ALFG Transition to Ragnarok Crusaders Arc Deleted Scene

A deleted and rewritten scene from an early transitional chapter of the fifth part to ALFG, where James' squad go to the Safehouse to retrieve Cecil's conspiracy board and run into Terezi and Vriska.

-

"Be careful with that."

James glances at where the pool master and their best friend are struggling with putting the glass vials of blood into a box. They need to be pressed tight so they can't move and break, after all.

"I am, look, it's fine," their friend says.

"This is a vial of your blood, and I will exsanguinate you if you break this."

James turns back to snapping a photo of Cecil's wall. They've moved up here, and while he and Kevin are trying to get good photos of the conspiracy wall (it's not really a conspiracy wall, but it sure looks like it), both of them are trying to pack what they have carefully for storage. Mai and the others are outside of the Palmers' unit, Kevin's call since he does live in the space.

The girl with the odd eyes hadn't looked too pleased, but her companion had shot her down.

There's a chortle behind James.

"Ex - exsanguinate, is that your word of the day?"

"I nearly said, de-blood, shut up."

That gets a series of snickers, and then there's a loud slap.

"Are they fighting again?" Kevin doesn't even look surprised, instead just glancing at them and then shaking his head. "I swear to god, they're going to break the vials."

"That seems to be how they deal with stress," James says. "I think it's working, at least."

Kevin laughs. He snaps one last photo before putting down his phone. He turns to Khoshekh, sitting on Cecil's bed and just staring up at the wall.

James turns to it. It looks...like a mess. Like it's been hastily put together by someone who thought they were running out of time. There's a few pins that don't look like they're even piercing the wall while there's others that he can't even see the metal pin anymore, just the head. The strings vary from thick yarns to small threads, and a lot of the handwriting on the papers look hastily made. A few are composed, theories written by someone with a level head, but the rest are concerning.

"Let's move this to the bunker, we can't stay here in the Safehouse long," he says.

"Everyone else is still here, though," Kevin says. He looks outside the room, through the open doorway. There's no one there, just their view of the living room. "The tenants - what if there's an attack?"

The Safehouse should still be standing, even without the members running it, but - the kid has a point. A mob could quickly form without regulations. Still, everyone running the Safehouse is currently in danger and that's a present situation. If it worsens, there might not even be a Safehouse in the future which is going to be an even bigger loss for New York.

It doesn't mean they can abandon their post here, though. Something has to be done.

"Do you have anything in mind?" Kevin asks.

James clicks his tongue. On one hand, he can't leave the teenagers alone to do operation rescue, and sending in other people would be letting innocents fight their fight for them and possibly get hurt in the process. On the other, someone needs to watch the Safehouse. Maybe it won't even be attacked. Hopefully it won't be. But someone just needs to watch it.

But if someone was to watch it, they'd have to know the situation. They'd have to know what's going on and where everyone else is, why they're not running the Safehouse right now.

He wonder how New York will take it. It's been more than a year since the Safehouse has been running, if memory serves, and since then, disasters have been a lot more bearable and have been more likely to be survived through. The Safehouse is as essential to them as the Avengers are now.

What would they do without the city bunker to hide in? The Safehouse hasn't stopped or made sure that crime rates dropped, but it sure as hell was a place to run when it did rise.

"No," he says, "But you're right, someone has to look after these people."

And someone outside of them, if they're going to focus on their work since they already need as many people on board as possible.

He can't see the front door, but if he could right now, he would.

"How do you feel about our visitors?" he asks.

Kevin blinks at the sudden change in subject. "What?"

"Can you sense if they're good people or not?" he asks. "Lucky people, or anything like that?"

"Lucky - " Kevin chortles. "I can't really tell anything, but I guess I've always had like, guesses on how people are."

"How reliable have they been?"

"They're usually reliable," he says. "But I'm not sure how it feels like whenever they are reliable."

"We can work with that," James says. "How do you feel about the people outside?"

"I know Mai and Kristina. They've been around the Safehouse every now and then, they're good kids. They're ours," he says. "But the other two, uh."

The boy frowns, thinking. And then, when that's not enough, he closes his eyes, concentrating.

He doesn't say anything for a while. When he does, his voice seems to echo around the space; louder, deeper, despite nothing about the room or about Kevin changing. The room is still Cecil's room, decently-sized with a mess on its wall. Kevin is still Kevin, even when he's trying to block out every other noise in the room.

"One's greatest weapon of temperance is her heart," he says, "The other's greatest foil is herself."

James wills himself to stay right where he is, even when his instincts are telling him that this is not normal, that this is not what he's signed up for, and that he should run. He's seen worse. A little bit of psychic seeking shouldn't phase him.

The bickering behind him has stopped.

"Which is which?" he asks.

"The bright one," Kevin says, his frown deepening. "I can't - I can't explain it, but one of them just looks, or I guess, feels like how a normal person feels to me. Their energy is unique in the way everyone's is. But the other, it's - "

The boy is clearly grasping at his words. "Yeah?"

Kevin opens his eyes. James stiffens. They're -

"Bright," he says. "They're very bright, but that brightness isn't theirs. I think...I think they stole it."

There's nothing he can say to that, because he's not really registering it, not when Kevin's eyes are pools of bright light, getting brighter and brighter with every second that his irises are fading from sunlight through whiskey, to a stunning light orange, to pale translucent gold now.

"It's like everything around the - her is so dark." Kevin motions his hands towards his chest, like he's pulling something towards it. "Because she's taking the light for her."

"Like a black hole?" the pool master asks.

James turns to them. Their eyes are wide, so are their friend's, although they look more concerned than spooked.

"Yeah," Kevin says. "But the light doesn't go to the other side, it just sustains her."

"Self-sustaining black hole," James mutters.

Kevin nods, eyes still glowing brightly. The light is fading slowly now, though, and James sees that his pupils are blown wide. He's as spooked as they are, although he's not sure whether the boy knows exactly how he looks like right now or if he's just alarmed by what he's sensed.

James doesn't know how it works, but he'll take it. He'll ask the questions later when everyone else is out of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Khoshekh, can you get this entire set-up to the bunker?" he asks, walking closer to the bed.

The cat looks up and slow-blinks at him.

Well. He doesn't really know the first thing about talking to cats aside from talking to them like one would a regular human being.

"I don't have any treats," he says. "Loki might have some, in the bunker, or around here."

"I have treats," Kevin offers. "Cecil has them in one of the cupboards."

James sighs in relief, and then motions his hands out to Khoshekh in a "Well?" motion.

The cat slow blinks at him again. At least, though, it hops off the bed and rounds it to get to the wall, and puts it paw on a pinhead.

It doesn't even touch before there's a green flash engulfing the wall.

Then the board setup is gone, Cecil's empty wall, marred with holes from the pins, stands on its own in front of them.

With that done, James glances at the living room again. Someone has to look after the Safehouse.

"Do you think it would be good to recruit the new kids to help Mai and Kristina look after the Safehouse?" James asks.

Kevin - eyes and voice normal - looks up at him with surprise. He looks down, pursing his lips together as he tries to concentrate again.

There's a brief burst of light behind his eyes. Then it's gone, and Kevin just looks like Kevin again.

"I think," he says, "A pinch of caution is advised, but since we have a rescue mission to operate, they're our best shot."

"Alright, then," James says. "Tell Khoshekh to bring you back to the bunker once he's back." He moves out into the living room, eyeing the front door like it's a trapped safe ."I have an idea and I think it's going to go horrible with the people I'm about to pitch it to."