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Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of Whumptober 2021 , Part 9 of Bad Things Happen Bingo
Collections:
Bad Things Happen Bingo, Whumptober 2021
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Published:
2021-10-03
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1,122
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1/1
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6
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27
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2
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Ultimate Betrayal, Ultimate Return

Summary:

Hank is kidnapped, imprisoned, and impersonated by Yellowjacket.

And then he's rescued. By the most unexpected person imaginable.

Whumptober Day 3: Taunting/Insults

Notes:

For the Whumptober Day 3 Prompt: Taunting/Insults
For the Bad Things Happen Bingo Prompt: Stolen Identity

Work Text:

“It’s almost a little sad,” Yellowjacket tells him in his own voice as he paces in front of the glass pod he’s trapped Hank in. “Not a single person noticed I wasn’t you. I could credit my acting skills, but I think there’s probably a more logical explanation.”

Shut up, Hank thinks and doesn’t say. No matter the circumstances that divide them, this Yellowjacket is still a Hank Pym — so Hank knows him well enough to know that any sign of anger, irritation, is just going to fuel further insults.

Broadly speaking, Hank likes to characterize himself as a pacifist. But thinking non-violence is the better way doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a temper. He does. And it’s…

It’s certainly something.

He’s never seen it unleashed into supervillainy, though, even through all the versions of himself he’s met due to the Convergence. He’s not sure he wants to know what happened to Yellowjacket to make him this way.

Slam!

Hank jolts back from the glass, from his counterpart’s fist which still rests against it.

“It’s because,” Yellowjacket continues harshly, “you’re so stuck in your own head that you never bother to pay attention to the people around you. You don’t know them, and they don’t know you. Don’t know what you’re like under those cheap pleasantries. All I had to do was say please and thank you and they all swallowed it hook line and sinker.”

Something about those words sticks in Hank’s craw. Maybe he does spend a lot of time lost in his thoughts. Maybe there’s parts of himself he doesn’t like to share. But the Avengers, Omega Flight, they’re his friends. He cares about them. And they care about him, too, no matter what Yellowjacket thinks.

“They swallowed it, as you say, because they trust me,” he snaps back. “Because they could never have conceived of a world where I was you!”

All his anger earns him is a derisive laugh.

“You’re so pathetic, Pym! You have no idea what’s coming, not a clue! Even if you did manage to escape, it would never amount to anything. If you and I were really the same, you’d know that. But you haven’t learned the lesson yet. The world, the universe, doesn’t need Hank Pym. It—”

I do.”

Yellowjacket freezes in place. Hank does too. His heart is pounding so loudly in his ears that he can’t hear the ragged breath scraping out of his lungs.

He knows that voice. They both do.

That perfect, impossible—

Jan?” the two of them gasp in unison.

Yellowjacket is blocking Hank’s view, but Jan steps around him until she’s in sight of them both. Something splintered inside Hank’s chest fuses back together — hot and painful, like the burn of a welding torch — at the sight of her.

A mischievous, rouge-lipped smile. Laugh lines around her eyes. The first touches of gray in her chestnut hair. That familiar stylish-but-functional yellow and black dress. Hank can’t help himself, he presses up against the glass wall of his prison just to be nearer to her. Her eyes crinkle, like maybe she’s happy to see him too.

Though happy is a pale, empty word for what Hank is feeling. He’s, he’s elated, he’s terrified, he’s in awe—

“Hiya, Hank.”

“What… How… I never.” He chokes, has to force the words out. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

Through hundreds of convergences, hundreds of worlds… He’s never found her. Not once. Like she simply walked off the face of every reality, like every Hank Pym in every universe was fool enough to lose her. To drive her away.

And yet here she stands. A dream. A vision. A divine revelation.

Janet Van Dyne.

“You can’t be real,” Yellowjacket tells her. “You’re. You can’t.”

His certainty is baffling. It makes Hank uneasy to hear, especially in his own voice. Yellowjacket knows about the Convergence, the multiverse; he has to know that there’s other Janets out there.

“Just take off the suit, Hank. Put away the weapons, open the pod, and I’ll explain everything.”

“Don’t call me that! I’m not Hank Pym!” Yellowjacket shouts at her. “I’ll never be Hank Pym again!”

His anger, potent as it is, garners little more than a sigh.

“Then hit me,” orders Jan.

She stands, arms spread wide, fearless even as cold terror fills Hank’s heart.

“Wh— what?” Yellowjacket chokes out at last.

“I said hit me, Yellowjacket. Go on. Show me you’re not Hank anymore. Ultron can’t do it, and I’m betting neither can you. Prove me wrong.”

Yellowjacket snarls. He lifts a hand like he’s going to attack— and then he just stands there. Hank can see a minute tremble in his arm.

Jan takes a step forward.

Yellowjacket stumbles back.

“Don’t— don’t come near me! I’m warning you, Wasp, I’m—”

But she doesn’t stop. Doesn’t even hesitate. Moves closer and closer until Yellowjacket trips over his own two feet and goes sprawling backwards. The armored suit he’s wearing peels away like the rind of an orange, revealing the man — pale and human and vulnerable — underneath.

“Thank you,” Jan tells him, before accessing the controls to release Hank from the pod.

He’s out almost before it’s opened, pulling her into his arms because he has to know, has to feel—

She’s solid. Real. She hugs him back. It’s a moment Hank wants to dip in honeyed amber and keep forever — so of course it’s immediately interrupted by an impatient clearing of the throat.

“We done here?”

Hank looks over Janet’s head to see three vigilantes shifting from foot to foot. Moon Knight’s mask doesn’t give much away, but the twist of Daredevil’s mouth is uncomfortable and the Punisher looks downright annoyed.

“You boys go on ahead,” Jan says, her voice firm. “Get Fisk and Ultron. I’ll handle things here.”

And they listen. Just like they must have listened when she told them to let her handle Yellowjacket alone.

She did that. Corralled Moon Knight and Daredevil and the Punisher, for God’s sake, to protect him. To protect both versions of him, even the evil one. Because that’s what Jan does. If the world doesn’t suit her, she forces it into a shape that will. She can be kind and sweet, when it pleases her to be, but it isn’t her nature — just like it isn’t his. Jan’s the Wasp for a reason; she’s best known for her sting.

God, he loves her.

He tightens his hold, as though that would somehow keep her here if she truly wanted to leave. But Jan doesn’t bristle. Doesn’t snip at him. Just laughs and leans up and presses a kiss to his cheek.

And for the very first time, Primary Earth finally feels like home.