in alive. We don't kill," he insists.

The confusion is joined by hurt when Eddie sees that fear. The sound of sirens makes him jump again and he looks to Anole. "What're you talking about? If we need to go, come with me!"

Anole gives Axiom a look as if he has gone insane, tinged with just the fear of what would happen if that had happened as the world seems to slow.

Anole is already turning away from Axiom before everything seems to come to a complete stop. "Well, looks like someone is not where he belongs. Or should I say when he belongs."

The voice comes from behind Axiom, and turns out to belong to an almost comedically thin man with large, almost bug like eyes, wearing purple coveralls. "You really should not be here Axiom, in your older body or the one you belong in. Spoilers and all."

As Anole turns away, Axiom starts reaching out for him. His hand stops as the world does. "What..." Axiom isn't sure what to do. The voice has him whipping around quickly, ready to defend the frozen Victor. "Space Phantom?!" he stares. "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

The Space Phantom holds up a finger and shakes it side to side at Axiom. "Nope, nope, no questions. I can't tell you, and you can't know. Give us a second and we can put things to rights but this, all this you need to forget it all. Can't show Hitler what he will become and trust him to not make it worse. Learned that lesson once already."

After a second the man in the purple coveralls claps his hands and then besides Axiom is...Axiom. Taller, larger than life and at least in his mid thirties with a single scar under his right eye shaped almost like a lightning bolt. "There we go, got you separated now follow me."

He quickly turns and walks forwards straight into a swirling vortex of some kind not waiting yet for Axiom to follow.

"No," Axiom frowns. "You need to explain what's going on! This stuff is all...all crazy!" he says, spreading his arms. The clap makes him jump and he finally does let out that squeak when he sees himself. "Wh-what..." he trails off, reaching out to touch his older self's arm as if to try and see if it's real. "I'm not following you until you tell me what's going on."

The man in the coveralls turns and points at Axiom, the young one. "Look, I understand it is not easy having yourself a good time. But you need to be listening to me, someone screwed up the lines of fate and beleive it or not this is the best we have to work with. Try messing with this one and things only get worse."

After a second he snaps and the world seems to swim and deposit Axiom into the middle of the Young Allies hideout under New York's Central Park. "After what you have done already, and what your going to do be glad I put you right. Just try and forget what you saw and be surprised when you get there again."

Axiom stumbles and falls onto his rear the moment he's deposited into the base. He's up quickly, frowning and approaching Space Phantom. "I haven't done anything and I don't know what you're talking about."

"Haven't done anything, yeah right." The voice comes, again, from behind Axiom. This time it is one that is immediately familiar with no guessing whose it is.

Sitting in the sofa he tends to prefer when not doing anything in the hangout is Wiccan. He is looking a lot rougher for wear than he did the last time Axiom saw him, which is saying something given that he had been stabbed by a piece of the Bifrost at the time. His costume is torn, his face is bruised and there is dried blood at the corner of his mouth and his circlet is missing.

He sniffs the air a little and then makes a face. "Smells like I've forgotten something. Probably me, curled up where I died and have rotten."

Again, Axiom turns around. He knows that voice anywhere. It belongs to one of the most important people there is to him. The smile that had been forming fades quickly when he sees his friend. "Billy!?" and he's moving closer quickly. "What...I...by the light what...what happened?! You're not dead you're right here..."

Wiccan holds up a hand that has one of the fingers bent in a way that it is not meant to in the slightest and waffles it back and forth. "You're half right. No, not right at all but that does not really matter does it? I'm the one that trusted you and had faith and...well look at me now. Should probably be glad I am not here as a stew pot, or worse given you left me gone days ago."

"What?" Axiom's eyes lock onto that finger for a moment and he looks vaguely horrified. "Billy what...I didn't leave you gone. You vanished...I'm trying to figure out how to find you and what happened and..." he trails off, not sure what else to say. He's starting to get that vague panicky feeling he had when Kalvin died again.

Wiccan makes a dismissive noise waving his hand in the air. "You know it's a bitch convincing people to like you? So, if I stop now just call me a quitter." He sighs and then laughs a little. "Look at me, not a breath in my lungs and I still can do a dramatic sigh.

There is an odd pleased look on his face before he shakes his head. "You know exactly what happened. Stabbed in the heart with a bit of the Bifrost and tossed into the 9 realms. Hell you even know exactly which one I landed in, you saw it after all."

Billy stands up and walks over to Axiom and puts the hand with the badly broken finger on his shoulder. "I know you better than anyone, if your lies were cats you'd be a litter. Have the decency to at least admit the truth."

"Convincing people...what?" Axiom reaches up to pull off his mask, confused and hurt again. He jumps at the touch, eyes flicking to the hand. "What lies? There's more going on...you...something started talking like it wasn't you and there was no blood and then those weird magic pages...I'm not lying, Billy!"

"Your lies? About being a friend and trying to find me and all of that. The only thing you have done is let Teddy take the fall for leading me to my death by sending him to tell my parents and giving the pages of the Darkhold up to Doctor Strange."

Wiccan starts to walk away after saying that going to pick up something left behind on a table to look it over closely with his back to Eddie.

"You know how he got the power he has? Taking it from other people. Just listen to him some time in a fight, every spell he uses belongs to someone else. Now, he has the one thing you could have used to save me. It does not even take magic, or being able to read it to use the wish page. Just close your eyes and want. Not that you would really want to have me back would you? I mean, now that I am gone youre the most powerful one on the team, and get rid of Kate you'll be next in line to lead."

"That's not what happened! Teddy went on his own before I could stop..." Eddie pauses at the word Darkhold, something trying to come forward in his mind. Something he should know but can't quite figure out. "I went with him," he says. He watches Wiccan's back a momenent before trying to lean to the side to see what he's picked up. The comment about taking power from other people makes Eddie flinch a little since his entire powerset revolves around other people. Hearing Billy speak about Dr. Strange like that makes that feeling more intense though. "Wish page? What...I'm not powerful...and I wouldn't want to be! And I'd never...Kate is our friend! I wouldn't do that even if I were in line to lead. I don't want to lead."

Wiccan laughs and sets down what he had in his hands before turning to look at Eddie. "You know, I have to hand it to you. You have played by all the same rules and I almost believe you."

What he had in his hands is a toy, a figure like the ones that Billy collets and treasures but not like them at the same time. It is not of a hero, or even a villain, but a demonic monster of the kind made by that Todd McFarland guy that Billy used to bitch about his toys being everywhere instead of good Super hero ones makes. A demon that, after having seen the pages of the Darkhold left with Strange Eddie might remember from them.

"I know you too well to buy that. You want to be a hero, center of attention, loved and believed in. Loyal back row heroes are not the kind you want to be, dream of being. You want to lead, to be the one that saves the day. You want Superman coming to you for help, or advice. It's ok, ambition is not a bad thing. Just because you and I know you're going to end up like your brother and using everyone around you to get what you want."

"Played by what rules? I'm not playing," Eddie insists, stepping forward. When he sees the toy, Eddie stares at it. He knows those things. He fought two of them. At least he was pretty sure that's what they were. It was dark and they were hard to see. His attention is drawn back to Billy when he speaks. "I don't care what row I'm in. I want to help people...and I'm nothing like Kalvin. I'm never going to be like Kalvin!"

"This from the man that killed Kalvin, will kill him, is going to have killed him? English is just rubish for temporal tenses. I never really noticed that before, must be a side effect of being dead."

Wican shrugs a little and looks Eddie over with a small smile. "You should not be so sad about it. There is nothing really wrong with being like your big brother. I mean, he never chased off someone that was in love with him or got his best friend killed. Did he?"

"I don't care what tense you use, it's not going to happen. I don't kill and I'm nothing like him," Eddie replies, breathing a little faster. "I didn't chase anyone..." he trails off. Of course he does blame himself for Billy being there to be hit with the shard but he doesn't believe Billy's dead.

Wiccan grins and holds up a finger to poitn at Eddie as he trails off. "Oh, oh there your remembering Miguel now arn't you? Of course you are."

Wiccan moves to go throw himself down onto the sofa again. "Ooh, it takes the truth to fool me, and look now I've made you angery."

"I didn't chase Miguel away," Eddie says simply, frowning deeper. Really he didn't think Miguel loved him either. He never said it and Eddie didn't get the same feeling from him that he did Vic. He pauses when anger comes up, trying to calm himself down. "No...this is wrong. Something isn't right here..."

"Of course it's not right. I'm dead, you have a family that does not see you for the freakish little monster you are, Teddy is going to face a whole odd fate without someone with stranger family than he has, and poor Vic is going to get stuck with you."

Wiccan leans forwards and puts his elbows on his knees as he rests his chin on his hands. "I mean, you saw what I did in your future right? His body is all messed up like just one arm is now and he was more afraid of what you were going to do to the cops than what they were going to do finding you over a dead body."

"Don't get me wrong. I am not here as a friendly ghost tonight, and I don't want to be the bad guy. But everyone in your life would have been better off if you had been just a loner maybe?"

He leans back arms spread along the back of the sofa. "You can't be faulted for turning into the killer you're going to become. You are just a street rat after all, pretending you could be a hero. There is a reason you are always down on yourself, you know the truth deep inside."

"Teddy's family isn't...what you did?" Eddie pauses, eyes on the ground for a moment. All the information starts coming together slowly, puzzle pieces falling into place. The last one falls like a bag of cinderblocks hen Billy finishes speaking.

"No, I know what's wrong," Eddie says quietly. When he looks back up, his eyes are glowing the same bright blue they always do when he uses his boosting powers. "You're not Billy. And this...I don't know what it really is but it's not the Terminal," he says, gesturing around as he approaches the couch. "You kept getting things wrong...how would Billy know what the Darkhold was or that I gave the pages to Dr. Strange? And Scarlet Spider is in line to lead the Young Allies, not me. And there's no way Billy would ever say anything like that about Dr. Strange...he'd fanboy more than I did. That demon...I can't pronounce it's name but I kicked two of their backsides already and they were on those Darkhold pages!" he points to the figure. "You missed the most important things too," Eddie smiles a little. "No matter how much I say I'm a street rat or how I don't deserve what happens to me, Billy never agrees. He usually smacks me upside the head and yells at me for saying it. And the most important one..." Eddie trails off, taking a deep breath.

"Billy wouldn't die!" Eddie speaks louder, that usual blue glow getting brighter. "Billy's stronger than that. Stronger than anyone gives him credit for, even himself. Even in that stupid Dark Elf forest, he'd survive. I know he would because I have faith in him and I believe in him. And you," he reaches down and tries to lift the Wiccan off the couch by the front of his shirt. "You're not Billy. You're...what was in that shard, aren't you? You're whatever those cultist jerks put in Billy."

As Eddie glows suddenly flaring with power Wiccan flinches just a little and then flings an arm out at him throwing from it a ball of black darkness. If the ball hits it is nothing but sorrow, and darkness, and depression like crushing emotional pain made manifest.

When the light clears a little Wiccan is no longer there, or at least no longer where he was. "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die!" The voice comes from behind Axiom now, it is still Wiccan's but something else as well. Something dark and not happy.

When Eddie turns to face him Wiccan is no longer injured, or lookign half or even all dead. Instead he is wearing a costume close to his normal one but different. The star field has expanded to cover the whole thing and his cape is no longer the slightly threadbare one made from an old comforting blanket but a full cloak that comes to a hood over his head with a circlet that is mostly unchanged but instead has weird glyphs instead of Norse Runes on it.

"And now, you have gotten in my way." He says as the background around him changes to a dark throne room of a designed much like that used in Asgard but in ebony and carved rock instead of Gold and Alabaster. The two of them now stand in the throne room of Malekith the Accursed.

In the same gesture he used at the start of the conversation Wiccan holds up a hand and waffles it side to side. "You're half right. The boy was stronger than anyone, even himself, ever gave him credit. He was a testament to his line, and the kind of pawn and successor his Grandfather would be proud of. You're wrong about the shard though, I was never in that. The bifrost...well it is more my sister's work. Like her and that blond oaf of a son she dotes on it is too fond of life and living things."

From the walls detach two of the demons, the N'Garia, as if they had been part of it all along. "No one put me in your friend, I was there all along. My mystic just let me out, like his traitorous mother did in the 6th century before she tried to seal me away again."

Billy turns to mount the steps of the throne as he talks. "Now you, I still can't decide whether you should live or die. You would probably go to Valhalla, so don't hang your head and cry. It is no wonder why my nephew thinks so highly of you. I bet you even cried for all of my pawns that died in that church fire."

Eddie catches that reaction but the attack catches his attention. Training and reflexes kick in, Eddie throwing himself to the side and rolling. When he stops, his staff is in hand and he's ready to fight. He blinks a few times until he hears that voice behind him. He turns and jumps a little. Not a look he was expecting. "Yeah, that's kind of what I do," he replies, tensing as the area changes. When it settles he frowns for a moment.

"Here again..." he mutters. He's been. Of course his last visit had him inside a cage but that's not something he's bringing up.

The demons get a quick glance but most of Eddie's attention is on the monolouging villain. He takes in the information, making sure to remember as much as he can to tell the others later. When Billy finishes speaking, Eddie shakes his head head. "You're right about one thing, I did feel bad that they died. Even if they're the bad guys," he admits. "But the rest you're wrong. You're not something that was inside Billy. Billy's too much of a hero to have whatever you are inside him," he says. The glow stays flared up, Eddie starting towards the throne. "And Billy is stronger than you so..." he smiles again. "Billy! C'mon and wake up! I know you're in there and that you can kick this jerk out of your body! So do it already and you and me will kick his butt. You and me make a great team after all," he says, holding his staff at the ready in case the demons attack.

Wiccan laughs and shakes his head. "Foolish boy, all of his strength comes from me. It may have been my sisters magics that allowed him to be made, but it was a vessel I had prepared that created him. And it was my power that allowed him to be made in this world as well. He was made to be my perfect vessel, and no broken useless child will stop me.

Wiccan stands as more demons seem to melt form the walls. His voice is slightly strained as Eddie calls out to his friend. "You will not reach him. Our heart is dead inside, cold and hard and petrified. Lock the Door!" He commands arms raising as the doors and windows to the throne room slam shut. "Close the blinds. It is time for you to die."

As if on command an army of N'Garai descend upon Axiom. Like a tidal wave they rush him intent to fight, to claw him with poisoned claws and rip him to pieces. "Die here, and never wake." Billy, or whomever is inside of him says almost softly while he vanishes.

"Like I'm going to believe any of your lies, jerk," Eddie replies. "Billy's my best friend and someone I love like a brother. He's family, not anyone's vessel and you should be careful what you call Mrs. Kaplan because she'll kick your butt worse than me and Billy," Eddie goes on. "And you're going to have to do way better than that if you're going to call me names."

More demons don't seem to make Eddie slow down. He just keeps walking as his grip tightens on his weapon. He's scared of them but he pushes past it. "C'mon Billy, I'm getting tired of listening to this guy," he calls to his friend again, not looking away from Billy even as things slam shut. He meets the first demon with a blow from his staff, still staring at Billy as he vanishes. And then demons obscure his vision, a set of claws coming right for his face and...

THUD

Eddie hits the floor of his room, blinking a few times. He pushes himself up quickly, ready for battle and pretty surprised he's not little bits of Eddie-confetti. When it clicks with him what must of happened, he draws in a sharp breath and scrambles to get some paper and pencil so he can write things down while they're fresh in his mind. He'll probably notice the bleeding claw marks on his arms and back later. For now there's work to do.