Awakening

*Flashback to 120 hours prior*

"Hold on Naomi!" I was pushing the car to its limits but it'd still take over an hour to reach the closest clinic- let alone the hospital! She shouldn't be due for another 4 months! I don't think we'll have an hour to spare at this rate… We were opal miners near the center of the most inhospitable part of Australia, being independent made for larger profits but it meant we lived over 100 kilometers from the closest neighbour, and 300 from the closest town!

I could tell the town wouldn't be possible, I veered off the main road to the dirt track leading to the neighbours land. We would have tried to deliver at home but we were on our way to Darwin in preparation to spend a few months until our child was born when Naomi's water broke. I knew she looked heavily pregnant but I put it down to us just having a larger than average baby… If we'd reached Darwin we would have had an ultrasound or C-section damnit!

I felt Naomi Grab one of my hands in a vice-like grip! She was no doubt in horrific pain, her quirk was regeneration- A damn strong version too but if anything it probably made it that much worse. I noticed her shirt glowing red… not with blood but similar to when I adapted to something… and it was getting brighter. I looked Naomi in the eyes, she did the same and said "M-Mark, I'm scared". I tried to reassure her "Don't worry, everything will be fine!". It wasn't.

*shick*

I watched in horror as a bone white spike burst from her chest, I was able to see the confusion and pain in her face just as everything got so much worse.

*shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *SHICK*

More spikes emerged from Naomi hitting everything, several of them went towards me but most bounced off my skin, the car was shredded almost instantly with every tire pierced and the engine stabbed. I couldn't control the car as we veered off the road ploughing through a few bushes before coming to a stop. The spikes slowly retreated and I was able to see Naomi… what was left of her. I leaned out of what was once a car door and vomited while crying. Pull yourself together damnit! Check the baby! I shakily undid my seatbelt and leaned over to the pile of gore, in the middle I could see a small normal looking baby… that was dead.

Seeing this made me really lose it, I staggered out of the car and started punching the ground while wailing like a lunatic, I railed against the unfairness of it all! "GIVE THEM BACK, GIVE THEM BACK DAMN YOU!". No-one answered. I don't know how long I stayed like that but by the time I came to my fists were bloodied raw and the sun had set.

I glanced back at the car… I can't leave them here. I grabbed as much of Naomi as possible and carefully moved our son. I placed them on a shredded tarp I had in the back. The car wouldn't be moving anytime soon, my phone and Naomi's were destroyed so I couldn't call for help and we were tens of kilometers from the closest people on a road rarely travelled and inhospitable to most life…

I didn't have any hope that help would be coming… and I didn't want to wait to die next to the rotting remains of my beloved. I used my bloodied hands to start digging 2 holes. The ground was baked solid and hard to work with. I didn't care. For 2 days I dug into the earth while protecting their bodies, for 2 days I went without sleep or rest, for 2 days I cried until tears failed to form and my skin started to crack, for 2 days I lived in hell.

With the barely functioning nerves in my hands (My quirk was all that allowed me to move) I carefully put my wife in the first hole, our son was too painful a sight to look at so I'd put him in the only intact wooden opal box we had. I lowered him too into his own grave. Filling them up was a numbing process… As if the sadness I'd felt for the last 2 days had dulled to only a barely noticeable ache.

I cried again with tears I didn't know I still had, both graves now had a rickety wooden cross poorly etched with their names… Naomi and Alex.

I sat down in the pockmarked camping chair and waited for the end… the wounds I'd ignored for the last 48 hours leaking through the makeshift bandage I'd wrapped over it.

"Naomi… Alex… I'm sorry… I'll be..... Seeing you....soon"

Adrien/Alex POV

I was looking at the wooden cross over the hole I'd crawled out of… Alex huh? I looked back at the man in the chair, no. back at my Father in this world, I didn't see a shovel or trowel anywhere in the vicinity… but I did see his bloodied hands and scraped elbows. I bowed to him and the grave of my Mother. "Thank you, I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused… and I hope you don't mind if I use the name you wanted for your child".

I'd noticed a few more things around here… like the single white spike sticking out of his shoulder.

"I'll make sure to return the favor though". I dropped him in the newly expanded hole I'd dug my way out of… he deserved at least this much. After filling it in I nodded in their direction before heading off into the desert.