AN - You just can't silence me. I'm back again, with some more S/R.Personally I didn't know what F4 fic I could come up with next, since doing "Mrs. & Mr. Fantastic." But I found something. ;-) This one's a little different than my others, because it incorporates an actual scene from the film, and includes a deleted scene of my own concoction. And, obviously, it takes place before all three of my previous fics. So just put this one at the beginning of my timeline, and the space-time continuum will be restored. LOL. ;-) Enjoy.
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Stronger
-dutchtulips-
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Reed Richards was freezing. Literally.
He'd been sitting in this chair for what felt like years, completely helpless to anything around him, as the endless amounts of liquid nitrogen pumped their way into his body. The coolant was slowly stealing his consciousness, and was also rendering him so rigid that he hardly felt the needles under his skin. Even if he could still sense the pain, his ability to cry out had been robbed of him, since his jaw had frozen itself shut.
Reed had been fighting against the assault for over an hour now, though he knew that eventually he was going to lose the battle, when the last bit of life left him. The freezing cold was making him delirious, and his sense of awareness was slipping away, more and more, with every passing minute. Though his thoughts were now also growing thready, he was still able to center what energy he had left on the pensive thoughts drifting around inside of his very freezing mind.
Victor... why is he doing this?... He's trying to... kill us... all of us... And I can't... do... anything... and I didn't... I knew he was losing control... I knew something was wrong since the... the beginning... And... and now, he's got me... he's... attacked Ben... he just shot... a missile... to get Johnny...
Reed weakly raised his head and, confirming his sluggish thoughts, he could see the dark outline of Victor Von Doom, on the other side of the conference room, lowering the rocket launcher he'd just detonated. "Two down, two to go," he rasped.
Doom stepped away from the broken window then, and for one throbbing moment, Reed thought the man was coming towards him. But instead, he slinked back into the shadows of the conference room instead, no longer bothering to even look at the freezing scientist. He seemed perfectly content with just waiting around for the liquid nitrogen to claim Mr. Fantastic's life, and that was fine by Reed. He'd rather die quietly and alone than in the company of whatever sadistic torture Doom may have had in mind.
But I... I can't, the other side of his mind fought back. You have to stay alert! You can't... let... yourself lose... to him! You have to help... the others! Ben is hurt, and Johnny... could still be alive! And Sue... Sue is...
For a moment Reed's emotions flooded him, at the mention and the thought of her. The coldness itself was nearly forgotten as Sue began filling his mind. It could've been her... If she hadn't been getting medicine for me, she might've gone down to the lab... before I did, and... he could've snatched her. Oh, oh, thank God he didn't get to her... oh, Sue... oh, Sue...
Reed's thoughts were getting fuzzy. His eyelids were feeling heavier; the sheen of frost covering his face growing colder and more solid. The fight was no longer draining out of him; it was being yanked out of him now. His skin was starting to tingle, but weakly he tried to shake it off. Sue... Sue, I love you... I love you, he repeated inside of his head. If this was to be his final moment of consciousness, he wanted that thought to be his last. There were... never any... variables... to that... I knew it, I always knew... I loved you... I just wish I could... tell you... before I --
But the last half of the thought was cut off as, quite suddenly, Reed felt an odd sensation creeping into him. And only another second later, Reed recognized it.
Warmth.
Something warm was touching him, he could feel it on his arm. Compared to the subzero state he was in, the touch felt as if it would scorch him. But he welcomed the sensation, glad to feel anything other than this unbearable cold. For a moment the warmth left him, however, but when Reed's eyes fell upon the nitrogen tank next to his chair, a sudden surge of indescribable emotion began welling up within him.
The lever on the tank was moving, shifting to the "off" position, all by itself. Some invisible force was moving it, and there was no doubt in Reed's mind what - or rather, who - was doing it.
And suddenly, the scalding warmth was back. It was scrabbling against his chest in a frenzy and, mixing with the delirium of the cold, Reed was having a difficult time piecing together what was happening. The only thing he was able to comprehend, was that she was here, he knew it... he didn't know how, but she was. He still couldn't move, couldn't lift his own hands to touch her, but he tried to speak, tried to force his frozen lips to move, to say her name. "Sue..."
"Reed," she whispered, softly and urgently. She was still invisible, so he still couldn't see her face, but he knew by her tone that she must've been wearing a shocked, fearful expression. "What has he done to you?"
"How romantic."
She gasped harshly at the voice, and the next thing Reed knew, she was visible, standing there in her blue jumpsuit, her back to him. She was looking over at Doom, who had stepped back in the light once more and was staring her down from behind his metal mask.
"Victor, please," Sue said to him, her voice fierce, tight. "The machine works. It worked on Ben, and it can work on you, too. We can turn you back."
Reed had been listening to Sue and Doom conversing, but now something had caught his eye. Out the conference room's windows, an array of skyscrapers made up the sight, as was the case with most Manhattan high rises. But from where he was sitting, Reed could see the Baxter Building in the near distance. Not only that, but the twentieth floor was lighting up, encrusting the top of the building with blinding white illumination. That could only mean one thing...
"Do you really think," Doom's voice cut back into Reed's ears, averting his attention, "the fates turned us into gods so that we could refuse these gifts?" He was still staring at Sue.
Then her reply, callous and fiery: "Victor, you always thought you were a god. Now back off!"
"Susan, please... let's not fight," he said condescendingly.
But the Invisible Woman was furious, and was hearing none of it. "No, Victor, let's."
Reed heard her grunt, and glanced over to see one of her large force fields take shape and slam directly into Doom. It knocked him backwards for a moment, and an immense boom filled the conference room. Glass had also shattered as a result of Sue's force field, causing it to fall to the floor with a loud crash.
The next moment, the lights in the room blinked quickly off and on, and then Doom's enraged exclamation, "Susan.. you're fired." Searing white electricity swelled within him, and then Sue was thrown across the room, smashing into the far wall.
Though the nitrogen tank had been turned off, Reed had been exposed to its freezing affects for long enough. His limbs were still very rigid, and so he still could not move. As Doom walked past his chair after Sue, all Reed could do was listen, screaming helplessly inside of his head.
"To think I was about to share my life with you," he mused, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
Then all fell silent. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, for several moments. Reed, not able to see what was happening, was briefly confused by the quiet. Then he heard Doom step forward again, saying mockingly, "Marco... Polo..."
He was interrupted, as was the silence, by several loud booms. They were the sounds of the Sue's force fields, slamming into Doom again and again. The sounds of her assault, however, only lasted a few seconds, as Doom apparently had regained the upper hand, the sounds of his electricity jolts zapping through the air only a moment later.
It was then that Reed heard Sue struggling, obviously against Doom, and gasping for air. The masked man seemed to growl at her. "Did you say good-bye to your brother Johnny?" He seethed.
Reed blinked as a loud thud echoed through the room, and he turned his frozen neck towards the sound to look. Sue had been thrown to the floor, and now she was sprawled there next to the nitrogen tank, only a foot away from his chair. She didn't try to get up; her attention instead locked upon Reed. Sue looked up at him from the floor, her face creased with multiple emotions. Reed tried to force his face to create an expression, any at all, but he was still struggling for movement.
"It's time to end this," Doom growled, the sound of teeth clenching.
At his words, Reed began shouting inside of his head again. From the moment Sue had turned off the nitrogen tank and put her hands upon him, Reed's delirium had long evaporated. Now he was desperately struggling to regain the use of his limbs, but he was even more frustrated to see that only weak movement was forthcoming. All he was able to do was wiggle a few of his fingers, but that was hardly going to be enough. Doom was going to kill Reed and Sue, right here, right now --
-- And then, the most deafening noise erupted, blasting through the room like dynamite. Reed didn't know what it was, or what had caused it, but then the next moment it all became clear as a very gruff, very familiar voice snarled angrily at Doom.
"No, Vic. It's clobberin' time."
And with a tremendous boom, Doom went sailing over their heads and through the air, all the way across the conference room, slamming into the large metallic 'V' that was mounted the on the far wall. Doom crumpled to the floor, as the gold-plated 'V' fell from the wall and simultaneously down upon the masked man, burying him in the rubble.
"Damn, I've been waiting to that," Ben's voice rumbled, and with massive, crunching steps, he walked over to the Sue and Reed. "Susie, you OK?"
Relieved to see him, she gave a brief nod, and then turned and placed a hand back on Reed's arm. Her body warmth felt so good against his cold, rigid form. It also surprised him slightly that his freezing temperature didn't seem to be phasing Sue at all.
Then Ben was there, leaning over the chair. "Victor ain't that bad, huh?" He said, almost in a jocular tone. "He's just a little 'larger than life', right?" As if it were as flimsy as an aluminum can, Ben kicked the nitrogen tank aside, and then stooped over to help Sue disconnect the tubes and needles from Reed's body. As they did so, Reed felt himself slump forward with relief, the first movement his body had been able to make in over an hour. "Maybe next time you'll listen to me before --"
But the Thing didn't get a chance to finish before the electricity shorted out again. He and Sue looked around frantically, and a moment later she shouted warningly, "Ben!"
Doom had extracted himself from the broken glass and metal, and now he was charging at Ben full throttle. He met the attack with equal energy, and the two of them, grappling, crashed out the window and toppled away in the night.
After they'd disappeared, Sue turned back to Reed, grabbing onto his shoulders. "We've gotta get out of here," she said. "Can you move?"
"I... I don't know," he replied, his voice wavering. "Can you help me stand up?"
Without a word, Sue wrapped both of her arms around Reed, gently easing him to his feet. Reed slipped an arm around her as well, to balance himself. "I still feel so cold..."
"It's okay," she replied softly. "You're okay. It'll go away."
"But we have to help Ben," Reed said urgently, fighting down a shiver.
"I know," Sue agreed, helping him walk across the room and over to the window that Ben and Doom had previously crashed through. "But you're body heat's already returning. Look!"
He looked at what she was pointing to, his hands, and relief flooded into him again as he saw that she was right. Chips of ice were already melting and dripping off of his gloves, and patches of his blue jumpsuit were damp; the frosty sheen melting off his torso as well. He looked back up, and his gaze fell out the broken window, down upon the dark city below. There was a large hole in the skylight of a hotel building adjacent to them, obviously where Ben and Doom had smashed through.
"See there?" Reed said to Sue, pointing at the shattered skylight. "We've got to get down to the street. Fast."
"But how?" She inquired, looking agitated.
Reed looked around for a moment, and then as he glanced down the side of the Von Doom skyscraper, an idea occurred to him. "We can climb out this window, and I'll stretch down the side of the building."
Sue stared at him, fear and concern etched upon her face. "Are you... are you sure? Your strength hasn't fully returned yet!"
"It's the only way," he replied. "We have to get down there, now." He looked over at her, to see she was still looking worried. "Sue..." He said softly, confidently, "I'll be all right. Trust me. Just hang onto me."
At last she sighed and nodded, and as Reed stepped to the edge of the full length window, preparing to climb out, Sue wordlessly wrapped her arms around his torso as tightly as she could.
Reed allowed himself a small smile at the contact, and the feeling of her arms around him gave Reed the remaining confidence and strength he needed. Carefully, he swung his right leg and arm out the window, and against the side of the building. The left side of his body followed, and deftly he started to climb down the side of the skyscraper, stretching his arms and legs several feet at a time.
He could feel Sue gripping his waist even harder now, as she dangled precariously off the side of the Von Doom building with Reed. He started to climb quicker, elongating his legs as far as they would go. "Are you okay?" He asked Sue after a few minutes, looking over his shoulder at her.
The towering height they were hanging at was making her nervous, also causing her to shimmer back and forth into invisibility, and she was pressing her face in the small of Reed's back. "Just fine," she croaked. "Are you all right?"
"I think so," he said, and meant it. With every step, he felt his prowess rushing back into him, and the coldness from the liquid nitrogen was also wearing off. Somewhere down below them, more than likely within the nearby hotel, Reed could hear thunderous crashing noises, which he assumed could only be being caused by Ben and Doom. Putting on a burst of acceleration, Mr. Fantastic rapidly elongated his legs the rest of the distance down the building, until they touched the street.
"Grab onto my neck, Sue," he instructed her, and she did so without a word.
Slowly Reed let go of the skyscraper's facade, and his body proceeded to slide down the structure and to the street. Sue clutched tightly onto him as they ascended towards the sidewalk, and after their feet touched the ground, she turned him around and wrapped him up in a crushing embrace.
"Thank God..." He heard her whisper, and for a moment he thought she was simply relieved to be back on the ground. But then she said softly, "Thank God you're alive..."
Reed pulled back slightly to look in her eyes. For the longest moment, however, he wasn't able to say anything. He was a mixture of so many things right now; relief, love, worry, anxiety. The situation they were currently entangled in was so dire, so critical, but now that she was standing before him, after she'd just saved his life, he was momentarily trapped in a daze. "Sue, I..." He started to say, stammering. "When I... when I was... up there... I thought I was going to -"
"I know," she said softly, still clutching his upper arms. "I thought you were, too."
"Well, I..." He swallowed. "When I was, you know, sitting there... I was thinking of you... almost the whole time. Because if I... died... I wanted you to be... the last thing... in my head... and I... I know how I'm not always... good with words... but I..." His voice dropped off, as he was clearly still struggling with the words even now.
Sue stared at him for a moment, and then reached up and slipped her arms around his neck, hugging him. In his ear she whispered passionately, poignantly, "Me too, Reed. I love you, too."
It was then that another loud crash disrupted them, and they broke immediately out of their embrace. The sound had jarred them back to the present, and to the current urgency at hand. Without a word, Reed grabbed Sue's hand and quickly pulled her to the other side of the street. A block or so up ahead he could see traffic stalled in the street, being blocked by a battered garbage truck and several police cars. People were scattering out of the way, shrieking and yelling.
"Come on," he said, gesturing to fracas. "Let's go."
Reed started to run towards the traffic pileup, still holding onto Sue's hand as she ran along with him. It was danger they were running into, a confrontation that could very well be deadly to any or all of them, but somehow it wasn't seeming to phase him. So much had happened in so little time; it was as if he'd awaken from a long slumber, discovering himself for what felt like the very first time. Only hours ago he and Sue had been standing at the pier overlooking the East River, when she'd been telling him what she wanted. A stronger man. That she'd wanted him to be that man.
"... But I'm saying it now. Take charge."
Every step of the way tonight it had been the thought of Sue that had pulled him through. Somehow he'd managed to be that stronger man. And now that he had Sue next to him, alongside him, he knew that he no long had to try. He'd become that stronger man.
And now, just moments ago, he'd been able to let her know, without even fully saying it, what he'd been hoping he'd live long enough to tell her, when he was still being frozen to death in Doom's conference room. He hadn't even had to fully say it. She just knew. By the look in her eyes and the way she had embraced him, Sue had known. And she felt the same way.
And it was enough.
"Take charge," she had said.
And as he and Sue ran, ran towards the wreckage up ahead, ran to help Ben, ran to fight Dr. Doom, Reed realized that, whatever was about to happen, taking charge was exactly what he was going to do.
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el fin
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