Sol - Sky High fic - PG13
Title: Sol
Fandom: Sky High
Disclaimer: only The Commander, Jestream, and Principle Powers don’t belong to me
Warnings: none, really.
Pairings: none, really
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2370
Point of view: third
Notes: The italics can be taken however you wish. If you've a question, you need only ask.
The day she entered the world is not recorded. It is not in any history book anywhere. She was not celebrated; there was no rejoicing because of her birth.
Her mother already had two children, by two different men. Victor was seven years her senior; Leo five.
-and it burns, it burns so much, but there is no escape-
Her mother, Selene, named her Ava and then gave her to Victor for care. Selene hadn’t truly been a mother in longer than Leo’d been alive, more concerned with herself and what she wanted and everything she didn’t have.
Victor was the one who cooked and cleaned and changed diapers. Leo helped where he could; he idolized Victor and would do anything asked.
None of them ever spoke about it, but no matter how cold the outside world got with winter, no matter how many of their neighbors complained of freezing, the three of them were always warm. They’d all crawl into Victor’s bed and sleep, tangled together like puppies, because Victor always felt like a furnace, but he never burned.
Selene’d be passed out in the living room, drunk into a stupor, while Victor curled around his siblings like a protective mother, better than their birth mom ever could be.
And no matter how hot, how dry, summer got to being, they were never parched, never as tired as anyone else they knew. They’d sit out in front of the apartment building, in each other’s space, and smile up at the sun. Leo held both their hands, Leo who was never thirsty, and they felt cool water pouring down their throats, over their heads.
Selene would complain for hours about the heat, but her children never did. Selene would scream about the cold into the phone, ranting to the landlord who’d cut off power, that her babies were freezing, damnit, didn’t he understand? But if she’d bothered to look, she’d see they weren’t.
-where has the gentle warmth of all our yesterdays gone?-
By the time Ava was seven, Selene had killed herself: walked off a bridge to escape it all. Victor took three jobs to pay for everything and Leo began stealing necessities.
One of Victor’s jobs was night janitor at Sky High. He’d never gone to school; his father had fallen off the radar, one of the sidekicks who’d slipped through the cracks. The ability to stay warm wasn’t much, anyway.
When the neighborhood got to be too dangerous with just Leo and Ava alone in their apartment, Victor went to Principle Powers and explained the situation. Told her how he’d taken care of his baby brother and sister for years, and didn’t want to lose them. Asked if they could maybe sleep in an unused classroom, told her they’d help him work.
He looked older than fourteen, far older. She said yes. Ava and Leo moved in by the end of the week.
-burn, burn, such a slow, cruel burn-
Leo helped Victor at night, while Ava slept alone for the first time since the womb.
Principle Powers asked Victor before she left one night what talents he and his siblings had. He told her about how he was never cold and how Leo was never hot, but that Ava was normal. She nodded and smiled at him gently, then said he had to start attending Sky High.
“All three of you can eat food from the cafeteria; you and Leo can work only three hours total per week, and you will attend the school. Am I clear, Victor? Those are the requirements for living here.” Her voice was gentle and her eyes kind. Victor agreed.
-I cannot stand this heat-
Victor became a sidekick and Leo followed two years later. Upon graduation, Principle Powers-who was more of a grandmother than anything to them by that point-gifted Victor with enough money for a nice apartment on the better side of town.
He left behind the superhero world for a normal job, provided with references from all of his teachers and Principle Powers. Leo still attended the school, but was already looking for work.
Neither of them ever used a code name; they felt there was no need. Neither would remain in the empowered world after graduation, so it did not matter.
The three of them were still close, almost unnaturally so; sometimes, Victor wondered if they all shared a bit of telepathy, since they read each other so well. He never asked; they never discussed their powers. Not even while he and Leo attended the school of sidekicks and superheroes did they discuss their talents.
Ava felt almost shunned, those years they attended the school. Shunted to the side, ignored in favor of school work. They spent hours trying to reassure that she came first and always would.
Victor bought her an amethyst stone and a silver chain to thread through it. Leo stole a silver ring with amethyst set in it.
She forgave them and never took the jewelry off.
-burn burn burn, forgive me for this pain-
The summer after Leo graduated Ava turned thirteen. Victor was at work and Leo off searching for a steady, safe job, so Ava decided to go swimming in a nearby lake.
Without Leo close by, the sun was a steady warmth beaming down on her. While she was in the water, it didn’t bother her; but once she’d exhausted herself and climbed out onto the ground, it was so hot-
And then the world went dark. Cold. After a moment, it seemed as though her eyes opened for the very first time and she could see. All around her, the world was pitch-black, darker than midnight, but her eyes still worked. And just after her vision came back, so did her warmth; it no longer seemed like her bones were baking beneath her skin, but rather like Vic was sitting next to her.
She looked around and stood, wondering what had happened. Then, just as suddenly, the sun resumed shining.
-forgive me my sins, I never meant this-
It was all over the news. For a good minute, the entire world was black and freezing. There was no explanation, no reason-the sun just stopped shining.
The normals turned to the superheroes for information, but no one knew anything. For a while, everyone talked about the world ending but nothing else ever happened, so they moved on.
Vic and Leo looked at her different when they got back to the apartment that day, but only for an instant. It was a long time before she figured out why.
-when will the world burn to the ground?-
Ava grew. The day she turned twenty her brothers gave her an amethyst bracelet. Vic smiled and also gave her a hundred dollar gift card for Barnes and Noble. Leo hugged her and gave her a car.
Inside her, something hummed. She slipped the bracelet on her wrist and drove her car to the bookstore. Victor went to work and Leo vanished back into the underbelly of the city, and inside her, something sang.
On her way home from Barnes and Noble, she took a slight detour and passed out of the city, into the countryside.
-forgive me my sins, for I knew not what I did-
The sun beaming merrily down on her, she raised her hands to the sky and closed her fists. The world went dark, cold, and she felt the fire curl inside her, the knowledge hum through her veins. She opened her fists; the light and warmth returned.
Her brothers had known, that first day.
Ava smiled.
-forgive me, even though I know you’ll never forget-
Victor asked her what she would do. Leo told her he’d stand beside her, come whatever.
Lying between them, as though they were all children again, she wondered aloud why someone would be given such power.
“I could hold the world in the palm of my hand,” she whispered and Vic kissed her forehead. “I could destroy everything.”
Leo nestled closer against her and looked at Vic. “What will you do, Ava?”
She started laughing and closed her eyes, shifting and pulling them both close. “What I’ve always done. This changes nothing.”
-hold me, love me, kiss me, I’m still the same-
And it didn’t. She lived as she always had; luckily, her temper was long. Vic and Leo soon stopped treating her like glass.
Principle Powers checked in with them every now and then; Ava wondered if she should tell her that she’d finally developed a talent. Leo told her not to. “It wouldn’t help,” he explained. “You can already control it, and they’d…”
He couldn’t finish the thought, but she knew.
-hold me, love me, kiss me, before I fade away-
If the villains learned of her talent, they’d try to control her. If the heroes learned, they might attempt to destroy her before she became a threat.
The summer she turned twenty-three, Victor informed them both he’d learned he could generate a warmth so hot it burned anything he wanted it to. Leo then told them he’d long ago been able to freeze things.
Neither compared to turning off the sun, but they didn’t need to. Both were good enough to be considered a threat.
“If they went after me,” Ava murmured one night at dinner, “would they go after you?”
Vic and Leo shared a glance across the table. “Yes,” the eldest answered.
-please believe that I never wanted this-
Ava never set out to become a villain.
Leo was already considered one because of his petty thievery, in the eyes of the hero community, but he never really pinged on the radar.
Victor was generally an upright citizen, but he would help his siblings, no matter what they requested.
The third time Ava darkened the world, it was because Leo had been shot and no one would help him.
-listen when I say this was never my intent-
The normal medicine and treatment wouldn’t help him because the wound was too bad. Victor contacted Principle Powers, but all the healers were busy with their own lives, and a petty thief was of no concern.
The room around them began to burn, the temperature was so high, and he crushed the phone in his grip.
The doctors were kind, and they’d extracted the bullet, and the blood had stopped flowing-but it was too late. Leo was dying.
Ava kissed his forehead, lightly touched Vic’s shoulder, and walked out the hospital to a small courtyard. She pulled out her cell-phone and dialed the number Principle Powers had said to use only for emergencies.
When the hero answered, Ava said, “Get me a healer or I’ll stop the sun.”
-what is the definition of evil, anyway?-
Such a threat, of course, was not easily believed, but she raised her hand to the sky and closed her fist.
She was told a healer would be there within five minutes.
Leo was healed and Ava taken into custody.
-were we always headed this way?-
Her brothers would not let that stand. And in the end-there was only one way for it to ever end.
Victor burned and Leo froze and Ava decided to let the sun shine.
The sun shined long and the sun shined hard, and the three of them vanished into the night.
A council of heroes was called; a long discussion about the three was had. Principle Powers spoke in favor of leaving them be. The Commander said they could not be allowed to live.
“They’re too powerful,” he declared. “The ability to stop the sun? To make it burn hot enough to scorch people away? That kind of threat cannot be allowed!”
Jetstream asked if Ava had been a kind child and Principle Powers answered, “Yes.”
“Would she abuse this power?” Jetstream’s eyes were solemn and her voice soft. “Is she really a threat, if her family is not in danger?”
Principle Powers considered the three children she had known, had helped, had grown to love. “I don’t think so,” she replied honestly. “Ava was such a happy child, when she was with her brothers. But alone, she always seemed so quiet... so sad.”
“What do we know about their parents?” Thunderer asked, speaking as quietly as possible; the building still rumbled around them.
“From what I gleaned between the lines,” she answered, “they all had different fathers. Victor’s was a sidekick, one who never got a hero. Leo’s was a normal. Ava’s… I honestly have no idea. Their mother was Selene; I’m sure some of you remember her.”
A man at the other side of the room raised his head. “Selene?”
Everyone fell quiet. Enkidu spoke rarely, and when he did… he pushed back from the table and stood, began pacing. “These three are the children of Selene?”
“Yes.” Principle Powers nodded.
Enkidu paused and turned to face the greatest of the heroes the world had to offer. “These three shall not be harmed. If they are left alone, they will cause no trouble. Am I clear?”
The Commander clearly chaffed under the ruling, but Jetstream grabbed his hand and Enkidu’s eyes shone clear.
It was decided, by a vote, that the three would be left alone.
-love me, hold me, kiss me, forgive me-
Victor keeps the house a nice temperature in winter and they never need a heater. Leo keeps the house cool in summer and they never need an air conditioner.
Ava stands in the sunlight and smiles.
-I remember and I regret and I love-
The day she entered the world is not recorded. It is not in any history book anywhere. She was not celebrated; there was no rejoicing because of her birth.
The day she left the world is unknown, but there is a stone that rests in a clearing. It bears only two words: she shone.
Victor grew old, and Leo still older. They were laid in the ground six years apart on the same day.
The world kept spinning, the sun kept shining, and life went on.
-I remember and I regret and I love-
-forgive me-
-I never meant this-