This Is a Gift, It Comes With a Price blurb.
Based off ideas in this ask. Set vaguely years down the road in TIAGICWAP future. Playing off of, “what if Ford’s powers leaked through the soul bond to Stan?”
“Ford!” Stan yelled in worry, watching as his brother dispatched two of the growling creatures.
But more quickly took their place, relentlessly attacking Ford, fearless of the power he wielded.
Stan should have never begged Ford to come here. He should have listened when his big brother told him it wasn’t a good idea. He shouldn’t have pouted and whined to get his way. Now they were surrounded by alien creatures on an alien planet.
Stan wasn’t sure if they were sentient or not. They held a similarity to saber-tooth tigers, but walked in an upright crouch. Whatever they were, they seemed to live in a colony, as there were dozens of them. They showed no hesitation for the fact that Ford could kill them in one hit, pouncing for Ford viciously.
His brother was holding them back from getting to Stan, but Stan could see him struggling.
Regardless of the fact that Ford was much, much stronger than these creatures, the sheer number of them were giving him a hard time. It reminded Stan of a time in Nevada when he had watched a scorpion be killed by ants. The scorpion had been bigger and fought hard, but the ants had just continued to pile on it until it had been overrun by them.
Stan couldn’t even fathom that happening to his brother, but he knew that Ford was also having to hold back because he was there. The situation wasn’t looking good.
“Stanley!” Ford called to him, eyes blazing yellow. “Run!”
He couldn’t. Stan could not bring himself to abandon his twin like this, even knowing that running was probably the best thing he could do.
“I—” Stan gasped as a new wave of the creatures attacked Ford, and three of them slipped past his defences while he was busy fending the others off.
Heading straight for Stan.
“Ford!” Stan backed away frantically, eyes wide and heart pounding.
He had no way to defend himself against these things. Nothing but his fists, and he hadn’t fought in so long because Ford took care of everything and he didn’t—he couldn’t—!
“Big Brother!” he screamed. “Big Brother, help me!”
Ford looked his way, and Stan saw horror cross his face. They both knew he wouldn’t reach Stan in time. Not when he was surrounded by so many of the creatures.
Ford stretched out a hand towards him, his brows furrowing and his eyes flaring brighter. He curled his fingers, and the bond between them lit up like a live-wire.
Stan’s breath caught in his lungs as power rushed into him like a wave, practically knocking him off his feet with its intensity. It buzzed through their soul bond and tingled in his limbs, invigorating him with strength.
He’d never felt such power before. Stan had gotten a taste of the power Ford held, some of it uncontrollably trickling through the bond as Ford grew stronger and stronger, but it was only ever a fraction of what he’d seen Ford able to do.
But this. This was Ford pushing power into him, flooding their bond with an electric sensation that was hot and cold at the same time. In that moment, Stan swore he could feel their heartbeats sync to match each other.
The three creatures converging on Stan fell to his new power like dust in the wind, and a giddy laugh bubbled past Stan’s lips. He felt heady with strength, like he could crush the world beneath his heel with ease.
“Run, Stanley!” Ford yelled at him again.
Run? What a silly notion. That would leave Ford on his own, and that wouldn’t do. How could Stan turn his back on the other half of himself?
He leapt, clearing great distance with a single bound—just like the heroes in the comics he’d loved as a boy. An exhilarated whoop left him as he landed beside his brother, his twin, his other self. He grabbed a creature off of Ford and crushed it with his bare hands.
(Who was the sensitive little brother now, Stanford?)
Ford scowled at him initially, but with his newfound power, Stan plucked at their bond, and two minds synced to one. Stan’s back pressed to Ford’s, and two hearts beat together, lungs breathed together, power shared together in an endless feedback loop.
Two halves worked together as one, fighting back their enemies with ease.
There was no need to speak. No need to share plans. Each knew what the other was going to do. Each felt the other’s movements as if an extension of their own body, flowing in tandem as they had always been born to do.
It reminded Stan of a Ketuvim reading he’d heard as a young child, on one of the occasions their parents had dragged them to the synagogue during Sukkot:
“And if a man prevails against the one, the two will stand against him…”
This, Stan thought, was how they were always meant to be. Standing side by side and taking on the world together. Like this, nothing could defeat them.
Like this, they were truly twins.
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