superhero au! vi is a wyatt clone who’s escaped from the heroes league. beck whitney aka wither is a hero with energy draining powers. vi echoed her powers upon being created.
The first time Vi sees Wither after they leave is not, as they’d expect, in an actual villain-and-hero capacity. It’s not Wither coming to stop a bank robbery or Wither hunting down the trio and knocking on their apartment door and taking them back to the sterile cold rooms of the League.
Instead, it’s the bread aisle of the grocery store.
Vi ducks into the next aisle over so quickly they trip over their own feet and wind up huddled on the ground next to the cheapest brand of pasta. Big neon stickers advertise $1.99 spaghetti at the corners of their vision. If Wither comes down this aisle, she’ll see them — they think one of the Wyatts echoed invisibility from someone and they spend a half-moment wishing fiercely it was them — they type out a guys withers here text to Roo and Ivy and just manage to hit send before —
For a moment, they wonder if they could shrink into their oversized sweater and disappear, or whether they look different enough now, with their hair dyed purple and tumbling into their face, to pass this off as a mistaken identity. (It’s stupid. They feel silly for even thinking it — obviously Wither knows what a Wyatt looks like, and a little hair dye isn’t gonna change that.)
There’s about a million things they’ve thought about saying to her. None of them are what comes out when they open their mouth.
“I’m sorry,” they say, words slipping past a panicky gasp. They’re not looking at her. They’re looking anywhere else; she’s blocking one end of the aisle, and they’ve gotten good at running quickly but they can’t keep their gaze in one place for long enough to plan an escape. Their eyes dart around without really seeing any of it.
“That’s alright,” Wither says, voice smooth, quiet. Vi’s eyes land on her for a moment, and she’s smiling. They think it’s meant to be comforting. It’s just cold. “Just come back with me, alright?”
“I can’t,” Vi says, meaning I won’t.
Wither takes a step forward, and Vi holds their hands out in front of them, exactly the way Wither taught them to. You’re going to be a hero, and that means taking down villains, when you have to. So hold your hands like this — no, like this, watch — and drain them. And later conversations: Six, it’s easy. You can’t just refuse to use your powers, that isn’t how this works. Come on, again: hold your hands out, practice.
“Don’t come any closer.” Vi pretends their voice isn’t shaking, pretends tears aren’t blurring the corner of their vision. It isn’t just tears, they realize; everything around them is wavering, all the clarity in the room collecting around their body. It’s not — they don’t want it, they don’t want to use their powers, but — if it keeps Wither away, maybe it’s worth it.
They aren’t going to hurt her, but maybe scaring her a little is okay. They’re a villain now, after all, even if they aren’t a very good one.
Wither takes a step back, and Vi can breathe that much easier.
“You hate using your powers,” Wither says, voice pitching high. There’s a wrinkle between her brow like she’s trying to puzzle Vi out. No one at the ILB was ever very good at that; if they were, they’d have known from the beginning that Vi wasn’t cut out to be their cookie-cutter Wyatt.
“I do,” Vi agrees. “Leave me alone.”
There’s a long, awful moment of silence. Vi isn’t sure if their powers have muted everything or if the supermarket is deathly quiet on its own; their heartbeat pounds in their ears, and they could swear they can hear Wither’s breathing, stuttering out of its usual careful measure. If Wither doesn’t leave, Vi’s done for — the inconvenience their escape must have been weighs heavily enough on their shoulders, and they hadn’t hurt anyone, not directly. They can’t. Or: they could, so easily, and they can’t let themself.
And then Wither turns on her heel and walks down the aisle, leaving her grocery basket on the ground.
(When Vi runs from the store, it’s with their own basket of frozen meals in hand, ignoring the shouts about theft that trail after them. They don’t slow down until they reach the apartment and triple-check the locks behind them. Roo and Ivy leap up from the couch and get to worrying over them, and their voices are the first thing louder than the frantic beating of Vi’s heart.)
