The Only Hope for Me Is You

We drove for another twenty minutes or so before Gerard pulled up to a fairly large mountain. A few cliffs jutted out as you looked up but, other than that, nothing. It was plain and boring. Gerard drove around a fairly large rock, that proved itself to be a wall, and into a huge cave. It was big enough to fit the car in and still have room to light a fire and just, stretch our legs.

"This should keep us hidden for awhile." Gerard muttered, cutting the engine of the car. I heard Mikey pull up on my motorcycle and we all exited the car.

"Alright, lets get a fire started so we can properly take care of Midnight," Frank said, cradling my hand in his and examining the blood that easily soaked through the rags he had tied around it. I felt tingles erupting from my fingertips right to my wrist and I wasn't sure if it was from the laser beam wound, or from Frank's hand. But I didn't like the sensation either way.

"Grace," Gerard called out to her and she happily skipped towards him. They prepared everything for the fire as Frank wrapped an arm around my waist, guiding me towards their work. Mikey and Ray came through the opening of the cave, their arms full with twigs and whatever wood they could find.

"It's not much," Mikey said, grimacing slightly.

"But it's enough to give us some light and a little warmth." Ray finished, setting everything beside Gerard, indicating that Mikey do the same. Gerard lit a match-like stick but the flame was bigger than a normal match would of been. He threw it onto the newly formed stack of branches and twigs, and it all burst into flames in an instant, casting us in a fiery glow and making our shadows known.

"Finally," Frank muttered and pulled me down next to the fire. He unwrapped my hand and quickly threw away the bloodstained cloths. Grace was beside him in a flash, handing him stuff out of the little backpack she always seemed to have on her.

"I'm sort of the go-to, girl." Grace explained when she caught me looking curiously. "Anything they need or want, I have it because I actually came prepared in case things like this happened." She waved towards my hand and making sure to throw a noted look at Gerard, jokingly. He just shook his head in response, a small smile forming on his lips.

I liked his smile, even if it was probably only half of it. His thin lips stretched slightly, his mouth slanting a bit upwards on the left side, letting his tiny teeth show through. I always loved his tiny teeth. Growing up, I use to make fun of him for it, but I secretly thought they were cute.

"FUCK!" I screamed as my hand suddenly felt like it was on fire. I quickly pulled it back to cuddle it against my chest, but Frank grabbed it again, pouring more alcohol rub on it. I hissed in protest, holding back the screams of agony.

"Sorry, but it has to be cleaned out before we can really assess the damage." he stated in a matter of fact tone, shooting me a smirk. I rolled my eyes and gave him a hard glare. I was not pleased at all that he had to be so arrogant about it.

But, Frank Iero was always like that. Anything he said or did had a slight arrogant feel to it, even if he was just learning something or he did something for the first time. He was just a cocky motherfucker that nobody really liked but couldn't help to love, namely me.

When we were younger, we use to pick on each other mercilessly. We use to mock and taunt each other, calling each other names that, at the age of seven and eight, seemed hurtful but was nothing but childish antics. As we grew older and into our teens, we turned our fighting words into fighting fists. We were always roughhousing with each other and it never got old. Whenever I came home with a new bruise, my mom would just shake her head and laugh, knowing it was nothing serious.

I smiled at the warm memory, wishing it could be like that again. Growing up in a perfectly good neighborhood and not having to run from power hungry villains that destroyed everything in their path. My smile vanished as I thought about the night that the Scarecrow took my family; hating myself that I couldn't of been stronger and fought them off.

"Well," Frank said, snapping me back from the past and into the present. "The damage is not bad, but it isn't good, either." I looked down to notice my hand clean and wrapped up with some gauze and medical tape.

"We'll have to stop at Dr D's to get you officially repaired, but you're fine for now." he continued, smiling at me. I went to shoot him back a half smile, still bothered by the thought of my family, when a pillow hit me directly in the face. It fell and landed in my lap... along with my mask. The force of the pillow had snapped the elastic and it had slipped off of my face.

"Ugh," I moaned, rubbing my face. It felt weird not having it covering my face but then I remembered that the guys didn't exactly know who I was. I hesitantly peeked out between my fingers to see them all looking at me in surprise, except for Grace, who never met me until recently.

"Avarie?" Mikey whispered, sort of flabbergasted. You could easily see he didn't believe what his eyes were seeing at all!

I smiled and pulled my hands away from my face. "The one and only!"

There seemed to be no reaction until Gerard jumped up and ran towards me. He grabbed me, plucking me right up from the ground, and holding me in his arms.

"Oh my, God!" he murmured, holding me closer. "I thought you were gone! I thought they had taken you and killed you! Jesus Christ, you're alright!" Gerard kept squeezing me tighter and tighter until I could barely breathe.

"I will be if you could just.. release!" I squeaked out the last word as he suddenly pulled away, running his hand through his red hair. His face turning from surprised and relieved to completely pissed in just a few short seconds.

"Why the hell didn't you contact us right away?! Why in the fuck didn't you tell Dr Death Defying who you were?! Maybe we could of come and got you, instead of you wandering around out there alone!" he boomed, looking more angrier with himself than he was with her.

"Gerard, dude!" Frank cut in, standing up and walking over to me. "Look, she's fine, she's here, and she's safe. Let's just forget about everything else and be happy that's she's okay." With that, Frank scooped me up into his arms, giving me a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you, Ree-Ree." he said, using his old nickname for me. I beamed and hugged him back just as tight.

"You don't know how good it feels to hear that name again, Frankie." I mumbled, slight tears coming to my eyes. I was suddenly torn out of Frank's arms and into that of Mikey's.

"Fuckin' flyin' shit, Ava!" Mikey yelled straight into my right ear. I winced but giggled all the same. "I missed my little monster terribly! Gerard got pissy after we left Battery City and, of course, I didn't have my partner in crime with me to make him even more pissed, so it was no fun." I outright laughed at what he said, hugging his tall frame closer to me.

Mikey and I always had something up our sleeves to torment Gerard with. Mikey did it because Gerard was his brother and I did it because I loved seeing Gerard's reaction to everything we pulled. It was hilarious, to say the least. Whenever Mikey and I just took a day to ourselves and would go up to his room to hang, Gerard would always be tense and anxious, waiting for anything to happen to him. Mikey and I sometimes didn't even pull anything. We would just sit there and watch Gerard's paranoia take over. I'm sure if we had of kept it up, we would have drove him mad.

"Yeah, I know. I missed you, too, Mikester! We gotta plan something soon." I hinted, looking over towards Gerard who overheard us and winced. We both laughed and I was soon brought into a hug by Ray.

"I'm so sorry about what I said earlier and that I've been completely ignoring you ever since you arrived." Ray said quickly, hugging me close to his body. He bent down and whispered in my ear, "I was only looking out for Gerard. He was really messed up when we lost you." I nodded in understanding, letting him know that I forgave him. He released me after another squeeze and then nodded his head towards Gerard.

"Talk to him." I nodded and walked over towards Gerard who had sat back down and was staring intently into the fire.

I sat down next to him, scooting close enough so my head could fall on his shoulder. Like I had said before, Gerard use to be my wall. I could go to him for everything and he could do the same with me. I loved our relationship... before the fucking Better Living Industries pulled us apart. I just hoped that our friendship had not been destroyed in the process.

"What's wrong, Gee?" I asked, using my old nickname for him. I turned my head to look at him and caught a small smile ghosting across his lips.

"I just.." he started but stopped. I waited, not wanting to push him. I soon felt his arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer. He buried his face into my hair and tried to take even breaths.

"We thought you were dead." he finally said. "I went fucking crazy trying to find you but then I heard you got taken away by the Scarecrow, and I sort of thought that was it. You were dead. I was never gonna see you again. But, here you are." I pulled away from him to see his foolish half smile. I reached up and pulled off his mask and smiled back at him.

"Yeah, I am here. I thought you guys were gone, too. But I held hope that you were alive. That's why I was looking for the 'Fabulous Killjoys'." I said, using air quotation around their group name. He let out that child-like laugh that I loved so much and then continued. "I was hoping that you guys would help me find my best friends. I had plans to go back and rescue you, Mikey, Ray, Frank, and... Bob." Then it hit me that Bob wasn't there with the rest of them.

Robert Bryar, Bob for short, had been one of our best friends. He looked extremely tough on the outside, but, when it came down to it, he was a huge teddy bear. He was funny and never once thought of himself; he had to make sure others were happy first. If someone picked on me or any of the other guys, Bob wasn't too slow on dealing with whoever asshole it was. I loved him deeply.. and he wasn't here.

"Where's Bob?" I asked and they all seemed to look away at the same time. Nobody answered and I started to get pissed. "Where is Bob?!"

"Avarie, he.." Frank started but couldn't finish. I clenched my jaw, afraid to know the answer. If he was dead, I could live with that. But there is always something worse than death..

"He became a Draculoid." And that was it.