Work Text:
For Months, Credence lives in the case.
He heals, slowly.
He learns to breathe, he learns to rest.
He learns to stare at the moon in the soft quiet of night.
Mr. Scamander tells him to call him Newt.
Sometimes he listens.
Together, they explore his horrible, horrible power. And, slowly, it becomes something beautiful.
But then, one day, Newt returns to the case with a stumbling crash. Credence is alerted by a stuttering cry sweeping through the habitats as the beasts sense something is very, very wrong.
He rushes back and finds Newt a trembling mess with a seeping wound on his back.
Before Credence can even ask him what happened, he falls to the floor.
Credence feels his control slipping. He can sense that there’s something wrong with the wound. There is something dark embedded in the flesh, and nothing he does seems to help.
He knows he needs help. Help from magic users.
For the first time in months, Credence ascends the ladder. He opens the case and climbs out… and he nearly chokes.
They aren’t in London. This place… this place is not London.
He knows these streets.
He knows them intimately.
He holds on to his carefully cultivated control with an iron grip, remembering the lessons he learned.
Why aren’t they in London?
Small mercies. Small mercies. At least in New York he knows people. In New York he knows a magic user he can trust.
Things are so similar. It feels like a dream. He’s back in his worst nightmare.
But-
He walks by the church. It’s empty and dark.
He walks streets he knows, and it feels like the world has turned a quarter inch to the left. Everything is familiar but nothing feels the same.
He follows his senses. He knows where to find her.
Half way there something pulls at him. He ducks into an alleyway and finds a series of wanted posters plastered to the brick.
One stands out. He reaches out a shaking hand and strokes the parchment before ripping it viciously off the wall.
It flutters to the ground and he follows it, crouching and wrapping his arms around himself.
“He’s back he’s back he’s back he’s back he’s back”
Much later, he finds her. Tina is surprised to see him. She didn’t know they were back in New York, she says. Why isn’t Newt with him, why is he alone.
He takes her back to the case. She takes one look at the wound and says “Dark magic, Credence. Very dark.”
She tells him that with a spell like this one, there’s nothing she can do on her own. They need to take him to a hospital, but even then it’s likely that they wont be able to help him unless they know what wizard cast the spell, and what the spell was supposed to do.
She shakes her head.
Credence looks down.
He knows who did it.
He knows.
He knows.