fandomhigh | All Across the Island, Sunday Morning through Afternoon

All Across the Island, Sunday Morning through Afternoon

The time for a final strike had finally arrived. The prisoners of detention had been freed, powers and abilities had been returned, and all that remained was Umbridge, and her still-faithful Loyalists.

It was time to pick a side, and bring Umbridge's reign to an end.

[The OCD is up, have at it! If you would like to add your own OCD below in any of the threads, or link posts of your own in appropriate spots, feel free to do so. A post for celebratory aftermath will go up a little later, and then Fandom Island will be back to normal!]

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"Rip a bird's wings away, and then see how much it values freedom if it can't have the sky," Warren replied, eyes narrowing slightly. "For a chance at the occasional day pass, it'll choose to live in a cage before it can even start to fathom being trapped broken on the ground for the rest of its life."

Still... no. No, it hadn't been worth it.

But Warren had admitted that point to Karla so many times since he'd been injured, and now she'd been taken, and he had nothing left to hold on to.

"Can you look at what I've become and tell me that this isn't where I belong?"

"Yes. You're not a bird. You're a man. A man gifted with wings, but a man."

Blossom crossed her arms as she looked over this Warren. Not the fresh scared boy she'd known for such a short time. "Taking away a man's freedom is when he becomes the animal. You made a choice; don't pretend you didn't."

"I did! I chose!" His wings flared out and his voice rose. If there was any chance of remaining stealthy up there, he'd blown it. "And I did what I could while I was here!"

He couldn't run double-agent, didn't have any right to show his face back with the Resistance again. But while he taught, he'd kept their secrets. And with Tony, they'd tried damn hard to find some way to keep people from dying, to get them home alive.

"Who are you to accuse me of selling my soul? Did I hold anybody down, did I hand anyone over to Umbridge so that she could wipe their minds? How about Karla? Who handed her over? I can't go back, they'll kill me! And here, I--"

He pulled his wings in again, held them tight to his back and shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. I'll be a dog, then."

Edited 2012-07-29 23:13 (UTC)

Blossom flared, herself, at that little speech.

"I am someone who had no choice; I never sold my soul, it was ripped from me many times and painfully at that. What I did after, I have to live with that. My friends have to live with it, but at least when I got the chance to make a choice I made the right one." She was in his face now, crackling with energy. Sorry.

"I went to the ones I'd hurt, the ones I could. What did it matter if they killed me, I was already dead, SHE had killed me. I couldn't love, I couldn't save people, I couldn't care unless SHE thought it was proper." Blossom choked a minute as she tried not to think about that. "Karla? At least she's alive. But when we get her back, what will that mean to you, still caring more about your wings than your heart?"

"I'm still here right now because that's where she is," Warren nearly snarled. "Those were my friends, over there! They were my family, and I ran from them! Don't assume that I'm not aware of that! I could have turned Karla in a hundred times or more. I could have killed any one of the people on the Resistance side, at my leisure! But they were family!"

He was standing up out of his crouch now, wings twitching behind him, the cold sound of metal scraping against metal accompanying the motion.

"But if she's here, she's their enemy. If she's here, then I'll kill anybody I need to, in order to make certain that she stays alive. Resistance. Loyalist. Umbridge herself! I. Will. Keep. Her. Safe."

"You will keep her dead." Blossom let that hang there. "Believe me, I know."

"She'll break it. It's only a matter of time before she breaks it," Warren growled, though there was uncertainty in those words somewhere, lingering in his eyes. "Lesser people have managed it. She won't be the High Inquisitor's pet forever."

He refused to accept that she was.

"But she won't be anything if the rebellion takes her down!"

"You don't understand, Warren. Just being under that spell is death. And honestly? Umbridge doesn't keep pets well."

Then something occurred to her. "You honestly think you're choosing Karla, don't you? What if we win her back and retreat again? Would you be there for her then?"

Warren was silent for a long moment, weighing the words that were about to come out of his mouth with the possibility that he'd die for even speaking them.

"If... if you win her back and retreat again..."

He still had nothing to lose.

"She won't have me. Not if she's herself again, and free. Take care of her? Please? And I'll do what I can to keep them away from her. I always have."

He'd failed.

He wouldn't die at her hands, she believed him already dead.

"Of course she won't. You chose something else over her. Even now, when talking in ifs, you did it again." Blossom flew a few feet in front of him. "Choose her. It doesn't matter what happened before when you get a second chance."

She floated slowly backwards. "And if you think of attacking anyone, remember. I'm back in the skies, Warren. And with my second chance, I chose to be a hero."

Warren didn't make any move to follow her. He didn't so much as throw a spray of poisoned blades after her as a parting gift.

She'd made her choice, and he'd made his, and he wasn't certain that he believed in second chances. Simply mistakes made, and what you did in an attempt to minimize the damage that you'd done as a result.

But forgiveness only existed in dreams, and he had very few dreams, these days.

"Then good luck," he murmured, dropping back into his crouch, "hero."

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All Across the Island, Sunday Morning through Afternoon

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