Let the Shadows Fall Behind You
Word Count: 1.1k
Taylor (ES MC) and Callum Wyland (Hero MC), Jake McKenzie x Taylor (ES MC)
A/N: Okay. There's gonna be a lot of things in here that don't make sense. That's because this scene takes place in a crossover/sequel I'm starting to plan. But even before I had any semblance of a plot for that I had this scene bouncing around in my head. So, I very much hope you like it
“Are you okay?”
“Hm?” Taylor hummed as he looked over to where Callum was sitting across the green fire. The taller man was watching him, almost studying him. At first, it was kind of unnerving, especially for such a kind guy, but over time Taylor had gotten used to it. The familiarity of it was even comforting sometimes. He supposed that was what happened when you spent weeks with a person day in and day out. At least, he assumed it was weeks. He wasn’t sure if time was passing the same way on Earth.
The green fire made from Taylor’s newfound powers with the light of the glowing prisms studding the cave walls around them made Callum look like some sort of otherworldly being. Which to be fair, he was. They both were. Yet despite that and despite the fact they were in another dimension, Callum was wearing a literal superhero suit, and Taylor’s eyes turned green when he got pissed off, the whole situation still felt so very human. And yet…
“You’ve barely said a thing for the last three days and you’ve been staring at the fire like it personally offended you,” Callum explained. “All we have left to make a portal home is the Realm Prism and we’re closing in on it. We’re so close but you don’t really seem excited.”
“It’s complicated,” Taylor sighed. Callum chuckled, turning his mask over in his fingers. Taylor’s mask, the one he got from the Vaanti, was sitting next to him on the ground.
“I mean, I’m an alien superhero who got beat up by my boss, who was also my friend’s dad, after he got juiced up on prism energy,” Callum pointed out. “And then I got sent to another dimension, where I’m apparently from, because said boss blew up. And you’re a being of sentient magic energy that my people worship, but you crashed on earth and became an island only to also give yourself a mortal body which you now permanently inhabit. And that’s not even mentioning the time loop, the other version of yourself, the species that were living on your island, or that my boss’s rival was going to use your power to literally rewrite reality. Our whole lives are complicated.”
“You’re not wrong,” Taylor laughed. He sighed again. Truth be told, he was excited. Excited, relieved, happy, all the positive emotions. This was all he’d wanted since the rooftop when he fused with the rest of Vaanu to save his friends and the rest of the world. But now that they were possibly only days away from getting back…there was something eating at him. Something he’d never really thought about. “I don’t…I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean?” Callum prompted. “Like with the rest of the journey to the Prism?”
“No, I mean when we get back to Earth,” Taylor said. He looked away from Callum and instead studied his own hands like the answer would be written somewhere on his skin. “It’s like you said, before the time loop and before I gave myself form I was basically sentient energy. I didn’t even have a life here, and all the memories of life on Earth were completely fake. Even then, I only have a few of those, all from the year leading up to the trip, and all with Diego. I’m not a real person. I know things but I’ve never actually gone to school or gotten a job or been anywhere other than La Huerta.”
“Well, do you have anything you want to do?” Callum wondered.
“I don’t know that either,” Taylor admitted. “Maybe actually going to college would be nice?”
“There ya go, that’s something,” Callum smiled. “The good thing about college is you go to school and such but you also learn how to be a person at the same time. And, everyone in college is weird and a disaster, so at least you won’t stick out.”
“You sound like you had a great college experience.”
“I majored in Communications at Ohio University. I wasn’t exactly a party animal either. But I was around, and trust me I saw enough to know college students are just high schoolers with money and more access to alcohol.”
“I only knew ten college students and honestly that sounds accurate.”
Taylor and Callum shared a laugh like they had many times before. Sometimes it felt like those laughs were the only things keeping them going. This journey they were on together was dark and hard, but even for a moment, it made the tension in their shoulders lighter. It made the shadows just a little bit brighter.
But then the moment ended. The laughter faded out and the tension came back. The shadows got dark again. The memories and anxieties returned.
“All of that’s just a dream though,” Taylor sighed. Callum frowned and walked around the fire to sit next to Taylor instead. The flames made his eyes look like they were glowing.
“Why would that just be a dream?” Callum questioned.
“Because I don’t exist,” Taylor said.
“Huh?”
“Legally I mean,” Taylor elaborated. “Rourke couldn’t find a single thing on me except a birthday which I now know was made up. He even thought my birthplace was La Huerta. And like I said, all my memories are fake. I’m not a real person. I don’t have parents or a family or a birth certificate or a diploma or anything. I don’t even have a last name.”
“Then pick one,” Callum shrugged.
“Just pick a last name,” Taylor repeated.
“Yeah,” Callum nodded. “I mean, you technically picked Taylor, right? I came through a dimensional portal so my mom just picked me a first name and gave me her last name. People change their names all the time whether it’s GNC people, people who need a fresh start, people getting married, whatever. Pick any last name you want and as soon as we get back and deal with all this stuff and we reunite with everyone I’ll help you figure out all the paperwork myself.”
“Just pick a last name…” Taylor hummed as he thought about it.
He didn’t even know very many last names. Just the common ones and those of his friends. Maybe he could use Vaanu as a last name? That could work he supposed but it didn’t feel quite right. His eyes darted around aimlessly as his brain searched for inspiration but all he saw were crystals, the cave walls, their masks, and his spear. A smile found its way onto his face as he looked at the beautiful flower tied to the spear, the flower he kept preserved with his powers.
“McKenzie,” Taylor finally said.
“Mckenzie?” Callum replied.
“That’s the name I pick.”
“Taylor McKenzie, huh? I like it.”
“Yeah…me too.”
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