Masks are Greater than Sunglasses [ COMPLETE ]

Bonus Chapter - Memory Loss

Sooooo... I miss this story and that means you get another bonus chapter.

One of the endings I originally played with - because this trope is PEAK and I like to make you SUFFER - is memory loss a la MJ in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Context for this bonus chapter: In this world, a condition of Rya's League amnesty deal was getting all her memories of being Shadow whipped. And of course, this includes removing everyone's favorite hero...

The shop smells of warm peppermint and marshmallow. It's a welcome relief from the biting winter breeze outside, even if the bitter smell of coffee hangs beneath the sugary aroma. Nick knows - even as he steps in behind his partner - that the smell will cling to his clothes for the rest of the day, making his head pound. He hates coffee.

Still, he didn't have the energy to argue when Trey insisted they come. The past few weeks have been taxing enough for both of them, and he knew if he didn't agree to come Trey would insist he wasn't "recovering" and he and Connor would start fussing like a pair of over-eager mother hens. They'd been like that since the trial, they kept insisting that he needed to get out, to not focus on work so much. Even Ivette had dropped her overt disdain of him in favor of silence. It was disconcerting how differently they were all acting.

It wasn't as if he had truly lost anything. He kept reminding himself of that. He found out who Shadow was. That was his goal. He hadn't been certain she was even alive. So what if he couldn't speak with her after he found her identity, it was no great loss really.

Really it wasn't.

And Trey should be more upset. He had lost her too. But no, he didn't know that side of his friend. He can still see her, can still speak with her, it isn't as if he's been plucked from her head and discarded like a cancer. It isn't as if Rya-

His thoughts hitch. He has been so careful to think of her only as Shadow. Shadow he can stand to lose - he made peace with that long ago - when he wasn't certain he would ever find her again.

But Rya...

He lost Rya before he ever got her. They hadn't had a chance to be... anything really. 

It isn't fair. Losing something that never began shouldn't hurt. Not like this.

And, so long as Nick keeps his thoughts far far away from her, it doesn't. He could rent a nice little apartment in his mind sandwiched between denial and compliance that was definitely not called depression.

Nick is vaguely aware of Trey ushering him to a table at the small café. He knows the longer he lingers in his mind, the chances increase that Trey will catch on to the fact he isn't listening. Yet he can't keep Trey's ramblings from slipping through his mind like water through a sieve.  They're only caught for the meerest second before floating out into the void of his mind. One word does stick though, and it's the last name that Nick expects to hear.

"- I don't understand how they could do that. Bella kidnapped you, they can't just let her out?"

"Let her out?" An alarm pings in Nick's head for a moment, before it starts to fade. Surely she won't come for him again, not when he had made it so very clear he was working for the League and wouldn't be leaving.

Trey gives Nick an appraising look. One that said he is almost certain Nick hasn't been listening, but can't prove it.

"Yeah. The courts are dropping the charges against her and she can just... Leave."

"My family paid someone."

Nick says it with certainty. It doesn't matter how all that matters is Bella's release. His parents have once again shown so long as she isn't a Super, it doesn't matter what she does.