Just An Ordinary Henchman (Yandere Superhero Harem)

Interlude #4 - It's Been A Year

She stared at the television, practically melting into her chair. Her pajamas were disheveled, having not changed since this morning. Her long, black hair was matted and messy while her emerald green eyes had dark and deep bags underneath them.

Days were difficult. Some were worse.

She loathed herself. All she could do nowadays was mope around. Today all she had done was sink in this chair and watch television. If she didn't do something soon, she was afraid that this chair would take her even further beneath the metaphorical water.

Drowning in sorrow.

As the television turned black, she could see her pathetic reflection through it. And then images returned to the screen, sparing her from looking at her miserable self once more.

She hated looking at herself nowadays. She couldn't stand the coward she had become. She couldn't stand it so much that she had covered her mirrors, not wishing to see even a glimpse of her own face.

Tick. Tock.

Time continued to pass by even though she didn't move. Well, it was like this for a many of her days. She would waste it away in one spot, days having lost their meaning to her.

She had never expected to fall this hard. She knew the dangers. She knew that back then, any day her life could've ended.

But she wasn't the one who paid the sacrifice.

And that had wrecked her more than any injury could. If she was able to, she would've given her life in a heartbeat to save his. Alas, she technically didn't even know if he was dead.

Her phone buzzed on the table near her. It was probably an old friend of hers from her old team. They were the only ones who called nowadays. She didn't know how they could stand the woman she had become.

She was a far cry than the self in her golden age.

Well, she didn't care about returning to those days. There were other things she would rather have instead of that. She didn't care about glory.

No, she cared about them. The ones she lost.

What had she done wrong? She had thought this countless times over the past year, racking her brain for every possibility.

For months she had searched. For months she had prayed. For months she had kept an eye out for any semblance of his appearance. And yet, it was all for naught.

He would never return.

Even if his death wasn't confirmed, she knew it to be true deep in her heart. And with that resignation, he shut herself away into this house. She shut herself away from her former life.

The television played the daily reports of the happenings in the city. She should be out there, protecting the people. She should be out there, instead of wallowing in an eternal self pity that would slowly destroy her from the inside out.

She shouldn't have abandoned the people, and yet she had in her grief. And now, she was a hollow husk of her former self.

How the mighty Siren had fallen.

She had considered Miracle to be her son, even though they weren't related. She had taken him in after he started the journey to becoming a hero.

She had looked over him and his brother, whose comatose state was the whole reason Miracle had started the journey in the first place. Despite never having actually talked to the younger of the two, she still considered him her son as well.

Maybe she shouldn't have gotten so attached. Maybe she should've kept him as a student rather than a son. But even knowing what would happen, she would still allow him to get close to her heart and leave her as this mess.

It wasn't his fault, she was sure of it. He had gone missing but no one knew why. And then his brother had gone missing too, kidnapped. She had lost both of her sons in such a short time.

It utterly destroyed her.

And here she was today. About a year after Miracle first went missing. About a year since she had fallen into this darkness. About a year since she had permanently changed.

And then, static suddenly ran across her television. She was confused, wondering if the connection went bad, when suddenly a new scene appeared.

The screen was a dark black, dark enough that you couldn't tell anything except for the fact it was an empty room.

Until a man strolled onto the screen.

He faced the camera, his ski mask over his face as always and his hood up. His red eyes held a mischievous gaze to them as he stared at the camera.

For some reason, those red eyes seemed familiar  despite the fact the woman didn't believe she had ever seen them before.

"Hello, Champion City~!" He grinned, his voice tingling some special sense within the woman. "Some of you may know me as Ski Mask thanks to the atrocious naming skills of my archenemy Stellie~"

Why? Why was she reacting this way?

His voice, it sounds so familiar, and yet different. It tingled some nostalgic sense within her, and it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite figure it out.

She continued to listen to the strange broadcast of this new villain, all the way until it finally started to near its end.

"Isn't this a great, true villain debut?" The man on the screen laughed. "I think it's finally time you put me on your little threat list, Administration. And when you do..."

He pulled out a black face mask with two simple eye holes. The only design on the mask was a red diamond over the left eyehole that matched the color of his eyes.

"...you can call this Checkmate."

And suddenly, her eyes widened.

She wasn't exactly sure why, but it hit her then. His voice was different from before. It wasn't the exact same. It had a different yet similar tone, a variation in intonation, and a weight that it didn't hold before.

But even though it had changed, she'd recognize that voice. Of course she would. In fact, she was probably the only person who could.

Because her own power had to do with voice, she was quite used to listening to them. And combine that with how much she had heard him talk, far more than anyone else...

It was him.

The screen turned black and she jumped up from the seat, clutching at the television, practically begging it to bring the broadcast back.

"Jason..." She whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "...you've actually returned."

Her phone buzzed once more, more violently as more notifications flooded in. She glanced at the phone, a new determination steeling within her heart.

Momma is coming.