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Organization for Transformative Works
The Hound, after everything, has found himself back in time. He does not know how, and he does not particularly care. All he knows is that he will protect his pups this time, no matter the cost.
Vander has time-traveled. Except he's not really sure he's Vander anymore. He's been Warwick for a long time now, and after that, he was part of a hivemind. He's not even close to the man he used to be, and he isn't sure what to do now that he's back to the time when he was still human. But then he sees his pups, his kids, and he knows that nothing else matters.
But if he's going to protect them, then he's going to have to take care of the Silco problem. He isn't sure if the man is friend or foe, pack or prey, and so he sets about finding out.
This Vander is feral in a way that nobody is used to. Or, at least, nobody but Silco, who believes that Vander had gone soft. He finds out pretty quickly that Vander is more feral than ever before.
Vader has Sevika tell Silco he wants to talk alone, which was a shock by itself since Vander shouldn't have known she was working for him. Silco comes long after the sun has set and the kids are in bed, not actually alone since he decided to bring Sevika with him. But that's fine with the Hound because he knows Sevika is good with his pups when she wants to be.
Silco tries to go into the conversation with his silver tongue, but Vander is blunt and honest with him. He tells him that he's been changed, tells him he isn't sure how to see him. Silco tries to scoff and needle and provoke a reaction, but the Hound just watches.
In the end Silco finds the push he was looking for, the kids, and gets a reaction out of Vander. Vander has his hands on Silco almost before he's finished speaking, surprisingly gentle as he pins him against the wall. Silco acts like he's won, gloats about Vander's savage nature, but instead of flinching away Vander leans in closer and *admits that he's worse than ever.* Now Silco's starting to understand, with Vander growing into his neck, that the man pinning him down is far from soft. He starts to panic and struggle, making the Hound chuckle.
"Regardless of if you are Pack or Prey, you will not harm the pups."
Silco foolishly decided to push his luck, "And if I do?"
Vander growled deeper than it should be possible for a human.
"Then you will wish you had drowned."
And then Vander lets him go, lets him gasp for air, lets him run off trying to act like he wasn't completely terrified. But Silco knows that Vander has changed, that he isn't soft, and that's enough to change his plans. He also has to bury the part of him that wants to be a part of the Hound's pack, wants to be protected by Vander's bulk once more.
Silco realizes that Vander holds seemingly no remorse for what he's done and is willing to do it again. This strokes his anger into yelling, which Vander shuts up by biting him hard enough to draw blood. The Hound is testing to see if Silco's blood will entice him to hunt, but Silco feels the punishment and the claim of the marking. Vander declares him not prey and lays him down in a booth to get the first aid kit and some water. Silco reacts when Vander grabs him to treat the wound and Vander growls back, enforcing the dynamic some more. Some more conversation.
After a few days and then a few meet ups with no violence from Silco, the Hound assumes that Silco has chosen Pack. Which means he starts trying to make sure the man has ate and drank and slept and is otherwise protected since he doesn't sleep in the den with the rest of them. He's been doing the same with Benzo and Ekko, but they take it much better than Silco does. Sevika is mostly amused by this point, and takes the occasional glass of water shoved her way with a nod.
Eventually, they get into an argument about something or another, and Vander threatens to punish Silco. Silco laughs, but then Vander handcuffs him to the chair and plops Powder in his lap with instructions to tell him about her inventions. Powder kind of shrugs and goes with it, and while Silco is definitely feeling the punishment in the beginning, by the end, he's getting along pretty well with Powder and actually helping her with her bombs. The Hound is smug.
The second the Hound and Dr. Corin Reveck are in the same room it is a blood bath. Silco is introducing them for one reason or another, and then Vander is on top of Reveck pounding his skull in. Corin struggles, and manages to get a few wounds in, but he is quickly and brutally overwhelmed by a panicking raging Hound. Silco is in shock and also fairly terrified, especially when Vander rounds on him, but Vander just holds him close and mutters some curses at Reveck's dead body before insisting he is shown his laboratory. Not wanting to get hurt by trying to say no, Silco brings him and watches as the Hound tears the lab apart. He knows very little of what is going on, but he knows from the few words Vader spoke to Reveck that the scientist had been involved in whatever it was that changed him. Silco doesn't think that Vander has taken shimmer, but Reveck did something to him, and so he's not that upset at the man's death. More so the destruction of his plans and a whole lot of shimmer. The only thing Vander handles with any care is Rio, who he puts out of her misery as gently as he can.
Sheriff Grayson meets with the Hound, and is very unnerved by him. Not to mention not very pleased about the hard changes they will have to make. The Hound isn't afraid to threaten, to state facts that double as threats, to drop Grayson's own death into the conversation.
A bunch of Jinxers travel back in time. All of them are very confused, and it is causing chaos. Sevika manages to calm everything down by corralling them into the Last Drop and dropping Powder on the counter with some trinkets. She encourages her to talk about her inventions, and with a captive audience, she really gets going. After a while, Vander sends her to bed, and they have a meeting of time travelers plus Vander, since he’s one of the original revolutionaries and everything directly involves him and his family.
Silco knows that he has to do something about Vander, but he can't bring himself to kill the man. Not when he still holds affection for him, even after what he did. Plus, the man had children, two of whom were her children, which made things ten times more complicated. In the end, he decided on a plan that would bring the Hound to heel, boost his own reputation, and allow Vader the chance to stay by his side.
Silco kidnaps Powder first, as she's the smallest and easiest to grab without hurting her. He gives her a light sleeping drug and puts a shock collar on her before using her to force Vander and the other children to surrender themselves. They are all collared, and the children are put in a comfortable but locked room under guard. Vader is taken away by Silco for some much-needed conversation and... persuasion. By the time Silco is done with him, the Hound knows his position and is at least somewhat willing to cooperate. Silco knows this man almost better than he knows himself, and once Vader understands that he will be loved as Silco's pet and his children will be cared for, then he will work to keep himself here. That kind of loyalty is exactly what Silco needs to combat the Chem-barons.
Of course, first, he is going to have to deal with the early stages of fear and lashing out, especially from the children. None of the children are pleased to get their father back, bruised and limping and submissive in a way none of them had seen before. Violet is the first one to lash out, as expected, although Vander's warnings did keep her back for a few days. Unfortunately, she could only take so much watching Vader get humiliated before she snapped. He could see the fear in Vader's eyes when the girl was shocked. It was a light shock, just enough to stop her from punching his lights out like she had intended, but he knew that her cries affected the others nonetheless.
He takes her away, ignoring the sting of Vander's fear. Normally, it was a balm on his traumatized soul, but right now, he could read Vader's fear like a book, and he did not like what he read. He made no move to soothe him, not while his followers surrounded them, but for once, he really wanted to. Part of him scoffed at the idea he knew was running through Vader's head that he would punish his daughter like he had punished him. He wanted to believe that Vander would never think that of him, but apparently, he had changed more than he had realized. Because while he could still read Vander like a book, Vander could no longer do the same with him. No matter, when the girl came back, untraumatized and in one piece, he would relax, and hopefully, his loyalty would further strengthen.
