Because I Can

Dormant

He was so tired.

Gods, he was exhausted.

He didn't even bother collecting, far too afraid that if he tried, he'd end up falling on his face....again.

He didn't even know he could get this tired, he hasn't felt this way since- since before he got these shadows.

As a matter of fact, he didn't need to sleep or eat or anything since that night, but now-

Now he was trying to navigate through a forest. The odd exhaustion had started the day before, one moment he was collecting a soul and then the next, the world had suddenly tilted sideways.

The soul was from a rich Old lady, whose time was finally up. Collecting had been easy and he had felt fine- ok, maybe a headache or a migraine or two, but nothing he couldn't deal with- it was the moment after the collection that it happened. A bone deep exhaustion had suddenly over-took him the moment he tried to take his leave.

Thankfully when he teleported away from her room, he landed on the balcony and not the edge of the cliff she lived on for some reason.

Of course, anyone else would have called it a day feeling the way he felt, but he was stubborn. There was only one soul left for the day after all, he could handle that...right?

----

Gods was he wrong.

The last soul, a child with leukaemia, this collection didn't go as planned. It didn't go wrong just...not as planned.

The mother of the boy was there, on her knees clasping his weak hand and pressing her forehead against it. She wasn't bawling, but whispering something as tears streamed down her face.

He could only assume that she was praying for someone, something, anything to save her child- that is until he got closer.

"Just please, please take his pain away. Don't let him suffer anymore. Take him, take him if it means he'll be free!"

Of all his three years of being a Reaper, not once had he heard a mother wish her child death in order for them to be free. Usually it was for them to somehow make it alive. The child would be in tremendous pain of course, but alive. This mother didn't want her child to suffer at all.

Something he could relate to, he always thought it was easy to remove souls from the sick and elderly because it ended their suffering, he didn't like to see people suffer.

The mother continued her pleas, but he was no longer listening, he had a job to do and if that counted as a wish fulfilment to the crying woman, well that was his good deed for the year.

He stepped closer to the boy but the same thing as before happened again. The bone deep exhaustion practically seeped into his very being. Wincing he forced himself to remain up right, just barely managing to not stagger back or collapse. He hissed softly as his head spun but successfully quelled the nausea to focus on the task at hand.

A gasp from his side caused him to flinch, he turned only to find the once crying mother staring up at him with wide eyes.

---

He expected her to scream or plead for her child's life, say she didn't mean for him to truly be taken, but instead she blinked. Looking towards her son and then back at him before standing up, placing a kiss on the boy's forehead, stepping back and letting the child's hand go.

He was quite surprised at the action but when she silently nodded at him, he understood. He gave a small nod back in reply and walked towards the child. He ever only had one person watch as he collected and he hoped that his shadows masked the shaking of his shoulders.

There were two ways to collect a soul, with a scythe or an extended hand. He knew how to do both, his scythe was positioned in his left hand, ready for use but he didn't need to use it. Not here at least.

Instead he held out his right hand, palm up and shadow covered fingers straight, after a second he curled them. When the 'come hither' motion was complete, a blue orb of light lifted out of the child's chest and landed in his hand.

He turned to the mother, orb cradled carefully in his palm, she took a step closer and he grew nervous. Humans we're not supposed to see Reapers but a few could, he would know, he was one of them after all.

The mother didn't move any closer, something he was grateful for, instead she gazed upon the orb and sadly whispered to it. "Bye baby, say hi to Mamia for me ok?"

Strangely enough, the orb then began to pulse in the Reaper's hand before disappearing. Something he himself had seen happen many times before, but this time it was different. Ignoring the breech of usual procedure- because that was all he could do and he had bigger problems to deal with at the moment- he faced the mother again, this time she was looking directly at him.

"Thank you", her voice cracked and her eyes watered over but she gave him a smile. A shaky one but a smile nonetheless.

He gave her a nod and teleported away.

---

He appeared in an empty park, heart pounding beneath his shadows.

The interaction was odd, he had never expected to be seen but what was worse was the almost cold exhaustion that was following him around. He managed to ignore it for the most part but now his hands were shaking, so much so his scythe rattled.

There was something wrong.

Choking back the panic he was feeling he recalled something Logan had told him after his initial days of training.

"You can come to me of you need a break"

A break, yeah, that's what he needed. A break to figure out what was going on. And probably some permission to take a nap? Gods he was exhausted.

He teleported once more, to the forest Logan considered his domain.

Unfortunately for him he didn't pop straight into the elder's office, he ended up a small distance away. Fortunately, all he had to do was go straight.

Groaning internally, he trudged forward, each step felt like a weight was being placed upon him. He staggered a few times, mumbling curses under his breath but kept moving.

----

After a few minutes, his vision had begun to swim, thankfully he could still sense where he was going, even with his eyes closing on him every few seconds. Pros and Cons of the shadows he supposed.

Somewhere during the movement from one tree to the next, he recalled the rest of his mentor's words and they rang coldly in his ear.

"You can come to me if you need a break, but this isn't an offer to take lightly. I am under no circumstance obliged to do so. I don't want to see you here early"

Shit, was three years too early?

His own thoughts betrayed him and he stumbled to his knees, thankfully not too far from the entrance. Logan would find him-

"Virgil!"

Speak of the devil.

However, the Dark blue Reaper did not seem happy to see him, damn, maybe three years was too early.

---

"Honestly, did you not listen to what I had told you? Do you even care about this deal? How could you be so despicably lazy?!"

Virgil bowed his head, his mentor was obviously right, he was given ten years max-

"How many have you even collected, hmm?" Logan's voice dropped into a growl, causing shivers to go down the younger Reaper's spine.

"30,660", he whispered shakily. He hated being yelled at, it always made him more anxious.

"What? That's..." the elder Reaper paused, looking at Virgil wide eyed and confused as he didn't believe that was possible.

The elder Reaper frowned, lifting a finger and curling it under his lip. A motion Virgil learned that he used whenever he was in deep thought.

After a moment of silence he spoke again.

"I take it back, it seems I owe you an apology. You're obviously not as lazy as I first presumed. To have collected that much in such a short span of time means you would've had to have walked both day and night"


Virgil didn't answer verbally, his head was pounding and his body ached, haunching, he gave his mentor single nod as reply.

"For how long?" Logan's voice was softer now, sorry and concerned.

"Until now", he grit out.

"Until...? It's been three years! By the graces, how are you not ill?! What were you thinking? Rest!"

"What?"

"You heard me, rest. It's a miracle you're even alive, your powers may protect you from the elements but you are not invincible"

Virgil hunched further in on himself, the pounding in his head increasing. Logan ran a gentle hand across his face, a move that was so quick and light it could have easily been missed in the blink of an eye.
"At least the żyłkacień haven't set in", whispered Logan sighing. Virgil had no idea what he was talking about but he was too tired and in too much pain to pay much attention to it.

As if seeing this, his mentor, in an odd attempt of comfort, placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't want you doing this ever again understand me?"

Virgil gave one more pained nod and Logan sighed again. "Your goal was 65,320. You're almost half way there, and in an impressively short amount of time no less. By your second round about you should have more than enough"

The number flashed in Virgil's mind, it had been haunting him for the past three years. He did not miss the significance of his mentor's statement, he was close to the end goal, close to fulfilling the deal.

"Then will you save him?" the words tumbled out of his mouth without warning. Thankfully not demanding but still much too soft and hurt for his liking.

"I gave you my word on the day we met, I'm not one for changing my mind-"

Virgil narrowed his eyes, "you just did for me"


"...yes well, rare exceptions", the younger Reaper would have laughed, if he could, at the way Logan paled. He did, however manage a smirk, which received an eye-roll from his mentor.

"Now rest", continued the elder, "it would do you, nor him, any good if you fall ill. You came to me for a break did you not? Then take it and when you're truly rested, then you continue"

Virgil, closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, he was so tired. "...thank you"

"Don't thank me yet", muttered Logan as he lifted his hand. "I have to place them in dormancy"

"ok..." whispered the younger Reaper.

He honestly didn't know what exactly his mentor meant but he figured it would have to do with his shadows. He didn't bother opening his eyes, they were too heavy anyway. He trusted that Logan would be able to fix whatever was wrong with him.

----

There was a pull...pulling, something was pulling him backwards? He peeled his eyes open to see his shadows being absorbed into his mentor's hand. Is this what he meant by dormancy?


Virgil didn't have time to further question it because his mind suddenly went blank, and he drifted into a haze, where for a moment, nothing mattered. As the pulling became stronger, the heavy weight of his exhaustion and the pounding in his head had started lifting. His vision however, started to spin rapidly and so did his surroundings.

Strangely enough, he wasn't dizzy, the sky was just moving fast in a circle, as were the trees, all in a circle. The blue mixed with the greens and the browns, he knew the blue was from the sky and the green from the trees but he had no clue where the brown came from-

Until the ground came up to meet his face.

He lay there shocked for a second. His brain trying to process what had just occurred.

He...fell?

He fell and he was on the ground now...
Maybe he should get off the ground?
But it felt nice...

His eyes gazed at some of the shifting shadows above him, they were disappearing into Logan's hand.

He watched them go and as they faded...his eyes...slowly...closed.

----

"...wake..."

Virgil's eyes snapped open.

He blinked, wondering what exactly got him on the forest floor. His memories then came rushing back to him rather quickly and he groaned in embarrassment. Blacking out was one thing, bit blacking out in front of your Mentor was another.

He looked up to see a smirking Logan. Pouting slightly, he watched as the Dark blue Reaper then snapped his fingers and vanished. Leaving but a mere trace of his shadow behind.

Virgil blinked again, only just taking in the fact that his Mentor left him on the ground.

"You can't just leave people powerless on the forest floor Logan", he shouted at no one.

"I wasn't going to but because you called me that name, I will", the elder Reaper's voice rang out on an echo of laughter.

Virgil chuckled to himself, his Mentor always hated when he called him that name. He didn't see the big deal, it wasn't his fault that he could only pronounce that part of the guy's name.

-----

The now dormant Reaper contemplated on whether he should just stay on the ground until Logan felt sorry for him or get up and go to his apartment. The little area was frozen in time and shadow, so it should be quiet enough to sleep...but did he really want to risk being so close to him and not being able to see him?

He wasn't supposed to see him until he finished collecting all 65,320 souls and if he did, the deal was off. What if he accidentally checked on him and then he disappeared forever? No, he couldn't risk that.

Maybe he could sleep under a tree in that one meadow he saw? It was quiet there too, it had a little pond, a huge shady oak tree and everything...but it was far and teleportation might mean instant unconsciousness. Huh, guess he was going to wait for Logan after all.

He settled himself for a nap right where he lay. No one in their right mind would disturb him, he was in his Mentor's domain after all. Besides, the elder Reaper would probably be back in a few minutes, likely just doing some paperwork or simply peeved at him from using his nickname.

He let his eyes droop, he was tired enough to just drift off instantly if he tried but the moment he closed his eyes, he heard a twig snap.

His eyes snapped open and he sprung up from his position, scanning for the source of the disturbance.

His eyes locked with a familiar lightbeam's instantly.

"You! What are you doing here?!"