To Your Grave: An RotBTFD Fanfiction

Chapter 28: She's Merida

 Two months of file reports, rest days, and putting away evidence and it is still painful. It is painful to have the only family you have left betray you. Walt's fists clench around each other as he rests his chin on his knuckles. He breathes heavily as he tries to control the tears. The familiar hospital smell filled his nose along with the sting of alcohol and latex gloves. The beep of the steady heart monitor pierced his brain.

"Why'd you save me?"

Walt turned to his left to the hospital bed where Merida lays, eyes closed, but still very much conscious. He lowers his hands and places them on his lap.

"I didn't."he tells her, "Your friends did."

Merida eyes slowly flutters open and Walt catches a glimpse of blue before she closes them again.

"Merida, I need you to answer me."Walt requests, "Why did you do what you did? Why did you side with my brother?"

She takes a deep breath and Walt winces as he hears the beeping, that was previously rythmic, speed up. Tears slide down the sides of Merida's face.

"I don't know if you'd believe me,"she begins, "but, Sir, he threatened me."

"How?"

"He told me that if I didn't take his side, he would blow up the DDCI agency with bombs he hid in the basement."

Walt's eyes widenes and he mutters to himself, "That could be the reason why he didn't want my help with building his agency. He's planned this from the start."he turns again to Merida and asks, "Then why did you distance yourself from your friends."

"I tried to distance myself, but there were times I couldn't. That's why I had to leave. Amblin told me that he would figure out who I cared about the most and would kill them first. I assumed that was why he kidnapped Anna, she is—was—my best friend."

"Is that also why he threatened Hiccup?"

Merida laughs and ignores the not-so-subtle subtext, "He threatened all of them in front of me. There were times when he would force me to play chess with him in order to determine who dies first. I was never good at chess, so I tried to educate myself. Every time he took a piece from me, someone would die and he would leave clues and threaten them to give them a chance to live."

"When did this begin? This partnership?"

"I wouldn't say partnership, I wager the word enslavement is more accurate."

"Or maybe under duress?"he jokes

She gives a short laugh before looking at her scarred, fiddling hands, "The day he took Anna, he called me and told me to meet him alone. He let me look into a room and Anna was in there. He told me that he would kill her if I wouldn't agree right then and there. If I continued to say no, he would go after the rest of my friends."she begins to quietly sob and her voice cracks, "I just—it hurt me to know that i-inevitably, my friends will find out and th-th-they'd h-hate me, but I told myself th-that it's those things were I know I cannot live without them, but they can without me."

Walt opens his mouth to interrupt but Merida shakes her head, "Don't get me wrong! A-at least I know they're alive and well and they're l-living and loving their life, even if I can't be in it. I thought about it and realizes that I'm okay with it. I would do anything for the people I love. "

Walt nearly suffocates with the thickness of the tension in the air. He watches Merida wipe tears from her cheeks and with his index finger tucks a red curl behind her ear. He stares down at her and all he sees is a littel girl trying her best to get through an unfair life. They're all kids and life is hell.

"I...I want to resign."Merida gulps, "The agency is no place for me."

"Merida..."Walt sighs.

"There's no reason for me to stay and besides, no one wants me to."

"I don't believe that."Walt tells her, "You'll be released in a few days and I suggest you make things up with them and explain."

"What if they don't want me back?"

"I have a few extra rooms. You can proceed with missions and trainings, but you will no longer be with the general team. This is the last resort if they do not want you with them anymore."

"Might as well let me quit and rule a small kingdom and marry someone I don't want to."she laughs, bitterly.

"Merida, you have potential to do more than that. I beg you to stay, you're one of the best agents in the entire agency. I know that you may think that the others don't want you back, but trust me when I say that they do."

She sits up and looks down at the white sheets and sighs, "Okay."

Outside of the medical room, Anna smiles at an equally happy and apprecitative Rapunzel with tears in their eyes.

"She loves us."Anna softly laughs.

"Of course she does."