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minshookie · 4 years ago

Text

All Play, No Work.

Pairing | CEO!Yoongi x reader

Genre | yandere,angst

Summary | “your secret relationship with Yoongi is all smooth sailing,until Mrs Kim gets in the way.”

!warnings! | mature language, workplace bullying, gossip, and infidelity. Also some pretty steamy scenes, for readers 18+.

| this is not in anyway shape or form a true depiction or representation of BTS, this is a work of fiction and is not to be taken seriously. For entertainment purposes only.|(this is my work, please don’t repost or steal)

Requested [open for request] words: 2k.

A/N | “I’m so happy you enjoyed “meetings at midnight.” I never really expected over 100 notes that’s crazy! I may have gotten a little carried away with this one but I hope you don’t mind & enjoy it as well. I’ll probably be making a part 2, please take any mistakes as love ❤️”

The disturbing rattle of the air conditioner served as white noise while you toyed with the drooping noodles swimming in the savory sauce placed before you. A few of your coworkers droned on about their plans, their kids and undeserving husbands leaving you alone in the corner of the depressing break room to think about what to expect when getting back to your cubicle. Which was a little less depressing than the powder white painted room you resided in now.

“Y/L/N, Min is asking for you.” The conversations stopped and all three of us looked up into the door frame. Jimin,Yoongi's assistant stood with his hands buried in his stiffly pressed pants pockets. “I-I’m on lunch.” You slowly went back to your lukewarm meal, taking a few noodles into your mouth. Chewing, You waited for the heavy pitter patter of his polished leather loafers to exit, but You never get what you wish for.

“Y/N, please don’t make me have to run back up there just to run back down here and tell you the same thing….c’mon.” He came closing your tupperware, sighing as you pushed it into your lunch bag, embarrassment growing on your features as he stood over you. The stare of nosey coworkers followed as you stepped out of the bland break room. The clacking of Jimin’s shoes found your nerves rather quickly, closely he walked behind you like a school principal making sure you went where instructed.

Taking you past your cubicle to leave your lunch you could almost taste the jealousy being thrown at you like missiles. Disapproving and confused whispers and glares followed you out the area. Reaching the stairs, out of sight of your colleagues you out ran Jimin, the looks, noises and scoffs getting the best of you. You practically threw yourself through yoongi's door, your heart pounding in your ears.

“Hey! hey! Bunny, got here quickly didn’t you?” He walked over locking his loyal assistant out. Falling back on the couch struggling for your breath, closing your eyes, you heard him walk around you. “I told you I’d see you after work, we’d have all night together.” Sighing, he pulls you up by your arms. With a grunt he sat down and replaced your head on his lap. “I know what you said, but did you really think I was going to wait...why should i?” Opening your eyes you met his soft gaze. “Tell me you love me.” He whispers, almost ashamed in himself. Needy, needy,needy,always needy. “This can’t be why you called me in.”

“Why should I?” You laughed, obviously he didn’t share your sense of humor as he tugged harshly on a strand of your hair. “Well if I didn’t love you I’d quit Yoongi.” Rolling over you cuddled into his soft tummy inhaling his masculin scent, this here under him locked in his dim office was your safe place. “No you wouldn’t, I pay you too much.” He murmured petting your back with his large hands. “As if!” You giggled into his tummy, pulling back to look up at your lover. His signature smile displayed on his features, moving his hands from your back he places his limber fingers at the back of your knee. Locking eyes he slid skillfully under your skirt to massage your ass over your panties. “Who were you hiding from today hm?” Groaning you rolled your eyes, you hate how he knows you so well.

“Kim?” “Mrs Kim is the least of my worries now.” You grimaced playing with his buttons. “Mm good, can't be the new girl, maybe her boyfriend?” Your eyes shot open, “boyfriend?! Who?” He planted this topic in the conversation, knowing your interest in the drama of your workplace. “Yeah, she’s running around with the coffee boy.” Laughing, he cut himself off “Jungkook.” He laughed almost uncontrollably. “That’s so cute since when?!” He hums calming down, “uh since about last month, I’ve been watching them get all close and flirty jeon puts extra cream in her coffee, she blushes blah blah. And you know Jimin is the nosiest person in the population of this place.”

You chuckled Nodding in agreeance “learned that way before you did, he was my cubicle neighbor before he was your assistant.” Sitting up you go to his drink cart to grab a bottle of water. “Yeah they’re cute as long as they stay on task, Answer the question though, who’s bothering my baby hm? I hate seeing you that way.” He comes from behind gliding his hands around your front pulling you into his embrace “you have a whole cafeteria in the next wing, I made sure they served your favorite today, and yet you chose the shitty break closet.” His rambling turns into background noise as you look through the one way window. Watching as your coworkers attended their duties, Jungkook balanced coffees in his arms with skill the new girl watched in admiration...I wonder what he’s actually here for.

Yoongi’s breath fans your neck causing you to shiver against him. “I’m sorry what’d you say?” “You’re ok.” He turns you around swiftly kissing you passionately against the glass obviously you’ve missed something. Though unseen the act feels extremely dirty. Dropping your water you cling to his shoulders, legs around his Slender waist. “You're not paying me to make out with you I hope.” He pecks your nose, gnawing his bottom lip. “Huh looks like I am.” “Ah, as tempting as that sounds Yoongs-” “don’t ever call me that.” He nips at your neck in retaliation. “I have a stack of papers on my desk that Mr Jimin has been beating me over the head about.” Groaning he loosens his grip around you. Letting you gather yourself before going to his door.

“I’ll see you tonight yeah?” Pouting,he came kissing your lips once more. “I’ll be waiting.” He opened the door and watched you strut down the stairs.

Getting back to your respectful area, you notice something was off...where’d your lunch go? You could’ve sworn you threw it on your desk. Pulling out the rolling chair to take a seat, “I’ll find it later.” You whispered to yourself,taking a seat, directly in the cold remains of your lunch. “What the fuck!” A wave of laughter was given with your ill response. Noodles dangled from your backside as you turned to look at the mess on your office chair.

“Okay! What are we a bunch of middle school virgins?” Jimin shouted, his face turning a dark shade of peach. “I’m sorry y/n.” Rolling your eyes you tried to keep back tears of utter embarrassment turning away from you colleagues. “Uhm...it’s pretty bad, do you have anything to change into?” He takes off his styled coat and hands it to you. You can’t process over the harsh giggles and whispers, “yeah like I have a closet in my car, Jimin I don’t have shit to put on!” You hiss making him pull an offended expression.

“I could give you something.” Your head snapped in the direction of the quiet new girl in the far corner. “I have a few dresses in car I-I I’m in the process of…” she scans the room unsure of her words “moving.” You offer a smile to cover how distraught you are, unable to respond correctly. “Thank you luci, we appreciate it.” Nodding she smiles softly grabbing her bag going to retrieve the clothes. “Go to the restroom, please.”

Tying the coat around your waist you rushed with your head down to the bathroom, shutting the door behind yourself roughly. Taking off the grey coat Turing to examine your soup covered ass. You brushed the cold noodles letting them splat onto the tiled floor. Pulling coat off the conjoined sinks you found the spacious stall at the end of the row, stripping off your soiled skirt. Nothing better to do, but to sit on the cold stool and wait.

The creaking door of the bathroom cut your silent thoughts short, isn’t Luci a quick one? You chuckled to yourself getting up, about to tell her of your whereabouts…“maybe if the bitch didn’t have her head so far up Min’s ass she woulda saw it coming.” The unknown voice stopped you in your tracks. Her friend snickers. “Shh she could be in here.” “As if I give a fuck, she needs to know!” Peeking through the side of the stall you could see them in the mirror touching up their makeup. “Min’s probably got his head up hers too!” The quieter of the two spoke up.

“Ha that would explain my recent hours, I heard they fuck in the office, I wonder if the sluts any good.” She cleaned the edges of her lipstick, “I’ve fucked him, I know he’s good, really into all the rough shit, he’s crazy.” She tossed her makeup into her bag fixing her hair, “why’d you guys stop?” You felt your chest ache, yoongi never told you about him and Mrs Kim, what kind of fucked story is this? “Little miss pasta booty got the job, and Joon finally proposed...guess he didn’t want me any-” “y/n are you in here?!” Luci’s softened voice searched for you.

“I’m in here.” Responding slightly above a whisper, the soft steps of her pumps were trampled by the clicking steps of the two mud slingers who quickly bursted from the restroom. “I didn’t know what you would like, I have this blue one, it’s a cute summer dress.” She hung it on the door of the stall for me to see. “Or this white one, it’s a bit tighter but I think it’ll look great on you.” Randomly choosing you stripped of your top pulling the dress over yourself. “Thanks Luci, I owe you one.” Collecting your clothes and Jimin’s coat, you left the stall. “No no, I’m sorry Kim did that to you...I should’ve stopped her.” She coyly hangs her head, “not your fault...thanks Luci.” She smiles politely, leaving me alone in the bathroom.

Eunji That jealous bitch, yoongi has much explaining to do. You smooth out your dress bracing yourself for the environment behind the door. only to be pushed back. A deep blush pink shade covering his face, yoongi brings you back in, “you can’t be in here, this is the ladies.” He scans your body before looking at the dirty laundry in your arms. “This is my building. I can be anywhere in any room I want.” Scoffing you attempt to leave, grabbing your forearm he pulls you back. “What’s going on with you I’m here to check and see if you’re alright and here you are acting like an ass y/n” his face held a concerned stare.

“Yoongi the last thing we should be doing is huddling in the bathroom, we’ve drawn enough attention to ‘us’ already.” Unable to look him in the eyes you examine his posture, he propped your chin on his pointer finger bringing your face up. “And since when did you care?” “Ever since your ex painted my ass with my lunch.” He giggled darkly, “what?” Again you attempted escape, only to be overpowered and lifted with ease. “Okay sit the fuck down.” Placing you down in the sink like a child he took your skirt looking at the back. “And this just had to be the one I bought?.” He shook his head like a disappointed father. “What are you acting so mad towards me for, who’s supposedly my ex huh?” He took the skirt under the faucet scrubbing it harshly together with soap.

Why can’t he ever just leave you alone, drawing attention to your relationship was the last thing you needed today. It’s not like nobody knew, it was hard not to. But you hated the unwanted attention the favoritism brought you. “Who lied to you?” “You did.” He stopped the water, “y/n now you know I’d never.” He folded the cleaned wet skirt along with your shirt. “Yoongi, I heard Kim Eunji talking about it. She told her little follower about it while I hid in the stall.” You answered blandly, ready to be freed from the bathroom. His face shifted shades, “what? I’ve never fucked that bitch, all she does is lie and get into shit she has no concern for.” He gripped the sink roughly.

Like a switch, when the right buttons were pushed Yoongi’s temper was quick to strike….though never thrown at you. It can have harsh outcomes and you've seen it first hand. “She runs her mouth about you too much, I’ll have to help her out.” Aggressively released the marble counter, “Yoongi w-what, calm down.” He walked to the door, unsure of what to do. Naive of his wrath you followed behind. “She wants to get fucked? I’ll give her something that’ll fuck her up, something that’ll make her piss off for good this time.”

Not my image

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too-gay-for-marvel · 4 years ago

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one of us

a/n: I LIVE! listen. listen. yall know me well enough at this point to know that i make no promises about posting more stuff. i might post something in a few months. maybe next week. lets spin the wheel of fate and see what happens, shall we?

Request: hi!! do you think you could write a prequel of sorts to i don’t need a hero? it’s one of my absolute favorites and i was wondering if you could write something angsty for the mission where the reader gets shot protecting wanda? <33 thank you!!

Word Count: 2546

Warnings: swearing, canon-typical violence

Pairing: Wanda x Reader

She hated you.

Wanda Maximoff absolutely, unquestionably, without a doubt hated you. There was not a single thing about you that she didn’t hate, from the stupid cocky look on your face to the way you refused to be of any help. You were supposed to be an ally now, not a nuisance.

And yet there you were.

Sitting across from her at the table and shooting her a look that made her want nothing more than to throw some magic right at your face. If she was lucky then maybe it would even knock you on your ass and she could wipe that stupid smirk from your face. It would almost make this meeting with you worth all the hassle.

“Does everyone understand their jobs?” Maria asked, bringing Wanda back to the table and forcing her to pay attention.

“Blow shit up and have fun doing it?” You asked even though that most certainly wasn’t your job and you knew it.

Don’t let them out of your sight. Maria’s voice rang in Wanda’s mind and, after a silent look, she gave a nod of affirmation. It didn’t seem as if you had noticed, and that gave Wanda a feeling of superiority. Technically it wasn’t a competition, and she already knew she was better than you, but to know that she could scheme about you in front of your face was something that gave her more joy than she would ever openly admit.

The meeting concluded without a hitch. You had even admitted - rather begrudgingly - that you were to do nothing other than keep the attention off of Wanda and Sam. In Wanda’s mind, that was a good start; you usually argued until you were blue in the face.

But with you agreeing, all Wanda had to really worry about was the upcoming mission. And whether you would keep to your word or not.

----------

By all accounts, and much to Wanda’s and Sam’s surprise, the mission had been going well. You had launched fireworks on one end of the building to cause a commotion while they had snuck in through the back. She had used her powers to distract the few guards left inside, and within minutes they had found what they were looking for.

In fact, the mission had been going so well that Wanda had been on the verge of asking if you were okay. There was no way you could have behaved for as long as you had, not without a proper motivation. But right as Wanda had lifted her hand to start her comms, an unusually loud explosion sounded off, quickly followed by guards running and yelling.

Heading in their direction.

“I knew it was too good to be true,” Wanda mumbled to herself.

Only seconds after Wanda had muttered her lack of surprise at the situation, the same guards she had heard appeared in the hallway behind them. Directly between them and their exit.

Of course, she heard Sam think. Very loudly.

It turned, very quickly, into an all-out brawl. Unlike you, they didn’t exactly aim to kill; if it was avoidable then they would. But that didn’t mean there weren’t still plenty of bodies lying on the ground, continuously making it harder and harder for them to leave.

“To the roof,” Sam ordered during a short lull in the fighting. “We can get an emergency evac from there.”

And before Wanda knew it, they were once again fighting and trying to make their way up the stairs. It wasn’t the most difficult thing in the world, not with her powers and Red Wing. But that didn’t mean it was easy either.

“Leaving already?” You asked over the comms, causing both Wanda and Sam to roll their eyes at the lack of seriousness in your tone.

“Just get to the roof,” Sam replied shortly, refusing to say anymore on the matter.

“When I’m ready.”

Wanda swore if she hadn’t promised Bucky not to kill you, she would have done it then and there.

It didn’t take long after that for Wanda and Sam to make it to the roof. He told her he was going to fly around and scope a potential landing, and Wanda agreed to hold down the fort until he came back. They both ignored the fact that you were nowhere to be found.

In typical Avengers fashion, the guards came back not long after Sam had left her alone. She wished she could have been surprised, but when it happens nearly every time, it loses it’s shock factor.

But this one was worse than usual; Wanda was, unfortunately, feeling overwhelmed. She knew the horde would run out of bodies eventually, but would that happen before or after Sam showed up? She had no clue, and that was something that terrified her.

Needless to say, she got her answer when an entire army made it up to the roof.

“That’s my cue,” your voice came over the comms, a little too cheery for the situation, but Wanda wasn’t going to answer. At that moment, she hoped you burned along with the rest of them.

An explosion rocked the building underneath her feet, sending more panic racing through her veins. Fucking idiot, she thought, you’re going to destroy the building with us still in it! More explosions followed suit.

“You’d better hurry, Sam, Y/N is gonna blow the building,” Wanda spoke clearly, but rushed. As terrified as she was, she knew it would do no good if Sam didn’t even understand her.

“Just a bit longer, I’m almost there.” She didn’t like that Sam sounded more panicked than her.

“Need a hand?” Your voice came through again, but it was drowned out by a roar that grew increasingly louder.

It was a missile. A missile that was going to hit the roof. The roof that she was standing on.

“Just move!”

Wanda was too transfixed by the missile heading her way to notice someone running toward her. Someone who quickly wrapped their arms around her waist. Her body tensed as her feet were lifted off the ground and she was suddenly launched off the side of the building right as the missile hit the spot where she had previously been standing.

Wind rushed past her ears, along with something that sounded like a scream. She couldn’t tell who it was coming from. The trip to the ground took only a moment, but felt like it was never going to end. Well, not until she forcefully met the ground, that is. The air was knocked out of her lungs and the person on top of her didn’t help.

“Get off me,” she grunted as she pushed the person off and sat up. Only when she was up did she notice it was you, new scratches on your face and blood dripping down your ears.

“You stupid Avengers, always in the way,” you mumbled just loud enough for Wanda to hear. Or maybe it was just muffled because of the deafening ringing in her ears.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Wanda shouted, pushing herself onto her feet and watching as you did the same.

“What do you mean, what was I thinking?” You shot back. “You were the one who didn’t move!”

“I didn’t need your help.”

“You almost got hit! By a missile!”

“And yet you were the one who launched it!” Wanda stepped forward, her finger jabbing into your chest as she talked.

“I saved your life!” You shouted back, throwing your hands up in indignation.

“You pushed me off a building!”

“Don’t criticise me! No one else was helping!”

“I didn’t need help from some wannabe hero!”

“I’m not trying to-” you were cut off by the sound of a gun, and your eyes widening. You both looked down to see a dark red spot near your hip, growing larger by the second.

You hit the ground before she could catch you.

Wanda looked past you to see one lone guard, his shirt still on fire and his skin singed beyond recognition. His arm was still up, gun pointed where you had previously been standing. She didn’t have to bother with finishing him; he collapsed, his body slowly burning.

She crouched down immediately, her hand moving to the spot on your hip. Her hands went to press on it; something she had learned from Maria and Natasha, something she hadn’t thought she would ever really need to know.

You groaned ever so slightly when she pressed harder, but aside from that you were silent and still.

“Coming in hot,” Sam said. She didn’t bother looking up, but felt the wind from Sam and the evac landing behind her.

Sam was quick in assessing the damage. He picked you up and carried you to the quinjet, getting you stabilised for the trip back. Wanda thanked the gods that it would be a short trip.

She hoped you would be okay.

----------

Technically, it wasn’t the worst injury someone had come back from a mission with. Tony always came back with multiple contusions, sometimes broken bones if he had been careless. Natasha and Clint were always a mess, having been absorbed in trying to keep the other safe. Hell, you had come back with worse injuries.

So why this one had taken so much out of you, Wanda had no idea. All she knew was that it had been four days and you were still unconscious. Even the doctors couldn’t understand why you hadn’t woken up. Sure, trauma could keep someone in a coma, but you had seen much worse. So why this one?

“Time for food.”

Bless that man.

Wanda looked up from her book to see Clint leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. A signature look for him, she realised. But she noticed, strangely enough, that he did not come with food. Extremely rude.

“Making me scavenge for myself now?” Wanda teased as she closed her book.

“You could say that,” Clint shrugged. “You gotta get out of here for a few hours, Wanda.”

So that was his purpose.

“Not yet,” she answered simply.

“They haven’t woken up yet, won’t wake up while you’re gone.”

“You don’t know that-”

“-Wanda,” Clint interrupted, “they’re not waking up. Get some food, take a shower, maybe a nap. It’ll be fine.”

She looked over to you and just stared. Your face hadn’t really changed since they had gotten you back to SHIELD. No sounds, no movement, nothing. Maybe there was a new crinkle between your brows, but nothing to really indicate you were going to wake up. No matter how much she wanted you to.

Damn you for making her worry about you of all people.

And damn Clint for being right.

“Two hours.”

“Make it five,” Clint shot back, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Three.”

“Four.”

Damn him.

“Fine. Four. But not a minute more,” Wanda sighed. But, and she hated to admit this, Clint was right; she needed some time to recover. She hadn’t even left herself recover from the mission, instead coming straight to the medical ward with you.

Clint nodded once and waited for her to leave before heading into your room. Sweet of him to take her place while she was resting. It would at least give her some respite to know that someone was watching you while she was gone. Now she just needed to take care of herself and get back.

Well. Maybe after a bath.

----------

“Wanda wake up!”

Not the best way for anyone to wake up from a nap.

Wanda shot up out of bed and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. She was sure she looked like an absolute mess, and she could feel the knots in her hair. Oh god she felt terrible. Two hours was not enough time for a recovery nap. They better have a good reason for waking her up.

“Good, you’re up,” Clint huffed from the doorway. “Y/N’s gone.”

Okay. Pretty good reason.

She didn’t bother brushing her hair; didn’t even bother changing into clean clothes. It was fine though, she had slept in her mission clothes anyway. What was one more day, right? Besides, it gave her a bit of comfort that she at least wouldn’t be running through the hallways half-naked.

It was, for lack of a better word, pandemonium in the halls. The assumption was that everyone was looking for you; and that assumption was correct. If you hadn’t been such a damn nuisance to SHIELD in the past, maybe they would’ve just let you go.

So really, this was all your fault.

But that didn’t stop Wanda from making her way to where she felt she knew you had gone. There was no proof, but it was a feeling. A feeling that was similar to when she had known whenever Pietro had gotten into trouble. Not quite as strong, because nothing could beat twintuition, but it was still there.

And it was right.

Wanda didn’t know what to really expect you to look like after a few days of rest. But you looked a mess sitting in the dark cell. You were still in your hospital gown, and the gauze was still wrapped around whatever wounds you had sustained. The worst part? You sat curled up in the corner.

“Y/N?” Wanda stepped closer to the cell, but was met with a beeping sound that she was terrifyingly familiar with.

A proximity bomb.

She jumped back and waited for the explosion that never came. Instead, the beeping stopped, and you continued to sit in the corner. Her eyes searched for the bomb, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to find it. If you had hidden it, then you would be the only one who could get to it.

“Everyone is looking for you,” Wanda whispered, just loud enough for you to hear.

“Leave me alone.” Your voice was hoarse, and you let out a series of painful-sounding coughs.

“They’re worried about you.”

“They can worry about themselves,” you shot back, “I’m fine.”

“Y/N,” Wanda urged. She didn’t like seeing you like this. She hadn’t cared for you much, hadn’t even liked you, but this… this wasn’t you. “What happened?”

And then you turned. She could see the bruises on your face, the bags under your eyes, a look on your face that she couldn’t quite place. But your eyes… your eyes pierced through her soul in a way she hadn’t thought possible.

“You fucking heroes happened,” you replied, your eyes never leaving hers. “Couldn’t fucking leave well enough alone, had to bring me into all this fucking mess.”

“Y/N-”

“You wanted me in this fucking cell, now I’m here.” Wanda could tell you were running out of breath. “So leave me the fuck alone.”

With that you turned and stared back at the wall, your back to her. She couldn’t go to you, couldn’t help you. That bomb of yours would blow the both of you up if she got closer. And she just knew you were finished talking to her. You had made your decision, and she would just have to accept it. It seemed the team was right.

You would never be one of them.

#wanda maximoff #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff x reader #scarlet witch x reader #scarlet witch #scarlet witch imagine #wanda maximoff imagine #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #requests #my writing

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bobathirstaccount · 4 years ago

Text

Hard to Find Someone Like You

Boba x fem!reader, slow burn to smut, some romance, fair amount of plot, Post-Mando 2 Boba

You are a merc serving under Fennec at Fett’s Palace. It’s business as usual until a certain helmet starts tilting in your direction...

Translations - Mando’a

Cyar’ika - sweetheart/ darling

Riduur - spouse

Transalation - Twi’lek

keella - sweetheart

TW: unprotected sex

— 2 more chapters —

***

CHAPTER SEVEN

Getting used to your new position at the palace was an ongoing process. The more time you spent standing to Boba’s left, the more people bothered you, looking for favors. Some of the dancers even started to treat you differently. This made you upset; you talked it over with Ayy. “You can’t blame them. You’re a direct line to Boba Fett. And by far the least scary, between you and Fennec.” You considered that. “But I’m a merc in my own right!”

“Not nearly as infamous as Fennec Shand and Boba Fett. You’re the friendly, safe face of the Great Fett.” You glared at her. Dammit. “You can just start giving them ‘the eyes,’ like Fennec does.” You considered, and tried it on Ayy. She smiled, “Keep working on it, keella.” You huffed. “Aside from you pouting over your growing influence, how are things?” She leaned forward, licking her lips. “Girl talk me, keella.” You smiled. She was the only one you tolerated being questioned by. “Good. He... said he was fond of me.”  Ayy spit her drink all over you. You raised both eyebrows, ”Bitch.” She dabbed you with some napkins, “Well don’t do that to me. He’s ‘fond’ of you? I told you he had feelings for you. Can I be at your wedding?”

“Not funny.”

“Just saying... he is pussy whipped,” she pinched your cheeks. “Guess the tales of my escapades came in handy.” You blushed, “Honestly yes. Glad I was half paying attention.” She pinched you. “Well, I should get back to it.” She retreated back to her stage, leaving you with your thoughts.

***

“We’re leaving in 15 minutes, be on the Slave 1,” Fett had burst into the throne room and cornered you and Fennec off to the side. “Din is in trouble.” Fennec’s eyes lit up in recognition. So did yours; you remembered your conversation with the ruler of Mandalore. “I’ll be there.” Fennec dashed off to get ready. You looked up into Boba’s visor. “Is it bad?” He tilted his head towards you and said in a low voice, “Bo-Katan is making a move for power. We will be there to back him up.” You nodded, “I’ll get my supplies off Daesha.” Boba shook his head. “I’m leaving you here, in charge. You are my left hand; if Fennec is with me then you are on the throne.”

Your mouth hung open. Then your eyes narrowed, “Leave her here and take me. She’s better suited to take over for you in your absence.” He shook his head, “You have to learn, ad’ika. It will be fine.” You stared up at him in horror, letting it show plainly on your face. He laughed softly under his helmet, “We will be gone for less than a week. Nothing is scheduled to be going on. All you have to do is sit up there and represent me.” You gulped, “That’s what worries me.” He shrugged, “Your reputation will do more than you think. You are my number 2. No one will question you, as no one questions Fennec. And if they do,” he shifted his weight, “they will have to deal with me directly.” He seemed to grow in size. You smiled, but then became serious again.

 He turned towards the throne, indicating you should follow him. He led you to the throne, and watched you step up and turn around. You sat down very slowly, disbelief flowing through you. Your ass touched the seat. You widened your stance a bit, trying to fill up the throne like Boba and Fennec. “Good,” Boba said, looking up at you. “I’m leaving now. You will rule in my stead,” he said this slightly more loudly so everyone in the room heard. With that he turned and left. You faced your court and swallowed.

***

One day turned into two. Three. There was no communication from Slave 1. This was expected; the only time you would hear something was if they were in trouble. But still you wanted to hear from Boba. You stayed in his suites in his absence, and occupied the throne room during the day. You settled some small disputes you thought were straight forward, hoping Boba would be proud of you. In the evenings you held a different type of court in the third floor club. More people started coming to the club because they knew that Fett’s Second would be there. The club was popping by the fourth night of Fett’s absence. You wondered what he’d think about it.

The dancers acted as a wall, and would pull off people who were trying to get to you. Ayy bossed them around for you. You were thankful.

On the sixth day, you received a transmission in the middle of the night. It was Fennec. Your heart sank a bit, but you pressed play.

“Y/N, there was treachery here. We’re on the run back to the Palace. Strengthen defenses immediately and wait for more instructions.”

You shot out of Fett’s suites in a panic, raising your head of security and several others. You carried out Fennec’s orders, and sat on the throne, anxiously waiting for word. Midmorning word came that Slave 1 had landed. You wanted to bound to the hanger, but knew your place. You sent Ayy instead.

Ayy returned shortly, “There’s a lot of people with Fett’s armor. They went to a conference room.” “Fett told me,” she gulped, “he actually spoke to me and told me to tell you to meet them at the conference room.” You jumped up at this, startling her. You ran out of the room without saying anything.

You caught your breath before you entered the conference room. No need to look like a fool. You stepped inside. Seven Mandalorians turned to face you, hands on their weapons.

“This is Y/N, “Fennec said, and they relaxed. She nodded at you, “Fett and Din are having a private meeting.” You nodded and took a relaxed stance. Warning klaxons went off. “Kriff, they’re here!” One of the Mandalorians yelled out.

“To the Daesha, Y/N!” Fennec yelled. Without a second thought you took off, racing towards your ship, the klaxons urging you on.

***

You slammed the take off sequence into Daesha, seeing the ships entering the atmosphere. You took off towards them, incensed. No one would come for Boba.

You were good in a dog fight, and you knew it. You prepared your weapons and increased your speed, intending to engage them as far away from the palace as possible.  Suddenly your comms came to life, “Daesha, wait for us.” It was Boba. Not a chance in hell, you thought. You engaged the enemy Mandalorians, guns blazing. Daesha took a few hits, but you knew she could take it. You targeted one of the ships and merilessly went after it. You quickly overtook it with Daesha’s speed. You targeted. It exploded just in time, Daesha flying through the debris. Your comms crackled to life again, something about pulling back. You turned them off.

You chased the larger ship that had come with the small group of invading ships. Firing at it, you took damage to one of Daesha’s engines. Black smoke trailed behind you. You grit your teeth; she would hold together. Suddenly Slave 1 filled your view screen. You had been cut off. Missiles flew and the invading ship exploded. Other ships from your side were now swarming the area, mopping up the remaining ships. Some fled, but most were destroyed. You started to chase one out of the atmosphere. “Daesha, return to the hanger,” someone was pinging you on the emergency channel. It sounded like Fennec. “I can get it,” you retorted, finally responding to someone.

“Fett says to turn around.” You snorted angrily, watching the ship grow larger in your view screen. There was no way it could outrun you. It was already dead. Frustrated, you pulled back and headed towards home.

***

You had gone to the throne room upon your return to find it empty. You then checked the conference room. There were some Mandalorians, but Fennec had just left for the throne room and Din and Boba were missing. You sighed and headed back to the throne room, where you met up with Fennec.

 “He’s pissed at you,” she calmly stated, fixing your hair. You rolled your eyes.

“Daesha and I were fine.”

“I don’t think he saw it that way. In fact, most of us didn’t. You are too aggressive.”

You shrugged, annoyance growing in you.

“He wants you to meet him in his suites in a little while,” she drawled on. “In the meantime, catch me up to speed.”

***

You had caught Fennec up quickly, anxious to get to Boba’s rooms. You wanted to be there before him. Finally you were dismissed. You tried to casually jog to your destination, feeling vaguely idiotic.

He was already waiting, looking out a window. His back was to you. You ran up to him happily. When he didn’t turn around immediately, you stopped next to him, uncertain.

“You could have died today.”

“I was fine,” you shot back.

“I already have the report on Daesha. She barely held together.”

You shrugged, “I knew she would. She’s tough.”

Suddenly you were being shaken by two strong hands. “You could have died!” He roared. You were shocked; in all the time you had known him he had never raised his voice. In fact, when he became angry it usually got softer. You looked at him wide eyed. He gave you a nasty glare. “You are to stay behind the next time something like this happens.” You tried to object, but he squeezed your arms tightly. “Cyar’ika, you are forbidden.” You stared, stunned. “You can’t do that,” you quietly said. “I can, and I did,” he seethed, staring you down. You stared him down right back. “I’m not your pet! You can’t keep me locked up.”

He blinked, surprise showing on his face. His hands dropped. “Cyar’ika, I.. can’t have anything happen to you.” His eyes had changed, from sharp and dangerous to soft and pleading. You stared at each other. His eyes were soft and open. You reached up, putting your hands on either side of his face. You slowly reached up to kiss him. He allowed you, drawing you closer with two hands around your waist. You tried to deepen the kiss, both wondering if you could and just wanting to be devoured by him. Your tongue slipped past his lips and teeth to explore his mouth. He reciprocated, pulling you into a crushing kiss. You didn’t want to come up for air, but eventually you had to. He looked at you darkly. “You’re right, but I can’t reconcile that with my desire to protect you.”

You smiled, “Just let me fight with the boys.”

He dropped his gaze, “But you aren’t.”

 “Yes I am. We just also fuck.” You smiled wryly at your snappy comment. He didn’t meet your gaze. Silence stretched. You began to realize you had said the wrong thing. You wrapped your arms around his neck. “I mean... you know what I mean...” He remained silent, looking out the window. “I just wanted to kill all of them, coming for you,” you whispered softly. His eyes flicked back to you, “Technically, they were coming for Din.” You snorted, “And his allies. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“Do you know what it did to me to see your ship taking damage?” He said quietly, hugging you to himself.

Your breath caught for a moment, “No.”

“I would go back to the Sarlacc before I let anything happen to you.”

Tears sprung to your eyes, surprising you. You sniffled. “Please don’t say that.”

 “It’s true.” He put his forehead against yours and closed his eyes, “Let me take care of you.”

Your inhale caught in your lungs, “You do.”  ”I mean really take care of you. I want you to be mine.”

“I am yours already,” you slid your hands around to hold his face. The two of you looked at each other. The air held something electrical in it. He drew you into a deep kiss. His hands started to move over your body. “You’re mine,” he breathed, coming up for air before kissing you again. You moaned softly; he was making you melt into a puddle of desire.

“I am yours, but I’m also my own person,” you whimpered into his mouth. He kissed you again. “You’re mine,” he reaffirmed. He was intoxicating. You didn’t argue anymore. He started to disrobe you, and you worked on his clothes frantically. The two of you fell into bed, a tangle of half-disrobed clothing and limbs. He lifted you up and tossed you into the center of the bed.

“Let me eat that pussy. Let me show you how much I missed you,” he said, pulling at your clothing. You smiled naughtily and finished pulling off your pants. He crawled up to you, an animalistic look on his face. You watched him, anticipating. He roughly spread your legs and grabbed one ass cheek with each hand. He licked from the back of your pussy all the way up to your clit, applying pressure. He rubbed his tongue back and forth on your clit. You threw your head back, moaning.

Two fingers slipped into your pussy as he continued to work your clit with his tongue. You started to see stars already, and grabbing his head you let out a loud, high pitched noise. He laughed into your pussy, and removed his fingers, replacing them with his tongue. He swirled it at your entrance and through your slick folds. You squirmed under him, and he held you still. “Baby I want you inside of me,” you panted. “Which part of me?” He slipped two fingers in and out of your pussy, and returned his tongue to your clit. You writhed, “Your cock. I want your cock.” 

“Hmmm,” he considered, mmmming into your clit. You almost screamed. “How bad you want it though? I’m having fun tasting you.”

“Please, please I want your cock so badly. I missed you,” you looked down at him. “I missed your cock in my pussy, baby.” He looked up at you. “Well, if that’s the case.” He crawled up your body until you were making eye contact. He let his cock drag against the inside of your thigh. “Baby, please,” you said. He eyed you darkly, then kissed you softly, penetrating you simultaneously. You moaned into his mouth. He lightly bit your upper lip, then licked up your neck. You wrapped your legs around him, wanting all of him. He fucked you savagely, gripping you tightly. With each stroke he stretched you deliciously. You held on to him and moaned his name to him like a sacred chant. He panted into your ear, “You are all that matters to me, riduur.” You didn’t know what that meant, but took it as a term of endearment you would ask Ayy about later.

You ran your hands down his spine, crying out as you came, pussy clutching around him. “Mmmmm Boba,” you sighed. He gave a few more thrusts and came in you, cock spasming pleasantly. He stilled, then rolled off you. You snuggled into his side, sighing happily. He sighed deeply, and a silence fell over the room. Sleep overtook you

#boba fett smut #boba x reader #boba fett x reader #boba fett x y/n #boba fett fanfiction #boba fett x female reader #boba fett x you #boba fett x f!reader

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solalunar-eclipse · 4 years ago

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Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 10

Chapter title: Short Fuses

Word count: about 3400 words

Author’s Note: Hopefully this chapter is up to the usual standards, especially considering I completed it in about a week. I really want to try and stay on schedule as much as I can especially considering that I have about six other ideas all begging to be written the second this fic is finished.

Warning for descriptions of violence, just in case.

First | Previous | Next

...

The loud slam of a car door made the two Mobians still inside it jump.

Shadow and Rouge stared out the window, horrified, as Omega drew himself up to his full height of four feet and eleven inches and stared down the troops. When he’d seen his friends so scared, so certain that this was the end, something inside him had snapped.

He wasn’t ordinarily the type to process much in the way of emotion. His circuits hadn’t been built for it in the first place, but so much rewiring and extra work had been done by now that he’d almost become more than his processors and coding. And...meeting two people who understood him in a way he’d never thought possible had done a lot for his personality as well. By now, Omega had grown to care for these two organics more than he had ever thought possible since the day they had first met.

And now he was furious.

“I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.” he thundered, his voice blasting out of his speakers at top volume. “YOU HAVE CHASED US ALL OVER THIS CHAOSDAMNED COUNTRY. YOU HAVE TRAUMATIZED BOTH OF MY FRIENDS. AND YOU HAVE RUINED OUR LIVES.

“I WILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO GET OUT OF HERE. ONE. CHANCE. THEN I START FIRING. AND I WILL NOT STOP.”

He immediately began to power on all of the weapons that he could possibly use at once. Everything from machine guns to missiles to lasers started to warm up and make clicking noises as his ammunition slid into place. Omega made sure to load a few extra explosive charges into his weaponry- his targeting systems had been significantly improved after some time in Tails’s workshop, but they still weren’t perfect. Especially not with this level of opponents.

He found that he didn’t really care.

(His only real worry was that the firing noises would stress out Shadow.)

The G.U.N. soldiers refused to back down, and oh how Omega wished that he could properly express the blend of frustration, rage, and just the tiniest bit of satisfaction that burned and sparked through his wires. As it was, he simply had to settle for speaking.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING?” he asked.

One of the apparent leaders pulled out a megaphone, and the robot’s head spun ninety degrees directly to the right to face him. “I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD TALK.”

A single shot ripped the megaphone from the man’s hand.

“NOW LEAVE US ALONE.”

The actual fighting forces were almost entirely made up of G.U.N. drones, so Omega began tearing into those with ease. Explosions of flame appeared across the field as his shots scattered all around the first wave.

The E-series robot was at least a little pleased that it seemed like he wouldn’t have to physically fight any humans today, though. He’d spent enough time around Rouge and Shadow to know that they’d both be horrified if he did- and he wasn’t going to upset them. Not now.

As it was, he was holding his ground impressively, considering that G.U.N.’s mechanical soldiers were top-of-the-line creations, built specifically with fighting software according to the organization’s highest standards. They were loaded with the latest weapons, and made with light material so that they could move quickly across the battlefield.

But they had never before faced down a nearly three thousand pound robot built by a mad genius with a destructive streak a mile wide….so they were basically being mowed into the ground.

Before long, though, their orders suddenly appeared to change, and a squad started heading directly for the car which still held his two closest friends.

A laser blast incinerated the first few with the full power of Omega’s protective fury behind it, but having two targets to manage- himself and the car- was a lot for anyone to handle. If he turned his attention to the drones swarming the vehicle, then they would get too close to him and start trying to tear him apart. But if he focused for too long on those tearing at his chassis, they could easily break into the car.

Once, when he was busy dealing with an irritating detachment of flying robots, one of the ground fighters broke through a window and started reaching for Shadow and Rouge. The hybrid managed to stab it through the face with a Chaos Spear, but almost immediately went limp against the seat afterwards, clearly struggling to maintain consciousness.

With a scream of static, Omega sent the next few assailants who dared attack his friends flying, but there were just too many for him to handle alone.

As the robots began to climb atop the car, Omega stopped paying attention to the ones trying to tear him apart and focused his aim on the others, but one managed to grab his arm and sent the shots flying wildly around their brethren, skittering across the top of the vehicle.

Omega felt his ammunition starting to run low and wished he had a chance to grab some extras, but even the slightest pause could mean failure now. The drones were clawing at his body, at the car, and they just kept on coming.

He couldn’t last much longer...

And that was when a truck to his right exploded in a giant ball of fire.

The robot was startled for a moment- he hadn’t been aiming for the trucks at all! A moment later, though, a roaring noise sounded directly overhead, and Omega looked up to see what was perhaps the best sight to grace his optics in months.

A red biplane wheeled around overhead before taking another shot directly at the drones surrounding him, leaving him perfectly free to blast the rest off of the car. The E-series robot was also certain he heard a faint “Heck yeah!” from above, and indeed, when his vision focused properly, he spotted a small blue shape standing atop the wings of the plane.

Omega could see Rouge smiling- actually smiling- from inside the car, as she shook Shadow back into awareness. The moment Omega saw her say the name ‘Sonic’, Shadow jolted upright and scrambled to the window despite his shaking limbs, staring up at the Tornado in shock.

He said something to Rouge then, who responded with a light smack on his shoulder, looking more relieved than anything else.

After a few more moments, the tide had begun to turn, and Omega soon heard someone patching directly into his auditory processors. A familiar high-pitched voice asked, “Omega! Do you read me?”

“Affirmative.” he replied, blasting another few drones into oblivion. “It is good to see you, Tails.”

“You too.” the fox replied happily, clearly pleased to have arrived in time.

“Okay,” Tails continued, his voice becoming more serious, “can you get Shadow and Rouge to fly up to the plane? I can’t land, but I need to get them out of here if they can’t fight.”

“I will inform them at once.”

Omega stalked over to the car, physically shoving several more drones off it and allowing them to land with a loud clatter on more of their kind. Rouge wound down the window, still looking optimistic.

“Alright, what’s the plan now?” she asked him, a sparkle in her eyes.

He blew up a couple of flying bots to his left in big blasts of fire before responding. “Unfortunately, you will have to fly Shadow directly upwards to the plane. This is the best way to get out.”

Rouge groaned. “Chaos...I don’t have to lift you too, right?”

“No.” Omega said. “I will stay here and keep them busy until your return.”

“Won’t you be alright?” she asked him worriedly, placing a hand on his arm.

“We’re not leaving you.”, Shadow insisted. His eyes were narrowed, but the determined effect was undermined by the way his body slumped against the seat, as though it were the only thing keeping him upright.

Suddenly, another voice spoke up. “Come on, you think I can’t watch this big guy’s back?”

Sonic walked up next to Omega and leaned forward on the car’s window. At first, he wore his trademark smile (tinged with a little extra relief), but it quickly turned to shock after he did a double take. “Uh...that is you guys, right? Cause last I checked, Rouge isn’t edgy and you don’t dress like a nerd.” he said, pointing at Shadow.

“I don’t look like a nerd.” Shadow mumbled irritably, glowering at him.

“You actually kinda do, hon.” Rouge said, her smile growing wider.

The hybrid’s eyes widened. “But you picked this outfit out...Rouge!”

Omega played an audio file of a person clearing their throat while causing another explosion. “While I am certain this conversation is pleasant for all involved, please consider continuing it when we are not surrounded by mechanical troops trying to tear our limbs off.”

All three Mobians looked sheepish. “Alright then, let’s go.” Rouge said, refocusing and flexing her wings in preparation for takeoff.

“We will cover you. Do not worry.” Omega assured them both.

Shadow still frowned at him, before clasping his small gloved hand around the robot’s large metal finger. “Don’t go doing anything too crazy, alright?”

Rouge grinned again, though a little less brightly, before stepping out of the vehicle for the first time that day. “He’ll be okay. Us, on the other hand...you know what, let’s just do it.”

Then she grabbed onto Shadow’s hand and immediately blasted fifteen feet directly upwards in the air. Tails soared as low as he could possibly dare to go in the meantime, even tilting the plane to the side slightly so that Shadow could climb into the seat.

Some flying G.U.N. robots began to close in on Rouge as her wings beat frantically, struggling to gain more height. Omega couldn’t fire now- there was too much risk of him hitting her- but then he realized that Sonic was already handling it. The hero bounced off of the car, then a robot, before launching himself up high into the air and spindashing all of the drones, bouncing from one to the next like a wild blue pinball.

Meanwhile, the E-series robot busied himself with spraying explosives and laser fire across the entire field, finally feeling free to properly tear into the opposing forces. At one point, he actually lifted the car above his head, set it on fire, and threw it with all of his strength directly at an advancing wave of drones, taking out an entire platoon.

(The car rental company would just have to deal with it.)

Omega heard a small chuckle to his right, and looked over to see the blue hero himself standing there and smirking up at him. “You’re pretty ticked off, huh?” he asked.

“YES.” Omega replied, putting as much loathing and distaste behind that one word as he possibly could whilst throwing a drone several yards into the nearest tree.

Sonic’s grin tightened in response, and something shifted deep within his eyes, transforming them into a blazing green flame. His entire expression practically screamed ‘you messed with the wrong people this time, idiots’.

“Hey, pal?” he asked, his words deceptively light and loose. “I heard you can blast curled-up ‘hogs like me outta those arm cannons of yours. Mind if I give it a whirl?” The blue-and-gold robot could practically feel the growl that lay hidden beneath his voice...and decided that he definitely approved.

In response, Omega’s hand simply retracted into his arm, leaving a perfectly Mobian-sized barrel behind. Sonic immediately curled up on the ground, and the robot scooped him into the cannon with ease, before aiming it at the mechanical soldiers marching towards them yet again. “Ready?” he asked.

“Always.” the hero hissed from within his quills, curling up tighter.

One second later, he was fired out of Omega’s arm at high speed, before ricocheting off about a dozen robots hard enough to shear most of them in half. Sonic uncurled after that, bouncing to his feet with an expression barely qualifying as a smile as drones fell beneath his feet and fists.

Not long after that, Omega heard the whir of a G.U.N. troop carrier above them and saw an entire new wave of reinforcements dropping in- the organization clearly wasn’t willing to risk their human soldiers on two such dangerous foes. While the blue blur was certainly helpful, he knew that they couldn’t hold off endless amounts of these machines, and would unfortunately tire or run out of ammo eventually.

Which was why he was incredibly grateful to see Tails’s biplane soaring into the fray just moments later, prepared to sweep them both to safety. (While he enjoyed giving G.U.N. its long-withheld punishment, he also wanted to survive long enough to see his friends healthy and happy again, of course.)

“Omega! I need you to get on top of that truck!” Tails ordered through his audial processors. “I can try and pick you and Sonic up from there!”

The robot acted immediately, barreling through the lines of drones with incredible strength. To his left, he saw Sonic doing the same- jumping over the bots’ heads and up onto the trailer. The hero fought to hold off some physical soldiers with punches and kicks carefully calculated to bruise, but not kill.

Omega clawed his way up to the top of the truck, leaving deep gouges in the side as he heaved himself over the edge. They both scanned the sky, watching as Tails waited for the right opening…

Suddenly, the Tornado dove sharply downwards, carving through lines of machinery as it soared towards them. Its wings nearly skimmed the trees as it closed in on them. Sonic tensed, preparing to leap, as Tails yelled, “Jump on...now!”

Omega’s reflexes were not exactly what one might call good, unfortunately, having been built with strength in mind over speed. Thankfully, Sonic grabbed hold of his arm, and that combined with his rocket boosters was enough to sling him face-first over the seat as Tails pulled upwards.

Turning his head to the side as he struggled into the plane, the E-series robot caught a glimpse of Sonic braced on the main wing of the Tornado as they put more and more distance between themselves and the ambush site with every second. However, he also quickly spied several flying drones headed their way.

Clearly, Tails had too. “Omega! Can you take care of those for me? And strap in, ‘cause I’m about to try and shake these people for good!”

He began to empty his cartridges as quickly as possible at those infernal machines, nothing more than hollow shells of metal twisted to serve an evil master. Omega had never been more grateful that he was made with free will. Most of the drones fell quickly, but were easily replaced by more of their brethren.

The blue and gold robot was disgusted at the very thought of being expendable.

“Hang on tight!” the fox yelled.

A jolt shook the entire Tornado as its turbo engines fired, causing the plane to blast forward at such speeds that the ground blurred beneath them. G.U.N. just didn’t have the technology available to catch up with them, especially not while they were this high up.

Soon enough, Angel Island came into view, but it almost looked like it was...moving away from them?

Sonic saw Omega’s ‘frown’ and explained quickly. “Angel Island doesn’t move too fast, and the Tornado gets some crazy mileage with these new engines! We figured Knux oughta get a head start on those creeps.”

At least Knuckles wasn’t avoiding the action out of cowardice, then. If he had been, Omega would have punched his Master Emerald straight off the island, ‘duties’ be damned.

As they came in for a landing, the robot practically felt his chassis grow heavier the more he looked around. Shadow was slumped against a tree near the edge of the clearing, while Rouge was leaning on the steps of the altar, exhausted. Knuckles was sitting cross-legged atop the Master Emerald, his eyes closed as he focused on directing the island where he needed it to go.

“Shadow!” Sonic shouted, jumping off the plane. His face was twisted with concern as he rushed over to his friend. “Dude, why aren’t ya up with the Emerald? Chaos knows you need that energy!”

The hybrid groaned faintly, turning his head to face them. “Knuckles...is busy with it. Don’t want to...interrupt now- we need to get away.”

Omega glowered at him. “Enough of this nonsense. If you insist upon behaving in such a manner, then I will have to make you take care of yourself. Again.” The robot scooped Shadow up in his arms and began to physically carry him to the altar, despite the latter’s protests and squirming.

Sonic and Rouge giggled practically in tandem, and Shadow glared at them both. “Shut it.”

“What, hon?” Rouge smirked. “This is the second time Omega’s picked you up in like a week, can’t I enjoy it?”

The robot ignored them both and placed Shadow on the altar carefully, the hybrid’s body too weak to do anything more than just lie there. Quickly, though, the Chaos energy began to seep into him, restoring some true life to his eyes.

He didn’t have much more than twenty minutes to rest, unfortunately, before G.U.N.’s best planes began to catch up with the island’s sluggish movement. The four battle-ready inhabitants of Angel Island readied themselves the moment they heard the first aircraft roar in the distance.

Rouge spoke up first, though. “Shadow, honey, I absolutely hate asking this of you, and if there was any other way to get out of here that I could think of then I would take it. But I can tell that there’s at least three Chaos Emeralds on this island, and with how good you’ve gotten at teleporting...if Sonic and Knuckles helped, could you zap us out of here?”

Shadow dragged himself to his feet with the help of the Master Emerald, sighing. “Yes. I’ll need Knuckles to channel as much energy into us as he possibly can, and at least one of the Emeralds. Sonic can use another.”

Sonic and Knuckles both looked startled. “No way, man!” the hero exclaimed. “You could really hurt yourself that way!”

“So help me then.” Shadow replied flatly, looking at him over his glasses.

The blue hedgehog sighed reluctantly and stood on the other side of the Master Emerald from him, holding out his hand. “You got your Emerald, lil’ bro?”

Tails placed it in his hand as Knuckles handed Shadow one of the two he’d been holding onto. Then, the echidna placed both of his hands on the great gemstone, breathed in, and sent as much power as he could flowing into both of the hedgehogs.

Their eyes locked, and Shadow inclined his head almost imperceptibly.

“Chaos….Control!!”

The entire island vanished.

It reappeared moments later, above the ocean. Sonic would have plenty of time to be concerned about all the water, but for now, he was more preoccupied with Shadow. He hovered nearby as the hybrid’s eyes unfocused slowly and he swayed from side to side.

The hero caught him a moment later as he crumpled, unconscious. Feeling for a heartbeat, he sighed with relief the moment he found a steady pulse in Shadow’s wrist.

“He simply needs rest.” Omega said, watching as Sonic laid him back down at the altar (before lying down right next to him, having exhausted his own Chaos stores as well). “As do you,” he added, spinning his head to the right to stare at Rouge.

The robot continued to stare at her, unflinching despite her glower, until she lay down on the grass with an irritated sigh. “I’m supposed to be the one taking care of this team, you know.”

Omega folded his arms. “And you may do so soon. After you get some rest.”

Rouge closed her eyes and seemed to relax soon enough. Omega stood exactly in between his two friends, watching over them with a careful eye.

After a minute or two, he heard Knuckles whisper to his friends, “How do you guys think she figured out that we had those emeralds?”

Without opening her eyes or moving at all, Rouge replied, “I’m just that talented, babe.”

The resulting startled shriek from her boyfriend made birds a hundred feet away flee their trees in fear.

#shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #team dark #scars you can't see #sycs #hopefully that chaos control isn't too big of a plothole!#i figured since shadow can teleport the black comet all by himself with seven chaos emeralds #then three emeralds + the master + sonic and knuckles should be enough...right?#i just really hope the quality hasn't gone down on this one- it was fun to write but it went so quickly i'm almost suspicious #really though omega's speech at the beginning in particular was awesome #i've been waiting for this chapter for months. literally. so i just want it to come across right #next chapter should hopefully be even more chill #i'm glad i was able to raise the tension but now i just want to bring it back down #hope you enjoyed! thanks for reading!#sol’s fanfiction

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cutegirlmayra · 4 years ago

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Metamy Prompt for the Week event

Prompt:

In the Classic Dimension, Sonic has discovered that Dr. Robotnik has collected ‘Phantom Shards’ that carry the same basic principle abilities as the once intact Phantom Ruby. However, seeing how unstable they are apart, he’s created a gooey substance that puts it’s trapped target to sleep and creates their dream-clones!

Wanting to target Sonic’s friends, Dr. Robotnik places them into a sleep that the Phantom Shards then make into their worst nightmare!

Fighting off these nightmarish realities, Sonic has successfully awakened Tails through a data-bit thunderstorm zone, dodging bolts as they try to electrocute him.

Faster than sound also means speedy close-calls, and Sonic learns from rescuing Tails that his friends’ greatest dreams seem to be the key to destroying their nightmares.

For Tails, he had to believe in himself, that he could be just as brave and cool as Sonic was as a hero.

This desire manifested as the X-Tornado, that ghost-piloted Sonic towards the antidote after defeating a flying Egg-boss.

After taking the antidote, Tails awoke and immediately began looking into these Phantom Shards, and their antidote for waking up.

Sonic also saved Knuckles, who’s nightmare was failing in protecting the Master Emerald, leading to the end of the world. Dr. Robotnik greatly underestimated the Phantom Shards power, and as the world fell into chaos, Sonic discovered Knuckles’s greatest dream was to create world peace.

This manifested as the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald giving Sonic the necessary power to turn Super, even if they were just dream-clones of the actual emeralds.

Saving the day yet again, Sonic was surprised to learn Dr. Robotnik still had one prisoner left over... and could fathom who that could be...

Sonic darted into the room and the metal doors quickly slid shut, he looked to see that from the far right corner was what appeared to be like a giant water chamber that resembled the steampunk diver’s suit head.

He saw Rosy the Rascal floating in her sleep within the goo... much like his other friends.

He zoomed up to the glass and began banging on it, trying to look in more but a strange optical illusion was keeping him from seeing her well enough.

Then... flying down directly behind him... was Metal Sonic.

Sonic turned around and put his fists up, but Dr. Robotnik came down from a chute with... Another Metal Sonic!?

He laughed his typical way, then seemed to state that Rosy’s worst nightmare was indeed, Metal Sonic!

He stated that Sonic may have defeated his greatest creation previously... but two of them!?

Phantom Metal Sonic and Metal Sonic then spread out to come at Sonic from different angles, and it was a tricky fight to maneuver.

However, Classic Doctor Robotnik wasn’t able to predict the feuding robotic spirit that the real Metal Sonic had. Wanting to be the one to fight and end Sonic, it would constantly get cut-off or crash into the Phantom dream-clone, causing Sonic to wind around them and set-up some intercepting collisions.

He defeated the real Metal Sonic, having had a miniature explosion that knocked him to the right into some consoles... making him slide his metallic, heavy body off and hang with his arms still crooked up on the consoles but his head down.

The dream-clone of Metal Sonic was also looking like it’d short-circuit... twitching in the with sparks, but glared menacingly over to Rosy’s water chamber.

Without the antidote, she would remain asleep... and taking her out of the goo with the Phantom Shards inside would be risky... So Sonic didn’t see this coming.

In a last effort to remain permeant in this reality, Phantom Metal Sonic dived and slashed open the glass fisheye effect of the holding water chamber, gushing out the goo that Sonic had to dodge, least he’d be put under a sleep paralysis as well.

Dr. Robotnik started biting his nails, faking his concern for Sonic, before laughing at the predicament he was now in.

Rescue the girl and risk falling to the Phantom Shards’ nightmares? Or continue fighting a never-ending struggle?

Sonic had to think fast, grabbing the Miles-Electric that Modern Tails had gifted him, he remembered that Modern Tails had told him he had an ‘app’ of sorts that could reprogram one Eggman robot to do one specific task. But it would only work for a short period of time.

Looking to see the real Metal Sonic struggling through sparks to rise and fight again, he rushed over to him and turned the Miles-Electric upside, clicking the app and quickly typing in his commands with his tongue out on the other side of his mouth.

A lightning static traveled between the two orbed points, and he shoved this into Metal Sonic’s head, the electric waves now traveling through his metallic shell and into his computing processes.

Enraged at the ‘cheating’ Dr. Robotnik hollered and stomped in his Eggmobile, seeing Metal Sonic retrieve Amy from the Goo and wipe it off her.

In his eyes, Tails’s logo showed the downloaded processes completed, and he stared at her as though wondering what he was doing.

She looked so small and frail in his arms... immediately, he accessed what his new programming was.

The timer was set... and the command: Be her replacement hero while I’m busy, help her to learn to rely on her own abilities but with your aid, protect and make her unafraid of you anymore.

He was twitching at the loathsome command, the new objective was so humbly sickening.

Of course this frail creature should fear him!

He felt his claws twitching before finally, Sonic sped over after distracting the dream-clone and held her, showing he was still actively fighting but glared back at the dream-clone.

The Phantom Metal Sonic suddenly stopped and began to shake again, finally exploding as he saw Sonic protectively shielding her.

In a humorous quip, Dr. Robotnik concluded that Rosy’s greatest dream must be that ‘Love conquers all’ and then opened the metal doors for Sonic to come and face him... The greatest of all fears!

Sonic rolled his eyes, watching him disappear up the chute and then handed Rosy back to Metal Sonic, giving Metal a condensing pat on his heat as though rubbing in the harsh truth of his new servitude to her.

Absolutely unacceptable..!

Sonic took off as Metal Sonic was left to babysit the sleeping girl, and his face revealed every bit of malice he felt towards the situation...

For the first few minutes, he just monitored her heart beat.

In the next, his eyelids began to soften from their cold-stare and turn to a neutral look as he noticed her getting cold and began to regulate a heat through his engine, making sure not to scratch her as he did so, but heating her soggy form up to dry.

When she sneezed in her sleep, he felt his whole systems freak out as her heart momentarily adjusted to the increase in body pressure and decrease blood flow back into it.

Even though it was a mili-second of change, the fact that her body’s output had slightly altered sent him into a panicked frenzy.

Not knowing how to handle that, and seeing she was back to recovering health and stable levels, he lowered his eyelids as though frustrated with the fact that now... this once ‘greatest creation’ that could compete with that of even Sonic, invented to be the better of his organic trash, was suddenly now the nursemaid.

Infuriating!

She breathed lightly.

Insulting!

He adjusted her headband that was slightly slipping off from the slippery goo in her quills.

... Revolting...

He lightly pushed her up more towards his chest so she wasn’t sagging limply in his arms, and giving her the heat necessary for her chest and the rest of her clothes to dry and stay warm.

... Pathetic little thing...

He sharp, silvery claw shone as he lifted it to her bangs, moving them with a waft to the side.

He recounted the humiliating memory of another instance, where he had crashed into a sliding metal door while Sonic had successfully made it to her, tied up and hanging from a pole.

His sharp quills had freed her at once with a low-turning spin-dash, and she had hugged him in gratitude while Metal Sonic was incinerated by a frustrated Eggman.

His memory was downloaded into another Metal body, upgraded but relatively looking the same.

... And yet, Sonic didn’t want to burden himself by taking her along to fight Eggman.

He even chuckled at the scene of Metal holding her.

He wanted her to conquer her greatest fear... Him.

Metal Sonic looked up a moment, his new programming trying to come up with ways that she wouldn’t be afraid of him anymore.

Although he didn’t like the programming, nor any living-organism,... he still contemplated ways to achieve his newly downloaded goals.

Sonic finally returned, and as he did, gave Rosy the antidote.

Upon waking up, she was teetering, but her enthusiasm over Sonic’s face made her want to run to him. Instead, she lunged forward and Metal Sonic had to catch her before falling.

Once her eyes adjusted, she noticed Sonic still chuckling with a hand over his mouth as her eyes blinked over to being in Metal Sonic’s hold...

She immediately summoned her hammer and started to bash him.

Sonic takes off as Rosy tries to follow him, still scared and whining out about the loyal, puppy-like Metal Sonic tagging along behind her, but when he knocks one of Eggman’s missiles away from hitting her... using all his jet-strength to propel it in a new direction... she stood amazed.

He flew down to her and just stared at her...

She tried to walk back but he zipped at sonic-speeds to place his hand to her waist and pull her back.

She blushed in fright but looked back to see him pointing to a muddy puddle, showing she would have stepped in it.

He let her go as she marveled and covered half her face with her hands... bundled into fists at her shyness.

She begins to defend herself and learn how to fight the Eggman robots while under the careful, chaperone eye of Metal Sonic.

As she runs up a loop-de-loop, he’s there to assist her.

When she swings and misses a robot, he annihilates it before she can open her eyes, so she believes she hit it and destroyed it.

With her confidence rising, she learns self-reliance, and finally catches up to Team Sonic as they prepare for the last few zones of battle.

Dr. Robotnik put himself into the dream-goo, so his greatest dream might come to pass! Switching the concoction around, his Phantom Empire was glitching into existence everywhere.

Metal Sonic didn’t mind...

But his eyes turned to Rosy, who was fearful of these images...

He immediately decided he didn’t like it, and glared threateningly towards the metal statues and structures.

However... He didn’t notice the timer... had finally concluded.

Not wanting to leave her side, he fought as the Eggman objectives began to successfully override Tails’s software update, and rebooted him.

As he stepped away, hoping to move as far away from Rosy as possible, he gripped his head as Eggman’s logo began to flash and show the rebooting process downloading up.

When the others realized this, Rosy threw out her hand, stopping them. She wanted to be the one... to defeat him.

It was emotional, seeing the once helpful friend turn into a fierce, villainous robot once again.

But she wasn’t afraid of him anymore.

She couldn’t deal the last blow, and as she fell to her knees and cried over his sparking form, he lifted a metallic claw up...

Sonic quickly moved her out of the way of his attempted slash, as his claws lengthened to try and deal further damage to her.

Rosy softly cried as Sonic moved away from her, spun to give one last finishing blow and kicked him into the sky.

As he exploded, Rosy reached out to him, crying out as Tails and Knuckles had to hold her back.

She was so saddened to see him go... she vowed that if she ever found a nice robot, she could preserve it, no matter what the cost.

Her outstretched hand... withdrew into a shaking fist, full of conviction.

She wasn’t afraid of robots anymore...

She wanted to help them.

Although Metal Sonic had reverted back to his original form, forgetting all about their adventures together... her silent knight in dark blue, metallic armor that would let her practice in safety... swinging her hammer... as he then almost swiped her away after his programming changed...

She sobbed quietly into her hands, still shaking in anger at how Eggman could create such terrifying robots... but amazed at how Tails could reinvent them into loving friends.

“You really shouldn’t have made him so nice, Sonic. Then, Rosy wouldn’t have formed such a strong attachment to him.” Classic Tails commented, putting his hands to his hips and leaning towards the culprit.

Sonic just shrugged, looking back at Amy and wanting to comfort her, but feeling that she needed to cry over it a little bit longer.

Metal Sonic had completed his objective, after all... and Sonic smiled to see that, but quickly frowned as he closed his eyes, folded his arms, and waited for Rosy a distance away...

She balled over Metal Sonic’s deactivated head... unable to, in the end, part with it.

It took several minutes... and some could argue, still more time later for her grief to mend… but that’s where her love of reforming others came into play, along with her independence... she would never forget when she first got so excited over completing the zone that she reached a fist up for a light pound of comradery.

Realizing he was her greatest fear though, she hesitated and pulled back slightly, but he immediately, robotically, advanced up to her and without blinking or removing his eyes from her, directly faced her and lifted his own hand up.

Slowly, he curled every finger into a fist and lightly knocked her bundled hand in the show of ‘Good job, congrats on your first--kinda--solo run.’

She would never forget it... and holding her hand close to her heart... she would never forget what lessons it gave her.

About robots. About people...

She looked to Sonic, who--as though sensing her inquisitive gaze--looked back over his shoulder at her...

Some robots could be even warmer than people...

#MetamyShipWeek2020 #metamy #cutegirlmayra #metal sonic #metal sonamy #rosy the rascal #classic amy rose #metal x rosy #metal x amy #metal sonic and amy rose #metamy prompt #metal sonamy prompt

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buckyscrystalqueen · 4 years ago

Text

Ain’t Sayin’ She’s a Gold Digger: Part 4

Pairings: Sugar Daddy!Negan x Sugar Baby!Reader

Warnings: Sugar baby relationship, swearing

Word Count: 7,963

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

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

In the four months between getting the tickets, and heading to Burning Man, Jeff added seventeen countries and almost double that in states to deal with hotels that were going through the summer with bad ratings and numbers to your travel list. And while he worked, you worked with your new, temporary Burning Man assistant and your friends to organize everything you would need. It was chosen by the group, that now included Matt and Stacy, to join Kenzie and Stacy’s usual camp, which was actually a collection of make your own camps, to get the full Burner experience, and despite the fact that you felt like you were going crazy with Kenzie, who was the other natural organizer in the group, the trip came up before you knew it.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Jeff laughed as he finally drove his RV into Black Rock City behind the 26 foot U Haul filled with your contribution to camp- thousands of dollars worth of water, Gatorade, mini and regular sized liquor bottles, beer, snacks, granola and power bars, and a thrift store find stand up piano, that Matt was driving for you.

“Oh, it’ll be fun.” You giggled as you waved at someone Kenzie had been yelling out the U Haul window at.

“Did you forget, I’m an old man, sweetheart?” He asked with a glance over at you before turning to the right to head down to where your camp, Island Time was located.

“Did you forget that we decided you are seasoned, not old?” Kara asked as she held two of six boxes of decorations in place on the dinning room table.

“We definitely agreed on seasoned, your Majesty.” Dana called out from the back bedroom, where she was responsible for keeping the dozen solar powered coolers of ice in place. Your boyfriend groaned as your smile grew even more.

“Oh, I’m never going to let you live this down.” You giggled as you reached over and pat his thigh.

“Yea, and you’re just making me wanna call an Uber.”

“They have an airport!” Chelsea called out as she sat up from the couch, where she was holding a rope that connected the three massive shade tents, also named Costco Barns, that would make up your themed camp.

“Don’t encourage him.” You scolded as you turned in your seat to look back at her. “He will leave.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” She laughed as she sat up completely, as Jeff parked the RV on the left side of your camp site, and beside the U Haul that would turn into a ‘fishing pond’ for all the snacks it held. “Alright, let’s get unpacked.” You pat Jeff’s thigh once more as the girls in the back got out to start setting up.

“Just let go, sweetheart.” You told him as he set the emergency brake. “You are allowed to take a vacation and the company won’t crumble in your absence.”

“You are the only person I would agree to this for.” He said honestly as he dropped the keys in his cup holder and picked up your hand. “I love you, (Y/N). I need you to know that.”

“I love you, too, Jeff. So, so much.”

“Are you two gunna help, or are you just gunna sit there all day?” Dana asked as she grabbed one of the decorations boxes to carry out. You muttered ‘shut up’ and gave Jeff a chaste kiss before getting out to begin the long day of work. Kate, who was the mastermind behind your camp’s theme, started directing instantly, transforming the square of desert into a tropical wonderland.

Your group had thought of everything, from a had painted directional sign that pointed fellow Burners to coffee, the Playa, the Deep Playa, City Center, the bathrooms, and of course, the Burning Man center piece and The Temple, to a bunch of tropical themed pool rafts to be used by whomever as seats. You had a blue tarp on the ground and the dyed canvas covers above you that Chelsea had painted to look like waves, and dozens of starfish, jellyfish, and fish toys zip tied anywhere they could go so they didn’t become missiles in a dust storm.

There were four fishing poles laid against the U Haul, which had giant handmade banners on each side to promote your camp, and they were set up for ‘fishing’ with baskets on the end of the 100 pound test line that Jeff swore would hold up for what you needed it to. And the piece de le resistance of your camp was an inflatable palm tree cooler, that would have ice cold drinks for anyone passing by that needed one, that would sit directly in front of the piano you had brought to play as yet another contribution to the Burning Man community.

“It’s perfect.” Dana said with a proud smile as you on Jeff’s shoulders, and Chelsea on Matt’s strung up the last strings of blue lights in the canopy.

“I would hope so.” Kate said with a nod. “I busted my ass to figure out this design.”

“Hey! Beach girls!” A guy called out as he rode by your camp on his bike. “Nice idea!” You all yelled thanks as Jeff kneeled down so you could climb off.

“Damn, it’s hot.” He sighed as he sat down on one of the couple chairs you had brought. You nodded in agreement and used your already dust covered shirt to wipe off your face.

“I need a shower.”

“Get used to being dirty.” Kenzie said as she just took off her shirt and tossed it on a chair on her way over to grab a the reusable water bottle with her name on it so she could fill it up from the sink on the outside of the RV.

“So are we getting ready to open here or what?” Matt asked as he helped Chelsea dump ice from one of the solar power coolers into the palm tree cooler.

“Yea, someone throw up the fishing sign.” You said as you two pulled off your shirt and headed inside to get dressed. “I’ll go get ready.”

——

“Oh, do you know ‘Piano Man’?” A girl asked as she skipped up to your piano with a champagne slushy from a few camps down. You glanced up at her and nodded as you set down your mermaid patterned water bottle, that was currently filled with rum and coke and adjusted your shell patterned bikini top.

“I wouldn’t be a piano playing mermaid if I didn’t!” You cried as your fingers moved from playing a random melody to the newest request. You started playing over the cheers of a man, who had gotten a mini bottle of Jäger and a bag of Goldfish in his fishing pole bucket, as the girl in front of you cheered and started singing with you, and the group that had collected in your tent at some point since the sun went down. You glanced over at Jeff, who had decided months ago that he was going to be on whatever shift you were on, and gave him a slightly knowing smile, since his only job was to make sure ice was being made in the ice genies you had filling your freezer, and that the ice that was melting was draining into a new one to make more ice as needed.

He’d spent most of his evening simply watching you, and holding up polite conversations with people that had come in to your tent and had some how slipped past Matt, and Stacy, who were on an entertainment shift with you in the main part of your camp, while Dana played ‘fish’ in the fan filled U Haul, and the other girls rode around to check out some of the rest of the camps. You couldn’t help but fall even more in love with him like you had every day for the past couple months. He was just entirely too good for you, and you didn’t ever want to be away from him.

“Alright, guys, I’m gunna take a break for a few hours.” You said when you saw Kenzie and Kara on their bikes. “Put requests in the fish bowl!”

“We’re switching out?” Matt asked as grabbed a beer from the palm tree.

“Yea, we’re gunna go burn a while.” You said as you adjusted your mermaid scales bottoms on your way over to the U Haul. You yelled your intentions to Dana, who was going to switch places with Kenzie for the second shift of fishing, and grabbed your heavily decorated with bright neon blue LED battery power lights beach cruiser.

“You know, I don’t know if I remember how to ride a bike.” Jeff said softly as he grabbed his matching, mixed color bike from next to yours.

“I’ll make sure you don’t fall or embarrass yourself, my love.” He leaned over and kissed your temple as you grabbed your alcohol filled bottle and a water filled one as well and stuck them in your basket. “Alright, let’s…”

“Hey wait!” The girl that asked you to play Piano Man said as she came running out to the road. She smiled at you and held out a pair of pills. “Thank you. For my song.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to…”

“Take them.” She giggled as she grabbed your hand and put the two pills in your palm. “Happy Burn.” You nodded at her and looked over at Jeff with a smile.

“Just don’t think.” You said as you put a pill on your tongue, grabbed the back of his head, and kissed him roughly. You could feel him tense up the slightest bit as you pushed the pill between his lips with your tongue, but after a moment, he loosened up, and let you give him the ecstasy.

“What kinda bad influence are you?” He laughed as you popped your pill in your mouth and followed it with a swig of your drink.

“One that you love.” You cooed as you straddled your bike and put your feet on the pedals. “You coming?”

“I guess I am.” He sighed as he got on his bike and briefly wobbled after you before he gained his confidence and pulled up to your side. “Thank you for not letting me back out.”

“Well look at it this way now.” You said as you grabbed your head lamp from the basket, switched it on, and put it on your head. “I just did ecstasy and am headed out to la Playa at prime time in Burning Man time in a bathing suit.”

“Yea, and if you walk more than five feet away from me at any point in time, I’ll take you to Europe, steal all of your things, and leave you there for a week to fend for yourself.”

“Oh, that sounds dangerous.” You teased as you pulled into the center of Black Rock City. You rode over to where a group of bikes and parked yours in the line with the rest, making sure to lock the wheel to the frame just in case someone drunkenly confused your bike with theirs.

“I don’t dance.” Jeff yelled at you over the music.

“You don’t have to.” You laughed as you laced your arm with his and pointed the farthest camp on the edge. “How about we start there and work our way down the line until the E kicks on?” With a nod, he reached out for your hand and laced his fingers with yours to walk with you. It only took about an hour for the drugs to kick in, and in that time you had been gifted a rubber bracelet for the event because you had pretty hair, a few glow stick bracelets and necklaces which made you realize you forgot yours in the RV, and more than a few shots and drinks. And as you were talking to someone about your time in Juilliard, and disagreeing with them on why your Burning Man nickname should not be ‘Keys’, you realized that Jeff was lost in his roll and the softness of your skin on the back of your neck.

“You OK?” You laughed at him when you had a moment break in the conversation.

“Why is your skin so soft?”

“Because you’re high, baby.” You laughed before saying a quick ‘see you later, come see us’ so you could hunt down your bikes before you got lost in the sensation, too.

“You’re back quick.” Dana said as you pulled up to the campsite and got off your bike.

“Yep.” Kenzie, who was sitting right next to her took one look at you before sitting up and turning to the group.

“OK, someone needs to turn the music up right now so we don’t have to hear them fuck!”

“God, you’re impossible.” You laughed as you headed in to the RV with Jeff’s hand in yours, while the people under your tent cheered for you. The second the door closed behind you, you kissed your boyfriend and walked him back to the king sized bed, closing the door only a couple seconds before your clothes hit the floor.

“Fuck, baby girl.” Jeff sighed when he got you completely undressed, and laid out on the blankets. “You are so fucking beautiful.”

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

“You know, I’m honestly surprised you lasted the entire week.” You admitted to Jeff, as he held the door to room one of four suites so you and your friends could shower off and have a good night sleep before you flew home. He huffed at you as your friends all tiredly headed into their rooms beside and across the hall from you to shower and wash off the six layers of dirt and catch up the dozens of hours of missed sleep.

“That is only because I wasn’t leaving my gorgeous girlfriend alone in the desert with that many drugs, and that many naked people.” You snorted a laugh through your nose, dropped your purse on the floor just inside the door, and kicked off your shoes in opposite directions on the way to the shower. “Hey, who said you could go first?”

“I will kill you if you think you are getting in before me.” You growled as you pulled off your clothes and got into the shower. “Get in here and help me.” You whined as you stood out of the way of the shower spray and turned the water on.

“So needy.” He huffed as he stripped out of his clothes and stepped in the shower in front of you. With a content sigh, you wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your head on his chest.

“This is all I need in life anymore.” You told him as you watched dirty water wash through and around the soft hairs on his chest. You adjusted your cheek and sighed once more as he grabbed a bar of soap and washed you off in lazy circles.

“Move in with me.” Those four words made your stomach flip as you looked up at the first man that had ever made you feel worth while, and nodded your head without needing to give the proposition any thought otherwise.

“I’m taking a long nap first.” You replied with a smirk as you laid your head back down on his chest.

“I think that can be arranged, baby girl.”

The next two weeks of your life was a complete whirlwind as you packed up all your belongings, moved across Central Park to Jeff’s Upper East Side home, and helped Chelsea move out of the four bedroom hell hole she lived in with 3 total wack jobs and a horrible landlord since she spent half the time sleeping on your couch as is, and into your old room. But just as you were getting everything settled, you caught some kind of stomach bug that turned out to be something way more serious.

Jeff stood pin straight still, and dead silent, as you both stared at the door of the hospital room you were in- a trip you made because he couldn’t take one more night of you throwing up and writhing on the bathroom floor in pain. You had no idea what he was thinking, but then again, neither did he. You were both just absolutely terrified.

“Are they OK?” You both asked the second the doctor walked into the room.

“Let’s just take a look, OK?” He said with a reassuring smile. You couldn’t bring yourself to believe him as every single drug you took in Black Rock City ran like a bad movie in your head. You reached out for Jeff at the same moment he took a step toward you, as the doc grabbed the ultrasound wand. You actually held your breath as he located the two side by side blobs and nodded his head.

“They look fine.” You exhaled forcefully and burst into fear and joy fill tears, as Jeff sat down in the chair next to you in relief. “Two healthy babies.”

“We did a lot of drugs.” Jeff said as he worried your hand between his as he stared at the monitor. “And a lot of drinking at Burning Man...”

“And all I can say on that is get in touch with an OBGYN, and disclose everything. I won’t lie to you, there could be some consequences, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I’ve seen drug addicts who used everyday of their pregnancy and had perfectly functioning, otherwise healthy babies. I’d just refrain from any and all alcohol consumption and drug use.”

“Oh absolutely.” You said with a nod as you took the two photos he handed you and held the delicately in your hands. “I’ll do everything by the book.”

“Just don’t worry to much about what you did. Focus on what you can do for them now.” You nodded your head and took the paper script from him, which Jeff took from you right after. “Something to help with the nausea. And I’ll have the nurse bring in a list of some OBGYN’s in town for you as well.”

“Thank you, doc.” Jeff said with a nod as he stood up and shook the man’s hand. “We appreciate it.” With another nod, the doctor left the room to go about his day, and you looked up at the father of your children and started to cry.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” He shushed you softly and shook his head as he leaned down to wrap you in a hug.

“It’s ok, baby girl.” He whispered as he held you to his shoulder with his hand on the back of your head. “I’m not mad. It’s OK now. We’ll all be OK.” You nodded for a second before your stomach rolled, and you practically shoved him away to grab the vomit bag the nurse had given you to get sick in. “It’s OK.” He repeated as he gently rubbed your back and picked up the ultrasounds from your lap to look at them in complete disbelief. “We’re all gunna be alright.”

——

Jeff didn’t speak to you for three days after you got home, other than to check to see how you were feeling, and to remind you he loved you every night as you walked out of the living room to the master bedroom without him, which was unusual for him, since you usually went to bed together. On the fourth night, you got fed up with laying in his bed, waiting for the man that you had fallen head over heels in love with, the father of your children, and grabbed your pillow and the blanket to head down to the guest bedroom. You made it almost all the way to the door, when it opened toward you. Jeff stopped for a moment and looked at you with eyes full of concern, as you hiked the blankets and your pillow up a little more.

“No.” He said simply with a shake of his head, as if it were the answer to all of your problems.

“No, you no!” You snapped back as tears welled in your eyes. “I’m going…”

“I always wanted kids.” He sighed as he stepped in front of you and pulled the blanket out of your arms to put it back on the bed. “Hillarie couldn’t conceive. And the few times she did, we miscarried before the end of the first trimester.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you know that fear doesn’t go away?” He asked as he walked you around to your side of the bed. “Fear that you’re going to blink and everything is going to be ripped away from you, that doesn’t just go away.” He sighed as he pulled off his shoes and carefully laid you down on the bed so he could get in behind you. As if you were China doll about to break, he scooted up behind you as close as he could, and gently wrapped his arm under yours across your chest.

“(Y/N), I’m so sorry I’ve pulled away from you. It is absolutely not your fault, or the fact that you are pregnant. I love you so fucking much and I need you with me every fucking day for the rest of my life. And now I need our kids just as much, but I’m fucking terrified. I can’t… I can’t…”

“I’m scared too.” You whispered as you pulled his arm even closer to you. “What if I fucked them up?”

“Then we will figure it out together, baby.” He sighed as he hugged you a little tighter. “I’m sorry I pulled away. I needed a minute and I never should have taken it silently without telling you what I was doing. That was not fair to you. I’ve just never been good at handling hard life shit.” You shook your head in agreement and sniffled as your tears fell on his arms and your pillow. “I’m sorry. Forgive me…” You nodded your head and rolled over to face him, and he held you to his chest as his own tears welled in his eyes.

“Just tell me it’s gunna be OK.” You sobbed as you held on to his shirt so he wouldn’t leave when you voiced your insecurities. “Tell me I didn’t kill our babies at stupid fucking Burning Man or that they aren’t going to end up blind, or with only one limb between them….”

“No, shhh…” He tried with a shake of his head as he realized that you were dealing with different versions of his same fears about the situation. “Our babies are going to be just fine. Unless they’re boys… then we’re both screwed.”

“No, I want boys!” You whined as he leaned back enough to kiss your forehead and wipe away your tears for you.

“Then we are going to have two, healthy boys, that have all ten fingers and all ten toes each, in their right places, on the right babies. And they’re gunna be smart, and handsome, and funny, and…”

“Perfect?” He nodded his head as he moved his hand to your stomach with as big of smile as his nervous self could handle.

“They will be perfect.”

——

“OK, you understand that I’m supposed to be peacefully resting at home, right? Not looking at new houses…”

“You’ve taken over my closet.” Jeff laughed as he held the elevator door open on the fourth floor of the millionth condo you had seen in the past six week. “And it’ll only be a matter of time before you start taking over the one in the guest bedroom. Besides my place is more of a bachelor pad still. It’s not really kid friendly…”

“I know what you’re doing.” You said as you stopped in front of 4B and turned around to look at him as you put your hand on your back and cocked your eyebrow at him. You pointed at the bump that officially stuck out past your boobs and shook your head. “We made it to the second trimester. You don’t need to distract yourself...”

“But we still need a bigger house.” He chuckled as he leaned towards you to knock at the door. “One that you can decorate for our family and not my assistant for my tastes.”

“Whatever.” You huffed as you turned toward Jeff’s real estate agent, Mark. “So? Let’s hear it.”

“Four beds, three and a half baths.” Mark started as he walked backwards into the living room. “Thirty five hundred square feet, and washer and dryer in the unit.”

“Big kitchen?” You asked as you curled your lip at the hideous purple painted book shelf in the study to your left off the living room. “Eww…”

“Big kitchen.” Mark agreed as Jeff followed you around, taking mental notes about the things he would need to change for you to make this the house you wanted to start your family in since he didn’t mind one bit where he lived as long as you were there with him.

“God, who designed this place?” You asked as you turned around and looked at weird, bell shaped light on the far side of the open concept room in what had to be the dining room. “Schools?”

“7, 2, and 8 out of 10.” He said as he looked at his notebook to get the answers to the questions he knew you were going to ask since he had been working with you for a few weeks. “The building was built in 1906 and was last coded in 2019. Been on the market five days and it’s already seen three people.” You shook your head as you peaked into the half bath and the walk in pantry across the way, before heading into the absolutely gorgeous white and grey kitchen, thats only blemish was the colored cushions on the bench in the breakfast nook in the corner, and more of the same strange gold bell lamp shades.

“This could be a play room.” Jeff said as he looked at the den that backed the kitchen.

“You have another closet back there. And the laundry room with a sink is over there.” You nodded your head and glanced down the hall that lead to the bedrooms, as Jeff came up behind you with a smirk.

“You are poker facing awful hard, baby girl.”

“Other than paint, and changing light fixtures, I love it, but I’m not telling him that.” Your love huffed and nodded his head as you walked over to look at the actual laundry room with a sink, cabinets, and counter space, and the large walk in closet.

“It also has 3-zone central AC, a humidification system, and radiant-heated floors in the bathrooms. And it has a part time doorman, a live-in super, more added storage, and a bike room. The walk score is 98, and transit is 100. Now I think is the cutest part of the house is this room right here. I know Mr. Morgan said you were having twins, and this is perfect already if they are girls, or it can be painted for boys…”

“Oh, wow.” You said as your facade slipped for only a moment when you saw the built in bookshelves on one wall, and the already built in bunk beds next to the long closet on the other. You glanced up at Jeff with a smirk you couldn’t control, and he kissed your forehead in silent confirmation.

“What are they asking?”

“$5,375,000.” Jeff whistled as you looked at the similar room across the hall, that had the same bookshelves on one wall but a small ensuite on the other wall.

“HOA?”

“It’s a little higher than the rest.” Mark said as he followed you and Jeff through the second to last bedroom, and the bath that it shared with the room with the bunk beds. “$5,018”

“Can you give us a minute?” Jeff asked as you stepped into the last room, the master bedroom.

“You may not have enough room in this closet either, baby.”

“Finally found one you like?” You finally let your smile show, and nodded your head as you turned on the wood floors that ran through all of the bedrooms toward him. He sighed and put his hands on your hips with a small smile that made your heart melt and your stomach flip. “Do you want it?”

“Do you?” He nodded his head and searched your eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath.

“I’m gunna say the same thing I said to Hillarie when I bought our first house. This house will be our house, until the day comes when you don’t want me here anymore, which hopefully is never. But if that day comes, this house will still be yours, and our kids, for the rest their lives… unless you cheat on me, or if you attempt to steal money from me, which yes, it is possible, because I watched my ex-wife try to do it. Not saying you would, but I still need to lay the rules out…”

“Wait… you’re giving me a house?”

“No.” He chuckled as he moved his hands to the small of your back to hug you. “I’m buying us a house, that I’m going to put your name on as well, so that we both know that you and our children will always be taken care of. Because you are the real love of my life… and I need to know that you are safe.” You couldn’t help yourself but to start crying, and his smile simply grew more as he leaned down and kissed your forehead. “Wanna walk through it one more time to make sure you really love it?”

“Yes…”

“Well go on then.” He chuckled before giving you a chaste kiss. “I’m going to talk price and see if I can get them to do a short sale so we can get in here and get that purple book shelf painted…”

“Eww and change those horrid light shades, please!”

“We can find some new light shades, sweetheart.”

“Hey baby!” You called out before he could walk out of the room. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

“Anything for you, baby girl.” You blew him a kiss and turned to look at the small white and bronze accented bathroom, that would have to have to be redone in some actual color, before heading back over to the bedroom with the bunk beds.

“This is gunna be your room one day, babies.” You whispered as you rubbed your bump and looked down at your babies as the reality that they would never have to live the life you did growing up caught up with you. You started to cry again as you looked up at a giant giraffe stuffed animal the owners kids owned, and choked on your tears with a laugh. “God, and I promise I will never buy you two something so tacky.”

——

“OK, this is just not fucking fair.” Dana said as she walked into your new, freshly painted, co-decorated, slightly remodeled home for your gender reveal. “This place could fit my house like ten times over!”

“She looked at about a million and one to find this one.” Jeff teased as he took the giant basket she was carrying from her.

“What’s in the basket?” You asked as you pushed the front door closed and took a step toward your boyfriend, only to have him turn away and Dana step in front of you.

“You can open it later.” She laughed as she turned you around and pushed you into your living room. “Now show me around. Be a good hostess before everyone else gets here.”

“Oh, Jesus I can’t even… You’re so needy!”

“Oh, I know! It’s so hard to be a good host.” She laughed back as she followed you to the kitchen, where you had dozens of finger foods and desserts in pink and blue.

“OK, wait. You have to place your vote.” You said as you pointed to the dry erase board you had borrowed from her office. “Two boys, two girls, or one of each. And then you have to wear the beads.”

“Oh, I like it!” She said as she lifted the two strands of blue beads from around your neck. “You want boys?”

“Oh, I need boys.” You said as you held out a few dry erase markers for her to choose. “Dana, we’re girls. Do you remember how much trouble we got in to?”

“Yea, but so do boys.” She pointed out as she drew a mark under the one boy, one girl column and picked up one of each necklace.

“Yes, but boys listen to their mothers.” You reminded her as you want over and grabbed a glass of blue raspberry lemonade and a blue straw from the table of the breakfast nook. “Come on, you have to see the boy’s room.”

“What if it’s one and one?”

“Then I guess I’m just going to have to recreate the room on the other side? I don’t know. I do know that I’ve grown to hate this purplish pinkish bleck shade they had in here…”

“Oh, that’s really cool. But I see about the color, this is awful.”

“So this one shares a bathroom with the one next door. And the one across the hall has an ensuite so it’s the guest room. And our room is next to that…”

“Oh, let me see the remodel you did with that. You changed the bathroom, right?”

“OK, so first, you have to see the final product so I can show you how we changed it because the way they set this up is just asinine.”

“What did they…”

“Who makes a master bathroom five feet wide and thinks that’s OK?” You asked as you stepped into the master suite and pushed open the bathroom door. “So this wall stopped here and we pushed it out into one of the two closets the undecided room had and doubled the size. And then I added the tub because I needed it.”

“I like this color.” She said as she touched the dark teal accent wall behind the mirror.

“I used the same one on the bookshelf in the study because I liked it so much.” You said with a nod. “We also pushed this wall into the walk in because Jeff still has his closet space out here and I didn’t need that much space, so that few feet gave us just the amount of room we needed.” Dana nodded and turned toward you with a smile.

“Are you happy, (Y/N)? Like not because of the physical possessions… does he make you happy?” You smiled and nodded your head as you put your hand on your 20 week along bump.

“Dana, I’m pretty sure I would die without him in my life. I have never loved someone the way I love Jeff.” Her smile grew as she stepped forward and put her hands on either side of your stomach.

“Then I know I made the right choice in calling you back that day.” You nodded your head as Jeff called your name from outside the door, and you looked over at him with a smile.

“My mom just got here. Are you done touring?”

“Where did your beads go, mister?” You asked as you turned toward him and followed him out of your room.

“Mom votes with me that they are both girls so I gave them to her.” He laughed as he reached out for your hand just long enough to pull you to the side to put his hand on the small of your back.

“And you know I’m going to keep giving you shit until you put them back on, Daddy.” You cooed as you grabbed two pink bead necklaces and held them out to him. “Or you can sleep on the couch, far far away from Mommy and the boys.”

“See, I like her already.”

“Thanks Mom.” Jeff laughed as he put his necklaces on and turned you around to the food covered island. “Sweetheart, this is my mom, Sandy. Mom, the love of my life, mother of daughters…”

“Sons.” You laughed as you stepped forward to the grandmother of your children. “(Y/N). It’s so nice to finally meet you, Sandy.”

“Oh, please. It’s Mom.” She said sweetly as she gestured to your bump. “May I?”

“Absolutely!” You laughed as you reached out for her hands and pulled her a step closer. “You’ve got the soccer player down here, and the long jumper that uses my ribs as a jumping board up here. I say they have to be boys because like two nights ago, they got into what felt like a slap fight against my bladder and I feel like only boys would be that rude to their mother in the middle of the night.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” She laughed as she rubbed your bump through the knee length blue and pink splattered, off the shoulder dress that was tight against your body and had a long, loose ruffle around the top. “If they are boys, I hope for your sake they are nothing like their father because he was a wild child.”

“Oh, really!” You squealed as you refilled your cup and picked up a pink chocolate covered strawberry, while Jeff whined ‘Mom’ on his way to go get the door. “Please, I am begging you to tell me more.”

“Oh, honey I will never run out of stories about my Jeffrey. Like this one time…”

“Mom!” Jeff said as he walked back into the kitchen behind Chelsea and Kate, and couple of Jeff’s friends that you had only meet a few times before. “Don’t start!”

“Oh, I’ll start alright.” She laughed with a shake of her head. “I have to pre-warn her what she’s getting into with Morgan boys.” You laughed with her as Jeff simply shook his head and went to get the door again, and Dana quickly jumped on the train to get more stories about the father of your child with you. Since you had no representation of family, you shared your own embarrassing childhood stories as your friends and his came together to celebrate the lives you created. You played cheesy games, and ate probably way to many sweets, until Jeff’s assistant, Rebecca got there a little late with two large black balloons for Baby A and Baby B.

“OK, let’s see what the final vote is before we pop these suckers.” Jeff called out over the slight hum of voices in the living room and kitchen as he pointed to the two balloons Rebecca was putting in the arch way between the living and dining room. One of the men that worked in Jeff’s New York office, Jason, grabbed the white board for you and carried it out to the dinner table, where the presents that people had brought to make the last couple months of your pregnancy a little more enjoyable were.

“So we have eight for boy boy.” You said as you looked at all the tallies on the board. “Which is the right team, by the way…”

“Thirteen for girl girl, the winning team.” Jeff interrupted with a playful glare.

“You are are just mistaken.” You giggled. “And fourteen for both. So Baby B is the one up by my ribs, and Baby A is right now down by my left hip. So we’ll obviously start with A. Thanks, Bex.” You said as you took the balloon and a sewing needle from her. “You wanna?”

“No, pop away, my love.” Jeff said as he moved the balloon between you so that you could both be in the photos Kenzie had been taking for you all afternoon. You and your party guests counted down from three, and hesitated for only a second before hitting the black latex with the sharp tip. You cheered excitedly as blue confetti rained down on your head and floated down on your hardwood floors.

“Ok, so this one better be a girl.” Jeff mockingly complained as he took the string from you and traded it for the next balloon.

“If it is a girl, she’s a badass with the way she’s beating up on her brother.” You laughed as you handed him the pin. “But it’s gunna be another boy.”

“Wrong.” He laughed before starting the next count down. You actually held your breath, hoping in that moment that it was a girl for his sake, and you shrieked happily when the destroyed latex released its pink confetti over the blue.

“We got one of both.” You said with a smile as Jeff cupped your jaw with his hands.

“A Daddy’s girl and a Mama’s boy.” He said with a nod. “We’re both screwed.”

“Yea we are.” You laughed as you stood up on your tip toes and kissed him softly. “A boy and a girl… sorry baby, we gotta do even more painting.”

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

“Oh, God, is this really necessary?” You whined as you stepped in to a white and black polka dot sleeveless, halter gown to go to a charity event for one of the foundations Jeff was a part of.

“I’m sorry, but it is.” Jeff said with a nod as he pulled your dress up to your hips where you could reach it without bending over around your substantial 32 week along bump. “It’s a once a year dinner that I have to go to, and you said you wanted to go…”

“Yea, I know.” You sighed as you turned around so he could zip you up. “But I was obviously delirious, running on more sleep, and probably half the size I am now.”

“And you still look just as beautiful to me, baby.” He said sweetly to keep you calm like he usually did as he turned you around toward him with a smile. “I love you… and I know Jett and Jace are both thankful you are carrying them…”

“Yea, I know you think that.” You huffed as a small smile pulled at your cheeks. “But I think these two are ungrateful, hate monsters that can’t keep their arms and legs inside the moving vehicle.” Jeff laughed whole heartedly as he knelt down and slipped your wedge sandals on your feet for you.

“You’re almost there, baby girl. 36 weeks was your goal…”

“Just make it go faster.” You sighed as you put your cell phone on silent and handed it to him to carry so you didn’t have to bring a purse. He put it in his inside jacket pocket with your tissues (because everything made you cry now a days), your lip gloss, and a bag of goldfish in case you got hungry before dinner was served.

“Make it through dinner, and we’re one more day closer.” He said in a sing song voice as he turned you toward the door and gave you a gentle push in that direction. You grumbled at him under your breath as you adjusted your belly band under your dress, and headed down stairs. “It’ll be over before you know it, sweetheart.” He placated over your continued grumbling when your car pulled up in front the Ritz in Manhattan. With one last grumble, you lost the pout and forced a smile on your face as he and his driver, Jonathan, helped you out of the car.

“Oh, you look so big!” “When are you due?!” “Twin’s, that sounds like a lot of work!” “Oh, you have to use cloth diapers, they are so much better for the babies.” “A tiny thing like you is going to have a lot of fun pushing those babies out.”

“OK!” Jeff said quickly before you knocked the woman that was reaching out for your bump on her ass. “Let’s go find our seats and get you off your feet.”

“Why do people think it’s acceptable to touch me?”

“Because people are weird.” He laughed as he guided you around a chair that had been left pulled out.

“Jeffrey Dean!” You stopped walking as a woman stood up on the far side of the table in front of you, and Jeff’s hand gripped the back of your dress when she started walking toward you.

“Hillarie.”

“The Hillarie?” You asked with a glance back up at him. He nodded his head and rubbed your back as he cleared his throat.

“What can I do for you, Hillarie?”

“Oh, nothing, I just… oh! You’re… pregnant.” You nodded your head and put your hand on your bump as she smirked between you and her ex. “You finally caved and went with a sperm donor…”

“Good night, Hillarie…” Jeff tried as he gave you a gentle push to the right, but his ex side stepped and blocked your path.

“No, I’m sorry. That’s rude of me.” She giggled with the fakest smile you had ever seen. “You seem like a nice young thing. I bet you found a man to knock you up and went after Jeff for the money, didn’t you?”

“Excuse me?!”

“That’s enough, Hillarie!”

“I mean you are huge and, let’s face it, we both know Jeff’s sperm are way to old to be a viable option…”

“I’m sorry.” You interrupted as your whole body started to shake. “I think I missed the memo saying that your opinion about my children and their father mattered to anyone but yourself.” She cocked her eyebrow at you as you reached back for Jeff’s hand with a very forced smile. “And I’m even more sorry that you decided to cheat on him and pass up on mind blowing sex. Not that it’s any of your business, but I can promise you that he is responsible for my huge stomach. He’s responsible for making me happy, and he’s responsible for making me forget my own name every night.” Hillarie looked shocked at your retort as you stepped back the other way and up to her side with a smile. “Oh, and thank you for talking to him. Now I know I’ll go to bed wore out as we both attempt to forget you are still in Manhattan and so he can welcomingly remind me the seasoned man he is and exactly who fathered my babies.” You took a step back and smiled at her once more as the exhausted vindictiveness washed over you.

“And I’m sorry that you weren’t capable of getting pregnant. But obviously… that’s not Jeff’s fault.”

“OK, let’s go find our seats, baby girl.” Jeff said quickly as he stepped between you and his ex with an uncontrollable satisfied smirk on his face. “Good night, Hillarie.” You heard her growl behind you as you were led away, and you glanced up at Jeff for a moment. “You did fine.” He chuckled before you could even ask.

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t my place… really, they’re starting with salad.”

“Just start with the salad so you don’t rip anyone else’s head off.” He laughed as he pulled your chair out at the first table in the middle row of the room.

“And for that, I’m eating yours too.” You huffed with a smile as you put your napkin on your lap, and turned your attention to the rest of the people at the table, who were thankfully people that you knew from Jeff’s New York office that had attended your gender reveal, or would be attending your baby shower the next day. “Growing babies is tough work. Can’t be done on just greens.”

#negan x reader #Ain't sayin' she's a gold digger #Negan's thirst squad #Negan thirst squad

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bexterbex · 5 years ago

Text

A Soul to Mend His Own | Ch. 34

Warning, if you haven’t heeded the other warnings on the other chapters then you have played yourself.

A Kylo Ren x Modern! Reader in a soulmate au with some canon divergence. —————————————SLOWBURN————————————–

He is already the Supreme leader, searching the universe to find you, his Empress. Your name on his wrist has been the only constant in his life, while you have doubts about his existence and his acceptance of you. He isn’t in the database and why did the name Kylo Ren cover Ben Solo?

MASTERLIST

Chapter 34: Leaving without Notice

Once onboard the Steadfast you and Kylo headed to the conference room with the general and your lieutenant. Kylo released you once you got to the room and were safely inside, he left the room in a rush. You were left to your lesson with the general.

“You did well today again Lady Ren, I know this morning was a bit stressful after yesterday’s events so we shall keep this lesson in a lighter tone,” said Hux. “We will be going over the ship a tour of sorts if you will, one that is much more in-depth than your initial tour, to show you what the Resurgent- class Star Destroyers have to offer.”

You followed the general down the hall. “While the size is reminiscent of Empire ships, the design of the Resurgent -class recalls a similar design from the Republic-era capital ships. The Steadfast’s dorsal flight deck, side hangars, and prominent keel; are similar to elements of Venator -class Star Destroyers, reflecting a renewed appreciation among our tacticians for capital ships’ role as carriers. Like the Finalizer, the Steadfast can launch her full complement of starfighters and assault ships much more quickly than their predecessors of the Imperial Navy. Other Imperial-era design flaws have also been rectified -- the need for a better-protected command bridge was a lesson we learned from the loss of the Executor,” said Hux.

You were making your way to the back of the ship, you following next to the general and your lieutenant following behind you. You made your way to some sort of large mechanical room.

“All the way to the far right is the access to the Hyperdrive generator and the access to the Starboard main engines. This room mirrors another on the other side of the ship. Over here are the reactant silo and subsidiary reactor. Behind us is the isotope containment wells. Just above us is the starboard primary turbolaser battery. We shall now move back to the main reactor.”

You were glad because the room you were in was hot, you had no idea how the technicians that seemed to be moving about the room seemed to stand it. The room felt as if it was an oven, and you were not cupcakes so it was no place for you. When you got back out the main hall you never thought you would be more thankful for the star ship’s recycled air, the hallway felt airconditioned compared to the room you were just in. It was also a fair bit brighter out in the hallway. You made it to a large room with a metal curved ball, but you could only see a small portion of the large sphere.

“This is the reactor containment vessel unless you would like serious health issues unfortunately I can not take you to see the reactor itself. This is an SJFS III-a1a primary hypermatter-annihilation reactor. It is top of the line and allows us to stay in Hyperspace for days. This reactor could power two planets of your sizes for 100 years without stopping. We are currently standing in the reactor engineering control deck, up there are he atmospheric processing complect and the reactant ducts.”

You then left the area you were in to go to a different hangar than the one you normally use. This one was much much smaller. There seemed to be a lot more boxes and other items scattered neatly around.

“This is our port hanger, it mainly handles shipments from planets and all non-personnel ships. Although this is the smaller of the two hangars it is the one we use the most. Ah, yes here is a ship now.”

You saw a large ship pull in, it was rather a shoebox like in shape, you guessed that since it was meant to carry cargo it did not have to look spectacular. You did not stick around for it to be unloaded seeing as the general was instant that you carry on the in-depth tour. You were then hauled off to many other places on the ship. No offense to the general but his voice seemed to drone on, and you were rather tired. Just when you realized you were tired the lieutenant made a cup of stimcaf appear, you briefly wondered if he could read your mind as Kylo could but you could care less at the moment. You had caffeine.

The ship itself has 3000 turbolasers, point-defense laser cannons, and ion cannons. Point-defense quad concussion missile emplacements and tractor beam projectors. There are 19,000 officers, 55,000 enlisted and 13,000 stormtroopers on board at the moment. But because she is a sistership with any of the Resurgent-class ships they are all armed the same. Kuat-Entralla Engineering has done a superb job making these galaxy-class destroyers.”

The general then turned to look at you, he then glanced at the time and declared your lesson over. You were thankful, and you wondered just how tired you looked. You also glanced at the time seeing that you had at least an hour before dinner. You hoped you could sneak a nap in, you made your way back to your chambers and thanked the lieutenant and told him that you would send for him if you needed him.

When you entered your chambers Kylo was already there, shirtless and speaking to someone you couldn’t see. The last words you heard from him were, “you will return it to me.” His voice was low and predatory. He was a beast holding back from striking, but you could not see his prey. You broke his concentration when you entered the room.

He looked at you, you could see the bloodthirsty look vanishing from his face the longer he looked at you. His eyes were softening, but still held a hunter’s forewarning in them. He cleared his throat and looked at the time, “It’s later than I thought.”

You just nodded and made your way to your room, he caught your arm and pulled you to him. You flushed at the motion, you were now against his bare chest, your head was in a tissy.

“How much of that did you hear,” he asked staring you down.

“I didn’t hear anything other than, you will return it to me,” you replied. Your face was scrunched up with confusion but your heart was racing with excitement.

“Forget what you heard,” his voice was firm and harsh. His grip on you was harsher than it has ever been.

But your body was giving different signals than your brain. You couldn’t even form a coherent sentence to respond. Kylo released you and you stumbled back almost in shock. You eventually braced yourself against the wall, you could feel the anger radiating off of him. You were too tired to deal with him at the moment so you practically ran to your room.

The moment your head hit the pillow you passed out, for the first time in a while your dreams were nothing but nightmares.

After you woke up you felt more tired than when you went to sleep, but you needed to get up anyway. You were dazed when you left your room and you stumbled into the living room where you were greeted by the lieutenant.

“I regret to inform you, ma’am, that the Supreme Leader will not be joining you tonight as he has been called to the other end of the galaxy for the next few days,” said Mitaka. “But he has informed me that I am to make sure you are not to eat your dinners alone.”

So he was gone. You wondered if this had anything to do with the voice he seemed to be talking to, or if it was something that you had done. You were thankful that he had the intuition to have the lieutenant here instead of just messaging you or leaving a note. You also felt bad for the lieutenant as he should not have been forced to change his plans to eat with you just because Kylo thought you shouldn’t be eating alone. You had done it many times before, why did you need company now?

“Thank you, lieutenant but I am more than capable of eating alone if you would rather go eat with your friends.”

The lieutenant flashed a worried and confused face. “It is no problem ma’am, I think I would actually enjoy eating with you tonight.”

You gave him a small smile, you were very happy that the young lieutenant felt that way. He was rather sweet and you were thankful that Kylo made him your assistant of sorts. You nodded to him and made your way to the dining room and both ordered your dinner. You felt slightly awkward because usually during breakfast you two sat in a comfortable silence until he gave you your daily debriefing, but now you were actually going to eat a proper meal together and you had no idea what to talk about.

“Tell me about yourself lieutenant.”

He looked at you partially startled at the inquiry. You could tell that he was not used to higher-ups taking an interest, you supposed it would only be his friends that would even care, but you wanted to be friends with the partially timid man.

“There isn’t much to tell ma’am I am a lieutenant in the First Order. I graduated top of my Academy class and was placed on board the Finalizer and I worked directly under the allegiant general when he was still in command of her. This was all when the former Supreme Leader was in power. After Supreme Leader Ren came into power the general promoted me not in rank but in position to be with him. And when you were found the Supreme Leader reassigned me to you,” said Mitaka.

“But what about before the Academy? Or what do you like to do when you are given leave or free time? Surely there is more to you than meets the eye,” you asked.

“Before the academy, I lived with my parents on Coruscant. I am an older brother to my little brother. My father works in business and my mother works in medical. When I have free time I like to relax or reading up on galactic history. Although like most officers when on leave I enjoy going to any beaches on the planet we are on and I tend to enjoy the food. Unlike the food that has been served to you m’lady when we haven’t been to port for a while the food can get rather bland and unappealing.”

You chuckled at his last statement. You supposed that this was a military and so the need for really tasty food was outweighed by the need for nutritious food. You were glad that he was at least enjoying the food at the moment.

When you both had finished eating you thanked him before sending him away for the night. He told you he would see you in the morning. You were left alone for the evening. You wondered if you should sleep in his bed again or not, unfortunately, your body made that decision for you as it barely got you up the stairs. His bed was closer so you collapsed into it, this time you dreamed of nothing but blackness.

#a soul to mend his own #kylo ren #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren imagine #kylo x reader #kylo x you #star wars #first order #star wars imagine #Star wars soulmate au #sw first order imagine #star wars first order #finding the perfect gif takes too long #dopheld mitaka #armitage hux

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purkinje-effect · 3 years ago

Text

The Anatomy of Melancholy, 70: Something Old, Something New

Table of Contents. Third Instar, Chapter 1. First chapter of Third Instar; go to previous. Go to next. TWs: Canon-typical animal violence, hostile locals.

In the shape of things to come.

_______________________

It should have jolted ‘Choly electric, when Sticks turned over Little Boy Blue with the rhythmic sequence of soft chirps from its push-button transmission. Yet, the smooth uniform purring of the fusion engine left him doe-eyed sinking deeper into the ancient moving blanket that had been folded lengthwise and tucked down atop the otherwise exposed re-stuffed guts of the passenger seat’s upholstery. A lone Mister Handy fuel tank tucked itself behind him.

Sticks had replaced the front driver’s seat with a balding duct-taped armchair, trimmed to fit; he had also replaced the entire back seat with a footlocker, to make extra room inside the vehicle. The ghoul had paid the interior far more attention in flirting after perfectionism, with what he could loot from Concord nearby. His flux welding intimated once present chrome contours, the refinished salvaged wood, its prior vinyl wood paneling. The ghoul drew down the parking lever, now a screwdriver with a leather-wrapped handle, took the freshly royal blue 2071 Chryslus Coupe out of neutral, and eased it out from under the canopy of the Red Rocket Truck Stop to exit the parking lot.

Before ‘Choly could register to wave to the Sanctuary settlers out the open window behind them, Sticks had shifted into third and spirited them down to the first light to turn East into Concord. He sank down in his seat again, and folded his gloved hands in his lap.

‘Choly supposed that the two of them were just as patched together as Blue--though Angel would certainly have argued it took the cake for this distinction, were it in on his internal monologue. The composite Mister Handy had powered off its thruster on Blue’s roof, where Sticks had latched it down with a pair of tow chains, hooked around the rear pillars of the blown-out back windows. From atop the car, its Mister Gutsy grade sensors would provide them with a slightly greater forewarning of incumbent road hazards.

Sticks slapped the steel dashboard and laughed.

“Hah! aren’t the hydraulics just riding like a dream.” He beamed, petting at it. “Ohh, sometimes I surprise even myself.”

“It’s skating on glass,“ ‘Choly agreed, his attention squarely on the ghoul. He chewed at his lip. “Are you sure you don’t need another nap? We could pull in behind the Wright’s Inn, and you could recline--”

Rather than answer, Sticks zipped left and picked up a speed more befitting an automobile. With the windows down, the quarter windows open, and the floor vents unlatched, the crisp breeze disturbed ‘Choly’s headspace before it could sour. He tugged his golf visor down on his head, and coughed a bit at the smell of the road kicking up in the floorboards, but he welcomed the fresh air, as the air conditioning was the one notable thing Sticks had not managed to restore in some capacity.

He couldn’t get the ghoul to admit how he’d managed a (mostly) in-tact windshield, when there hadn’t been a scrap of glass left on the husk of the car after laying on its side for the better part of two hundred years.

‘Choly reached up to put a hand on the roof. Angel tapped it emphatically, reassuringly. His eyes couldn’t follow the scenery as they zipped along Route 62.

“Have you been further North than Lowell?”

“Oh, yeah. No further than Ant, though. Never been reason for me to. This’ll be a first.”

Route 62 changed over to Route 4 as it eased North. Sticks swerved around a bit of road debris, but did not otherwise slow down. ‘Choly fretted that little remained of the junkyard, after the fusion engines of automobile and robotics alike had exploded last he’d been this way. Sticks decided to push Blue’s constitution and gunned it up to sixty, then eighty.

As the scenery blurred past them and even with the correct prescription of eyewear on his face, ‘Choly shook his daze and instead squinted at the map on his Pip-Boy.

“Ant? As in... ants?”

“Don’t overthink it. We’re not stopping. Straight shot to Nashua.” The ghoul belted another laugh, letting the wind whisk his noseless face and last locks of blond hair. “I haven’t had a car run this smooth in eighty years. Maybe more.”

“You did great...” 'Choly admired his enthusiasm and pride of craftsmanship. “I doubt anybody else could’ve done what you’ve done.”

“You can say that again.” Sticks threw a hand across the back of ‘Choly’s headrest, and rubbed at his shoulder. ‘Choly leaned into it. “With how well he runs, we might be able to get back to Goodneighbor by the end of the week. --Fuck Tucker Bridge, though. Fuck it to Hell.”

“You really think we’re on the road for a while then?” He picked at the radio dials before deciding not to see if WXXX was the only surviving station in the area. “Shouldn’t we stop to loot in Tyngsborough or Chelmsford, then? There’s plenty of silt flour for a month or two, but I’ll need way more than a bottle of mouthwash and a half tube of toothpaste if we don’t want to have to choose between using it and my eating it.”

“For real. Don’t sweat it. If I were worried about groceries, I’d have had us stay over in Billerica to loot on the way down. Still can’t quite wrap my head around you getting by on that stuff, ya know.”

“Mm.”

Several minutes passed where they took in the sound of the open road. The unevenness of the rubbled roadway became more obvious to ‘Choly in the break in conversation, although Blue cleared a majority of it without hesitation.

“Say, where do you see us a year from now, anyway?”

“Is this your way of proposing to me?” ‘Choly turned to him with a starstruck start. “Next you’ll tell me you’ve got rings in that Cram tin.”

Sticks turned thoughts over in his head a bit.

“Well, there are rings in there. But they’re not for you. That box of rocks is our insurance.”

“I suppose I’ve spoiled the game, then.”

“You’re the one who had a proposal at all, you know. The proposal I was meaning. Gee, you really are head over heels for me, if you’re already talking about getting old.”

“I haven’t been thawed out for a whole year yet. It’s hard to imagine getting any older than I already am, let alone with you. ...You really think you’ll stick with me a whole year?”

“Many more, is the idea. Hopefully, you’ll stick with me.”

“...I meant to do that.”

“Sure,” the ghoul grinned, giving him a side-eye.

It took less than an hour for them to pass through the residential ruins of Chelmsford and Tyngsborough, though variably dense evergreens paved much of their way. The Merrimack ran against them to the right, coiling back and forth out of sight. Blue skipped a wet patch on Route 3A, spraying a muddy mist up into the floorboards and getting the two to sputtering and laughing.

Sticks slowed as they neared the invisible demarcation which once divided Massachusetts and New Hampshire. ‘Choly was about to crack a joke about speed limits, only to notice the three figures, in mostly combat armor, attending the military road blockade ahead. ‘Choly straightened in his seat as Sticks slowed to a stop.

The elder of two women stepped up to the driver’s side coddling the hulking chrome and steel form of an assault rifle. The other two guards aimed directly at the vehicle.

“You sure are a bad habit.” She chewed at a cigar.

“Sergeant Bea.” Sticks gave her an awful grin. “Just passing through. If that’s all right with you.”

She stooped to squint and scowl at ‘Choly. He swallowed hard and gave her a tepid smile.

“Sticks, you’ve got one minute to get that pile of metal shit off the Lane before I tell Gerald he’s got target practice.”

“Be out of your hair in half that,” he blandished. “Good to see you again, love.”

She told him off as they continued past. He casually waved his middle finger out the window, keeping his eyes ahead of him.

“You’re just on everyone’s good side, aren’t you?” ‘Choly wrung his hands, still stiff against the seat.

“Laners hate machines, is all. Can’t appreciate a fine automobile.”

As Sticks accelerated again, ‘Choly wondered whether Sticks’s reservations coming this way had more to do with the locals than the climate. He slouched, only to see a towering projection screen come up on their right. Agape, he nearly hung out the window, clutching at his visor. In the parking lot of what had once been a Starlight Drive-In, now stood a bustling flea market. A romance flickered anciently on the screen.

“Sticks, there’s people here. A hundred, maybe. People.” Under his breath, he murmured, “I wonder if they’ve got any horror movies.”

The ghoul scoffed.

“People with a stick up their asses, more like it.”

They passed the parking lot of a large shopping mall. Before ‘Choly could get into him, gunfire rang. A dozen mutated waterfowl the size of a human assailed around twenty settlers armed with shotguns, pole hooks, and bludgeons. Sticks sped up and ‘Choly grabbed him by the arm.

“The fuck are you doing!” the ghoul yelled. “Gerald’s their missile man!”

“We’ve got to go help them!”

“They don’t want our help!”

'Choly shook Sticks until he loathingly relented, then tried uselessly to unlatch the tow hooks in the back seat. Once he managed it, Angel lit its thruster and sped off saws blazing headlong toward the Radfowl. ‘Choly hadn’t expected to need to have a weapon at the ready. Sticks, meanwhile, hunched into the steering wheel with the determination to mow at least one goose-like thing down with the traffic barrier he’d bolted where Blue once had a front bumper.

The Mister Handy and the vehicle beset the composure of the locals far in excess of the fowl. As Blue connected with a pair of birds, the locals they’d squared off with immediately lashed out at the front of the car with their baseball bats. One punctured the trunk hood with their pole hook.

“HEY!” Sticks roared. He laid on the horn, and the three scattered to assist the others.

‘Choly shakily unholstered his Nagant. Before he could aim out his own window, a pair of Radfowl had rushed to snap and snarl in the driver’s side. One chomped down on Sticks’s upper arm where it could get at him, and he let out a groan. At close range, it felt more like administering tranquilizers with a jet injector rather than the modified syringer revolver he’d endeared as the Tryasovitsy. Their gnarly tusk-like teeth scraped at the door on the birds’ way down to the pavement.

‘Choly tried to get a better look, but Sticks shoved him back, to reach for the hunting rifle he’d tucked between the seat and door. He took aim and fired on one of the fowl.

“Just get your damn robot back over here before they beat the shit out of it.”

“Angel’s doing well with the birds--”

“--I meant the Laners.”

Another massive goose-like thing ran flailing toward the passenger side and ‘Choly reflexively drew on it, emptying the rest of his barrel of Pax Syringes with a choking panic. Once the last of the geese dropped, he sank back in his seat to steady ragged breathing.

Sticks got out of the car long enough to shoot the two Radfowl sedated on the driver’s side. An older man in fishing overalls with a shotgun came up and finished off the Radfowl on ‘Choly’s side before aiming the gun at him. A pair of teens had picked up the tow chains and approached Angel, swinging them slow and furious.

“We’re just trying to help!” ‘Choly squeaked out at the man. He dropped the silenced revolver in his lap in an instant. “We don’t mean you any harm!”

“You fucker. Ruined perfectly good meat,” the Laner snapped, repulsed and hateful. “Can’t eat drugged meat.”

“Please!” ‘Choly adjusted in his seat when he realized his sudden lurch could’ve seemed like hostility rather than begging. “Don’t hurt my Handy. We’re leaving! I swear it!”

“You’ve already wasted enough of our time. Tussling with you ain’t worth it.” The older man kicked at the concrete with a growl that punctuated in a hiss. “What did you think you were doing! Horning in on our hunt!?"

“Hunt?” ‘Choly frowned, guiltily incredulous. “You were attacking them?”

“You shouldn’t have risked yourselves like that. We had it under control. Get your goddamn tin can liabilities off the Lane!”

“Forgive us,” Sticks started. The man brandished a finger at him, warning that they keep their distance.

“And you can’t have any of our Radfowl meat!”

“All yours. Sorry to be trouble, folks. Angel! Come on, chap.”

Sticks waved to the Laners to gesticulate for the berth to reverse enough to turn around. They all glowered at the pair before getting to dressing their kills.

“The fuck is wrong with these people,” ‘Choly finally blurted out.

“Listen to me next time? I told you we didn’t need to help them.”

“Of course we did, Mister Hawthorne.” Angel swept around to the driver’s side where Sticks could hear its indignity. “It’s not our fault they’re ingrates!”

“Are you sure you’re all right? Those things have more teeth than a shark.”

“There had better be a Stimpak there. Or something.” He snorted to shrug off a pout. “Not like I’m bleeding out. Hurts, but I’ll live.”

“There’s definitely a full assortment of first aid stock at the warehouse. I’ll patch you up once we get inside. ...Sorry that I didn’t listen.”

“You keep doing the exact opposite of what I tell you, and it keeps biting you in the ass. This time, it bit me in the arm. Got a right mind to start telling you to do the opposite of what I think you’ll do.”

Now that they’d crossed the New Hampshire state line, ‘Choly produced the folder he’d tucked between the center console and seat, to skim Gretchen’s landmark location directory again. Going North on the Daniel Webster Highway, you’ll pass the Pheasant Lane Mall on your right. Crossing under a double overpass, there’s a Luxurique lot and cemetery on your left. The Nashua warehouse is at the next left.

“Let’s just... keep onward. Priorities. Right.” ‘Choly sighed. “We made good time getting up here. There’s still plenty of daylight left. The warehouse shouldn’t be more than ten minutes from here, provided we don’t encounter more locals.”

Go to next »»»

#fallout #fallout 4 #fallout fanfic #fallout 4 fanfic #sole survivor #ghoul oc #the anatomy of melancholy #mister handy #sticks #melancholy #angel

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megamanxfanfics · 3 years ago

Text

S.VI - Ep.14: Old Haunts

Written by Metal Man X

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Light Capsule Area – DAY

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

-Fade in-

We see a peaceful view of a dormant Light Capsule blinking amongst the icy walls of the cave.

-pan slowly away from the Capsule-

The ground shakes as an unnatural avalanche of ice boulders rains down near the capsule in a straight line.

-pan further to a hill just below the Capsule-

Zero is struggling to dash around and away from not only ice boulders, but also lava meteors!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Uh, Zero..? You’re not gonna believe this, but there’s a Capsule directly above you.

ZERO: (struggling, dodging) Aghh, what?? You’re kidding!

He makes it back to the top of the hill and turns his head, setting his focus on the icy plain above the slopes.

ZERO: Damn… this could be tricky!!

He runs as a giant ice boulder passes overhead. Then amidst the fire balls, he dashes, jumps and double-jumps through an opening.

Grateful for the flat land, he makes it to the top area, spotting the Capsule dead ahead. But also in his path is an infected Wolfoid. He can feel the Nightmare within as the creature growls at him.

ZERO: Damn, we took too long…

It shoots with a Nightmare enhanced snout, but Zero takes it out with a quick swipe of the saber.

Then, an Avalanche of boulders almost drop on him.

ZERO: Shiiiiit!

He dashes ahead, just before the Light Capsule, collecting the small Nightmare Soul in the process. Dr. Light forms himself as the boulders wildy crash behind him.

DR. LIGHT: (surprised, awestruck) Zero... I'm glad to see you again.

ZERO: ...I will never die.

DR. LIGHT: …Where have you been??

ZERO: I don't really remember. My recovery functions didn’t fully kick in until later... But when I came to, my instincts guided me. I couldn’t really see. I could only move... Soon I realized that I was in Abel City again, and it was only a matter of time before I’d find X.

DR. LIGHT: ...The world still needs you and X... ...So you came back to life, didn't you?

ZERO: (nodding, smirking) Heh, I suppose so..

DR. LIGHT: Right… Well, we must put an end to this Nightmare... Please give X this Armor program... However, for security reasons, the Armor won't work until all four programs combine.

ZERO: Alright.

DR. LIGHT: This is the foot program to X’s Shadow Armor. When executed properly, he’ll be able to high-jump and stick to the ceiling. Once there, X can dash on the ceiling for enhanced mobility during missions that require more stealth-like maneuvers. This is a tricky Armor. Please tell him to handle it well! Where is he anyway??

ZERO: I don’t really know. He’s in a portal somewhere…

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Double’s Lair - NIGHT

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

X and his formidable ally known as Phantom look on at the newly revived ghost of Double with concern and contempt.

ZERO: (o.s, continuing) …dealing with Old Haunts.

[Insert Title Card – Old Haunts]

X: Double!! What are you doing here?

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Aaahahahah. It looks like you’ve finally made it to the Afterlife. It’s about time!!

X: Huh?

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: What did you in? Was it Sigma?? Please tell me it was Sigma.

X: Double, I’m not dead!

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Then… where the Hell are we? Is this Purgatory??

X: More like, a Nightmare Dimension. And you’re my only way out.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Oh, I see... So that’s what’s at stake here. A 2nd chance at Life or Death. I feel it in the air…. We all seem to be drawn to this.. Nightmare Energy. Well, with it’s power, I’m gonna Destroy you and re-enter the World Anew!!

PHANTOM: He’s Mad!

He pulls out his daggers and bravely runs after Double.

X: No. Phantom, wait-!

In an instant Double dashes into the warrior and strikes him with his spiked gauntlet, carving a gash right across his stomach.

PHANTOM: Eeeeeuuuugghhhh….

X: Nooooooo!

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: AAAHAHAHAHA. You’re Next, X.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Light Capsule Area - DAY

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

From his Capsule, Dr. Light stirs in a slight panic

DR. LIGHT: Oh my Goodness! Please, help X!!

ZERO: (nodding) Don’t worry, I will…. He’s a big boy though. He can take care of himself..

Taken slightly aback, Dr. Light lets out a quick sigh, then composes himself.

DR. LIGHT: Hmph. You’re right. I’ll be off, then. Take care of yourself, Zero.

With that, Dr. Light smiles and disappears.

ZERO: (smirking) Count on it…

Zero steps in the capsule and receives X’s upgrade for him. A brilliant flash of power and light downloads itself into Zero’s head-gem making it glow into a foreboding shade of black for one second. He closes his eyes, feeling the rush of power, then opens them with a zestful determination.

ZERO: (v.o, thinking) It’s a shame I can’t just send this over, X. Wherever you are, I’m sure you could really use this right about now!

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Double’s Lair – DAY

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

X narrows his eyes, charges up and shoots a charged Blade Buster right at Double.

The Nightmare Double throws a large power ball at him as well.

X’s eyes widen as he mach-dashes out of the way. He quickly switches to Yammark’s Dragonfly Missiles in desperation. They swirl around him in defense, while green plasma blasts shoot out in offense.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Au-au-au-au…

The apparition’s bio-defenses kick in as suddenly all the dents in his armor, bubble up and emit various weaponry. Two buzz saws bounce back at him while two winged drones fly after him and fire their own attacks.

X: Oh my God, I remember this…

His body shifts into red and orange while he charges up.

X: /YAGH!!

He unleashes the Flaming Godbird Attack on Double, which serves to destroy his bio-defenses and scorch his back to create some more.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Huuurgh. Kiba Slash!!

Two more drones pop out from his back as he dashes after X with his gauntlet out.

X: Oh no ya don’t.

X jumps up and easily mach-dashes over and behind him. When he turns around, he strikes him with another Blade Buster that knocks him to the ground.

Upon landing, X looks up at the drones, which swerve down towards him rapidly and fire hellacious blasts.

X pulls out the enflamed Z-Saber and strikes them with a Magma Blade. He turns around and looks at the Nightmare Double with fiery eyes.

X: Come on!!!!

-cut to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Portal Hideout – DAY

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

From the Capsule, Zero waits for his opening and dashes past another avalanche trap. He drops back down to the hill slopes, where he slips into a narrow corridor.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) You’re almost there, Zero. Cody should be in a Portal, not far up ahead.

Zero nods as he spots a Nightmare Virus and slashes it down. Then, he drops down further into the alcove.

ZERO: I see it. It’s right here!

He dash-jumps to the very spot where Cody and Batsu once stood. Then, out of nowhere, the portal just seemingly disappears.

ZERO: What the-!?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, gasping) What’s wrong?

He takes a breath and decides to sit with his back to an ice wall.

ZERO: (grunting, then sighing) It’s gone! …Well, I’ll just wait for the next window, I guess….

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) It might not come. Best to move on, while you still have the energy.

ZERO: That’s just it. I really, kinda don’t. Those boulders and the Nightmare Lava took a lot out of me. I need a minute…

ALIA: (o.s, sighing, filtered) Take your tiiiiime.

ZERO: I will…

With that he turns his coms off and closes his eyes with a smirk.

-pan to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. MHHQ BUNKER – Control Area – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

In an instant, the screen displaying activity in the North Pole is blacked out.

ALIA: (frustrated) OUUUUGGGGGHHHHH. Whyyy did he close his Coms!?? That arrogant little jerk…! I can’t Stand Him!!!

She sighs and switches screens to X’s activity in the Central Museum.

ALIA: GREAT! Still Nothing!!

With nothing else to do, she looks at the empty lair in the Museum and hopes for the best.

ALIA: (v.o, thinking) Oh, X…. If only I could see you.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Double’s Lair - DAY

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

Nightmare Double narrows his eyes and grins as X flings a wave of fireballs from the Magma Blade. He instantly dodges it by diving up to the ceiling, sitting upside down and then diving back out towards X with his sharp Kiba Gauntlet.

As the apparition plummets down towards X, he sees a clear opening and takes it, shifting his armor into black and red.

X fires a burst of Meteor Rain, which splashes acid directly up, into Nightmare Double’s face.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: AAAAAH! What the Hell did you do to me!!?!?

X smirks.

X: Ya don’t like that, huh??

He charges up and unleashes a whole array of Meteor Rain, which comes down hard on Nightmare Double from an angle.

Writhing in pain, Double gets struck in the back, across the chest, across the shoulders and ribs as he sways left and right, struggling to keep his balance. His body creates an array of mechaniloid defenses for X to contend with as he falls to his knees.

X: (v.o, thinking) Not long now…

He stylishly evades the drones and buzz saws with a twisting Mach-dash as he gets directly above Double with his Meteor Rain buster out. Upon firing he hears a -clk- noise and gasps.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Hmmmm!?

Immediately capitalizing on the folly, Double carves a firm gash in X’s stomach.

X: Euughh…

He falls down near Phantom, who is holding his wound and heavily panting.

The drones and buzz saws come after X and bombard him with cuts and blasts as explosions surround his body.

X: Aaaggh. Yaaaaaghhhhh. Nnnoooo!!!!

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Hahaha. Aahhahaha. HAAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!!!!

Suddenly, multiple arrays of swift dagger throws can be heard as all of the mechaniloid drones are destroyed.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: What!? You, again.

-pan to the wounded warrior, Phantom-

He looks at the Nightmare with malice, while holding out a large Shuriken.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Who are you!!?

PHANTOM: I am the Hidden Phantom… My enemies never see me coming.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Hmph! Never heard of ya…

PHANTOM: That’s because those unfortunate enough to cross my path, never live to tell about it.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Uh huh…. It’s about time that I killed you! Kiba Slash!!!!

He darts after him with another sharp gauntlet, but Phantom reads his attack and rides his Shuriken stylishly above and away.

The apparition turns his neck, annoyed and gets blasted in the back by a Blade Buster.

X: Your fight is with ME, Double!!

A bio-defense drone is created and immediately destroyed by a dagger.

X looks up to see Phantom lurking above in the corner, latching on to the ceiling and wall, stylishly.

PHANTOM: Finish him, X! I’ve got the drones.

X nods with a quick smile.

X: Right!

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: eeeeeeeEEX!!!!

The two run after each other. X sets up a guard shell and pulls out the Z-saber. Then, he makes short work of Double, swiftly slashing and gashing him across the chest, while blocking against any of Double’s attacks. Before long, he gets two critical slices at the arms and impales Double through the stomach.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: OOOOOUUUUUUgggghhhhhhhh………

The defense drones are immediately blown apart from afar, with the help of Phantom’s daggers.

X narrows his eyes with a smirk and takes a breath.

The ghost shakes, curling his bloody arms up.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: rrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

He lets out a giant crescent shaped blast, which knocks X down hard.

Sizzling and unstable, the apparition saunters near the fallen hero.

PHANTOM: Come on, X. Get up. You HAVE HIM!!!!

The apparition looks up at him with disdain.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: /Shut up!

He throws a plasma ball at Phantom with a bloody wrist. It brings him down to the ground.

X struggles to push himself up, panting. The entire day’s battles and trials begin to weigh on his body again.

X: (v.o, thinking) Come on, X. You can do this…

He narrows his eyes as he looks at Nightmare Double.

X: HEY DOUBLE!

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: Hm???

X: Tell Gate that this is over!! He can keep sending anyone he wants! I’ll take them all down Over and Over again!!! HE WON’T BREAK ME. YOU HEAR MEEE!!!???

The ghost’s eyes widen in fear as X’s eyes widen with fervor. He summons up his latest Giga Attack, once again – the Double Wave Blade, which carves at the last of the Nightmare’s armor and destroys his entire frame.

NIGHTMARE DOUBLE: GHAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire Dimension Shatters.

- Cut to-

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

INT. CENTRAL MUSEUM – Main Lobby – NIGHT

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

X and the wounded Phantom appear out of thin air, while the teleporter ring takes effect. Instantly, Phantom is sent away to safety.

X: (sweaty, panting) Hu..hu.. I did it!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, gasping) X!!!!

His body shakes as his Blade Armor powers down to his Base Armor.

X: (smiling) Alia!!!

Out of nowhere, High Max teleports in, directly before X and knocks him down with a floating hard punch to the chest.

X: AAAUUUUggghhhhh… what the-?

HIGH MAX: We’ve warned you. Do not get in the way of our important investigation.

X writhes in pain, holding onto his bruised chest, barely able to sit up.

X: What are you investigating!? Why are you in so deep in this dead area??

HIGH MAX: I won't waste any more time. I'll delete you now!

He flies after X, who dashes back and barely stumbles to his feet.

High Max blasts X with 4 dark shocks.

X: Agh, urgh, ough, Agh!

With his body smoking, X pulls up his buster and points it at High Max.

X: N-n-noo..

He charges up and fires an X-Buster, which completely misses his target.

High Max rushes up to X and punches him hard in the gut.

X: AAUUguughhhhhhhh….

He gags and throws up.

High Max stands tall, pulls up his arm and elbows X hard in the back of the head, forcing him down to the ground.

X: (faceplanting) MMPH!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) EEEEEXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!

From out of nowhere, a slightly scuffed up Dynamo teleports in between X and High Max. Holding a hand out, he looks at the horrid machine, aggravated.

DYNAMO: Not this way.. Not here…

HIGH MAX: Excuse me!???

DYNAMO: It’s my turn! Stay out of our way!!

He bends down and grabs the unconscious X.

HIGH MAX: NO. This one’s Mine now..!

DYNAMO: (grinning, laughing) Hmhmhm… Later!

Just like that, Dynamo teleports away with X’s body.

HIGH MAX: (frustrated, agitated)

HRRM!!!???

-pan to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. MHHQ BUNKER – Control Area – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Alia looks at her screen, confused and worried.

ALIA: Oh NO! What the Hell did I just see? /Oh!

Before she can react, she finds that X has been teleported to the North Pole Area, in the same spot as Zero.

She /gasps.

-pan to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. ICY CAVE – Portal Hideout - DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Once teleported, Dynamo grabs X’s carcass, opens up a portal with his device, and tosses him inside like a rag doll.

DYNAMO: In ya go….

ZERO: Huuh!??

Zero stirs awake at the sight of this and gets to his feet, but he is too late.

DYNAMO: Whoopsieeee. Too slow!

ZERO: DYNAMO! What are you doing with-

The Nightmare Portal fully dissipates again, after Dynamo teleports inside.

ZERO: (finishing, thwarted) X…

He turns his coms back on in a panic.

ZERO: (shocked, scared) Uhh, Alia did you catch any of that??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) No thanks to you, ya piece of work!

ZERO: Huh!!?

ALIA: (o.s, upset, filtered) Don’t close coms on me unless absolutely necessary! It shuts off my video feed and then I can’t help you at all…

ZERO: Hmph…. Well maybe you should be less annoying, then…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) OURGH! I Can’t stand you!!

SIGNAS: (o.s, filtered) That’s enough. Both of you….

-pan to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- MMHQ BUNKER – Control Area - DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

From his Central Console, Signas finally breaks his silence.

SIGNAS: This is beyond Unprofessional. Both of you are letting the stress get to you, so let’s just stick to the facts, shall we? ..X was bombarded in a sneak attack by High Max in the Central Museum after dealing with.. whatever he faced.

ZERO: (filtered) Oh noooo.

SIGNAS: Strange as it seems, I believe Dynamo’s actions were something of a mercy to X…

ZERO & ALIA: (filtered) Huh???

SIGNAS: Remember that Dynamo is a Mercenary. He interrupted High Max when he was winning, then quickly tossed X in the portal nearest, you. If that doesn’t say that he’s hedging his bets, I don’t know what does.

ZERO: (filtered) …Interesting. So are you saying that Dynamo isn’t a threat?

SIGNAS: It’s hard to tell. He’s definitely playing the odds against both sides… But if nothing else, he’s a lot safer with Dynamo than he is with High Max right now…

ZERO: (filtered) Man…

ALIA: Poor X…

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – North Pole Area - DAY

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

On the flat terrain of a very similar looking Ice Cave, X is laid out on the frozen ground. Dynamo teleports, just ahead of him and looks down at his sorry hide.

DYNAMO: Go ahead and use your Sub-tank, X. I’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready…

He kneels down and slaps X in the cheek twice. Then, he pinches his nose only to see X scrunch up his face and gasp for some air in his sleep.

DYNAMO: Hehe.. so cute…

He gets up and dashes far ahead.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Hideout - DAY

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

Zero huddles over in the hideout, while bickering on his coms.

ZERO: Hmph… I should’ve been there. He should be facing Me, instead!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Yep! And I could’ve warned you that the Portal was opening!!

ZERO: I Knoooow! I screwed up, okay???

SIGNAS: (o.s, filtered) Enough! It’s too late now. I need you to focus…. Batsu still needs your help and we need to learn the Investigator’s motives for allowing this to happen! You have a Mission to accomplish. Finish it, Zero.

ZERO: …Y-Yes, sir!

-pan to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Dangerous Slopes - DAY

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

Snapping out of it, Zero dash-jumps out of the alcove and runs back to the dangerous slopes. He contends with an upward slope as best as possible, attempting to dodge the large ice boulders and Nightmare Lava once again.

ZERO: /igh..

He gets hurt as he makes his way to a short ladder and climbs down. The ice slope slides him right down, near an icy spike trap. He dash-hops over it, while giant boulders threaten to crush him. He quickly uses another ladder to drop down further.

As he drops down, the Nightmare Lava balls fall near him and scorch the front and back of his torso, simultaneously.

ZERO: Aaaaaagh! This Nightmare is the Worst!!

When he lands, the ice almost takes him to an icy spiked trap against the wall behind him, but he dashes ahead uphill, against all odds. Cutting down two Wolfoids along the way, Zero successfully dashes away from the slopes and makes it towards his next obstacle – a giant ditch.

-pan to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Ditch Traps - DAY

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

Zero drops down into the ditch, only to find a Reploid curled up in the fetal position.

ZERO: Hey, Man. Are you okay??

The weak, frozen reploid looks up at Zero in fear and cowers.

BATSU: Z-Zero!! No!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Ugh, didn’t Anyone read the Memo!? It’s okay, Batsu. Zero isn’t the Nightmare. He’s here to help you.

BATSU: But he… almost killed us all…

Zero smirks.

ZERO: Heh…. Come on, kid. I’ll catch you up later. Ya did good here.

He helps the baffled rookie, up.

BATSU: W-WAIT! What about C-C-Cody…? Is h-h-h-he alr-r-right???

ZERO: (nodding, lying) X has got it taken care of. (v.o, thinking) I hope…

With that, he gives the Rookie Hunter a teleporter ring and sends him home.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – North Pole Area - DAY

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

X gradually shivers out of a sleeping state, feeling weak and frozen to the core. He shuffles through his chest cavity until he grabs hold of his sub-tank and activates it. With a jolt of power, he spasms and sits up, feeling more awake and alive. He quickly rubs his arms for heat as he rocks back and forth, attempting to get his bearings.

X: Hm…Was I.. thrown off course? How’d I get here?? Alia! Tell me where I am...

He presses an ear to his coms and hears static.

X: ...The communication is out?

Upon hearing his own hollow echoes in the cave, X nods.

X: The Nightmare Dimension, I should’ve known. But how… Who brought me here?

X gets up and runs on. An icy slope immediately rushes him downhill, into a Wolfoid that fires a grenade at him from it’s back.

X: Agh!

Barreling into the Wolfoid, he incidentally tackles it further down the slope and bashes into the next one. When he sees a spike-trap amidst the slope, he quickly dash-jumps and runs down the rest of the ramp until he makes it to some broken icy pillars.

X: Daaaamn!

He instinctively hops through all of the pillars while hot lava balls unnaturally rain down on him.

X: Agghh! What the Hell???

He covers his head as he runs through the slope, barely jumps past another spike trap and catches a rope at the near-end of the clearing.

X: Man!!! There’s no time to think!!

He takes a short breath while lowering himself down. Upon turning around, he hears a familiar voice from a narrow alcove.

?????: X….. Is that you?

X squints upon the narrow alcove and jumps inside. At the far-end of the tunnel, beyond a long bed of spikes, he can see a green and white Wolfoid with an original Maverick Hunter logo etched on the side of his collar.

X: …Frostbite…?

The weary wolf smiles and lets out a friendly bark.

X: (shocked) It IS you! What are you doing here???

X walks over towards him, before the bed of spikes.

FROSTBITE: Honestly? Not much… I’m stuck.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Ditch Traps – DAY

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

Zero attempts to kick-jump up the slippery wall but falls on his behind yet again.

ZERO: Damn it! That rescue was all well and good, but… how the Hell am I supposed to get out of here???

Just then, a big block of ice seemingly materializes from the ceiling and drops down to crush him.

ZERO: Wait a minute, what’s this!? I think I see… Ice.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, confused) Ice???

ZERO: Yeah. A big, chunky block is coming right for me.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Hmm… It must be the Nightmare. Although we can't see any Nightmare Ice from the Hunter Base, I wonder if there is a way you can take advantage of this situation.

ZERO: Yeah, I think so!

When the ice touches down, Zero dodges, then jumps on top of the block. He looks up, eagerly awaiting for the next one to fall on him. It does so, paired with a Wolfoid for good measure.

ZERO: Hmph!

He attacks it mercilessly and lands on top of the falling block of ice.

Soon, another one peers out above him. He carefully double jumps onto it, then takes another careful double-jump into a 2nd ditch.

ZERO: Aw man…. Not again…

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Spiky Alcove – DAY

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

X stands tall and transforms into his Blade Armor.

X: (brave) Don’t worry, I’m gonna get you out.

The rest of his armor shifts into earth tones, as he charges up and puts his buster out.

X: yyy/Yah!

At once, he forms a giant boulder and grabs hold of it, the moment it shoots out. The boulder nearly makes it all the way to Frostbite. When it crashes against the spikes, X simply lets his mach-dash take him the rest of the way.

FROSTBITE: Whooooa, X… you made it! I can’t believe it. I’ve been stuck here for weeks.

X: Jeez, I’m so sorry… I wish I’d known. I didn’t even know you survived..

FROSTBITE: (nodding, regretful) When the Colony crashed and our base was destroyed, I ran for it. I didn’t know who was alive anymore, or who to trust.. It was just easier to start over on my own. I’m so sorry, X.

X: So you came to the North Pole… Of course. It’s okay.. Let me guess. You fell into this ditch with a lot of momentum and a lot of bad luck??

FROSTBITE: Heheh.. pretty much…

X: Let’s go. We’re getting outta here!

X charges up once again and points his buster, while tucking his former comrade underneath his left arm.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICY CAVE – Ice Base Trap - DAY

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

When Zero double-jumps out of a 2nd ditch, he runs ahead to the end of the tunnel, where he appears to have made it to the outer wall of a base.

ZERO: Alia, I think I’m getting close.

He looks up and climbs a ladder.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) That’s correct. The entrance to his base should be further up ahead. Watch out for any hidden obstacles!

As she warns him, a line of ice blocks drops down to him with only one opening to advance.

ZERO: Shit! Are you sure you can’t see this??

He jumps out of the way as the line solidifies into a layer of ice.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) No, what’s happening.

ZERO: More Ice Traps!!

Another line falls down towards Zero’s position with the opening at the other end of the narrow tunnel.

The lines keep on coming at faster frequencies, only for Zero to see some helpless Wolfoids, stuck within the dugouts of the walls ahead.

ZERO: (wide-eyed) Oh my God!

He instinctively pulls out 4 teleporter rings and wraps them around his wrist. When one layer solidifies, he dashes into the dugout to his left.

ZERO: (shouting) EVERYONE, GRAB MY ARM!!!

Upon touch, the 1st Wolfoid is sent away as the ring passes from Zero’s wrist to the Reploid’s.

Zero dashes into a narrow opening and jumps just in time for the next line to solidify.

He double-jumps up to the next dugout on his right, saving a 2nd Wolfoid.

With a little time before the lines catch up to him, Zero looks up and plans his next move.

As the line solidifies at his level, he quickly dashes out, double jumps through the clearing, saves the 3rd on his left, dashes back out and rushes to save the 4th on his right.

Seeing the ice ahead of him, it solidifies just after he jumps out.

ZERO: PHOOOOOW! Damn that’s a Rush!!!

Having saved all of the Wolfoids, Zero has a pleased smile on his face, knowing he did the right thing.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) That was really brave and heroic, Zero…. Thank you.

The rest of the obstacle is a breeze to him as he freely double-jumps amongst the lines and they feel more spaced out once again.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) I’m beginning to see why X trusts you…

ZERO: Heh. Well, good. We’re on the same Team after all…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Don’t ruin it.

Zero just smirks at that one.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Narrow Alcove Gateway – DAY

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

Having made it to the other side, X and Frostbite jump to the rope and then dash-jump beyond another spike trap to the other side where they make it to a gate.

When they enter the first one, X spots Cody sitting patiently against the wall.

X: Cody! You’re alive!!

CODY:

Uh, yeah…. I’ve been stuck here for a while. Then this big guy said he’d let me out if I fought him, but I’m not stupid enough to engage in battle!!!

X tilts his head, relieved and awestruck.

X: Good! You and Frostbite stay here and let me handle this, okay?

CODY:

Yeah!

FROSTBITE: Sure thing…

The two watch X enter the 2nd gate and see it close behind him.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Gateway - DAY

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

Before long, Zero finally makes it to the top and enters the gateway. As the 1st shutter closes, Zero feels a dark weight in his chest.

ZERO: I feel it... This must be the investigator!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) The investigator in this area is Blizzard Wolfang. Set up your weapons in case you fight...

Zero nods, takes a breath and walks on.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) ......... Zero, actually I-

ZERO: (anticipating) Forget about the past.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, gasping) You know??

ZERO: I read the file...

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, nervous) Back when we worked together, Wolfang was-

ZERO: Now he is a Nightmare Investigator. We have to fight him.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Yeah, right... Good luck, Zero.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair - DAY

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

From the icy lair, X looks on at Dynamo and flinches, with a slight face-tick.

DYNAMO: Oh, Heeey. Long time no see! How are you doing?

X: You again! …Why’d you bring me here!?

DYNAMO: I'm sorry if I made you worry. But you know what they say, "Discretion is the better part of valor." I figured any time away from that big lug would benefit the both of us, so… you’re welcome!

X: Hmph… What do you want, Dynamo?

DYNAMO: Nightmare Souls. They do a body good... So, have you solved the mystery of the Nightmare?

X: That’s none of your business! Why don’t you hurry and get out of here? You are good at running away, aren't you?

DYNAMO: Awww, don’t be like that Maaan. Why don't we talk a little longer? Say... Let's see who has obtained more Nightmare Souls!

Dynamo powers up, emitting a new mysterious aura of purple around his body.

X: (sighing, muttering) Here we go again…

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

When the shutter closes behind Zero, he looks on at Blizzard Wolfang, who is looming in the darkness.

ZERO: Blizzard Wolfang, nice to see you...

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Zero! I heard that you returned.

ZERO: I won't die so easily.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Hmph… Neither will I…

The two of them stare each other down, unwavering.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Please don't think badly of me, Zero. I just won't disobey Gate. That’s all.

ZERO: Oh don’t worry… None of this is personal

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: I know I must pay for my past sins. Besides I have a new mission, now.

ZERO: Oh yeah? And what would that be? Preserving the Nightmare at all costs!!?

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: More like Protecting the North Pole from Nightmares like you!

ZERO: I’m NOT THE NIGHTMARE!!

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Same Difference! You know what I mean. Let's fight!

ZERO: Then, I have no choice… You will lose!

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair – DAY

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

Dynamo grins as he throws five swift double-sided blades at X.

X’s eyes bulge as he quickly gets hit by two, dashes to the side, but then gets struck by the 4th and 5th blades.

X: Agh! Hey!!

X points his buster and charges up, but suddenly all 5 spinning blades retract and strike X in the back, like a boomerang.

X: Kk-aaauuuugghhhH!!!!!

DYNAMO: Heheh.. Don’t give me that. I know you’ve fully recharged, bro.

From a crouched position, X looks up at him and grits his teeth. Shifting into shades of purple, X points his buster and shoots a powerful Ray Arrow at Dynamo.

DYNAMO: Agh..

The attack surprises him and knocks him back a step. Then he holds a glowing black fist.

DYNAMO: Two can play at that game…

He smashes a fist down and smothers X with his Dark Giga Attack.

X: GHAAAA……

Forced to the ground, he takes the blast while charging up.

DYNAMO: Gotcha!!!

He jumps after X, who gets up and puts his hands out to his sides.

X: Not yet!

He unleashes the Charged Ray Arrow, which creates an upward stream of light similar to Zero and Dynamo’s Giga Attack. It /strikes him directly from below with a hard blow.

DYNAMO: /Whaaaaa!!!????

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair - DAY

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

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: (howling) AHOOOOOO!!!!!!

The room lights up as Blizzard Wolfang runs after Zero.

ZERO: Whoa..

He tries to dash-jump out of the way, but Blizzard Wolfang smacks him to the floor with sharp claws.

ZERO: Agh..

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Take this, Maverick!!

He claws at Zero’s chest with both hands four times, before Zero shoves a Z-Buster under his chin and blasts him off to the side.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: (yelping) Hrr..!

ZERO: You’ve got it wrong. You all do. Just because I’m Awake doesn’t mean I’m Evil!!

The Investigator sits upright and charges up.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Not from where I’m sitting…

His mouth forms a burst of ice and shoots it at Zero, who gets knocked down from the attack.

ZERO: Koough…

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair - DAY

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

Dynamo gets up from the recent attack and shakes it off, cricking his neck with a smile.

DYNAMO: Very clever attack, but I’m not here to play games… I am here for the Nightmares. So, why don’t you do me a favor and hand those over, already?

X: Absolutely not.

X jumps and freezes in mid-air, then kicks Dynamo in the head. Dynamo blocks it, but before he can strike back, X mach-dashes away.

DYNAMO: Hmph…. You’ve gotten better, I see. I've been gathering these Nightmare Souls, thinking that I might be able to enhance my powers, but so have you... I guess that puts us on an even keel after all…

X: Maybe…

He fires his enhanced level 1 shots at Dynamo, who easily spins his sabers to knock all of them back. Then, he chucks 5 more blades at him.

More aware this time, X jumps and mach-dashes past the first two. The next two get near him, but he drops down in the opening. A fifth one gets close, but X ducks at the last moment.

DYNAMO: Haaah!!!!

He rushes with a quick dash into X, knees him in the stomach, then flips him onto his back with two hands pressed against the back of his neck.

X: Khauh!

Dynamo points a buster at X’s head.

DYNAMO: I’m not kidding. Give me all the DNA Souls you have gathered!

He shifts into red and orange.

X: NO!

X waves his Magma Blade at Dynamo from the ground. The fiery blade and fireballs which emit from the swipe, affect Dynamo greatly.

DYNAMO: Auuughh!!!!

He puts his arms up as his chest gets scorched. He quickly pats himself off as X charges up to unleash a Flaming Godbird Rush.

Suddenly a wave of phoenixes fly into Dynamo and thrash against his burning body.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

Blizzard Wolfang ramps up his momentum as he runs from wall to wall at a swift pace, with the icy ground aiding his every move. He long-jumps across the walls and continuously shoots his Ice Bursts at Zero, who gets pummeled left and right.

ZERO: That’s it!

He takes out his Z-Saber and creates a Shoenzan firewall to crush the next ice attack. Then, he dashes into Blizzard Wolfang and cuts him with a fiery blade.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: (writhing) AHHHH!!!

He tries to run after Zero, but he just does it again, burning him at the side.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: OHHHH!!!!

He tries one more time and once again, Zero strikes him right in the chest with the Shoenzan.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: EEGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The Wolf Investigator cowers to the corner and grits his teeth.

ZERO: I didn’t wanna do that so soon, but you leave me no choice…

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: …grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair – DAY

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

Burnt and bleeding, Dynamo loses his smile and makes a scowl.

DYNAMO: Damn it, X. I will get the Souls that you collected!

He rushes after X with a long-jump. X swipes a burning blade, but Dynamo parries with two of his own blades and spin kicks X in the head. The attack spins X around. Dynamo capitalizes and plants a big boot against his back.

X falls down to the slippery ice, where Dynamo doubles down with another Dark Giga Attack straight against his back.

X: AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

DYNAMO: Give it up, Mega Man... All of this ends when you just give me those souls.

X: (grunting, charging up) Rrgghh… aaaghhhh…..

Dynamo presses X’s head against the ice while he notices a shift in color from red to pink.

DYNAMO: (v.o, thinking) What’s he up to?

Suddenly 4 clam shells appear from all 4 corners of the room.

DYNAMO: Huh???

Completely locked in their sights, the clam shells fire cross-X shots striking at his front and back equally and following him as he wavers around the room.

DYNAMO: Agh! Ogh! Ohh.. DAMN IT!!!!

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE CAVE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: (aggravated) Don’t think you’ve won, Maverick… I’m not done yet!

He high-jumps to the ceiling and latches on to the ice like a ninja. Without warning, he blasts Zero with 4 rapid Ice Bursts, which surprise him and knock him back down.

ZERO: Aaaagh… /Huh?

Suddenly the whole room /flashes white, blinding Zero for a second.

Blizzard Wolfang dashes from the ceiling and a whole set of spiked icicles crash down on and around him, cutting him at the shoulders, back, legs and feet.

ZERO: Guaaaaahhhh… What the Hell??

Blizzard Wolfang grins and allows himself a light chuckle.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair – DAY

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

He pounds another fist of dark light against the ground, but it completely misses X.

A charge shot strikes Dynamo in the back from a different corner in the room.

DYNAMO: Hooh…

Although affected, he’s relieved to see X panting in his blue and white look again.

DYNAMO: Hmph… You just keep pulling them out of the woodwork, don’t you?

X: Enough Dynamo…. Let’s just end this.

DYNAMO: Awww, what’s wrong. You had enough already, sweety?

X narrows his eyes.

X: We’re wasting time. If you’re not gonna help me, then just get out of the way.

DYNAMO: Oh, but don’t you see? I already did help you. I saved you from getting pummeled by that sorry sack, High Max. So now you owe me. I’ll take my payment in Nightmare Souls please.

X shakes his head.

X: What was all that about, anyway…? You didn’t have to do that. He caught me off guard. You could’ve had what you wanted.

DYNAMO: Oh please… and spoil all the fun in catching you, myself? Hardly!

Raising his eyebrows, X doesn’t know what to think.

X: …Did you bring me here just to tease me? Just leave, NOW!

X shifts into brown and juts out a large boulder from his buster, which breaks into Dynamo’s side.

DYNAMO: Agh! HAHA. All hard work and no play makes X go crazy! Hee hee hee!

X: Don’t make me do it, Dynamo!

X dashes after Dynamo and punches him, but Dynamo catches it and slides a blade across his stomach with his other arm.

DYNAMO: (grinning) Do what, exactly?

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

From the ceiling, Blizzard Wolfang throws continuous shards of ice fangs at Zero, which carve away at his back, head and shoulders.

Enraged, Zero uses his Rekkoha Giga Attack as Blizzard Wolfang dashes towards him from the ceiling unaffected.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: That won’t work on me!

ZERO: Huh??? /igghhh… /GAH!

He /claws him hard in the chest with two paws, flips on his back and /dropkicks Zero against the wall.

Zero attempts to retreat to a more open space to regain his footing, but Blizzard Wolfang uses the Nightmare to enhance his own speed.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Don’t run. We’re not done!

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair - DAY

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

Bleeding again, X holds his stomach and puts a desperate hand inside his chest cavity.

DYNAMO: Looking for another Sub-tank? I don’t think so, Amigo. I already checked. You’re fresh out… so now you’re gonna listen to me.

X looks up at Dynamo, hurt and afraid.

DYNAMO: It took hours for me to get here. I won't go back empty-handed. I've been gathering Nightmare Souls at the risk of my life. I've been dying to become stronger... All for this moment. So now it’s time for You to help Me end this Nightmare I created.

X: …what was that…?

DYNAMO: Hm?

X: (enraged) Dynamo! You did it, again!!

DYNAMO: What??

X: You’ve Underestimated me for THE LAST TIME!!!

From out of nowhere, X’s armor shifts into black and red as he unleashes a damaging rain glob underneath his belly.

DYNAMO: Ghaaaaah. How!?? You were out!!

He cowers and jumps far away.

X: You checked all my weapon and energy levels like a creep, but you never checked to see that I had a Weapon Tank!

X chases after him and shoots another acid glob at his back.

DYNAMO: Ghooaaawwww!!!!!

X: And now you’re gonna tell me EVERYTHING!!

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

Blizzard Wolfang Nightmare dashes to Zero’s postion with a claw out and a charged mouth, ready.

Zero narrows his eyes and creates a Guard Shell with his Saber out. With them, he is able to effectively block his claw and ice attacks and give him a warning slash.

ZERO: Cut it out!

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Oh no. I don’t think so…. Now that I’m winning, suddenly it’s a problem?

He rushes Zero into the corner, who retaliates by crouching and spinning into a set of Ensuizan slashes. His saber cuts at Blizzard Wolfang’s chest, stomach, arms and legs, before Wolfang finally backs off.

ZERO: I mean it. You were a good person, once. Let’s consider a truce!

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: I still am… but I would never align myself with the likes of you. Even if you are not the Nightmare, you certainly created it. And for Gate’s sake, that means that I must end you!!

ZERO: (guilty, frustrated) Aaarrgh, damn it Fang. You don’t have to die today!

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: Oh please…. We both know you want to kill me. Deep down we all want the same thing…. Power!

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair – DAY

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

X crushes Dynamo with another devastating blow to the stomach with a heavy glob of Meteor Rain.

X: (infuriated) You mean to tell me that YOU did this!!??

Dynamo looks at X, on his knees with regret.

DYNAMO: I caused the Colony to fall last month…. It was my fault. I got us all in this mess…

X: YOU FOOL! WHY??

With another hard glob of rain, Dynamo gets shaken so bad that a Nightmare Soul falls out of his body and absorbs itself into X.

DYNAMO: Oh COME ONNN!!!!!

He retreats to the other side of the room.

X: DID YOU THINK IT WOULD BE FUN!!? WHAT PART OF ANY OF THIS HAS BEEN FUN!!!!??

He Mach-dashes over and gets him again, effectively making him lose another powerful Nightmare Soul.

DYNAMO: Oh, give me a break...

X: GIVE YOU A BREAK!? OH, I’LL BREAK SOMETHING ALRIGHT…

X charges up and unleashes a shower of Meteor Rain to fall on top of Dynamo. Immediately a series of Nightmare Souls leave his body and hover into X.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Blizzard Wolfang’s Lair – DAY

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

Blizzard Wolfang high-jumps to the ceiling and dashes towards the middle of the room, so he can shoot rapid-icebursts at him from a 45 degree angle again.

Zero shakes his head and grits his teeth.

ZERO: You’re wrong, Wolfang!! This is what too much Power gets you!

Suddenly Zero enflames his Saber and uppercuts him with a powerful Ryuenjin.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: WHAAAOOOO!!!!!!

The burning wolfoid falls to the ground while Zero capitalizes with a downward, burning Quake Blazer. He stakes the blade right through his heart, which paralyzes him.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: NNUUUUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

ZERO: No more…

He points his Z-Buster at Blizzard Wolfang and eliminates him with a dark spiral shot.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG: WAIT-

He explodes, before he can reconsider his life choices.

ZERO: TOO LATE! God.. Damn it…

He turns his head and closes his eyes with regret as a green nightmare soul lurks out of Blizzard Wolfang’s carcass and enters Zero’s chest cavity. He feels a dark wave of energy re-enter his veins and washes over with a wave of anguish. With a clenched fist, he keeps it all down.

-cut to-

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

INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair – DAY

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

DYNAMO: (scared) GGGAAAAAAAAIIIIGGGHH, I-…still can't win!!!!!!!!!!!

The Nightmare Souls insert themselves into X’s body.

X: Even now, you’re not capable of remorse…. All you can think about is your next escape. It’s sad, really…

DYNAMO: (scared, posturing)

I’m… not up to defeating you... You are way too strong right now...

X: I Don’t care if this KILLS YOU!! YOU DESERVE IT!!!

X uses another Charged Meteor Rain. He watches as Dynamo gets beaten and battered to a bloody pulp. His circuits sizzle and his armor slowly chips away.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Fallen Fang’s Lair – DAY

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

In the silent, cold, calm of the base, suddenly Zero receives a com-link from Alia.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Blizzard Wolfang... An ex-investigator of the North Pole area. One night, during the Great Repliforce War, his team members investigated Frost Walrus’ base of operations where they were attacked by Mavericks!

ZERO:

(interested) Huh???

-FLASH-

————————————————————————– EXT. NORTH POLE – White Forest – NIGHT ————————————————————————–

Three Knot Berets shoot at 2 Researchers, while an E-AT Yeti runs after Blizzard

-flash-

In a fit of anger, he forms a blade of ice around his hands. Then, he wildly attacks the E-AT. As shards of ice break everywhere, he tears open the yeti’s torso. Then, he ravages the three Knot Berets who stand frozen with fear.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating)

Although Wolfang was able to defeat them, his team was annihilated... My former colleagues at the Research Lab resented this.

-FLASH-

————————————————————————– INT. LAYE LABS – Back Room – DAY ————————————————————————–

ALIA: (v.o, narrating)

At this point a little coup of Researchers who opposed Gate had developed.

In a back room Dr. Laye is meeting with Malek and Zach. Alia enters the room with an exhausted look on her face as she closes the door behind her.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) They schemed to dispose of Wolfang and take advantage of the incident, making it look like an accident… Wolfang was thrown into the cold sea... ... I did it! But I was coerced into doing it...

ZERO: (v.o, shocked) Alia…

ZACH: He’s a Wolf, Alia… And wolves can’t be trusted! …AND he was built by the same guy who created Bit and Byte.. That was a Nightmare!

DR. LAYE: Hmph. Agreed. We’re going to have to do something about him. …I’ve had it with Gate and his creations. He’s out of chances. We will have to eliminate the Wolf and you’re going to be the one to do it.

ALIA: (horrified, scared) What!? M-me!? Why??

DR. LAYE: Because Gate won’t do it and Wolfang trusts you the most. He would suspect something from us.

ALIA: I can’t. I could never… He didn’t do anything wrong.

DR. LAYE: Now Alia. We brought you into the inner circle. This is your career.. You wouldn’t want to disappoint me now, would you…?

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) Oh God, it was horrible!!

-a grainy image of an unsuspecting Wolfang getting ejected from an aircraft into the arctic sea appears-

-grainy images of Alia tumbling crashing, ejecting and tumbling down a mountain appear-

-a grainy image of her in the hospital being visited by Gate appears-

ALIA: This was the last straw for Gate…. He suspected something was off and figured out it was me. I think this was his turning point…. I really do!!

ZERO: (o.s, reacting) Oh man..!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) I’ll never forget that conversation…

-FLASH-

——————————————————————————– INT. ABEL CITY GENERAL HOSPITAL – Alia’s Room – NIGHT ——————————————————————————–

Gate looks at the bed-ridden Alia, disappointed. GATE: …Ya know.. Yammark was always worried that our co-workers couldn’t be trusted. I just never would’ve believed that that would include you. After all we’ve been through.

ALIA: I didn’t- ..You don’t get it…

GATE: Oh, I get it completely. Lana never liked me, but she saw something in you and Victor. She made you a part of her inner circle. And you, my little overachiever, just wanted to get ahead. So of course, you conformed to her wishes.

ALIA: (appalled) Gate!

GATE: (upset, hurt) NO!!! One of them sabotaged Yammark’s jets. Then, they made Mijinion’s Mech-Test look like an accident. I don’t know WHO killed Blaze in his cell… But then YOU killed Blizzard Wolfang!!? God damn it. You, Alia? YOU!???

ALIA: I Know, I Failed you.. but I’m Telling you now!!! I know it was wrong… Pleeeease. Let’s make this right again. Together… We can rebuild them!!

GATE: (appalled) No… Nothing you say or do can ever make this right! You can rot in this Hospital for all I care…

ALIA: (hurt) Gate..!

GATE: Enjoy your Inner Circle, sellout. You all deserve each other!

He starts to walk out of the room.

ALIA: Waait!!

GATE: (ignoring) I won’t be in the office by the time you get back.

ALIA: /PLEEASE, don’t do this!!!

He stops at the door at the /sound of her voice, closing his eyes hard as he leans against the doorframe. He clenches his fists and remains strong.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) Then, he said…

ALIA/GATE: You should have thought about that… Before you killed my best friend. …I’ll get revenge on all you low reploids who couldn’t appreciate my ability!

He walks out of the room, leaving her to sit alone with her thoughts.

-FLASH-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Fallen Fang’s Lair – DAY

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

Zero is awestruck by her story as he listens to his com-link intently.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Please don’t tell X…. If he found out, I don’t think he’d ever be able to forgive me…

ZERO: (nodding) It’s alright… Your secret is safe with me.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, whispering) Oh thank you, Zero… Thank you…

-cut to-

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INT. NIGHTMARE PORTAL – Dynamo’s Lair - DAY

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

After all the damage is done, Dynamo lies there, helpless on the ground – bleeding, burnt and corroded down to the circuits. The near-dead Dynamo looks at X and forces a broken smile.

DYNAMO: (coughing) …C-Consider yourself… lucky… that I’ve changed my mind.

He toils to pull out a device and unlock the gate behind him. Immediately, Cody and Frostbite run in to see X standing over the defeated Dynamo.

DYNAMO: Just do me a favor…. Once this is all over and you get rid of the Nightmare completely, give me a fair fight, okay…?

X gives Dynamo a firm and narrow stare.

X: Get us out of here, before I kill you. The end result will be just the same…

X pulls out his buster and charges up.

DYNAMO: (wide-eyed, panicked) Challenge accepted! Bye, X!!

With the press of a button, the entire Dimension shatters around them and everyone is force-teleported to the proper Dimension.

-cut to-

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

INT. ICE BASE – Fallen Fang’s Lair - DAY

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

From the coms, Alia tries to lighten up the mood.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) …but Hey! You got the Ice Burst and can learn Hydroga, now!

ZERO: Hm..? What’s that?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) You can High-Jump like never-before and create his ice-fangs with your Saber!

ZERO: Oh…

Just then, X, Frostbite, Cody and an almost dead Dynamo fall into the room from a destroyed portal.

ZERO: Huuuh?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) X! Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re okay!! You rescued Cody and is that.. Frostbite!!?

X: (smiling) Yep! Mission Accomplished. Let’s go home!!

ZERO: What about Dynamo? Should we bring him in?

X: No…. Leave him here with his demons. He’s got a lot to think about.

With narrow eyes and a firm grimace, X teleports away. Frostbite and Cody follow suit.

Zero takes a deep breath and sighs. Then, he teleports away too.

-Freezeframe. Grainy Effect-

SIGNAS: (v.o, narrating) X has gone through another ordeal, while Zero has successfully contained the Nightmare in the North Pole. Peace is gradually being restored to the World. But at what cost to our Heroes…?

-Fade to Black-

#MMX Fanfics #Season VI #Episode 14 #Old Haunts #North Pole Area #Nightmare Portals #Zero #X #X vs. Nightmare Double #Zero vs. Blizzard Wolfang #Dynamo #High Max

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psychosistr · 4 years ago

Text

Prince Nori- Chapter 2

Summary: Kakyoin gets used to having Jojo around and finds himself growing more attached to the runaway boy day by day. However, all good things must come to an end at some point..

Notes: *rises from the ground* I LIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! Thanks to everyone who posted such nice comments about the first chapter ^/////^ This is being posted as part of my "Halloween trick or treat" special where I'm posting many of my WIP's, so I thought I'd update this. Thank you all for your patience!

-First Chapter-

Jojo stays longer than what should probably be considered “a bit”. He ends up crashing at Kakyoin’s place for close to three weeks. It’s different for Kakyoin, living with another person again rather than just Iggy, but…he likes it.

Jojo is actually a lot of fun to hang out with. He talks when he feels like it, but he never feels the need to push conversation just to break long silences- a trait that Kakyoin is grateful for. He’s even more grateful for the fact that they seem to understand each other on a level beyond words, often predicting each other’s thoughts and actions with almost perfect accuracy.

He seems grumpy and stern at first glance, but Kakyoin quickly finds out that that’s just his default demeanor. Jojo actually also has a pretty good sense of humor, often giving that small smirk-smile and a quiet huff whenever Kakyoin tells him a joke; he even tells a few of his own, mostly with a sense of dead-pan humor that makes Kakyoin chuckle every time.

He goes outside with Kakyoin whenever possible, keeping his hooded cloak handy to cover himself so the people searching for him don’t recognize him. He can’t go with Kakyoin to school, but they do nearly everything else together- including stealing food. Kakyoin teaches Jojo all of his tricks from shoplifting to running from angry store clerks and police officers. By the end of the second week, Jojo’s gotten pretty good at it and is even learning his way around the alleyways and back streets so he can escape to the rooftops without needing much of Kakyoin’s help.

Even the mundane things, such as doing homework or finding change to visit the laundromat are much more entertaining with Jojo around. He’s pretty smart and offers Kakyoin help when he gets stuck on the rare problem with his homework, and thinks of creative ways to find loose change like using Star Platinum to lift up vending machines or tying a small magnet they found to a string and sliding it into crevices. Also, he always lends an ear to whatever Kakyoin feels like talking about, offering his input when appropriate but always listening even when he doesn’t say much in return.

Kakyoin finds himself enjoying Jojo’s company more and more with each passing day and thinks that maybe, just maybe, he might be starting to develop a deeper connection with him…

Unfortunately, everything comes to a sudden and abrupt halt one day while they are hanging out in a local park.

It’s sunset and they are enjoying the peace and quiet- it’s around dinner time, so most people have gone home for the moment and won’t be back until much later. They are seated under a large tree, just enjoying one another’s company as they watch the sun go down. They’ve grown comfortable enough around each other now that they sit with their shoulders touching, Jojo currently sitting to Kakyoin’s right with his hood down for a change and, by some miracle, they actually convinced Iggy to come with them, so he’s curled up napping in Kakyoin’s lap.

Everything was peaceful and relaxing- a perfect end to the day.

Kakyoin smiles softly while looking at the slowly changing colors of the sky. “I think this is probably my favorite time of day..” He comments quietly, not wanting to disturb the mood too much.

“Hm..because the sky is cherry red?” Jojo asks with that small smirking-smile of his while glancing at Kakyoin.

Kakyoin rolls his eyes with an exasperated but fond smile and elbows him lightly in the arm, careful not to move too much and risk disturbing Iggy. “Not everything I like has to do with cherries, you know.”

“Really?” Jojo questions while raising one eyebrow slightly. “Name one thing that doesn’t.”

Kakyoin is about to comment on the fact that he likes melon bread just fine…but..his mind comes up with something far better to say in that moment and forces him to say it before he even has time to register the words coming out of his mouth:

“Well, I like you.” His eyes widen instantly after he says it and his left hand quickly moves up to cover his mouth and his burning red cheeks. “!!”

Crap! Why did he say that?! Maybe he still had time to take it back! Yeah, he could back-pedal and say that he meant he likes having Jojo as a friend and-

“Hey, Kakyoin.” Jojo’s voice interrupts his train of thought and he looks up to see Jojo giving him that serious look that means he’s being sincere and honest with his words. Jojo then surprises him by taking Kakyoin’s right hand into his own and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I like you, too.”

Kakyoin feels his heart skip a beat and his face grow redder from both the contact and the look in Jojo’s eyes. “Jo..Jojo..I-”

Their attention is diverted from each other when Iggy’s ears suddenly perk up and his eyes snap open. “!!” He stands up in Kakyoin’s lap and looks at the sky, barking urgently in a way that clearly says “Crap! Get up!! Look out!!”

Kakyoin follows Iggy’s line of sight and sees what looks to be a falcon flying in a circle above their location. “Is that..a bird?”

Jojo looks up too and his eyes widen with the closest thing that Kakyoin’s ever seen to panic on his face. “Shit..they found me.”

He summons Star Platinum and Iggy calls out The Fool (Jojo told him the name of Iggy’s stand a while ago) as they all hurry to their feet. Kakyoin still isn’t sure what’s about to happen, but he calls out Hierophant Green as well, just to be safe.

As they prepare to run, though, a blonde man in what could only be described as “cowboy-style” clothes walks towards them with a slow, impressed whistle. “Gotta say, kid, didn’t think you’d give us THIS much trouble. A whole month- that’s gotta be a new record for ya!” He claps his hands in a slow, mocking way as he approaches. “Hate to say it, Jojo, but this is the end of the line- time to come on home.”

Jojo glares at the man, Star Platinum tensed and ready for an attack. “I’m not ready yet.”

“You talk as if you have a choice.” A female voice that is way too close behind them says.

Kakyoin turns his head to see who it is- a woman with tan skin and white hair leaning against the side of the tree that they were previously sitting under.

Damn it! Kakyoin had been too careless not to notices enemies getting so close!

He discretely begins having Hierophant Green unravel itself to form a perimeter of trip-wire like tendrils on the ground as both a means of detection and method of defense should anyone get closer.

“I don’t know who you are..” Kakyoin begins with a warning tone of voice and a glare that moves slowly from the woman behind them to the man in front of them. “But I’ll give you only one warning:” He raises his hand high over his head for dramatic effect and Hierophant Green finishes unraveling the rest of the way before its tendrils raise up off of the ground. The green strands snap taught, forming a perimeter net around the trio from all sides. “Take even one step closer to us and it will be your last.”

“Heh..pretty cocky for a kid.” The blonde man comments while holding his own hand out in front of himself. “Our orders were just to bring him back.” To Kakyoin’s surprise, a gun appears in his hand, aimed directly at Kakyoin’s head. “That means you’re fair game.”

He fires the gun and Kakyoin prepares to block the bullets with his stand, but Iggy beats him to it with a barked order to The Fool. “Arf! Arf!!” The Fool responds by turning into sand that follows the bullets’ swerving path to block them when they get too close. Iggy uses The Fool to continue blocking the shots that the blonde man fires while also shooting out small sand arrows to retaliate.

Kakyoin’s attention is soon drawn upwards towards the sky when he hears a loud screech from the bird above them. He looks up in time to see a strange skeletal stand appear by the falcon and several icicles forming before shooting down towards them.

“!!” He focuses part of Hierophant into a large enough form to attack properly. “Emerald Splash!!” A blast of emeralds shoot out from the Hierophant to intercept the icicle-missiles and try to take out the falcon above them. It succeeds in breaking them up, but more continue to fall- keeping Kakyoin on the defensive and preventing him from getting a clear shot at the bird. “Jojo!” He calls to the other boy for assistance.

“Got it.” Jojo responds, already aware of Kakyoin’s plan. He waits for Kakyoin’s next Emerald Splash attack and has Star Platinum grab a few of the emeralds.

The purple stand tracks the falcon’s movements with its keen eye sight, waits for the perfect opportunity, then spots it- a brief gap in the ice while it takes a moment to form new icicles. “ORA!!” The stand shouts while hurtling the emeralds with the pin-point accuracy and power of a military-grade sniper rifle.

The gems hit their mark- the falcon’s wing- dead-on and cause the bird to let out an indignant squawk as it is sent hurtling towards the ground. It manages to catch itself at the last possible moment and flutters down to land on its own stand, glaring hatefully at the green and purple spirits for forcing it down.

“We’ve grounded it for now!” Kakyoin calls out victoriously while prepping another attack. “Let’s take it out quickly then deal with the others!”

“I think you’re underestimating us far too much.” The woman’s voice says- once again far too close for comfort.

“Wha-?!” Kakyoin turns towards her voice and finds her standing behind him. “How did you get through my web?!” He looks at the perimeter he’d set up with Hierophant Green earlier and, to his horror, he notices a hole just big enough for her to slip through due to the amount he’d recalled to attack the bird earlier. “Damn it!” He turns the Hierophant’s focus on her and has his stand fire another round of emeralds. “Emerald Splash!!”

The woman seems pretty agile, able to duck out of the way and avoid most of the damage, only taking a few minor hits along her legs and back while retreating. She does, however, end up getting snagged on the green vine-like tendrils of Hierophant Green that Kakyoin pulls in closer and manipulates so that they wrap around her.

“Ngh!” She winces when she’s captured and the tendrils tighten around her. However, her expression quickly turns into a rather cruel smirk as she points down towards his feet. “Looks like you’ve already lost, brat.”

He looks down to where she’s pointing and sees what looks to be, oddly enough, an electrical outlet implanted in the grassy ground- his foot stepping on part of it. “An outlet?” He questions, knowing there shouldn’t be any out in this park at all.

Jojo sees it and scowls. “Shit, she already got you..” The chain from the jacket he wears under his cloak starts to rattle as it lifts slowly closer towards Kakyoin. “It’s starting already?” He looks at Kakyoin with a gravely serious expression. “Can you get us out of here?”

Kakyoin shakes his head, having already considered that course of action. “There aren’t enough surfaces for Hierophant Green to grab onto out here- we need to get back to the city.”

“Fine. For now-” He looks at the woman still being held captive by Hierophant Green. “Toss her- as far away and as hard as you can.”

Kakyoin looks at the woman with a smirk, clearly thrilled by the idea of putting the rude woman in her place. “With pleasure.”

The woman’s face begins to change from its earlier cockiness to an enraged glare. “Don’t you fucking dare, you pieces of-” The rest of her sentence turns into a scream as he reels back with Hierophant Green and hurtles her with all of the strength his stand possesses, her face turning into an almost comical depiction of anger. “SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!”

As she gets further and further away, the chain on Jojo’s jacket settles down once again. “We need to go- now.” He grabs Kakyoin by the hand and uses the other to pick up Iggy, the dog still engaged in its fight with the blonde man.

Iggy growls at first when he’s picked up, but settles down once he’s placed on Jojo’s shoulder to face behind the large boy. He’s still glaring at the blonde man and keeping his stand focused on blocking his shots as well as any ice that gets shot at them by the falcon’s stand. “Grrr..”

“I hate using the old man’s technique, but I guess we don’t have much of a choice.” Jojo keeps a firm hold on both of them. “This will feel weird, so close your eyes for a second.”

Kakyoin nods, unsure what Jojo is planning, but he trusts him and does as he’s told. “Got it.” He feels a strange sensation, like he’s being lifted, before he opens his eyes again and sees that they’re now outside of the park with Jojo still holding his hand and leading him down the street at a rapid pace. He stumbles for a moment before regaining his footing. “Huh?!” He blinks in surprise and looks around rapidly in confusion- he’d only had his eyes closed for a second! Did Jojo’s stand have the power to teleport?! “How did you do that?!” He asks while running with Jojo and keeping an eye out for their enemies following them.

“I can stop time.” Jojo replies while heading for a part of the city that was more dense with buildings.

“You can WHAT?!” Kakyoin asks, truly astonished. Jojo’s stand was seriously powerful!

“Stop time. It’s only for a few seconds, though, and the cool down period sucks..” He says right before he hears gunshots and a loud screech from the falcon. “Damn it..Iggy, cover us!”

Iggy barks in response, summoning The Fool again just in time to block more of those moving bullets and a few icicle missiles. “Arf!”

Kakyoin spots a building ahead and leads Jojo to it by their still held hands. “This way!” They round a corner near it and he calls out his stand. “Hierophant Green!” His stand reappears and wraps itself around Kakyoin, Jojo, and Iggy, quickly pulling them up onto the rooftop and out of sight.

______________________________________________________________

Down below, the blonde man is letting the falcon perch on his shoulders as he runs since its wings are still injured. He looks in every direction after going around the same corner their targets had and swears loudly. “God damn it! Where the hell’d they go?!” He tosses his hat on the ground in a fit of frustration. “Dio’s gonna have my head if we go back without that brat!”

The falcon shrieks something at him and looks upwards pointedly.

He looks up as well and whispers quietly. “Hm..ya don’t say..” A smirk appears on his face as he retrieves his hat from the ground and shakes off the dirt before placing it back on his head. “Come on, Pet Shop- they gotta be ‘round here somewhere!” He shouts loud enough to be heard from a distance before running off down the street.

The bird shrieks back in response, something like a smirk appearing on its beak as well.

________________________________________________________________

Kakyoin arrives back at the factory with Iggy and Jojo, using his Hierophant Green to get each of them inside. “That was a close call- are all of your family’s servants stand users?”

“Just the high-ranking ones.” Jojo replies as he lands on the other side of the window. “They all work for our advisor.”

“Guess that means they’re tired of waiting for you.” Kakyoin gives Jojo a thoughtful, concerned look once they’re all inside. “You have been gone a while..your family must be getting worried by now if they’re willing to send people like that after you.”

Jojo shoves his hands in his pockets and turns away, walking off towards Kakyoin’s bedroom. “Like I said, I’m not ready to go back. I’ll leave when I feel like it- they can send whoever the hell they want.”

“Still..” Kakyoin sighs and follows him towards his room- the small office having unofficially become THEIR room since Jojo started staying with him. “It must be nice having people who’d miss you..if I went missing, the only one who might look for me would be Iggy- and I honestly doubt even that much..” He says with a small smile while glancing back to watch Iggy climb up onto his favorite crate to sleep.

Jojo pauses at the door to the room, looking down quietly as Kakyoin unlocks it with Hierophant Green. “……”

Once the door is open, Kakyoin walks inside, moving his arms up to stretch them above his head before lacing his fingers behind himself casually. “I think I might heat up the instant noodles for dinner- sound good?” When he doesn’t receive an answer right away, he turns back to look at Jojo with a raised eyebrow. “Jojo?”

Jojo is standing in the doorway, eyes still on the floor and unmoving. “……”

“Jojo?” Kakyoin tries again. When he still doesn’t receive an answer, he walks up to the larger teen and leans down and to the side slightly so that he can slip into Jojo’s field of vision and allow the other boy to see his concerned expression. “What is it?” He doesn’t bother to ask if something is wrong, the answer to that is easy enough to read on the slightly irritated-looking frown on Jojo’s face.

“……” Jojo finally looks him in the eyes, but takes a minute to say anything. “…I’d look for you.” He finally speaks, the expression on his face having that same intensity and sincerity from earlier in the park when he told Kakyoin that he liked him.

He takes one hand out of his pocket and reaches for Kakyoin’s own. He pauses just before he reaches the redhead’s hand, his own fingers flinching back slightly before he pushes back whatever hesitation he’s feeling and grabs Kakyoin’s hand the same way he did back in the park- firm but gentle, and with a light squeeze that communicates a thousand thoughts and feelings that neither of them could likely ever put into words.

Kakyoin’s face heats up. His heart skips a beat in his chest. His palms feel sweaty, even the one that Jojo isn’t holding.

This feeling bubbling up within his chest…it’s new. He’s never felt it before, but he’s learned enough about it through stories and observations to know what it is:

Love.

It’s hard to say what level it is, whether it’s a mere crush or something much deeper, but the fact that he’s feeling it AT ALL is new and alarming and amazing all at once.

A thought occurs to Kakyoin that he should probably say something in return. “I..” He swallows, his throat suddenly far too dry. “I would too.” He looks down slightly, unable to meet Jojo’s stare with the heat singeing through his face. “I know you’ll have to leave eventually..but..I really do like you, Jojo..I value the time we spend together and, even though it would be difficult, I would still find a way to see you again. You..You mean too much to me not to..” He squeezes Jojo’s hand back, hoping that it will get across everything else he’s not able to put into words in that moment.

The very small smile Jojo gives him, nothing more than an upward quirk of the lips on one side, and the way he squeezes Kakyoin’s hand again tells him that yes, he understands. He looks back up at Jojo and returns the small smile with one of his own, glad to know they could still understand each other on such a level, even on something as complicated as this.

They spend the rest of the evening cooking dinner (meaning putting batteries in the small electrical hotplate and warming up some bottled water that was poured into a kettle so they could eat their instant noodles and other snacks), eating, and just lying comfortably next to each other on the bed. There is no need for conversation, no need to force physical intimacy that neither of them are ready for, no need to rush into anything just yet because what they have is already enough for the time being.

Kakyoin doesn’t complain when he falls asleep with Jojo spooning him from behind, one large, warm arm wrapped around his waist to hold him close to the other’s strong body.

He doesn’t complain one bit…

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: Thanks again for your patience, everyone. Hopefully this chapter will be a good appeasement for now ^///^"

#JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken #Jotaro Kujo #Noriaki Kakyoin #jotakak #jotokak #jotaro x kakyoin #iggy (jjba)#hol horse #mariah #iggy #pet shop #prince nori

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halloweennut · 5 years ago

Note

Never Mutated: Lou forced to engage in a cat and mouse hunt with Draxum over the roofs of New York to try and keep the baron"s attention away from the there and the armor piece

(I’ll assume you meant ‘the turtles’)

Lou felt lucky it was just Draxum, alone, without the rest of the Foot Clan, or at the very least, he had sent them all on the prowl . But he was still formidable enough even by himself, and all Lou cared about was keeping him from his sons and the armor piece they were getting close to. Quickly setting the boys into the right direction of the piece according to their research, Lou threw a can from the street directly at Draxum’s head. It smacked him perfectly from behind, forcing him to turn and face Lou.

“Hey! Goat-face!” Lou shouted, dramatically dropping the hood from around his face. “Looking for an armor piece? You’ll have to catch me first!”

Before Draxum could say anything in response, Lou bolted and hairpin turned into an alley. He could hear the sound of vine and telekinetically manipulated brick and asphalt behind him as he leapt over trashcans, cleverly ducking into the busy New York traffic. Not wanting to spare a glance behind him, Lou hopped onto the roof of a few cars, running from truck to sedan before vaulting on top of a delivery truck, stopping only then to mockingly blow a kiss to Draxum as the truck moved forward. This of course, only stoked the fire of Draxum’s anger, vines swatting cars and pedestrians from his path forward. Lou lunged onto an awning, using it to leap up onto a low roof-top of a building. From there, he went upward.

At the very least, he knew New York City rooftops better than Draxum ever could, from his own exploits and training with his sons. Maneuvering his way through smokestacks, laundry lines and pigeon coops, Lou managed to keep his distance for a while. Soon enough, he felt choking tendrils of vines snap at him and errant bricks flew at him like stone missiles, shattering at his feet. Coming to the edge of a building, he hopped onto the ledge and turned to face Draxum with a glare.

“Is that all you got? Or have you gone soft?” he replied with a smirk before stepping backwards off the edge and into the dark of an alley. Draxum stormed the edge, staring over the side for any sign of Lou.

And as stated, Lou knew the rooftops of the city well, including where the fire escapes and random construction scaffolding were. It came as a surprise when Lou lunged up fist first from the scaffolding, clocking him in the jaw. Draxum stumbled back slightly from the blow, allowing Lou to knock his legs from under him and run in the opposite direction, veering back uptown.

“Come back and finish this, Lou!” Draxum shouted, and once again gave chase. “I will NOT let you escape so easily again!”

“What is this now? Escape number three?” Lou yelled back with a hollow chuckle. “You are going soft.”

Up ahead of him was a construction site, one of God knows how many popping up in the city at any given time, and then only a block away was a back entrance to one of his apartments. It was a perfect place to lose Draxum and get home and get a location on his sons. Lou hoped that they were already either home, on their way, or left a message about their whereabouts and whether or not he needed to come in a get them. He vaulted down a few fire escapes, slid down an awning, jumped a few more cars, and then, finally, hopped the rickety wooden fence to the construction site. All he had to do was get to the other side, hop that fence, and he’d be home free.

Easier said than done. Being surrounded by loose gravel, brick and metal gave Draxum all the more ammunition to use against time - steel beams turned cages snapped at him, trying to ensnare him as gravel and concrete popped and snapped like gunpowder firework pellets around him. But a few smart moves, an activated crane to disrupt Draxum’s path and some stellar acrobatics if Lou did say so himself, Lou found himself safely slipping behind his apartment to the back kitchen entrance. He closed the door and quickly set the security system before allowing himself to breathe and check his phone. The boys were on their way home, with the added addition of the armor piece - goofy selfie of them with it attached.

Lou laughed, texting them a thumbs up and whatever other emojis to express his pride and relief at their safety, before shedding his overcoat and hood and collapsing into the living room, exhausted. At least two goods came from that night - he gave Draxum a literal run for his money and his boys finally got their hands on another armor piece. It was only a matter of time before they ran into each other again, but at least it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

That was, at least, what Lou hoped as he settled in to doze off before his sons came home.

#rottmnt #never mutated au #baron draxum #lou jitsu

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goodlucktai · 5 years ago

Text

without knowing how, or when, or from where

good omens pairing: aziraphale/crowley, crowley & warlock word count: 3517 part 4 of the is there a better bet than love? series read on ao3

Crowley is keeping a secret.

Come now, you old fusspot, Aziraphale scolds himself immediately after the initial thought. It’s not as though we live in each other’s pockets. A fellow is allowed to have his own life.

It’s just that— well, there’s no reason to live separately anymore, to be apart, not really. Weeks after the almost-end of the world, they’ve settled into the same side, their own side. There’s no need to be skulking about at odd hours so their superiors don’t get the wrong idea, no need to force distance and affect indifference.

And Crowley is such a darling now that he has room to be. Slinking in to share Aziraphale’s company every evening— and then, soon after that, to share his bed. He presses into Aziraphale’s hands at night, into the curve of his body, like a heat-seeking missile, like a creature left out in the cold. Not entirely sure of his welcome, not quite yet, but coming closer with every morning he wakes up in Aziraphale’s arms.

(They kiss, and they hold one another, and they go no farther than that. Crowley isn’t interested in carnal pleasures, and Aziraphale would only be if he was. It’s a blessing just to have him; to reach out and trace the curve of his cheek or the red of his hair and feel him lean into the touch; to finally love him as he deserves to be loved, utterly and with gleeful abandon.)

This intimacy they have found is something precious to the both of them. Aziraphale doesn’t want to begrudge his snake a single thing, but he doesn’t understand what place any secret might still have between them.

He brings it up to the Reading Circle one dreary Thursday morning, hoping for advice.

They’re a group of six or so seventy-something year old women who have taken to the shop twice a week ever since the church whose basement they used to meet in snubbed Greta’s gay granddaughter and henceforth incited the Circle’s collective, not-inconsiderable wrath.

The women refer to Crowley as Aziraphale’s “charming young man,” and keep Aziraphale up-to-date on all of the juicy Soho gossip, and have never attempted to make a single purchase. He quite adores them.

To his immediate consternation, the women exchange weighted, knowing glances.

“Well,” Laura says, “he’s a flash young thing. It could be that he’s not quite ready to settle down yet. Lord knows my Hector was flighty at that age.”

It takes Aziraphale longer than he’s proud of to realize what they’re implying, and then his first impulse is to laugh aloud despite all the feathers he ruffles in doing so.

“Forgive me,” he says, pressing a hand to his mouth. “Oh, dear. I’m afraid you’ve got quite the wrong idea about my Crowley.”

After six thousand years of not-very-subtle adoration and foolhardy devotion, the demon’s commitment can hardly be called into question; but Aziraphale can’t very well explain as much to the ladies in his shop. He pours out more tea and smiles to himself while they witter, deciding he might as well stop beating around the bush and just ask Crowley directly when he comes— here, a happy thrill at the concept— home.

And so that evening, after dinner together and a half a bottle of very fine red wine, he does. Crowley doesn’t look surprised to be caught out. He rubs a hand through his hair thoughtlessly, leaving it a charming mess, and can’t seem to meet Aziraphale’s eyes even from behind those silly glasses.

“I’d hoped to get away with it for just a bit longer, angel.”

Aziraphale is more relieved than anything that it wasn’t just the product of a restless imagination. He sets aside his crossword and beckons Crowley closer, having had quite enough of him existing outside of arm’s reach.

Crowley slinks across the room readily, climbing over the angel’s lap to get to the corner of the sofa he prefers. Tucked up against Aziraphale’s side, under his arm and against his chest, the tension ebbs out of his body like water down a drain.

“This is the part where you yell at me, I’d imagine,” he mumbles into Aziraphale’s shoulder.

“I should certainly think not,” Aziraphale says primly.

They bicker over just about everything— from any manner of theological issue to whose turn it is to pay the cheque at dinner to who cheated who in an Olympic game they both competed in nearly three thousand years ago— because it’s fun, even at its most annoying. Aziraphale’s fellow angels are humorless, and Crowley has implied that an argument in Hell is likely to spiral into a knife fight within the space of a few ill-chosen words, so they tend to pounce on any argument that lands between them with all the full-ahead eagerness of jousters in a tiltyard.

But they don’t raise their voices in true anger. It would hardly be worth the two steps back, when each step forward is a thrilling victory. It would be hard to summon the vitriol in the first place, really, when life is so pleasant anymore.

It’s still raining outside, and Beethoven is playing on the gramophone in the front room, and even Crowley’s plants are waving ever so slightly back and forth in perfect contentment.

Aziraphale says, “Tell me, love. I’m listening.”

Nanael has discovered poetry. They have spent countless hours curled up in an overstuffed armchair with a pile of books that refuses to shrink, doing nothing but drinking in the art of language that humans have dreamed up.

They are new to the concept of time, of seasons and changing things, but it has been about a year since they arrived in London. A year and four days, to be precise, marked by Crowley coming by with a clear pastry box containing a Battenberg cake that he plopped without ceremony on top of the jigsaw puzzle Nanael was picking their way through.

It looked very much like the same cake they’d eaten on their very first day here at the shop, right down to the expertly quilted pattern on the white marzipan.

“What’s this for?” Nanael asked, touching the green ribbon gingerly.

“Sort of your birthday, innit,” the demon had muttered before stalking off to the back room, leaving a fondly bemused Aziraphale to explain the concept of anniversaries and celebrations and birthday gifts.

Four days later, Nanael still smiles when they think of the cake. They have been on earth for a year, and they’re beginning to understand why Principality Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate, never came home. There are certainly no birthday gifts in Heaven.

The door above the bell rings, and Nanael looks up from their book in time to watch a man step inside. At the very least, they mentally amend a moment later, a man-shaped entity. He isn’t doing a very good job of suppressing his demonic energies, letting them flare and catch about Nanael’s periphery like fire.

Nanael tenses, but doesn’t leap from behind the counter or issue any Holy demands. They’re a little bit embarrassed about that sort of thing now, and waits instead for the demon to make his own introduction.

“To hear Hastur tell it, Crowley’s lost the plot,” he remarks snidely, by way of hello. “Far as I’m concerned, this sounds like the place to be. Where is he?”

His— her, Nanael can see now— voice is incongruent with her form, not entirely human, as though she hasn’t quite mastered this whole mortal flesh malarkey. It’s reminiscent of Poe, and makes Nanael think of talking ravens, and they’re rather charmed by the whole thing where they should probably rightly be horrified.

“Oh, you know Crowley,” Nanael says, relieved. “He and Aziraphale are out to lunch.”

Nanael was invited along, but one of the ladies in the Reading Circle gave them a Meaningful Look and said it was important for couples to have Alone Time every now and again. Nanael isn't sure what they meant by that, because there’s no stopping Aziraphale from looking at Crowley as though he hung the stars even when they’re surrounded by company— and that’s perfectly reasonable, Nanael thinks fairly, because Crowley did— but they went alone to lunch, anyway, and Nanael got to know Yeats instead.

And that is why, now, they are alone in the bookshop with an unfamiliar demon. They don’t regret it, though; Yeats has been worthwhile.

(There is a whole stack of nineteenth century poets, shelves and shelves of them, and Aziraphale says they’re dear to him; he says they kept him company when he was quite lonely, but he never says it when Crowley is around to overhear. For this reason, even though Nanael doesn’t fully understand it, those poets are dear to them, too.)

“Out to lunch?” the demon looks nonplussed. It’s a more pleasant look than the sneer had been. “Is that code for something?”

“What would it be code for? They went for Italian.” Nanael doesn't know if that meant an Italian restaurant nearby or the country of Italy, and they didn't think to ask.

“The Serpent doesn’t eat, ” the demon says. She sounds as petulant as a child Nanael overheard the other day, discussing the existence of Santa Claus with her mother. “It’s one of the oldest curses in the Book. ‘On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.’ The punishment for creating original sin would have to be steep, wouldn’t it?”

She says it with a strange, backwards sort of delight, almost awe. Nanael’s heart— fragile, unreliable human thing that it is— gives a painful lurch.

Surely not, they think, but it’s more out of reflexive horror than anything else, desperation to deny the very idea.

All of those pleasant afternoons at all of Aziraphale’s favorite restaurants swim to the front of their mind; trying dish after dish of unfamiliar cuisine with their fellow angel while Crowley only nursed a glass of wine.

They think of their birthday cake.

Hands curled into loose fists, Nanael’s eyes stray from the stranger before them and toward a certain selection of books at the back— books that they were told to steer clear of until they had a better grasp on things.

“Tricky business, occult science,” Aziraphale had said. “You’re just as likely to lay a curse as break one if you don’t get the inflection right. Best keep out of it for now, hm?”

Nanael, in what was becoming habit, had looked to Crowley for the final word on the matter. Crowley leaned back on his elbows and said, “No knowledge is off-limits, Feathers, but you wouldn’t give an eight-year-old a book on astrophysics and expect them to work it out for themselves, would you? If there’s something you want to know in particular, just ask.”

And that had been that. But now… well, things have changed, haven’t they? That’s what things do, here on earth, is change, almost constantly.

The demon leaves with an unsettling lack of farewell, but Nanael hardly notices her go. They’re venturing into the stacks they’ve never ventured into before, abandoning their poets to reach instead for a book in weathered blue binding. The title has mostly faded; all that’s left of it reads Tractatulus Hyprocratis, and Nanael isn’t sure what that translates to.

But there are dictionaries here. There are encyclopedias and thesauruses. One of the first things Nanael learned was how to learn, and they lock up the shop with a thought and circle back to the chair that has become theirs.

If Crowley is cursed, it hardly seems fair that Nanael should have to sit around all this knowledge that might be of help to him and not be allowed to pursue it.

“I heard your parents are sending you away,” Roman says in a rather nasty tone of voice.

Warlock sizes him up, and Roman sees him sizing him up and puts a healthy extra step of distance between them. It isn’t that Warlock is very big or very strong, it’s just that Warlock doesn’t think twice about starting fights, and he’ll go to twice as much length as anyone else will to finish them.

“Whoever told you that’s a liar,” Warlock bites out. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He’s thirteen now, with grades near the top of his class after that dismal year between ten and eleven. His teachers aren’t sure what to make of him, but he’d tell them if they just asked; that Nanny said Warlock could do much better than he’d been doing, that it’s one thing to punish the people who hurt you but a whole ‘nother when that punishment bends back around onto you.

It wasn’t hard to tidy his grades up after that. He’s not an idiot.

“That’s not what dad said,” Margo pipes up. “Dad told me your dad told him that you’re on the waiting list for a program for troubled youth. Very private. Almost like they want to keep you a secret.”

The rest of the group gets a big laugh out of that, and Warlock glares at the bunch of snow weighing down a low-hanging branch above the sidewalk, willing it to fall on their heads.

Whether by nature or influence, it does. They shriek in surprise, and it’s Warlock’s turn to laugh.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says again, just so they don’t get any more stupid ideas. “I’ve got plans, you see.”

And then he rushes the rest of the way home, careful not to slip on the icy pavement, because it’s Friday, and Friday means Nanny will be there to pick him up after school.

“Oh, I forgot,” Nanael says. They’re hiding whatever book they’re reading in an open magazine, and Aziraphale hasn’t come around to asking why yet. Some things are better left untroubled. “Crowley, someone came looking for you. A demon. I didn’t get her name.”

Aziraphale sharpens, pen going still above his ledger. Crowley doesn’t look half as worried. He hardly looks up from his phone.

“As long as it’s me they’re looking for,” he says. “I’ll tighten up the wards tonight.”

“As long as— “ Aziraphale frowns mightily. “Danger to you is still danger, Crowley. We’ll tighten up the wards right now.”

“It's not as though they'll be back before dinner,” Crowley grumbles, but he picks his feet up off the ottoman and pushes himself upright nonetheless. He makes a show of it, making sure to look impossibly put-upon, and Aziraphale feels himself bristling.

“After what happened the last time we had unwanted guests,” he says tightly, unhappy, “I hope you’ll forgive my taking extra precautions.”

Crowley winces. Nanael looks stricken, and then miserable. “I’ve told Daniel not to come here again,” they say, picking guiltily at the edge of their strange amalgamation of reading material. “She promised she wouldn’t.”

“Well, that’s one angel we can cross off the list, then. We only have the rest of the combined forces of Heaven and Hell left to worry about.”

Aziraphale bustles into the front room, feeling prickly and restless. The idea of danger looms in all the dark corners of the dimly lit shop. Crowley follows, as silent as a winged creature, or in this case, one with scales.

He steps into Aziraphale's space, looping those long arms around his middle, and Aziraphale is distracted by him, the warmth of him. His hands come up almost on their own to hold Crowley where he is.

“You’re working yourself up, angel. There’s no need. We’re safe as houses, here in your little shop. I’d like to see old Michael take a swing at one of us behind these walls.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” Aziraphale murmurs. “The last thing we need now is to invoke one of them.”

“We’ll tighten the wards,” Crowley says, giving, as always, where Aziraphale is stubbornly set in his ways. He's rubbing small circles against Aziraphale's back, the original tempter, convincing him to let go of all this reasonable worry despite himself. “Not even a mouse will get in without our knowing about it."

"I'm hardly worried about mice, my dear," Aziraphale says sternly, but it's a losing battle. "If anything were to happen to you— "

"I know, Aziraphale." Truly, he must. He watched the shop burn down and for a few bleak hours believed half of his soul was lost for good. Aziraphale can barely stomach the idea of such grief, and holds him tighter, as if to make up for not holding him then. "Nothing will. As long as we're together, we can weather anything they throw at us. It's worked out this far, hasn't it?"

"For better or worse."

Crowley leans back, eyes fully yellow, pupils round in the low light.

"They won't take me," he vows, vehement, full of a caring that crouches in his chest like a creature with teeth. "And they won't touch you. I swear it."

And what could he say? Aziraphale leans in to kiss him when the words all fail, on the corner of the mouth, the cheek, the stark lines of his tattoo, the lid of his eye, that stubborn brow. Faith and love and trust coalescing inside him into something fearsome, something next to divine.

He's afraid he's gotten used to being afraid, but for Crowley, Aziraphale would brave anything.

“Oh, darling, there was no need for secrecy and subterfuge. You need only tell me these things.”

Crowley squirms. Aziraphale lifts his sunglasses away with a proprietary air, then lifts his chin and holds him there. He strokes Crowley’s bottom lip with the pad of his thumb, one of those throwaway moments of intimacy that still blow Crowley’s mind. He hasn’t reconciled himself to this new normal as easily as Aziraphale has. He has to fight not to shiver when all of the angel’s attention or affection bends his way.

“After six thousand years of doing whatever I’d like to do,” Aziraphale says fondly, “it’s rather past time I indulge whatever whims of yours that I can, hm?”

“This is more than a whim, ” Crowley hedges. He was expecting more of an argument; he doesn’t know what to do with such an easy victory. “It’s a— it’s a whole kid.”

“He's important to you,” Aziraphale says, as if it’s that simple.

And so Warlock Dowling comes to the bookshop in Soho for a visit, wide-eyed and clutching to the hem of Crowley’s jacket, incredibly small, infinitely human.

But there is nothing fragile in the way he lifts his chin and seems to dare Aziraphale or Nanael to tell him he isn’t welcome. As though a child should expect to be told he isn’t welcome.

“Hello, dearest,” Aziraphale says. Crowley can see him remembering the boy when he was very young, when he still toddled around the gardens asking about all the flowers and bugs. “I’m not sure if you remember me.”

Something like fondness springs into Warlock’s eyes, as if it was just waiting for the invitation.

“Brother Francis,” he says promptly, a smile lurking in the corners of his mouth. “Nanny said you fixed your teeth and left the church.”

Nanael makes a noise like a cat whose tail has just been stepped on, and turns bodily away to look with such pointed indifference at a shelf of self-help books that it’s obvious they’re suppressing laughter.

Aziraphale says “oh, really” and Crowley favors him with his most devil-may-care grin.

“Nanny said I could call him Crowley now, but it’s okay if I don’t,” Warlock goes on. “Is there something different you want to be called, too?”

A polite little Hellspawn when it suits him, Crowley thinks with displaced pride. He can see Aziraphale melting like butter, opening his mouth presumably to tell Warlock he can call him by whatever name he’s most comfortable with, when someone knocks on the shop window.

She’s a harried looking middle-aged woman, tapping her knuckles right next to where the Closed sign is hanging and seeming adamant about coming in anyway.

Warlock glares, and the shade comes crashing down with enough force that it knocks the window display clean over. The tapping, at least, stops dead.

“Oops,” says Warlock, shamefaced. He scurries over to pick up the fallen books, though he doesn’t bother lifting the shade. “Sorry.”

Crowley glances back at Aziraphale to find him stunned, staring at the books on the floor in bewilderment. Crowley rubs the back of his head, and says, “Yeah, um— there’s that, too. I think we may have believed in him a bit too much, during his formative years. Put some thoughts in his head that, er, took root.”

“I see,” Aziraphale says faintly. He comes to stand at Crowley’s side, watching Nanael crouch next to Warlock and show him how much more fun it is to order reality about with a snap of one’s fingers rather than a glare.

“If you’re Crowley’s child, you’ll pick it up right away,” Nanael says with perfect confidence.

Warlock brightens, and Crowley pretends not to notice the way Aziraphale is smiling at him.

#good omens #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #warlock dowling #nanny crowley #my writing #gomens fic #nanael is here to stay everyone #and Dont Worry that demon is too #is there a better bet than love

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