Chapter Text
Together Walter and Toby ran down the hallway, there were screams coming fromeverywhereboth students and members of the faculty stumbling around, some launching at things that weren't actually there.
"What's going on?!" Toby exclaimed. "Fear gas?"
"What?" Walter asked.
"You know like in Batman! What the Scarecrow use!" Toby gasped.
Walter looked at Toby again. "What?" he asked.
Toby did not look impressed. "Dad I know you don't care a lot about movies, but there are some things that are just common knowledge."
"Well I keep thinking it's common knowledge that King George the Third survived two assassination attempts in one day, but apparently it isn't." Walter shot right back.
For a moment Toby just looked at Walter. "Man you're an even bigger nerd than I am," he remarked just as Coach Laurence came running straight past them screaming and flailing his arms.
Wide-eyed Walter looked after his colleague just as a shout sounded next to him.
"Oh no!" Toby was suddenly white as a sheet.
"Toby!" Walter exclaimed.
"Oh god!" Toby backed away seeing nothing in front of him. "I didn't want it to be you! Why did it have to be you!"
"TOBY!" Walter grabbed the teen's shoulders. "Snap out of it! Whatever you're seeing is not real!"
"DAD!" Jim suddenly came running gasping for breath.
"Jim!" Walter gasped, then grimaced. "Thank god you're fine… Toby." he began only for Toby to scream.
Jim gasped as he picked up speed running straight towards them and thenslappedToby right across the face, the moment he did it looked like some sort of glowing speck fell out of Toby's ear, flew up, and flew away while Toby blinked.
"Wow…" Toby held his head. "What was that?" he asked in a groan.
"You're all right?" Walter asked then exhaled deeply. "Thank god."
"It's Pixies!" Jim exclaimed. "Blinky told me." he held up his phone. "Small creatures the size of flies! They enter through your nose or ears and makes you hallucinate your worst fears."
"Eww," Toby exclaimed. "I had a pixie in my brain? Gross."
"They are easily knocked out like I just did," Jim stated. "Just a good slap or a shake!"
"That's good. The issue though is there's so many of them." Walter commented. "Where are they coming from?"
Jim frowned. "There has to be a source, somebody released them," he stated.
"You think that person can call them back?" Toby asked.
"Hopefully," Jim stated. "We need to find that person fast and contain this! People might hurt themselves."
Walter groaned. "We'll have a greater chance of finding the culprit if we spread out." he had to admit. "If it's Midge or Anger Rot, donotengage in combat! Call!" he demanded. "We all got cellphones, use them."
The boys nodded.
"Cover your nose and ears." Jim pulled up in his hoodie so it now covered his nose.
Walter copied Jim with his turtleneck that could easily be stretched up to over his nose. "I'll check the staff rooms and storage areas. I got the keys."
"Sweet. I'll check the locker rooms then." Toby stated.
"And I'll take the classrooms!" Jim exclaimed.
They all nodded at each other and then finally spread out running in three different directions while covering their nose with clothes and holding their ears as they ran.
As Walter ran toward the staff rooms he quickly ran past the lost and found box, grabbing a scarf he could firmly wrap around his head so it covered his ears, and continued to the staff room where all he found were teachers crying and hiding under the tables, the different offices weren't much better, the biology lab empty with nothing that really looked out of place, and so was the auditorium, finally Walter headed for the gym to check the storage just as his phone rang.
Walter pulled down his turtleneck so he could breathe and answer the call. "Toby," he replied while heading down to the Gym.
"Checked all locker areas and nothing," Toby informed. "In good news though I found Claire."
"Hi, Mr. Strickler." Claire's voice sounded.
"I didn't find anything in the staff rooms either." Walter had to inform as he grabbed the handle of the gym door. "Maybe check the outdoor area, perhaps the culprit has a vantage point with a view of the school! Look for places that can be used like that." Walter asked as he opened the door to the gym only to halt, and then shout. "JIM!"
"Dad?" Toby's voice asked.
Only for Walter to completely drop his phone on the floor as he ran as fast as he could, toward the body lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
"JIIIM!" Walter screamed as he fell to the floor and grabbed the young body. "Jim! Oh god no! Jim." he turned the teen only to see a gray face with wide open eyes and Walter's eyes widened as he gasped. "No… No no no." he shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes. "Wake up… Please… No… NOOOOO!" he hugged the body close to himself as he cried, while Jim's blood kept pouring down, the warm liquid soaking Walter's own body and clothes, but he didn't care. This was his son! God, not his son. Not Jim.
"Walter... What have you done?"
Walter's eyes widened and he turned, to see a woman with long red hair falling over her shoulders, gasping as she looked at him.
"Bar… Barbara." Walter chocked. "I'm sorry.. I…"
Barbara shook her head as she stepped backward. "You killed him," she whispered. "You killed our son!" she now screamed.
"No!" Walter exclaimed as he looked up. "I didn't! Barbara please!" he reached a hand for her, only to realize the hand was clawed and made of green stone. And Walter gasped as he grabbed it with his other hand.
"You're a monster." Barbara gasped. "You killed so many… So what did one more matter?" she asked.
Walter gasped then looked at the body in his arms and the red blood that smeared his green stone body as he looked up. "I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. "This isn't what I meant! I didn't do it! I didn't!"
Barbara shook her head as she backed away. "Stay away from me…" she gasped. "You hideous creature."
Walter's eyes widened as suddenly a different figure appeared right behind Barbara, tall, slender, graceful.
A pair of hands with long fingers, reached for Barbara's neck and Walter gasped.
"No! Stop… STOP!" Walter shouted as he stood up as he reached for them.
But it was too late, a man who looked to be in his thirties, with pitch-black hair and green shiny eyes that shortly flashed yellow grinned as his fingers wrapped themselves around Barbara's throat and her eyes widened.
And then, in a single short snap, he broke Barbara's neck and she fell to the ground.
"NOOOOO!" Walter screamed as he came running toward her and fell to his knees gasping as he grabbed his head. "No… No-no-no! No." he cried.
"Oh don't be so melodramatic." A velvet deep English voice sounded from above him.
Slowly Walter looked up and saw the younger man pulling out a handkerchief, casually wiping his hands as if he had merely been eating french fries. His clothes were simple, just a black t-shirt and tailor-made pants, fitting a slender well-toned body.
"No… You can't be." Walter gasped.
The other man lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?" he asked. "I can't be?" he asked. "Who?"
Walter hissed, tears stinging in his eyes.
"Oh god, this is my placeholder?" The younger man asked with an annoyed sigh. "Do you have to look so pathetic?" he asked.
"You're not real!" Walter shouted. "That's impossible! We can't both be here!" then his eyes widened. "The pixies." he looked at the corpses on the floor and then he gasped. "Oh thank god."
"Yes, I suppose you could call that just a preview." The younger man commented. "Don't worry. I'll get around to it."
"You wouldn'tdare."Walter hissed. "I'll kill you!"
The other man lifted an eyebrow. "That would mean killing yourself. You get that right?"
Walter huffed as he looked away.
"I mean! You're not even the real one!" The younger man exclaimed. "I am!"
"No, you're not!" Walter gasped. "You literately are just a figment of my imagination."
"Am I?" The younger man asked. "Who is it that already knew how to throw with knives? Who guided you to where the eyestone was? So you just kind of already knew? I'm inside of you! You know that already." he stated. "And I'm fully capable... Ofanything."
Walter hissed as he shook his head.
The other man smirked. "I'm the realWalter Strickler. I amStricklander."he grinned as he spread out his arms. "I am who we're really meant to be."
"No!" Walter exclaimed. "You're not!"
"Of course I am! You know I'm the better version anyway," Stricklander commented. "Look at me! Stronger." he flexed his arms which were clearly toned. "Faster!" he jumped up on the stage. "Deadlier!" he pulled a knife from seemingly nowhere and then threw it, it flew through the gym and then easily slashed through one of the ropes making the rope fall down and Stricklander smirked. "With knowledge of the entire world history and all of Morgana's dark spells! Bular is gone! Gunmar is as trapped as ever! So it's time for me to realize my empire!" he stated triumphantly. "The time is finally here!"
"You have a real Napoleon complex, don't you?" Walter asked. "As in literally."
"That's rich, coming from someone who was never real in the first place," Stricklander commented.
Walter's eyes widened.
"You're not the real one." Stricklander grinned. "You were never supposed to exist,I'mthe original.I'mwho we really are," he stated. "And look at you! What are you? No motivation, no willpower! You could have done so much, and yet all you could be bothered to do was watch cooking shows with a ten-year-old and pack lunches for a woman who can't even make a sandwich without destroying the kitchen."
"I didn't want anything else!" Walter exclaimed. "Why would I ever need more than that?"
"You let yourself go!" Stricklander exclaimed. "If Gunmar came now, then what? You would be chanceless! Why not just let me take over, I can rule the world and not even Gunmar would be able to stop me! The time isnow."he shouted as he jumped up in the air, and then in a flash he became a troll, green, with long yellow tusks, his eyes glowing yellow, his hair like black fur coming from his head down his back and he landed on the floor in a squat, his long claws tearing the floor and he looked up, grinning. "This is my time." he stood up proving himself both taller and broader than Walter, towering over him as a huge pair of bat wings spread out, blocking out the sun itself.
"No!" Walter hissed. "You're not real! You're just a hallucination!" He hissed.
"Am I? Just a hallucination? Not real? Is that what you actually think?" Stricklander asked as he walked up to him and lifted an arm. And then he launched it down only for the hand to slip right through Walter's chest and go inside his body. "Oh I'm real. I'm just inside of you!"
Walter's eyes widened.
"Trust me I'll be free again!" Stricklander laughed. "And then I'll free us both from those people that bind us and make us weak!" he stated as multiple corpses lay at their feet.
Jim… Barbara… Toby… and so many others all around them.
"Napoleon our hero." Stricklander grinned as his arm sunk deeper and deeper into his chest. "Who sacrificed 100.000 men for his conquest, it was nothing to him though, just soldiers, just flesh bags… And what I have in mind is so much bigger than that. Trust no one but yourself!" he grinned. "We're better off alone."
"No… Get out! GET OUT!" Walter shouted. "I am me! I won't let you!"
"Oh stop playing coy." Stricklander sighed. "You know what we are!" and with that, he vanished into Walter's body.
Suddenly, Walter couldn't even control his own body, his arms moved without his own consent, it was like he was trapped in a body he couldn't control, as his stony green arm lifted, the dark red blood dripping off his long clawed fingers, and he couldn't change! He couldn't switch! He was stuck. Walter tried to shout, ask for help, but he couldn't control his beasti*al body. And then his mouth spoke words that weren't his while his face grinned though he wanted to scream in horror. "I'm a monster."
And Walter's eyes widened as he covered his mouth with his hands.
"DAD!"
Suddenly Walter felt himself being slapped across the face and everything turned brighter, Walter shook his head as he looked forward. "What… huh?" he saw a young face in front of him, that of his own teenage son who looked worried at him.
"Dad can you hear me?" Jim asked worried and Walter gasped.
Then he sniffed and just pulled Jim into a tight hug. "Oh thank god!"
Jim's eyes widened, and then he smiled amused as he returned the hug. "I am guessing what you saw was pretty bad."
Walter sighed as he let go, sighing deeply. "I saw your dead body," he admitted.
Jim's eyes widened, and then he gasped. "Dad." then he cleared his throat. "It's going to be okay Dad. It was just a nightmare," he assured. "Your worst nightmare, none of it was real."
"Heh?" Walter smiled very awkwardly but then his smile faltered and he looked down, hissing… None of it huh? … Or… Walter squinted his eyes, trying to keep back the tears but it didn't help much right now even as Jim held his shoulder.
"Dad?" Jim asked.
"Don't worry about me." Walter finally gasped. "We should see if everybody else is all right."
Jim nodded. Then he halted. "You were all dead in my nightmare too." he then admitted. "It was really scary."
Walter exhaled deeply. "Of course, that's the sort of nightmare you would have."
"Well." Jim smiled sheepishly. "I take after my dad," he commented. "Come on then." he gestured and they both slowly walked out to check the rest of the school.
