#my problem with wildefire is after the first arc it splits like tree branches with lots of great approaches and different details

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Wildefire AU: Out of Sight

cw: adult language, implied violence, implied starvation, bruises, the prison industrial complex lol

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Sarah swore she'd had a plan when she stepped through the doors to the prison, but it had all gone to shit pretty quickly. 

Hugo had helped her fabricate an identity as a journalist, fake ID and online credentials and everything, and posed as the director of a web-newspaper to get her an interview with a low-level criminal at the Fielding Detention Center.

She was really there for Uriah.

Alexei had been the one who'd found the CEO—former CEO—shut up in one of the dingy cells. He'd broken into Fielding to try and collect information from a different inmate, but happened upon Fox instead.

"He's… he's just in some cell?"

"Should count himself lucky he's not in the Tower. Bastard's got enough enemies."

"Maybe we can use him."

Lex's expression had become unreadable when she'd said that, but Sarah could hear the way his heart sped up, the slight hitch in his breath.

She didn't want to work with that asshole either, but their resources were few and far between when it came to anything that could stand against Corp, and someone who'd once held power—someone who'd been betrayed by the rest of the city's leaders—could be a huge asset. Even if that someone was Uriah Fox.

If she could just talk to him, maybe he'd give her something they could use. As unpleasant as the man was, everything Sarah had heard about him told her he was petty as hell. He'd probably jump at the chance to strike back.

To Alexei's credit, he didn't try and convince her otherwise when she told him her plan.

Sneak in, have a chat, get lost before anyone important knows I'm there.

"Do what you want. As long as I don't have to look at him, I don't care."

She'd agreed at the time, but now, selfish as it was, Sarah almost wished she'd asked Lex to come with her. If things went south, it would be nice to have someone whose powers were good in a fight.

"Zhang is Chinese."

"Good morning," she said brightly to the guard at receptions. "I'm Andrea Zhang, with Skyline Weekly?"

She'd complained to Hugo about that one.

"It's the only profile on here that even remotely matches you. No one's gonna know."

"What if the guy who lets me in is Chinese?"

"Yeah, right."

Yeah. Right. He was white. Maybe in his thirties, with close-cropped brown hair. He regarded her with a bored expression, flipping through some papers on the desk.

"Zhang… Zhang… ah, here." He nodded to the door behind him. "That way. I'll buzz you in."

That easy, huh? Sarah figured she'd at least have to have one of those through-the-glass phone calls like on TV, but here she was, going into the prison proper without so much as an escort.

Certainly simplified matters.

Lex had already given her a general direction to look for Fox. She walked past the reinforced doors leading to the common area, cafeteria, and yard, all connected by this one long hall to give the guards easier access. Sarah peeked through the doors' embedded windows as she went, scanning the scattered groups of prisoners for any sign of Uriah. 

She wasn't all that shocked when she didn't see him. If he was here, it was because the rest of the Corp bigwigs wanted to forget him. Out of sight, out of mind.

She pressed on down the winding corridor, past more doors leading to cell blocks and supply closets and… was that the fucking room with the chairs and the bulletproof glass and the phones? They did have one, but the lazy-ass guard would rather send a journalist in alone than do the work to keep a civilian safe.

She shouldn't have expected anything less from the prison system in this city. With that level of neglect shown to citizens, how badly were they treating the inmates? Sarah had to push aside her disgust.  She had a mission. Even beyond the task of meeting Uriah, she needed to take down Corp. Once the city was free from their grasp, she could worry about the state of the prisons.

The further she went, the emptier it seemed to get. She was passing single cells now. The one she peeked into was practically featureless. A grate in the floor probably served as the bathroom, but other than that, there wasn't even a mattress. And there were a ton of similar doors.

Fucking hell, did they put every prisoner in solitary? It was completely inhumane— nope. No. Later.

Sarah closed her eyes, sharpening her hearing. Listening for movement, for heartbeats, would be quicker than checking every single door.

Of course, she picked up the usual annoyances. The sharp buzz of the fluorescent lights above her, the roar of the AC unit, even the slight hum of electricity traveling the building's inner wires. But somewhere in the muddle of sound, she could hear it.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

A heartbeat. Just one, so that was either a really great sign or a really bad one. She kept her eyes closed, running a hand along the wall to keep from running into anything, and followed the sound.

It grew louder and louder, until she had to re-dull her hearing to avoid being deafened by it. This was it. Fox was on the other side of this door.

And shit, there was only a single, small window in the door, high enough that she'd have to stand on her toes to peer in. And while she'd be able to hear him, he probably couldn't hear her. Did that mean she'd need to open the door? What if he tried something? Surely the asshole was desperate enough to—

Her thoughts were cut short as her ears picked up a small gasp inside. No, not a gasp, a wince.

Well that was almost to be expected. Someone like Fox was bound to incite a lot of brawls with his smarmy, self-important attitude.

But when she stood on her toes to get a look inside, she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth.

Lex had told her Uriah was here. She'd never thought to ask what state Uriah was in.

The blond man was curled up in the furthest corner of the tiny cell, thin arms wrapped around his bare chest, head tucked against his knees. A good chunk of his hair was matted with dried blood, and his skin was covered in purpling bruises. She couldn't see his face, but she could still pick out the bruises lining his jaw, color trickling in towards his mouth. Something inside her twinged, and Sarah decided she'd allow it. She didn't have to like Fox, but right now, it was pretty easy to pity him. Poor guy'd had the rug ripped out from under him, only to find a flight of stairs at his back.

She sharpened her hearing again, kneeling to get eye level with the doorknob. It was locked, as she'd expected, but good hearing was for more than just eavesdropping, and careful listening paired with a bobby pin made for quick work of the lock. She could hear Uriah's heart rate suddenly speed up as she turned the handle, and immediately softened her ears against it.

He lifted his head as she pushed the door open and stepped inside, pulling it closed if only to escape notice. His eyes were wide—well, one eye was wide, the other was practically swollen shut—and his face was gaunt and bloodied.

Sarah let out a breath. "Uh. Hi."

"S-Spyglass?"

"Ah, so you do remember me." She crossed her arms, then remembered she wanted to get him to cooperate, not scare him, and uncrossed them. "It's nice to know you at least knew who I was when you sent an assassin after me."

Uriah raised a shaking arm, as if to shield his face. "Please— I'm sorry, I—I know sorry doesn't m-mean anything, but please, please don't hurt me��"

Shit, that had probably sounded vaguely threatening. "No, no. I'm… I'm not here for revenge or whatever." She sighed. "I… actually had a few questions for you."

"I'll tell you anything you want, I'll comply, please don't—"

"I'm not trying to hurt you," Sarah cut in. Had she sounded threatening again? Was it possible to not sound threatening to the poor guy right now? She tried again.

"I have some information I really need. I won't hurt you if you can't answer my questions, okay? They're just questions."

She waited for Fox to nod. He never took his eyes off her.

"First, do you know of any fail-safes in place for the Hero CEOs? Backup plans that let Corp get away scott-free if we do manage to pin something big on them?" Like how they used you as a scapegoat? She didn't say that part out loud. If that wound wasn't still fresh, it was constantly being re-opened in this environment.

Uriah nodded, but didn't actually say anything. She tried to keep her voice soft as she prompted,

"Like what?"

"I… I don't know, I… I can't remember. E-everything I had, everything good, was on my personal network."

"Network?" Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"Computer. A—a specific computer."

She sighed. "Which I don't imagine you currently have on you."

"I'm sorry—"

"Stop." Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do you know where this specific computer is?"

"Still at Titanium. In a—a vault."

"That I presume you know how to access?"

He nodded.

"Tell me." It would be a fucking doozy of a mission, but that computer could be a gold mine. Secrets, conspiracy, fail-safes… Corp's dirty laundry. If they could break in, maybe Hugo could hack the network.

"There's a code."

"Of course."

"A-and a fingerprint scanner."

"Of. Course." Fucking of course. Because there had to be something there special enough that Uriah Fox would just have to be brought along. It was entirely possible he was making that part up in a bid to get free. If Lex were here, he'd suggest just cutting off a finger, and she'd be hard-pressed to ignore the idea.

But despite her annoyance, despite knowing the truth of Uriah Fox, that he was a power-hungry, horrible man who was willing to send assassins after literal children to keep his reputation, she felt kind of queasy at the thought of hurting the trembling thing he'd become.

She… she needed time. She needed a new plan. The info about the computer was great, but she doubted Fox would be able to offer much more in this state. 

As she opened the door, peeking outside, Uriah piped up behind her.

"Where..?"

"I need to think. Thanks for the answers." She stepped out—

"Wait! Please… please, take me with you."

Her stomach sank, laden with equal parts dismay and pity. Yeah, his situation sucked, but the idea of keeping him around, of bringing him back to the team… no thank you. If the fingerprint bit was true, they'd find a way to synthesize it, and they shouldn't need Fox to get into the laptop.

"Sarah, please—"

"Using my name won't help." She did look back then, and wished she hadn't. Fox was on his hands and knees, looking up at her with teary, pleading eyes.

"You're a hero. Y-you save people."

Real heroes save everyone. Hadn't she told Lex that? Did it make her a hypocrite then, to want to turn her back on the person responsible for so much of her misery? Who'd killed her old team leader, who'd tortured one of her friends for a year?

Maybe it did. But it still felt justified.

"I was a hero," she said. "You made me a rogue."

She pulled the door closed behind her, dulling her hearing to lessen the sharpness of Uriah's pleas, and began to briskly walk back down the hallway.

With the uninspiring security, she probably could've walked right out the front doors without signing out, but Sarah stopped by the desk again anyway.

"Zhang," the guard mumbled. "Done so soon?"

"I got what I needed," Sarah offered, clutching the pen a little too long after signing her name in the visitor log. "I… heard a rumor while I was inside."

"A rumor?"

She set the pen down. "Yeah. Supposedly Uriah Fox is in here somewhere." What was she saying? Was she about to threaten the guard into treating Fox better?

"Is that what you heard?"

"It's what I heard. Though I didn't see any sign of him, so I don't know how true it is."

His eyes darted to the pen at her fingertips. "Off the record?"

Sarah nodded. "Off the record."

The guard leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, Fox is here, all right."

She feigned surprise. "Really? What did he do? I heard it was something about embezzlement?"

"Something like that," the guard agreed.

"Where is he?" Sarah ventured. "Like I said, I didn't see him."

"He's been in solitary for a while now," the guard replied.

A while. How long was a while? How long had it been since he'd been thrown out? Two months? Three?

"What did he do?"

"Existed." The guard chuckled. "They put a man like that---who's spent his entire life stepping on other people---in a cell block filled to the brim with men who've been screwed over by him and others like him. What'd you think would happen?" He thumbed through the stack of papers on his desk idly. "The first few weeks, it was all we could do to keep him alive. It's a miracle he's still kicking, honestly." He leaned in, conspiratorially. "Between you and me, there's at least two guards on staff who have beef with the guy, and I know they've been paying him visits."

Sarah grit her teeth, trying to make it sound casual when she replied, "And you aren't stopping them?"

"Why would I? It's Fox."

It's Fox.

That was her logic, too. Why would I? It's Fox.

Why would I?

Because real heroes save everyone. And whether Uriah likes it or not, I'm still a hero.

She forced a smile, rolling the pen back to the guard. "Well, have a great day," she said, not waiting for him to reply before turning on her heel and marching out the doors.

Whether she liked it or not, she'd be back. And Fox would be leaving with her.

She'd be back.

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@whumpacabra @enteredin2eternity @kixngiggles @whumpsday @kiichu @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump @shywhumpauthor @distinctlywhumpthing , @bloodinkandashes , @fleur-alise , @whumpy-daydreams

and @whumpwillow @turn-the-tables-on-them this one's for you guys lol