#Lorien legacies fanfic

[jimmycarterghostland]

Anyone remember that Lorien Legacies fanfic The Return of Lorien? It was the most popular LL fanfic, and it was pretty good. Flawed but good. Sadly, a year or a few years ago, I went to the bookmark I had of it in my phone, and the story was gone. Deleted, I guess. It's a real bummer too, because it was the best LL fanfic I've ever read, and it was a completed story with a completed sequel. It actually showed the Garde living in peace on Lorien at the end of the sequel. I remember that.

RIP, The Return of Lorien.

[ll-but-its-random]

Rare Fanfic Case No. 2

This idea is not entirely original. Read this Einar x Five Fanfic called Scars on Ao3 by SolNiveAngelo (Mogadorian_Wolf) so thanks @descendantstidalage. I really liked your works and that is about 40% of all Lorien Legacies Works on Ao3, let's be real. So this is an extension of that fic that I've been rolling around my head for weeks.

Fandom: Lorien Legacies.

Characters: Einar Magnusson, Number Five, Isabela Silva, Others (Mentioned).

Warnings: Mentions of injury and disfiguration.

Ship: Five/Einar.

Original Idea Credit: @descendantstidalage , SolNiveAngelo (Mogadorian_Wolf) on Ao3.

'What about this one?'

Einar's fingertips brushed over an actual scar on his chest, one that wasn't overrun by the augmentation. It looked like a real scar, one that bled and healed, vaguely resembling a stab wound, only too wide.

'Oh, this? That's from the invasion.' Five started. 'I was fighting Number Nine and he sort of... hurled a sign post at me.'

'"At"?'

'More like through.' Five shrugged. 'Came out the other side.'

'That sounds fatal.'

'Well, I'm not so dead right now, am I?'

He almost laughed at that, leaving the the puncture scar and travelling over other ones that litter Five's skin. All seeming more humane than the black patches that surrounds them. Every time Five talked about it, the invasion seemed more and more intense, at least the way he pictured it.

'Did it hurt?' he blurted out.

'The initial impact? Or actually feeling having a lung punctured?' His confused expression said a lot. He shrugged. 'I was using Externa. But yeah, it did.'

There it is, Einar thought. Shrugging, like that would physically brush the topic off. 'This seems... a bit much.'

'I kind of it deserved it.'

He frowned more. 'No, I mean everything. Don't... don't you think you've paid enough...'

That seemed to catch his attention more. Einar paused a moment before finishing. 'I don't want to be the judge of that, I don't actually know everything you did, but don't you think you've already paid your penance?'

Five was silent for a long moment. When he directly looked at him again, the Loric was staring down at the hand on his chest, almost expressionless. But Einar saw beneath it. Guilt. Doubt.

'I... I don't know..' he started. 'I'm not sure if I ever will.' He reached up and put his hand on his arm. Einar felt the black ooze on his fingers writhing against his skin, but he didn't mind it much. He waited for Five to meet his eyes again.

A few seconds went by, and he actually looked up at him again. Silence stretched on for who knows how long. Then Five spoke again.

'You know, it's-'

He stopped mid-sentence as Einar heard the door creak behind him.

'Hey, Five, Duan needs some help to-' Isabela paused for about a second before a smirk spread on her face. 'Oh, yeah... I'll just-'

The door slammed shut before she finished, and from the look on his face, it was Five's telekinesis. He cursed under his breath.

Einar had to stop himself from outright laughing, but he couldn't help but grin. 'Yeah, not the first time she barged in without knocking.' Five, meanwhile, had his face buried in his hands. 'Well, it's not like she'll do anything with that. I mean, who's going to believe it?'

'That's not the problem! It's one thing for you to see it and a whole other thing for Isabela of all people to.'

'Oh yeah?' He pushed back another laugh. He put his arm around the other's shoulders in a side hug. 'Well, from the VIP view that I'm allowed here, you look gorgeous.'

He gave him a look. 'You think that?'

'I know that.'

[fanfic-writing-addic]

I sit across from six as I do my thing on the computer trying to find number four. “So what is the plan?” I ask,

“We find him, and get him the hell out of there.” She responds, her response is always the same “I’m going to get a refill want one?”

“Yes please.” She takes our cups up tot eh counter. Coffee one of my favorite human drinks. I stop typing. Paradise paradise Ohio is where he’s at. Is he and his ceapean insane! That’s one of the places that my people kept watch. We’re screwed. Six comes back.

“What did you fine?” I can hear the concern in her voice.

“We need to go to paradise Ohio right now.” I say, slamming the computer. She doesn’t ask. Just hands me my coffee. We leave. We get in the old beat up car we stole at a junkyard a few weeks ago. She starts driving. I then decide to fill in. “We have another problem. Paradise is on of the hand full of place my people have put watch over.”

“Fuck!” She yells, she then begins speeding taking all the back roads as I navigate her. Her knuckles right from gripping the stirring wheel so tight. We go directly to a school. My people are already there.

“Looks like we are going to have to fight our way in.”

“Yeah, looks like it.” We get out of the car. She takes my hand turning us invisible. We take out a few mogs along the way and steal their blasters. Not like they need them anymore anyway. We follow the line of mogs to a door. Six turns us visible and we start shooting. She busts down the door. I hold them off. “Alex, get your ass in here!” She shouts, so I do. She slams the door behind me. There are four other people in the room. A girl with blond hair. A boy with shaggy blond hair. A boy with dark brown hair. And a boy with blond hair.

“Which one of you is four?” I ask, one of the boys with blond hair raises his hand. I roll my eyes. “If you were one of my people they would have killed you at birth.” It’s a wonder they didn’t kill Adam at birth. Now I have no clue where he is. They captured us and split us up. I helped six escape. I still have no clue where my brother is.

“Your on of them.” The boy with shaggy hair points out.

“Yeah, don’t worry i don’t plan to kill you.”

“Listen I can only turn myself and four of you invisible…” I interrupt her.

“Take them. I can handle myself.”

“Are you sure?”

“I grew up with them. I know how they think and act. I’ll be fine. I’ll go first.” Before she can stop me I’m already out the door. I remove my glasses and bear my teeth. They reqonize me as a commander due to my tattoos. Even though they known I turned they still respect me. That’s the flaw in their DNA. I shoot all of them dead to ash. I then run down the corridor and into a rom that I see it open. There are the others.

“You’re mogadorien?” The old man asks, my guess is that he’s the cépean.

“Yeah, don’t worry I don’t plan on killing you. Just finding my idiot brother. But to be fair I helped him so I guess that makes both of us idiots in the my people eyes.”

“What did you do?” Four asks,

“We tried to save two and three. We failed both times. We got separated. It’s a long story.” More blaster fire. By some miracle we get out alive. But we’re on the run. Nothing new I guess.

[5s-missing-eye]

Okay but imagine if Five traveled around the world instead of staying in Miami... this idea has been stuck in my head for weeks but wow I didn't have any time to actually do something ab it

Now I'm thinking about making a fanfic that continues from when Five lands in Miami. He'll leave America and go to Europe or smth

This will be very self indulgent and probably out of character I'm sorry ab that

I don't even know where to send him. I'm thinking about Portugal first and then he'll travel around the whole world

Another thing, I have no idea if this will connect to the main story or if I'll just write until I'm out of ideas. And I have no idea how I'm gonna get his other Legacy into this. I guess flying is enough for travelling around the world

Please give me some ideas ab where to send him

[asskickingtechniques]

Check out my latest fanfic!

Synopsis:

Marina and Naveen were very close in school but time drifted them apart. But when they cross paths again after years, will the old sparks between them reignite?

[shitty-goose-quack]

six x nine drabble (lorien legacies) [nine's pov]

yk what, fuck it, im writing some

when four said this girl was more powerful than him on that long drive to New Mexico, nine didn't believe him. How could a girl, even a loric girl, be stronger than him? but as he watched six aim her gun at the paper target 120yds away, it was evident in the way she carried herself how capable she was. how her bicep flexed ever so slightly with the kick of the revolver, how she bit her lip while taking aim, how her- nine was staring. as he took aim at his own target, he couldn't help but notice how she had missed the mark only twice, and then his thoughts drifted back to her. "looks like you're worse at this than you are talking to girls" six said nine glanced at the target, noticing he had only hit the target about half the times "here let me show you" she said, putting her hands on his shoulders and turning his upper body 10 degrees he shook her off "maybe you're better at shooting, but how often are you going to have a fully loaded gun when the moags ambush you?" he asks. "no, what really matters is how well you do without a weapon, and in that regard, I have you beat" "oh really?" she said, smirking. "lets find out." "looking forward to it" nine says, both nervous and excited "roof, 5 minutes" she says, walking away as she takes off her shirt, revealing a black tank top tucked into worn blue jeans. "and /no/ inheritance. lets see what you can do without your stick"

[aroace-number-eight]

RIP Five you would have loved Cinema Therapy

[13yearsoflorien]

Fanfic Submission #39

Today's fanfic submission is: "You Are Number Four" by nerdyiceskater!

"A stohn fic where John falls under Setrákus Ra's control and Nine has to go and save him. It's a good read with amazing dialogue (Nine sassy as ever). There's a scene that falls a bit inconsistent with the rest of the fic, but it's very minimal and doesn't affect it much." - anonymous submission

This is the last week of fanfic submissions for the 13yearsoflorien celebration! Thank you so much to everyone who has recommended these wonderful fics to the fandom!

[adamussutekh]

Hey this is bit of a long shot but was wondering if the archived lorien legacies fics you saved in 2021 included fics by "i wish i could be number five"? (the drive link no longer works). Been searching for their fics for ages after they cleared their fanfic page a while back. All goods if you don't!

Yeah sorry, google made me migrate them to a different account due to copyright nonsense at some point and I think there's old links still floating around. I'll make a post with updated links in a sec and pin that!

I have a couple! I may have more, but here's the ones I could find with a cursory search. Note that there's some html rot with a lot of these due to the state FFNET was in at the time of scraping so you'll have to do some work to make them easy to read again:

[lorienwhats]

my internet went out and all i had was my lorien legacy fanfic so guess who is back

[lorien-legacies-heritage-posts]

Blog Rules

Welcome to our very own Lorien Legacies heritage posts blog!

Submission rules

posts are generally pre-2018, but there are exceptions

submissions are acceptable, provided they're funny

please send submissions through asks/submits or DMs

because this fandom is fairly small, note count is not an issue, but it does not guarantee your submission will be on this blog

posts with whitewashed characters will not be accepted (ex. Robert Sheehan fancasts for Eight, IAN4 movie Three)

fanwork posts (fanart, fanfic, fanedits, incorrect quotes) may be accepted, but they would have to be part of a thread of comments from other users. posts of fanworks themselves will not be accepted

the same goes for book quote posts and page screenshots

liveblogging threads are greatly appreciated

fan song textposts are accepted since they're usually hilarious

you can ask me to find a post but these will not be a priority

i reserve the right not to reblog every submission

How this blog will be managed

posts will be queued one per day

characters and ships will be tagged

you can send asks to talk to me or ask me a question, these will be tagged #mod is talking

this blog's main purpose is to reblog posts from old ll fandom and celebrate the community from its heyday, but it also works as an archive so long as the posts follow the rules above

this blog is managed by one person so i apologize if things get very slow, i may be busy

racists, terfs, queerphobes, ableists, and negative criticizers of the series and/or fandom will be blocked

[shitty-art-quack]

upcoming projects:

more pride symmetry stuff, requests for flags are open!

pokemon fusions/type changes/etc

lorien legacy fanfic(s)

the lesbiana's guide to catholic school fics

[ll-but-its-random]

A rare case of Fanfic, because I remember I used to write for the PJO and G2018 fandom in 2020:

Gonna be honest, this is an idea I've had for a short while and thought why not?

Fandom: Lorien Legacies.

Characters: Number Seven (Marina), Number Five, Others (Mentioned).

Warnings: Mentions of death (non-explicit). Dead characters.

Summary: Marina, dreaming to be at Eight's grave sees the last person she ever wanted to see again.

Post Return to Zero- One shot.

Marina stood alone at the mountain base, eyes glued to the ground in front of her. The etched headstone almost had her vision tunneling. Nothing really new about it. She didn't feel the wind or hear the noises of the forest behind her. The aura that New Lorien is constantly emitting is dull to her senses. It's not coming from here, it's coming from the outside.

She's in a dream. A quiet one at that, not that she's complaining much.

The tombstone here was identical to the real deal, two things carved on it. A circular symbol of a ring with small circles intertwining with it in two curves, almost like an orbit. Beneath that was a single loric word.

No actual body was buried here, but it felt fit to give Eight a grave in his own home. Where the Vishnu Nationalists Eight could come too, where he could be seen close to New Lorien. Marina cannot count how many times she visited; sometimes crying, sometimes silent, sometimes sitting next to the gold stone, pretending it was the same boy sitting next to her.

Sometimes- like now- she stands a few feet before it, gazing numbly. In silence.

"Don't you think it's time?"

Marina didn't look away. She didn't step back, she didn't flinch. But she was still angry at the interruption. Especially from him. The last time she's actually heard this voice was so long ago in an ear-splitting scream, but it circled her sometimes in her sleep, in the back of her head. In so many different tones. Malice, timidity, but probably most of all, lies. All from the same person.

He was sitting right next to the headstone.

Marina didn't want to reply- the last thing she wants is that he continues to haunt her dreams. Though this doesn't feel like a fabrication of her head. It was really him.

Yet she answered, "Time for what?"

"To move on."

That is when she turns her gaze to him. He actually looks better than she remembers, watching him from afar. The black patches on his skin were gone. The eyepatch John and Nine described wasn't there, but he didn't look like he needs it, now that his eye socket isn't empty. Not as thin as before, but not round as he used to be. Whatever afterlife is waiting for all of them, it treated him well.

Marina was now glaring. "It's not your place to decide."

Five shrugged. "Surely not. It's the world's. it will push you there at one point or another." His tone was calm, voice levelled. Whatever he truly meant behind that, she refused to believe it's any good.

She took a long breath through her nose. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"Because..."

"Because, I'm sorry. However little that means."

"So little."

They fell silent, and her eyes travelled back to Eight's symbol. Five looked straight at her before he too turned to the tombstone beside him. She could almost mistake him for someone alive. she once called him a ghost. Now he really was one.

"After I got off the island," he started. "I don't know if I was just trying to busy from it or actually moving on, but I learned to lived live with myself again. I lived with the fact he's dead. I stopped trying to beat myself over it." He turned to her again. "I still wanted to make it up with you, though. All of you."

Marina has no idea why she kept listening. If she willed it hard enough, maybe she can wake up, leave him, go see Eight's actual tomb. She didn't.

"I did a lot of things wrong, but if there was only one action I could take back, Marina, it would be this."

"You..." she replied, teeth grinding. Her anger from so long before boiled again. Boiled. Her legacy won't kill him again here. "You betrayed us, you worked for him, and were too stupid to realize it soon, you tried to end Nine." She ranted. "of course, after everything you get to move on."

Five sighed. "Yeah, I guess there is nothing that makes up for that to you guys."

At that he stood up, and for all the nerve of him, started walking towards her. It couldn't be more than a few months between them, but he'd always been on the short side. The few inches she's grown since the invasion now had her looking down at him.

He was next to her, and she yet has to move.

"What makes you believe that?"

"You think I wouldn't notice if I had a grave?"

That was true. Even now, over a year since the explosion, Ran Takeda's grave always seemed well-kept and occasionally visited by her friends. Five's grave was still the sky.

Marina saw his hand on her shoulder, and while she didn't feel its weight, it was as real as anything else here. He was suddenly so different, once again patched with black augmentation and missing an eye. Like the last time she'd actually seen him.

"You have to continue, Marina. Eight wants that for you." he said. "He says hi, by the way." He added with a smile.

She perked up, mouth agape. "He... what?"

Five looked up at her with a single eye. "He'll come to see you, I promise."

He faded out, and Marina woke up in tears.

[fanfic-writing-addic]

So here’s a Lorien legacies fan fic I started writing on my Wattpad account that I’d love to share with you guys. This is a nine x oc story.

So basically Eva the main character is Bolivian and doesn’t know English. She ends up with PTSD and ends up being on the run from the Bolivian government. She also has a secret that not even she knew. She doesn’t trust anyone and is always trying to push people away.

So yeah that’s the summary. I suck at writing those by the way, but yeah this story is my pride and joy. So it would mean a lot to me if you read it. If don’t that’s fine by me. I think you’ll like it. Also nines kind of soft because I love writing soft nine, but don’t be afraid he’s still bad ass, and well hot. Then again how can he not be?

Alright I’ll give you the link and leave.

Goodbye.

[knaveofmogadore]

First Second Meetings

I don’t think I’m ever going to get over these nerds! It’s been YEARS since I’ve put out adive content I think! This is a rework actually of one of my older fics since lost to time, adapted to the current state of canon. This is my, what? Third first meetings fic for Adamus and Five? Frey needs to let them argue already so I can stop writing these

Five kidnaps Adamus in the middle of his third night back at civilization, and that sets off the beginning of a beautiful friendship, with a side of drama, war, and Einar.

Adam sat down on the bed with a relieved sigh. Nearly two years in the arctic, a sudden evacuation of Alaska, a surprise pick up from his friend John Smith, a non stop sting of diplomatic meetings and legal and not so legal fights, and a stress fueled sparring smackdown with Nine all added to two years of terrible sleep and seventy two hours of virtually no sleep at all. His exhaustion was evident in the heavy way he moved, the effort it took to hold his head up. It did not, however, dull the feeling of sitting on an actual bed, in an actual house, in a room that was actually sort of his. Adam fell backward with a soft laugh and sprawled. His head almost hung over the edge against the wall and his feet were planted on the floor. Uncomfortable though the position was and odd though it felt to be on a clean mattress with intact sheets, it was the safest he had felt in years. With a Mogadorian warship and a peacekeeper army near enough to wage war in the Academy’s backyard, that was a bit sad. Ironic even.

Adam sat up when he heard Malcolm Goode appear in the doorway. He smiled in that fatherly way he had. His face screamed stressed, but it seemed to fade in the face of Adam being even marginally happier than he was when he got here. Even at this level of exhaustion Adam can't help but smile back. This place was new, the HGA not something he would ever agree with, but he still felt a little bit at home. Safe. Cared about for the first time in a long time.

“Settling in ok?”

Adam nodded, “It still feels weird, but I promise I'm fine.”

Malcolm nodded back, satisfied, and rested his hand on the doorknob.

“Sam and Six are just down the hall, and I'll be asleep downstairs in my office, probably,” Malcolm looked at Adam in a way that he hopes conveyed that that was an invitation for fellow insomniacs, “so you're not alone here. Try to get some sleep, ok?”

“Yeah, I don't think that sleep is going to be an issue. I feel like I haven't slept in years.”

That didn't help the stress and exhaustion ease from Malcolm at all. He clears his throat and moves to shut the door behind him, before he stops and snaps his fingers.

“Right! I know it's going to be hard, but try and get up early tomorrow. Lexa is coming over to review the security over breakfast and she wants your input.”

Adam nods, “I'll try my best to get up before noon.”

Tomorrow was a rest day for negotiations, a chance for everyone to take a step back and think over legalities, and a chance for the garde at the academy to strategize about other threats. They also hoped it would be a good chance for the mogadorians to not only rest, but curb the tempers that were beginning to run short.

Malcolm smiled one last time and shut the door.

****

Adam shifted under the thin blanket in his sleep. He squeezes the pillow provided in his arms, opting to sleep without one. The mattress was not the most comfortable, which helped Adam get over how weird it felt to sleep on one after all this time. It helped that he was too tired to stay awake without great effort. Twenty minutes of shifting and then laying still and he was out like a light.

He was not usually a deep sleeper, a habit he could never afford growing up with his brother Ivan and his unstable father. He never had a chance to pick it up, either. Especially not since the war ended. Sleeping through being ambushed and even stabbed was a terrible idea.

Tonight Adam was beyond being roused by the soft opening of a window, the lack of footsteps, the even quieter breeze. What did wake him was the metal hand that covered the bottom half of his face. His eyes blinked open, and then he tried to scream and reach around to punch his attacker in the neck. His fingers crack against a solid metal jaw. He is fully roused then, awake enough to notice that he and his now kidnapper were floating out of the window even as he put up a fight.

After the second time Adam almost made his attacker drop him, he realized that it maybe was not the best idea to make someone let hi go while they were suspended several hundred feet above the ground. He quieted instead, and allowed the rogue garde, and they must be a rogue garde, John would never scare him like this and no one else would dare, to carry him by his armpits. It was as terrifying and death defying as the first time he rode a flying garde into the early morning, but Adam still found himself sort of enjoying the sensation. He was not going to die right away, or he would have been killed at any point so far. He allowed himself to enjoy, just for the moment, the feeling of wind in his hair, the sight of San Francisco and all of her lights below him. If he was with a garde he trusted, Adam would have smiled.

The peace didn’t last long. Just as Adam’s shoulders were starting to cramp like they would be stuck that way, a ship came into view. Not just any ship, a skimmer, and one that was in pretty poor shape at that. It hovered mid-air above the city, waiting to land. Wires trailed from the underbelly and flapped in the wind, the paint job needed a serious retouching, and the ship was more dented than would ever be allowed by an self respecting engineering officer.

Adam’s mind was already running through escape plans. It would be easy enough to pilot the thing once he could lock himself in the cockpit, he had been flying skimmers since he was a child. He had the blueprints for the ship already clear in his mind, exhausted though he was he could clearly map his way on and off even the rattiest looking model. He figures if push comes to shove he could blow half of the floor away with the smallest seismic wave. Maybe even by just stomping too hard.

The rogue approached the ship and opened the doors from the air. Adam had hoped that the ship would land, but at least this way he knows that they are probably alone, and the garde is holding him by one arm. The keypad sparks and the doors open. Adam waits, and the doors slide closed behind them. Just a few more seconds, the garde is close to, and then Adam’s feet touch the floor.

With an acrobatic twist that would make Six proud Adam shoves his hand against the garde’s chest and puts enough of his legacy into it that the wave sends the garde sailing into the opposite wall, where there were already considerable dents. Adam lands lightly on his feet and prepares for a fight, casting his eyes around for something, anything he can hit with.

In the meantime his attacker is back off his feet already. He clutches at his chest, and between his rage and the pins and needles feeling in his ribs he doesn’t notice that his hood has fallen down. Adam turns full bodied to the movement, his cockpit plan forgotten for the sake of not dying before he gets there, and then he freezes. His face pales, his expression stricken, his stance stiff and off kilter with the realization of how many garde, exactly, both have more than one legacy and can fly.

Five’s nostrils flare and he growls. For a brief moment before his metal skin takes over Adam can see black scars snaking across his cheek from his neck. He is beyond unhappy. There is murder in his eyes, barely restrained. Adam’s realization and one fact turned lie overshadows all of that.

“Five! You’re alive!”

Five charged Adam and lifted him by his shirt to slam him against the wall of the ship, then took him away just to slam him again. Adam grabbed into Five's hand. He tries his best to maintain eye contact as Five tries to crush him into the wall.

“Five,” Adam wheezes, “listen to me..”

“I'm done listening! I know you, Adamus, I know how you like to talk! I'm not gonna listen to it!”

Adam grasps Five's meaty metal wrist firmly, but not to pull at at. He just holds it. Five has murder in his eyes but Adam is unruffled, unflappable. He reminds Five of Einar and through some conditioned response this calms him enough to listen anyway. He does not ease up his grip, forcing Adam to talk softly and breathe shallowly.

“You..you're angry. You're hurt. You feel like you have been abandoned, I know how that feels..”

It was too soon for empathy, Five smacked Adam's back against the wall for a third time.

“Like hell you know how this feels! You isolated yourself and they still welcomed you back with open arms! You betrayed your entire race and you're. Still. Here!”

With every pause Five slammed Adam into the wall again. A dent is starting to form behind him, and black spots are swimming in his vision. Time for the tough truths approach, he decided.

“Do,” Adam wheezed in a breath, “do you think that you scare me? Do you think you're the first person to attack me in my own home? The first to try and kill me in the middle of the night? The first to pick me up and beat the shit out of me?”

Adam can feel Five's metal fist digging its fingernails into his skin through his nightshirt. He shook his hair out of his eyes to the best of his ability and looks down at Five's fist. He moves his hands up to cradle it and sends just a tickle of his legacy into the metal flesh. Small waves, barely as strong as the force of a splash dive into the pool. He knows the force has Five's hand ringing anyway with pins and needles, the metal of his skin amplifying the effects of Adam's legacy. Five's fingers loosen enough to give him more breath and his grip doesn't tighten again.

Adam sucks in a deep breath with a quiet gasp. He savours the feeling of being able to expand his chest and he swallows, trying to clear away the stickiness in his throat. His ribs ache with the strain but his head clears. The ringing in his ears subsides a fraction. His hair falls back into his eyes and he leaves it, better than Five not see his face. Empathy seemed to enrage him, so tears would also, Adam reasons.

“My entire life has been like this, from the day of my birth to this moment. Always afraid of screwing up, always under threat of consequences, never good enough, never strong enough, never coming from the right place.”

Adam's hands begin to shake around Five's hand and he allows them to for the first time in years.

“I was afraid, and then I was angry. I was angry that he could never see how hard I was trying, I was pissed that they just used me and tossed me back onto the trash pile once they were done, I was so, so angry that they thought they could hunt children like beasts and I never stopped being angry, Five. I'm still angry. It's what my legacy relies on.”

Five looks down, stops trying to meet Adam's eyes through his fringe to look at his shaking hands. The movement is the most anxiety he's seen come from any Mogadorian. Not anxiety. Not anger, either. Exhaustion. Distress. His eyes snap back up when Adam composes himself and continues talking.

“So I do get it. I have always gotten it. You're angry, you feel used and discarded and hated, you think that no one cares about you and that you're all alone in this world because there is one group if people in this whole wide universe that doesn't love you.”

Five's hand begins to shake and it puts Adam on edge, but there was no stopping now. He plows forward and pays it no heed. He makes a point of not looking up at Five's face in case he was wrong.

“That isn't how the universe works, Five. Just because the people you want to love you don't show you what you want, that does not mean you are not loved, cannot be loved. We make our own lives, our own destinies, our own families out of whatever and whoever we want.”

Adam looks up through his overgrown bangs and sighs tiredly at Five. His eyes are downcast, his shoulders slumped. Tears shine from the corners of his eyes and threaten to show over his cheeks. Adam taps his fingers against the metal of his skin to gain his attention. Tink, tink, tink. He looks up and searches Adam's expression for deceit.

“Put me down, Five.”

Five's fist tightens its grip instead. His flesh and bone and scarred fist.

“What if I wanted to kill you instead? That was a nice speech, but I still think you're dead wrong.”

Adam is untroubled, though his voice comes out tired.

“If you were ever going to kill me you would have done it when you took me. You don't play with your prey, we both know that. You were never going to kill me in the first place.”

Five slams Adam into the wall one last time for good measure. A petulant, last ditch effort to make Adam feel like he is wrong about Five. His own odd way of trying to enforce his own self deprecating thoughts, his own self hatred. Adam saw straight through it, even if Five did not. Maybe not yet, but he thinks that someday he will. He does not smile, no, but he suddenly looks less tired, more hopeful. Five no longer intimidates him, forget scaring him.

The change in Adam’s demeanor suddenly puts Five on edge. No one apart from Einar acted like they weren’t afraid of them, everyone hated Five, or was scared of him, but Adam seemed practically at ease in his presence. He hated that, he decided. Adam had no reason to feel anything for him but hatred. He hated that he acted like he could understand any of this. He hated that Adam could understand. Five betrayed his own people, the people Adam betrayed his people to help. There are few people who have more reasons to hate Five than he does.

Five growls and drops him.

“Stop that!”

Adam braces himself against the wall and holds his chest in both of his arms. His ribs throbbed and his back felt like Five crushed it into dust. A bruise was loudly and angrily forming over his sternum. He was a little too preoccupied in that moment to listen to anything Five said, too focused on standing up straight and not passing out from how suddenly tired he was. He looked up, not bothering to hide his confusion, when Five steadied him with hands on his shoulders. He coughed and looked to the side, revealing more scarring down the back of his neck. Adam shoved down deep an urge to trace them with his fingers.

“...Thank you.”

Five shrugged, “It’s nothing. Um.”

“Why did you take me in the first place? The only thing you could accomplish by removing me from the equation is war, and I doubt you’re helping someone experiment on garde.”

Five looked more flustered by the second. The longer Adam’s penetrating stare examined him the more he felt like he was being dissected. Adam’s eyes were a scalpel and prod, and Five was on the operating table. He was never someone anyone could successfully lie to. Five is taken back, for a moment, to when he had first met the other Loric garde. If Adam had been there he would have never gotten away with any of it. Five gives up on any secrecy right then and there. He also backs away from Adam a step, just in case.

“Einar is hoping to convert you to his cause. He figures that if anyone would back him up about the Earth’s governments not having the right to control the fate of the world and all of the garde in it, it would be you. He thinks you can get all of your people on his side.”

Adam’s sigh carries so much exhaustion that it makes Five want to lay down on the floor and sleep. He pinches the bridge of his nose and takes in, then releases, a long breath. He starts to say something, then takes even more seconds to calm himself and rethink. He does that two more times before he knows he won’t have a complete breakdown where he stands.

“The kid’s heart is in the right place, I think,” he begins, speaking evenly, carefully, “but his techniques, his ideas, his schemes are unrefined. They are dangerous even, especially ones where he interferes in things he has no way of understanding. Einar may come from mogpro, but he has never met a Mog, he has no idea what he thinks he’s trying to accomplish here.”

“Adamus..”

Adam talked right over Five. He is using this moment as a sort of release for all of the frustration he has been forced to shove down from the past two years. Later, he will feel guilty about taking it out on Five. Right now his careful speech gives way to his mounting irritation and diplomacy flies out the window, shrieking and trailing feathers behind her.

“It was hard enough getting the mogadorians on earth to follow my lead in renouncing Setrakus Ra, and even then the ones being evacuated from Alaska are just a fraction of my people now. Getting Vontezza to even listen to me has been a headache! The children of my people are in more danger now than they were when Setrakus Ra was in power, the mogs are no closer to not succumbing to extinction, and now you are telling me some child wants to add his hairbrained schemes to the mix?”

“Adam…”

“Tell Einar that he can eat the general’s sword scrap by scrap if he wants a Mogadorian’s help in destabilizing the situation further, and that is my final word.”

Adam finally quieted and held his hand to his side to quell the fresh pain in his ribs from shouting. Five stood there, defeated and at a total loss. He figured out halfway through Adam’s speech that he was not the target, and now all he wanted to do was fix this. Tentatively he reached out and rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder. He looked down at Five through his fringe and was hit with a small pool of guilt in his stomach at the remorse in his expression. Adam has shot the messenger.

“Let me take you home, if,” Five winced, “since, since your answer is no.”

The flight back was in silence. Five carried him bridal style this time, with extra special care given to his ribs and back. Adam enjoyed the flight more this time, in spite of the ache. With his head clear of escape plans and fear of death it was easier to appreciate the lights of the city. The wind flipped his hair into a mess and pressed a chill into his skin. Without thinking he pressed closer to Five. Five without a word dropped his metal skin. Adam pretended not to notice the scar tissue he could feel through Five’s shirt.

In spite of the ache and the chill and the circumstances, it was pleasant. Quiet. Adam thinks, possibly, that he could grow to trust Five this time around. Five thinks, maybe, that he and Adam could become friends once all of this is over. With the HGA coming into view, it did not feel like a final parting. It wouldn’t be.

[farkenshnoffingottom]

Okay, so I almost always filter out the “major character death” warning on ao3, and yet I just wrote a fic several thousand words longer than anything else I’ve ever written entirely centered around reacting to two canon character deaths. And I’m actually really pleased with how it turned out. I have a lot of opinions about the ending of RtZ, but one major complaint I have is that, while we do get to see some of the Human Garde’s reactions and settling into New Lorien, we don’t get to see basically anything about the Loric. This is my approach to a canon-compliant closer look at everyone’s headspace in that last chapter. 

Summary: The remaining Garde react to their new scar. Includes lots of introspection, angst, and working through grief and trauma

~Spoilers for the final chapter of Return to Zero~

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 7,461