Night's Omen

PROMPT LIST

• Decay
• Wine
• Edge
• Wanted
• Church
• Fairy Tale
• Pain
• Change
• Love
• Death

Usually a fairly patient man, waiting in line behind a very large lady with a pile of proportionately large children while Lily and Alice were expecting sweet treats really wasn't working for Tucker right at that moment.  Alice had been talking about going to the pier and getting ice cream since she got wind of summer being on the way, and so her father intended to fulfill her wishes that day; that they'd managed to make a 'family affair' of it was even better, since his daughter had taken to Lily fantastically.  After losing Alice's mother so early, he hadn't done a lot of dating because he wasn't willing to bring new women into Alice's life regularly and most of them didn't really want to be mother to someone else's child, anyway.  That Lily had returned his affections so completely felt like a dream come true, and for someone with the kind of power Tucker had, he wasn't really the type to believe in the 'too good to be true'.  They were all happy, and he intended to make everything of it that he could have.

He didn't know that Alice had accidentally let slip about his trip to a jeweler to see about a ring, but if that didn't let on how he felt about the situation, there wasn't much that could.  Being stuck behind the sweaty, harried beast at the ice cream window when he wanted to be with his ladies was a problem.  Neither Lily or Alice were wrong to think that he was considering giving her a 'push' along, though better judgment won out.  He made it to the counter finally, ordered with a smile and gratefully took the ice cream for the girls with every intention of avoiding anything that might interfere in their day from that point forth.  Naturally, that meant it wasn't to be, but not in any way that any of them could have seen coming.  He wasn't that kind of 'gifted'.  Fuck Chase.

Usually much more graceful than he was patient, it took a serious effort to check him the way the stranger in black did, and the bastard turned his shoulder into the maneuver for maximum douchebaggery, so that Alice got to see her father stumble and drop the ice cream he'd been carrying.  He'd been aware of his surroundings the way any hunter would be, perhaps a little moreso because of his talents, and he'd tried to sidestep away from the man who'd been on a path too close to him, but it was an automatic thing because most people didn't try to bump into each other.  His eyes had been all for Alice, and beyond her, Lily approaching him, so his initial expressions reflected surprise, anger and then some horrible mixture of fear, a reach for control and focus.  Alice was upset about the ice cream when she reached him, unaware of the danger they were in, but he could feel magic rising in the air like it was an electrical current.

This wasn't right, Alice shouldn't have been there, and that was his first concern; Lily needed to be safe, but she was a hunter and could move, but Alice was in too much danger.  It was an effort not to let the panic hit him too hard, feeling that pressure building at their backs while he tried to calm his daughter as quickly as possible.  "I'm going to need you to go with Lily, sweetling.  Right now, no questions. I'll explain later."

She didn't want to hear any of that, perhaps getting more upset because she knew him far too well to not understand that something was very wrong and he wasn't going with them, but he put a finger to her lips, flicking his eyes back to Lily and the direction the man in black had gone.  "I'll explain later. I love you," he said once more, drawing her in for a tight hug, breathing her in and hoping to God that he wasn't making a promise he couldn't keep and that this wasn't the last time he saw her, but somewhere in the back of his mind where he was gauging the situation, he knew this wasn't going to end well.  The magic on the rise was his, somehow, and it didn't make sense, but he could feel it.  The problem was that he paced himself and had the training to manage it; whoever that man who'd taken on his power was, he wasn't trying to control it very far.  He was going to blow at any moment, and the girls couldn't be there for that.

"Lily, take her. Don't run. Walk. Get away from here as fast as you can."

"Tuck - "

"Lily, no," he snapped, cutting her protest off. "Now isn't the time to fight."

Lily wanted to run, he could see it and feel it off of her just as surely as he could feel the dread causing the normal people around them to want to clear away from the end of the pier, but Zaine had trained her well.  She would stay and fight against her better judgment, but he couldn't have that.  He trusted her with his baby, and if he couldn't take Alice out of there, she had to.  "I'll see you soon.  I just have to handle something, first."

He gave her a hard kiss, the gravity of the situation hitting him in that moment, but he couldn't linger on it.  If he did, his family wasn't getting away from this.  They might still not, but if he could hold off this chaos, they'd have a chance.   "I love you. Alice, be good.  Soon, okay?"

Please don't make me a liar.

It was a prayer perhaps in vain, but he made it anyway as Lily started off with Alice giving her trouble about leaving him, but he couldn't focus on that any longer.  With the girls on their way, he took a deep breath in the face of the stranger and all at once, it had started.  He flung his hand up in front of him with a burst of power to block off the sudden rush of force from the other, and Xavier pushed his black hood off.  To his credit, he didn't look like he was enjoying himself, the effort of holding so much power that he wasn't used to showing on his face, but he nodded at Tucker.  "You should know that I let you have your goodbyes.  Nobody else will show you that consideration from this point on."

He said it so matter-of-factly that Tuck believed him, but he didn't expect 'this point on' to be more than the next few minutes.  One of them would die, and it would be over.  "I appreciate the thought," he said, willing enough to be cordial while it lasted, especially if it gave him time to try to bolster his defenses.  Having the weight of his own magic pressing against his walls was a problem, especially when he hadn't had the time to prep for something this extreme, and he was trying like hell just to hold Xavier back.

Then, just as suddenly as the first wave hit, the thief lessened his fight for control, and it took Tucker actually striking back with all that he had just to keep the magical shockwave from rushing past him to take out the rest of the people on the pier; any that had remained after the rise in dread had chased those with any sense away dropped like rocks dumped into the deep end of a pool, and Tucker had no presence of mind to worry about whether they were alive or dead.  He was fighting off a scream of agony as the 'muscles' that worked his magic fought not to tear with the effort of fighting that wave, and then came his turn to throw it all back.  The return shriek of agony sounded more feline than human, a point of curiosity that Tucker just didn't give a shit about as he swept up more raw force to fling at his opponent; in all honesty, he was typically more strategy and finesse than just throwing magic around, but Xavier's lack of training with what he was somehow using was forcing his hand.  The trick here was lasting long enough to get his footing, which was what he was working on.

It hurt, there was no denying that, and he was going to crash like a motherfucker after this, but he had the advantage here.  He knew that, knew that Xavier just had all the raw power (which was impressive enough on its own that the pier was trembling and both the wind and surf had taken violent turns), but he also knew what to do with this.  Where the other was affecting his surroundings without intending to, just throwing his weight around, Tucker threw his hand out to the side, fisted it and swung like he was intending to punch his opponent in the side of the head from twenty feet away, and that was something like what he was doing; a near tidal wave burst up out of the sea beside them to pummel the wooden pier.  Xavier dropped to his hands and knees, intuitive enough with magic, apparently, to be able to use it to anchor himself, and there was a blast that sounded like a barrage of cannon fire as the wooden planks exploded in a collision course with Tucker.  He shouted and threw his concentration into redirecting the force to the side, which effectively destroyed that railing, but he paid it no mind in favor of returning fire with the waves; at this point, he figured that if he took down that end of the pier, Xavier went with it, and that was acceptable to him.

The problem there was that he was being forced to focus on a single opponent, and only realized that there was a gigantic problem at his back at the last possible moment.  He barely dodged a blade meant for his back, twisted in time to see a huge man ducking behind cover, and his last ditch attempt to redirect what he expected to be yet another blow turned out to be too little.  If Tucker had thought Xavier had lost control before, he'd underestimated his own power and the other man's discipline.  When Xavier just let go, it was like a bomb going off, which was probably what the papers said had happened when they covered the story later.

What they didn't report on was the big bald man who stood up in the aftermath of what might as well have been an explosion to go collect the battered hunter and the unconscious man precariously still balanced on a section of pier that seemed to be the eye of the storm.  Xavier and Cerberus never made the papers, and if there were witnesses who saw him moving the two fallen men, the words FIRE RESCUE emblazoned across his back were enough to rid them of suspicion. 

There had been one good thing about Tucker's situation before Mandy had taken him to Option A, and that had been that he honestly didn't remember a whole lot about who he was, which didn't seem like all that good of a thing, but it meant that he had fewer qualms about the shit that he'd done.  He felt like he should feel things, which wasn't the same as feeling them, and that nothing he felt was part of the problem with who he was currently.  He knew that, the guilds knew something about it, and he knew that Lily had some ideas about where his mind was - namely, he'd made it clear that he had the feeling that he was familiar with things and people, but the memories and actual emotions weren't there or weren't solid - until they were overwhelming with absolutely no indication as to why.  His mind had been shattered and put itself back together so many times that it had been declared his chances of naturally regaining who he was were slim without magical help. 

Thus, here he was.  He knew about Lily and Alice, knew enough now about who he was supposed to be to know that he could never accomplish that again as he was, and he decided to pursue it.  He wasn't even necessarily sure why he was so determined, probably because those emotions had been so strong and so confusing, but they had pushed him and it had landed them on Option A - poor Sophia.  He'd felt like he should feel bad, but the state he was in was the only time in his life that he could actually feel selfish, and he'd gone along with it.  The agony that had come when Sophia was forced to deep dive into his memories, ripping away the barriers keeping him from them, was almost familiar enough not to bother him, but it came with so much else that he actually blacked out before she was finished.  He was not Alexander, and while he wasn't about to die and regain some vampiric powerhouse status, he also did not have the vampiric resilience necessary not to drop after that.

It was trying to get going after he was up that was a challenge, but Mandy was there to support him.  He remembered distinctly only a few things through the fog of disorientation and the migraine that hadn't quite hit yet, and those things were specifically Mandy pulling his arm up over her shoulders to get him moving, and looking back to see Sophia's twisted, bloodied form lying still behind them.  The rest was, ironically, lost to the blinding pain in his skull that had landed him back in his bed at the guildhouse for a few days trying to relearn how to fucking function while parsing through the horrors and pleasures that his memories held.  Sure, there was his life before Midnight, with Alice's birth and not nearly enough time together before it had all gone to shit, and there was Stephanie, whose loss was like a raw, open wound all over again.  Reliving the memories that he'd lost did not allow for the healing that time had done, and he spent an entire day essentially useless mourning the wife he'd lost almost a decade earlier. 

The days after hadn't been a whole lot better, but he'd been drowning in so much else that he'd had to shift his focus, even if the pain of losing Stephanie was better than the agony of Niall and Midnight's treatment.  Suddenly, he remembered all of it, everything he'd done, everything that had been done to him, how many times he'd been torn apart to wipe his mind and start over.  He lost time there, in his room in the dark, and he knew there had been people who had shown up and knocked at the door, only to get no answer.  He didn't think anyone had busted in, but he honestly was only guessing that because he hadn't been dragged to the infirmary at any point. 

He was shaky and didn't expect to feel very stable for a long time, but he finally reached a point that felt like he needed a shower and something to eat, like the little, basic things could help him get his shit together.  His phone had apparently been blown up, but he didn't even know that until he'd showered and thrown something frozen in the microwave, stopping partway through to grip the counter until his knuckles went white as he rode out remembering Stephanie giving him shit for eating 'that garbage'.  His phone had missed calls and texts from most of the guild people he knew, but it was Scott's that flipped him out the most - Mandy was in the hospital. 

"Scott?  Yeah, it's me, sorry, what the fuck is going on?" he demanded when he called the man back, fortunately already dressed and able to run out the door, even if he honestly just flat out forgot weapons and wasn't really sure what the hell he was going to do, anyway.

"She's in the hospital, out of critical care, but it was a close one, man.  A fucking Diamond vamp threw her off of a building," Scott said, and he sounded exhausted.  Tucker was willing to bet that he'd been there since she went into the hospital, or damn close to it.  "Where the fuck have you been?"

It didn't sound accusatory, just...hurt, and Tucker wasn't the same that he'd been the last time Scott had talked to him, not that Tucker would have blamed him, either way.  Still, he felt intensely bad just hearing it, which he wouldn't have before, and Scott knew that.  He actually just felt bad for Scott in that moment, knowing that the guy had lost both Tuck and Mandy and that they'd both come back fucked up, and he'd been a fantastic support system about it all, dealing with their shit as well as he could and taking so damn much of it in stride.  He had every right to be upset right then, and Tucker swallowed, nodding into the phone where Scott couldn't see it.  "Listen, something's...happened, but I can tell you about it later.  I'm on my way, what hospital, where do I meet you?"

He got instructions, and he didn't know if he sounded different to go with how he felt, but if he did, Scott didn't seem to notice.  That was fine, because Tuck didn't have the time or the inclination to deal with it on the phone, and he still felt clumsy on his feet, like there was a delay between his brain telling him to move and his body actually moving.  There was no such thing, he was moving just fine, but his mind felt like a computer processor that was struggling with far too much at once.  He just didn't have time to finish processing everything, not if he was going to get to the hospital.

It was an uneventful trip over, and he stopped to grab Scott and himself coffee before he went in, mostly for something to occupy his hands so that it wouldn't be obvious that he was a wreck, and partially because it sounded like Scott might seriously need it.  His friend seemed grateful for it when he arrived and Tucker got a few more details from him, not that he needed them.  Tucker knew what had happened, namely that Taro must have caught up with Mandy, and he wasn't sure if he was also on the vampire's hit list, but it wouldn't stop him from being there.  She'd done it for him, and she hadn't balked at the consequences that had lead her here. 

"Hey, you look like shit, man.  Why don't you get some rest, and I'll keep watch, okay?" he offered, trying for a smile.  Scott watched him, scrutinizing, and Tuck continued.  "Nothing will get past me, promise.  Go sleep."

"What's going on with you, you sound different."

"Tell you later, just go home, you'll feel better."

Scott didn't look like he was sure he trusted it, but maybe he was just so desperate for something to feel like it used to be that he went with it, and he was seriously exhausted, so he nodded, sipping at the coffee that was about to get him through the drive home.  "Call me if the doctors say anything or whatever."

Tucker agreed, and off he went in search of the room Scott had said was Mandy's.  It was late enough that there weren't really people in the hallways of the hospital, which made passing another guy seem a little weirder than it might have otherwise, and perhaps that was why he actually paid attention...to find that it was Scott, who he knew for a fact he'd just sent home.  The face changed an instant later, like a Christmas light flickering to a different color and back, and the coffee slipped from Tucker's hand as he took off at a run for Mandy's room.

His first impression was that everything was fine because he honestly expected to walk into a scene of absolute carnage.  When he found Mandy laying in her bed, utterly still and obviously severely injured, but conscious, he wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but the fear didn't fade.  Something was wrong, and  as he slid into the chair next to her bed, she jolted far more than he could have thought she was capable of with her injuries, stopping with her head tilted a little to look at him, her eyes wide and jaw quivering; it took him a few seconds to realize that she was trembling, and that she looked terrified.  He'd never seen anything like it on her, and it jolted that fear response in him up to something almost unreasonable, but he swallowed and kept his composure.

"Mandy, what happened, who was that?  I know it wasn't Scott," he said, voice urgent, but soft.

"You have to get me out of here," she said, her voice barely above a whisper and her words overly pronounced in her jaw and lip movements, like she was enunciating as clearly as she possibly could to make sure he understood before she descended into absolute gibberish.  "It's inside of me, I need to get it out, he put it inside of me, it's in my head, I can feel it under my skin."

Tuck stared at her, and she sounded insane, but sitting in a hospital bed wasn't going to help with whatever the guy had done to her, especially since they didn't even know who he was.  Tucker got the impression of fae about her at the moment, which was scary enough on its own, but that didn't tell him what had happened or who the man was.  "What is it?  What did he put in you?"

There was a noise, a loud crash that resounded from somewhere else in the building that was either very close to them or louder than he thought to make up for being farther away, and she hissed, "It's coming."  Whether it was the same 'it' or not, he didn't entirely care right then, and the expression on her face wasn't helping. 

"Fuck this, we're leaving," he said suddenly, getting up and poking his head out the door both to check for danger and for some way of getting her out of there without killing her accidentally just by moving her.  He thought he saw a wheelchair on the other side of the nurse's station, which was empty probably because the lady had gone to check on what the noise was.  Better her than Tuck, because he didn't want anything to do with that shit, but he didn't mind swiping the wheelchair and bringing it back to Mandy's room, where he started pulling wires and tubes away too quickly to really be good at it.  "I'm really sorry and I'm hoping this doesn't fucking kill you, but I have a bad feeling that if I leave you here, you might die anyway."

The sounds of something heavy approaching, like elephant tearing through too-small corridors heavy, made him speed up the process, finally picking her up as carefully as he could quickly do with a few more apologies.  He poked his head out again just to make sure that he didn't get hit by something the size of a train ripping down the hallway, and found it clear, though the sounds were getting louder.  Could he get a portal open, as shaky as he was?  Maybe, but he honestly wasn't sure if Mandy would survive the trip.  He slipped back into the room, pulling his cell out of his pocket and hitting Scott's contact.

"Scott!  Turn around, come back.  Something's in the hospital, something big.  I'm getting your sister out, but we're gonna need a ride ready to go when we get downstairs," he hissed, not waiting for the man to catch up.  There was some sputtering and questions on the other line, but he also heard tires squealing, so he had faith that Scott would be back fast.  "Gotta go, just get here!"

With that settled, another peek showed the lights flickering in the hall, and he clenched his jaw, whipping the wheelchair out into the hallway as gently as he could while also doing it quickly.  Once out there, he broke into a run for the elevators, not sure that he trusted them, but not really wanting to bounce Mandy down the stairs, either.  She was still muttering the same not-quite-nonsense as before, only faster and more fervently.  It was damaging his calm.

At least, it was until the crashing sounds got close enough while he was slamming the elevator button repeatedly to make him look up, and he saw the 'it' that was coming.  It was there, and Tucker decided instantly that he didn't want it.  A wave of horror rose up inside of him that threatened to freeze him up, simply because he was that messed up already and this was sheer nightmare fuel, but he clamped it down and found, much to his disgust, that there was still a white noise space that he could go to, something cold and empty.  He set his feet as it charged, drawing in a deep breath and concentrating for a few seconds that felt like forever before loosing a fireball that shook the whole floor when it connected, the monster that looked like a fucking spider made out of meat roaring out its fury.  The heat washed off of it and caught a few things around them on fire, everything else instantly singed, and the elevator dinged open.  Tucker swung the wheelchair in and hit the floor they wanted with a quick movement.

He waited, and watched as a leg appeared in front of the door just as it slid fully closed.  There was silence other than the boring elevator music and Mandy's muttering, and then the shrieking of metal above them.  That was...not good.  He turned, hands up and sweat beading on his forehead as he worked the new plan out, and had barely opened up the portal wide enough to cover the top of the elevator when the sounds above them turned into something scraping down the shaft.  That was fine, if the fucker wanted to give it a shot, because it landed into a hole that was too small for it.

When Scott came racing up to the opening elevator door, car still running outside, he found Tuck holding the portal while long legs made seemingly out of meat thrashed around, trying to get through the walls well enough to slash at someone.  "What the FUCK, man?!"

"Scott, get her out of the elevator," he said, obviously struggling, but strangely calm for it.  This wasn't the Tucker that Scott had gotten used to lately, either, with that almost machine-like calm and emotional distance, but he pulled Mandy out of the elevator regardless, not willing to puzzle it out currently.  As soon as she was clear, Tucker closed the portal with a snap of his hands and a scream from the creature above that felt like it rattled the building and their bones before gory meat bits fell down around them.  Tucker was spared because the bits that had been above him were actually on top of the elevator and would take a few minutes to leak through, but getting Mandy's wheelchair past the rest would have been a task had he done it sooner.  As it was, he just stepped over the carnage, leading the way out to the car. 

"What the fuck," Scott repeated, watching him and following quickly.  It was a strange drive back to the guildhouse.