Chapter Text
Morrigan flopped down onto her bed face-first, slamming a pillow over her ears as she did so. Perhaps childishly, she intended for it to act as a buffer between her and her brain replaying the conversation she had just had on loop, and still, she half-expected it to work. It did not.
“I don't understand why you would choose him over us! The Society, all of us here at the Deucalion, your unit-mates!”
Morrigan had never heard Jupiter sound so irate before, but she supposed she had now had the unpleasant experience of doing so from where she was sitting in the chair behind his desk. Jupiter paced around the room, Morrigan not daring to look around lest she become dizzy like the first few times she tried to track his progress. Jupiter continued to rant.
“I thought we had covered the part where he had murdered multiple people for the sake of it. I thought we had covered the part where you would stop making dangerous deals or pulling awful stunts like this, specifically after the Museum of Stolen Moments incident and the hollowpox!” Jupiter paused to spin Morrigan around in the chair and lean over right in front of her, his hands gripping her armrests while he stared down at her, face inches from hers. “Tell me why Mog. Tell me why you would put yourself and everyone else in Nevermoor in danger like this.”
Any slight regret that Morrigan had had for this situation had now evaporated in the face of Jupiter's ire, replaced with a fiery anger that caused him to lean back just a little, taken aback. She pushed herself out of the chair, causing Jupiter to fall back even more, before facing him with Wunder visibly dancing and swirling around her like a deadly inferno.
“You want to know WHY, Jupiter? Let me inform you then, shall I? You have claimed multiple times that you want the best for me, but clearly you just wanted to lay claim on the first candidate you met, who CLEARLY came from a family who wasn't the best, and immediately after fulfilling one goal, which was to get me into the Society, you discarded me like I was the latest toy in a lineup that had lost its appeal. And everyone would say, ‘Hurrah, Jupiter North finally got a candidate that he got into the Society! Everyone clap at his success story! The criminal baby Wundersmith who could kill us all like Squall is now under the control of the Society like she should be! Jupiter is a hero!’”
Jupiter flinched. “Mog-”
“Oh and that's not all!” she continued with false cheer. “You filled my head with false promises and then did not fulfill any of them. If you were too busy, you could have told me. If you decided you did not want anything to do with me anymore, you could have told me. And if the appeal of having the big bad baby Wundersmith in your grasp had worn off, YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME.” Morrigan's voice cracked at this but she shrugged it off, sniffing back angry tears. “I know all about abandonment, Jupiter, and you abandoned me. Why would I NOT go to the first person who promised me a sense of belonging? At least he's transparent with me by having me sign a contract to show how long he wants me for. And at the end of the day, Jupiter, maybe he'll be a hell of a lot of a better guardian than you ever pretended to be.”
Angry yet broken tears were spilling down her cheeks now, and Morrigan could not bear it anymore. “You gave me material gifts like my umbrella, but ultimately, you broke me, Jupiter North.”
She pushed past the stunned man and fled the office, running back to room 83 and flopping down onto her bed.
Morrigan fully intended to never come out of her room ever again, not after she had angrily spilled her deepest thoughts to someone who likely didn't care. But then she thought of Jupiter's face, and his flinch, and the guilt returned tenfold. Maybe he did care, or maybe he only cared that she was angry. She groaned into her mattress, and unbidden, a thought popped up into her head.
“I should leave so he doesn't have to deal with me.”
The thought had always been there, particularly in lonely days at Crow Manor where Corvus wasn't kind, and Ivy was feeling vindictive and tried to pin anything that went wrong on Morrigan, even if it was her makeup which Morrigan had never touched. She'd often thought of running away then, but hadn't had the courage to go along with it. Who would take in the cursed brat? There was no one, and they'd just take her home again. No small wonder that she'd never done it before.
Now though…now she was just Morrigan Crow, Wundersmith, but she was the Society's Wundersmith. Thinking about it, she wasn't sure this was better than simply being a cursed child. However, she wasn't as infamous as before, and people who didn't read or listen to the news did not know who she was and wouldn't be able to tell who she was by appearance, which she counted as a win. Morrigan wasn't sure how long she'd laid there before Jupiter's voice filtered through the door.
“Mog? I need to talk to you.”
Morrigan ignored him.
“Morrigan?”
Silence. Jupiter huffed.
“Morrigan Odelle Crow, don't you dare make me come in there,” Jupiter snapped.
Morrigan continued to stay silent until Jupiter, tired of waiting for her to make a sound, gave a sigh and something rustled. Probably his hair. He sounded tired when he next spoke, voice rough but gentler than before.
“Mog, I'll be in my office when you're ready to talk.”
Footsteps faded and a sudden thrill of fear overtook Morrigan. Maybe he would kick her out. Heck, that seemed like the most probable choice, particularly with how rude she was to him before. But, she could always leave on her own terms before the inevitable happened. Morrigan hovered between choices before her gaze flicked to the door and she felt another jolt of fear. She couldn’t face him.
Sliding off her bed, Morrigan moved on light feet to her wardrobe. She had to leave, then.
Tonight.