#the pain always starts after chidi promises eleanor something

[prettylittlearrowfangirl]

Chidi in 1x01: Eleanor, I swear that I will never say or do anything to cause you any harm.

Chidi in 4x03: Eleanor, I swear to you I will look after Jianyu as if he is my own brother.

[shebeafancyflapjack]

King Takes Knight (Part 6)

Eleanor has a choice.

(Part One)

(Part Two)

(Part Three)

(Part Four)

(Part Five)

“Okay. If you’re gonna do this. You need to have a plan.”

-

Eleanor closes the door to Michael’s office. Funny, she still thinks of it as his, even when she’s spent more time occupying it alone so far this year. She tries to avoid being here alone. It’s far too painful to sit in the big chair and watch the door, wishing with all her heart that the dumb demon will waltz back in, safe and sound, at any moment.

She walks across the room and around the desk. His jacket is still thrown over the back of the chair from when he quickly got changed between Mindy’s and the train station. The stains from Glenn’s goo seem to have evaporated. 

There’s a tug in her chest as she strokes the fabric.

-

“I have a plan! I’m gonna lift the barricade up, disguise myself as a Bad Janet, go in, find Michael and get him out. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Fun fact, a man named John White invented the lemon squeezer because they’re not easy to squeeze at all-.”

“Okay, no, that plan sucks. It’s exactly what they’ll expect because it’s what you already did. You can’t go in there on your own.”

Janet frowns; “Are you going to suggest you guys come too? Because as you said, that’s the last thing Michael would want, for you guys to be put in danger. I’m not mortal, the threat to my wellbeing is less of a risk, and you can always ask the Judge for a reset in the event of a second capture.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest that...But we’re not your only option.” Eleanor says, looking over to Derek in the corner, licking a light bulb like a popsicle.

-

Her hands pick the jacket up. She holds it close to her front, inhaling the scent in the collar. That strange smell she always picked up whenever near to Michael, like something out of an old attic and yet sweeter than chocolate and warm like a nearby bonfire tickles her nose.

Fingers curl tightly into the grey wool. She doesn’t want this to be the most she has left of him anymore. She wants him back.

The doofus had one job to do for her and he couldn’t...

Eleanor sighs and slips her arms into the jacket before taking a seat in the chair. It’s far too big for her, almost like an overcoat or a bathrobe. She wraps it tight around her frame as she slumps back in the seat. Something about wearing it makes her feel as if he’s there, the same reason why she always takes one of Chidi’s sweaters to bed with her, like a needy kid with a security blanket.

All her life she secretly dreamed of having at least one person to truly love her. Then two come along at once and they both end up sacrificing themselves. 

Couldn’t she have fallen in love with someone as selfish as her?

“Hey Eleanor.” Janet bings in front of the desk.

She jumps, starting a little, pulling her face out of the collar she had been close to crying into.

“I wasn’t doing anything.” She hurriedly covers, sitting up straight, attempting some semblance of dignity; “W-what’s up?”

“I’ve finished making enough Janet babies I need to take with me. They’re all boarded on the train, including the clones of you guys. Even I gotta say, they’re pretty creepy. But great idea!” 

Eleanor just nods, fingers tapping the desk. If she couldn’t come with Janet on the rescue mission then the best she could do was lend her strategic skills. 

“And the demon exploders?” Thanks for that, Bad Janet.

“I think I was able to improve on the design after examining the one Michael handed to me before he...” She cuts herself off, “We’ll be fine, Eleanor. I made quite a few in case they rumble us.”

“If you have to, be sure to burst a few for me, won’t you.” She tells her sexy not-robot friend; “And please...be safe, babe.”

And bring him back, she doesn’t say, almost as if it was asking too much.

It doesn’t need saying. 

“We’ll be back before you know it. Literally, because you won’t be alerted of my train coming in with me gone and Derek’s sensor is busted.”

She bings out of the room. Eleanor sits back again, arms wrapped around herself and the jacket. Now she’s back to where she was a few months ago, wishing for her friends safe return, while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. She has no choice. She has to stay. Put the experiment first. It’s what Michael and Chidi both sacrificed themselves for. It would be insulting them if she were to make it all for nothing.

-

*

-

It must be a trick.

They’ve got bored of the freezing and the hooks and the violent fish. Now they wanna screw up his head. He already hallucinates, isn’t that enough? He would normally think this was just another one of those but...Nicole’s goo drips from his nose. Yep, she definitely blew up.

And there, almost a yard behind her, is....the Impossible.

Eleanor stands with Bad Janet’s demon exploder clutched in her hand, arms straightened in front of her, blue goo from other demons staining her red sweater and the black leather jacket he hasn’t seen her wear in a while. Sneaky little so-and-so. Did she really come all the way down here, shooting her way through immortal guards, to...rescue...him...?

He would laugh, if the wave of exhaustion wasn’t crushing him down, as well as the wires in his mouth. It’s too much. He’s held out for far too long and now his mind has snapped. 

Don’t fall for it, Mike. Don’t give them the satisfaction of hoping.

She wanted him gone. Out of her hair for good. She wanted him to-

His body goes slack in his ice chains as the underworld goes dark.

-

*

-

He loves you.

He lied.

He loves you.

He tortured them for centuries and lied about it, over eight hundred times.

He loves you.

He didn’t trust her enough to say what he really was underneath the suit. He thought she was shallow enough to not want to be friends with him after finding out he’s some giant flaming squid. He was supposed to be her best friend! Did he think so little of her? After all those weeks of supporting her, encouraging her, giving her a shoulder to cry on, followed by a gentle kick up the ash to get her shirt together?

And as if she was going to be all soft and reassure him of how much he meant to her after the crab he put her through that night. He expected her to be the one to apologise!?

He loves you.

You must know that. You’re not an idiot.

Oh...the stupid demon loves her enough to disobey her one order and not come back safe! The stupid demon offers to blow himself up in order to give her peace of mind when she doesn’t trust him and leave her in charge of this shirt show on her own. The dumb, reckless ash-hole stayed behind to be tortured, again, for their sakes...Not for the first time. 

Fork. She is an idiot!

Eleanor shrugs off the jacket and grabs her own leather one off the back of the door. She has a train to catch.

-

*

-

Damn it, why didn’t she take a better coat with her? Or a scarf? Or gloves?

The chamber she discovers Michael in is like a huge igloo. Every surface seems to be made of ice except, thank Kim, the floor, or else she’d be falling flat on her ass as soon as she strode in after taking out the slutty demoness who had been messing with Michael. Eleanor steels herself, braving the cold and letting the adrenaline warm her up after having snuck her way down here, taking out a few necessary obstacles on the way with her new favorite toy.

Her heart beats terribly fast as she spots Michael chained up, pale as a ghost, slumped in the shackles they’ve put him in. His clothes are ragged and torn up, the wounds from where he’s been recently cut and sliced and scalded all too evident to the naked eye.

“Michael...!” She breathes his name as she reaches him, finding no response as his head rolls forward; “Michael, I’m here! Wake up!”

She puts her hands to his chin and tries to lift it up, cringing at the awful sight of what they’ve done to his mouth. Jesus! 

Digging around in what remains of the slutty demon’s goo and dress fragments, she eventually finds the key to the shackles. She fumbles with it in the locks as she works to set him free. 

As she works to open the second one, she drops it. Fuck! Get it together, Shellstrop! They could come in at any moment!

She scoops it up and turns it in the blisteringly cold metal. 

Michael tumbles to the ground in a heap of long limbs.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Eleanor curses as she fails to catch up, the dumb tree too much for her to attempt to lift upright on her own. She kneels over him; “Dude, c’mon! Come on, get up! Michael!”

Her fingers brush against her cheek and-

“FUCK!” She curses, pulling her hand back.

He’s almost too cold to touch. There’s flecks of snow on his eyelashes and in his white hair, lines on his face deeper than she remembers, skin sunken in, littered with black and purple marks. 

Eleanor places one hand on his back, the other on his chest, just barely able to keep hold of him with the remnants of his shirt beneath her palms.

She wishes she could feel his heartbeat, if he had one.

Just some sign, anything, anything at all...that he’s going to open his eyes again. That she wasn’t too late.

“Michael, you need to get up! You can’t bail on me now, please, not after I finally got here! You gotta come home, dude....I can’t do this without you. Just wake the fuck up before-.” Her teeth start to chatter as she hears footsteps racing from outside.

Someone’s coming. More guards? The Janet baby army? A couple were lost on the way, marbleised, before Eleanor was able to zap the guards. Then she had to abandon the rest in order to get to the location Janet sent over the intercom to one of her baby’s, Ralfio’s, mouth. 

Eleanor has no idea what’s about to come through that door. Friend or foe. Janet(s) or demons. 

She’s not giving up now.

Keeping hold of Michael on her lap, she sets her jaw, getting out the demon exploder from her jacket pocket, firing it up.

“I won’t let them touch you, bud. Not again.” She whispers, clutching his lifeless skinsuit close to her front; “That’s a promise.”

Her hand is steady around the weapon, her eyes glaring with hellfire at the entrance. She forgets about the cold.

Just try to take him away from me again, demon scum. Just try it.

(illustration by @star-pepper​ xx)

[shebeafancyflapjack]

King Takes Knight (Part 4)

Promises were broken. 

(TW: torture and captivity)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

He hates to pull away from Tahani’s embrace, from the softness of her luxurious hair against his cheek. Her lip wobbles as she attempts to smile at him, holding back the smallest of tears pricking her eyes. She can’t bring herself to say anymore parting words, enough air trapped in her throat with worry, so Michael just gives her cheek a brief stroke with his thumb.

“We’ll be back before you know it. All of us.” He tells her, which may be turn out to be another lie. He hopes not.

She nods and moves aside to hug Jason. He turns to see Eleanor standing in front of him. He tenses, not really sure he can handle more talk about how badly he screwed up, right when he’s about to go riding into actual Hell.

“I’m gonna give you one job, okay. Even you should be able to handle that much.” She tells him.

He nods; “Bring back Janet. You don’t need to tell me-.”

“No, that’s Jason’s. Your job is to keep that brave doofus safe...and to make sure you all come back in one piece. I mean it,” She prods her index finger against his chest; “I don’t wanna see a single cut on that skin-suit or you’re on dinner duty for a month.”

“I’m always the one who gets dinner.”

“Yeah but...without magic or Janet.”

He shrugs; “Oh, I’ve been meaning to learn to cook!”

“Look, I haven’t had time to think of a suitable threat! So just say ‘Yes, Boss’ and know that I’m gonna be pissed if any of you get hurt down there, got it?” She raises her voice, the hint of uncertainty rearing its head.

Michael gets it now. He stands up straight; “Yes, Boss.”

He tries to reach his arms out to her, only for her to take a step back. His chest aches, hard. Still a little mad then. She doesn’t look it but...

“No hugs. Hugs are for goodbye and this isn’t gonna be that. There! That’s my threat! Come back safe or no hug!”

It’s a pretty lame threat but he pretends to look horrified, all the same. 

“Yes, Boss.”

-

Wafts of steam float from his nostrils and the tiny slit in his lips. Everything around him is dark blue, sheets of ice coating every surface. There’s only the dimmest of lighting above, they don’t leave him in complete darkness. It’s enough for him to see how alone he is. It’s enough for him to never want to have to look at snow or ice again in his existance.

It’s enough to hallucinate, to fill the empty stage with figments of his tormented and bored psyche. 

“I gave you one job.” She tells him, stood a metre away.

The first time, he had yanked against his chains, wordlessly begged for salvation. For freedom. He’d been foolish enough to believe it was finally over.

It’s started happening enough now for him to be aware what’s happening.

But there’s still that slight, crushing realism that makes her words as hurtful as ever.

“You couldn’t do the one thing I asked of you? It was bad enough you lumbered me with this job that was supposed to be yours before you chickened out, now you leave me to handle it on my own!” Eleanor snarls at him; “You should have been able to fight them off and escape but look at you...Pathetic, Mikey. You always were. A useless demon and a failed wannabe angel.”

He closes his eyes and bows his head, body jittering against the chill and the bluntness of her words.

It’s not real. She’s not real. She’s not here. She’s safe.

Even if she probably would be saying these things if she were here...It doesn’t matter. It’s not her.

“Maybe Shawn is right. Maybe this is where you’re supposed to be. You betrayed your own kind and then you betrayed us by lying. You’re nothing but a dirty, cowardly traitor. I hope you rot here.”

He’s torn between tearing up and laughing at the almost cliche insults his own mind is creating to throw at him. They’re becoming beyond a joke. He knows full well what he is. The only reason his not-brain is creating these illusions are something to fill the time between Shawn’s torture games.

It’s either that or sit and suffer the cold. He struggles to imagine what being warm...what being held felt like.

Her face hovers before him as if she were kneeling down to find his eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about me, bud. Once this is over, Chidi will wake up and I’ll have the person back at my side who I trust...Who I love. Who’s never let me down like you did.” She sneers, resentment in her grey-green eyes piercing into him; “...Don’t flatter yourself by thinking I’ll be missing you.”

When the side door opens, he almost weeps with relief, as it casts away the ghost for a moment. Whatever horrors they have planned for him is preferable to...that.

A shoe moves forward and pressed down on one of the nails in his foot. He yelps, the wounds still feeling raw after all this time...

Fork. He doesn’t want to know how long it’s been.

“I thought you might want to hear some...interesting news, Mike.” Shawn leans to hiss in his ear; “I just got word that someone has lifted the blockade brought down by your Good Janet. Now...I think there’s enough of your teeny mind left in there to work out who might have done that....”

He starts to shake harder, eyes widening.

Shawn’s fingers pinch the back of his neck.

“Looks like our little video bait worked a treat. And now your pretty slave-robot is on her way to try and save you...And she’s gonna be walking right into our trap. We better get it ready, don’t you think?”

Michael tries to open his mouth against the bindings to speak, blocking out the pain of the metal tearing his mouth. He’ll beg. He’ll threaten. He’ll do whatever it takes to-

Something large whacks him over the head and he falls on his side.

“Oh, I’m afraid you won’t be here when she arrives. She’ll be coming here for you, no doubt, but you’re going somewhere were no one apart from myself is ever going to find you again.”

No, no, Janet, please! Don’t come! Stay away!

There’s a snap. Something goes over his head and everything is black.