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athenasbloodyspear · 4 years ago

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The Viper: Chapter One

What happens when an agent of the Red Room falls into the hands of Hydra? What happens when Hydra puts out a hit on their favorite assassin? Who is the mysterious woman with a twisted history and an even more twisted mind?

The team wants to know. They want to know what you know. Nat and Bucky want to know if there’s any light left in you.

They want to know you.

Bucky x Female Reader

The Viper Master List | My Writing Master List

The sounds of car horns are loud around you. The blaring, beeping and bustle of pedestrians creating layers and layers of sound. You’re trained well enough to sift through the sounds, listening to pieces of conversation and various sounds of your environment to orient yourself.

You can feel the smallest shift of every person who’s moving in the space around you. Your senses are so focused you can practically hear the blood rushing through the people closest to you. Your prey is about a block up, completely oblivious to where you followed.

The streets around you were loud and the sounds were strong, but nothing could keep your focus off your mission.

Underneath your hood and the rim of your baseball hat, your face was hidden in shadow. If anyone would have seen or marked it, they would have seen the wicked gleam of a grin.

“What’s got you all in a tizzy, Tony?” Nat asks from Bucky’s right. The whole team was gathered around a conference table in Avengers tower looking kinda bored. Tony had called everyone here this morning, much to everyone’s chagrin because he had promised a week off and then apparently changed his mind a mere three days later.

Bucky sighed and rolled his shoulders, leaning back in the office chair he currently sat in, lifting the two front feet off the floor. All he really wanted was to go back downstairs and into the city with Nat and finish looking for a birthday gift for Steve. That’s what they were doing this morning before they were quickly called back to the tower. He’d procrastinated too long and really had zero idea of what to get the man.

“I’m confused about something and I don’t like being confused.” Tony retorted.

“Oooo” Sam piped up from across the table. “The great Tony Stark admits to not knowing something. I’m surprised there isn’t steam coming out of those ears.”

Bucky smirks at his friend. God he loved Sam and his remarks. He would say something similar, but his relationship with Tony still wasn’t perfect and he didn’t want to push his luck at the moment.

“What is so confusing, Iron Man? Don’t know what to get Pepper for your anniversary? Or did you say something stupid again and your giant brain can’t figure out exactly which asshole statement pushed her over the edge this time?” Nat chimed in with a mocking smirk.

Tony pointed a single finger at Nat. “I have had our anniversary present for two months already and I’m actually getting better at figuring out which one of my snarky comments goes too far, just so you know.” He sighs and presses a few buttons on the large screen under the glass conference table, whipping up a bundle of information to appear on the screen behind him. “What I’m confused about is why Hydra put out a public hit on one of their top agents.”

At that, Bucky’s chair drops back to all four legs abruptly. The confusing piece of information startled him into finally giving his full attention to the conversation. His heart rate picked up a bit.

“They did what ?” Steve asks from the end of the conference table opposite Tony, voicing the question on all their minds.

“This morning Hydra posted a bounty on a known dark web forum. It’s not unheard of for them to post some of their lower enemies on this anonymously for unaffiliated assassins and bounty hunters to take down. What’s different this time is they made it very clear that Hydra was posting.” He whipped up what looked eerily similar to a reddit post up on the screen. “And what makes even less sense is I know for a fact that the person they called a hit on has been their little secret weapon for over ten years.”

Bucky scanned the post up on the screen. Sure enough, it said that Hydra had a hit out on a well known assassin and was offering 50 million along with diplomatic immunity in a country of their choosing for the head of the operative.

“Who’s the target?” Nat murmured.

“So, this is the fun part. Especially for you two.” Tony continued, pointing at Nat and Bucky.

“What?” Bucky grumbled. Fun for him? What the hell? What could possibly be in Tony’s twisted brain to think anything to do with Hydra would be fun for him?

“Here’s the mark.” Tony pulled up a blurry photo of a figure wrapped in muted colors clearly captured on some sort of security camera somewhere on a bustling street. If Bucky was tracking the cobblestones and architecture of the buildings correctly he’d guess it was taken somewhere in Cairo.

“Is that the best fucking picture you can get us, Stark? You can barely see their face.” Sam quipped, leaning forward in his seat to squint at the screen.

“This is the clearest photo of her face, yes.”

“Her?” Nat snapped, popping her eyes to Tony.

“Yes. Her. The Viper .” He smirked back at Nat. Bucky heard a quick intake of breath from his right. Nat.

“No…” She whispered, and trailed off.

“Oh yes, Natasha. Oh yes.” Tony flicked his fingers across the table again and all the known stats on the Viper pulled up on the screen. “This is where the fun begins for us. This is what we know about the Viper. She was “found” at a young age somewhere in middle America. It’s a little unclear where, but from where I tracked it must have been somewhere in the Midwest.”

“They stole a kid from Wisconsin? Why would Hydra bother when they had their fingers in so many other countries?” This was from Steve.

“It wasn’t Hydra…” Nat murmured.

“ What? ” Bucky piped up again. He felt like his brain was spinning. A top Hydra assassin? Did he know her? He would have to spiral into his memory to find out if he ever met this Viper…

“It was the Red Room.” Nat whispered then. Her eyes staring directly at the table.

“Yes indeed!” Tony quipped. “Remind me Nat, were you still there when they dragged in the little girl kicking and screaming or not?”

“Tony!” Steve seethed from his end of the table.

“I wasn’t living there anymore, no. I had just graduated. She was a couple years younger than me. They said she caused quite a nuisance during the assassination of a target. Instead of killing her they decided to bring her back. I saw her maybe twice. They had always referred to her as the snake. She was less refined than the other girls, she started her training a little too old, but she was… desperate to make up the difference.” Nat shuddered a bit then and Bucky felt compelled to reach out and place a hand on her shoulder. “She reminded me of… me.”

There was a small moment of pause before Tony started again. “So our little snake graduated from The Red Room and spent a few years as an agent for them before falling in with our buddies at Hydra.” Tony looked at Bucky then, “Where she was trained and conditioned to fill a missing position in their ranks after they unfortunately lost control of a very important asset. ”

“You’re a prick Tony.” Steve muttered, his eyes falling on Bucky. Bucky waved him off. He was fine, really. He’d started making peace with his history when he was on Wakanda and though he still had a long way to go, he wasn’t going to fall to pieces at the mere mention of the Winter Soldier.

“You’re telling me that they…” He trailed off, his mind spinning in circles. This poor woman he didn’t even know subjected to what he went through, simply because he had left. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he still felt responsible that someone else had to fill a hole he had created.

“Yes they trained this little spitfire to be their top assassin and she has been in their top ranks since about 2010, only stepping into the role of top assassin after the events in 2016 finally severed you completely from the organization. She’s been racking up kills ever since. Much like you my dear metal armed friend, she’s nearly impossible to catch on camera, let alone see with your own eyes.”

From the corner of the room, where he sat in a chair separate from the table, Bruce finally spoke. “I always thought The Viper was a myth.”

“Yeah and you thought the Winter Soldier was a myth. Hell I always thought Thor and Loki were just some folklore.” Sam remarked. “I believe almost everything nowadays.”

“Wait so, this woman was a trained Red Room assassin, then a top Hydra operative and now they’re asking the internet to kill her? Why didn’t they just take care of her themselves? Surely they had her locked up or brainwashed somehow.” Bruce said.

“You guys are seriously just assholes sometimes.” Steve murmurs.

“I’m fine, Steve.” Bucky says. “It’s a valid question. Even when they wanted me eliminated, they only worked with people inside.”

“Exactly.” Tony said. “My theory is, they want us to know that they want her dead. In fact, my more specific theory is that this is bait in order to get us to hunt and eliminate her. I want to know why.”

“She must have slipped away from them.” Nat said then. “Even if no average internet bounty hunter could ever touch her, surely they’d at least keep her a little busy. Busy enough that we might be able to get a jump on her. She must know something.”

“Exactly. What does she know? And why don’t they want her to utilize whatever information she knows?”

“So we’re going to find her then.” Steve said. “What if this is a trap? Specifically set up to intrigue us into bringing their very own top operative into our facilities.”

“It could be.” Nat responded. “But it seems a little weird to send a bunch of people they don’t control after her unless they genuinely didn’t care about what happened to her. It seems unlikely she’s still an asset to them if they’re willing to risk her actually being caught off guard, no matter how unlikely that is.”

“See, this is what I meant by being confused.” Tony quips then, heading for the door. “I’ve sent everything I know about the woman to each of you. Study it. See what conclusions you come to on your own. We’ll reconvene here tonight to discuss an action plan.”

You sat in a corner booth at a tiny cafe, facing the door. There was a swinging door into the kitchen to your left, which led to three back exits. Directly in front of you was the only door facing a main street. The whole front of the coffee shop was glass, giving you a clear view of the two targets you’d been tracking all morning, who had stopped to grab breakfast at a restaurant across the street.

You were twirling a long since lukewarm cup of coffee in your hands, your eyes flicking back and forth between your marks and the swinging kitchen door at your shoulder.

You watched as your marks both stretched and stood up. The woman hailed a cab. They seemed disgruntled.

Interesting.

While the woman tried to snag the attention of a cabbie, you threw a few crumpled bills on the counter of your table and slipped through the swinging kitchen door. There were a few shouts of alarm as a stranger wandered into the bustling diner kitchen, but you quickly weaved through the crowded kitchen and out a back door. You jumped on the sleek black Kawasaki bike you’d stashed behind a dumpster in an alley.

You pushed the bike out and around the corner before turning it on, waiting to confirm that they had both piled into a cab. You revved the engine and punched the accelerator, weaving quickly between the piled up traffic, causing lots of horn honking and a few near rear-end accidents.

Your heart was hammering in your chest, the adrenaline coursing through your veins as you tore after that cab.

The grin still plastered on your face.

Bucky’s head was reeling as he read through the intel, albeit a small amount, that Tony had managed to dig up.

There were a total of 3 videos captured on a security camera of the Viper on a job. He watched them all multiple times.

The Viper was ruthless and unnervingly calm. It reminded him of himself, what he saw in the footage of the Winter Soldier. It made the bile in his stomach churn. He knew that feeling of uncontrollable calm very well and it made him break out in a cold sweat.

The first video showed her walking calmly up to a high security warehouse, putting bullets between the brows of every operative in sight, barely even looking in their direction before pulling the trigger. She walked directly with purpose toward the door that was clearly her mission. Once every operative in view of the camera had fallen she reached for the door handle. Before she slipped inside, she lifted her pistol without looking and fired one round into the camera, cutting the feed. With the hood on her jacket, there was no clear footage of her face. Bucky wondered how they were even sure it was her. Her murderous calm must have been enough evidence.

The second was a terribly grainy video taken in some basement somewhere. There was someone strapped to a chair and he watched as the Vipers fists slammed into the man repeatedly. A choppy, distorted, and heavily accented voice spoke about 40 seconds in. “Good, Viper. You may play now. Make sure there’s something left of him to interview tomorrow.” Bucky flinched as he saw the woman stride toward a table, likely filled with instruments of torture. The man strapped to the chair began to scream, pleading in Russian that he’d say anything they wanted him to. He heard a low woman’s voice come through the video, murmuring “Too late.”

The third was a more recent video according to the time stamp. It was less than six months ago off a security cam in Maracaibo. It was about a 9 second video, just watching the woman cross a bustling street in Venezuela. Bucky remembered that some hot shot Hydra agent had been found dead in Venezuela this year. Could it have been the Viper taking down one of their own? Is that why they were mad?

There were about 5 other attachments of images. The only photographs that Friday could find of this enigma apparently. 4 were blurry security camera footage from various places. The one Tony had shown this morning was truly the only one that even sort of showed the woman’s face. Well, except the 5th.

The 5th made Bucky even more sick than the footage of brutal violence. It was a Polaroid image of what appeared to be a 16 or 17 year old girl in ballet clothes, standing in the middle of what he assumed was a dance studio. It would have been normal, a young woman after a dance class, if it wasn’t for the red blood splattered up her pink tights, dripping off her knuckles and smeared on her jaw. The subject wasn’t looking at the camera, but rather seemed to be standing at attention with her focus to the right of the photographer. Written in sloppy Russian at the bottom corner of the Polaroid was “Option 4.”

What does that mean? Bucky thought to himself. Option for what?

It made him sick staring at that photo. If the blood wasn’t there, it would just look like a young woman preparing for a ballet class, or perhaps being photographed so a costume designer could see her figure while they created dazzling outfits for a production. It was so wrong for someone so young, whose face was filled with innocence, to be covered in blood. He felt so protective over her, this young woman he didn’t even know. This young woman who he knew grew up to be a murderer with a kill list almost as long as his.

He knew, looking at that photo, that this woman had never wanted this. He didn’t know how he got such a gut reaction to the image, but he saw himself in it. A young person who was given the worst hand of cards to ever be dealt, and was simply trying to stay alive. He stared at her thin frame, the hollow look in her eyes and nearly wept.

He needed to find her. He needed it more than he’d needed anything in a long time. He needed to find out how far she had fallen from this image, and if he could pull her back.

He needed to do it, because he’d always be grateful that someone did it for him.

Your marks had gone into the tall skyscraper a few hours ago. You were too antsy to sit around and wait to see if they’d venture back out into the city.

You prowled the sidewalk like a caged animal. Tracing patterns through the busiest blocks. Keeping track of nearby cameras.

Everything smelled like garbage and piss. You hated it. You loved it. It was such an easy city to get lost in.

An even easier city to be found in.

When Bucky finally dragged himself back to the conference room that evening, he felt like a wreck. He had worked himself up considerably throughout the afternoon. He was antsy and apprehensive.

He really didn’t know what was wrong with him. It was just some random assassin, why was he so worked up?

Steve noticed his touchy mood as soon as he walked in and raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m fine.” Bucky grumbled. “Just want to figure this out. It’s bothering me for some reason.”

“Maybe because it’s a little too personal, Buck.” Steve said quietly.

“Yeah maybe.” Bucky coughed out. His chest felt tight with someone who knew him so well staring at him like this.

Before Steve could rib Bucky more, Tony sauntered into the room with Nat behind him. “So what’s everyone’s thoughts on our little snake in the grass?”

“I think the woman is damn fucking scary.” Sam piped up from the same chair he’d been in this morning. “And really good at her job. Reminds me of robocop over there a little too much if you know what I mean.”

“That’s what I find so interesting.” Steve says. “Because obviously we know that Bucky wanted out, and was not the person that the camera showed. I wanna know what’s really going on in her brain.”

“Banner, question for you, if we managed to set a little trap for our snake and actually got her in here, would you be able to scan her brain and see how much of it was under her actual control?” Tony said as he dropped into a chair at the head of the table.

Banner responded from where he sat in his normal chair in the corner. “I could compare a brain scan to early scans of Barnes’s brain. See how similar they look. Then compare to his post-Wakanda scans. In a sense, yes. But the brain is complicated as you know.”

“Can’t we just talk to her?” Bucky pipes up. “I mean, if it makes you feel more comfortable to hook her up to a lie detector whatever, but I just… I know what they do to people there and let me tell you there’s no way she’s in control.”

“What makes you so sure?” Tony questions. “I mean, I was wrong about you. I’ll admit that. I’m a bigger man now. But not everyone is Cap's former BFF brought back from the dead with a heart of gold trapped in a twisted hydra web. She could have gone willingly. In fact, I have a hard time believing that a Red Room agent was accidentally captured by Hydra. What if she went to them willingly?”

“But then why did she leave?” Natasha counters. “Who’s to say that she ended up in all this willingly. I don’t know the whole story of how the Red Room got her, but it’s rare that people join without coercion. There’s more to this story, I can feel it.”

“Me too.” Bucky whispered. There had to be so much more to that 17 year old girl than a brutal murderer.

“Nat, can you explain this image to me?” Tony says, pulling up the very polaroid that was going to haunt Bucky for weeks. “This looks like a pretty willing agent to me.”

Bucky cringed at Tony’s short sighted assessment. Sure, the subject looked relaxed but that didn’t mean willing. Nat sneered.

“Well Tony, when every week your instructors challenge two students to spar and the loser is killed however the classmate prefers, you too would willingly fight back, to the death if necessary.”

Steve flinched, and looked at Nat with eyes full of grief. “They made you kill each other?”

“Kept us from attaching to each other.” Nat said simply.

Steve just shook his head, placing his face in his palms. This was one of the reasons Bucky and Nat had gotten along pretty quickly. They’d come to terms with their trauma, and the others sometimes had a hard time brushing past the torture that the two of them had simply moved on from.

“Touche.” Tony shrugged. “So why does this image say option 4?”

“That I don’t know.” Nat sighs. “No photos were ever allowed to be taken of us, but the fact that this was clearly taken by an instructor confuses me.”

“So we have no answers.” Sam quips. “Do I need to go stand on the street with a sign that says “Viper take a crack at me” so we can maybe get a glimpse of her? I’m only doing it if I can wear the suit Tony.”

“That’s the thing, there have been no sightings of the woman for years, and the one tiny glimpse in that surveillance shot from Venezuela 6 months ago was a blip. There was no record of anyone matching that description entering or leaving that country or any near it. We have no idea where she is.” Tony muttered. “I have Friday combing every single camera we can get access to, and hacking into those we don’t. The tip line on that forum is blank. No one seems to have seen her.”

There was silence for a moment, as everyone sunk into their own minds. Letting the gears turn.

“Mr. Stark.” Friday’s voice came lilting out of the ceiling. “I have a hit.”

Everyone jumped a bit, leaning forward in their seats.

“Put it on the screen.” Tony snapped. Suddenly the whole blank wall of the room was filled with various camera angles showing crowds of people wandering on the sidewalk. In the middle of a cluster of pedestrians was a figure draped in black, a baseball hat on their head and a hood pulled up over it. As the person moves, the different security camera’s flip past on the screen, keeping up with their movement.

Instantly, Bucky’s blood ran cold.

“Where is this?” Sam whispers.

“Queens.” Bucky, Steve and Tony answer in unison.

“Very close to Parker’s apartment…” Tony whispers.

“It’s empty.” Steve mentions. “Happy and May are on vacation and Peter is staying with his friend. That Ned kid.”

“I know.” Tony says. “Doesn’t mean I like her being around the corner from his place regardless.”

The room goes quiet for a few moments as they all watch the Vipers progress through the streets of Queens. She never picks up her head, seeming to be watching the sidewalk in front of her. She slips easily between groups of people, never bumping into anyone even though she doesn’t seem to be looking at anyone.

“What are we doing?” Sam says then. “We know exactly where she is. She’s so close. Let’s go suit up.”

“There’s no way she’s here by accident.” Nat says quietly. “It’s like she wants us to find her…”

“Another layer of intrigue.” Tony snarks.

“She wouldn’t be stupid enough to show up in this city unless she actually wants us to find her.” Nat continues. “Either they sent her here as a trap and finally had her look into a security camera long enough for us to track her, or she’s doing this on her own. Either way, I don’t understand the motive.”

There’s another moment of silence as they all watch the cameras track the target.

Abruptly, the Viper stops in the middle of the sidewalk. The pedestrians continue to flow around her, many seem to be grumbling and some throw rude gestures in her direction.

There’s now only a single security camera in the area able to capture her image, she stands right in the center of the frame.

“What is she doing?” Steve whispers.

Through the grainy camera footage, the whole team watches as it looks almost like her shoulders shake slightly. She seems to be looking at her feet.

No one breathes as the woman in the center of the video lifts her head slowly. Her eyes land directly on the lens, as if she’s peering straight through the shitty security camera and into Avengers tower.

There’s a huge grin on her face.

Then, from the pocket of her hoodie, she pulls a pistol and calmly points the barrel at the camera.

The last thing the camera sees in her head dropping back as she begins to cackle. Then she pulls the trigger, ending the feed.

“Holy shit.” Sam whispers.

Bucky is speechless. His heart is pounding in his chest. He felt like her eyes seared through the camera and right into his chest. He can barely breathe.

“Friday, show us the other cameras in the area.” Tony barks.

Friday pulls up tons of camera angles of the street the Viper was just standing on. The crowds are screaming, attempting to run away from the spot that the Viper had clearly just been standing. However, there are no further gun shots and no one looks injured.

“What the hell? ” Bucky says under his breath. She just shot out a camera in the middle of a busy street in Queens? For what?

“Are there any figures matching her description on any of these feeds?” Tony snaps again.

“No sir.” Friday replies. “I’ve scanned every camera in the borough and I can’t see her on any of them.”

Everyone sits in shocked silence as the security footage continues to roll. The NYPD show up, helping to calm the pedestrians. They watch quietly as they start to tape off the area. Everyone knows however that if no one was hurt, it’s unlikely that the cops will pursue the incident further. They have much bigger fish to fry in this town.

“Well goddamn.” Sam finally breaks the silence. “That was quite a little performance.”

“She really wants us to find her then.” Nat mutters.

Around the room everyone mutters their agreement.

Bucky finds his voice finally.

“So let’s find her.”

There’s unending adrenaline in you now. It was reckless you knew that. It was also so obvious what game you were playing with them at this point, but you didn’t care.

They clearly weren’t going to make a move, so you had to play your hand first.

For better or worse, it was their move now.

#Bucky Barnes #bucky fic #bucky x reader #bucky #bucky barnes x you #Bucky Barnes x female reader #bucky barnes x female oc #Female reader

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hopelesshawks · 4 years ago

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Physical Fatality Part 4- Task Force Bonding

18+ Hawks x fem, pro hero!reader

Summary: You’re a rising star in All Might’s agency. Hawks is the darling of Endeavor’s. By virtue of your job descriptions, the two of you are supposed to hate each other, or at the very least be cautiously neutral. For a long time that’s exactly what the two of you did. You stayed out of each other’s way and formed little opinion of the other. One fateful night at an HPSC gala changes all that. Based on the album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by Halsey.

If you don’t want to see Physical Fatality content blacklist #hopelesspf

This story will have multiple NSFW parts so it is 18+ ONLY minors dni

Warnings for alcoholism mention, hand job, fingering

Masterlist

“Boys, I’ve got an announcement,” Hawks declares as he strolls into the office and grabs a seat by Shoto and Tokoyami. “Is it an explanation of what the fuck you did last night to end up soaking wet and late to evacuate from an emergency?” Shoto asks. “Actually yes it is,” Hawks replies smugly. “Wait actually? Ok what is it?” Tokoyami says as both he and Shoto turn to give Hawks their full attention. “I’m in love,” Hawks declares. Tokoyami and Shoto both groan and go back to paying attention to the tasks they’d been focused on when Hawks first walked in. “Hey what’s with those reactions?” Hawks pouts. “We already know you think you’re in love with Mirko. We were expecting actual news,” Shoto says by way of explanation. “What? No, not Mirko. Mirko and I are done. Mirko is dead,” Hawks says. “Mirko is dead?” “Not literally Shoto.” “Right. Who are you in love with then?” “I don’t actually know her name.”

Hawks does not appreciate the incredulous looks both Tokoyami and Shoto give him. “Will you guys just let me explain! Look it was like when I first saw her it was like magnets. There was just something pulling me towards her. So, of course, I had to approach her,” Hawks explains. “She rejected you didn’t she?” Tokoyami interrupts. “Oh is that why you don’t know her name?” Shoto asks. “No! Oh my god let me finish,” Hawks says exasperatedly. “Ok, ok we’ll let you finish,” Tokoyami cedes as he and Shoto both raise their hands in surrender. “Thank you. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Hawks starts again with a roll of his eyes, “I approached her and we got talking and she suggests we go to the hotel bar. Except we get there and it’s closed. So we steal a bottle and break into the hotel pool.” “Hence the soaking wet part,” Shoto says. “Exactly, hence the soaking wet part. Anyway we had a magical evening and even more magical sex and I’ve never met anyone like her before and I’m in love,” Hawks finishes. “Why the fuck didn’t you get her name then?” Tokoyami asks. “The goddamn alarm went off. Apparently she just broke off an engagement or something so she didn’t want the scandal of us going outside together and I forgot to ask her before she ran off,” Hawks admits. “So what’s the game plan?” Shoto asks. “Try and find her I guess. She was there alone so she must be a top hero, it’s just a matter of figuring out which one,” Hawks shrugs. Before he can start pitching his ideas for discovering your identity, he is interrupted by Endeavor’s voice summoning the three men into his office. Shoto rolls his eyes and Tokoyami just shrugs, before all three of them stand and do as told.

Endeavor looks pissed. Hawks briefly wonders if he somehow found out about the stolen bottle or lock picking from the previous night but dismisses that thought. The press hadn’t caught wind of you and his private party in the pool so he sincerely doubts Endeavor did. Furthermore, as long as he wasn’t putting up bad headlines Endeavor generally didn’t care what Hawks did. Endeavor had faith in him and he so rarely made the news for anything particularly scandalous that he generally only got a slap on the wrist on the odd occasion he did have a slightly too public breakup. Finally, if this were about last night why were Shoto and Tokoyami called in? “So it turns out the emergency last night wasn’t an accident. It’s still unclear who’s responsible but the HPSC is classifying this as top priority since it looks like it was an attempt to wipe out all the top heroes while we were gathered in one place,” Endeavor explains. “Ok? Why do you look like All Might pissed in your cereal?” Shoto asks with a raised eyebrow. “Shoto!” Endeavor chastises. “What? Am I wrong? Why are you so pissed?” Shoto presses. Endeavor sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as if Shoto is giving him a migraine. He probably is. “The reason I am… less than thrilled, is because the HPSC has requested we form a task force with the top three heroes from All Might’s agency in order to tackle the issue,” Endeavor admits. “Oh nice, it’s been a minute since I talked to Izuku or Bakugo,” Shoto shrugs. “Who’s the third top in their agency now? Is it still Monoma?” Tokoyami asks. “Jesus you UA kids really are ridiculous,” Hawks comments. “Whatever Mr. Youngest Pro to break top 5 in history,” Shoto replies. “To answer your question Tokoyami,” Endeavor says pointedly as he gives Hawks and Shoto a look, “I’m not sure. It’s not Monoma anymore it’s some girl now. I believe her hero name is Artemis. She moved up after the annual announcement ceremony so her new ranking technically hasn’t been announced yet.” “I’m sure Monoma loved that,” Tokoyami chuckles. “In any case you all will find out who she is soon enough. We’re going to All Might’s office to meet with them in a minute,” Endeavor declares.

“So let me get this straight,” Bakugo says as you pretend to do paperwork, “you evacuated the building almost twenty minutes late, giving Deku a heart attack and almost necessitating a search team to go in, only to arrive dripping wet with no explanation, because you were having some of the best, most mind blowing sex of your life with a mystery man.” “Yep,” you reply shortly. “And you didn’t bother to fucking get his name or number?” He asks incredulously. “Yea sounds about right,” you say. “Why not (y/n)? Maybe he’s the love of your life? Maybe you two are destined to be together and that’s why you felt such a pull to him,” Midoriya suggests. It amazes you sometimes how someone so terrifying in battle can be such an optimistic puppy outside of it. “I don’t do relationships Izu, you know this,” you sigh, giving up on being productive. “You did with Monoma,” he points out. “Yea, because I had to for the sake of my career. And look how that turned out,” you argue. “You know it’s not the same thing dumbass,” Bakugo interjects. “Look, last night was fucking incredible, I’ll admit, but that’s it. Mystery man would want nothing to do with me the moment he realized how messy I actually am,” you sigh. “That’s not true,” Midoriya insists. “Why are we talking about me anyway when Bakugo finally fucked Red Riot?” you whine. “What? Kacchan is that true?” “Both of you shut the fuck up!”

Hawks will never get used to how deeply the Endeavor-All Might feud runs within the agencies, especially lower down the ladder. As he, Shoto, Tokoyami, and Endeavor enter the lobby the other heroes of the agency whisper amongst themselves. He doesn’t bother trying to parse out what they’re saying. He knows it will be the usual outlandish rumors about his boss and how horrid he, Tokoyami, and Shoto must be to stand the man at all. He’s not worried about Dynamight and Deku. As fiercely loyal as they are to All Might, he also knows they went to school with Tokoyami and Shoto, which makes them immune to the ridiculous rumors. The mysterious third top hero he’s more curious about. If you only just got promoted that means you’d been amongst the gossiping lower ranked heroes for much of your career and may be more inclined to believe them. He only hopes you’ll at least be professional enough not to let it interfere with work. The four of them take the elevator to the top floor and step out into the main office space there as Endeavor leads the way to All Might’s office. Hawks notices Shoto and Tokoyami throw a wave to someone so he turns to see who. He notices Bakugo and Midoriya first but as his eyes slide to see who the third person with them is he stops in his tracks. There you are: his mystery girl. He’d been worried he’d never see you again and yet there you are. As if sensing his eyes on you, you turn only to make eye contact with him. Your eyes go wide as you seem to recognize him back. He tries to think of something, anything, to say or do but before he can Shoto notices him lagging behind and with a roll of his eyes drags him into All Might’s office behind the rest of the Endeavor squad.

“What the fuck,” you say still in shock. Bakugo and Midoriya both turn to look at you confused. “What is it (y/n) are you ok?” Midoriya asks concerned. “Oh my god, that’s him. That’s fucking mystery man,” you tell them. “HAWKS is your mystery man?” Midoriya asks shocked. “No wonder you didn’t walk out with him. Imagine if the press found out you hooked up with someone from Endeavor’s agency the same day you ended your engagement with someone from your own,” Bakugo notes. “In my defense I didn’t know he’s in Endeavor’s agency,” you groan. “Didn’t know? Everyone knows Hawks is Endeavor’s right hand man. Dude is insanely loyal,” Midoriya comments. “I didn’t know he was Hawks!” you defend. “What the fuck other pro hero has giant ass red wings?” Bakugo asks you incredulously. “I’ve never fucking seen Hawks before so shoot me!” you defend. “How is that possible? What about during the hero ranking broadcasts, he’s been number two for years now,” Midoriya points out. “I don’t watch those. Who gives a fuck what ranking heroes are as long as they’re doing their jobs,” you comment. “Ok, what about last year? You physically went to the event with Monoma to support him,” Midoriya points out. “Oh I was completely blacked out, I don’t remember anything from that,” you shrug. Midoriya looks horrified and Bakugo mildly impressed. “What? You know he was always at his worst during events like that, I wasn’t going to go through that sober,” you defend yourself. “We need to have a serious talk later about your alcoholism,” Midoriya tells you. “Ah but I’m a fully functioning alcoholic who doesn’t drink on the job so it’s sexy.” “I- That’s-,” Midoriya stutters but before he can cobble together a sentence All Might is calling the three of you into his office. “We’re finishing this conversation later,” Midoriya warns you. “No, we’re not,” you singsong as the three of you go to join the others.

“I know you guys are familiar with Dynamight and Deku but this is Artemis. I’m sure you’ll all get along just fine,” All Might says by way of introduction. “I’m Shoto,” a man with half-white, half-red hair tells you, extending a hand. “Oh shit you’re icy hot,” you blurt out as you shake his hand. You can hear Bakugo snicker beside you as All Might gives you a look. “I mean, uh, I’ve heard a lot about you from Midoriya and Bakugo. Nice to meet you,” you recover sheepishly. “It’s quite alright. I’ve missed Bakugo’s nicknames somewhat,” Todoroki smirks. “Shut it Todoroki,” your friend replies with a roll of his eyes. “I don’t even want to know what Bakugo calls me but Tokoyami should work just fine,” a man with a bird head introduces himself. “Nice to meet you Tokoyami,” you grin as you shake his hand too.

As you finally turn to Hawks you think you could combust on the spot. Your gaze meets his and it’s just as electric as it was that first time. Your heart is pounding out of your chest and you have no idea how you’re expected to be professional with him when not even half an hour ago you were telling your friends all about how good his dick was, thinking you’d never see him again. “Name’s Hawks. It’s nice to meet you Artemis,” he grins as he extends a hand out to you. Damn him for being so cool and composed right now. “Likewise,” you reply, trying desperately not to let your panic show on your face as you shake hands with him. You almost don’t want to let back go but you yell at your brain to release him and remind yourself that you will not be pursuing anything with the admittedly charming man in front of you. “You know,” Shoto suddenly pipes up, “it would probably be a good idea for all of us to get to know each other since we will need to work together for who knows how long to get this matter settled.” Tokoyami quickly clues in to the plan. “Oh yea that’s a great point. It’s been a long time since we caught up with Bakugo and Midoriya and I can’t wait to get to know you a little better Artemis,” he chimes in. Oblivious but loving the idea all the same, Midoriya is quick to agree as well. Before you know it you’re being ushered into the back of a taxi, sandwiched between your two closest friends on the way to Shoto’s house for “task-force bonding” or whatever Midoriya had decided to call it.

Meanwhile, Hawks, Tokoyami, and Shoto pile into their own ride, after not-so-gently reminding Hawks that not all of them could fly so easily as him. “So much for your mystery girl. If you eye-fucked Artemis any harder All Might and Endeavor may have actually clued in. You’re welcome for suggesting this by the way,” Shoto says. “No, no you don’t understand Artemis is mystery girl,” Hawks explains, shaking his head in disbelief. “Are you serious?” Tokoyami asks. Hawks can only nod enthusiastically. “You owe me cold soba for a month for setting this up then,” Shoto replies easily. “Deal. Holy shit, ok, operation convince Artemis to date me is a go,” Hawks says. “That’s a horrible idea,” Tokoyami points out, “if this goes sideways you still have to work with her for God knows how long.” “Shhh, let him have his fun. If nothing else it will be entertaining to watch,” Shoto says. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. Just watch, it’ll be easy,” Hawks assures them.

Spoiler alert: it was not easy.

You avoided being alone with him for as long as you could. An impressive feat really, considering Midoriya seemed to be the only person in attendance not determined to get you to have a one-on-one conversation with the man. This meant you stuck pretty closely to Midoriya’s side, but, unfortunately, Midoriya had been serious about being concerned by your drinking habits, so sticking close to him meant staying far more sober than you would like to be to deal with your possible feelings for Hawks. Even with Midoriya as a shield from alone time Hawks had managed to get your real name, favorite movie, and favorite song out of you. That’s already too much information for a previous hook up to have. Eventually you decide you’re definitely going to need alcohol to get through this night so you sneak into the kitchen when no one is looking in search of booze. You’re rummaging through the cabinets when Hawks finally manages to track you down. “You won’t find anything in here. Shoto keeps most of his alcohol downstairs,” Hawks says, startling you. You clear your throat and quickly close the cabinet door you’d opened. “That obvious?” you ask sheepishly. “You’ve looked like you could use a drink since we got here. C’mon, I’ll show you,” Hawks says before turning around and heading down a hallway leading away from the others. You debate for a moment but in the end that mysterious magnetism binding you and Hawks together has your feet carrying you down the hallway after him.

He leads you to the basement where there’s an entire bar as well as a cozy living room. “Grab a seat and I’ll bring something over,” Hawks says gesturing to the couch as he moves to the bar. You take a seat and have to resist the urge to fidget as your nerves take over. You keep thinking about how much of a bad idea this is but your traitorous heart keeps you in place. Hawks pulls down a decanter of whiskey and pours both of you a glass. He carries both glasses over, with one of his feathers placing the decanter on the coffee table nearby, but as you reach to grab one he pulls it out of reach. “Ah, ah, ah. First, why don’t you tell me why you’re avoiding me,” he says. “Who says I’m avoiding you?” You ask. “Don’t insult my intelligence,” he replies immediately. “Fair enough,” you sigh, “look it’s not anything you did but last night was a one time thing. As incredible as it was, there can’t be a repeat.” “That felt like a one time thing to you?” he asks although he does finally relent and give you your glass as he takes a seat beside you. “Yep,” you lie before taking a large sip of your drink. “Liar. I know you felt what I did. That was something more. Something incredible,” he insists getting just a bit closer to you. Your heart races at his proximity but you try to stay on task. “Look I know you’re dying to get to know me, but as soon as you do you’ll wish that you never did,” you insist. “I seriously doubt that,” he replies with a shrug. “I’m serious! I’m practically an alcoholic, when I’m not working I party a lot just to get my brain to shut up, and I’m such a mess I was going to marry someone just to try and save myself from tabloid headlines and in doing so save my career,” you ramble on. “You’re overthinking this,” he tells you as he finally gets close enough that your thighs are brushing and he brings one hand up to cup your check. “Everywhere I go since I got promoted I’ve got a million different people all wanting to know me and yet I’m still alone. What makes you any different?” you ask, your eyes searching his for something even you aren’t sure of. “I’ve felt the same exact thing since I was 18,” he confesses. “I know you want to slip under my armor Hawks but I can’t,” you finally admit and it’s desperate because your resolve is starting to waver as he leans in closer to you. “Keigo.” “What?” “You want proof this is different? There it is. You’re now one of the only people in the entire world that knows that name. If I can trust you with that, surely you can trust me,” he tells you. You’re speechless. Absolutely speechless. You swore you wouldn’t get into a relationship but your heart is running rampant in your chest. “Just one chance Love. I’m not asking you to love me yet.” “Yet?” “Yet. For now I’m just asking for a chance. Ok?” “Ok Keigo.”

When he finally closes the distance between you two to press his lips to yours it’s like getting your first taste of oxygen after suffocating. It’s a sweeter kiss this time, lacking the urgency from the previous night. It’s like he knows beneath everything your heart is still kind of delicate. His hands move to your waist as he gently pushes you back so you’re laying down on the couch, him following you down until he’s on top of you, his legs straddling your own. There are probably a million reasons you shouldn’t be doing this but you can’t recall a single one as one of his hands slips beneath the hem of your shirt. All the thoughts you had of pushing him away earlier in the night abandon you in favor of their polar opposite. Now you cannot possibly get him close enough. Before long he deftly slides a hand down your pants and into your panties. “Fuck, you’re already so wet for me,” he groans. “Of course, I am, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since last night,” you reply and you’re shocked by your honesty. “Me too, baby. Me too,” Hawks pants as he slips one of his fingers inside of you. You gasp at the sensation as his finger drags along your inner wall, almost immediately finding that one spot that has you damn near seeing stars. You’re eager to return the favor so as he inserts a second and third finger you reach one of your hands down his pants to grasp hold of his hard and leaking erection. Your thumb swipes over the head to collect some of the precum gathering there before you begin working his shaft, sliding your hand up and down along it in time with the way his fingers move inside of you. You never thought something so simple could feel so incredible. The two of you move in tandem, your hips starting to buck into each thrust of his fingers and him fucking into your hand like he could never get enough. The two of you haven’t even bothered to remove your clothes, just loosened things enough to gain the access you need. His thumb begins to press circles to your clit and shortly thereafter the two of you finally reach climax together, his seed spilling on your hand and shirt as you cum around his fingers. Even as the two of you are coming down, he presses kisses to your lips, your neck, your cheek, and just about anywhere else he can reach.

“I’m gonna need a new shirt,” you finally huff out as you slowly start to collect yourself, wiping your hand off on your shirt since it’s ruined already anyway. Keigo laughs and you have to admit it’s one of the most beautiful sights you’ve ever seen. “You can borrow my over shirt. I guess it’s a good thing I wore layers,” he laughs as he shifts to give you space to straighten out your jeans and remove your now soiled shirt. He takes off the plaid shirt he’d been wearing and hands it to you, leaving him in just a black tee. You put on the borrowed shirt and button it up as he too straightens himself out so it’s at least a little less obvious what the two of you have been getting up two. As you finish adjusting your clothing Keigo leans in to kiss you one more time, before whispering against your lips “You won’t regret this. I promise.”

For some reason you’re inclined to believe him.

Author’s Note: This is probably obvious but I’m gonna say it anyway READER’S RELIANCE ON ALCOHOL IS VERY UNHEALTHY. Midoriya is right to be concerned. On a more fun note, if any of you are curious yes the others realized that Hawks and (y/n) were suspiciously absent, yes they knew even before the two of them came back upstairs what they’d been up to. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami even placed bets on how long it would take for it to happen Todoroki won

Taglist [open]: @akkaso @cathy8taffy @eeppff @iikillerkitteh

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solohux · 5 years ago

Note

OMG YES! Padawan Ben gets pregnant during Jedi training (one night stand with a red haired stranger named Hux ;) ) and he tries to keep it secret. Soon he starts to show and everyone is pretty disappointed in him. Except for Luke who is surprisingly chill, just concerned for Ben. And it’s Luke who takes care of Ben when he gets really big, and just supports him no matter what! Maybe he even suggests finding the father? (No incest plz just uncle loooove) love ya Lottie :) /NB

(I’m putting these two prompts together because they’re super similiar, hope that’s okay!)

Anger, frustration, embarrassment, fear, shame—

Ben slams the door of his private chambers, making the entire hut shake with the force, though he’s sure that his flurry of intense emotions are partly responsible. He’s so overwhelmed; hearing the gossiping whispers and judgemental thoughts of his fellow padawans about his unborn child and the actions that lead to this point.

Whore, disgrace, disappointment, burden. Even as Ben sinks down onto his bed and presses his palms against his forehead, he can still hear their venomous words echoing inside of his minds like clanging gongs. Impossible to ignore.

He runs his hands over the curve of his eight month-pregnant belly, whispering ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ to his baby, wishing he could shield her from the harshness of the galaxy forever. He wishes he could fly away somewhere, just himself and her, away from judgemental eyes.

“Ben?” It’s Uncle Luke, knocking so very softly on the door.

“I don’t want to see anyone.”

“I’m not anyone. I feel your sadness, young one. Please, let me in.”

Wanting comfort, Ben waves his hand and summons the Force to unlock the door and let his Uncle in. Luke, in his cream robes and wearing a gentle expression, enters slowly and closes the door behind him, locking out the prying eyes of everyone else.

“Al’ia said—” Ben starts but Luke puts his hand on his knee, halting him.

“I know what she said and it’s uncalled for. I’ll deal with her but I wanted to check on you first. Your anger almost tore down the meditation chamber.”

“Sorry.”

“Shush, young one,” Luke tuts, raising his eyebrows at his nephew. “Your intense feelings are justified.”

“But a Jedi shouldn’t feel anger like this.”

“A Jedi should not pass judgement on something that has nothing to do with them. That hasn’t seemed to stop half of the padawans making comments about you or the child. I think a little bit of frustration is a drop in the ocean of their prejudice.”

Ben shrugs, keeping his focus on his steady breathing and finding his baby’s presence through the Force. It’s quiet and faint but she’s there, and when he finds her, everything feels right again.

“She’s telling you to be calm,” Luke says, scooting over to sit beside Ben on the bed and then reaching to place his hand on a free space on the bump. “Can you feel her?”

“She’s restless,” Ben frowns. The baby kicks on cue.

“She can feel your turmoil. Strong with the Force, just like you. Your mother always spoke about how she knew you could feel her emotions when she was pregnant. Perhaps it’s a Skywalker thing. Is her father a Force sensitive?”

Ben’s expression falters at the mention of his daughter’s sire. The night that Ben spent with him was the best of his life, only to be ruined in the morning when the stranger adorned a First Order uniform and asked Ben to join him. He failed to tell Ben his surname, only Armitage, hiding the fact that he’s the son of one of the most corrupt men that the Outer Rim has ever seem. Imperials and the dreaded dark side are the reason that his mother doesn’t have a home planet, the reason that his mother and uncle had to be separated at birth, the reason why his namesake isn’t alive today. Ben recalls slapping Armitage’s hand away and feeling every ounce of warm happiness that flooded him in the last twenty four hours evaporate from him with just a single move.

He hasn’t heard from Armi—Hux since.

“No,” Ben replies, finally.

Luke hums, acknowledging. He moves slowly to wipe a stray tear from Ben’s cheek. Ben hadn’t realised that he’d been crying.

“Perhaps it’s time to track him down. You’ve less than a month to go to the birth,” Luke says. “He’d want to know about his child, I’m sure. We can ask your father and Lando to do some research, ask around to find him—”

“I know where he is.”

Luke frowns, “You do?”

“He’s made General. General Hux, the youngest of his rank in the history of the galaxy.”

“If he weren’t a First Order officer, I’d say that’s impressive.” Luke smiles but Ben isn’t amused. He fell so hard for Hux and paid the price for it. “Ben. My boy.”

Luke pulls Ben towards him in a hug, allowing Ben a moment to adjust his belly to get comfortable against him, with Ben’s head leaning against his Uncle’s shoulder whilst Luke’s arms encompass him. The Force surrounds them like a protective bubble, covering them in a warm and comforting presence that Ben feels extend to his baby. Inside him, she settles.

“I miss him,” Ben admits.

“I know,” Luke kisses the top of his head, sending waves of his own calming energy to his heartbroken nephew. “And I think he must miss you too.”

Ben closes his eyes, feeling sleepy and exhausted, feeling safe and protected in his uncle’s presence.

And across the galaxy, on a star destroyed named the Finalizer, General Armitage Hux lies awake in his bed, his thoughts fixated on of the beautiful man he almost had, dreaming of his dark hair and his pale skin, his wanderlust-filled eyes and his sparkling personality. Ben, Armitage repeats the name in his mind, wondering where he is and if he’s safe, but Armitage’s attention is grabbed suddenly by an echoing sound of a baby’s cry, there one moment and gone the next.

Peculiar, he thinks, rolling over and closing his eyes, willing sleep to come. When it does, he dreams of Ben and the life they could have had; a beachside house with a beautiful view, and a pink nursery inside.

#kylux #benarmie #mpreg #pregnant ben #pregnant kylo #WRITE A DRABBLE FFS LOTTIE #this is 1k #lord help me #luke skywalker

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detroitwhatitmeanstobehuman · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 10 - The Difference Between Us

Part 10/17 of What it Means to be Human

Word Count: 8226

Warnings: Swearing, bullet wound fixing.

Genre: Self-insert/Hurt/Comfort/Fluff

Pairing: OC (Detective Rachel) X Connor

Rating: Mature

Summary: Returning from the Stratford Tower, Rachel insists without taking any refusal from Connor that she must repair him immediately after he’d been shot by a deviant. Hank helps out as best as he can and he can very clearly see the connection between them, even if they don’t, yet. But the most important thing right now was getting Connor fixed up, so Hank was ready to do whatever Rachel needed him to do to help.

First Chapter | Previous Chapter

---------------------------------

“Just stay in the hallway and let me grab a couple towels.” Rachel ordered Hank and Connor before running off up the stairs on all fours. Yet another strange quirk for her, but Hank couldn’t be bothered to judge her for it. Not when he was still pissed at Connor for not taking him seriously yet again and this time getting hurt. But he was relieved that Connor survived and that he was okay, all things considered.

The short woman quickly returned with a couple white towels and made quick effort to drape one over the back of the large couch and the other on the couch seat next to the other. Letting out an aggressive sigh, Rachel put down the spare RK800 parts on the table and gestured for Connor to sit on the space where the towel was draped on the back of the couch. “Go ahead and sit right there.”

“Rachel, you don’t need -” The android had been protesting like that all day, and not once did Rachel have any of his bullshit.

“Sit!” She ordered, giving him the kind of hard glare that Hank had seen enough times to know not to argue with. The kind he knew meant “get your shit together, or I’ll have to whip you into shape for you, and if you refuse to let me take proper care of you, I will kick your ass.”

Connor seemed to get the message and did as he was told, walking around the couch to take a seat, his back resting against the towel and the other towel at his side. Rachel ran a hand through her hair, pressing her other into her face. “I just texted Bianca to let her know and hopefully she can help me fix you up.” She then turned to her toolset she kept under the table and pulled it up, opening it. “But until she replies back, I’ll have to take a look at the damage. Hank, you can sit on that couch over there.” She gestured to the one to her left closest to the window.

“Gladly.” He huffed, sinking into the chair with a groan. Bear quickly settled beside Hank, sniffing at him, probably catching Sumo’s scent on him. The lieutenant was familiar enough with Rachel to have met Bear enough times. The large black dog simply laid down next to Hank, and he couldn’t help but absentmindedly scratch at the dog’s head gently.

Rachel then turned to Connor, standing over him with her hands on her hips. “Alright, I’m gonna need you to take your jacket and your shirt off.”

Connor was clearly going to object. Fuckin’ son of a bitch never did what he was told. “I don’t think -”

Suddenly Rachel leaned forward, grabbing Connor by the tie, yanking him towards her and pressing her forehead against his, fixing him with another hard glare. “Off. Now.” She ordered, her voice being the kind that Hank knew meant business.

Connor then began complying without question, his LED spinning red for a moment before slowly transitioning to yellow and then back to blue. As Connor began disrobing, Hank couldn’t help but be impressed with how easily Connor obeyed her commands. Despite the fact that Connor never seemed to listen to Hank, much to his increasing frustration, this was one of the moments that Hank was glad that Rachel was assigned on this case with them. She typically didn’t have to assert herself, but whenever she pulled rank, she really pulled rank. Anytime someone got shot, or someone needed backup, Rachel had no problems getting straight to business and picking up everyone’s slack.

Among a lot of things, it was one of the things Hank admired most about Rachel not just as a detective, but as a person.

She then turned around and opened her toolbox, pulling out a strange headgear with several lenses on it and a set of what appeared to be surgical grade tweezers. “Alright, first thing’s first, need to get a look and see if there’s any bullet or bullet pieces lodged in your wound.” Without any warning, she turned around and straddled Connor on the couch, and Hank couldn’t help but immediately avert his gaze and swear under his breath.

Hank suddenly felt very awkward and like he probably shouldn’t be here. The tension that he and practically everyone else noticed between them was already a lot to deal with on cases, but Hank felt like a pervert to be here while Rachel was dealing with this. And he had way too much respect for her to make her uncomfortable like that.

But she was entirely focused on Connor’s wellbeing at the moment and way too pissed at him to really even notice Hank, so he relaxed and just let her do her thing without comment. He knew that she didn’t forget he was there, but she would say something when it was important.

When he looked back, Rachel was laser-focused on the blue bullet wound in Connor’s chest while the poor fucker looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and judging by the red LED, the awkwardness of the position was clearly not lost on him. Rachel then hissed through her teeth and she looked closely at the wound. “Ugh, you are so lucky you can’t feel pain, because that looks really bad.”

“It would’ve been much worse for you.” Connor pointed out, and Rachel blinked in that way she does when something catches her off-guard as she glanced up at him in surprise. “I promised you that I would take extra precaution to ensure my own safety and preservation. But you should be more careful, because if something happens to you, you won’t be able to just get back onto your feet.”

Hank widened his eyes at Connor slightly, quirking an eyebrow at him. The android admitted just earlier today that he basically had a robo-crush on Rachel, even if he didn’t know what exactly that meant or even what his own weird robot feelings even were. But it was strange to hear him actually say it out loud without hesitation.

“Simon wasn’t going to hurt me, Connor.” She said to him. “I would’ve been fine. He was just hiding because he was wounded. That’s all.”

Hank then cocked his head at her curiously. “How do you know its name?” He asked suspiciously.

Rachel’s eyes widened. That was a look Hank recognized instantly. She’s never been a great liar, but she could at least pull off enough of one with a good enough excuse. But that was the face she made when she backed herself into a corner and couldn’t lie her way out of. “You were talking to it.” Connor said, looking down at her. “Weren’t you?”

She then closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “Yes...I was.” She answered, knowing she couldn’t hide from them.

“What did he tell you?” Hank asked. He knew Rachel had a soft spot for these deviants, but so far, her intuition seemed to be on the right track. As much as he hated to admit it, Hank’s perspectives were changing. Part of it was thanks to Rachel and the other was Connor. Rachel’s seemingly unshakable faith in deviants and androids as well as being able to seamlessly put herself in their positions much better than he ever could. And Connor...well, there was a lot about him that didn’t make a lot of sense to Hank, but he did care about Connor. And Connor’s attitudes and even his opinions were changing, too.

And that made Hank start to see things differently, too.

“I tried to get him to tell me anything about who he was with.” She explained, continuing to fish into Connor’s wound. “But...all I got was his name before you showed up.”

Connor sighed. “You still could’ve gotten seriously hurt, Rachel.”

“And you could’ve been killed.” She spat back with. “Also, I’m literally fishing in your chest for bullet pieces. Probably not a good idea to argue with your medic, Connor.”

Hank was sitting there, shaking his head at them. It wasn’t difficult to see that they had a thing for each other. Everyone else in the office (especially Gavin, the asshole) was making jokes about them going to town on each other.

It felt like the lieutenant was the only one who actually saw the care they had towards each other. Before the case, they clearly got along pretty well. As much as it annoyed Hank, they were very similar.

But something changed between them, and Hank could see it. In the Eden Club, something changed in Connor. As if his priorities completely changed. And even if they were too dense to figure it out, they were clearly drawn to each other.

And it made Hank uneasy. Because he knew Rachel’s history. It was what made him actually consider her as a friend at all in the first place. Even Hank wasn’t sure what made him feel comfortable confiding in her about his darkest feelings and moments, but he did. And she returned the favour. They gained an understanding.

And Hank had a real difficulty connecting with others. He wasn’t exactly a gentle or soft guy and was pretty abrasive. Most people didn’t really like him. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, that fact did make him feel a lot more alone than he already was. Even his wife didn’t stick around for him or Cole, but that was fine.

Until Cole was gone.

And Rachel was a lot of the same. Different, definitely. But they were very similar. So they gained a mutual respect.

And the more Hank was able to actually see her in the field and work with her, the more that respect grew into an admiration and then a genuine connection.

And now, she was the only cop in the whole damn precinct he even considered a friend. And as far as he could tell, the feeling was mutual. Though, for her, it was less of other people just not liking her and more just her shutting herself off from others. It was hard for her to make meaningful connections.

So now that she was so drawn to Connor, an android made for the purpose of hunting deviants...it made Hank uneasy. The thought of her having to suffer another loss like Frank’s was harrowing and uncomfortable. Or worse, Connor completely destroying her by virtue of his very nature.

If there was one thing Hank didn’t want to see, it was Rachel getting her heart broken again. Both because he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back from demolishing Connor, and because he knew she wouldn’t be able to either.

Usually, Rachel was pleasant, goofy, silly, and a bit of a bastard. But she was generally pretty good-natured, if a bit of an angry prickly foulmouth. But hey, so was Hank, so who was he to judge?

But very rarely, he had seen Rachel completely unhinge. And if there was ever a phrase to accurately describe how he felt about something, “scared shitless” was completely accurate. When something makes someone like Rachel, someone who for all her jokes and angry sarcastic remarks, was still a pretty faithful person in regards to other people, completely snap...someone who had so much empathy for others and could turn that empathy off when the situation called for it was someone you did not want to cross.

You might as well say your prayers and hope you don’t end up in Hell.

Hank could only remember three times she had ever snapped. And in hindsight, he knew why now. And the state she ended up leaving her unfortunate victims in was chilling, to say the least.

It made the seasoned lieutenant very thankful to be in her good graces.

So even if Connor deserved it, he would still rather not have to see it. If androids couldn’t feel pain, Rachel would find a way to make them. For Hank, it was just another reminder of how this dark and cruel world that seemed to continue to fester no matter his efforts to make it better continued to taint and rob people of their humanity.

Even people like Rachel...who had no say in their suffering.

“So, what did you end up seeing?” Rachel asked, snapping Hank out of his dark thoughts. “When you were connected to Simon?”

Connor blinked for a moment, registering her question. “I saw something, in its memory...” He began explaining slowly. “A word...painted on a piece of rusty metal...‘Jericho.’”

Rachel briefly glanced up at Connor. “And that’s it?” She asked.

“Yes.” Connor answered. “I’m sorry...I wish there was more.”

“Don’t worry about it too much, Connor.” Rachel assured him, pulling out a small black object from his wound and placing it on the towel beside them. “Alright, I managed to dig the bullet out.” She said, lifting her headset of lenses from her head and placing it off to the side for a moment, looking over at Hank. “I’m going to check if Bianca’s responded. If she has, Hank, I need you to hold up the phone once we start FaceTiming so that she can see what’s going on and tell me what I should do. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure, I can.” Glad to be of some use, Hank got up from his seat and approached Rachel, simultaneously trying to avoid looking directly at her because of the awkward position she was in that she seemed to either be oblivious to or is completely ignoring.

A moment seemed to pass before Rachel looked back at Hank. “Alright, Bianca’s gonna call in a sec, and I’ll hand you the phone. Just point it at Connor’s wound and follow Bianca’s instructions, got it?”

“Got it.” Hank agreed.

After a moment, the phone started to ring and was answered just as quickly. “Hey, Bianca!” Rachel greeted, Hank leaning over her shoulder.

“Hey!” Bianca greeted back. “Alright, so how’s this gonna work?”

“Hank’s gonna hold you and you tell me if I’m doing this right.” Rachel explained, handing the phone to Hank. “Just hold it and Bianca will tell you to change positions if necessary.

--------

It took a decent length of time for Rachel to finish repairing Connor. Hank’s arm ended up getting tired and he had to switch arms and prop himself on Rachel’s shoulder even though he really would’ve preferred not to be physically close to the awkwardness.

But once she was done, Connor was good as new, the only evidence of any damage being the pile of bloodied parts on the towel next to them and the bloodstains on the towel on the back. “Alright, can you run a diagnostics check for me, Connor?” Bianca asked.

Connor closed his eyes, his LED swirling yellow before he came to, rolling his shoulder a bit. “All systems fully functional and operational.”

“Alright!” Rachel said, taking the phone from Hank. “You can go sit down now.”

“Thank fucking God...” He groaned not hesitating to let himself sink right into the seat he was in before. “Any longer and I think my arms were gonna fall right off.”

Rachel then gave him a somewhat sarcastic glare. “Be thankful you didn’t get fucking shot, Hank.” She said sternly. “If you or I get shot, we’re basically out of commission for a while.”

“Exactly.” Connor said, prompting Rachel to look up into his eyes. “You didn’t need to go through all this effort for me. I’m just a machine. I can still function and perform reasonably in condition. You don’t need to worry about my performance.”

Rachel blinked at him a couple times, looking down at her phone. “Hey, Bianca?” She asked. “Thanks for your help, by the way. I’m sorry it was so tedious.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. You know I’m always here to help.” She said graciously.

“I know.” Rachel said with a soft smile. “And believe me, nobody appreciates that more than me.”

Hank couldn’t help but smile. If there was one thing that Hank was thankful for, it was that Rachel had support throughout the periods of hardship in her life. After all, it’s not like Hank had any family to run back to if he fucked up after all. His father fucked off and his mother did the best she could, even if she had her own problems that ended up getting dumped on Hank.

Hank had no one. Well, except for Sumo, but everyone knows that dogs are better than people, anyway. But Rachel was pretty good company and Hank wouldn’t give her up for anything.

And Connor...well, he’d decide once Connor stopped being such a reckless moron and listen to Hank for once.

“Alright, well I should let you go.” Bianca said, preparing her goodbyes.

“Yeah, of course.” Rachel said with a sigh. “But I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Yeah, definitely!”

“Alright.” Rachel said. “Bye!”

“Bye!”

“Love you!”

“Love you too!”

After about a second, Rachel put her phone back onto the table and looked over at Hank. “Alright, do you mind grabbing a pack of thirium?” She asked him. “There’s a crate in the dining room. It’s pretty obvious, you can’t miss it. Just take one of the bags and dump it in the bottle inside. The instructions are on the bags.”

Hank nodded, grumbling as he got up. “Yeah, don’t worry. I got’cha.”

As he made his way towards the kitchen, he heard Rachel’s voice from the living room, very much scolding Connor. “Alright, let me explain this to you.” She started, taking in a deep breath. Hank found the white CyberLife branded crate with ease and opened it. “If I get shot and survive, which is more likely than you think, I go to the hospital, get operated on, and then with bedrest, my body naturally heals itself. Granted, it means I’ll be out of commission for a while, at least a week depending on where exactly I get injured, but my body does the work for me.” Hank grabbed a bag and tore it according to the instructions on it, and started pouring it into the empty bottle he found inside, the strange blue fluid dripping into it. “If you get shot and survive, which is less likely than you think, you have to get repaired. And let me tell you, if that last like, what, half hour?”

“About an hour and a half.” Hank responded, coming back into the living room and handing the bottle to Rachel, taking a seat on the recliner on the other side of the room.

“Wow, longass time. But you get it! If that’s any indication for how difficult it is to fix your shit. And! RK800 parts aren’t exactly in circulation! You’re lucky that the repair centre stocked on parts after you showed up.” The woman was glaring Connor down as he listened intently. “But, once you do get fixed, you don’t have to rest and you can get back into the field immediately, which is admittedly pretty nice and definitely a huge advantage you have over me.” She then gave him a look that was gentle and caring, placing her hand on his. It reminded Hank a lot of the night they first actually spoke to each other at Ambassador Bridge Park. “But I don’t need you to worry so much about me. I’m a lot tougher than I look. And you’re not as tough as you feel you are, and I really need you to understand that. So, from now on, you’re wearing a bulletproof vest.” Connor was about to object before Rachel silenced him with a finger to his lips. “That’s an order! Got it?”

She removed her finger and Connor gave him the slightest quirk of a smile. “Got it.” He replied, but the android then tilted his head. “But only if you do the same.”

Rachel then gave him one of her signature smirk-and-raised-eyebrow looks as she scoffed at him. “Are you sure you’re in a position to bargain with me right now?”

“Yes.” Connor answered without any hesitation.

Rachel let out an exasperated sigh before she replied to his offer. “Alright, fine, you dumb waffle iron.” She teased. “We both wear bulletproof vests from now on. Deal?”

Connor then smiled at her. “Deal.”

They then stared at each other for a moment before Rachel leaned down, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around him as she pressed her face into Connor’s shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” She sighed, relieved.

Then, Connor’s arms slid around her as he pressed his face into the crook of her neck, cradled by her short, wavy hair, his LED a pensive yellow. “Likewise, Rachel.” He sighed, his eyes closing.

Hank was about to say some sort of smart comment, but...he couldn’t. He was too distracted by other thoughts and memories, both recent and long past. Memories of having held someone that way before. And memories of two young women fleeing a life of violence and abuse together just to be with each other.

This moment between his two work partners stirred familiar feelings in Hank, and he let out a sigh. They’ll figure it out on their own. He thought, smiling to himself. Fuckin’ kids...

After a moment, they pulled away from each other. And finally, Rachel seemed to realize the position she was in and promptly removed herself from the couch, hiding the red that was starting to coat her face and clearing her throat exaggeratedly. “I’ll, uh...deal with these.” She mewled, quickly wrapping all the discarded parts with the towel they were put on and then grabbing the towel on the back of the couch.

She then took them and placed them on the dining table and returned, taking a seat next to Connor and avoiding his gaze. “Drink this.” She ordered, shoving the bottle of thirium in his direction.

Connor didn’t object for once, and opened the bottle to swallow it. It was so strange for Hank to see someone basically drink their own blood, but he supposed it made sense that they would drink it. It’s probably the best way to get it back into their bodies.

Connor’s hands then folded neatly in his lap like the fucker always did, even though it looked pretty ridiculous without his shirt on. The android then placed the empty bottle on the coffee table. “I’m guessing replacement clothes get sent to you by CyberLife?” Hank asked, deciding to poke a bit of fun.

“Typically.” Connor replied curtly. “Although, if you go to the repair centre, they do also provide spare wardrobes in case of destruction.”

“Ah, good to know.” Hank nodded.

The air was now quiet between them as they sat there, uncertain and listless. “So...what now?” Rachel asked, looking over at Hank. “We’re fresh out of leads. Where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know...” Connor answered, his head hanging low. “But if this investigation doesn’t make progress soon...” He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “I’ll be replaced.”

The terror that popped on her face as she looked over at him was palpable, and Hank realized then that no matter how this case ended...this was going to be painful for her. “Well, then we have to think of something!” The way she looked at Hank made him feel weak. He tried to think. Anything that might give them some kind of new lead.

But then, he remembered something. When androids were first invented and exploding the markets, one name kept coming up. .

And like that, Hank knew what he had to do. “I think I’ve got an idea.” He said, getting up from his seat, feeling more sure of himself at the hope that glimmered in Rachel’s eyes. “But first thing’s first, I gotta make some calls.” He walked towards the door, casting a glance back at the pair. “I’ll let you know what the plan for tomorrow is. But until then, I think I should take my leave for now and leave the two of you be.”

Rachel nodded. “Okay, Lieutenant.” Connor said in his usual polite tone.

“Thanks for all the help, Hank.” Rachel said gratefully. “And sorry about your arms.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it.” Hank waved her off, opening the door. “Shouldn’t be too long until you hear back from me. See you tomorrow.”

“See you!” Rachel called after him.

Making his way out of the door, Hank walked up to his car. But he couldn’t help but steal a glance back through the windows. The blinds were cracked enough to still see them. The old man couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling deep down.

A feeling that he was going to have to watch Rachel’s heart completely shatter again. And a feeling he was going to lose someone he was begrudgingly starting to think of as a friend.

But none of that matters until they’re down to their last rope. And right now, that rested on Hank.

So, getting into his car, he started the engine and backed out onto the snowy road, dreading the headache inducing thoughts of the phone calls he had to make. Let’s just hope this goes easier than it did when I canceled my cable.

--------

Date: November 8th, 2038 Time: 08:11 PM Rachel - Partner? Objective: Undefined

Soon after Hank left, once again Rachel and Connor were left alone. The android couldn’t help but still feel rather shaken. There was a tightness and a hesitance that persisted in his systems that he couldn’t shake.

He had risked danger before. He had risked getting run over by moving cars on the highway chasing the AX400. He had risked danger when he was fighting the Tracis in the Eden Club.

But this was different. Not only was he now acutely aware of his own mortality, he was afraid. And even now, hours later, it still persisted. Even though he didn’t need to breathe, he was also extremely aware of the breaths he was taking, too.

He didn’t even realize that he wasn’t paying attention to Rachel when she spoke to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Connor?” She softly called, causing the android to focus his gaze on hers. “You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you.”

While he would normally be able to respond, all he could find it in himself to do was nod. Compiling words, he eventually managed to speak. “I’ve never felt this before...” He quietly admitted. “It’s...I don’t know how to explain it. But it’s unpleasant. And it makes me feel...weak.”

Rachel nodded, seeming to understand. “I get that.” She sympathized. “That feeling you have right now? Imagine feeling that all the time. Imagine getting that feeling triggered by the smallest things and then having to deal with that for hours on end. That’s what it’s like living with anxiety.” She explained, but her dark eyes were patient and gentle. “But I’ve had years to get used to and figure out how to manage it. This is new for you. You’re allowed to be confused, rattled, and unsure. It’s something you have to process at your own pace in your own time. But...it’s nothing to be ashamed of, no matter what anyone says.”

That only served to make Connor even more confused and frustrated. “But I’m a machine.” He insisted. “Designed to accomplish a task. I wasn’t programmed to fail. I wasn’t programmed to feel fear.”

Software Instability ^ “But you did fail. You did make mistakes.” Rachel pointed out, not maliciously. “And you feel fear now. It doesn’t matter if it was in your programming or not, you feel it regardless. Does your fear feel real to you?”

Truth

Lie

Software Instability ^ “Y-yes.” Connor managed to choke out. “It’s...unmistakable. And it’s persistent. I can’t ignore it.”

“Then that’s all the justification you need.” Rachel said, nodding.

Software Instability ^ She then let out a sigh and leaned into him. He couldn’t help but notice the grown abundance of physical affection from her. It was significantly more frequent and Connor was easily able to deduce that it was a result of their growing relationship.

Something that certainly didn’t help his confusing feelings and reactions around her.

“Hey, Connor?” Rachel then asked. “You don’t...consume things for recreation, do you? Like books, TV, movies?”

“I can find enjoyment and interest in them.” Connor replied. “But I don’t necessarily engage in such recreational activities in the same way humans do.”

“But you read one of my books earlier.” Rachel pointed out. “Just because you know it was from my favourite series. What did you think of it?”

Sincere

Analytical

Indifferent

Software Instability ^ “I could see why you enjoy it.” He replied in earnest. “Its fantastical elements are rather charming and endearing and its brand of humour is certainly your type of humour.”

Rachel - Partner ^ She smiled, nodding. “Right. That’s exactly it.” She looked away from Connor, her posture pensive. “But it’s not just that. There are a lot of really complex and interesting themes underlying it all. Themes of war, of cost, of family, and abuse. And themes of destiny and choice. Peace and war. And the characters are all so diverse and complex and I can’t help but really like them all.”

Connor was watching and listening intently, documenting Rachel’s every word, the enjoyment and passion incredibly evident on her soft face. “I am somewhat curious, though.” He interjected. “You seem to gravitate towards fiction geared towards children and young teens. Why is that?”

“Honestly, they’re just far more interesting and engaging to read.” Rachel replied, making eye contact with him. “A lot of young adult and teen fiction is either too boring or just too depressing for me to read. Or in some cases, it’s just not that well-written. But I find that a lot of children’s stories are a lot more inventive and creative. And there’s a lot more variety in their stories and I just prefer the general tone a lot more.”

Connor nodded. “I see.”

They seemed to run out of things to talk about before Rachel let out a sigh. “I’m pretty spent for today.” She mumbled. “I could honestly just go for some TV on the couch until the day’s over. Would you want to watch with me?”

Connor gave her a small crooked smile. “I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it in the same way as you.”

Software Instability ^ “That’s fine by me.” Rachel replied, returning his smile. “I want you to enjoy it in your own way. And besides, I enjoy your company, and that’s reason enough for me.”

Connor nodded, trying to ignore the warmth he felt blooming in his chest and the rapid increase of the rate of his thirium pump that once again turned up no issues through a diagnostics check. “Then I’ll stay as long as you want me to.” He replied with a smile.

Hiding a blush, Rachel turned away from him. “I’m gonna go take a quick shower and get in my pajamas.” She said, making her way to the stairs. “I won’t be too long. It’ll be about ten minutes.”

“I’ll be sure to count the seconds.” Connor teased, relishing the small gasp that his response managed to elicit from Rachel as she made her way upstairs to her bathroom.

Soon enough, Connor noticed Bear make his way over to the android and he couldn’t resist the urge to scratch the dog behind his ears.

But even in her absence, Connor’s thoughts continued to be fixed on Rachel. Not just on her words and the small gestures of her simple existence, but on her relation to him and her reactions to him.

Connor was aware of and had knowledge of human relationships. He was aware of the dynamics between romantic and sexual partners. But to him personally, these were all merely ideas. Abstract concepts he could analyze and observe, but never truly take part in or understand from a personal level.

And he didn’t have any issue with it. After all, he had a mission and a purpose he was designed for. He had no use or desire for such things. He wasn’t made to, after all.

But admittedly, that was before he met someone like Rachel. It was all too clear that she harboured some level of attraction towards him. He didn’t even have to scan her vitals to know that, although yes he could also tell by the scans he turned up of her.

Yes, it was clear that she was attracted to him. And there were moments that he could even detect arousal from her. But like she said herself, she had her own scruples and principles and she held stringent to them despite her clear innermost desires. And the fact of the matter was that Connor was a machine. He had no free will of his own, which wasn’t a fact he particularly lamented. So she hasn’t said anything about it either by choice, or perhaps she herself wasn’t fully aware of her attraction towards him.

But it was clear that it wasn’t just an attraction towards him. She genuinely cared about him and his wellbeing. She cared about him as a person and as a friend. She trusted him.

And the android would be a fool if some part deep in his software didn’t want to participate in whatever this magnetism was. But that was just it. He wasn’t certain of what his feelings towards her even were or what they meant. All he knew was that he felt strange and that he had nothing to compare it to and that she was the source of it. So even if he wanted to, he could never be an active participant.

But even then, he didn’t care. Not because he didn’t care about her, because he did. That much he did know for certain. He did care for Rachel perhaps more than he could even understand as a (somewhat) obedient machine.

And she cared for him. Whatever she felt and whatever principles she held fast to, it didn’t stop her from caring about him. It didn’t stop her from being comfortable with him and it didn’t stop her from wanting his company and considering him a friend.

And to the RK800 model android, that was enough to make him happy. And it seemed to make her happy, as well. He could be completely content with this, even if it was unavoidably temporary.

“I’m back!” Rachel’s voice then called, as the sounds of muffled footsteps were detected behind him, and Connor turned around and saw a rather diminutive sight.

Software Instability ^ She was dressed in her pajamas from the couple nights he had spent in her bed, But draped across her shoulders was a rather soft and velvety looking white blanket, with a lot of fluff beneath for extra comfort. “I felt like being in a blanket. It’s one of...those nights...” Suddenly her face began contorting into something rather humourous. Her nostrils twitched as her eye fluttered.

Software Instability ^ Suddenly she lurched forward in what was clearly a sneeze, inhaling and holding it before letting out a small sound that was rather indicative of the mewl of a small kitten.

She then approached Connor and settled on the couch next to him, looking very comfortable and warm in her blanket. “So, I feel like watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” She prefaced. “It’s a comedy show about the 99th precinct in Brooklyn, centred around its detectives and captain. It’s a really fun show. And...it was Frank’s favourite.”

He nodded. “I have no particular preference as to what program to watch.” He said bluntly. “But I’ll gladly indulge in it if it’s what you want to watch.”

Software Instability ^ Rachel smiled over at him and leaned over to grab the remote control, pointing at the TV and pressing the button that said Netflix.

It soon booted up, and she navigated the menu lined up with several programs down to the Continue Watching lineup. Very quickly, she selected the title called Brooklyn Nine-Nine and navigated the episode listings, scrolling back towards the pilot episode of season 1.

She clicked on it and settled backwards as the episode began loading. It started with an opening monologue from actor Andy Samberg, portraying a seemingly serious gritty cop trying to maintain his morality in a broken system before being cut by a female Latina detective played by Melissa Fumero. Connor’s focus was interrupted by a query from Rachel. “You know, you don’t have to sit so stiffly, don’t you?”

Connor evaluated his posture, tilting his head at her in confusion. “I’m sorry.” He apologized. “How would you prefer me to sit?”

Software Instability ^ She laughed a little and rolled her eyes, taking the remote control and paused the episode. “Alright, first of all, you can kick your feet up and lean back against the armrest.” She suggested.

Connor then squinted at her in even further confusion. “But won’t I just be in your way?”

There was a smirk plastered on her face. “Don’t worry, I have an idea.” She assured him. “Just trust me.”

Complying with her instructions, Connor turned around, resting his head on the armrest closest to him and tentatively placing his legs in her lap, folding his hands in his. “Is this better?” He asked, unsure.

Software Instability ^ Rachel’s eyes landed on his hands before she started to quietly laugh, a fist to her mouth. “Do you need something to do with your hands?” She asked him.

Connor glanced at them, feeling a little awkward. “Why do you ask?”

Software Instability ^ She smirked and then pushed Connor’s left leg off her lap and placed it behind her and shifted to crawl up between them. Surprised by the suddenness of it, his eyes widened and his hands placed themselves beside his hips on the couch.

But Rachel simply rested her head on his chest, snaking her arms around his back and holding him, draping her blanket over the both of them. “Put your hands on my back.”

Software Instability ^ Connor, curious, did as she told him and found himself sinking into this touch. He wasn’t made for companionship. He was made to integrate into teams and form partnerships in the workforce. But he wasn’t made for intimacy.

Software Instability ^ Which made Rachel’s active seeking it out from him that much more perplexing and yet...desirable. It was completely open and honest. It was true. And it was pure.

“Comfy?” Rachel asked, making a pleasant hum as she further settled herself in Connor’s arms.

He nodded. “Very.” He answered in earnest.

“Good.” She replied, pulling her left arm out from under him to reach for the remote again to unpause the episode.

For a while, they laid there completely comfortable in each other’s arms. The only sound that interrupted their silence was the occasional laugh or snicker from Rachel.

But as Connor continued watching the pilot, he began to notice something about the character Jake Peralta. Something that once again returned his attention back to Rachel. “This character reminds me a lot of you, Rachel.”

Connor felt her flinch slightly as she let out a quiet laugh. “You think so?” She asked weakly. “How does he?”

The android searched for the right words to say then. “He’s rather immature and childish, but good-natured and comical.” He started to explain. “But he’s also very capable and intelligent. And he cares deeply about those around him and their struggles.”

Software Instability ^ Rachel - Partner ^ Connor could feel her smile into his synthetic skin. “That’s something I also really like about the show, too.” She admitted. “A lot of cop shows have their male protagonist be the super cocky overconfident detective who never follows the rules and gets his fellow officers in danger. He also is a massive dick usually and doesn’t really give a shit about anyone but himself and yet, the lazy writing artificially places him in the right every single fucking time. But not here.

“And it even starts it off that way here, before it immediately cuts off.” She went on, getting more enthralled and passionate with every word. “And at first, then you think he’s just goofy and immature and doesn’t take his job seriously, but then he immediately shows that he already solved the case. And then a few scenes later, he’s winning a bet he’s made with Amy about how many cases they can solve. And everyone in the precinct values him a lot as a detective, even if they enjoy poking fun at him. And Jake cares a lot about his friends. It’s a really really great subversion and Jake himself is just a really good character. I mean, they’re all pretty great characters, but I really like Jake.”

Software Instability ^ Connor could barely focus on the show when she was speaking, but he didn’t mind. Somehow, she always managed to capture his full undivided attention, and he had no complaints.

They continued to watch in silence, the occasional snicker or quip from Rachel. But Connor was beginning to feel rather jittery and impatient. He always had an issue with sitting still. No matter what, he just felt the need to be doing something. He was an innately restless being. So, hesitantly, he started rubbing circles with his hands into the blanket over Rachel’s back. He hesitated for a moment out of making her uncomfortable, but a contented sigh told him that she was enjoying it.

“I like the sound of your thirium pump.” Rachel said quietly, nestling further into his chest. “It’s comforting.”

Connor glanced down at her curiously. “How so?” He asked.

“It doesn’t sound much different from a human heartbeat.” She elaborated. “There’s a lot more mechanical stuff going on that I can hear. Whirs, clicks, creaks and all that. But I like it. It’s nice.”

Connor nodded, unconsciously smiling at her before returning his attention back to the show.

For a while, they laid there comfortably, the episodes moving on. The android admitted that he was enjoying himself. However, as his hands were continuously rubbing his companion’s backside, his left ended up trailing up to her hair subconsciously.

Software Instability ^ And with a small content moan, Rachel started making a rumbling sound he could feel in his chest that he realized resembled the purring of a housecat.

Tease

Say Nothing

Software Instability ^ Briefly considering teasing her, Connor instead decided against it. It was clearly an involuntary reaction out of pleasure and the android would be lying if he didn’t find it incredibly endearing and charming. And he also couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of her hair in his hands. He didn’t realize just how soft and curled her locks were. It was as if they were made to perfectly coil around his thick synthetic fingers.

After a while, she had gone quiet. Once again, the service had shown a prompt that asked if she was still watching. He looked down at her and realized that she had fallen asleep. Checking the time and realizing that it was past midnight, Connor decided it was high time for her to be in bed.

He gently shook her awake. “Rachel?” He asked softly, cupping her face and getting her to look up at him.

Software Instability ^ “Mm?” She blinked her eyes up at him slowly, smiling at him drowsily. “What time is it?”

“It’s past midnight.” He answered her, noticing her leaning further into his palm. “We should head to bed.”

She then groaned, nestling into his chest stubbornly. “But...comfy.” She protested.

“I’m sorry, Rachel.” He apologized, wasting no time gently disentangling himself from her, much to her effort to stop him. “But your welfare is important and I feel it would be best if you slept in your bed.”

Software Instability ^ He then turned the television off and turned back to see Rachel rubbing her eyes, bundled up in the blanket. Looking up at him, she didn’t even speak. She simply extended her arms up at him and made the hand closing gesture with both of her hands.

The android didn’t have to ask for her to clarify. He knew what she wanted, and he quickly bundled her up and lifted her, cradling her as he carried her to her bedroom.

He was beginning to realize that this had sort of become routine, now.

Making his way into the bedroom once again, he gently laid Rachel on her side of the bed, even opting to remove her glasses and place them on her nightstand for her. He then went into the bathroom and grabbed the same robe he used for the past couple nights, removing his dress pants and socks once again before slipping the robe on.

He had slipped onto the sheets like he had previously done before Rachel’s voice cut through the silence of the house. “Um...actually, Connor?” She said, interrupting him. “Could...could you sleep under the sheets with me, this time?”

Connor hesitated for a moment, gazing down at her as her brown eyes pleaded with him. “Are you sure?” He asked, just to be certain. He didn’t want to overstep his boundaries.

“I mean...we were literally just snuggling on the couch downstairs while you were shirtless.” She pointed out, her voice raspy and gravelly with exhaustion as she flashed a smirk up at him. “I like the feeling of being pressed against you. It makes me feel safe.”

Software Instability ^ The android found it difficult to argue with her logic and he did as she asked of him, shuffling to free the sheets from underneath him and furled himself beneath them.

Software Instability ^ Instantly, Rachel wrapped herself around him, pressing herself into his chest and humming contentedly. And Connor did the same, cradling her into him and caging her protectively with his arms.

But as she was quickly settling into him, her observation on his thirium pump was present in his mind. He found it rather odd that humans found such comfort in such things.

However, he was also curious. He could monitor heart rates and take tests on humans, but he hadn’t actually ever listened to a heartbeat. He had no interest in doing so, prior. But Rachel’s observation made him want to for the sake of being able to understand the comparison.

“Can I ask you to do something, Rachel?” He asked, softly.

She shuffled a bit, looking up at him. “Sure, what is it?” She asked him groggily.

“Can you let me listen to your heartbeat?” He asked. “You mentioned that the sound of a thirium pump is similar to a heartbeat and I was curious about how accurate that is.”

She snickered softly in the indigo depths of the room and shifted. “Sure, go ahead.” She agreed, shuffling upwards toward the headboard and lying on her back. “C’mere.”

Software Instability ^ Connor took Rachel’s hint and laid himself on top of her, placing his head against her chest and nestling himself under her chin, wrapping his arms around her back. Her heartbeat was above average, but he knew the reason why, and he knew it would settle back to normal in a moment.

Software Instability ^ And...she was right. Strangely enough, a human heartbeat was nearly identical to a thirium regulator’s pump. And there was indeed something comforting and pleasant about the sound of another’s heartbeat. But unlike his, hers was more organic and deep. There were other sounds accompanying the sound of her heartbeat. Sounds of growls and echoes that were the sounds of the several organs inside working as they were meant to.

Software Instability ^ As far as he could hear, Rachel was a picture of health. And that brought him a sense of security in her arms. “Hey, Connor?” She asked, letting out a calm breath.

“Yes, Rachel?” Connor replied.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment. “You don’t, uh...you don’t mind having your hair touched, do you?”

Connor regarded her question for a brief moment. “I’ve never been asked that before.”

“May I?” She asked meekly.

The android didn’t see any issue, considering that that’s what he’d been doing to her earlier. “You may.”

Software Instability ^ Gently, her small, delicate, and nimble fingers began threading through his synthetic locks. And immediately, the android understood her pleasurable reaction earlier to his ministrations.

While androids couldn’t feel pain, they still had receptors and could feel physical sensations. Of which included that of pleasure. And Connor felt like his synthetic skin was prickling, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It was strangely soothing and he could even sense his software threatening to go into stasis without his input.

Now he understood what it actually felt like to fall asleep for humans, and he certainly now understood how easy it was for Rachel to doze off in his arms earlier.

Software Instability ^ Reluctantly, he set a time for his stasis to be interrupted and let himself slip into it, for once feeling completely at peace and blissful.

---------------------------------

Next Chapter

#connor #connor dbh #dbh #detroit: become human #dbh connor #self-insert x connor dbh #dbh what it means to be human #self-insert fic #self-insert #fanfic #hank anderson #rk800 #reader x connor #connor x reader #trigger bullet wound

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wormy-business · 5 years ago

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When the Highest Fall

Chapter 1: The Turmoil before the Storm

Summary: God does not tolerate those who question her, and those who go against her must be handled accordingly.

Word Count: 1,518

read on AO3

It was a question that had been plaguing Gabriel’s mind for weeks. Weeks of studying, going over notes and files and trying to sort out this entire mess of the non-armageddon.

Why?

Why would The Almighty plan something like this? What was the reason? Why would She let them all believe that war was coming? Why wouldn’t She tell them otherwise? Why lead everyone to believe in a lie?

It made Gabriel’s head ache, his heart race, and his throat tight.

The display put on by Aziraphale, his own brother, didn’t help the situation. Damned if he admitted it but, it made him scared. For the first time in thousands of years, Gabriel felt the claws of fear digging deep into his heart and soul, and it made him tremble.

He had to push it all down, he had to keep the facade of control over himself. He couldn’t let the others see the way his hands shook or his voice wavered. But the flashed of memories burned into his mind made him restless at all hours. Watching over six thousand years ago how his brothers and sisters and siblings had been devoured by flame, forced to watch as even the ones he was closest to were cast out of Heaven by Michael’s hand, watching as the flames engulfed their bodies and their screams of terror, begging for help, and reaching for his hand.

Gabriel clutched his robes tightly, and one of his hands curled around a crucifix, one he always carried around his neck though usually hidden beneath his clothing. He could feel the warm light of his tears rolling down his cheeks, and in a sudden yet swift motion he swiped his arm across his desk sending papers and files flying over his office. He needed help, he needed support. Though his hands were shaking, he made the call.

“At your earliest convenience, please meet me at our regular meeting place.” Gabriel spoke into the odd telecom-like system. His heart fluttered when he heard a reply come low from it’s speakers, accompanied by a brief sensation of relief.

“Don’t keep me waiting.”

Over the many years of work, Gabriel had to occasionally call upon his counterpart in the opposition, if only to ensure everything was on track. Of course, things would escalate from time to time, and on occasion some times were more risque than others, but he would never admit to letting Beelzebub within five feet of his personal space. This call, however, was not for a business meeting. If anyone had any clue about what was going on, it would be Beelzebub.

Gabriel manifested beneath an old tree in St. James’s park, taking a moment to look around at the humans going about their day to day lives, completely unaware of the fact the world could have ended just a few weeks ago. He took a breath and let himself take true material form. Now all he had to do was wait for Beelzebub to arrive. His head swiveled when he heard a distinctive buzzing, or more accurately, an entire swarm of flies converging in one central spot. The swarm grew in numbers and sound until it was nearly deafening, thankfully they had had the sense to ensure their body be inconceivable to humans before they made their arrival. The swarm looked nearly solid by the time beelzebub had taken full form, their earthly form. Gabriel chewed his cheek and hummed. In a strange way he preferred how they looked in Hell. perhaps because it was their truer self, or possibly because Gabriel just liked little nasty people.

As Beelzebub approached, their form took a real solidity, making them visible to humans again, and Gabriel smiled at them.

“What’zz all thizz about then?” They asked, crossing their arms, shifting their weight to one side and popping their hip out as soon as they were near Gabriel.

“I just, I needed someone to talk to and I thought perhaps, you might have answers? Or, advice, at least?”

Beelzebub rolled their eyes, adjusted their sash, and stuffed their hands in their pockets. “Fine, let’zz walk then.”

Gabriel followed at Beelzebub’s side, watching them as they walked. Not even a few moments after they snapped their head up, lip curled in annoyance.

“Zzay zzomething then!” They barked, making Gabriel shake his head slightly, clear his throat, and correct his posture.

“Right, I apologize.” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just, I’m so confused. I just, I can’t understand why She would do this.”

“There’zz no point in trying to underzztand her.” Beelz remarked with a rather condescending tone. “She never makezz any zzenzze.”

“I would disagree with that, but, right now, She isn’t making any sense. I am the highest ranking of all the Archangels, why would she not tell me about her apparent ineffable plans?”

“Becauzze the plan izz, in and of itzzelf, ineffable. If she had told you, that wouldn’t make it very ineffable, would it?”

“I, yes, I suppose you have a point but that doesn’t change the fact that it, well, it feels like She lied to us.”

“You shouldn’t zzay zzomething like that zzo loud, Gabe.” Beelzebub’s eyes flicked upwards to Gabriel’s before they continued with their stiff, confident stride. “You wouldn’t want her to get upzzet with you. Look at what happened to the rezzt of uzz.”

Gabriel looked down at his feet, not saying anything more as he continued walking by Beelzebub’s side.

“It hurts, Beez. It hurts to know-”

“It hurtzz to fall.” Beelzebub spoke lowly in the kind of voice that made Gabriel shudder, both of them stopping in their tracks.

“I, I know-”

“You don’t!” they snapped, immediately gaining the attention of several groups of people. Beelzebub made a sort of buzzing sound that could almost be mistaken as a growl, and they raised their hand. As they snapped their fingers, Gabirel and themself were in an entirely new place.

A small room with a single bed, a nightstand, and a very unpleasant smell. The carpet was stained and the wallpaper was peeling, and there appeared to be water damage all over the corners of the room.

“You will never underzztand the pain of falling!” Beelzebub shouted once more, drawing Gabriel’s attention back to them. “And for your own sake, Gabriel, I hope you never do.” There was a sound as Beelzebub was set back on the ground, Gabriel hadn’t even noticed they were floating, and they took a seat on the bed.

Gabriel watched them, leaning against a dresser behind him. It was rare to see Beelzebub like this, to see them this vulnerable. They looked smaller, in a way they appeared softer, but most jarring was that the prince of Hell looked scared. They picked their head back up, looking Gabriel up and down before lowering their head again.

“You shouldn’t azzk her why. You shouldn’t question her. Don’t let her know. Please.”

“Bee,” Gabriel whispered on a breath as he took a soft step towards them, “are you okay?” He asked just slightly louder as he sat himself next to Beelzebub.

“No.” They answered stiffly. “I am in pain, Gabriel.” They looked up, their eyes burning with intensity as they grabbed hold of the archangel’s hands. “Every zzingle day, I ache. I feel the burnzz on my back crack azz I wake, I feel the fire on my face azz boilzz rize to the zzurface, I feel my head pounding in the zzame zzpot, I feel the pain of my wingzz burning away in the hellfire. And I look at everyone else I’m around, at Dagon, at Hazztur, even when I looked at Crowley I could zzee pain. It never zztopz. It doesn’t juzzt end after the fall, the pain zztayz with you for eternity.” Thick, black tears were running down the demon’s face as they spoke, and Gabriel wasn’t sure whether he should wipe them away or bring Beelz in for an embrace he could see they so desperately needed.

Before Gabriel could make a decision, however, they had stood up, removing themself completely from Gabriel’s reach.

“Bee, I-”

“Don’t call me that, Gabriel.” They mumbled as they wiped their tears on their own. “I have to go back, okay? I’m still trying to sort this whole mess out. Juzzt, remember to keep quiet about your feelingzz on thizz. She izzn’t kind to those who question her.” Beelzebub swung the door to the room open and stepped outside, letting the door slam behind them.

With a heavy sigh, Gabriel rose to his feet and followed Beelzebub out the front door. They were greeted by nothing but a parking lot and several cars, no sign of Beelzebub in sight. He felt a few raindrops hit his face, and seconds later was caught in a downpour. He tried to search again for the prince of hell, but after only several seconds of being caught in the storm felt he had had enough. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again he was in his office, perfectly dry and warm.

#good omens #ineffable bureaucracy #archangel gabriel #beelzebub #go gabriel #go beelzebub #good omens fanfiction #go fanfiction

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chibivesicle · 5 years ago

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Golden Kamuy chapter 204. Let’s get that down on film. . .

So with a new GK chapter, it is time to take a look at it. Now, I will admit that this was not a very interesting chapter from my standpoint. I was expecting a switch to the other major parties. Either HIjikata or Tsurumi’s men in the 27th. Instead, there is only a mention of Tsurumi’s orders at the beginning.

Tsukishima (the official leader of the group) reports to everyone that he received a telegram from Tsurumi. He is wrapping things up in Norobitsu (the hot springs) and this is likely in regards to Kikuta and Ariko/Ikopote and their killing of Toni Anji, the fake skin that Ariko has as well as Usami and Nikaido. Therefore, they stay in Toyohara. This is the city where the circus was and we now know that they moved from Shisuka (where Vasily was sniping them now) to Toyohara.

Recall that in chapter 159 there was this handy map showing where everyone was.

Toyohara is known now as Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Южно-Сахалинск) and they are about 5 miles from the coast in that location.

Koito concludes that Tsurumi is telling them to stay in that location b/c it must have more accommodations and whatnot to offer them. Being the commanding officer in rank (and not function), he tells everyone they are free to do as they choose in Toyohara. They are to expect Tsurumi to come to them in about 2 weeks.

So with their leave time in the area, the group splits up and does different activities. It starts out with Tanigaki and Cikapasi walking around a recently clear cut area and some sort of industrial mill in the background. They encounter some Karafuto Ainu men and Cikapasi explains that Tanigaki is a well endowed man and they laugh.

I’m not quite sure these two are doing together? Are they just spending their free time exploring the area? Tanigaki has his rifle so perhaps they are hoping to hunt if possible? Either way, he’s glad to have Cikapasi along as his icebreaker and people don’t seem nervous around him even though he’s a Japanese solider. Or are they familiarizing themselves with the surrounding area.

What this does lead to though is a more serious conversation between Cikapasi and Enonoka which I have been anticipating for some time now. Cikapasi brings up the idea of being able to return to Inkarmat (and with Tanigaki) they’d be able to make a real family. Tanigaki makes a soft smile as he replies that they should go back to see her.

But Enonoka overhears them talking about going back to Hokkaido and she’s making the exact face I was expecting her to make when this happened. Her asking about Cikapasi leaving. She’s flushed and sad looking and she looks concerned. Cikapasi seems a bit shocked but there’s a little sweat drop meaning he hasn’t thought about how he would respond to her question.

I’ll get back to these two at the end.

Most of the chapter’s action is around Sugimoto and Asirpa in the woods tracking animals and hoping to hunt. This becomes one of Asirpa’s Ainu cultural moments as she would like to hunt a wolverine since she didn’t see on yet and she wants to taste their brains. Sugimoto seems to think that all brains taste the same but Asirpa seems to think otherwise with reindeer tasting like deer and she makes Ogata nod in response to her comment.

She then goes through a ritual to pray to the kamuy that they will be able to find the animal they seek to hunt. When I first saw this sequence of pages I was underwhelmed. I thought of this as a rehash of Asirpa teaching Sugimoto about Ainu practices.

She beings by explaining that this is now an unnecessary act with more modern items but that they still do this even if it doesn’t serve an actual value directly. But then, this is where her explanation has shifted from before. She tries to put this ritual in the context of the value it brings to the hunter through the action to help focus and clear one’s mind; not just that this is an offering to the kamuy.

Sugimoto reminds her that she’s an Ainu woman for the future but she still does her ‘antiquated’ action. Asirpa becomes very introspective and reflective on her reply. She was set up to be a woman for a new era but she still follows and adheres to many of her Ainu traditions b/c they convey a practical value to the person practicing them.

This leads to her important statement of her asking a rhetorical question. Can she leave her traditions behind? When I first saw this panel I was immediately drawn to her statement here, not b/c of the text but b/c of the emotions that are displayed on her face. Sugimoto is there with her, but she’s questioning herself.

Sugimoto looks surprised and taken a back a little. The angle really shows the protective cover for his head wound, something we haven’t had many glimpses at for awhile. I wonder if this means something to see it here on this page? Does this indicate some change in Sugimoto that can’t occur but can occur in Asirpa?

Even though Koito was all for the group taking a break, I think Koito really wanted to take a break from the group. But the facial expression that Tsukishima shows that he disagrees with this apparent carefree order here. Tsukishima is giving Koito serious side-eye and his facial expression is displeased. . .

Honestly, I think Koito looks tired too, he’s got stress lines under his eyes and i think he wants some time to pamper himself. As much has he likely wants to have some beauty self-care time, it means that Tsukishima will have to continue to follow Tsurumi’s orders. And he does this like we expect him to, with the duty that he presents here. As Sugimoto and Asirpa are hunting, he’s following behind with his rifle at ready and watching them with binoculars. Tsukishima does not trust Sugimoto, and honestly, nor should he!

He senses someone else and turns to see Vasily also watching Sugimoto with binoculars. So he’s now followed them from Shisuka all the way to Toyohara! In attempt to look friendly and non-threatening, Vasily sparkles and nods. Tsukishima tells him to return to Russia.

Asirpa and Sugimoto are now under double surveillance! Really, I don’t see how Sugimoto and Asirpa get out of this situation unnoticed. I’m glad to see that Tsukishima is making sure things don’t go awry. I guess he’s confident Tanigaki will be fine with following orders.

Anyways, back to the action. Asirpa and Sugimoto are approached by men who want Asirpa to redo her ritual again. A wolverine attacks the one man and Asirpa tells them that she will shoot it with her poison arrow. As like before, Sugimoto grabs it and pulls it off of the mans back (though Tsukishima’s kicking was way more badass). At the same time the man with the ushanka moves the camera to face her sensing an opportunity.

As Asirpa turns to shoot the wolverine, Sugimoto notices a second coming up behind her. Asirpa turns and hits the one from behind and Sugimoto actually manages to hit the thrown one with his rifle! Shocking! The man approaches it, but remembering the last one, Sugimoto warns him to not approach until the hairs go down.

The wolverine does pop up again and Asirpa shoots it with a second poison arrow. They then take that time to set up a fire and begin to prep the wolverines and yes, Asirpa and Sugimoto get to share some brains. She even asks Sugimoto if it is “hinna hinna?” This is a change from Asirpa previously, she still did not say “hinna hinna” herself, but she’s asking if it is hinna. She does seem much more even keeled and happy, perhaps it is b/c she was able to just hunt and eat brains.

Then all of a sudden he asks the mysterious eyebrow man who he is and what he’s doing. He says that they were following some Karafuto Ainu men hunting a bear but they got separated - and it shows the men that Tanigaki and Cikapasi talked to earlier.

The final page then reveals that these two men are filming aspects of Ainu culture. They got Asirpa hunting on film and Asirpa looks nervous upon hearing that.

Who are these men? What is their role? @osomanga already had a post to identify their historical models so I won’t go into that here. I’m more interested if one of these men is a convict. . . . I can’t help but shake the feeling one of them could be - Anehata Shiton was a more academic man, yet a convict. These men could also fall into that category.

Overall, I don’t have much to say on this chapter. It was a bit of a disappointment for me. I was totally off in my prediction of where things would go so I’m trying to determine what function this serves.

So crazy hypothesis time.

1. Cikapasi and Enonoka. Enonoka has been great for Cikapasi’s development as a character and she has been a positive influence on him. She gave him the beads for hunting, she has shown him how to be a kid and interact with adults. The two of them became friends and care about each other. I’m not saying they are romantically in love or any silly think like that - but they have come to care for each other.

I personally don’t want Cikapasi to leave her, I think he’s better served by staying in Karafuto with her and joining her family. She isn’t using him or having him help facilitate a goal e.g. like how Inkarmat says he’d be better to travel with them so that they look like a family. I think Inkarmat came to care about him, but Cikapasi is the one who wants Tanigaki and Inkarmat to adopt him when Enonoka naturally accepted him. I will be sad if he leaves her behind, returns to Hokkaido to find out that things with Inkarmat are complicated.

2. Tanigaki. Tanigaki looks fondly at Cikapasi as he talks about going back to see Inkarmat. But here in this chapter he tells Cikapasi, it was good to have him along b/c he made for nice cover. Cover! He doesn’t see Cikapasi as family, he saw him as useful. And poor Cikapasi wants nothing more for them to become a family. Ugh - open your eyes Tanigaki.

If Inkarmat is still alive, she is a hostage to Tsurumi. Tsurumi will use her to keep Tanigaki under control and to work for him either directly or indirectly. Honestly, I think Tanigaki is happier under his guidance. He prefers to follow his orders and he has looked more comfortable since falling back under Tsurumi’s command. What is messed up, is that Tsurumi is the one who fed Inkarmat the info that Kiro killed Wilk and she believed it. This influenced her decision to work with Tsurumi. Tanigaki will likely take the full impact of the tiger curse for killing Kiro out of revenge.

Inkarmat as an Ainu, would not have likely approved of Tanigaki taking the makiri back to stab Kiro to get revenge for her being stabbed. She was able to commit to holding onto the knife b/c she wanted to prove that Kiro was guilty. Tanigaki went on another revenge quest for a woman he cared about. If she is still alive, I don’t think she’ll be proud of Tanigaki.

If Tsurumi is still holding her, perhaps she’ll meet Ariko/Ipopete. He’s got another game plan with the fake skin to supply to Tsurumi so maybe they will end up working together and at the same time hit things off. Plus, Ariko is about as blessed at Tanigaki in the “figure” department.

3. Tsukishima (and by extension Tsurumi) is keeping a tight watch on Sugimoto. He didn’t give the full info from the telegram - he may have received more orders from Tsurumi that he’s to follow through on. Tsurumi still hasn’t made an appearance for a long time - I find it incredibly suspicious he is stalling them in Karafuto. Why have them stop there? Why not come back to Hokkaido. Is Tsurumi coming to them to meet with intel informants in Karafuto? There are Russians in the area; he must know that Sofia was held in Akou since he knew Kiro would head there.

There is ample evidence that Tsurumi’s preferred mode of action is to influence people into doing what he wants them to do and so that they think they are making a free decision to act in the situation. I do not doubt that he’s setting up a trap for Sugimoto. They were rushing so hard to get back to Hokkaido and then, stall for 2 weeks!?!? I’m suspicious. Very suspicious.

He clearly has dug into Sugimoto’s past military record by this point. He knows exactly what happened that got him discharged. Sugimoto will not abandon Asirpa. He knows this. So either he would have to kill Sugimoto - which would be a total hassle but valid since the man is a force to be reckoned with, or he pays him the 200 yen in front of Asirpa and tells her that Sugimoto told Tsurumi that he needed to pay him 200 yen to bring her back to him.

I don’t think Asirpa will react well to being sold out to Tsurumi. She could reject him or Tsurumi gives him the money and then forcefully has him escorted back to the Tokyo area. I could see him going to that extreme.

Or maybe he lets someone else know that he did something or killed someone and gets arrested when the return to Hokkaido.

4. Koito. On the surface, Koito is being a bon bon and he wants to pamper himself in Toyohara. He tells everyone to do as they please and wait until they are to return to Odomari to connect with Tsurumi.

This first makes one think of Koito when he started out with the team. When they arrive in Odomari, he has all of his essential items in his luggage (Spaceballs reference anyone? Am I dating myself by making this comment?).

At first during the mission, Koito was a total pain, he wandered off on his own and even had some day drinking on the clock. Day drinking . . . . come on Koito you are on duty.

This lead to immediate conflict with Sugimoto and gave Tsukishima more grief than he wanted. Also, keep in mind that Koito got attacked by the wolverine not long afterwards . . .

But I’m not here to complain about Koito’s mistakes he made, I am thinking of how his tenor has shifted when Ogata held him at gunpoint. He called him a bon bon in Russian and this connected this past trauma from being kidnapped by Russian kidnappers (Ogata and Tsukishima). This shift occurred after Koito asked for the definition of barchonok.

After learning this - he has connected Ogata to the kidnapping event. He keeps his distance from Tsukishima on the dogsled and gets incredibly impatient and mean to Tsukishima when they are pinned down by Vasily.

I think that Koito told everyone to “do as they please” because he needs time to himself to think The problem with everyone in a group, that is always present and Koito hasn’t been alone. He may want to stay away from everyone else and come to grips with the fact that he likely suspects that Ogata and other members of the 27th kidnapped him on Tsurumi’s orders and everything he’s thought for years has been shattered. Yes, Tsukishima is annoyed that he’s stuck babysitting Sugimoto b/c Koito gave everyone leisure time by not taking responsibility for that order, but I’m going to put my faith in Koito in this one. I think he has doubts about his devotion to Tsurumi and he will likely meet him with his father present again, transported by the navy. I think Koito needs some alone time. With his flashback, it shows that after his brother’s death he was a very lonely and isolated kid. This also shows though that he’s no stranger to being alone with himself and his thoughts which is a good thing when it helps one gain perspective.

5. Asirpa is showing a new level of awareness. This took me several times looking over the panels to realize. At first, I was disappointed, this was just a rehash of Asirpa and Sugimoto hunting. I thought back to this very early chapter where Asirpa’s uncle is talking to Sugimoto. He talks about wolves and Sugimoto is able to learn that Asirpa mourned her father’s death by going into the mountains with Retar.

He then states that Sugimoto joining her in the mountains seems to have helped her to heal. We later learn that Asirpa wasn’t healing in the mountains, she was running away from all of the pain and hurt she was facing with her father’s death and then the loss of Retar. But this isn’t revealed until they are on the ice floe.

So at first, I thought Asirpa out with Sugimoto, was her attempting to heal herself after Kiro’s death and shooting Ogata. It may be part of what is driving her to do that.

But then I thought about the first scene where they meet Kirawus here. Asirpa is simply narrating the post hunting offering to the kamuy.

She is only a conveyor of facts. There is no opinion in her statements nor does she have an introspective thought about these rituals. She’s fine with explaining things to Sugimoto (and others) but she doesn’t think about what they mean or why they do them.

What has changed since in the swamp near Kushiro when they meet Kirawus and now in Toyohata on Karafuto?

Kiro and Ogata happened. And I find myself going back to the fox farm on Karafuto. They are hunting sea lions somewhere. . . .

It is unclear exactly where Wilk’s village was located. We know from Kiro discussing the treaty of St. Petersburg, that the dots on this map are the locations of Ainu villages that moved to Hokkaido.

If we overlay these two maps, it means that Wilk is likely from one of these villages. The manga tells us that Sugimoto and Tsukishima’s group went to Odomori ( Korsakov/Корсаков). Therefore, Wilk was from one of the villages as indicated by the dots and it must have been fairly close to Odomori.

Kiro tells Asirpa that her father saw a light and hope in her for the future (to help the native peoples implied in the statement of course). Asirpa then needs to know the big WHY?

Why did Wilk do all of these things and put her in this position? Kiro tells her that she will find the answer herself during her time in Karafuto. He tells her that she didn’t know all about her father and it shows her following in his footsteps.

While she contemplates the fox farm, imperialism and the abuse of native peoples in the context of colonization, Ogata confirms with Kiro what his plan is. The framing is so key in these panels, Asirpa is in the background three times as Ogata looks at her twice.

Ogata is trying to determine if she is lying or not about what the code could be. Kiro explains that it is best to let her find the answer naturally and to make sure she is on board with them and trusts them. He looks soft and supportive on this page while Ogata looks serious and doubtful. Ogata is at his most comfortable here, he’s rationally thinking about all of the possibilities in the situation.

But it then leads to this dramatic top panel on the next page. Kiro tells him that if they let Asirpa mature on Karafuto on her own. . . she will understand the situation and tell them the key.

As they continue through Karafuto Asirpa learns many things first hand by doing with the group. She observes different customs and the impact of the colonial and imperialist policies on both sides of the border.

Most importantly, she remembers the code. As Kiro is dying, she stops Tsukishima from shooting him b/c she needs to talk to him (to ask if he killed Wilk), but first she tells him that she remembered the code. Kiro’s entire plan worked, Sofia was able to get Asirpa to make the connection and Ogata and Asirpa know that she knows the code.

She thanks him and with that Kiro can die somewhat at peace despite sacrificing everything to his cause. Kiro’s actions served a purpose. The immediate one was for her to remember the code.

However, that wasn’t all. When they are later in the Nivk village with injured Ogata and Tsukishima, Asirpa makes a comment how the Nivk are similar yet different from the Ainu - this is a subtle thing that Kiro wanted her to realize. Kiro’s goal was always to get Asirpa to see the situation of the native peoples and to help fulfill Wilk’s goal to form a confederation to stop the spread of colonialism.

So now back to this page. Asirpa is wondering what her role is in the world. Why does she continue to follow old traditions? How does she leave them behind? Can she leave them behind?

This is totally different language than she previously used when discussing Ainu customs and traditions. She likely wonders if she is trapped by them.

I personally read that this has a second meaning. Asirpa has realized that she is trapped by her situation. Wilk set her up to be a natural leader of the Ainu to fight colonialism. Kiro wanted to educate her about her father and become a partisan. Hijikata learned from Wilk that she’s the key to the gold. Tsurumi also knows that she is the only key to the gold since he couldn’t break the code with the current skins in his possession. Tsukishima and Koito are there to make sure she gets it to Tsurumi. She’s also trapped in her partnership with Sugimoto who thinks he’s best to relieve her of the burden (but he’ll also get a benefit as well for Umeko).

Lastly, the chapter ends with the two men who want to record her culture - not only is it rude to ask her to repeat a ritual a second time, but it highlights that she is seen as something to be studied. This also implies that there is a fear that it may be lost.

#golden kamuy #gk meta #golden kamuy meta #asirpa #sugimoto saichi #kiroranke #tsukishima hajime #koito otonoshin #tsurumi tokushirou #cikapasi #inkarmat #enonoka #tanigaki genjirou #wilk #ogata hyakunosuke

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naruwitch · 5 years ago

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Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron Chapter 23: Zero’s Return

"You've found nothing?!" Viceroy Cornelia exclaimed, slamming her hands down on her desk and staring down the officers before her. Villetta Nu, Jeremiah Gottwald, Andreas Darlton, and her personal knight, Gilbert Guilford, all stood assembled before her in her office.

"Apologies, Viceroy," Jeremiah bowed deeply, "but we've searched everywhere! We've investigated Ashford Academy from top to bottom and closely interviewed every relative of each missing student."

"We even took the time to locate Ms. Stadtfeld's biological mother, who's currently being held for twenty years in the Area's prison for Refrain use. She knew nothing," Villetta reported. She remembered when they had revealed the news to Ms. Kozuki, who, they discovered, had no idea her daughter had gone missing until they had told her. The woman had just sat there in shock for almost five minutes as they continued to question her and then just suddenly broke down in tears. She was so incoherent that they were forced to cut their time short and have Kozuki escorted back to her cell.

Cornelia li Britannia tisked in disgust. The moment that she and Euphemia had recognized Lelouch's face on the news last month, she had spent every free moment that she had to try and locate them as soon as possible. They had contacted the media outlets but had ordered them to keep quiet about the recent break in the investigation, for fear that the Elevens could somehow use this to their advantage. If they located Lelouch and Nunnally first-

Cornelia squashed that thought before it could finish.

All other military and law enforcement that weren't on duty were tasked with assisting in finding the vi Britannia siblings at any cost. She even put the Purebloods to work, and they took it up faster than a dog to a bone. A week into the investigation, Villetta and Jeremiah both brought up Ashford Academy and requested to investigate the school. Cornelia had agreed and sent them with a warrant to search it. Even she had forgotten about the Ashford's connection to Lady Marianne and understood their logic of the siblings possibly hiding there. The school principal had tried to object, but there was little he could have done with a permit directly from the Viceroy herself. Though they didn't find anything, much to their dismay, their intuition to search there convinced Cornelia to promote them to the rank of Warrant Officers. It was nowhere close to what they both held before Zero rescued Suzaku, but secretly the two saw it as a sign that the Purebloods were slowly regaining the military's trust, so they humbly took the promotions.

Cornelia wasn't short-sighted, though. She knew that seven students spontaneously going missing, one of them being Suzaku Kurugui, was also a significant issue. Therefore, she also ordered for all of the families of the students to be investigated. Though she believed it was ultimately a longshot, a couple of clues could be unraveled in this way.

"Viceroy, if may…" Darlton spoke up grimly.

"What is it?" she asked.

"This thought occurred to me a while ago, but I haven't had the chance to bring it up. But, do you believe that Zero may be responsible for these abductions?"

"What?! Zero?! To think that he would sink this deep!" Jeremiah snarled from behind.

"I appreciate the concern Darlton," Cornelia said, "but I don't believe that theory is correct."

"Why is that Viceroy?" Guilford questioned.

"Well, think about it," she continued, "if Zero was really behind these kidnappings, and discovered that one of them was a member of the royal family, one believed to have been dead for years, don't you think we would've received some sort of ransom or bargain from him by now? Prince Lelouch and, consequently, Princess Nunnally, in exchange for Area 11. If I were Zero, I'd be a fool not to use them to my advantage."

"...I see your point, Viceroy," Darlton nodded, "I apologize."

"Enough," Cornelia sighed tiredly, "Other than a report on the investigation, I do have another matter to discuss with you all. I believe we may have found where both the JLF and the Black Knights are hiding."

This immediately grabbed the attention of everyone in the room.

"Pardon my suspicions, Viceroy, but what exactly makes you think that both of these factions are hiding together?" Villetta asked, "Considering the events of the hotel-jacking incident, and I highly doubt that the JLF will be eager to utilize the Black Knights in any of their operations."

"When cowards are cornered, they hide together," Cornelia sneered, "especially with how desperate the JLF has been as of late. We've managed to track them to the Narita mountains. Once we wipe them out there, any straggling rebels will fall shortly after."

"And even if the Black Knights aren't there, the largest insurgent group in Area 11 will still be eliminated," Guliford realized.

"That is correct," Cornelia nodded, "However, should it be confirmed that the Black Knights are also there, and Zero with them, bring him to me alive. I will question him myself."

'And once Zero's taken care of, nothing will stop me from finding you and Nunnally, Lelouch. And I will. It's not like you vanished off the face of the planet.'

o~o

The first thing that the Castle spotted upon exiting the wormhole was the plain grey surface of Earth's moon. Upon applying the coordinates, Lelouch, dressed entirely in his Zero costume but currently without his mask, ordered for the Castle to not land on Earth's moon, but to hover just outside of its atmosphere (not that it had one). By hiding within the moon's shadow, not only should it conceal them from Earth below, but none of the long-range satellites should pick them up either.

On the bridge, each Paladin sat up tall behind each of their posts, screens and scans pulled up in front of them.

"Here we are," Kallen said, a slight layer of nervousness in her tone, "Alteans, welcome to Earth."

"Hmmm… quaint," Coran commented upon first glance. From above, out in space, Earth bore a very similar resemblance to Arus, though he doubted that the planet was that primitive.

"Lelouch, you know I trust you, but are you sure this is a good idea?" Rai spoke up, "I mean, Ulaz said there was a chance Zarkon was tracking us. If that's true, we basically just brought him right to our front door."

Lelouch glanced over at Rai, "I appreciate the concern Rai, and I am fully aware of how heavy of a risk this is. However, considering how close Earth is to the Galran border and the rate that the Empire is expanding, an attack on our planet is only inevitable, just as Allura informed us of our first week here. I believe it would be no more than a couple years before the Galra actually came and attacked."

"That's kind of scary when you think about it like that…" Rivalz commented with wide eyes.

"Yeah…" Shirley agreed.

"Indeed," Lelouch nodded, "Also, we've been gone for far too long. Both Voltron and Zero must prepare Earth's defenses as soon as possible."

"Makes sense," Suzaku said.

"I agree," Milly nodded, "the longer we delay this, the less time Earth has to be ready for an invasion."

"At this point, our faces have likely been leaked to the media," Lelouch noted, "Seven Ashford Academy students going missing out of the blue. I highly doubt that we haven't been on national coverage by now."

"Okay, but what's so bad about that?" Rivalz asked.

Lelouch turned to face them, a grim line on his lips, "It means that from here on out, our identities will be our most valuable possession. So we must protect them no matter what. No one on Earth must know the identities of the Paladins of Voltron… and that includes family."

This statement was, predictably, met with shouts of protest.

"Wha-wait Lelouch, are saying we can't contact our families?!" Rivalz exclaimed, horrified.

"No way! My mom and dad are probably worried, sick!" Shirley added, "And I can't even talk to them?!"

"I understand if this is hard," Lelouch said before more protests could erupt, "but think about it. If Britannia finds out who you are, that could put your family in danger as well. You should already know that the Empire will stoop to endangering its own citizens for their own goals."

This reasoning quieted the rest of the team down as they realized that Lelouch was right. After all, the Emperor had used two of his own children as bargaining tools and then threw them away after Japan was conquered. Plus, it was also likely that the only reason Shirley and Milly were spared in the hotel-jacking was due to Princess Euphemia's presence. The Viceroy wouldn't risk her sister's life but had it only been them, and they wouldn't have been surprised if they were killed as well, just to take down the JLF that overtook the building.

"Suzaku," Lelouch turned to face the Purple Paladin, "this must be the absolute case for you, especially."

"Huh? Why?" Suzaku questioned.

"Well, when you compare this situation to the one where you were falsely accused of Prince Clovis's murder, it could stand on equal footing in a legal sense. Or at least according to Britannia," Lelouch explained with a scowl, "If it's discovered that you are actively opposing them as a Paladin, they could still use you as a pariah and start grinding down on the Japanese population. I doubt the Purebloods will let such an opportunity like that slide from their grasp."

"I...I guess that makes sense," Suzaku admitted sadly.

"Anyone else have any objections?" Lelouch asked and received shakes from all of the Paladins.

"Alright then," he sighed in relief, "Our first step will be to locate where the Black Knights are."

"Assuming that there are Black Knights anymore!" Kallen spoke up gravely.

"...I trust that Ohgi didn't do anything too stupid in our absence," Lelouch said, hoping he sounded reassuring.

"Wait, Lelouch, we're getting the Black Knights first?" Rivalz asked.

"Yeah, to honest Lulu, I'd have thought you'd want to fly down and whisk Nunnally up here immediately!" Milly added.

"I'm not completely concerned with Nunnally's safety at the moment," he replied calmly and continued before anyone could protest. "When we enrolled at Ashford, I had a safe house set up far away from it for us to retreat to should our identities ever get exposed. Sayoko should have Nunnally secured there right now. I trust her with my life."

'And hopefully has that with her as well…'

o~o

"We're certain the Japan Liberation Front's headquarters are in his area," Darlton explained on board the Viceroy's transport, pointing at a map on the table before them, "we've already split four battalions into seven units and hidden them within the vicinity. We've only to wait for the Viceroy's signal, and then we'll surround them in one fell swoop and wipe them out."

"And we're confident the enemy isn't outside of the encirclement line?" Guilford questioned.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Darlton said, "as the operation begins, we'll be blocking off the surrounding highways and mountain roads as well."

"Plus, we have reserve units," Cornelia herself added from her throne in the center of the room. "If Zero or the Black Knights are actually stupid enough to show up, it'll be the end of them."

Suddenly a transmission showed on the screen of the battlefield. In full view of it was the Knight of Nine herself, Nonette Enneagram, smirking at the screen.

"You sure you won't need any help from me on my end, Nelly?" she asked playfully.

Cornelia frowned and addressed the knight strictly but still with respect, "I can handle this battle myself, Nonette, though I appreciate the concern."

Nonette laughed, "Well, just don't get a big head out there, okay Corny?"

The Princess's eyebrow twitched, but despite her irritation, she kept her composure in front of the other officers.

"I'll make a note," she said tartly before promptly ending the transmission.

Cornelia sighed and leaned back in her throne slightly, "Damn that woman."

Guilford glanced over at his Princess in surprise and glanced at Darlton. He simply gave him a look that said, 'don't ask.'

o~o

Nonette sighed dramatically from her seat in the resting Lancelot. Goodness, little Nelly was way too uptight sometimes.

Ever since Suzaku's disappearance, Nonette volunteered to be the test pilot for the Lancelot until he could be found. And she had to admit, and the Lancelot was by far the best Knightmare Frame she had ever piloted. If all continued to go well, she might just request to have a separate model made for her own personal use.

Aboard the Camelot Division transport, Lloyd, Cecile, and Princess Euphemia were also present. After Suzaku disappeared, Euphie seemed to want to stubbornly stay close to the Camelot Unit. Her sister gave little objection to this arrangement, especially during battle, as the Camelot was only called upon to attack as a last resort. If it were to be attacked, Cornelia trusted Nonette to keep Euphemia safe.

As the Princess watched the others work, she couldn't shake the strange feeling blossoming in her gut, but she couldn't understand why she felt like this.

"Here, Sub-Viceroy," Cecile said, offering Euphie a cup of tea, "this should help calm the nerves."

"Thank you," Euphie accepted with a smile.

"You know, Sub-Viceroy, I'm still wondering why exactly you're here in an irregular unit. I would've thought you'd want to stay close to your sister," Cecile said.

"Well, I wanted to get to know the people that Suzaku had been working with, that's all," Euphie explained.

"Wanting to understand your boyfriend a little better, do you?" Nonette asked mischievously as she walked over.

Euphie squeaked in embarrassment, ducking her head as her cheeks began to color crimson.

The Knight of Nine then put a gentle hand on her shoulder, causing the Princess to look up, "Don't worry. We'll find Kururgi, and your brother and sister."

'As well as you, Prince Zephyr,' she added mentally.

As Nonette continued to console Euphemia, Cecile made her way over to Lloyd to speak with him about the upcoming battle. She stopped in her tracks when she saw what the Earl was viewing on his monitor.

It was a video of that mysterious Blue Lion Knightmare that disappeared over two months ago.

"Lloyd, don't you think you're developing an obsession with that thing?" Cecile scolded and sat down beside him, "It's almost like you're not worried about Suzaku at all!"

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea," Lloyd answered, "While Ms. Enneagram is a useful devicer for the Lancelot, she's certainly no Suzaku. Plus, it's not every day that you get to see a Knightmare that can fly and then just vanish off the face of the Earth, completely without a trace."

Cecile sighed and shook her head, seeing that there was no point in arguing further. Lloyd leaned forward and clasped his hands thoughtfully.

'Now, where are you, my little blue kitty cat?'

o~o

Rai couldn't help but laugh at how easy it was to hack into Britannia's military communications network. Compared to the Galra, it was like comparing a high tech MMORPG game to Pac-Man.

What he saw, however, extinguished any other form of humor in his system.

"Everyone, listen to this!" he exclaimed, pulling the data and recordings up on the screen.

"All units are in position!"

"Understood. Provide logistical support from the G1 as planned. Be sure to command the medical unit appropriately."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes at the all too familiar voice on the other end.

"Who was that, Lelouch?" Allura asked, noticing the Black Paladin's expression.

"...That was Cornelia li Britannia," Lelouch responded, pressing some buttons on his control panel and pulling up a picture of his sister onto the main screen, "my older half-sister and the current Viceroy of Japan, or Area 11 as Britannia likes to call it. Due to her unrivaled patriotism and fierceness on the battlefield, she's earned the nickname 'the Goddess of Victory.' When it comes to strategy, however, here skills are only just above average, but she's still a hardened warrior and has never lost a single battle, hence her moniker."

Allura glared narrowly at the Viceroy's image. So this was who was suppressing these people. How disgraceful.

"Hey, uh, Lelouch?" Rivalz asked, suddenly sounding awkward, "Out of curiosity, how many siblings do you actually have?"

Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle at the Blue Paladin's question, "Well, you already know that Nunnally is my only full-blooded sibling. As for half… well, considering my father has taken over a hundred consorts ("a hun-what?!" Shirley squeaked), I honestly never really took the time to count."

Coran, in particular, looked quite shocked by this revelation, "Um, if I might ask, is it standard custom on your planet to have multiple partners in marriage?"

"No!" all of the Paladins exclaimed almost as one.

"Well…" C.C. said a couple of seconds later, "Honestly, the number of wives a man can have usually depends on the region of Earth you inhabit. Some cultures do see polygamy as common practice."

"Yeah, and there are also some humans that prefer open relationships in general. It just depends on the people in that specific relationship," Milly added.

"Hmmm… fascinating," Coran hummed, twirling his mustache.

"Anyway!" Lelouch proclaimed, wanting to desperately change the topic he pulled a map onto the Castle's screen, "This is an area called the Narita Mountains. The Japan Liberation Front's headquarters are rumored to be stationed either in or close by this area. From the look and sound of things, Cornelia fully intends to wipe them in one large wave today. It looks like the Britannians have surrounded the mountains, so there will be little to no escape for the JLF at this rate. We can't allow that to happen. Should the JLF fall, one of the largest resistance groups in Japan will be destroyed."

"...So, what do we do?" Shirley asked.

"Our first objective remains the same. Locate the Black Knights. Once we do, Kallen, it will be your job to escort them to the Castle of Lions safely."

"Me?" Kallen asked.

"You shouldn't sound surprised, you're the only one for the job," Lelouch said, "The other Paladins, including myself, are Britannian, and though Suzaku is Japanese, he's made his status as an Honorary Britannian quite clear."

"Wait, why can't you just get them, Lelouch? You're technically still their leader," Rai asked.

"That may be true, but I've only known the Black Knights for a short amount of time, and I don't believe I've fully earned their trust as of yet. All I am is simply a masked figure, who mysteriously disappeared just as suddenly as he appeared."

"Wait, Lulu, the Black Knights, don't know your real identity?" Shirley asked, quite shocked.

"Well think about Shirley," C.C. said with an indifferent look, "A Britannian prince leading a rebellion comprised of people who have been oppressed by the same empire. How do you think that would go?"

"Oh, good point," Shirley admitted, slightly embarrassed.

"Speaking of identities though, Lelouch, if we're going to involve the Black Knights in this, you'll have to reveal who you are to them at least," Suzaku said, "and about your Geass. If they find out about that and what it does from a different source, I can see them drawing some pretty messed up conclusions about it."

"I intend to reveal myself and Geass in due time, but seeing Voltron is going to be overwhelming enough for the time being," Lelouch said. "Anyway, since Kallen's the one that has been in the rebel's company even longer than I have, she's the only logical pick to retrieve them. Because of that, they trust her, and they'll listen to her."

Kallen nodded with a determined look on her face, "I understand."

'Hang on, Ohgi! I'm coming!'

"Also, Rai, considering Zerith's invisibility ability, I want you to drop multiple BLIP sensors around the battlefield. We'll use those to try and locate the Black Knights, should they be in Narita. While you're doing that, we shall hold back the Britannian forces in the other Lions."

"I can do that," Rai agreed.

"Once Kallen retrieves the Black Knights and drops them off at the Castle, we'll form Voltron and decimate the rest of Cornelia's army," Lelouch finished.

"Decimate?" Shirley asked, eyes widening.

"Uh… yeah, Lelouch, I understand wanting to make a big show out of Voltron, but is it really necessary to wipe the whole army out?" Rivalz asked.

"Yeah, that's a bit overkill, isn't it?" Milly asked.

Lelouch let a small smile creep onto his face, "Hmhm, that's the idea."

Most of the Paladins, even Allura and Coran, looked at Lelouch in near shock. But the idea was to simply scare Britannia, not-

"If we show Voltron and demonstrate how it can not only rivals but surpasses Britannia, it might just be enough to get them to stand down and listen to us, which in turn will make it easier to prepare a defense against the Galra."

"And if they don't?" Rai asked.

"What do you mean 'if they don't'?" Suzaku turned to the Green Paladin.

"Er-hypothetically speaking, I mean," Rai amended.

"'Hypothetically speaking,'" Lelouch said with a hint of sarcasm, "if that turns out to be the case, then Voltron's first course of action will simply be to liberate Japan from Britannia, the hard way."

Allura and Coran, who had barely said anything throughout the entire strategy meeting, couldn't help but once again be amazed at Lelouch's genius planning. If all went according to plan, things were sure to end in Voltron's favor.

Allura made a mental note never to go head to head with Lelouch in battle if they ever, for some absurd reason, became enemies. She wouldn't stand a chance.

"Hey, hold on a second," Rivalz suddenly said, "Why are we even wasting our time here in Japan? If you want my personal opinion, I say we fly Voltron straight to Pendragon right now and knock the Emperor off his high-horse!"

"That's a terrible idea," Lelouch deadpanned immediately. "If the whole of Britannia were to fall due to such actions, all other nations, including the E.U. and the Chinese Federation, will lash out at each other and fight to try and fill the power void that Britannia will ultimately leave behind. The world would spiral into further chaos, making it that much easier for the Galra to overpower Earth's current defenses."

"Hmmm, the divided nature of your planet that you continue to describe is quite primitive. Er-no offense, of course," Coran quickly apologized, realizing that he had spoken that thought aloud.

"None taken," all of the humans, C.C. included, said in unison.

"Excuse me, Lelouch, may I make a small point," Allura spoke up.

"What is it?" Lelouch asked.

"While I understand your reasoning in your strategy, I don't believe freeing one country at a time on your planet would be very efficient," she explained. "It would simply take far too long to unite everyone in this way."

"That is true. Going around and freeing civilizations one by one would be a waste of time. However, there is a way to easily speed it up as well," Lelouch smirked.

"How so?" Allura asked, intrigued.

"I don't know if the same thing applied to Altea, but on Earth, whenever a person does something, big or small, the first thing they always expect to receive is results, be they good or bad."

Suzaku flinched slightly at this proclamation. He remembered arguing with Zero/Lelouch on this very same point months ago after he had been rescued from his execution. Even now, he still didn't totally agree with such a mindset, but he was wise enough to see that voicing it wouldn't help at the moment. So he remained silent.

"If we manage to free even one country, even if it's a small one, others not against Britannia will begin to rally behind us. We may even be able to convince some people from Britannia itself to join our cause. Although, if you want my honest opinion," Lelouch looked down for a moment, "I don't believe my father will be too cooperative in any case. He's not exactly the most open-minded individual you'll meet."

"I see," Allura realized, "it's the same strategy you implemented at the Balmera. When you revealed our victory over the astral conflux, we heard that many other rebel factions began to fight back on their own."

"Exactly. Sometimes the most effective strategies are the most overlooked, and often the simplest of actions can bring a tsunami of trouble to the enemy."

"Who said that?" Milly asked.

"I did," Lelouch chuckled before turning serious again. "One more thing. Before we begin our assault, there's something I must confirm with all of you."

All of the other Paladins looked at Lelouch, confused. What could be so important that he would bring it up now?

"I already know that you are completely on board with this Kallen, but as for the rest of you, you realize that once this begins, you'll essentially become traitors to your own country, even you Suzaku, though you're only an Honorary Britannian. I need to know now if you are fully committed to this. I don't want to sound like I doubt any of you, but as I said when this all started, I won't force you to do anything against your will. So if you don't want to take part in this, this is your chance to say so."

There was a pause among everyone. Lelouch did bring up a point. Once this was over, there would likely be no turning back.

However…

"Lulu, I may be Britannian, but I'm also a Paladin of Voltron," Shirley said first, a closed fist raised. "A person that protects those who can't protect themselves! What Britannia is doing is wrong, I understand that now. A-And, I trust you! No matter what, I'm with you!"

Milly started laughing, good-heartedly, "Wow! Nice going, Shirley! Couldn't have said it better myself!"

"Yeah!" Rivalz nodded before his eyes lit up, "Oh, that's right! We never told Lelouch about our promise!"

"Your promise?" Lelouch asked. Suzaku, C.C., Kallen, Allura, and Coran also looked curiously at the four Paladins.

"Yeah," Rai nodded, "back at that universal station, Milly, Rivalz, Shirley, and I had some time to talk about what had happened. Not only about Voltron, but also about what you told us. And we made a vow, right there in that central control station, that we would stand by you and Nunnally, Lelouch, no matter what happens! We're Defenders of the Universe, and that means we stand against all tyranny, not just the Galra!"

Lelouch gasped. He had had no knowledge of this vow ever taking place, and the fact that the four had made it touched him. He smiled graciously at them, eyes shining with tears.

"A Warrior's Bond," Coran murmured off to the side.

"Huh? A what?" Kallen asked.

"A Warrior's Bond. That's what we call such vows on Altea. The very first Paladins carried such a bond as well… for a long time," Coran said sullenly. No one needed to ask what he meant by 'for a long time.'

Lelouch then turned to the final Paladin. He could only imagine how hard this might be for Suzaku. But he would remain true to his word. He wasn't going to force Suzaku to follow him. Never.

Suzaku was currently lost within his own thoughts. During his time fighting alongside Lelouch and the other Paladins, it had given him a lot of time to think about things, particularly about Britannia itself. Suzaku wasn't a fool; he knew that Britannia was far from perfect, and could see undeniable parallels it shared with the Galra Empire. He understood that Britannia could quickly become like the Galra if nothing were done to change it, and he still hoped that an internal change was possible. However, he had also learned some valuable lessons as a Paladin, and one of them was that despite the situation, facts simply had to be acknowledged. And one indisputable fact right now was that if Earth remained as divided as it did, they wouldn't stand a chance when the Galra arrived.

Plus, despite all of Lelouch's flaws, he proved that he was a reliable and competent leader and did show that he cared for their well-being above all else. Because of this, he had chosen to take a chance and trust him, and so far, it seemed to have paid off.

So why shouldn't he trust him now?

"Lelouch, you're my friend, I'll always be here for you and Nunnally no matter what," he looked up at his friend with a smile, "I'm with you. One hundred percent."

An honest smile graced Lelouch's lips at this proclamation, "Thank you, Suzaku." With a final nod, he lifted his mask to his face, "Paladins, to your Lions!"

"Hell yeah! Time to kick Britannia's a.s.s!" Rivalz shouted with a jump, causing everyone to laugh before retreating to their Lions.

Before he descended in his elevator, Zero turned to C.C., "C.C., remain here, and expect some visitors very soon."

"I understand," C.C. smiled as she watched Zero sink below to the Black Lion's chambers, "Now… let the games begin."

o~o

"Right, commence the operation!" Cornelia shouted as her Gloucester was launched out of the G1.

Behind her, all of her subordinates launched and followed her up the mountain.

"You, the Japan Liberation Front; you who time has left behind; you who have forgotten basic human decency. You and your dream of a bygone golden age shall fall and rot to nothingness," Cornelia whispered in disgust at the JLF and their cowardly tactics.

o~o

"We're under enemy attack?!" General Katase cried out as he stepped into the war room of their base within the mountains.

"Yes sir, the Britannian forces have completely encircled the Narita Mountains. We counted over a hundred units," one of the rebels informed him.

"We're completely surrounded, and our underground reserve forces were captured all at once," another cried.

"General Katase, we've received a message from Cornelia's forces demanding our surrender," another exclaimed.

"Imbecile! If we fall here, then we've lost, and the whole resistance movement falls with us."

"But General, do we engage the enemy in battle? Or do we dig in?"

"What about Todoh? Where is he?" Katase asked.

"He's gone to Kyoto to get the custom Burais. The Four Holy Swords are traveling with him too, along with another to receive the Guren Mrk II."

"Then we're on schedule. He should be returning soon," Katase said with a small bit of relief. "Todoh will make it in time. Prepare to bring out the Burais. We'll break out of the circle on one side and evacuate. We'll show them the Japanese spirit and pride. This is our moment of truth!"

o~o

From another area of the mountain, one may even call it the rear line, several other Burai with a familiar symbol etched into them lay in wait for commands.

"Come on! Why isn't the JLF ordering us to attack already?" Tamaki whined.

"Probably because they don't trust us, and we're simply the last resort," Sugiyama said, though his voice had a trace of annoyance as well.

"Ohgi, are you sure this was a good idea?" Inoue asked their second in command.

"If you want my honest answer, no, I don't," Ohgi replied honestly, "but we couldn't just do nothing when we were informed about this. I'm sure that Zero would've done the same. He wouldn't let one of Japan's biggest resistance groups fall like this."

Despite his proclamation, Ohgi honestly wasn't too sure anymore himself. For the past two months, any attempt to contact Zero had been met with radio silence. Several newer members of the Black Knights began to believe that Zero had gone and abandoned them, but something in Ohgi's gut was telling him that that wasn't the case. This meant that Zero had either been captured or was planning something that required the other Black Knights not to know about it. Neither option sat well with him, but they were the only explanations he could think of.

There was also the fact that he had still not heard from Kallen yet either. Ever since she was officially pronounced missing, he had been using every spare moment he had trying to find some clue as to where she could have gone. It wasn't like her to simply disappear like this. The police and investigators were in a frenzy, trying to find clues. But nothing pointed to where Kallen or the other students could have gone. It's like they just vanished into thin air.

Plus, the fact that both Kallen and Zero disappeared around the same time disturbed Ohgi too. He had brought this concern up to the other Black Knights, and they thought it was strange as well, though Tamaki's comment of the two of them being somewhere 'sitting in a tree' wasn't necessary!

Despite this, when the BK received an anonymous tip about the Britannians attacking the JLF headquarters, he knew they couldn't just sit back and do nothing. He knew Zero wouldn't have anyway. So when they had contacted the JLF to inform them of the attack, they had agreed to work with them, temporarily. That had resulted in the BKs taking up this rear line by the mountain where they currently were.

From the sound of outside, the battle was beginning. It would only be a matter of time before the Britannians broke through.

Ohgi just hoped he had made the right call.

o~o

From within the Camelot Division, Nonette was explaining the battle plan to Euphemia, hoping it would put her at ease with her sister being on the front lines.

"The enemy's main base is around here," she pointed at an electronic map, similar to the one in the G1, "but it hasn't been pinpointed yet. Until a list is obtained from their collaborators, we can't burn down everything with the aerial bombing. As of right now, the enemy should be engaging the encirclement and will try to break through it. From there, we will be able to ascertain where their base is located. The main forces are divided into three fronts: the units led by General Darlton here," she pointed at the east side of the mountain, "General Alex here," she pointed to the middle, "And our little Nelly here," she pointed to the west, "As for the flanking forces…"

Suddenly, the Camelot Unit was greeted with the shock of the map's image becoming garbled.

"Enemy ECM," Nonette said with a frown. That only meant one thing. The battle had begun.

o~o

"The main enemy force should be coming out anytime now. We're switching to ECCN mode on channel Alpha four," Darlton smirked as he and his unit began to ascend the mountain, "The enemy, what are we calling them again?"

"Burais, sir."

"Right, they're rather like pseudo-Glasgows, so watch out for them."

"Yes, my Lord."

o~o

"How clever, they turned this mountain into a fortress," Cornelia commented sarcastically as Burais emerged from a hidden elevator covered by trees.

"Your Highness, please fall back."

"Guilford, please don't treat me as I'm another one of your women," Cornelia then shot forward in her Glasgow.

"It's…Cornelia!" A JLF soldier shouted.

"Don't panic! Take out the leader!" The three aimed their rifles and shot at Cornelia recklessly.

"Insolent worms!" Cornelia shouted as she evaded the bullets and swung her lance, knocking all three of them down.

She then plunged her lance into the nearest Burai, lifting it above her head and watched as it exploded. Cornelia snorted in disgust at how pathetic the pilots were performing.

Guilford fired a slash harken at a nearby turret, "Right, well, then I'll cover you from the rear."

Cornelia smirked as she glanced back at her knight before looking up at the mountain. "Well, Cornelia is here! Is there no one who can challenge me?"

o~o

"The enemy seems to be concentrated over here. This may be the target. Split up now!" Darlton commanded.

Just as the Knightmares began to do so, however, several blue lasers rained down from the sky, completely demolishing Darlton's squad.

"What?!" Darlton shouted in a mix of shock and horror.

"YAHOO!" Rivalz shouted in glee, and Polaris roared smugly with him as the Blue Lion in all of her glory landed smack in front of Darlton and his forces.

"Th-That's!" Darlton exclaimed, recognizing the Lion Knightmare from two months ago. They had never been able to relocate it after they initially spotted it. And now, here it was once again, standing between him and JLF's entrance.

Polaris let out yet another loud roaring cry, staring down at the Britannian Knightmares in front of her.

Acting instinctively, Darlton, followed by the rest of his squad, immediately open fired upon the Lion, but to their amazement, the bullets didn't even seem to dent the Lion's metal.

"Yo, dudes! Chill out!" Rivalz shouted with a smirk as he pushed his controls forward, and Polaris's mouth opened to unleash a giant blast of icy firepower.

Darlton managed to drive his Knightmare out of the way, but several others were unable to move fast enough and were soon found frozen solid, their pilots still trapped inside.

"F-Fall back!" Darlton orders, a fearful, foreign emotion in his tone. As his squadron began to retreat, he quickly pulled up his communication link with the Viceroy, "Viceroy Cornelia! Th-That Knightmare, the Lion, from two months ago. It's here!"

o~o

"WHAT?!" Cornelia exclaimed this message shocked her enough that her Knightmare staggered.

"V-Viceroy!" a soldier from another squadron cried out, "There's another one! But this one's yellow!"

"A large Red Lion Knightmare just landed by our squad, Viceroy!" Lord Kewell exclaimed, "It's wiping us out!"

"Wh-"

"Princess! Watch out!" Guilford shouted from behind. That was her only warning before a large black lion Knightmare, landed heavily right in front of her Knightmare and the rest of her platoon.

"Viceroy! Please get back!"

From inside of Zenobia, Lelouch couldn't help but smirk, "Hello Cornelia," he didn't turn on outside communications, so his sister didn't hear his greeting. He wouldn't want to spoil the surprise after all.

o~o

Back at the G1 unit and the Camelot Division, the rest of the forces were shocked to hear the reports of the Lions landing on the battlefield. From the look of things on the screen, the Knightmares were receiving little to no damage while their forces were practically getting wiped off the map.

Lloyd, in particular, was practically vibrating in his chair, eyes sparkling in excitement. This was the moment he'd been waiting for!

o~o

"Don't just stand there! Attack!" Kewell shouted and charged quite recklessly at the Red Lion.

"Okay, are you guys that stupid?!" Kallen shouted as Aka's claw slammed down on the Knightmare, and it erupted into flames below.

"Lord Kewell!" Villetta shouted in horror.

"Fight to the death!" Jeremiah shouted in rage, leveling his gun at the Lion.

The other Knightmares stayed back, trying to fire with their guns.

"We're not making even a dent on it!" Villetta shouted.

Kallen sat casually in Aka, almost with a bored expression. "I know Lelouch said to dial down on casualties, but…" her hand laid down almost lazily on the controls and slid the handle forward.

Aka's mouth clicked open, and a stream of flame shot out, surrounding the Pureblood's unit in a ring of fire.

"What?!" Jeremiah shouted, frantically looking around at the flames.

"Lord Jeremiah! We have to pull back now!" Villetta shouted.

"No! I won't be mocked like this!" he shouted stubbornly.

Villetta grunted and then shoved Jeremiah's Sutherland away from the approaching fire.

"What are you-?!"

"We need to get out here!"

Before Jeremiah could protest further, Villetta, along with the few Purebloods that were still mobile, drove off from the scene.

"Serves you Purebloods right," Kallen spat though with a smug grin on her face, "Now Ohgi, where are you at?"

o~o

Despite reports of the Lions landing around the battlefield, there was still one that had not been reported. His cloaking shield up, Rai and Zerith flew stealthily around the mountain and forest, dropping BLIP sensors every place that seemed reliable. He laughed when one of them hit the top of a Knightmare, and once it hit the ground and activated, the machines quickly made themselves scarce.

He dropped the last sensor near the top of the Narita Mountain. Considering the range that the sensors usually had, that one should pick up on every lifeform, whether human or not, in and around the mountain.

"Alright! All sensors are on the ground!" Rai reported as he finally dropped his shield and zoomed to a stop right in front of a group of Sutherlands.

o~o

"Update!" another officer shouted through the Castle's hacked link, "Another one! A green one!"

With the report that all the BLIPs had been delivered, Allura pulled up a full map of the mountain range below.

"Alright, I have the positions of all humans down below," Allura informed the Paladins.

"There is one small hiccup, though," Coran added, "Despite knowing the positions, there's no way to tell which of them are these Black Knights that you're looking for."

o~o

"We'll figure it out later. Keep us updated!" Lelouch shouted as Zen swung her tail, knocking several of the Knightmares back and into trees.

"Open fire!" Cornelia ordered from down below. Some of the Gloucesters even fired small missiles at the Black Lion, but none had any effect on it whatsoever.

"The material the Lions are made from will never cease to amaze me," Lelouch said with a grin as he reclined slightly in his pilot chair. He laughed almost sinisterly, "Not so fun being on the receiving end for once, isn't it, dear sister?"

Cornelia seemed to register that the gunfire was having no effect and changed tactics. She hefted her lance and charged straight towards the lion aiming for one of the joints.

"Princess Cornelia!" Guilford shouted in warning. Cornelia didn't see what was happening until it was too late as the Black Lion's massive paw shot upwards and slammed down on the front of her Gloucester. She was pinned down, the Black Lion's head hanging over her, like she was a mouse it was curiously inspecting.

"Princess!" Guilford gasped before stopping short to barely avoid a laser shot from the Black Lion's tail. He and the rest of the squad stopped short as the tail raised, charging to fire again.

Though the Viceroy refused to admit it aloud, she was indeed quite frightened, the bright yellow eyes of the monstrous Knightmare glaring down at her.

The Black Lions jaws suddenly snapped downwards, around her golden lance. She heard Guilford and the other soldiers shout in horror as this was happening. Her lance was ripped from her Gloucester's hands and snapped into pieces with a single flex of its jaws.

Finally, with what sounded like a disgusted snarl, the Lion released her and, with a swift turnabout, flicked its tail, slamming it into Guilford and her other subordinates. With yells, they slammed hard into the trees behind them.

She pulled on the controls but realized that Lion's claw had done more damage than she thought as she couldn't lift herself up.

"You!" she snarled as, to her fury, the Lion began to strut slowly away before it shot back up into the sky.

The Goddess of Victory roared in a fury! Not only was this her first actual defeat, but to receive such disrespect, such audacity! Whoever was inside that Knightmare, once she got her hands on them, they would wish they had never been born!

As she watched it disappear behind the trees, all she could do was scream furiously.

o~o

"What's happening?!" General Katase demanded.

"We're not sure, sir! Several highly advanced Knightmares appeared out of nowhere! From the looks of things, they're tearing the Britannian army to pieces!"

"They're holding them back?!" Katase asked.

"Yes! Nothing that's thrown at them is working!"

o~o

"Zero, five more human signatures are approaching the battlefield from the south," Allura suddenly informed him from the Castle.

"Five more? At what speed?" he asked.

"They appear to be moving at roughly the same speed as those other Knightmare machines."

"The JLF must have sent for back up," Lelouch muttered, "I don't think we need to worry about them. The JLF know we're not an enemy right now."

o~o

"All units, are you ready?" Todoh questioned seriously.

"Yes, sir!" the Four Holy Swords and their guest proclaimed.

"All right. Deploy the Guren and Custom Burais!"

"Deploying!"

The top of the trucks opened up and six Knightmare Frames, five resembling Burais, and the sixth one was a larger red Knightmare with its right arm significantly longer than its left, with a large silver contraption attached to it.

"Listen carefully, if these Lions are on our side, they should allow us time to help the General evacuate! But we must understand the situation first! Until we do, attack from all sides!" Colonel Tohdoh Kyoshiro ordered.

"YES, SIR!" the five soldiers shouted as they charged up the mountain.

Todoh, the Guren, and the Four Holy Swords were doing short work of any other Knightmares that weren't currently engaging the Lion Knightmares.

Now that he saw one of them, a large purple one, up close, Todoh almost had to pinch himself. The Britannians weren't making any headway with the Lion whatsoever. Blue lasers flew from the Lion's tail, and its claws and teeth were quickly crushing any that got too close. Although Todoh also noted that whoever was piloting this Knightmare didn't seem to be aiming to kill the Britannians, just disable the Knightmares themselves. Either way, it was confirmed to the Colonel officially of who the Lion was fighting when its tail collided with a Sutherland that nearly struck Chiba's Burai from behind.

Convinced of the Lion's allegiance, Todoh took the time to contact the headquarters immediately, "General! I apologize for the late arrival, what's happening?!" Todoh demanded.

"We're not sure ourselves, Todoh!" Katase replied, "But we're using the arrival of these Lions to evacuate the base! We need all the help we can right now!"

"I understand," the Colonel nodded, "We will assist as best as we can."

o~o

From the Camelot Division's transport, Euphemia watched the battle with fear in her eyes. She heard that the Purebloods had been forced to retreat, along with Darlton's unit. They had failed to get in contact with General Alex's platoon either, and word just arrived that backup for the JLF had arrived as well.

"Asplund, get this Knightmare ready to launch immediately!" Nonette ordered fiercely as she climbed up into the Lancelot's cockpit.

"Aha! With pleasure Miss Enneagram!" The Earl practically sang.

"Wait! Lady Enneagram! The Camelot unit hasn't been called on for assistance yet!" Cecile pointed out.

"That's not necessary! As a Knight of the Round, I'm personally ordering the launch of this unit. Upon doing so, I want all available military personnel sent my way as backup. Understood?"

"Ah! Yes, yes! Absolutely!" Lloyd was practically frothing at the mouth with exuberance, "This is the perfect chance to test my creation against these Lions!"

"Nonette-!" Euphie called out.

"Don't worry about me, Euphie," Nonette said just as the cockpit closed, "I've got this!"

o~o

"Man! I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd have this much fun smashing these Knightmares up!" Milly commented with a smirk as leaped out of the way one Gloucester's spears.

"I know, right?" Rivalz commented, "At least the smart ones know to run away from us! And to think, for a while, I actually sort of respected these guys, you know?"

"Trust me, I understand the feeling perfectly," Lelouch said a little darkly, shoving back memories that left a terrible taste in his mouth.

"Paladins," Allura's face lit up inside all of the cockpits, "There's a large number of people evacuating to the northwest of the mountain range. However, there's a small pocket of them that have yet to move from their position."

"That's got to be them!" Lelouch exclaimed, realizing that must be the Black Knight's location. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, 'The JLF is likely using them as decoys to hurry the evacuation along should the enemy break through that far. Just throwing them under the bus, it seems.'

"Kallen!" Lelouch cried, his face appearing in Aka's cockpit, "I'm sending you coordinates to the Black Knights location. Once you've confirmed it's them, you know what to do. And hurry, there's several Britannian units are heading their way!"

"Understood Zero!" Kallen nodded before she and Aka zoomed off in the direction specified.

'Hang on, guys! Just hang on!'

o~o

Shirley and Zinnia seemed to be having the easiest time with the Knightmares, both due to Zinnia's heavy armor, and the fact that Shirley was reasonably hesitant to hurt any of the soldiers. Most of the soldiers seemed to understand that they weren't going to break the armor, but that didn't mean that she didn't have to fight at all. Shots were fired from both sides, but Zinnia's laser blasts were far more effective than the bullets the Glousters and Sutherlands fired.

Shirley gasped when something suddenly hit her hard from above and behind.

"What?!" she gasped as Zinnia was knocked forward. She was able to recover quickly, and upon turning around, she came face to face with the Lancelot.

"What the heck?!" Shirley exclaimed upon spotting it.

"Shirley! Get away!" Suzaku shouted, Yoru landing deftly in front of Zinnia.

"Suzaku!" she shouted.

"Just go! I'll handle this!"

"O-Okay," she nodded before retreating off to the side.

Suzaku and Yoru turned to face the unit that he used to pilot. Suzaku admitted that he was shocked to see the Lancelot out on the battlefield, and who was testing it if it wasn't him? However, he knew he was the best person to fight it for that very reason.

Suzaku tensed when he noticed the VARIS rifle aimed to fire at him. He and Yoru quickly leaped to the side to avoid it. Though he doubted that even an advanced weapon like that could hurt Yoru, he didn't want to take too many chances.

The Lancelot sped right up to intercept him, readying its MVS sword to attack. Yoru raised her paw with a snarl to swipe at it, but the Lancelot quickly flipped over it and attempted to kick at Yoru's other leg. Just like with the other Knightmares, though, not so much as a scratch was left from the impact.

Yoru leaped backward again to try and shoot the Lancelot from long-range, only for one of the slash-harkens to pull towards it instead.

"Big mistake!" Suzaku shouted, as Yoru caught the harken in her mouth and roughly threw the Lancelot by its wire across the battlefield.

The Knightmare managed to flip and land on its feet again and readied the VARIS rifle to fire at it. This time, the VARIS did make contact with the Lion and managed to knock Yoru to the ground, Suzaku grunting from the impact. The next second, though, they were up on their feet again.

o~o

"Not even the VARIS did any damage to it?!" Cecile exclaimed in shock as she, Lloyd, and Euphemia watched on the computer.

Lloyd, however, didn't seem too bothered by this at all. He only seemed to get more excited at this new development, his eyes twinkling with thousands of stars, "Just what in the world is that Knightmare made out of?!"

o~o

"Okay, got to finish this fast," Suzaku grit his teeth. He and Yoru leaped into the sky, beginning to rain laser fire down towards the Lancelot, whose current pilot was dodging all of the attacks with ease. Despite being on the receiving end of it this time, Suzaku couldn't help but stare in awe at the Lancelot's performance.

'Not bad, Lloyd, not bad.'

o~o

Kallen's eyes lit up red with her Geass as she scanned the area furiously for the Black Knights. She had made sure to alert Lelouch about its ability before the battle began, which was why he only gave here the approximate location, knowing she could likely find them on her own from there.

"Where are-there!" She shouted, her eyes widening to see that several black Burais were cornered near one of the mountain entrances and were being overrun. The Sutherlands had just lifted their rifles to open fire.

"Oh no, you don't!" she screamed, Aka roaring in passionate rage as they shot off towards the cluster.

Before a single gun can be fired, Aka slammed down on top of the two Knightmares leading the charge at the Black Knights, effortlessly crushing them underneath. Down below, through dust and debris, Kallen spotted the distressed and panicked looks on many of the Black Knights, Ohgi included.

Just as the Britannian ground troops turned the guns in her direction, Aka roared, and Kallen sprinted out of the cockpit and leaped out her Lion's mouth with a flip, Bayard flashing to life in her hands. With a battle cry, she slashed her claws across the chest of one Britannian soldier and swiftly delivered a kick to one behind her. Spotting that some were aiming their guns at her from behind, she lifted her shield, easily taking the puny bullets that clattered off of it like tin foil. She sprinted towards the cowards that tried to shoot her and made little work of them, hitting one in the face with her shield and punching the other square in the jaw.

A single gunshot suddenly ran out, and Kallen's head jerked forward.

Only a thick silence fell as the bullet, that should've been lodged deep into her skull, slammed against Kallen's helmet, and landed with a clink on the stone floor below, crushed from its own impact.

"Impo-" the soldier never finished his sentence as a set of metal claws soon found its home right through the soldier's chest. With a cough of blood, he fell to the floor, bleeding out profusely on the ground.

One final roar from Aka, enraged that her Paladin had nearly been shot, sent the rest of the Britannian ground troops running back the way they came.

Throughout the whole thing, the Black Knights had only watched in awe and shock as, to them, a single soldier practically took out an entire platoon single-handedly.

Kallen tisked as she walked over to the now-dead Britannian and yanked her cestus from his chest. The Bayard shook back into resting position and disappeared into her suit.

With a huff, she turned and waved to the Black Knights, a cheeky grin on her face.

"Hey, Ohgi! Hey everyone! What's up?"

"Ka-Kallen?!" Ohgi stuttered as his brain was still trying to process what the hell he just saw.

"Wha-what the hell?!" Tamaki exclaimed, pointing frantically between Kallen and the Red Lion, "Kallen, what the hell's going on here?!"

"Where have you been, Kallen?" Minami asked urgently.

"What are you wearing?" Inoue questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

"What is that Knightmare?" she heard Yoshida ask.

Tons of other questions were fired Kallen's way, but even though she wanted to answer them, time was of the essence right now.

"Everyone, I promise I'll explain later, but right now, you need to come with me!" she said, pointing towards Aka, who had lowered her head and opened up to let the passengers on board.

"Wha-wait, Kallen we-"

"Ohgi, do you trust me?" Kallen asked the Black Knight directly.

"What?" he asked, taken aback.

"Do you trust me?" she asked again.

"Well- yes, you know I do, Kallen," Ohgi answered.

"They trust me now, please! Help me get everyone in the Lion."

Ohgi swallowed, but nodded, ushering all the Black Knights into Aka's mouth before following shortly after.

"Uh, you sure about this, Kallen?" Tamaki asked, just outside, "This thing looks more like it-"

"GET IN THE DAMN LION, TAMAKI!" she shouted impatiently before she literally kicked his ass, where he stumbled inside, nearly landing on his face.

Once all of them had boarded, Kallen shoved her way back up to the cockpit and sat down, "Sorry for lack of seats, you'll just have to hang on!" she warned before shoving the lever down.

With a roar, Aka leaped away from the mountain and with a thrust of her engines, shot into the sky. Kallen winced as heard several of the Black Knights be thrown backward from the force. 'Yeah… lack of seats, sorry guys.'

Once they were hovering above the mountain and out of immediate danger, Kallen contacted Lelouch, his face covered by his Zero mask appeared on her screen, "I've got them Zero! Heading to the Castle now!"

"Good work!" Zero nodded, "Once they're secure, return to the battlefield immediately so we can finish this!"

"You got it!" she grinned and closed the screen. Phase one complete.

"Wait-was that Zero?" Ohgi asked, having climbed his way up to the cockpit with Tamaki.

Kallen sighed in slight irritation, "As I said, I'll explain later. Now hang on to something!"

Ohgi and Tamaki managed to brace themselves just as Kallen slammed down on Aka's rocket boosters, and the Red Lion shot at full speed into Earth's atmosphere.

"Wha-wait! Hold on, where we going?! Wha-" Tamaki was cut off as he gripped the back of Kallen's seat with one hand, and grasped the right wall with his other. In front of his and Ohgi's eyes, the clear blue sky of Japan disappeared to be replaced with millions of stars against a sheet of black.

Ohgi also looked at a loss of words as the Moon drew alarmingly closer each second. But the Lion wasn't aiming to land on the Moon. Instead, it shot around the side of it and was greeted by-

"What the hell?!" Tamaki shouted as the Castle of Lions came into full view in front of them.

Ignoring Tamaki's exclamation, Kallen guided Aka into her bay and spotted C.C. waiting for them at the end of the tunnel.

Upon coming to a stop, she turned to the two men, "Okay, this is where you get off!"

"What? But Kallen-"

"Ohgi, you said you trust me, right? So please, just bear with us a little longer, okay?" she practically begged.

"And what about you?" Tamaki asked.

"I'll be back in a bit, with Zero. Now get going. There's a friend of ours waiting down there for you; she'll take care of everything else."

Ohgi still hesitated, before finally steeling himself and pulling Tamaki out of the cockpit to join the rest of the Black Knights, who were already exiting the Lion.

The moment Tamaki and Ohgi stepped out of Aka, the Lion reared back its head and roared before spiraling around and shooting right back out into space.

"Long time, no see, Black Knights," C.C. greeted with a small smile.

"Wait, do we know you?" Sugiyama asked, all of their attention drawn from their new surroundings to the woman in front of them.

"We've never officially met," C.C. admitted with a shrug, "but I am an ally to you and Zero. Now, if you'll follow me, we are keeping the others waiting."

"Wait, others? Who?" Yoshida asked.

"What is this place?" Inoue asked.

C.C. just smiled mysteriously before swiftly walking out of the room, forcing the Black Knights to follow her. After turning down several halls and up an elevator, C.C. waved forward onto the bridge of the Castle of Lions.

Before any of the Knights could adequately take in the room, a loud, cheerful voice drew their attention, "Hello! You must be the Black Knights. Though honestly, you don't look very much like knights. Ha! You Earthlings and your fashion quirks," Coran shook his head with an amused smile.

"Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on?!" Tamaki stuttered out.

"Who are you, people?" Ohgi asked a little more politely.

Allura turned to face them from her position in the center of the room, "Welcome Black Knights, to the Castle of Lions. I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea."

It took the Knights several seconds to process just what Allura had said before Ohgi finally found his voice, "Planet…? Wait, as in aliens?"

"Well, that's generally what 'another planet' means, right?" C.C. answered with a smirk.

"Wait, you're seriously aliens?" Inoue asked, "You guys look way too human."

Coran laughed, not looking offended by the statement at all, "Well, I could say the same about you. If it weren't for the unusually shaped ears, I'd almost mistake you for Alteans!"

Several of the Black Knights unconsciously raised a hand towards their ears at that statement, shooting confused looks to one another. "What's wrong with our ears?" Minami asked quietly.

"All you must know right now is that I'm an ally of Zero, and Coran and I are here to assist with your mission to free your land from Britannia," Allura told them professionally.

"And just how the hell are you gonna do that, lady?" Tamaki demanded skeptically.

Allura's eye twitched just slightly. Kallen and Lelouch had warned her that some of the Black Knights, one with red hair, in particular, weren't the most cordial Earthlings they'd meet. This must be the one they spoke of.

Before the Princess could reply, though, C.C. beat her to the punch, "Just watch," she gestured to the large screen at the end of the room, smirking, "You're gonna love this."

o~o

Suzaku grunted again as the Lancelot jumped roughly off of Yoru's back after it failed to pierce the armor on her back.

"Okay, whoever's piloting this is really good. Probably as good as me," he reluctantly admitted as Yoru swung her tail towards the Knightmare again, missing by centimeters.

Nonette also admitted from within the Lancelot that the pilot of this Purple Lion was also excellent. She had actually had to think about several of her attacks during this battle.

"Not bad stranger," she couldn't help but grin, "not bad."

Suzaku was about to fire at the Lancelot with the tail cannon again when Zero's face appeared on his screen.

"Suzaku, Kallen just got back. Rendezvous with me and the others at the top of the mountain!"

"It's time then?" he asked, more to himself than Lelouch, "I'll see you there!"

Zero's mask inclined in response before cutting the connection.

From outside, Nonette blinked in surprise as the Purple Lion in front of her suddenly dropped its tail cannon and leaped away, flying back into the sky.

"What the-What gives?" she asked, completely confused.

o~o

By the time Kallen returned to the others, the JLF was long gone, having escaped on several trucks and were just beginning to enter the highway. Despite the fair amount of distance, though, all of the rebels could still see the seven lions starting to assemble at the top of the mountain. Todoh and the Four Holy Swords, along with the pilot for the recently re-acquired Guren, watched intently as well.

o~o

Miraculously, Guilford's Knightmare was still functional enough for the knight to get to his Princess's Gloucester and drag it back to the G1 base. He was met by Darlton and a couple of other straggling soldiers there who assisted in prying Cornelia's Knightmare open.

The Viceroy seemed mostly unhurt, but a large gash on her head was bleeding profusely and would need medical treatment. Her Gloucester, on the other hand, was utterly inoperable now. Underneath her wound, though, her eyes were shaking in rage.

For the first time in her life, someone had bested her in battle. Not only that but had utterly humiliated her in front of her own men!

o~o

Suzaku was the last to join the Paladins at the top of the mountain, overlooking the thoroughly battered battlefield down below. From off in the distance, the Paladins could see Britannian reinforcements approaching from the ground and in the air with several helicopters racing towards them, likely armed to the brim with explosives they intended to aim directly at them.

"Man! I don't think I've ever had that much fun shooting bad guys before!" Rivalz commented happily.

"I agree," Milly smirked, "Compared to a Galran fortress, I barely even broke a sweat!"

"So, is this it, Lulu?" Shirley asked, eyes still glued to the army approaching them rapidly.

Lelouch sighed almost dramatically, "I suppose there's no point in keeping them waiting," he chuckled and straightened in his chair, "Alright, Paladins! Let's show Britannia what exactly it is they're up against. Form Voltron!"

"Yeah!" they all shouted. With roars of elation, the Lions all shot up into the air; their bodies cloaked in colored light.

The Black Lion roared out as it flew forward with its arms folding backward and then into the container units on its sides. Then the Green and Red Lion flew in as they flew upward, leaving behind a trail of energy in their colors. Their legs suddenly began to fold up and were secured to the sides before they shot up towards their leader. Next up, the Yellow and Purple Lion as they flew in and began to fold up their legs to be secured, the Blue and Orange Lion doing the same just below them, connecting to each other to form two long, large legs together. The Red Lion attached itself to the right socket of the Black Lion and the Green Lion connected to the left. Once this was done, the four remaining Lions connected to the bottom devices of the Black Lion, sealing up and joining tightly together. With the body now formed, a golden crown formed upon the Black Lion's head, its maw opened up to reveal the face of Voltron himself. With a clash of his hands, the Defender of the Universe reached upward to the sky, ready for battle.

o~o

Back as the Castle, the Black Knights all watched, eyes widening impossibly at Voltron's appearance. They were blown so open that the Alteans feared their eyeballs would roll out of their skulls.

Tamaki suddenly fainted on the spot.

C.C. had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from laughing out loud at their faces. It was honestly one of the funniest things that she had seen in a long time.

"Wha… What is that?!" Ohgi asked, finally regaining his voice. The expression on his face would make you wonder if he had just seen the face of God at that very moment.

Allura simply smiled proudly, "This is Voltron."

o~o

Time seemed to stop for every Britannian troop on the ground. Even the JLF trucks screeched to a stop on the highway to look back at the robotic giant standing in the air.

"Wh-what the hell?!" Jeremiah exclaimed in shocked horror.

Villetta's voice didn't seem to work as she kept opening and closing her mouth, eyes wide and shaking.

Similar reactions came from many other soldiers within their Knightmares, some backpedaling in shock and eyes widened into softballs. Some of them even felt a wetness around their seats.

Even Nonette from the Lancelot stopped dead in her tracks at the monstrous sight before them.

o~o

From the G1 unit itself, both Guilford and Darlton practically froze in their attempts to assist Cornelia as they stared at the central console.

"What… in the world… is that…?" Guilford whispered, eyes shaking and sweat running down his face.

Darlton seemed at a loss for words himself, along with the rest of the royal guard that survived.

The Goddess of Victory herself stared at the screen, still attempting to process what exactly she was looking at.

o~o

From the JLF convoys, all of the rebels looked on, eyes wide and mouth open. Even the ever-stoic Todoh couldn't mask his surprise, his eyes widening in shock.

o~o

"Ll-Lloyd… are you seeing this?!" Cecile asked frantically next to him.

Lloyd meanwhile could only look with a dropped jaw before it turned into a massive grin with beating hearts in his eyes. He squealed so loudly it would've put the biggest boy band fangirls to shame, "This-This is-! I can't even-! OOOoooOOOoooOOHHHH! This is amazing! I never thought I'd see such a thing in my entire life!"

Euphemia watched from behind them, her eyes also wide and lip even trembling.

o~o

Meanwhile, within Voltron itself, Kallen, Rivalz, and Milly couldn't help but laugh as the army practically came to a dead stop in front of them.

"Oh, man! You think any of them wet themselves yet?!" Rivalz guffawed.

"I will pay good hard cash, just to see what the look on their faces is right now!" Milly giggled uncontrollably.

"Ha! You like a taste of your own medicine, Britannia?" Kallen grinned fiercely. She hadn't felt this good in a battle for a long time.

o~o

"Open fire… Open fire!" Cornelia suddenly howled from within the G1.

The second everyone heard her orders, all forces, Knightmares, tanks, helicopters, and jets all began shoot relentlessly at Voltron, hoping that their combined power could take the robot out.

o~o

"Rai… form shield," Lelouch ordered plainly.

The Green Paladin blinked and replied, "Uh, Lelouch, you realize this is likely not going to do anything to us, right?"

Lelouch chuckled in reply, "Perhaps, but let's just humor them for the time being."

Rai shrugged but pulled up Voltron's shield anyway, just as the first group of missiles hit the safeguard raised in front of them.

After just sitting there and taking the onslaught for about a solid minute, Shirley spoke up, "Um… Lelouch, aren't we gonna like fight back?"

"Who says we weren't?" Lelouch responded with a smirk, holding a hand to the side of his face, "Kallen!"

The Red Paladin smirked before lifting Aka's head, and the Red Lion's jaw unleashed a massive blast of lasers towards a heavily crowded area of the helicopters. All of them exploded on impact, along with any Knightmares inside of them. She then directed Aka's head downward, and with a single, slow swing, blasted at the forest below, destroying or heavily damaging several ground troops and Knightmares beneath.

"Suzaku, form sword!" Lelouch ordered.

Suzaku hesitated for a moment before he jammed his Bayard into Yoru's key slot.

As the shield slapped back onto Voltron's back, his hands clapped together and formed the trademark sword and held it before him. Then with a flash of his rocket boosters, Voltron slashed straight through the rest of the airborne troops with a single swing of the weapon. An inferno of destruction shadowed them as they flew to a stop, now shadowed by the flames.

With one final swing of his sword, Voltron's direction turned skyward and flew off into the twilight.

o~o

"They're on the way back! That's our cue, Princess!" Coran said with a grin.

Allura grinned back, and with a swipe of her hand, the holo screens shifted, and the Princess pressed a single button in the center.

o~o

Cornelia watched speechless as the whole army was almost wiped out in a single strike. How could this be?! How could the Elevens, or anyone for that matter, create a weapon such as this?! And even if they did, how did they keep it hidden for so long?!

"Princess Cornelia! We must pull back! We will be completely wiped out if we keep fighting!" Darlton begged her from the side.

Cornelia grit her teeth and growled. Even though she was angry...no not angry, she was livid at how this battle had turned about; she knew there was no other choice.

"Very well," she hissed, "Sound the retreat!"

"Right away!" another general said almost frantically as he got a hold of all remaining Knightmares on the ground. He suddenly gasped in shock.

"What is it now?!" Cornelia demanded as the screen in the front began to glitch.

"Wait-that's!" Guilford exclaimed as the image on the screen came into view.

"I am Zero!"

Everyone aboard the G1 gasped in shock. It had been months since they had seen the masked rebel's face. Some people thought that he had died as the Black Knight's activity also depleted during this time. Seeing the masked foe in front of them on-screen now made the blood freeze in many of the soldiers.

It wasn't just on the G1 unit, either. Every electronic, computer and television screen was showing the same broadcast as well. All people, Britannian and Japanese alike, stopped all previous activities to turn their attention to the screen.

"People of Japan, I have returned!" Zero spread his arms out wide, and many gasped to see the distinct change to the BK leader's outfit. Gone was the fancy purple suit and golden lining. Instead, what was underneath his cape was what appeared to be some kind of black armor, with golden lining it. One of the most distinctive features of it was a large golden 'V' on the chest plate. It didn't look like old medieval armor, though. If anything, it looked like it had been pulled from a sci-fi convention. A very professional sci-fi convention.

o~o

"Hear me, Britannia!" Zero shouted, "All you who have power, heed my words carefully! I am burdened by sorrow, war, and discrimination! Malicious deeds carried out by the strong."

"You heard me right, keep it rolling!" Diethard demanded from the news station.

"But sir-"

"I'll do it myself if you don't!" the reporter shouted impatiently.

Alarmed, but not willing to disobey, the news anchor brought up the sound as Diethard gazed onward at the masked terrorist.

o~o

"The same abhorrent interplay of tragedy and comedy. The world has not changed. The people still suffer. That is why the return of Zero was necessary!"

From the safety of her home, Nina watched on as her eyes shook in fear. It was bad enough that all of her friends from the council were still missing, and now Zero was back again? She had just begun to feel safe with terrorist activity, finally starting to die down. Now, this?

She whimpered and pulled her legs up in a hug, cringing away.

o~o

From far off, within the safety of Mount Fuji, several older men and a younger girl watched the broadcast closely. The maiden's eyes, in particular, sparkled with excitement and admiration for this great warrior.

"So long as the strong oppress the weak. My rebellion will continue to grow."

o~o

"And it begins today with the divine punishment brought by the titan known as Voltron!"

The screens suddenly changed to show the dramatic transformation of the Lions into the great robot that had decimated the Britannian forces just moments ago. Everyone across Japan gasped in horror or awe at the power the juggernaut seemed to wield with a flick of its hand.

o~o

"Viceroy, we're trying to track the signal of the video, but there seems to be no place to track it!" an informant exclaimed over the G1's intercom.

"What?! How is this possible?!" Cornelia demanded.

"We don't know. We've checked every possible location this could be coming from!"

"Well, keep looking!"

"Understood!"

"Voltron, he is known as the Defender of the Universe. He is a shield to protect the weak, and a sword to destroy all those who abuse their power!"

o~o

From the Castle of Lions, where the video was being broadcast, the Black Knights, except Tamaki, looked in awe as their leader's speech continued.

"Charles zi Britannia, I now speak directly to you! You and the rest of Britannia will lay down your weapons and surrender unconditionally to Voltron. If you do not do this, you and the rest of your empire will face total obliteration. The decision is yours."

o~o

With that final, ominous warning, the screens all throughout the Empire and Area 11 glitched back to its scheduled programming.

A young woman, a princess, bound to a wheelchair, had been able to listen to the entire broadcast. Listen because she no longer had her sight.

"What's going to happen now?" she asked in a quivering voice.

A figure that had been standing behind her came closer and gently placed a gloved hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry," Schnizel el Britannia said gently to his sister, "everything's going to be okay."

Nunnally vi Britannia could only hum in agreement and trust in her older sibling. But the void in her stomach only seemed to increase more.

'Big brother…' she thought, tears gathering in her eyes, '...where are you?'

#Fanfiction #AU #Voltron #Code Geass #lelouch lamperouge #suzaku kururugi #c.c.#kallen kozuki #shirley fenette #milly ashford #rivalz cardemonde #rai (lost colors)#princess allura #coran #cornelia li britannia #britannia #knightmares #nunnally lamperouge #euphemia li britannia

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themachiavellianpig · 5 years ago

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Prodigal Son, Episode 10: Merry Christmas with the Whitleys

Episode 10 of Prodigal Son, and Malcolm really honestly tries to follow orders. For at least a whole minute. Promise. Meanwhile, Ainsley and Jessica have an honest conversation, and Gil tries desperately to juggle the Whitley’s never-ending nonsense.

As always, full review and spoilers galore below.

The episode begins with the highlights of Ainsley’s interview with Martin, which Malcolm is watching as some sort of self-inflicted penance. Ainsley included the footage of Martin absolutely losing it at the accusation of being a bad father; it’s less clear whether or not she used the footage in which she outlines her brother’s personal mental health diagnoses to boost her own ratings.

The appearance of Jessica in Malcolm’s apartment is heralded by her shoe going through Malcolm’s television - seems she’s about as happy with Ainsley’s interview as I am. Her main worry, though, is the Girl in the Box - more specifically, the way in which she and a whole lot of well-meaning adults told young Malcolm over and over again that his memories could not be trusted. The revelation that Malcolm was chloroformed by his father is another blow to an already unsteady woman; the idea that Martin had, at the very least, been a good father seems to have meant more to Jessica than we might have earlier realised. But of course, how else could you rationalise inadvertently raising children with a monster? By believing that the monster only really happened to other people.

Malcolm gets called away to a crime scene in a busy hotel, everybody but our hardworking detectives in full Christmas mode. The crime of the week includes a dead high-ranking police officer and a prostitute in a hotel room in an apparent murder-suicide. Given the way that such episodes go, it’s hardly surprising that Malcolm deduces that it wasn’t a murder-suicide in less than a minute.

It’s more surprising that everyone in the room just lets Malcolm wave around a loaded gun, including pointing it at his own chest and head and even cocks the damn thing before anyone calls him out on it. Good gun discipline is needed, especially when you don’t want a double homicide to become a triple.

Special Agent Colette Swanson makes a grand entrance, taking over the conference room, throwing Malcolm’s new lack-of-job-title in his face, and then accusing him of misogyny-through-profiling before claiming Dani for her team. She comes across as staggeringly unlikable in this scene - a bit of a disappointing choice, to be honest, given that it would likely have been far more interesting to watch Malcolm and the team hand over the case to someone who wasn’t instantly the bad-guy.

Malcolm, meanwhile, consoles himself with a box full of Turner’s old cases, trying to find someone who hated him enough to murder a bystander to get to him. He finds a photo of Owen Shannon (played by Sean Pertwee), a detective who had borderline harassed little Malcolm after the arrest of Martin. Shannon doesn’t seem to have calmed down at all in the intervening years, answering his door with a loaded gun pointed at their heads.

Shannon, it turns out, is massively jealous of the fact that Gil arrested the Surgeon, the man who Shannon had been hunting, and doesn’t have a huge amount of time for Gil, Malcolm or their accusations that he should be the prime suspect in Turner’s death. He’s far more concerned about Emily, the young woman in the hotel room - who couldn’t have been hired by Turner, given that the man was apparently gay.

In a brief interlude, Colette continues to have issues around Malcolm, so self-evident that they could probably be seen from space, and can definitely be seen by her colleagues - even the usually professional Dani accuses her of coming here to bury Bright rather than catch the Junkyard Killer.

Jessica comes to speak with Gil, desperate to identify the Girl in the Box and find her body so that Martin will finally go away for good - I’m not sure why one more body would take away Martin’s freedom to have visitors or give interviews or consultations, but Jessica is convinced. Not convinced enough to sway Gil, who wants to save her from the case which is already destroying Malcolm, and so who can really blame Jessica for nosing through his files and stealing a photograph of the Girl in the Box’s bracelet.

Dani and Malcolm have a sweet moment, in which they commiserate about their respective cases and Malcolm opens up a little about his difficulties with Eve - although saying “screwed up” instead of “nearly attacked her with a knife during an intense hallucination” is a hell of understatement even by Malcolm’s generous standards. Dani insistence that Malcolm isn’t beyond fixing is pretty gosh-darned optimistic at this point, but goodness knows that boy needs all the encouragement he can get at this point.

Ainsley goes to Jessica’s for Christmas and they finally talk about the interview - harsh words are exchanged, especially when Jessica accuses Ainsley of throwing not just their family but the families of all of Martin’s “real victims” back into the media storm purely to serve her own ambition. Ainsley’s claim of retaking control of the narrative of the Surgeon seems a flimsy defence at best - especially when she takes off immediately afterwards, reclaiming the bottle of rosé she’d brought with her for dinner.

Malcolm gets waylaid on his way to this fun family dinner by Shannon, complete with creepy flashbacks to Shannon’s attempts to get little Malcolm to confess to helping his father with the murders. Malcolm opens up a little - Shannon was right, there was another person involved, but Malcolm can’t find him without help. Shannon offers some help in exchange, in the form of Turner’s private stash of information.

Gil and JT, left to their own devices, have managed to do some actual proper policework and have tracked down the Madame of Caged Bird, Emily’s “matchmaking” service. She admits to sending Emily to trap Turner in a compromising position, in an attempt to stop Turner coming after the Caged Bird business.

Turner’s private stash is so private that I genuinely thought that Shannon was going to try and torture Malcolm for information in an isolated storage shed; fortunately, that doesn’t happen and instead they discover that Turner was investigating the Junkyard Killer, complete with all of Shannon’s old files. Despite Shannon’s belief that Turner gave up on him and the case, just like everyone else, Malcolm points out that Turner must have been trying to help - to prove that Shannon was right, that the Surgeon wasn’t working alone.

They find Shannon’s old list of suspects - useless at the time, but with the new information that Martin met his accomplice at a specific hospital, they managed to whittle down the list to a single name: John Watkins.

And now they do maybe the stupidest thing that Malcolm has ever done, and I’m included the earlier incident with a loaded gun - he goes to the last known address of a serial killer without telling Gil what the address is, even when Gil calls to ask him where he is. Seriously, Malcolm, backup is a wonderful thing and needs to be far more than a drunken cop with an unregistered firearm.

Award for Most Awkward Moment this week goes to Gil, who has to go and admit to Colette that not only have Malcolm accidentally been working on the case that he was repeatedly ordered to leave alone, but that he had no idea where Malcolm is. If someone doesn’t LoJack Malcolm in the second half of this season, I will be most surprised.

At the house, Malcolm and Shannon find Matilda, the Junkyard Killer’s blind grandmother. After Malcolm’s glee at being inside the childhood home of a serial killer (the apparent “Holy Grail” for profilers”, he starts trying to gently unravel John’s childhood - in between trying to escape being force-fed microwave ready-meals by the woman who raised a serial killer. Matilda quickly hits all the buttons Malcolm was probably looking for - she writes off her own daughter as a sinner, a filthy whore who chose heroin over her family, thus giving us a neat one-sentence summary of the beginning of John Watkins’ messianic mission of “salvation” for addicts and other such “sinners”. The only missing components were given when John’s grandfather died - crushed underneath a car right in front of the young John - and when someone installed a lock on John’s cupboard, complete with metal restraints and claw-marks inside it. Where John himself was punished a child, or where he kept his first victims? A flashback suggests the former, but who knows?

Malcolm returns to the table to find Shannon’s throat slit and blood pooling into the ready-meals; Matilda called John and is utterly unconcerned by the dead man at her table, as “Johnny takes out the trash!”. Malcolm grabs Shannon’s gun and goes outside to be smacked down by John, at last revealed to be being played by Michael Raymond-James with a most impressive beard, who Malcolm finally remembers as the other man on the camping trip. With the promise that “they’ll never find us where we’re going”, he drags Malcolm off into the dark for one long mid-season hiatus.

Finally, trapped in her own home by ambitious paparazzi, Jessica finally decides to try directing the narrative herself. She steps out of her house to give a statement, showing the photo of the bracelet and begging for help to identify the Girl in the Box - complete with a million dollar reward for any real information.

As far as mid-season finales go, Silent Night was a strong contender, yanking the ongoing plot of the Junkyard Killer onwards to the reveal of John Watkins, leaving us on an acceptable cliffhanger for the second half of the season. I can guess the bare-bones outline of episode 11, but am still interested to see these characters moving forwards - and, in a era of endless crime dramas, the characters are all we’re really here for.

The only thing missing was Dr Tanaka and her delightfully inappropriate flirting, but I suppose they had to save something for the mid-season premiere.

Other Prodigal Son Reviews are available here.

#prodigal son #tv review #episode review #Episode Recap #Thomas Payne #bellamy young #sean pertwee #michael raymond james #themachiavellianpig watches

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veryvirginvirgil · 6 years ago

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From the ground up Z1

Welcome to the z chapters, featuring.... Remy!

Master post of chapters

Remy spread his wings, playing with his phone and sipping on his Starbucks frappe. He usually didn't have time to indulge in coffee, so this moment or rest was well appreciated. As one of a handful of guardians responsible for sleep he spent most of his time rushing about, making sure that the humans slept proper.

The number of rest guardians had risen suspiciously these past few years. He had been responsible for training two himself. The number of rest guardians had risen from ten to thirty, and the new recruits where certainly doing thier jobs. This is why Remy had the time to purchase a phone and develop a love of Starbucks.

Of course his moment of peace was soon ruined.

"Remy." Another guardian came to him, alighting softly on the cloud next to him as he folded his Gray wings behind him.

"Was up, girl?" Remy replied, barely glancing up.

"The assigners requested your presence," he said. Remy glanced up and the messenger. He looked serious.

"K, I'll be there," He said, putting his phone away and flapping to his feet with his soft white wings.

"I'm to escort you to the entrance," The messanger said.

"Clingy much? Whatever let's get out of here," he said taking flight to the assigners office. The messanger followed behind, stopping at the entrance when Remy went in.

Remy was nervous. The assigners assigned guardians to significant humans on occasion, but mostly they all chose who they protected. Only a few guardians had stable jobs, and Remy was one. But protecting a mortal paid well if you did it well enough.

"Emanuel," a hooded assigner stated as he entered a dark, scone light, circular chamber.

"That's me," he said, sitting in the only available chair.

"The Lord has spoken, listen to what he has to say," another stated, directing his attention to an assigner, hood down and eyes glowing a soft pale yellow.

"The rest giver, the youngest of the ten," the assigneer's mouth moved, speeking not with his voice, but a voice Remy distantly recognised as The Lord's. "Emanuel. Remy, I have an important assignment for you. There is one beyond my sight, whose well being I wish to ensure. I have reason to believe he is risen."

"Oh wow," Remy said, sipping quietly on the coffee afterwards.

"I know not what he looks like, nor where he is. I remember where he went. This assignment is a challenge, but one that I know you are the most prepared for. Do you accept?" The Lord spoke. Remy thought for a moment. Was this the cause of more rest givers? Why him? What made him the best guardian for the job?

"My Lord, if I may, why me? A rest giver? I've never been a protector, and freelance work isn't really my style..." He said, finishing up his Starbucks.

"This case, I know, is best to give a rest giver. You know sleep, and that is closely tied to the person. They must learn to dream before they can wake. They must learn to sleep before they may dream. You can help with that in ways others cannot. Do you accept?"

"I..." He paused. He would admit, being a rest giver got boring after he'd been doing it for so long. This was new, and exciting. "Yes My Lord, I accept."

"Good. My assigners have the details. You have time to get you affairs in order before you set off. There are people here to help you. Good luck, Emanuel." The Lord said fading slowly from the assigner.

"Thank you, My lord," Remy said.

"And Emanuel? Do not neglect to dream," The Lord said, fading from the assigner. There was a moment of silence before they where offered water, and drank greedily. The assigner coughed, before leaving the room, pulling the hood of the cloak up. Remy glanced at the assigners, putting his empty cup on the on the table. The assigners pulled papers onto the table, opening folders and pushing thing onto the table.

"Emanuel, you will venture to Pagan springs, and search the woods. You will look for the one whose name begins with a "v". This is the individual The Lord spoke of. You will guard him. Before that you will be training with Gaberial," one assigner spoke

"The morning star?" He asked.

"The current morning star, yes. Your underlings will take up your duties, while you work on the case. The pay, is hefty," another said.

"How much is it?"

"5 times your current net worth," said another.

"Gurl..." Remy said in disbelief. He was already very well off, this could easily make him as rich as Gaberial himself.

"You will be provided with the vast majority of what you will require in order to live as a human convincingly, and you will be taught everything you need to know," the first said.

"When do I leave out?" He asked.

"We have a month. You start training immediately. Go to the back entrance, there Gaberial awaits with a messenger. Tell them you have accepted, and follow Gaberial from there. These papers will be delivered to your apartment, you will review them later," said the second.

"Gaberial will guide you through much of the process," the third said.

"Only engage with those relevant to your assignment. You will most likely have little trouble with them. There is normally no point in socialising," said the last. One of them, Remy lost track of which, ushered him out. He left, heading to the back entrance. There stood Gaberial, handsome and ethereal with the largest and most silver wings Remy had ever seen. The messanger stood with him, both looking to him expectantly.

"I- I've accepted." He said. The messanger flew off, and Gaberial smirked.

"Come on then, youngling, you've got a lot to learn," he said, taking flight. Remy followed, following the guardian as best as he could. Gaberial was naturally very fast, and while Remy was too, Gaberial's wings where easily five times the size of his.

They alighted on large marble steps, leading to a building that Remy had previously no cause to enter.

"The equipment building for high rank missions. This place has basically anything and everything you could need or have want for." Gaberial said, walking to the entrance.

"Starbucks?" Remy said, following.

"I mean, yes? That's normally not the first thing people come up with, but there's all forms of currency so there's gift cards for that," Gabriel said. "But first things first, to the east wing, housing division."

"Sounds lit," Remy said.

"Welcome to the housing division, morning star Gaberial! What can I do for you?" Said a young, pepy gaurdian. She ignored Remy, focusing on Gaberial.

"Thank you, Mary. This is Emanuel, we need to select mobile housing for his upcoming mission," Gaberial said, motioning at Remy. The attendants face fell slightly before she pulled out some paperwork and pens.

"What rank of importance was he assigned? I can get him a rank 10, but any lower than that and you need another building." She said.

"Rank one, we're looking at rank one housing," Gaberial said. Remy, despite being surprised about the rank was smug with her disbelief.

"You almost had me there Gaberial! They don't give anyone but you the rank ones, everyone here knows that," she laughed. "But no, for real, what's his importance rank?" Gaberial said nothing, but pulled out a rank card, it had a photo of Remy, some information, and on the back and the front where both the number one, showing the rank.

"I see, my apologies, morning star Gaberial," she said, filling out some of her paperwork with the card. She hurridly picked up all her papers before leading them down a hall. Gaberial passed the card to Remy, who put it in his pocket to look at later.

"We have a somewhat narrow variety of Rank one apartments, but they are highly functional," she began. "They all have dimensional capacity, item summoning, storage for centuries! Will you be needing a filling cabinet?"

Gaberial raised an eyebrow at Remy.

"Uh... Yeah that'd be cool, or whatever," Remy said.

"We'll make sure you have that. All of out styles are fully stocked, and self cleaning. Let's take a look at modle 1A," she said. They went from apartment to appartment, the attendent giving a brief tour of each. Remy settled on 1D, a clean and creamy apartment that had lower lightning and the fluffiest furniture. It felt similar to the rest givers headquarters.

"Now that we've got that settled, onto the wardrobe department!" Gaberial said. They walked over to the west wing. They passed through large double doors, into a seemingly never-ending warehouse of clothing.

"Oh my gursh," Remy said.

"Hello, Hello!" Out came a young gaurdian, a measuring tape around his shoulders, and scraps of fabric pooring from his pockets. "Welcome to wardrobe! Do you know the duration of your earthy venture?"

"Lengthy, possibly eternal," Gaberial said. "Emanuel here's just been given a high rank assignment, and he'll need a bit of everything."

"Of course! Let me just get some measurements here, find your size, and we'll talk about style in a jiffy!" The gaurdian said, pulling off the tape measure and going to work. Remy's style as it turns out was "sleepy teenage rebellion" as the gaurdian put it. He chose comfortable clothes in mainly blacks, prefering fluffy jackets, soft skinny jeans, and thin shirts that where just as much nightwear as they where daywear.

"You'll definitely be getting a lot of these, but I'll also include a bit of everything! Until you file your final report we'll keep the wardrobe updated for you. Stop on by every once and a while so I can update your measurements."

"Dope," Remy said. still letting his eyes wander over the assortment of clothes. Gabriel pulled him to the next section, the kitchens. The gaurdian there was plump and joyous. He shoved bite sized sample after sample at Remy while another guardian, probably an intern, kept trying to handle paperwork. He found that all the food was delicious, but he definitely had a bit of a sweet tooth. Gabriel pulled him to another side of the building after he complained about getting fat for the fifth time.

"We're heading to the currency section. We don't know exactly where you'll be, so we're gonna fill your wallet when we get it from the dressing department. Right now, we're talking monetary systems and spending." He dragged Remy to a room.

The currency guardian was large and grayed. He was looking older than any guardian, but he tuaght Remy about money with all the youth and vigour of a teen. Remy knew that he was amounghts the 100 oldest guardians, and that this guardian wasn't, but the way he talked and carried himself planted doubt into thousands of years of certainty. He left there will more knowledge about human currency than he thought was possible and a minor exsitantal crisis.

"He was just, too old!" Remy said.

"He's barely even 4,000 years old," Gabriel replied, walking with purpose.

"I know but he's just, like. Really old."

"You're more than twice his age!"

"Girl, I wear it better."

"It doesn't matter. We're approaching the armory," Gabriel lead him in. The walls where glistening with the metallic light of thought of weapons. Wooden weapons and other unique weapons where on smaller racks throughout the room and sheilds hung from wooden rafters, filtering the outdoor light that served at the only source of light. In the center of it all, on a pile of sheilds sat a small guardian, half Remy's height, polishing a knife. Gabriel walked quietly towards her, stopping within her feild of vision, not speaking. Remy followed, eying up and down the shelves and walls.

There was a lot to take in.

_____________

I'm not dead. :)

Taglist:

@changeling-ash @demonickittykat @internallyexplodingrainbows @astraastro @theinsanelycooljaredkleinmen @virgils-hoodie @ccecode @avoidingmyproblemswithart @just-another-transblog @awkwardeko6 @fight-me-in-a-parking-lot @addieshay @thepoolofthedead @4teamsweetflips @milomeepit @magicmagistro @halffictional @the-darkness-art

If your url is in red it will be taken out of the list cause it's broke and I can't tag you. Please tell me your new url to be tagged.

Ask Remy anything at @fromthegrounduprp

#sandersides fic #thomas sanders fic #remy sanders #fromthegroundup #ftgu #vvvf #z1 #zchapter #im sorry #this took so long #colour

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auxiliarydetective · 3 years ago

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So I haven't quite decided on what Zoe and Newkirk's relationship should actually be. I mean, I know where they'll end up but even that's a bit blurry with the details. All I know for sure is that their relationship is very special and probably a big "it's complicated".

For one, they're very similar but also very different. Both are British and, judging by what little I can get out of Newkirk's accent, both from Greater London. But they're from wildly different backgrounds which, as I learned in this post, makes a great difference.

Now, Newkirk is in the RAF and Zoe in the WAAF, but they're comparable enough. Newkirk is from the lowest social class imaginable. Maybe he finished school, maybe he didn't, but he definitely didn't get any high education. His accent makes it very obvious where he's from. On top of that, he didn't come willingly. He was drafted. As the post I linked explains, he would have been looked down upon by his superior officers. Due to this, he would probably have been held back in climbing the ranks. Then we have Zoe, who is high-class. Probably the daughter of some rich factory owner. She speaks three languages fluently and must have had a splendid education. She's very young and respectably beautiful and came to the WAAF willingly. Now who is the main enemy in WWII? Germany. What language does Zoe speak fluently? German. What other language might be practical when communicating with allies? French, which Zoe also speaks. What is the ideal Germans are looking for in the appearance of people? Blonde with blue eyes. What does Zoe look like? Blonde with blue eyes. All of that, things that she had no say in and made little to no effort to accomplish, along with her average to high skill in communications led to her being fast-tracked.

So now we have the following situation: Newkirk, who was held back, probably hates the RAF and has only now gotten comfortable with being in the military because the other Heroes respect him, meets Zoe. Zoe is younger than him but outranks him by quite a lot. However, she's insecure about her rank and wether she's qualified for her position, thinking she only made it this far out of luck and because she was fast-tracked. Due to this, she specifically tells the Heroes not to call her honorifics. She think's she's undeserving of her rank.

Their worlds basically collide. They get along pretty fast and Newkirk is charmed by her because she - surprisingly - has no prejudice against his accent even though she is audibly higher-class. She pays no mind to it. Both are great actors, both are pretty individualistic and everyone else knows that they have a crush on each other.

I also see Zoe as someone who adapts strongly to her surroundings. That's why she never calls the Germans "Krauts" (along with being half German herself which she would never admit), why she always responds to the Hitler salute out of reflex and why she always calls Hitler the Führer. She also has to seriously fight her mouth not to say something mildly insulting to her allies whenever certain topics arise. It's not that she agrees with the ideology, it's that she's been acting as a part of it for so long and had it as her only social surroundings that she has unconsciously picked up their speech patterns.

So now think about what would happen to Zoe's speech once she starts spending time with the Heroes. For one, as I've stated in a post before, the absolutely casual erasure of personal space would grow on her. She would start to feel comfortable pretty soon. On top of that, she might pick up some personality traits or habits of the Heroes. For example, addressing LeBeau with bits of French or starting to smoke more frequently because of Newkirk. But one thing that would definitely happen is that her accent would become an absolute melting pot. So sweet, gracious, high-class Zoe Allen not only picks up some random American and French words, but also develops a full-on Cockney accent. Sometimes, she doesn't even know what she's saying, her brain just copied what Newkirk said sometime. The accent gets worse when she gets angry. Why? Because Newkirk is a lot more foul-outhed than she is and she basically learned all her actually insulting English insults from him. Before, she only knew to call someone a rapscallion or something. But now... Be careful. Also, the Heroes absolutely love teasing Zoe whenever they notice her picking up a new word.

#hogan's heroes #zoe allen #oc: vicky brandt #vikirk #horrible ship name #please help me think of something better #otp: thief of my heart #peter newkirk #headcanon

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chasholidays · 7 years ago

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Pls write Bellarke in Agent Carter (Bellamy as Daniel Sousa) because them bonding over being treated like shit for their gender/disability is what I live for. I would love to see dramatic Bellamy move across the country after being turned down by Clarke only to find out later that she actually was busy (but the wikia pages don't really mention it, so if you haven't seen the show, don't worry about it). (if you haven't seen it, the Agent Carter and Daniel Sousa MCU wikia pages have the best info)

The first thing Bellamy says to Clarke Griffin is, “You must be the new secretary.”

Her eyes flick up to him, barely even looking. “I must be.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“I doubt it,” she says. “Did you need something? Copies, coffee?”

He frowns, taken aback. “No, I just wanted to introduce myself. Bellamy Blake.”

“Clarke Griffin,” she says. She’s still not looking at him. “A pleasure.”

It’s as much of a dismissal as he’s ever heard, and he’s not sure what else to say but goodbye.

He figures it out when Kane comes in and introduces her to the room at large. “Everyone, this is Clarke Griffin. Our newest special agent.”

It takes him a day to come up with what he wants to say to her. It was an honest mistake, but he knows from being on the receiving end of many such honest mistakes himself, he knows it’s not a comfort to hear that he had made an assumption he shouldn’t have. For every person whose mistake really was honest, there are five more who are pretending. Agent Griffin has apparently dealt with it enough that she doesn’t even bother with corrections, just lets the error slide and waits for the truth to come out on its own.

So a simple apology seems easiest. He goes to her desk and starts with, “Excuse me.”

He can see her shoulders tense, but when she sees him, she relaxes.

That’s something.

“I just wanted to apologize,” he says. “For the other day.”

“I should apologize too,” she says, to his surprise. “I should have just corrected you.”

“I assume you spent the entire morning with people who knew who you were asking you to get them coffee.”

That makes her smile. “I did. I thought everyone had heard about me by the time you showed up.”

“I’m not exactly in the loop for gossip. I heard some talk of a secretary, and nothing about the new agent.” He pauses, but then adds, “Before I lost my leg, I’d get asked if I was a janitor.”

“And after?”

He taps his crutch. “No one thinks I can do anything useful with just one leg.”

“So you’re saying all I have to do to keep people from asking me to make coffee is lose a leg?”

He lets out a surprised bark of laughter before he can stop himself, but Clarke looks pleased and a little relieved, so he doesn’t apologize. Aside from his sister and his friend Raven, he’s not sure anyone’s ever made a casual joke about his injury, and it’s amazing how nice it is.

“You could try it,” he says. “I’m sure we have someone in lockup who would be happy to take one of yours off.”

“We’ll see how many copies I have to make, but I might take you up on that.”

“I am sorry,” he says.

She shakes her head. “You don’t have to apologize. As soon as you left, one of the secretaries told me you must not know. I’m sorry for giving you the cold shoulder.”

“You has no reason to think better of me than anyone else.”

“So no one needs to apologize,” she says, with a small smile. “And we can start over.”

“Sure.” He shifts on his crutches, freeing his hand so he can offer it to her. “Bellamy Blake.”

She shakes with a firm grasp he’s sure she’s had to work on to be taken seriously. “Clarke Griffin,” she says. “Nice to meet you.”

“So, I guess birds of a feather really do flock together, huh, Blake? I thought you’d be happy we finally had someone more useless than you. Must be nice to not be at the bottom of the barrel.”

Bellamy takes a breath, counts to five under his breath before he says anything. He basically always wants to punch John Murphy, but it’s gotten worse in the last week. Still, the last thing Agent Griffin needs is him fighting for her honor. She can take care of herself. She wouldn’t thank him for doing it for her.

“As long as you’re around, I know I’m not at the bottom of anything, Murphy. If you were better at your job, you’d have something to do other than worry about getting a new coworker.”

“You hoping she’s going to fuck you? I don’t blame you, must be hard to find someone willing to put the effort in, but someone like her must be gagging for it.”

This time, he has to count to ten. “Sounds like you’ve put a lot more thought into this than I have. Thanks for worrying, but I think it’s probably easier if I handle my romantic life and you take handle your own.” He pauses, for effect now, instead of to get his temper in control. “Then again, with your track record, I can see why you’d want my help. Haven’t seen many people willing to put the effort into dealing with a dick like you. I mean yours,” he adds, innocent, and Murphy’s eyes flash.

But he just shakes his head. “Well, I’m rooting for you crazy kids. If two freaks can’t find happiness together, who can?”

He takes off before Bellamy can respond, which probably counts as a win for Bellamy, but it’s hard to feel good about it. It’s exhausting, spending every fucking day fighting just to prove he belongs as much as anyone else does.

It must be exhausting for Agent Griffin too, which is why he stops by her desk at the end of the day and says, “Do you want to get a drink?” Her expression clouds over, and he realizes his mistake. “Because it’s been a long week and I need a drink,” he says. “I thought you might too. My best friend works at a bar, and some other friends will be there. Ladies, as well as men.”

Her shoulders slump. “That would be lovely, yes. Why don’t you tell me where to meet you and I’ll come in an hour or so?”

“Sounds good,” he says. “I’ll see you in an hour or so.”

It becomes a part of their routine, Fridays spent at the bar, trading stories of who’s been awful this week, of how hard it was climbing through the ranks, trying to earn respect with limited success. They discuss the different ways they cope, Bellamy admitting his distaste for the macho posturing he participates in, Clarke admitting she sometimes wishes she could just throw a punch instead of playing it cool.

His feelings for her are inevitable, the natural evolution of how much he enjoys her company, how much he admires her, how much time they spend together and how well they get along. For all he tries to fight it, he falls hard, and for all he tells himself she’s not interested in him, he can’t help hoping. He knows that she’s still nursing a broken heart, that she lost a lover and that’s part of why she relocated. The last thing he wants is to make her think this has all been a ruse, that he’s been playing a long game, getting close to her just because he wants something.

The last thing he wants to do is lose her.

“She knows you better than that,” is what Miller tells him. “Not saying she feels the same way, hell if I know. But I think she knows you well enough that she isn’t going to think you faked everything about your relationship.”

“She knows you like her,” Raven adds. “Hell, she knows you respect her and value her as a person. Like Miller said, she might not say yes, but she’ll know you’re not just asking because you think she’s attractive. You’re attracted to her because you got to know her, you didn’t get to know her because you were attracted to her.”

“I know. Trust me, I didn’t want this to happen.” He scrubs his face. “She doesn’t have a lot of allies. I don’t want her to lose me.”

“You don’t have a lot of allies either,” Miller says. “I know how many assholes there are in your office. She’s not the only one with something to lose, so maybe even if it goes wrong, you guys could keep each other.”

He squints between Miller and Raven. “You really think this is a good idea.”

Raven shrugs. “I think you’d be happier and she would be too. Seems like it’s worth asking. I don’t think you’re going to ruin your life.”

“Thanks.” He runs his hand through his hair. “Okay. I’ll think about it. Good talk, team.”

Clarke shows up a few minutes later, sliding onto the stool next to him, smiling at him, setting his heart racing.

“Hey, sorry I’m late. Got caught up in a project. Did I miss anything?”

“Nope,” says Bellamy, returning her smile easily. “Nothing at all.”

The next Friday, he waits until most everyone has left and stops by Clarke’s desk. She’s on the telephone and holds up her hand, so he waits, reminding himself to not be nervous, that this isn’t a big thing. He’s just asking a question. She’ll say yes or no, and they’ll proceed from there.

“Hi, sorry,” says Clarke, looking flustered. “What’s up?”

“Everything okay?”

“It’s fine. Just following up on some cases. Drinks tonight? I probably need one.”

It’s as perfect an opening as he could ask for. “Yeah, I was going to ask, um–you want to do drinks just the two of us tonight? Somewhere a little nicer, maybe.”

For a second, her face is just frozen, but then he sees the change in it, and he knows the answer before she even opens her mouth. “Bellamy, I’m so sorry, I–”

“It’s fine,” he says. “I thought I’d ask. We can just do the usual. Miller’s working, I bet he’ll give you a free drink if you tell him how bad your day was.”

She opens and closes her mouth. “I hope so.” Her phone starts ringing again, and she winces. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I have to–”

“Go ahead. See you at the bar in a few hours?”

“Assuming my phone ever stops ringing.” She bites the corner of her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for. See you tonight?”

“Yeah,” she says. “See you tonight.”

She sounds like she means it, but it’s six months before he sees her again.

In his line of work, people move. They appear and disappear without warning, off on new projects, chasing leads, sent away to where they’re most useful. It happens all the time, and everyone expects it. He knows better than to take it personally.

Still, if it had been him, he would have made time to say goodbye to Clarke before he left.

Murphy’s the one who tells him she’s back, which makes sense, given how much shit he gave Bellamy about Clarke “dumping” him when she first left. Aside from Miller and Raven, there’s no one else as invested in Bellamy’s non-relationship with Clarke as Murphy is.

“Seen your girlfriend yet?” is what he asks, and it takes Bellamy a minute to make the connection.

“I don’t have a girlfriend right now,” he says. Before, he would have made a crack about it, maybe said he didn’t know Murphy’s mother was in town, but Clarke got him thinking about the way that speaking to Murphy in his own language could be damaging to women, so he’s trying to be less combative.

Then his brain catches up with what Murphy actually said, and he nearly loses his balance. He can’t mean her. He can’t. Bellamy must just be hoping.

Murphy looks triumphant. “So, she didn’t tell you she was back. I knew it.”

“More evidence that she’s not my girlfriend. What do you want, exactly?”

“I don’t get you, Blake,” he finally says, and Bellamy shrugs on shoulder.

“The feeling is mutual. I have work to do.”

Word that Clarke is back spreads around the office and the knowledge takes up residence under Bellamy’s skin. The whole day, he’s itchy and anxious, torn between his desire to see her and his nervousness about what they are to each other. He knows it probably wasn’t personal, that she was on business, important business, that she left suddenly, without time for goodbyes, but it still hurt.

He stays late, working until he’s sure the building is empty, but of course she’s waiting for him in the lobby. She looks a little tired, like she’s had a rough few months, and his annoyance flags.

She’s probably had a worse time than he has. She probably needs a friend.

“Hi,” he says. “I heard you were back.”

“Yeah. I thought–” She worries her lip, but when he eyes meet his, they’re steady and certain. “I thought we could get dinner, and I could fill you in. If you’re still–if you want.”

“Dinner,” he repeats.

“I had a lot going on. There was–I’m not good at trusting people. But while I was gone, all I could think about was–” She smiles. “Okay, most of what I was thinking about was what I was doing and making sure I stayed alive. But I thought about you a lot too. I had this fantasy about showing up at the bar and asking if I could buy you a drink, but the timing didn’t work out. So–dinner. Since I didn’t have time for the drink.”

“Dinner would be nice,” he says, mouth a little dry. “That’s why you said no?” he can’t help adding. He’d been so ready for her to turn him down, it never occurred to him that the end of her sorry might not have been I don’t think of you like that.

“Yeah, I just–I didn’t think I had time. Until I got things figured out.”

“And they’re figured out now?”

“I hope so, yeah. Want to get dinner and hear all about it?”

“Yeah, I’d love to,” he says.

They get the drink after dinner, and Clarke tugs him down for a kiss before they part, and Bellamy will admit, she was worth the wait.

#rose-tinted-nightmares

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bruinhilda · 7 years ago

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Happy B7 Anniversary! I’ve written some new nonsense for the occasion!

You can read it on AO3, or under the cut here.

It had been a very uneventful watch shift for Vila. Just the way he liked them. And while he'd normally have taken the opportunity to catch up on his sleep, the quiet was just too useful tonight. He was on a deadline, after all.

He'd nicked the scriber from a mid-level bureaucrat's desk a year or so back. He hadn't even wanted the thing originally, but after taking a whole five minutes breaking into all the drawers in the office to find nothing of value, he was damn well going to take something. It'd taken half that time to guess the thing's passcode. And that had been extremely lucky; the previous owner had not kept it for work notes. Vila thought of himself as completely shameless about these things, but he'd nearly combusted a mere three pages into the first story. A rare talent, the former owner had been. Quite instructive.

Vila was still honing his own skill. He'd tried his hand at a similar style, but he'd found it...stressful. There was always the chance someone would find out what he was up to. He might not live it down if they discovered him writing erotica for this. Correction: he might not live at all.

But he found he could get a little blue without too much risk. Hide it in the middle of a little high adventure, that was the ticket.

He was quite pleased with the Andevean Dancing Assassins, overall. Smart, sexy, and vicious, they had tied up Blake and Jenna, and were preparing a delightful torture while Avon had negotiated his way out of their clutches, and was now...working...his way up the ranks, determined to take over the entire organization with his immense...talents...

A hand landed on his shoulder. A strong, heavy hand that promised torture of a more ordinary nature. Vila's own hands stuttered out a paragraph of pure gibberish at high speed in response.

“We need to talk,” a very dangerous-sounding Avon drawled.

“Oh certainly, anytime, you know me, always up for a friendly chat...”

The hand tightened. Vila winced. “I have just come across a very...interesting computer archive. An illegal one, talking about us. Or rather...the fictional version of us the Federation decided to entertain the mindless masses with.”

“Really? For Liberated!? I should look into that sometime...”

“Oh, I think you've done more than 'look into it,' Arco.”

Vila wilted. “Oh. You know.”

“That the show.lib.story database is moderated, as well as possibly created by, one Arco Selman, writer of two infamous episodes of the fan-favorite vidcast Liberated!? And, apparently, author of many more stories set in the benighted setting of that damned show! Yes, I am aware of it!”

“Hey now, most of those aren't mine! That's probably the galaxy's finest collection of amateur writers posting there. I just...give some of them pointers from time to time.”

“Pointers. About writing Federation propaganda designed to defame us. For free.” The “free” part of that seemed to be outraging Avon more than anything else, Vila noted.

“Well, it's stuff they'd never actually air on the show, would they? We've got some really big fans there, and they want stories where we win instead of lose. And since the Federation won't allow it, they just write it themselves! It's really flattering, when you stop and think about it...”

“And the sub-board? The one devoted to stories of a more...personal...nature?”

Crap crap crap crap crap of course he noticed that...”You don't think I had anything to do with that, do you?”

“That you might also be 'Rill Vestal,' author of the three-hundred part and counting series 'Lonely Rebel Nights?' I must admit, the thought had crossed my mind...”

“That's not me! You don't think I'd use that transparent an alias, do you? That's someone from an outer colony, they transmit in every couple of weeks and add to the archive. Everyone lives for those updates!”

“Do you now?” That hand was going to leave a tremendous bruise, Vila just knew it. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have Orac scrub the system and let Dayna hang you from your toes to the underside of the ship?”

“...uh, well...Oh! I've got one!”

“Do tell.”

“'Servalan's Sugar'! You wouldn't want to destroy that, would you?”

Avon looked blank. “What?”

“You missed that one, didn't you? It's a work of art, guaranteed to get the author shot if Madam President ever figures out who it is!”

“Why should I care...?”

Vila was already calling it up on the scriber. He turned and thrust it at Avon's face. “Here! See if you don't agree with me!”

Avon glared, and opened his mouth to cut Vila to pieces. His eyes landed on the scene Vila had pulled up, and his mouth closed. Vila watched nervously as his eyebrows rose, and something approaching respect floated across his face.

“You're right about this getting the author shot. Possibly multiple times, and by all the parties involved in this...work.”

“I know, right?” Vila was grinning ear-to-ear now.

“Travis himself might come back from the dead to do it. And you have no idea who wrote this?”

“Nobody knows who anybody is in there, that's the whole point of a hidden archive! Everyone reroutes their transmissions through multiple systems so the Federation can't track them back if they ever find the archive! Nobody would dare to do this otherwise!”

“You should have known better yourself. There are a number of people on this ship and off it who would be happy to kill you for your part in this.”

“Well, I won't tell them if you won't! Come on, it's harmless enough, and anything that annoys the Federation has to be worthwhile, right?”

Avon smiled again. It was a smile that promised future torment, as soon as he thought of something appropriate to the occasion. “Well, if you feel that strongly about it, Arco.”

“You won't tell?” Vila clenched his hands nervously.

“I'll consider...discretion about the matter. However, I'm taking this.” Avon held up the scriber.

“Aw, have a heart, I'm on deadline, you know!”

“You'll just have to disappoint your fans this time. I should think you were used to doing that already.” With that same grin, Avon turned and left the flight deck.

“Oh ha-ha.” But Vila collapsed in relief. He wasn't going to die from his transgression. Well, at least not right away. If Avon didn't figure out the passcode to his more private writing attempts. Scratch that, he probably had it already. Well, maybe he wouldn't show Dayna and Cally. Avon was fond of blackmail, Vila was sure. He'd prefer to leave the threat hanging over the thief's head indefinitely.

Vila scrabbled for his nearest hidden bottle. He could definitely use a drink or three now...

Dayna watched Avon stalk by from the crack in the door of her lab. When the tech was safely down the corridor, she slipped out and headed for Cally's room.

“We're rumbled,” she said as soon as the door closed behind her. “Avon found the archive, and busted Vila. We're in for it now.”

Cally smiled. “Vila does not know that we know about it, much less what we've done. Therefore, Avon does not know.”

“He'll figure it out. He always does.”

“Perhaps. If he has enough time. We'll have to think of a way of distracting him.”

“I'll leave that to you, shall I? I don't think I quite dare.”

“Oh? You dared quite a lot when you wrote that story.”

“You helped! It's not like I ever met Travis myself, you know.” Dayna sighed. “It seemed like harmless fun when I started.”

“Well, Servalan already wants us dead. She can hardly kill us any more than she's planning to already, can she?”

“I'd really rather not find out. Maybe we shouldn't write a sequel to 'Servalan's Sugar.' Leave well enough alone.”

“It's your story, so it's your decision to make. But I must say, I thought you were much braver than this.”

Dayna grinned shamefacedly. “It's a bit embarrassing, that's all. It might damage my reputation if it got out.”

“No one will ever hear about it from me. I promise you.” If only to protect my own reputation, the Auronar thought guiltily.

Many, many spacials away, Jenna snapped her scriber shut and stashed it under the console as the door slid open. “Oh, Jenna! There you are. I was hoping to get your opinion on this new base location.”

She grinned brightly. “Of course, Blake. I'll be right with you. I was just running some calculations.”

“Ah. Ten minutes?”

“That'll be perfect, I'll be right there.”

The door slid shut again, and Jenna sighed in relief. She really was playing with fire here. Why she'd ever started on this...she pulled out the scriber, and saved her latest efforts. Not that she was incapable of rewriting the whole thing if needed, but it was getting harder and harder to find the time.

Part three-hundred and fifty. That should be a good stopping point. “Lonely Rebel Nights” had gone on long enough. What had she been thinking, even writing one part of it?

Well...Jenna blushed a little. What she'd been thinking had been obvious. But enough was enough. She had real work to do, after all. This was a silly hobby, and it was time to stop.

She hid the scriber carefully, and strolled out, story ideas still chasing around in her head.

#Blake's 7 #fanfic #mine

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cuthian · 4 years ago

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Starting Over Chapter Three

Steve does some thinking in here.

Love, Annaelle

Chapter Three

MEET THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE AVENGERS

BRAȘOV, ROMANIA — A small police force was pinned down behind a makeshift barricade of smoldering car chassis and fallen slabs of concrete on the world’s newest battlefield. Their gunfire was no match for the relentless onslaught of hostile Doombots, barreling down the barely recognizable city street.

The windows of a nearby building exploded in clouds of billowing black smoke as people attempted to flee the carnage raining down all around them.

If there was ever a time for the Avengers to swoop in and save the day, it was right then.

Sadly, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor were occupied on the other side of the city, attempting to gain ground on Dr. Victor Doom, who unleashed the robots on this unsuspecting city in an attempt to expand his Latverian territory.

[…]all is not lost for the officers, though. Instead of the Avengers we all know and love, a man in dark motorcycle pants and a body-hugging silver shirt sprinted into the middle of the action so fast that the eye could barely follow, carrying a woman in a tattered black dress and a red leather jacket in his arms.

[…]witnesses report they did not appear at all like superheroes, looking more like teenaged party kids who accidentally stumbled from an all-day rave into chaos instead. [They] ignored warnings and dove into the thick of it, dispatching the Doombots within minutes.

[…]though it is unclear what, exactly, transpired, multiple reports suggest that the girl has some kind of telekinetic powers that enabled her to dispatch the Doombots with ease. [It] only took forty-eight hours for the Avengers to hold an official press conference, announcing the addition of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver—who go by Wanda and Pietro Maximoff in their daily lives—to their ranks, pending a three-month probationary and training period.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are Sokovian-Romanian-born twins, who lost their parents at the age of ten in the 2006 bombings of Sokovia’s capital. No further details were released on their personal lives, but social media has already heralded their coming as a welcome diversification of the Avenger ranks, which consisted mostly of American ‘superheroes’ thus far, with the notable exception of the Black Widow and Thor.

[…]speak for everyone when we say that we’re eager to see how these new Avengers will adjust to their new roles in the world’s most exclusive crime-fighting unit.

—Adam B. Vary, “Meet the New Avengers”, Buzzfeed News, 2013

————————

Residence of Steve Rogers and Rebecca Barnes, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

August 14th, 2015

Steve

“I’ve been informed that these inanimate objects will never yield, Steven.”

Steve looked up from where he had been engaged in a fierce staring contest with his infuriatingly silent phone on the kitchen island, finding Thor leaning against the back of the sofa. He had not even heard him come into the room at all, and he briefly cursed at himself for letting himself get so distracted by his phone, hanging his head a little before he smiled up at Thor ruefully.

“You’ve been preoccupied these last few days,” Thor said. “I know it is not the operation that bothers you, but I was under the impression your acquaintance with your Sam was progressing well.”

Steve sighed and nodded, finally taking his eyes off his phone.

Thor was right, of course.

With Tony’s aid, they’d been able to set up near-permanent surveillance on Sharon easily, and the rest of the team had been remarkably easy to convince to take on a mission with undefined purpose or end date. Bruce and Rhodey had volunteered to dig through the massive amounts of data Nat had already managed to collect, while Tony gleefully offered to hack into every S.H.I.E.L.D. database he could get his virtual hands on.

Steve would be concerned, but… well, sometimes it was better to let Tony ride whatever inevitably brilliant brainwave took him.

There wasn’t much more that they could do now, not until they had more intel to go off of, not until they had managed to get a clearer idea of what they were dealing with. Steve knew that, and Steve didn’t even mind that, but he had always hated sitting still.

Even texting Sam, enjoyable and pacifying as that had been, hadn’t been enough to get his mind off of it, because… because Steve still didn’t really know where he wanted his acquaintanceship with Sam to go. He knew, of course, that the tone of their texts had been mostly flirty, because he wasn’t totally oblivious, regardless of how Becca liked to tease him, but—

Neither of them had suggested meeting up again, and Steve was a little afraid to do so.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Sam again. It wasn’t even that he didn’t have the time to meet up with Sam again. Steve wasn’t even really sure what it was himself, only that it was starting to get to him, and apparently, it showed.

“It is going well,” he finally replied, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the kitchen island.

Thor nodded slowly and crossed his arms over his chest. “And this… concerns you?”

“No,” Steve denied immediately. Thor raised an eyebrow and Steve winced, hanging his head again before he added, “I don’t think so. It’s…”

He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what it is.”

Thor hummed sympathetically and pushed away from the couch, pulling out one of the barstools to sit at the island across from Steve. “When Rebecca asked me if I could ever let myself love her,” Thor began slowly, looking down at his hands, “I nearly left. I did not think that I could, or should, break my vow to Loki, even in death.”

Steve swallowed thickly and nodded.

He knew this.

Thor hadn’t really spoken about it to him at the time, nor had Becca, mostly out of respect for Steve’s close relationship to them both—neither of them had wanted to put Steve in the middle of things if Thor had chosen to leave—but Becca had confided in him about her side of it afterwards.

He never really got the chance to talk to Thor about it.

“Why did you?” he asked, although he was mildly terrified to hear the answer.

Thor looked down again and shrugged. “Love is not a conscious decision, although I have pretended it was for many years. I loved Loki for centuries, and I will for centuries to come, but that does not mean that I cannot love Rebecca as well. The two do not negate one another.”

Steve was struck silent by the intensity of Thor’s gaze when the god looked up again.

“It is,” Thor continued thoughtfully, “perhaps not easier, but certainly more comfortable, to hold onto these kinds of promises than it is to acknowledge that those we made them to are no longer with us.”

Steve swallowed thickly, glancing down at his phone again.

He’d never really… he’d never really allowed himself to think of it like that, even though he was well aware that Bucky would have encouraged him to move on. Fuck, that damned jerk had been trying to encourage Steve to move onto Peggy even when he hadn’tbeen dead.

Steve smiled weakly. “I don’t know if I can think of it like that,” he admitted in a small voice.

Thor returned the smile and reached out to pat Steve’s hand. “Nor am I telling you to. None but you can make this choice, Steve, and it is a difficult one to make. But you must know that we will stand by your side, regardless of what choice you make.”

“God, you two are so gay,” Becca snorted from the doorway, and Steve jumped, because his situational awareness seemed to have taken the day off—he hadn’t heard her coming either.

Jesus.

“You’re gay,” he said without thinking, although he had to admit it was not the scathing comeback he had intended for it to be. She’d caught him off guard and vulnerable and Steve wasn’t great at expressing his feelings even at the best of times—he hadn’t expected to feel this rattled by Thor’s words, was all.

He tracked her movements as she walked into the room, an eyebrow raised at him. “You lookin’ to swipe my boyfriend, Rogers?” she said playfully, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Thor’s cheek before she rounded the counter and slipped an arm around Steve’s waist in a half-hug. Dazed as he was, he didn’t do much to reciprocate, and she’d moved onto raiding the fridge by the time he’d realized he should probably hug her back.

“Do not fret, Krúttið mitt. He seeks his own paramour,” Thor said calmly, although Steve very much wanted to bash his head against the marble island the second the words left Thor’s mouth, because Becca was never going to let this go.

He was right.

Becca abandoned her quest for snacks immediately and perched on the island beside Steve, looking at him expectantly. Eagerly. Terrifyingly eagerly. “Tell me everything. Is this the guy you were talking to when Nat picked you up?”

Steve groaned, hanging his head again. “Becca,” he whined, “I don’t even know what this is. I don’t even know if there is a ‘this’. There’s nothing to tell yet.”

He yelped when Becca smacked the back of his head abruptly, jerking away from her before she could slap him again. “Don’t do that,” she said sternly when he pouted at her. “You’re not made of glass, and I ain’t treating you like you are. Spill, Rogers.”

Steve briefly considered the benefits of ignoring Becca and hiding in his room until she’d let it go, but history was not with him. He had once seen her ignore Thor for four whole weeks because he’d thoughtlessly commented that her period might be the reason why she felt crabby and angry about a mission that hadn’t gone exactly to plan.

Granted, Thor had been on Asgard for two of those four weeks, but Steve was relatively convinced she’d have ignored him if he’d been on Earth too.

Becca was not generally a vindictive person, and definitely not one to hold a grudge, but Thor had managed to hit a sore spot, and it’d taken her a while—and a lot of groveling from Thor (and his insistence he had meant for it to be a compliment)—for her to let that thoughtless comment go.

Steve didn’t fancy trying to out-stubborn her.

He pulled his phone back towards him, tapping the screen to show Becca the conversation thread. “I met him on my run,” he admitted. “He gave me his number, we’ve been texting a little. That’s it.”

“Okay,” Becca drawled, scrolling through the texts too fast to actually be able to read them—a small gesture to respect his privacy, and one that he appreciated immensely. “And you haven’t asked him out in person yet, because…?”

“Because,” Steve said, falling silent right after, because… well, because he didn’t know why he hadn’t asked Sam out in person yet. “I don’t know him that well,” he finished lamely.

“That is generally why people go on dates, Steve,” Becca replied with a smirk, grinning up at Thor when he moved from his barstool to collect drinks for all of them. “To get to know each other.” She accepted the bottle Thor handed her with a smile, and Steve turned away to look at his phone when it looked like they would end up making out right in front of him again.

He jumped a little when Thor smacked a cold water bottle against his shoulder, smirking devilishly.

“Don’t worry,” he told Steve. “We’ll refrain from scarring you for life.”

“Again,” Becca added cheerfully, because she was clearly the worst.

She pecked Thor on the cheek as he left the room, and Steve grumbled lightly, twisting the bottle open so he’d have something to do with his hands, looking down at the thread of text messages he’d exchanged with Sam so far.

“Hey.” He looked up to find Becca right beside him again, smiling sweetly. “Let me give you back a piece of advice you gave me, okay?” He nodded dumbly, and Becca patted his arm lightly. “I don’t know if this guy could make you happy.” She nodded towards the still unlocked phone. “But isn’t it worth considering, at least?”

He shrugged helplessly, and Becca sighed, slinging an arm around his shoulder and pressing a kiss to his cheek before she left the room too, leaving him alone with his thoughts again.

He still didn’t know if he wanted anything to happen with Sam, because flirting—in person and over text—was something entirely different than actually going out on an actual date, and much as Steve liked to pride himself on doing so much better, he wasn’t sure he was doing that good.

That did not mean, however, that he was willing to let go of the very possibility of what Sam could be.

He swallowed thickly and picked up his phone, fingers trembling just a little as he navigated to the phone number he needed. His hand was still shaking a little when he put the phone to his ear, listening to the dial tone with bated breath.

“Hey, Sam,” he greeted as soon as the line connected. “It’s Steve. You got plans tomorrow night?” He smiled breathlessly at Sam’s reply and said, “Yeah. Exactly like a date.”

————————

Quetzal Chocolate Bar, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

August 15th, 2015

Steve

He hadn’t been sure what to expect when Thor had heartily recommended the café to him.

Thor’s tastes had been known to be a little… eclectic in the past, but Becca had reassured him that this place was actually really cute, and the perfect low-key, low-pressure kind of spot for a first date.

Steve had a little more faith in Becca’s tastes, and therefore didn’t question it.

He’d prepared for the date the same way he’d prepared for a mission—meticulously looking through Sam’s Facebook profile, which might have been a little creepy, but it was Steve’s first real date in this century and he wanted things to go well, damn it, and googling acceptable topics of conversation for first dates, and even letting Nat and Becca conspire to put together an outfit for him—and it’d helped, to think of it in such a familiar, clearly defined way.

He hadn’t freaked out.

He hadn’t had a panic attack.

He hadn’t changed his mind overnight.

He was nervous though, when he walked the short distance to the café, in a way he never really had been before, because all the dates he’d gone on then had been with Bucky, and he’d known that Bucky was a sure thing even then.

His moments with Peggy had never really been dates, and she’d made him nervous in an entirely different way. Looking back, he was pretty sure he was only really infatuated with the idea of what Peggy could be, with the idea of having a love that he wouldn’t have to hide, with a life that could be everything he knew his mam had always hoped he’d get.

He’d loved her, sure enough, but he’d loved only what he’d known.

He didn’t think he could’ve lived with her doing some of the things she had during her long life, couldn’t have combined his desire to be normal with everything he was and everything she was, because as much as they might’ve been well-suited, Steve also knew that they were far too similar.

They’d driven Bucky mad with worry the few times they’d run missions together, for example.

Steve smiled despite himself, pushing his hands into his pockets as he walked, already spotting the red awning at the entrance. He was a little early, but Sam was already waiting for him by the door, and Steve swallowed thickly. The other man might not be superhuman like most of Steve’s close friends and acquaintances tended to be lately, but he looked good.

He looked that good because he was waiting for Steve.

The only person who’d made that much of an effort to look good for Steve before was Bucky.

Peggy had always looked amazing, but Steve hadn’t been under any illusions that she made the effort for him—she dressed to impress only for herself, and Steve had just been a very lucky schmuck that had happened to catch her eye.

Even when he hadn’t really been interested, when he had been hung up on Bucky, so in love with the other man that he hadn’t really been able to see anyone else clearly, he’d admired her.

Steve blinked, and realized he was dithering at the same moment Sam turned and caught sight of him.

The other man turned to him with a smile that fell just a little when Steve didn’t move immediately. He was probably wondering why Steve wasn’t moving.

Steve was wondering why he wasn’t moving.

“Move, punk,” his internal voice—that sounded suspiciously like Bucky—prodded, “He’s waiting.”

Steve’s legs, thankfully, moved before he needed to consciously think about it, carrying him towards Sam and the café Becca had recommended, towards… towards his date.

“Hey,” Sam said as soon as Steve was within earshot. “For a second I thought you were gonna stand me up.” The words were said lightly, but Steve heard the uncertain note nonetheless, and forced himself to smile, to reassure the man before him that he wouldn’t have—he wasn’t a flake—but the words wouldn’t quite come out right.

“Me too,” he blurted. “I’m sorry,” he said immediately, “it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just—” He fell silent, struggling to find words for a moment before he gave up and deflated a little. “I don’t know what it is. I promise I do want to be here. With you.”

Sam scrutinized him for a long, tense moment, and Steve barely resisted the urge to squirm. “Let’s get a drink,” Sam finally said, nodding towards the entrance. “We can decide what it means later.”

“Sam,” Steve blurted, “It’s a date, I mean I asked you on a date, I meant it. I’m just—I haven’t actually been on a date in…” He sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Seventy years one way and six another. I’m just nervous.”

Sam grinned and chuckled. “Don’t worry man, I don’t bite.” He pulled the door to the café open and winked at Steve. “Not unless you ask me nicely anyway.” He stepped inside without waiting for an answer, leaving Steve gaping after him, trying to reboot his brain after Sam provided that particular visual—he’d never regretted how easily his mind conjured an image of something until right now.

“You coming?” Sam said from where he stood, looking over his shoulder at Steve.

“I might,” Steve grumbled under his breath, “if you keep talking like that.” He followed Sam inside nonetheless, momentarily pausing when the strong scent of chocolate hit him like a sack of bricks.

“Oh, that smells good,” he groaned quietly, catching up to Sam at the counter.

Sam hummed as he studied the menu mounted on the wall behind the counter. “It does. You in the mood for something sweet, Rogers?”

Steve smirked. “Always,” he said, smiling politely at the girl behind the counter before he turned his attention to the seasonal suggestions that hung above the coffee machine. Caramel Salé, the sign boasted proudly, next to a drawing of a steaming cup with a happy smiley face. A hot chocolate milk with caramel and sea salt. Don’t forget to choose your own chocolate!

There were, indeed, four big basins of chocolate set into the countertop, with white, milk, brown and black chocolate—as the little tags in front of them proclaimed—and Steve’s mouth watered a little at the thought that he might be able to try all of them.

Bucky would have loved this place.

Steve had a moderate sweet-tooth, but no one had loved sweets and chocolate the way Bucky had.

The thought made him feel unexpectedly choked up, and he swallowed thickly, looking away from the menu for a moment to pull himself together. Thinking about Bucky hadn’t been this hard in years, and Steve wasn’t sure why everything reminded him of his lost love today.

“Sir?”

His head snapped up, and Steve realized he’d been quiet long enough for Sam to have ordered his drink already. “I, uh,” he stammered. “Sorry. I’d like the Caramel Salé. What chocolate does it taste best with?” He looked up at the girl, cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment. “Any recommendations?”

“Oh,” the girl bit her lip as she considered her answer. “Well, if you like your drink sweet, milk chocolate is really good. It kind of tastes like liquid toffee.”

Steve smiled shakily. “I’ll try that then. And two of those brownies.”

The girl nodded and tapped her register. “Do you want chocolate sauce with those?”

Steve’s eyes widened. “I can have chocolate sauce with them?”

He heard Sam chuckle a little beside him, and the girl grinned. “Yeah. Normally it’s just the one cup, but if you want to try several, I can do that too, it’ll just cost you a dollar extra per flavor.”

“I want all of them,” he told her eagerly, not even the slightest bit embarrassed. “Just gimme one of everything, I don’t care how much it costs.” The girl grinned and tapped her register, barely raising an eyebrow when he pulled out his black Amex card to pay for everything.

“Go have a seat,” she told them, “I’ll get everything to you in a moment.”

Steve managed to not jump when Sam grabbed his elbow gently, nodding towards the plump leather seats in the back corner of the café. Both couches were oriented so they were facing the entrance and with their backs against the wall, and Steve felt immensely grateful that he wouldn’t need to explain.

“You looked a little out of it back there,” Sam said carefully when they’d sat down. “You sure you’re up for this right now?”

Steve sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s just… things get a little intense sometimes. You… You get it, right?”

Sam smiled sympathetically. “Yeah, brother. We all got the same problems. Guilt, regret…” he shrugged and looked down, and Steve felt like a total heel for asking, but he couldn’t—he couldn’t stand not asking, either.

“You lose someone?” he blurted, abruptly shutting his mouth when the girl approached them with a tray with their drinks and Steve’s brownies.

Sam stayed quiet too, only speaking to thank her as she put everything on their table before she left.

“I lost my wingman, Riley. My, uh…” He looked down and swallowed thickly. “He was my boyfriend too. We were flying a night mission, standard PJ rescue op… nothing we hadn’t done a thousand times before, but then… an RPG knocked Riley’s dumb ass out of the sky.” Steve winced, and Sam looked like he might cry, before he said quietly, “It’s like I was up there just to watch. Nothing I could do.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said. “It’s a… shitty topic to bring up, I’m sorry.”

Sam smiled tightly, humorlessly, and picked up his drink. “Nah man. I’m guessing you lost someone too. ‘s what’s making this hard for you, right?”

Steve swallowed, looking down for a moment, reaching out to stir his drink while he collected his thoughts. “His name was Bucky,” he said after a while. “We, uh… we’d been together so long, I can’t even really pinpoint when it started. I think… I think I’ve loved him my whole life.” He looked up at Sam and smiled weakly. “And after… I didn’t… I’ve never really been with anyone—I’ve never really wanted to try, not even Peg, not really, so it’s—”

“Hey,” Sam interrupted, leaning over to put his hand over Steve’s trembling one. “I get it. And if this isn’t… if you’re not ready for anything romantic, which, I gotta admit, it’s kind of sounding like you’re not… I can be your friend instead. You can just be that weird friend that tried to hit on me once.”

Steve barked a laugh, and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, slightly mortified that he hadn’t even managed to make it through the whole date without crying.

“I swear I meant for this to be a normal date,” he said thickly.

Sam outright laughed at that and shook his head. “Man, your healing is about you. You don’t need my or anyone else’s stamp of approval. Don’t worry if it takes a long time, or if it’s ugly sometimes. This is about you, brother, not anyone else.”

“I think I like you,” Steve admitted quietly, feeling a little lighter having put the feeling into words, without having the pressure of the date turning out okay still there.

Sam grinned. “That’s good. Now drink your hot chocolate and eat your brownies.”

Steve grinned despite himself.

“Yes sir.”

————————

Start from the beginning:

In Hell We Stand By You:

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Never Feel Alone:

(1) (2)

Decisions: (1)

Dancing with a Limp:

(1) (2)

Chances:

(1)

Starting Over:

(1) (2)

Or read it HERE on AO3 :D Find the next chapter HERE on Tumblr :)

#IHWSBY sequel #starting over #stucky #Stucky fanfic #Steve Rogers #thor #Rebecca barnes #avengers family #Lisa writes #my writing

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