Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Vivi came to driving the van on a long stretch of road. She instantly realized something was wrong because A: She was driving. Arthur and Sydney did everything they could to keep her from driving. B: She had no memory of how she got here. She remembered sitting in the passenger seat talking to the others, then suddenly she was driving and…covered in blood?!

She slammed on the brakes as she heard a scream of pain from the back. “Holy shit!” She threw the car into park and turned towards the back. “Do you guys-” The question died in her throat.

Sydney was hunched over Arthur and rapidly trying to wrap bandages from the first aid kit around where Arthur’s left arm used to be while Mystery was whimpering nearby. Vivi vaulted over the chairs. “What happened?!”

“I-I don’t know,” slurred Sydney. “I’m just here but I wasn’t here, and I dunno how I got from there to here.”

Vivi ripped off her scarf and quickly wrapped it around Arthur’s chest and injury. Vivi knew it wasn’t clean, but it was a lot more effective. “What’s going on?! What happened?!” demanded Vivi.

“I dunno,” murmured Sydney.

Vivi was about ready to demand Sydney try and remember when she noticed blood dripping off Sydney’s face. The blood pattern on Sydney’s shirt indicated contact transfer rather than being sprayed by the blood. There shouldn’t be enough of Arthur’s blood to be dripping off of her. “Sydney, are you okay?”

“…My face hurts,” muttered Sydney, finally looking up.

Vivi nearly lost her lunch (dinner?) when she saw that Sydney’s right eye was gone, and whatever had removed it had made a mess as the skin around the area was badly torn up. Vivi swore she could see bone and even something that she suspected was Sydney’s optic nerve. “Holy shit!”

Sydney blinked. “Is it bad?”

Vivi chose not to answer, instead ripping open a clean package of gauze, pressing it to the injury, managing to slap a bit of tape on it, and pressing Sydney’s hand to it. “Press down on that!”

Sydney blinked and glanced at Arthur. “But what about…”

“Try to keep pressure on him too!” God, Arthur was so pale, and he was barely bleeding. Was there any blood left in his body?

Vivi climbed back into the driver’s seat, threw the van into drive and slammed the accelerator into the floor.

Chapter Text

It took Vivi way too long to find a hospital in her opinion, but she managed to find one and pull up into the emergency room parking area with a screech of tires. She ran through the door. “My friends are hurt!”

To the credit of the staff, they took one look at her bloody clothes and ran towards the door. Vivi was right behind them (She briefly noted that some police had shown up at some point.) and opened the van door. Mystery quickly jumped out while a couple of nurses climbed in to examine Sydney and Arthur. Sydney was quickly helped out (That was a good sign, right?) while the nurses shouted that they needed a gurney for Arthur.

Vivi didn’t even get to go into the back with them because the police intercepted her and demanded to know what had happened. Vivi understood in the back of her mind that it looked like someone or something had attacked them, and they needed to be sure it wasn’t Vivi or that there was some sort of psycho running around.

The only problem was that she had no idea what happened. They’d been on a road trip, on their way to…she couldn’t remember where. Some place rumored to be haunted of course. Anyway, they’d been on their way to the location and then she’d been driving the van and Arthur and Sydney had been injured in the back and she had no idea what had happened between the two.

Vivi tried to figure out what had happened. Something…They must have been attacked or something, and Arthur and Sydney had jumped forward to defend her and Mystery like they tended to do, but that didn’t make sense because Arthur tended to hang back when the threat was ephemeral, and Sydney was a long-range attacker.

Okay, maybe it was a physical attacker. Arthur at the front, Sydney supporting from the back. And they managed to get past Arthur’s defense and remove his arm, hard as that was to believe, and then ripped out Sydney’s eye.

Wait. No. The threat would have done more damage to Sydney if that was the case, and Vivi would’ve gotten hurt too because no way was she going to let anything hurt her two BFFs.

Different direction. It looked like Sydney’s eye had been ripped out of its socket. So something got up close to her. Still probably a physical threat because Vivi didn’t see how a metaphysical threat could get close enough to Sydney to do that. Maybe it caught them by surprise and went for Sydney first, maybe considering her the biggest threat because of her powers. Then Arthur tried to defend them and got hurt. And Vivi did nothing? That didn’t make any sense. There’s no way Vivi would just sit back and let them do all the work!

Maybe she’d just somehow gotten really lucky? Mystery seemed uninjured too though, and wouldn’t it make more sense for three of them to be injured if it was just luck? Maybe they managed to get to the safe zone they set up, but how would Vivi drag both of them to the safe zone?

None of this made any sense!

Vivi took several deep breaths, relieved that the police were leaving her alone. Let’s try this one more time. Arthur missing an arm. Sydney missing an eye. No other injuries? Hard to say. They’d both been covered in so much blood it would hide any other injuries. Vivi and Mystery are both okay, if shaken and missing memories. Were Sydney and Arthur missing memories? Sydney had certainly been confused so it seemed likely. Maybe she could ask Sydney if she was still awake.

Except she couldn’t find Sydney anywhere.

Oh God. Had Sydney had another serious injury Vivi had missed? Vivi waved down a passing nurse. “Excuse me, my friends, they were hurt really bad, and I can’t find Sydney. She was-was missing her-” She couldn’t finish.

The nurse seemed to catch on. “She’s in the operating room.”

And Vivi slapped herself upside the head. Of course she needed surgery! Parts of her skull and optic nerve had been visible. “Are Arthur and Sydney going to be all right?” Vivi didn’t think she’d survive if they didn’t make it.

“Sydney should be fine. Losing her eye is going to affect her for the rest of her life, but her life isn’t in any danger. Arthur, the young man…?” Vivi nodded. “He lost a lot of blood. The doctors stabilized him, but it did a lot of damage. We’ll just have to hope that he’s strong enough to pull through at this point.”

Vivi swallowed. “I…I see. Thank you. I-I need to call their families. Excuse me.”

It had only just occurred to Vivi that she needed to call Lance and Sydney Senior. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

Vivi took a few moments to pet Mystery and calm down and gather strength. Then she dialed Sydney Senior’s number. She kind of wanted to put off talking to Lance a bit more.

“Hello, Sydney Scoville Sr. How can I be helping you?” asked Sydney Senior in a fake accent.

Vivi sobbed. “Mr. Scoville…”

“Vivi?” All joviality disappeared from Sydney Senior’s voice. “Is everything okay?”

Vivi shook her head. “No, no, there was some sort of…some sort of accident. Arthur and Sydney were hurt really badly and I need you and Lance here.”

“Okay, okay, how bad is it?”

“Sydney’s eye is gone.”

“Her eye is gone?!”

“And Arthur’s arm is gone.”

“Bloody Hell, what the %@^%*&^ ^$**% happened?!”

“I-I don’t know.”

“How the (*)(&( do you not know how your friends lost their body parts?!”

Vivi sobbed. “I don’t know. I just remember being in the van, and then I was suddenly driving, and there was blood everywhere, and I found Arthur and Sydney and Mystery in the back, and I drove to the hospital.”

“Okay, okay, just tell me where you are, and I’ll get there as quickly as I can,” said Sydney Senior.

It took Vivi a moment to track down someone who could tell her the address. As soon as she rattled it off, Sydney Sr hung up. Vivi sniffled. That had been bad. Lance was probably going to be worse. She needed a moment before dialing his number.

Lance took a few moments to answer. “Kingsman Mechanics.”

“Lance, it’s Vivi.”

Lance was silent. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I woke up in the van, and Arthur and Sydney were hurt, but I can’t remember how they got hurt or what happened at all, which doesn’t make any sense-”

“How bad is it?” interrupted Lance.

“Sydney lost an eye. Arthur lost an arm. They’re in surgery.” Vivi let out a wail. “They don’t know if Arthur’s going to wake up!”

“That bad then. What about you and Lewis?”

Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “I’m okay. I’m okay…”

“Good. And Lewis?”

Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “What?”

“Is Lewis okay?” Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “You didn’t mention him.”

“Didn’t mention…Are you talking about Mystery?”

“How did you get-I’m talking about Lewis!”

Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “Talking about who?”

“Lewis.” Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “Your boyfriend.”

Vivi blinked. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said mechanically.

It took several moments for Lance to respond. “How many people are in your ghost hunting club?”

“Three plus Mystery.”

Lance let out what Vivi suspected was a Gaelic curse. “Vivi, you need to call your parents. I’m going to call the Peppers.”

Vivi’s brain skipped a painful beat. “I already called Sydney’s dad.”

“Good, now give me the address of the hospital slowly so I can write it down.” Vivi had to say it a few times because she wanted to rattle it off too quickly for Lance to write it down. “Got it. I’ll close up the shop and drive down.”

“Great.”

“And we are going to have a very long talk once I get there,” said Lance, the threat of a promise in his voice.

Vivi swallowed. “Yes sir.” This was going to end badly.

Now it was time for her parents. She stared at it for a moment. They’d warned her. She hadn’t listened. Why hadn’t she listened? They’d known what they were talking about. She knew they knew what they were talking about. She still had chosen to ignore their lessons.

It took Mystery whining and pawing at her arm to get her to finish dialing the number.

“Hello, this is the Yukino residence,” greeted Serena.

Vivi let out a sob. “Mom.”

“Vivi? Honey, what’s wrong?”

“I-I-” Vivi took a shuddering breath. “I think I got Arthur and Sydney hurt really bad…”

“Did you call their families?” asked Serena.

Vivi nodded before recalling that her mother couldn’t see it. “Yes. They’re not happy.”

“They’re just worried,” Serena reassured them. “Now, do you know where you are?”

Vivi nodded and rattled off the hospital address for the third time that night.

“Okay, your father and I will be there as soon as we can,” said Serena. “We’ll see if your grandmother can come as well.”

“Okay…”

“Until then, you kids take care of yourselves, and keep Mystery nearby at all times,” instructed Serena.

“Yes ma’am,” said Vivi.

“And remember, we love you.”

“I love you too,” Vivi replied automatically before ending the call. She looked to Mystery, who whined and gave her face a lick. Vivi hiccupped and wrapped her arms around him. “I messed up…”

Chapter Text

Sydney Sr arrived first. By then Vivi had managed to change her clothes (She was tempted to throw the bloody clothes away, but it could be evidence to what happened.) and was sitting in Sydney’s room waiting for her to wake up.

Arthur was still in surgery.

Sydney Sr came in so quickly that he would have slammed the door open if they were allowed to keep it closed. He zipped over. “Bloody Hell!” He made an aborted motion towards the bandages wrapped around Sydney’s eyes. He spun to face Vivi, looking more furious than she had ever seen him. “What the fuck happened?!”

“I…” Vivi averted her gaze. “I don’t know.”

“How do you not know how someone lost their goddamn eye?!” shouted Sydney Sr.

Vivi shrugged. “I just…blacked out or something. I’m missing several hours. I think I might have repressed whatever happened, post traumatic amnesia.”

“Oh, you have got to be-” Vivi chanced a look up and saw that Sydney Sr looked absolutely furious. “You need to leave. Before I do something that will get me arrested.”

Vivi wanted to argue and stay to make sure Sydney was okay and maybe try to explain what was going on to Sydney Sr…

Except she didn’t know what was going on, Sydney wasn’t going to wake up with the medications she was on, and she knew from experience that when someone a Scoville cared for was hurt they were incredibly dangerous. She and Mystery vacated the room. “I don’t think that could have gone worse,” muttered Vivi.

Mystery thought it could have. She could have tried to stay and taken the full brunt of Sydney Sr’s worried anger.

“…Lance and my parents will probably be here soon,” muttered Vivi. “I should get ready.”

Chapter Text

It was only a few minutes later that Vivi’s family arrived. “Vivi!” Serena gave her a hug before pulling back to look her over. “Are you okay?”

Vivi nodded. “The doctors gave me a clean bill of health.”

“I will be the judge of that,” said Obaa-san as she walked over. She gestured for Vivi the kneel, which she did. Obaa-san frowned and muttered an incantation under her breath. “Something’s wrong.”

“What?” No one had noticed anything odd…Wait. They had no way of seeing if something was wrong. “I am missing about a week’s worth of memories.”

Hiro knelt down. “Okaasan is right. There’s some sort of…film over your eyes. It’s barely noticeable.”

“I can still see just fine so it’s not affecting my vision,” said Vivi. “Any idea what it might be?”

“Hard to say, but it definitely shouldn’t be there,” said Hiro. “The problem is we’d likely need to see it active to know what it does exactly, and it might do something harmful.”

That was a catch 22. Vivi wanted to know what it would do, but she didn’t want to risk damaging her eyes or something.

And that reminded her of Sydney again. She started crying again, leaning into her mother. “I had a fight with Sydney.”

“Friends fight sometimes,” said Serena in an attempt to console Vivi.

Vivi shook her head. “Not like this. There was yelling. She said I wasn’t taking our investigations seriously. That I wasn’t paying attention to how often we ended up in trouble. That I wasn’t letting her and Arthur do other things they might enjoy. That we needed breaks!” Vivi sniffled. “I think…I knew she had a point, but I didn’t want to admit she was right because that would mean I was being selfish and careless. So I said it wasn’t that bad, that we would be fine, and that she could choose the next place we went to. She wasn’t happy. We ended up yelling at each other.” Vivi took a breath. “She was right!”

And as Vivi broke down crying she wondered if her friends would ever want to talk to her again.

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Vivi was still crying when Lance arrived with a few other people she didn’t recognize. Lance initially ignored the Yukinos, instead checking in at the front desk. The people who had followed him in came over to the Yukinos. “Vivi, are you okay?” asked the man.

Vivi blinked. “Uh, yes…” Why did he care?

“Did you guys get attacked by a ghost?” asked one of the girls.

Vivi frowned. Her head was starting to hurt. “I don’t know. I can’t-” Her head was pounding. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?”

The whole ER seemed to fall silent. Vivi looked around at the shocked faces and felt like she’d said the wrong thing somehow.

Suddenly everyone started talking over each other. Vivi wasn’t sure why, but it felt like her head hurt more and more as the volume increased. She couldn’t breathe! She…she…

Blood.

Vivi passed out.

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Once Vivi was placed on a bench with Serena watching after her and the Pepper kids, the rest of the adults met in Sydney’s room to discuss things.

“How is Sydney doing?” asked Mrs. Pepper.

Sydney Sr. put a hand on Junior’s forehead. “The doctor’s say she should be okay. She probably won’t wake up for another day or two.” Sydney Sr. sighed. “I guess she won’t be going to any archery competitions for a while…”

“She should still keep some arrows on her,” said Granny Yukino.

“No now, Mother,” said Hiro. “The most pressing issue right now is Lewis’ location.”

“He wouldn’t have just abandoned them,” said Mr. Pepper. “And they wouldn’t abandon him. So…so what happened?”

“Vivi doesn’t remember him,” Lance said suddenly.

“What? But they’ve known each other for a decade,” said Mr. Pepper.

“I think it’s a curse,” said Hiro. “There’s a…film of some sort over Vivi’s eyes. It’s barely noticeable, but when you arrived and started asking about Lewis, it suddenly became much worse until she passed out. I think it’s keeping her from remembering him.”

“Wait. So it was a ghost or somethin’ like that?” asked Sydney Sr. “I thought Sydney protected them from that sort of thing.”

“She’s too tired,” said Granny Yukino. “She exhausted her powers enough that protection wasn’t possible.”

“Her aura does seem a lot weaker than usual,” agreed Hiro. “It would still take something powerful to do that sort of damage though. It’s not something most investigators ever encounter.”

“Would this entity still have Lewis?” asked Mrs. Pepper.

Hiro crossed his arms in thought. “It’s possible, but Vivi can’t remember where the events took place. I will probably need to wait for Sydney or Arthur to wake up and tell me.”

“Actually, I talked with the nurses before, and it sounded like Sydney didn’t know what happened either,” said Sydney Sr.

“Yeah, the doc said Arthur’s probably gonna have some memory loss,” added Lance. “…And maybe other brain damage.”

Everyone winced at that, but no one knew what to say to console Lance.

“Maybe I can look at Vivi’s travel plans and figure out where they went,” said Hiro, giving Mystery a significant look. Mystery gave a subtle nod. They’d be working on the problem later on. “And…if you’d rather Vivi stay away for now, I understand and would prefer if you tell me now so I can pass it on to her.”

“Damn straight I want her to stay away from Junior!” said Sydney Sr. He gestured towards Sydney Jr. “Look what she did! I know Sydney’s got a habit of getting in trouble, but she doesn’t go lookin’ for it!”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, yer family’s done a lot to help us, but Vivi’s not coming near Arthur until she understands why I’m angry with her.”

“That shouldn’t take too long,” commented Granny Yukino.

Mr. Pepper sighed. “I personally don’t mind, but considering what happened when we saw Vivi before…”

“You probably have to avoid Vivi for her own health, yes,” admitted Hiro. “But rest assured we will be working on figuring out what happened to her and how to reverse it.”

“Aaaand…how long is that gonna take?” drawled Sydney Sr.

Hiro sighed. “I have no idea. It depends on how strong the curse is, what is necessary to remove it safely, possibly the position of the celestial bodies.”

“As it is not actively harming her we are going to be as careful and thorough as possible,” added Granny Yukino.

Hiro nodded. “It’s very inconvenient for all of us, but if circumstances were a bit different it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“We’ll keep the children away from Vivi for now,” said Mrs. Pepper. “They won’t like it, but after how she reacted before I'm sure they'll understand."

Chapter Text

Sydney Jr groaned and her eye started to flutter. Sydney Sr zipped over to her side. “Junior! C’mon, wake up!”

“Dad…?” Her eye opened. “Wha…What happened?”

“There was a bad accident. You remember?”

“No…” groaned Sydney Jr.

“Well, it was pretty bad. Maybe it’s better that away,” said Sydney Sr. “Hold on. I’ll call a nurse to check on you.”

“I’m in the hospital?” Sydney Jr looked around in confusion. “Why is it so dark?’

“It’s the bandages. They’re covering your eye…s.”

Sydney Junior thankfully didn’t catch his slip of tongue. “My head hurts…”

“I think that’s normal. I mean, you were in sur…Okay, I can’t think of a save for that one. You were in surgery.”

“What?” Sydney Junior started trying to sit up. Sydney Sr carefully pushed her down. “Why did I need-”

“Well, sometimes when you’re in a car accident you hurt yourself badly enough that just stitches isn’t enough, and-Where is that nurse?!”

“Dad?!”

A nurse walked in. “Mr Scoville? Oh! You’re awake!”

“Hi Nurse…Person!” greeted Sydney Sr.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” said Sydney Jr.

“Could use a little help here,” said Sydney Sr.

“Don’t worry. You had an accident, but you should be fine once you get used to things,” said the nurse.

“What do I need to get used to?!” questioned Sydney Jr.

“Oh, you know. Stuff,” said Sydney Sr.

“Let me take off the bandages so I can get a look at how you’re healing,” said the nurse.

“The bandages on my face?!”

“There aren’t any other bandages,” said the nurse.

“Why did I need surgery on my face?!”

“You had an injury to your eye,” said the nurse.

“Which eye?!”

“Hold still…” muttered the nurse as she cut through the bandages. “It was your right eye.”

“Oh no! I’m right handed!”

“That could be a problem, but it’s not unsurmountable,” said the nurse as she finished removing the bandages. “There.”

Sydney’s missing eye had a skin graft over where it had been. The nurse frowned as Sydney started to look around frantically. “I already contacted the doctor to take a look.”

“How come I still can’t see?” asked Sydney Jr.

You could’ve heard a pin drop when she said that. The nurse pulled out a penlight and shone it into Sydney’s eye. “You can’t see this?”

“See what?”

Sydney Sr collapsed into the bedside chair. “No. No no no no no no no.”

Sydney Jr turned towards where she’d heard Sydney Sr. “Dad?”

That was when the doctor walked in. “So, I understand you’ve woken up.”

“Dr. Stevenson, we have a serious problem,” said the nurse. “She’s not seeing.”

“What?!” shouted Sydney Jr.

The doctor immediately hurried over. “It’s an infection.”

“In my eyes?!”

“Call in the nearest ophthalmologist, get a sample to test for the bacteria types, and get her started on a broad spectrum antibiotic.”

“Wait! What’s going on?!” said Sydney Jr. “What’s wrong?! Why can’t I see?”

Chapter Text

Eventually, the doctors and nurses gave the Sydneys some privacy. The news they’d gotten was so bad that both were quiet for what would have been considered a record by their friends and family.

Sydney Sr couldn’t think of anything he could say to make this better but made sure to hold onto Sydney Jr’s hand. Sydney Jr didn’t know what to think at all, but eventually broke the silence. “What am I going to do?”

“Well, you probably can’t live on your own so Vivi-”

“No!” shouted Sydney. “I told her something bad was going to happen if she wasn’t careful! She completely ignored me and now-” Sydney Jr clenched her fists. As angry as she was she couldn’t bring herself to curse Vivi. “I don’t even want to see her!”

“Can’t say I blame ya,” said Sydney Sr, who wasn’t feeling very happy with Vivi either. “But, like I said, you can’t stay home alone. I know you might not like the idea, but you’ll probably need to move back in with your mother and I.”

Sydney Jr sighed. “Better than staying with Vivi. I guess it wouldn’t be safe to stay at Arthur’s when I can’t see either.”

“Oh shit.”

Sydney Jr gave her father a confused look. “Shit? What’s shit?”

Sydney Sr coughed nervously. “Yeah, uh, how much do you remember about what happened?”

Sydney Jr got a thousand-yard stare. “Blood and pain everywhere.”

“Okay…We can see about getting you some therapy when we get home,” said Sydney Sr. “Anyway, uh, hoo boy. There is no easy way to say this.”

“Dad, you’re scaring me.”

“Sorry, sorry, just…” Sydney Sr sighed. “Arthur got hurt too.”

Sydney Jr stiffened. “Oh shit. What happened? Is he okay?”

“We don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“His arm is gone!”

“What?!”

“He lost so much blood. He’s in intensive care. He hasn’t woken up. I think he’s in a coma,” explained Sydney Sr.

Sydney Jr tried to get out from under the covers. “I need-I need to see him! I need to-”

Sydney Sr grabbed her shoulders. “Junior, no, you’re…fuck, you’re blind! And you’ll be able to get around fine one day, but not today! And you’re still recovering and on pain meds, and I do not want you getting hurt again!”

Sydney Jr was having trouble thinking straight, and not in the usual way. “But ghosts will find Arthur and make him hurt. I have to keep them away.”

Sydney Sr paused. “Okay, fair. Still, I think he should be okay as long as you’re nearby. Besides, Arthur will want you to take care of yourself.”

“But how long will it take?” asked Sydney Jr.

“Well, the doctors said it would be a week tops, but that was before you were blind, and I think they might want to keep you longer. I dunno. I don’t know about medicine. Except for antivenon, and that has nothin’ to do with this. I guess they wanna see if they can fix your eye? Since they don’t know what made you go blind exactly. God, I hope they can fix this.”

“Dad! Just let me see Arthur! I don’t care if I can actually see him. I just want to know that he’s alive! Please!” Sydney Jr’s eye was starting to tear up.

Sydney Sr sighed. “I’ll talk to the nurses about it. Maybe since everything else is all right they’ll let you see him.”

Sydney Jr nodded. “Yeah, let’s call and ask now!” Sydney Jr started groping for the nurse call button.

“Hold on! You only just woke up. Give it a couple of hours!” said Sydney Sr. “It’s not like any of you will be going anywhere.”

Sydney Jr. stopped for a moment and just thought. She did still feel pretty tired. “Okay…but we’re seeing him today!”

“I’m sure we can work something out,” said Sydney Sr. Something suddenly occurred to him. “How come you haven’t asked about Lewis?”

Sydney Jr. winced and rubbed her head. “Huh? Wha?”

Sydney Sr had a sinking feeling. “You know. Lewis Pepper. Your best friend since you were a little kid.”

“Huh…?” Sydney Jr felt like she’d missed a good chunk of what her dad said. “Are we still talking about Arthur?”

“Oh God, it got you too.”

“What got me?” questioned Sydney Jr.

“The thing that made Vivi forget Lewis!”

Sydney Jr frowned. “So something did happen to Vivi?”

“I don’t even know how to explain this,” muttered Sydney Sr. “You’re just gonna forget if I tell you.”

Sydney blinked. “That’s creepy. And scary. Please tell me it’s not some sort of early onset dementia.”

“Pretty sure it’s not. We’ll keep an eye on it to be sure.” Now that Sydney Sr was thinking about it he wondered if magical amnesia could lead to dementia. That was worrying. He’d have to ask Hiro. “I guess I won’t be able to ask the Peppers to help out.”

Sydney Jr tried to give her father a confused look but was off by a few inches. “How would peppers help?”

Sydney Sr sighed. “I dunno.” That was another difficult conversation he was going to have to have. “Just…We’re going to work through this. Somehow. But first we need to rest. No arguments.”

Sydney Jr still really wanted to see…Make sure Arthur was alive, but she really didn’t know where he was or how to get there. Also, it felt like she was off her meds. And yet she felt so tired… “Fine.” She lay back on the bed, wondering if everything looking the same with her eyes open as when they were shut would affect how she would get to sleep.

Then she was just asleep.

Chapter Text

“I…I see. I’m so sorry,” said Hiro into his phone. “Is there anything my family and I can do to help?” Hiro listened to the voice on the phone. “I understand. I’ll pass it on before I come over to check on Sydney. Maybe hearing news from Lance will help her feel a bit better. I’ll see you then.” Hiro hung up on the call and let out a sigh.

“Is Sydney okay?” asked Vivi.

“She’s awake and fairly lucid, so her brain wasn’t damaged,” said Hiro. “However, it appears she’s been cursed like you.”

Vivi blinked. “Huh? But I thought she’d be immune to that sort of thing.”

“Not necessarily,” said Hiro. “She’s highly resistant, but there are ways around that. For example, if her powers were exhausted and weak at the time the curse was laid on her.”

Vivi winced. “Oh. That…Why didn’t that occur to me before?” questioned Vivi. “That should’ve been obvious.”

Hiro nodded. “It should have. No one is invincible, even if they seem that way.”

Vivi bit her lip and hugged herself. Had she really been so obsessed with awakening her powers that she’d ignored something so simple and obvious?

God, no wonder Sydney had been so angry with her. “Can I see her. I…I owe her an apology.” And so much more.

“Ah. That’s…Sydney doesn’t want to directly speak with you right now. Best to give her some time to calm down,” said Hiro.

Vivi suddenly felt chilled to the bone and sick to her stomach all at once. “Oh.”

Hiro seemed to have noticed it. “I’m sure passing on messages will be all right. Maybe take a break from everything.”

Vivi got the feeling he was specifically talking about paranormal investigations.

“And Sydney needs some time to get used to…” Hiro trailed off. “She needs to adjust to…” He went silent. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Sydney’s injury became infected and spread to the surrounding area. It damaged her remaining eye in some way. She…she’s completely blind.”

Vivi’s world abruptly came to a complete halt. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t hear, couldn’t see.

Nothing was right.

Nothing made sense.

Why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why

She just wanted to be like her friends. Now she was all alone.

Vivi blacked out as Hiro called her name.