Chapter Text
Morgan starred in abject horror at her front door.
The knocking came again, loud, impatient, insistent.
“Morgan?” a loud voice called through the door, “It’s me, Chad, your brother!”
Morgan groaned and walked over to the door. At least she had done enough honeypot schemes that she was able to walk proficiently in heels. Morgan peered through the peephole, and sure enough, there was Chad, her brother, standing in the hall. At least he was just Chad, and not The Chadster. As bad as her brother was, dealing with his superhero persona was worse. And he was alone.
“What do you want, Chad?” she called through the door.
“Can’t a brother check in on his sister?”
“Give me a good reason why I should open this door.”
Chad held up a Tim’s bag and a coffee tray, “I brought you breakfast~” Morgan opened the door, making grabby hands for the coffee. Chad’s brow furrowed in confusion, and he shook his head, holding the coffee up out of her reach. “Who are you, hero? And what are you doing in my sister’s apartment?”
“Chad! It’s me, Morgan!” Morgan whined, still reaching for the coffee. Why was her baby brother such a giant? Even with the added height from the heels she wasn't even close to being able to reach the coffee tray.
Chad put one large hand on her chest and pushed her back firmly.
"Where is my sister?" He fixed her with a frosty glare. "If you've hurt her I'll—"
Morgan stamped her foot like a petulant child. Which, given she'd only had one cup of coffee, she pretty much was.
"Come on, Chad! You overgrown, tin-armed, lunk-headed himbo, use your one brain cell and that blasted magic resistance of yours and look at me!"
Chad tipped his head to the side, looking like a lost puppy. “Morgan? What? Why?” Chad shook his head again, blinked twice, and lowered the hand holding the coffees. Morgan grabbed the extra large and grinned triumphantly before taking a drink.
“What the heck are you wearing? Why… ?” Chad nudged the door shut behind him and toed off his shoes. Morgan’s apartment was a shit hole, but he wasn’t going to be rude and keep his shoes on.
“Mmm?” Morgan hummed around another gulp of coffee. “Oh, uh… yeah… it’s been a morning.”
“Is this like a Just Simps thing?” Chad asked nervously, “If you’re having difficulties you know Diego and I would be happy to help…”
“Chad, no. No.” Morgan rolled her eyes. She held up one now perfectly manicured nail, “One, there is nothing wrong with sex work. It’s real work and should be respected. Two," she raised another finger, "if I was having money troubles I would rob a bank. It’s much easier.”
Chad flushed. “I didn’t mean it like that… it’s just…”
“Just what?” Morgan snapped.
“You’re wearing pink. You hate pink. I just thought… that you’d never wear pink unless you were getting paid to wear pink…”
Morgan paused. “Why are you so logical about the weirdest shit? And so completely irrational about pretty much everything else I do?”
"I don't know, Morgan, I'm trying…" he said sheepishly.
Heaven help her, he was trying. Trying her patience, trying his luck, trying to understand, trying to be a better brother.
"Why did you decide to come bring me breakfast?" Not that she was complaining, she just knew heroes usually had ulterior motives.
“St. Ber… uh… Barnaby was telling me that you forget to eat when Alex isn’t around.” He held out the bag of food again. "And coffee isn't breakfast. You need to eat."
“Thanks,” Morgan grumbled, taking the bag and flopping down on the couch. She dug out a bagel B.E.L.T, went to pull out the tomato and stopped.
She could practically hear Alex's admonishment that she needed to eat more vegetables, that the vitamin C would be good for her; that she was going to end up with scurvy.
Morgan left the tomato in, and took a bite. She covered a sniffle with the pretence of wiping mayo from the corner of her mouth and said, "Is that the only reason you came?"
“Yeah… I just… wanted to make sure you were okay…" Chad shifted his weight from foot to foot. Like all the Sterling children, it was hard to read the emotions on his face, but there was something about the almost imperceptible squint to his eyes that betrayed he had more to say. Morgan waited, calmly chewing.
"I'm not sorry that he's gone," Chad said with a quiet firmness. Not angry, nor guilty, simply a statement. "He's a monster and the world is a safer, better place without him…" a moment's hesitation and Chad sighed, "But I am sorry that saving the world meant you got hurt…"
Morgan chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "That's greater kindness than I ever expected from a hero," she smiled. Then she shrugged away the heartache. "That's just part of being a villain. We get to watch the world celebrate when those we care about are captured or killed. It's fine."
Chad nodded, and sipped at the other coffee he'd bought. After a few sips he sat down in an old recliner upholstered with Halloween skeleton fabric. The silence stretched on as Morgan ate. Finally Chad couldn't take it any longer.
"So what is up with that outfit?"
"Magic squirrel," Morgan grumbled, wiping her face with a napkin and tossing it down with the empty food wrapper on the coffee table.
"What?"
"I got Magical Girled by a talking pink squirrel. Which, after forcing me into this rather ridiculous outfit, fucked off out the window!" Morgan gestured at the window. "And it didn't tell me how to change back!"
"You're a Magical Girl?"
"Am now, apparently," Morgan rolled her eyes.
"Why?"
"I just told you! A magic squirrel made me one!"
"Sorry," Chad cleared his throat, "I meant, why you? Why did the magic squirrel pick you for this?"
"I don't know!" Morgan went to run a hand through her hair but couldn't because of the magical up-do. She settled for rubbing her temples. "It was a little hard to understand what it was saying, something about being able to perceive it's true self or something? So I guess it doesn't look cotton candy pink to everyone?"
"If you want… I could call Mariner Luna and see if she has any advice?" Chad offered. He was secretly elated that there might actually be something he could help his sister with.
"Who the fuck is Mariner Luna?" Morgan asked, her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"She's the leader of a Magical Girl troop in Tokyo."
"It's like four in the morning in Japan right now."
"Fine, I can send an email or a text. Though I hear she sleeps like a rock and a call probably wouldn't wake her up."
"If you call someone at four am for a non-emergency you're going to have to turn in your hero card because that is just plain evil."
"You call at four am all the time," Chad frowned.
"I am a villain," Morgan grinned, flourishing one hand theatrically and flicking the ends of her now incredibly long hair over her shoulder. "I’m Eeeeeeviiiil."
Chad half-laughed and swirled around the last of his coffee in the bottom of the cup. "So evil to call at an hour when I'm already awake."
Morgan pouted. "I'll find a way to annoy you. I swear."
"I will never be annoyed by you calling me.” Chad smiled down at her, “We've spent too many years not talking at all for that to ever, ever, annoy me."
“Not even a little bit?” Morgan held her fingers up just a half centimetre apart. “Just a teeny little bit?” Morgan’s deep green eyes were big and round as she pouted.
Chad snorted, looking away from the ridiculous, pleading expression on Morgan's face. He swallowed down the last of his coffee. Now, he didn't want Morgan to stop calling him at four in the morning so he held up one hand with his fingers even closer together than Morgan's had been, the barest hint of a smile on his face.
Morgan pumped a victorious fist in the air, grinning like a feral gremlin. Chad smiled softly, and chuckled. Sometimes it was hard to believe Morgan was the elder between them.
Chad couldn't begrudge her schadenfreude. He kind of deserved it. Sometimes.
Morgan was just settling down from the last of her giggles when someone knocked on the door.
Morgan whined, and grumbling got to her feet. "Just fucking great, now who could it be?" Morgan was nearly to the door when a spectral St. Bernard bounded through it and skidded to a stop at her feet, tail thumping excitedly against the floor, nose nuzzling expectantly at her hands and hips. Morgan laughed brightly.
"Kotetsu! Whozagoodboy? It's you! Yes it is! Youzagoodboy. Yes you are!" Morgan rubbed and scratched Kotetsu's cheeks and under his ears.
"Mmmmm-Morgan? Can, can you open the d-door, door p-p-please?" Barnaby called from the hallway. "I knnnnnow you’re home. I c-c-can, can hear you with Ko-Kotetsu."
"Just a minute!" Morgan called out. After giving Kotetsu one more good scratch under the jaw and plopping a big kiss on his head, Morgan opened the door for Barnaby. Her tiny arch-nemesis stood patiently in the hall in his usual attire of an Argyle sweater vest, Tweed jacket and slacks all in varying shades of brown and taupe. He blinked in surprise and pushed his round, tortoiseshell glasses further up his nose and turned to look at a light olive green squirrel sitting on his shoulder.
"You were right," Barnaby said to the squirrel.
"Of course I was fucking right," the squirrel huffed, tail fluffed in indignation.
Morgan grabbed Barnaby by the front of his sweater vest and hauled him through the door. Barnaby yelped in surprise and Kotetsu growled a warning. The spectral dog watched Morgan carefully as the D-tier villain shut the door forcefully.
As soon as the door clicked shut Morgan's other hand closed tightly about the green squirrel and yanked it off Barnaby's shoulder.
"You're going to tell me how to change back or I'm going to squeeze until your stupid little eyes pop out," Morgan growled. The squirrel tried to bite but unfortunately the finger closest to its teeth was one of Morgan's cybernetic digits.
"MmmmMorgan," Barnaby said calmly, "that's not really nnnnnnn—” Barnaby took a breath, licked his lips and tried again, “necessary.”
The green squirrel sneezed and huffed. It kicked its hind feet up to cling onto Morgan's pinky so its body wasn't just dangling awkwardly.
"How do you not know how to change back? There's a whole spiel about the magic and the powers and shit that we're supposed to tell our Guardians before they can accept the Calling,” said the squirrel in a surprisingly deep voice as it rolled its dark green eyes. "If you were stupid enough to accept without listening then it's your own damn fault that you're stuck in Guardian form."
"That fucking pink thing didn't tell me shit fuck all!" Morgan snapped back, giving the squirrel a little shake, causing it to glare up at her in annoyance. "It just started spouting some shit about me being "The Chosen One" and that I had to "save the universe" with "the power of love" or some shit," Morgan's voice dripped with sarcasm and scorn, peppered liberally with air quotes. "And after I ran home it followed me, broke in, and demanded that I "take up the Heart of the Guardian." Whatever the fuck that is, shot me with some fucking pink light from the jewel on its collar— which fucking hurt by the way— and then just fucked off out the window!" Her voice rose to near hysterical volume and she shook the squirrel again. "I didn't agree to anything! I'm a villain! I'm not a hero! I don't want to be a hero! Just tell me how to change back!"
The olive squirrel blinked in surprise, and cleared its throat uncomfortably. "Shit lady, that's rough."
Barnaby sidled closer, and Chad half rose from his seat, both heroes eyeing Morgan cautiously.
Morgan let out a loud bark of laughter. Chad and Barnaby relaxed a little.
"Fuck,” she huffed and wiped at her face, hissing sharply when she poked her eyelid with her nails. “How come I couldn't have gotten the asshole squirrel?" She asked no one in particular, "It's not fair. I got the uwu squirrel and Barnaby got the cool squirrel."
"It d-does seem rather odd," Barnaby cleared his throat and coughed quietly. "B-but Jayden is nnnnnot—"
"Jayden?" Morgan queried.
"Yeah. Me." the green squirrel shifted about in Morgan's grip as best it could. "What? Why are you so surprised that a magic talking squirrel has a fucking name? Like, why the hell wouldn't I have a name?" Jayden scraped its claws along the side of Morgan's finger. "Hey, put me down, wouldja?"
"Are you going to tell me how to change back?"
"Why should I? It’s not my mess to clean up,” the squirrel grumbled.
“Why would you nnnot, not help?” Barnaby narrowed his eyes, obviously disapproving of the squirrel's unwillingness to help, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “That’s what g-g-guides, guides are supposed to d-do.”
“Ugh,” Jayden huffed. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true. I should help you. Even if I’m not the one that caused this damn problem in the first place.” The green squirrel looked between Morgan and Barnaby and heaved a great sigh. Surely it was the most put-upon rodent in the whole of the Earth. “Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. Put me down and I’ll do what I can to help you change back.”
To everyone's surprise, Morgan set the squirrel down on the coffee table.
“Right, so the first thing you need to do is get out your Trinket.” Jayden turned around in a full circle once and shook himself from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. For a moment all the fur on its body stood on end, before one more shake smoothed it all down again.
“Trinket?” Morgan sat down on the couch, nervously running her hands up and down the tops of her thighs, thumbs tracing over the line of the garters. “What’s that?”
“You don't. Have. A. Trinket?” Jayden jumped off the table and clambered up Morgan's torso, over her shoulder, around the back of her neck to the other side pausing briefly to inspect the large gemstone heart dangling from the leather collar around her neck. "No, no no no no… this can't be right." A hop dropped the squirrel into Morgan's lap and the rodent frantically darted from one thigh to the other, then down to her knees, and right over the edge, fine sharp claws catching on the sheer fabric of her stockings as he climbed head first down her leg before circling her ankles twice.
“This can’t be happening… this isn’t right. That BITCH! After everything we’ve been through, all the years of searching and attunement she goes ahead and snipes a Guardian? And at a time like this? How could she? She put the entire mission at risk. This is bad. This is fucking bad! It’s the end of the fucking universe and she’s pulling this shit. I can’t believe this! We’re all going to die. That’s it. We’re dead. We’re fucking dead! That’s it! Draw the curtains and roll up the carpet. Show’s over! No credits, there's going to be nothing left. Little miss pinky has killed us all for her fucking vanity because she just couldn’t hack it, take a fucking bow.”
About halfway through its tirade Morgan scooped up the ranting squirrel, cradling it in her open palm and holding it close to her chest. She began running gentle strokes down its back with one finger.
"There there," she cooed, "I appreciate the anger but you can't help me if you have an aneurysm." When the squirrel finished it was breathing hard, shaking all over from the rage it felt.
Barnaby met Chad's wide concerned eyes and silently mouthed what the fuck? Chad could only offer a tiny, slightly terrified head shake in return. Kotetsu whined and slunk closer to Morgan and the raging olive rodent. With a soft boof the giant dog laid his head on Morgan’s lap, nosing at the hand holding the squirrel.
“Kotetsu,” Morgan giggled, “stop that.” She placed one hand on top of his head and gave a half-hearted push, hardly enough to move the fluffy wall of muscle.
"I take it there's something very wrong about being a Magical Girl without a… Trinket, right?"
Jayden jumped back to the coffee table, claws skittering on the worn wood. His paws pulled his ears forward and trailed down his face.
"No Trinket means that Alena broke the fundamental rules of our existence." He sat back on his haunches and looked up at Morgan with sad eyes.
"Woah, slow down little guy, let's not have an existential crisis on my coffee table." Morgan looked over at Barnaby, "I'm out of coffee, do you have any at your place, B?"
Barnaby nodded, and left to fetch some coffee from his apartment across the hall. Soon coffee was brewed and all the humans had a steaming mug of it.
"What fundamental rule did Alena break?" Chad asked. Jayden blinked and looked over at the hero, like he'd never noticed him there before.
"She tried to bind a Guardian she wasn't attuned to."
"Attuned?" Morgan asked. She clicked her nails on the sides of her mug. She liked the little tink tink noise it made.
"Yeah, Guides and Guardians are supposed to share a fundamental attribute… like… kindness, will, or wisdom…" Barnaby set down a shallow dish of water next to the squirrel. "Oh, uh, thanks." Jayden gulped down a few mouthfuls of water, brushing droplets away from his whiskers with his paws.
"Those are the attributes in our Triad: Kindness, Will, Wisdom. Alena is the Guide of Kindness, I'm the Guide of Will and Melanie is the Guide of Wisdom. Our Guardians are meant to match with us. When they don't… things don't work right." Jayden looked up at Morgan.
"You've got the Guardian form… but without the Trinket you can't call your weapon or use the magic that should be available to you."
"And that's why you were so mmmmad earlier?" Barnaby asked. He'd settled on the couch near Morgan with Kotetsu between them. The massive dog still had his head on Morgan's lap, enjoying the incredible long-nailed skritches.
"Yeah, and 'cause if Morgan can see the true colour of a Guide that ain't hers that means she's the leader of the Triad. Barnaby couldn't see me at first but there was this magic surge and then he could. But now I can't fucking tell whose Guardian she's supposed to be. The auras all muddled."
"Woah," Morgan said sternly, "I'm not anybody's Guardian. I already told you, I'm a villain."
"But Morgan," Chad interjected, "the world is in danger."
"Not my problem," Morgan snapped back. Chad curled up a little like a scolded puppy. "I don't care."
"This is everybody's problem," Jayden said seriously. The squirrel looked around at the humans, meeting each one's eyes in turn. "I ain't joking when I say the very universe itself is at stake."
Morgan rolled her eyes. "Heroes are so melodramatic."
"I ain't being dramatic," Jayden huffed. "Okay, how to explain…" the squirrel paused, tail twitching in thought.
"Okay, so the universe is a sandwich," he began, "and you got your bread, meat, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato whatever; all the parts that make our reality are all different parts of the same sandwich and everything works together to make one whole sandwich, one universe." The humans nodded along somewhat sceptically.
"Yeah and this thing, this evil that's out there; it eats the sandwich."
"Still not my problem," Morgan said after a beat.
"Morgan!" "MmMorgan!" Chad and Barnaby yelled together.
"How c-c-can, can you say that?" Barnaby continued, eyes quickly glanced at Chad before he focused back on Morgan. "You'd really let the whole universe d-d-dis–disappear?"
"Yep." Morgan said, loudly popping the 'p'. She crossed her arms over her chest and sat up straighter. Kotetsu whined at the loss of skritches.
"I… I have nnnnnever b-b-b-been, been mmmmore, more d-d-d-dis–disappointed, disappointed in mmm-my my life." Barnaby stood up and patted his thigh. Kotetsu lifted his head and with a gruff sigh got to his feet.
"Wait! Barnaby! Where are you going?" Morgan hastily got to her feet as well, reaching for her friend. Barnaby avoided her and stepped away.
"Home, t-t-to c-c-call mmmy family. If, if we're all g-g-going t-t-to d-d-d-die, die, then I want t-to, to say g-good, goodbye."
"The world isn't ending like, right now."
"I have a b-big, big family that I actually like. G-good, goodbyes will t-t-take a while."
Morgan just looked away, careful not to show the hurt on her face. It took a second to fix her posture to something more neutral, she didn't have her hoodie to hide her hands in.
"I know who's Guardian you're supposed to be," Jayden said suddenly.
Morgan glared. "I'm not—"
"Who's?" Chad interrupted. He leaned forward in the chair, leaning his forearms on his knees.
"Mine," the olive green squirrel replied with a smirk. "After all, calling someone Willful is just a polite way of sayin' they're Stubborn as Fuck, ain't it?"
Morgan and the squirrel glared at each other. Neither one blinking or looking away.
There was a knock at the window.
Nobody moved. Morgan and Jayden continued to stare each other down.
The knock came again.
"Chad," Morgan snapped, "get that, will you?"
Chad sighed, casting a sad glance between the squirrel and his sister. The universe was doomed.
He opened the window. Chad blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked again.
Outside, riding on the back of a giant midnight blue squirrel, was Ohio James.
"Howdy, Chad, mind if I come in?"