Thunder boomed in the background, lightning crackling across the sky as it began to rain. Despite this Cassie didn't move from where she was kneeling next to her fathers body. His blood was still fresh on her hands and caked under her nails, but she had not been the one to kill him; he had done that himself.
Rain drops mixed with the girl's tears that dripped down her cheeks like a waterfall. She had said she would kill him but now she understood that her father had been backed into a corner, he felt he had no other options and he was haunted by his actions.
Maybe just maybe she could have rebuilt her relationship with him in time. If what he had told her was true the presence she had always felt watching her was him indirectly looking after her in his own way. While not the best he still seemed to care about her and her future. After all, he had been the one to get her into U.A through recommendation.
Cassie whimpered as another clap of thunder drowned out her cries, her hands desperately trying to wipe away the blood from her fingers onto the grass as she fought back the urge to throw up. She was scared and alone and no one was there to comfort her.
The city had been evacuated several hours back, the raid having ended, villains and heroes alike all cleared out leaving the shell of their mess. Sure they would be back eventually but not at the moment and Cassie wasn't sure when they would be.
Her classmates were probably back in their dorms, dry and safe as they rested up after a long day of fighting but here she was next to a dead body, her own father's corpse. Cassie quietly wondered if anyone had noticed if she was gone, if Ray or Shoto were somewhere out there searching for her. If any of her other friends were worried for her safety.
She wanted to go home, wanted to wrap herself in a blanket and curl up in Todoroki's arms while he and Ray did their best to comfort her. " Dad..." Cassie whispered to the man who lay below her his eyes open and blank, his once bright golden irises, dulled and lifeless.
He had a peaceful smile on his face like he had died happily and on his own terms and in a way he had. The girl reached out with a trembling hand. She gently closing his eyes, choking back another loud sob that threatened to rip from her throat.
She wanted to scream, wanted to run away back to the heights alliance and her friends but she couldn't just leave her father's body here, he deserved some kind of burial. The pinkette took a large ragged breath of air, feeling it fill her lungs like a balloon as she activated her quirk. Cassie gently shifted the ground around the man's body watching him sink into the dirt as she worked. This would only be a temporary grave until she could relocate him somewhere better, maybe near the cottage she had glimpsed in her memories.
Once her fathers body was completely enveloped by the earth Cassie covered the surrounding area with flowers. However temporary his resting place may be Cassie still wanted to be respectful. This was her own way of saying goodbye to him and now that he was gone maybe she could move forward finally.
Things could have been different, if her father hadn't listened to the commission, if he had taken his own path or if he had just somehow managed to get to her mothers side a little sooner. Maybe he and her mother would have gotten married and Cassie would have been the flower girl.
Christmas would be full of laughter and presents and Cassie wouldn't have to wonder when she were going to be kicked out of the Magnolia house for sneaking away because she wouldn't have been there in the first place.
She and Ray would run around her mothers house without having to be yelled at by their caretakers. She would help her mother bake cookies and surprise her father with them. And maybe just maybe she would sit too close to the television and watch her dad in action on the TV until her mother would tell her it was time for bed.
Cassie wondered what it would feel like to be hugged by her parents when she was sad, how happy she would feel going home every day just to be greeted by their wide happy smiles, she would no longer be jealous of the other kids around her when they talked about how cool their parents were because she too would be able to brag about her own family.
The pinkette had been robbed of that joy however, and she couldn't get it back. There was no point in dwelling on the past as her very last connection to it had just died. Cassie knew her parents were out there somewhere looking down on her and she wanted to make them proud and so she would. But first she had to get home, she had to tell Ray what happened and ask how the blue haired girl's fight had gone. And after a hot shower she had to curl up with Todoroki to soothe her nerves.