#bc by calling him ''not-dion'' in the narration i can emphasize how the person who very nearly murdered raz

[razzle-zazzle]

Whumptober Day 03: hair's breadth from death

"Say goodbye."

1359 Words; Buried Beneath AU

TW for attempted murder

AO3 ver

Raz shouldn’t have rushed in.

He knew, from the memory vault, that Not-Dion had plenty of experience on him. He knew that Not-Dion was not above hurting him or anyone else.

But.

But it hurt so much, to finally find his brother again after two months of uncertainty. It hurt so much, to finally see him again—

Only to find out that it wasn’t his brother at all, but some imposter wearing his body. To have the one source of answers disappear in a literal flash of light, teleported off into parts unknown.

It hurt. If Raz had been a little faster on the uptake, or more aggressive in taking the imposter down, then maybe Dion would already be back.

As it was, though, Dion’s brain was still missing, and the only person who’d know where it was hidden was just as missing.

The psychonauts, though a government agency, had a sizable network of gossip. From psychics who didn’t have the inclination to join but had learned psychic safety from the agency anyway, to regular people who either owed the agency something or were just on good terms with some of the agents—the gossip network spanned the country and then some, providing information when and where it could.

Previously, this force had been utilized to track Deluginist movements. It still was, for the most part.

But someone had seen Not-Dion at a local park three weeks ago, and mentioned it to a friend in the agency. Armed with this starting point, the investigation frenzied; two weeks later, they knew Not-Dion’s location and a good guess as to where he was heading.

Agents Nein and Vodello were investigating the area. The junior agents technically weren’t supposed to be here, but Raz had bullied his way onto the mission by virtue of being Dion’s brother, and Gisu had bullied her way onto it by virtue of being just as capable as Raz.

Lili had almost gotten into the mission, too, but that had been the point that Truman had put his foot down. They didn’t know everything that Not-Dion was capable of, he’d said. They were going to try and avoid a direct confrontation, he’d ordered.

Well, Raz thought, springing up and over a park bench, so much for avoiding a direct confrontation.

He knew he shouldn’t have rushed ahead. And he hadn’t meant to—but then he’d just known where Not-Dion was, like there was a bright arrow urging him towards a nearby park—

And now here he was, standing at the edge of a basketball court, the concrete old and worn.

Not-Dion was sitting on a bench at the other end of the court, book in hand. He set the book down and stood up when seeing Raz.

Raz raised his hand, readying a psi-blast.

Not-Dion glared back at him, the quiet indifference completely wrong on Dion’s face.

“Can’t a guy be left to enjoy his day at the park in peace?” Not-Dion lamented, like Raz was the one in the wrong here.

“Not when you’re controlling my brother’s body!” Raz protested, eyes glowing softly behind his goggles.

Not-Dion hmphed. “This is my body now.” He insisted, pacing a slow circle around the court. Raz unconsciously matched his pace, the two of them circling each other slowly.

This was it. Raz was getting his brother back, right here, right now. He cracked his knuckles, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Look,” Raz urged, “You’re coming with us whether you like it or not, D—you.”

Not-Dion barked out a laugh. “Cute.” He shifted his foot, the scrape of his boot against the concrete matching the scrape of stone against stone as the concrete spiked in a wave towards Raz.

Raz backflipped out of the way, dodge-rolling to the side the moment he touched the ground. He shot back with a psi-blast, rolled, then shot again.

Not-Dion lifted his arms, mentally heaving a chunk of concrete up into the air to block the blast.

The concrete shattered with the second blast. Not-Dion swung his hands around in an arc, drawing the rocks to float around him in a loose circle.

Raz kept firing. Not-Dion retaliated by launching his rocks right back.

Raz caught one, two, three with telekinesis, throwing them to the side. He rolled out of the way of the next two, then shot back with a psi-blast.

The distance between the two of them was closing, allowing Raz to swing out with telekinesis instead.

A pillar of rock erupted from the ground at Not-Dion’s command, forcing Raz to backflip out of the way.

Raz sidestepped to put Not-Dion back in view. He shot again.

Not-Dion swept both arms to the side, tilting the pillar to catch the shot. A shove, and suddenly the entire court was pulsing, ground rolling like spiked waves.

Raz hopped onto a levitation bubble to avoid the sharp ridges, keeping his balance as the very ground rocked violently under him.

Not-Dion’s hands fell to his sides, his whole frame trembling so slightly that Raz almost missed it.

Glowing blue eyes flickered, like a lightbulb about to burn out.

Raz landed back on the uneven concrete, readying another psi-blast.

“Oh, enough of this.” Not-Dion summoned a rock to his left hand, sharpening it with a burst of mental effort and a squeeze of his fist.

The concrete under Raz’ feet twisted upwards, scraping at his ankles as it tightened around them. Raz struggled, telekinesis already working to pry the concrete off as Not-Dion approached.

He wouldn’t be able to get free in time.

Not-Dion brought the rock down with brutal swing of his arm—

Raz’ breath froze in his lungs.

Raz opened his eyes, heart frantically beating a hole through his chest.

The world had shrunk down to just Raz and Not-Dion. Nothing else existed but the rock mere millimeters away from Raz’ face, held in a trembling, white-knuckled hand.

Slowly, Raz managed to move his gaze from the rock to Not-Dion’s face, almost like shifting the focus on a camera.

The face that stared back at him—both Dion’s face and not at all his, all the details of Not-Dion’s expressions too wrong—shifted through cold anger to blank-eyed confusion to realization, incandescent rage burning behind blue eyes.

He didn’t get a moment to act on it before having to jump back out of the way of a psi-blast.

Raz faintly heard Gisu yelling something, faintly registered the sound of Sasha’s psi-blasts, faintly heard the grind of stone against stone as Not-Dion fought them off.

It was all distant, though, as though Raz was underwater and the fight was above the surface, muffled and indistinct.

A telekinetic hand pried the concrete away from his ankles. Raz registered the pain of scraped skin, the sting of small cuts being exposed to air.

“...do that for me, darling?”

Raz let go of the breath he forgot he was holding.

Breathing.

That was a thing Raz needed to do.

The sudden return of air to his lungs left Raz choking, doubling over as he gasped. Hands on his shoulders steadied him, Milla sending steady mental pulses of support and reassurance alongside the words she was saying.

Raz wheezed, leaning against Milla’s supportive hold. Oh god. Oh god.

He’d—

Not-Dion had—

Oh god.

Raz struggled to breathe past the sudden squeeze in his chest. His mind was a wall of hurt-loss-shock against Milla’s calm reassurances.

“Razputin,” Milla’s voice was calm, firm, “Can you breathe for me, filho? Deep breaths, sweetie, in through the nose, out through the mouth,” She demonstrated, “Like this. Match my breathing.”

Raz’s breathing stuttered, his heart beating wildly as he tried to do as he was told.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his breathing evened out.

The sounds of the fight died down.

“There we go.” Milla crooned. “Let’s get those ankles looked at, okay?”

Raz nodded. “Yeah.” He rolled up the ends of his pants to give Milla more space to work with.

Gisu trudged over as Milla pulled out a medkit, expression dark. Sasha inspected the ruined court for a moment longer before following after her.

Not-Dion was nowhere to be seen.

Raz’ hands continued to tremble.

#whumptober2022 #no.3 #say goodbye #psychonauts #zaz writes #attempted murder #buried beneath au #razputin aquato #archelaos #milla vodello #gisu nerumen #sasha nein #another puzzle piece falls onto the board!! #and raz gets +1 trauma!! #struggled with where in the timeline to put this piece #eventually decided to put it before arc's name is found out #bc by calling him ''not-dion'' in the narration i can emphasize how the person who very nearly murdered raz #is wearing his brother's face #>:]]]