Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gavin wakes up to someone pounding on his door. He slowly stumbles his way to the door, the light coming through the window blinding him. When he opens the door, a bright light engulfs him and the next thing he knows is that he’s sitting in a rowing boat in the middle of the ocean and moving towards a lighthouse. He holds his head, the pressure behind his eyes a sign of an incoming headache. Gavin barely notices the hushed whispers coming from in front of him.

“Are you sure he’s the right one? He looks like he’s one breath away from throwing up or just falling over dead.”, a harsh voice says. He also seems to be the one rowing the boat.

“I’m sure of it. I mean, you saw it too, didn’t you? He’s going to fix this mess.” The second voice sounds similar but calmer and more gentle than the first one.

“Excuse me?”, Gavin calls out but the two in front of him ignore him in favor of their conversation.

“He better or we’re all fucked, Con. Let’s see if this one lasts longer than the last one. Because I am slowly losing my fucking mind!”

“I know… I know. But unfortunately, the only thing we can do in our situation is to guide him. Have a bit more faith, Rhys.”

The person called Con reaches back and hands Gavin a small wooden box without turning away from Rhys. They continue their conversation, which Gavin tunes out in favor of checking out the box. He opens the latch and finds a gun, a few pictures and a note with symbols on it. After checking if the gun is loaded, Gavin puts it in the back of his belt and inspects the note. It’s a simple piece of paper with three symbols on it.

Now, the interesting part is the pictures. One shows a statue of an angel with the name “Columbia” written on it and the second picture is of a man reading a book. Judging from the picture, he couldn’t be older than Gavin. Probably a few years younger. The man had a sharp jawline and piercing eyes. Even through the picture Gavin can feel a shiver running down his spine. Everything about this person look prim and proper, pristine and elegant. There is a name written in the top left corner.

“Richard…?” Gavin turns the picture and reads the text on the back of it. “Bring to Detroit unharmed…? What the fuck…?”

“Are you going to sit there all day or actually get a move on?! We don’t have the time to wait for your lazy ass to move!”, Rhys yells at Gavin through the rain. That’s when Gavin notices that the boat stopped at a dock. Gavin’s limbs move on their own and he gets out of the boat and onto the dock. He turns to ask the two mysterious figures what he’s supposed to do, but they’re already rowing away. Leaving him stranded on this tiny island in the middle of the ocean. His only way forward is the lighthouse.

Gavin slowly makes his way up the stairs to the lighthouse, careful not to slip on the wet stone stairs. Once reaches the door he sees a note fixed to it with a knife.

Bring us the boy and wipe away your debt. This is your last chance.

He furrows his brows at the note and eventually crumples it up and tosses it aside. Gavin takes a deep breath and opens the door to the lighthouse. To his surprise, the inside is dark. The only light coming from upstairs together with what sounds like music. He calls out but no one answers him so he makes his way upstairs.

Someone definitely lived here, but the lighthouse looks abandoned. Things are scattered around the floor. Whoever lived here must have left in a hurry. At least that’s what Gavin thinks until he smells it. He’s been working long enough as a detective for homicide to recognize the smell of blood. He walks up the stairs to the next floor and sees a bloody body slumped over in a chair. There is a note attached to it.

Don’t disappoint us.

“What the fuck, man?!” Gavin moves closer to the body and takes a good look at it. The body is starting to smell so it must’ve been here for a while now. “Male. Probably in his late 40s. Looks like he bled to death. Jesus fucking Christ…”

He wants to leave this hellhole. He really wants to, but unfortunately his only way off this island left in a rowing boat not too long ago and he sure as hell is not going to swim all the way back to shore.

So, his only way is up.

Chapter Text

Once he reaches the top of the lighthouse, Gavin comes face to face with a locked door. The door lock itself consists of only three bells, each with symbols carved into them. Very familiar symbols. Gavin pulls the note he found in the wooden box from his pocket and looks at the bells.

“I wonder…” Looking at the note, he rings each bell according to the piece of paper but nothing happens at first. Just when he’s about to kick the stupid door, he hears bells chiming. There’s a second of silence and then he hears something that sounds like a horn. It seems to come from all around him and it causes his ears to ring. Each horn is accompanied by a flashing red light from above the clouds. Gavin covers his ears and only removes his hands once he’s sure that the noise has stopped.

“I should’ve stayed in bed today…”, he lamented.

The door in front of him clicks and opens, a chair rising from the floor and waiting for him to sit down. This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. He sits down. The chair itself is not too bad. It’s not his couch back at home, but it’s better than his stupid chair at the precinct. But before he can think anymore about chairs, metal cuffs clamp around his wrists and ankles.

“What the fuck?!”

Multiple panels rise from the ground all around him and close him in, their edges blending together seamlessly. Gavin’s panic only rises when he feels the chair move forward. He stares in disbelief at the very not present floor beneath his feet. He helplessly watches his gun fall into the depth unable to catch it due to his bound limbs. The chair then slowly turns back into its original position before the entire thing starts to shake and rumble. Gavin closes his eyes as soon as the rumbling gets stronger and he’s pushed into his seat by upward movement of whatever he’s inside right now. He’s going to die here…! He is totally going to die here and no one will ever know because he’s in the middle of the Atlantic fucking ocean…!

Too absorbed in his own thought he doesn’t even notice the shaking has stopped until he hears an automated voice.

“Welcome to Columbia.”

Slowly but surely, Gavin squints his eyes open and sure enough, he’s still alive. Shaken to the very core, but at least he’s not dead. What greets him is a sight he never thought would be possible. He was above the clouds, the sun shining into his eyes. But what’s more interesting is the entire – fucking – city right in front of him.

“Nope. No. I definitely died and this is Heaven. No way in fucking hell is this real…!”

The capsule he’s in right now starts its slow descent and Gavin can feel his heart slowly returning to its usual rhythm. Beautiful stained-glass windows pass by him on his way down until he lands with a little shake. The restraints open up and he is finally free to move around.

It appears that he’s inside some kind of chapel. There are candles everywhere and the entire floor is covered in water. Great. Wet socks. Gavin pushes onward and does a bit of exploring. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Just a good old chapel. He ends up walking into a sermon of some kind. He doesn’t really listen to what the guy in the pool is saying and pushes past the crowd.

“Hey, how the fuck do I get into the city?”

The man stops his speech and turns towards Gavin.

“Is it someone new? Someone from the Sodom below? Newly come to Columbia to be washed clean before our Lady?”, he asks with a smile on his face.

“What? No! Listen, I just need to get into the city.”, Gavin huffs out in frustration. He doesn’t have the time or the patience to deal with a religious fanatic.

“Passage to the city?”, the preacher laughs.

“Bother, the only way to Columbia is through rebirth in the sweet waters of baptism. Will you be cleansed, brother?”

He holds a hand out to Gavin.

Fine, if this is what it takes to get into Columbia or whatever, then so be it. He’s not going to die from a little bit of water. Gavin walks into the knee-deep pool the man is standing in and takes his hand.

“I baptize you, in the name of our Lady!”

And then Gavin is dunked into the water without any warning.

“And make him born again in the bosom of Columbia!”

The preacher then turns towards the crowd.

“I don’t know, brothers and sisters. But this one doesn’t look clean to me…”

Gavin is forcefully shoved into the water again and everything goes dark.

Chapter Text

Gavin wakes up coughing in a shallow pool of water surrounded by flowers.

“What the fuck is wrong with that old geezer…?! There’s a difference between baptizing someone and trying to drown them…!”, he curses to himself and gets out of the water. The people around him give him a few odd glances but he ignores them and stomps his way out of the courtyard he’s in. Gavin pushes open the two heavy doors of the courtyard and finally comes face to face with the floating city of Columbia.

“Holy shit…”

It’s still insane that something like this could exist, but he decides to not think about it too much or it’ll give him a headache. As he aimlessly wanders around, Gavin takes in the sights. Sure, his arrival was anything but pleasant, but Columbia actually seems like a nice place to live in. If you’re not scared of heights that is.

The city mainly consists of islands that seem to connect to each other by some kind of bridge-like mechanism. When they’re not connected, the islands just float about and the people inside are just minding their own businesses. Probably waiting until they connect to the next island and get off to do something else. There are also airships in different shapes and sizes. This must be how the people get around Columbia when they don’t feel like walking or waiting for islands to connect.

Walking a bit further, Gavin finds a poster depicting the statue of an angel. He pulls a very soggy picture from his back pocket and looks at it.

“Monument Island… Seems like that’s my destination.”

He puts the picture away and goes to find a path to Monument Island. As his luck would have it, the path to his destination is blocked by a closed gate and two police officers.

“Sorry, but the path will be blocked until tomorrow. They’re setting up fireworks back there right now so it’s too dangerous.”

Gavin clicks his tongue. He’ll just have to find another way.

He wanders around a bit more and stumbles upon what seems like a fair. Children are running around him excitedly and it smells like popcorn and cotton candy. Just when he’s about to enter the fair grounds he’s greeted by two very familiar figures in gray suits. He looks up and sees two animal heads. A bunny and a wolf. The bunny is wearing a chalk board around his neck, multiple marks have been made in the column for “heads” and none for “tails”.

“Heads or tails?”, the wolf asks and holds a coin towards Gavin.

“What?”

“Heads? Or tails?”, the bunny repeats.

“Tails?” Gavin takes the coin and tosses it onto the plate the wolf is holding. Judging by the voice, this one would be Con. The bunny should be Rhys then. The coin flies through the air and lands on the plate. It’s tails.

“Ha! Told ya!”

Con and Rhys look at each other and Gavin could tell their surprise even through the animal heads. Con takes the chalk and puts down a mark for “tails”. They lean closer to whisper to each other.

“So, he might be the right one after all, Con.”

“Fascinating… This has never happened before… We should keep a close eye on this one.”

And with that the two of them walk away, leaving poor Gavin confused by the whole ordeal. Deciding that he doesn’t want to think any more about the two weirdos, the detective continues on his way.

The fair has multiple stalls to explore and even a few games. Some of them he knew, like the high striker. But there were a few unfamiliar attractions. He sees a man dressed as a devil levitating another man in the same costume. The stall behind them read “Bucking Bronco”. Not really seeing anything that interests him, he continues walking. He hears someone shouting something about “something something Jericho” and some guy called Markus, but Gavin doesn’t care.

A lady with a basket around her neck walks up to Gavin and offers him one of the bottles in said basket. The bottle has a little figure of a woman draped across it and the cork is in the shape of a heart.

“With just a whisper, they’re all yours.”, she says seductively.

“Sorry, lady. I’m not interested.” Gavin tries to return the bottle but she insists that it’s a free sample, and after a bit of a back and forth he eventually relents and drinks it. And is immediate hit with regret. He feels woozy and his head is swimming, he can barely think straight. But the feeling went away as soon as it appeared.

“What the fuck…?”

Chapter Text

He really shouldn’t accept weird drinks from strangers, even if said stranger is a nice lady.

Once again, another locked door stands in his way. This one is guarded by something called an automaton. The humanoid figure atop is asking for a ticket that Gavin doesn’t have. Hell, he doesn’t even have any money on him. From what he heard, the people up here use a currency called “silver eagles” and Gavin has none of that. It seems like he’s not getting through this door.

“Unless…”

Gavin looks at the bottle in his hand and the machine. He holds his free hand towards the automaton and almost immediately a green mist in the shape of a woman leaves his palm and swirls around the piece of machinery. The eyes of the humanoid figure glow green and it straightens up. It takes a close look at the detective before doing a bowing motion and opening the door.

“Well, fuck. This is going to be useful in the long run. Let’s just hope the effect of whatever the fuck I just drank is not timed. That’ll suck.”

He throws the empty bottle into the nearest trash bin and continues in his way. An airship catches his attention. A woman is depicted on the side of it. She has dark skin and her black hair is split into smaller individual braids all pulled back into an elaborate hairstyle. Gavin feels like she’s staring right at him with her piercing brown eyes. Judging him for purely existing in her vicinity. Okay, maybe that’s just him thinking that, but he really doesn’t like whoever this woman is.

Beneath her picture is written:

Our savior and leader! Lady Amanda Stern! She has freed us from the oppression bellow and given us our wings!

“Is she the one in charge of Columbia? I better avoid her then.”

Gavin’s attention is torn away from the airship by the cheering of a crowd. It seems to be close by so he decides to check it out. It’s not like it’s going to do any harm. A bit of curiosity never hurt anyone.

The noise leads him to a small stage with a lot of people gathered in front of it. On the stage are three people. A man dressed in a suit holding a cane and two others who are tied to wooden poles. They’re getting booed at by the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to today’s attraction! These two are supporters of Jericho! Now, we can’t have that, can we? So, let’s teach those vermin a lesson!”, the announcer practically beams with joy. A woman walks through the crowd and starts handing out baseballs to the people. Some eagerly take a ball and they look at the people tied up on stage.

“You there! Why don’t you throw the first ball? Throw it real good!”

The announcer takes a ball from the woman and hands it to Gavin. He takes the ball and looks at the announcer and then at the bound pair. Gavin raises his arm and prepares to throw the ball as hard as he can into the announcers face when someone grabs his wrist. The police officer presses his thumb into Gavin’s wrist where he has a tattoo of the number nine in roman numerals. The announce leans towards him and grins wide.

“Look who we have here. Don’t you know that this marks you as an enemy to Columbia and her people? Lady Stern will surely be pleased if I bring her your head!”

Gavin has to dodge a weapon coming right for his face and redirects it towards the officer himself. The spinning hooks of the weapon get caught in the officer’s face and easily tears it apart. Gavin feels like throwing up but now is really not the time for his last meal to see the light of day. So, he grabs the hooked weapon and runs.

In the distance he can hear more people yelling and guns getting shot at him. He runs around the corner and narrowly dodges a bullet to the head. The police are hot on his heels so he runs as fast and as far as his legs can carry him. There is no way he can fight them armed only with this weird hook thing. He needs a weapon even if it’s just a pistol. Anything with range will do.

Gavin hears the hissing of steam and the sparkling of electricity before he sees it. A man in some kind of metal armor suit lands in front of him and hurls a ball of fire at him. He dodges the fireball thrown at him and ducks behind a wall.

He really shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today. Fuck this day and fuck those two bastards who brought him here!

Well, he’ll either kill this bastard or die trying. And if there’s one thing that everyone knows, it’s that Gavin Reed is one stubborn bastard.

“Bring it on, you big bitch!”

Chapter Text

“Holy shit… I actually did it…!”

Gavin is sitting on the ground behind a broken piece of wall and panting heavily. He’s covered in sweat, soot and a little bit of blood. He could’ve sworn he got his arm hairs singed off on multiple occasions. The armor suit gives off one last hiss from before finally going quiet. Taking a deep breath, Gavin approaches the hulking piece of machinery and inspects it up close. This contraption is nothing the detective has ever seen before, but that doesn’t surprise him. He kicks the bucket of bolts one last time - which really hurts, ouch – and turns to leave. However, the sound of something hitting the ground catches his attention. It’s another bottle.

“… Oh my fucking god… I’m so fucking stupid…! I could’ve used that weird possession thing on this asshole…!”, he laments. He could’ve spared himself all this trouble and headache if his stupid brain had remembered his new ability. But alas, he didn’t remember so he had to suffer the consequences.

He picks up the new bottle and decides that – fuck it, he’ll drink it. What’s the worst that could happen?

Gavin downs the bottle and is hit with a searing pain in his hands. He looks down and watches in horror as his flesh melts from his bone, leaving behind nothing but skeletal fingers. The poor man screams in agony and stumbles back and falls into a fountain when the back of his knees hit the edge. The splash of cold water snaps Gavin back to reality. He frantically checks his hands and sees nothing out of the ordinary. No bones or molten flesh. Not even a burn.

“What the fuck…? Okay… No more drinking random bottles…”

Getting out of the fountain, Gavin is now dripping wet. At least he managed to outrun the police so now he can take his time to get to Monument Island. He can see it in the distance and it doesn’t look like it’s too far away so he gets to walking. The sooner he can get to the island, the sooner he can grab the guy in the statue and get the fuck out of Columbia. The quickest way to Monument Island would be by airship. Maybe he should “borrow” one for his purposes.

As it turns out, getting an airship is easier than Gavin thought. It only involves killing two police officers. Being a detective himself, it does somehow feel wrong to kill someone who’s just doing their job by upholding the law, but in his case it’s pure self-defense. Yes, definitely self-defense and nothing else. The controls for the airship are surprisingly easy. He just has to set his destination and let the vehicle do all the work.

Just when he thinks that everything is going well, a female voice from inside the airship cabin startles him. It seems to come from the speakers installed inside the cabin. She doesn’t sound too happy about him being here.

“You. I am Amanda Stern. I know who you are and you’d be a fool to think that I would let you do as you please. I worked hard to create this city. To create Columbia. I will not let you get in the way of what is rightfully mine. You will not reach Monument Island, nor my son. Unfortunately for you, I am in control of everything in Columbia. Even the very airship you’re on.”

Before Gavin can react, the alarms inside the cabin go off. Amanda must have cut off the power to the engine, so he has to think quick if he doesn’t want to crash and burn. He looks around but doesn’t find anything that could help him. And the only thing he has on him is this weird hook think.

“Wait, I do remember seeing them ride along the rails to get from island to island.” Gavin looks at the tool in his hand. He has absolutely no idea how to use this thing. So, he either crashes with the airship or risks falling to his death. Neither of the options sounds very appealing, but he has to do something. He opens the door to the cabin and steps outside.

“I only have one chance. Don’t fuck this up, Reed…”

With one last deep breath, Gavin closes his eyes and jumps. He holds out the hook in the hopes of catching one of the rails and prays to every god in existence, hoping that at least one of them would hear his prayers. After what feels like forever his body stops midair and then the sound of metal grinding against metal. He opens one eye and sees the scenery rush past him. Well, at least he managed to hook onto one of the rails. And from the looks of it, he just so happens to land on one that leads straight to the giant angel statue.

“There is a god after all…!”, he sighs in relief. Now all he has to do is to ride the rail to the island and get off.

…

He doesn’t know how.

Getting closer and closer to the statue, Gavin tries to dislodge the hook from the metal rail. No matter how hard he pulls or wiggles, he’s stuck to the rail. Well, at least he doesn’t have to worry about falling off in the future.

During his struggles he pulls the trigger on the handle part of the tool and the magnet – at least that’s what he assumes is keeping him on the rail – in the hook disconnects and sends him crashing down right in front of the base of the statue.

Gavin gets the wind knocked out of his lungs and it takes him a while to recover. But at least he made it to his destination in one piece and only with major bruises. Better than a broken bone. He gets up slowly and brushes the dust off of his clothes.

He heads towards the door at the base of the statue.

Chapter Text

It was surprisingly easy to get inside the tower. Gavin is currently heading up a flight of stairs inside the statue. He did not expect the insides to be hollow. The more he explores, the more it becomes obvious that this tower doubles as a laboratory. There is lab equipment scattered around the area and blackboards with notes and formulas Gavin won’t even try to understand. However, the higher up he gets, the more disturbing it becomes.

He finds observation rooms and a collection of pictures. They’re all from the same person. They were watching him while he grew up. Documented every moment of his life. One note catches Gavin’s attention.

Subject seems to be able to open windows to different places. The subject itself seems to be able to control this power only to some extent.

"What the hell is going on here…?”

Gavin puts the note away and pulls the lever next to it. The metal panel in front of him opens up, revealing a changing room of sorts. He sees a man rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt and exit the room. Does he not see him?

“Richard… That has to be him.”

He follows the man through the different observation rooms and stops when Richard stops in front of a painting of Paris standing on an easel. Gavin watches him open a hole in midair and inside that hole he can see the Eiffel Tower. Paris. Richard reaches inside and pulls out a flower of sorts before closing the hole once again. He walks into the next room.

The only way forward is a flight of stairs and it leads to a seemingly empty room. Before Gavin can start complaining he feels the floor give beneath him. He crashes through the ceiling and hits the ground hard. The less than elegant landing causes his vision to swim and it takes his eyes a while to focus. When they do, he’s looking into a pair of piercing blue eyes.

Richard stands up from the chair he’s sitting in and puts down the book he was reading before Gavin – oh so gracefully – crashed through his ceiling.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”, he demands with a commanding voice.

Finally able to take a closer look, Gavin takes in the man standing in front of him. He’s wearing a pair of black pants with brown leather boots. His pristine white dress shirt is unbuttoned at the top and the sleeves are rolled up. What catches Gavin’s eyes the most is the long, dark brown leather glove covering all of Richard’s right arm. It’s being held in place by three buckles at the top. The other arm is fully exposed and perhaps Gavin’s eyes linger a bit too long on the pale and unmarred skin.

“Are you just going to sit there and stare at me or are you going to answer my question as to why you broke into my room? I’ll get the answer one way or another, so you better say something while I’m still being nice.”, says Richard with his arms crossed. He looks at Gavin like he just discovered a rat in his kitchen. He’s looking down on him. Figuratively and literally.

Gavin gets up and makes sure to keep his eyes on the man in front of him. Richard doesn’t do much except raising an eyebrow at him. He also realizes that the other is quite a bit taller than him. Tall bitch.

“The name’s Gavin Reed. I’m here to get you out of this place.”

“And why would I want to leave? I have everything I need in here.”

“Because you’re being treated like a lab rat? That’s why.”

Richard tenses up for a second before relaxing his posture once again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Seriously?”, Gavin asks in disbelief. “These creeps are watching every step you take inside here. Fuck, they even have pictures of you changing your clothes.”

Richard is about to respond when they hear a melody coming from somewhere inside the library and an earsplitting screech from above. He grabs Gavin and shoves him into the next room with much complaint from the smaller man.

“Just shut up and stay here for now. Don’t come out until I tell you to.”

The screeching gets louder and Richard heads back to the library where they just came from. Gavin peeks around the corner of the door frame and sees a giant green glowing eye peeking through a giant hatch in the ceiling. He watches the taller man approach whatever this thing is.

“You’re being awfully pushy today. I told you to not come here unless absolutely necessary.”

The thing screeches.

“Everything is fine here. Leave.”

It doesn’t move.

“I said. Leave.”

Nothing happens for a few seconds and Gavin is afraid that the thing might attack Richard, but eventually it leaves. The sound of giant wings flapping growing more distant.

“You can come out now.”

“W-what was that?”

“That? That was my so-called guardian.”

A pause.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Gavin watches Richard pick up something from a nearby table and walk towards the big golden door on the other side of the library. He crouches down by the door and starts messing with the lock.

“What are you doing?”, Gavin asks with a tilt of his head.

“Getting us out of here, obviously.”

He does a little twist with his hand and a clicking sound comes from the door. Gavin joins him as he opens the door and they step outside.

“You know how to pick locks?”

“I had nowhere to go so I had more than enough time to read. You’d be surprised by what one can learn simply by reading books.” Richard looks around and then starts walking. Gavin is caught off guard by that and rushes to catch up to him. They continue down the stairs in awkward silence.

As they pass by the observation rooms Gavin notices Richard make a face. Did he really not know that he was being watched his entire life? The taller picks up a note from one of the tables and reads through it. He doesn’t look too happy about it judging by the frown on his face.

“I was nothing but an experiment to them. They were studying how to create tears.”

Gavin tilts his head. “Tears?”

“I can open windows to different places and times. Even I’m not quite sure how this ability works. I’ve had it ever since I was young and I just instinctively know what to do.”

If Gavin hadn’t seen Richard open one of those tears only moments ago right in front of his eyes, he would’ve thought that the man was crazy. He snaps out of his thoughts only to find the other already halfway down the stairs. Once again, he finds himself running after Richard. He has a feeling that this will be a common occurrence during their travels together.

“Wait, since you picked that lock… Does that mean you could’ve left anytime? Why did you stay?”

“Because until now I had no reason to leave. Yes, life was boring and I felt constricted because I wasn’t allowed to leave. But once you live a certain way your entire life, it just becomes normal. I had everything I could ever ask for, so why bother?”

Gavin looks at his side profile. “Everything except freedom.”

“Right. But I was willing to make that sacrifice. Besides, it pleased my mother. I didn’t want to disappoint her.”

“Yikes… Well, let me tell you something. Sometimes you just gotta disappoint some people. And sometimes those people are your parents. Also, I met your mother and – no offense to you – she’s a fucking bitch.”

Looking over, Gavin sees a faint smile on Richard’s lips before it’s gone again.

The two of them make it halfway down the tower before they hear that earsplitting screech once again. And this time it’s coming closer. Sharp talons tear through the metal of the statue and rip a hole in it. The added weight on the side causes the entire structure to groan and bend. Whatever is outside puts the entirety of its front body through the hole it made and Gavin can finally see what it is.

It’s a humanoid creature – almost double the size of a normal human - with a bird head and wings attached to its arms. Metallic talons are mounted on its knuckles and the eyes are a deep red. It reaches in and tries to grab for Richard, but the movement causes their side of the structure to collapse and break apart.

Wasting no time, Gavin grabs Richard’s hand and jumps for a nearby railing. They latch onto it and slide away from the crumbling statue. Gavin turns around and sees the giant bird creature coming at them with incredible speed and accuracy. Suddenly, he feels someone put their hand on his. Richard pulls the trigger and the hook unlatches.

“What are you doing?! We’re gonna die…!”

“We won’t.”

Richard grabs onto a rail beneath them with his gloved hand and swings Gavin onto the rail so the hook can attach to it. Apparently, they moved just in time, because they hear the sound of metal ripping and a loud screech from above, followed by pieces of metal railings falling into the depths. The giant bird creature flies past them and prepares for another strike.

They almost made it to the next island. Just a bit further…!

“Gavin, jump.”

Gavin whips his head towards his companion with such speed that it’s enough to give him whiplash.

“What?! We’ll fall to our death…!”

“Do you trust me?”

“Not really…!”

Richard huffs a laugh. “Good enough.”

Once again, he pulls the trigger and unlatches the hook just as the bird is approaching. They keep falling and falling. Gavin is pretty sure they’re going to die and is screaming his head off. This is it…! This is how he’s going to die…! Falling to his death because of some random person he just met!

His screaming stops abruptly when he hits water. He opens one eye and comes face to face with the creature. But before it can reach him it screeches in pain and leaves.

Chapter Text

When they wash ashore, Richard is the first one to get up. He brushes off some of the sand from his clothes and offers Gavin a hand. Gavin takes the offered hand and gets pulled to his feet. It’s then that he realized, despite his looks, Richard is one strong motherfucker. Not only did he pull him up without any issues, back then he grabbed onto a rail despite having to carry both their weights combined and swung Gavin up like it was nothing.

“That’s kinda hot…”, Gavin mumbles to himself.

“Did you say something?”

“N-nothing!”

His companion raises a brow a him. “I see. Well, what’s the plan from here on? How do we continue?”

“Huh?”

Gavin turns around and comes face to face with those brilliant blue eyes.

“Ah, right. Well, we get the fuck out of Columbia.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

Silence.

The taller of the two pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. He then looks at the other.

“So, you’re telling me, you have no idea how to leave Columbia? Where you just going to hope for the best and that something just presents itself to you? How irresponsible can one be?”

Not one to like criticism, the shorter immediately crosses his arms in defense and snarls at Richard.

“Hey, fuck you! I got you out of that tower, so you should be thanking me!”

“I did not ask you to do that. Yes, you got me out. But you also almost got us killed if it wasn’t for me. Your lack of foresight will be the death of us.”

“If you’re oh so smart, why don’t you come up with a plan then?!”

Richard starts pacing the beach with his hands behind his back. He needs some time to think. Before they can think about escaping Columbia, they need to protect themselves. They need weapons. But where would they get weapons from?

“The Hall of Heroes.”

“What?”

“The Hall of Heroes is a museum dedicated to the history of Columbia. It also has a few guns displayed. If we can get our hands on those, then we would at least have something to defend ourselves with. And as it so happens, it’s not too far from where we are right now.”

“Sure. Lead the way, smartass.”

This earns Gavin an eye roll from his companion, but they leave the beach to walk along the boardwalk. On their way, they run into two figures with animal heads. Gavin recognizes them as Con and Rhys. They each present a box to Richard, each holding what seems to be a necklace of some sort. He turns to Gavin holding the two boxes and asks him which he should pick. Upon closer inspection, Gavin notices that they are rings attached to a necklace and both have a picture on them. The left one is a blue gem with a bird depicted on it and the right one is the same gem but with a picture of a cage. Not wanting to drag this out any longer, he just points to a random one.

“Interesting choice.”, Con says. He hands the bird ring to Richard and leaves with Rhys. Richard puts on the necklace and they continue on their way.

On their way, Gavin gets a crash course for Columbia. Apparently, the hooked tool he got from the police officer is called a sky hook and it’s used by the police to get around the sky-line, the rails in the sky. The hooks have built-in magnets so they will automatically attach to anything magnetic, not only the sky-lines. And the weird drinks he had are called vigors. Vigors were created by someone called Elijah Kamski and their purpose is to give people superhuman powers by rewriting their genetic make-up. They’re fairly harmless to the user.

The walk to the Hall of Heroes doesn’t take too long. Gavin suddenly stops in front of an advertisement. It’s for an airship called “The First Lady.” He elbows Richard in the side which only earns him an annoyed glare.

“There! That is our way out of here.”

“The airship is docked at the First Lady’s Aerodrome. It’s past the Hall of Heroes.”

Once they arrive at the museum it becomes very obvious that it’s not going to be easy to get inside. There are guards patrolling outside, all armed with at least a pistol – some even have a rifle or a shotgun. They have to sneak past them. Fortunately for them, it’s easier than they thought. They make it to front entrance without getting caught and Richard unlocks the door for them. It seems the guards are only outside because the inside is surprisingly empty. The two of them will have to pass through two exhibits in order to get to their destination.

The first one talks about the creation of Columbia. Amanda Stern created the city in the sky to escape from the constrictions of the society bellow. She felt that one’s creativity was being constricted by the laws of man. As a scientist herself, she dreamt of a place free from humanity’s moral compass. A place where scientists and artist could be free to explore without fearing backlash from society. And that dream was Columbia. Through years of experimentation, she managed to find a way to suspend an atom in midair indefinitely. She refers to the process as “quantum levitation”. This is how she was creating the floating city of Columbia.

“Holy shit… Your mother is a genius… Still a shit mother for locking you inside a tower but damn…”

“… Yes. She is.”

They continue onto the next exhibit. This one is about a group called “Jericho”. Gavin vaguely remembers that name from the fair. In the exhibit they are referred to as “parasites on society”. Their one goal is to bring ruin to the people of Columbia. They will lure people into their ranks with the promise of “equality” only to turn them into soldiers. Jericho is described as evil and vile and it’s Columbia’s responsibility to eradicate them before they can cause any more harm.

Gavin leans closer to read one of the signs.

To protect the heir to Columbia, our Lady has locked him away in a tower unreachable by the rebels. A golden protector created with the only purpose of keeping the heir safe. The Songbird will ruthlessly dispose of any danger to the heir.

“Heir to Columbia, huh? Quite the title you got there.”, Gavin remarks as Richard keeps walking.

“The guns should be in the next exhibit. Come on.”

The detective follows his companion and they make it to the next exhibit. He should’ve known that everything was going too smoothly. The exhibit cases are empty. The guns are currently in maintenance.

“Fuck! What now?!”

Richard notices a flicker from the corner of his eye. He can open a tear and that is exactly what he does. The case through the tear has a shotgun in it. Using his gloved hand, he easily punches through the glass and takes the shotgun, handing it to Gavin. He does the same for another case and pulls out two revolvers. One for each of them.

“These guns have limited ammunition so we should avoid combat whenever possible.”

“Only use them in emergencies. Got it. Now we just need that airship. Let’s go!”

Gavin takes Richard’s hand and drags him away. They make their way out of the Hall of Heroes and head to the gondola that’s supposed to take them The First Lady airship. However, the gondola is out of order due to issues with the engine. Gavin kicks away a piece of wood.

“Fuck…! Really…?!”

While he’s busy cursing, his companion takes a look at the engine.

“A little electric shock might do the trick.”

“Oh yeah?! And where the fuck would we get that from?!”

“A bottle of Shock Jockey. I think I saw a store selling them on our way here. Follow me.”

The two head back the way they came from in search of the aforementioned store and it doesn’t take them too long to find it. Gavin picks up the purple bottle with a frown on his face and hesitates. He closes his eyes and prepares himself mentally before removing the cork and bringing the bottle to his lips. Just as the liquid is about to reach his lips, the bottle it being taken away from him. The detective opens one eye just in time to see Richard down the content of the bottle.

Sparks runs across Richard’s skin and dance across his features like little blue fire flies. His eyes glow an electric blue before everything settles. Richard chuckles at the look of disbelief on Gavin’s face and walks away without another word.

“What the fuck, Richard?”

“I can’t let you have all the fun now, can I?”, the taller says with a smirk. Now, Gavin would be lying if that smirk didn’t do something to his brain. Maybe his heart beat a little bit faster and maybe his cheeks flushed a bit, but he would rather ride that gigantic bird creature than to admit it. Speaking of the bird-

“So, what’s up with the giant chicken? You said it’s your guardian?”

“More or less. I guess he’s more of a caretaker than anything. It’s ironic that I saw him more than my own mother. Believe it or not, there used to be a time where I looked forward to his visits. He would bring me books, toys and almost everything I wanted.”

Richard looks at the destroyed angel statue that used to be his home.

“As I became older, I grew to resent it. I realized that it was his job to keep me in the tower. When I was in my teens, I once tried venturing outside the doors while Songbird was perched by the hatch. I though nothing of it. It was just pure curiosity. I just wanted to know what was beyond that door. But before I could even take one step outside the door, Songbird grabbed me and dragged me back inside. That was the moment I realized.”

“Fuck… That’s messed up…”

Gavin thinks for a moment.

“Well… according to the exhibit in the museum, your mother put you in that tower to protect you from Jericho. So… It seems like she’s a not a complete bitch.”

“Maybe I should talk to her before we leave.”

“I-”

Blue eyes look at Gavin with an expression that dares him to say otherwise. Gavin is very proud of himself that he managed to withstand that stare without giving in. For a solid 5 seconds. To be fair, Richard did look kind of hot when he did that and that might have distracted the detective enough for him to agree, but he would never admit that. Gavin rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else.

Pleased with the silent agreement, Richard heads back towards the gondola with Gavin in tow. The taller of the two gives the fuse box next to the gondola a shock of electricity with his gloveless hand. Nothing happens at first, but then the entire machine whirrs to life. Pushing past Richard, Gavin gets onto the gondola first.

Chapter Text

“The First Lady airship, huh? The next part of your journey is going to be interesting. Although, they are a bit more reasonable here than the last place. Last time we met them someone got their head smashed in.”

The two on the gondola turn around only to come face to face with a bunny head. Rhys. They look around and notice that it’s only Rhys. Gavin looks at him in confusion.

“Where’s the other one?”

“Connor is busy face fucking his boyfriend.”

Gavin chokes on his spit and Richard just blinks at him. Despite the mask, the two can tell that Rhys is smirking. The smugness is practically radiating from him. Overcoming the initial shock of Rhys’ statement, Richard realizes something.

Connor…

That name seems familiar.

They blink and Rhys is gone once again.

“What the fuck…? Did he just disappear into think air?! Is there a vigor like that?”

“Not that I know of. Gavin, do you happen to know his name?”

“Uh… I think it’s Rhys?”

“Rhys and Connor…”

Those names definitely ring a bell but he just can’t put a finger on it.

Eventually, the gondola ride comes to a stop and they arrive at the aerodrome. The walk to the airship is a short one and just like that, they are one step closer to leaving Columbia. However, Gavin agreed to meeting Amanda first, so that’s where they’re headed. To the heart of Columbia. The Stern House.

“What do you hope to learn from this meeting?”

“Something. Anything, really. I can count the number of times I met my mother in person on one hand. Usually, she would talk to me through a screen. Always too busy with her research and work.”

“She sounds like a really unpleasant person… What if you don’t like what you hear?”

“Then so be it. That way I can leave Columbia with no regrets.”

A pause.

“What is your mother like, Gavin?”

“She was a great woman. Always made sure I had what I needed and sometimes even more. But… I barely saw her when I was a child. She had to work multiple jobs to make enough money for us. I used to hate that about her, but as I grew older I starter to appreciate just how much work she put in just to keep me fed. Passed away soon after I became a detective.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine. Let’s just talk to your mother and then get the fuck out of here.”

They fall into comfortable silence as they travel to the Stern House. The peaceful journey is interrupted when the entire airship shakes and is pulled downwards. Gavin rushes to the window and sees multiple ropes coming from the bottom of the airship and connect to some canon looking devices on the island below them. Someone is dragging them out of the sky and whoever that someone is has a lot of armed people waiting for them.

“What the fuck?!”

Another pull sends Gavin stumbling to the ground. He would have busted his ass if it wasn’t for Richard grabbing his arm and holding him upright. It seems like they don’t have a choice but to land the airship. Deciding it would hopefully put them in favor of those armed people down there, Gavin manually lands the vehicle. As they get closer to the island, they can make out faint voices.

“See? They’re obviously friendly. They decided to land the ship. So put down the guns, North.”, a male voice says. He sounds a bit annoyed.

“Or, it’s a trap and they will come out guns blazing. That airship belongs to that bitch Amanda Stern. Whoever is on there is related to her somehow. And whoever is with her cannot be trusted!”, a female voice argues. That must be North. She sounds very tense and on edge.

Gavin looks at Richard.

“We better not tell her you’re a Stern then. Or she’ll blast our fucking heads off.”

“A shame. I do like your face quite a bit.”

The detective chokes on his spit and has to do a double take. Did Richard just call him attractive? He must be hallucinating. Probably a side effect of the vigors. Yeah, that must be it! The compliment definitely doesn’t send the blood rushing to his cheeks-

Once they land Richard uses his right hand to knock on the metal door of the airship cabin. He calls out to the people on the other side of the door.

“We’re coming out now. Don’t shoot.”

“Come out slowly with your hands above your heads! And no funny business!”, North shouts back.

“I’m opening the door now.”

Richard turns the wheel on the door to unlock it and slowly pushes it open. Both he and Gavin then slowly walk carefully with their hands up next to their heads. As soon as they step outside the cabin, at least a dozen of guns are pointed at them. A woman with flaming red hair walks up to them – her own gun raised and pointing at Gavin – and she is the first one to break the silence.

“You! Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“I’m Detective Gavin Reed and this is-”

Gavin takes a glance at his wrist.

“This is my buddy Nines. We’re just trying to leave this fucking place. So can we just get back on the airship and you all just… You know. Do whatever it is you do when you’re not pointing a gun at our heads?”

“And how do I know that we can trust you? You could be spies sent by that bitch!”

“Who?”, Gavin asks. Genuinely confused as to who this woman is talking about.

“Don’t play dumb! I’m talking about Stern!”

A person steps out from the crowd behind her and pushes down her gun. It’s a dark-skinned man with short black hair and deep brown eyes. He looks displeased with her behavior.

“North, not everyone is an enemy.”

“And not everyone is a friend, Josh! No one just so happens to fly an airship over our territory! They must be here for a reason!”

Josh’s frown deepens and he motions for the others to lower their guns before turning his attention to the pair in front of him.

“Then let’s take them to Markus. He can decide what we do with them.”

“Josh, I swear to god-”

“I’m done arguing. Take them to the base.”

Two people separate from the group and tie up Gavin and Richard’s hands in front of them. Josh assures them that it’s for safety reason. Gavin thinks that it’s better than a bullet in his skull. The two of them are being led away by the group.

Richard looks around and takes in the scenery around him. People are huddled together around fires under makeshift shelters. Most of them are wearing dirty and torn clothes and they look miserable. This is the complete opposite of the Columbia he knows. He may have spent his entire life in the tower, but he isn’t stupid. He knew that there were people who were less fortunate than others in this so called “paradise” his mother created. But he didn’t know just how bad it was until today.

They’re taken to an abandoned factory and told to wait. The two are left in the warehouse by themselves. The longer they wait, the more nervous Gavin gets. Maybe they’re going to kill them anyway. They just decided to do it somewhere a bit more discreet. Gavin is too busy spiraling into a rabbit hole of his own making that he almost doesn’t notice someone grabbing his bound hands. He looks down and sees two very familiar hands on his.

“We’ll be okay, Gavin.”

“I-I know that…! You don’t need to tell me…!”

“I know you’re nervous. You’re a lousy liar.”

“Oh, fuck you, you prick!”

“Was that an offer?”

Someone clears their throat and the pair looks towards the noise. They see a two people standing in the doorway. One of them has blonde hair and the other has heterochromic eyes. The later looks between them and can’t help the little smile on his face.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Gavin pulls his hands away like Richard’s touch burns him and turns with a deep blush on his face. The blonde man chuckles a bit. Both walk up to Gavin and Richard and remove the ropes around their wrists.

“I apologize for the rough treatment. My name is Markus. And welcome to Jericho.”

“Not to be rude, but what do you want from us? We were just minding our own fucking business before your guys dragged us down here.”

“Like I said, I am truly sorry for that. It’s just that this is such a deserted area that it’s unusual for anyone to come here. We though that Amanda might have sent you.”

Gavin scoffs at him and crosses his arms.

“Listen. We’re just trying to leave Columbia, okay? Just let us get back on our airship and we’ll leave.”

They only get an apologetic look from Markus.

Apparently, Jericho has this stupid rule that all leaders must agree on a decision and North seems to be very distrustful of people just in general. Especially those dressed in fancy clothes. So, in order for them to be able to leave, they’ll have to convince her that they can be trusted.

Jericho is a place for those who are outcasts in Columbia. Those who did not have enough talent or intellect to become one of the elite. The poor who have no other place to go. Jericho was founded as a refuge for those people and as a way to rebel against Amanda. As a way to fight for the rights of those less fortunate. But Amanda has twisted the truth and made them out to be the evil ones.

“We would never intentionally hurt someone. In the beginning we were just peaceful protesters, but now we are forced to fight for out lives because we’re being hunted down wherever we go. One time, someone was just buying groceries for the group but they were detained and executed. They did nothing wrong.”

Richard frowns but doesn’t say anything. Gavin can see how tense he is and understandably so. If they find out who Richard really is then they’re not going to have a fun time. Gavin can take on two or three people, but not an entire rebellion. The only thing they can do right now is to convince North that they’re not their enemy and get the fuck out of here as fast as possible. And hope that they don’t get stabbed.

Markus tells them that there’s one way they can earn North’s trust. A few of their people are being held captive and he would appreciate it if they could free them. Free them and escort them back to Jericho. Once that is done, the pair is free to leave.

With no other choice but to do as they’re asked, Gavin and Richard head out towards the police station of Columbia. Of course, they are given some extra gear for their task. Mainly weapons and a second sky hook for Richard.

Lucky for them, it doesn’t take them too long to get to the police station. Their biggest problem will be to get inside undetected. The place – as one should expect – is crawling with police officers.

“We should split up. One of us will distract the officers and the other will focus on the breakout.”, Richard suggests and looks Gavin up and down.

“You are shorter than me and will have an easier time hiding from the patrolling officers. Meanwhile, I can use my ability to manipulate tears to cause a bit of chaos out here. While their attention is on me, you will head inside and find the holding cells. According to Markus, they should be downstairs.”

“It’s going to be hard to sneak back out with our new friends. But this is the best plan we can come up with on such a short notice. Good luck.”

They split up and head in different directions. Gavin stays hidden and only moves when he hears the commotion from the other side of the station. He slips into the building unnoticed and sneaks past the few police officers who still linger inside. However, a problem arises when he gets to the door to the holding cells. It’s locked. Of – fucking – course it’s locked. Gavin swears under his breath and goes to find the nearest officer. He snaps his fingers and a cloud of green smoke envelops the man.

“Open the door to the holding cells.”

The man, under the influence of the possession vigor, walks over to the locked door like he’s in a trance and goes through the motions of unlocking and opening the door. Gavin heads down the stairs with the man following him. Might as well us him to open the door to the cells. It takes Gavin no time at all to find the right people thanks to Markus’ scarily accurate description of them. Seriously, no human has such a good memory…! Maybe he’s some weird automaton or something…!

Gavin ushers the people out of their cells and just when they’re about to leave, the possession vigor wears off and the police officer snaps out of it. It only takes him a split second to sound the alarm and soon more officers rush towards the holding cells.

“Fuck me…!”, Gavin hisses and pull out his gun. This is going to suck.

Chapter Text

Gavin hears two shots and two of the police officers drop dead. He’s still trying to wrap his head around it when a familiar figure steps through the door to the holding cells. Richard is standing there with a gun in his hand.

“What are you waiting for, Gavin? To get shot?”

“Oh, shut the fuck up, you prick…!”

Some officers turn around and start shooting at Richard. He quickly ducks around the corner but isn’t quite fast enough to avoid getting shot in his right wrist. This is enough to shock Gavin into action and uses possession on two of the officers. During the ensuing chaos, he makes his escape with the Jericho members and grabs Richard on the way out. He makes sure to grab his left wrist and not the right.

As they leave, Gavin and Richard have to take down a group of men who were probably called in as reinforcement. Between their guns and vigors, they make quick work of them and escape with only a few minor injuries. Unfortunately, Richard takes a few more bullets to his right arm when he has to pull one of the Jericho members out of the line of fire.

“I’ve prepared an airship for our escape. I already set the destination to Jericho.”

They head for the airship and jump on board. As soon as they are off the ground, Richard shoots a ball of electricity onto the ground to prevent the officers from following them. And it works. The group watches the police shooting at their airship as they leave.

“Holy fuck…! We’re alive…! And in one piece…!”, Gavin says with the biggest grin on his face.

He turns to Richard and his face pales when he sees the gunshot wounds along his right arm.

“Nines…!”

“I’m fine, Gavin.”

“No, you’re not fucking fine…! You got shot…! And I didn’t even notice…!”

“I’m fine. Let’s talk later when we have a bit more… privacy.”

Gavin seems skeptical but shuts up when he sees the look the other is giving him. Against his better judgement, he listens and drops it. For now.

The entire ride back to Jericho is awkwardly silent. None in the group dares to even mutter a single world until they land. Once they do, Simon is the first one to greet them. He helps the people off the airship and takes them away. Gavin sees North watching them from afar, her signature frown on her face. It’s obvious that she still doesn’t like them, but hopefully this gains some of her trust. The two are escorted to see Markus.

On their way, Gavin keeps stealing glances at Richard. The other doesn’t seem too bothered by the injuries. If it wasn’t for the occasional twitch of his right fingers, one would not know about the gunshots.

“Ri- Nines, are you sure you’re okay…?”

“This is nothing. Let’s just focus on getting back to the First Lady.”

“… If you say so.”

The pair goes to talk to Markus and without much convincing, they manage to get their airship back and the permission to be on their way. On their way, they run into North. She cuts them off.

“You. I want you to do one more thing for us. You two seem to be skilled with a gun. I want you to gather supplies and weapons for me.”

“Hold on! That was not part of our deal! The deal was that we break out your guys and then we get to leave!”, Gavin protests. A hand rests on his shoulder and Richard steps up from behind him.

“As much as we would love to assist you, we won’t.”

“So, you’re with Stern after all.”

“No, we just refuse to work with you.”

North glares at him and points an accusatory finger at him.

“You’re just gonna let her get away with her tyranny?! We have to stop her!”

Richard steps up to her. His height allows him to look down at her.

“Do you really want to stop her or do you want revenge? Because there is a fine line separating those two. I believe that Markus truly wants to help the people. But you?”

Richard looks North up and down. It’s almost like he’s scanning her.

“I don’t know what happened to you and I don’t want to know. But instead of focusing your anger towards the people who actually hurt you, you direct it towards everyone around you. You are a bitter woman who just wants her own revenge. How many innocent people are you willing to sacrifice for your own vendetta?”

“You know nothing about me!”

“I do not and I don’t plan on getting to know you. We are leaving.”

Richard grabs Gavin’s wrist and drags the stunned detective away. Gavin looks between North and his companion with a look of pure surprise and he has to admit, that was kind of attractive. He lets himself get dragged to the First Lady and practically manhandled into the airship. He doesn’t even notice Richard set a new destination nor when they land on a new island. A tap on the shoulder snaps him out of it. Shaking his head, Gavin follows Richard out of the airship.

“Where even are we right now?”

“We are at CyberLife.”

“We are at what now?”

“CyberLife. It’s the leading company of Columbia and technically the one thing that keeps the entirety of the city running. From everyday items like the automatons or vigors to custom made machinery, CyberLife makes it all.”, Richard explains as they approach the main building.

As far as Gavin can tell, this company is fucking huge. It takes up almost all of the floating island they are on. Upon a closer look, some of the buildings are on separate islands which are connected to the main one. The name is written above the main entrance with simple letters next to a geometric shape. Gavin watches Richard confidently walk into the building and up to the receptionist.

“Hello! How may I help you?”, she asks them with a smile.

“Please tell Mr. Kamski that Richard Stern is here to see him.”

The woman at the desk gives him a warm smile and brushes a strand of blond hair behind her ear.

“Of course. Please wait here while I inform Elijah.”

She motions for them to take a seat and gets up from her position behind the reception desk. The two watch her disappear down a hallway and out of sight. They sit down and wait.

“How is your arm?”, comes a voice from behind them.

They turn around and see Connor standing behind them. The tilt of his head in combination with the wolf mask gives Gavin the impression of a curious puppy. However, even then Gavin can feel the genuine concern Connor has for the taller man. Richard looks at his gloved arm.

“It doesn’t hurt, but the twitching is somewhat annoying.”

“I see. That’s good. What will your next step be?”

“Once we’re done here, I am going to confront my… mother.”

“What then?”

“I… don’t know.”

“That’s okay. I’m sure you’ll know once the time comes.”

Gavin shrinks back in his seat, feeling like he’s intruding on a very intimate conversation. He feels like he shouldn’t be here. Luckily, the receptionist - bless her - comes back soon and takes them to see Elijah Kamski. They take an elevator to the top floor.

The door opens to a big open room with a perfect view of Monument Island. At least what’s left of it. Elijah Kamski is standing by the window looking at the remnants of the statue.

“Richard? What are you doing here?”

“I need you to fix my arm.”

Richard removes his glove and Gavin’s eyes go wide. The arm looks like it’s made of metal bits and pieces and has a matte black coloring. A few wires are exposed and they spark every so often. Elijah has Richard sit down in a chair and put his arm on a table next to it. Grabbing his tool kit, he immediately gets to work on repairing the arm. Gavin in the meantime just continues to stare at the strange arm.

“… What the fuck happened to your arm…?”

“It’s a prosthetic arm. I lost my right arm when I was a child. Although, I don’t quite remember how it happened. I suppose the trauma caused me to block that memory.”

“Does it… hurt?”

“Not really, no. Sometimes it just gets a bit uncomfortable. But it’s nothing I can’t deal with.”

“I see… Sorry…”, Gavin says quietly.

Richard raises an eyebrow.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I don’t know… Just felt like it.”

The taller hums and they fall into a comfortable silence while Elijah works on the arm. The receptionist – Chloe as Elijah calls her – brings them all a cup of tea and a few snacks since the repairs would take a while. From what the detective can gather, this prosthetic is one of a kind and still a prototype. It seems like Richard is being used as a test person to see how well this new technology would work and if it’s functional enough to mass produce. Gavin thinks that this is more than functional considering the shit Richard does with it. Like grabbing onto a fucking sky line.

After what feels like an eternity of silence, Richard decides to speak up.

“Why did you introduce me as Nines when we were at Jericho?”

Gavin gives a nervous glance at Elijah, who answers without looking up.

“Don’t worry, I don’t care about politics.”

He looks back at Richard.

“I don’t know. It the first thing that came to my mind. And I think the name suits you. Sounds kinda badass.”

“Nines.”, he pauses. “I like it.”

He feels like he’s heard that name before. At least, it sounds familiar to him but he can’t put his finger on it. Where could he have heard it before? Suddenly, a scene flashes in front of his eyes.

He’s back in his tower. An open book lays on the ground in front of him and someone else is sitting next to him. Their face is just a blurry mess, making it hard to make out any facial features. They’re talking to him and pointing to a passage in the book. As they’re reading, a third person joins them. They wrap an arm around the other person and pull them away with a smirk on their face. Both of them are wearing similar clothes. Whoever they are, they seem close. And seeing them causes a warm feeling deep down in his chest. One of them looks at him.

“Nines?”

Chapter Text

“Nines?”

Richard blinks and he’s back in Elijah’s office. He looks to his left and comes face to face with Gavin, who seems a bit concerned.

“Yes?”

“Nines… are you okay? You started spacing out and then your fucking nose started bleeding…! It scared the shit out of me…!”

The taller touches his fingers to his nose and he can feel something wet. He looks down and sees that his nose is indeed bleeding. That’s weird. He didn’t even notice it. And he has never had a nosebleed before. It’s probably nothing serious.

Shortly after, Elijah finishes the repairs and gets up with a loud pop coming from his back. The man stretches and heads back to his desk, sitting down with his arms crossed.

“I heard you plan on leaving Columbia?”

Richard puts his glove back on and tightens the belts to secure it to his arm.

“Yes.”, Richard answers.

“Amanda won’t like that.”

“I know. But I’m leaving. Although, I do wish to speak to her before I leave. I want to know why she did what she did.”

Elijah looks at him with a frown but doesn’t say anything else. He has Chloe bring the two a little box. Gavin opens it and finds a single key inside the box. He gives Elijah a questioning look but he doesn’t elaborate any further. They’re sent on their way, back on course to confront Amanda.

It’s a long time before Gavin speaks up.

“So… what happened back there? You get nosebleeds often?”

“No, I’ve never had one actually. Today was the first time. But it was strange.”

Gavin looks at him in silence, prompting him to continue.

“I think I remembered something when we spoke about the name ‘Nines’. At least I think it was a memory. I was back in my tower. It was probably back when I was a child. I was reading a book and there were two others with me in the library. I couldn’t see their faces, but they couldn’t have been much older than me. I… They did seem familiar but I don’t know why. One of them called me ‘Nines’. Maybe that’s why our conversation triggered this flashback.”

“But didn’t you say that your only companion growing up was that bird bitch?”

“I did...”, Richard admits with hesitation. His brows furrow in slight confusion.

This doesn’t make sense. Did he perhaps see into another world where he didn’t grow up lonely? But that wouldn’t explain this familiarity and warmth inside his chest when he thinks back to that vision. Something doesn’t feel right. Something is missing and Richard has a feeling that it’s nothing minor either.

“Gavin, can you show me the key Chloe gave you?”

Gavin takes the box from his pocket and tosses it at Richard. He takes the key from the box and takes a closer look at it. There’s nothing special about it. From what he can see, it’s just a normal key to some random door in Columbia.

“Hey, Nines? Take a look at this.”

The shorter of the two is looking at the underside of the box. There are numbers written on the box which look like coordinates. But before any of them can even process the information, they hear a familiar screeching. Songbird.

The First Lady Airship shakes with the weight of the bird crashing into the side and both men have to grab onto something to keep from falling. Songbird is viciously ripping holes into the airship as it tries to get to Richard. Gavin tries to use possession on it, but it does nothing. Not even a fireball or a lightning bolt is able to stop it.

And then they feel it. The airship is going down. Fast.

“Careful, Nines.”

Richard opens his eyes and sees a boy helping him off the ground. The boy brushes off some of the dust on Richard’s clothes and takes a closer look at him.

“Well, it doesn’t look like you’re hurt. Let’s head back before ___ eats all of the cake. I’m sure ___ is already trying his best to keep him from eating all of it but we better hurry.”, the boy says with a smile and takes Richard by the hand. They walk for a while before they reach their destination. It’s a fairly simple looking house, nothing too special. The front yard is littered with toys and a big dog is taking a nap under the tree. The dog raises his head when he hears them approach and gives them a short “Borf!” as a greeting before laying back down.

The boy next to him smiles and goes to give the big dog a belly rub. Little Richard heads inside and is immediately scooped up by a man in a police uniform.

“How’s the birthday boy doing? Did you have fun playing with your friend? What was his name again? ___?”, the man asks as he gives him a tight hug. He closes his eyes and relishes in the feeling. The hug is warm and he feels safe. It’s strange. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s ever felt so relaxed and comfortable.

The sound of a piano causes him to snap his eyes open. Richard is no longer inside that house. He’s in the wreck of the First Lady airship. That’s right. Songbird attacked them and caused the airship to crash. He hears the piano again and decides to investigate.

He sees the two strangers with the animal masks sitting at a piano completely unbothered by the destroyed airship around them. Well, one of them is sitting at the piano and the other is leaning on it.

“I’m telling you, you’re doing it wrong, Con!”

“And I’m telling you, that this is definitely right.”

Connor lifts his hand from the piano keys and puts them on his lap.

“Oh well, I think that’s enough for now.”

Richard walks up to the two of them and they both turn in unison to look at him. Twins. Something tells him that they’re twins. They do have a similar build and almost identical voices. But a tiny voice in the back of Richard’s head tells him that there’s another reason why he knows that fact.

“He survived!”, Rhys exclaims in excitement.

“Of course he would.”, Connor countered.

“Why are you two following us? Ever since I left the tower, I keep seeing you from the corner of my eye. What’s your goal?”

Connor gets up from where he’s sitting and walks up to Richard. He notices that Connor is only a few inches shorter than him. For some reason, this doesn’t feel right to him. Shouldn’t Connor be taller than him?

“If you want to know the truth, then find wherever that key belongs. Someone has buried the past under layers of lies and deceit and they’d do anything to keep it that way. Be careful, Nines.”

Connor hands the taller a note and when Richard blinks, the two of them are gone.

Back inside the airship cabin, Gavin is laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. What did he do to deserve all this? Oh right. His debt. His… debt… Why even is he in debt? He doesn’t gamble, he’s careful with his money and he doesn’t remember his mother owing anyone money. Was it his father? He barely even remembers the man. His father was a police officer who was killed on duty, that much he knows. He also remembers that his father was a kind man who loved his family. There is no way that a gentle soul like him would have any debts either.

“What the fuck…? This makes no sense… Bring us the boy… And wipe away your debt… I have to take him to Detroit.”

But is that really what he wants? Who knows what those people will do to Richard? Will they imprison him again? What if they lock him up again due to his powers to create tears? If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t be any different than his life in Columbia. The same bird, but a different cage.

“I would be no better than his bitch of a mother… I can’t do that to him…”

He hears voices outside and recognizes them.

“-and they’d do anything to keep it that way. Be careful, Nines.”

Gavin finally decides to get up and join Richard outside. He sees the man standing there looking at a piece of paper in his hands.

“Cage…?”, the blue-eyed man whispers to himself. He looks up when he hears Gavin approach.

“What are you looking at?”, Gavin asks.

“Connor gave this note to me. It only says ‘cage’ on it. Nothing else.”

Gavin takes a long look at the word as if the meaning would reveal itself to him if he stared long enough, but nothing.

“Nope, doesn’t ring a bell. But that note aside, what do we do now? The airship is useless now.”

Richard looks around and points to a big building in the distance.

“Luckily, the Stern House is just around the corner. We can walk the rest of the way or take the sky lines.”

“Cool. Great. By the way, where even are we?”

The two start walking and take in the scenery around them. It seems like they crash-landed in Emporia, the financial and commercial district of Columbia. They notice that the streets are empty except for police officers patrolling the streets. They’re looking for the duo. During their walk, they notice more tears appearing and some parts of the island are collapsing, leaving behind giant holes in the ground. The collapsing streets force them to take a detour through the cemetery.

They come across two gravestones that causes Richard to stop in his tracks. Two very familiar names are glaring at him. Probably even judging him for daring to forget about them.

“Connor… How do you make friends?”, young Richard asks his brother who puts down his book.

“That’s a weird question. Why?”, Connor asks with a gentle smile on his face.

“Well… I met someone at the playground today and I really want to be his friend. But I don’t know how…”

Connor pats the grass next to him and the younger brother sits down in the grass next to him. They sit in the shade of the tree and just enjoy each other’s company before Connor speaks up.

“You should ask him his name first. And then you can ask him to play with you.”

“But what if he doesn’t want to be my friend?”

“I’m sure he’d love to be your friend!”, Connor says with a wide smile and ruffles the younger’s hair.

A mirror image of Connor walks up to them and sits down on the other side of Richard.

“If not, you can just beat him up until he becomes your friend.”

“Rhys…!”

Connor reaches over and gives his twin a smack on the arm which causes the other to smack Connor back in retaliation.

Richard looks to his left and notices Gavin staring at him.

“Nines, your nose…”

The taller touches two fingers to his nose and notices that it’s bleeding again. He wipes it away and looks back at the graves. This of course catches Gavin’s attention as well and his eyes widen at the names written on the stones.

Connor Stern.

Rhys Stern.

“Gavin? Would you mind if we take a slight detour?”

Chapter Text

“So… Where exactly are we going?”, Gavin asks his companion.

Ever since they came across the two head stones in the graveyard, Richard has been acting strange. They have been walking the street of Emporia for a while now, but the taller refuses to tell Gavin where they’re going. Eventually their long walk comes to an end in front of an abandoned building. It doesn’t look like it’s a store and it doesn’t have a sign anywhere. They try the door and it’s locked. The detective is about to leave when Richard stops him. He pulls out the key he received from Chloe and sticks it into the lock. It turns.

“Is this where Chloe wanted us to go? Where Elijah wanted us to go?”, Richard mumbles to himself.

He opens the door and steps inside. It looks like an ordinary home, but something is off. Richard can feel it. It almost feels like… a tear. There’s a tear nearby and it’s a big one. At least bigger than the usual ones. That feeling is coming from upstairs. The two men head to the second floor and suddenly everything turns fuzzy. They see the shapes of two men in the upstairs hallway.

“Rhys, are you sure it’s going to work this time? I’m slowly starting to lose hope…”, Connor says with his arms crossed.

“We can only keep trying. You saw it, too. We have to stop Amanda or the entire world bellow will suffer. Nines will suffer!”

“… You’re right. We have to keep trying. For Nines’ sake.”

The shapes disappear.

The pair heads down the hallway and come across a closed door. The tear has to be behind that door. Richard grabs the doorknob and carefully opens the door. The room is a mess. There are books and papers strewn everywhere and broken glass litters the floor. But what stands out the most is the big machine in the center of the room. It seems broken but there’s a tear inside the machine. It’s indeed bigger than most tears Richard has seen and he has a hunch that this is probably going to be the most important one yet. He hesitates.

“We can leave if you want to.”, Gavin suggests and gently brushes their hands together.

“No, I have to do this. I need to know what happened.”

Richard reaches out and touches the tear. A blinding light causes them to close their eyes and when they open them again, they’re standing in the same room, but it looks different. The room is a bit messy, but the books are on the shelves where they belong and the device itself is not broken. They see the twins standing around the machine.

“He was so close… What went wrong…?”

Connor’s brows crease in a frown as he paces the room. Rhys is leaning against the machine and rubs his face.

“We have to try again! Maybe next time he’ll be successful! He has to be…!”

“What if he isn’t, Rhys? How long can we keep this up? How long can we keep this side project hidden from Amanda? She’s getting suspicious…”

Rhys pushes away from the device and walks over to the desk. He seems to be looking at some papers.

“… One last time… Let’s try it one last time.”

“… Alright. I’ll start the machine.”

Connor pulls a lever and the machine whirs to life, but the twins can tell that something is wrong. Something feels off. The tear they’re trying to open looks unstable and the appearance is all wrong. Instead of having the normal slit shape, this tear is malformed. Almost like a puddle that’s constantly moving. Rhys is about to pull the plug when a bright blue light engulfs them and the entire room.

Gavin and Richard find themselves back in the present, standing in the middle of the destroyed room with a broken machine. The detective looks to his right and sees his companion staring into nothing. His face may not show it, but Richard is definitely upset. Gavin can tell. Richard has the habit of staring off into space whenever he’s upset. Wait. How does he know that? He’s only known the other for less than a day…

“Why don’t I remember them…? This isn’t right…”, the taller mumbles to himself. Something is wrong but he doesn’t know what and it’s driving him crazy. He doesn’t like not knowing things. Especially when it’s about himself.

“Nines? Are you okay?”

Gavin is about to take Richard’s hand when he stops himself.

“I need to talk to my mother. She's got some explaining to do.”

Without another word, Richard marches out of the room and Gavin jogs after him to catch up. Damn those long legs-

They hear a familiar screech in the distance.

“I hate that fucking bird…! Can’t we just fucking kill it?!”

Richard grabs Gavin by the wrist and pulls him towards the Stern House, completely ignoring the Songbird. He needs answers and he needs them now. They have to get to Amanda.

Reaching the other side of Emporia, they realize that they need to raise the draw bridge to get to their destination. Luckily, the lever to raise it is located right next to it. Just as Gavin is about to pull the lever, three giant talons come right for him and Gavin is too slow to dodge it. The Songbird holds onto the man with an almost crushing grip and throws him through a window into a nearby building. His head is swimming due to impact and he narrowly dodges a falling chandelier. He groans in pain.

“You fucking overgrown chicken…!”

Gavin hurls a ball of fire at the creature and immediately regrets his decision. The beast screeches in pain and annoyance and it charges right at him. Oh, this is bad. He tries possession on the bird. Maybe this time it will work? Green mist envelops the creature and its red eyes slowly bleed away to reveal the color green.

“Yes…!”

They snap back to red.

“Fuck…!”

He sees the Songbird reel back one of its giant hands, ready to impale him with its sharp talons. He’s going to die…! This fucking overgrown chicken is about kill him…! Gavin closes his eyes and waits for the strike.

“Stop! Don’t kill him!”, Richard calls out and the talons stop only a few inches away from Gavin’s face.

It blinks and turns its head towards the blue-eyed man. Richard is clenching his fists and standing in between his former guardian and his companion.

“I’ll go with you. Just… don’t hurt him.”

The bird looks at Richard – its eyes turning back to a non-threatening green – and holds out its hand, waiting for him. The taller walks forward and the creature gently wraps its hand around him. Gavin scrambles to get up and runs up to them.

“Nines, don’t you fucking dare…!”

“I’m counting on you, Gavin. Come find me.”

With a last screech the Songbird takes off with Richard, leaving Gavin in the destroyed room. He curses and hits the wall. Okay, now is not the time to freak out. From what he can tell, the bird is taking Richard to the Stern House. That’s good – well, not really – but that’s where they were headed anyways so it’s a straight shot from where he is right now. Gavin just needs to lower the bridge. He slams the elevator call button harder than he has to and taps his foot impatiently the entire ride down to the ground floor.

“Hurry the fuck up, you stupid piece of shit…!”

The detective doesn’t even wait for the elevator door to open completely before pushing through the gap and immediately runs back towards the drawbridge to pull the lever. He watches the bridge slowly being pulled and connect the two islands. It’s slow. Too slow for his liking. One the two islands are connected he wastes no time in stepping foot onto the bridge.

There is a blinding light and when Gavin opens his eyes, he’s standing in front of his childhood home. It’s just as he remembers it. The house itself is nothing out of the ordinary but he would recognize the front yard anytime. His mother absolutely adored flowers. So much so that she planted all kinds of flowers in their front yard. From tulips and dahlias to roses and hydrangeas. Their garden had it all. His mother would sometimes spend hours tending to the plants and sometimes Gavin would help her by watering them or pulling the weeds. He enjoyed it a lot because it meant that he got to spend time with her.

But all this didn’t last long. After his father passed away, his mother had to take on multiple jobs to earn enough money to afford their current lifestyle. Which meant that she didn’t have a lot of time to look after their garden anymore. Gavin tried to help as much as he could, but he just didn’t have the green thumb that his mother did. Eventually, all of the flowers wilted despite his best efforts and he was forced to remove them all. There was only a small patch of roses that defied all odds. The young Gavin would do his best to take care of those flowers until the day his mother passed away. During her funeral, it was these exact flowers that he placed on her grave.

Gavin feels himself tear up a bit at the memory and quickly wipes away the tears. He blinks a few times and he’s back on the bridge to the Stern House. A cold breeze causes him to shiver and he pulls his jacket closer. Why is it suddenly fucking freezing? It’s the middle of summer, it shouldn’t be that cold. He looks up and notices the… snow? This isn’t right… Why is it snowing in summer?

“Shit… I have a bad feeling about this…”, Gavin quietly mumbles to himself as he approaches the massive building hidden behind the clouds. The Stern House is an imposing building, easily towering over Gavin like a giant. The detective takes a deep breath and enters the house. Considering that this is where the Lady of Columbia is living, he was expecting some grand entrance hall and fancy shit all over the place. He did not expect the house to be in a severe state of disrepair, with debris littering the area and smashed windows leaving the first floor exposed to the elements. At the center is a giant statue of Richard holding a miniature version of Columbia in his hands. There is an inscription at the base of the statue.

The Heir of Columbia shall carry us into a new age by drowning the world bellow in flames.

“I don’t like this at all…”

He sees a flicker from the corner of his eye and notices a tear next to the statue. There are voices coming from it.

“Take him to the operating theater before he wakes up.”, a female voice commands. It’s a voice Gavin knows all too well.

“Of course, Lady Stern.”, a male voice replies followed by the sound of a wheelchair being pushed away.

“I will make sure that this disobedient son of mine will learn his lesson.”

And then silence.

The operating room. That’s where they took Richard. Luckily, the operating theater is only one door away. Unfortunately, it’s locked and requires a special key to access. Alternatively, he could open the door from the warden’s office. Okay, that sounds easy enough. But one thing is bothering the detective. Ever since he entered the building, he hasn’t seen anyone around. Not a single person.

“Is this trap…?”

However, even if it is a trap, he has to find Richard. Anything is better than leaving him in the clutches of Amanda. With his mind made up, Gavin enters the elevator in the next room and hits the button for the third floor.

Chapter Text

The elevator suddenly shakes and stops on the second floor. Gavin slams the button for the third floor multiple times but it doesn’t move. Well shit. Stepping out of the elevator, he immediately senses that something is off. He can hear someone walking down the hallway up ahead.

“Where are the stairs…?”

Looking around, he can see a map hung on one of the walls. Huh, how convenient. Carefully walking up to it, Gavin studies the map. The stairs aren’t too far away. He can do that.

He absolutely cannot do that. As soon as he stepped into the hallway, something came around the corner and jumped him. Gavin managed to push the person off of him and shoots them. Now he is running down random hallways, trying to outrun a bunch of crazy people because he simply does not have enough ammunition to deal with all of them. He snaps his fingers and sends a ball of fire somewhere behind him in hopes of stopping them from their pursuit. It stops half of them while the other half runs through the fire like it’s nothing.

“What in the fuck is up with those bastards…?!”

Gavin runs into the next room and slams the door shut. Only seconds later he can hear them pounding on the door and trying to make their way inside. He realizes too late that the room he locked himself in is a dead end. His only way out is through the door he just locked since the windows are barred from the outside.

“Fuck…! Fuck!”

The man starts to panic as he hears the door creak and groan under the pressure from outside and eventually the wood starts to crack. The material splinters and the door is knocked down, hitting the ground right in front of Gavin’s feet.

“Stay away from me…!”, Gavin growls at the approaching group as he pulls out his gun. But it does nothing to keep them away. They continue to approach him.

“I’m warning you…!”

He shoots one of them but the others don’t back away. They seem even more determined to get their hands – and knives – on Gavin. This was not how it was supposed to go…! He was supposed to rescue Richard and then get the fuck out of this place…! He isn’t delusional, so he knows that there’s no way he can fight off all of them. If he shoots one, two more seem to appear out of nowhere. He only has so much ammunition and it doesn’t seem like it will be enough.

“I-I have to get to Nines…! I can’t let him down again…!”

Slowly, Gavin can feel something build up inside him. Suddenly the room is too small and his body feels like it’s going to burn up. He drops his gun and wraps his arms around himself in a futile attempt to keep whatever this is down. The next thing he knows, is that he’s on his knees and this intense heat is surrounding his entire body.

“Gavin, are you okay?”

Feeling the heat dissipating, Gavin looks up and comes face to face with a child who couldn’t be older than maybe five or six years old. He has black hair and bright blue eyes.

“Nines…?”

The little boy takes his hand and pulls him up onto his feet with a look of concern. Gavin puffs out his chest and dusts himself off. The older rubs his nose and pretends like he didn’t just fall off the slide.

“O-of course! It didn’t hurt at all!”, he says with his arms crossed.

“But your nose is bleeding…”, the younger reached out and touches the bridge of Gavin’s nose, causing him to hiss in pain.

Young Richard pulls his hand away with a quick apology. His mom probably won’t like that he hurt himself again but it’s not his fault that the slide is so slippery. Stupid slide… Speaking of his mother, it’s already getting late. He should probably head home for the day. Since the two of them live close to each other, the two boys decide to walk home. The entire walk they are holding hands and talking about random things that come to their mind. Well, Gavin does most of the talking. Richard seems happy to just listen to him.

The older drops the younger boy off at his house and waits until he’s inside before he heads home as well. When he gets there, he sees his mother out in the front yard tending to the flowers.

“Hey, mom?”

She lifts her head and smiles when she sees him, her emerald eyes sparkling with joy.

“Yes, Gav?”, she asks with a gentle voice.

“Can I pick some flowers from our garden?”

His mother tilts her head in curiosity.

“Of course. But why do you need them?”

“Well… Nines says that he thinks that the flowers in our garden are pretty. So… I want to give him some…”, Gavin mumbles while avoiding eye contact with his mother, who just chuckles.

“Oh my, how nice of you! Let’s pick out some pretty flowers then for your friend.”

The boy gives her a shy nod and joins his mother in between the many colorful flowers.

The smell of something burning brings Gavin back to the present. He slowly opens his eyes and sees nothing but flames. What had happened? The detective looks around the room and see the charred bodies of his attackers, some are still writhing in pain and howling in agony. Did… did he do this? He looks down and sees flames dancing around his fingertips, but they don’t hurt. In fact, despite the entire room being on fire, Gavin doesn’t feel any of the heat. He did this. He burned them alive…

He's killed his fair share of people since he arrived in Columbia and it never bothered him. But this… This is something else entirely. There’s a difference between putting a bullet between someone’s eyes and burning them alive… Up until now, he has only used this vigor against machines or as a warning against humans.

He slowly gets up and exits the inferno he created. On his way out, something grabs his leg. Looking down, he sees a severely burnt hand grabbing onto his leg. Without any hesitation he snaps his fingers and the arm, together with the body it’s attached to, light up in flames and it lets go of him. He should find all of this disturbing but he doesn’t. He just feels… numb.

“I… I have to get to Nines…”

Everything that happens after that is a blur. All he can see are the flames following every single one of his steps no matter where he goes. Before he knows it, he’s on the third floor. Why was he here again? Right. The warden’s key. It should be on this floor somewhere. He wanders around the hallways and eventually stumbled upon what looks like a makeshift theater. A film is playing on the screen and someone is talking but the words don’t quite reach Gavin. Approaching the screen, he notices a tear. He can make out voices when he gets closer. One of them is a very familiar voice.

“It would be better for you to just forget about him. Or do you still expect Reed to barge in here and rescue you?”, a male voice says in a disinterested tone.

“He will come.”

Richard. He sounds exhausted.

“Please. It’s been six months.”

“He will come. He promised…”

Gavin stares at the tear in disbelief. Six months? That can’t be right… They have only been separated for a few hours at most. It couldn’t have been months already. Could it be…? The flash on the bridge and the sudden change in temperature. Did he unknowingly enter a tear on his way here? That’s it, isn’t it? He still doesn’t know how tears work, but he does know that they defy space and time. Gavin curses under his breath. He has to get to Richard. Now.

It takes him a while but he manages to find the warden’s office with next to no trouble. The office itself is surrounded by glass walls and has multiple monitors hanging from the ceiling showing different parts of the building. Watching the monitors, something clicks inside his brain. Amanda is using this place as an asylum and experimenting on people. This is messed up, but his priority right now is Richard. The detective looks at the center console and slams his fist on the button that would open the door to the operating theater.

The way down is easier the way up since he took care of any threat on his first time coming through the area. He takes the elevator back to the first floor. On his way down, he has another flashback.

A young Gavin is beating up someone with a stick.

“And this is for bullying Nines…!”

The other boy runs away crying and only when he’s completely out of sight does Gavin drop the stick. He then turns back to Richard who is hiding behind him with tears in his eyes. Gavin looks at the younger’s knees which are bleeding.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

Richard wipes his eyes and shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, Gavin…”, the smaller apologizes, which causes Gavin to raise an eyebrow.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“You’ll get into trouble because of me…”

Gavin gives Richard the biggest grin he’s ever seen, his grayish green eyes burning with passion. He ruffles Richard’s hair.

“Nonsense! I’ll always protect you, no matter what!”

The elevator reaches the first floor and Gavin steps outside.

He’s met Richard before. Long before he came to Columbia. They used to play together as children. But why does he only remember just now? And why did he forget about it in the first place? What had happened in the past? It doesn’t make any sense. None at all. Even if he doesn’t remember, wouldn’t Richard remember the past at the very least? He’s never mentioned anything about that during their entire journey up until now and it didn’t seem like he even recognized him when he crashed through the ceiling back in his tower.

A pained scream snaps him out of his thoughts. He knows that voice. It’s Richard! And from the sound of it he must be in extreme pain. Gavin shakes his head and rushes through the now open door, the numbness in his body dissipating. He has to find Richard first. He can ask him later about their shared past.

The closer he gets to the operating theater the louder the screams become. He has to hurry. They’re hurting him…! Gavin is in such a hurry that he almost bumps into the two figures standing in the doorway.

“What are you two doing here?”, Gavin asks.

 “Hurry up, Gavin. He’s in so much pain…”

Connor furrows his brows in worry and Rhys has his arms crossed, but he looks just as worried. Now that they have taken off their masks, Gavin could see the resemblance between them and Richard. The three of them share the same facial features, although Richard’s are a bit sharper and more angular. The other – more striking – difference is that Connor and Rhys have brown eyes instead of their brother’s electric blue. Gavin blinks and once again the two are gone, like they were never there to begin with.

Stepping into the next room Gavin noticed a light coming from his left. It’s an open door overlooking Detroit and inside that door is the silhouette. They turn to the detective and offer him a hand. Gavin takes the offered hand and is pulled onto the ledge by the person. Once he gets closer, he can make out some familiar features, although they look older and more exhausted.

“The Heir of Columbia shall carry us into a new age by drowning the world bellow in flames. You can say whatever you want about my mother, but she sure keeps her word. And to think that all of this was started by me…”

The older Richard looks at the burning city of Detroit with Columbia slowly approaching the heart of the city. Gavin approaches him.

“It wasn’t the torture that broke me. Nor the indoctrination. It was time, Gavin. Time rots everything. Even hope.”, Richard says with a sad look on his face.

“I was on my way…”

Richard shakes his head.

“Songbird. He would always stop you.”

“But I would’ve found a way…!”

“It’s too late for me now. But it’s not too late for your Nines. It took me all I had to bring you here. Here, take this.”

Richard holds out a piece of paper and Gavin slowly takes it. It seems to be written in a cypher since Gavin can’t make out what it’s saying.

“Give it to him. He’ll know what to do. Make sure he doesn’t turn out like me.”

The scene before him slowly starts to fade away to a brightly lit room. Everything around him is in peak condition, no rubble or debris. What just happened…? Just a few moments ago he was walking the ruins of the Stern House with lunatics trying to kill him. Now he’s standing in this peaceful hallway with its red curtains and red roses in vases lining the hallway.

“Did he send me back…?”

Before Gavin can ponder on it any longer, a scream snaps him back to his actual objective. Freeing Richard. The scream came from a door across the hall and he busts through the door without thinking. In the middle of the operating theater is a small chamber surrounded by glass walls and inside that chamber are three people. Two are wearing surgical outfits and strapped to a surgical chair in the middle of the room between them is Richard. Gavin can see something connected to his back right between the shoulder blades. It seems like a cable or tube of some sort.

Past the chamber and elevated in a separate room is a dark-skinned woman wearing a very expensive white dress. Her hair is styled into a very fashionable up-do and she’s staring right at the detective. She scowls at him like she just found a fly in her soup.

“Detective Reed. I’m surprised you made it this far. I should have gotten rid of you as soon as you stepped foot into my city.”

“You fucking bitch! What are you doing to Nines?!”

“What I do to my son is none of your concern. Get rid of him.”

Amanda Stern turns on her heels and walks out of sight. The moment she disappears, a door across the room opens and two armed automatons walk out. They each walk around one side of the chamber and lift their gatling guns.

“Fuck me…”, Gavin mumbles quietly and pulls out his gun.

Chapter Text

Gavin only has a split second to react before he hears the gatling guns start spinning. He snaps his finger and a green mist envelops one of the automatons. It turns towards the other machine and starts firing. The detective ducks out of the room to avoid getting hit by stray bullets as the two turn on each other. It feels like an eternity passes before the sounds of the guns and of bullets hitting metal stop.

“Okay. One down, one more to go.”

He checks his gun and makes sure to reload it as he hears heavy steps approach him. He could use possession again, but this ability needs some time to recharge. Taking a deep breath and counting down from three, Gavin runs out from behind the wall he was taking cover behind and fires one bullet straight to the automaton’s head. It’s not nearly enough to take it out of commission but it’s more than enough to disorient it in order for Gavin to slide past it between its legs. The automaton turns around to face Gavin and is hit with a flaming inferno to the face causing it to blind fire its gun. The detective has to duck in order to dodge the spray of bullets that all fly past him above his head. Some hit the chamber in the middle and they simply bounce off the glass.

“Well, there goes that plan… Fucking bullet proof glass…!”

Once the rain of bullets stops, Gavin scrambles to his feet and rushes to the second – now destroyed – automaton and tries to pry the gatling gun from its hands. It’s heavy and it’s impossible for Gavin to wield it due to the fact that he would have to lift if with one arm and use the crank with the other. He quickly dodges behind the center chamber before another storm of bullets is fired at him.

“Hold him still. We don’t have much time. Lady Stern wants us to finish this within an hour.”, Gavin hears one of the doctors say. He peeks inside and sees one of the men approach Richard with a syringe.

His feels a pang of guilt inside his chest. It’s his fault Richard ended up in this situation. His white dress shirt is pulled down exposing his pale shoulders and the upper part of his back. Now that he’s closer, Gavin can make out that it’s some sort of cable that’s connected to younger man’s back and it pulses in a faint blue color. It looks very painful. There are metal cuffs holding him down around his arms, legs and his torso.

The man holding the syringe grabs Richard’s left arm and injects him with some kind of clear substance. The reaction is immediately. Nines roars in anger and pain as a powerful blue pulse ripples throughout the entire room. Gavin can feel the pulse deep down to his bones and he would be lying if he said that this surge of power didn’t scare him. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone.

A voice from inside the chamber catches his attention.

“Turn off the siphons…”

Gavin looks up and sees Richard looking right at him. Turn off the siphons? What the fuck is a siphon and how the hell is he supposed to turn them off? He looks around and notices two large cables leading towards opposite ends of the operating theater. The cables are too thick for him to cut and if the stray bullets from the automaton didn’t to any damage to it then neither will his gun. His only option would be to find whatever powers those siphons and either turn it off or destroy it.

Looking for the automaton, the detective rushes towards one of the doors and enters a carpeted hallway. And he has to immediately duck into an alcove to avoid the turret stationed at the other end of the hallway. Behind him, he can already hear the heavy footsteps of the automaton. Maybe they can take each other down?

“This is a stupid fucking idea…”

Once the gatling gun is in sight, Gavin purposefully triggers the turret and quickly ducks behind the big automaton, causing the turret to shoot it. The hulking machine decides to focus on this new threat instead of Gavin and starts shooting at the other machine. The turret is destroyed in a matter of seconds. From where he’s standing, the detective can see a bunch of exposed gears on the back of the humanoid automaton and the dots connect. He pulls out the sky hook and rams it inside the delicate looking mechanical parts. The hook whirs to life and starts tearing through it, sending bits and pieces flying everywhere. The humanoid machine collapses to its knees and stops moving.

“Huh. That was easier than I thought…”

He suddenly hears human voices coming from the hallway past the destroyed turret. Gavin looks up and sees a group of armed guards rush at him with their guns drawn. At least they’re easier to deal with than fucking machines and their lack of reaction to bullets. He draws his gun and charges at them.

Gavin thinks back to his days back at the police academy. He remembers the lectures about never charging straight into a group of armed people and shit like that. The detective huffs a smirk and grabs the closest guy to him to use as a meat shield. He didn’t become a detective by always playing it safe. It only takes one perfectly aimed bullet to the head to kill the guards. Dropping the now lifeless body in his arm, Gavin soon reaches the end of the hallway. It’s a rather big room connecting to the other hallway and two archways which probably lead to the generators powering the machines downstairs. He decides to enter the one closest to him.

It’s a simple room with a window facing the operating theater. A big piece of machinery is standing against the wall and Gavin assumes that this is what powers those siphons or whatever they’re called. Turning it off is as simple as just pulling one single lever. Now he just has to do the same to the other side. Gavin returns to the room connecting the two generators and heads to the other one. He reaches the second lever in no time and pulls it without hesitation.

Gavin looks out the window and sees the two doctors start to panic. Good. They look up at where he’s standing and call out to him with terror laced voices.

“Reed…! Turn it back on…! Reed…! REED!”

A tear opens inside the center chamber and he watches – with a smirk on his face – one of them getting gunned down and the other being impaled by a giant drill and pulled through the tear before it closes. The door to the chamber opens with a hiss and Gavin wastes no time rushing back towards the operating theater. Richard is sitting up in the chair when he approaches him and rubs his left wrist. He points to the cable sticking out of his back.

“Help me with this.”

The detective grimaces at it but doesn’t say anything. He grabs the base of the cable and pulls. There’s a sickening squelching sound and a pained grunt as Gavin pulls a needle the length of his pinky from Richard’s back. Fuck, that’s messed up… It takes the taller of the two a second to catch his breath before he gets up and fixes his shirt. Gavin stares at the bruise on his back where the needle was before it’s covered by Richard’s shirt. The detective looks away with a slight blush on his face.

“Uh… I-I got something for you.”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the note he was given, handing it to Richard. The other takes one look at it and after a second crumples it and tosses it aside.

“Let’s find Amanda and stop this madness.”

“What will you do once we find her?”

“I will personally put a bullet between her eyes.”, Richard says with a neutral voice and it honest to god scares Gavin. He has never seen Richard so emotionless and cold. Whatever is written on that note must have really upset him.

Without another word, the taller of the two walks away and Gavin almost stumbles over his own feet trying to follow him. They head back to the room to the generators, stepping over the dead guards like they’re just a log in their way. It does worry Gavin a bit how desensitized he has become to killing people ever since he came to Columbia. He’s so deep in though that he doesn’t even realize that Richard has stopped walking, resulting in Gavin bumping into the other’s back. His companion however doesn’t pay him any attention as he kneels down in front of the double doors and starts picking the lock. It only takes him a few seconds of tinkering for the doors to unlock.

“She’s probably headed to her personal zeppelin. The access should be at the rooftop.”

As expected, Amanda sent guards to stop them. But all they did was slowing them down. It’s scary how fast and accurate Richard is considering he never received any kind of training in this kind of thing like Gavin did. Each shot is precise and not a single bullet is wasted. And unlike Gavin, Richard doesn’t hesitate to use his vigor on the guards. He had the feeling that if their vigors were switched then the two of them would be surrounded by flames. The bloodlust emanating from the blue-eyed man is almost suffocating. Well, thanks to that they make it to the zeppelin in no time.

Should Gavin intervene? He feels like he should or this entire thing might go completely wrong. Something is clearly bothering Richard. If only he knew what that note said…

“Hey, Nines?”, he asks carefully.

“Not now.”

Well, so much for talking.

Making their way past a few more guards, the duo eventually arrives at Amanda’s cabin. Just as Richard reaches for the door knob Gavin puts his hand on his. Richard looks up and sees gray eyes with a hint of green looking back at him. They look at him with concern.

“Gavin, let go of my hand.”

“I will once you talk to me, asshole. I know you’re upset but I need you to really think this through. Are you sure you want to kill her, Nines? We can just leave. Leave all of this behind us and go somewhere else far away from Amanda and Columbia.”

“I have to, Gavin. For my sake. And yours.”

“Me? I mean, yeah. She tried to kill me on multiple occasions, but why do you care so much about that?”

Richard puts his gloved hand on top of Gavin’s and looks at him with such a tender and vulnerable expression on his face. Gavin can’t help the blush creeping up his neck and to his cheeks.

“The me that gave you the note had the power to see behind the different doors. He saw all the possible worlds that exist out there. The two of you can’t exist at the same time. One of you has to die. And I’d rather choose you over her. I care about you, Gavin. More than I care about anything else.”

Gavin’s face goes beet red.

“W-w-wait….! Huh…?! You just…! What…?”, he stammers out.

Did Richard just fucking confess to him?! No way in hell is that happening right now…! No, now is not a good time for him to have a gay panic. He can have one later when they have dealt with Amanda. Seeing the determination in Richard’s eyes, Gavin pulls his hand away and gives his companion a nod. The taller flashes Gavin a soft smile before his face goes back to neutral. He straightens his posture and opens the door.

Chapter Text

Opening the door, the two come face to face with an indoor garden. The path leading up to a wooden platform is flanked by red roses. Their color seeming more intense due to the white lattice that they grow around. On top of the wooden platform stands Amanda. She’s caring for her flowers without a care in the world.

“You disappoint me, Richard. I don’t recall raising such a disobedient son.”, she says with a sneer.

Richard walks up to her while Gavin waits below. He feels like this is something the other has to do by himself. He will not get involved unless he absolutely has to. Richard steps onto the platform and stops right in front of Amanda, looking down at her. However, despite the obvious difference in height, she caries herself with so much confidence. Her son is the first one to break the silence.

“How amusing, considering that you did not raise me at all. I was nothing but an experiment to you. A subject to research. You never saw me as your child, mother.”

Gavin flinches at how much venom the taller put into the word “mother”. Amanda, however, seems unimpressed. She looks at him like one would look at a disobedient pet. Displeasure is written all over her face.

“Did I not give you a home? Did I not feed you? Gave you a bed to sleep in? A roof above your head? I am the one who gave you that arm. Without me, you would have nothing.”

“You are the reason why I lost my arm in the first place.”

Amanda narrows her eyes at him and scoffs. She then looks at Gavin who flinches back a bit from the intense stare. Noticing her focus on Gavin, Richard takes a step to the side to shield his partner from her gaze.

“That’s where you’re wrong. You wouldn’t have lost it, if he hadn’t interfered. If you want to blame someone, blame him.”

This catches Gavin’s attention. His fault? How the fuck is it his fault that Richard lost his arm? Amanda is probably trying to frame him for her crimes. No, fuck that. The detective huffs angrily and steps past Richard and onto the platform.

“Fuck you, you bitch! You’re not gonna frame me for something you did! I had nothing to do with this!”

“Interesting. Whatever the case, I am the one who kept you safe, Richard. You had everything you could’ve wished for inside your tower. You were fine before he came along.”

“He had everything except freedom, you lunatic!”

“A small price to pay.”

“You-”

Gavin doesn’t get to finish his sentence when he feels a sharp pain from his abdomen. He looks down and sees a knife stuck inside him. Amanda pulls out the knife and blood just comes gushing out.

“Gavin…!”

Richard puts his hand on the stab wound to put pressure on it because it takes Gavin a few seconds to realize what’s going on. He’s been stabbed. Amanda stabbed him…! Fucking bitch…! Amanda however, takes advantage of this distraction to flee. Richard looks torn between Gavin and Amanda. It takes him a second, but he reaches for his gun with his free hand and shoots the fleeing woman in the leg. She goes down with a pained grunt. He puts the gun down and focuses back on Gavin.

“It doesn’t seem like she hit anything vital. That’s good. I need you to listen to me, Gavin. Use your vigor to cauterize and close the wound. It will hurt but it’s better than bleeding out.”

“Shit…! Fuck… Y-yeah, I got this…”

“I can’t remove my hand right now so I need your help to remove the glove. Use your vigor to heat up the metal of my hand. Once it’s hot enough I will press it against your wound. Understood?”

Gavin gives him a nod and gets started on removing Richard’s glove. Fuck, why did it have so many buckles? It takes him a bit longer than he would’ve liked due to his shaky hands, but he gets it off eventually. He then snaps his fingers and a small flame engulfs his hand. Without any warning, his companion takes his hand and they watch the metal heat up. Once it’s hot enough, Richard lifts up Gavin’s shirt and quickly presses a finger to the stab wound. It hurts – a lot – but Gavin pushes through it. It’s like Richard said, this is better than bleeding out. The entire thing takes only a few seconds but those few seconds feel incredibly intimate.

“Hey, Nines…?”

“Yes, Gavin?”

“Was it really me…? Am I the reason why you lost your arm…?”

Richard absentmindedly rubs at the fresh scar on Gavin’s abdomen as he thinks about the question. There is no reason for Amanda to just randomly accuse Gavin of something like this. Even if it’s to cause a rift between them, she would never lie like that. She may be a cruel woman, but he’s known her long enough to know that she is telling the truth. He’ll have to ask her personally what this is about.

“N-Nines…”

Gavin’s shaky voice breaks him out of his thoughts and he looks down. The poor man looks flushed and has one hand on Richard’s. It’s then when he realizes, that he’s been rubbing circles into the other’s abdomen for a while now and he pulls his hand away. He looks away and clears his throat.

“I’m sorry about that. I… got distracted.”

“It’s fine…”

They sit in awkward silence before they remember Amanda. They both look up and see her slowly making her escape. Richard gets up and walks over to her. He won’t let her get away, but he also won’t kill her just yet. She owes him an explanation.

“Why is Gavin to blame for my arm?”

But instead of a proper answer he just gets a sneer from her and her usual cold glare. Sensing that he probably won’t get an answer from her he goes back to grab his gun from where he left it on the floor. Pointing the gun at her head he asks the same question again.

“Even if I were to tell you, you would pull that trigger. So, no. I will not give you the satisfaction. Do what you must do.”

Richard looks down at her with the same cold glare she would give him and pulls the trigger without a second of hesitation. Gavin watched the entire thing from where he’s sitting on the ground and everything just feels so… anticlimactic. He expected some kind of big fight, maybe more guards but not this. But then again, Amanda is only human and it only takes one bullet to the head to kill a human. He watches the taller holster his gun and walk back to him. Is this it? Is it finally over? Can they finally leave Columbia?

“Can you stand?”, Richard asks him with a concerned look on his face. It causes the detective’s heart to skip a beat.

“Y-yeah. I’ve been stabbed before. I’ll live.”

Taking Gavin’s hand, Richard carefully helps him up and they head to the bridge of the airship. They look around and the taller of the two walks over to a miniature of Monument Island that is cut down the middle to reveal the inner workings of it. Gavin is about to put in the coordinates for Detroit when Richard stops him. Green eyes look at him in confusion.

“There is one more thing we need to do. Do you see that miniature over there? My tower was built above a massive siphon that would drain my ability to control tears. We need to destroy it.”

“But how do we do that? That thing is fucking huge!”

“Songbird is the key.”

Gavin looks at his companion like he just grew a second head. Use Songbird? Has he gone mad? The last time they ran into the giant chicken it tried to fucking murder him!

“Don’t look at me like that. I have a plan of course.”

Chapter Text

“Some of the statues in Columbia have a built-in whistle – a whistler – to call Songbird. Luckily, there’s one on this airship. The other me gave me a way to control the bird.”, Richard explains calmly as he starts to take apart the statue inside the cabin. It takes some tinkering, but eventually he pulls out something that looks like a mechanical pan flute.

“What? You plan on playing it a song?”

“Precisely.”

“Didn’t know you made jokes.”

Before Richard can answer, the duo hears the sound of multiple engines. They watch as several airships pull up to theirs. Judging by the color is seems to be Columbia’s police force and they brought more than enough back up. The two of them are not going to get out of this without a fight. But if it’s a fight they want, then a fight they will get.

“Gavin, take care of those who board the ship. I’ll take care of the airships.”

“How are you gonna do that? There’s a fucking lot of them.”

Richard walks up to Gavin and lifts his head by the chin.

“Watch me.”

And just like that he steps out onto the deck of the airship with the whistler in hand. It takes Gavin a few seconds to recover from that. Did… did Richard just flirt with him? That was definitely flirting. Multiple feet hitting the wooden deck snap him back to reality. Officers are boarding their airship. Luckily, Gavin stocked up on ammo on their way to Amanda so he doesn’t have to worry about that. He checks his gun one last time before heading out of the cabin.

“Gavin! You’ll need this more than I do.”

A shotgun is thrown into his direction and the detective catches it with ease. Before he can protest, Richard is already walking past him, whistler in hand. Gavin rushes after him and makes quick work of the officers coming at them. He ducks behind a wall for cover when he hears what sounds like a distorted whistle. Four simple notes it all It takes before he hears a very familiar screech. Songbird. Now, Gavin isn’t easily scared but that thing absolutely terrifies him. That damned bird is out of his league and he’s smart enough to know when to back down from a fight. The bird screeches once again and it sinks its sharp talons into one of the police airships and drags it down into the gray clouds below.

“W-what the fuck…?”

He half expects the bird to come back up to attack their ship but it doesn’t. It stays gone. The sound of a bullet whizzing past his head snaps his attention back to the fight. Right, now is not the time to get distracted. Gavin grabs the shotgun and charges back into the fight from behind his cover. It’s messy, it’s bloody and it’s exhausting. It seems like there’s no end to this. People keep coming left and right. Bloodied bodies are littering the deck, some with a bullet between their eyes and others with large burn marks covering their bodies.

The whistle sounds again and again and each time another airship goes down until none are left. Gavin sits down and listens to the deafening silence. It almost feels like it’s too quiet. Maybe it’s because he’s used to the constant noise of the streets of Columbia, the noise of bullets getting shot at him or the lunatics screaming in the Stern House. He has to admit, it’s nice to have a moment of peace and quiet.

“Wait. Where’s Nines…?”

Gavin looks around and panics for a second when he doesn’t immediately spot the taller male, but he calms down when he sees him standing at the bow of the airship. After a few seconds, he decides to join Richard. They watch as the airship slowly moves closer to the statue of Columbia. Richard’s former home. The prison his “mother” created for him. Gavin is handed the whistler.

“Uh… What do I do with this?”

“Do you remember the note Connor gave me when we crashed with the First Lady airship? Cage. It’s not a word. Those are notes. C – A – G – E. He gave me a way to control songbird. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize it.”

Richard glances at Gavin and then back at the statue. It’s still in a state of disrepair from their first encounter with Songbird. The entire structure is leaning to one side and it’s a miracle that it’s still standing.

“I want you to tear it all down.”

Gavin looks at the instrument in his hands and slowly lifts it to his lips. The first try is a hot mess, but with the help of Richard he gets the notes right on the second try. He plays the notes as instructed. C – A – G – E. Nothing happens for a few seconds and Gavin worries that he played the wrong notes. However, shortly after the last note echoes through the air, Songbird calls out from below them. The two men only see a blurred shape fly past them, heading straight for the statue. And takes it down in one fellow swoop.

It throws its gigantic body at the metal structure and breaks it in half at the waist. But the bird doesn’t stop there. It goes in for a second strike, this time aiming for the base of the statue. The second strike causes the entire thing to collapse and whatever it hit causes a massive shockwave. The whistler in Gavin’s hand sparks and the resulting electric shock causes him to drop it. It’s broken. The detective looks at his companion in shock as their only way to control the Songbird just got destroyed.

“N-Nines…! The bird…! I lost control of the bird…!”

A deafening screech is emitted by the creature as it changes its course mid-air and comes straight for their airship. They are currently not above an island. If the thing destroys their airship right now, then they’ll fall to their death. Gavin isn’t a scientist but even he knows that if they fall from this height, even if they hit the ocean, the impact might very well just kill them. He didn’t come this far just to die. He promised to get Richard out of Columbia.

“It’s going to attack us…!”

While Gavin is busy having a very reasonable breakdown about their impending doom, Richard watches a wave of energy surround his body. It’s mesmerizing to watch the blue sparks dance across his skin. Songbird didn’t only destroy the statue. It destroyed the siphon built underneath it. The same siphon that was responsible for limiting his control of the tears. Now that the damned machine is in pieces, Richard finally feels whole again.

“No, it won’t.”

With a single fluid motion Richard opens a tear and a bright light engulfs them both. Gavin lifts his hand to shield his eyes from the light and when he lowers them, he sees an unfamiliar view. This is not Columbia. It’s darker, more somber. The colors more muted compared to the bright buildings of the city he was just in. However, his priority is still Songbird. The last thing he remembers is the mechanical beast charging at them.

“Where’s the bird…?!”

Before Richard can answer a dull thud draws their attention to the window they’re standing by. Angry red eyes glare at them while giant hands pound against the glass. Except, it doesn’t break. The taller walks up to the window and puts his right hand on the glass. Blue eyes locking onto the creature. It is only now that Gavin realizes that the entire outside of the building is flooded with water.

“It’s okay. You’ve done enough. You deserve to rest.”

The bird screeches in agony as the water pressure pushes against its light frame. It was made to soar through the clouds, not to withstand the weight of the ocean. It’s entire body creaks and bends as the water around it keeps pushing. Its pained screams echo throughout the room until it finally goes still. The eyes go black and the hulking figure goes limp. Richard watches it sink to the bottom of the ocean with mixed emotions. On one hand, he’s glad that he’ll finally be free. Songbird was the last shackle his mother put on him. On the other hand… For as long as he can remember, Songbird was his guardian. His only friend in that damned tower. The only one who cared about him in the slightest.

“Holy shit… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Let’s get out of here. We still have a mystery to solve.”

“If you say so. But… you know. If you need someone to talk to or something. I’d listen.”

Gavin is rewarded with a gentle smile.

“Thank you, Gavin. For everything. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”

“Fuck, Nines… I’m just doing my job and shit.”

“Still. Thank you. I mean it.”

Nothing else is said after that, but they walk in a comfortable silence. Now that the adrenaline is wearing off, Gavin is finally able to get a good look at their surroundings. As he suspected before, they’re in a city deep beneath the ocean. As they pass the ceiling high windows and glass walkways connecting the buildings, he watches schools of fish swim by. At one point he even catches a glimpse of a whale. First a city above the clouds and now one at the bottom of the ocean.

The city itself, or at least the part they pass through, is in a state of severe disrepair. It looks like no one has been here in ages. Blood and rust cover most of the surfaces. They stumble upon bodies who are in different stages of decay. Propaganda posters talking about some guy named Atlas and a revolution. Whatever happened here, it was anything but pleasant. Gavin jumps a bit when Richard speaks up.

“It’s a shame what happened here. In the end, human greed was the downfall of Rapture. Greed and their want for control.”

“Yeah… Let’s just get the fuck out of here.”

It doesn’t take long for them to arrive at what looks like a docking station with a spherical vehicle. Gavin opens the door and they both step inside. The door to the vehicle closes behind them and it starts moving on its own. Slowly but surely, they make their way up to the surface.

“I would say that a city at the bottom of the ocean is fucking ridiculous, but I just escaped a city in the sky. Judging from what we’ve seen, this place has seen better days. What happened here?”

“A civil war. Multiple, actually. The first one caused the downfall of the city. The others were the result of different groups trying to fight for control.”

“How do you know all that?”, Gavin asks with a raised eyebrow.

“With the destruction of the siphon beneath the tower I have regained full control of my abilities to open and see through tears. As I’ve mentioned it before, tears are doorways into different worlds and times. I can see the future. I can also see the past. I can tell you about the many what ifs. It’s… overwhelming to be truthful.”

The vehicle breaches the surface of the ocean and they’re in front of a very familiar looking lighthouse. It’s the same lighthouse Gavin used to get to Columbia. The same yet also slightly different. They ascend the steps to the door and open it.

Chapter Text

Stepping through the door of the lighthouse they come face to face with a sea of lighthouses and other versions of themselves. Each of the pairs is walking across the ocean from one lighthouse to another, seemingly ignoring the other versions of themselves around them.

Gavin sees a version of himself covered in bloodied bandages. Another one is smiling so bright it actually causes him to physically recoil. And another one is being carried by his Richard. It is bizarre to say the least. Some of them even wear clothes that he has never seen before. One Gavin is wearing what looks like a pair of dark jeans and a leather jacket with a hood. What weird pieces of clothing. Certainly nothing he has ever seen before. And the Richard with him is wearing something just as weird. It’s an open white jacket with the upper portion being black with a black turtleneck underneath and matching black dress pants. That doesn’t look comfortable. He prefers his Richard with his tight pants, rolled up sleeves and partially unbuttoned dress shirt.

“What the hell is this place?”, Gavin asks as they continue to walk across the wooden bridge, passing multiple pairs and lighthouses.

“This, Gavin, is the sea of doors. An in-between. Anyone who travels using tears will and has passed through here. Each door represents a different alternative. A different choice.”

“And you know what’s behind each of those doors?”

“I do and it’s fascinating. I have never seen what’s behind those doors, yet I can tell you in detail what happened in that version of our story.”

“Our story?”

“Yes. Our story. No matter where I look, our fates always seem to be intertwined. Although, some stories end earlier than others. Some are more pleasant.”

The shorter of the two scans the lighthouses and points to one. It’s the one where he saw the two strangely dressed versions of themselves come through.

“What happened in that story?”

“You’ve picked quite an interesting one. That one is in the far future. Maybe about a hundred years? It involves a revolution. People fighting for their freedom. A code holding me back until you free me from the red wall.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Who knows.”

They continue their walk in silence with the occasional question or two from Gavin about what’s behind the different doors and Richard indulging him. Eventually they reach their goal. It’s another lighthouse, which looks just like all the others. But something about this one feels different. They open the door and are hit with the smell of rain.

The two of them are standing in the middle of a dark alleyway during a thunderstorm. They hear people shouting. Some of the voices sound very familiar.

“Get rid of the child. Use force if you have to.”

That’s Amanda.

The scene before them is a strange one. A man in Columbian clothes is trying to pull a young boy through a tear, but another boy is trying to pull the younger away from the adults. Gavin immediately recognizes the older of the two children. It’s him.

“No…! Let go of him…!”

“Lady Amanda, the tear is about to close…!”, the man panics.

“You’re not taking him…!”

Young Gavin is pulling as hard as he can and the younger of the two looks absolutely terrified and scared out of his mind. All the while, the tear is growing smaller and smaller. With a frown on her face, Amanda approaches the man and pulls the gun from his belt.

“If you won’t let go, I’ll just have to make you.”

And without an ounce of hesitations, she pulls the trigger. The bullet only scrapes the younger Gavin’s arm, but it’s enough to startle him into letting go of the other boy. The man pulls him through but they wasted too much time. The tear closes before they can pull the child through. Gavin and his younger self watch in horror as the window to Columbia closes around the boy’s arm and all that’s left if a bloody arm on the wet floor of the alleyway.

“No way… Nines…”

Both Gavins stare at the arm, both unmoving. The older Gavin startles when someone takes his hand. He looks up and sees Richard looking at him with his bright blue eyes. He gently pulls Gavin away and walks him back to the sea of doors. The door to the lighthouse closes behind them and Gavin just stares at the ocean beneath their feet.

“How could I forget about that…? I forgot about the incident… I forgot about you…!”

“Gavin…”

“Why…?! Why did I forget…?! You… You were my best friend and I just forgot about you…! I’m so sorry, Nines…!”

“Gavin.”

Richard gently holds Gavin’s face and turns it so they’re looking at each other.

“Listen to me. I don’t blame you for forgetting. I… I didn’t remember you as well. It was a very traumatizing event for the both of us. We both chose to not remember it. And it’s not like you completely forgot.”, Richard says as he runs his thumb over the “IX” tattooed on Gavin’s wrist.

“I shouldn’t have let go…”

“You would’ve died, Gavin. Besides, it doesn’t matter what you could have done. What matters is what you’ll do from now on. We can’t change the past. But we can shape our future. What will it be?”

Gavin grabs the other’s right hand with both of his hands and squeezes hard. Nothing happens for a while as they just stand in the middle of the ocean. It’s Gavin who speaks up first.

“I will never let go of you ever again. Only over my dead body.”

“I’d rather you stay alive. But I appreciate the sentiment.”

“Oh my fucking god, you’re such a prick…! I was trying to be romantic!”

“I know. Thank you.”

“Yeah. Whatever. Let’s just get the fuck out of this place. I’ve had enough excitement to last me for a lifetime. I just want to go back to Detroit. Flop down into my bed and sleep for weeks. Can you believe it’s only been a day or two?!”

Richard chuckles and just fondly shakes his head.

“I mean it! I’m done with all this! I’m going to take a week off of work and just spend the time doing absolutely nothing! By the way, will the vigors still work once we’re back in Detroit? Is this like a permanent thing?”

“Yes, Gavin. The vigors are permanent.”

“Fuck yeah!”

“However, I would suggest you avoid using them in public. Unless you want to end up as a scientist's lab rat.”

Rolling his eyes, Gavin playfully punches Richard in the arm. They navigate the labyrinth of wooden pathways with little to no trouble and eventually make it to their destination. This is it. This lighthouse in front of them is their way back to their world. Their time. For some reason, Gavin actually feels really nervous.

“Hey, Nines?”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do once we’re in Detroit?”

“I have a few things in mind that I have to take care of.

“Oh. I see.”

Richard looks at him.

“But once I’ve taken care of everything, I do plan to settle down. Find a nice place to stay. Perhaps you would like to join me?”

“Wait, really? You mean it?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

Gavin rubs the back of his neck and looks at the floor. Richard can tell that something is bothering him, but he decides not to push it. If the detective wants him know he will tell him.

“It’s just… You could’ve chosen any person that exists and yet you chose me. Why? I’m a fucking mess. You deserve better.”

“What if I don’t want anything better? Gavin, I could’ve left you at any point during our adventure. I didn’t have stick with you once we left the tower.”

Yeah, if Gavin really thinks about it then Richard is not wrong. He probably could have made it out of Columbia on his own. Them joining forces only sped up the process. If it wasn’t for him, then Richard wouldn’t have sacrificed himself to Songbird. He wouldn’t have had to suffer what Amanda put him through at the Stern House. If it wasn’t for him…

However, before his thoughts could spiral any further, he feels someone take his hand. Gavin looks up and sees nothing but adoration in those brilliant blue eyes.

“But I didn’t leave. And I won’t anytime soon, I assure you. Plus, I do love myself a challenge.”

Oh, that smug bastard and his stupid smirk. Or his stupid pretty face. The shorter of the two grabs the other by the collar of his shirt and pulls him in for a kiss. It’s a bit awkward at first but that’s to be expected. As soon as their lips touch, it’s like the whole world fades away around them. There’s that tiny spark inside them that eventually blooms into a gentle warmth in their chests. Everything feels perfect in that very moment. Their fingers intertwine and there’s one thing that Gavin knows for sure. He is never letting go of Richard ever again.

They pull away from the kiss, both a bit flustered. Gavin looks like he wants the ground to just swallow him whole and Richard can’t help but chuckle at his adorable expression. They put their foreheads together and close their eyes.

“Are you ready to head back, Gavin?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

They open their eyes and turn towards the double doors before them. This is a new beginning for the both of them. A future that is full of endless possibilities and many opportunities. They open the doors together and enter a new chapter of their life together.