#THE GIANT HEAD she flies past..... the beautiful beautiful jungle....

[fluentisonus]

nausicaa title sequence my Beloved

[ussjellyfish]

my insomnia laced dragon queen season s7 au

mostly becuase it won’t leave my brain alone....

Dragon Queen snuck into s7, which a touch of Glass Believer. (it’s not a real fic because my brain doesn’t really have time for that, but if I did...)

(should probably dedicate this to the person posting in the tags about how they didn’t ship dragon queen, nothing makes me ship it harder, apparently. )

Henry, Ella, Regina and the resistance run into Lily in the EF2. Lily’s also been wandering the realms, trying to find herself. She gets lost easily, no real concept of time either, being that she’s a dragon on this side.

Henry recognizes her before she recognizes him. He’s supposed to be a kid, he’s like twelve.

They laugh about that. She comes home with him from the tavern where he was getting supplies, listening to everything that’s happened to him since he left Storybrooke.

they meet Ella who’s initially a little skeptical of Henry returning to top secret camp with strangers, but no, this is his sister.

Half-sister. Sort of.

“Oh? I didn’t know you had a half-sister.”

Henry shrugs a little, scratches the back of his neck. “The other half is dragon.”

“Dragon?” And Ella thinks that’s actually pretty amazing (if she doesn’t think about it too much, there’s some weird logistics there, but a dragon is really helpful to the cause, because it’s air support, that’s awesome.)

Lily listens and is willing to help them but when they start talking about actual combat she pauses. “You kind of want Mom for that. I can look scary, definitely burn some stuff, lots of stuff, but anything precise is still kind of beyond me. I can do sound and fury but I’m not really good at the terrifying beast thing.”

Ella takes a moment to blink and switch “Mom” for “Dad” in her head, because no one really specified the pronouns before.

Regina returns from doing something outside of camp and Henry and Lily are talking about trying to summon Maleficent and Lily jokes that it’s not the other world. She can’t just call her.

Regina looks kind of sheepish and corrects Lily that actually, there’s a summoning spell for Maleficent that Regina knows because it was in her spellbook, that Regina basically memorized as a young woman, because she’s a giant nerd and she was fangirling, and she might have had a chance to cast it someday.

Regina casts the spell, because two dragons in the resistance is pretty damn cool. Maleficent appears all drama and fury at first, old school terror, until she recognizes Regina and drops the green flames.

“I didn’t know you knew that spell.”

“I knew all of them, never thought I’d need to cast it.”

And Ella, who’s just sharp as hell, watches them kind of sort of flirting and nudges Henry who’s all.

“They broke up literally ages ago.”

“That’s not what broken up looks like, Henry.”

“They’re friends.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And they’re Lily’s parents.”

“You’re the author,  tell me, how did that story end for them?”

He doesn’t know. Regina’s never talked about it. They ask Lily and she’s also in the dark. She knows the gist of it, Regina wanted to cast the Dark Curse, Maleficent didn’t, they fought.

“Regina kept Mom in dragon form in a cave for like, forever.”

“Just the curse.”

Ella watches Regina and Mal talking across camp and there’s no animosity, none at all, they’re catching up like old friends. Really old friends who walk around holding hands.

Henry and Lily are both all “there’s nothing, really.”

Ella gives them an “uh-huh, sure” sort of look.

In Hyperion Heights, Roni needs money to fight Victoria. Some kind pf outrageous permit or something, and she doesn’t know how she’ll get it and Herny mentions something about fairy godmothers, and she laughts.

“That’s it.”

And she ‘summons’ Mal with a tattered old business card that still has her contact info, and as much as Roni is not Madame Mayor Regina, Maleficent in the cursed world is an airy sort of hippee with thick glasses and scarves and a save the rhinos t-shirt. She’s even vegan.

Henry doesn’t see how she can possibly be helpful fighting Victoria.

Regina explains that Mal is actually a brilliant financier, they met in college. Mal was day trading her way through an accounting degree.

“And?” Henry asks, because there’s some tension before Mal and Roni, kind of delicately flirty.

“And she has a cat named Lily.” Roni pours herself a drink and sighs. “We had a cat.”

“And?”

“And nothing, we went our separate ways, she went to Tanzania to save the elephants and the alligators and wildebeest, I ran this bar.”

Mal works on Roni’s books and the ordinances and can help Roni turn the bar more profitable but it’ll take a few years to make what Victoria wants.

Roni’s crushed but puts on a brave face and starts making them a ‘you tried’ drink and she sets it in front of Mal and is ready to give in and Mal takes the drink and grins.

“Of course, if you had an investor.”

“What?”

Mal takes out her checkbook and writes a check (on some “save the elephants” ridiculously cute check). “Here.”

“I cant.”

“Of you can, I can’t let you lose your lair.”

“It’s not a lair.”

“No, it’s a very nice bar and I’m glad you kept it all this time.”

Roni takes the check, drinks and pours them another set of shots. “How’s Lily?”

“Would you believe she’s still with me?”

“She must be the oldest little cat.”

“She’d remember you.”

“I doubt it.”

“I don’t.”

And they get far too close to each other, but don’t kiss. Henry catches them hugging goodbye and Roni explains the whole thing in a haze, puring herself another drink.

It’s plenty of money, enough to set Victoria back and keep fighting and--

Lily’s still alive. She’s like a twenty-year old cat, which is ridiculous. She’s just a cat.

“But you never had a cat on your own, did you.”

“Never wanted one.”

And they look at each other far too long and it just hurts us that they don’t know they’re related because they just ache for that family connection.

“Maybe you did want something, and you were just afraid.”

“It was a different time, Henry.”

“Of course, I get it.” He lifts his drink. “But you’re here again now.”

Later he’s talking to Ella and mentions that Roni might just have a crush on her ex.

“What kind of ex?”

“The kind you never really get over.”

“I knew there had to be something in her past, she’s too much of a romantic.”

Back in the EF2, Mal and Regina fall wistfully for each other again, but neither of them mentions anything. It’s just nice being togther, talking, having someone who understands everything. They gear up for a fight and it’s just like the old days.

Except they’re on the same side. With their children.

“Grandchildren even,” Mal teases Regina.

“She’s beautiful.”

“I know.”

The fight happens offscreen because we have no budget for cgi dragon battles, and its weirdly offscreen in Hyperion Heights too.

Victoria fumes and threatens Roni. Roni has the last laugh because she’s safe for the moment.

Mal asks her to host a fundraiser for whales or something and Roni teases her that she could just write the check.

Mal laughs, because she will, she donates everything she can get out of the evil capitalist stock market to all the right charities, even has several of her own, but sometimes it’s the idea that has to spread. People need to believe they can do good.

Roni smiles kind of wistfully at her, because that sounds so familiar but she can’t place it.

Back in the EF2, the fight’s over, Mal did the ridiculously dangerous thing they needed her to do, and she flies back as a dragon and shifts back, eyes shining, almost laughing, drunk on battle, but she’s injured and spent and sways a little and Regina catches her.

Mal insists she’s fine, just burnt more than she’s needed to for a very long time.

“You were wonderful.”

“As were you.”

And Ella elbows Henry REALLY hard because they’re leaning into each other, nearly kissing (and Regina’s so damn sort it’s adorable)

Switch back to Hyperion Heights and they’re walking, hands in their pockets, passing just under the Troll Bridge and it’s raining a little and they pause, waiting it out and they get a little close to each other, then closer and Roni jokes that Mal had to swoop in, save her like she’s some endangered cat in the jungle.

Mal teases that very talented bartenders are rare indeed, and need to be protected. They’re very close to each other. Mal invites her back to say hi to Lily.

“Lily doesn’t remember me.”

“I’ve never stopped thinking about you, so how could she?”

Roni hesistates, Mal starts to step back, letting her go, again, but Roni grabs her, kissing her in the chilly Seattle rain.

And we cut back to the EF2, where they’re sitting by the fire, Regina’s cleaning the last of an arrow wound in Mal’s side, healing it up.

“That’s not something you got from my spellbook.”

“No, no I guess it’s not.”

And they’re very close, right next to the fire, and Mal’s half-undressed, wrapped iin a blanket. “You’ve come so far since you broke down my door.”

“I guess I have, but you- you have Lily and you’re here, being pretty damn heroic.”

“Heroic stings a little.” Mal teases, and Regina kisses her hand.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For defending my family.”

“Of course, they’re important to you.”

“They’re everything.”

Mal’s eyes get soft, and she tears up a little. “You know, I never, ever regret you being Lily’s mother, because you love her so fiercely.”

“She’s my daughter.”

Mal touches Regina’s chin. “And I’m so grateful.”

And they’re close, very very close.

“Loving too much has always been my problem.”

And Mal kisses her, gently. “I don’t think it’s a problem at all.”

[kirain]

More kids movies! More kids movies! These are my childhood!!!!

How about a top ten list of animated non-Disney films, since I tend to enjoy them more?

1. The Iron Giant

This was one of my favourite movies as a kid, and nothing about it is dated. No matter how advanced we get in animation and story-telling, I can’t imagine The Iron Giant ever losing its relevancy. The story follows a young boy named Hogarth, who lives with his single mother in 1957 America during the height of the Cold War. As Hogarth is a bit of a nerd and “poindexter”, he’s often bullied at school and doesn’t have any friends. That is, not until a giant robot seemingly falls out of space. Hogarth becomes its first human contact and comes to rely on him in order to survive. While Hogarth works to keep the giant’s existence a secret from the government, their bond strengthens as they experience life through childish innocence.

2. The Secret of NIMH

I think I mentioned before that I don’t like movies with anthropomorphic animals, but there are always exceptions. NIMH is one of those exceptions, and is in fact one of my favourite children’s movies/books ever made. The story follows a common field mouse named Mrs. Brisby, who’s only goal is to protect her beloved children. As she lives on a farm, she must soon move her children to avoid plowing season; however, her youngest son becomes bedridden with pneumonia. Her family friend and doctor, Mr. Ages, tells her that her son must stay inside or risk death– but if she can’t move they will all be in danger. As such, Mr. Ages tells her to seek out the rats of NIMH, a pack of escaped genetically mutated lab rats who live in a nearby rosebush. He explains that with their heightened intelligence, they might be able to devise a way to move her whole house, and that since her late husband Johnathan was one of them, they’ll likely feel obligated. When she seeks them out, however, she stumbles onto a mess of conspiracies, power struggles, and murder most foul.

3. The Pagemaster

Definitely dated and not the nicest animation, but an amazing children’s story nonetheless. The Pagemaster is a movie about a young boy named Richard Tyler who lives his life based on statistics and fears literally everything. One night, during a thunderstorm, he wanders into a huge library where he meets a strange librarian. While the man tries to figure out what kind of books Richard likes, all Richard can think about is getting home. When the librarian fails to trigger Richard’s basically nonexistent imagination, he sends the boy on a wild goose-chase through the massive bookshelves to find a phone so he can call his parents. While searching, he slips and hits his head, then wakes up in the form of an illustration. In this new world, he befriends three living books, Horror, Adventure, and Fantasy, whom he works with to face several trials before he can return home. The overall message of this movie teaches children to face their fears, believe in themselves, and enjoy their childhood while they have it.

4. The Road to El Dorado

My favourite unlikely tale of two Spaniards who set out to find the lost city of El Dorado. One craves adventure, the other craves gold. This fun little travel-comedy shows children the consequences of lying and greed. When Miguel and Tulio manage to traverse a dangerous jungle and find the great City of Gold, they pose as Gods to trick the natives into forgiving their trespass. Spoiled, pampered, worshipped, all seems to be going well for our “heroes”, until a real threat emerges and they struggle to save face. How long until their farce is discovered, and how many people will they hurt along the way?

5. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Essentially, Spirit is a movie about severe animal cruelty and how horses were treated during the construction of the railroad in the middle of the grisly Indian Wars. A nameless horse, dubbed “Spirit” by a Lakota boy, is captured by some American wranglers in an attempt to be domesticated. Strong-willed and stubborn, Spirit does whatever he can to defy his captors, eventually escaping with the help of the aforementioned Lakota boy, Little Creek. His newfound freedom is short-lived, however, because the boy’s tribesmen appear, tie him up, and take him to their camp. There he meets a beautiful mare named Rain, who attempts to show him how well animals are treated among the natives. Despite the softer and kinder approaches, however, Spirit refuses to be ridden and only longs for his freedom. It just goes to show that no matter how tame a creature may become, it deserves to run wild.

6. Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Looking back on this movie, I admit that the plot is somewhat messy, but it’s still a solid children’s movie that’s sure to bolster their imagination. Little Nemo is a story about a young boy who experiences bizarre dreams. It’s never known why, until one night he’s taken to a magical kingdom called Slumber Land. It’s here that he meets King Morpheus and Princess Camille, who tell him that he is ordained to become the new prince. Without much explanation, Nemo is entrusted with a key that keeps the evil Lord of Nightmares sealed behind a giant, mystical door and told to protect it. Unfortunately, a local troublemaker named Flip convinces Nemo to open the door, and the nightmares spill out, shrouding Slumber Land in darkness. Determined to fix his mistake, Nemo and friends set out to Nightmare Land to find the evil king and put a stop to him forever. The animation, colours, music, and visuals make this movie quite compelling, and I’d recommend watching it at least once.

7. Balto

Balto is a wonderful tale based on a true story. Balto is a shunned half-breed from the small Alaskan town of Nome, where no one (man or dog) is willing to trust him because they believe his wolf blood makes him dangerous. One day, however, a little girl named Rosie shows him kindness when he prevents her new hat from being squished during a sled race. He leaps in the way and grabs it just in time. In thanks, Rosie pets him, compliments him, and lets him pull her sled– until her father kicks him away. Sadly, a few days later, Rosie is hospitalised with diphtheria, a horrible disease that killed many children in the winter of 1925. Due to severe whirling snowstorms, the train carrying the antitoxin to save Rosie, and countless other children, is halted. It cannot be transported by air or vehicle either. As such, the people of Nome devise a race to find the fastest dogs, which will join the sled team that will risk everything to retrieve the medicine on foot. Balto wins, but is once again shunned when the musher realises he’s part wolf. Balto is left behind, but soon gets word that the sled team fell off the grid, taking the serum with them. Determined to save Rosie and the other innocent children, Balto sets out to find the team and bring them home. Naturally, this movie is about prejudice, and not judging people based on their heritage.

8. FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Definitely one for the environmentalists, FernGully is a movie about a young fairy name Crysta who lives in a stunning rain forest that’s been untouched by man for centuries. Naive and curious about humans, Crysta flies off and encounters a vile construction zone where a young city boy named Zak is cutting down trees. When he sees her, he attempts to catch her, thinking she’s some bizarre bug he’s never seen, but in doing so gets distracted. A large tree begins to fall, and in order to save him from getting crushed, Crysta shrinks him down to her size and flies him out of the way. Soon, Zak gets pulled into her world, where he learns the value of nature– but by the time he figures it out it’s too late. His employers cut down a sacred tree and release Hexxus, a man-made embodiment of pollution whom the fairies locked away centuries ago. In order to save the forest, Crysta and Zak must work together to stop Hexxus and the lumberjacks before there’s nothing left.

9. A Troll In Central Park

A Troll in Central Park is one of those rare gems that few people seem to have heard of, but it’s a fantastic children’s movie nonetheless. The story focuses on Stanley, a troll with a green thumb who’s been driven underground because humans have ruined the surface with buildings and bridges and roads. Fearful of humans, he tries to avoid them at all costs, until one day an infant named Rosie falls into his hidey-hole. Desperate to stop her crying, he shares his magic and begins to sprout colourful plants left and right. Just when Stanley begins to think he may have judged humans too harshly, Rosie’s older brother Gus tracks them down and begins to destroy the place. Seeing how angry Gus is at his parents (who are often away at work), Stanley instead decides to teach Gus the importance of happiness, forgiveness, and beauty. The story does take a very dark turn, hoever, when Gnorga, Queen of the Trolls, attempts to kill Stanley, as she believes trolls are meant to be crude and callous. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I honestly can’t do this movie justice. I highly recommended it to anyone and especially to anyone with children. They’ll love it.

10. We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story

This movie is weird. Even when I was a child I thought it was weird, and as an adult … I still can’t come up with a better word to describe it. It’s a weird blend of magic and science, past and future, dinosaurs and humans. It’s just weird. But it was also one of my favourite movies as a kid, and one that I watched over and over with no regrets. The plot follows a group of four dinosaurs who are brought back from the past by a crazy scientist who invented time travel. With a special cereal, he domesticates these otherwise murderous giants and gives them human-like features. When he releases them into the streets of New York, they quickly become the talk of the town, and befriend a lonely young urchin boy named Louie and a neglected rich girl named Cecilia. Joy abounds, until the children run into a creepy old man named Professor Screweyes, who seeks to revert the dinosaurs back to their prehistoric form and use them to terrify others. To be completely honest, there could be countless meanings to this movie, or really none at all. Either way, it’s a movie I highly recommend to anyone who might be looking for a little something extra in their kid’s movies. After all, it’s really weird.

[ladyseaheart1668]

Endless Summer Fan Novel (Book 2, Chapter 1)

Notes: I actually found a way to work the “Previously On” segment into the novel that I thought worked pretty well…

Light. White and blinding, it surrounds me, bathes me. A voice speaks to me, seeming to come from every angle.

“You can feel them, can’t you, the echoes of all that’s come before?”

“I…I remember everything,” I whisper.

“Of course you do. All one ever has is memory.”

My friends are in pieces before me. There is no blood, no sign of violence. They are simply scattered. Like puzzle pieces or broken dolls, rearranged like features on a Picasso. And my task is to reassemble them. Remember their names. Their faces. Who they are to me. I reach out, and begin to gather the pieces together.

Quinn Erin Kelly takes shape before me. Delphinus, the Dolphin. A pale, waifish beauty with bright blue eyes and long copper hair falling gently to her waist. A wide-eyed nymph, sweet, generous, and a bit lusty, she gives out kisses like candy, at least to me. She smiles at me from her seat on a small plane.

“One magical week in paradise, here we come!”

The plane is rocking violently, battered by wind and flashes of orange ball lightning. I put together the pilot, a ruggedly handsome man with shaggy brown hair, crystal blue eyes, and an action-hero beard, wearing military dog tags. Jacob Lucas McKenzie. Lupus, the Wolf. Jake. We spent last night in bed together, a rough, wild tumble that culminated in tender kisses. He shared his secret with me. But now he struggles to keep control of his plane.

“It happens, okay? This is totally normal!”

An Iranian girl with an eyebrow piercing and hair in a purple streaked undercut reforms in front of me. Zahra Yasmin Namazi. Corvus, the Crow. Sarcastic, self-interested…I would have expected her to turn on me when it suited her. But she stayed with me. With all of us. She stares at the lightning outside the plane.

“Yeah…sure. That looks normal.”

A woman with doe-brown skin and dark hair trimmed close to her neck smiles brightly at me. She wears a yellow polo shirt emblazoned with the emblem of Rourke International on the breast. Lila, our tour guide. We have arrived at The Celestial resort on the island of La Huerta. Jewel of the Caribbean. But no one is there.

A mocha-skinned Adonis of a man, towering at 6'7”, broad-shouldered and breath-takingly beautiful. Aquila. The Eagle. Sean Marcus Gayle, star quarterback at Hartfeld University. I kissed him once, but never did so again. He looks around the empty resort. “Where the hell is everyone?”

I reassemble another of my friends in front of me. Even as I do it, I can feel the pain returning, nipping at the edges of my consciousness. Canis. The Dog. A slim, ruddy-skinned young man with a handsome, boyish face. Diego. Diego Ricardo Ortiz Soto. My best friend. My brother in everything but name and blood. He smiles charmingly, with the warmth and complete trust reserved only for me.

“Come on, Allie. We promised we’d make the most of this trip.”

And then Jake is there, taking me in his arms, pulling me into his comforting embrace. He bends to kiss me…

A sabertooth tiger prowls in the jungle. It raises a massive paw, claws unsheathed. My flesh tears, my cries of pain drowned out by an explosion as Jake’s plane bursts into flames.

I am burning. Every fiber of my being screams in pain, but there are more to be reassembled yet. Draco, the Dragon. Estela Montoya, a striking, dark-haired beauty, tall and muscular, with a scar over one brown eye. She faces off against a crab three times her size, armed only with a spear.

We were told that ten students from our college had won this trip. Estela makes eleven.

Now Cygnus. The Swan is a beautiful woman with chocolate-brown skin and curly black hair. She is short and plumb, with a sweet, earnest face, and eyes that shine behind her wire-framed glasses. Grace Tamara Hall stands in the central chamber of Mount Atropo.

Then Iris. A blue holographic woman projected from a small drone. We found her at the observatory. She speaks with a voice that is not her own, playing back recordings from a future where the volcano has erupted.

“There’s some kind of energy discharge…and it’s spreading so fast…burning everything…”

Centaurus…where is the centaur? A massive, gentle giant of Indian descent, with a round belly, soft black curls and a warm, ready smile. Raj Aditya Bhandarkar. Kind, brilliant, all heart, with a penchant for pot-smoking, and a supreme talent for cooking.

“I’m worried about our group, Alodia. If we don’t stop this feud, we’re never gonna get off this island.”

Our path is blocked by a massive serpentine creature in the sea, with lightning in its teeth and dark horns where eyes ought to be. Jake and Sean face off against the creature, determined to reach a safe haven and bring back help.

Grace stands on her tiptoes to kiss the cheek of a lithe and lanky young man with pale hair and paler skin. Serpens. The Snake. Everett Aleister Rourke the Second. Aleister. A cold and bitter exterior hides a vulnerable core. He is the real Eleventh Winner. Grace is his weakness. The Swan can devenom the Snake.

Aleister looks at me achingly. “Everett Rourke…the man who built this place, the man who brought all of you here…is my father.”

“…What we do know is that they’ve been watching us a long time,” Jake says. But he is not speaking of Everett Rourke.

Tall, muscular figures in ornate masks with skin that glows impossible shades of green and blue, armed with weapons of amber.

“Whoever these…Watchers are, they’re coming for us.” The voice belongs to Ursa. The Bear. Kuan-yu Craig Hsiao, a beefy Asian kid in a Hartfeld letterman jacket. Sean’s best friend, on and off the football field. Not book-smart perhaps, but undyingly loyal. It was he who threw the rock that unmasked the leader of the Watchers.

The last of my friends waits to be put back together. I gather my strength and assemble the beautiful Vietnamese woman with the dyed blonde hair and the thick, colorful showgirl makeup applied with such impressive artistry. Pavo. The peacock. Michelle Thuy Nguyen. Smart, ambitious, capable. I thought she hated me, but she had my back when I needed it.

In my hand is a sleek gun. A time travel gun, built to send its target forward in time. Michelle protests my will to use it. “We’ve got no idea where that thing will send us! Or when!”

But there is no choice. Jake tilts my head towards him and gives me a lingering kiss.

“All right, I can die happy now.”

I squeeze the trigger. We’re all swallowed by the void. All but one.

“Diego! Don’t let go!”

He and I are suspended in midair, clutching each other’s wrists, the rope in a tug-of-war between the portal and the Watchers. And the Watchers are winning.

“They’re too strong! They’ll just take you, too!”

That terrible moment…realizing what he means to do.

“No, Diego…please…don’t do it…”

“…Goodbye, Allie. I love you…”

There is another pile of pieces in front of me. But they are not my friends.

“Who are you, Andromeda?” the voice in the void taunts me. “Can you put yourself together, too?”

I can. I must. Pale skin. Blue-green eyes. An angular chin and a small button nose. Layers of honey-blonde hair falling past my shoulders. All set atop the short, lithe body of a dancer and gymnast.

“There I am. That’s me.”

“Is this how you see yourself? Are you ready to face your fate?”

“I’m ready!”

“And what name shall you be known by?”

…My name…what is my name…Andromeda…? …No… Jake calls me Princess…Diego calls me Allie…what do the others call me…?

…Alodia. …Alodia Rose Chandler.

“My name is Alodia…”

“Are you certain?”

“Alodia! I am Alodia!”

The light around me brightens impossibly. I throw my arms up to shield my eyes. The voice is fading into the infinite void…

“We will meet again soon, Alodia. All that ever was, is, and shall be depends on your choices…”

My hand comes down on the glass desk in Everett Rourke’s office, passing through the holographic computer interface projected there.  My other hand flies to my throbbing head. I gasp, attempting to steady myself against the sudden wave of dizziness. The vision came on me quickly, the things I saw as I passed through the time portal and emerged on the other side. Neither Aleister, Estela, nor Iris seem to notice my sudden unsteadiness, though. Not that I can blame them, with the sight before them.

Everett Rourke, suspended in a tube of glowing green fluid, concealed inside a hollow marble pillar that rose up and revealed him when we worked out the password to his computer and ran the only program on it.

“…Father…” Aleister whispers.

“Facial match confirmed,” Iris chimes. “That is Everett Rourke.”

I straighten as the floor settles beneath me, looking at the man in the tube. “What on earth is he doing here? Has he been here all along?”

Estela grits her teeth. “You’re telling me the whole time we were walking around this office, the man responsible for all of this was just floating here?”

Aleister stares into his father’s slumbering face, his eyes ice-cold. “You can’t hide from me now, Father. Now you have to face me.”

“Yeah, the rest of us might have some questions for him, too,” I mutter. “Now how do we get him outta–”

Estela is already hitting buttons on the computer. The green fluid in the tube begins to drain out, bubbling and glugging like a water cooler. The various tubes leave Rourke suspended in air.

“I advise against waking him suddenly,” Iris says. “Long periods of suspended animation could prove–”

The glass tube retracts into the ceiling. Rourke slumps out, naked, as the last of the green fluid spills out at his feet. He staggers, collapsing into Aleister’s arms. His eyes flutter weakly.

“Y…you…”

Aleister’s face quivers, somewhere between a sneer and a sob. “Yes. It’s me.”

Rourke feebly pushes himself up, staggering to his feet. He stumbles to the windows and slumps against the glass.

“The…Endless…is…” he slurrs under his breath.

“'The Endless’?” I repeat. “What is that? What are you talking about?”

Rourke turns towards me. Anything he might have said, though, is cut off when Estela throws her fist squarely into his face.

“Estela!” Aleister cries.

Rourke topples backward, falling over his desk chair, and sprawling onto the marble floor. Estela leaps after him.

“Estela, I advise restraint–”

Iris’ hologram flickers into Estela’s path, but she passes through the projection. I dart in front of Estela, holding up my hands.

“Estela, wait! What are you doing?”

“He’s responsible for all of this, Alodia! It’s time he answers for it! Stand aside!”

Behind me, Rourke’s crumpled form is still moaning nonsense. I wonder if he even realizes that he was just punched in the face.

“I’m not going anywhere, Estela.”

She snarls at me drawing herself up to her full height to loom over me. I only  just come up to her shoulder. “Don’t make me go through you as easily as I went through Iris!”

Estela could snap me in half if she had a mind to, but I meet her angry gaze steadily. “You won’t do that,” I say firmly. “I won’t let you sink to his level. You’re better than that. Rourke will answer for whatever crimes he’s committed. But first we need answers. And we won’t get them if you kill him now.”

After a long moment, Estela stands down, crossing her arms and glaring daggers at me. I lower my hands, satisfied.

“Okay. We should get him downstairs to recover. We’re not getting any answers until he’s lucid.”

Aleister looks gratefully at me, mouthing his thanks behind Estela’s back.

The three of us hoist Rourke’s body between us. His eyes flutter slightly.

“I’m…sorry…Olivia…” he whispers deliriously. Then his eyes close again as he slips back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Dawn is breaking, its cool light barely visible through the glass roof above the Celestial’s grand atrium. My friends and I gather around the slumbering form of Everett Rourke, tucked under a blanket on a sofa.

“So, that’s the guy,” Zahra mutters.

“Mhm,” Aleister grunts.

“Dude, your dad is shredded!” Craig exclaims. “Isn’t he in his fifties?”

“I think I see where you get your abs,” Grace says coquettishly, grabbing lightly at his abdomen. Aleister pulls away, laughing, then quickly composes himself.

“Grace, please. You know how ticklish I am.”

“The hope is he can get us outta here when he wakes up,” I say softly. “Maybe he knows what’s going on, maybe he’s got a helicopter or something. And more importantly…he might know something about Diego.”

There’s a general murmur of agreement. After a moment, everyone starts to drift off in different directions. There’s not much to be done before he wakes up, and the toll of last night’s ordeal is weighing heavily on all of us. Well…it was last night for us. For the rest of the world, it has been two-hundred and four days since the battle with the Watchers.

Six months have passed since I fired that time gun. Six months since I lost Diego. But I’m still bruised and aching from the stress and strain of the battle. …There is also a particular soreness between my legs from what took place beforehand. The smell of sex is still lingering on me, though thankfully, its masked by the overwhelming odor of sweat coming from everyone, including me. It seems most people chose to sleep these last few hours rather than shower, which I can hardly blame them for. And it seems those few hours rest have not done very much to restore them.

I slump down on a couch beside Sean and put my feet up on the coffee table. He looks over at me.

“Everyone’s looking pretty rough, Alodia. Maybe we should get some rest?”

“…I don’t think I’m gonna sleep very well until we find out what happened to Diego…” I murmur. Fresh tears spring to my eyes. Sean covers my hand with his.

“I know I won’t. Maybe we oughta rally the troops and come up with a battle plan.”

“I guess I could make the rounds and–” A strange choking noise catches my attention. I look up, and leap to my feet with a cry. “Oh my god! Quinn!”

Quinn has suddenly dropped to her knees and doubled over on the floor. Her hands, pressed to her mouth and nose, are smeared with blood. Blood has stained her shirt, her jean shorts, her bare knees, and the tiles beneath her. I drop to my knees beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at me, and I see that the blood is flowing from her nose in bright red gushing rivers.

The others are clustering around us. Michelle kneels on her other side, pressing a wad of tissues to her nose.

“Keep your head forward,” she says firmly. “Try not to swallow any blood. Alodia, help me get her to a couch.”

I brace Quinn against me and help her upright. Together, Michelle and I guide her over to a sofa.

“Everyone else get back,” Michelle orders. “Sean, get some more tissues.”

Sean hurries off to do as she says. Michelle keeps the tissues positioned over Quinn’s nose, pinching her nostrils closed.

“Okay, just sit up straight and lean forward a little. Breathe through your mouth. That’s it…you’re okay…”

I sit silently on Quinn’s other side, rubbing her back. I cannot help but appreciate Michelle’s beside manor. She’s definitely going to be a good doctor someday.

It takes about fifteen minutes for the flow of blood to dry up. Sean has brought us a damp washcloth. I take it and gently wipe the blood from Quinn’s face and hands.

“You can lean back a little, Quinn,” Michelle says. “But don’t lie flat yet. Keep your head above your heart for at least the next hour.”

“Oh, I’ve never been good at that,” she quips with a feeble smile.

“Here, Quinn. Lean against me.” I position myself with my legs around her on the couch and let her lean back against my chest. I look up at Michelle. “…What happened?”

“What do you mean what happened?” Quinn asks. “It was just a little bloody nose. No big deal.”

“It was a bad one,” Michelle says. “But I think we’re okay now.” Still, the concern in her eyes doesn’t escape me.

“…Is she really okay, Michelle?”

Michelle purses her lips. “Well…”

Iris, hovering nearby, projects at Michelle’s shoulder. “Quinn’s blood pressure: sub-normal. Weight loss detected. White blood cell count–”

“Guys, come on!” Quinn protests. “I’m fine!”

Michelle sighs. “…I think going through the portal just had a bigger effect on her than it did the rest of us. Lemme just take a look at–”

Quinn recoils, pushing Michelle’s hand away.

“I said I’m fine!” she snaps, startling both of us.

“Quinn,” I say gently. “Listen to her. Please.”

Quinn hesitates for a moment, then exhales slowly and settles into me.

“…Okay, Alodia. For you.”

Michelle rolls her eyes. “Won’t do it for me, no,” she mutters. “Gotta be for Alodia.”

She does a quick examination, looking in Quinn’s eyes, nose, and mouth, checking her pulse and her temperature. I keep my arms cinched loosely around Quinn’s waist until Michelle sits back.

“All right. I think you’re fine for now. But I’ve gotta keep an eye on you. Are you gonna let me do that?”

Quinn covers one of my hands with hers and squeezes it lightly. “Yes. I will.”

I stay where I am for a moment, but as it registers that the immediate danger has passed, my mind is once more filled with another purpose.

“…I think we need to get moving on a plan to save Diego,” I say after a minute. “Think you guys are ready?”

Michelle purses her lips, regarding Quinn tentatively.

“I think we can handle it,” she says slowly. “But let Quinn get a little rest first.”

“Much as I don’t want to delay, I’m not going to suggest we go charging out immediately as we are with no plan at all,” I say grimly. “I want Diego back alive. …Anyway, I’m gonna go check in with everyone else. See what they’re thinking.”

I ease out from behind Quinn, piling pillows behind her in my place. Michelle drapes a blanket over her legs.

I wander over to where Grace and Aleister are sitting, watching over his sleeping father. Aleister’s expression is stoic. Grace rests her hand on his knee.

“How’re you holding up, Aleister?”

Aleister doesn’t answer immediately.

“He’s…okay,” Grace says uncertainly.

“Knowing my father’s alive is…” He swallows. “…Part of me wished he were dead. At least then, he’d have the excuse to never see me.”

“Aleister, I know how you feel. My mom is more similar to him than you’d think. But I know how much I’d miss her if I lost her. And how much I miss her now.”

Aleister hums noncommitally.

I sigh. “Aleister, you told us that you came here to face your father. To show him the kind of man you are. Right now, you have that opportunity.”

Aleister finally looks up and meets my eyes. For the first time, it seems he is letting me see the hurt, scared, and lonely little boy behind the bitter mask.

“How, Alodia?” he asks softly. “How do I show him the person I’ve become?”

I meet his gaze steadily, returning the favor. I let him see my own hurt. My own fear. “…By helping me save Diego.”

He takes my hand and stands up.

“…That should suffice. Also, I suppose it is the moral choice.”

“That’s my Aleister,” Grace says with a grin.

Aleister smiles back at her. Then he looks at me again.

“…Diego…he is…important to you.”

I am quiet a moment. “…I don’t have a father,” I confess softly. “Or a mother. …Diego is the only family I’ve got.”

To their credit, neither of them press me for details. Then Grace says, “…I think you have more family than you realize yet.”

“…Take a wild guess who is leading this pack,” Aleister adds. “Half the people here would throw themselves to the wolves for you.”

“…I don’t want anyone to throw themselves to the wolves,” I say softly. “I just want Diego back.”

Laughter from across the atrium catches my attention. Raj, Zahra, and Craig stand around the marble statue fountain at the center of the atrium, giggling wildly.

“Oh my god, you’re right! It is!” Zahra squeals

“It so is!”

“Who’s what now?” I ask, wandering over.

Raj grasps my shoulders. “Alodia. Alodia…Alodia, this is ridiculous! You’re gonna love it. Look!”

He points to the fountain. A marble statue stands on a pedestal in the center, depicting a man in a toga wearing a crown of laurels. Engraved in the bottom of the pool is a circle of Roman numerals.

“…What am I looking at?”

“The statue, bro!” Craig laughs. “In the toga! Can you tell who it’s suppose to be?”

I look again. My jaw drops as the face registers.

“It’s…Rourke!”

My reaction is apparently hilarious. They burst into fresh peals of laughter, nearly falling over each other, half-delirious with exhaustion.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice before!” Zahra howls. “The guy put a statue of himself in a toga in the middle of his own hotel! I’m cocky as hell, but I’m not even in this guy’s league!”

I can’t help smiling. “Doesn’t this guy know how the Roman Empire ended? With the Sack of Rome!”

“Oh my God, Alodia just said ‘sack’!” Craig gasps. “I’m dying! I can’t breathe!”

Raj scoops me up and hugs me against his soft, round belly. “I don’t know if what you said was funny. I’m probably just crazy right now. But you’re the best and I love you.”

Zahra throws an arm over my shoulders. “Let’s get real for a second. I know things are sucky right now, especially for you. But sometimes people gotta laugh to stay alive.” She ruffles my hair affectionately and wanders off.

I drift off myself, over to where Jake and Sean are talking intently with Lila.

“What’s happening over here?”

“Just trying to figure out who could’ve been here this whole time,” Sean replies

“Who are you talking about?” Lila asks.

“We’ve been gone six months, Lila. And somebody’s been spending a lot of time here.”

“Iris says she didn’t detect anyone coming to the hotel after the Watchers left, though,” Jake says.

“Just because she didn’t notice them doesn’t mean they weren’t here. Stuff’s been moved all over the hotel.”

“How can you tell?”

“Photographic memory. It’s how I’m able to read defenses. Point is, it’s like someone’s been living here. Looking for something.”

“Princess did find that crazy note of instructions ranting about the Hadean Zodiac.”

“Those notes led us to Rourke,” I say thoughtfully. “Maybe they came looking for him.”

“I’m just thinking…did people come to rescue us? Did we miss our window while jumping through time?”

“Trust me, Q.B., if anyone came to this island looking for us, it’s to silence us. Permanently.”

“Is that your idea of a silver lining? That we missed getting killed?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me, though,” Lila says.

“Schedules, timetables, shipments…anything you know about arrivals to La Huerta long term. We’ve only been thinking short-term up till now, but it’s been half a year.”

Lila looks at Sean like a deer in headlights. “I…Lila doesn’t know these things off the top of my head! Lila’s a tour guide!”

“Woah, easy there, Dimples. He’s just bouncing ideas around.”

“What if it’s Diego? I mean, if I escaped, I would have come here.”

Jake sighs. “Honestly, anything is possible.”

“It wasn’t him,” I say flatly. “I wish it were, but it’s not. That note wasn’t his handwriting. Besides…I know him. If he’d escaped, the first thing he’d do would have been to leave me a sign. Something I couldn’t mistake. …We can’t waste any more time. We have to get him back.”

“Of course!” Lila says cheerfully. “No man left behind. That’s my tour guide motto.”

“I should friggin’ hope so,” Jake mutters. “Well, let’s go rally the troops then.”

We gather everyone together in a circle of sofas and armchairs. Sean nods at me to take the lead. I take a deep breath.

“Thanks to the portal, we’ve left Diego out there with the Watchers for six months now. We need to get him back. Now.”

“Easier said than done,” Zahra says, not unfairly. “How are we supposed to pull off a rescue like that?”

“We hunt down some Watcher ass and make them regret the day they ever messed with us!” Craig answers. From his place on Craig’s lap, Murphy trills in agreement.

“We don’t even know where they are, Rambo,” Zahra counters flatly.

“I vote for an expedition,” Sean says. “Something to get a read on our new situation and pick up the trail.”

“Any trail will be six months old,” Jake says grimly. “Ice-cold.”

“Then what do you think, Jake?”

“…I think he’s dead.”

My heart drops into my stomach. For an instant, hurt and anger boil up in me like magma. How can he say that to me now? When only hours ago, he was holding me while I wept and vomited on the rooftop? When he was guiding me to lie in his lap so I would get an hour’s rest? When he seemed to care so much before, how could he now be so heartless? But my rage quickly cools when I rememebr the secret he told me last night when we were entwinded in bed together. Mike, his wingmate, his best friend, his brother. The two of them framed for treason and ambushed in the sky. Jake ejected in time. Mike did not. Jake knows. He knows the depth of love I have for Diego. …He knows the pain of separation. And every day, he lives the nightmare of knowing that separation will never end. …He is trying to protect me from unnecessary pain, not by filling me with false hope, but by making sure I am not blindsided if the worst happens. It’s misguided. I wish he wouldn’t say it. …But I appreciate his intentions. But Sean doesn’t know what I know.

“Shut up, Jake,” he growls.

“It’s a possibility,” Jake snaps. “At this point, it’s a likely one.”

“Clearly it’s easy for you to quit on people. How long before you decide we’re as good as dead, too?”

Jake glares at Sean. “Honestly, man, that happened as soon as we walked into this damn building.”

Sean opens his mouth to reply, but I catch his eye and shake my head. He shuts his mouth.

“We will be as good as dead if we go out there without a plan or a destination,” Estela points out.

“That is a fair point.” I look over at Quinn, still propped up on pillows, a blanket draped over her legs. “Quinn? Any thoughts.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Alodia. …But…I am worried about losing more of us.”

At those words, I cannot help but be struck at how pale she looks. I know she’s Irish, but usually she has that sweet flush in her cheeks and nose. But…maybe I’m worrying too much. I nod.

“Okay, then. I think the best thing to do is try to find answers here, first. Something that will tell us where the Watchers took Diego.”

Sean gets up. “Okay, people. I know it’s been a long, long day, but Diego’s counting on us now. Freshen up a little, but then we gotta search this place up and down.”

“What about him?” Zahra asks, jerking her head at Rourke.

“…Don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

We all rise and split up. I head towards the elevator to go up to my room. Sean follows me in. When we’re alone, he turns to me.

“Hey…Alodia…about what Jake said…don’t take it to heart. I’m sure Diego’s okay out there.”

“No, you’re not,” I say gently. “Neither am I. We can’t be sure. Jake’s right. It’s possible he’s dead.”

“We can’t give up on him.”

“I will never give up on him,” I say more sharply than I mean to. “Not until I know he’s dead. …But it is possible.”

Sean sighs. “…Doesn’t mean he should have said it.”

“He wasn’t being malicious.”

“Just cold-hearted.”

“No. Not that, either,” I say gently. “Don’t be too hard on him, Sean. …If you knew what I knew, you’d understand why he said it.”

“What do you mean?”

“…I can’t go around blabbing things he told me in confidence.” I am silent for a moment. Then I say, “He wanted me to be prepared. In case the worst happens. He doesn’t want me blindsided.”

“…I wish I understood him like you do,” Sean mutters. I can’t tell if he’s being bitter, sarcastic, or sincere.

“I don’t understand him,” I reply in a clipped tone. “I hardly know him. But I do know he wasn’t being cruel or coldhearted.”

“…All right. If you say so.”

Sean steps off the elevator at his floor. I continue up to the penthouse floor, to the rainforest-themed suite where I have lived for the last four days. I open the door, and I am hit by a cool breeze and the smell of saltwater. The room is still trashed, some of it from my wild night with Jake, some of it from the Watchers searching through my belongings. One of the windows is shattered from where the Watcher leader rappelled through.

“Oh, right,” I mutter aloud. “That happened.”

A few leaves have managed to blow in over the last six months. A seagull is perched comfortably on the window sill. It squawks at me. I wave it away.

“Go on, get outta here! Shoo!”

The gull flaps off over the sea. I walk into the bathroom, turn on the sink, and throw several handfuls of ice-cold water over my face. I raise my eyes to the mirror and freeze.

…Diego is there. He’s smiling over my shoulder.

“Man, Allie! And here I thought I looked like hell!”

I gasp, whipping around to face an empty space behind me. My chest goes tight with the threat of fresh tears. Guilt hallucinations. Not a great sign. I turn back to the mirror. …Hallucination!Diego was right, though. I do look like hell. Smell like it too. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to freshen up a bit.  At the least, a hot shower would help me clear my head.

I strip off and wash my mountain climbing outfit in the sink, scrubbing it with shampoo and hanging it to dry. I climb into the shower, where I let the next wave of tears fall freely as I scrub off the sweat and soil of the last twelve hours. The hot stream soothes my aching muscles, though it does little for the tenderness at my pubis. Under normal circumstances, I love the slightly bruised feeling after a night of wild, just-slightly-rough sex. And I suppose I am not unhappy about spending last night with Jake. …No…I am far from unhappy about it. …But the scattered glass on the carpet reminds me that the night almost ended with Jake dead in my arms, until I grabbed the blue stone around the Watcher’s neck.

God, I have to get out of this place…get out of this room…

I brush my teeth and go to hunt down some clean clothes. The Watchers dumped out my duffle, but they left my clothes in a single pile at least. I pull on some socks and underclothes and a pair of old jeans. A pale green T-shirt on the top of the pile catches my attention. I pick it up and unfold it. Kenna&Dom&Val&Raydan, it reads. I feel my breath catch in my throat again.

The Crown and the Flame. Diego and I are superfans. We read all the books together, played all the games. When the current season is airing, Sunday nights are set aside for viewing. We order sushi and sake and green tea ice cream from Sakura’s and curl up under a blanket on his bed to watch. We are both convinced that Kenna and Dom are endgame. Soul mates. It’s true love. Maybe Val will be Kenna’s mistress though. Or maybe she’ll finally hook up with Raydan.

Diego got me this shirt for my last birthday. Our favorite ships in the right order, and no other explaination. If people got it, he said, we’d know other fans right away.

I pull it on. Like Queen Adriana’s signet ring, I’ll wear this shirt as a reminder of what I’m fighting for. Maybe there’s no romance between us, but Diego is still the Dom to my Kenna. My oldest friend. My partner in crime. I run a brush through my hair and venture back out, heading down to the atrium.

…I’m not sure where to start looking for answers. But there’s someone else I want to find, too. And I’m pretty sure I know where to look.

I have to search a few different bars, but in the country-themed bar on the eighth floor, the lights are on. I don’t see anyone right away, but a country ballad plays on the jukebox.

“…Jake?” I call out.

The sound of a hard smack and shattering glass behind the bar answer me.

“Ow!” Jake grunts. “Damn, that hurt…”

“…You okay back there?”

Jake stands up, wincing and running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah,” he mutters. “Just about gave myself a concussion bumping my head, but I’m great.”

“That’s what happens when you get a big head about everything.”

“What can I say, Princess? My ego is a gift and a curse.” His eyes fall on my T-shirt and he grins. “Crown and the Flame, huh? You more of a Kenna or a Dom?”

“Me? I’m totally Kenna.”

“Pfft. Figures.”

“…Jake, what are you doing behind the bar, anywhere. We’re supposed to be looking for clues about where the Watchers took Diego.”

“Yeeeah…I think they left their address at the bottom of one of these bottles. Only one way to find out which one.” He smirks at me, but there’s a helpless fear in his eyes that I can’t mistake. I know what he’s thinking. I know what memories this is bringing back for him. I touch his hand.

“…Jake…”

He shudders, recoiling from my touch just a little. “Ya know, did somebody steal some of this booze? Used to be a bottle of Raleigh DeWitt Gold whiskey sittin’ here. Been sayin’ I was savin’ it for when things really went down the crapper–”

“Jake–”

“–and well, I think it’s about time. But look! Somebody guzzled the whole thing! It’s empty–”

“Jake!” He shuts up, staring at the floor. I take a deep breath. “…I know you’re worried about him. Whatever you pretend, I know you’re worried. …But you can’t do this to me right now. I need you to get your act together if we’re going to save him.”

He sighs. “You’re right. Like always. Look at me. I’m pathetic!” I startle as he suddenly picks up the empty whiskey bottle and hurls it into the wall. It shatters in a rain of glass. …Like the window in my room last night…

I shiver. When Jake drops out of sight behind the bar, I rush to walk around the corner and find him. He’s sitting on the floor, his head buried in his hands. I scoot in beside him, sitting close. …I need to feel him beside me. I need to know that he’s here. I almost lost him, too…

“…Did you really drink that whole bottle just now?”

“…Nah. There was only about a quarter left. Been nipping away at it since my plane blew up.” He draws in a shuddering breath. “Thing is, I ain’t given a damn about people in a long time, Princess. Then you came along and pretty much blew that whole plan straight to hell. Now thanks to you, I’m all torn up inside over your gang of Little Rascals. And it’s all your fault.”

“My fault?” I echo wryly. “How do you figure that?”

Jake snorts a laugh and looks at me, our faces close. Strands of his sandy hair fall across his bright blue eyes, shimmering with unshed tears.

“Not sure if you noticed last night, but you kinda blew my mind.”

I can’t hold back a smile. “…I definitely noticed.”

His face is so close now that I can see the light catching on his damp eyelashes. As if drawn in by a magnet, I lean in and let my lips brush softly against his. I feel him lip me back. We pull apart, just an inch, our eyes meeting. Then we collapse into one another in the same frenzied, needful passion that consumed us the night before. Jake picks me up as if I weigh no more than a feather, sitting me down on the edge of the bar. I yank off his green bomber jacket. He pulls my shirt from the waistband of my jeans and lets his hands roam underneath. He breaks the kiss for a moment.

“Does this mean we’re–”

“Yeah,” I reply quickly, recapturing his lips with mine.

“And it’s not like–”

“No.”

“Cool.”

He pulls my shirt off over my head and kisses down my neck to my chest, pausing at the hollow between my breasts.

“Hey!” Zahra’s voice, echoing from somewhere outside, makes us both jump. “You guys are gonna wanna see this!”

We pause, pulling apart reluctantly. I struggle to put the breaks on my racing heart. Jake groans.

“Zahra must hate me. She must really, really hate me.”

“I’m sure she does,” I agree wryly, pulling my shirt back on. “Come on. We should see what’s up.”  

Outside the bar, we look down into the atrium and find Zahra waving at us from the first floor.

“Get down here! You guys aren’t gonna believe this!”

We head down, catching up to her just about the same time as the others do. She leads us down a hall to a massive set of ornately carved wooden doors. …Which would not be unusual in The Celestial. …Except that between us we had searched the entire resort top to bottom while we were searching for entrances to barricade before the attack. And I can tell looking around at my friends’ faces that none of them recognize these doors.

“…Uh…was this always here?”

“…What in heavens?” Aleister breathes.

“Definitely never seen those before,” Sean confirms.

Quinn kneels to examine the edges. “Look here. See how the wall is chipped where it meets the doors? And there’s some plaster stuck to the carvings.”

“…These doors were hidden,” I conclude. “Like they were drywalled over.”

“Seconded,” Jake says. “Done some construction in my day, and I can pretty much guarantee it.”

Michelle rolls her eyes. “Is there anything you haven’t done?”

“Not really.”

“If these doors were hidden, who found them?” Sean asks. “How’d they even know they were here?”

“Somehow, I doubt it was Diego,” Estela says flatly.

“There are some words engraved here,” Aleister remarks, squinting. “My Latin is rusty, but I see the Roman numerals for 79 A.D.”

“Have you guys looked at these carvings in the door?” Zahra asks, eyeing them with distaste. “They’re kinda messed up.”

“It does not appear messed up to me,” Iris chirps. “It’s a clear depiction of humans turning to ash in a volcanic eruption. The craftwork is in excellent condition.”  

“Pompeii. It’s a carving of Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and wiped out the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pliny the Elder was killed when he attempted to rescue his family in Stabiae.” Seeing the others staring at me, I shrug. “What? I’m a history major. I know things like this.”

“Alodia is correct,” Aleister says. “Mount Vesuvius did erupt in 79 A.D. The depiction fits the date on the engraving.”

“It’s still pretty creepy,” Zahra mutters.

“Enough stalling,” Craig says. “You gonna open 'em or what?”

“I’m not scared!” Zahra snaps.

“Didn’t say you were.”

“You thought it,” she says accusingly.

Craig grins. “Yeah, I did.”

Zahra pushes on the massive doors. They swing slowly open, revealing a sprawling, majestic library that puts the one in Beauty and the Beast to shame. Worn, leather-bound books fill the rows upon rows of shelves towering over us. Tapestries adorn the bare spaces on the walls. Cherubim and Seraphim with serene, beautiful faces are painted on the ceiling in soft, heavenly shades.

“Okay, this is my new room!” Grace declares.

“This is one hell of a library, that’s for sure,” Sean agrees. “But don’t forget why we’re here.”

“Cap’s right,” Jake says. “If our mystery guest came here sometime in the last six months searching for this place, maybe it’s got some answers for us.”

We split up and start searching.

“There’s gotta be a million books in here,” Michelle moans. “What are we even looking for?”

“Just gotta hope we know it when we see it,” I reply.

Our footsteps echo on the marble floor as we wander the library. Morning light seeps through stained-glass windows in the upper arches, colorfully illuminating the frescoes painted on the ceiling.

“Analyzing…” Iris’ voice echoes. “This mechanized celestial globe dates to 1594, one of the first produced. A first-edition text by Athanasius Kircher, circa 1662.”

“Everett Rourke’s entire personal collection!” Lila breathes. “I’d always wondered what had happened to it.”

“But why would he stick this in a damn beach resort of all places? And then why seal up the entrance?”

“He had a lot to hide,” Aleister says flatly.

“Like father, like son,” Estela mutters.

Aleister ignores her, but I see his jaw tighten. Just past him, I notice Murphy, curled up beneath a book display. His tail is curled tightly around his body, and frost clings to the wall behind him, shedding from the tips of his blue fur. I go to kneel beside him.

“Hey there, fella. Why are you trembling? What’re you scared of?”

Murphy whines at me, his eyes fixed on something on the wall. I follow his gaze to where a strange scepter is mounted within. I go over to examine it. Two hissing snakes twine in a double-helix around a third snake with wings framing its head.

“What the hell is that monstrosity?” Jake asks.

“Three snakes,” I say. Then, seeing where they join at the bottom, I correct myself. “No…a hydra. In the shape of a…”

“A caduceus,” Iris finishes. “The symbol of medicine used worldwide, originally the icon of Mercury, the gods’ messenger.”

“So the scepter’s as Roman as Pompeii,” I remark.

“Analyzing…origin undetermined. This is the only article in the library I cannot identify.” Iris’s voice seems to hold real confusion.

“Did you see the inscription on the frame?” Michelle asks. I look to where she’s pointing.

'Oh Mercury! Herald of that

shining hour when glory’s

house stands open…’

Homeric Odes, Chapter XII

“The Homeric Odes!” Grace exclaims. “I saw a volume of those on the shelves!” She rushes off and returns a few minutes later with the well-worn volume. I take it from her and flip open to the twelfth chapter.

“…'His staff aloft o’re glimmering waters, the herald-god marked the height of the day. And lo, the path to the depths yawned open. To conquer the heavens, a man must journey below’.”

“That passage must be important somehow,” Quinn remarks. “I for one am past believing in coincidences on this island.”

“I agree, but what could it mean?”

“Well,” Jake says thoughtfully, “the staff of the herald-god, that’s gotta be this thing, right? The ca…cader…cudel…”

“Caduceus,” I finish.

“Right. That thing.”

“Sounds like this caduceus is supposed to open a path below something,” Estela remarks.

“Right. When the scepter is 'held aloft o'er glimmering waters’.”

“Hmm…where could we find water?”

“Sweet Jesus, Craig,” Michelle groans. “We’re on an island.”

Quinn giggles. “Okay, but more specific maybe. Where have we seen someone standing over glimmering water?”

I snap my fingers. “The atrium!”

“Right! The statue of Rourke over the fountain’s 'glimmering waters’!” Sean agrees.

“ 'Marking the height of the day’,” Zahra murmurs. Then her dark eyes widen. “It’s a freakin’ sundial! We give the staff to the herald, the fountain becomes a sundial!”

“And the sundial opens the path!” Quinn finishes.

“Do we know what time it opens?” Michelle asks.

“Considering everything we know, my guess is noon,” I reply. “ 'The height of the day’, remember?”

“My watch says it’s almost noon now,” Lila says. “We can make it if we hurry!”

“Quick!” Raj says. “Alodia, grab the Twizzler!”

I grab the caduceus and follow my friends as we race the clock back to the atrium, sprinting out of the library and down the long hallway. The statue in the lobby gradually grows larger as we approach, the sunlight glinting off one pale marble arm, held aloft in front of him.

“There! We have to get the scepter into the statue’s hand!”

“How?!” Michelle cries.

“Not much time to figue it out! It’s 11:58!”

“I got it!” Sean says. “Pass it over, Alodia.”

I hand him the scepter. He takes a running start, and then launches himself from the rim of the fountain. With a gravity defying leap, he grabs the arm of the statue, pulls himself up with one arm, and slams the scepter into the statue’s grip. He swings and vaults off the sundial, landing on his feet on the other side of the fountain.

“Like a boss!” Craig crows.

“Impressive,” Jake admits with a smirk.

“You sure you never did gymnastics?” I ask. “Learn to flip, you’d kill on vault.”

“Show-off,” Michelle mutters.

“Time, Lila?”

“Eleven fifty-nine and twenty-two seconds. We made it!”

We huddle around Lila, counting down the last seconds. At precisely twelve on the dot, the sun shines through the glass roof, the staff casting a slow-moving shadow on the fountain’s numerals.

Clunk! We all start as the floor vibrates under our feet.

“Watch out!”

The tiles behind the fountain drop into the floor, falling one after the other into place, each about four inches lower than the next.

“It’s a staircase!”

“Okay, that’s actually pretty dope,” Zahra admits.

“All right, folks,” Jake says, “guess we’re going down into whatever sex dungeon Rourke has set up.”

Aleister shudders. “Was that mental image really necessary?”

“You know, Malfoy? I immediately regretted it. Sorry.”

We head down the narrow staircase, going single-file into the darkness. Jake finds my hand and laces his fingers with mine.

“You’re not actually nervous about going down here, are you, tough guy?”

“Nah. Just wanted an excuse to hold your hand.”

In the darkness, I feel the smooth floor even out. We stand together in silence, seeing nothing, hearing only the sounds of each other breathing. I am suddenly very grateful for Jake’s hand in mind. I squeeze it tightly, gathering my courage to take another step forward.

With a metallic clunking sound, a floor tile depresses beneath my foot like a button. The lights flicker on around us. For a moment, we all shield our eyes. Then, as the spots clear, I find myself in a room painted totally white. Dozens of illuminated pedestals and wall displays house bizzare trinkets from every era, shining under thick glass domes.

“Dude!” Craig cries. “It’s not a sex dungeon! Rourke’s got a man-cave! …No TV’s though. Gotta hook up those flatscreens.”

“…What the hell is this place?” Michelle murmurs.

“I think it’s some sort of museum,” Quinn says.

“Or a trophy room,” Estela suggests.

Jake runs his fingertip over a shelf. “A little dusty. Don’t think anybody’s been here in awhile.”

Michelle is lingering by one of the pedestals, admiring the trinket gleaming within. I walk over to look at it. Under the dome stands a figurine that looks like some sort of idol, several inches tall. It depicts a nude woman with arms outstretched, a flowing length of cloth maintaining her modesty. She appears to wear a headdress of peacock feathers.

“Wow…”

“Isn’t this gorgeous,” Michelle murmurs appreciatively. “What is it made of? Gold?”

“I think it’s…amber, actually.”

Experimentally, I press a green button on the side of the pedestal. The glass dome divides and retracts into the base. Michelle picks up the idol.

“It’s so…beautiful…” she murmurs, almost dreamily. She offers it to me. I take it in my hands.

The moment my fingers graze it, my world flashes white, only for an instant.

I am standing in an immaculately tidy, artfully decorated bedroom. A red Hartfeld Knights banner and a tapestry with Greek letters hang on the wall amongst posters and framed pictures. A mild spring breeze drifts through the open window. There is new growth on the trees outside.

…Michelle sits on the edge of the bed, gripping one of the wooden posters.

“What are you talking about?” she whispers. “I didn’t–”

Sean, standing in front of her with arms folded, glares down at her. “Yes, Michelle. You did. Your closest friends told me. You cheated. It’s over.”

He turns away, towards the door. Michelle stands, stretching a hand towards him.

“Don’t say that! You can’t leave me! …Please…”

Sean stops, but he doesn’t look back at her. “We built something for two years, and it meant nothing to you. Of course it’s over. …How could I ever trust you again? Once you break that trust, there’s no putting it back together.”

He storms out, slamming the door behind him. Michelle sinks down on the bed again, tears forming on her eyelashes. After a moment, someone knocks.

“Aww, Meech? You okay in there? Can we get you some chamomile?”

“…I just need a minute,” Michelle calls back. “Thanks, Anna…”

I count three pairs of footsteps leaving. Michelle sits in silence. The tears in her eyes don’t fall. Then, giggles drift up through the open window.

“Sean totally bought it! Oh my god, I can’t believe it worked!”

“You know, she probably did cheat on him at some time or another. That total skank. She thinks she’s so smart. So much better than us.”

“How does she not get that the whole sorority totally hates her?”

I watch Michelle’s face. I know she can hear what they’re saying, but she doesn’t shout. She doesn’t cry. Her eyes go cold.

I’m suddenly yanked forward, pulled as if by my very heart. I’m on a stormswept beach. Rain batters Michelle as she climbs into a rusted sailboat.

“Michelle, stop!” Quinn cries.

“You’re going to get yourself killed, you idiot!” Zahra yells.

“No!” Michelle screams. “I’m going! None of you want me here! You never did! You think it’s my fault Craig and Aleister are dead!”

Jake graps the prow of the boat. “No! We don’t! Of course we don’t. Just get out of the boat! We’re your friends!”

Michelle shoves him off with surprising strength, tears mixing with the rain pelting her face. Jake stumbles, falling into the shallow water.

“No!” Michelle snaps. “You’re not.”

She pushes off. The wind and rough water quickly carry her into deeper water. Jake scrambles to his feet and rushes after her, but he can’t move fast enough.

“Michelle! That thing’s still out there!”

As her boat shrinks in the distance, I can make out a massive shadow slithering beneath the waves.

“Michelle!” Quinn screams. “Micheeeeeeeelle!”

There is another white flash, and then I am back in the museum. Michelle is right next to me, her hands still on the idol. I look up at her. “…How long was I standing here?”

“What are you talking about?” Michelle asks. “I just handed you this thing. Do you not want it?”

I look at the peacock-headed figure. She gazes blankly back at me.

“Yo, Alodia!” Craig calls. “Check this thing out!”

I shake my head to clear it of the troubling vision and make my way over to Craig at the back of the room, still holding the idol. He points to a strange crimson glove within a glass dome, ending at the elbow. Something about it gives me deja-vu.

“What do you think this thing is?” Craig asks.

“I don’t know. It looks futuristic somehow. But it also seems really old.”

He grins at me. “Wanna check it out?”

I press the button to open it, but it buzzes and flashes red. I frown.

“It’s not working.”

“We could always smash it.”

“Yeah…I guess we could…”

“Hell yeah!” Craig winds up a punch and shatters the dome, sending glass sprinkling over the floor.

“Oh, my God, Craig!” I yelp. “With your hand?! Really?!”

“The hell’s the matter with you, you maniac?” Zahra shrieks.

Craig points to me. “Alodia told me to!”

“…Yeeeah, this one’s kinda on me,” I admit. “I didn’t mean for him to use his hand though. …Thanks, though, Craig.”

I pick up the glove. It looks a little patched together.

“It’s so cool-looking! Does it do anything? Try it on!”

It’s a crazy suggestion to take, but I slip the glove onto my arm. “…Do you see this at the bottom, around the elbow? It’s all torn up and kinda scalded. …I think this person’s arm was cut off!”

Craig doubles over with laughter. “And you put your hand in there! Nasty!”

I hastily pull off the glove, which only makes him laugh harder. Across the museum, Jake picks up a small black device.

“Hey, Craigslist! I think I found the remote to those TVs you were looking for,” he says, pressing a few button. “Think the batteries might be dead or–”

With a mechanical hiss, the wall behind Jake splits in two, making everyone jump. Two panels slide apart, revealing an enormous floor-to-ceiling screen.

“Aww, yeah, baby!” Craig crows. “That’s what ya boy is talking about!”

The screen flickers to life, revealing a map. No…not a map, strictly speaking.

“Satellite imagery!” Jake exclaims. “That’s La Huerta!”

Crosshairs flash on the screen, pinpointing a location in a small bay on the western side of the island. A label appears beside the crosshairs.

“'Hostiles’ Stronghold’?” Sean reads.

“'The Hostiles’,” I murmur thoughtfully. “That’s what Rourke called the Watchers in that recording at the Observatory!”

“I think we just found where the Blue Man Group took Diego.”

I swallow hard, raising a hand to touch the map. My fingertips graze the spot marked by the crosshairs. He’s there. That’s where Diego is. Diego…hold on. I’m coming for you. I turn back to the others.

“Listen…I know you’ve all been through a lot, so I understand if some of you want to stay here…”

Zahra holds up a hand, cutting me off. “Give it a rest, Alodia.”

“What?” I blink, looking around at my friends. Sean has his arms folded defiantly. Michelle is tying back her hair. Jake picks up an ancient hatchet. Despite their exhaustion, despite everything they’ve been through, they all look at me with their jaws set, eyes afire with resolve.

Zahra meets my eyes. “You already know we’re coming with you.”

Craig cracks his knuckles. “Let’s go save our friend.”

For a moment, I can’t speak, overcome as I am with grateful tears. Then the sound of footsteps and slow clapping behind us makes us all turn. Everett Rourke, now dressed in an elegant brown suit, stands in the doorway, smirking.

“Well done, friends. You found my toys, I see.”

Jake drifts closer to me, not taking his eyes off Rourke. “Figures you’d be the kinda guy who slow claps.”

“Jacob, Jacob, Jacob…to be fair, I understand your hostility. But you’re going to appreciate very quickly that we are on the same side here.” Rourke adjusts his jacket and cracks his neck. He turns to me, locking eyes and holding my gaze. I gaze back steadily.

“…You’re awake,” I finally say.

“And you exist. Splendid on both counts. The pleasure, for once, is all mine.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Estela growls.

Rourke ignores her, having finally spotted his son, stewing quietly beside me, glaring.

“Aleister. My boy. …It’s been a long time.”

[onceabluemoonwrites]

Kill Me With Fire (It’s Not Like I Burn)

Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Summary: ‘’Bianchi burns at the stake, but by god, she burns bright. (Lord Romeo kills his lover when she refuses to have him. She’s the one who kills him in their next life)’’ On confusing memories of a past life, Bianchi’s relationship with Hayato, and loving yourself.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Warnings: Sexual assault (no rape), the witch hunt,  murder (not graphic).

You can find my fic master list here.

Also on AO3 and FF.net. (FF.net only has one of the illustrations- as the cover. The version on AO3 does have both illustrations).

Kill me with fire, It’s not like I burn, A witch of desire, At the stake, I will turn, So hide your eyes, Your face, your skin, My mother before me, Went for the win. My Lord,  (My lord you may not be) Witches is just another word For the ones defying you. (I’ll set them free) The fire is high and flickers around her.

She needs to get to him- where is he? Where? She flinches away from the heat, trembling, but puts her bare feet on the burning wood anyway- she hasn’t got a choice.

Smoke whirls around her, the stench of human flesh cooked alive heavy in the air.

As a little girl, Bianchi likes to dance. It goes a little like this:

‘’One witch burns,

She burns in the fire,

Curses the man,

With strange desire.’’

It feels like fear and something hideous.

She doesn’t know where it comes from, and the dance steps wind around each other strangely. Some ask if she’s playing hopscotch, with the many jumps and turns. But she isn’t. She’s stepping, from high to low, dodging, where the devil goes.

It’s instinctive, unchangeable and real.

Like her dreams.

He was so sweet, at first, and wasn’t it darling? A knight, stepping off his horse to help a scullery maid- only to be charmed into coming back by her laugh, enchanted by the pearl gleam of her scraped back hair and the sway of her hips. 

Romeo, his name was, and he was the Lord’s son, newly knighted and only just returning home after years of being away.

His armor shone in the sun and something about his voice made Bianchi’s stomach flutter.

She brushes off her skirt with care and walks in the light, though she can feel his eyes follow her even in the dark.

Is this love?

Bianchi doesn’t like men. Not even her own papa.

She wants his attention, he should be paying attention, but he’s always too busy, too this, too that. She keeps trying because he’s her papa and thus belongs to her. But still, her nightmares scream: men are dangerous.

She likes fairy tales. Her mama reads a lot of them at day or late at night. Papa doesn’t pay attention to mama either.

When Hayato comes to live with them, she kind of likes him. Sure, he’s a baby, but all princes must start somewhere and she’s sure he’ll become a marvelous princeling one day. She’ll just have to wait and see.

But then mama tells her Hayato is not her son, so that must mean Hayato is her step-brother. Bianchi isn’t sure what to think of it. Step-family is evil, after all.

…Her nightmares grow darker. She dreams of a man, a horrid man, and other flashes too. A woman, out of her mind, green, green eyes and the sting of a slap to the face.

Hayato becomes bigger and bigger, grows at every turn, and the more she looks, the more those big orbs of his turn into the gemstone eyes in her dreams. He’s the beanstalk- green, grows quickly and leads to a man-eating giant.

She’s afraid, terrified, and begins to avoid him. But her papa praises her cooking, finally acknowledges her, and in an act of kindness, Bianchi gives some to Hayato.

She discovers papa didn’t mean it tasted good. In fact, he didn’t taste it at all. He was proud because it managed to burn to through the napkin she put them on.

It burns through Hayato’s stomach the same way, and he keeps lying curled up on the ground and she wants to reach out and flinch away at the same time.

She needs to poison- a man. A boy. Who? What? Why?

…She keeps giving them to Hayato.

Maybe if he’ll stop looking at her with those jungle eyes, her nightmares will disappear.

She snorts.

Who is she kidding?

Hayato is her living nightmare. He’s there day and night, everywhere in the house, and whenever she sees him, she freezes in terror, and nowhere, nowhere is safe.

She just wants to feel safe again. Why can’t he let her?

A gate-away to man-eating giants.

It’s tempting, the thought of staying at the castle on her midday off because she knows Sir Romeo will be in the courtyard today, and maybe he’ll even talk to her again. But Hayato hears her footsteps and flies in order to embrace her, so Romeo will have to wait.

She slides a hand through tangled, silver hair. His small arms clamp around her middle, his cheek pressed against her stomach. ‘’’Miss me?’’

He nods without lifting his head, the rough fabric of her dress chafing against her skin. ‘’Mum got cuckoo again, Bia.’’

Her heart clenches and she lifts him up, though he’s too big for that already. The fact that he lets her only makes her clutch him tighter. ‘’You got away, right?’’

‘’Of course he did.’’

Bianchi looks up. The man leaning against the door opening of the house smirks, black eyes gleaming. All at once the tension leaves her body. ‘’Thank you, Renato.’’

He closes in on them and cups her cheek gently, running his thumb over the surface of her skin. ‘’Always for you, Bianchi.’’

Hayato glares up at him from where he’s cradled in her arms. ‘’Liar! You just don’t want Tsuna to cry because then Nana will cry too and then everybody at your home is crying. You can’t stand crying!’’

Renato raises his hands. ‘’Sue me for being an uncle and a man at the same time.’’

Bianchi laughs, chest warm.

If not for Romeo, she might’ve loved Renato.

Hayato runs away from home, and for the first time in years, Bianchi can breathe easy. But her father takes the steering wheel and suddenly Bianchi is important. He confirms that she is the heir.

It tastes bitter.

Her father is trying, but pretty dresses don’t make Bianchi happy. She hates how he let her learn the way of poison from her mama, but doesn’t let her reach for the guns.

If Hayato had asked, their father would have complied in a second.

It’s an ugly thought, but a true one, and it makes her want to hurl in green jealousy and disgust both.

Her stomach swirls, and she swallows it back in. The sour taste remains, and she feels so awful, so weak and horrible, and she’s never ever going to do it again. She’ll speak her mind, no matter how ugly, because at least then it’s outside, instead of in (it rots you, from the inside out, the hate, the anger, the helplessness).

Is this what it means to be a woman? If so, it’s wrapping its arms around her neck and squeezing, choking her until there’s no air left again, and Bianchi… Bianchi needs to break free.

She’s the second child to escape that house- her mother, her mother aided her.

(Bianchi always knew her mama was a queen)

Romeo… touches her. Not in the way other people do. Not just warm arms around her, not just his lips on hers, bodies resting against each other in the late afternoon sun, peaceful and quiet.

No.

He… He touches her breasts and doesn’t stop when she flinches away. It feels wrong. She doesn’t want him to touch her like that. Not… Not when he looks at her with pupils growing larger than his iris, a black hole of hunger swallowing up gemstones.

She’s not proud of it, but she runs like a deer from the hunt, heart hammering in her chest all the while.

Suddenly, his eyes following her are not reassuring at all.

She writes signs of protection on her skin with the scarlet ink of chicken blood and washes it off with the morning dew, so nobody will see.

She’s a hitman now and a proud one at that. She uses guns and nobody can tell her to stop.

Not if they don’t want a hole through their head, that is.

She’s got power at her fingertips, poison in her veins, and she feels so, so powerful.

She rocks into the arms dealer, and sees him, buried in his frigid magazine. The ceiling stretches out high above her, the endless rows cold steel racks looming over her. They’re filled with plastic cases- but lethal is all of it.

He’s a bel ragazzo.

His eyes follow the sway of her hips, and god, does it feel great. She’s got his attention- undivided.

Not even her mother gave her that.

He takes her to the bar, hand on her waist. Her first sip of alcohol tastes disgusting, burns when it goes down the throat. It reminds her of nightmares and awful dreams. She kisses Romeo and he tastes of smoke.

She’s fifteen. He’s twenty-one.

But Bianchi’s a woman now and can make her own decisions. If she wants black hair, blue eyes and a slick-too-sly pretty boy smile, she can have it.

Girl got gun and she ain’t letting go.

It didn’t occur to her he would go this far until it happened.

‘’Don’t be stupid, Bianchi. There’s only one thing I could want from a girl like you.’’ Romeo’s grin stretches large and wide, spreading farther than it should, and for a second, heart beating in her throat, she thinks his jaw will unhinge and he’ll swallow her whole.

He looms over her like a shadow, his curls a nest of darkened thorns, a crown of sharp beauty and hatred.

How dare he threaten her.

Knuckles turning white, jaw clenching, nails digging into her palms, she hisses: ‘’My body won’t be yours until the last life has left my veins, and even then, I’ll spit on you from beyond the grave.’’

Pretty, pretty poison leaves her mouth and she leaves him standing with a scratch down his cheek and a snarl on his face.

She’s got a brother to come home to.

Romeo touches her and it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s weird, and his touch is so slimy, so dirty, so, so… She squeezes her eyes closed and shrinks into herself, even though she swore she would never do it again.

She longs for weapon-cold steel in her hands, but there isn’t and she… she…

This is her body and what does he think he’s doing, touching it?!

There’s gunpowder in her gut and by god, it explodes.

Her life flashes before her eyes. Except it’s not the one she’s currently living, and suddenly, everything makes sense.

She opens her eyes and remembers.

She’s nineteen. She’s fifteen.

She’s a hitman. She’s a witch

Mother is cuckoo. Mama is a queen.

Red flames leak from her hands,

poison rises from her throat,

and she’s everything

she’s ever been,

a witch and deadly both.

(Lord Romeo kills his lover when she refuses to have him. She’s the one who kills him in their next life)

They call her a witch, and she pleads guilty with her head held high.

Her brother watches from the back of the church, lips trembling, hands entangled with Tsunayoshi’s.

Everything is clearer now. Her past, her present, her future.

Hayato is here too, was reborn! It sings in Bianchi’s heart like no other, screaming hallelujah to the heavens as she finally finds the place where her brother’s staying, and he opens the door and-

She realizes what she’s done, with emerald eyes staring at her in fear as he shakes in his shoes.

She poisoned him. She tortured him. She killed him a little every day. And even if he killed her too (no, she knows now, it was Romeo, trying to suffocate her from beyond the grave), made her gasp for air in fear, she still did it.

He can’t look at her without becoming sick. She wants to cry.  But she doesn’t. She’s a witch. Witches bleed and burn. 

Those who plead guilty are only imprisoned, those who plead guilty, are often set free.

Those who plead guilty watch behind the iron bars as the ones who pleaded innocent are brought to the stake.

This time, her brother is among them.

Bianchi wails.

It hurts, but that was to be expected. It’s cold inside, after seeing Hayato. Empty. A cavern, hollowed by grief.

It’s like her screaming, aching heart has been moved to another plane.

She needs time, she tells herself. Time to heal. Time to discover herself. Time, time to find out just how she can utilize those red flames of hers.

She mingles muted red with poison, and everything she touches is ruined.

It’s her kind of witchcraft.

She learns to smile like a loaded gun until people give her space. Even that part of her is weaponized now.

She won’t ever be defenseless again.

Red flames drip from her hands and burn through the bars like acid.

She climbs through them without questioning- she’s got a brother to rescue.

The pyres are burning, but Bianchi wrestles herself through the crowd and runs between them.

The fire is high and flickers around her.

This is it. Her deepest, darkest fear. To be burned, like the witch she is.

But that’s not true. There’s one thing she fears more than that.

She needs to get to Hayato- where is he? Where? She flinches away from the heat, trembling, but puts her bare feet on the burning wood anyway- she hasn’t got a choice.

Smoke whirls around her, the stench of human flesh cooked alive heavy in the air.

Burnings happen only once a quarter- there are many, many pyres and not all of them have been set aflame yet. Her pursuers are thrown off by her path- they don’t dare to follow so close, sometimes even in the fire itself.

The last pyres- a glint of silver. There’s no fire yet, which means he’s still alive, but also that she will only have a few seconds to set him free.

The Renato of this life, Reborn, is a lot older than her but looks a lot younger simultaneously.

Bianchi doesn’t care. Her love has never been about age or appearance. She hates the touch others seem to crave. She loves him in his purest form, worships the soul he carries.

It’s called asexuality and Reborn cares.

In the right way.

She flies, doesn’t even have to tug at the cords binding him, because somehow, the red fire appears again and burns through it, dripping like acid and marring his wrists. She’ll worry about it later.

For now, she just looks at his shell-shocked expression (he’s gotten so big while she was behind the bars), takes his hand and drags him behind her. He stumbles over the wood, but she keeps pulling- she can feel the hot breath of death on her neck and there’s no way she’ll hand over her brother.

She sees a dark head appear behind the bakery. ‘’Renato!’’

His eyes widen and he rushes to her, taking Hayato and throwing the child over his shoulder, running with her.

Yes. Like this, they might make it. They’ve got a chance! Bianchi can see the edges of town- the woods behind it will make it a lot harder for Romeo to find them and-

The world tilts as her foot glides off a cobblestone. She manages to catch herself, but ouch- her ankle. Her damn ankle.

The forest is in sight, but she can hear the hounds behind her. She’ll never make it.

‘’Bianchi!’’

She ignores Renato’s wild eyes and her brother’s desperate cries. ‘’Go!’’

They have no choice.

She tries to crawl, but it doesn’t work and oh, god- a dark shadow appears above her, and arms encased in gauntlets raise her up in the air by the throat.

‘’You’ll burn this time,’’ Romeo spits in her face.

She laughs. She’s shaking and hysterical, at the end of her wits and so, so afraid of the flames he’ll toss her into.

She’s terribly selfish. Because this is no sacrifice- this is her choosing her brother’s life above her own while knowing she might not make it. Her brother, who needs her.

Her only regret.

Romeo snatches the torch from the executioner and sets her pyre aflame.

She’s going to burn. Just like her spite- that boils inside out. And someday, she swears, it will butcher Romeo too- whatever it takes.

‘’I curse you, in my name and of my mothers before me, for witches kin make witches skin and all men may burn in the fire.’’

Strange, how she dies from the smoke.

She rolls into town like nobodies business and poisons little Tsunayoshi to see if he’ll survive.

He does.

Bianchi’s proud of him. He’s grown so much already in so little time.

He’s different in this life- did not have Renato before, to dry his mother’s tears whenever her husband’s gone again, to teach him how to walk, how to carry himself.

But Renato- Reborn- is here now. And he’ll teach Tsuna how to be a man. And Bianchi?

Bianchi’s glad. Because Hayato is here and Tsunayoshi has always healed him in ways she never could. And slowly, slowly, they begin to patch things up.

She hides her face, so she can spend time with him. And even if he still gets sick at the sight of her, he tries.

And he tries for her.

Bianchi is a spiteful woman, but she runs off love, and it makes her flower and bloom in ways she never expects.

And true love? True love doesn’t catch fire. It blooms and it sleeps in winter, but die it does not.

And it’s everywhere- in the hands of a mother, the smile of a father, a sibling squeezing your shoulder. A friend, holding your hand, a spouse, kissing your cheek. A child, to love unconditionally.

Hayato is her little brother, and she’s a selfish woman who will take what she wants, and teach him wherever he goes.

There’s only one lesson Bianchi’s got left to teach him in the meantime. It’s the hardest lesson ever taught to her, but it’s also the most important.

How to love yourself.

If she can teach him that, he’ll have the world at his feet, and he will never, ever burn.

Not even at the stake.

Author’s note

Did you think the Romeo/Bianchi dynamic was fucked up in canon? Believe, that was far from the only thing wrong with that relationship. Romeo, according to the KHR wikia, was 21 at the time of his death. Bianchi, at the beginning of KHR canon, is 17. Romeo was killed before KHR canon, and he probably wasn’t killed just before canon, because Bianchi calls herself Reborn’s girlfriend at that point. So that would make her at least 16, but in this particular case, I chose 15 to make sure it was far enough from KHR canon. A fifteen-year-old girl with a 21-year-old man? Yeah, no.

The same could be argued for canon KHR Bianchi/Reborn, but that could go both ways and if that isn’t topsy turvy then I don’t know either. Their relationship has always been about unconditional love for me, whether romantic or otherwise.

I wrote ‘’Reborn doesn’t care,’’ at the part about Bianchi’s asexuality, then stared at it, berated myself and erased it. Because that’s a mistake I see often in fiction, and in my own work too. We say ‘’they don’t care,’’ while we mean ‘’they care in the right way,’’, and we really should stop confusing those two. Because ‘’they don’t care,’’ implies they don’t care either way, that it’s not important, and that can feel like erasure. Loving is loving a person whole- loving all their parts, loving them because they are them and because every part of them is important. And I really wanted to express that.

Bel ragazzo = pretty boy. Not sure if it’s just a literal translation or not. I tried to find out, but it’s hard to find a translator that will get the right term in this case.

‘’In The Name Of Love’’, the song by Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix, was a big inspiration for this!

Thanks to @i-w-p-chan for helping me with the placement of the ‘’’bel ragazzo’’! And thanks to @metronomeihear for the lovely title prompt!

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Moonraker (1979)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap 1979’s Moonraker, the eleventh James Bond adventure. Turn your eyes toward the heavens, because this week Bond is headed for the stars! Will Bond be able to unravel the mystery of a missing space shuttle? What could the evil Drax be plotting in his various lairs? Will Bond ever reach solid ground again?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, your recaps have been amazing lately! I agree that the latest installment of the Ebbtide series was a bit of a stinker, but I was so thrilled that you loved “Journey to the Center of Attention”! That’s one of my all time favorite episodes, and I’ve sang along to Dorothy’s version of “What’ll I Do?” more times than I can count. I really enjoyed your recaps, and I can’t wait for the next batch! For now, though, I’ve got my own narcissist to sort out in the form of Mr. Bond.

Buttocks tight!                                                      

Screenplay by Christopher Wood, film directed by Lewis Gilbert

After a standard barrel shot, we open on the high skies where some spies steal a rocket that’s being transported by a plane. The plane is destroyed and the rocket, Moonraker, is stolen. MI6 Is alerted, but 007 is busy feeling up a stewardess(?) in another plane (I’m sensing a theme!) who pulls a gun on him. Much to everyone’s shock, delight and confusion Jaws is back for some reason, and he pushes Bond out of the plane. Bond manages to catch up with a bad guy in midair and steal his parachute, but Jaws is hot on his chemtrail. Bond pulls his ripcord and escapes, but Jaws’ ‘chute malfunctions and he crashes right into a circus tent. That brings us to our opening musical number!

Shirley Bassey is back yet again, this time crooning out the titular “Moonraker” while shots of women Supermaning around fly past.

That musical number goes on a bit too long, but finally we get back to the movie where Bond meets up with M, Q and the Minister of Defense to discuss Moonraker. The shuttle’s got to be found, and Bond is on the case. Q gives Bond a very conspicuous wrist dart gun thing that’s controlled by nerves or something (come on), and with that Bond is on his way to California to investigate the missing shuttle. Bond meets up with Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), his gorgeous dogs and his evil goatee. Drax is wearing a handy t-shirt with the words ‘I’M THE BAD GUY LOL’ on it to make sure we don’t get confused. After this Bond goes to meet Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), proud owner of the world’s dumbest name, and we get a hilarious bit about Bond’s surprise over Dr. Goodhead being a woman. Dr. Goodhead’s a NASA trained astronaut, and I’m sure that’ll come up later.

Dr. Goodhead and Bond have some fun goofing around with some astronaut training stuff, but then Chang (Toshiro Suga), Drax’s henchman who’s keeping Jaws’ seat warm for him, arrives and ramps up the g-force well beyond what a seven-year-old could be expected to handle. It takes about seven hours and gave me some gnarly motion sickness, but Bond eventually uses his deus ex wrist dart gun to inexplicably fry the machine’s controls and free himself. Dr. Goodhead doesn’t know what the hell’s going on, but Bond knows Chang’s up to no good. Nothing gets Bond hornier than almost dying, so he goes to bang one out with Drax’s assistant and incidentally also get some intel out of her. She later catches him snooping around, but I guess he just ate her out so well that she’s cool with telling him where to find the safe where Drax keeps all of his secret secrets.

Chang catches Bond and the assistant leaving Drax’s office, which means the assistant’s probably not going to make it to the third act of this one. The next day Bond joins Drax for some pigeon murdering, and in a genuinely cool moment Bond shoots a sniper Drax had waiting in a tree for him. Drax confronts his assistant about helping Bond, and then he uses his beautiful dogs for evil and has them chase her down and rip her to shreds. Don’t blink, because just like that Bond is in Venice, looking into a glassmaker after he found the glassmaker’s logo on a document in Drax’s safe. Bond runs into Dr. Goodhead, who’s here to address a seminar, and absolutely smothers her in condescension. This series absolutely loves boat chases, so next we’re treated to an absolutely bonkers boat chase through the canals of Venice. The slapstick is peaked, of course, by the infamous #PigeonDoubleTake. Once the gondola chase is over, Bond breaks into some kind of facility with musical locks and watches a knockoff version of McDonald’s The Professor science the hell out of some stuff. Bond retrieves some science juice while the scientists are out of the room but has to flee when they return. They inadvertently bump the loose container of science juice Bond left lying around and it shatters, releasing a gas which kills them instantly. Worth noting, however, is that while the humans who have been exposed to the gas are hella dead, some nearby lab rats are completely unharmed by it.

Bond high tails it out of there, running right into Chang in a ninja get up, because this is a Bond movie and these dudes absolutely can’t get enough of Asian men doing martial arts. Bond and Chang have a rip-roaring fight, which ends in Bond throwing Chang out of a window and delivering a Casablanca reference. Bond visits Dr. Goodhead and discovers that the CIA has outfitted her with all sorts of gadgets of her own. Bond proposes that they ally themselves against Drax’s evil machinations, and seal their new partnership with nature’s fountain pen (Bond’s dick). The next day Bond decides to be a good spy for the first time in his life and reports what he found in the lab to M. Bond, M and the Minister of Defense visit the lab, but Drax has totally renovated the place and removed all evidence of his evildoing. Bond still has that vial of science juice, though, and gives it to M so Q can investigate it. M now knows Bond was telling the truth about the lab, but the Minister is pissed and orders Bond off the case. M tells Bond to go to Rio de Janeiro under the pretense of being on leave. Drax needs a new lackey since Chang is gone, so he calls up the henchperson hotline and gets Jaws working for him.

In Rio, Bond is pursued by a woman who turns out to be Manuela (Emily Bolton), a fellow MI6 operative and Bond’s contact in Brazil. If there’s one thing the Bond franchise loves it’s a giant party, so naturally Bond arrives just in time for Rio Carnival. Bond goes off to snoop around while Manuela stands guard. She’s accosted by Jaws in disguise, but she’s saved at the last minute by Bond. Bond himself is saved from Jaws by a gaggle of Carnival partygoers, who sweep Jaws away in a tidal wave of merriment. Bond and Dr. Goodhead later meet up again and the two hitch a ride in a cable car, but Jaws uses his chompers to bite through the car’s cables and send them almost falling to their doom. Jaws makes his way over and scraps with both Bond and Dr. Goodhead. Bond and Dr. Goodhead manage to jump to safety while the cable car Jaws is on top of crashes into a building. That Lurch lookin’ sonofabitch is indestructible, though, and he’s well enough to instantly fall in love with a young woman who’s quite taken by his metal teeth. Bet you didn’t expect this to turn into a love story starring Jaws, huh?

Bond and Dr. Goodhead celebrate surviving by making out, but some paramedics arrive and knock the two of them out. They both wake up in an ambulance where Dr. Goodhead manages to distract a fake paramedic long enough for Bond to free himself. Unfortunately he tumbles out of the ambulance with Dr. Goodhead still tied to her stretcher, and now he needs to rescue her because lord knows a trained CIA operative can’t save herself. Bond dons some culturally insensitive garb and meets up with Moneypenny, Q and M in a Brazilian field office. Q breaks down the science juice Bond brought in and explains that it’s derived by a rare orchid that was thought to be extinct. Bond is sent to the part of the Amazon where the flower grows and gets attacked by more of Drax’s forces. Hold onto your asses, folks, because it’s time for another boat chase!

Bond eventually deploys a paraglider from inside his boat and flies away while his boat and the one Jaws was in tumble over a waterfall. Bond lands his glider in the jungle and comes across a beautiful woman who leads him to Drax’s base, where he’s surrounded by more and more beautiful women before being dumped into a pool with a python. Bond kills the snake, who never asked to be a part of any of this, only to be scooped up by Jaws and met by Drax himself. Bond is taken deeper into Drax’s base as four different Moonrakers take off. Drax explained he had to steal that one Moonraker from the Americans because one of his four was defective, and he didn’t have a spare handy. Bond is taken away and reunited with Dr. Goodhead, but unfortunately they’re reunited in a room located right below where the fifth Moonraker is about to take off. They need to get out of there quick, otherwise they’re going to get fried. Bond uses his watch to blow a vent and he and Dr. Goodhead manage to get out of the danger zone in time.

They knock out some of Drax’s crew and manage to hitch a ride on the sixth Moonraker. Dr. Goodhead deduces that all of the shuttles are headed for the same place, so she and Bond just sit back and wait to see where they end up. Bond checks to see what this Moonraker is carrying, and it turns out the shuttle is full of hot, young people. Bond figures out that the Moonrakers are functioning as Noah’s arks for sexy people. The Moonrakers converge on a secret space station that’s shielded from radar. All the crews meet in the station and Drax explains his plan to them. He’s going to wipe out all human life on Earth, and once the toxins dissipate he’ll populate the planet with these perfect, sexy people with himself positioned as their ruler. Bond and Dr. Goodhead manage to find the control room holding the radar jamming technology and Dr. Goodhead disables it, allowing the governments of Earth to view the station. The CIA sends up a rocket full of marines, but Bond and Dr. Goodhead are once again captured by Jaws. Drax is ready to have Bond and Dr. Goodhead thrown out of an airlock, but Bond points out to Jaws that anyone, including Jaws’ new girlfriend, who doesn’t measure up to Drax’s standards in terms of physical beauty is going to be killed sooner or later. Realizing his new girlfriend’s life is on the line, Jaws switches allegiance and allies himself with bond.

Bond is able to stop Drax’s forces from blowing up the ship full of marines, and the marines and Drax’s forces battle it out in the most boring space laser battle imaginable. Bond, Dr. Goodhead and Jaws, everyone’s new favorite power throuple, battle their way through the station as the marines take out Drax’s forces. Drax eventually has Bond at laser gunpoint, but Bond’s wristwatch dart gun finally comes in handy. He darts Drax and sends him out an airlock. Dr. Goodhead arrives and reminds Bond that Drax already released three globes full of gas headed for Earth, each of them capable of killing millions. Drax’s station is breaking apart around them, so Bond and Dr. Goodhead hop onto Moonraker 5. They can’t disengage from the station, though, but luckily Jaws and his new galpal, who just absolutely love each other, arrive and free them. Jaws and his girlfriend die as the station explodes, but honestly they were so happy to be together I’m not sure they’d mind.

Bond and Dr. Goodhead track down the globes and blow them all up, saving millions of lives. And because you know we need that happy ending, a CIA nerd reports that both Jaws and his girlfriend inexplicably survived the destruction of the station. MI6 and the CIA check in with Bond and Dr. Goodhead just in time to see them bangin’ one out in zero gravity. Read up on how erections work in space to get an idea of how well that went for everyone involved.

The End

~~~~~

Well, that happened! This was essentially The Spy Who Loved Me in space, with a villain who wanted to populate the Earth’s surface with a master race instead of a villain who wanted to populate the ocean floor with… well, anybody, I guess. Even the whole stolen space shuttle is something we’ve seen before. I really did like Dr. Goodhead, though, and she seemed much more solid and capable than previous love interests. She still needed to be rescued in the end, but I’m starting to accept that that’s just something that’s going to happen in these movies. I thought Jaws was a lot of fun once his girlfriend showed up, and even though it makes no sense for them to have survived the station exploding I’m still glad they get a happy ending. Overall the plot of this movie didn’t really get me going; I never felt like I completely understood why Bond had to travel to Venice or Rio, and all of his jetsetting seemed like an excuse to cram in more boat chases. Drax was obviously the villain from the jump, and it felt like his hole master race thing came out of nowhere in the end. There were some fun moments in this one, and lots of camp and cheese that I always appreciate, but the fun I had at times never quite elevated me above the confusion and boredom I felt for most of this movie.

I give Moonraker QQQ on the Five Q Scale.

Believe it or not, Eli’s almost done with his journey through The Golden Girls! He’ll still have The Golden Palace to work through after that, but we’re almost done with the OG story. What a ride it’s been! Check back in a few days for Eli’s recaps of the next few Golden Girls episodes, “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” and “Rose: Portrait of a Woman”. After that I’ll post my recap of the next James Bond adventure, For Your Eyes Only.

Until then, as always, thank you for reading, thank you for floating and thank you for being One of Us!