Super•Villainous

Interlude

Tectonic couldn't have done that much damage without his interference, though. That much was certain.

It had all been planned, a ploy in order to show the local elites what a great threat these villains posed, and then show them where their money was going when the Supers swooped in to save the day.

His Guardian called it a 'necessary evil', even joking that the phrase ought to be the boy's new alias. Instead, they named him Fate: inoffensive, neutral, and it gave a sense of predestination, sounding less outwardly villainous. After all, on occasion he had also been known to grant good luck to the highest bidder, wealthy politicians running for higher elected office and the like.

A necessary evil, Fate repeated to himself. His mantra. Only occasionally did he stop to consider if the alternative to the unconscionable things he perpetuated in the name of good was really so much worse.

He reconsidered his doings again when the girl made her escape alongside that villain weeks later. The two played it off as an abduction, but Fate knew better, because he'd hardly taken his attention off her since she first snuck up the stairs into the Elder's private quarters. He'd tried to ignore her, despite the many oaths he took in allegiance to the Guild's best interests. He really, really tried, but the sight of his Mark had a way of drawing him in, the way a child stumbles after the sinking sun while lost at dusk.

Seeing her so clearly up to no good all but confirmed his suspicions about why he must have cursed her in the distant past. Trouble like that no doubt deserved it. Feeling simultaneously vindicated and slightly betrayed, he watched in dreaded anticipation as his Guardian began to climb those same stairs minutes later, another two Elder's at his side. Fate saw the threads of his power at work, a contrast of her ill-fortune against the great fortune Fate granted his Guardian for the evening, drawing the unknowing Guild leader to catch a crime in action.

That wasn't why Fate gave him the luck, of course. His Guardian enjoyed the rush of the whole world - destiny - swaying to appease him, so Fate Marked him as often as the power could be spared. That night, and every night when his Guardian interacted with the wealthy and powerful, they found an excuse for Fate to stick close. For the money. For the connections. They contrived a million reasons.

And Fate did not protest. Such was his penance. Serve. Protect. Atone.

So, although he could have changed things, perhaps thrown a burst of poor fortune the Guild leader's way that enticed a donor to stop the man for a quick chat just long enough for the girl to finish her forbidden inquiries, Fate did no such thing. She deserved whatever came next.

She needed to find her own atonement for choosing the wrong side.

But seeing her obvious fear as she rushed back down the stairs, seeing her throw her lot in with the very person she ought to have felt the most fear towards, gave Fate pause. No, that didn't quite grasp the crux of it. Rather, it felt like he'd been gutted, like he should have cared that she was scared, even though it made no sense. It was a twisted sense of protectiveness that he didn't understand.

As though from far away, he thought he could hear a child's scream, a mother's plea to calm down, and a tearful, "I don't want to die, Charlie".

The words struck him through the middle. Charlie. Who was that?

Why did that girl, someone he apparently knew, make him almost remember? Why did he then cast a small curse of bad fortune upon the door she'd been struggling to break down, so that it fell open easily beneath her desperate grasp?

Why, after she and that villain escaped and Fate picked up her fallen pocket knife she had used to try to break the lock, did he find the engraving CVB, and know with a soul-certain confidence, more certain than he'd ever been about anything in his short remembered life, that the C stood for Charlie?