I didn't sign up for that shit

A bittersweet twist

Despair had gotten up in a less good mood that day, a headache pounding aggressively in his head. The villagers had been having such a stupid festival all week that Despair hadn't bothered to find out what it was about. Chances were, it had something to do with Hover again. Most of the festivities in the village were now dedicated to Hover. He was just waiting for the church where they would worship his brother. After all, they have already placed him on a godlike level. And the only positive thing about the festivals was that they leave Despair completely alone on days like that and Hover can be with him for more than a few hours.

And when Hover had told him about the group of children who were up to mischief in the village, driving the villagers furious, Despair wanted to meet them. Even if these children belonged to the village and thus automatically hated him, he wanted to thank them for the good work in spite of everything. Because with the chaos they wreaked, they kept the villagers off his neck, if only for an indefinite period of time. He would also like to know why and what they stole from a jeweler. There shouldn't be anything of long-term use there for children. And judging from what he learned from Hover, those kids were just stealing what could be of use to them. But it was unlikely that these children would ever find their way to the tree.

So after the small group of villagers had taken Hover down to the village that morning, Despair climbed the tree as he did every day. High up in the treetop he not only had a good view of anyone approaching the tree, it also offered shelter. Nobody who wasn't standing directly under the tree could see him straight away. Also, the feel of the bark against his feet was something that soothed him terribly. And the calm aura he got from his apples when he finally sat down with them also helped a lot with his headache. After he had also found a comfortable position for his wings, he took out the book he had found on the tree some time ago. Despair assumed Hover had put it there, as he did with most of the small gifts he could smuggle to the tree during the day. And Despair loved this book. It went there and a group of sharks, a shiver, who had found a home in probably the two most powerful creatures in the sea. It was a collection of many short stories that Despair could get lost in at times. Not for the first time did he wish he could escape into this world and become a part of it. But on the other hand, he knew that he would never leave Hover behind. Not when Hover was all he had.

So when Despair read the book for hours up there in the treetop, he was so caught up in it that he realized a little late that Hover was coming back. And there was a group of children clinging to his heels. Were these the kids Hover had told him about? They looked so much smaller than he expected.

"Come down brother! I want to introduce you to someone!” Hover shouted after he had stopped with the group at the tree. Unfortunately, they were in a relatively inconvenient position, so that Despair couldn’t see more than the excited expression on Hover's face. Still, the reason Hover brought the kids here was obvious to him. Hover had to have hopes that he could befriend them. Which would never happen. He was 840 years old. Despair doubted he would get along well with children.

"How often then, Hover. I don't want to meet any of your so-called friends.", Despair said with a sigh in his voice as he jumped down from his branch, his wings pressed close to his body. He didn't want to break a wing a second time after not paying enough attention the first time, and his wings slamming against the branches with too much force when jumping down. It hadn't been a pleasant experience. And above all, this period of time, when he could not escape into the sky, was heavily exploited by the villagers. They'd prolonged his healing process, but didn't catch Despair as often as Hover stayed by his side during this time after he found out what had happened. Despair just couldn't create a believable lie about why so many of his feathers were suddenly missing. He was just happy that they grew back. Flying without his main pair would be difficult and frustrating. Plus, his wings were the only thing he really liked about his body.

"Besides, you know you shouldn't bri-" Before he could finish his sentence, Despair froze. His gaze wandered to the children and his soul had briefly stopped beating. It was them. But how was that possible?! Despair was there when each of them died. He hadn't left their side until they were dust. So how is it that his boys now stand in front of him as children?!? It just wasn't possible! The dead didn't come back, not for him. So who were these imposters? Despair took a closer look at the imposters and saw the differences.

Murder had never had burn scars to this extent. Sure, a few small ones of failed experiments here and there, but never to the extent that they covered most of the body.

The hole in Axe's head was far smaller than the imposters. Because Axes hole did not extend over the whole skull or down to his only functioning eye socket.

Mistake was never covered in so many scars. Sure, someone like Mistake didn't come out of fights without scars, but the imposter before him was practically covered in them. And with the location of the scars, it seemed like the imposter had been pulled completely apart and shredded even more at least once.

Slaughter's imposter had liquid hatred run down his cheeks, something he had long helped Slaughter prevent. It kept blocking Slaughters view, which is why Despair had done something about it in the first place. But the imposter didn't seem to care that the hatred oozed out of his eye sockets in broad streaks and flowed into his open mouth.

The imposter of X was probably the most correct of the five. But even so, this imposter also had errors. X eyesight had both been white. It only changed to a reddish-purple when X seriously used his magic. And the red scar on the imposter? X had always painted it on himself. It was something that everyone in his AU had. Be it dyed in the fur, tattooed or painted on. Everyone had it.

But of course the biggest difference was that the five lacked the mutations his boys had. Although this could be due to the fact that these were still children and the mutation only began to show itself in puberty.

Still, when he saw these imposters, he couldn't help but see his boys standing there. It brought tears to his eyes because even after forty years he had not fully processed the loss. So for once he followed his instincts and got down on his knees. As if it were a sign of these imposters, they started running towards him with tears in their eyes. Despair knows that it is only his instincts that make him hug these imposters and cause him to wrap his wings around them so that they are hidden from the outside world. He just has to imagine that these are his boys and not imposters.

But one thing was certain. He would eliminate these imposters if they turned out to be a threat.