The Universe's Mixer

A scream rang out in to the darkness.

Whimpering gave way to muffled pleas.

Laughter followed a split second later and caught the immediate attention of the too large, black corvid. A caw, and the bird settled on the lip of the rooftop to peer down at the scene below.

The alley was coated with fear. It stuck to the brick like glue, washed the pavement like an acid rain. Co-mingled in that the bird could feel the heightened stress coupled with jubilation. A girl was there, and around her lay a scatter of men dressed in dark clothes in various stages of injury. One of the men was crumpled, having been hit hard by something much more powerful than him. A couple of other men were moving to get up from the dark pavement of the alley, their own injuries not as serious as the one laying on the ground.

And there in the shadow was the one whom had thwarted the group from the girl. A familiar shadow. Bran could feel the essence of the power lingering in the air, it was palpable and the corvid almost could taste it.

Another caw and its wings settled. The hybrid was close, always close. The situation needed judgement before it would send the Dark Avenger in to handle what lurked in the dark. John was capable of handling himself.

The girl was shaking. Her heartbeat was drumming, echoing in the alleyway unbeknownst to her. Bran could hear it. Eric could hear it too. She was afraid. What was happening in the alley to the men, she was frightened of the pale man towering before her to protect her. Something about the situation, though, told her she wasn't out of the realm of danger.

"Please..." The girl begged to anyone that might listen. "Please..." She begged again. Beneath her breath she was praying, mumbling a stuttered version of the Lord's Prayer in hopes someone might hear it above her.

Bran cawed in response as if to silence her with the night.

It waited to see what would happen next.

Errol stood in front of the house where Peter Parker lived, frowning slightly. He'd seen the scene played in dozens of novels, but having decided to undertake the task of speaking with Beauty's roommate's boyfriend, found himself daunted.

Steeling himself, he walked up the pathway and knocked on the door. All he would be doing was asking Peter his intentions toward that Megan girl. What could truly be so difficult about that?

John was humming one of his and Eric's tunes as he moved through the back alleys of the City. Tonight he was working on his stealth, moving through the City as fast as he could, pushing himself in endurance and perception. He was strong, he'd always been strong. Since he'd been a delinquent, and later a soldier, he'd been In excellent physical condition, but he'd always wanted to be faster. So tonight, he pushed himself.

The City was always changing, that meant it was great training ground. He worked on perceiving things even as he pushed himself harder, faster, till his muscles ached.

And then he noticed the webs. Skidding to a halt, and feeling the particularly off feeling of not needing to catch his breath, he turned and looked up, seeing a slight mass of dark, odd substance. He blinked, despite the dark of the alley able to see it clearly, though he didn't understand what he saw.

Caught up in reaching out slowly to investigate, the young vampire barely registered the other presence coming up to him.

The city was bright below as Iron Man soared through the late night sky, once more surveying the way the City had shifted and reorganized itself. He was starting to feel like this was an unsolvable problem, at least until new developments arose, and the thought irritated and frustrated him greatly.

This might have been why, when he snagged a random mugging, he grabbed the criminal a little rougher than usual, and when he dropped the man in front of the police station and an officer on his smoke break it was from a little higher than usual. He didn't stop to tell the officer what had happened, simply using a close range hack to text the man'so phone with his details, and didn't bother to watch the man with a newly sprained ankle be taken in.

The brightly colored suit turned and blazed back into the sky, and finally Tony touched down on a rooftop with a good overlook and rested.

"Anything, J?" He grunted.

"Sorry, sir. The sensors are picking up no new data," Jarvis said in his helmet.

"Great."

Running into a version of the girl he'd brutally killed had given him a strange new insight into life. The fact that she now knew that he'd done it, and had for some reason spared him - he could only guess that his words about Evey had been the saving grace - had sent him into a spiral of thought.

It didn't escape Aidan that there were people in the world, not just this one, but others as well, who believed in him and wanted the best for him. It never had, not really. Back home he'd had Josh and Sally, who had done everything they could to make sure that he was able to be the guy he wanted to be. Then he'd been in a world where there had been Dean, Evey, and Peter. Here he had even more.

Aidan could never take that for granted.

He realized that he kind of had been. The way he was acting, the way he'd been treating Evey. Even the way he'd been treating himself. He'd made a monumental mistake, and he'd felt terribly about it, but then he'd acted like a child. Peter was supplying him with blood so that he didn't have to take from living people or take from the hospital. And still he was keeping himself away from people.

He thought about all of this and more as he walked toward work.

Eric had not revealed everything about his plans for the night that they'd reconnected, but Macklyn didn't need to know all the details. He knew enough. He knew the emotion behind it, and he knew that it hadn't just been an idle thought. Eric had given away their cat.

He wasn't angry. Not just because they'd already worked past it, but because it actually showed a lot of love for Eric to do what he'd done. He'd made sure that the kitten had a safe place to be, with somebody that would love it a lot. He was sad, though. Because he hadn't meant for that kind of finality to come about.

Macklyn wanted the cat back, though. They were together again, and they were in their home again. It needed every part of them in order to be a family. So he'd made it a goal to track down Selina and retrieve the feline from her.

She wasn't difficult to find. Browsing the shifting shopping area, peeking through windows. The fairy could only imagine the thoughts going through her head.

The task was finally complete.

The brick and mortar laid. The structure tall and strong. The inside regal and suitable for its occupant. It had been a chore long awaiting completion and now that time had finally come. Logan could look at the structure and be proud of what he had built. He could only hope that Maleficent liked it just as much as he did. He had built it to her exact specifications, down to the last bauble of decoration.

At present, Logan was fitting the last panel of curtain in the living area, a vast expanse of luxury and wealth. Though it exuded regality, there was something about the home that never lost its charm. It was a fortress, a protective lair, but a home just the same. It wasn't without its secrets, Logan had built the place with divots and perches, places for the Queen and her bird to conceal themselves if anyone found themself brave enough to take on the home and invade it.

He doubted that would ever happen, someone would have to be out of their mind to approach Maleficent with haste and the intent to do harm. She could fend for herself, he had seen some of her magic work. And there was always the ring, that circle of a connection they shared between them in the event something did happen that she couldn't control.

Logan slid down the ladder, folded it up and carried it down through the hallway to the foyer. Crossing the threshold, the mutant crossed out in to the sunlight and carried the ladder back to the truck. He secured it with tie downs and then turned to behold the small structure that the Queen had taken as residence while he finished her home. It was time to tell her.

Without a glance at the truck, Logan moved for the smaller abode. Once at the door he paused and knocked gently, knowing he could knock the thing over if he wanted to without much effort. "Maleficent? You home?" He called softly. He didn't need to shout, that wasn't necessary. But he didn't know if she was home or not either.

He would just have to wait and see.

Life was fairly peaceful for the vampire and his brood. Eric had never really been the sort to have a nest, and yet here he was with what essentially was one. His head had settled from the mixture of the two selves, and he'd become one whole person. Ish. There were occasional times when he got a little confused on what memories belonged to who, but for the most part he had it all sorted. Life in the City ran smoothly. He spent time at Purgatory, he spent time with his wife. He saw his progeny, though only briefly, as they had taken up lives of their own. He knew they were within the walls of this place, though, and that was enough for him. The castle was big enough for all of them to have their own space and not trip over one another, and that was another good thing.

But he couldn't deny that he was a bit restless. A bit antsy for something new to happen. Eric was not a vampire of routine. He didn't like being too settled for too long.

He stepped into the bright winter sun and looked up. The Viking didn't think that he would ever get tired of the sensation of day. Of not getting the bleeds. Of being able to walk under the bright sky and see the fluffy white clouds. He'd spent so long not being able to. Now, thanks to the blood of the woman he loved, he was able to do so again.

Eric had no idea where he was headed. He felt like he'd explored every single foot of this place twice over. But he couldn't stay cooped up in the castle, and he didn't know where his wife had run off to. He thought about finding Aidan. He knew that the strange vampire was around, but hadn't seen him. The man was a curious thing, with his different abilities and the fact that he was so ... so... very ... not vampire-like.

Uncertain of his destination, Eric walked.

Brick by brick the structure was quickly becoming less of a skeleton and more of a home. There were plans, blueprints to follow and a strict timeline to adhere to. Logan maintained a level of loyalty with his crew, the best in The City, and still managed to keep his promise to Giselle. He was home every evening for supper and though he left before the sun rose, he knew she would understand. They had come to terms with where they stood, and once this project was in its final stages he could focus more of his time on her. Which, ultimately, was what he wanted deep down inside.

It had been a few weeks since the project had begun, and being the powerful creature that he was, Logan was able to do much more work than anyone else. That helped speed things along quite nicely.

The outer structure has sprung up almost overnight, the foundation cared for with consideration of the land. It would be sturdy and hold for ages as long as it was well tended to. Any cracks in the Earth met with water, and keeping the foundation itself just moist enough to prevent shifting. But it was becoming complete. Beginning to look like itself.

After the foundation and skeleton, Logan had fashioned the bricks and mortar, minding the doors and windows. The inner structure was completed as the outside was, and slowly but surely (or quicker in his case) it began to take shape. Logan had a feeling that in the completion of the home entirely, his friend would be satisfied with it. She would know the care, the diligence and the effort it took to create such a thing in the first place.

Without her approval, Logan did take the executive measure to add a few places for her bird friend to stoop should he choose to. Most houses weren't built to accommodate avian companions, thus Logan took it upon himself to ensure happiness for both the mistress and for her friend. Along with plenty of roosting spaces, most with enough privacy for a bird tha could still give it view of its mistress, Logan added in a small aviary. He would eventually fill it with trees and wildflowers to mimic the land it was being built on. That would come later.

By staying on task, Logan expected to have the abode completed the week before Christmas. That included painting the inside, the decor, and any fine tuning that might be needed at the time. Otherwise, he was set on that deadline. Nothing would stop him from completing his task because of what lay ahead for him once he was finished. That was all he could ever want.

Now that her home was in something of a respectable state--real food growing in the garden, a goat of her own--Siggy could focus on other things. She had no use for the clothing of this odd, decadent city. With some surprise, she had found that new clothing of her own preference appeared in her room: rich wool and linen, of the type that she had worn as an Earl's wife. She began to feel herself again. And thus, she would look her old self again when next she met Thor.

She wandered what passed for a marketplace in the City. She would need jewelry and cosmetics. She had once worn gold taken in raids, or crafted by the finest smiths in the holdings. Now she would be forced to purchase it for herself. Cosmetics, though--she could buy that with no compunction.

Siggy walked through with purpose, then hesitatingly, and was soon lost in the press of people.

The plan was progressing slowly, but progressing. Bane and Brandt had come up with what they wanted to do, and determined that destroying a building was not going to do it here in this place. Not with the way that the buildings just fixed themselves pretty much immediately.

They were going to have to kill a lot of people.

Tunnels were being dug below the City streets, recruiting was easy. It had always been easy for Bane. He was a natural leader, the urge to follow him was deeply rooted in the bones of many. HH Holmes had killed the architects and builders of his murderous home, Bane killed only those who proved themselves too weak to continue under his employ. But it was no matter. The City seemed to be filled with a never ending supply.

He was upside for the first time in a while. Brandt handled everything that needed to be done up here most of the time. He was far less conspicuous. One might easily remember a very large man wearing a very strange mask. Bane was one of the League of Shadows, skilled in hiding in plain sight, but even that could not hide him when there needed to be a face to face interaction with somebody.

The night air was nice on his skin, not too cold, but he wore his heavy jacket anyway, to cover the vest under. Bullet proof kevlar, an accessory he refused to go anywhere without.

His task was to scout out the building that they were digging the tunnel to, though it was strange that things up here were not the same as those below. The tunnel was straight, despite how long it took him to find the shifting structure once he climbed out of the sewer entry. Bane walked by City PD, sizing it up as he moved, but did not linger. He made his way to a more innocuous business to spend some time before he walked past his target again to try to collect whatever data he might have missed on the first trip.

Bane stopped before reaching his destination to look to the skies. He'd heard rumors of who might be here and who might not.

John walked down the street, in a somewhat cheerful mood. He didn't have any particular reason, but running into Melody had been nice, and thing in general seemed to be improving for him. He didn't particularly have a direction in mind when he'd set out, having not explored enough of the City to traverse it with much intention. Besides, if the rumors were true, the City generally wound up getting you where it wanted you to go, intention or no.

So, when he saw the neon glare of Eric's recording studio ahead of him, he smiled slightly to himself. He'd been spending more time with the strange man, and while he still was rarely sure if Eric merely tolerated him, or enjoyed his company, they both seemed to enjoy their guitar sessions.

Wandering up and finding it unlocked and vacant looking as ever, John went in with little hesitation. There was no way to tell if Eric was here or not, but in general the vampire assumed the guitarist would have locked the door if he didn't want company, knowing John to have entered uninvited several times previously.

It had been a long five months.

Eric had given it a try, trying to hold reign on a normal type of a life. But the days were restless and the nights stretched out far too long. Every time he closed his eyes he didn't feel rested in spite of being so exhausted to the point of collapsing, and when he awoke during the evening hours it felt too long. He had adapted his sleeping schedule to be awake during the nights in hopes of catching John at the studios. Eric had been desperately trying to distract himself from the emptiness, but each day that came and went seemed like an eternity. The misery overwhelmed him when he was alone in that damned apartment. And the calendar on his mobile phone was all too eager to keep track of the days and nights so he didn't have to. They had flown by, each one had escaped him, and now he was convinced that this facade of an existence was no longer worth the effort.

Before....before the transformation into what he was presently, Eric had been able to be by himself with no concern. He hadn't needed anyone else, hadn't needed contact and presence of others to be happy. He loathed that the fairy part of him yearned so badly for that contact, the subtle motion of normal interaction. Being in Lee's presence helped, finding her on the wall was always a treat, and then there had been John. All of the time they spent together was nice, having someone to compose with, that understood the depth of music...but no matter how much time Eric spent with his friend it didn't ease him. This life he had built in Macklyn's absence was no life at all. In fact, each time Eric awoke to face the moon it was with dread. It felt like dying over and over again and he couldn't put up with it anymore.

Having made up his mind a few days ago, Eric knew it was best to escape this place while he could. There was nothing left for him here. He had entrusted Selina with Saucer, something that felt like abandoning part of his heart to a woman whom would only crush it beneath her shoe if she got the chance, but Saucer would be safer with her. And it was one less tie to the misery that had plagued him for the last five months.

This was the eve of the eve of his death. It loomed before him like a shadow and it made him hate the apartment more than usual. The couch where he slept during the day was a mess, his constant tossing and turning sending the cushions and blankets to the floor. The bedroom had remained untouched, the apartment itself was as much of a ghost as he felt like. Coats of dust covered much of it. He avoided the place when he could but having no place else to go made this the only true dwelling. He had toyed with the idea of burning it to the ground and each step closer he came to the 30th, the more pleasing the idea became.

Tonight he planned on going to the studio, though. There was a track that needed to be laid down and tampered with, and it was unfinished. He couldn't leave it like that. Hopefully John would show up at some point during the evening to approve it. If the vampire did, Eric would leave him the keys to the place. Eric knew John would keep it up and use it, which was what he had wanted.

But then something changed.

He had been about to put his keys in to the pocket of his leather jacket when he felt something in his mind switch onward and a flood of things returned. At first, it was a bit overwhelming, the connection coming back. Eric closed his eyes and savored it, letting relief wash over him. He wouldn't get his hopes up, not yet, but this was a start.

Another moment and he heard Bran in his head speaking to him.

Mara is here. She is beckoning us to return. It is time.

His eyes opened slowly. Eric wasn't sure if he was ready to face Macklyn yet. They had ended on such terrible terms and he was aware that his mate wouldn't have forgotten it. Eric couldn't even think to utter the word 'vampire' in regards to himself. He no longer thought about that part of himself. Buffy knew the phantom and the fairy, but only because of her occupation, and John wasnt worldly enough to know the difference in species.

It was time to go home.

Squaring his shoulders, Eric did push the keys in to his pocket and he was out the door of the apartment in a flash. It didn't take him long to find his way back to the little house that had once seemed a distant memory. Looking at it was painful.

Bran took his usual spot on the roof and the hybrid approached the front door unsure of what he would find. It took only a moment to open the door to the house, and once he had crossed the threshold he peered around at the dark, stale atmosphere. It felt like a shell of what had been there previously.

He wasn't sure if Macklyn was there waiting for him, they had a lot to catch up on when they did find each other again. It seemed best to just hang around and wait. He'd waited long enough already, what was a few minutes more? Slowly, Eric made his way further in to the house and settled into a shadow thrown by the kitchen to wait.

Macklyn hadn't really been back to the little house much. He made sure that the animals there were fed and taken care of and that the plants didn't die, but for the most part, he roamed and spent time by the water, or in the park, careful to use his connection to Eric to stay away from the other man. His anger at what he'd had to do to Ariel had stayed burning in his chest for a really long time. To twist that innocence, to betray somebody who was his friend. To know that he'd had to, or she would remain afraid of him and never look at him in that same way again...

But now...

The hybrid stood at the door, Mara on his shoulder. The strange bird never left his side. She was so much different than Bran, it was hard to imagine that she was technically the same creature, just changed. She needed blood to live. She was a she. She was... alive. That was truly the biggest difference. Mara had a heartbeat where Bran did not.

It had been so long that Macklyn wished he couldn't remember what they'd fought about. He wished he didn't have a vampire's mind for memory. And a fairy's for that matter. If he could only forget as a human could do, maybe he wouldn't have let this go on for so long.

He missed Eric.

They were soulmates, and that was something that he knew he could never sever. Not that he really wanted to. He needed his soulmate by his side. But he also needed to make sure that Eric understood the dangers of throwing information around. He was far too casual about the truth of himself. Macklyn hadn't lasted as long as he had in the world telling people willy nilly that he was part vampire. Hell, most never even discovered that he was a fairy, unless they were creatures that could tell right away.

The house smelled a bit stale and musty. That just wouldn't do.

"Mara. I need you to find Bran. Bring them back. I'll clean up here." It was time. Probably far beyond time. The two of them needed to reconnect, needed to make peace. Needed to be together. Macklyn opened the communication channel back up, that which he had blocked off to have his privacy. Now Eric would be able to sense him once more, in all the ways he'd been able to previously.

Eddie breathed out a sigh of relief.

This wasn't any city he knew. It was far from the Manhattan skyline he was used to, and entirely opposite of what he had expected to wake up to. It was random, refreshing and welcome. His skin crawled with the feeling of delight, the essence of freedom. Many in his position would be worried, scared that wherever they had ended up was ultimate. But to him, the newness of the finality was alright. Nobody knew his trials here, nobody would know his failures.

To his surprise, Eddie had awoken in his apartment as was usual. The peeling walls, the same smells, the clutter and the mess. There was a wall full of newspaper clippings from the Globe, articles about Spiderman....Spiderman. Hah. What a joke. But he was obsessed just the same. Had he the opportunity he would have killed that red and blue tights wearing nobody the second he could. Spiderman was the reason he'd been fired in the first place!

Revenge was a dish best served cold, and bloody...and tasty.

Eddie found himself salivating for an instant. Standing at the foot of a bed made of rumpled sheets and nightmares...he smiled some, shrugged and dressed. It was in the middle of pulling on a shirt that he noticed the laminated badge sitting on his desk. It said something to do with The City and being a part of the team there and there it was with his photograph and everything.

It was the second chance he had been waiting for.

This place, whatever it was, recognized his greatness. Finally, someone did. He wasn't a bad guy, not really. He had potential. He just needed someone to see it, to acknowledge it. He was Edward Brock, star reporter and this town would know it.

With confidence, Eddie marched in to the building of the job he had been assigned and he got straight to work proving he was better than everyone there. He had nothing to lose. And he was going to be making all of the headlines.

They would just need to wait and see.

"....I know he will be safe with you. You'll take good care of him." Eric said softly, knowing Selina would never allow any feline to come to harm if she could help it. The white Persian was better off in her care. It wasn't that Eric didn't want the cat, he adored it deeply, but where he was going the cat couldn't come. It was safer, better off with someone like her that could dote on its every whim and protect it. There were too many memories that shrouded the feline, too many to sort through and to work on.

"Why are you doing this?" Selina inquired. Her eyes narrowed in question, but her tone was different than usual. She considered them rivals, enemies fighting for the same ground, and this seemed too much like an olive branch. A peace offering. She hadn't wanted it to take this twist, she had wanted to be the one to decide when she was done fighting. But the whim for peace had yet to come and there they were together, standing at an inevitable crossroads.

"Because it's time," Eric replied.

Wayne Manor was elegant. It was very large and despite its depth there was a measure of welcome to it. He could tell that it was well work, lived in like it should be. It was far too big for someone like himself, there were too many things that echoed from the tapestry decorated walls for his liking. But if it suited Selina then that was what mattered. Their rivalry bored him, it was trivial and stupid and he was done with it.

"When are you coming back to get him?" A small measure of hope in her voice escaped despite her trying to fight it off. She hoped he wasn't coming back. There weren't many places to go, but there was a part of her that would always loathe him and was glad to see him give up the last bit of Ben to her. It was as if he had given up, like she knew he eventually would.

"Just make sure he's happy," Eric replied. It was then the Avenger turned and walked toward the door left open. The warm sun greeted him like a shadow and he didn't look back at the woman standing there, holding the purring white cat. It was over, that part was over now and Saucer would be safe there in Selina's care. He wouldn't have left the cat there if there was any measure of harm that might come to it.

Waiting for him on the roof was Bran, and with a caw coupled with the flap of his wings, the bird joined the shadow of a man as Eric crossed over the manicured lawn. There was still so much to do. So many more preparations to make before he left. Everything needed to be just right because there wasn't any coming back.

Meeting the street, Eric faded in to the darkness of an overpass and continued to make his way back to the City, all the while working over his mental checklist. The cat was done.

Now it was on to the next. He was running low on time.

Bruce made it quick. He didn't want to stick around, that fear would always be right there beneath the surface. He was setting himself up for rejection, opening himself up to pain and suffering but it couldn't compare to anything he had already experienced. Liv deserved better, with or without him.

So, he stood before her doorway, staring blankly at the pristinely painted door. He had one just like it a while back, now he barely used it. It didn't seem to matter now.

He pinned ( the letter ) to Liv's door and after a brief knock the scientist turned and walked away quickly. He didn't want to be there when she got it. Just in case...there he was running again.

He sighed, pushed open the front door to the building and disappeared in to the rain.

It had taken a complete stranger to open his eyes. Bruce hated it, but he knew the stranger had been right, and although it terrified him more than he wants anyone to know...he knew those words were the truth. It was odd and yet comforting, those words. They were simple and how he had missed it before he wasn't quite sure. For all of the intellect he posessed, for all of the great things he had done he was still just a man. A lonely man. A lonely man with a monster inside of him.

Bruce had been lingering in a book store, perusing the selections on science theory. A few selections later and the scientist had tucked himself firmly in to a couch in the corner furthest from any signs of life. He must have looked troubled or struggling as he sat there because otherwise he doubted the stranger would have approached him. But what struck him as peculiar was the way the stranger looked. How he carried himself, almost as if he knew the same pain and struggles. But that couldn't be right, could it? Bruce wasn't sure. He hadn't been sure until the man had left. The stranger had come and sat down beside him. A very large bird had rested on one of the man's shoulders until the stranger had sat down. He held no book, nothing of any interest to which Bruce could start up a conversation.

But somehow they had managed to start talking. The stranger was easy to talk to. At first Bruce had been hesitant to open up, reluctant to share. And then by some means they had trickled in to the subject of love, of being with someone.

"A woman is a good weakness to have," the stranger said to the scientist. "The moment you stop letting yourself love someone is the moment you're no longer human anymore. You really do become the monster you keep inside of yourself. Having someone to love means you've become willing to fight, and it means you're willing to allow yourself to be exposed."

Bruce sighed softly. His mouth had opened to argue, to protest....nobody could love a man with a monster. Nobody could understand. But the stranger with the bird was right. "There's nothing more human than admitting you have things to overcome, and if it was me I would pick love over anything. I would choose to have someone to protect, someone to support, even if it was a risk. Because you can't exist with regret in knowing that you could have been happy, and you chose not to be. No man deserves to be unhappy, we simply choose to be because we are afraid. That fear should compel us to overcome it, to deal with it. To have to be brave, and the first step in that journey is to admit you have a weakness just like all of the rest of us. Every person, creature, on this planet needs someone else. For procreation for their species, or simply just to be around. You can't escape it. And it's better to know that feeling than go without knowing it for your whole life."

The book Bruce had been holding had somehow managed to fall to the floor without him knowing.

"Why are you telling me this?" Bruce asked. The stranger just smiled a little bit and shrugged, "You looked like you could use it." And without another word the stranger got up and walked away. The scientist was left with the last moments of that haze and he knew the stranger was right.

Instantly Bruce got up. He didn't realize he was running until he reached the sidewalk outside and he found himself out of breath. He grabbed hold of his bike, mounted it and tore down the streets in the direction of Stark Tower.

He had a lot of work to do. A lot of making up to do.

He needed to reach out to Liv.

A stop at the Tower and he was in his lab almost instantly. He was afraid, deathly afraid, but it felt easier somehow to deal with than before. Sitting down at his desk, Bruce found some clean paper and a pen and began to write a letter. He would take it to Liv's apartment when he was done. But it had to be perfect. And he was almost always perfect when he set his mind to something.

Who knew the kindness of a stranger would have such a profound effect?

With a sigh of relief, Bruce settled and composed, knowing that when it was done he had to find the strength to follow through. He could do it. He would do it. He would take the next step.

The sun had set long ago. Unlike many of her nights, Giselle hadn't strayed to the valley in the forest to watch the mountainside turn gold and pink and purple. Instead, she'd found her way from the attic window to the top of Logan's cabin, and there she sat on the roof, watching the sky as it shaded from soft blue to deep navy.

Here in the forest, they were sheltered from the garish City lights. It was almost like home - almost, except that she couldn't ever forget that this was no Andalasia... and her life was very much different, here.

Logan had been gone for longer than she particularly liked. It was strange, living with the man. He was an odd combination of kind and fierce, but never fierce to her. She'd hate to be his enemy. She imagined most of his enemies felt that way, too. There were many good things about Logan. One of them was not how much she missed him. Was it wrong, to miss someone as she missed him? It didn't feel wrong, but it felt terribly un-right, as well. She didn't think she was ever going to make sense of it.

A sound from well behind her caught her attention. She crawled over the roof peak and saw him walking in toward the cottage. A bright smile caught her and she waved happily. He didn't see her. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, and she wondered --

-- she didn't wonder what he was thinking for long, because her bare foot slipped from where it was bracing her. She squealed and clutched for anything and missed everything on her slide downward.

She'd gone out at night, eager to find her friend Eric. Though she could have made the journey across the water to the edge of the City, to that wall that overlooked the eerie forest beyond, she chose instead to try to find him in the City proper. A wall... Always, they met on a wall, and as she walked the nighttime streets, a wall was what she was looking for.

After some wandering, she found herself in a rougher part of town. It didn't concern her; she knew well enough that she could tend to herself, and Peter was only a panic spike away besides. Peter, she thought, was the perfect guardian. The perfect everything. Not quite her everything, but if it hadn't been for her duty to the people of Earth, he could have been.

At last, she found a suitable wall. It was broken down and rough, but perfect for scaling for all its imperfection. She easily scrambled up the side, her hands and nimble feet using the crumbling mortar and bricks to ease her passage up. And then she perched and waited, feet swinging easily against the side. Eric would come soon. She knew it in the center of herself. He always found a way to her.

She hadn't expected anyone else in the darkness.