Work Text:
A massacre was about to take place.
The crew of the armed ship orbiting the colony station would agree that a bloodbath was on the works. The inhabitants of the military colony, orbited by one paltry ship, would also say confidently that there was going to be carnage.
Of course, only one of them had the right idea.
Some would say it was a foretold tale when The Beauty was on a war path and the Sterling Colony was conquering territories for the side of good and fairness. Bound to happen. Ineludible. It was far more surprising that it had not happened sooner.
To keep up appearances, the colony had to at least pretend to make an effort to not immediately escalate the situation, so the colony had hailed the pirate ship and asked to parlay. The captain of The Beauty was amused enough to accept the suggestion, and that was why there was a line of scoundrels dressed with what could be generously called uniforms, playing at being proper guards and holding back mockeries.
"How does that Sons of Sterling salute go?" The one at the end of the line rushed to ask the First Officer, hearing the distinctive hissing of the airlock depressurizing.
The overcomplicated salute learned in their childhood was executed to perfection. The ship's pilot blinked twice, slowly.
"That's worse than the uniform." He still made a valiant effort to imitate Morgan before dismissing the idea entirely. No time to practice, the ambassadors were here anyway.
The Captain of The Beauty strutted to the airlock, walking by his crew to greet the newcomers.
"So the colony sent Super Duper and Super Trouper!" He bowed in deference. His crew had never seen him bow to anyone, and this pantomime didn't count. "Captain Alex Steward."
Alex was not being a good negotiator, perchance, but the colony sending their most powerful heroes dressed in their battle regalia and armed was not under any delusions either.
"Captain." Their cold attitude did not leave room to mistake this for polite conversation. This was just the preliminaries of a fight both sides awaited.
He guided the man who had taken the lead, parading him in front of his unarmed star-dwellers. The woman stayed a couple of steps behind, probably scanning the ship for vulnerabilities, but that was their second mistake, because any weakness in the ship or crew was compensated by Alex being Alex.
"My First Officer, Commander Morgan. Don't let their size fool you, they are really the captain. The crew knows it. If anything I'm the first officer; I would be lost without their advice."
Morgan repeated the overcomplicated salute for the visitors. "The Sterling colony honors us with your presence," he parroted like it was a well rehearsed call and response.
If there was indeed a response it went unsaid. The ambassador ignored Alex's First Officer and turned back to the Captain. Pretty rude.
"Your service honors us, Captain," the ambassador addressed Alex.
Maybe the man was just correctly assessing the biggest threat in the room, but there was something else going on. Alex knew Morgan's poker face and it was perfect, so why was he noticing the slightest hint of a ruthless smile there? Wishful thinking?
"Thank you." Alex said, lost in his thoughts, coming back only to introduce the last man in the line up. "Chief Stowaway, Officer Ohio James."
"Ambassador." Ohio inclined his head and glared at Alex, but didn't bother correcting him. He knew these people wouldn't live enough to remember any of this.
"Officer." Oh, so the ambassador knew how to acknowledge the presence of others! Then he turned to the woman and gestured for her to come forward. "She who is my wife."
Her diplomatic skills seemed to be better oiled, she offered a smile that would have looked warm if the situation wasn't this glacial.
"Captain Steward." She inclined her head too.
"Our pleasure, madam." Alex played along. "Before sitting for the peace negotiations, I'll arrange a tour of the ship. Morgan will conduct you."
"I'd prefer another guide, Captain."
Alex's head whipped to the man with no subtlety. What kind of shit ambassador had they sent? Shunning the boots they should be kissing for mercy? Did that colony really have that much ego to think that they could survive Alex and his crew? Clearly Alex had let them live for too long if they had cultivated that kind of gumption.
"As you wish, Ambassador." Alex still played along, but the crew had grown quieter at the tone. He wouldn't mind them all leaving in a flurry of panic right about now. He would like an hour or two with this "ambassador" alone. He turned to the one he knew wouldn't leave if he gave the order. "Morgan, we'll be done in two hours. Would you care to beam down and visit your parents?"
"Captain." No, Alex was not making it up, there was something under Morgan's tone... "Ambassadors Duper and Trouper are my parents."
***
Well, this changed things. Alex had started this charade with the intention of televising a peace treaty for the whole colony and ripping the heart out of the ambassadors after signing. The crew that had only frozen at Alex's menacing tone were scampering away at Morgan's neutral and polite assertion.
Even Ohio had backed off to the cockpit.
Alex was used to the spotlight, Alex was used to fights. He was familiar with the way Ambassador Duper's hand twitched for his phaser and so, Alex knew what to do.
He took a step back.
That seemed to finally get a reaction out of the supers. They looked warily from Alex to their progeny, who was not at all surprised to see Alex concede the center stage.
"What happened to Chad?" Morgan didn't rise their voice, or move a muscle.
"He didn't come. He's preparing for the fight. Because someone brought a sanguinary savage to our skies." Ambassador… That had to be Morgan's mother, then. Alex could reluctantly see the family resemblance.
So Morgan was not Morgan of Sterling, the colony, as the whole ship believed; he was Morgan Sterling descendant of the founders.
So these were the parents Morgan had run away from.
So these were the motherf-
"Ask me why I know that's not true."
The supers didn't look at each other; they held their child's stare as they would an enemy's. Morgan didn't care for their united front.
"Fine, don't ask. I stopped getting his messages about how he was going to save me. He used to say only death would stop him from trying."
Morgan's father scoffed. "You are thinking too high of yourself. Your brother must have finally given up on you."
"I would love to believe you, but, you see, the timing…" Morgan winced. "I gave both of them my contact, and Diego knew she only had to text me and I would…" Morgan put their fingers up as if to snap. They didn't but Alex felt the trigger fingers in the room get twitchier, his included. "Now I have a text in my comms from her. 'Help', it says."
Alex would rather keep looking at Morgan, but he peeled his eyes away from them to check the Sterlings' reactions. The mother's face was pure tungsten, the father's was the weakest link; fear.
"Since then, I've learned what happens if I use my power when someone is dying; how much of someone comes to me."
Alex held his breath as he finally understood the energy uptick from the ship's unused morgue.
"It was the same day Chad stopped sending messages."
It hurt that Alex was only learning about any of this now, but he was hardly going to interrupt Morgan for a chat.
"Today marks a month since that day."
Alex regarded Morgan's snapping fingers with renewed interest. The Sterlings were no different, but they had a vested interest.
"What would happen if I summoned Chad, you think?"
"He knew the risks." The mother dropped the pretense. For a moment even Alex had hoped that they'd say he was at the colony, in a med bay, in stasis, to beg not to summon him away from healing. Morgan had probably been hoping even harder. "They both did."
"But did you? Or did you send them to the slaughter for your power-hungry glory?"
"How dare you! The assessment was correct." Neither of them moved from their tense defensive positions. "They should have been able to manage the situation."
"You see, that's what I wanted to think too. So I waited. And I waited. I waited to see what you told the colony. But there was only silence.
"The colony would have mourned their two darling heroes. But you stayed quiet… Because you fucked up, didn't you? I've read the reports. They shouldn't have been there." Morgan shifted their weight, but their hand was stil ready to snap."They are dead. But that's the calculated risk of bringing up child soldiers."
"Heroing is the family legacy! This quadrant is safe thanks to that."
"This quadrant is a stagnant, putrid, soulless piece of shit that only produces ambitious pigs and obedient sheep." Morgan took a deep breath. "You didn't tell the colony. Because you knew this would come. Because without my siblings, there is nothing left protecting you from me."
Alex had expected some sanctimonious defence speech from the heroes. Something about the greater good, or about the lives protected in the line of duty. There was silence. Something in the combination of Alex presence, Morgan's tone, and the lack of cameras had dried their rethoric muscles.
"Alex, I can give the two ambassadors a tour, why don't you go to the colony and…" Morgan shrugged, not taking their eyes from their parents. "…have fun?"
Alex couldn't say he was not tempted by Morgan's plan. Letting the heroes watch as Alex destroyed their legacy nut from bolt? Coming back to a parricide? Coming back to a post-revenge Morgan? Letting Morgan have some fun making their parents believe that Morgan had spared them? Alex was very tempted, but he had also been traveling and living in close quarters with Morgan for years.
Despite the siren call of destruction, Alex's train of thought was other.
Leaving Morgan alone with the two people who had hurt Morgan the most? Letting these two chuklefucks be the ones to force Morgan's arm into breaking their own moral code? Not being here to comfort Morgan after losing all their family?
There was nothing short of a black hole that could pull Alex from Morgan's side.
"I'm not leaving."
Morgan turned with their whole body to question why Alex would defy them precisely now, and that's all the distraction that the two heroes needed. They reached for their phasers and shot, aiming one at Morgan because they knew they didn't have a chance against Alex, and the other at the porthole behind. Alex snapped his fingers at the same time and the weapons disintegrated, but the blasts had been shot. Instinctively Morgan snapped at the same time they were trying to turn away from the blast.
The energy projectile could have been avoided if it had been aimed at the chest. But there was no way to avoid the blast that was making its way to Morgan's head. The soon-to-be-victim had their eyes shut and turned from the light bullet and an elbow up to futilely protect themselves.
Also suspended in the air were two spheres of gray slop that one day had been housed in two skulls.
Alex had time to see all of this in detail because he had stopped time, annoyed by how all the drama that had been building up for the last half hour had resolved in less than a second. He drummed his fingers against his chin. He pushed Morgan slightly away from the beam's trajectory, that was not ever in question, but now?
Well, first the other beam. Maybe these two were space-proof but Morgan wasn't, so that beam of energy disappeared too. Easy. But now?
It took Alex a lot to decide, but ultimately he snapped and the gray matter went back the way it came from, he snapped again and the two heroes were back in motion and a little confused about not having their weapons. The rest of time, including Morgan, remained stopped.
"In my defense." Alex posed to attack, while the couple readied to use their powers. "Morgan told me to have fun."
Morgan took a second to unclench and realize they weren't dead. They blinked a couple of times and the first thing that greeted their eyes were red directional splatters on the wall. They turned to where their parents had been and there was not much left. The bones were intact on two piles on the floor, but everything else was… around. Muscles looked carefully sliced, but there were organs stuck on the ceiling. Morgan approached and pushed one of the empty skulls with a foot. It sounded empty of eyes empty of tongue, empty…
Morgan's fingers still remembered the slight soreness of a snap.
They turned to Alex, who was right by their side, looking detachedly at the still warm human remains.
"Do you know who of us did this first?"
"I do."
Morgan waited, but they didn't ask more. Alex returned the attention paid to him, but didn't offer anything else, at least not in regards to the issue at hand. His gaze softened and his shoulders rounded.
"Do you want to talk?"
Morgan looked back at the mess, at all of its scope, at the colony through the red-stained porthole. "I kind of want to stress and repress more right now."
Alex nodded. "Later?"
"Later. For now, can we talk about anything else, please?" Morgan took a step back and looked at their own bloody footprints. "Somewhere cleaner?"
Alex didn't mind the gore and blood, but The Beauty had been improved so much by Morgan that Alex didn't know if there was a single piece that remembered a time before Morgan. Thus, it was Morgan's ship and Morgan didn't tolerate gore and blood in their common areas. Alex snapped the trash away.
"Sure, anything else, I've been meaning to ask. Does this make you the heir of the colony?"
Morgan's eyes lost focus and they stared again at the colony outside. They mouthed a very silent curse. The chances of the Sterlings having taken Morgan out of the family succession line were high, but not absolute. Alex looked at the colony ship too.
"…Only if they pay rent. Otherwise we might have to fake my death quickly. This is not working either, Alex, ask anything anything else."
"Are you sure?" Alex fixated on Morgan and took a step so close and personal that forced Morgan to give him their full attention. "You are not going to like this question."
"Shoot." Morgan didn't hesitate.
"Fine." Alex vanished any amusement from his face. "Did you manipulate me into attacking this colony at your convenience?"
Once again Morgan didn't hesitate. "No." A crooked, beautiful, smile bloomed on their face. "I just stopped manipulating you into not destroying this colony, why?" Morgan's smirk reached their eyes. "Are you mad?"
Trying to intimidate Morgan with proximity to distract them might have been a miscalculation. "I'm- That's- It- Mad is not the word."