#Alright! Off to the main timeline we go!!

[sskk-manifesto]

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[notapradagurl7]

Keep A Distance.

Pairings: Black Fem! Cop!Reader x Armando Aretas.

Fandom: “Bad Boys” Film Universe.

Summary: You were a cop working on the runaway Armando Aretas case, alongside Mike and Marcus but decided to go solo by working undercover.

Taglist: @lovedlover @planetblaque @megamindsecretlair @westside-rot @keyera-jackson @browngirldominion @swavydadon @playgurlxoxo @nerdieforpedro

Warnings: PWP, doesn't follow the film’s timeline, profanity, mention of guns, mention of violence, erotic asphyxiation/choking, Armando being persistent to the reader, dacryphila, consensual for both parties, short fic.

————

The light from the computer illuminated on your brown skin with your hand resting on the mouse, clicking on the file on the desktop with the picture of vibrant roses. Opening the file, your eyes scan the information and criminal records.

All that work just to lose him out of your sight again.

“Armando Aretas is still on the loose after taking control of the Aretas cartel when his mother was tragically burned in a fire.” the reporter spoke up.

You sighed and shook your head in disapproval, you pushed the power button on the remote, turning off the television, there was no way to catch this guy after playing this game of cat and mouse. Your finger pressed the power button and watched the computer fade to black.

You were working for the Miami Police Department as a cop, moving your way to a respected and it was every man and woman looking out for themselves.

It was a shame that you had to endure the shit from men and women in the police department.

Standing up from the desk, you walked out of your office. You approached the main office with determination.

Marcus and Mike stood by each other, you gave them fist bumps while "What's the latest, detective?" Mike asked, leaning against the desk with a smirk.

"Same old, same old. Aretas is still slipping through our fingers," you replied, crossing your arms. "I think it’s time I take matters into my own hands."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that? You know this guys plays fucking dirty."

“Yeah, well, dirty is my middle name,” you shot back, the fire in your belly igniting.

“Just keep your head on straight, alright?” Marcus warned, his tone serious. “We can’t afford to lose you too.”

You shrugged off their concern. “I appreciate it, but I’m not going in blind. I have a plan.”

“Which involves what? Seducing him?” Mike chuckled, but you noticed a flicker of concern in his eyes.

“Something like that,” you replied, your smile a little too sly. “I’ll get close enough to gather intel; I won’t get too comfortable.”

“Uh-huh,” Marcus said, not buying it. “And what makes you think he won’t be the one to get too comfortable?”

Mike knew that you could take care of yourself but Armando was his son, he had Mike’s genes running through him. Once Mike called Armando the fucked up version of himself.

“Because I know how to keep a distance,” you replied, your voice steady.

“Just remember, he’s not some petty thief. He’s dangerous, Armando is Mike’s son” Marcus reiterated.

“I can handle myself,” you asserted, turning on your heel. “I’ve got this.”

As you stepped out of the precinct, the Miami heat hit you like a wall. You pulled your box braids into a tight bun, adjusting your badge before heading to your car. You knew you had to find Armando's weaknesses, and if it meant playing the role of an alluring enigma, then so be it.

Later that night, you found yourself at a dimly-lit bar, the kind where the shadows danced as much as the patrons. You leaned against the bar, scanning the room. The air was thick with tension as a mix of laughter and whispered conversations filled the space.

“Can I get you something?” the bartender asked, snapping you from your thoughts.

“Whiskey, neat,” you replied, your gaze still fixed on the entrance.

Moments later, the door swung open, and in walked Armando Aretas. He was a silhouette of charm and danger, his presence commanding the attention of everyone in the room. Your heart raced as he scanned the crowd, his eyes landing on you.

“Is this seat taken?” he asked, sliding onto the barstool next to you, his voice smooth like velvet.

“Depends on who’s asking,” you replied, your tone playful yet guarded.

“Armando,” he said, extending his hand, his eyes never leaving yours.

“[Your Name],” you introduced yourself, shaking his hand firmly. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Only good things, I hope,” he smirked, leaning in closer, the intoxicating scent of his cologne wrapping around you.

“Depends on your definition of good,” you shot back, your pulse quickening.

He chuckled softly, clearly intrigued. “You’re not like the others…I like that.”

“Keep your distance, Aretas,” you warned, your voice low and steady, but the chemistry between you was undeniable.

“Why would I do that when I’m enjoying this conversation?” he replied, his gaze piercing through you.

“Because this isn’t a game you want to play,” you said, your heart racing at the thrill of the chase.

“Oh, I think it is. And I always win,” he whispered, his voice dripping with confidence.

“So I heard that you're looking for me, Detective [Last Name]” he smirked, eyeing you up and down. His eyes remained on your ass.

You swatted his hand out of the way, and narrowed your gaze. “My eyes are up here, you're gonna come in with me. I'll arrest you and this case will be over..”

Armando smirked at you, snatching your gun that was attached to your belt. Your fist connects with his cheek as blood spills from his chin, he spits it out on the floor.

“I guess it's not over yet..” He smirked, stepping closer to you.

You were supposed to leave, you wanted to cuff him and take him into your car. But you couldn't, the heat between your thighs made you stifle a moan.

“Was all this chasing after you, a trick to get me all to yourself Armando?” you asked seductively, smirking.

Armando's eyes darkened with desire as he leaned in closer, his breath warm against your ear. "Maybe it was, detective. Maybe I wanted to see just how far you'd go to catch me." His hand trailed down your arm, sending shivers down your spine.

You fought against the growing heat in your body, reminding yourself of the mission at hand. But the magnetic pull between you and Armando was undeniable. The danger only added to the thrill, fueling the fire that burned between you.

As his lips brushed against your neck, your resolve wavered. "We can't do this," you whispered, though your voice lacked conviction.

Armando chuckled darkly, his hand on your waist. Pulling your face closer to his, when he wanted something or someone, a desideratum for him.

He only did this just to get closer to you, he planned everything just to see your pretty face again. The

But this mission left you fuddled and to save face, you kept your cool instead of admitting it. Did he want you?

"Who says we can't mix business with pleasure, detective?" His words sent a jolt of electricity through you, igniting a hunger you couldn't deny.

In a haze of desire and adrenaline, you found yourself giving in to the temptation. Crashing his lips into yours, tongues turned in sync. You moaned in the kiss, and he led you to the car.

Next thing you know, you were under him on his bed and kissing him sloppily. Both of your clothes were littered across the bedroom floor, the soft smack of your lips colliding with his filled the room.

His naked body against yours from the front with glossy sweat, his hips thrusting into you without mercy, as if it was a vindictive yet almost loving type of fuck. His tongue glided across your neck, wanting to leave hickeys on you.

The moonlight peeked through the curtains, and shone on your brown skin. Your brown braids pool around your pretty face, your mouth agape only to let out loud drunk moans and slurred screams.

There you were, fucking your enemy in the dark. Thankful that he couldn't see your face twist up in pleasure, “I bet you look so pretty taking every inch of my dick mami..like a good slut,” he praised, cutting himself off with a raspy moan.

Your hand rested on the back of his neck, bringing him for another sloppy kiss. Leaving a chain of spit between your lips and his, “That dick is so good…” you mumbled, your head fell to the pillow.

Your slick pussy gripped around his dick tight, feeling his inch after inch.

“Oh..fuck! Armando!” You cried out, your vision blurred with tears rolling down your watery cheeks. Teeth trapped under your lips only to be sucked off by Armando, moaning muffled with each kiss. Your tears turned him on quickly.

His head ducked and halted between your titties, wrapping his warm mouth around your nipple. Thighs smacking against your ass, the sound similar to clapping, wetness enveloped his thick dick entirely, Suckling it roughly while pinching your left nipple, “Fuckk! M-more,” you croaked.

Balling your hand in the blanket you turned into a wet, blubbering mess underneath the male. “I’m yours now? So fucking wet..” he grunted deeply, you whimperrd in response. His hand wrapped around your neck, bringing you in for a quick kiss to your lips.

“You’re mine papi, all mine..” you moaned loudly, drooling trickling at the corner of your lip. Unable to speak from the pleasure.

This was better than you imagined, your guts being rearranged by the man you loathed so much but he was here with you. His hand smacked across your ass, you whined lowly. “Fuck!”

“Being inside you is a dream true, suck a good girl..” he groaned, rutting against you without mercy.

Your climax hit you rapidly like a tsunami crashing through without warming, your sticky essence gushed down on his dick and you screamed loudly, falling on the blanket.

He followed suit by pulling out of you, falling beside your body and kissing your shoulder. You panted heavily through it.

“T-this can't happen again..” you murmured raspily, shaking your head. trying to confess to yourself that this was a one-time thing.

Armando hummed lightly with a soft chuckle, “Are you sure about that? You did say that I'm yours..” he panted lowly.

You almost dozed off until he gently picked you up bridal style, carrying you into the bathroom as he flipped the light switch. He turned the faucet, you heard the squeak.

Filling the tub with foam soap, at the right temperature, You were placed in the tub, allowing the water to soothe the ache in your body and pussy, sighing blissfully. You watched him walk into the shower and proceed to wash himself clean.

You washed yourself clean from the weight of the day, you fell asleep in his bed with him. Beside his body, dressed in your clean panties and gray tee shirt.

As the sun began to rise, casting golden hues through the window, you made a silent vow to yourself. You left quickly with everything you had, keeping this a secret.

You had to keep a distance, but the memory of that night with Armando would linger, a dangerous secret that bound you together in ways you never thought possible.

The next day, you returned home and sat in your desk chair in front of your computer. Quiet as a church mouse, which made everyone worry about. It wasn't normal for you to be quiet from their perspective.

Marcus and Mike knocked on your door, the sound tore your attention from the computer. You jumped from the sound, placing a hand on your chest.

“Come in!” you called out, seeing the pair through the office window.

They stepped inside, concern etched on their faces. Mike leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, while Marcus took a seat in the chair opposite you.

“Hey, you alright?” Mike asked, his tone softer than usual. “You’ve been unusually quiet since yesterday.”

You flashed a tight smile, the memory of last night flooding your mind. “Yeah, just a lot on my mind.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing you. “A lot, huh? Or should we be concerned about that ‘solo mission’ you took on?”

You shrugged, keeping your expression neutral. “It was just a quick check-in. Nothing major.”

You fought the urge to roll your eyes. “You guys know I can handle myself. I’m not a rookie.”

“True, but it’s not just about handling yourself,” Marcus interjected, his voice serious. “It’s about the risks involved. Armando Aretas is dangerous.”

You leaned back in your chair, crossing your arms defensively. “He got away.”

“He did?” Mike asked you, raising a brow.

“Yeah, he was too fast and strong.” you added softly, looking up at the ceiling.

“Well, guess this case is closed huh?” Marcus asked, pursing his lips.

You nodded your head slowly, “Yes, and let’s just get to normal. What’s the melody to Bad Boys song? Bad boys, Bad Bo—” you sang playfully until Mike and Marcus interjected.

“Hey, hey, hey get your own theme song and learn the lyrics!” Macurs joked, his face twisted up a bit with a chuckle.

“Yeah, that's our theme song, but you did amazing on this case..” Mike added with a chuckle, smiling at you.

“My bad, thanks for believing in me guys..” you replied with a warm tone.

You gave the men fist bumps, watching them walk out of your office. Feeling a wave of relief wash over you, so much for keeping a secret. But it was over and you couldn't see him.

You could afford to blur the lines between business and pleasure, mixing them together was bad enough. You were done, now back to business only.

——————

Part Two.

[beingsuneone]

Memories & Delusions

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

SYNOPSIS: Jason Todd is dead, you have to remember that; even if the newest villain in town is both incredibly sexy and reminds you of the boy you used to love.

FANDOM: DC

PAIRING(S): Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

RATING: PG

CHARACTERS MENTIONED: Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Tim

GENRE/AU: fluff, different timeline AU (not mentioned in detail but the timeline is different than canon), canon divergence, reader is kind of like Stephanie so NOT Bruce’s kids but she does live in the manor.

WORD COUNT: 3.9k

WARNINGS: Swearing, mentions of blood and injuries.

A/N: I could fs do a part two to this ;)

DEDICATIONS: Myself for having this idea for more than two years and finally getting it out in writing in some way

CREDITS: N/A

“Jesus Christ! Who the fuck is this guy, Batman?” You exclaim, panting hard through your mask; whoever this Red Hood guy is… he really knows your team's weaknesses. It’s disconcerting.

Weirdly enough, he’s left you mostly alone.

Bruce shrugs from across the room. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

It’s a blur of movement as Red Hood tries to attack mostly Bruce, only attacking Dick or you if you get in the way.

He’s said almost nothing since this fight started.

After a few minutes, Bruce sends a signal and jumps out of the half destroyed building; Dick follows and jumps out shortly after.

Leaving just you and Gothams latest criminal.

You’re about to turn to jump again, when suddenly your wrist is caught in Red Hood’s hand.

The familiarity of it makes you gasp and freeze.

He stares down at you, intimidating and silent through his red helmet.

Returning his stare, with as much fiery energy as you can muster, you try to pull your wrist away; His grip is like iron and you can’t.

“Don’t get in my way, Y/n.” He says, making your heart drop with the use of your civilian name. “I won’t choose between you and my goal.”

Your back is rigid and you’re breathing has stopped… if he knows your name, that means he probably knows everyone else’s too.

Fuck.

He finally lets go, brushing past your stiff body.

You’re too shocked to follow him.

….

“He knew my name, Bruce!” You say, feeling panicked. “Do you know what that means?”

Bruce nods curtly. “It means you aren’t suiting up until we’ve taken him down.” You try to protest but Bruce holds a hand up to cut you off. “It’s not up for discussion.”

You fidget with the small red pendant hanging around your neck, something you do whenever you’re feeling too many emotions.

It reminds you of Jason, the first boy you’ve ever been in love with and also the last; Jason was also Bruce’s second adopted son.

Jason Todd died five years ago.

But when he was alive… There was something special about him. He was always so eager to help Bruce by being robin.

That was back before you had your own suit; really, you’d only gotten a superhero identity so you could hunt down the joker and get revenge for Jason, but Bruce had managed to convince you not to do that in the last five years.

Probably for the best, even if seventeen is too young for someone to die; even if having a strong bond ripped away from you before it could become anything still hurt so badly.

You follow Bruce down into the batcave. “What do we know about Red Hood? Do we have any idea how he originated? It seems like he just popped out of nowhere.”

Bruce contemplates his answer as he unlocks the bat computer. “All we know is that he would have had to fly under our radar for months in order to take over the whole underground drug ring.”

You over hover his shoulder, trying to see what’s on the screen below him. “I don’t understand how we wouldn’t hear anything about him? With that many people who work for him, you’d think one of them would mention something.”

He hums in response. “They must be terrified of him.”

Alfred inserts himself into the conversation and ushers you back into the main part of the manor. “Alright, Miss. Y/n, You’re officially off duty indefinitely.” He pauses. “Like Master Bruce said, it is safer if you disconnect yourself from your hero identity.”

You frown. “If he knows my real name, he probably knows where I live.”

“He also told you, quote ‘don’t get in my way’ end quote.” Alfred tuts. “He clearly has no intention of hurting you as a civilian.”

You huff and head up to your bedroom, feeling like you really need to be out there but not really knowing why.

You suppose you don’t know what to do with your time anymore, now that you’ve been superhero-ing for so long.

When was the last time you read a book? Or watched a movie, just because you wanted to? It’s been too long…

Your bookshelves mostly carry decorative encyclopedias and other books that would bore you to sleep, so you leave your room and head just down the hallway.

The door creaks as you push open and clicks when you push it shut; then, you’re left in the silence of Jason Todd’s bedroom. Unchanged and untouched from the last moment he was in here.

It’s a little messy but nothing out of the ordinary for a teenage boy; the bed was never made, and his clothes were ever put in his drawers despite them being washed.

There’s books pulled out and just scattered in places, schoolbooks, comic books, novels… finally you spot what you wanted to find.

It’s a very old and very worn copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, something the two of you used to read together when you’d sneak onto the roof of the manor at nighttime.

You’d watch the stars and one of you would read the book out loud, until eventually you both would pass out and give Bruce a heart attack the next morning.

Maybe it was time to revisit that tradition, even if you were only reading to yourself.

Bruce and Alfred are in the Cave so you find your way into the roof and lay back. The shingles are definitely more uncomfortable without Jason to lay on, but it’s still a nice feeling nonetheless.

Just the act of laying under the stars with that book in your hands, makes you feel a kind of warmth that you haven’t felt in years.

You close your eyes and take a long, deep breath of night air; It’s fresh and ever so slightly damp, but in a way that makes you feel nice. The cold nips at your body in all the right ways.

Unfortunately, all bliss is momentary, and someone clearing their throat makes you jump a couple centimeters upwards.

You’re met with the bright red helmet of Red Hood.

“Pride and Prejudice, huh?” He says casually, though you're pretty sure he has a voice changer on, which makes his voice sound more irritated than it probably is.

You back up a few inches. “Bru-” Red Hood slaps a hand over your mouth before you can finish yelling for help.

You squirm in his grip, but he just maneuvers you so that your back is to his chest and you can barely move which makes your body lock up again— you can’t help the feeling of familiarity that settles in your stomach, or the way your body reacts to his.

Worst of all, he smells just like… no, it must just be where you are.

Jason Todd is dead.

And yet.

“Relax, Y/n, I’m not here to hurt you.” Something about him makes you listen and you relax your body. He kind of half-scoffs in response. “Are you done?”

You nod as best you can. He releases you.

“Who— why are you here?” You say, trying to ignore the fact that everything about this masked man reminds you of Jason.

Your chest rises and falls irregularly as he stares at you.

His head snaps away randomly. “Why should I tell you that?”

“Don’t answer my question with a question.”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”

There’s a look of defiance shared between the two of you, or, at least, on your end. You can’t actually see his face so you’re really just assuming.

You spin away and blow out a labored breath. “God, I must be going insane…” Even the way he talks with you sounds like Jason.

“You’re so short, you look like a bunny who lost its carrot.” He says with a laugh.

“I do not!” You exclaim angrily, your mouth dropping open. “Okay, that’s it, I’m calling Bruce.” Your hand slips into your pocket to pull out your phone, and just as it's out of your pocket, Red Hood grabs your wrist; he traps it in one spot and yanks the phone from your hand.

He gently sets it on the ground. “Tell that fucker whatever you want, but wait until I’m gone.” The tone in his voice sends a chill down your spine. He seems so angry…

With that, he leaves, taken the same way that you took off the roof.

You stand there until you hear the roar of his motorbike, and then you finally retreat from the roof with the book clutched tightly to your chest.

…..

“I’m going with you, Bruce. You can’t stop me.” You say, already moving to try to grab your suit.

“No, you’re not.” He says sternly, blocking your path. “You need to stay out of this fight.”

You raise your eyebrows in challenge. “I’m going whether you let me wear that suit or not.” Bruce apparently doesn’t like this because he frowns even harder than before. You continue, “You can’t go alone. Dick is out of town and Tim is at school. Let me come.”

“You forget I did this by myself for quite a while before I adopted Dick.” He says firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Bruce doesn’t need your help, you know that; helping him isn’t your real goal.

Ever since the rooftop incident with Red Hood you’d gone into some sort of obsessive spiral over his similarities to Jason.

You feel like you need to talk to him again, touch him again… just to see why he’s so familiar; you feel insane.

The deepest parts of your brain scream at you that it’s not just similarities, that he really is Jason but… he can’t be; you watched them bury Jason’s body.

“There’s something else going on with you.” Bruce says, basically sizing you up.

You stiffen, which unfortunately gives away your next lie. “There’s nothing going on with me.” No excuse comes to mind so you don’t say anything more.

Bruce pauses for a beat.

“This has nothing to do with Red Hood.”

“Okay? Why would that matter?” You say dismissively, but also way too fast. “I don’t think keeping me locked up at home helps anyone.”

He sighs and finally caves. “Fine, you can come.”

…..

You aren’t sure how this situation devolved so quickly, but your communications got cut off a while ago and you haven’t been able to find Bruce or navigate very well through the rubble.

You’re bleeding heavily from a few different cuts and you’re pretty sure you sprained your ankle.

The faint cackle of the Joker makes you dive under a fallen piece of concrete, because if he comes this way he’ll surely kill you.

But the laugh recedes so you crawl out and sit against it instead.

You’re just about to start sobbing from the pain when you hear footsteps again; you go silent and try to move but you don't allow that.

You see a flash of red, and then Red Hood turns a corner into your line of sight.

“Christ’s sake, Y/n.” He mumbles. “What happened?” He approaches and drops down so he’s sitting on his feet, he stares for a moment, and you assume he’s assessing your injuries.

“You can’t call me that— here.” You hiss when he presses a finger against your ankle.

He stands up and takes both your hands, completely ignoring what you said. “Up. But don’t stand on your bad ankle.”

You grip his hands and stand up, holding your bad ankle in the air; Red Hood scoops you up bridal style not a moment later.

You squeal. “What are you doing?”

He stops walking and turns the face of his helmet directly toward you. “I’m taking you back to my base so I can help you get fixed up.” He interrupts you before you can speak, answering the question you were going to ask. “Batman isn’t here anymore, he went to follow after the Joker.”

It’s a rough walk to his bike, and it lasts for about ten minutes; ten awkward minutes of you being carried by Red Hood.

Red Hood who’s supposed to be a criminal and your enemy. Red Hood who brings you more comfort than he should just because of who he reminds you of.

He settles you onto the bike, pulling out an extra helmet before he speeds off.

…..

“Jesus, you sprained your ankle really badly.” He curses, performing whatever medical procedures as you hiss and whine at the pain.

He’s already stitched and/or dressed any of the open wounds you had and he saved the worst for last.

“Okay,” he says absent-mindedly. “I can’t do this properly with this thing.”

He reaches for his helmet but you stop him. “You’re taking your helmet off?”

He hesitates, then nods slowly. “I have to. If you don’t want to see, then shut your eyes until I’m done.”

You nod and squeeze your eyes shut.

He sighs softly and gets back to working on your ankle.

…..

“I swear to god, Bruce, it’s him. Red Hood is Jason.” You say, purposfully making your voice flat and void of emotion. “He has to be.”

Bruce just stares.

And stares.

Sympathetically, softly. But he stares.

“Jason has been dead for a long time, Y/n, and you know that.”

“No— I know, but he can’t be— that has to be him.” You back up into one of the chairs in the batcave, trying to calm your racing heart; you still try to keep a calm outward facade.

“What makes you think he’s Jason?” Bruce asks.

You weakly gesture at nothing with your hand. “Just look at him. He’s— everything about him is the same.”

Tim snorts from the computer. “The running drug rings and murders?”

“Not appropriate, Tim.” Dick says flatly and Tim’s face falls quickly.

You don’t blame him, you probably would have made a joke like that too.

Shaking your head, you stare at the floor past Bruce. “They sound the same, they talk the same way, they look similar— hell, they even smell the same.”

Bruce’s brows furrow. “How do you know what he smells like?”

“Uh…” you stall. “You know, close combat.”

Apparently, he drops it even though he clearly doesn’t believe you, because he asks another question. “We’ve never seen Red Hood unmasked, how do you know they look similar?”

You shrug. “They just do. There’s just something about him. I haven’t been able to shake the feeling for a while.”

It’s silent again for several long moments.

Then Bruce shakes his head absentmindedly.

“Jason is dead, Y/n. No matter how much we miss him, he can’t come back.”

But he’s wrong, he has to be.

Because no one is that similar to someone. You’re sure of it.

……

Your cheeks are wet and your eyes are starting to become raw from you rubbing at them.

Sobbing pathetically on the rooftop of the manor because you had to be reminded about a death that happened a long time ago is not the highlight of your day.

It’s stupid, going from sure of yourself, to telling yourself you’re so stupid for ever thinking it could be true in the first place.

There’s footsteps beside you, but you don’t look up. You don’t care enough to see who it is.

You fidget with the necklace around your neck as you sniffle into your knees.

Something clicks and then hisses as if air pressure is being released before you hear a tiny thud, and then someone pulls you into them.

You know who it is now.

“What’s wrong?” He asks quietly. You know you could look up and confirm your suspicions at any moment but you just can’t bring yourself to do it.

It’s not true, after all, because it can’t be. It’s not possible.

You shrug against him. “I’m reopening old wounds for no reason.” You pause. “Why do you trust me?”

He’s silent, contemplative for a while. “You’re you.”

You laugh dryly. “That doesn’t explain anything.”

“You haven’t even bothered to look have you?” His hand strokes lines in your hair. “You could. I don’t think I’d mind.”

“I don’t want to know.” You say, wrapping your arms around his waist. “I’m not ready for that.”

He nods, you can feel the movement through his body, even though it’s subtle.

You sit, wrapped up in his arms for a long while before he clears his throat softly and asks, “what old wounds have you been reopening?”

Your eyes well again, but you choke back the tears. “An old… friend, I guess. He died.” You start to pull back but you don’t look at his face.

Instead, you bury your face in your hands again. He lets you pull back. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

You shrug. “It was a long time ago, he just meant a lot to me— and it’s really hard because you remind me so much of him.”

He makes a sort of strangled sound and then clears his throat again but more rough this time. “Why do you say that?”

His voice sounds even more similar without the helmet and voice changer. This man is going to be the death of you. Maybe literally. “I don’t… I don’t know. It’s just everything.” You shake your head and laugh sardonically. “It’s driving me insane.”

“How did he die?” His voice is darker than before, and there’s a sort of undertone you can’t place.

“Brutally.” You stop, take a deep breath, and offer only a bit more context. “The Joker.”

He hums. “The Joker‘s alive and ruling this dumb city.” He pauses. “How do you think your friend would feel about that?”

“Probably about the same as I do. Sick.” You run a hand through your hair, purposefully trying to avoid seeing his face. “That’s why I became a hero, you know. I wanted to kill the joker because he killed Ja- um, my friend.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“People stopped me before I did something I couldn’t come back from.” You say, wrapping your arms around your legs. “I hope the joker suffers a terrible death, but I don’t think it should be by my hands. He wins if I spend the rest of my existence regretting it.”

Red Hood picks up his helmet and clicks it back on. “Right.” He stands and stares down at you. “I have to leave now.”

You shudder at his sudden coldness, and stand abruptly. “Okay, I— um, goodbye…?” You want to smack yourself at how unsure you sound. “Did I say something wrong?”

He shakes his head. “I just don’t know why you would ever regret ridding the world of someone like The Joker, that’s all.”

Stiffly, you nod and wipe your hands on your pants.

“Sorry about your friend.” He finishes, before leaving you alone on the roof again. ��Too bad I didn’t know him.”

Basically, crushing any hopes you might’ve had that he was Jason.

……

This is an atrociously stupid idea, you know; driving directly into the den of Gotham's biggest drug lord is the smartest thing to do.

But Gotham's biggest drug lord is Red Hood, and you’re fairly sure he won’t hurt you. Mostly.

His lackeys though, don’t seem so forgiving.

“Who the hell are you?” The man who barks the question at you, is raggedy looking and has the worst, most distasteful tattoos you’ve seen in your life.

“I’m here to see Red Hood.” You amend quickly, “I’m a friend of his.”

“Yeah, right.” The other guard says, a bulky looking woman who is also insanely beautiful… unsettlingly so. “A fragile little thing like you, friends with our boss… please.”

You scoff. “Trust me, I’m not fragile.” Stopping, you contemplate whether it’s a good idea to start something, considering your ankle is still healing. “Just call him.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine, whatever.”

An old phone hangs on the wall and she picks up the receiver and quickly dials a number. “Hey, I have a woman here who says she’s the bosses friend— her name? I have no clue— Oi, what’s your name?” The woman barks at you.

“Y/n.”

“Her name’s Y/n.” She’s silent for a minute while we all wait, then she hangs up the phone aggressively and yanks your arm into her grip. “Lucky. Let’s go.”

The corridors are a bit confusing to navigate, but you’re mostly just following the woman, who seems very familiar with them.

After ten minutes you reach a door, it matches almost every other door, but it has ‘boss’ written crudely on it in spray paint.

“You’re on your own from here.” She says gruffly before stomping away.

You take a moment to collect yourself before you knock, and the door swings open before you can even finish knocking.

“Why are you here?” Red Hood sounds breathless behind his mask, as if something winded him. “How did you remember how to get here?”

“I’m… actually not sure.” You chuckle quietly to yourself as Red Hood pulls you inside.

He sits down at a desk after pulling a chair out for you to sit in. “Again, why are you here?”

Your heart seizes for a moment as if the reason why you’re here hit you all over again. “I want you to show me who you are.”

“Are you sure?” Red Hood questions slowly, his body locking up. “You’re not going to like it.”

You nod curtly. “Yes, I need to know.”

He takes a deep breath and stands up, coming right up close to you. Far enough that you could see his face clearly but close enough to have your knees buckling.

He reaches up and presses a button you can’t see. The helmet hisses and opens, he pulls it off.

And your jaw drops.

Standing there, in grown up glory, black hair, green eyes that used to kill you, is Jason Fucking Todd.

“You’re— You’re not— dead.” You stammer, almost reaching out to touch him before you yank your hand back.

You’re so irrationally angry and also relieved and devastated all at the same time.

Jason sets the helmet down. You can’t decide whether to hug him and never let go or slap him for waiting so long to tell you. “That’s a… complicated story.” He pauses. “I promise I’ll tell you that story but I just— can’t get into that right now.”

You nod slowly. “Okay… that means I can get fucking pissed now.”

You’ve clearly confused him when you wrap your hands around his waist and squeeze tightly while also cursing him out. “I can’t believe you waited this long to show me.”

You can see the smart-ass comment on the tip of his tongue but he bites it back. “I knew you’d find out eventually.” His eyes caress your body and there’s a look of longing lingering in his eyes; he seems to be contemplating something. “Fuck it, I’ve been waiting too long to do this.”

You barely have time to react as Jason lowers his face down to yours and kisses you; As soon as you realize what he’s doing, you kiss back.

His hands go to rest on your hips, as you slowly get pushed back into his desk behind you. When you hit the ledge of if, Jason lifts you onto its surface, and pulls back.

“I’ve wanted to do that since we were kids.” He says quietly.

You gently touch your lips, almost in disbelief. “I’ve been wanting you to do that since we were kids.”

All content belongs to @beingsuneone , do not repost, copy or post on other platforms without my permission.

[muddyorbsblr]

timeless

See my full list of works here!

Summary: While doing some research to help out Mobius on a 'moonshot project', you and Loki come across a startling revelation about your lives. All your lives.

Pairing: TVA!Loki x TVA!Reader

Word Count: 3.5

Warnings: some talks of smutty times, but overall this is just fluff [let me know if i missed something!]

Things to be aware of: established relationship, talks of soulmates, references to my other stories

"I really don't get why you're in here bugging me for something to do, Y/N," Agent Mobius chuckled, shaking his head as he thumbed through another folder's worth of records that he hadn't told you quite yet what they were for. "No high-level variant threats have been reported, timelines are--well, they're relatively stable. Things are quiet for a change. I say enjoy it while it lasts and go on a vacation or something with Laufeyson. Just don't--"

"Don't cause any Nexus events, yes yes, Mobius, we know." A smile broke out on your face at the sound of Loki's voice cutting off the TVA Agent, your cheeks nearly aching from your grin widening when he walked up behind you and long arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you close. "Thing is we already have partaken in quite a handful of adventures across the timelines, indulging ourselves in the…numerous pleasures and luxuries that they have to offer."

One look at how you were reddening with the implications of your boyfriend's words had your fellow Agent scrunching up his face in feigned appalment. "Time and place, you two, jeez."

You and Loki shared a confused look when an analyst from another table yelled "And you did it at my birthday dinner!" and rendered Mobius into a cackling heap, laughing into his sleeve to muffle the sound.

"Anyway…" you spoke up, making the grey-haired agent look back up at you. "Are you sure there isn't anything we can help with? Doesn't even have to be high-level, I'll literally take up a timeline reset caused by a woman at a grocery store grabbing a can of peaches instead of a can of mangoes, I'm getting antsy here."

"Alright alright fine," he sighed, motioning toward you and the god behind you. "It's something of a moonshot but we've been trying to find proof of the existence of soulmates throughout the timelines, so we need concrete cases that no matter the circumstance, no matter the obstructions between two souls, they always find each other and they always end up together."

"You mean like in that TV show where they've got fairytale characters in like Maine or something and there's this couple that constantly goes--"

"I'll find you, I will always find you," you and Mobius said at once, causing you both to break out into laughter.

"Exactly like that," he confirmed when he calmed down some. "Preferably without the cheesy catchphrase because in case you do find one I would actually prefer to not include in my report that all soulmates have some line they tell each other that's so cheesy it's pungent."

"Right so…soulmates, no cheesy lines, across the timelines. Got it." You gave him a little salute before you went off to the shelves, holding Loki's hand as he followed a few steps behind you.

"Darling we have been scouring through files for hours. Perhaps it's time to report back to Mobius. Tell him that every pair we've found so far have broken the pattern at some iteration down the line. The most we've come across is a pair that were together for five iterations of their lives before the sixth showed they never even met in that lifetime."

Your shoulders slumped over when you placed your latest folder on your pile, of failed attempts, just about  half the size of Loki's own little mountain of case files. Maybe he was right; every possible lead you'd found all ended up a dud, and that alone would be proof enough that this was all a wild goose chase of an assignment for Mobius.

Then again, he did call it a moonshot, so the realization didn't smart too much.

The frustration you felt began to melt away the moment Loki's hands touched your shoulders, leaning into him when he started working at the knots that he found with expert precision. "Okay, you're right," you sighed. "Let's go tell Cubey his moonshot's a single needle in a city of haystacks."

He placed a kiss to the top of your head, using his seiðr to stack the case files into neat stacks arranged by file number. "Thank the Norns that ridiculous magic dampener fractured some when the timelines diverged," he mumbled, chuckling into your hair. "Now how about I bring us to a nice hot spring and we could simply…enjoy one another's company?" You let out a giggle when his hands traveled down your sides, lightly grasping your waist and pulling you against him.

If only you could have silenced the little voice in your head when you were just seconds away from him whisking you off to Jökulsárlón or Hakone, clad in a dark emerald bikini that your lover would peel off of you as he made good on his promise for you both to enjoy each other's company.

"I can nearly hear the thoughts forming in your mind, darling," he cooed, pressing his lips to the back of your neck, chuckling against your skin when you wordlessly confirmed what he'd said by slumping over again. "What is it?"

"Just one last try?" You wouldn't ever let yourself live it down if you'd gone down this road and not looked at this particular set of files.

He let out a sigh, his slightly cool breath tickling your skin before pressing a tender kiss to the back of your head. "One last attempt. And if we reach another dead end--"

"You can whisk me away to any destination of your choice and have your wicked way with me," you finished for him, letting out a little yelp when he brought his lips to the spot between your neck and shoulder, playfully nipping at the skin.

"What a deliciously reckless promise, my love," he teased, smirking against your neck when he proceeded to lightly suck at the sensitive skin and you had to bite your lip to muffle the whimper that slipped through your lips. "I look forward to collecting on it in a short while."

He rested his chin on your shoulder, still holding you close when you called out for a bit of assistance on your final hunch. "Minutes?"

Your eyes squinted to adjust to the sudden brightness when the orange hologram appeared on the desk in front of you. "Well hello there, lovebirds. What can I do for y'all?" she asked with a small wave of her cartoonish stick arm.

"Could you pull up our files?"

"Well sure I can, Y/N! How much of your files are we talking here?"

You shared a look with Loki before you answered, "All of them?"

"Before I hand 'em over, I think it's best y'all know from the get go that you're about to deal with thousands of files. It'll take a whole lotta time before you can sort 'em all out," she cautioned you both, already giving you a digital visual of how many files she'd already begun to pull up.

"Minutes, as I've come to understand it, we variants apparently have all the time in the world," you countered, shrugging your free shoulder and giving the living hologram a little smile. "We can take it."

"Alright well suit yourself," she comically shrugged both her hands before making the files that were already on the table disperse and go back to their original locations throughout the library shelves before stacks upon stacks of folders materialized in their place. All of them sectioned off into two sides. "Have at it, y'all."

You picked up the first folder from the stack closest to you, your brows knitting together already once you read the name on the file. "Minutes, I don't think this is mine, it says Eve but that's not--"

"Your name?" she finished for you. "Darlin', Y/N is your name in this lifetime--Well, the lifetime you came from before your Nexus event, you get what I mean. The file you're holding is from another lifetime, heck, might even be from another timeline. But one look at that file and you'll see that that's you. All of these are you. Doesn't matter if you're goin' by a different name, the soul remains the same."

The air left your lungs when you opened the folder to find a picture of you with pale skin and matted ivory hair on the front of the file. Only thing was that this version of you wasn't quite human in her lifetime. In fact centuries of it were spent as a vampire.

A few moments later she spoke up again. "Well then that's my cue. Happy sortin', y'all!" And then she disappeared. Leaving you and Loki alone with your couple thousand files each to rifle through.

Had you been there on a different objective, you would have spent a bit more time thumbing through the pages that detailed the life of this version of you, rubbing elbows with numerous prominent figures throughout history and having her fair share of trysts with a handful of them. But your only focus was her most prominent affair. Her great love.

When you reached that page, you felt yourself go breathless once again looking at the picture that stared back at you. "Loki," you breathed out, holding out the file to him so he could see for himself. The god's eyes widened at the photo in front of him. The ebony hair may be matted and the skin somehow even paler than his usual complexion, but there was no denying it. This Eve's companion throughout her years, this Adam, was another lifetime's iteration of Loki.

He began to rifle through his own stacks of folders, finding the one that had the same variant number and interlocked his and your folders together, starting a new stack at the center of the desk. "If you're right, and this yields the moonshot result that Mobius has been searching for, you can pick the destination and have your wicked way with me."

"Why Mischief, how reckless of you," you said coyly, batting your eyelashes at him. "What if I wanna tie you up?"

"It's endearing that you believe you could, my darling." He lightly poked your side, quickly pulling you into his arms the second you started wriggling and giggling in his direction. "But if that is truly what you want then I can promise not to break out for an hour."

"Two," you countered.

"Ninety minutes."

"Deal."

"Now if I'm right and this leads to another dead end, I whisk you away to any destination of my choosing for a fortnight, no tempads, no missions, and not a stitch of clothing on this glorious form of yours." His lips skimmed the side of your face, pressing a kiss to your cheek when you let out a squeal at his finger deftly undoing the top button of your shirt. "Do we have a deal, my love?"

"Okay okay," you relented, turning your head to steal a quick kiss before bring your attention back to the folders you were about to sort through. Before you could pull away, his free hand went up to the back of your head and deepened the kiss.

"What if I told you I've been plagued with visions of stripping you bare and laying you out on the desk before me? That I'd been thinking of enjoying every delectable inch of you as if you were my own personal dessert board?" You let out a gasp at the lustful image his words had conjured in your mind, allowing him to easily lick into your mouth and turn you into putty in his arms the moment your tongues met.

"I'd say I'm not surprised," you breathed out when he pulled away, placing your hand over his before he could undo a third button from your shirt. "But the faster we get this done, the faster oneof us will be at the other's mercy and maybe you can even bring that desk fantasy of yours to life." You pressed another quick peck to his lips before managing to wriggle your way out of his embrace, jutting your chin at his side of the desk. "Pick a file, Mischief."

The next file had you and him initially on opposite sides of the Battle of New York, your story starting in Stuttgart when he had clones force you down on your knees and the injuries from that encounter permanently damaging you. A handful of times throughout the day of the actual battle, he went out of his way to save your life, ensuring your safety from a fatal fall and even the Hulk; the document even had a mention of him asking Thor of what came of you after he was apprehended because you weren't among the Avengers that saw him off to Asgard, only to find out the true extent of your injuries. Then he found himself back on Earth to serve his sentence and falling in love with you, using his magic to undo the physical damage that he dealt you. And then you two went on your own adventure to have 'do-overs' in places that held bitter memories for him, from Stuttgart to Asgard and even the balcony in Stark Tower.

Another file saw Loki as an English baronet named Thomas Sharpe, and you as his final wife and a sort of partner in crime. Initially you teamed up to play a dangerous game of sneaking around his ancestral home to gather and send out evidence that would put his incestuous and murderous sister Lucille behind bars, and somewhere along the way you two had genuinely fallen in love with one another.

You then found a good handful of scenarios where you both lived in the Avengers Compound, having a bad case of mutual pining and both of you being too hesitant and overcome with doubt that neither of you made a move until the situation practically forced you to confess. One even involved you photographing him for an Avengers calendar where he stripped for you during his session.

"Yeah, this definitely sounds like you," you joked when you showed him one of the pictures from the photoshoot in question where he laid on his side on a white bed wearing nothing but a pair of white boxers. When you opened the next file, you let out a whiny groan out of sheer frustration and disappointment.

"Darling, that is a sound I only wish to hear when I elicit it from you. What's wrong?"

"Might as well just lie down on the table right now because there's no way this isn't a dead end." You waved the file in your hand in the air.

"Much as I would thoroughly enjoy claiming this particular prize, perhaps we need not be so hasty, my love. Tell me what would be such a hindrance that you'd be ready to give up your theory--"

"Place of Birth: Asgard," you read out, cutting him off. "Born to Lady Sif of the Warriors Four--"

"Alright well Sif would surely have some choice words with me if I courted you but--"

"And the Crown Prince Thor, God of Thunder." You gave him a look as if to say "This is why", the realization dawning on him as well that yes, this would be the dead end that would grant him his victory. And yet for some reason, you decided to keep on turning the pages. "Gotta be honest, though, I thought that what would break our streak is if we never met in these--Oh what in the Game of Thrones Targaryen nonsense is this??"

"What is it?"

"The streak isn't broken yet," you croaked out, the disbelief entering his eyes as he frantically started searching for his corresponding variant file. "We were married for two and a half thousand years."

"I surrendered my claim to the throne of Asgard for you," he declared in astonishment. "We have children in this timeline." His voice began to hitch at the end, making you immediately close the distance between you to lace your fingers together.

"Looks like even something as monumental as being your brother's daughter couldn't stop us," you noted with a little smile, breaking out into a full grin when your comment made Loki exhaled in a rather loud chuckle that traveled across the library. You took your two folders and interlocked them, adding to the pile in the center. "Let's keep going."

It was several hours later that you two had finally found your way back to the desk that Mobius occupied, the more tenured agent pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing at the inner corners of his eyes in clear frustration.

"You still got nothing, Cubey?"

"One of these days I'm gonna find a name for you that's just as annoying, Y/L/N, just you wait," he groaned, his posture visibly slumping when he saw the interlocked stacks of folders that you were carting around. "What in the name of the Alioth is that?"

"We found one," you proudly stated. "Proof that soulmates exist and…only some of them have a catchphrase."

"That's just one?!" he boomed, immediately getting shh'd by a more elderly analyst a few tables behind him to which you and Loki shh'd her right back without missing a beat. You nodded your answer to Mobius. "So what's the catchphrase?"

"I was made to be yours," you began, letting go of the cart to hold your hand out to Loki.

"And I yours," he finished, lacing your fingers together before draping his arm over your shoulder and pulling you closer to him.

"Wait a damn minute," Mobius said suspiciously, pointing a finger between the two of you. "Are you two trying to tell me that the first and so far only case of soulmates we have on record is--"

"Us," you finished for him, nudging the cart in his direction with your foot. "Every single lifetime on every single timeline accounted for."

"What about your own?" he questioned. "You both mentioned that you'd never met your timeline's version of each other prior to your Nexus events."

"Well see that's the thing. These files only cover everything prior to a variant's Nexus event, or what the events were in their own respective sacred timelines. We met each other after our Nexus events. So maybe our souls never found each other in the lives that we left behind because…we were meant to find each other here."

"Huh…" he mused, looking carefully at the two of you. "Could be. Nice catch, you two. I knew I made a good call giving you a partner, Loki."

"My darling mortal is quite brilliant," your lover beamed, pressing a tender kiss to the top of your head. "I believe I owe you a debt of gratitude for our introduction."

"Well, you really don't have to but if you feel so compelled, I'm willing to take a jet ski and a vacation to Miami if you two can swing it."

"We'll call you if anything serious pops up, just keep your tempad charged," you shot back, extending your free hand toward him to shake. "But really, Cubey. Thank you. For introducing us. For vouching for me and making sure that I didn't get pruned during my trial with Rennslayer--"

"Otherwise you might have crossed paths with that one-handed variant in the Void and who knows what nefarious and depraved intentions he would have had with you," Loki interjected, resting his head on yours.

"You have a Captain Hook variant?"

"Nah it was a president," Mobius answered with a wave of his hand. "Got his hand bit off by an alligator."

"So…a Captain Hook variant."

"Yeah, you know what you're right. Loki has a Captain Hook variant. You'll meet him soon enough when you get sent on a mission to the Void. Loads of highly dangerous variants usually find themselves there when they try to escape processing."

"If he even dares touch you I'll divest him of his remaining hand," Loki grumbled, once again pressing his lips to your temple. "That heathen can find his own variant of you. You're mine."

"All yours," you beamed, bringing your joint hands to your lips to press a kiss to his knuckles. "And speaking of…we're off for a few weeks, Cubey. We have a date to get to."

"Please don't get arrested for indecent exposure. Or public fornication," the senior agent groaned. "That's a timeline I'll need therapy for if I have to be the sorry ass to reset it."

Neither of you responded other than a little wave and a thumbs up in his direction as you walked away, the god giving you a dimpled smirk as you two made your way to your shared apartment.

"Where shall we head to first, little mortal? A hot spring? Or perhaps a nice scenic tundra? Or perhaps a cherry blossom forest? I can already picture your beauty with the backdrop of the falling petals…"

He stopped listing options when he saw you shaking your head, mirroring his smirk with one of your own. "Bedroom first. And give me your tie. You owe me ninety minutes."

A/N: I'm so glad to finally get this out for y'all to see! This was originally supposed to up weeks ago for something but some of my own revelations were made (translation: I got bitch slapped in the face by reality) which led to the postponing of this story. Anyways, I hope y'all liked it even if it is kinda cringe and silly. I'm always gonna be cringe and silly, so manage expectations accordingly. 🥴🫡

Also if you got all the references within the files (except the OLLA one that's a freebie) I officially love you. 💖💛

'everything' taglist: @sailorholly @loopsisloops @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemiss @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @kats72 @kikster606 @evelyn-kingsley @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @lunarnights95 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th  @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @elizabethmidnight2017 @holdmytesseract @smolvenger @gigglingtiggerv2 @lokidokieokie @lunarnights95 @superficialdomina @anukulee @kmc1989 @november-rayne @goddessofwonderland @buttercupcookies-blog

[redactedshapes]

Time is weird within the Oldest House

Spoilers for Alan Wake 2 and slight speculation for Control 2

Alright so. According to Estevez, HQ went dark and while she gives no hint as for how long it's been like that, it's safe to assume it's been four years due to how consistent the each Remedy game has been about the years they take place on.

Besides that, nothing is ever hinted at what's going on with the FBC's headquarters.

We know now time loops and spirals inside the Dark Place and that changes done there can bleed into reality (Jesse being told by a psychiatrist Zane is a filmmaker and not a poet, as she remembered him).

From the AWE DLC we know Jesse briefly witnessed Alan meeting Zane ("The Meeting" from now on), which came full circle in AW2.

From this event it's not unreasonable to assume two things:

1. The Meeting happened back in 2019.

The AWE DLC takes place before the ending of Control's and Foundation's story. This can be seen in the reports Emily writes about the new hiss enemies introduced in each dlc.

For the one introduced in AWE her title is still Research Specialist.

For the one in Foundation, her title is Head of Research. (also she got her Doctorate, you go girl!)

If this is holds up, Alan's timeline in AW2 has been bouncing back and forth way back from 2023.

Or, if you want a headache, even farther back given his role in Tom the Poet which came out before Zane disappeared. This is the poster in the Suomi Hall in Watery.

There's no hint yet if this change/addition of Alan writing a novel that inspired the film has made it past Watery and Bright Falls into the real world or was cleared at the end of the game.

This would also mean Ahti has been on vacations for four years.

2. The Meeting happened in 2023.

At the end of AWE dlc Langston says they're receiving an AWE alert from Cauldron Lake that is set a few years into the future. But is it?

What if it's actually the present, my dear beautiful Langston?

This would be consistent with the lack of any visual indication of the passage of time during the main story. There's none. And then, the Foundation DLC ends, and we see Dylan has grown hair and a beard.

Cute. But you know, Remedy has weaponized easter eggs. So no, I don't think Mr. comatose baldy growing a beard is a cute little detail they spent resources on.

We know by the time The Meeting takes place, Alan has not gotten out of the Dark Place yet, hence the alarm has not been activated (it goes off in the FBC monitoring station as soon as Alan/Scratch is transported back to the shore where Saga meets him for the first time).

If this holds up, then the timeline is more or less like this:

Ahti lets Jesse into the Oldest House in October 29th, 2019.

While Jesse is dealing with the Hiss, Alan unlocks Investigation Sector in the elevator.

Alan Meets Zane .

Jesse gets a glimpse of The Meeting.

Ahti gives Jesse his cassette players, goes on vacation.

Alan/Scratch gets out of the Dark Place (September 13th, 2023).

The AWE alarm sounds - and the signal made it into the Oldest House (September 13th, 2023).

Jesse takes down the Projector and deals with the Nail.

Dylan has grown hair.

Between point 4 and 5 more time could've passed, otherwise those are some short vacations for Ahti, it sounds like he's been in Watery for a while.

Therefore, during Control's main story, time was halted or passed very, very slowly when compared to the world outside.

How come?

With Remedy integrating their own alternate version of Quantum Break they might as well start using some of its harder science fiction approach. Alan has already mentioned the Dark Place as Dark Matter in one of his rambling videos. And well, this seems to have been the plan all along. From the chalkboard in Quantum Break:

There's been no text about black holes or matter density affecting space-time in any game as far as I remember. However, the imagery has been there with the Dark Presence vortex and certain images looking like event horizons.

So this is pure speculation:

The Oldest House is massive, it shifts, it expands and contracts. Could it be dense enough to affect space-time? could it do this on command?

It could be so dense that to those within its walls it'd seem like little to no time has passed, while outside at least four years have gone by.

The entire story is written in present tense in the missions menu, even after a mission has been completed (and the way the collectibles/mission menu was integrated as a world-building element with the Mind Place in Alan Wake 2, I don't think this was meant to be a cute weird little detail even back then).

Something happened during or after the events in the Foundation dlc, something shifted and now time is passing more or less normally. Or at least it is showing its effects on people.

Alice was seemingly cleansed from the effects the Dark Place had over her memory as soon she was brought inside the Oldest House. It's not unreasonable to assume this effect expands to protecting those within (those that are not too far gone, like Hartman). So the Oldest House would deal with time in its own terms, while the Dark Presence could make retroactive changes to certain details in the reality outside of it, like Zane going from poet to filmmaker.

Dylan's hair growth would indicate a month or two have passed at the very least by the end of Foundation. And from the one Control 2 concept art that has been shown so far, there are orange leaves in the pavement.

So Remedy could be planning to lift he lock-down during autumn. Autumn of what year? Heh, that's gonna be a fun one to find out.

-

As a counterpoint one could point at the game cinematic shots of the Oldest House from outside, they're always set at night across the story. It's just a detail that could've easily be a result of resource constraints. Yeah, not that it implies the story could've happened within one night.

Like with the clocks! You can point out at time being weird inside the Oldest House because none of the clocks are working! Time is literally frozen teehee, static textures on 3D assets, except for uh

Darling's Office in Central Research? Is that-

IS IT

IT'S WORKING

WHY DID YOU DO THIS REMEDY?

STOP-

(WE GET IT REMEDY, YOU'VE BEEN PLANNING IT ALL ALONG AND WHEN EVERYTHING IS LAID OUT IN CANON WE'LL FEEL SILLY BECAUSE THE HINTS WHERE THERE, IN OUR FACES, ALL THIS TIME)

-

Or you know, Control 2 will deal with the main cast enduring years of lock-down and the concept art is actually the end or middle of the game, and everyone exits the building on the year Control 2 releases.

Kind of lame in my opinion, but would make sense I guess.

-

Of course, there's another possibility I don't feel like following through:

The Dark Presence succeeded in changing the entire world and only The Oldest House and those inside remained intact. I mean, Dylan's easter egg in Foundation has some images

(that better not be a frozen ocean NO)

(NO, do not tell me this is the Huotari Well omg)

Hiss/Dark Presence became besties

And maybe, count Dylan's cut Hotline call. But that's cut content so strictly speaking, not canon (imagine it gets restored between Alan Wake 2 dlcs and the next Control game haha).

-

There are some things that should be brought full circle about the AWE dlc.

Alan is already aware of the FBC thanks to Estevez and Alice.

The sound fx aspect of the Hiss chant is basically lifted from the Cult of the Tree chanting (or you know, if you want another headache, it could be the other way around). And there are hints of verses from the Hiss incantation said out loud here and there. So pre-existing elements to give shape to a dadaist poem attributed to a hostile extra-dimensional resonance complete!

Has he yet come across the information from the FBC, that Hartman became a Taken?

He also kind of knows about the general plot of Control given he wrote a screenplay for an episode of Night Springs that was never produced.

It became clearer that Alan doesn't write whole new things or realities from scratch (shut up), that he writes from "visions" and vivid "nightmares" he's had. If that screenplay is a vision of the future of the events within the Oldest House, then that could be it.

However we haven't seen him become aware or gain knowledge of Polaris or Jesse herself beyond her extremely brief appearance during The Meeting.

This information has yet to make it outside the Oldest House (as far as we know) and only Dylan and Emily know about Polaris so far. Ahti too, maybe?

Sure, Alan could've somehow glimpsed something through the Oceanview Motel, he's got a door there anyways and he's gone through the Dark Place version of it (the Hotel), but this has not been made explicit like The Meeting.

Maybe The Lake House dlc will clear up that connection.

I mean yeah, that'd be fitting.

Don't forget one of the cut pieces from Control was The Oldest House opening a passage to Ahti's cabin in Finland, so The Oldest House being able to making an opening to Cauldon Lake is in Remedy's toolbox.

(I also think it'd be fair to see more of Jesse since Alan got a whole new 3D model in Control's AWE)

-

I'm missing a lot of things here I'm sure, I put this together more or less from things off the top of my head. I haven't gone through Control in a while so there are probably a more and clearer hints regarding time shenanigans within the Oldest House.

Also, AW2 timeline needs to be put on a wall to make sense of it. It'd look like a spiral, because of course.

[jo-harrington]

Corroded Coffin Fest - Day 27 - You'll Be In My Heart

Summary: Eddie and the boys fight their homesickness when they're on the road for the summer.

Word Count: 964

Rating: T

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Store Manager!Reader

Warnings/Themes: Friendship, fluff, allusion to sex, discussion of marriage

Note: Alright final Saturday of this event, I'm both sad and excited, it's been a really great one. For this day, I'm going back to my fondest series, my baby, The Store Manager Verse. It's specifically set before the proposal in Longevity and it very much explores how Eddie got the idea to propose to Store Manager at all.

And I might've fucked up the timeline and my own fic canon so just...if you notice something, shhh no you didn't.

Check Out the Main Post for @corrodedcoffinfest here! Even if you didn’t start on Day 1, you can still join!

Tagging: @the-unforgivenn at her request.

You can find my masterlist here.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

August 1990

The summer of '90 was a special one.

It was Corroded Coffin's first real life tour. Well, not really.

"Actually," you told them when they broke the news to you, "you're forgetting about the Independence Day Tour of '87."

"We didn't make t-shirts for that one, sweetheart," Eddie teased and dropped a kiss on the top of your head before diving into the details.

It wasn't a true tour in the sense that they'd pack up the van and hit the road and never look back until the tour was over--that would require them quitting their jobs for a time, something their wallets desperately couldn't handle. But a few days off here to go to this festival? A few days off there to enter into this Battle of the Bands? That was doable.

It was as close to a tour as they were gonna get for a little while, and it was gonna help them get further in their music career.

It also prepared them.

Being away from home for a few days at a time prepared them for an inevitable week or month or year that they could potentially face if their star grew brighter.

Eddie quickly realized, though, how much he would miss you when that time came, because he missed you terribly now.

He started seeing you everywhere he looked. Foods he thought you might like to try, love songs that reminded him of you. Someone at one county fair even did a cover of Beth, which he would argue was your song. And at one fest, there was a booth with hand drawn postcards featuring cute fuzzy animals with nefarious settings in the background.

It started with one of those.

A postcard of a kitten with a big purple bow sitting in a haunted forest. Purple for Claires, he explained when he presented it to you on their return home. You gushed over it, said that you loved it, and it went up on the fridge.

Until the next time the guys were out of town.

Next it was special chocolate caramel candies with thick sea salt on top from a booth that sat next to the main stage. They had probably eaten more chocolate than any other food during that trip; you had to try it.

Then a big over stuffed teddy bear--

"It's an Eddie Bear, actually." He pointed to the denim vest it wore. "See?"

--that he won playing a game of ring toss.

A huge tin of assorted fudge from Mackinac Island and a promise to take you with next time they went.

A necklace made of special stone beads that supposedly helped with everlasting love or something; he'd gotten to choose a tarot card when he bought it. He got the two of cups, whatever that meant.

Each and every gift that Eddie brought you when he was away was special. Some big, some small. Some made you ooh and aww, some made you cry because of how much you missed your idiot boyfriend, one even earned him...well...lets just say his bandmates, who you shared a duplex with, made themselves scarce for the evening.

But it was the last stop on the tour that brought maybe the best gift, the most meaningful. It made Eddie really stop and think because...well, this was the stop that they were debuting a new song about his parents and his childhood and how the future wasn't set in stone and you couldn't change things that were bad for you, even with the best intentions.

Marriage is a Death Sentence.

So it was ironic that the first thing to catch his eye would be a ring.

Not a typical engagement ring, not a diamond or really anything big and shiny at all. It was strange and artsy and interesting but when he saw it there at that little crafters booth...he just thought of you.

It was a weird thought. Jarring.

And it scared him.

He turned tail and walked right out of the booth, stopped at a stand where they sold little critters made of recycled wire and bought you a tiny porcupine. There, done, gift bought, no need to think of it anymore.

But he couldn't stop thinking about the ring for the rest of their time there. Not when they performed, not when they ate lunch, not when they packed the van at the end of the night to go home.

He hadn't given marriage much thought when he was younger. He liked dating, liked dating you. You never brought it up, neither did he. But then you took him as your date for Jen's wedding a few years back, and the two of you talked about it and of course you were on the same page. Couldn't see yourselves doing the whole commotion, no suits or dresses, no desire to have your families and friends stare at you for hours.

Not to mention some of those vows were just heinous.

No wonder Al and Elizabeth Munson were destined for heartbreak if they vowed to honor and obey...blegh.

So marriage? No, not at all. Immediately no.

But you? Forever with you? You were his best friend. Wouldn't say his soulmate, that was Jeff obviously and you had no problem with that. But you were...you were you.

So the answer was a resounding yes. Always.

Eddie ran, faster than he'd run in a long time if ever, through the booths as everyone packed up for the night, to the little crafters stall from earlier.

"I was just about to pack up," the vendor laughed as Eddie caught his breath. "You made it just in time."

It was fate.

He pointed where the ring still sat, as it if was waiting for him, and said,

"I'll take it."

[asterias-record-shop]

For the BINGO, can I please request the Free use Space with Ethan Landry and prompt #12 ?

Please ignore this if I am wrong, but in case the free use space means we can pick an idea to go with the prompt: would it be alright if you made something of a continuation of your High School Sweethearts post with Ethan? It was so sweet and cute and really interesting! I always wondered how Ethan would turn out if he had someone who truly loved him from the beginning. Also the way you wrote Ethan in that as a soft dom was insanely hot! You really are a terrific writer.

But if the space and/or prompt is already taken, please ignore this. Thank you and have a great day!!!

—𓆩[surprise getaway]𓆪—

𓆩[main masterlist]𓆪 𓆩[request/ask me something!]𓆪 𓆩[updated bingo card!]𓆪 𓆩[bingo masterlist]𓆪 𓆩[join the bingo taglist!]𓆪

𓆩♡𓆪 CHARACTER - Ethan Landry x Fem! High School Sweetheart! Reader

𓆩♡𓆪 TYPE - fluff, smut, slight angst maybe?

𓆩♡𓆪 WORD COUNT - 3.7K

𓆩♡𓆪 SUMMARY - Ethan loved you more than you could ever know, but the problem was he was trying to get himself to understand he could choose you over his family - someone who could give him a life of happiness and not murder. So when you surprise him with a trip to your cabin normally used for trips in the winter before you both go off to college, he finds out he could live a life with you he initially didn’t think was possible. And maybe, just maybe, he can get away from his family once and for all, and stay with you.

𓆩♡𓆪 STORY WARNINGS - edited timeline ofc || kinda goes along with these two fics: one & two || cursing & foul language || your family has a house in the mountains now || surprise vacation to the mountains || aged up some more || live your rich dream here || fingering || unprotected sex || riding || creampie || slight marking kink? || just fluffy, mainly vanilla sex || mentions of plan b || slight degradation? ||

“You both ready?”

Ethan paused from packing your bags into the trunk of the truck your father was loaning him for the drive, a four hour road trip certainly an amazing test for your relationship. “Yes! I’m so ready!”

Ethan smiled at your voice, nodding. “Yes sir, I’m ready.”

“Good,” your father gives him the keys, raising a brow. “Take care of my girl. Don’t bring her back pregnant.”

Ethan offered a sheepish smile, laughing slightly. Even though you were on birth control and he often wore condoms, there was always a chance. “I won’t.”

Your dad raises an eyebrow, tilting his head. “Why was that so hesitant?”

“I-I uhm-”

“Bye daddy,” you interject quickly, giggling as you kiss his cheek. “I already said bye to everyone, so I’m going to go before you change your mind! I love you!”

You dragged Ethan into the driver's seat, quickly going around and getting in the passengers. Ethan quickly starts the truck, sighing as he stares at the texts from his dad and Quinn. Richie was just… killed, and though he cared he wouldn’t let it ruin this vacation with you.

“E?” You whisper, softly patting his hand. “Are you sure you are okay with this?”

He squeezed your hand, shaking his head with a soft kiss to your temple. “I’m fine, precious, perfectly fine.”

You hummed as he quickly pulled out of your driveway, already putting on the playlist you made for the two of you. Keeping your hand in his, you leaned on his shoulder in the one cabin truck, an old 1989 Chevy that your family had kept running for two generations. You loved this truck almost as much as you loved Ethan, smiling as you leaned on his shoulder, thankful for the fact that you had persuaded your dad to install an up to date stereo that had Bluetooth.

“When we get there, we just have to unpack and we can have the rest of the day free. I was thinking later this week we can go hiking, what do you think?”

He looked over at you, smiling slightly. “Whatever you want to do.”

You pout, rolling your eyes. “If I wanted someone to just agree with everything I say, I would’ve brought someone else.”

He laughed slightly, shaking his head. “I’m sorry… I just,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I just want you to be happy. I’ll do whatever you want to make sure you stay happy.”

You paused, looking up at him, the way his eyes focused on the road and his brows were slightly furrowed made it obvious that he was thinking about something else. “No matter what happens, I’ll always be happy if I’m with you. No matter if we argue or fight, I’ll always be happy.”

He inhaled, eyes flickering from you to the road before he got to a light and leaned down to give you a firm kiss. “I like hiking, but as soon as we get there, I think I’d rather just… stay in with you.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “Yeah, because you want to bang.”

“I so want to bang.” Ethan was tired of renting hotel rooms because he didn’t want to disrespect your parents house, and this didn’t really count — or that’s what he kept telling himself.

His words make you laugh as you lean on his shoulder, humming softly as you start to close your eyes. “When we get there, we have to get ice cream first. They have the best ice cream ever.”

He laughs slightly, nodding as he pressed a soft kiss to your temple. “Go to sleep, precious. I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

You hummed, nodding. “You sure?”

“I’m sure, precious. Just… get some sleep.”

He smiled as you quickly took advantage of it, falling asleep on his shoulder as his phone started to ring. He quickly grabbed it before seeing Quinn’s name blare, sighing softly before declining it. He wasn’t going to risk you hearing anything, or her ruining your vacation.

It was this road trip that Ethan decided you needed to stay awake if you both ever drove anywhere else. He so took a wrong turn somewhere, but his phone didn’t have any service and he didn’t want to wake you up. So, pulling into a gas station, he tried to turn on and off his WiFi before someone knocked on his window.

It makes him jump, cursing as you slowly wake up and he starts to roll down the window by twisting the knob.

The man pauses, his slightly gray beard catching Ethan’s eyes before you gasp. “Ethan, you got us here! Hi Uncle Luke!”

“I knew I recognized you! Hey kid!” The man laughed. “This that boyfriend your dads been telling me about?”

“Yes! This is Ethan, Ethan, this is Uncle Luke, he’s my dads best friend. He builds custom homes for people who want properties in the mountains.” You say, smiling as Ethan cleared his throat and quickly got out to be respectful.

He offered his hand, smiling. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Oh, a handshake, I like him already.” Luke took his hand, shaking firmly with a laugh. “Got a nice handshake, too! If you’re ever interested, kid, you got a job with me, as long as you don’t hurt my niece.”

Ethan laughed, nodding. “I would never even think of hurting her.”

“Yeah, Uncle Luke, he couldn’t even if he tried to,” you giggled, nodding. “But I think it would be good if E worked with you. He’s got some good hands.”

Ethan blushed madly, quickly pulling his hand from Luke’s grasp with a sheepish laugh. “Y-Yeah, I-I’m pretty good at like uhm, building things and stuff.”

“Oh yeah? How long are you guys here?” Luke asked, tilting his head at Ethan.

“We’re going to be here for about a month. Ethan lost his brother but he got accepted into college, so it’s my little surprise getaway for him,” you say, getting out of the car and tucking yourself under his arm. “What’d you have in mind, Uncle Luke? Besides game nights and dinner.”

“Well, maybe Ethan can come to work with me one day. See how he likes it, and I’ll start him off at thirty dollars an hour if he stays.” You knew Uncle Luke didn’t think either of you would stay, but the option did appeal to Ethan.

You giggled, nodding. “You like that idea, E? Maybe later on after you graduate, we’ll come live here. I’ll work medical billing and coding from home and you’ll work with Uncle Luke.”

Oh, he liked that idea more than you knew.

“Well, I’ll be off, Y/N, you have Lori’s number to set everything up, I’ll see you both soon!” Luke walked off as you giggled, leaning up to press a soft kiss to his cheek.

“Let’s go into town, E. We’ll stop and get some ice cream, then we go home and unpack. Sounds good?” You suggested making Ethan nod, smiling.

“Yeah, for sure, precious.”

You both quickly got back into the truck, you gladly telling Ethan to keep going straight and that you both would get to town soon. Ethan loved it when you snuggled up right next to him, softly brushing your fingers up and down his inner thigh as you kissed his neck.

“And you said I wanted to bang.”

You laugh, shaking your head. “I always want to bang. It’s a consequence of having a boyfriend that looks like you. Oh, park there! In front of the shop.”

He laughs, shaking his head as he quickly parked and you tugged him off the truck. “Let’s get ice cream and sandwiches so I don’t have to make dinner. Sounds good?”

“Very good,” Ethan agreed, smiling. “So, what do I do?”

“Let’s go order the sandwiches first because it might take a minute, then we’ll get the ice cream and eat it while we wait. Sounds good?” You offer, Ethan nodding with his smile growing bigger as you dragged him to the back of the store.

A nice man greets the two of you, cracking jokes and laughing as he took your orders. “Alright! I’ll have these done in about fifteen minutes. How long are you guys staying in town for?”

You’re about to answer before Ethan quickly interjects. “About a month, but I’m liking it here so far, so we’re planning to talk about moving.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Oh yeah? If it’s just the two of you and no baby any time soon, there’s a nice house out on the edge of town. It’s a bit of a fixer upper, but nothing too major. Probably the cheapest thing you’ll find in town, though, because everything else is pretty big. Unless, of course, you’re like those people who want to stay outside of town in the mountains if you got the money.”

You laughed, nodding. “Yes sir, my family owns the cabin on King’s Peak. If uhm… if we move up here, we’ll probably live there,” you glance at Ethan, humming. “No baby anytime soon.”

“Oh, nice! Well, I’ll get started on these sandwiches, come back in about fifteen minutes.” He walked off as you slowly dragged Ethan down the aisles, tilting your head. 

“What was that?” You asked him, crossing your arms. “You’ve been here not even an hour, and you want to move here?”

Ethan sighed as he held your hips, shaking his head. “Come on, precious… you’re always talking about this place, always talking about how much you wished you lived here. It’s not like anything’s keeping me in Woodsboro, come on, what you said earlier sounded perfect.”

You swallowed, shaking your head. “What about Quinn and your dad? Th-They-”

Ethan sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t want anything to do with them,” he says, shaking his head. This new plan they were deriving had to do with you, killing you. He couldn’t let that happen, he had worked too hard to get you to notice him and fall in love with him, he couldn’t lose you. “Please… please, I don’t want to go back.”

You inhaled, slowly holding his face with a hum. “This isn’t like the movies, E. We’ve never lived together before, what if-”

“This is our trial period,” he whispers back, shaking his head. “I love you too much to fuck anything up. I won’t.”

“I know you won’t,” you smiled, nodding. “Okay. Let’s see how this month goes, then I’ll talk to daddy about buying the cabin.”

He looked at you confused, his head tilted. “What do you mean?”

“Trust fund baby,” you giggle, shaking your head. “You just worry about sitting back and looking pretty.”

He laughed, shaking his head before you dragged him to the cashier, paying for two double scooped cones, proceeding to drag him to the ice cream part of the shop. He smiled as you quickly ordered a double scoop in a cone, Ethan ordering the same as you quickly licked the side. You both moved toward the tables, your foot settled in his lap under the table as he held your ankle.

“Best ice cream ever, right?” You giggled, shaking your head. “I will never get tired of this ice cream. One time, we were here for a week, got it every day.”

He laughed, rubbing your calf. “I’m looking forward to eating ice cream every day this month.”

You giggle again, humming with a nod before the bell dings. “Oh! Sandwiches are ready.”

After grabbing and paying for your sandwiches and finishing your ice cream, quickly going back into the truck and driving to your cabin. It doesn’t take long, but you both do have to leave the main part of town to get there, easily going up the mountain until you lead him to a perfectly picturesque cabin.

“Here we are!” You giggle as you got off, dragging him in.

He didn’t even worry about the bags as you started putting the sandwiches in the fridge, kissing against the back of your neck before you bent down, laughing. “Ethan!”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to bang, precious?” He whispers as you stand back up, easily turning you around as you giggled. “Let’s bang.”

“Goodness, when we say bang, it makes me feel like eighty. Come on,” you whisper between kisses, Ethan’s hands holding your hips as you start to walk backwards. Ethan’s heart was beating out of his chest as you started to walk backwards up the stairs, everytime you missed a step, you giggled as he stabilized you and helped you find the next step. “I don’t think living here with you would be that bad.”

“That bad?” Ethan laughed as he tucked his head under your jaw when you both get to the second floor, kissing against your neck as he moved your hair to the side. “If we move here, I’ll make you breakfast in bed daily and then fuck you every night until we pass out.”

You laugh as his teeth graze your skin, your hand quickly searching for the doorknob of your room. “That’s the best idea you’ve had since you said we should move here.”

You gasp as he easily picks you up, opening the door and tossing you onto the bed before taking off his shirt. It was truly amazing how much urgency he had, and where it came from you had no clue, but you weren’t opposed to it as he threw his phone onto the bed. It makes you giggle when he almost tripped onto the bed, slipping off your shirt and sweatpants after kicking off your shoes and socks.

He smiled as he quickly crawled over your body, leaning down to steal soft kisses from you. “You didn’t see that, right?”

You giggled, shaking your head as you pulled him lower, gasping as his fingers trailed over your stomach. “No, I’m blind.”

He laughed against your lips as his hands trailed over your thighs, one of them already sliding up and down your slit as you inhaled sharply. “Yeah, sure you are,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Goodness, precious, want you to ride me. Want to see my precious girl bouncing on my cock.”

You groaned as he ducked his head once again, his fingers spreading your wetness up and down your slit. “E-Ethan, condom?”

“Fuck,” he cursed, pulling back to lick his fingers making you blush madly. “They’re in my bag. I’ll go get ‘em-”

“No!” You say, quickly sitting up. “No, don’t worry about it. We’ll just… go raw. Not the first time, besides, you can drive an hour to get me plan b tomorrow morning before breakfast in bed.”

He laughed, nodding as he leaned forward to kiss you, a hum falling from your lips as you ran your fingers through his hair and pulled him closer. He doesn’t break the kiss as you situate yourself in his lap, lifting your hips just a bit as his fingers easily slide into you, how wet you were working in his favor. You groaned out against his lips, holding his head as his cock rubbed against your clit, your hips rolling to feel his head rub perfectly against your sensitive bud.

Ethan pulled away and kissed your neck as you tilted your head to the side, looking down at his cock rubbing against your clit. You pushed your hand in between you both, grasping his pretty cock and watching precum dribble out of his tip, a perfect picturesque view before your thumb swiped it away onto your clit.

He groaned at your touch, pumping him all while you grinded against his tip and his fingers thrust into your cunt easily. Your cunt fluttered around his fingers, each nimble digit perfect and rubbing against every sensitive spot you had before you groaned against his neck. His teeth grazed your shoulder, tongue trailing your skin before he started sucking another hickey against your skin.

“F-Fuck, Ethan,” you gasped, groaning as you rode his nimble digits, the pads of his fingers brushing against your g-spot before he starts to flex them inside of you, grazing that perfect spot all over again. “Th-There!”

He laughed as your hips stuttered, your grip on his cock finally letting go as your hands moved to his shoulders to stabilize yourself. Your hips continue to rut into his fingers, groaning as your hips stutter before his fingers pull out of you. You stared at the shining essence on his fingers, your essence that he gladly pushed into his mouth and sucked off.

“There you go precious, now you’re all stretched out… and now you can ride me until you can’t feel your legs.”

Oh, it must’ve been a promise, the way Ethan helped you stay sitting up by holding your hips. Your thighs were already covered in mixed cum as you tried to balance yourself on top of him, lifting your hips slightly to continue bouncing on his cock. “E-Ethan, I don’t know if I can keep going-”

“Oh, precious, come on,” he urges you on, shaking his head, laughing as he rolls his hips into you. Your nails dig into his chest, a whimper falling from your mouth as he holds your hips. “You can keep going. I know you’re strong enough, precious, I love you bouncing on my cock, don’t you?”

You whimpered as he helped you lift yourself fup, stabilizing yourself again before continuing to bounce on his cock, letting your head fall back. Your inner thighs were read and sore from when he helped you earlier on, thrusting up into you and digging his nails into your plush love handles and helping you move up and down his cock.

This time was no different, besides his hands being more gentle as you continued bouncing on his cock, switching between the hopping movements and rolling your hips. You groaned loudly as you settled on his hips, rolling your own desperately into his, the angle unable to get his cock fully inside of you. “E-Ethan, it’s not enough, it’s not enough!”

He smiled up at you, laughing slightly as your eyes started to water. “Ethan, don’t be mean! Y-You’re not fully inside of me, need you to be all the way inside of me t-to get that part-”

“You want my help, precious?” He tilted his head, teasing you. “My precious girl needs my help to get off, doesn’t she? Because if my cock isn’t all the way inside of her she can’t cum.”

You whined loudly as you nodded your head, sobbing. You were so desperate for his cock, desperately nodding as he lifted his hips slightly and finally hit that spot inside of you. “F-Fuck, yes! Yes, right there! Oh, fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck…”

You babbled mindlessly, eyes rolling back as you flew forward, finally letting Ethan use his entire strength to thrust up into you. He grunted into your neck as you moaned loudly, your vision blurring as your nails dig into his skin, hips desperately trying to match his pace, not trusting your voice to say anything else but words filled with lust.

“Am I making you feel good, my precious girl? Yeah? C’mon, tell me, need to hear your voice,” he said, and you could practically hear his smirk. “You’ll get there baby, take your time.”

You felt so fucked out, groaning as you nodded into his neck. “Y-You make me feel so good, Ethan, don’t stop!”

He laughs, shaking his head. “You think I could stop? When your pretty cunt is barely letting me pull out, clamping down on my shaft like a desperate little whore?”

You whined as he continued to thrust into you, using your body like a fleshlight as you shake your head into his neck. “N-No, no! I don’t think you can stop, I don’t want you to stop, I never want you to stop! Love feeling your cock inside of me, I love it so much, need it every day for the rest of my life!”

Your words make his hips stutter, eyes rolling back as you moaned into his ear like you knew he loved. His hips stutter as he groaned out, finally cumming inside of you as he panted underneath you. He doesn’t pull out as you hummed, pulling your face out of his neck as you pulled him in for a firm kiss.

“Sex here everyday sounds nice.”

“So nice,” he said, laughing as he shook his head. “I’m going to help you buy this house, I swear it. Then I’m going to give you the best life ever.”

“You already have,” you whisper back, nodding as you slowly laid on his chest and he reached down to grab his phone. He waits until you fall asleep before unlocking it, hesitantly letting his finger hover over the block button on Quinn’s phone number.Looking down at you though, there was nothing to be hesitant about. He blocked his sister, then his father, tossing his phone to the side and softly kissing your head. You don’t wake up as he whispers soft praises of ‘I love you’s and other words, but he doesn’t need you to wake up for you to know.

Thank all of you so much for supporting me!! Even though Bingo requests and Bingo itself is done, I have my next event already planned - please stay tuned!! Requests are closed but they will be open when I clear my inbox, and again, thank all of you so much!!

also, thank you hunny!! i hope you have a great day/night as well! i hope you enjoyed this fic!

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© asterias-record-shop

[ohtobeleah]

Bruises // Jake Seresin

Chapter Seven: [War Wounds in the Ward]

Summary: When help finally arrives, Jake believes it may be too late. The extent of both your injuries are finally revealed and the both you come face to face with the reality of just how long you’d been held in captivity for.

Series Warnings: Heavy themes of violence, sexual assault, torture. 18+ content. Minors DNI. Mature themes. Being held in captivity. Hostage style situation. Main character death! Whump, Angst. Conversations that discuss antisocial & antisemitism views.

Word Count: 7.4k

Author Note: THIS SERIES IS CONFRONTING, FICTIONAL, AND DEPICTS IMAGES OF TORTURE. DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS SERIES WILL BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR MENTAL STABILITY. CURATE YOUR OWN TIMELINE.

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist

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“We gotta move.” How this guy got the key to Jake’s cell he’d never know, but what was important was that he had it and he was here now. “We’ve got about ten minutes to get you both out to the medi-vac.” 

You never would have guessed how quickly Jake Seresin could still move in order to put his body on the line for you. At the sight of someone coming into his cell yet again, rescuer or not—he was shielding you with everything he had. No one was touching you, not again. 

Once the man was inside Jake's cell he took a knee to assess your current state. At the mere thought of anyone touching you Jake flinched and held you a little tighter. He wasn’t sure who he could trust, wasn’t sure if this was real or just some cruel joke. Another attempt to shatter any kind of hope. 

“It’s okay Lieutenant, you can let her go.”

“I don’t trust you.” Jake used his body to shield you as much as he could. He was done letting people hurt you, including himself. The man in the dark mask paused, but then in order to gain Jake's trust, he took that mask off, revealing his identity to Jake as he tried to reach out to gauge your pulse. “Please don’t hurt her, she’s been through enough.” 

“I’m not gonna hurt her Jacob.” The man with silver hair and a cocky half smile confirmed. “My name is Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS, I’m gonna get the two of you out of here.”

“Who was the woman, the one who gave me the note?” Jake couldn’t stop thinking about her and her lifeless body. Who was she? How did she get a note from Rooster? How did she know help was coming? There were so many unanswered questions he thought he’d never get answers to. 

“CIA—deep cover agent, she had sent out a coded message around the time the two of you went missing. Descriptions matched, your friend Rooster I believe?” Gibbs was still trying to find your pulse. “Yeah he told her to write a note out, give you something to fight for.” 

“Hold tight, Stay alive—“ Jake repeated to himself just under his breath, the agent who wasn’t happy with how weak your pulse was nodded too. 

“Which is exactly what she’s gonna have to do, let’s get her out of here before it’s too late.” 

“Gibbs!” Another man came racing down the hallway. “Gibbs we gotta move!” He was dressed in the same dark uniform as Gibbs was. “They’re angry as shit, like ants! A hive of angry ants.” 

“I thought I told you to distract and disturb?” 

“Yeah well, change of plans—we gotta get the hell outta dodge, now!” 

Jake wasn’t all that sure who to follow or what to think. He only knew two things for sure, one being he had to get you out of here while he still had a chance too. And two? He couldn’t run. He couldn’t come with you. He was damaged goods. 

“I can’t go.” Jake confessed with a deep sigh as he handed you over to the man who’s just come racing in. He ran his finger down your cheek and tried to hold it together. Was this the last time he was ever going to see you? “She’s in a really bad way, please take care of her, get her out of here.” 

“Lieutenant it’s now or never—“ Gibbs made sure to remind Jake. 

“They put a pacemaker inside my damn chest alright! I can’t let my heart rate get above one forty!” Jake explained as the older man helped him to his feet. “The Commander has a remote control for it too, and I gotta be honest with you, I’m not all that keen on the idea of my heart exploding inside my fucking chest.” 

“The Commanders dead.” Gibbs tried his best to bluff his way through this. He had to get Jake out of here, there was no backup plan. It was now or never and never wasn’t an option. “He’s gone, ain’t got no way to press that button.” DiNozzo knew as a matter of fact that Dennis Gervais was well and truly alive, because he’d just come from the same room that he was in. “So we focus on keeping your heart rate down and get you out of here.” All Jake did was nod as he looked at you just barely breathing, barely holding on for dear life. You’d been through so much—he owed you this much, to try till his dying breath to get you out of this hell. “DiNozzo you take Y/n, I’ll guard Jake here and we’ll get ‘em on the medi-vac before shit gets too out of hand.” 

“On it boss.” Tony acknowledged the plan and knew the risks involved as he bent down to pick you up and pull your nearly lifeless body across his shoulders so that he could carry you. “Okay ma’am, sorry if this hurts a little.” 

“We’re heading down the hall, taking the first left and making a run for the stairs that leads up to the ground floor—it’ll take us right out to the loading bay.” Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Gibbs knew it was going to be a hard pill to swallow as the group started to make their way out of the cell. 

“You mean to tell me there’s been an exit door right down the hall this whole time!!” It made him sick to his stomach. Freeform was right there all along. It made things so much worse knowing it was right there. 

“We’re gonna get you home Lieutenant, just keep in step and don’t look back.” Gibbs commanded as he made sure his weapon was loaded. “Let’s get these two out of here DiNozzo.” 

Jake watched as DiNozzo took off running with you slung across his shoulders. His heart ached on two fronts, one being he knew you were about to be safe, about to be away from all this. The other being he hated whenever you were away from him. When you were with him you were safe in his arms. Apart? He couldn’t help you. 

There were guards slain in the hall from where gunfire had recently rung out, Jake tried his best not to get too caught up but he couldn’t recognise a single soul. None of them he knew from his time trapped. They were just foot soldiers. 

“Take a left DiNozzo!” Anthony corrected his direction promptly as Jake followed, he was being careful to pace himself. He didn’t want the beeping to start, not now. It couldn’t, he was relying on everything he had left inside him to keep it down. To breathe steady, In and out. 

“Right! Sorry!” Gibbs was the last one up the stairs, he was protecting his people, firing the odd shot at anyone who tried to stop them four of them from getting where they needed to go. 

“Jake?” It was the softest of whimpers that escaped from your lips as DiNozzo carried you up the stairs. “Jake?” You mumbled again, only this time a little louder and more confused. “What’s going on?” 

“You’re okay ma’am.” Tony tried his best to calm you before you had a chance to panic. “Jakes right behind me, I’m special agent Anthony DiNozzo with the NCIS.” 

“Oh.” Was all you could say as you dangled over Dinozzo's shoulders. “Oh god someone found us.” It was more like you were trying to convince yourself this was real. “Someone came.” 

“We did ma’am.” DiNozzo confirmed as he opened the latch on the door that led out to the loading dock. “We’re not out of the woods yet though, so just stay with us for a little while longer okay?” When he was finally able to unlock the heavy metal door, DiNozzo was delighted to see the medi-vac choppers coming in for landing. “Over there!” He shouted back at Jake and Gibbs before he took off running with you on his shoulders. 

The sunlight burned Jake's skin as he stepped out into the light. God how long had it been since he’d felt the warmth of the sun on his usually tanned skin. He’d never been this pal, this skinny, this unkempt. 

“There’s someone who wants to speak with you, Lieutenant.” Gibbs smirked as he escorted Jake across the snow and over to the helicopter that would be taking him back to the carrier. He handed him a radio, one of those sat nav ones. 

Jake held it up so he could talk just as five F-18 Super Hornets came racing past to pepper the building with ammunition. It was a full takedown if there ever was one. A covert operation to get you and Jake back. The signal had been given and it was go time. 

“What took you so long?” Jake wasn’t sure who it was going to be, but he knew they were all up there. All cheering that he was alive, that you were alive. That the pair of you were being rescued. Hey did however have a slight inkling as to who might answer. “What the hell has the Calvary been!” 

“Hey Hangman.” Rooster bellowed through the radio as he flew closer to the building just to drop a missile on the southwest corner. “You look good!” Jake couldn’t contain his laughter, this was really happening. 

“I am good, Rooster.” He remembered what he’d said all those years ago. “I’m very good.” Jake sighed as he watched his colleagues and friends dismantle the building you and Jake had been held hostage in for what felt like forever. “Now get us outta here!” 

“We better keep moving, Lieutenant.” Gibbs ushered Jake over to the other medi-vac helicopter, it had all gone according to plan. Jake had kept his heart rate below one twenty as his watch kept telling him. You were being loaded into the other helicopter, strapped to a medical gurney and fitted with oxygen immediately. Jake watched on as the building the four of you had just come out of went up in smoke and flames. Insurgents scurried out for their lives at any exit they could take. “Let’s get these birds in the sky!” 

“Yes sir.” The pilot copied just as Jake saw the man he’d been told was dead appearing out of the smoke, surrounded by insurgents with guns who aimed right for the two medi-vac helicopters. 

“Come on probie help me get her strapped in.” Tony grumbled as he fiddled with the straps around the wheels of the bed you were on. He didn’t want it to budge. “How the hell did you get the easy job anyway!” 

“Easy job!! I’ve been out here for ten minutes fending off enemy fire!” 

“I thought you said he was dead!?” Jake hissed as he eyed off the man who’d put you both through hell. He couldn’t help but to say as he thought about making a break from the helicopter just to get his revenge from n the man who’s done so much damage. But he couldn’t, Jake wouldn’t do that as the helicopter began to rise from the snow covered ground. He wasn’t going to, not for any amount of money, you’d told him when the pair of you were first captured to never play the hero again—but Jake was a villain. A hero would sacrifice anything for the greater good. He’d see anything ax expendable. 

But Jake would walk through fire and cross the seven seas for you, he had no such desire to want to play the hero. He just wanted to be safe again, with you. So knowing you were already safe, there was no reason to go back. There was no reason to want to be a hero. 

“I lied—“ Gibbs sighed as he aimed his weapon. “Get us up in the air!” Jake knew the moment he saw The Commander standing there watching him escape that he wouldn’t let him go without a fight, without causing enough damage that he might not make it out alive. As the helicopters took off you sat up just to watch the group below you get further and further away. 

You were safe. Jake was safe. You were finally getting out of this hell together. And then? Everything you thought you knew came crashing down around you as you watched what appeared to be Jake's lifeless body fall out of the side of the medi-vac helicopter. No. Not now, not after everything you'd been through. 

“NNOOOOO!” You cried out from behind the oxygen mask you'd been given. “JAKE!!”

Jake first fell to his knees as his hand gripped at his chest. The pain was all too real, too overpowering for him to stay steady on his feet. The Commander stood grinning ear to ear as he watched Jake fall out of the Medi-vac that was in the process of taking off. It would have been a solid hundred metres give or take a few. But it was surely enough to break Jake's jaw on impact. 

“You’re not going anywhere Seresin!” The Commander growled as he and his men ascended on Jake. Two of them pulled him harshly up by his forearms as they forced Jake to look up at the very man who had caused so many people so much pain. “Your girl might get out, but you–you won't ever see the light of day ever again. 

“Take us back to the carrier!” DiNozzo ordered the pilot who had carried on his way. You were in complete hysterics. You couldn't leave, not without Jake. 

“WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” With all your might you were trying to get up off the bed. “WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM!” You felt like you couldn't breathe, Jake had been your rock this whole time. You'd seen the worst in people but also seen the best in him. You couldn't leave him behind, you couldn’t betray him when he never once let you give up. 

“Ma’am, Ma’am you need to try and relax alright, Gibbs will figure it out.” Tony reassured you just hoping that his boss could pull something together. “We’re not going to leave him here, but we need to get you back to people who can help keep you alive.” 

“I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna kill you dead just because I can and for what it's worth? Your name will be forgotten once we are one word and one people, Jacob.” It was the worst kind of pain, a pain unparalleled to no other, the kind of pain that takes your breath away. That kind of pain that stops blood in its tracks, that shortens ligaments and tendons as you seize. “If only you’d just stayed the fuck away.” The Commander spat as he stopped Jake's heart, he fried the pacemaker in his chest past the breaking point and when his finger finally came off the little button in his hand: Jake was just thankful to have gotten to hear you say you loved him. Even if you only said it back to even the playing cards. 

Jake knew you could never love him. Not after this, not after you’d gone through unspeakable agony all because of a split second decision he made. 

“You’re not, you’re not going to win this.” Jake struggled out as he looked up at The Commander. “Dennis—“ That struck a raw nerve as The Commander reached for a handgun one of his men held. He wasted not a single second before peppering three rounds into Jake's gut. 

“Maybe, but you won’t be around to see the outcome.” 

Jake Seresin laid dying in the snow surrounded by insurgents as five F-18 Super Hornets laid waist into the building you'd both been held captive in—destroying every crevice, every brick. But ultimately it was just a little too late. You’d be okay though, you had to be. Jake had to believe that as his blood stained the China white snow he laid in. 

The expected was always easier to accept than the unexpected. 

“Everybody get to the evacuation points, if you see anyone you don’t trust? Kill them.” Jake could hear The Commander ordering his men before he kicked the heel of his boot into Jake's face. “Goodbye Lieutenant Seresin—you really did your country proud.” The condescending tone in The Commander’s voice really drove it home that all this had been for nothing. He was going to die, killed in action his final report would say. 

The last thing Jake thought about as he laid in the snow watching as the medi-vac helicopters flew away, one of which had you finally safe on, was that he hoped you went on to live a beautiful life. Got back on your feet, healed from everything you were subjected to, went on to love and experience all the good the world had to offer. He thought about what kind of guy would be so lucky to marry you, have a life with you, raise your children, and watch you thrive. Because it wouldn’t be him. He was okay with that though because you were safe now, Jake Seresin was okay with dying so long as it meant you got the help you needed, that you deserved. 

“I love you.” 

Because you weren’t ever expendable. Not to him. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~**

People have scars in all sorts of unexpected places. Like secret road maps of their own personal history. Diagrams of all their old wounds. Most old wounds heal, leaving nothing behind but a scar, but some of them don't. Some wounds you carry with you everywhere, and although the cuts are long gone: the pain still lingers. 

“Where's Jake?” It was the only thing you could say as you fought off unconsciousness. “Where's Jake? Where is he?” 

“Lieutenant Y/l/n we need to get you into medical so we can start you on IV fluids and antibiotics–” It was a voice you didn't recognise that replied to you as you were being wheeled off the medi-vac and onto the deck of the carrier. “Someone let the Swaine know we’re on route!” 

“Where's Jake?” Why wasn’t anyone listening, why wasn’t anyone answering you? “Please someone tell me he’s okay, that he’s alive? Please?”

It truly was a spectacle on the deck, but in all the commotion of your big arrival no one was listening to what you were mumbling behind your oxygen mask. No one except for one sandy blonde aviator who was pushing past every person he had to in order to get to your side as they wheeled you across the runway. He’d barely shut off his F-18 before he was racing down the tarmac after you. 

“Hey!” Bradley beamed as he reached your side, his hand slipped into your as he walked with the team who were in charge of getting you where you needed to go. “Hey, Hollywood, holy shit–” He couldn't believe you were alive, sure none of them had ever given up hope and from the fleeting information they had been given during your time in captivity, he hoped that CIA agent was still alive, but still he couldn't believe you were actually back. It had been so long. “You’re safe now, we’ve got you.” 

“WHERES JAKE!” It came out as an agonising scream until Rooster could see your tears. “Where is he Bradshaw?” As far as Bradley was aware Jake's rescue Evac was still in the process. He’d fallen and that's all Bradley knew for sure. 

“He’s right behind you, they got him Hollywood, you don't have to worry anymore.” DiNozzo, the Special Agent in charge of escorting you back to medical, looked at the aviator across the gurney from him. He knew that Jake was still yet to be evacuated. He was still on the ground the last Tony saw. “You can rest now, it's alright, Jakes right behind you.” 

“Oh–” You sighed as your entire body relaxed, it was a weight you didn't realise was compressing your chest. “Oh good.” It was only then did your body allow you to go into complete rest. You fell into unconsciousness seconds after being told that Jake was okay, he was coming, that he was right behind you. 

“We’re losing her, we gotta move.” One of the officers informed Bradley as he stood still, watching as you were wheeled into the carrier. Not knowing if you were actually going to make it out of this hell alive. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~**

Jake swore the chill of the snow would take him before his heart gave out. He couldn’t move a single muscle as he laid there on his back in the silence—only burning rubble seemed to break through the deafening silence of his last moments on earth. 

He thought about you, the entire time. How your laugh would fill up the Hard Deck and how he’d roll his eyes in response. It was stupid really but Jake honestly thought if he didn’t get involved with you personally it would be easier to forget about the way you made him feel whenever you walked into a room. 

“Y/n.” Your name sounded so familiar to him, so alluring and all consuming. “Y/n.” It brought him comfort in death. To whisper your name to himself as his life drained from him. “Y/n.” 

“Not Y/n—“ Gibbs groaned as he pressed gauze into Jake's stomach and moved his hands to cover it. “Keep your hands on that.” He told Jake with a hushed tone, like he was trying to keep quiet. “Lift on three, one, two—three.” 

“AAHHH!” Jake couldn’t help the agonising whelp that escaped his mouth as he was lifted up onto a stretcher. Had they come back for him? Surely not—at this point he was dead weight. Why on earth would they turn back for him? 

“Get him on that medi-vac now!” Gibbs ordered as he stood and looked around, it seemed as though The Commander had been able to flee with a handful of insurgents. “Stop the bleeding as fast as you can.” 

What's worse? New wounds which are so horribly painful or old wounds that should have healed years ago and never did? Maybe old wounds teach you something, maybe they remind you of where you've been and what you’ve overcome. They teach you lessons about what to avoid in the future. 

That's what Jake liked to think. Because as he let his head rest back against the stretcher and thought about how beautiful the embers of that god awful building were, he couldn't wait for these new wounds to become valuable lessons that didn't hurt as bad as they did now. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~**

Every cell in the human body regenerates on average every seven years. Like snakes, we shed our skin. Biologically, we’re brand new people. It's imperative, change that is. You might look the same, you probably feel the same, but the change isn't visible. At least not for most people. 

“She’s waking up—“ You barely heard it, the husk of a familiar voice that came from beyond the darkness. “Do you want me to leave?” 

When people say things like ‘People don't change’ It drives scientists crazy, because change is literally the only constant in all of science. Energy. Matter. It's always changing. Morphing. Merging. Growing. Dying. It's the way people try not to change that's unnatural. 

“No kid, no—“ Again, another familiar voice echoed beyond the darkness as you were brought back into the light. A steady beeping droned in the background monitoring your vitals. “You stay, I’ll go check on how Lieutenant Seresin is doing after surgery.” 

The way people cling to what things were instead of letting them be what they are. The way you cling to old memories instead of forming new ones can be just as damaging as trying not to evolve. The way people insist on believing, despite every scientific indication that anything in this lifetime is permanent. 

“Okay, yeah—let me know how he is?” Bradley asked as your dad, Commander ‘Hollywood’ Neven, tapped his shoulder as he sat by your bedside. Watching over you as you recovered from what had been some of the most extensive and exhausting surgeries Rooster had ever seen. 

His mother had had a few operations in her battle with Cancer—but none of which came close to what he was told you were going through. 

From the complete orthopedic reconstruction on your shattered wrist to the skin graft on your lower back, to the plastic surgery repair made to damage done on your face. Some scars would remain—but your surgeon was pretty hopeful that the swelling would go down. It made Roosters heart break. 

“Roo—“ It was the first thing you managed to struggle out. Your throat was so dry as you tilted your head to the side just slightly to see him better. “Hi.” The light hurt your eyes, in a way it felt good to be out of the dark. 

“Hey Hollywood.” Bradley smiled as he reached out to grab your hand. “Tell you what you know how to scare us, don't you?” You couldn't help the oh so soft smile that crept across your face when you realised you were home, that you were finally safe. “How you feeling?” 

“Uh–” You didn't know what to say. Your entire body ached for various different reasons all the more painful to describe than the last. You were a plethora of injuries, a thesaurus of unspeakable acts of violence. And even though there wasn't a part of you that didn’t hurt, all your mind could think about was Jake. So you lied. You lied straight through your teeth. “I'm okay.” Bradley didn't believe it, not for a second. He had seen the state you were in when they airlifted you back to the carrier. And it seemed as though your number one priority hadn’t changed. “Where's Jake? Is he okay?” 

“Hangman's–” You interrupted Bradley quicker than he could explain Jake's current status. 

“I asked where Jake was Rooster, Hangman isn't Jake.” The man who had done everything he could to protect you wasn't Hangman. He was simply Jake. “So please, just tell me Jakes alive?” Bradley complied with your very specific request and told you what you wanted to hear first. 

“Jakes alive.” He nodded. “But he's critical, he's been in and out of surgery for a few days Y/n.” Rooster had collected a series of coffee cups on the table in your hospital room, ranging in size and kind. He must have been here with you for a while. “Your dads seeing to it that he gets the best care.” 

“How long have I been out?” You asked next, everything was blurry. You could remember bits and pieces of being rescued, but not many. You could hear the sound of the helicopter blades in your head, but faces were all distorted in your memory. You could remember Jake holding you, his warmth protecting you from all harm, but then you saw him fall. He fell. Over and over in your mind you watched Jake fall and then you heard your pain filled cries of pure heartbreak. “How long has it been?” 

“Since we got back here, a few days–you've been on some pretty strong painkillers and the doctors just kept telling me you'd wake up when your body was ready.” It was nice to fill in the gaps. But there was one gap you weren't sure if you wanted to fill. 

“And how long were Jake and I, you know, held for?” Bradley wasn't sure if he should be the one to tell you, but then again, if you wanted anyone else to tell you, you would have waited to ask them and not him. So he told you, point blank. 

“Almost Three months.” 

“Oh god.” Change is constant, how you experience change, that's up to you. “No, No no no it cant have been three whole months Rooster.” It can feel like death, or it can feel like a second chance at life if you open your fingers, loosen your grip and go with it, it can feel like pure adrenaline. 

“Y/n?” Bradley frowned when he heard your heart rate monitor start to beep at a faster rate than the machine was comfortable with. “Are you okay?” You felt like you couldn’t breathe as your brain tried to process the harsh reality that you and Jake had been held prisoners for three whole months. Your airways were tightening, like someone had their hands around your neck and was squeezing, holding you down, choking you. “Hey! Hey, I need someone in here! Nurse!” Bradley jumped up to his feet and hit the panic button as you began to cry, panicking as your body didn't feel like your own. 

“Oh god, I can't breathe!” You cried out. “Rooster, help!” Like at any moment you can have another chance at life. Like at any moment, you can be born all over again. Or die from the pure weight of it all. 

“She's having a panic attack or something.” Rooster explained to the nurses who were first into the room. “I don't know what to do.” 

“It's the Asthma, sir.” One of the nurses explained. “She needs ventolin.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~**

“You gotta wake up for me.” An induced coma, that's what the doctors had told you. That's what they said Jake needed in order to heal. In their words, his injuries were extensive, critical and very much life threatening. But while you watched Jake breathe through tubes and held his hand just to let him know you were there, you had to believe that he was going to be okay. That he’d pull through and you'd get to see his smile again. 

“You don't get to leave me now you son of a bitch do you hear me?” You leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I'll be so pissed if you leave me here.” You snarled right in his ear so that he could hear you. “I'll come and find you in the afterlife and when I get there? I'll rain hell down on you for all eternity.” You weren't expecting a reply, not with Jake being in an induced coma and all. The tubes alone would have stopped him from replying even if he was awake. “Please wake up soon, I really miss you.” With your good hand, you gently ran your palm up his forehead and moved the hair that had fallen across his face away. The bruises were dark and extensive, but Jake was still there under it all. Under all the swollen and bruised skin and bone. Jake was still there. Your Jake was still fighting with everything he had. “I love you, please don't leave me.” 

You sat back in your chair, the one you had been in since you were able to leave your own room during the day and visit Jake. You had to take your IV pole with you though, it was a non negotiable. You had to stay hooked up to antibiotics to fight off the infection in your lungs. It hurt to breathe, so the oxygen tank came too. 

“How are we doing today Kiddo?” You dad asked as he came to visit you like he did every day. He, like all the other aviators that came to visit you and Jake, had gotten used to finding you up in Jake's room up in the intensive care ward. 

“My lungs are on fire but it beats the alternative.” You only took your eyes off Jake for a second to acknowledge your father, who so far, hadn’t pried too deep into finding out details of your imprisonment. You knew he'd have to take off the farther figure hat and replace it with his Commander of the pacific fleet hat soon enough. “The doctors said they’re happy with Jake's stats, said he might be able to come out of the coma soon.”

“That's good to hear sweetheart.” Your dad replied as he stood at the end of Jake's hospital bed, eyes off the man who had kept you alive from what he could tell. “I've uh, i've organised for you to speak to someone, someone who might be able to help you start to process what you went through.” 

“I'm not interested.” It was as dismissive as it could be. You had no intention of leaving Jake's side for any longer than you had to. You didn't want to talk to anyone about any of it, they wouldn't understand and you certainly had no desire to explain all your trauma to a complete stranger. “With all due respect, dad, I don't have any intention of returning to active duty, so a therapist signing off on a clearance form that I’m mentally capable of returning to work, isn't needed.” You added the explanation at the end without so much as looking at your dad. You had a sinking feeling in your gut the more you thought about it. The more you were told about the people you had been tasked to take down. To dismantle. 

“Baby girl.” Your dad tried to reason with you as a father and as Commander. “You are a highly skilled weapons system officer, the Navy cannot afford to lose you.” 

“But yet I wasn't good enough to not be labelled as expendable huh?” The room was cold, but your heart was colder now more than ever before. It made sense but at the same time it didn't. Why? Why would the man you looked up to, respected so much–do this to you? 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Did you know that I was sent on this mission? Why I was chosen over Bob and Fanboy, two highly skilled, highly decorated WSO that Jake already worked with and had worked with for years?” Your dad was silent. Of course he knew, he had to have known considering the stakes of the mission. It just hadnt crossed your mind until you were sitting at that dining table with The Commander being told details you weren’t privy to prior to your file being selected. 

“I–” There was nothing your dad could say to change your mind about the situation. He knew, he had betrayed you. 

“I almost died, dad.” You barely spoke above a whisper all the while you kept your eyes on Jake's face. “And you signed off on this mission, knowing that we were going in blind with half a file that contained only basic information.” 

“We knew you were capable.” Your dad was firm with you, like a Commander would be. “I knew you were ready for this, and I knew you were capable of understanding the risks involved—none of us banked on Seresin not knowing how to let go.” So it was true. They all believed the same thing, that if push came to shove Jake would save himself, not his WSO, not his Wingman. No one. 

“You used me as collateral in case it didn't go according to plan!” 

“Darling, you cannot blame me for what happened—I signed off on the mission file, the admirals were given recommendations, your name and file happened to be one of many.” 

“I need you to leave!” You snapped with tears streaming down your cheeks. Now more than ever you wished Jake would just wake up. “I need you to leave and I need you to understand that I don’t have any intention of talking to any therapist or physician or anyone!” It was then you took your hand out of Jakes to pick up one of the empty coffee cups on Jakes bedside table, one of the many you had begun to collect, and threw it at your dad. “Get out!” 

He did. He did what you asked without a fight, knowing the consequences of his actions along with many others would come back to bite him. You and Jake were not letting this slide, not in a million years. 

“Where is it?” You mumbled to yourself as you fumbled around your pockets for your inhaler. You didn’t understand the panic induced asthma yet, but you had been told how to manage it. “Where is it?” When you finally found the little red inhaler in the pocket of your hoodie, you took a single hit of the ventolin and tried to calm down. 

“Miss Y/l/n, are you staying for morning rounds?” One of the doctors who had been looking after Jake asked as he came into the room. Followed by his interns. 

“Yes please—“ You sighed as you got comfortable and reached out for Jake’s hand again. “And for the love of god Doc tell me you’re gonna wake him up soon?” 

All he did was smile in return before looking over to one of his interns. A young female who looked all the more surprised that she was being called upon to present.” 

“Uh this is Lieutenant Jacob Seresin, sustained three gunshot wounds to the middle abdomen that resulted in severe blood loss, major cardiac trauma resulting in a heart attack that left his right aorta damaged.” It was nothing you hadn’t heard before, could probably resight it all yourself by now you’d heard it so many times. “A broken mandible as a result from falling one hundred meters and multiple other injuries ranging from minor to major abrasions, bruises and laceration that all seem to be on the mend.” Hearing it every day didn’t get any easier. Until the last part that put fresh hope in your heart. You hadn’t heard that part before today. 

“Due to be slowly woken from an induced coma as of today.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~**

“Today could be the day Y/n.” The first twenty four hours after surgery are critical. Every breath you take, every fluid you make, is meticulously recorded and analysed, celebrated or mourned. But what about the next twenty four hours? “You just have to remember that both of you went through hell, his body needs time.” Phoenix had brought your flowers. A kind gesture that put a sparkle in your eye for only a few minutes. You were back at Jake's bedside, curled up under a blanket in your chair with your IV poll still at your side. “You need time.”

“I just really need him to wake up—“ But what happens when that first day turns into two, three and four and then those days turn into weeks and possibly turn into months? “I’m starting to lose my mind—the longer he sleeps the more time I have to convince myself that they won.” You explained to Phoenix who fluttered about Jake's ICU ward room. Tidying up, making sure you had company. “That they broke him, me.” 

“They apparently picked the guy up on the coast of Positano—“ It wasn’t the first time you’d heard it but it still felt so surreal to hear. “And that CIA lady's body was recovered a few days after you were rescued.” You’d never met her, but Jake had. The CIA and the NCIS were working together to get this guy long before you were assigned your mission. “So was Captain Hewens.” Phoenix made sure to remind you. “I don’t think he won Hollywood—if he won I don’t think you’d be sitting here.” 

“He didn’t win.” The goal of any surgery is total recovery. To come out better than you were before. But for you and Jake? There was no certainty that the two of you could ever go back to the people you were before. “Ain’t no way he won.” Jake mumbled as he stirred slightly, his hand gripped yours back for the first time since you were able to visit. “He didn’t win—this is nothing I can’t handle.” 

“Oh my god Jake! You’re awake!?” You cried as you got as close to him as you possibly could. “Hi, hey I’m right here yeah? You’re gonna be okay.” 

“I love you—“ Jake needed to say that. He needed you to know. “You’re okay? I’m not dead am I?” 

“No, no you're not dead Jake.” You couldn’t help but to chuckle with utter relief. “You’ll know we’re dead, remember? when it’s just us, on a farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere, just the two of us.” You whispered as you pushed his hair up and away from his forehead. 

“Count me in for that version of heaven.” He’d barely opened his eyes, but Jake had missed your smile oh so much. He would do anything to see it, like a damn fool head over heels in love, he’d do anything. “So we made it? We’re out?” 

“We’re out, we’re home and we’re safe.” Some patients heal quickly and feel immediate relief. For others, the healing happens gradually and it's not until months or even years later that you realise that you don't hurt anymore. “You saved my life Jake Seresin—you never left me hanging.” 

“I’ll leave you two alone for a little while.” Phoenix politely excused herself to go check in with the nurses station about notifying a doctor that Jake was awake. You appreciated it—because now that he was awake you weren’t leaving his side. 

“Are you okay?” Jake asked as he just tried to focus on breathing. When he was finally able to open his eyes they were in you and never left. “Woah, I kinda forgot what you looked like without the dirt and grim, you’re beautiful.” 

“Apparently I’ve got a pretty serious infection in my lungs that gives me asthma attacks when I get worked up but other than that I think I’m okay.” You explain knowing Jake would honestly want you to tell the truth rather than just say you were okay. “And the last thing my body was focused on was maintaining its cycle so I lost my period.” Jake knew why you were mentioning it. “Guess my body just knew what it had to do and not drop any eggs.” Jake squeezed your hand a little tighter and brought your palm up to his lips. “So no need to abort any insurgent fetuses.”

“How long?” You’d asked Rooster the same question, it ended in a panic attack. But again—if Jake wanted to know from anyone else he would have asked them and not you. “How long were we in there for?” 

“Almost Three Months.” So the challenge after every surgery is to be patient. But if you can make it through the first few weeks and months? If you believe that healing is possible–then you can get your life back.

“Guess we’re gonna be pretty messed up for a while aren’t we?” Jake sighed as he fought back tears, this was hell on earth. His entire body hurt but not nearly as much as his heart ached looking at you with his head full of your screams. “But I’m so glad you’re alive.” 

“I’m really thankful you’re alive too.” But that's a big if. “And I know that isnt gonna be easy, it’s gonna really hurt—and be really hard, we’re gonna have to work at this everyday.” You were trying to keep yourself together for Jake’s sake as you let your hand squeeze against his. “But I want to do that because I want you.” 

“You sure about that hotshot?” Jake breathed in softly as his heart beat steady without any doubt that you were the love of his life. “I’m the one who got you into that mess in the first place.” When you nodded softly as tears fell freely down your cheeks, Jake knew one day he’d ask you to marry him. 

“I want all of you, forever, you and me, everyday.” You added, but then there was the pause Jake was waiting for. He knew it was coming because he was thinking the same damn thing. “But we have to heal first, recover—I think the worst thing we could do for each other would be to go into a relationship when we’re literally being held together by glue and some staples.” 

“Can we recover together? But unofficially?” Jake smiled softly as he reached out to cup your still bruised cheek. “Because I unofficially love you, and unofficially I think that I’m not going anywhere.” You let out a laugh, a laugh so pure it brought Jake back to life. He needed nothing but you, forever. 

“Unofficially that sounds like a pretty good idea.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Tags 🏷️ @americaarse @blindedbythelightt @tayl0rhuynh @athenabarnes @imaginecrushes @whyareallnamesgone @mjmaximoffbarnes @amiets2 @mads-weasley @gabbyella @ephemeralninon @xoxabs88xox @pedrohoe04 @starkleila @je-suis-prest-rachel @clancycucumber230 @maisie-rebloging-blog @callsign-barbell @obiwankenobis-lap @some-lovely-day @paperbag333 @callsign-magnolia @jhiddles03 @hardballoonlove @shanimallina87 @seitmai i @abaker74 @missemrose @starset21 @kmc1989 @phoenix1388 @emma8895eb @tsofo26 @itsmytimetoodream

[jake-g-lockley]

Happy Birthday, Loves (Moon Knight x reader) | MK Birthday Special

Masterlist | Spotify Playlist | Want to be Tagged?

Warnings: Marc being a worried lil babe :(, mentions of the boys’ past, nothing else all FLUFF 

A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE, LOVELY, ANGEL BOYS <3 AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY OSCAR, thank you for bringing my babies to life :)). Moon Knight will always be my favorite superhero and I’ll love my boys till my last breath. p.s. We following the MCU timeline in this so it means that this is set in 2024 :3

Word count: 1.9k 

☾ .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Marc was worried. 

He had been pacing back and forth for a few minutes now as Steven and Jake watched nervously from a nearby mirror. He had nearly gnawed his whole thumb off from the constant nibbling. His mind had been racing, minutely nitpicking at all he has done over the past few days, searching for errors. Marc was sure he had been perfect, keeping all his laundry in one place, cleaning the dishes, taking out the trash and all in all, being a good boyfriend. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong Marc, we’ve been through this.” Steven reassured him, although he himself was not too sure, from the way you had been acting all week, distant and quiet.

You have been everything to them, their entire world. Their lives revolved around you, since the day you waltzed into their lives, all smiles and joy. You were their lucky charm, as Jake would usually say and he would rub you down like you were a rabbit's foot until you would giggle and squeal, trying to get away from his grasp. The three of them loved you in their own special way and they’ve all come to terms with the way they felt for you a long time ago, figuring out that it was best to cave and be loved the way you loved them.

Surprisingly, Marc was the one to cave first, followed by Steven and Jake. He had rejected affection for many years of his life, turning down any form of love he was given, once even from a dog.The truth was that he guarded his heart a little too much, afraid to let loose. But when you came along, he found it easy to love, relaxing in the idea that you would not hurt him the way others did throughout his life, so he handed you his heart and watched as you mended it with your own love.

But here he was, pondering whether he should take his heart back, after how you had been behaving for the past few days. You hadn’t called as much, saying that you were busy at work and busy working on a project that had been assigned to you. You were busy before too, but you’d always find the time to call, or even just text, a small little message to let them know that you were okay and that you love them. You hadn’t come to their flat, choosing to go home after your day of work. 

Marc decided that he was going to cave and call you, although Steven and Jake did object at first, saying that you would be busy, but they craved to hear your voice, to hear you say that it was all okay. Steven decided that they could use a little detour to distract you from the main reason why they were calling.

“Heya, love! Happy International Women’s Day!” Steven chimed and you couldn’t help but smile as you wiped icing away from the corner of the cake’s plate. 

“Hi, baby! Thank you.” 

“So, whatchu doing?” Steven cleared his throat and said, making you smirk, knowing he was stalling. 

“Oh, you know, just working, you?” you licked the icing off your finger admiring your handy work before you.

“Just, umm, reading, at home. Listen, darling, we haven’t seen you for a while, is everything alright?” Steven rushed through his words and both Jake and Marc facepalmed in the mirror.

There it was, the question you had been dreading. 

When it came to keeping secrets, you were the worst person on the planet. It would keep you up all night, squeezing your brain and threatening to spill out of your mouth. This time, you were determined to not let it get the best of you. 

A few weeks earlier, you saw Marc’s passport lying on the kitchen counter. You sneakily wanted to take a peak, just to make fun of Marc’s passport photo, with the knowledge that no one looked good in their passport picture. You were spectacularly proven wrong, as Marc managed to look like a male model again, his chiseled jaw and cheekbones somehow popping through his passport. 

But something else caught your eye, something that you hadn’t dared ask the boys in the few months you had been dating them. His date of birth read 9th March 1987, which would mean that he and the boys would be turning 37 in a few weeks. You panicked, slamming the passport close and  hiding the information in your brain, before silently planning what you could do for their birthday. 

You knew Marc was a little sensitive when it comes to details about his personal life. Unfortunately for him, you were now his personal life, and you decided that you were going to make the whole event as comfortable as possible for your boys. But it only made you overthink and you were nervous, choosing to distance yourself from the boys, hoping that they wouldn’t notice. A pang of guilt grumbled at the pit of your stomach at Steven’s tone and you were so relieved that this was finally going to be over. 

“Yeah, everything is great. Hey, wanna come over to my place today, you know, unless you boys have your own plans.” you quickly asked before you could change your mind.

This perked them all up instantly.

“Sure! I mean, we don’t have any plans, darling, we’ll be there!” Steven said quickly, saying his byes and cutting the call. 

“See, told you it's all fine.” Steven nervously chuckled, running a hand through his curls.

☾ .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Jake knocked on the front door, sniffing the bouquet of flowers in his hand that he picked up from a florist not too far away. You opened the door instantly, a huge smile on your face and a greeting on your lips. Jake handed you the bouquet and swept you off your feet making you giggle as he peppered your face with kisses. 

“Has my beautiful princesa been working a little too hard?” Jake frowned, cradling you close as you tucked your face into his neck. 

You enjoyed Jake’s coddling. It really made you feel like you were his princess and you knew sometimes he was doing it to show that he was the better of the three but you knew better than to pick favorites. Now he was just doing it because he missed you, missed the way you would say his name in a sing-song pattern whenever you’d see him and shower him with your kindness, a kindness he long wanted. 

“Mhmm, I’m so tired, Jake.” you fake a yawn that was pretty convincing as you arched your back and pushed yourself against Jake, making him look at you with hooded eyes. 

Without putting you down, Jake unwrapped the bouquet and placed the flowers in a vase, filling it with water and setting it onto the table. He then walked you straight to your bed, gently placing you down, removing his jacket and shirt before lying down next to you. You cuddled close, relishing in the feeling of your boyfriend beside you after so long. Soon, you could feel a change in the man’s grip, realizing that it was now Marc beside you.

“Hi, baby,” you said with a smile, kissing Marc’s nose as his eyes fluttered close. 

He pulled you closer and you hooked a leg over his hips as he slowly kneaded your hip. 

“I’ve missed you.” you slurred, genuinely feeling sleepy from the comfort they were bringing you. 

“Missed you too, angel.” he whispered, kissing your forehead. 

The last thing you remembered was Steven softly singing you a song before you let go of yourself and melted against you boys, succumbing to sleep.

☾ .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Pst, Marc, Steven, Jake, wake up, my loves.” you whispered, poking your sleeping boyfriends’ cheek.

They were cute like this, snoring away with their limbs all over the place, at peace with their emotions. You almost didn’t want to wake them up, your heart pounding as you watch the soft rise and fall of their chest. The body stirred a little so you quickly flicked the lighter open and lit the three candles, poking their cheek once more. Soft, sleepy brown eyes met yours and you could see Marc, his confused face making you giggle as you held the cake in front of him. You could hear the clock strike midnight as realization dawned on Marc’s face.

“Happy birthday, my loves.” you whispered and Marc stared at you as if you had grown horns.

It was completely silent for a while, except for the soft crackle of fire and the sounds of traffic from below. 

“You remembered?” Marc asked softly, his eyes filling up with tears.

No one had celebrated his birthday since he was nine. It reminded him of his heartbreak, his grief and most of all, the loss of his mother’s love. A scar on his tummy was  the last gift his mother ever gave him on that last birthday and looking at it reminded him that he shouldn’t be a person, that his existence was completely worthless. But now he looked at you, the candles casting a soft glow on your beautiful face and he couldn’t help but feel forgiven. You reached out and wiped his tears without a question, without a look of pity on your face as you handed him the plastic knife. 

“Marc, you, Steven and Jake have been everything to me. I love all three of you with all my heart and you have no idea how special you three are to me. My beautiful boys, my days would be sad without you and my nights would be pitch darkness, nothing more than a blanket of stars to coax me to sleep. I love all three of you and you boys deserve to have the best day ever.” you whispered as tears flowed down Marc’s face.

“You didn’t have to do anything…” Marc sniffed.

“But I wanted to.” you said firmly, nodding towards the cake. “Make a wish, my love.”

Steven and Jake were wide awake now too, internally sobbing at your gesture of love and wishing the same thing that Marc wanted, to spend the rest of their days with you. Marc gently blew out the candles and kissed your forehead, looking down to admire your cake. 

“Did you make this?” Marc whispered, his eyes tracing the intricately piped letters that spelled out “Happy Birthday MS, SG AND JL.”

“Yea, I had to abbreviate, your names’ wouldn’t fit.” you frowned at the cake, wondering how you hadn’t just thrown the icing bag across the room in a fit of rage when you couldn’t fit their names on the cake. 

“It's beautiful.” Marc’s small smile was enough to calm you down and you curled a finger under his chin and brought his lips to yours, gently kissing him. 

Marc cuts the cake and feeds you a piece and groans at how good it tastes when he takes a bite himself. 

“Shit, baby, you outdid yourself.” Marc set the cake aside and pulled you into a hug. 

“Do we get 37 kisses for being your boys?” Steven whispers and you smile.

“Hmm, let me do the math, there’s three of you, so 37 times three is 111, so I think one hundred and eleven kisses should seal the deal.” you said, counting with your fingers. 

Suddenly you were pinned down and you squinted up to see Jake looming over you with a small smirk on his face.

“I think it's time to start paying up, princesa, the day only has 24 hours.” you giggled, pulling him down for the first kiss of a hundred and eleven. 

“Happy birthday, sweethearts.” you say between kisses, satisfied that your plan worked just right. 

Tagging: @fandxmslxt69 @randomnessfangirl @in-between-the-cafes @bodhisattva11 @marc-spectors-wife @nyotamalfoy @steven-grants-world @jbearre85 @whatsliferightnow @excitedcurtain864 @minigirl87 @wonderfulboiledcoldpotato @alexxavicry @autismsupermusicalassassin @flordelalunas @marygraceee @lia275 @euphoricosmo @sky-robin @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction @sugarpunch-princess @violet-19999 @celiaswife @swiggy-needs-mental-help @ghostheartbeat @kierramofficial @ryebreadsworld @your-voice-is-mellifluous

[imabeautifulbutterfly]

Mimi

Y o u ‘ r e a M A C H I N E

Pumping these bangers after bangers!!… You’re gunna need a whole Dewey Decimal system for all these masterpieces!! Your expressiveness and emotions inspire me, it’s contagious.

I’m gunna have to ask for mah Murdertoothpick Danger noodle of a nope rope , Crosshair.

I was absolutely FLOORED at the fics you’ve been spewing out.

So IF you would be ever so kind to indulge me or yourself —I present to you with a “choose your own dealer’s choice”

(Crosshair x F!Medic) or you can insert my OC

(Kave) 🦊 whatever strikes you right.

Any combinations of these:

18. “You shouldn’t be out here by yourself.”

38. “You dumbass. Don’t do that. Ever agian. “

20. “I can’t leave you alone for one second without hurting yourself, can I?”

36. “How many fingers am I holding up?…I don’t have six fingers.”

44. “Do as I say not as I do. For real though, You don’t want to do what I do. I don’t want to do what I do.”

2. “I will always be there for you.”

Your choice I give you free range — you can make it hurt so good or bad / or add some whump or fluff / add as much drama as you desire…where ever in the timeline — The floor is yours Queen!❤️❤️❤️

@kavecika What a fantastic request, especially for my 20th request. I loved it. I did end up using your OC, so I hope I did Kave justice.

So I hope you enjoy what I came up with, love oo.

Promise

Warning: Medical injuries (somewhat graphic), burns, medical procedures, angst, hurt, comfort, kiss, fear of medical staff, feelings of being alone, I think that's it. If I miss any, please let me know.

Main Master List   |  Star Wars Fic Roulette

Crosshair sat in the medbay waiting for Kave to show up, after everything, after having his brothers abandon him for a kid, after having them nearly cook him alive, after them walking away, the one thing he could actually count on was Kave. 

She was the only bright spot left in his life. 

“I can’t leave you alone for one second without you hurting yourself, can I?” She giggled as she walked in seeing him injured. She knew better than trying to coddle him, or worry about him to an extreme. She’d be able to do that in the privacy of their quarters later on that night. 

He only let out a strained chortle as the pain meds were slowly ebbing away.

“Okay, my beautiful murdertoothpick, I’m gonna have to take this bandages off, and see the extent of the damage, okay?”

He nodded, not able to find the strength to answer her.

“Pain meds wearing off?”

Nod.

“Okay, sweetie… hold on.” Kave reached over and grabbed another pain med, using the hyperspray and injecting it into his arm, “There you, sweetie. You’ll start feeling better soon. Just calming breaths. Okay. Use your sniper breathing for me.”

Nod. He tried his best to calm his breathing imagining he was lining up a target.

“Okay, here we go.” She slowly cut away the gauze, careful not to pull too quickly. Biting back the tears and worries she felt for the pain and injury he sustained. His hair was burned away, his skin bubbled and melted away from the heat. Some of it came off on the gauze she peeled away. She wanted to press a kiss to his lips, to hold him close to take away his pain. However, she needed to remain professional. 

“Alright, I’m going to need you to open your eyes for me, I’m going to pull away the eyepatch and then we’re going to test to see how much damage there is, okay?”

Nod.

She took in a deep breath, and prepared herself for what she’d find under the patch. She let out a sigh of relief that the damage wasn’t too bad. The eye was red, a little inflamed, which was understandable. The pupil was reacting to the light, which was fantastic. His eyes were tearing up as tears slid down his cheek. 

“Okay, How many fingers am I holding up?”

Crosshair took a second, his vision was blurred, and somewhat fogging from the tears forming. He couldn’t stop blinking for a while, “Um … six.”

Kave looked from him to her fingers, “Okay, well first, I don't have six fingers. I’m going to try and wash out your eye again. I know the medics on site already did that, but I’m trying again okay.”

“Yeah.”

After Kave dealt with the injured, she covered and protected it with a cool compress. Once she finished with his eye, she moved on to the more serious injury, she’d need to put bacta on the injury and keep him in the med bay for the next two days. To keep reapplying the treatment. She wasn’t looking forward to the argument that was about to ensue, she dismissed everyone from the room, leaving her and Cross alone. 

“Sweetheart, I’m going to need to keep you here for at least two days.”

“No.”

“Cross…”

“I said NO!”

She let out a sigh, “Baby,” she hated using that term but it was the only one that usually calmed him down enough to listen to her, “you need a sterile environment. This is your health, please, for me.” He was about ready to start arguing again, she held his hand and pressed it against her chest, “Listen to me, please. I’ll set you up in the ICU room, it’ll just be the two of us. No one else. I know you hate the med bay. I know you hate being poked and prodded, but I’ll be the only one taking care of you. I’ll treat you every time, and won’t let anyone else in. I’ll protect you and care for you. So please, for me… listen to me and stay here.”

Cross let out a trembling breath, he hated the med bay, he hated the memories that came from the training he and his brothers underwent when they were children… he hated that his brothers weren’t here anymore to stay with him. He hated that Wrecker wasn’t here to stay by his side when he got scared. He hated that Hunter wasn’t here to fight with him, to make him feel he had a brother. He hated that he couldn’t hear Tech’s hum in understanding as he read some new fact or understood some new principle or formula. He hated that he was alone. 

He squeezed her hand, “You promise?”

“I promise,” she pressed a kiss to his knuckles, “it’ll just be me and you. You know, I will always be there for you."

He nodded, “Okay. I’ll stay here for two days…”

“At least.”

“At least.”

“Thank you, my beautiful murdertoothpick.”

He let out a huff, “You know I hate that nickname.”

“No, you don’t,” she smirked. 

A small smile creeped onto his lips, “No. I don’t.”

Main Master List   |  Star Wars Fic Roulette

Tag list:

@liadamerondjarin @badbatch-simp24@spicymcnuggies@lady-ren @firstofficerwiggles @darkangel4121 @discofern @kavecika @monako-jinn-stories @ladykatakuri @avathebestx @theroguesully @furyhellfire66 @carodealmeida @ciramaris @sprout-fics @twinkofthedink @dindjarin-mandalorian @ulchabhangorm @littlemisspascal @tortor-mcgee @vodika-vibes @clonethirstingisreal

[waitingongravity]

Alright, so. So there's PLENTY of unfinished business in the Abyssal Hunter storylines.

Let's look at what we know of already and what that could mean:

First off, the stuff that has already been established in previous events: There were three big leaders in the Church of the Deep: Quintus, Amaia, and some other dude who has only been referred to as Him. This Him is acquainted with Specter during her time as an experiment subject. We can pretty safely assume that much like Quintus and Amaia, He will be the one orchestrating the events of next uhhh... event. Besides that, we have Ulpianus and the Last Knight. Those two swam off into the sunset at the end of Stultifera Navis, and we can only assume that they are still hunting seaborn to this point. The curious thing with the Last Knight is that we got to see him plenty in IS3. We know he's a powerful piece of work, and that in true Don Quixote fashion he is unreasonable with. The real question for me is what the hell he's going to do in a world where Ishra-Mla hasn't taken over yet. Will he be more helpful? Proooobably not. Speaking of: ISHRA-MLA. I've seen a lot of speculation over whether Skalter is fully non-canon to the main timeline, or if she is merely an eventuality. Skadi's condition is not looking good, and we haven't really been presented with any possible solutions. Specter is fighting off infection and insanity through her seaborn blood, but Skadi's issue is seaborn in nature. That being said, I'd like to stay optimistic. Skadi's arc has been an upwards one, even if it's only slightly. I'd like to believe that the difference between IS3's timelines and the Canon is that Skadi had more time to grow stronger mentally and emotionally to resist the pull of Ishra-Mla. Or at least stall long enough to find a solution. Of course, this transformation is also affecting Specter and Gladiia. Much like oripathy, they may be doomed, but maybe there's hope for a comfortable life.

AEgir is a nation we know next to nothing about since they're all the way in the Water. An unknown settlement of AEgir was spotted right under the Stultifera, and we know Ulpianus preventing the Hunters' return to AEgir is one of the reasons why the fish apocalypse didn't happen. Whether that is just proximity to the ocean or something in AEgir itself, I think we'll be diving out of Iberia and into that AEgir colony. I doubt we'll go into AEgir proper, but that doesn't mean AEgir won't send its own people out. Okay, now for the operators relevant to all this: The obvious one is Andreana, our lonely cuttlefish. She is essentially a cheap walmart knock-off Abyssal Hunter, so many think that she'd be getting an Alter or some story focus as she goes full fledged (full scaled? Whatever.) While I see that as a possibility, a lot of Andreana's character is just NOT CARING about any of that. She outright rejects the opportunity from Kal'tsit to learn more, and wants to leave her mysterious past behind her. Honestly, I can respect it. My guess is that Andreana might get involved but stay out of it, unless someone (like her employer Incandescence who we've yet to see in-game) gives her a reason to care.

So who else do we have involved in this? Well, Deepcolor is pretty sus, and the only other AEgir operator besides Skalter. I'll be honest, I always thought she was up to no good. Do NOT trust her >:I. There's also the chance she's some loose AEgir agent or something that lost contact after the Great Silence. But I still don't trust. Here's the sleeper pick: Blue Poison! The curious thing about Anura, besides how cute they are, is that they were enslaved by AEgir and brought to Iberia in hopes that their toxins could be a new weapon against the seaborn. This puts Bloopy in an interesting position as both someone with a vested interest. Hell, she could truly be the secret weapon in the event.

With all this in mind, here's my idea for what the event could/should be. Ulpianus can be the new 6 star, whatever he's a loser I don't care about him. More importantly, BLOOPY ALTER as a limited unit. That's right, Andreana can keep her gun, we all know she loves that thing more than anything. Let Bloopy be the first 6 star Arts Defender or something! Or a new Fighter since we know she boxes. I dunno, just make her busted so I can feel vindicated in my love for her. and finally, 5 star... I dunno, some AEgir girl from the settlement under the Stultifera. Give me a manta ray girl! Flat friend. Or angler fish? Hmmmm. As far as the plot, I think it'll be a two-pronged threat. On one end, He and the rest of the Church of the Deep implement a final plan, either relying on the super advanced tech AEgir have, or simply being the culmination of the evolution which has been a running theme for these events. Under Tides saw the seaborn evolve to talk, Stultifera Navis saw them evolve to be incredibly powerful and adaptive. Who knows what we'll see next? As for the AEgir settlement's conflict, I think we could see a next step in the other relevant issue in Iberia: the persecution of the AEgir peoples and the role of the Inquisition in the fight against the sea. I doubt the settlement will be safe for long, so perhaps over the course of the story we will see them integrated into Iberia, and offer their own tech/abilities in exchange for a stronger frontline. Of course, all this is assuming that the settlement isn't just an long-abandoned ruin. I'd also like it if the Doctor actually got involved in this event. Kal'tsit is a given of course, but I think the Doctor's presence might be appropriate for the conclusion of this trilogy. Much how like Lone Trail concluded the story started by Mansfield and Dorothy's Vision, there might be big story turning points at the end of this. And given the forces involved? This wouldn't be surprising. Anyways this was a super disorganized ramble I typed mid-ttrpg session so I'm sure I missed a lot or messed stuff up. I'd love to hear any more speculations, this stuff is very fun to think about.

[dr-spectre]

I really do appreciate it when my ramblings and mentions of Hypno Callie pop off. It gives me this warm feeling to know that there are people out there who feel the same way I do, that they look at me go "damn.... this guy is kinda cooking."

It makes me feel like I'm not alone and I truly appreciate it. Sometimes I will stumble across a random fan comic of Callie getting tricked into wearing the shades and Octavio being a vile unredeemable piece of a shit, watches her lose her memories and all that other bull crap. It genuinely gives me this fucking stinging in my chest and boils my blood until it becomes magma.

All of my ramblings and analyses are just me going "hey, I think there is depth here that a lot of people are missing. I think you guys are making this way darker and vile than it needs to be. It's serious but in a more nuanced way and let me show you my findings to counteract this weird and disturbing take a lot of people have towards an important arc for Callie." It's so... weirdddddd man. It makes me really uncomfortable. Like actual feelings of "this fucking hurts to look at. Why are they doing this to my comfort character?"

I don't have an issue with AUs that are darker ofc. You're allowed to have dark alternative takes on Callie duh LMAO! Im not the fucking Callie police. But when you start putting that shit into the main timeline and you say that this dark and awful shit actually happened to Callie, then i have a fucking problem personally. Callie went through some shit don't get me wrong, but don't fucking come up to me and suggest that she was not only overworked, alone, then snatched up by Octavio and the Octarians, her memories were removed and she was brainwashed and her brain was flooded with Octarian ideals. This is Splatoon we're talking about here for God sake why the fuck are you coming to that horrible conclusion? Callie going "alright fine ill hear you out dude" and her getting hypnotised fits way better in the franchise THAN THAT DARK TAKE TONS OF PEOPLE SAY!!! WHAT THE FUCK GUYS?! COME ON! CAN WE STOP?!

Anyways, thank you all for being incredibly supportive and not total pieces of shit. I think I made the right choice by posting on tumblr because 95% of you are really sweet!!!!!

[evergreenalice]

alright, I'm going to rant, because a very persistent myth really annoys me

the Zelda timeline DOES exist

most of the games were made to be prequels or sequels

AoL is a very obvious sequel, it's meant to be the same Link, he got two of the pieces of the triforce, and he then goes off to collect it

ALttP was meant to show Hyrule before the decline we hear about in LoZ

Link's Awakening seems to be a sequel to ALttP, as you fight the memory of Aghanim, and already know a Zelda

OoT was meant to be a prequel to ALttP based on the prologue (it doesn't perfectly line up or anything, there were retcons, but I'm not denying retcons), it also shows us a world with Hylians, which ALttP isn't, in ALttP the Hylians are considered long gone, the people of that time just being called humans who are descended of Hylians, essentially showing us a more magical time, a mythical time in a sense

MM is a direct sequel to OoT

the Oracle games are more fuzzy, they seem to be a prequel to LA based on a few details, though they don't work perfectly as a sequel to ALttP, it's not super hard to rectify, by just saying "there's more than one Zelda" hardly the first example of it, still a bit odd, but I do think this was caused perhaps by poor communication, and Capcom wanting to make a prequel, without realizing LA was already a sequel? If so, obviously a mistake here, but I don't deny that there are mistakes

FS was stated by Eiji Aonuma to be the earliest game at that time, I never played this game, and I think the story is barely there, so, I assume they did this, purely because the main villain isn't Ganon?

WW, obvious direct sequel, the prologue tells you the story of OoT, obviously adult timeline seeing as it mentions the hero of time disappearing

FSA, this is a fuck up, this was in my opinion definitely written to be a direct sequel to Four Swords, but there are a few issues with that, so they moved it, one of the only examples of the timeline changing since the start of the timeline

MC was once again meant to be the earliest game, takes place before FS since you literally make the four sword and learn Vaati's origin

TP, once again just a direct sequel, Ganondorf is sentenced to death for the crimes that Link revealed when he returned from the future, this Link is also very heavily implied to be a direct descendant of OoT Link hence why he already has the triforce of courage, it passed down through blood, which does seem to be something it can do.

PH, you literally play as WW Link

ST, you play in New Hyrule many years after PH

SS, the new earliest game in the series, meant to explain why it's so so cyclical, obvious prequel to everything that came before

ALBW, obvious sequel to ALTTP

TFH, not much story really, so they just put after the game with pretty much the same art style, I also think Link is implied to already be a hero, so, presumably, yeah, this is the same Link after he saves Hyrule

BoTW and ToTK are meant to take place far in the future, and still don't have an accepted timeline placement, so I will not touch on that

but my point is simply, a Zelda timeline has existed since AoL

is it perfect? Fuck no

is it messy sometimes? Yes

are there sometimes retcons? Yeah

is it meaningless and entirely post hoc? No, not at all

you don't need to like it, that's perfectly fine, but so many people act superior for ignoring the blatant truth that, yes, these games fit together

they can all be enjoyed separately, but, they do fit together, and some people like that, and that's fine.

[britcision]

Alright I’m on a Dead On Main kick but I’m also permanently in house “Danny Should Adopt Connor For Proper Clone Parenting”

So let’s combine those for crack purposes!

Timelines are fake and so are trees

Jason and Danny are both technically younger than Connor’s supposed to be, and both actually older than Connor is

There’s some fight in Gotham big enough to justify both Superman and Superboy showing up, Red Hood’s willingly working with the bats, mass hysteria

Jason Todd knows more than enough about forcing a working relationship with shitty parents enough to have Suspicions about how Man and Boy are interacting

He knew them before he died and knew it was a bad relationship then, it’s clearly no better

But it’s shooty shooty guns time so we’ll get to that later

Eventually he has to call in the bf because the JL are getting their asses kicked and Danny shows up and joins the fight

Even he can spot the tension and he and Jason exchange Big Gay Looks

But as the fight goes on, Connor’s pinned

In Big Danger, going down, Superman’s closest and doesn’t even glance twice

Just turns away

In comes Danny with the steel chair and if some flying fragments of goon nearly hit Supes, well, pure coincidence

Danny helps Connor to his feet and they get back into it, Connor gets to be in on the big plan which is Get Danny To The Middle

One ghostly wail later, that’s it that’s the fight

Everyone’s wondering what happened, how all the baddies disappeared, Danny gives Connor a pat on the shoulder

“I’m retired kid, and couldn’t have done it without you, so do me a favour and you take this win”

Danny’s gone, Connor’s confused, Jason INSTANTLY backs him up

If Bats is wondering who the unknown fighting alongside them was, well, Superman’s making his biggest constipated faces about congratulating his clone

Jason promises to explain everything if Connor comes by for coffee, Connor has no social life so post debrief they go and pick up enough for 3

Connor’s a little surprised cuz yeah, Jason’s different from when he was Robin, but way less angry and violent than Dick’s led him to believe

Jason explains it’s because of his new bf Danny, the explainer in this case

They get back to Danny in his human form, he’s all gushy and happy to meet Connor cuz whether he went to space or not Connor is technically an alien

Connor gets very quiet about his dna donors

Danny gets Instantly Suspicious and remembers that moment in the fight

Jason rats out the incidents he knows about where Superman’s been a shit

Connor insists we are Not Talking About This It’s Fine

Danny stares him in the face

“Hey wanna meet my clone? Her name’s Danielle, her creator made her try to murder me to replace me. She’s my sister and best friend and I love her dearly and You’re My Clone Now Too.”

Connor, befuddled, is instantly adopted by Dani as well because Clone Sibling, who cares about genetics

Jason tells Connor they’re always like this, but yeah, if he doesn’t wanna put up with Supes’ shit he can go his own way

He doesn’t even have to go full Red Hood style, but they’ll take care of him if he wants to break off on his own

Connor doesn’t believe Supes would ever allow this and would kill Connor the second he showed any hesitance

Danny goes Full Eldritch Horror

Jason:

“Oh hey I don’t think I formally introduced you, Connor this is my boyfriend Danny, the King of the Infinite Realms, you just watched him melt a guy who was kicking Clark’s ass. What were your concerns again?”

And that’s how Connor ends up adopted by his friend’s baby brother and his eldritch boyfriend, complete with happy family jokes

Jason and Danny both call him their baby incessantly and Connor will never admit he kinda loves it, not least for the faces Dick makes

Superman does predictably kick up a stink about Connor not living on base, Batman can’t control Jason but Jason isn’t a world ending threat

Jason smiles extremely sweetly and demonstrates exactly what a world ending threat looks like by texting Danny, who shows up again in full Eldritch Horror

And then Danny texts JAZZ and the Justice League learn the true meaning of fear from a 6’9 redhead therapist who went to the Harley Quinn school of “Sit Down And Shut Up While I Read You For Filth”

Danny pinky swears not to end the world if the JL leave Jason and Connor alone, they can even still be on call for the league and MAYBE so will Danny

If they’re extremely lucky

Constantine assures them this is The Only Way Fucking Hell Superman What Did You Do

The only hiccup in the happily ever after is Dick deciding this makes him Connor’s uncle and being insufferable about it

Danny agrees and it only makes it worse

[quitealotofsodapop]

Hola! ¿Que me he perdido de The Monkey King and the Infant? Hace tiempo que no paso aqui...

translated by google:

"Hi! What did I miss about The Monkey King and the Infant? It's been a while since I've been here…"

I am currently working on Chapter 3 of the fic as we speak! ^_^

However I have many things going on in mine and my family's lives at the moment, so the opportunity to write is scarce (college, new jobs, medical appointments). I also lost some confidence writing when I discovered that Season 5 was announced, since I feared that my writing would become outdated with new lore (I'm still anticipating who the true villain Xiangliu alluded to but I have theories). Now I understand that is simply an obstacle when writing for an ongoing media.

Some details I've been working on for the "The Monkey King and the Infant" au are;

I have been trying to make a "timeline" chart for the Au to explain events that happened in the story's past.

Watching and adapting the events and characters introduced in Season 5 (Li Jing, Xiangliu, The 100 Eyed Demon, Nuwa, etc...) into the fic's universe.

Rewriting what Nüwa's plan; instead of just leaving her Harbinger and their Stone Egg on earth, she instead threw it into the cosmos so it could return at a later date - becoming the Harbinger's Comet. +Also adding/implementing her husband Fuxi - a minor god of fatherhood and invention. He loves his wife so much, and misses her dearly.

Establishing reasons for why Macaque and Wukong simply cannot hide away on Flower Fruit Mountain; (1): Many of the Celestial Guards suspect that Wukong was lying about the fate of the Cosmic Egg/Harbinger's comet and are monitoring him. Wukong learns this when he hires Sandy (on Pigsy's recommendation) to get home for some personal items, as his Somersault Cloud hasn't been working correctly. (2): Macaque is thought to be dead. If he suddenly reappears after so much time has past, it could draw the attention of the Ten Kings. (3): The Egg literally drains them of their powers, forcing them to approach problems "mortal-style".

Deciding how to introduce The Nine Tailed Vixen/Jiuweihuli to the story - I believe 100% that the moment Jin and Yin see Macaque alive again, they'd kidnap him to show their mother that he's alright.

Deciding on what the main "rogue's gallery" would be for LMK if the Lady Bone Demon is sealed away many years before MK's birth. The Spider Gang would be more involved in general mayhem.

Adding in Ao Bing (his presence is due to a spicy twist >:3).

Having the incident involving the "Demon King of Havoc/Confusion" be something far more complicated than what the novel/history tells. Sun Wukong did not only save his monkeys that day, but he also saved royal demons captured by the King of Havoc as bargaining chips (DBK amongst them), and a few celestial officers caught off-guard by the King of Havoc's power (Azure and Nezha among them). The reason it isn't talked about much is that many of the saved later became The Brotherhood and their allies - the celestial realm doesn't like admitting that a "mere cave demon" had caused them so much trouble.

I might add on more details as I think of them. Thank you all for being so invested in my writing. <3

[melishade]

Attack on Prime: What if the TFP War continued on the world of Attack on Titan? AKA The War Timeline

Main Story

Peaceful Timeline Pilot

Beloved Timeline Pilot

TFP Optimus in Episode 1 Pilot

Summary: A spacebridge accident happened on Earth, launching both Autobots and Decepticons to the world of Attack on Titan. And while the Autobots are willing to do everything in their power to protect humanity, the Decepticons will stop at nothing to destroy and conquer whatever is let. The war rages on, and if one wants to live, they must fight.

So the fourth pilot fully written out as asked in this previous poll. This is based upon the War Timeline as posted in my masterlist if you want more information! Please read this and give a comment while also looking at the other pilots and my main fanfic story!

Roll it!

Optimus groaned in pain, his helm feeling like it was spinning. His body ached as he moved his servo to rest it on his forehelm. His optics slowly opened, and he winced at the streams of light that came into view. When his vision cleared, he found himself under a partly cloudy sky. The sun was high in the air, and he could see trees out of the corner of his optics. What had happened?

“Is everyone okay?” Optimus’ optics snapped open and he immediately sat up. He looked at his surroundings and saw the Autobots slowly getting up and looking just as delirious as he felt.

“Ay, okay.” Optimus turned his gaze to where Bulkhead was seated and saw Jack, Miko, and Rafael waking up and rubbing their heads.

“I need to scan everyone.” Optimus saw Ratchet forcing himself to stand, ignoring his own pain kneeling down to scan Bumblebee.

“What were you three thinking?!” Arcee yelled at the human kids.

“We were trying to get Miko out of there!” Jack retorted.

“Miko, we talked about this! I thought you were past this!” Bulkhead exclaimed.

“You said it was simple recon!” Miko retorted.

“That’s not an excuse!” Bulkhead and Arcee shouted in unison.

“The damage is done,” Ratchet declared as he finished scanning Bumblebee, “And at the very least we’re still operational.”

“Are we in the Shadowzone again?” Rafael asked as he rummaged through his backpack to grab his phone. Miko turned her attention to Jack before pressing her hand on his face.

“Wha-! What was that for?!” Jack yelled as he grabbed her wrist.

“If we’re in the Shadowzone, we can’t touch anything,” Miko recalled.

“We can all see and touch each other!” Jack reminded.

“Then the spacebridge malfunction the Decepticons were having launched us somewhere else,” Ratchet surmised as he finished scanning Bulkhead. He was about to scan Arcee, but she waved it off.

“Go scan Optimus first,” Arcee suggested, “He still looks out of it.”

Ratchet immediately kneeled down towards Optimus and started to scan him. Optimus didn’t pay attention to him, and merely tried to recall what had happened. There was a scouting mission, they found energon, but the Decepticons had ambushed them. Jack, Miko, and Rafael had somehow gotten involved. The Autobots tried to get them out, but the groundbridge and the spacebridge had crossed streams? Or there was a malfunction in the spacebridge? He couldn’t remember. His helm was pulsing in pain.

Optimus rubbed his optics and grimaced a little. Something was wrong. Why couldn’t he figure it out? What was wrong?

“Optimus are you alright?” Ratchet asked as he placed his servo on his shoulder, “Your vitals appear normal, but if you don’t tell me-!”

“I still function,” Optimus reassured as he forced himself to stand up.

“At the very least, it looks like we’re still on Earth,” Jack proclaimed as he looked at their surroundings. Optimus took in his surroundings as well, and found that they were surrounded by similar views of that on Earth: pine trees, green grass, blue skies. It all looked normal for the planet. But something still felt off. Optimus’ gaze fell to a footprint that was hidden in the forest, and noticed how it was much too large to resemble that of a human.

“No one is at base; however, which means that we’re going to have to explain to Agent Fowler how to operate a groundbridge,” Ratchet groaned in irritation.

Bumblebee responded to Ratchet in his binary code, trying to reassure him.

“Yes, I know, it’s just going to be a hassle to hear him scream at us and talk about his human affairs,” Ratchet waved off before activating his comm. link, “Agent Fowler, we need assistance.”

Ratchet blinked in confusion when he was only met with static. “Fowler?”

“No response?” Arcee asked him.

“Yes,” Ratchet answered, “Odd.”

“Let me try.” Bulkhead placed two digits against his audio receptors, “Agent Fowler? Hello?...Static.”

“Did the spacebridge malfunction scramble with our comm. link?” Arcee asked, not noticing Optimus walking towards the footprint. The Prime kneeled down to examine it closer. It looked like a human footprint, but why was it so large? Humans couldn’t reach a size similar to that of a Cybertronian. It didn’t make sense.

“Uh…guys?” Rafael called out with worry as he showed the Autobots his flip phone, “I’m not getting any bars.”

Jack and Miko were shocked at that and quickly pulled out their phones to find what Rafael was saying to be true. They had no reception either.

“So we’re not in the Shadowzone?” Miko chuckled nervously, “Because we had reception last time we were there!”

“Look, maybe it was the spacebridge malfunction!” Jack reasoned, “That could explain it! Right?!”

“Maybe if we can figure out where we are we can find a place with a working phone,” Arcee suggested.

Something was wrong. What was wrong? Optimus’ helm shot up, when he heard a low growl like an animal. Optimus stood on his pedes and scanned the area as the Autobots continued discussing what to do next. Where was that sound coming from? Optimus looked past Bumblebee and saw something crawling towards them. It was a four legged humanoid figure, but it was significantly bigger than the humans they had with them. It had no clothing and no reproductive organs, but it had a multitude of teeth. And it looked hungry. Its gaze fell to the humans and it lunged for them!

“Bumblebee, behind you!” Optimus called for him.

Bumblebee snapped his head to the creature that lunged for the humans. All three screamed out in fear, but Bumblebee quickly kicked the creature in its open mouth, shattering all of its teeth and knocking it into a tree.

“What the frag?!” Arcee exclaimed. They all looked on in horror when the four legged creature was clearly not dead. Steam arose from its mouth and the back of its head. Its teeth began to grow back and the jaw stitched itself back together. The creature shook its head to shake off the injury as it finished regenerating its wounds.

“Bumblebee!” Rafael screamed as it lunged for them once more, but Bumblebee quickly pulled out his blaster and shot it multiple times in the head. The creature skidded forward from momentum before slowing to a stop. The energon seemed to do the trick, as the body began to decay and evaporate into steam, leaving nothing else behind to examine.

“By the Allspark!” Ratchet gasped in terror.

Optimus could only stare in horror as well at the sight, mirroring Ratchet’s expression. All the Autobots didn’t know what to say to this sight, but Optimus knew one thing for certain.

“We are not supposed to be here,” Optimus declared.

Bulkhead snapped his helm to a creature taller than Optimus emerging from the forest and running towards him. “Optimus!”

Optimus activated his battle mask and pulled out his own blaster, aiming his weapon at the center of the creature’s chest. Before Optimus could fire, he caught a blur of green followed by a trail of smoke. The next thing he knew, the nape of the neck was sliced open and blood spewed out everywhere. Optimus followed the direction of the blood splatters and the trail of smoke as the creature fell to the ground, and his optics fell onto a human. The human was covered in a green cloak with an emblem of wings in the center of it, holding swords in both hands. He wore gray pants with brown straps and boots, and around his waist was a strange contraption that was allowing him to fly. The human turned in the air and stared back at Optimus, and Optimus saw that he had black hair trimmed to an undercut. His gray eyes stared back at his blue ones with a mix of fear and surprise. That expression faded as the human grit his teeth before shouting.

“Enemy forces! Don’t break the formation!” he commanded.

The Autobots heard the sounds of clopping hooves and high pitched whirs and saw an army mirroring what the human was wearing emerging from the forest. Some rode on horses and surrounded them on the ground, while others were flying in the treetops and above them. The three humans yelped when the Autobots formed a circle around them, their backs towards each other to cover their blind spots. Ratchet quickly pulled out his surgical blades while Bumblebee pulled out his other blaster. Arcee pulled out her blasters while Bulkhead pulled out one blaster and one wrecking ball.

The Autobots found that they were completely blocked off from any clear exits, and the humans on the ground stared at them in absolute fear and anticipation. It was a tense standoff, with the Autobots not sure on how to confront this. But the humans looked ready to attack them at any moment. They were just waiting for someone to give the order. Optimus knew it would be a losing battle for those humans, but they had humans that they needed to protect. They were clearly not on Earth anymore. Those creatures tried to kill the humans, and humans that surrounded them now had the technology and knowledge that the Autobots clearly lacked. Optimus made a choice, one that would hopefully get them answers and get the humans to safety.

Optimus stood up straight before transforming his blaster into his servo and raising both of them in surrender. “My name is Optimus Prime, and I do not wish to cause conflict. I only ask for assistance and guidance.”

==

Erwin’s day went from normal to absolute insanity in a matter of minutes.

It had been five years since the fall of Shinganshina and the loss of Wall Maria. Much had changed since that fateful day. The Survey Corps had been granted more funding and resources, although not that much. Weaponry had finally been cleared to be attached to the top of the wall, much to the Wallists’ protests, and the discovery of Ilse’s notebook had spearheaded titan capture and experimentation.

The Survey Corps had left Wall Rose and started their expedition to try and reclaim the land lost in Wall Maria. They had managed to find an abandoned town with no titans near the area and decided to set up camp there. Erwin noticed the way that Hanji was giddy with excitement, proclaiming that it was going to be a big day. However, the Survey Corps had already suffered the loss of five lives before finding this place. How many would they lose on the way back to Wall Rose?

However, Mike was acting…off. His best friend and humanity’s second strongest always had a knack for sensing titans. A blessing to have in the Survey Corps. But the man had proclaimed that the air was off, that there was a smell of metal and gunpowder, and that something was coming. Erwin didn’t understand the cryptic warnings. Mike wasn’t even too sure what he was sensing, but he told everyone to be on high alert.

Mike’s prediction turned out to be true when they spotted a blinding blue light off in the distance, sending a shockwave that blew their tents out of the ground. Erwin immediately ordered everyone to get on their horses and investigate the source. As they rode towards the source, going through the trees, Erwin could’ve sworn he heard someone speaking. He was hearing a conversation. Erwin then heard someone screaming before a blue light suddenly illuminated the forest and disappeared. Erwin ordered Levi to go ahead, and the captain quickly through the trees, headed towards the titan that was running towards the source of the blue light. As the edge of the forest came into view, Erwin thought his eyes were deceiving him when he saw something so bright and colorful, like it didn’t match the colors of their world.

“Enemy forces! Don’t break the formation!” Erwin heard Levi shout. When the Commander’s vision cleared, he gasped in shock at the sight of five metal titans standing together in a clearing.

“Surround the titans on the ground and in the treetops!” Erwin ordered. Erwin remained on his horse as they emerged from the forest. He quickly directed Mike to guide the others to the right while he surrounded the titans from the left, being sure to avoid the titan Levi had just killed. Levi’s squad and a few others had quickly taken to the trees as these titans stood back-to-back in a circle. Erwin could feel his hands trembling as these titans pulled out glowing weapons before getting into fighting stances. Erwin had pulled the reins on his horse to a stop and found himself in front of the tallest of the five titans, and this titan had a giant gun for a hand that looked ready to fire.

Erwin didn’t know what to do. For the first time in a long time, he was actually visibly terrified at the sight before him. Never in the history of human kind did any of them expect to see five metal titans! What happened?! Did the titans evolve?! Why the hell did they look so different?! Erwin narrowed his eyes at each of the titans before him.

The one he was in front of was massive compared to the others. Its head and legs were painted blue, while its torso and arms were colored red. Its right hand was that of an advanced rifle, but the left hand looked normal, save for it being the color black. It had no mouth to speak of, as it was clearly covered by some kind of mask, and its eyes were such a bright blue. Erwin’s gaze fell to the titan on the first one’s right. Its appearance was starkly different from the other. It was shorter, with broader shoulders and a larger waist. Its skin was a mix of white and orange, and it had a mouth which was a cause for concern. It appeared to have some sort of orange backpack, and both hands were replaced with blades. Erwin turned his attention to the titan on the left, and his worry grew exponentially. This one was the same height as the second one, but it was big. The titan had a round body, with large arms and legs. It had a gun for one hand and a boulder in the other. It looked like a heavy hitter and it unnerved him.

The other two, he could only peer through the gaps of the first three in order to get a decent look at them. The shortest one was adorned in blue with accentuated pink markings. Erwin was confused at the sight of…wings? But he elected to ignore them for now. It looked like both arms were guns as well, and it looked…female?! Was that titan a female?! Titans were known to lack reproductive organs! They had no idea how they were able to reproduce, but this one clearly had the features of a human female! How was that possible?! Erwin’s eyes darted towards the last one. It was yellow with accentuated black markings. It had wings similar to the female titan, and even though it had guns out, its hands didn’t disappear. They were still visible. Erwin saw the titan turn it head, and he couldn’t help but think how comically large its blue eyes were. But this titan had no mouth? Was it a type of mouth guard? It was vastly different from the first titan.

But this…this was surreal. How did they get here? Why were the titans like this? What did that mean for humanity? He could tell everyone wanted to attack these things. He managed to catch Levi perched on a tree with his blades in hand, ready to strike if need be. He could feel Hanji gasping with excitement, and glanced behind to see the section commander with the widest, gapping, smile. He turned his attention to Mike, and his friend nodded his head to him, ready to follow his command whenever he gave it. Erwin was ready to give it. He didn’t know if they were going to live or die, but as members of the Survey Corps, they had to dedicate their heart and soul to the cause.

He opened his mouth, ready to speak, but paused when the red and blue titan slowly stood upright. Its gun transformed and changed right back into a hand. It raised both hands in surrender, stunning Erwin. It knew what surrender was? But the biggest revelation came when the titan spoke.

“My name is Optimus Prime, and I do not wish to cause conflict. I only ask for assistance and guidance.”

Erwin couldn’t help it. His mouth hung agape while sounds of worry and bafflement echoed throughout the Survey Corps. The only exception was Hanji who merely squealed with delight. But how could the rest of them not break face? Five metal titans had just shown up, and now one of them just spoke! Could all of them speak?! How was this even a possibility?! The only recorded evidence of a titan speaking was from Ilse’s notebook! And now…!

“Boss, I think that was a bad idea.” Erwin heard the green one whisper to the being, Optimus.

“Definitely was a bad idea considering what we just saw,” the female titan had hissed.

“They’re all talking,” Mike mumbled.

Erwin didn’t know how to respond. This was madness! However, the yellow one began to speak in a slew of strange noises that scared the soldiers near it, demanding what it even said.

“A new language!” Hanji squealed with delight.

“Oi, calm the hell down!” Levi shouted at them, but Erwin could tell even Levi was shaken by the yellow one speaking. However, while the soldiers looked afraid, Levi was…bewildered. Levi had managed to spot Erwin through the titans and mouthed something to him.

‘Fight or run.’

Fight or run? Erwin’s words almost got caught in his throat. Did Levi…was Levi able to understand the yellow titan?!

“Optimus, I would strongly advise getting the humans out of here before engaging in anything drastic,” the orange titan warned.

If Erwin’s mind didn’t break, it definitely shattered in that moment. Humans? What humans? What the hell was that titan talking about? Erwin’s gaze darted around, trying to see any humans. There’s no way that there could be-!

Erwin’s train of thought screeched to a halt when he spotted them. He spotted humans. Three humans. Three human children. There were humans with the titans, hiding behind the yellow titan’s foot for protection. There was a tall male with black hair and a long face. He wore a long sleeved gray shirt and blue pants, but the material was clearly not native to the wall. He could tell that much. His gray eyes stared on in concern at the sight of his men, as he gestured for the youngest of the three to remain behind him. The youngest looked afraid as he put his black backpack on. He wore an orange vest and white undershirt with blue pants as well. His brown eyes were less noticeable compared to his red glasses, and his orange hair was standing upright, practically defying gravity. The sight of that child paled in comparison to the girl, who was clearly not native to the walls. Her clothes were an eyesore. A clash of green, pink, purple, and blue. Her hair was…pink! How was her hair pink?! Erwin noticed how excited the girl looked as she peered over the titan, making some sort of comment, but the oldest of the trio quickly grabbed her by her collar and yanked her behind the yellow titan’s foot.

“…holy shit,” Mike swore as he finally noticed the children. And Erwin couldn’t help but agree with his friend’s sentiments. How could he not? There were three humans hiding behind titans for protection. They didn’t run or cower in fear at the sight of them. They trusted them. Erwin’s gaze shifted upwards, and he froze when he noticed the titan, Optimus Prime, staring directly at him. The titan’s eyes then darted towards the children in their circle before landing back to him. Did…did the titan know if he was the Commander? How was he able to target the chain of command so easily? But Erwin could tell, the titan was silently pleading with him. Begging him to call off his men so that they could get the children to safety.  A million thoughts swirled through Erwin’s mind. He was trying to determine the risk and the reward with the decision he was about to make, but…his gaze fell to the children. The reward was higher than the risk.

“STAND DOWN!” Erwin commanded, causing everyone, both titans and humans, to snap their heads at him.

“Commander, what the hell?!” someone screamed at him while Mike stared in shock.

“STAND DOWN! THAT’S AN ORDER!” Erwin repeated. Erwin’s gaze fell to Levi, and the Captain was clearly questioning his decision like the rest of them. But Erwin gave one simple nod to Levi, and the Captain relented. He lowered his hands before placing his swords back into his holsters. One by one, the rest of the Survey Corps followed suit.

“Autobots, stand down!” Optimus immediately ordered. The titans glanced at each other before standing upright and raising their arms upwards. They showed to them their weapons transforming back into hands.

“Mine-!” Hanji squawked when Mike quickly grabbed the squad leader by wrapping his arms around Hanji’s arms and abdomen. “Mike! Let go! You asshole!”

Erwin climbed down his horse, and Optimus Prime had lowered his hands to his side. “You lead these men.”

It wasn’t a question. “Yes. My name is Erwin Smith. I am the 13th Commander of the Survey Corps.”

“Not U.S. military,” the green one had commented, “We’re not on Earth.”

“And where exactly are we?” The orange one had demanded, clearly annoyed by what has been happening.

“Wall Maria, which had fallen five years ago due to the powers of Titans,” Erwin explained, “We have been findings ways to reclaim what humanity had lost. We are humanity’s last line of defense against the titans, and we are doing what we can to prevent our species from becoming extinct.”

Erwin heard a gasp from the circle and saw the girl grinning with excitement. “We’ve been isekai’d!”

“Miko, shut up!” the eldest quickly covered the girl’s mouth, but the damage was done.

“Are those kids?!” Oluo exclaimed, causing the female titan to slap a hand over her eyes.

“Scrap, Miko,” she had groaned in irritation.

Erwin turned his gaze to Optimus. “You must be…confused at what is happening, and we have questions of our own. If you would be willing to come with us-!”

“Yeah, absolutely not,” the female titan cut him off, earning protests from the yellow titan. Erwin’s eyes darted to Levi, and the Captain gestured his head towards the kids. The yellow titan was talking about the kids. It had to be about their safety. He could use that.

“You are all unfamiliar with our terrain,” Erwin calmly reasoned, “But we know this place, and we know that titans are roaming the area as we speak. You all might be fine in defending yourselves, but how long will your human companions last before a titan sneaks up on you and tries to eat them.”

The titans grew tense at Erwin’s words while Miko removed the eldest’s hand from her mouth. Erwin then gestured to the titan that was still slowly turning into steam.

“The titans do not eat for survival,” Erwin continued, “They only do it for the thrill of it. And there are a multitude of titans that are unpredictable with their behavior. Those three are not going to last out here very long.”

Erwin gestured to the direction they came from. “If you come with us, we can guarantee their safety behind the territory that we still have left.”

The orange titan glanced over at Optimus, waiting for the Prime to make the call. Optimus seemed to come to a decision before turning to the others. “We will follow the humans to their territory.”

“You sure about that?” the green one asked.

“We cannot risk the humans getting hurt,” Optimus reasoned, “And if we want to return to Earth, then we need to forge alliances.”

Erwin raised an eyebrow at that as Optimus turned to him. “If you would be will to guide us, then we will follow.”

Erwin nodded his head before mounting his horse once more. “We’re returning to Wall Rose!”

“With five giant titans?!” Someone shouted, “The canons will fire before we even reach the gate! How the hell are we supposed to-!”

Everyone took steps back when the five titans’ bodies practically fell apart before reshaping and putting itself back together. They had all transformed into…strange carriages, each of their own texture, design, and size. Erwin didn’t know how else to describe it. The colors still matched the titans he had just seen but when the hell could titans do this?!

The yellow one had open the side door, and Miko and the youngest of the children quickly climbed inside. The eldest was about to climb in, but noticed the stares directed towards them all.

“Um…robots in disguise,” he had shrugged before sitting in the front and shutting the door himself.

“Not a very good disguise,” Levi commented as he and the others hand lowered themselves from the trees and mounted their horses.

“I want to touch it.” Hanji vibrated with giddy, but Mike grabbed the reins of the horse Hanji was sitting on before pulling it along.

It was a tense ride back to Wall Rose, with the Survey Corps surrounding the titans with a simple circle formation. The horses were running at full speed towards the massive structure, but the Survey Corps were stunned to find that the titans were keeping up with them in these strange forms. Hell, some of them were even driving past the horses, specifically the female titan. She was riding on two wheels instead of four. It looked like there was supposed to be someone on top of her form, and it looked odd without it.

“Erwin, what the hell are you thinking right now?” Levi demanded as he pulled up next to him at the front of the formation.

“I’m thinking about how we can keep these titans here to help us,” Erwin answered truthfully.

“They might not appear to eat humans, but it looks like they know how to kill,” Levi retorted, “We bring them in the Walls. Then what? There’s going to be chaos and questions. Some could be asking for them to be destroyed. How the hell do we spin this to have it benefit us, even if they aren’t dangerous?”

“…I don’t know,” Erwin confessed, “But there must be something that they can do.”

“…I saw the yellow one kill a titan without hitting the nape,” Levi informed him, “It killed them with those guns on its arms.”

‘The blinding light,’ Erwin realized.

“Prime guy was ready to blast a hole in the chest of the other one before I killed it,” Levi explained, “They’re trained soldiers, Erwin. With the power to kill titans without cutting the nape.”

“All the more reason to try and get them to stay here with us,” Erwin declared, “We’ll finally be able to turn the tide in this war against the titans.”

Levi grimaced in response.

“Also, have you been able to understand the yellow titan?” Erwin asked, baffled.

“Every third word, it’s been creeping me out,” Levi explained.

“No, that’s good,” Erwin proclaimed, “If they’re planning something else and are trying to hide it, then you’ll be able to figure it out sooner.”

“Optimus, are you certain that this is the right decision?” Ratchet asked him as they drove side by side.

“It is one of the few options that we do have,” Optimus answered, “We do not know our surroundings very well and we cannot risk the humans getting hurt. There is also the matter of the Decepticons.”

“Right, they could still be on Earth,” Ratchet recalled, “Or they could have very well come to this strange place with us. We have no idea.”

“All the more reason to gain knowledge from the natives in order to determine our next steps,” Optimus declared, “We need to return back to Earth as soon as possible if the Decepticons are still there. I don’t know how long Agent Fowler and the military will be able to last without us.”

“So…we’ve been isekai’d to a morbid place,” Miko began as she continued watching the soldiers ride through titan territory.

“Yeah, this wouldn’t have happened if you had just stayed at base,” Jack scolded Miko.

“Look, we’ll find a way out of this!” Miko reasoned, “Besides, it can’t be all bad! They have medieval spidermen!”

“Miko-!”

“Medieval Spidermen, Jack!” Miko shook his shoulders, “That’s literally the best thing ever! It can’t get better than this!”

“How long are we going to be stuck here for?” Rafael finally asked, “What about our parents?”

“Raf, don’t worry, we’ll figure something out,” Jack reassured, “Right ‘Bee?”

Bumblebee chirped and beeped in response, causing Rafael to smile. “Yeah, I guess we’ve been in worse situations and still got out of it.”

The three humans blinked when they suddenly heard a knock on the window. They turned to see someone waving at them with delight.

“’Bee, lower the window,” Jack ordered as he approached the window the person was waving at. Bumblebee lowered the window a little bit, and Jack was met with the grinning face of...a woman, maybe? They didn’t look too much like a woman.

“You can lower it a little bit more,” Jack said to Bumblebee, and the scout reluctantly complied until Jack’s face was completely in view, “Can I help you?”

“Yes! My name is Hanji, and I have a multitude of questions I need you to answer before my friend, Mike, comes back to grab me!” The statement came out in rapid succession.

Bumblebee immediately spoke up, causing Hanji to stare in confusion.

“Bumblebee says that we can’t give away too much information,” Rafael explained as he peered over the open window.

“You can understand him?!” Hanji asked with excitement.

“Yeah,” Rafael answered.

“And you have a name!” Hanji cooed with joy, “Bumblebee’s a cute name too!”

Bumblebee started beeping again, and Rafael translated. “He says thanks.”

“So you’re Bumblebee, and the big, tall, one is Optimus Prime.” Hanji pointed to the truck, “What about the other three?”

“The one driving next to Optimus is Ratchet,” Rafael began, “The blue motorcycle looping around us is Arcee and the green hummer is Bulkhead.”

“And he’s my partner.” Miko pointed to herself, “So watch it, or he’s gonna wreck you!”

“Oh this is so exciting!” Hanji clapped. The squad leader grunted as Mike grabbed the reins of the horse and pulled them aside, “Thank you!”

“Bye!” Rafael waved ‘goodbye’ before turning to the others. “They seem nice.”

“A little bit energetic for my tastes,” Jack asked, “Kinda like you, Miko.”

“Ha,” Miko drawled out.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mike hissed at Hanji.

“Gathering Intel.” Hanji yanked the reins back from Mike in annoyance. The squad leader let out a big grin, riding over to Erwin and waving to Mike, “I have names~.”

Erwin deadpanned as he heard Hanji creep up behind him on horseback. He could feel the grin radiating from her skin. “This better be important.”

“Optimus, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Arcee, and Bumblebee.” Hanji pointed to each vehicle with their respective name.

Erwin and Levi glanced back before turning back to Hanji.

“They all have names?” Erwin asked in surprise.

“Yes, those children were very nice in giving me that information,” Hanji explained before sighing in defeat, “I would have asked for more information, like the names of those kids, but Mike pulled me away before I could ask.”

“Anything else you might have gotten from them?” Erwin asked.

“The youngest can understand Bumblebee’s language,” Hanji listed, “And the girl referred to Bulkhead as her partner. I think those children might be assigned to individual titans as protection. The girl to Bulkhead. I assume the youngest to Bumblebee since he can understand him. I don’t know about the eldest.”

Hanji noticed the way Levi’s face turned sour. “What happened to you? Looks like you’re about to take a shit.”

“He can understand every third word of…Bumblebee.” Erwin felt weird addressing a titan by name.

Hanji gasped with joy as her smile grew wider to the point where it would break her face.

“If you fucking touch me, I will-!” Levi froze as everyone was alerted to the sounds of screams and destruction. The Survey Corps looked ahead and stared in horror at the sight of the southern gate to Trost being destroyed and two titans slowly making its way inside.

“Shit!” Levi swore.

“Everyone, scale the wall!” Erwin ordered.

The Autobots were stunned to see everyone jumping off of their horses and hooking onto the side of the massive wall before scaling it with relative ease. Miko had opened the window and peered her whole body out to see the amazing display.

“Wow.” Miko pulled out her phone and started recording the Survey Corps. She yelped when Jack immediately grabbed her belt and pulled her inside Bumblebee’s alt mode.

“Autobots, head towards the breach!” Optimus commanded as he revved his engines. When they had reached the breached and transformed into their bipedal modes, excluding Bumblebee, they were horrified at the titans running rampant in the city. They destroyed and toppled buildings. They grabbed human soldiers without a care in the world, and they started to eat them. It didn’t even matter what age they were. Some looked like teenagers, like Jack, Miko, and Rafael, but they were still being devoured. They let out horrified screams of terror as they were either devoured in one gulped or chewed to pieces.

“What the frag did we just get ourselves into?” Arcee swore.

The Survey Corps landed atop the walls and examined the chaos below.

“It’s only been a few hours and shit’s already going to hell,” Levi remarked.

“It feels like it was almost premeditated, considering there was a titan invasion right after we left,” Mike proclaimed before turning to Erwin, “Orders!”

Erwin was about to give the command, but-!

“Bumblebee, keep the humans safe from the threat!” Optimus ordered the yellow titan.

“Wait, hold on!” the girl cried out, but Bumblebee had quickly driven deeper into Trost before he could continue.

“Autobots, focus all efforts on eliminate the threat and protecting the humans!” Optimus ordered as he pulled out his guns.

“Got it!” Bulkhead said as he pulled out his blasters.

“With pleasure!” Arcee snarled as she pulled out her own blasters.

“Roll out!” All three Cybertronians fired in rapid succession at the titans closest to them, scaring some of the other soldiers. Erwin managed to count twenty titan deaths from that volley of attacks, and none of the titans that were killed were struck in the nape. The remaining for titans split up to cover more ground, with the orange titan, Ratchet, running by Optimus’ side.

Ratchet noticed a titan coming up on his right and quickly pulled out his medical blades before slicing it’s leg off. As the titan lost its balance, Optimus shot it in the chest, causing it to disintegrate. Meanwhile, Arcee had jumped onto one of the buildings and ran along the rooftops, firing headshots at each of the titans that she spotted. Bulkhead, despite being the slowest runner, had tackled a titan much larger than him into the ground before shooting it in the face.

“…I think we just became useless,” Mobilt commented, baffled at the sight before him. However, every one of them heard sadistic giggles before it evolved into unhinged laughter.

“IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED!” Hanji shouted, cackling to the sky, “The pinnacle of titan evolution has been reached! We have witnessed the sheer might and battle power of what titans can do, and I have finally been blessed to see this day! IF THERE IS A GOD, THANK YOU FOR KEEPING ME ALIVE THIS LONG TO SEE THIS GLORIOUS DISPLAY!”

Hanji continued cackling like a madman while Levi turned to Erwin. “Hanji’s broken.”

“Everyone, assist the titans in eliminating the threat and help out any wounded or injured soldiers!” Erwin ordered.

“Yes, sir!” they all shouted.

“Dedicate your hearts!” Erwin recited their mantra as they all jumped down from the top of the Walls to attack the titans.

==

Marco continued flying around the city, trying to lure titans to the other side of the town so that Eren could plug the hole in the wall, but he spotted no titans in his line of sight. Maybe he should regroup with a few others and come up with a strategy then. That seemed like a good idea. Marco’s gaze fell towards a rooftop with two other soldiers on it. He sighed a little with relief. Reiner and Bertholdt. They were still alive. Marco landed on the rooftop, ready to call for them, but-!

“There’s no way that they can plug that hole in the wall,” Bertholdt proclaimed, “They don’t have the resources, and Eren might get eaten in the process. We won’t be able to find out anything else if that happens.”

“I might have to figure out a plan with my Titan somehow.” Marco paused in his step at Reiner’s words. Titan? What did Reiner mean by that? What did he mean by ‘my Titan’?

“But if they find a way to plug it, then it’ll undo the work we’ve done to open it!” Bertholdt retorted. Marco was baffled at Bertholdt’s words. Open it?! What are they talking about?! Marco was about to speak up to ask what they meant, but stopped when he saw a blue light coming their way. All three yelled in surprise when the light flew directly above them, almost hitting them. Reiner and Bertholdt ducked in opposite directions while Marco ended up falling off the roof. Marco yelled in pain when his back hit the ground fairly hard, but when he sat up, he didn’t feel that anything was broken. Just bruised. What was that? What the hell was that?!

Marco’s gaze went up to the sky and he saw a few more blue lights shoot across the area. Marco was about to call for Reiner and Bertholdt, but immediately stopped himself. Those words the two uttered, the fact that Eren could transform into a titan at will. That meant…

Marco quickly scrambled to his feet, grabbed his blades and latched onto the buildings with his grappling hooks to get as far away from the two as possible. Reiner and Bertholdt…they were hiding something. They couldn’t be trusted, and Marco needed to get as far away from the both of them as possible! But what the hell was that blue light!-any…way.

Marco could see from afar the sight of metal titans running throughout the city, killing other titans left and right. What the hell was going on?!

==

“Armin!” Mikasa called out for her friend just as Armin was ready to stab his blade into the nape of Eren’s titan form. Armin noticed that Mikasa was staring on in horror, forcing him to abandon Eren and fly up next to her. The cadet gawked at the sight of four metal titans within Trost, shooting and killing titans with ease, without even touching the nape of the neck!

“What the hell is happening?” Mikasa found herself trembling. Armin couldn’t help but be terrified as well. Eren had been eaten right before him, but came back to life with the ability to turn into a titan. He was supposed to lift the boulder in order to plug the hole in the wall, and now, metal titans were roaming around the city killing titans left and right! It was madness! It was insanity! It was…Armin’s attention turned to the unconscious titan that was Eren, his face still regenerating. If Eren couldn’t lift the boulder, then…

“Armin!” Mikasa tried to grab Armin, but he had already flown off to a pair of those titans nearby, forcing Mikasa to quickly follow after him.

“Optimus, how else can we kill these creatures?!” Ratchet demanded, “Energon is effective, but is possessive regenerative abilities!”

Ratchet sliced open the stomach of a titan about to eat a human, but the wound was already regenerating, even after the titan dropped the human. “My blades are useless.”

Optimus recalled the titan he was just about to kill earlier before one of the humans intervened. He had cut in a particular spot: behind the nape of the neck. Optimus replaced one of his blasters with his blades and quickly stabbed a titan that was his height in the nape of the neck. When Optimus released it, the titan fell to the ground and its body began to decay.

“Autobots!” Optimus activated his comm. link to speak to the others, “Destroy the nape of the neck! That is another way that we can kill these creatures!”

“Got it!” Bulkhead said as he took out his wrecking ball before crushing the nape of the neck of the titan with it. Arcee replaced her blasters with her arm blades before jumping and carving her blades into the nape of another titan.

“They figured out the titan’s weak point,” Mike commented as he flew with Erwin.

“They’re hyper-intelligent,” Erwin declared.

“Do you think that we can still convince them to still be on our side?” Mike asked, “And can we convince the public that they’re not dangerous?”

“I don’t think we need to do much in either of those categories,” Erwin proclaimed as he noticed the green titan holding back an abnormal titan, allowing a few cadets to flee on foot. Erwin couldn’t help but admire the strength and power of all the titans. He couldn’t help but admire the way that Optimus commanded his soldiers with such ease. It was a marvel to watch.

“HEY!” Optimus froze when he heard someone calling out…calling out to him. Optimus turned his helm to the source of the noise and saw…a boy waving to him. A soldier. He waved both arms high in the air to gesture for both titans to come to his location. A female soldier came up behind him to try and deter him and get him to run, but the boy merely pointed to a boulder a little ways off from their location.

“THIS WAY!” the boy beckoned before flying towards the boulder. The other soldier quickly went after him, and Optimus went after the two of them.

“Optimus, we have to focus on the task at hand!” Ratchet reasoned as he ran after his leader and friend.

“Those two need help!” Optimus explained, “I believe they have a solution to stop this carnage!”

==

“Wait, Bee, we need to go back!” Miko exclaimed as they continued driving down the war torn street, causing Bumblebee to speak a retort.

“We don’t have any way to defend ourselves! We’ll be killed and eaten alive if we don’t run!” Jack retorted.

“But can we even hide in here?!” Rafael asked, “Where are we even supposed to go?”

“I don’t know, but-!” Jack stopped when he noticed someone on the ground, pulling the strange equipment off of the corpse of their comrade before throwing his own off. He quickly strapped the new one on before looking behind him in horror. Jack noticed a titan coming up towards him, and the soldier trying to get away, but the equipment still wasn’t working.

“Bee! Open your door!” Jack slammed his hand on the passenger door, “Miko, help me grab him!”

Jean tried hard to pull the handles of the 3D gear that he had gotten from his fallen comrade, but it still wasn’t working! Why the hell wasn’t it working?! Did this guy’s 3D gear get destroyed too?! Shit! Shit he was going to die! Why did a titan attack have to happen before he went to the inner Walls?! As the titan reached out for him, he yelled in surprise when something yellow rode past in between him and the titan. Two pairs of hands grabbed him and yanked him inside the vehicle before the titan’s hand slammed into the ground.

“Hey, hey are you okay?!” someone shouted at him. Jean screamed in fear at his current location. What the hell was this thing?! Who were these people?! Were they civilians?! Did the carriage just beep at him?! What the hell was-?!

Jean grunted when the oddly dressed girl suddenly slapped him across the face before grabbing his collar.

“Get a hold of yourself man!” she screeched at him, “You’re an awesome medieval spiderman and people need you right now!”

“What the hell’s a spiderman?!” Jean shouted at her before a young boy took a look at the 3D gear around his waist, “And why the hell is your hair pink?!”

“Whoa, this is wild,” he remarked in awe, “Is it damaged?”

“I don’t know! I tried pulling the trigger!” Jean answered as he tried to examine the handle.

“Let me see,” the youngest said as he looked at the handle and pressed the trigger, “I think this handle needs a lot more pressure to activate.”

“What?” Jean stared in bafflement before pressing the trigger as hard as he could. The grappling hook shot out of the open carriage door and hooked itself onto a building.

“Deuces, spiderman!” Jean yelped as his grappling hook yanked him out of the moving carriage. Jean held onto the building he latched onto for dear life before looking back at the strange carriage. He had the perfect opportunity to flee. Why the hell didn’t he?

==

“This way!” Armin beckoned the two titans as they got closer to the boulder and Eren’s titan.

“Armin, whatever those things are could hurt Eren!” Mikasa retorted as they ran side by side.

“But they could also help him, or help us!” Armin retorted, “The bigger one could help move the boulder if Eren can’t! Eren is also vulnerable! Titans could come and devour him!”

Mikasa still stared at Armin with concern, but…decided to trust Armin’s decision.

“Optimus, we have to return to help the others!” Ratchet exclaimed, “We-!”

Optimus skidded to a stop when they arrived at the boulder, and Optimus’ optics widened when he saw a massive titan slumped against the boulder. The side of its face slowly releasing steam, but not healing fast enough.

“What in the Allspark is this?!” Ratchet demanded as he stood next to Optimus.

“This is Eren!” Armin explained as he and Mikasa landed on the roof, “He’s a human that can turn into a titan!”

“How?” Optimus demanded as Ratchet began to scan the massive titan for vitals.

“We don’t know how, but we need him to carry out our plan!” Armin declared, “Most of the titans have been lured to the other side of Trost so Eren can carry the boulder to plug the hole in the Wall! But Eren’s just learned about his powers and he doesn’t know how to control it!”

“They’re actually telling the truth!” Ratchet exclaimed as his sensors picked up a life signal in the nape of the neck.

“Please, we need your help to get him to move the boulder!” Armin begged, “Or have one of you do it! We don’t have much time!”

Optimus thought it over. He could probably lift the boulder, but there were other factors he needed to consider. Based on the information he observed, the titan was human, and he was probably around the same age as those two humans on the rooftop. The boy was trying to plead his case, but he could see the terror in his eyes. The girl looked ready to attack and defend the titan, but her face displayed moments of concern and worry.

This was a power no one knew about. No one knew how it could be controlled. But one thing was certain: if the titan couldn’t find a way to prove that it was useful, then the human inside may very well be executed out of fear. Optimus glanced back at the humans on the rooftop. They had to try and rouse the titan for their sake.

“Ratchet, can you resuscitate the titan?” Optimus turned to the medic.

“Resuscitate the titan?! Are you mad?!” Ratchet shouted, “I am barely just starting to understand human anatomy to avoid the situation that happened with Rafael! This is entirely different from any organic that I have seen! It’s healing itself, there is a lack of organs compared to humans, and a human is controlling the body?! It’s like one of Miko’s monster movies!”

“Ratchet, if there are more allies that can help against the titan threat, then it would be beneficial to acquire them,” Optimus retorted before whispering, “And those humans are concerned for their comrade.”

Ratchet glanced back at the two soldiers on the roof.

“They need your help,” Optimus declared.

Ratchet’s face contorted into a grimace before groaning in frustration. “Slag everything!”

Armin and Mikasa saw Ratchet open the medical kit on his back before he pulled out a set of defibrillators. Ratchet adjusted the knob to the highest setting and rubbed the items together to create friction and electricity.

“If this doesn’t work, then you can carry the fragging boulder by yourself!” Ratchet shouted before placing the medical devices against the titan’s pectorals. “Clear!”

Armin and Mikasa yelled when a shock of electricity ran through Eren’s body. His body jolted to life and his good eye snapped open before he roared in pain. Eren’s eye fell to Ratchet and he immediately swung his arm to smack Ratchet to the ground. Optimus quickly grabbed him before the strike could hit and pulled the medic back. Before Eren could strike again, Armin and Mikasa quickly flew forward and latched onto his hair to look him in the eye.

“Eren, it’s okay! They’re here to help!” Armin reassured; however, Eren still looked uncertain, remembering the pain he just felt in his chest. He looked behind the two of them to see Ratchet scrambling to get one of the defibrillators and put the device in his medical kit. The other side of his face completely healed, and he was stunned to see two metal titans staring back at him.

“We mean you no harm,” Optimus reassured as he raised his servos in surrender, “My name is Optimus Prime, and my comrades and I are here to help you deal with the titan threat.”

Eren blinked in disbelief as Armin and Mikasa sat on Eren’s shoulders.

“Do you remember your mission?” Optimus asked him.

Eren stood up before looking back at the boulder he was just sitting against. Eren clenched his fists before kneeling down and grabbing the boulder from the bottom. He sunk his fingers into the massive rock while Armin and Mikasa flew off of Eren to gain some distance. Eren grunted in pain as he heaved the boulder onto his shoulder and back before standing upright. Steam radiated off of him, but Eren ignored it as he began to walk.

“He’s doing it,” Mikasa sighed with relief.

“Arcee! Bulkhead!” Optimus activated his comm. link to contact the others, “Protect the titan carrying the boulder!”

Arcee jumped and spun in the air before slicing through the nape of the neck. She grunted as she jumped off of that titan before taking out her blaster and shooting another titan in the head.

“I thought the whole point was to kill these things!” Arcee shouted.

“Well one of them is apparently a human that can turn into a titan!” Ratchet explained.

“Oh, no way! A Kaiju?!” Miko screeched through Bumblebee’s comm. link.

“His name is Eren and he needs protection so he can seal the hole in the wall!” Optimus explained before shooting a titan that almost got too close to the titan shifter. “Do not let any of the other titans get near him!”

“On it!” Bulkhead shouted as he grabbed the legs of a titan and spun in around before throwing it at another titan blocking Eren’s path.

Optimus went to follow Eren to provide him some cover, and Ratchet quickly stood up to follow.

“Wait!” Ratchet looked back to the two humans that called him there in the first place.

“Thank you!” the girl told him before the both of them flew off to protect Eren.

“Sir!” Petra called out to Levi as he sliced the nape of two titans with ease. She pointed to the sight, and Levi witnessed a massive titan carrying a boulder just as big as it towards the hole in the wall. Levi then turned his attention to Optimus protecting the titan from behind, shooting any titans that got too close to it. Meanwhile, the blue and green titan converged onto the scene and killed any titans that got in the way of the one carrying the boulder.

“They’re going to seal the hole in the wall,” Levi muttered before calling out to his comrades that were near him, “Everyone! Kill any titans that might get too close to it!”

“Yes, Captain!” they followed his command.

“THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” Hanji cheered, flying through the air with reckless abandon.

“Launch!” Arcee ordered Bulkhead as she bolted towards him. Bulkhead quickly lowered his servos for Arcee to stand on before throwing her into the air. From her aerial view, she aimed and fired at five titans that were too close for comfort. She then managed to jump on the back of a titan much larger than her before shooting it repeatedly in the nape of the neck.

“Holy shit! Is that a female titan?!” Connie pointed to the sight of Arcee jumping off the corpse before hitting the ground. Annie couldn’t help, but gulp at the sight of her.

“There’s more of them?!” Jean demanded as he landed right next to Connie and Annie.

“Get your asses up and kill the titans getting to close to the one holding the boulder!” a Survey Corps member shouted as a squad flew directly above them.

Marco continued to fly around the area, unable to stop his admiration at the sight before him. He watched as the metal titans killed the regular ones with ease. He saw how well they worked together. He saw how they were going out of their way to protect other humans. It was…incredible. He’s never seen such comradely and bravery. Not like this.

Even so, Titans were defying their innate nature to protect a species significantly weaker than them. But there were also humans that could become titans at will. Everything that he had ever known was a lie, but he wanted to do good works. He wanted to do good services. He wanted to serve the king, but many go to the interior in order to run from the titans. That’s exactly what Jean wants to do. And even if he explained this information to the government, would they listen? Would it fall on deaf ears and mean nothing? He wanted to be devoted and do what was right, but he also couldn’t run away when people were in danger.

Maybe…maybe the Military Police wasn’t where he belonged.

Eren couldn’t help but be overwhelmed at what was going on. He was met with the sight of metal titans helping humanity. He saw a flurry of soldiers swinging around on their 3D gear to eliminate titans. He could feel the pain from holding the boulder above his head, but he still pressed onward. His legs burned, the ground shook under his every step, but he still kept going. Fight. Fight!

Eren stumbled a little as he reached the hole, but it didn’t stop him. Titans stood in his way, but they were quickly shot down. Eren could hear Armin shouting his name, cheering him on, and he roared in determination as he slammed the boulder against the hole, sealing the entrance into Wall Rose. He could feel that there was a moment of quiet, of shock and disbelief at what humanity was able to accomplish, but he wasn’t able to relish in the victory as his body collapsed against the massive rock.

“Eren!” Armin and Mikasa called out for him, racing to the nape of his neck together to cut him out.

“The hole’s been sealed,” Connie muttered, “Holy shit. We actually stopped the titans!”

Reiner and Bertholdt landed closer to the now sealed gate and did their best to conceal their terror. There was so much to process. The gate had been sealed, and there were metal titans clearly never been seen before helping out the walls. They had no idea what they were supposed to do now!

“Autobots, continue assisting humanity in eliminating the titans!” Optimus ordered before they all continued eliminating the titans.

Pixis’ hands were behind his back while everyone watched on in concern. However, everyone was stunned when the yellow smoke signal shot up into the air, signifying that the operation was a success.

“Everyone! Assist in eliminating the titans and finding survivors!” Pixis commanded, and soldiers immediately heeding his command and jumped down the wall to help.

“Sir, there is the matter of…those titans,” Gustav chose his words carefully as he handed Pixis a telescope.

The Commander of the Garrison extended the device and looked through the lens. “It is something that we will have to watch closely. However, this will prove beneficial if we play our cards rig-!”

Pixis froze when he spotted…her. He spotted a female titan, slicing through the nape of a titan’s neck before extended both arms and shooting two titans on her side. The titans collapsed to the ground, but the female titan didn’t bother to look back as she bolted towards the next threat.

Pixis’ mouth dropped at the sight before his face morphed into a wistful smile.

“Sir,” Anka called out. “Sir!”

Pixis held the telescope close to his chest and giggled. “God does exist, and he has blessed me for all of my years of military service.”

“What are you talking about?” Anka snatched the telescope away from Pixis and used it to scan the battle field. When her gaze fell to the blue, female, titan, all she wanted to do was curse god for his incompetence.

“God does exist, and he is a cruel bastard who enjoys sick jokes,” Anka declared in frustration.

==

On Earth

Wheeljack stepped off the Jackhammer and examined his surroundings. There were crumbs of energon abandoned on the ground. The trees were knocked over and the ground was leveled. There were clear signs of blaster fire, and he checked the pulses of the vehicons to determine if they were dead or not.

What had happened? He was only on Earth for a little while, but he wasn’t expecting something as severe as a massive energy spike resembling that of a spacebridge. At least not yet. What was-!

“HEY! OPTIMUS! RATCHET! SOMEONE PICK UP THE COMM!” someone had screamed in the Jackhammer. Wheeljack walked inside of his ship and pressed a button.

“What do you want tiny?” Wheeljack demanded. He couldn’t forget that annoying aft voice no matter how hard he tried.

“Where in the Sam Hill are Optimus and the others?!” Agent Fowler demanded.

“I thought they were with you?” Wheeljack raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Well there’s no sign of them!” Fowler declared, “Did the Decepticons capture them?!”

“No…,” Wheeljack trailed off, “But I think something else happened.”

“Well then get to Jasper, Nevada so we can talk about it!” Fowler ordered.

Wheeljack looked back at the battlefield before taking off towards the Autobot Base. What in the Allspark was going on?

(So a few notes:

-This timeline takes place right before Season 2 Episode 7 of Transformers Prime, so many key players would still be alive and active. -I didn't want to introduce the Decepticons in this chapter. If I were to introduce them, I would probably put them at the end of the 2nd chapter. I ended with Wheeljack because I thought the mystery aspect would be fun to set up. -Hanji does have a revelation that they are non-binary in this timeline, but they don't know what that means until Jack, Miko, and Raf bring it up because the trio were defaulting to they/them pronouns for Hanji when I made them interact with each other. However, I did try my best to avoid using she/her pronouns for Hanji unless I absolutely needed to do it because at this point in this timeline, Hanji does still go by those pronouns. I just didn't want to cause too many issues since I did say I would continue to refer to Hanji by they/them pronouns for the rest of my writing. It feels like I might be offending someone or breaking a promise. (Once Hanji changes their pronouns in this timeline, Levi does still threaten people with violence if they misgender Hanji). -Marco does live. I thought it would be fun to spice things up. -Because Levi is an Ackerman, I wanted him to be able to understand Bumblebee, but not that much because binary code is still new to Levi. -I was not originally going to have Ratchet resuscitate Eren, but the thought came to me as I was writing this and I wanted to have some fun with it. Lol. -I finished this damn thing in like two days. I'm really trying to get all my side projects done before I start my new job. -Anyway, be sure to show some love!)