seriousfic

Title: Before You Let It Go...
Fandom: DC comics
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,245
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Tracy and

lurkslikefox for betaing this.
Characters/Pairings: Scott/Barda, Auralie, Kalibak
Previous Part: 4/6
Next Part: 6/6
Summary: Everyone makes an escape attempt. Not everyone succeeds.

There was a cold, metallic taste in Barda’s mouth as she approached Darkseid’s office. She had to reach far back into her memory to identify it. It was fear. But she knew why she felt it. She had something to lose now.

Before, the tremendous alto-relievos of Darkseid projecting from the walls had filled her with awe and pride. Now, she felt a dread dogging her steps. Under the alto-relievos’ watchful eyes, she took up a kneeling pose before the grand doors.

After a moment, they parted. Not all the way. Informally, they opened a crack.

She was in luck. Kalibak was sitting in for his father today. Although he had inherited only a fraction of his father’s dark power, it was more than enough for Barda’s frazzled nerves.

“Barda. You look as scrumptious as ever. What is it you wish?”

Barda refused to show any weakness. She stood at rigid attention and kept her voice carefully modulated. “Reassignment.”

“To which front? You can have your pick.”

“None.” Barda fortified herself against his probing gaze. “I should like to try training recruits full-time.”

Anger rose in Kalibak, bristling his mane like the fur of an angry cat. He folded his hands with the civilization he laid pretense to. “Is there something not to your liking about fighting in Darkseid’s service?”

“No! I merely think I could serve him best as a drill sergeant.”

“That is not your decision to make.” In Darkseid’s oversized chair, behind Darkseid’s oversized desk, Kalibak looked ridiculous. Barda pressed herself not to laugh.

“I think I know where my talents are best placed.”

Kalibak stared at her. He was frightened. Frightened that she wasn’t cowed!

She leaned on the desk. “Why don’t you pass along my suggestion to your dad?”

He nodded.

“Good boy.”

***

Scott watched the upside-down glass fill with water, drowning the doll Auralie had generously donated to the cause of science. He could imagine it turning blue, struggling, but while that was sickening, it was hardly dramatic. Maybe if flamethrowers were bringing the water to a boil… the flames would obscure his escape perfectly.

Lately, he had been entertaining Auralie with magic shows. That had started after she saw him practicing his escapology. It had led to Auralie making Scott put on a show and Barda watch. That had led to Barda watching Scott practicing his escapology. That had led to the bedroom, which was just fine with Scott. Barda was the best escape he could pull.

Now Scott was thinking of putting on shows for the Lowlies, getting their hopes up, maybe even change things from the inside. It’d worked with Barda. Maybe he could save the world.

“Are you and Barda gonna get married?” Auralie asked, watching him twist twine around her waterlogged doll.

“Probably not.”

“Don’t you love her?”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Why?”

“Because this is Apokolips.”

“Is that why you want to leave?”

“Pretty much.” He hung the doll upside-down. “Would you want to watch a man escape a watery grave like this?”

“Maybe if there were flamethrowers.”

Scott grinned at her. “Maybe I should marry you, Aura.”

“Yuck. Cooties.”

There was a boom at the door. Scott got up, dusted himself off. “We’ve got to get a doorbell. Auralie, my cousin.”

“But I wanna see who it is!”

”I’ll tell you after they leave. Now scram!”

Auralie disappeared upstairs as the knock echoed down into nothing. Scott gave her a ten-count to find a hiding place, then went to answer the door. When he did, he thought for a moment that he was dead, a ghost. A fire-pit must’ve festered and covered the house with lava, which had dried in front of the door. But that lava would’ve been cold, safe. This gave off a heat that made him feel feverish as a man on his death-bed. Or maybe it was the eyes, red and pupil-less, both all-seeing and staring into his soul. It wasn’t hyperbole. They were focused on Scott.

Darkseid was at his door.

“Won’t you come in, Lord Darkseid?” Scott bowed deeply as he got out of the way.

“I come for Barda.” Darkseid stepped inside, destroying the doorway without the slightest expenditure of strength. Scott knew it’d be repaired within an hour of him leaving.

“Barda’s not in at the moment. May I take a message?”

Darkseid wasn’t even facing him, but Scott could feel those horrible eyes on him. “Barda? You show a great deal of familiarity with your mistress.”

“Before you, all are equally imperfect, are they not?”

“So it is.” Scott had seen Barda drop 50-ton weights on that floor, yet it cracked under Darkseid’s jackboots. “How do you find your employment with ‘Barda’?”

Scott wanted to scream at him never to say Barda’s name, because every vowel from Darkseid’s mouth sounded like a death sentence. “I do my duty. Personal feelings are irrelevant.”

“Yes. You’re very well-mannered. It’s a drastic departure from the last time I saw you.”

“My time with Barda has been very illuminating.”

“For her as well.” Darkseid ran a finger over a table, coming up with not a mote of dust. “A well-ordered house reflects a well-ordered mind.”

And what does Armaghetto reflect? “I’ve always found it so.”

“But what does a distraction reflect?” Darkseid answered his own question with a hellish gleam in his eye. “Pest problems.”

“There aren’t any pests in this house.”

“Is that so? Perhaps you haven’t been looking in the right places.” Darkseid fixed his gaze on Scott as he said “Olly olly oxen free.”

Instantly, Scott heard a thump and a series of pitter-pattering steps as Auralie answered the call. “No!” he rose up, but Darkseid’s hand was suddenly in his way and when he touched it he was flung to the ground.

“Scott!” Auralie cried from the doorway.

“Auralie, run!” But it was too late. Darkseid’s blunt fingers closed on Auralie’s hair and held her fast.

“Do you see what freedom gets you? Eventually you have an infection of these on your hands. Weak. Worthless. No powers, no strength, just flesh—only good for target practice.”

“She’s worth a hundred of you,” Scott growled, fighting his way to his feet.

Darkseid tapped Scott’s chest. The youth gritted his teeth as he felt a rib go.

“I had hoped Barda would cure your affliction, but instead it seems your sickness has spread to her. That can only mean one thing: Time to amputate.” Darkseid rested his hand on the crown of Auralie’s head. Her body was like a toddler’s compared to his gruesomely overpowered physique.

“Wait!” Darkseid did, and that filled Scott with, against all reason, hope. “You must want something. I’d be dead otherwise. Whatever it is, I’ll get it for you, just leave Barda and her sister alone.”

Darkseid was so silent he might as well have been stone. A fat tear rolled down Auralie’s cheek.

“She’s no threat to you! I’m the one you want! What do you want from me, goddamnit!?”

Darkseid wiped the tear from Auralie’s chin. “I want to break you.”

Scott stood up, clutching his midsection as pain lanced through his ribs. “Okay. You win. I’m broken. I won’t try to escape again. Put another bomb in me. Cut off my arms and legs. Go nuts!”

Darkseid regarded him, red eyes darkening almost to blood. “Hit yourself.”

Scott slapped himself in the face as hard as he could.

“In the ribs.” Taking a deep breath to brace himself, Scott drove a fist into his broken rib. His howl brought a twist to Darkseid’s lips.

“Say ‘Darkseid is’.”

“Darkseid is.” A coward, a bully, a monster, a bastard.

“Say Barda is a whore.”

“Barda is a…” She loves me. Scott sucked in breath. “Barda’s a whore.” I love her.

Darkseid shook his head, as slowly as a lynched man swung. “There’s still part of you, deep inside, that resists me. It plans escapes, it dreams of freedom.” Darkseid stroked Auralie’s cheek with his thumb, burning her face like sandpaper. “It loves. Now do you understand how I’ve broken you and what I’ve taught you? You were free, in spirit if nothing else. Now I’ve given you something to lose, and you will be forever beholden to it. That is your precious freedom. A fragile, worthless burden. You were weak before, but you had strength of conviction. Now listen to yourself. You mewl like a scolded dog. You truly want the freedom to choose this?”

Scott was breathing hard, his heart pounding. He wanted to run so bad he would die if he didn’t, but he couldn’t move. He fell to his knees. “Just don’t hurt her. She’ll stay here with Barda and you’ll never see her again. She’s a mote of dust! She’s nothing to you!”

“But everything to you. And one mote of dust can ruin the finest wine.” Darkseid scowled, a sight almost as terrifying as his smile. “You still love her. Barda planted the seeds of your destruction and you still love her.”

Tears spilled down Scott’s face. “You’ve won! Darkseid fucking is, alright? End this!”

“Very well. I’ll give you a choice. That is what you’ve been after all these years, isn’t it? Choice? The girl is a worthless carbuncle on my utopia, but I’ll let her go… I’ll even send her to your choice of refuge, to live out the rest of her days in peace… provided you allow me to take Barda’s life in trade.”

The tears that had been quietly leaking from Scott’s eyes stopped.

“Which is worth more? The life of a free woman, or a slave in my service? In my estimation, either is a cog that could be replaced at my leisure… what’s your estimation?”

“Go to hell,” Scott said quietly.

“I’ve been. Much too inefficient for my taste.”

“Scott.” Auralie’s voice was a frightened, jerking rattle. “I’m not scared. I’m just gonna go hide for a little while.”

Scott got up off his knees. “Darkseid, I swear to whatever gods can hear me from this forsaken place, on the day you die, I’ll be there to hold the pike we put your head on.”

“You’re in for a long wait.” Wrapping Auralie’s entire abdomen in his hand, Darkseid clenched his fist.

Auralie gagged, blinked. Vomited blood.

“And the universe shuffles ever-closer to anti-life perfection, freed of the deadwood holding it back. One less worthless—“

“’m not worthless.” Auralie coughed, clinging to life with a tenacity that would do her sister proud. “I have a power… I can sing.”

She was wracked by another coughing jag before her lips parted and she let out a low, gentle note. While never growing louder, the note seemed to grow to encompass the room, the house, all of Apokolips.

Scott didn’t feel his broken rib anymore.

Listening more closely, as one couldn’t help but do, you could hear a symphony’s worth of tiny variations, until it was rising and falling like any tune while never deviating from that single clarion call.

Darkseid heard only his heartbeat, locked in, enslaved to Auralie’s song.

The last note was her dying breath.

Darkseid wasn’t sure how long he knelt there, holding Auralie’s corpse. He felt a new experience, called doubt, and with it came the possibility of changing his course, of free will.

Perhaps, Darkseid decided, he would lay there until the feeling rotted like Auralie’s body.

Gradually, he became aware of a new sound intruding on him. It was a scraping sound and it was getting louder, or rather closer. Eventually, Scott Free entered Darkseid’s field of vision. He was dragging Barda’s Mega-Rod behind him, leaving a gout in the floor all the way back to Barda’s room. He stopped in front of Darkseid to catch his breath.

“I want to teach you something. Your Parademons aren’t here. Your Furies aren’t here. Your generals, your Dog Soldiers, your Pacifiers, they are not here. They fight for you because you force them to. Me? I’m here because I choose to be. And I’m gonna help you remember that.”

Mustering all his strength, he lifted the Mega-Rod over his head.

***

Scott tried to control his breathing. That was the key to any escape, staying calm. And this was an escape now, he had no doubt of that. Not after what he’d done.

He made a quick circuit of the house, gathering supplies, only pausing to close Auralie’s vacant eyes. His breathing heightened with panic but he forced himself to put it aside. Later. He’d have time later.

Darkseid stirred, sending a tremor through the floor. Scott resisted the urge to kick him until he stayed down. Good way to break a toe, that. He only touched Darkseid to grab his portal opener. The despot was so cold he burned.

Scott started to program in the Boomtube coordinates, but his hands shook too much to continue. He stowed it in his belt and went to the notepad. The pen fit all wrong in his hand and the brown of the paper, featureless except for one of Auralie’s smiley-faced endearments, stretched before him like an impassible desert.

Darkseid groaned and Scott scrawled “I’m sorry” in barely legible writing. He couldn’t hold back the hysterical laughter mixing with tears to rattle his chest. He opened the Boomtube, letting it wipe out the sound of his own panic, and stepped onto Earth. His last look of Apokolips was Auralie and Darkseid, lying side by side.

Next part.