Chapter Text
“And in time.” His voice booms from the ceiling and the room starts to shake. Gears and scraps wrench free from the ground. “You’ll be able to do stuff like this!”
A gear whizzes past your ear, you duck your head to the side. Heisenberg strides across the overhead walkway. Metal from all around the room swirls around him in a vortex. He commands the metal effortlessly. One large gear hovers in front of him and he takes a step out. If it shifted to accommodate his weight, you could scarcely tell. With each step another gear or metal slab meets his foot. He makes his way down the makeshift staircase, never breaking eye contact with your wide eyes.
A large metal sheet finds itself in front of you and Heisenberg takes his last step. He exhales roughly as his foot meets solid ground. His metal staircase collapses and all the pieces shoot back into place.
Heisenberg looks up and smiles wide at your agape mouth.
“Not bad, huh?” He gloats.
“Holy shit.” You say, breathless. “How long did that take you to learn?”
“Few decades?”
“Decades?!”
“Give or take.”
Heisenberg had been almost giddy ever since finding out about your powers. He’s been itching to start training and show you the tricks he’s learned over the years. The past few days have been filled with you slowly adjusting to your new body. In between your usual work duties with Heisenberg, you’ve been moving small bits of metal just to get a feel for it. Up and down, big and small, there’s been a whole range of movements to experiment with. It still wears out your arm after a while, but you started to build up some endurance. Last night, Heisenberg watched as you turned on the tap and moved a pot under the stream to fill it up by only using your powers. He remarked that he would be taking you up to the barn tomorrow and start training, for real.
Currently, Heisenberg is gathering several of those large gears he used in his staircase, setting them down in piles from smallest to largest.
“Kay, let’s start nice and easy.” He says, gesturing to the hunks of metal behind him. “Lift 'em up, one by one.”
You shuffle over to the smallest gear, about the size of a dinner plate, and thrust your hand forward. It lifts off the ground easily. The nod of approval Heisenberg gives you causes blood to rush to your cheeks. You bite your bottom lip as a grin breaks across your face. You won’t lie that, after being helpless here for so long, having these powers is exhilarating.
Feeling a bit daring, you thrust your other hand forward and the next largest gear lifts off the ground. Watching the gears dance and cut through the air, you can’t help but let out a few throaty giggles.
“Nice work. Now, that’s not all I wanted to do today.” The ear-splitting sound of metal dragging on metal breaks your exhilaration. Grunts and groans echo inbetween. Your eyes flash to one of the side doors where several Haulers file in.
Your chest tightens. “What are they doing here?” You almost have to yell over the guttural groans of the Haulers.
Heisenberg summons his hammer and leans his arms over the top end. “Well I can’t have you just playing with gears and making jewelry all day. I’ve got an army to build, a factory to defend.”
The gears waver in the air. The groans and scraping grow louder. “But…You just wanted me to lift up the gears right?”
“Yeah, lift them up and then slam them into one of those fucker’s heads.” He remarked with a loose wave of his hand.
Your arms go limp. The gears crash and indent themselves into the floor. Your jaw clamps shut.
Heisenberg scoffs. “What? Are you surprised? You knew this was coming, Miranda’s not one to negotiate.”
He’s right. “I know. I just-”
“Look. The thing’s already dead. No harm done in my books.”
“Can you just give me a second?” You know the smart thing to do, get over it and crack the Hauler’s skull. The factory certainly has a couple to spare. But you can’t help your joints hardening like cement. Your fingers crack as you curl them inward.
“You know I’m not exactly patient.”
You look at the Hauler groaning and lumbering toward you. Looking away, you shoot an arm out, the gear frees itself from the ground and hovers. You look away and squeeze your eyes shut, and with a flick of your hand the gear goes flying. The crack that comes next makes you nauseous, as does the moan of the Hauler as it collapses.
You begrudgingly open your eyes to meet Heisenberg’s gaze.
“You’ve got pretty good aim.” He says while raising his brows.
“Thanks.” You glower at him.
A zap in your brain alerts you to a presence approaching the door. Heavy, hulking steps reverberate through the floor and shake you as they travel up your spine.
“We’re not done yet though.”
Bursting through the door are Soldats of all different kinds. You look at Heisenberg with pleading eyes. He shrugs and leans back, lighting a cigar.
“Heisenberg! Are you trying to kill me?”
The mass of metal closes in on you. A Soldat Eins lunges at you with its drill raised. The force causes you to tumble backwards, right into the metal chest of a Soldat Jet. It's jets roar in your ears and you shriek.
“Heisenberg!!”
His form is lost in the blurry room as you jump and dodge attacks. The magnetic presence you could detect from the Soldats disappears in the chaos. God, you hate him. Your eyes and legs burn. The thrum of the Soldats working parts becomes near deafening. Drill bits flash into your peripheral vision. You gasp as hot liquid spills onto your cheeks, shit, one of them got you. Your hand flys up to stop the blood from flowing.
Ducking behind a pipe of scrap, you pull up your sleeve to soak up the blood. Pulling your hand away, you wince at the sight of the red stained sleeve. Your heart hammers in your chest and acid churns in your stomach. Tears well up in your eyes, he’s gone way too far this time. What the fuck.
You stiffen when a hand grips your shoulder, and turn around face to face with the cold visor of a Soldat Eins. It rears up its drill, the bit pointing directly at your chest. You fling your arm over your face in a sorry attempt at defense.
The Soldat lets out a sound somewhere between a gurgle and a sob. The whirring stops and the hand gripping your shoulder releases. You open your eyes to a thin, metal pipe lodged in the throat of the Soldat. Your breath comes out heavy and hot. You got him. You actually got one. It collapses onto the pile you're hiding behind, sending debris hurtling towards you.
Shoving your hand forward, the debris floats in place, allowing you to crawl away.
Victory is short-lived as a Soldat Zwei notices the commotion and charges at you with both drills forward. You roll out of the way. Both drills slam beside you, narrowly missing your arm. You yelp and hack as clouds of dust from the ground invade your lungs.
As the Soldat slowly reorients itself, you try to get to your feet. Your thighs quiver. Fuck. The Soldat behind you starts to walk again. Its menacing steps vibrate through the floor. Fuck your legs. Using your arms, you pull yourself along the ground, hoping that the dust camouflages you.
As the dust settles you look up to see a Soldat Jet hovering above you. From the corner of your eye, you spot one of the gears. Without thinking, you lift up one of the large gears with two hands and hurl it right into the side of the Soldat Jet. It flies clean through the wall of the barn, landing with a thump in the yard. You hear Heisenberg’s laugh echo through the room.
Once again, you attempt to pull yourself up, by your arms this time. They shake and collapse under your weight. “Shit.” You grunt. Again, you try again. But your muscles fail you. A pair of Soldat Eins descend on you, their visors glimmering in the light of the barn. One of them grabs your foot and drags you to the Soldat Zwei from before. You flail in its grip. The twin drills of the Soldat Zwei cut through the air with sights set on you.
You shove both hands out. The drills stop.
The Soldat Eins grunt from behind you. One of your hands flies to stop them by the pipes surrounding their reactor cores.
Your arms shake. The energy that pulses through you weakens. You huff out short, hot breaths.
“Heisenberg. I can’t.”
The buzz of the Soldat’s drills begins as your hold on the metal slips.
Sweat drips down your face, mixing with blood and tears. The mixture seeps into the corners of your lips, filling your mouth with a salty, metallic taste.
Your arms feel tight enough to burst. The drill shakes as you and the Soldat battle for control.
The whirring gets louder, you can't hold on.
The reactor cores of the Soldats start to dim.
“Good. We’ll continue training tomorrow.” Heisenberg emerges from who knows where, the bottom of his duster coat brushes your head.
As soon as you’re sure they’re off, your entire body flops to the ground.
“You alright there, kid?”
Blood and spit drip from your mouth, forming a viscous puddle. “No.”
“Aw, come on. You’ve been through worse.” He squats down beside you.
“This comes pretty close to the worst.” Your speech stutters through your coughs.
“Well, get used to it.” He runs your back and then pats it roughly.
You shake him off and roll away. “Remember the last time you pushed me like this? My cadou activated and I nearly died.”
“Well now that your Cadou activated we won’t have that problem.” Heisenberg shrugs.
You finally muster the strength to push yourself up to your knees. “My first day. My FIRST day of training and you try to kill me.” You wipe the blood from your mouth and scratch at the dried blood on your cheek.
He scoffs. “What? What did you think it would be? Fucking arts and crafts time?”
Your nostrils flare and heat rises in your chest. Pushing off the ground, you stumble to your feet and close the distance between the two of you. “No, but I sure didn’t think you would try to kill me!”
Heisenberg runs his hand through your hair and musses it up. “Now kid, let’s calm down.”
You bat his hand away. "Get off me…And stop calling me kid. Why do you call me KID?”
“What would you prefer, sweetheart? Darling?”
Blood rushes to your cheeks and you see red.
“You are the most indescribably, most aggravating,” You grit your teeth and your hands close into fists. You scream through your closed teeth and pull at your hair.
He sighs. “First of all, I didn’t try to kill you.”
“Really? You don’t think those Soldats wouldn’t have impaled me?”
“Kid, I make them. I know how they work more than you do. Besides what fucking use are you to me dead.”
“Good to know how much I’m valued here.” You mutter.
“You want to run away again? Be my guest, Miranda will serve you to Alcina for dinner before you know it.”
“God damn, I get it. I’m stuck in the village from hell where your dear old ma’ controls your every move.” You spit at him.
He grabs you by the shirt and you slam into his chest. His brows knit together and his lips snarl. You haven’t seen him like this since he stormed out on you in the kitchen.
He pulls you closer until you can feel his breath on your face. "You better start watching your mouth and don't you ever again bring her up like that, I swear-
There's a knock at the barn door.
“HEIIIIISYYY!!!”