Author's Note: A little one shot AU because my brain thought "Hey, what if?"

Warnings: death, violence, corpses, referenced character death, contemplation of murder.

Tori jogged to the barn as fast as her pained ankle could carry her, determined that an answer could be found in the ship Brandon had arrived in.

It cut him. It cut him.

That was her only thought, even when he tore through the walls again, making her stumble and cry out in fear. Tori glanced back briefly, saw Brandon in the air, and she quickened her pace as well as she was able.

She hobble-ran through the barn, slipping once or twice on loose hay, before coming to a stop in front of the hatch. She nearly fell to her knees as desperate fingers heaved the doors open, stopping only briefly when Brandon flew through the walls of the barn with a scream. Ignoring the little ladder, Tori dropped down into the space the ship was kept in, wincing only slightly as she landed on her injured ankle.

She crouched in front of the little ship, escape pod, really, and began feeling along it for an edge to grab on to. Instead, it flashed red and she took her hands away in surprise. It flashed again, white this time, and then red again. Tori wasn't sure what possessed her to do so, but as the pod flashed white again, she turned her head, and her gaze was met with a corpse.

Horrified, she fell back on her rear, gasping in fear but unable to look away. All over the walls, in blood she assumed, was Brandon's symbol. The body had been cut open, and it looked like. Oh my god, it's -

"Erica," she breathed out in horror, before shuffling coward to pull some metal from the pod. Just as her fingers slipped underneath a panel, though, she paused. What was she doing? Was she genuinely considering stabbing a child? Killing her own boy?

No. She couldn't.

Tori bit her lip, choking back a sob as she took her hands away from the pod. With a shuddering exhale, she slowly climbed up the ladder, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Brandon?" she called out, knowing he could hear her. She took a few heaving breaths, trying and failing to stop the trembling of her voice. "Where are you, baby?"

She called out again and looked around as she did so, the continually flashing pod providing an interrupted, alternating light. Slowly, she made her way back to the front of the barn, attempting a whistle to draw him near.

"Where are you, baby?" Tori asked yet again, her voice edging closer to panic now. She cast her eyes upward, expecting him to either come down from the roof, or to be floating in the air again. "Brandon?"

She tried whistling again, but she was so nervous now that it came out more like the twittering of a bird. Taking a breath, she limped down the steps and was about to head out of the barn when Brandon finally whistled back. She felt her heart skip a beat, maybe a few, and she turned.

He was just feet away, no longer in the air, but the homemade mask still over his head. Even in the dim light, she could see him twitch and tremble, like he was just as afraid as she was.

"Mom?" He sounded so unsure of himself that, despite him being covered in blood, her heart broke for him.

"Brandon," she began softly, raising her hands as she stepped closer. "Listen to me. I have never stopped loving you. I believe...I still believe you are a blessing that fell to this Earth…"

She came to a stop in front of him, kneeling and reaching up to pull the mask off of his head. Heart threatening to beat its way out of her chest, Tori dropped the mask and raised her hands again, this time to cup Brandon's face gingerly. She sniffled, choking back more tears as she gave her son a weak, watery smile.

"When we found you, you were so tiny, and fragile that..all we could do was keep you safe," she told him, her thumbs caressing his cheeks in an absent gesture as she pictured that baby in front of her. There was no change in Brandon's expression, but she could see a flicker of something in his eyes, so she kept going.

"Whatever you've done, I know there is good inside you," Tori said in a trembling voice, throat tightening further with unshed tears. There was a hard pause, Brandon's face finally shifting with emotion.

"I wanna do good, Mom," Brandon said in a soft but sure voice. "I do."

She smiled at him again, finally letting a few tears fall. She pulled him into her arms for a tight hug as she whispered back, "And you will, baby."

She wasn't sure she believed herself, or him for that matter, but for better or worse, this is what she chose. To love her miracle from the sky with all of her heart, regardless of what he'd done or might do.

"You will always be my baby boy," she said through her tears, bringing one of her hands up to card her fingers through his hair. She heard him sniffle, and a second later he fell into her lap, grabbing onto her cardigan at the same time.

"I love you, Mom," he whispered against her shoulder, the words slightly muffled.

"I love you, too, Brandon. My baby boy."