To Find a Villain [Villain AU]

Epilogue

There's a saying. You can either all die together, or one of you could step forward and die alone. Imagine the group were all strangers that mean nothing to you. You don't know anything about them, and they don't know anything about you. They urge you to walk forward, babbling that they have too much to live for, yet none of them offered to take your place. They don't know that you have your loved one waiting for you to return, and he or she will be crushed by the weight of your death. All they do is jeer at you, crying out that this is a worthful exchange.

One life for a million others.

A million other strangers.

Reverse was standing on the ship's unloading bay, the hatch open. The scenery outside was not a galaxy, not a planet's scenery, but a huge core that was pulsing with pink, sapphire and emerald strings of light and life. The area around it was scattered with web-like strings, similar to a spider's webs, but all of them were created of pure energy, coursing of different lives and colours. They were all connected to the core, pumps of energy streaming into it like they were powering it.

Shizuko was half-transparent now. She tried to lace her hands together, but they went through each other. She snickered in amusement as Reverse glared at her.

"So if I jump," he started, "I'll be erased?"

"If you put it that way..." Shizuko snorted. "Yep!"

"Everything about me will be gone."

"Yep!"

"Will Fang remember me?"

"Argh!" Shizuko rolled her eyes. "Shut the fuck up and jump! No one's going to miss you because they won't remember you! That, or you're just a huge coward."

Reverse ignored her statement. Fang was locked in his room with his perforation taken away. Reverse had made sure of it. After he made that leap, this won't happen. None of their adventures will happen. Fang will meet someone new, someone that will be by his side forever.

The energy was unwelcoming. He was a mistake created by an accident. He was the U1 in the USB experiment – one that was meant to be disposed of once B3 was created. That was in the universe where Fang was his brother. He'd been notified when Shizuko was nagging about him about his weaknesses and emphasising on it like it was the joke of the universe.

Anyway, B3, in his universe, escaped at 10 years old, but he arrived on Earth when he's 12. During his lost two years, Reverse was created. However, the scientists were not able to retrieve Reverse as he was shoved into this universe where he didn't belong to. It was why U1 was MIA. The letter was a sign of reverse.

It's how he got his name.

"Reverse! Let me out!" Fang's voice echoed within the ship. "You're not doing this!"

Reverse looked past his shoulder, a sad smile playing on his lips.

"You won't feel pain about me, because it'll be like I never existed." He turned to Shizuko. "If I don't exist, will Fang be the #1 Vigilante?"

Shizuko rolled her eyes. Yeah. Keep rolling your eyes and you might find a brain the size of a pea back there. "Judging from that idiotic act you're about to commit, I really don't know," she preened falsely. "You're not just a vigilante. I've seen better. Seriously, you're so damn weak I'd beat you in my sleep. Your mom failed to abort you? Wait, you don't have a mom. If you wanna play the hero, no one's going to know you exist."

At that very moment of Reverse's anger surfacing, the doors to their shared room were knocked down, wires and pistons and all. Fang shot out of the room and grabbed Reverse's hand. He started to drag him back in the ship, but Reverse didn't budge.

Fang stopped. He turned to face the shorter human male, expression confused and hurt.

"It's for the best, Fang," Reverse said softly. "No one's going to get hurt this way."

Fang clenched his fists. "NO ONE'S getting hurt? What about you? It's not fair!"

"Fang, you won't know this ever happened either—"

"NO!" Fang grabbed Reverse's shoulders. "Listen to me. You're not a hero, as much as you hate it, you're not. You don't have to make this sacrifice."

"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend," Shizuko muttered in the background.

They ignored her.

Reverse turned from Fang. He faced the core—the very centre of the universe. His expression was conflicted, but it held back tears and sadness. He didn't want to do this. He wants to live. He was afraid.

"I'm fulfilling a promise I made to myself, years ago," Reverse croaked. "Fang, please—don't stop me."

Fang growled. He was used to the fact that Reverse always gave into him, but this was idiotic. Why wouldn't Reverse listen to him? Those skeptolians didn't matter to him! Reverse did! Why would he care for people he'd never even met?

Because that's what a hero does, echoed his younger self.

Reverse expected Fang to explode, to rage, but none of that happened. Instead, he looked up, expression eerily calm and serene.

Shizuko grinned. Oh, great. This was going to be dramatic and sad.

He traced Reverse's cheekbones with his finger and cupped his chin. He lifted his face up for a final kiss—before pulling them down to the core himself.

"I love you."

Reverse's voice was barely audible as they plunged into the core, forever wiped from this universe's timeline.

* * *

Years later.

Shizuko stared at the bar, drinking once more. The alcohol always helped her forget the fact that other people had more people for them to lean on, but she was still alone. She didn't like romance, she resented company, but she needed some place where she could settle down, and it's not some prison somewhere around the galaxy.

Ever since those two pathetic weaklings jumped off the ship and got themselves thrown out of the universe permanently - literally - things had been getting worse. For her.

Her phone rang. 

"Shizuko? Where are you? You left for two days."

Shizuko groaned. "Hi, mom," she groused. "I'm back. I'm fucking late, so fucking deal with it."