Archive of Our Own

William was a coward.

That was common knowledge, of course. Whenever something got risky, he ran away. There was nothing he could do to stop himself from running, nothing he could do to convince himself to stay. He wasn’t brave like Dakota and he wasn’t steadfast and loyal like Vyncent. 

So, after he had behaved horribly in his step-brother’s skyscraper, he ran. He dropped his weapons- his shotgun, his chainsaw, and his axe- and he ran.Well, ran was an overstatement. He simply walked until he couldn’t anymore. He walked until there was no civilization around him, until there was mere desert and hills and tumbleweeds.

He forgot how tired bodies could get, how it felt like his legs would collapse under him. It was a horrible feeling. He couldn’t help but cherish it. He hadn’t felt this way in so, so long. He hadn’t felt much of anything in so long. Sure, he had the whole ‘holding up the world with his friends’ thing during his training, but it wasn’t as bad in his mind. Then, at least, there was an end goal. He had help. He had Vyncent and Dakota by his side. Now? Now, it was just him in the desert.

Well, just him and the malevolent presence he felt behind him. He didn’t have to turn around to know that there was a man with hair shaped like horns standing just a few paces back. He couldn’t deal with people right now. He really, really did not want to deal with Mallard Conway. He wasn’t going to make the first move in this inevitable interaction, at least.

He didn’t have to, though. He heard a few quiet footsteps before a hand was placed on his shoulder. He rolled his eyes. “Whisperer, what brings you out to this desolate area? Surely you have better things to be doing.”

William could feel his hackles being raised immediately. “I’m not talking to you right now, Mal. Leave me alone.”

“Now, why would I do that? You do not seem too concerned with the very real threat of the Trickster. I am merely trying to get you back on track. I-”

He was already on edge before the other had shown up. He was already on the verge of a breakdown. This had only tipped him over the edge. “What the fuck do you want from me?! I don’t care about that anymore!” He paused, putting on an overly fake posh accent, “Ohh, Whisperer, you must go and exorcize the Trickster so that I can carry on with my evil deeds!”

With a quick breath, William turned around to look at Mal. “Newsflash, that’s not happening anymore. If you want that, go follow Vynce ‘nd Kota around. Or just tell me what you actually want with me and get to the point.”

Mal smirked as red eyes met brown. “I want you to come with me. I will tell you more once we are not… here, in the middle of nowhere.”

And, like a fool, William followed.

And, like a lamb, William died.

But that was not the end of the story. No, that was merely the beginning. Here’s how it went:

William had been taken back to the ruins of Mallard’s castle. Mal had, in turn, quite literally stabbed him in the back. He hadn’t been erased, however, as his spirit had lived on as The Whisperer once again.

He had lived with Mal for an ambiguous stretch of time. Time does, after all, work differently in the Spirit World, so he had no idea how long he spent with the other man. The entire time, William could not tear his thoughts away from those that he left back on Prime. He missed Vyncent’s hand in his. He missed cuddling with Dakota and feeling how abnormally hot he was. He missed eating Tide’s mediocre beef stroganoff. He missed the little family he had built for himself.

He couldn’t have that anymore. He had left them to fend for themselves. Surely they would not want him back.

After a particularly bad few ‘days’, though, his resolve had been steeled. He had to leave. He could not stay with Mallard Conway for any longer.

So, William created a portal for himself, and he ran.

He ran back to Prime, back to the last civilization he remembered. An alleyway near Belltech Tower.

William did not attempt to reach out to the Prime Defenders. He almost didn’t want to. He didn’t want to know what they’d say to him if he did. He couldn’t handle that rejection after so long away.

So, he didn’t. He managed to get an apartment and a job as a Party Barn clerk. It sucked and there were way too many colors and it smelled absolutely horrible with all the latex from the balloons, but it paid enough for him to not be worried about losing his apartment. For once, he was content. Not happy, not angry, just… content. He could deal with this life.

William wanted more. He wanted his family. He wanted the only other three people that he considered himself close with. But he refused to try and find them again. He couldn’t.

After two years of living like that, though, he had gone to a grocery store. A new one. A bigger one. He had been out on a walk and had spotted it. He had needed some excitement in his otherwise boring life. Sure, he was dead, but he still wanted to not be zoned out for the rest of his life. He was pretty sure the term for that was heavy and constant dissociation, but really, he didn’t care. He just knew that the Wisps were pretty calm most days and he was pretty calm most days and he felt so, so aimless all of the time.

So, going to a new grocery store was his solution. That’s why he was in the baking needs aisle, looking at the different types of boxed brownie and cake mixes. There were certainly more options than in the one he usually shopped at. He was actually kind of happy at this point. He was a bit more than just content.

Of course, that’s when everything had to go to shit. 

A voice, further down the aisle, calling out with a hopeful tone. “William?”

He turned to look at the person calling out his name. Vyncent Sol was the person looking back at him.

Okay, so he was panicking already. He did not know how to respond at all. He had not had a close relationship in literal years. He did not know how to talk to people anymore, his former teammate least of all.

So, he does what he does best.

He runs.

Or, well, he walks. He narrows his eyes at the elf and turns to walk away.

Vyncent speed walked over to him before he could leave, though, and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. He sharply turned around to look at the other. Okay, running didn’t work. He was really panicking now. He did not know what he was going to do.

William couldn’t just tell him that he was a coward and couldn’t stay around after making a huge mistake, one that would quite literally haunt him for the rest of his life. He couldn’t say that he had followed Mal to a secondary location- which was already a horrible idea on its own- and had paid for his mistake with the heart Dakota had so generously gifted him. That made his metaphorical heart hurt. He had squandered the very life essence of one of his closest friends just because he was scared.

And so, he did his second best option. He lies.

“Do I know you? How do you know my name?” He asked.

He watched Vyncent’s face fall from that ever so hopeful expression to guilt and melancholy. He was clearly rattled by William’s feigned forgetfulness. That wasn’t even a good lie. He didn’t even put any oomph into it! 

“Oh, William,” Vyncent muttered, his eyes searching his face. Probably trying to find any sort of recognition in it. He only let a little bit of it slip through. Just a touch, enough to make it clear he was the same William the elf had lost. Because, sue him, he wanted to be back with the others. Maybe this was the way he’d get it again.

Guess he was locking in the amnesia play?

Yeah, he supposed so.

So that was how William sat in the Prime Defenders’ house with a cup of shitty tea in front of him. 

Dakota, Vyncent, and Tide sat across from him. It was only really sinking in now that he was going to have to actually commit to the amnesia ruse. He was going to lie to his family for, well… forever? Hopefully they wouldn’t find out. If they found out that he not only ran but had lied for an extended period of time? He’d be thrown out, he was sure of it. He couldn’t handle that. He needed these people like Death needed its omens, like it needed its crows and ravens and big black dogs and black cats. Being without them felt like he was dying again. Considering that he’d died four times before, he knew how it felt. It was extremely comparable.

There was a horrible tense atmosphere in the kitchen. If he wasn’t getting almost exactly what he wanted, he’d be trying to leave. Unfortunately for him, if he wanted to have literally any connection to Prime again, he’d have to suck it up and sit in the uncomfortable feeling until one of them said something. Because that was the thing, wasn’t it? When he was living on his own, he hadn’t made any friends. He barely spoke to his coworkers and the baristas and the people he ran into on the street. He didn’t want them, he wanted the Prime Defenders.

“So… what have you been up to, William?” Tide asked. He, too, was clearly feeling the effects of the ambiance of the room. How could they connect to their previous teammate who had gone missing and had turned up multiple years later, looking the same as the day he’d left with no memory of what had happened before then?

Yeah, he’d be tense too.

William took a breath he did not need. His chest did not rise and fall with the motion. Dakota made a face at that, but he didn’t say anything. Thank goodness. “Oh, y’know. Working a dead end job to pay rent and just kind of pretending I didn’t exist. The normal.” He took a moment, blinking once, twice. “Oh, right. I should probably cancel my lease. Thank you guys for letting me stay here free of charge. I should also probably, like, quit my job. This place is nowhere near the Party Barn.”

“ ‘The Party Barn’?” Vyncent questioned.

William shrugged. “Yeah, some kind of party supply store. I never pay that much attention to the stock.”

“Like a Party City?”

This was a trap. He wasn’t supposed to remember that. “What’s a Party City?”

Dakota sighed. William took a sip of his tea. It was bitter and too hot and just a shitty blend in general. He wanted to spit it out, but that’d be rude. He’d never do that. His time away hadn’t changed him that much. 

Tide took a breath. Probably to shift them away from their pointless remarks about his place of employment- or, well, his previous place of employment. “Anyway, I am sure that we’re all pretty curious about what caused your memory loss. What’s the first thing you remember?”

William took another sip. That was the question of the century right there. What memory did he want to give them? What would get them off his trail? Well, he didn’t want them to get completely off the trail. Some traitorous part of him wanted the three to find him out. He wanted them to learn he was lying and accept him anyway. That was the ideal, huh? Being known and being loved anyway.

Wow, that was a shockingly deep thought for this conversation. 

“Well, I was standing somewhere, and there was, like, a big, ruined castle. It had some really creepy vibes, but I wasn’t afraid for some reason? Not sure why. Anyway, there was someone behind me. I don’t know what they looked like, ‘cause they were behind me, but they had a posh accent. British, maybe? They welcomed me home, and then there was a really bad pain in my chest. After that, there was, like, a lot of blurry time. I came to in an alleyway. I figured I might as well figure out what to do with my life from there, I guess,” William explained. He really tried not to shiver when describing that time with Mal.

That wasn’t the whole truth, of course. There were some parts he left out. Like looking down after Mal welcomed him home only to see a sword sticking through his heart. Like having his spirit disconnect from his body. Like having to watch himself bleed out. Every time he closed his eyes, he could still see his lifeless body laying on the patchy grass, his purple blood oozing out of his chest wound.

He knew why the demon had killed him in that way, why he had been stabbed through the heart. He’d had more than ample time to think about it. Not only was it to prevent him from being revived again, it was also to show he wasn’t connected to his family anymore. He didn’t have the heart from Dakota and he didn’t have the blood from Vyncent. He wasn’t part of that world anymore. He couldn’t be. They moved on without him.

All three of his family members at the table looked troubled at his words. They all clearly knew who he was talking about. There was only one vaguely British person who’d taken such an interest in William that he’d go as far as kidnapping and then killing him.

But it wasn’t kidnapping. He had gone willingly. He had foolishly decided that following Mal to the Spirit World was the best solution to his problems. It really, sincerely was not. It was the opposite of a solution, actually. His death had only exacerbated his pre-existing issues.

“Does the name Mallard Conway ring any bells?” Dakota asked, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. That made William just want to hold him until he stopped being so sad. Dakota Cole and sadness should never exist in the same sentence. He was always so happy-go-lucky, always the first one to do something to break the tension, to make someone smile. God, what he wouldn’t do to make that happen again.

William pretended to ponder on that for a few moments. As if Mal was a stranger. As if he hadn’t been spending his unlife in the man’s castle. what a shitty use of his time. “Yeah, I think. Not sure from where, though. Maybe I saw him on TV?” He wanted to laugh at that. Mal probably didn’t even know what a television was.

Vyncent sighed. William took another sip of his tea.

“We really need to work on getting your memories back.”

And try they did.

In increasingly absurd ways.

First, it was just eating at their local pizza joint, Tony’s.

That was fine! In all honesty, William had missed the taste of Tony’s pizza. He hadn’t gone back since he’d run away from the Prime Defenders. It was nostalgic, something that he told the others. Dakota looked happy as a clam that he might be getting his memories back and because they were at Tony’s. Vyncent was stealing glances at William the entire time they were there.

Tony’s was a good first option. It was clear that, just by their first stop, they were going to try and replicate the things they’d done together before he’d ‘gone missing’.

Next it was the sword in the middle of the city. They were climbing it. It’d been months since William had been up that high. It was exhilarating, honestly. Something to treasure. He had forgotten what he walked away from. He forgot just how fun it was to hang out with these people, with his family.

He had also conveniently forgotten how nice it was to be in high places without the worry of falling and dying. What a feeling. What a rush.

The three of them sat on the guard of the giant sword, their legs hanging off of the side. Or, well. Dakota’s legs were hanging off of the side. William sat next to him with his knees pulled up to his chest while Vyncent was leaning against the grip. He thought he was so cool, and he was right. He was very cool. In William’s very humble opinion, at least. 

“Soooo, is this one sparking any memories, Will?” Dakota asked, looking over at him.

He shrugged a bit, looking down on the city. It was night, giving them all a clear view of the few stars that were still there after light pollution. He could see a few constellations. The brightest ones, he was pretty sure. Back in the Deadwood, he’d be able to see the whole galaxy at night. It was magical, but he was never interested in it. He was more interested in the mysteries of the forest, in the creatures that lurked in the dark corners of the world. It seemed stupid now. How could he not see the wonders of the sky? How could he take what he had for granted?

He took a breath that he did not need. “Nothin’ much. Just thoughts about the sky. There’s, like, no stars here. I never noticed. I always kept my eyes on the ground, just kinda… trudging along. There was somewhere with stars, though…” He trailed off.

“That’s a memory. Do you have anything else about that place?” Vyncent prompted. William had their full attention, that much was obvious. He kinda wished he didn’t. He wished that they could go back to the way they were before he ran.

“It felt nostalgic, if that makes sense. Like somewhere that I was always supposed to be.”

He felt split between two worlds. One one hand, he was William Wisp, famed hero, savior of Prime, and coward. He was weak and a coward who had ran when things got dicey. On the other, he was William Wisp, the amnesiac. The one who couldn’t remember his family or anything about his life. He was starting to buy into the second one more, starting to embody that one instead of the first.

But that wasn’t him. He didn’t actually forget his life. He remembered it all with clarity. So why was he talking that way about the Deadwood? He didn’t even have to put any thought into that lie. He was getting too comfortable.

William needed to stop being so complacent in this. Just going along with them, pretending to get vague notions of memories back was leading to the real version of him fading away. 

He couldn’t have that. 

He just didn’t know how to stop it.

“So… why are we doing this?”

William was sitting in the driver’s seat of the Winnebago with Vyncent in the passenger’s seat and Dakota standing behind him. Of course, he knew why they were there. He wasn’t stupid. This van had contributed so, so much to their adventure. It felt bad to be back, almost. Like he wasn’t supposed to be sitting here again. Like he didn’t deserve it.

Dakota grinned at him, something he caught in the rearview mirror. It was comforting. God, he missed this. He missed these easy comforts, these familiar smiles and inside jokes. Even if those jokes had to be ‘re-explained’ to him, he still enjoyed being here. His life away from them was ever so boring.

“This is what we used to get around! You mostly drove-”

“Even if you really shouldn’t have,” Vyncent cut in. William looked over at him, seeing the small smile on his face. Ah, just a joke then. He could keep it up.

“I’m great at driving, I do not know what you mean.”

Dakota laughed quietly. “Well, either way, is this giving you anything?”

William shook his head a bit. “Sorry, not really.

“That’s fine. We can take it for a spin, see if that triggers anything.” 

William shrugged noncommittally. He knew it wouldn’t trigger any memories, but he still wanted an excuse to drive the Winnebago. It’d been so long since he had been behind this wheel that it was almost foreign. Almost. Not quite, though.

So, he stepped on the ignition way too fast. Vyncent was pressed up against the seat and Dakota fell backwards into the aisle. He only felt a little bad about it. It was more fun to focus on the fact that they were currently rocketing down the empty highway.

He could vaguely hear one of his friends yell at him to stop the van or to at least slow down. He wasn’t exactly sure which one. The wind whipping through the open window was enough to muffle many of the noises made. He complied, slowing down to a moderate speed. He wasn’t driving carefully, per say, but it was enough to ensure that they probably wouldn’t crash.

Vyncent looked at William, a small, relieved smile on his face. “That was… familiar,” he said. Probably remembering all the times the ghost had pulled the exact same thing while driving around Prime. Sue him. It was fun. It gave him an adrenaline rush without reminding him of his fall.

“Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I can kind of remember doing that before, I guess. But it’s not super defined? I can’t, like, give you a definitive time when I did that,” William responded. A complete lie, of course. He couldn’t just tell them that he could remember each time he had sped on the thruway.

Dakota motioned for him to pull over from his place on the floor. He did. He slowed down a bit and then slammed on the break. Vyncent yelled in shock.

“Yeah, ‘kota? What’s up?” He asked, turning his seat so he could look at the other teen. He was sitting up and was cross-legged, his already messy hair even messier. William had the urge to smooth it out or to muss it up more or-

Nope! He didn’t get that right. Not anymore. Not since he ran away.

Dakota stood up and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the clicker for the Winnebago, handing it to William. “This calls the Winnebago from wherever you are. You just gotta give it a few minutes. It can’t, like, teleport. It’s gotta drive there.”

William took the clicker, looking up at the other with shock. “You’re trusting me with this? Why?”

“Cause you’re my friend, dude. Why wouldn’t I trust you with it?”

William wanted to scream and shout about why he shouldn’t trust him with anything, why he shouldn’t even be around him. He had become a monster and had run away from the consequences when he realized what had happened. He hadn’t even stayed around to go find Vyncent after his time in Belltech tower. He had lived with Mal for god knows how long. He-

“And you’re the only one of us who knows how to drive.”

Oh.

Yeah, that made a lot of sense.

So, there was an extremely sharp uptick in the absurdity in their efforts to get him to remember.

Which is why he was facing down Le Frog in an abandoned parking lot. Dakota and Vyncent stood off to the side, both observing very closely. To see how well his body remembered fighting, maybe? To see how well his mind could think of tactics? He wasn’t sure.

All he was sure of was the fact that he truly and utterly did not expect to hear that fake French accent again. He didn’t expect to see any of them again, much less their ““““arch nemesis”””””. Well, he’d seen the man on the news, but it was always in cutaway bits and exasperated voices saying that it was just Le Frog, a villain in the lowest tier classified by W.A.T.C.H. 

William had been given a small amount of money to purchase a weapon prior to this fight. Probably to see if he’d choose to go back to the horror movie antagonist that he had become at the end. He decided to go the other way. He didn’t want to be that person anymore. So, he’d chosen something nonlethal. He’d bought some tear gas and a taser.

He didn’t exactly tell the others that that was what he had purchased. It was like a fun surprise for them to find when he and Le Frog started fighting.

“Will-i-ahm! It eez great to zee you again, my arch nemesis!! We have not fought for so long, hon hon hon!” Le Frog stated loudly. It was honestly kind of nostalgic to hear him again. Wow, that was something that he never thought that he would think. That he actually missed him.

Eugh. He hated that. He didn’t want to think about how he actually missed the others and his old life and everything that he left behind.

William gently palmed the two weapons in his pocket as he gazed back at Le Frog. For some odd reason, he was paranoid that they wouldn’t be in there. That he had lost them and he would have to reveal that he was dead again by defending himself with supernatural weapons, with his ghostly powers. That he had put the gifts the others had given him to waste. He didn’t want that. Sure, they probably already knew. They probably already had figured it out. It wasn’t like he was being subtle about the fact that he didn’t actually need to eat or drink or sleep anymore. 

But that was fine! He didn’t want to think about that, either. That was being filed strictly under ‘Things He Would Never, Never, Ever Think About. Ever.’ It was a wide and extensive category that he just loved to add to.

William spread his arms out wide open, a challenging look on his face. Something that he would never have been caught dead (heh) wearing before he had run. It felt horrible and unnatural. He hated it. “Well, if you’re eager for a fight, then come get it.” He just wanted to get this over with. He didn’t want to be fighting anymore. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t be fighting at all for the rest of his life.

Le Frog smiled and pulled out a comically large, double sized hammer. It looked plastic, though, the sides having ridges on them. It was painted green and had a small figurine of a frog on the top. He had to admit, it was pretty cute. 

The man ran at him. He stayed still, just waiting for it to hit him. He wouldn’t get injured anyway. He wasn’t sure this body could even get injured. He hadn’t experienced it yet. But maybe he could! Maybe this would be a learning experience for all of them. Hopefully not, though. Being killed those times was not fun. He certainly didn’t want to experience that again. Le Frog wasn’t going to kill him, though. That was for sure. Or really even seriously injure him, probably.

Le Frog hit him over the head with the hammer. If they were in a cartoon or a comic book, there would be a few impact frames as the hammer hit his head. It didn’t hurt at all. At the collision, though, there was a squeak that was let out from the hammer. The man had brought a toy hammer to this fight? Really?

Still, William couldn’t help himself. He felt old instincts stirring, ones he had long thought he forgot about. It was almost disconcerting, the way it flicked on inside his mind. All he could think about was how the villain had left himself open and vulnerable. It was a huge mistake. Couldn’t he see how stupid that was?

He grabbed his taser and turned it onto the highest setting, driving it forward until it made contact with the other man. Le Frog spasmed a few times before falling to the ground. The hammer had fallen from his grip, letting out a small squeak as it dropped.

William looked down at the man, his face blank. He could almost feel a sick sort of satisfaction at the sight, at the fact that the other was completely taken out. That he was suffering. That he was suffering because of him. This was the same thing he felt when-

He dropped the taser, his eyes going wide. He took a step back as he brought a hand up to his mouth to cover it in horror. Vyncent and Dakota were already rushing over to the two of them, their faces twisted into expressions of worry. That was fair.

He was getting the same sense of cowardice and fear he had felt those years ago, back at his brother’s company when things had gone wrong. When he had made the wrong choice. He needed to go. He needed to leave. But he just got them back. He couldn’t leave. That would waste his second chance. He was in the business of wasting second chances, though. That was almost his specialty. 

He could feel his lungs expanding and retracting with air they did not need at a speed that they should not be operating at. He was hyperventilating. Huh. He didn’t know he could do that anymore. What a learning experience.

“Will, are you okay? What just happened?” Vyncent asked. He could hear him faintly. His ears were ringing. When did that start to happen?

William didn’t know what to do.

So, he ran.

The three of them- Vyncent, Dakota, and Tide, that is- had spent the day trying to find William. After getting Le Frog to the hospital, of course. Apparently the taser he had bought had been souped up, giving it some extra power, which was how the man had been so affected by the electricity. In his defence, anyone would be knocked out by the voltage William had shocked him with.

Dakota was running across the rooftops, searching from above. It was night now, so it was pretty unlikely that he’d see him. But he couldn’t give up. Something bad had happened and he needed to figure out why. Once he got William back, he could figure it all out. Everything would go back to normal soon.

It was a nice night out, he had to admit. The air was cool and perfectly crisp. He could even see some stars. That’s not something anyone could often do in Freedom City. Too much light pollution, of course. But he was used to that. He had lived in a city for as long as he could remember. This wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Dakota stopped on a rooftop, far away from the edge, taking a breather. He’d been going for hours now. Without his superpowered heart, he couldn’t run and jump until the day turned to night and then back to day again. He had to take frequent breaks. His stamina was above average, on account of all the superhero-ing he did, but it wasn’t at the level that it was previously. 

He stood there for a few minutes, just breathing in the crisp air. It was calm. Peaceful, even.

Of course, that all was ruined when he heard an extremely familiar voice nearby.

Dakota oh so carefully crept closer to the edge, looking down on the next building, which was shorter than the one he was on. Sure enough, he saw William sitting on the edge, his legs hanging over the side. Small blue Wisps floated around him, bobbing up and down softly.

Now that really confused him. Didn’t William get rid of them with the heart replacement they did? What happened? Sure, he had gained a weird habit of not breathing or eating much since he got back, but that didn’t mean he was dead dead. Maybe he just got some weird habits while he was away. He didn’t know.

“... and I don’t even know why it happened! I mean, it hasn’t happened since the- uh… Anyways. I guess it’s just ‘cause I wasn’t in a situation where that stuff would come up again? I don’t know,” William groaned. He was holding one of the Wisps in his lap, petting it absentmindedly, as a few more floated around him. 

William kept talking to them. He didn’t know that Dakota was there. “And, like, I mean, spending so much time around that guy- ugh, I don’t even want to say his name , you know who I’m talking about- spending so much time with him certainly didn’t help matters at all.

He was always all ‘Whisperer, you have to be on your guard at all times’ and ‘Whisperer, do not hesitate to use lethal methods when necessary.’ That’s not my name! I don’t know you, man! And also, I don’t kill, so I don’t know what the fuck he was talking about. God, he pisses me off!”

It was… a little funny to watch William rant and rave about whoever he was talking about. Dakota didn’t really know who ‘that guy’ was, but based on the way he was being talked about, he kind of didn’t want to know. Or maybe he did. If he knew, then he could keep him away from his friend. Yeah! That made sense.

So, Dakota leaned over the side of the building and said, “Who’re you talking about, Will?”

William let out a small yelp of surprise, his head swiveling up to look at Dakota. Unfortunately, it seemed like his body was way too startled by his interruption. He reflexively went intangible, falling through the floor.

Dakota was frozen, staring at the place his friend used to occupy, a look of shock on his face. He had regressed back to the beginning while he and Vyncent had both moved on. He was genuinely dead again.

He had found William, but at what cost?

Dakota, William, and Vyncent sat at the kitchen table while Tide cooked.

The atmosphere was extremely, extremely tense. A few days ago, Dakota had texted their group chat, saying that he had found William but that he wasn’t with him and that he had bad news. Tide called him immediately, asking if he had found William’s dead body. He had replied that no, the other boy was still around, just that he hadn’t been as alive as they’d all thought. William had found his way back to the Prime Defenders base/house a few hours later and had gone straight to his room. This was the first time he had come out of his room since then.

Well, it was more that he had been dragged out of his room by the other three so they could address what had happened rather than him leaving voluntarily.

Vyncent was the first one to break the silence. “So… you’re dead again?”

William almost seemed to shrink in on himself at those words. He looked extremely, extremely uncomfortable. “Yeah, I, uh… Yeah.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dakota asked.

“I barely know you guys, I didn’t really think it was appropriate to share the fact that I sometimes fall through the floor or don’t really have to eat or breathe.” It was really weird, having to say that he wasn’t more familiar with them than he was with his own body. It almost hurt, in a way.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Tide spoke up. “I would advise you three to sort this out quickly. Mark and Ashe are coming over soon.

“They’re what?!” Dakota exclaimed, whipping his head around to look at his guardian. “You can’t just drop that on us! We’ve gotta clean the place!”

William was thankful for the distraction. He really didn’t want to keep talking about why he had hid the fact that he was dead. He really didn’t want to talk about the fact that he was dead, period. It just reminded him of how and why he had died. It reminded him of the foolish mistake he had made. He didn’t know why he had gone with Mal. He didn’t know why he didn’t have his guard up.

Was it karma for what he had done? Probably. More than likely, actually. He never believed in karma or anything about the universe being sentient, but for now, he kind of had to. After all, how else would some explain this? He had attacked Tide while his guard was down, and then, in turn, had been attacked when his own guard had been down. Irony, karma, it was really all the same.

So, the Prime Defenders cleaned as best they could. There wasn’t a whole lot they could do on the tough stuff, like getting stains out of rugs or holes out of walls, but they did their best. They did not speak as they cleaned. They barely even looked at each other.

After about half an hour, there was a knock on the door. Tide answered it, letting Mark and Ashe Winters inside. Dakota was hugging Ashe before they even walked through the door.

“It’s been so long!” He exclaimed.

Ashe smiled a bit, hugging him back. “I’ve been busy at college, ‘kota. I can’t be here all the time.”

“I knowww, but I miss you. We all miss you. OH! Speaking of!” Dakota detached himself from Ashe, taking a step back to reveal him and Vyncent. “We found William! He’s kinda, uh, dead again and has amnesia, but he’s here!”

William really wished that Dakota would stop spilling all of his business to these two. It was technically their business, he supposed, considering Ashe was a Prime Defender too. And Mark might be dating Tide? That part was something he was unsure about. He really hoped not. Mark sucked. He sucked a lot. Just thinking about Mark and Tide dating made him want to die again.

Well. Probably not, actually. Dying created such a stir that it wasn’t really worth the trouble. Plus, it hurt really bad. Not something he wanted to experience again.

Mark leveled a stare at William, looking extremely unimpressed. “Amnesia, huh, kid? Whatdja’ do, get knocked upside the head? About time, if you ask me.”

William took a breath. “No. I don’t know what happened. One day I just kinda… started existing and forming memories? I can’t really remember anything that these guys,” he gestured to Dakota and Vyncent. “say that happened. It’s just blank.”

Let it be said that William is not a great liar. The only reason he’d gotten as far as he had was because the Prime Defenders were not detectives or sleuths, not the way he was. They didn’t really have experience with people lying to them.

Mark and Ashe, though? They weren’t as gullible as the other three. They actually knew when things were happening around them.

It was only occurring to William now, after he had already said his piece about his ‘amnesia’, that lying to the Winters may not be the best idea. 

Ashe looked confused, cocking their head to the side a bit. Rightfully so, considering he was lying out of his ass. But they shouldn’t know that! They shouldn’t know how completely he was lying. He knew he wasn’t the best, but he wasn’t that bad. 

“Uh huh, sure kid,” was all Mark had to say. Yeah, that probably wasn’t good. No, he had to stay positive. If he believed that they believed him, then they believed him. That was how it had to work. It must.

Tide called them in to eat. They went.

Or, well. Most of them went. Mark clasped a hand on William’s shoulder as the others passed to go to the dinner table. He stopped, turning around to look at the man.

“So, William. Why’re you lying?” Mark asked. William tensed. Yeah, his belief did nothing. Great.

“What? I’m not lying. Why would I be lying? That would be absurd. I haven’t lied a day in my life. Hah hah…” William trailed off. Okay, he could admit that he wasn’t exactly selling it well. But he was trying, okay! That had to count for something, right?

Mark almost seemed to glare at him. He shrunk away. The hand on his shoulder tightened. “William Wisp. Why are you lying to your friends about this? Why are you lying about not remembering anything?” He asked bluntly.

William fumbled. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to explain that he was terrified of the Prime Defenders asking why he had done the things he did in Belltech tower. He didn’t know how to explain how he didn’t know if they would take the fact that he went with Mal and had paid the price for it well. He didn’t know how to explain the fact that he was already so far into it that he didn’t know how to get out.

So, he stayed silent, looking up at the former villain with wide, terrified eyes.

Mark scoffed. “Figures. C’mon. We’re gonna go tell the others exactly what you’ve been doing since you got back.” He began to push the other towards the dining room where the other four resided, probably starting to fill their plates.

“No! No, we are not!” William exclaims, trying to pry himself away from the other man. Unfortunately for him, Mark was an extremely tall and buff man while he was a scrawny young adult. Sure, he gained a little bit of muscle when he was training with Master Cole, but that had been years ago. He had lost all of that. He was ridiculously weak again. He had been thinking about getting a gym membership for a while but had never settled on it. He really wished he had now.

In several impossibly short seconds, the two of them reached the dining room. The other Prime Defenders were sitting around it, two chairs left empty. The four of them looked up at Mark and William, each one looking confused as hell.

They were all looking at him. Five pairs of eyes stared at him. He felt like a high schooler again, being called up to the front of the class to give a presentation or to share his name and a fun fact about him at the start of the year. It made him want to shrivel up and die. It made him want to go invisible to get away from it all.

But he couldn’t. It was bad enough that they knew he was dead. He wasn’t going to share that he had his powers back, too. That’d be crazy.

Once it was clear that William was going to stay silent, Mark spoke up. “He’s been lying about not remembering anything. He won’t tell me why, but he doesn’t have amnesia.”

There was a chorus of gasps around the table. A cacophony of ‘what’s and ‘why’s. William couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t take the scrutiny.

So, he let his instincts take over.

William went invisible and intangible, getting himself out of Mark’s grip.

He ran.

William ran for about ten minutes, keeping up his invisibility for the whole time.

He didn’t know what to do. His family- no, his friends- no, his victims were sure to hate him now that they knew he lied. Why wouldn’t they? He was a rotten liar, probably among the worst of the worst. Who would want to be associated with someone like him? Who would want to be family with someone who had run away and then lied about such a drastic thing when found again?

Nobody was the answer. Nobody at all.

It was night again. There was a small Wisps of blue flame in his path, bobbing up and down like it wanted him to follow. Had he been chasing it the entire time? Had it been leading him since the minute he left his previous home? He didn’t know. It didn’t even scare him this time. He was too emotionally tired for it to faze him much. What a thought. He now lived in a world where chasing a Wisp wasn’t scary.

He didn’t know what else to do. So, he continued following the Wisp.

William continued that for another ten minutes. He was so focused on the flame that he didn’t pay attention to the world around him. Of course, being in a city, that was never a good idea, even at night.

Which is why he walked directly into someone. He was already apologizing before he could comprehend who he had run into.

He blinked, his mind focusing back on everything else. The person he had run directly into was none other than Virion Sol himself.

They both stared at each other for a few seconds, each waiting to find the right thing to say.

Finally, Vyncent found his words. Or, well. Word. “Why?” was all he said.

“I… I don’t…” William trailed off. He still didn’t know how to explain himself. He was never good at speaking to others, especially in such a tense moment.

“No lies this time. Please,” Vyncent prompted, his voice almost pleading. William felt angry at that. How could he be so calm right now? How could he be so forgiving? He didn’t know why this rage was creeping in, but he couldn’t stop it. It was like a wave, ever consuming and never ending.

“Because I’m selfish, Vyncent! Because I wanted to have you guys again without having to think about what I did at my brother’s company! Is that the answer you wanted?!” He was shouting now. There were tears rolling down his cheeks now. He didn’t even care anymore.

Vyncent opened his mouth to respond but he was cut off when they both heard quiet, crackling energy start emanating from behind William. They both turned to see what was happening, but he knew what was up. He knew that there was really only one person that that could be. His stomach was dropping, his hands starting to shake again.

And he was right. Behind William stood Mallard Conway, calm as ever, bleeding into existence on the Material Plane.

The man had his eyes closed as he cracked his neck in both directions. He opened his eyes, looking at William. A smile lit across his face. “There you are, Whisperer. I was beginning to wonder where you had gone.” 

Vyncent grabbed his hand and began to pull him along. They were running. They were running as fast as they could. And yet, William could still hear the demon’s measured footsteps right on their tail. He didn’t know how he was doing that and he didn’t care. Or, rather, he couldn’t care. Everything was too much, he couldn’t care about how the demon from hell was walking faster than a normal person could.

“Make us invisible!” Vyncent shouted at William. He nodded dutifully, fulfilling that request. He knew, in all likelihood, that his invisibility wouldn’t work on Mal. They were both ghosts, after all. But he said nothing. It wasn’t like they had a lot of options at this point.

They weaved through alleyways and streets in such a nonsensical pattern that, if William weren’t holding the other’s hand, he totally would have gotten lost. It wasn’t even occurring to him that they were holding hands, how this was a more intimate action than they had done since he had run away. It wasn’t really something he could focus on right now.

Vyncent had made a mistake. He didn’t know where he was going. How could he when everything was a blur of neon lights left on past dark and little flashes of red energy lashing out from the man pursuing them?

They were in an alleyway and they hit a dead end.

It was a wide alleyway, yes, but there’s no way they could get around Mal once he showed up. 

William let the invisibility stop. He let go of Vyncent’s hand, closing his eyes. He needed to think. He couldn’t use his extremely rusty ghost shaping for the same reason the invisibility didn’t really work on the demon. They were both ghosts. He didn’t have any weapons on him. What else did he have on him? Not much, only-

Oh! That could work!

“I need you to trust me. I know I haven’t done much to earn that lately, but I promise you, it’s gonna be okay. Just trust me one last time,” William whispered. In the dark, he could only vaguely see Vyncent’s head nodding. He could hear footsteps coming down the alley. He needed to do something immediately.

He reached into his pocket and clicked the clicker for the Winnebago. It would take a few minutes to get to your location, Dakota had told him. You just have to wait. He just needed to wait.

William took a few steps forward, facing Mal. “Okay, fine. You win. If I go with you, then you don’t hurt Vyncent or any of the Prime Defenders. Do you hear me? None of them. Mark and Ashe, too.”

Mal tilted his head a bit as he stared at William, the same smile on his face from before. “How will you hold me to this promise? It is not like you have any power here, Whisperer.”

“If I didn’t have any power, then you wouldn’t want me with you so badly.”

“That is a fair point. I will concede to these terms.”

William was begging the van to hurry up and get to the alleyway already. He couldn’t stall forever.

“It was foolish of you to run, Whisperer,” Mallard continued. Well, maybe this guy could do it for him. “You knew that I would find you eventually. And yet, you had gone back to these… plebeians.” 

“Did he just call us poor?” Vyncent asked from the back of the alley.

William gave him a thumbs up. He made a small ‘aw’ sound in disappointment. 

William took a deep breath, the action calming his nerves. He’d done it so often that it was more the action instead of the actual intake of air that was the calming part. He would be fine. He would get away from Mal with Vyncent and everything would be okay. “The Prime Defenders are my home. I just care more about protecting them than I do about protecting myself.”

“Oh? Were they your home when you had run away from them after what you had done in Belltech Tower?” Mal tsked. “My, my, Whisperer, you certainly do make a habit of running from things. First from your so-called family, then from me? When we get back to my castle, I will find a way to stop you from running again. Now, come along now. It is best we get away from here quickly.”

He didn’t want to go anywhere with Mal. He wanted to stay as far away from Mal as he could. He just needed to stall, he reminded himself. He wasn’t going to fall for the man’s tricks again. The last time he did, he got himself stabbed in the back quite literally. It was an unpleasant experience all around.

Luckily for him, help came just in time.

The rapid squeak of wheels against pavement and concrete was Mal’s only warning of what was about to happen to him. He turned around at the last moment possible, only to see an extremely beat up Winnebago barrelling full speed towards him.

Mallard didn’t manage to get out any words before he was flattened underneath the car. There was no sound as it happened. There were no bones to crush, no vital organs to pop. The man was merely silent.

William wasted no time in grabbing Vyncent’s hand and turning them intangible, going straight through the hood of the van. He didn’t have the time to worry about doors right now.

He let go of the other’s hand once they were inside, sitting down in the driver’s seat himself while Vyncent sat in shotgun. William made some ghost shaped platforms underneath them, letting the Winnebago rise above the roads and drive on its own track.

They were silent for a few minutes while William gunned it down the self-made highway.

“You just hit Mallard Conway with the Winnebago,” Vyncent said in disbelief.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” He was laughing a bit now. He felt freer than he had in so, so long.

“Mallard fucking Conway!”

“Not my fault he didn’t look into incoming traffic,” William said with a shrug.

The two of them devolved into laughter. Real and true laughter. Something he hadn’t done for a while.

Vyncent looked over at him, a smile on his lips. “God, I missed you.”

William slowed down a bit, his laughter subsiding. His grip on the steering wheel was growing tighter, though he wasn’t white knuckling it. Mostly because he had no blood in his body, so the amount of force he was using didn’t make a difference in his skin color.

After a few quiet moments, William quietly asked, “Why did you help me get away from Mal? I was…  I’ve been lying to you. All of you, for months. I ran away ‘cause I didn’t know how you’d react to my actions. I pretended to forget ‘cause I was scared. How can you still stand by me?”

“Guess I was selfish, too,” Vyncent responded, his voice soft. Genuine. That immediately made his heart start hurting. He didn’t know how to react to that.

William took a hand off of the wheel, dragging it down his face while groaning. “I really fucked it up, huh?”

“A little bit, but it’s okay.”

“How am I gonna explain this to Tide? I mean-”

Vyncent leveled him a stare, that smile still there. “He’s gonna forgive you. It’s Tide. He’s gonna love you just the way you are.”

“That’s the problem! This whole thing started because I didn’t think I deserved any of your love and affection. And now, here I am, asking for it again after I did something even worse than Belltech. Ugh, I wish I could just go back and tell myself to not run away.”

The elf shrugged a bit and put a hand on his shoulder. “Well, you can’t. You just need to live with what happened.”

“I guess…” William muttered.

And he did. It wasn’t perfect, per say, but he lived. He lived with his family, and he was happy. They were all happy.