#I'm sorry Claire you're enduring so much... But also you deserve to feel things and be a bit ugly and humane. I hate flawless Wonder Woman

[another-clive-blog]

Here’s to hoping that Dimitri catches up to Clive <3

I'm on a roll with this AU so you get a fanfic I wrote on the train !!! (I love the train <3 Best place to write or listen to music or get stuck for 3 hours)

Some Trigger Warnings : a character experiences molecular unstability in a way similar to a panic attack. I also do refer to the time freeze gun as a regular gun in terms of vocabulary (I don't know much about it) so someone gets shot theoretically ? On that note a character (not saying who) experiences time freeze and it is described from an outside POV -it's pretty terrifying to watch-. As always, someone is spiraling down, a second person is losing faith and a third one is not having a good time

Claire's footsteps echoed on the pristine floor as she ran down another flight of stairs. They couldn't be too far- Dimitri barely had a headstart and Clive was, well, unwell. They should still be around here, they had to be.

The doors in front of her were wide open and so she went in the mirror room- a mirror room, what a stupid idea, she should have known from the start that something was wrong with-

Dimitri.

She almost missed him with how fast she was running, but an unusual speck of light in the darkness of the room caught her attention.

Clive.

"Oh no-" she whispered, far too low for any of them to hear, especially with the buzzing of the time freeze gun.

Dimitri hadn't shot- yet. Clive was backed in a corner, arms spread against the mirrors as if he was hoping to find some sort of secret tunnel. There wasn't any, Dimitri knew that : that was why he didn't bother restraining him, instead pointing the gun at him from a distance. He was going to shoot, he was actually going to deliberately put his associate's life in danger.

Claire wouldn't stand for this.

In a few steps she was behind Dimitri : then, it was just a matter of squatting down and kicking his legs from under him.

Dimitri gasped as he fell backwards and the gun fired : Clive ducked down, narrowly avoiding the freezing ray. The latter reflected on the mirror behind Clive, then another, and another one-

Claire took advantage of Dimitri's fall and surprise to reach for the gun, trying to tear it from his hands : unfortunately, Dimitri had immediately understood what she was aiming for, struggling to keep it out of reach instead.

The mirrors kept reflecting the ray of light, although it seemed to lose intensity with every passing second. Clive remained on the ground : he wasn't so much avoiding the danger as he was simply not feeling able to stand back up again, his whole body feeling more and more distant-

"Why are you keeping me from saving you-" Dimitri wasn't fighting back Claire or restraining her : he was focusing all of his efforts on the time freeze gun in his hands, keeping it out of her reach. It was truly infuriating, for her to make this more difficult than it had to be.

It was infuriating for him to deny her any say in the way she would live her life.

"I don't want to be saved at the cost of more lives," she grunted, her fingers grazing the surface of the gun. Almost there, almost there-

A blood-curdling scream startled her, and she looked back in horror.

Dimitri was quick to react : taking advantage of her inattention, he crawled away and stood up, pointing the gun at the source of the screaming- at Clive.

Clive was curled up on the ground, holding his head in a painful grip. From the way his hands pulled at his hair to the way his whole body was shaking so violently, more than Claire had ever seen coming from him, she guessed that he had to be in tremendous pain : and yet, he was not making any sound anymore. His wide eyes were staring at the ground, as still as his chest because he was struggling to even just breathe, get air in, avoid suffocating-

Claire saw this, and oh that was bad.

She glared at Dimitri in warning : he seemed to get the message, because he lowered his weapon hesitantly.

As she kneeled down next to Clive, Claire had to face the facts : he was glowing even more than before. Although she couldn't understand why that was happening now of all time, she knew that it was causing the state of agony he was in.

She almost put her hand on his shoulder, but stopped herself from doing so. She really shouldn't touch him right now, for all kind of reasons.

"Clive, I'm not sure you can even hear me, but try to focus on my voice, alright ? Breathe in... and out," and with this, she took a deep breath before exhaling audibly.

She wasn't sure how useful that was : it probably wasn't. If she was right and his state was caused by molecular unstability, then he most likely couldn't grasp anything happening in this world right now; but if she was right, it also meant that there was nothing else that she could do for him.

She couldn't help but wonder if what he was experiencing at that moment was similar to what she'd go through. Did he also feel himself go back to the time when it all started ? If that was the case, then he should be feeling things from two weeks ago. Not that far from now, but maybe the similarities made it all the more distressing.

It took some time, but eventually the glowing started to fade back to its previous state : although Claire was disappointed not to see it go away completely, she sighed in relief when Clive started to move again.

Clive slowly let go of his hair to instead put his hands on the ground, trying to keep his balance and support his exhausted body. His breathing was becoming more stable as he looked around, his eyes deliberately avoiding Claire's.

"What happened ?" Claire asked in a low voice, trying to understand.

Clive only shrugged. "I hit my head when that idiot Dimitri shot."

Claire only hummed.

A buzzing sound, again. Claire was starting to hate this gun, and to strongly dislike the one holding it. Dimitri just wouldn't understand, refused to understand that there was nothing left to be done, and she had to take more and more risks to- to do nothing in fact. She could only stop one attempt of his before he'd start working on the next.

And yet she still had to do this, because if she stopped opposing him then Dimitri would be free to do as he pleased.

"Do not shoot," Claire said coldly while placing herself between Clive and Dimitri : the latter understood her strategy very well, looking for a way to take the shot without hurting her. She wasn't hiding all of Clive's body, he could see his arm sticking out, so if he was fast enough-

"Wait," Clive quickly said, and they all looked at him. "We won't achieve anything that way : we're not saving anyone- not serving justice."

"What do you suggest ?" Dimitri asked, sounding skeptical but still giving him a single chance to save himself.

"We should stick to our initial plan and- and finish the time machine," Clive explained. "I can help- I'll do what it takes, but I'm sure we can do it. Just let me work on this, Dimitri, and we'll save everyone."

"Clive ?!" Claire stepped away in anger. "The time machine would cause far more harm than this device ever could ! How can you even suggest that when you know what it feels like ?!" She knew that Clive never took anything seriously, always mocking and taunting, yet this was too far, even as a joke.

She quickly realized, however, that it wasn't a joke. "I could say the same about you !!" Clive answered in much the same tone. "Why are you so mad about me wanting to live ? If you want to die for the greater good, that's your problem !! I am not letting myself get killed just because it's convenient, this world owes me !"

Claire tried to think about something to answer, but she never got to.

Clive suddenly became very pale, and all his anger vanished, replaced by fear. He opened his mouth to protest, beg maybe, before raising his arms in front of his face-

Claire understood too late that she had stepped aside during their confrontation.

Dimitri fired his time freeze gun, and Clive could only close his eyes before getting hit. Claire watched in horror as his whole body slowly came to a stop, still like a statue or a corpse whose soul was not quite gone yet. Even the fear was still vivid, clinging to his face along with that same constant anger : they made a terrifying picture of both his powerlessness and hatred. Or maybe Claire was just imagining this. Maybe there was only fear left. Maybe there wasn't anything at all, because Clive truly believed it to be the end.

The glow finally faded away, and they found themselves in complete darkness.

-_-_-_-

CLIVE ISN'T DEAD HE'S COMING BACK- I love him too much to kill him, especially after everything he went through in this AU