Fic: Wanting Too Much

[vettysazzy]

Title: Wanting Too Much
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Dr. Horrible/Penny
Word Count: 419
Summary: Dr. Horrible should be happy - he's got the League, he's got Penny. So why does it feel like a terrible mistake?
A/N: This is for fanfic100 using prompt 072. Fixed. This has been giving me a bit of trouble, so concrit would be VERY much appreciated.

 

 

They struck a formidable couple; both dressed in scarlet and black boots, with dark goggles covering their eyes. They strode through the ruined streets of LA together, destroying and maiming and killing whatever took their fancy. Penny pulled him close to her and kissed him passionately, running one hand through his hair as she did so. He wrapped his arms around her waist, still unable to believe he really had her, after all those months of longing.

He hadn’t been able to accept her death. The Evil League of Evil – supposedly everything he’d ever wanted – wasn’t enough to block it out. The whole world at his feet wasn’t enough. He should have felt happy, instead he felt numb, dead, like it was his body that had been riddled with shrapnel.

So he’d dug her up, keeping her body in safe in suspended animation as he’d experimented with resurrection. He’d lost count of the number of bodies he’d used – the amount of people he’d killed for the experiments – dozens? Hundreds? It didn’t matter. It was worth it to have Penny back, to hear her sing and watch her smile, one more time.

Eventually, he’d found a system that worked. With Professor Normal’s help, he repaired her damaged body, reusing her own organs wherever possible and inserting mechanical counterparts where it was not. After a few weeks of deliberation, he even decided to repair her mind, adding tiny chips and delicate electronics to make her forget her old prejudices against villains, her old crush on Captain Hammer, even her own death.

And it had worked. She sang again and smiled again, even laughed. But whereas before she’d sung of hope and love, of seeds growing through the rain, she now sang of nightmares and darkness, of power and destruction and death. Her smile was too cruel, her laugh too sharp. She dragged Dr. Horrible further along the dark path he’d started down all those months ago, and he was no longer sure it was what he wanted.

He should be happy, he finally had everything; the League, Penny; the whole world was at his feet. After all, she was the perfect villain. He’d designed her to be the perfect villain, so, of course, she had to be the perfect girl for him. He was one of the most evil men in the world, after all.

But as he watched Penny dance through the rubble, flames reflecting in her black goggles, he couldn’t help but feel it was a terrible mistake.