#Alpha Keegan

[ghostlythunderbird]

The Pack ~ First Impressions

Pairings: Alpha!Konig, Alpha!Simon “Ghost” Riley, Alpha!Keegan P. Russ X Omega!Fem!Reader

Warnings: 18+ Minors/Ageless Blogs DNI, Omegaverse, Mentions of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence, Extremist views, The UN exists here

Words: 2,784 (wow I wrote all that?!?!)

Author’s Notes: Please do not repost, edit, or translate my work. This blog and all content will be marked 18+ even if there is no NSFW content, if you are underage or have no age I don't want to deal with you. This is my first ever series so it will be updated whenever I can, due to my difficult work schedule. But please sit back and enjoy this series! Special thanks to @l-lend, @kelpiesummer, and @photogirl894 for all the help!

“Breaking News: Omega populations continue to fall.”

With recent all-time highs of Omega trafficking and high numbers of Domestic Abuse against Omegas worldwide, Omega birth rates are dwindling by the thousands in the last few years. While Omega numbers fall, other secondary gender numbers have begun to rise, with Beta birthrates rising to a staggering 84% over the last 5 years. Are omegas in danger of dying out?~

“The fall of the Omega second gender; A modern extinction?”

Over the last decade, the number of omegas of age has drastically fallen. Omegas were once considered roughly 20% of the world population and contributed to approximately 70% of birthrates worldwide; their current population barely comes to 7% across the globe, and their birthrates are almost non-existent. Could this result from unregulated access to this world bearing second gender? Will the UN seek to restabilize their population, or will omegas be at the mercy of those around them?

What had become of the world before you were born? It was a nearly lawless land, people turning on one another. The fight for breeding rights or access to an omega led Alphas into utter madness, their biology overriding common sense. Your Dam had told you stories of her childhood, how she saw the fall of an entire second gender. How awful the world indeed became, and how it rose from those ashes carrying new hope and protection to those who seek it. She remembered how fearful her Sire and Dam were during those years, but that was before new laws were established. New laws ensured the ability to return Omegas to their higher numbers to provide their protection.

During the years of the Modern Extinction, the UN scrambled to place laws worldwide to protect and nurture omega numbers. However, many early regulations did nothing to buffer the steady decline. It wasn't until an organization was formed: The Global Omega Protection and Population Program (GOPPP) was introduced. The Program had only a few essential purposes, to Pair off omegas to ensure total protection; to free and rehabilitate omegas who were victims of Trafficking and Domestic Violence. And finally, it is a form of Breeding operation to help nurture omega populations to where they were years before. Omegas who had become legal adults would be admitted to the Program to soon be matched with compatible Alphas.

The only downside to this Program was many omegas were often treated as broodmares and were often left emotionally neglected. Reduced to their primary duties of bearing Alpha and Omega children with occasional betas to be their legacy. Omegas were unable to work, much less be able to leave their dens without an Alpha to accompany them. While many Alphas believe it would be better for their mates to be allowed to do certain things without them around, the Program often overlooked their words. Over time, however, newer generations believed these precautions were beyond necessary and soon revised or added new laws to accompany them. Their latest law is; Omegas who are in public must wear protective full-length collars even with their Alphas present.

Those laws were added when you were just a pup and still living simply, unknowing of the world around you. Soon you were forced to acknowledge the dark reality you were born into when you presented; An Omega. Your parents, who were born Betas, cried when your first heat started. They had prayed you would be a Beta or even an Alpha, but it seemed their prayers fell upon deaf ears from the higher power.

Unfortunately, the Program soon discovered your presentation at 16 years old. While you were still too young to be entered into the Program, It didn't stop them from preparing for that day. You remembered those late nights hearing your parents downstairs talking about you, about your soon-to-be future. Your Dam was terrified, talking to your Sire about the stories from other omega parents. For some, they ranged from fairytale endings, but a vast majority were nothing short of horror-made flesh. Omegas were emotionally manipulated and abused by the very alphas they were entrusted to.

As you grew older, your parents decided to wait a few more years for you to enjoy life before you became tied to your future mates. You were incredibly thankful they pushed back against the Program to allow you to enjoy your young adult years. But as your Sire would say, "Whether good or bad, everything must come to an end."

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The room was bare as you and your parents waited for the Omega Protection program representative to enter. You wished you were never born as an Omega; you wouldn't have to go through this Program if you weren't. Facing the fact that you would be removed from your parent's home only to be moved in with alphas you've never met before, and said Alphas were already selected for you. These alphas were being forced on you without knowing how they acted towards you or the other alphas; their past, what they looked like, and their personalities were beyond wrong to you. You were slowly being drowned in uncertainty; so many things could go wrong, hell you didn't even know if your alphas were good.

Your Dam grabbed your hand, sensing the rising anxiety in your scent. "It will be ok dear; these alphas will protect you. There is nothing to fear from this." You knew her words were supposed to feel comforting, but you couldn't help but think bitterly, 'well, it isn't you being fed to the wolves.' Before you could say anything, the door began to creak open, causing your Sire and Dam to straighten to greet the person walking in. You, however, just sunk into the couch, begging for it to open and swallow you whole.

As the door opened fully, it revealed two Betas entering, one male and one female. Their scents were almost non-existent as they stepped further into the room before sitting on the couch across from your family. "Good Morning, Mr. and Ms. (L/N); we're delighted you're here. My name is Matthew, and my partner is Hannah." The male beta spoke as he gestured to the woman beside him. "We will handle your daughter's case and pack introduction today." At the brief mention of you, the Betas locked onto your form. Noticing your rising anxiety, the female beta spoke up to clear the air.

"And you must be (y/n); I'm sure this is very overwhelming for you, but rest assured we have made plenty of healthy matches over the years," Her voice was quiet yet soft as the words fluttered from her lips. You could only briefly smile; she wanted you to trust her and her judgment. But even with that, you couldn't help but dread your matches. The fact you had to blindly trust two strangers who picked your lifelong mates was beyond unnerving.

Hannah leaned back into the couch, making herself comfortable. "now, before we introduce you and your parents to your new pack, we have a few things to discuss before we bring them in, ok?" The tension in the air was heavy as Matthew and Hannah shared a look before continuing. "Well, you know our priority is to pair all omegas with a pack of alphas to ensure their safety and increase omega birthrates. That being said, the pack selected for you is not exactly regular by our standards." That wasn't what you expected; you couldn't decide if you were more worried or curious about this confession.

This pack may be more interesting than you had initially thought. The dark-headed male cleared his throat, continuing, "This pack was already together before their application to our Program; these alphas are also active military with clean records. Two originate from Europe while the other is from the US; along with that, one of these alphas just so happens to be an uh...Apex alpha." Upon hearing this, the air in your lungs evaporated in mere seconds as a chill ran down your spine. This pack had seemed almost too good to be true, but with information, it only made you dread your initial meeting. Apexes were often found to be extremely dangerous, unable to control themselves in high emotional and hormonal situations.

Your Sire drew in a breath. "So what does that mean for our daughter? Why in the hell was she assigned to an Apex?" His growl filled the air. Also, being a beta, your father was not at threatening as an alpha could be, but with a protective Sire, anyone would be cautious with their following decisions. Matthew grew stiff. "With all due respect, sir, we've gone through an extensive background check with this apex. The alphas packed with him are his fellow service members who can fully vouch for him." Your eyes widened, a packed apex with people who know how he works; this pack was unusual and rare. 'Well, from what it sounds like so far, they don't seem like bad people. Maybe this is one of those lucky matches.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He couldn't stand; still, the chairs were far too small for him, and standing in the quiet room only made his nerves light up more than they already were. König paused to look at the door; it was closing to an hour since the three alphas were left in the room. The beta Hannah had told them to wait a few minutes, and they'd bring in their omega and her family. His body responded to the thought; after so many years of rejection letter after another, this felt like some sick prank to the Austrian apex. He was so nervous that he couldn't stay still, pacing back and forth and wiping his palms along his jeans.

His companions couldn't help but tease the anxiety-ridden giant. "König, relax, man. If you keep pacing, you might carve out a path in the floor." The dark-headed alpha joked as he shifted in his chair. While König was the most visibly anxious of the trio, Keegan attempted to keep himself calm, even with the bubbling excitement growing in his gut. Keegan's eyes traveled across the room, glancing between furniture and the small window. 'Not much cover, but at least it would be difficult for a potential sniper.'

"At least he's standin' up, be less of a shock to 'er." Ghost's voice echoed through the small room, breaking his zoned-out stare for a split second. The alpha had taken the only viable spot and backed into the furthest corner facing the doorway. Keegan snorted at the other alpha's remark; he knew it was true. König was massive on a human scale, but more so because he was an apex alpha. Before he could respond to the blonde-haired alpha, he heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the hall. Leaning up in his chair, Keegan sounded a low chuff to gain the other's attention before nodding towards the door.

Ghost made no move to his form; König, however, rushed to fix his messy hair to appear somewhat presentable. Keegan gave König a reassuring nod right before the door opened, and the heavenly scent of an omega swept through the small space. First, the Program's beta entered but then appeared their soon-to-be omega mate. 'Jesus, she's so.....small compared to us.' You ducked your head as the alphas zeroed in on you once you passed the threshold. Looking towards the blonde and black-haired alphas, you couldn't help but think that this wasn't as bad until you turned to look at, by far, the largest alpha you'd ever seen. His size had taken you aback, and the previous thought of being able to handle this pack was thrown entirely out the window.

Hannah gently rested her hand on your shoulder to regain your attention "(Y/N) meet your pack; first, we have Keegan Russ." Pointing to the smallest alpha, his eyes caught your attention first. They were a beautiful grey-blue that seemed to freeze you in place but also held a hidden sadness underneath them. Even with him being the smallest of the three, he knew he had a certain charm. His stature, eyes, and confident yet arrogant attitude had people flocking to him no matter their presentation. "Next, we have Ghost; that is his preferred name for now." The alpha in the corner made no attempt to move as his eyes raked over you before giving a slight nod. While his face was covered by a black medical mask, it didn't take away from his rugged beauty much; a mop of blonde hair with hooded brown eyes that slightly shined. Turning toward the last alpha, you could feel the tension between the betas and him. "Finally, we have the apex, König." She didn't seem too keen about him being here. A wave of well-maintained anger for what he was seemed to drive her not to acknowledge him; you couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt toward him.

Although he had a large size, he seemed to fold in on himself, attempting to appear smaller to not scare you away. Unfortunately, you couldn't see much of him other than his eyes, a blue that reminded you of the ocean. "well, we will leave you all to get acquainted while we finish the paperwork and have her parents gather her things." With a final look over her shoulder, Hannah closed the door behind her leaving you with your new pack. Looking towards the alphas whose gaze tore into you, you could only give a slight grin "u-uh, hi there!"

Before you knew it, they all moved at once; while it wasn't swift, it still caused you to reel back slightly. You knew you couldn't just leave, so you forced yourself to stay still as Ghost reached towards you to grab your wrist in a firm hold. He brought your wrist close to his nose so he could capture your scent adequately, only releasing a deep chuff before slowly letting your wrist fall back to your side. The large apex released his own chuff before drawing in a breath. "H-Hallo omega, or (Y/N) w-which ever you want us to call you. If you even want us to use your name." His stuttering surprised you; how could this large apex even stutter? There was no reason for his nervousness, or so you thought.

Keegan stepped forward, touching the larger alpha's enormous bicep. "Take it easy, König; I doubt she's gonna bite you, right, Doll?" His joking tone helped ease the remaining tension in the room. 'At least these guys could take and make jokes,' You thought as you gave Keegan a toothy smile. "Only if you want me to, big guy." Giving the apex a wink, sending his gaze to the floor in embarrassment, and driving a laugh out of Ghost and Keegan.

The new-found atmosphere dissipated once a knock sounded on the other side of the door. Matthew and Hannah were soon looking in to check in on the four of you. "Well, everything is in order; I'm sure you are ready to head home. So we will allow Ms.(Y/N) to say her goodbyes to her parents before you all leave." Oh, that's right; you had forgotten you were being moved out of your parent's home and into your shared home with these alphas. Looking back at your parents, you caught sight of your Dam trying to clean up her remaining tears. While your Sire attempted to keep a stone face for you. Lunging towards them, your Dam and Sire tangled you up in their arms, whispering, "It will be ok little love; you'll see us again." "Please text us at least so we know your adjusting, ok?"

It broke your heart to leave them, but you all knew this was in your best interest. Drawing back from them, you reached to wipe away a few stray tears on your cheeks. "I love you guys. I'll try and stay in touch, I promise." Your words catch slightly in your throat. Stepping away from your parents, you looked towards the three alphas who stood off to the side, not wanting to rush your goodbye.

Stepping towards them, you stopped when Keegan and König took their places on either side of you. Ghost had left to pull their vehicle around, and as you started walking towards the main entrance, König offered his hand to you. "Don't worry Schatz, we will all die for you as long as it means you are safe." His words send a wave of heat through your body by his bold declaration. With a final look back toward your parents, you offered them a bright grin as you were guided away.

'Everything will be ok."

Tag list: @l-lend, @kelpiesummer, @wintersnnowie, @operatorinvestigatesco, @marytvirgin

Once again this is my first ever series so I apologize if somethings need work, am still a wee babe in the writing world XD

Translations: Schatz (German) - Treasure

[lay-z]

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers ONE Review: Autonomy is the Right of All Sentient Beings (Comissoin for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy autobots! This reviews one i'm excited for. See I was hoping One would be good: Rise of the Beasts was a disapointment having some good spots (the soundtrack, Anthony Ramos) but falling into the trap of trying to cram 80 tons of plot into two hours while not developing the robot cast enough. I mean it didn't have robotic gay jokes, racisim, robot testicles, or Optimus Prime gleefully murdering people, instead at worst being an asshole, but it didn't quite reach the heights of Bumblebee , not really taking in it's lessons of "less is more" and "Maybe people like characters"

Thankfully Transformers One takes the later to heart: Transformers One succesfully combines the spectacle people want from robots punching each other on the big screen, with a deep and personal character story of two robots who were like brothers whose ideologies drive them apart. One delivers both huge robot spectacle but grounds it in characters you care about. I'm a more casual fan of the franchise, haven't seen g1 , but I can't be happier as a fan of both transformers and animation itself to see this film and hope it does well over time. The first trailer REALLY didn't help but word of mouth probably will.

So while that's the most I can give without spoilers, I invite you to join me under the cut as I dive into WHY this film is so great, it's characters, ambiguities, great design choices, and the mistep or two. let's call him act 1 bumblebee. It's all under the cut with FULL SPOILERS. Seirously the film relies heavily on a twist about halfway in that while experinced fans and those experinced with fiction can probably see coming, though the marketing did a good job not telegraphing it, is still not something I want to be a dick and spoil outright So join me under the cut, till all are one.

What's Old is New:

Transformers One is the first animated transformers movie in decades: While I really CAN'T explain the 90's as Beast Wars seemed super popular when I was a kid, from the 2000's onward Hasbro largely dubbed anime of the transformers, and once we got to the live action films in the late 2000's through the 2010s Paramount made so much money hand over fist with each entry despite being "they gave devistator truck nuts" levels of baffling and "what seems to be standard micheal bay" levels of racist, they likely felt no need to inovate. If the movies are making them enough money to scrooge mcduck every time one comes out, there's no real reason to fight that if your a studio executive. The cartoons could simply take a queue or two from the films, as both animated and prime did and still make them money.

One comes in during this cash flow: looking into it on wikipedia, I genuinely tried looking elsewhere and couldn't find much, One came about after Age of Exctinction, with Parmount setting up a writers room to pitch sequel ideas. The films title animated nature and basic premise as a prequel came from that.. then as far as I can gather sat on the shelf as they still had binload of money.

Then the last knight happened ,an incoherent mess that had Anthony Hopkins have violent sexual tension with C3PO yet did nothing with it, so naturally it failed at the box office. This lead to Bay steping back from the franchise as a director

And lead to One being dusted off after Bumblebee's success. While the live action films continued with the ehtastic Rise of the Beasts and a GI Joe vs Transformers movie on the horizon, it's clear Parmount saw two things: putting all their transforming eggs in one transforming basket probably wasn't the best idea and animation was making bank post spider-verse. So One was dusted off. It just needed a director. Weirdly despite expresssing intrest in doing it Travis Knight, director of Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee and longtime Laika animator, wasn't tapped.

Instead Parmount went with long time pixar animator and Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley. And cooley ended up being the perfect man for the job: he looked at the script and while he liked the concept he'd been pitched, a prequel focusing on a younger optimus and megatron and their brotherly friendship destegrating into a forever war, he found the script was a bit lighter in tone and wanted to get a tone.

Cooley was a fan of the G1 Cartoon, and in one interview recounted seeing the film as a kid and being blown away by the scope opening on unicron eating a planet. He loved the spectacle of it and wanted to bring that to one, comparing it to epics like ben hur or the tend commandments; big bombastic stories with a very human core, a relationship breaking down at it's core. Cooley also had a great approach to adapting it:he clearly loves the franchise with his reaction to various animators and storyboarders sneaking in their faviorite autobots for cameos simply being

Cooley knew how to adapt the film: honor it's legacy, with plenty of nods to transformers history, but not be beholden to it going for a style that was a mix of g1 astetics but with an art deco sensiblity. Notably his decision not to have orion pax wear the optimus mask a ton was for good reason: instead of just being change for change's sake, it was to let him emote more. It's the same reason Peter Cullen wasn't chosen: Cooley utterly adores cullen but got that this optimus.. isn't him yet. The films about Optimus growing into being a leader and thus needed another tone. More on that later but these interviews gave me even more respect than the film itself already had, showing a man who knew how to adapt something well.

Visually the film is a treat: the animation is done by industrial light and magic, who did the films and who have only done three animated films. To my suprise i'd not only seen them all but one of them wasn't the clone wars. You'd think but no, Lucasfilm outsourced. No instead they did the animation for Rango, also with paramount under nick and Strange Magic, and both films have some impressive animation. I mean the designs for strange magic are questionable, as are a lot of things in that very dumb very fun movie, but it's clear they were just as good at making a fully animated world as they were making animated parts of a live action one. It's been almost a decade since strange magic, but they haven't lost a step.

As a result One looks gorgoeous: we've seen pre war cybertron before, but the big budget means we can see it as a gorgeous gleaming futuristic city with icacon, it' sbucolic surface and it's full glory once the planet is restored at the end. It adds emotoinal weight as the war will likely leave this planet a ravaged cold wreck as usual, but we ge tto see that beauty first. Even with the unlimited budget of comics the cybertron of the idw comics, while not bad looking is a pretty generic city. Here we get a gleaming metropolis that fully takes adantage of the fact some of it's citzens can transform, cramped quarters and mines. It makes cybertron feel truly alive and fils me with the kind of joy and wonder I missed from sci fi. This big colorfulspectacle that dosen't shy away from darker themes or moments, but despite the darkness of it's world, the corruption, the lines, and the tragic destiny that awaits there's a sense of hope. I loved Dune Part 2, still one of my faviorite films of the year and one of the best films i've seen, but it also follows it's characters tragic downfall as he's forced on the path of the chosen one wether he likes it or not and no matter how many genocides he's going to do walking that path. It's nice ot have a thetrical space where you can have a tragic yet hopeful story abotu robots in the same space as a tragic tale of a charsmatic leader's villian origin story. That I can have the kind of fun and thrill I had with star wars before disney decided to make the most pandering film in existance with rise of skywalker and still make no one happy, be a kid again for 90 minutes while still having the intresting stories nd characters that engage me as an adult is nice.

We Were Closer Than Brothers

This quote's been glued to my brain since I first read it in Powers of X, this perfect summation of the disolution of xavier and magento's friendship and why the two were forever at odds. There's a simple gap in who they are, who they want to be that can't be crossed.

And it's that kind of eternally recurring conflict that drives the film. It's one I never realized just how common it is yet so timeless and malleable it's been done a lot. In addition to x-men, both in the comics and the reboot/prequel films, Nartuo and She Ra and the Princess of power both tell the story of two people who are closer than family, but whose lives, egos and core beliefs pull them apart. Granted only one of these takes the obvious route of "and now kiss" but I digress. This is a tale as old as time, the tale of two people who genuinely truly love each other, as family or more. ANd it's one that works really well with these two characters.

This isn't the first version of Transformers to have Optimus and Megatron as former friends: The War for Cybertron Trilogy and Prime both use this idea, as we discussed earlier this month Transformers Cyberverse teased it and the IDW comics i've covered had something close to this: the idea that Pax agress with Megatron that cybertron needs to change and for the better.. but they simply can't agree.

One however gets the time needed to really dig into this: the two aren't just friends.. their best friends. Possibly more but that's left open for interprtation. And in the good way not "QUICK WE NEED TO MAKE THE FILM LESS GAY BECAUSE WE WANT MORE MONEY BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE THINK THAT'S WORKS. "cooley saw the two as brothers , while it's just as easy to see the two as having feelings for one another. I tend to go towards the latter, with D-16 like he tends to do repressing it and the point being moot by the end as that bridge is burnt beyond recognition.

Transformers One sti feels queer coded, something I noticed pointed out on tv tropes but is hard to ignore once you notice it: it's a story about two young robots one whose proud of who he is and wants to buck the corrupt system they were both born into , the other who keeps his head down and mouth shut, both of whom find out a part of them was kept form them by said system and are allowed to be who they are. It's really not hard to read into that, especailly when the main antagonist is literally stealing a part of who they are. Which is not subtle but the fact a family film is saying this at all and in a way that's hard to ignore is fucking amazing.

Circling back to that first part it's how the two react to the world they live in that defines Pax and D-16 long before they become the bots we all know and love. The world of cybertron is one where a good chunk are seemingly born without cogs, forced to work in mines or other hard labor for hours on end, and all for the glory of their leader Sentinel Prime, played by John Hamm in glorious smarm. The queer coding is hard to tell if it's intentional.. but the film's commentary on how soceites are often built to keep one class, often containg people of color, queer people and others society deems "other", down to profit the rich.

It also shows how those in power create cults of personality: Sentinel gets all this hard work by projecting a show of being this loved glorious figure, going on quests for his people every few days. John Hamm does a damn good job showing just WHY cybertron hangs on his word. In the IDW continuity, Sentinel really didn't hide what a bastard he was beyond what he had to. Here... they all love him and he leaves the dirty work to his minons. They get to bully the lower class and do whatever they please, and he gets the adoration while likely condoning their bullshit because he's just as much of a monster as they are, he just gets to hide it.

It's their reactions to this inequality that define our heroes: Orion is a dreamer. You've seen the type in animation before: he wants a better world, keeps striving and wants his big shot at being someone. But One nicely grounds this: where his now.. is a dangeorus life of mining being bullied constantly and where his heroic act of saving a coworker get shis boss Elita One demoted. It's a world where he can't even look at the past glories of cybertron and it's 13 primes without having to dodge security. Orion senses something is off and that the world can be better. He's an optimist.

What I like though is this isn't without consequence: elita did get demoted and resents him for it, D-16, his best friend, quitely resents him for having to bail him out. He has the heart of Optimus Prime, wanting to try for the best for everybody and wanting to take D-16with him as he gets up in the world... but he lacks the patience he'll gain in time, rushing into things, dragging others with him and generally not thinking before he acts. His actions get a friend demoted and later get him and his best friend sent to the depths.

D-16 on the otherhand.. just wants to keep his head down. Respect authority even if it's unfair, slowly get promoted.. work his way up. The thing is... the system isn't really BUILT to help bots. At most he'll be leading a shift. And while there's nothing wrong with that, as there is in real life blue collar work, he also wants to ignore that there's something.. off with the world. That maybe he dosent' HAVE to be a miner if he dosen't want to or wait centuries to get promoted. He's quick to see the benefits when Pax drags him into thei iacon grand prix.. but just as quick to panic, worrying any slip will get him sent back down. He's resigned that their stuck where they are. And look i'm not saying class disparity is easily sovled in the real world. It's not. But you can still fight for change where you are.

Eventaully though Optimus finds his shot, one that Megatron tries to resisit.. but ultimately can't: what seems to be the matrix. Taking along Elita, who gets dragged along and only agrees if she can arrest their asses if this fails, and B, a bot they find in the depths of waste management, our heroes trek heroically across the planets dangerous surface and duck a quintesson ship.

And the World Screams, Kiss Me Son of God

And it's here.. where the film gets flipped on his head. Now i'll grant the twist isn't super groundbreaking. Having the seemingly nice authority figure turn out to be an asshole is old hat, the film's marketing tried at first to hide the fact Megatron would turn evil till they realized they kinda marketed it bad, it's pretty easy to suspect sentinel. It dosen't help on my end that the previous versions I know are a genocidal racist monster man whose horrible managing of cybertron helped create the decepticons, and a smug prick who needs to be thrown into the sun.

But it works well as Sentinel Prime.. works as a symbol for systemic corruption. The primes were 12 noble people chosen by primus for their character and who ruled justly. Now granted it is iffy having your creator god whose also the planet pick your rulers, but Pax's ascendance later makes it very clear Primus choose not just by destiny but by character. Sentinel claimed he was one and the last survivor after they beat out the quintessons. One's universe uses mostly chunks of the g1 backstory: Primus created transformer kind and became the planet as in the comics, but the Quintessons are still key, just as adversaries rather than a monsterous race that created the transformers as slaves before they rebelled, though still keeping parts of that in spirit. The 13 primes from war for cybertron and prime are added in creating a perfect precursor.

Sentinel however betrayed them, selling them out to the quintessons to become god emperor of cybertron with the mining class born entirely of his own greed, stripping them of their t cogs and indocrinating them. And tha'ts what makes this scary: part of why Sentinel's plan works so well.. is indocrination. To most of Cybertron this is just how things always were. The few people who know gladly keep up the lie. By creating a system he can control, sentinel has guaranteed few will rebel because they have no reason to doubt him. Like any good dictator he's set himself up as the be all end all and as a god unto himself so his people don't question and those like optimus who do are struck down.

Even when Alpha Trion last of the primes played wonderfully by Laurence Fishburne tells them all of this and in a truly beautiful and horrific sequence shows it to them using some dust he controls, only pax and Bumblebee truly digest it. It makes sense for both. Pax has ALWAYS questioned his place in the world so while he's mildly skeptical at worst, for him, someone whose broken into the archives to learn, constantly pushed against the system, finding out "Oh your life is a lie".. is freeing. It's finding out the horrible sytem that hates what you are is wrong. It's where the queer coding comes in finding out no your not wrong.. it's the people who said you not being you were horrible. For Pax this is what he's always wawited for: a mentor who truly respects all he did to get here, a purpose in freeing cybertron, a true world.

For B when we meet him he's spent his life being constantly kicked down rungs for his screw ups, abandoned by Cybertron to it's depths and happy just to have friends. Finding out "oh yeah your leader is a lie and you get to be badass now" is just.. nice. B is just kinda there for the ride. Honestly Bumblebee is just kinda there in the movie. Keegan Michael Key does a great job as the character especially in the second act when he gets to react to the more horrific things going on , but for the first he's just the annoying comic relife. The Badassatron gag gets old FAST and the trailers did not help. The trailers also didn't help focusing entirely on the comedy, which helps offset things and makes the more dramatic and often violent second act work. We get ot know these characters and there world... then see what happens after the curtains lifted and they see what there world always was.

This plays into Elita who i've glanced over, and who dosen't take it well, having to see Sentinel directly selling out to the quintissons to belivie it. Elita did her job, played the system, tried to get out.. and finds out it was rigged the whole time. Elita as we see her is tough, but fair.. wanting to arrest our heroes when they escape to the surface.. but willing to go with them when stranded as if they ARE right she gets what she wants and if their wrong they've agreed to be arrested anyways. Yet when her world turns upside down her response to it is shock.. then acceptance. The world is bad, how can we fix this? She goes with Optimus plan, though dosen't go loyally pointing out it MIGHT not work.. but it's their best option: expose sentinel to the public and hope it turns them.

This... is where D-16 shifts entirely. And his actor Brian Tyree Henry is easily the standout of the cast. No question. We see D-16 as someone who truly belivied in the system and the primes: he's a huge Megatronius Prime fanboy, who in most realities ends up being a tratiorus monster and basically satan.. but here.. is a good person and the strongest of the primes. He respected sentinel, utterly in awe to help him find the matrix, which was said to be lost. So instead he finds out everything he belivied in is a lie and takes it hte hardest: elita was annoyed with the system enough it took light convincing, pax was never for it and B is just happy to be included. But for D... this was everything. This was his LIFE. He rages at Pax for taking them on this adventure, for everything he loved and worshipped being relveaed a lie. Finding out what his life was, or rather what he likely expected it was but refused to admit to himself breaks him.

And that.. unleashes his rage. You get the sense D-16 has a lot of supressed anger: constantly having to tow the line, to clean up after his best friend, to keep his head down.. and finding out it was all for nothing and said friend is the reason he knows this.. unelashes every rage. Every thought he had to keep in every bit of it at once... and he wants Sentinel dead: not brought to justice, not heroically brought down for corruption: DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS IN CHAINS TO THE DEPTHS OF THE MINES AND TORN APART. Orion wants justice, he wants revenge.

The film also does a good job not making d-16 just.. evil. He's full of rage, he lashes out at orion.. but you still side with him despite knowing where this angers gonna take him. The system is broken, horrible and nightmarish. Like the IDW megatron, D-16 has EVERY reason to think it needs to burn. Yet you get why Pax wants the softer touch at first: he dosen't care about sentinel fuck that guy but burning it to the ground gets other people caugh tin the fire. Neither is entirley wrong: sentinel probably does need to die, but a brutal execution dosen't help anyone. And as pax can do doing so won't fill the void in his chest. Getting the t-cogs for the literal voids in their chest dosen't either.

The film dosen't entirely stop the lighthearted stuff: We get that great seuqnece form the trailers where our quartet try to transform and end up stuck mid way. It's both a neat idea, as i'ts essentially waking up a whole part of your body you could not use, and fun, based on Cooley's own experinces as a kid where for the more complex transformers they'd end up in a half transformed pile.

But the core is clear... and while the divide between D and Pax deepends as we meet the High Guard

Choked Out

So our heroes are kidnapped by the High Guard, the future decepticons. The High Guard were the primes loyal and noble enforcers but have spent the last however long it's been turned into a rebellion against sentinel, barely scraping by. Granted their also lead by Starscream which has never gone well and there's no giant gun to shoot him with nor volcano to throw him in so their kinda stuck.

I do love Starscream here played by the one and only Steve Buschemi who gets Sceamers smugness and arrogance right while adding in a dash of bloodthirst and class. The High Guard has devovled into a might makes right hellscape. And it's this hellscape.. that finishes creating megatron. I belivie had b had time to process or think , he MIGHT of not become megatron. It's likely why Alpha Trion still trusted him.. though as Brotoman pointed out when we discussed the film it could just as easily be that trion didn't care and wanted D-16 to go on a blood rampage. This still puts him above the G1 version whose only menoring to optimius was bringing him back form the dead like jesus after four robots from the future wondered in.

But the high guard share his views: wanting to burn it down, wanting to use brute force, resenting the rest of cybertron. It's all there. And the high guard are the army he needs to pull off his goals, as he's grown to resent optimus and Bee and Elita are firmly on his side.

So in a fit of Irony it's starscream who helps fully cement the creation of megatron. Megs is annoyed at their postering, doing seemingly nothing and done with their shit. He plans to just fuck off if their not going to do anything. Starscream as usual for him takes this as a challenge. And as usual across space and time megatron's response is exactly as good for starscream as you'd expect.

Megatron fucks him up so bad his VOICE changes. Yeah in this continuity Starscream's whiny voice.. is because megatron choked him out. And Starscream was into it asking for more. Was it a love of violence or is starscream discovering he's a sub?

But it's the point to me where D-16.. is gone. He hasn't turned full villian yet.. but he's found himself surronded by likeminded bots whose reaction to them choking out tehir leader is FUCK YEAH! YOU GET EM MEGS. I grant spending at least a decade around starscream is probably a lot for anyone, but it's still nicely horrifying and I like this barbarian portrayl of the decepticons: that they too started from a good place but having to constantly fight while being seen as traitors and being isoilated casued all their warrior instincts to go to a whole lord of the flies situation.

Megatron dosen't get to bask in his new horde or a nearly destroyed starscream who only lives because Orion is there.. and D makes it VERY clear this won't happen again. The mercy thing. Instead Sentinel kidnaps most of them with only Orion and Elita escaping.

You've Found my Breaking Point, Congradulations

So our two heroes are now seperated.. and while it was clear what path D-16 was on, it's Orion's turn to cement his. Oriion.. is not doing so good

He feels this is all his fault, that his constant diving into stuff hurt people and while before he was able to brush it off, the elita one situation REALLY wasn't his fault, enlisting megatron in the race was an attempt to help them, and even ending up in the cybertron's bowels, he figured Sentinel would come from them. Every reckless action and unintended consequence was just a step up. And he wasn't entirely wrong, his actions were well meaning.. but it's here he finally gets the downside and what makes his earlier character work: that relization that yes, he meant well, yes he wasn't wrong.. but he was still dragging everyone along with him when they kept telling him no and while in the long run, even with what he's about ot become, d-18's better for it, Orion finally gets that he can't just keep assuming people will be better off or he knows what's better.

Granted he takes this as

But Elita has changed. She's seen the good that's happened from it and encourages pax... she also rubs in that she's smarter than him, true, but also that as annoying as he could be to her... he had one thing she didn't, that d-16 didn't... hope. He never gave up, just fell into the system. He never stopped beliving in a better world even after finding out it was a lie. He dosen't try to stop sentinel just because "what else am I going to do" or "revenge" he's doing this because he WANTS a better world for everyone. To lift people up. He dragged d-16 into this not because he was blind, but because he wanted to help him. He wanted them both to see the sun. To build tommorow together. And maybe make out a little. His methods weren't great, but he was always trying to do the right thing.

So with that Pax isn't back to his old self he's better, and thinks out his plan for a second.. and it's a brilliant one, for once not just winging it but thinking it out: they need to take down sentinel. They can't broadcast his misdeeds for now, but they can at least stop him. They dont' have enough of an army as only half the guard escaped, so it's time to split up: Elita will lead the rest of the elite guard to free their captured brethren, Orion will go rally the miners who already trust and look up to him. Shockwave asks "Wait why would I do that" and get sa cup of punch in the face as his answer, while Soundwaves like "eh why the fuck not. " I do love shockwave in this film, he's just a pathetic butt monkey aand sounds like bluster blaster. It's glorious.

Meanwhile Megatron gets some MORE trauma. He refuses to bend the knee for Sentinel. Sentinel's plan is to frame the guard as destrutive rebels and megatron as one. And he has a chilling line I love: "The truth is whatever I say it is: it's the truth and i'ts chilling and Hamm does a fantastic job going from egotistical ass to chilling dictator at the drop of a hat, never dropping the smarm. Sentinel is the perfect vilian for this film: a legit threat and meance.. but also someone clearly there to be the starter villian: someone who unites our heroes at first but gets the fuck out of the way for the emotional climax. It makes the whole 'Oh no the heroes idol is evil" twist we've seen a lot. A lotttt, go down smother as while he's evil enough that his final takedown is satisfying, he's not so menacing or compelling you feel he's wasted. He's just comeplling enough

He's also a massive dick and upon seeing Megatron's sticker, he's been wearing a decal of megatronus, he rips it off.. and fucking BRANDS megatron. Yeah there's.. some racial stuff buried in here that as a white dumbass i'm not qualified to talk about. But it is brutal as hell.

SO while Team Elita crashes a train into a buildling to start the climax, because Elita is the best and I wish I had more to say about her other than she's the most badass one there is and Scarlett Johnasen is having a LOT of fun playing her, Orion goes to inspire a line of cameos. There are a LOT with Ironhide and Arcee being the most prominent.

The Miners are chafing under the strips not helped by Dreadwing, their supervisor and the dickbag who demoted Elita earlier and who in general is a bullying asshat. So naturally Optimus easily deals with him with a punch to the face. It's a nice moment that says a lot with just one punch: Optimus has problems FAR BIGGER than one petty asshole and has grown, literally and metaphorcially past him.

Orion having a t-cog and easily taking out the local bully is enough to get everyone to listen and he gives his first true rousing speech, revealing the truth, admitting they dont' have much reason to belivie him, but beliving ther'es something better.. there has to be and Sentinel has no right ot take it: So with mining equipment and jetpacks, our hero leads the future autobots. AI am a bit iffy about all the autobots being in one group and the decipticons in another, but the sequel could help flesh it out and I get they only had 90 minute sto pack a lot in. One is VERY overstuffed and takes place over maybe two days tops. A lot happens.. but it all feels resonable and well set up: D-16 changes entirely but it's hard to say megatron wasn't lurking under the surfance and a LOT of trauma in less than a day didn't change him. Likewise Optimus and Megatron rising as leaders.. makes perfect sense; The Guard had spent years hiding and stewing and suddenly a new kid comes along with more o fa vision than ducking and weaving and easily chokes out the guy who was likely only leader because he killed a few people who said no to that. He then refuses to bow to sentinel despite knowing what this might means an dkeeps getting up.

Meanwhile Optimus leads not through badassery.. but hope. He puts his dreamer nature to good use and instead of inspiring his troops thorugh violence, inspires them. And because Oriion was already a decent guy who instead of being seen as a weird outcast, was seen as a guy who did what they wished they could, a nice turn of that usual "never accepted weirdo" thing we get, because he was simply a good perosn.. people listen.

So here comes the climax.

Throw My Better Self Overboard, Shoot At Him When He Comes Up for Air

So we get our big climactic battle as our untied rebel forces eat the rich while Elita squares off with Airachnid. I hadn't brought up Airachnid because her plot relevance for most of the movie is to stand around and look menacing, being Sentinel's liutiennt. And I like how they went for something diffrent: true to the name she's part modern helicopter, part spider and usies her spider legs to brutally tear into foes, leaping on them and tearing them to shreds. While the rest of Sentinels mooks, various mass produced drones ala the ones Megatron has in prime, go down easily when fighting Alpha trion she took him down and let sentinel finish him off later because of course he wanted to gloat.

So while the final battle goes down to the two female robots of importance duking it out, it still works as it makes sense: Elita has quickly become the autobots bruiser and Optimus second in command, and Sentinel is busy gloating to his captives. Rather than the cliched "well the women must fight because a man punching her would be too mucH" it feels like a fight between each sides seconds that's also brutal and well done.

Orion however has a plan and while he and an ungreatful B-17 fight Sentinel, who reveals he took Megatronius cog, he has elita grab airachnid as she showed off her creepy camera head before... and thus he realizes she has incriminating footage. So while Bumblbee finds he has knife hands and helps clear the way, our heroes team up.. kinda.

I also have to give it to the fighting here: Something Cooley made sure to include was transforming. In most continuites the transforming is used maybe to ram a fucker and most fighting is as the robots. Here ther'es a lot of transforming in combat: Ariachind uses her alt mode to gain advantage as it can fly nad elita's can't. Sentinel uses his massive jet form's firepower to even the odds before diving back into bot mode. D-16 RAMS into the fucker with his tank mode, uses it frequently for blasting and easily switches back into combat. It's fluid, gorgeous and really takes advantage of the trasnforming to turn every fight into a spectacle.

While D-16 fights Sentinel, Orion inacts his plan: hyjack the radio tower and er.. slam Airachnids face into the console therebye getting the footage he needs.

Sentinel's outed as a bad guy, everythin'gs fine? right? right? Right D-16.. whose inching towards sentinel and... oh... oh no.

So Orion rushes to prevent his friend from doing a murder, whiel Sentinel pathetically crawls away. He begs him not to do this, that this isn't the right way.. but it won't work this time. Pax says the wrong thing: "Don't be like sentinel". He threatnes pax to move and pax instead jumps int he way.. and is shot , barely alive. And thus.. two bots die... D-16 throws Orion Pax into the core of the planet "I'm done saving you". One wanted war, to keep raging forever against a planet that wronged him the other wanted to fix tha tplanet and restore it. In the end it was two roads that simply HAD to diverge but damn do they make it painful. You see just how much these two meant, how much good they acomplished..b ut ultimately B-17 can't let go of his rage and pain.. and he shoudln't.. not entirely. He can still feel hurt and rageful.. but it's in trying to tear the rest of the world down where he failed.

Sometimes the world DOES need to burn, but if you don't think about the people who get hurt, then your in the wrong.

Where You Go Once You Arrive, Where We Go Once We Arrive

The next scene.. is the films best... a truly striking back and forth series of cuts as we see the true ascendance, the birth of megatron and optimus prime given all the gravitas 40 years of stories, conuities and tellings of these two's clash.

Megatron gives a firey horrifying speech as he rips Sentinel in half. The film is unflinching with hit's violence. It did have to cut around things.. but all that did was have cooley let your mind fill in the gaps. For a family film, this is fucking brutal, and it all crecnedoes with a bot getting ripped in half. likely being robots gave them some leeway, but it's still horrifying to see. I don't feel bad for sentinel he fucking deserved it but Megatron giving him a mortal kombat fatality then going on to scream about he's going to burn iacon down, destroy every last person loyal to sentinel to burn the world no matter who gets hurt... it underlines Optimus point. While Sentinel defeintly deserved to die, this dosen't fix anything. This dosen't change iacon for the better, it just replaces a tyrant who made the trains run on time and again deserved his mortal kombat fatality, with one who thinks he's doing the right thing while killing as many people as he has to to do it. Neither version of this is good but Megatron is too blinded by trauma to see that and thus has become something almost as bad as what left.

Thankfully as Megatron rises... so too does another. As he falls into the core, his body dead.... Orion Pax meets the primes, all 12 showing up.. with Alpha Trion himself anointing our hero. This could easily be iffy: chosen one narratives aren't nearly as common these days for a reason and this is the same year where Dune Part 2 showed just how bad that could go based on a book all the way back in the 60s, just taking out the racisim and sexism.

So instead Orion Pax becomes robot jesus this time not because destiny says so.. but simply because he acted well. He acted nobly, selfishless and laid his life down and thus he not only rises from the dead but gets an upgrade: a cool ax ehe does the thor thing with , which had to be intetional, able to take out a hudnered bad guys with swords or at least all three main decipticons with only megatron giving him trouble.

So before our climactic breakup, le'ts talk about primus. Some consider the idea Primus is a two faced prick: he made the matrix of leadership, the source of cybertron's energon in this continuity and why they have to mine without it, not feel so good and go away into dust robbing sentinel of it.

Me... I think it wasn't the smartest move given Sentinel then created a slave race to do the job and it didn't really stop him.. but my take is that it was all primus COULD do. Primus did create the primes to guard cybertron, but that was right after becoming the planet and space god. My honest interpretation, one backed up by talking to brotoman is that primus isn't as fully cognizant without the matrix. In the war for cybertron duology, Primus created the matrix as a way for it to be with the rest of cybertron kind as it really coudln't commuincate outside it's core. If eel that's the same here: that it can only do so much and without the matrix as a conduit, all it could do was thrash blindly, hence the storms of the surface and the mines shifting horribly. THe mines woul dbe closer to cybertrons core, giving him more dexterity. Prime fell directly into a shaft leading down int oCybertron's bowels and into it's core, which gave Primus a chance to look him over, see what he did. If you notice primus doesn't even talk directly. He has to use alpha trion's ghost. Primus transformation into cybertron likely put him beyond most cybertronians and unlike say Unicron if he shows up, please let him show up, he can't go back and forth.

Now that's just my interpretation but it's something I like about the film: the world's well built and set up.. but it dosen't explain everything. It leaves some ambguity: where the primes as perfect as they seemed or was sentinel right to resent them, even if

Did Alpha Trion know the risks he was unleashing with megatron? We don't know, and tha'ts okay. And yes the sequels probably will clear some of this up if we get them, but it's still something really neat to think about.

For now we get an awesome fight with Optimus ending the thing by slicing Megatron's fusion canon. He commands him to leave: he tried to conquer cybertron, killed a man and broke Optimus' heart in the process. Megatron bitterly leaves setting up a sequel that please please please god let us have some form of sequel, and takes the gaurd with him.

This leaves optimus in charge, and their paths set: Optimus turns the miners into the autobots and gives them their cogs back, restoring cybertron.. and Megatron... brands his new peeps the decepticons. THey are not being being decieved and they will open cybertrons eyes and close optimus'. It's a truly painful but well done ending with both rising : Optimus prepares to hold off the quintsions.. and Megatron prepares to do what he planned to do in the first plac.e. burn it down. They were close but now... the war begins.

The One and Only One

Transformers One is a masterpiece, well worth a look in theaters. I'ts a feast ofr the eyes. But it's it' semotinal core that makes it: following two young men as one goes from reckless dreamer to real leader, with his voice lowering the right octaves, and the other going from a stickler for the rules to a radical planning to kill as many people as he has to to save cybertron from hitself. One is a heartfelt epic, with eye popping colors, great social commentary and a hell of an emotional core. This is the best of the transformers films i've seen, probably not a stretch to say the best given it lacks robot testicles or a man waving around a piece of paper saying he can fuck teenagers, but still a truly great film I hope Paramount gives a sequel even if it dosen't do gangbusters. In a year with maybe three animated films i've wanted to see theatrically, this was a welcome treat and is one of the best transformers stories. Go see it, thanks for reading and remmeber you can win if you dare.

[credince--writes]

Baseball, a babysitter, and the box under the baseboards.

Summary:

They're happy. Their families are thriving and Keegan and Roach are finally healed and happy. The newest addition to their family- Elle, has been a godsend in taking care of their youngest Logan. As time progresses, and she becomes more intertwined with family she takes a step forward to put one last demon to rest.

A/N:

This is a fanfiction of a fanfic, for those of you (with great taste) who have read the Soldiers Eyes series, specifically the last part- All the Good Things. This is a super self-indulgent fic I wrote of what I thought would happen later. Au of an Au of an Au type deal. Just a one-and-done, there will be no extension to this.

Words: 23,445

Status: Unedited

Tags:

The Dove isn't dead, yet. - Gore - Child Loss - Angst- Torture - Happy Ending - Keegan P. Russ - Omegaverse (Kinda) - A/B/O Dynamics - Simon Riley x John Mactavish - Keegan P. Russ x Gary Sanderson - This is fucked up - hunting - death of animals - explicit depictions of violence

Balls: Fat

[therandompagesblog]

SKZ Pack Chapter 17

Trigger Warnings: Violence, angst

Minho and Jeongin walked through the woods until they reached a large compound that was enclosed around a wooden fence, except the entrance exit had a gate. It was eerie the compound they fell upon. It smelt like prison fumes. Minho and Jeongin felt sick to their stomachs as they took in their surroundings. They couldn't believe their mate was brought up here. Seungmin's statement before was an understatement it wasn't a breeding farm it was a prison of exploitation. No wonder Y/N didn't know how to be an omega. The omegas looked as if they were mistreated and abused here. The two wolves swore to themselves when they returned they would embrace their mate tightly and promise no harm would ever come to her. They were disgusted. There was an obscene amount of alphas around the compound who sat around doing nothing while the betas did their chores.

As soon as they reached the gate, they saw two beta's guarding the entrance. They were skinny, if not underfed, by the looks of it. The one on the left looked bored as if this was something he did on a daily basis until their alpha or head alpha dismissed them. "Who goes there? What do you want?" The male beta on the right questioned as he stalked closer, backing up when he smelled an alpha. He was unsure, uncertain. The other male beta looked nervous too. "We're here to see Omega Joshua. My name's Jeongin and I come from Straykids. Minho hyung here is an elder from Wolfgang and Wraithwood territory." Jeongin projected strong alpharism despite his minor nerves that were starting to bubble up. "Go and get Alpha Jackson. It's his son." The beta on the right ordered, causing Minho and Jeongin to look at each other nervously, they hadn't expected to encounter the head alpha but it does make sense. They wouldn't directly get an omega to speak to an unannounced alpha and elder, let alone be alone with them. "What is this Keegan?" A hoarse voice called out. Jeongin and Minho guessed this was Jackson. "They wanted to speak to Joshua!?" The beta named Keegan answered.

Jackson the head alpha was tall and very muscular. He had tattoos all up his arms and across his chest. His hair was dark brown like Y/N's but there wasn't much a resemblance there. Jackson stood tall as he looked at the two wolves. Minho had to hold his breath as he looked back at him. He had come across Jackson before and found him a bit of a problem. "Why do you want to see my son Josh? What is the meaning of this?" Jackson asked as he puffed his chest, trying to appear more threatening, but he wasn't. He looked like Changbin at the gym who tried to make himself look scary. It was laughable. "Your son is being accused of stalking my pack and sending my mate a threatening letter. We wanted to clarify before proceeding further so we wanted to discuss it with him." Jeongin answered firmly, accusing his son but also not accusing him. Jackson laughed and shook his head in response to the accusations. "Josh doesn't go out. I know that because he's with Alpha San all the time." Jackson laughed. "Bring him here boys. Apparently he's a stalker now."

Minho and Jeongin looked at each other confused but kept their cool. They weren't fully accusing him but they wanted to be certain before bringing Chan the bad news. Chan wasn't aware it was a 'Joshua' stalking his mate but what he did know was Seungmin was close to dragging him back here. "Come here, boy. Do you know them?" Jackson called out as he pushed a tall lanky omega in front of him. He looked like Y/N. He even had grey eyes too. "No. Why? Have I done something?" Joshua asked nervously. Minho sniffed him out and realised he was telling the truth. They felt awful to accuse an older brother Y/N asked dearly, but they couldn't understand why Chan's uncle wanted Y/N. "No. We apologise. We mistook you." Minho answered. "An elder getting something wrong. That's a first." Jackson laughed. "Who is this unlucky mate of yours? What's her name." "Y/N L/N." Jeongin stated plainly. "WHAT!?" Jackson shouted causing Joshua to shudder. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "She's with Hongjoong." "Maybe you haven't heard the news recently. Hongjoong is dead and Wooyoung has been banished with the rest of Ateez. Y/N is Straykids' soul mate." Jeongin answered coldly as Jackson stepped forward gripping hold of Jeongin by the collar but Jeongin did not care. He knew Jackson didn't care about his daughter. She was sold off because he wanted an Apex. This man in front of Jeongin knew she would be forced to the same proclamation. "How is my sister? Is she hurt?" Joshua asked as he tried to release his father's hand. "Did they hurt her, before you?" "Y/N was ill-treated before we found her. She has been nothing but spoilt with us. I promise we all love her very much." Minho promised earnestly.

Joshua smiled, tears threatening to spill as he thought about his baby sister suffering abuse. He couldn't think about her in that way. "I'm sure Ateez treated her well-" "You lie father. You sold her off because of that fraud. Because some man called Joshua told you, you would have an Apex but it failed. You thought your daughter could conceive one." Joshua shouted as he ripped his father off earning him a slap across the face. Minho went to intervene but Jeongin stopped him. They shouldn't intervene with another pack's discipline but Minho didn't want to see his mate's brother beaten. "You speak too many words boy!" Jackson shouted. "Wait. Joshua?! Is his name Joshua Bahng?" Jeongin asked. "You know him as well?!" Jackson asked. "We've heard of him as being a problem. We don't know much about him." Minho quickly intervened. They needed to keep it a secret that they were involved with someone like him. "He is a fraud. He pretends he's this high Nobel seer who can see things and connections. All he did was nearly cost me my pack." Jackson growled. "If you have nothing more then leave." "Thank you for your time," Jeongin said coldly, giving a blank smile. "Please tell me sister I love her. Tell her I hope she's happy." Joshua begged. "We will," Jeongin promised as they watched the wolves go back through the gate leaving the two out alone in the cold air.

The two of them walked silently back through the woods heading through Wraithwood to get to Wolfgang. They were silent but their thoughts were loud as they thought about what they had heard. If it truly was Joshua Bahng then they were in trouble and it made the two of them nervous. "What the fuck." Minho breathed out. It was a rarity to hear him swear. "I don't even know what to say." Jeongin sighed as they reached the clearing. "All I can say is, I want Chan and Y/N well away from him." "Agreed," Minho said. "I wonder who's cooking dinner?" Jeongin thought out loud causing Minho to cringe. "I hope it's Y/N or Felix. The others better not touch a pot." Minho growled out, walking faster to get home.

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[manicrouge]

TASK FORCE: STALKER

Chapter One: Last Woman On Earth

(Keegan x F!Reader)

Word count: 8.5k

About: After an operation in which the Alpha Team has been instructed to distract the Federation troops goes wrong, Alpha 4 finds herself stranded in Caracas, Venezuela. U.S. The city floods and while seeking refuge, she runs into one of the members of Task Force: Stalker. 

TWs: Canon-typical violence, drowning, brief mention of religion, gore, blood, violence, mayhaps some typos here and there too

Note: This story follow the campaign of Cod: Ghosts. If you would like to be added to the tag list, leave a comment :D

‘Alpha team offloads here as discussed.’ 

A voice ringed in your headset as the helicopter slowly lowered. Staring past the head of one of the Bravo team, you spied the shrubbery of the Forest bending around the spinning propellors of the helicopter, raising to your feet as the door slowly opened. Holding your rifle close to you, you offered a short nod to every man you passed on your way out. 

Your boots hit the dirt, a stick snapping beneath your foot. The nerves you felt during your first deployment were lost to the world as soon as the stench of gun powder graced your nostrils. There’s no time to be nervous, you thought back to the words your father spoke while telling stories of his time in battle. He’d hold your dolls, speak with gruff voices as he reenacted stories you had begged to hear. Pulling up the arm of Cinderella, he’d state firmly,  you’re in the deep end now, soldier. To which, in your youth, you’d giggle and clap your hands to. Those words were akin to a Bible verse to you, something you repeated in your head, even when your squad leader was barking orders. It was an essential mission, you’d been briefed more times than you cared to consider which only ever meant one thing: do not fuck this up. 

‘Keep up, yeah?’ a voice said from beside you. 

You turned your head, spying Parker. A man who was in his late twenties, a tad bit older than you were. You'd often referred to him as your older brother, the others in your squad typically addressing the pair of you as siblings.

‘You should listen to your own advice,’ you retorted with a grin.

You set off on foot. Parker walked alongside you as the pair of you walked just behind the rest of the squad. In total, you counted ten men, then yourself and Parker. The noise of chatter was close. You were in the enemy land for sure, listening to the contempt in their voices, you felt adrenaline wash over you as you bent your knees, slowly stalking with the rest of your squad. 

‘Razor-1, all Alpha deployed. Moving to secondary HLZ.’ 

The sputtering of the choppers propellers left you staring in the air, peering through the trees as you watched as the black mass rose into the air, heading further into the District. Your eyes followed the helicopter as you headed further into the greenery, your eyes head not daring to dip. Something in you was aching at the sight of it growing further. The only sound, aside from the distant calls of the enemy, were the short breaths of the soldiers around you, alongside the creeping footsteps as you edge closer and closer. 

‘All Stations — Razor-1 is bracketed. We’re getting hit!’

You looked up, and the cries of the enemy just before you grow louder. And still, you persisted. You weren’t the one under fire, so why would you stop? You watch in the day time sky, witnessing the grey smoke billowing from the missiles fired, heading right for the helicopter, and still, you persist on your operation. 

‘Shit, that was a close one,’ Parker laughed to the right of you. 

Your eyes are still stuck on the helicopter, your lungs aching as you refused to breathe. Another missile was sent into the sky. The radio was muddled, however, the system managed to pick up a disgruntled string of curses before the announcement came. 

‘Razor-1— w- we’re going down!’ 

The sky was then painted with oranges and reds as a whirring filled the emptiness of nature. The helicopter expelled bouts of black smoke as it twisted and turned, falling out of the sky like a dead bird. It dropped graceless, unable to keep itself from its doom. 

‘Hold up,’ said your lieutenant, holding his hand up. 

You stopped, as did the rest of the men surrounding you. A shaky breath escaped you as the crash rumbled the ground you stood on, fire engulfing the wreckage while you stood, the breeze blowing through your hair. A part of you was selfishly thankful that your name had been absent from their list; their fate was far from appealing — and at that point, you didn’t even know if they were dead.

‘Bravo, how copy?’ your lieutenant whispered as you crouched behind him, stray sticks and rocks digging into your knees. You and Parker shared a look as the radio remained silent. ‘Bravo, what’s your status…?’ 

‘Alpha — Bravo compromised. Multiple wounded!’ 

Your grip on your gun tightened. 

‘We’re taking effective fire!’ 

‘Bravo, we’re advancing on the first camp, hold tight,’ called you lieutenant, briefly looking over his shoulder, before pressing onwards.

No one questioned his authority, and even though you couldn’t quite get the image of the helicopter falling out of your mind (the flames of which had seared into you retinas), when you hit the camp the first thing you did is bring your sight to your eye, marking the head of an enemy immediately. He was much too busy to see you, and when your lieutenant fired the first shot, you wasted no time in pulling your own trigger. 

Blood sprayed against the front of the tent the man was standing in front of, his limp body falling into the green canvas. It barely held his weight as his brains poured from the exit would at the back of his head, filling the dip like a swell of rain water would have. It took a few moments for the men standing beside him to react, as they simply stood and blinked at the carnage you had brought with the squeeze of a trigger. Screams exited the mouths of the troops, and you watched as they whipped their heads from side to side in an attempt to find where the bullets were coming from. Waving their guns in the air, you maintained your calmness in the midst of the calamity, not daring to break, even when you and one of the men standing beside the corpse locked eyes. 

From that moment, bullets reigned down hell and you intended to walk out alive. 

Advancing on the war zone was always done with caution and you did so gradually, shooting with key precision. Any missed shot was disregarded in the blink of an eye; you could recover steadily with as little as a hitch in your breath. You continued alongside a handful of your team, whilst the read of them went to the right hand side. The burning of fuel filled your nose, and when you peaked from behind the truck you were crouched behind, you caught sight of a thick cloud of smoke travelling upwards into the sky. 

‘Adams, Jones, flank left,’ demanded your lieutenant, before turning to you, ‘missy, you’re with me. We kill and we get to the Bravo team,’ he stated firmly.

‘Yes sir,’ you nodded, following behind him. You kept your scope upwards in the search for anyone who may have had him in their sights. In the matter of seconds you had advanced, sitting before a crate of ammunition. You watched as he pulled out his magazine, checking his ammo, before snapping it back into his gun. Maintaining a stark look on his face, he sucked on his bottom lip, looking at you. 

‘You got enough?’ 

‘Yeah,’ you hummed, ‘have you?’ 

He chuckled, ‘of course I do, ‘haven’t missed a shot.’ 

You narrowed your eyes at his remark.

Whilst subtle, you were quite sure it was intended to be a jab. However, whatever offence you had quickly shattered when a hand snaked around the corner of the ammunition.

In the blink of an eye, the smug expression on the man’s face quickly fell as chunks of his brains and skull exploded, covering you.

The sound of the gunshot left your ears ringing, a spray of your superiors blood covering your face. A gargled gasp escaped your throat, and you blinked rapidly in an attempt to rid the redness from your eyes. The man fell limp on the ground beside you, the barrel of the gun that had just killed him now aimed at you. You looked death in the eye, snatching your gun and squeezing the trigger as you scrambled to get out of the way of the bullet. 

You landed on your back, the man you’d shot at falling to the ground. A dull ache radiated in your shoulder and you hissed, lifting a shaking hand to assess the damage. Your gloved fingers sank into a bullet wound and you let out a shattered huff.

This entire thing seemed like an ambush — none of the planning made sense in the slightest.

It was a death trap, you swore so under your breath as you pushed yourself up off of your back, a strained grunt escaping you as you did so. It was a pain unlike anything you had felt, and still, it was the least of your concern in that moment. Peaking around the box, you gulped at the sight of your dead superior, using your hand to wipe his blood off of your face. Behind were the feet was a Fed soldier, squirming where he laid, holding his stomach as he screamed out bloody murder.

Maintaining your cover, you pushed up keeping a tight hold on your gun as leaned over him, grabbing the pistol he had shot you with, attaching it to your belt before pressing the barrel of your gun against his chest, lifting your throbbing arm up to the radio attached to your chest. 

‘This is Alpha 4, Lieutenant Williams is KIA.’ 

The shakiness of your tone was embarrassing and when you let go of your radio, you winced as you waited for a response. There were more gunshots, more screaming, yet the radio was silent. 

‘Does anybody copy?’ you asked, looking around, pressing your back against the ammunition station. 

‘It’s a fuckin’ blood bath!’ A voice exclaimed, ‘A- Alpha 2, and 6 are KIA.’ 

‘Parker?’ you asked. 

‘We gotta retreat,’ firmly said the man, ‘fall back to the landing zone and call med evac. We can’t fight all of these, we’re down a full team and three of our own.’ 

Everything in you was insisting on listening to the man; that ultimately seemed like the right call and you supposed you couldn’t exactly turn to your lieutenant for answers. However, when you peaked once again and spied to the crash site, something inside you urged you to persevere. There were people who were injured and as you looked downwards, you swallowed the last of your cowardice and shook your head.

‘No,’ you said through your radio, ‘people are hurt — I’m not going to leave them.’ 

‘Are you fuckin’ stupid?’ he asked, ‘fall back. You will die.’ 

You plotted a bath before yourself. You could rush into the tree line and use the trunks as cover, sneak around the outside of the camp and just a little further to where the helicopter had went down. With the noise from behind you, you were more than sure you could make a break for it; there would be a brief intermission in the fighting and you could slip away without alerting a single soul; for all they knew you had been shot alongside your lieutenant.

‘No, I’m not leaving without trying,’ you said, letting go of the radio. 

Grabbing the dead man’s shoulder, you turned him so he was on his back, taking hold of the dog tag around his neck and yanking it. It snapped off and you shoved it in your pocket before turning your full attention to the tree line.

With your gun in hand, you took one last breath before pushing forward, scurrying away from the position. There were more yells, and had they caught onto the fact that you were rushing away, you were unsure. No bullets were fired in your direction, and you remained crouched, even when you made it back into the shrubbery. 

Smoke continued to float up into the sky, and with your gun close to your chest, you pushed on with your heartbeat ringing in your ears. A voice rattled through your radio, one you recognised to be Parker, however, you disregarded his scolding as you turned it off fully, not daring to compromise yourself. Gunshots from the main camp continued as you creeped further and further to the crash site, stopping just behind a tree trunk when you heard the crackle of flames and the creaking of metal. There was a weeping, followed by a few stray gunshots, but aside from that, the yelling was distant. 

Advancing upwards, you approached the helicopter, finding the entirety of the back to be missing, creating an opening which allowed you to rush into. ‘Bravo team, how copy?’ you called, looking around the wreckage. 

‘Well ain’t you a sight for sore fuckin’ eyes,’ a voice called, and when you lifted your head, you spied a man with his back up against the wall. ‘Where’s the rest of Alpha?’ 

‘Three KIA including Williams,’ you said, rushing up to the mans side, ‘you?’ 

‘All KIA from what I know,’ he said, using the butt of his gun to push himself up off the ground, ‘one wounded if you’re countin’ me.’ 

‘Alpha 7 called for us to fall back — call med evac to get us out of here; the entire things been a fucking shit show.’ 

‘I’ll say,’ said the man, ‘you get hit?’ 

‘Only my shoulder,’ you uttered, ‘I’ll live… can you walk?’ 

‘Just about,’ he hummed, watching as you approached him, wrapping your arm around his shoulders. He leaned on you, however, you noted he was careful with ho much weight he put on you, as the pair of you hobbled to the entrance. It was quite the awkward journey counting that he was a few inches taller than you, luckily for him however, you never feigned in the face of a challenge. ‘Where’d he say he’s callin’ med evac?’ 

‘Original landing site.’ 

‘They won’t make it there,’ he said, ‘they know we’re here now, they’ll shoot that helo down just like the shot our one.’

Grabbing your radio, you tuned back into the channel. ‘Alpha 7, this is Alpha 4. All apart from one in Bravo have been KIA. How do you copy?’ 

‘Med evac is on the way, report back to the original landing site,’ Parker said, ‘we’ll recon here and then go further to get the fuck outta here.’ 

You turned to the man beside you. ’You think you’re gonna be able to make it there?’ 

‘Do I have a fuckin’ choice?’ he asked with a chuckle, ‘you’re basically askin’ if I wanna live or die, love.’

You rolled your eyes at his words. ‘We’ll keep to the outskirts of the camp. How much ammo you got?’ 

‘I’m low, about nine or ten more.’ 

‘Fuck,’ you sighed, ‘we’ll just have to keep a low profile.’ 

He hummed, ‘by the sounds of things they’re distracted enough for us to get around them.’ 

‘I hope so.’ 

Each step was agonising, and with the weight of the man on your shoulder, you found your arm was beginning to ache. At that point, the bullet wound in your shoulder had its own pulse and it was throbbing with a ferocious anger, leaving your eyes watering as the pair of you kept low and out of the way of the camp. Despite the burning in ever inch of your body, you refused to submit to the will of the enemy, and with each shout, you bowed your head further in the hopes to keep in the cover of the bushes around you. The man beside you was trying his best to keep quiet, gritting his teeth to stifle every single grunt that passed his lips. With an uneven ground, there was the occasional stumble which would result in the pair of you cursing under your breaths. 

‘Shit, sorry miss,’ grumbled the man, digging his blunt nails into the black sleeve of your shirt.

Biting back a hiss, you gulped back a curse. ‘I- It’s fine,’ you struggled out through gritted teeth in spite of the fact that you felt as though you were two steps away from collapsing. The wound in your arm was leaking, the blood pouring out of it soaking into your torn shit. It was sure to be a bitch when it eventually came to the removal of the bullet. Despite your doubts, gun fire was prolonged behind the pair of you, and the further you moved through enemy territory the more you found hope that more of your squad would make it out alive. 

‘Alpha 4?’ 

‘Parker?’ 

‘I got bad news,’ murmured the man through the radio, ‘radioed med evac and they said they can’t drop here; people know we’re here according to what’s been relayed to the team. If we want to evacuate, we have to push on into the city; apparently a task force is out there looking to assassinate General Almargo — we’ll get out with them.’ 

You paled at the news and both you and your new friend stopped in your tracks. 

‘Are you fuckin’ serious?’ 

‘Unfortunately,’ sighed the man, ‘it’s just me… no one else made it.’ 

‘Fuck,’ cursed the man beside you, looking at you, ‘miss, I can’t make it into the city with my fuckin’ leg, we’re five miles out.’ 

You gulped. ‘I have one of Bravo’s members, his leg is fucked—’

‘We meet up, rob a car and get the fuck out of here and meet up with the soldiers in the city. I’ll be in the roadside just North of the camp; there’s a road that will take us directly into the city.’ 

You kept your mouth shut in spite of your objections. ‘Okay,’ you said, ‘we’ll walk to the road but keep just in the clearing to make sure we’re not spotted.’ 

‘Roger that.’ 

The channel fell silent and you turned to the limping man beside you. ‘It’s the best we can do… I’m sorry.’ 

He sucked in a breath as though he was accepting something. ‘Not your fault, miss,’ he uttered, stumbling. The pair of you wobbled as a result of his misstep, a particularly loud crunch sounding. A strained whimper left his mouth as he fell forward, pulling you along with him. You attempted to catch your fall, turning to your side in the hopes of avoiding landing on your right shoulder. In spite of such, when you hit the ground, a pang of pain which caused goosebumps to form flooded the entirety of your body. Forcing your lips together, you rolled onto your back, immediately holding your arm, a trembling hand hovering over the wound. 

‘Fuck,’ you hissed, the world spinning momentarily. 

Much to you dismay, your fall was not as silent as you had hoped it to be as a whistle confirmed that the men who were hunting you almost heard it. Your pity party was brief as you pushed yourself off of the ground, staring down at the man who nursed his leg. It was only then that you truly assessed the damage done. His bone protruded from his skin, droplets of his blood leaking onto the dirt below the pair of you. 

‘We’ve gotta go,’ you willed, leaning over to grab hold of his wrist, ‘they know we’re here.’ 

‘I’m not going anywhere miss,’ he said through a groan, ‘I can’t walk in this.’ 

‘You can lean on me,’ you whispered, tugging on his arm all for him to raise his hand, prying your hand off him. ‘Come on.’ 

‘No,’ he huffed, dropping his hand to grab his dog tag from around his neck, pulling it off and holding his chain out to you, ‘take this and run.’ 

‘We can—’

‘No,’ he refuted harshly, lifting his head up as footsteps edged closer, ‘take this and get the fuck out of here.’ Pressing your lips together, you looked the man in the eyes. ‘You tried your hardest, but you can’t save everyone,’ he said, shaking the chain in his hand, ‘now take it and get out of here… for the both of us, yeah?’ 

With a sigh, you snatched his dog tag off of him, wasting little time as you swooped down, retrieving your gun from off of the ground. Your aching knees were thankful for the increase of pace and you didn’t care to look back at the certain slaughter of the man who had essentially given up his life for yours. Rather than tightening your hold on him, which you much rather would have, your hands clasped tightly around his chain as you proceeded North, uncaring for anything that might have stopped you in your tracks.

The entire thing was a disaster, so, when you eventually came across Parker hidden near the roadside, you couldn’t quite believe your luck. He’d grabbed your ankle as you were staggering, pulling you into him. Before you could yell out, he hushed you, his paw-like hand covering your mouth. 

‘Chill, it’s just me,’ he whispered. 

Despite knowing you were in safe hands, you drove your elbow into his stomach. His hold on you released immediately as he keeled over with a straight moan. 

‘Asshole,’ you exhaled breathlessly, turning to look at him, ‘you get hit?’ 

‘Not until this point,’ he struggled out, ‘you?’ 

‘Shoulder,’ you said, looking down at your arm, ‘hurts like fuck.’ 

‘I can imagine,’ he hummed, ‘where’s your friend?’ 

‘Didn’t make it,’ you said, your hands hovering over the pocket where you had safely tucked his dog tag away. ‘He had a broken leg, he gave up.’ 

‘Fuck,’ he cursed, ‘that entire thing was a shit show,’ he grumbled, ‘they said it would be easy… there were more than we were told.’ 

‘Tricks of the trade,’ you said, ‘how far are we from the city?’ 

‘Twenty five minutes,’ he said, ‘this road leads to the national park, but if we follow it south we’ll get to the city.’ 

‘Okay,’ you hummed, ‘any traffic in this area?’ 

‘Haven’t seen a car pass me and I’ve been here around twenty minutes — but best to keep out of the way, yeah?’ he asked, ‘how are you for ammo?’ 

‘Still got some.’ 

‘Good,’ he hummed, ‘c’mon, they’ll be gaining on us if we stay here for too long.’ 

The pair of you set off with a fierce hunger, not wanting to be captured by the enemy. Shifting to the other side of the road, you traversed through the dry forest, your hands shaking. Your eyes ached and your head throbbed as the pain in your shoulder worsened. Whilst anyone else would be fleeing from the city and turning around when they caught the sounds of gunshots, you found humour in the fact that the pair of you were charging into battle head on. Parker walked alongside you keeping an eager eye out, his gun poised and prepared to shoot. 

‘I can’t fuckin’ believe this,’ he huffed, ‘I got no fuckin’ intel — didn’t even know we were going in there to just die. Did you know about the other task force?’ 

‘No,’ you answered, ‘we were there to kill and find evidence; that’s what they told us at least.’ 

‘Yeah fuckin’ right,’ snorted the man, ‘more like sent us in there to die.’ 

You bowed your head, your face creasing. The dried blood of your lieutenant was sticky. ‘At least we’re still here,’ you mumbled. 

Parker chuckled, ‘of course we’re still here,’ he said, looking at you, ‘you really think we’d die like that? No; we know what we’re doing. When this task force sees us, they’re gonna be jumpin’ for fucking joy.’ 

You laughed at his enthusiasm. ‘Sure they are.’ 

‘They’ll sign the pair of us and we won’t have to deal with any of this bullshit.’ 

‘Or they’ll kill us on sight.’ 

‘I’d like to see them try,’ he snorted, ‘we’re gonna get there, help them execute that son of a bitch, and then ride out of here on a helicopter.’

‘Into the sunset?’ 

‘You bet,’ he hummed, ‘have a cocktail in hand too.’ 

Even though the pair of you were on the verge of a brutal death, you still had to quiet your laughter at his words. The images of what had happened moments prior were still very much present, and yet, you laughed. It was a strange feeling, for your head to be set alight with horrific images and to still be able to laugh about something ridiculous. Were you even still human for doing so? That, you were unsure of, although, you supposed morality meant nothing in this line of work.

After everything, the pair of you walked together as though you were two school friends walking home. With each step a second passed and you were conscious that the world still proceeded spinning, even though the hearts of many had stopped beating. It was a vindictive cycle — cruel, how everyone simply continued even when a life ended. You supposed, however, that you couldn’t address nature as a monster when you kept putting one foot in front of the other; you were just as bad as her. 

The city appeared on the horizon after what felt like an eternity, not helped by the dry humour of Parker. Much to your surprise, it seemed too easy to have found your way into the city and you raised your brows upwards as the pair of you rested against a wall of a house with shattered windows. It appeared to be a grounds keepers home, only, it was empty and the windows had been shattered. Inside, you spied graffiti across the breast of the living room wall, staining the yellow wallpaper. It was a shame to see such a quaint home in ruin. 

‘Alpha 7 to Home base. Myself and Alpha 4 have made it to the city, looking for exfil; both the rest of Alpha and Bravo are KIA.’ 

You stared at your feet, awaiting a response. ‘Alpha 7, this is home base. Task force Stalker are in the central area, exfil will be near the dam.’ 

‘Roger that,’ Parker said, allowing his hand to drop, ‘we should’ve robbed some of the uniforms from the dead troops; we’re gonna stick out.’ 

‘It’s either we get killed by them or our own men — which is worse?’ 

‘Both are bad,’ he said, ‘from where we are, we fifteen out from the dam,’ he said, pausing for a moment as gunshots echoed in the distance, ‘we’re probably going to walk into a battle.’ 

‘What’s one more?’ you asked, ‘we’re closer to getting home, that’s all that matters.’ 

He nodded his head at your words, ‘keep an eye out. If we see a guard, kill them quietly.’ 

You smiled. ‘Roger that.’ 

Without a word, the pair of you head through the city, ensuring to keep in the shadows in spite of every street the pair of you passed appearing to be that of a ghost town. War had most definitely destroyed the inners of the city; there was rubble in the streets and what were once family homes were shells of their former selves. It was a shame they met such a fate, an undeserved one and thankless all at the hands of corruption. You wondered if the families who lived there made it out alive or if they were forced into the military… or worse.

It was difficult to track the gunfire as with each street you walked past, the sound seemed to travel all the same. For all you knew, the pair of you could have been on the cusp on the battlefield and would have been none the wiser to it.

Either way, you were prepared.

You’d made it that far, you were not going to dare to fold at this point. You could hear yelling from the enemy, resonating off of the houses just like the gunfire did. 

‘You have any idea what they’re saying?’ you asked. 

‘Something about the dam,’ replied Parker. 

‘That’s where the task for is, right?’ 

‘Apparently so,’ he said, ‘whatever it is, it sounds like they’re panicking.’ 

You pursed your lips. ‘Maybe our guys are winning.’ 

The screeching of tires caught your attention and when a car whirled past the pair of you, Parker grabbed you by the forearm and pulled you into an alleyway. Only, there was no way the men in the car couldn’t have seen you, and yet, they didn’t stop. Instead, the sped away as though they were in a police chase, not caring for anything in their surroundings.

Your chest tightened when another car followed suit, and then another, and then another. The stench of burning rubber filled the streets and you watched each car speed past you. Something was not quite right and when you turned to face Parker, you found he felt the same. 

Opening your mouth, you went to question the strange behaviour all for the ground to rumble below the pair of you. Furrowing your brows, you held the wall behind you to steady yourself, all for another rumble to shake the ground again. What sounded like an explosion sounded, however, when you turned your eyes towards the sky, you found it was clear. 

‘What the fuck was that?’ you asked. 

‘It sounded like a bomb went off,’ he remarked, the pair of you moving away from the alleyway. ‘C’mon, we’ve gotta make it to the dam.’ 

Nodding your head, the pair of you cut through the alleyway, onto the main street. It was then you saw it. Very rarely were you surprised, the blood on the face was enough to prove that shock had very little effect on you. However, your burning legs were glued to the spot as your eyes widened at the sight before you.

A wave that must have been three stories was barely a mile out and it was charging with a vengeance with the intention of dragging you down for the life you took that day. A shaky sigh escaped you, and when you turned to Parker, you found the same horror on his face. Turning to look at the house behind you, you cursed under your breath finding that the apartments across the street would be much more suited; the buildings were taller. 

‘Parker, we gotta go,’ you said breathlessly, grabbing his wrist and pulling up. He awoke from his trance, breaking into a sprint. 

You chased after him, your hold on his wrist slipping as he marched forward. Your body was set alight, the last reserves of adrenaline you had within you powering you to make it to the door of the apartment block just as the water came crashing in. Parker was already half way up a flight of stairs, leaving you wading through waist high water which was only growing deeper and deeper. 

‘Parker!’ you yelled, holding your arms out to the side of yourself in an attempt to maintain balance. The current beneath the surface was reckless, pulling you side to side as you battled. No way in hell would you be able to swim your way out of this — especially not with a busted shoulder.

Gritting your teeth, you lunged forward, grabbing onto the bannister of the staircase, letting out a mangled cry as you pulled yourself upwards. Your right arm felt as though it was going to fall off, and the more pressure you put on yourself, the deeper the bullet lodged in your arm dug. A flash of hot pain seared as you continued to use the banister to keep yourself from sinking into the water.  

‘PARKER!’ You screamed, in the hopes of catching the mans attention. 

Your heart was thumping in your ears, your eyes were burning as the water grew higher and higher. Swallowing hard, you fought with all your might to break through the persistent current. It soaked your wound, pooling just above your chin. The sudden flush strained the muscles in your arm, your grip slipping. The building creaked and your arm was pulled behind your back. Blinded by your fury, you opened your mouth to scream the mans name once more, all for it to be a gargle as your hold on the bannister slipped completely and you were pulled into the water. 

The water was murky, hiding all enemies within it. 

You were subjected to travel with the current, forcing yourself to keep your eyes open in spite of how bad the stung. Looking around with each passing metre of water, you searched desperately for something to latch onto, waving your arms like a madman. You broke the water once or twice, gasping for air. Your lungs were flooded and you spluttered before being sucked back under. Your choking continued under water, being damned to a watery grave. Your head grew lighter and your lungs ached. 

This was it. This was how you were going to die. All because of a coward. 

Your vision began to darken, the void yearning for you to fall into her arms. Only your troubles were quelled when you spied a hand in the water. Without a single thought, you reached out to snatch it, choking out under water in agony as you were nearly pulled with the water. However, the hand on you turned into two and you were pulled up and out of the water.

The building you were pulled into was full of water too, only, it was still.

You took a few seconds to choke up the water you had swallowed, unable to thank your saviour — hell, for all you knew, it could have been the enemy. Wiping your eyes with your wet sleeve, you snivelled, lifting your head to see a man adorned in a green gear staring at you. He was masked in spite of the risk it posed to the water. A sniper sat on his back and he reached his hand out to take hold of your arm. You let him, wiping the snot on your upper lip with your gloved hand, blinking away the water. 

‘You American?’ he asked with a gruff tone, observing the patch on your arm. 

You nodded quickly, unable to think of the correct words. ‘Alpha 4,’ you rasped. ‘O- Our team was ambushed… helicopter went down.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I got away,’ you confirmed, clearing your throat, ‘called for exfil a- and they told us to meet a task force here.’ 

‘Stalker?’ 

‘Yes,’ you nodded. He gave you a nod. ‘Are you with them?’ 

‘Yeah,’ he answered, keeping hold of your arm. ‘You the only survivor?’ 

‘I was with someone else,’ you said, ‘but he left me for dead. We got caught in the flood and he rushed ahead of me… I got swept under. I couldn’t keep hold of anything because of my shoulder.’ 

His eyes fell down, spotting the bloody bullet hole in your shoulder. 

‘He one of your squad mates?’ 

‘Yes,’ you confirmed. 

He shook his head. ‘You got a weapon?’ 

Patting the holster on your thigh, you took hold of the handle of the knife. Pulling it out of the water, you showed it to him. 

‘Good,’ he said, ‘you’re with me.’ 

‘O- Okay,’ you said, ‘where’s the rest of your squad?’ 

‘Watched them run into a warehouse,’ he said, ‘follow me and keep low,’ he instructed, moving through the water without another word. 

Following after him, you held the knife in your hand tightly. You were trembling so much you feared it would slip out of your hold, and then you really thought you might have been fucked. You supposed almost dying would do that, but the betrayal of the man you had thought to be a brother felt worse. It was a dull jab in your spleen and your head throbbed as your face grew hot at the thought. 

What a fucking coward.

‘What the fuck happened?’ you asked the stranger in front of you. 

‘Set off two missiles and blew the dam open.’ 

‘Why would they do that?’ you choked out, their action seeming senseless. 

‘Scorched earth.’ 

‘Oh,’ you mumbled. Your nose continued to run as you wiped away streams of snot. ‘Thank you,’ you blurted out. The man in front of you stopped, looking over his shoulder, appearing what you could only interpret as confused. ‘You could have left me to drown.’ 

He nodded in your direction, it was curt and reeked of professionalism. He turned his back to you again, moving further through the building, expecting you to follow after him — and you did. His quietness was peculiar, unlike the sorts you had seen, especially after living with such a rowdy squad for so many years. The contrast was as sharp as a dagger, and you almost felt offended by his dryness.

Opening his mouth for a ‘you’re welcome’ surely wouldn’t have killed him. Still, you didn’t know him and your grievances fell flat on their face. You couldn’t insult the man who had just saved your life, no. You’d save that anger for the man who left you to die. 

You traversed through the building, eyes darting, surveying each and every corner. 

‘To any calls signs on this frequency, please respond. This is Ghost Two-Two.’ 

The man in front of you stopped, pressing his fingers into his earpiece. ‘Clear, Merrick.’ 

‘Keegan?’ said the voice on the other end, ‘you have sights on Elias or Rorke?’ 

‘Negative.’ 

‘Shit,’ huffed the man, ‘we lost ‘em in the water… we’re heading towards the hotel to recon.’ 

‘Roger,’ said the man, ‘I’ll be on the look out for Rorke and Elias. On my way.’

‘Heard,’ said the man before the line fell dead. 

Keegan continued on without a word and you followed after him. He lurked like a shadow as the pair of you came to a set of shattered window. Pushing himself upwards, he hung over the edge, before pushing himself off of it, landing on a bus which had gotten lodged in the middle of the street, acting like a bridge to the other building.

You’d expected him to continue on without you as you pulled yourself out of the water with a wince, hanging off of the ledge. Using your feet, you pressed them against the concrete, propelling your jump. You fell freely for two seconds before landing a top the bus. It creaked with the pair of you standing upon it, urging the pair of you to continue onwards. You took the warning without a question, following after the man. 

Unlike when you followed your squad, you felt like a lost puppy following after the first person who had leant down to pet it. It was demeaning, patronising. But you didn’t change your demeanour, too conscious of upsetting the man who had saved your life. However, there was one burning question that caused your legs to move faster in order to catch up to him. 

‘What is your squad doing here?’ you asked, jumping back into waist-high water as the pair of you entered another building. You landed with a huff, lifting your arms slightly to keep them out of the water. ‘We weren’t informed of there being anyone else… that’s why I’m asking.’ 

He looked you up and down as though you were one of them. Thinking for a second longer, his shoulders raised slightly as his tilted his head to the side. ‘We’re here to neutralise General Almagro,’ he responded, ‘and that’s still the plan.’

His discomfort in confessing such was potent and you had believed that he would have much rather kept it to himself. It seemed as though he thought telling you was a compromise — a breach, despite knowing you and him were fighting the same battle. Granted, even if the pair of you did escape, you were quite sure you wouldn’t be able to look any one in the eye and recount the terrors that had happened in such a short span of time. 

You wondered if you still had blood on your face. 

Navigating the flooding buildings with him was oddly peaceful, contrasting the crashing waves and sirens blurring on the streets. Instead, you waded through the murky water, keeping your mind clear of what else could have been lurking in there with you. Goosebumps ran rampant on your flesh, and your bottom lip trembled as your teeth clattered. Despite the beaming sun outside, the water was ice cold, subzero even. It did, however, work to soothe your burning limbs. 

You travelled building to building, cautious when it came to crossing over to another one. Luckily the cars in the street worked well to be a good enough bridge to ensure your safety. Anyone else would have convinced the gun fire would have been quelled after such a catastrophe, but it raged on, seemingly with more of a vengeance. Not that you were naive enough to believe that an operation would have been abandoned, of course not. Your mind seemed to be escaping you, you concluded, conjuring thoughts you’d typically roll your eyes at. 

It was when you made it one of the last buildings in your pursuit that you stilled, the gun fire being much louder than any you had heard over the passing minutes. Keegan turned to you, motioning towards a set of stairs which, supposedly led to the roof of the building. Reaching in his belt, he retrieved a pistol, holding it out to you. 

‘You need that,’ you said, pushing his hand away whilst shaking his head. ‘I’m fine.’ 

He didn’t speak, rather taking hold of your wrist, forcing the pistol into your hand, leaving you with no time to give it back to you as he turned his back to you, stalking up to the stairs. 

The next few minutes play out in your hands.

The typical battle you have part-took in during your time in the military, only, you had more time (than you would have liked) to watch the man who had been so insistent of you taking his pistol. He moved like the men’s shadows, quiet, slick — it was so impressive that you had only managed to take down one of the men when there had been four; he dealt with the rest, using their own guns against them.

When their bodies were floating in the water, he let out a short breath from behind the mask, turning to look at you as you approached him. It was a wordless token of his appreciation, you supposed, not knowing fully what his look meant. His recovery time from battle was seamless and the pair of you carried on as though nothing had happened. 

‘Merrick, hold your fire, we’re approaching your six,’ Keegan called as the pair of you moved down from atop a building into the remnants of one that had originally been stationed beside it.

Below the pair of you as you climbed was a group of men wearing similar uniforms to the one Keegan was wearing. The tightness in your chest eased ever so slightly upon the sight of the group as, while you had seen Keegan in action and had your own capabilities, there was something about being surrounded by more soldiers which made you feel at home.

‘Happy you could make it,’ an unfamiliar voice called over the radio, ‘thought your luck had finally ran out.’

A man with a black cap approached the pair of you, holding out his hand to you while Keegan jumped down back into the water. While you furrowed your brows at his advanced, you opted to be polite and placed your hand in his, allowing him to help you down. He did so with ease, looking you up and down. His confusion was evident. ‘Who’s your friend?’ he asked, letting go of your hand to hold his gun again. 

‘Her team was ambushed,’ Keegan answered, ‘the groups sent to distract.'

‘Ah,’ breathed the man, ‘you the only one to survive?’ 

‘There was another,’ you responded, trying to swallow down your anger. What the fuck did he mean by distract? ‘Left me for dead to save his own ass.’ 

‘That’s the problem with people in those squads,’ said the man standing in front of you, ‘they never protect their own. But you don’t have to worry about that happening while you’re with us,’ he said, looking around at his group, pride swelling in his chest, ‘does she?’ 

There was a collective ‘negative’ that sounded from all the men standing around you, and you felt your lips twitch, yet bit back your smile. 

A crash alerted all of you as a pile up of cars formed on the street, building a makeshift path to the parking lot across from you akin to the path you and Keegan had taken whilst traversing the wasteland of a city. Water spills up and over the metal, however, it seems to keep steady despite the creaking of the vehicles. 

‘We gotta get across,’ said the man in the black cap. 

Turning to him, a bearded man furrowed his brows. ‘Any ideas?’ 

The man in front of you glanced to the pile up, nodding. ‘Yeah. Follow me!’ 

He pushed first, climbing over the disintegrating wall and jumping onto the side of the car that had gotten caught. You watched as he moved effortlessly, and one by one, the group followed after him. You waited patiently, not wanting to overstep, and when it was only you and Keegan left, you waited for him to move.

However, he didn’t, instead motioning for you to cross over. You did as you were told, your eyes trained on your feet to ensure you did not end up in the treacherous waters again. Keegan was quick behind you, and when you made it to the other side, you allowed yourself to breathe, not noticing you’d been holding your breath. 

Taking cover behind one of the cars, you caught sight of more men in the water before the group, holding the pistol you had been gifted in your hands.

No words are shared as you work on clearing out more enemies, the further you push giving you ample opportunity to tuck the pistol into your waistband as you take one of the dead men’s guns. Pulling the magazine out, you glance into it, ensuring there is more than one shot. You were pleased to see only a few shots had been fired, pushing it back into the gun. You spied dry land in the distance, and the two soldiers who were shooting were dropped quickly. The whirling of propellors was the thing which sparked conversation. 

‘Helo Inbound!’

‘They’re picking up Almagro. We gotta move!’ declared the man with the black cap. 

‘We gotta get through that building!’ 

As though sent into overdrive, the gun fire and rounds shot increased and their determination left your own heart raging. The prospect that you were fighting with one of the best teams dawned upon you and you felt inspired. The day had started so terribly, yet, you made it out alive and you were fighting with a Task Force. How twisted the universe could be — to take so much but still give so much more. 

It almost made the betrayal you suffered hurt a little less. 

‘Elias, Merrick, you’re with me!’ stated the man, ‘Ajax, Keegan, miss! Cover our six!’ 

You promptly nod, although slightly soured. He couldn’t have been blamed, however; neither of you had had the time to share formalities. You pushed up two flights of stairs, being met with a metal door. Both the (who you assume to be their leader) and the bearded man crouch either side of the double doors. 

‘Elias, the door!’ 

The man standing before the pair of them, charged the door and force it open, meanwhile, you, Keegan, and Ajax watch on. When the door is pulled open, a helicopter is right there. Without a second thought, the three men charge it.

The three of you approached their position, keeping your eye trained on the surrounding area to ensure no stray bullets could compromise the objective. You stood idle with your finger on the trigger, all for the sight of a helicopter propelling downwards to catch your attention. Gunshots echoed from the inners of it, as it near enough squealed as it nose-dived downwards. You watched in horror — three men were in that helo, and there was physically nothing anyone could do to help them aside from watch as they met the doom. 

A crash erupted, as it dipped from out of view and you stared wide eyed, looking at the two men standing beside you. Ajax shared your horror, rushing to the edge of the roof, peering over the edge. Meanwhile, Keegan kept his eye out for any possible threat. Following Ajax, you peered over the edge to see that the helicopter had crashed on a balcony below the roof, most of it dangling off of the side. It creaks as a fire rages. 

‘Is there anything we can do?’ you asked. 

‘Negative,’ Ajax said, shaking his head, ‘to go after them would be a death sentence — they didn’t fall far either. I doubt any of them are seriously injured.’ 

You pursed your lips, unsure whether or not his speculation was the truth. The helicopter began to shift, falling forward. Swallowing hard, your throat tightened at the sound of half of the helicopter falling into the water with a splash. 

‘Everyone good?’ a voice called from inside. 

You caught the relief on Ajax’s face. 

There was a mumbled voice, you didn’t quite catch what was said before there was another splash in the water below. 

‘Shit! Rorke! Somebody, grab him! The whole thing’s shifting!’ 

There was a grunt and the crunch of metal. 

‘It’s breaking apart! We gotta move, now!’ 

The remaining part of the helicopter began to teeter on the edge it was sitting on. The weight of the day you had crashed down on you, the adrenaline that had powered you and kept your mind away from the bullet in your shoulder wearing off in the blink of an eye. Your entire body was on fire and you were stuck in a state of peril. Too many people had died that day, and you were going to be forced to witness three more die too. 

‘We’re too heavy! You gotta let him go!’ 

The creaking continued before you heard a shrill yell, ‘ELIAS!’ 

You spotted a body falling into the water, the man condemned to his untimely death as a row of ladders kept him trapped. His yelling was quelled when he his the rushing stream, and just as the rest of the helo followed suit, you watched as two men climbed out, throwing themselves on the ground. The heaved out breaths, Elias forcing himself up off of the ground, peering over the ledge. You couldn’t see his face, but he was trembling. 

Behind him, Merrick grunted, looking up to the three of you on the ledge. 

‘Amalgro’s dead,’ he said breathlessly, pressing his fingers into his ear piece, ‘threat neutralised. Rorke’s MIA. Calling for exfil.’ 

Chapter Two

[rodolfoparras]

RODOLFOPARRAS MASTERLIST

MDNI, 18+

♚ Top Male reader ♔ Bottom Male Reader 🎲 Gender Neutral Reader ♞, verse male reader

🎲 ♚ GN but suitable for top male reader 🎲 ♔ GN but suitable for bottom male reader 🎲 ♞ GN but suitable for a verse male reader

HEADCANONS

König w/ a size kink | x ♚

CONTENT TAGS: SIZE KINK, DEGRADATION, BLOWJOBS, RIDING, KÖNIG W/ A SMALL COCK, SEX TOYS, MIRROR SEX, SDH

Sex w/ Gaz | i, ii, iii, iiii♚

CONTENT TAGS: MENTIONS OF BLOW JOBS, CUM PLAY, MENTIONS OF FACIALS, SPITPLAY, BALL GAGS, ROUGH SEX, BREATH PLAY, RIMMING, POWER DYNAMICS, MIRROR SEX, FACIALS, HOMEMADE MOVIES, BRAT!GAZ, FTM!GAZ, NIPPLE PIERCINGS, SLIGHT EXHIBITIONISM, DRUNK SEX, POSSESSIVENESS KINK, BRAT TAMING, HAND JOBS, WATERSPORTS, SENSORY DEPRAVATION, THREESOMES

DRABBLES

In which you and Keegan get up to some fun of your own while at work x| ♚

SPITBALLS

What it would be like…. Rimming w/ Gaz while he sleeps x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: SOMNOPHILIA, RIMMING

What it would be like…. rimming w/ Gaz x | 🎲

CONTENT TAGS: RIMMING

What it would be like…sex w/ Gaz while he wears nothing but…. x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: JEALOUS!GAZ

What it would be like…. free user reader w/TF141….x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: THREESOME, OVERSTIMULATION, FREE USE

What it would be like… alpha reader w/omega TF141…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: A/B/O, POSSESSIVENESS, EXHIBITIONISM

What it would be like… barrack bunny reader w/ TF141…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: OVERSTIMULATION

What it would be like…dating barrack bunny Soap…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: WRITTEN DEGRADATION, BJOBS, FOURSOMES

What it would be like… Rodolfo w/ a high sex drive… i, ii | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: OVERSTIMULATION, GUIDED MASTURBATION, USE OF TOYS, ORALSEX, COCKWARMING, SCENT KINK

What it would be like…Ghost as a dad…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: BREEDING KINK

What it would be like… baby trapping w/ Graves…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: BREEDING KINK, ATTEMPTED BABY TRAPPING

What it would be like… baby trapping w/ Gaz…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: BABY TRAPPING

What it would be like… Alex w/ a mommy kink…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: MOMMY KINK

What it would be like…secret relationship w/ Alex…x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: JEALOUSY, RIDING

SERIES

Thinking about…

Thinking about all the times you’ve made Ghost cry x | ♚

Thinking about how Alejandro is the type to tease you for your weapon of choice x | 🎲

Thinking about how Soap would never outright confess that he likes you x | 🎲

Thinking about being in a Polyamorous relationship with Ghost and Soap x | ♔ 🎲

Thinking about how sex with Soap is absolutely ridiculous (in the best way possible) x 🎲

Thinking about old Soap and new Soap x | ♚

ONE SHOTS

Remedial Work x

There seems to be a consensus among your classmates at the police academy that you and Leon don’t get along. However, they couldn’t be more wrong. | ♚

MISC

Soap Alphabet x | ♞

SPITBALLS

What it would be like… titty fucking Peter x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: TITTY FUCKING

What it would be like…… Miguel with a breeding kink x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: BREEDING KINK, BULGE KINK, LACTATION KINK

What it would be like… Miguel during spider mating season x | ♚

CONTENT TAGS: MIGUEL W/ TRAITS OF A SPIDER, INAPPROPRIATE USE OF WEBS

DRABBLES

In which you and Spot try something new….x | ♚

SERIES

Thinking about Miguel and the kinks he likes to indulge in x | ♚ 🎲

Thinking about The Spot and the kinks he likes to indulge in x | ♔ 🎲

Thinking about all the ways you can be intimate with The Spot x | 🎲 ♔

Thinking of all the ways you can be intimate with The Spot x | 🎲 ♚

Thinking about Noir and the kinks he likes to indulge in x | ♚

ONE SHOTS

Finish line x

In which Peter learns that a little bit of encouragement goes a long way | ♚

Color show x

In which Noir wants to learn about colors and you’re more than happy to help | ♚

Laundry day x

In which Peter discovers some unusual perks with laundry day | ♚

Detective’s work x

In which Noir tries to keep you off the streets and you try to keep him inside the sheets | ♚

Workload x

In which you find ways to spend time with your boyfriend Miguel even though he’s busy| ♚

One More Time x

In which both Peter and you learn that one more time doesn’t always mean one more time | ♚

Pillow Talk x

In which Peter, a married man, gets off to the thought of being with someone other than his spouse | ♚

Lights, camera, action x

In which you make it your personal mission to ruin Noir’s career by fucking him | ♚

ONE SHOTS

Nothing compares x

In which it’s your first time with Eddie | ♚

Brainrots, fic ideas, nsfw discussion about characters and hc discussions with my lovely anonies, mutuals and followers x

[ghostlythunderbird]

Hey Guys! I wanted to give you guys a sneak peek at what I'm currently working on.

This will be a Poly Relationship with a Female reader, which will include our top soldiers Ghost, Konig, and Keegan. It is also 18+ (This means Minors and Ageless blogs DNI) as there will be sexual themes later on but here's a snippet of what I have so far! This will be a Modern Omegaverse Dystopia, and I will be more than happy to answer any questions on this upcoming AU.

"God, if I knew how much of a handful you were, I never would have fucking agreed to this." The hurtful words spewed out of Keegan's mouth before Ghost or Konig could stop him. Those words made you bristle, your teeth clenching before slowly turning back to face the 3 significant alphas sitting in the living room. "Oh, you think you're angry because you agreed to mate with someone you don't know? How do you think I feel, being forced into a contract with not just one but THREE alphas I've never met!" Tears began to collect in your eyes as you tried to keep your gaze on Keegan.

 "At least you had a choice! How did it go for me? I was forced out of the only home I ever knew, only to be paired with three alphas, who, mind you appear to have NO experience being around an Omega whatsoever! Only to be locked on their knots and treated like a goddamn broodmare for the rest of my life." 

Tears began to run down your cheeks as your throat tightened, beginning to choke your words. "I wanted to live a normal life just like everyone else on this godforsaken planet, but no, I was told to sit down, shut up and be a 'Good lil' Omega'" Those words alone made your skin crawl; and it seemed your alphas shared the same sentiment. Konig's gaze dropped to the floor before shifting his body away from you, his scent becoming sour. The tension in the room continued to increase as your rant began its downhill slide.

"The only person here that's made me somewhat comfortable in this fucking house is Konig; you and Ghost have given me NOTHING. You've done nothing but criticize everything I've done since I got here, and you dare to say that YOU'RE angry over this arrangement?" A growl brewed in your throat. If your dam heard you right now, she'd die on the spot, saying it was Un-Omegalike. None of the alphas could meet your tearful stare; not even the battle-hardened Ghost could look at you. It only solidified that these alphas, ones you were supposed to bond with, didn't fully understand how you felt during this rough change.

You couldn't stand to be around them anymore; the need to return to your room, to your nest, was steadily becoming overwhelming. Swiftly turning on your heel, you began to leave the living room. The alpha's head snapped back to your frame as you walked away. The skull-faced alpha took a step past Keegan. "Love wai-." As you spun around to face him, your speed was near enough to snap anyone's neck. "Don't. You. Dare. Say that. After everything, you don't get to call me that; I can't fucking be in here with any of you right now. Just leave me alone" The snarl left your lips was deadly. Clearly stating, 'Leave me alone.'

The air was stagnant once you turned around and left. The Alphas soon looked at one another. No words were shared between them, but they were all in the same thought process.

They really fucked up.

[shift-if]

You shouldn't exist.

You know that, you can feel it deep within your bones, in your mind. You're something that should have never been. No one thought it possible, that a half-werewolf and a half-vampire could conceive.

Yet here you are, a Pricolici.

Pricolici: a werewolf/vampire fusion in the Romanian folklore.

You're the first and only of your kind. Lucky you. Your very existence has been kept secret from majority of the clans. Be that vampire, werewolf, or hunter.

You used to believe the secrecy of your existence was due to the laws that forbid werewolf and vampire unions. Now something tells you that your existence isn't just happenstance.

Normally this would be a positive, easy way for you to be able to keep your head on in this corrupt city you call home.

That's until a blood moon graces the sky, and for the first time in your life; your body decides it's time to finally change. Into what you don't know, and neither does it.

You can't "shift".

That itself is killing you, muddying your mind and your body, your very existence trying to erase itself. Your only choice is to find a way to finally change. Into what that's for you to decide.

Shift or die.

Customize your character, gender, personality, and appearance.

Uncover the secrets of your very existence.

Keep warring clans from killing one another, hopefully.

Player choices will dictate whether your Pricolici will be more like a vampire, werewolf, or somewhere in between.

Romance three separate characters who will help shape your story.

Shift or die.

Carver [M|NB] - One of the few vampires who actually knows of your existence. Though how that came to be is still something you would like to forget. Carver is a wanna-be bigshot, who happened to rope you into being their "partner", as you two try to keep the city streets somewhat livable. They're aloof, lazy, and a pain in your ass.

Keegan [M] - The local alpha. Keegan runs the black market of the city with the help of some of his rambunctious crew. He's protective of his pack, and always looking out for them. He's kind and charismatic unless you have ill will toward his family. Then you better watch out for his bite.

Harmony [F] - She is the younger sister of your former (deceased) lover. The only human you can really stand. She has somehow become your best friend, with a gentle touch and kind words. You never knew why you were tasked with protecting her, but you may soon find out.

Thana [F] - She has an interest in history, which results in her taking a great interest in the clans and their forming. While Thana comes off as short-tempered and a bite to her words, she just sees no point in idle gossip and finds it hard to interact with others. As a former lover of Carver, Thana is quick to talk you into finding another partner. Is it for your own safety or something else?

????

Shift is 18+ for violence, adult themes, explicit language, sexual situations, etc.

Reblogs are appreciated.

[musclejedi-tameem]

It started out as a normal day at Millbrook University. Students went to class and sports teams practiced for games. The band and choir rehearsed and when the academic day was done there was plenty of night life for people to enjoy. All except for Keegan and Jonny, they were rushing to finish their science project in the lab so they were not engaging with the wider student body. The two young scientists were very smart but clumsy and awkward in social situations but somehow they came together and started dating, but most of their dates were these long nights in the lab followed by some fun in bed if they weren’t to tired. But on this night things were about to change. As Keegan was examining the virus they were studying for their project Jonny accidentally spilled some chemicals on it and there was a small explosion. When the dust settled Keegan coughed and groaned, “I feel weird babe… fuck…” before Jonny could react Keegan began to change before his eyes! The skinny nerd began to swell with muscle, making his lab coat get tight as he grew bigger and thicker and then his clothes started to rip altogether. His groans got louder and deeper as he kept growing. His face becoming angular and handsome and his legs getting huge and thick. His butt swelled into a nice muscled bubble butt as his back thickened and widened but taker nicely into a v shape. Between Keegan’s massive thighs his cock grew longer and thicker as his balls swelled and dropped heavily between his legs. When it ended as quick as it began the small nerdy Keegan was gone and in his place was a huge muscle bro! “ mmmm me so horny bruh.” The new beast rumbled as he fondled his big package. “Bruh? What do you mean bruh? I’m your boyfriend Keegan!” Jonny yelled in disbelief. “Yeah you are bro, you’re my boyfriend and my bro. C’mon bro let’s fuck! You’ll see how it’s better this way.” Keegan smirked and flexed his new muscles, Jonny couldn’t resist the allure of his new hot boyfriend and pretty soon they went at it right there on the lab floor. But as soon as Keegan filled Jonny with his cum Jonny began to swell and grow too. The virus they had been working on was infecting them and making them big horny muscle bros, all their previous knowledge was gone and all they cared about now besides each other was to go and fuck more men to make them like themselves. This actually was easier then might be though because the two new alpha bros exuded a pheromone that made them irresistible to any guy that they wanted. It didn’t matter if the guy was straight or gay, he would become horny and need to be fucked or suck off these two and then he would transform into a muscle bro like them. In the course of a night most men on campus were either turned into gay horny himbos or about to be. Millbrook University was about to become Himbo University and soon that’s the only type of man that would be there, faculty included. They would all spend their days lifting and fucking and just vibing together. It was now such a peaceful happy place. And as soon as a guy left here he would carry the himbo virus with him and make more men like him wherever he went.

[tending-the-hearth]

my personal favorite parts of "transformers one"

warning for MAJOR spoilers below!!! a theater near me was doing an early access screening, the movie is officially coming out september 20 in the us!

first off getting the obvious out of the way with Megatron and Optimus' friendship, obviously we know what happens but when a movie with a clear eventual villain that's been iconic for years makes me hope it retcons everything that has ever happened so two characters can remain friends???? their friendship was EVERYTHING to me

also very happy to see that Optimus is still such a nerd i love him

i did love the little subtle hints with Optimus and Megatron's differences from the start

Elita and Optimus' moments together were my FAVORITES

JAZZ!!!!! BELOVED BELOVED DARLING!!!!!! LOML!!!!!

AND RATCHET MENTION!!!!!!! DR. HATCHET MY BELOVED

I like that they didn't try to hide the fact that Sentinel was not a good guy. Like he was just so skeevy from the start, but they built it up in a way that still felt intense when his betrayal was revealed

Bee <3 he's so silly <3 favorite guy <3

Also the AA-Tron joke was 100% a reference to the A-A-Ron skit which had me cackling

The immediately big brother-little brother connection between Optimus and Bee?????? cries

ughhhhhh Megatron's shift from wanting to help Cybertron with Optimus to just wanting revenge

and Megatron's view being "one person controls everyone" and Optimus' being "all are one" IT'S SO GOOD

AND THE OPTIC COLOR SHIFT!!!!! OPTIMUS' ALWAYS BEING BLUE BUT MEGATRON'S STARTING AS YELLOW THEN SHIFTING TO ORANGE AFTER FIGHTING STARSCREAM THEN TURNING COMPLETELY RED WHEN HE LETS OPTIMUS GO I'M GOING TO LOSE MY MIND

Bee's excitement about the knife hands and Optimus being excited for him!!! They are siblings!!!

also a crime that i haven't mentioned Bee saying "Badassatron" multiple times every time it happened i just lost it

but also love love love transformers and their "someone will die" trope i was expecting the Optimus death 100% but it still was SO good

I also loved how Optimus' voice became more and more sterotypically "Optimus" as he went through his journey, like he started off very goofy and silly, then after getting his cog from Alpha Trion we start to hear more of how we're used to hearing Optimus, then after he's brought back by the Primes it's pretty much a very strong younger version of Peter Cullen's Optimus

the VAs were actually really impressive for the most part. I thought Chris Hemsworth did a fantastic job as Optimus, putting in just enough of a similar inflection as Peter Cullen's voice that it still felt like Optimus, just younger

Brian Tyree Henry DESTROYED me as Megatron, his vocal change through the movie???? emotionally devestating

Keegan Michael Key is one of my favorite Bumblebee voices tbh <3 especially considering we've only gotten a few iterations where Bee actually talks, so it worked for him since he could make it his own

absolutely 10/10 movie, i will be going back to see it next weekend when it's officially out because i'm obsessed

[gunnrblze]

Wolf ghost squad stuff :3

Merrick is very distant n a lone wolf in his wolf form. During full moon, he's often just alone in his own mini den he made inside a random tank.

Kick is like a fucking husky in his wolf form, man's LOUD, he howls all the time, he does the whining where it's like he's talking. He's such a nipper too, he will nip hands and try climb on everyone for attention

Elias is a wolf who loves personal space. He's happy to sit near others but preferably have his own sorta room. He nests with rorkes old Ghost uniform n hoodies he's kept. He's technically the pack alpha so he's always near by the team and keeping watch

Logan also loves Elias personal space. He's a very clingy pup and insits sitting riiiiigght on top of his father. He will whine and howl whenever his father is out of eyesight. He also is the type to chase his own tail.

Hesh is a little more independent, but he's always watching Logan. He's hella protective and pretty aggressive. He'll make sure no one hurts his family, especially the youngest pup

Ajax is like Merrick and often just goes out alone to make his own den to relax in, he'll tell Keegan and Merrick where it is so people don't worry. He'll hunt for the group though and is pretty aggressive to strangers growling and snarling at everyone who isn't the squad

Keegan, who is silent but very clingy. One minute, you'll be alone on the couch next minute. A giant behemoth of a wolf has decided to sit himself on your lap like he's a cat. And he expects all of the attention, too. He growls whenever you move your hand away.

Neptune usually will sit on somewhere high above others and keep watch if Elias needs a break or if Logans is getting needy. He's one of the mature Wolf's.

This is sossosooso cute. Wolf pack ghosts au when lol

Also, “Elias is a wolf who loves personal space”, “Logan also loves Elias personal space” is killing me 😭

[miss-multi45]

Hello again, peeps.

I'm redoing my intro post.

Hello, I'm Cassiopeia, you can shorten that down to whatever is good for you.

I will write for these Harry Potter characters:

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Hermione Granger

Harry Potter

Ronald Weasley

Ginny Weasley

Luna Lovegood

Draco Malfoy

Cedric Diggory

Regulus Black

Mattheo Riddle

Theodore Nott

Lorenzo Berkshire

I will write for these Creepypasta characters:

Jeff the Killer

Homicidal Liu and Sully

BEN_Drowned

Sally Williams

Lazari

Zalgo

Stripes

Lifeless Lucy

Ticci Toby

The Hooded Man/Hoodie

The Masked Man/Masky

X-Virus

Rouge/The Prowler and Wilson the Basher

Nurse Ann

Dr Pain

Dr Smiley

Eyeless Jack

KageKao

Jason the Toymaker

Candypop

Laughing Jack

Laughing Jill

Papa Grande de Magico

Nathan the Nobody

Clockwork

Nina the Killer

Jane Everlasting/Jane the Killer

Judge Angels

Bloody Painter

The Puppeteer

The Pianist

The Bartender 1941

Dark Link

Glitchy Red

The Cat Hunter

The Black Wolf

Frankie the Undead

The Chessmaster

Vine the Dollmaker

Kate the Chaser

Sam Williams

Zero

Emra

Suicide Sadie

The Roadwalker

Isaac Grossman

Candy Cane

April Fools

The Item Stealer

Lulu

Lily Kennent

Morivin

Drolsoir

I will write for these Call of Duty characters:

Simon 'Ghost' Riley

John 'Soap' Mactavish

John Price

König

Kim 'Horangi' Hong-jin

Alejandro Vargas

Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick

Rodolfo 'Rudy' Parra

Valeria Garza

Keegan P. Russ

Phillip Graves

Kate Laswell

Nikto

Krueger

I will write for these Lockwood and Co. characters:

Anthony Lockwood

Lucy Carlyle

George Karim

I will write for these Ghost members:

Dewdrop/Sodomizer

Swiss Army Ghoul/ Swiss

Rain

Phantom

Aether

Mountain

Cirrus

Cumulus

Aurora

Sunshine

Omega

Alpha

Ifrit

Mist

Zephyr

Terzo

Cardinal Copia

Any Papas

And era 1 and 2 ghouls

I will write for these Sleep Token members:

Vessel

II

III

IV

The Vesselettes

Jujutsu Kaisen:

Satoru Gojo

Suguru Geto

Nanami Kento

Ino Takuma

Ryomen Sukuna

Toji Fushiguro

Shiu Kong

Uraume

Shoko Ieiri

Utahime

Maki Zenin

Nobara Kugisaki

Toge Inumaki

Noritoshi Kamo

Choso Kamo

Megumi Fushiguro

Yuuji Itadori

I will NOT write p*d*philia, zoophilia, rape, b**stiality. Or anything too gory, like, Black Christmas 2006 level gore or Terrifier level gore, because it makes me extremely uncomfortable. Any underage characters (Maki, Toge, Megumi, Yuuji, Nobara.) I will not write smut for. I headcanon BEN_DROWNED to be either 20 or 21.

I WILL write for angst, smut, fluff, crack (funny stuff), Incorrect Quotes, headcanons, scenarios, imagines (same as scenarios??), wholesome shit, and I will write matchups and create a scenario/headcanons with your oc as long as you describe them to me.

[randomwordsandstormydays]

What was your inspiration for Keegan and Roach’s dynamic? And how do you think Roach would have reacted if there was a reverse “Be Somebody” where Keegan tries to refuse and move on with someone else?

(I know the consequences with the imprint was explained but just out of curiosity)

To be completely honest, we didn't plan Roach and Keegan getting together. Not really at least. We got done writing Soldier's Eyes and didn't want to stop and I had started projecting really hard onto Roach so I wanted to write him more and @insomniamemoirs was like... "I know a guy" and slid Keegan over to me like a cat who just brought its owner a dead mouse. She really wanted to write him and I really wanted someone to love Roach and *boom* a rare pair of our own creation was made.

And that's hard to answer. Let's say we set aside the whole "an Alpha's imprint will never go away" then we could look at it like that. Roach would be hurt, for sure. He'd spin it as "even my imprint doesn't want me, won't fight for me" even though he's the one who pushed Keegan away. I think it would feed into his confirmation bias that he's only meant to be hurt and unhappy. He'd do exactly what he did in the fic and run himself into the dirt falling for Keegan only this time he'd been pining from a distance. I think this would keep the imprint around longer for him than normal and would probably have him hitting a scent drop or two. It wouldn't be good. Roach might even leave the team or just end up a casualty on a mission because he can't keep up with his own instincts running him ragged.

And if Keegan found out that happened he'd blame himself and the guilt would probably crush him. But Keegan is Insom's little blorbo and I won't try and speak for her.

[auspicioustidings]

so I just read (DEVOURED) lost boys on ao3

and just

how dare u

how dare u DO THIS TO ME

I'm feeling unhealthy things about EVERYONE (including preacher)

you said on ao3 you were open to asks about it and if that's changed no worries just ignore this!!

so like I'm just curious

if Keegan is planning on claiming her

is he gonna be kinda loosey goosey with letting preacher get tail from everyone else or is he gonna try to prevent that at all?

is he gonna be like only MY PENIS in her PUSSY (and other orifices)

or is he gonna kind of tease everyone else with what they could have if he wasn't the big bad super strong and dominant alpha to be worshipped

(side note: I've been consuming all ur stuff on ao3 so if u've been getting some spam kudos that might be me)

kisses and love 💜💜💜

Always open to asks on the Lost Boys AU because it is truly my little indulgent favourite!

I think Keegan is first off delighted and relieved she's even alive. It was sort of a test and sort of getting rid of a problem because at one point he realised he was getting too fond of Preacher and humans are food, not friends. So part of him sent her to Santa Carla to die while the other part wanted proof she was worthy to not die.

Humans are fine as play things and he has a past with Ghost so he doesn't fully mind the 141 playing with her, but he's also a territorial wolf so he's pretty raging at them when he finds other supernaturals have been sniffing around. Demons? Really? Fucking demons? The worst is the shifters. Werewolves and shifters are not quite the same thing and he thinks they are all fucking mutts who should never have been allowed near his Preacher.

He knows he is at a numbers disadvantage sure, but none of them have known her for as long. And none of them are now living with her. Does he blanket her in his scent which drives everyone else nuts and makes them 100 times worse? Oh absolutely. The game is on. And despite the fact that claiming a human as a mate would be wildly taboo, her pretty neck gets more tempting every day.

[manicrouge]

TASK FORCE: STALKER

Chapter Two: Drowning

(Keegan x F!Reader)

Word Count: 5.9k

About: Returning from battle, Alpha 4 is put on bed rest after her injury, facing a particular struggle when it comes to water. 

TWs: PTSD, depression, panic attacks, slight description of surgery, possible typos

Note: Here's the second chap! As always if you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know!

Chapter One

There were countless times you had been happy to be back at home base, but being stuck there was something you simply detested.

Your shoulder had been patched up, all the while you had been scolded by the nurse as soon as you walked into the office. You’d kept your mouth shut on the ride home, not caring to draw attention to a temporary issue as the temperament of the entire team was terribly bruised.

You’d considered being vocal about your injury; sitting and having nothing to distract you had truly awakened the beast and it felt as though your arm had its own heartbeat, but each and every scenario you cooked up in your head all ended in someone being angry that you dared to distract from their grievances because you hadn’t been careful while fighting. 

So, instead, you heard the scolding from the nurse. 

The removal of the bullet was torturous and you were sure the woman was being heavy handed with the intent of teaching you a lesson. Your fault for shrugging off her request to jab a needle into your arm, you supposed. What you intended to be a quick fix, however, turned into something worse as she retrieved only a small piece.

You stared at it with dull eyes. 

‘It’s broke, isn't it?’ 

That was how you ended up with your arm in a sling and a bandage around your arm, your head spinning from the anaesthetic as you listened to one of the bases doctors standing at the edge of the cot rambling on about how you were required to take time off to ensure you didn’t do any further damage to your shoulder. All of his words went in one ear and right out of the other as you were left nauseous as the anaesthetic swirled around your veins, swallowing back the overwhelming urge to vomit. 

He left the room soon after, leaving you lying in your bed alone with your head pressed into your pillow. You felt filthy — knew it for a fact as you hadn’t even been able to shower properly before you were dragged into surgery for your shoulder. Had you been any more stubborn, you were more than sure the nurse would have dragged you to the doctor’s office by your ear.

Sinking into the mattress, you closed your eyes, letting out a short sigh as you contemplated the disastrous happenings of the mission. A squad gone just like that, the leader of that task force falling out of the helicopter and being swept away by the current… and, you supposed you also had to think about the fact that you had almost died. 

Being in the moment, you’d found that you never had the moment to consider the very real fact that you could have drowned. The fear you felt on the end was unmatched to anything you had ever felt. There and then you would have chalked it up to it being the pain of the betrayal of a someone you had thought you could have trusted with your life, when in reality, you were scared.

Very rarely had you been frightened in your career, granted you were nowhere near as experienced as the men you fought alongside and you pondered how the loss of Rorke would affect their team as a whole. Who would be the new leader? Or would the entire Task Force disband? You knew not the answers to anything; you’d been kept in dark since you arrived back to base, where you were even remaining a mystery. 

All you knew in that moment is that you wanted to sleep. 

The curtain was pulled, and footsteps kept you from fulfilling your desire. You peaked to see the masked man you had fought alongside standing at the edge of your bed. His sniper had been discarded, and he had changed into grey sweats and a black t-shirt. But the mask still stayed. Fortunate, you thought, had he been without it, you don’t think you would have been able to identify him. 

‘Keegan,’ you slurred with a smile. 

He looked you up and down, ‘can I sit?’ 

‘Of course.’

He sat at the foot of your cot, turned so he was facing you. ‘I’m sorry I forgot about your shoulder,’ he said quietly, ‘you gonna be okay?’ 

‘Just peachy,’ you declared, a potent airiness in your voice. ‘On bed rest for a while though.’ 

‘Good.’

The pair of you were silent. 

‘Are you okay?’ you blurted. Despite being unable to see his face, you caught his narrowed eyes. ‘The man who fell into the water, he was your Captain, right?’ 

‘Yes.’ 

‘Are they gonna find him?’ 

‘They have people looking.’ 

His abruptness carried on over from the battlefield and it was a peculiar thing to witness. You’d never known someone to be so blunt in how they spoke, yet, in his actions, you found there was a form of care. He didn’t have to visit you, he could have forgotten you the minute you stepped foot on home soil, but he didn’t. Even disgruntled, he came to ensure that you were okay despite clearly having his own grievances about how the operation had played out. 

‘I hope they find him,’ you said, ‘he seemed like a good man from what I could tell.’ 

‘He was.’

You frowned, the tips of your fingers grazing his bare forearm as you strained yourself to offer him some semblance of a comforting touch. Truthfully, your fingers were stiff and it was much more of a poke than anything that could have brought him an ounce of comfort.

‘I’m sorry,’ you said, falling back into the mattress with a defeated huff. 

‘Don’t be,’ he responded, shaking his head, ‘it couldn’t be helped.’ 

‘I know,’ you said, ‘you just look like you needed to hear it,’ you confessed, ‘I’d give you a hug if they hadn’t wrapped my arm like I’m a fucking mummy.’ 

A puff of air left his mouth at your comment. ‘You did good out there.’ 

‘I hardly did anything.’ 

‘You fought with a hole in your shoulder,’ he said, ‘that’s more than most.’ 

His praise seemed to come from a genuine place, there was no sign of discomfort when he spoke it and he didn’t seem insulted that you had been able to hold your own unlike many other men you had encountered during your time in the field. Much to your dismay, he rose from your bed, his hands settling against his hips as he looked over you. 

‘Get some rest.’

You smiled at him. ‘You too.’ 

He pulled back the curtain without another word, acting as the shadow that you had observed him as while in battle as he disappeared, the only trace that he had visited being the gentle swaying of the white curtain.

His illusive presence was impressive, and you wondered just how long it had taken him to learn such. Had you been more conscious, you’d have felt a swell of jealousy in your gut, but your urge to sleep kept you from thinking too much on what part of him you wanted to have yourself, choosing to just smile at the fact that he had bothered to pay you attention even when the mission had ended. 

You slept like a baby.

It seemed that war had an effect on the body: exhaustion.

You’d been on many operations where you had crashed almost immediately, however, whether it was the unfamiliar environment or the thought of the visit, you tried your best to keep your eyes from closing. However, you had only been successful for an embarrassingly short time. It was necessary, you’d confronted that many times, but still, you could never not see sleep as an enemy. 

That night, you dreamt of the masked man and his peculiar attitude. The spectacle of the operation the pair of you were engaging on in your dream being to retrieve the pistol he had given you. He was just as wordless in your mind as he had been during all interactions you had had with him over the course of that day. 

Neither of you shared any words, only looks. 

Your dream was cut short, keeping you from the conclusion as you awoke with a hiss, looking down at your shoulder. It felt as though it was on fire. 

‘You’re awake,’ a voice from beside you called. 

You snapped your head to the side, spying a brown-haired man sitting beside you. He was seated in a grey chair at your bedside, leaning over with his arms resting against his thighs, looking at you. 

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,’ he said, ‘my names Elias Walker.’ You stared blankly at him, blinking in an attempt to find words to speak to him. ‘I’m the Lieutenant of the group you joined with yesterday.’ 

‘Oh,’ you said dryly, your tongue heavy in your mouth, ‘I- I’m sorry about—’

‘No need,’ he refuted, shaking his head, ‘we’ve got the best teams searching for him, he’ll be found,’ he reassured. 

‘I hope so.’ 

The man smiled, ‘he will be. He’s tough… just like you.’ You felt a heat in your chest. ‘Granted all the details haven’t come out about what happened at the camps, there were two teams sent out, and you were the only one who survived.’ 

‘I would have died if Keegan didn’t help me,’ you said, ‘I was caught in the flood; I- I was with one of my squad mates, but he ran and I got caught,’ you explained, ‘has he not been found?’ 

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘the city is being scouted and, as of right now, there’s no sign of any of our own.’ 

Your mouth fell flat, deflated by the prospect of being unable to give Parker a piece of your mind. Escaping the most fitting form a justice. Your fury was so mighty you supposed that you supposed he was lucky to have drowned in that city. 

‘Tell me what happened at that camp,’ he requested, leaning back in his chair. 

And you did. You detailed the crashing of the helicopter, brutal killing of your lieutenant, the shot dealt to your shoulder, alongside the man you had attempted to rescue from the wreckage, all while Parker waltzed right out of the battle unscathed. 

‘I- I have his dog tags in the right hand pocket in my pants,’ you said, ‘if you don’t believe me… I know I probably sound like I have a saviour complex or something — but I tried, I really did try, but his leg was snapped in two pieces, there was no fuckin’ way he was getting out of there.’ 

He stared at you. ‘You ran into the crash site alone?’ 

‘I wasn’t going to leave without trying to save someone,’ you said, ‘that’s not who I am… Parker might have ran and maybe what I did was unprofessional, but I couldn’t leave them. When you’re in a squad… you’re a family, you know?’ 

‘Yes,’ Elias hummed, ‘So, you walked to the city on foot to exfil?’ 

‘Yes,’ you confirmed, ‘then the dam fell and the city flooded. Keegan pulled me out of the water.’ 

‘So I’ve been told,’ he said, ‘he has a good eye.’ 

‘I’ll say,’ you mumbled, ‘I don’t even know how he saw me.’ 

‘He sees things that aren’t clear to others, that’s what makes him such a good sniper,’ he explained, ‘there has been a lot of talk around what to do with you considering that your entire squad has been wiped out.’ 

‘Well… I was under the impression that they’d ship me off to another base, or just bring on new trainees to fill the spaces left by the men we lost,’ you explained, ‘that’s what I’ve thought about right now, anyway,’ you said, glancing at your shoulder, ‘I’ll be out of commission for a while; apparently I did some damage to my arm.’ 

‘I’m not surprised,’ he said, ‘were you close to your old squad?’ 

‘Not really,’ you said, ‘I was the only woman in that faction. A lot of people aren’t really welcoming to that,’ you added with a sigh, slowly pushing yourself up. Elias helped you, guiding you with a gentle hand so that you were sitting up right. ‘I was close to Parker.’ 

‘The man who left you for dead?’ he asked, turning to the cabinet beside your bed, grabbing a cup and a jug of water, pouring you some. You took it happily and nodded before drinking the water with a thirst akin to someone who had been stranded in a desert for a month. Even he seemed bewildered by his change of heart. ‘I’m sorry.’ 

You swallowed, answering slightly breathless, ‘there’s nothing you can do,’ you shrugged, ‘it happened.’ 

‘And it hurt you.’ 

You were quiet for a moment. ‘Yes,’ you agreed, ‘I saw him as a brother, you know? And for him to do that… well, I don’t know how I should feel,’ you explained, bringing the cup back to your mouth, having another sip of water, ‘am I going to be moved from this base? I’d hate to take up any more of your time.’ 

‘Nonsense, you’re doing no such thing,’ he refuted, shaking his head, ‘you’ll stay here until you’re healed.’ 

‘Oh,’ you said, ‘are you sure?’ 

‘Very,’ he nodded, pushing himself out of the chair, ‘you’re safe with us, so just take some time to get better.’ 

‘I can’t go anywhere else,’ you said with a laugh, ‘thank you, Elias. I appreciate it.’ 

‘Of course.’

-

Recovery was more taxing than war. 

How strange that fact was to you too. The first time you managed to escape the confines of the room you had been kept to was three days after Elias’ visit.

The days had passed by agonisingly slow.

Had you been back at your home base, you would have occupied yourself with one of the many books you had stocked on the bookshelf in your room. In fact, while lying there on the second day, you’d remembered how both you and Parker would laugh with one another about the fact that, whenever you managed to get your hands on a new book, you would always be deployed without the opportunity to read it — it had happened so many that you had accumulated quite the reading list that you hadn’t had the time to get through. Of course, the one time you did finally have the time to, you were kept away from them. It was just your luck. 

When you finally got out of bed and to the shower in the base, you had been provided with a change of clothes which sat upon the sink as you stood and watched as the water ran.

The splashing channeled something in you and you felt your chest tighten from the sound of it hitting the floor.

Reaching your arm out, you held your hand out, quickly retracting it with a hiss. It was ice cold, just like the water you had been swallowed by.

A knot formed in your throat as you took hold of the knob, twisting it. A darkness seemed to seep into your eyes, coning your vision to just the flowing water. It was only when you open your mouth that you realised that your teeth were clenched and your jaw throbbed.

Rolling your eyes, you put one foot in front of another, stepping into the shower, being sure to maintain a distance from the water. You didn’t know why you were doing; it happened subconsciously, as though your body had developed a mind of its own to keep you from walking into what it deemed as dangerous. Breaking free from the psychological restraint, you moved your tensed leg, allowing the water to flow down your bare flesh with gritted teeth. Despite lacking the freezing quality of the water you had been swept away by, it still took your breath away. 

And yet, you did not allow it to defeat you, forcing yourself to stand directly in the line of fire, your fist balled as water trickled down your bare breasts.

Your eyes were screwed shut and you trembled at the sensation. All the while you could not quite shake the thought of how ridiculous this all was. For the last three days you had begged to be let free of the bed to wash away the stale scent of gunpowder away, and when you finally got what you wanted, you couldn’t even open your eyes to look at a shower head. Water had no sentience and yet, you feared it would wrap around your neck like the hand of an enemy and deny you of your right to live. 

You wished to have the same bravery you had had while in battle as you dipped your head, allowing water to hit the back of your head. In the blink of an eye, you were back there — without a soul to help, simply being pushed with the current, unable to break the surface.

Your eyes shot open, and you stumbled back, hitting the tiled wall behind you so hard that a jolt of pain shook your body. The tips of your finger pushed into the tile as you heaved for air as though you had been held under for an eternity, heaving. 

Solemnly, you retreated after turning off the shower and changing into the fresh clothes you had been given. You walked out the shower with matted, slightly damp hair. You had been clumsy for the first time in your life, and you were quite sure the only reason your face was wet was due to the few stray tears that had escaped your eyes, alongside the sweat that had oozed from your pores. You trembled and each step you took back towards the room you had been provided was accompanied by a shaking breath. 

Pressing the palms of your eyes, you pulled the door to your room open, a startled gasp escaping you when you spied Keegan sitting opposite your cot in a chair pushed into the corner of the room.

He looked up when you walked into the room, his eyes narrowing upon seeing the panicked expression on your face. Turning away from him, you hold onto the handle of the door as though it was a lifeline, unable to let it go as you felt your eyes well with tears again. 

‘Keegan,’ you said, ‘I didn’t expect to see you.’ 

You heard his footsteps, sensing that he was standing behind you, and when you turned around, he stood in front of you with crossed arms. 

‘What’s wrong?’ 

‘Nothing,’ you shrugged off, ‘I got shampoo in my eyes when I was showering,’ you added with a strained laugh. ‘Stings like a bitch, but I’ll be fine.’

Unfortunately, despite your attempt to lie to him, you sensed that he did not believe the words that left your mouth. Not one bit. Unmoved by your words, you swallowed hard as you looked him in the eye.

He craned his neck slightly to look at you. ‘Tell me the truth.’ 

You chewed on the inside of your mouth. ‘It’s nothing,’ you said, moving past him, ‘you’re dressed as though you’re ready for another op.’ 

‘Training.’ 

‘Ah,’ you said, taking a seat on your bed, ‘wish I could say the same thing.’ 

‘You will in time.’

‘Why are you here?’ you asked, and he turned to look at you. 

‘I wanted to see how you’re doing.’ 

‘I’m doing better,’ you confirmed, rubbing your face with your hand, ‘yeah.’ 

‘Why’s your hair dry if you got shampoo in your eyes?’ You furrowed your brow, your face flooding with an invasive redness as your fingers caught the tip of your dry hair. Closing your hand around a lock of hair, you gulped. ‘Is it your shoulder?’ 

‘I, uh… yeah, it’s difficult,’ you said with a sigh, ‘it hurts a lot.’ 

He was quiet, shifting on his feet. ‘I can help you if you need it.’ 

You thought back to the water, to the panic, to the embarrassment. Your face was sticky from the residual tears you had shed, flushed red with the shame coursing through your veins. You gulped hard, weakly smiling in the direction of the man, although your eyes struggled to meet with his. 

‘No, no, it’s fine,’ you reassured, waving him off, ‘I appreciate the offer, though.’ 

‘Of course.’ 

You chewed on the inside of your mouth, ‘any sign of your Captain?’ 

‘No.’ 

‘Oh,’ you said, ‘I’m sorry.’ 

‘No sign of your squad-mate either.’

Perhaps that was for the best, but still you couldn’t shake the ache in your chest whenever you thought about it. It was strange, the feeling of betrayal, a nagging, relentless feeling with the desire to punish the lone survivor.

‘Good,’ you said. You left it at that, not wanting to signal the sheer anger you felt; that was how you showed weakness and, despite your banged up shoulder, you refused to be anything of the sorts. ‘What happens if he’s not found?’ 

‘Elias is the new Captain. If Rorke is found, he’ll take up his old position again.’ 

‘At least it’s someone who you’re familiar with,’ you hummed, wrapping your arms around yourself, wondering where you would end up. Where it was, you hoped you had a similar kinship you had seen between the men you had fought alongside. ‘Elias is nice.’ 

‘You like him?’ 

‘Yes,’ you nodded, ‘he came to visit me — poured me a drink too, and he didn’t have to do that,’ you explained, ‘he said he wanted to see how I was doing.’ 

Keegan hummed, seemingly unsurprised by the detailing of the man’s kindness. ‘He told me about it,’ he said, digging his hand into his pocket, retrieving clinking metal, ‘Lieutenant Williams, and Sergeant Neumann.’ You perked your head up, spying the dog tags you had snatched from the dead men dangling from his closed fist. 

‘He told you where they were?’ 

‘Yeah,’ Keegan said, ‘in the pocket of your pants,’ he said, tucking them back into his own pocket, ‘you got an eye for shiny things?’ 

‘Sometimes,’ you answered, ‘didn’t wanna leave their families with nothing.’ 

‘They’ll get them back… you got any family you want to write to?’ 

You pursed your lips thinking about the worry you would cause your folks back home. Having already developed a pattern of writing home on during important occasions and the holidays, straying from that typical pattern would surely be nothing short of a worry. 

‘No,’ you said, ‘well, yeah I do, but I’d prefer not to worry them, y’know?’ 

‘Of course,’ he said, looking at the watch on his wrist, ‘rest up.’ 

Your conversation died with that remark and in the blink of an eye, he had disappeared, the quiet click of the door the only note that he had disappeared beyond the door.

For a while, you remained seated where you had been during the course of your conversation, unable to budge as you sat with your weary head in your hands. With a heavy breath, you stared down at your knees with stinging eyes, clearing your throat in an attempt to chase away the tight ball in your throat. It only seemed to nudge it from side to side, never truly dispelling such a compromising agent of chaos. A grunt left your mouth as you shook your head, carefully settling back into your cot. 

Each day that passed you by dragged its feet.

It seemed time was unwilling to be kind to you, holding a burden for one thing or another. Granted, you had done some bad in the time you had been given so, as your punishment, you were subjected to countless hours of silence, the only entertainment you got being from listening to the voices booming beyond your room.

Not even in your dreams could you escape the situation you had found yourself in as you seemed to be plagued with the memory of the water. You’d wake only a few minutes from when you had dosed off, the white t-shirt you were wearing soaked in your sweat with dry mouth. Not feeling well rested was the worst of it, and even worse, you were overly aware of the fact that you smelt bad. There was no excuse either; you weren’t on a mission, you were in bed with all the time in the world, but you still couldn’t shower. 

You caught the occasional look at yourself in the mirror when brushing your teeth, making your gums bleed from the forceful scrubbing you would do in an attempt to quell the gurgling water  pouring down the drain. You wondered if anyone else was having the same issue you were, the solitude of your own self doubt keeping you tied to one train of thought: you were pathetic. The internal bullying didn’t do anything but lower your mood. Everything sucked and you wanted nothing more than to smell nice, but your head wouldn’t let you. 

Keegan visited you a lot more, much to your dismay.

Fortunately, he never came without his mask so, at the very least, he had something to keep the smell of sweat and fear out of his nostrils. However, your gut told you that he knew you were keeping something, from the way he would look at you all to how he would keep you talking when you fell silent, too exhausted to even talk. You felt like death, rotting in the cot that was supposed to aid your recovery and you permitted that cycle to prolong for days, those days then turning into a week. 

Until Keegan broke his silence. 

His quietness was something you had grown to expect, he was short, abrupt, unwilling to use more words than necessary, and his company could have mostly been comprised of silence. Only, when he had walked into your room that day, there had been a shift in him, a determination. 

‘I wanna have an honest conversation,’ he said, sitting at the foot of your cot. You stared up at him with weary eyes, ‘you’re scared.’ 

You laughed, ‘of what?’ 

Your defensiveness only caused his eyes to narrow. ‘Water.’ 

All words jammed in your throat despite a thousand defences swirling in your mind. Hearing him say it out loud was the one thing you hadn’t expected, and before you could keep yourself poised, you burst out into a fit of tears. Never had you allowed tears to flow so easily, but in that room with him, you cried. 

Burying your face into your hands, you snivelled, digging your fists into your sockets in the hopes of quelling the endless streams. But nothing could stop you from crying, and it was only when you felt his hand upon your knee that you looked at him. It was then that you noted he had removed the mask that he had been wearing, it resting in his lap as he looked at you, his thick black brows knitted. 

‘I- I’m sorry,’ you sniffed, wiping your face with the palms of your hands. 

‘Talk to me about it.’ 

Hearing his voice clearly for the first time without the slight muffle of the mask was near enough enchanting. You sensed his vulnerability in his solidarity.

‘I can’t stop thinking about it,’ you began, your bottom lip trembling, ‘every time I close my eyes I’m always back in the water a- and I can’t escape, I can’t get out, I’m drowning. Always drowning,’ you explained, gripping your bedsheets, ‘I can’t even brush my teeth without the sound scaring me… it’s stupid, I’m stupid—’

‘No you’re not,’ Keegan cut off, ‘why haven’t you told anyone?’ 

‘Because it embarrassing.’ 

‘You nearly died.’

‘That’s just how this job works.’ 

‘You’re still a human being,’ he said, ‘you were betrayed and left for dead — people have lost less and reacted worse.’ 

‘How am I supposed to fight when I’m scared of water?’ you asked, ‘I can’t be the soldier I’m supposed to be when I can’t put my head under a shower for more than two seconds?’ 

‘You ask for help,’ Keegan said, ‘squads are only as strong as their teamwork. You can’t fight every single battle alone,’ he continued, raising to his feet, holding his hand out to you. His mask sat at the foot of your bed and your eyes looked to that before looking at him fully. He ruffled his flat hair with his free hand, as he looked down at you. ‘Come on.’ 

You raised your eyebrows, slowly getting up out of bed. For the second time in your life, you placed your hand in his, and he pulled you to your feet before letting go. ‘Where are we going?’ 

‘The bathroom,’ he said, motioning for you to walk in front of him. 

You comply with his request, slipping on your slippers before the pair of you walked through the base to the restroom you had been using which was located in the infirmary. The nurse did not bat an eye when the pair of you walked in together, and when Keegan closed the door, you caught sight of a chair sitting in the centre of the room — a chair that had not been there before. Turning to him, you stared at him. 

‘Did you plan this?’ you asked. 

‘Maybe,’ he retorted, ‘go on, sit.’ 

You approached the chair with caution, eyes to the ground in an attempt to distract from the shower. He only moves when you’re sat down, moving so he’s standing behind you. His fingers graced your head, tangling in your hair as he attempts to brush it out. You cringed, nose scrunching from the tugging at your scalp, hissing when he hit a particular large knot. 

‘Sorry,’ he said, pulling his hands away from your head. ‘Hows your shoulder?’ 

You heard shifting behind you, the clink of the shower being dislodged resulting in your heartbeat quickening. You swallowed back your desire to vomit, humming, ‘it’s getting better, nowhere near as bad as it was.’ 

‘Good.’

You couldn’t see what he was doing, however, a flush of water caught your attention and you screwed your eyes shut, quite sure your shoulders were touching the lobes of your ears as you tensed.

His hand graced your scalp once more, ‘you’re okay, I’ve got you.'

The edges of your hair grew heavy as he held the shower over them, all air in your lungs expelling as you focused on the fact that the man who saved you was the one there with you. ‘There has been word around the base,’ he began, ‘Elias wants you to join our force.’

Your eyes opened wide. ‘W- What?’ 

‘There’s been discussion,’ he began, carefully moving the shower further up to head. Your palms were damp from the progression, hearing the water smack against the ground as pours from your hair. ‘Elias thinks you’d be a good contribution.’ 

‘I’m not… I’m not as talented as the rest of you.’ 

‘Even then, there’s potential, kid,’ he said, the tips of his fingers pressing against your forehead as he moved your head gently, being sure to soak the entirety of your head, keeping the water well away from your eyes. ‘And I’ll train you.’ 

You let out a laugh. ‘Really?’ 

‘Yes,’ he confirmed, ‘I think you’re forgetting the rest of your squad was wiped but you’re still here. Shit’s impressive.’ 

‘Even to you?’ 

‘Even to me.'

‘Even in the state I’m in?’ 

‘Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think you were something special,’ he added, turning the shower off.

The silence was filled with his breath and the sound of a click as he opened the lid off a bottle of shampoo. His hands felt like home in the way he scrubbed your grubby locks of hair, being sure to be gentle as he kept the soap out of your eyes. Leaning back into the chair, you humoured the idea that you were back home in the salon, getting your hair washed for some sort of important event. 

It was something you and your mother had made a tradition whenever you returned home for one of the family holidays. The price was ludicrous, you’d state that a lot and, for the first few trips, you would be firm in your stance that it was a waste of money. However, you’d never known peace like it: sitting in a salon chair, the quiet murmuring of voices as your head was massaged.

It almost made the ridiculous price point worth it.

Until that point as you found that Keegan’s hands felt just the same — if not better. Closing your eyes, you allowed them to rest. You could hear his breath as he washed your hair, the occasional droplet of water landing in the puddle that had formed in the wet room. 

He only spoke again when he had turned the shower on, beginning to wash away the soap in your hair. ‘When Elias tells you, act surprised.’ 

Your brow creased. ‘Am I not supposed to know?’ 

‘No,’ he said, ‘he wanted to tell you himself.’ 

Had you not had your head as such an awkward angle, you would have turned to stare at him. However, the best you could do was a look of raised eyebrows are you attempts to catch a glimpse of him. ‘Why did you tell me now?’ 

‘Because you look miserable,’ he answered, ‘figured you needed something to look forward to while getting better.’ 

‘Was it that obvious?’ 

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you like to read?’ 

‘Mhm,’ you hummed, ‘I have a ton of books back at my base. Every time I get a new one I always end up getting deployed, so I’ve got a lot to read.’ 

‘I have some books in my room,’ he said, ‘Ajax reads a lot too, I’ll ask him if he’s got some.’ 

‘Are you sure?’ you asked, flinching when a droplet of water rolled down your face. His thumb was quick to catch it, wiping it away. ‘I- I already feel like I’ve been too much of a bother.’

‘You’re good, kid, don’t worry,’ he reassured, his touch on your face lingering despite his hand finding its way back to your hair, ‘you like fiction?’ 

‘Yup… you?’ 

‘Non-fiction mostly.’ 

‘That fits you,’ you said. 

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ 

‘It’s not an insult,’ you said, ‘just… it suits you. I don’t know why, it just does.’

He chuckled, ‘well, thanks… I guess.’ 

You smiled at the sound of his laughter. ‘You are most welcome.’ 

The rest of the process, whilst still painful, was made a lot better by the small talk he engaged you in an attempt to humour you. His distraction worked well and the sound of his voice kept you from breaking down completely into a fit of panic from the feeling of the water touching your skin. How generous he had been to spend such time with you, and when your hair was dry and you were sitting alone that night, while tucking into a book he had borrowed from Ajax, you wondered if he too enjoyed his time there with you, or if he had some place he would have rather been.