WHO: Doug and Lydia WHAT: Lydia gets a chance to play hero as Doug’s dreams hit him, hard. WHEN: Recently WARNINGS: Mentions of dream!death and character!death, mentions of comic book violence STATUS: Closed and Ongoing
Doug was running.
He had been running for long enough to not know, not understand, where he was, what was going on, or what had happened. Sometime, somewhere, he remembered the sound of the gunshot, he remembered pain. He remembered running, to try to save someone. He remembered fighting for others.
He shuddered as he ran, breath coming out painfully harsh, body trembling with exhaustion, feet hurting, skin trembling as the air blew away the sweat of his endurance across his naked frame.
He ran and his mind fell back into nightmare, remembering the sensations of the battlefield, the New Mutants against the Re-Animator and the Right, fighting to protect themselves and the animal people, Bird-Boy’s people. He saw the man aiming for Rahne and knew he had to run, to save her.
He had been useless, as always in a fight, with no martial powers, no abilities that helped him save the others or be safe. But he couldn’t wait, he couldn’t not act, not if Rahne was in danger.
He felt the thunder of the shot, and the impact, and the pain, the tearing that hit his back and sent him tumbling across the ground, as he heard Rahne yelling at him.
And he ran, half in nightmare, half in reality, dodging most things and people, unaware of being naked, or out in public, staggeringly tired as he ran along, slowing as his exhaustion caught up with him, until finally, he stumbled to a halt, crumbling to his knees at someone’s feet… and sliding the rest of the way to the ground, shuddering in pain and blurriness, words from the dream echoing in his mind, coming out of his lips… mumbling, but still spoken.
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
As his heart stuttered, shuddered, slowing, as he struggled to not pass out.