#but due to the warning systems and scouting in place

[watchyourdigits]

I'm so sorry to anyone who follows me and was invested in Night Letter. I haven't updated it in over a month & I feel terrible about it!!! I wish there was a way to post updates like this on AO3, but whatever.

This temporary setback is partly because my life is in shambles, but it's mostly because I was struck by the hand of God with an alternative plot that I've been too busy MARINATING in to properly write the originally planned story.

Spoilers in tags~

[lucysarah-c]

Scratches down his back

Summary: Repeat after me, nothing good happens in the common showers unless it’s Levi sandwiching you with the wet wall. Sadly, this is not the case. So, nothing good will happen.  Author's Note: I'm revisiting this piece, my second-ever Levi fanfiction, after Tumblr inexplicably removed it. I've made a few alterations, so if you recall the original, you might notice some differences. I've attempted to recreate it to the best of my memory. Despite initially intending it to be full NSFW, I've reconsidered; it doesn't quite match the tone I'm aiming for. This leans more towards being a Crack fic than an NSFW one. Warning: This story contains suggestive themes but nothing explicit. Word Count: 2.8k

She lotioned up, fingers deftly twisting and knotting the towel around her body to keep it from slipping. Annoying groans echoed in the humid tiled space as she struggled to finish her routine while maintaining modesty and not taking up too much space. 

"Holy Sheena," a voice called from her right, making her turn around hastily. 

"What?" she responded. 

Hange walked closer, seeming less concerned about covering up after coming out of the shower. "Those bruises... tell Shorty he's supposed to fuck you, not try to kill you," they joked. 

She sighed intently and found the well-marked fingertips around her hips, washing away marks around her wrists and the obvious hickeys and bite marks on her inner thighs and lower collarbone to conceal them from daily life. Y/N couldn't help but chuckle. 

"Forgot I had those," she commented, momentarily happy before furrowing her brow again. "I can't find anything here!" 

The former HQ of the scouts lacked a pumping water system, everything (despite her boyfriend's attempts) smelled of mold and humidity. The place was freezing due to the tall ceilings and lack of proper insulation, especially in the middle of the forest where temperatures dropped the lowest. Having to shower there, under shaky candlelight, with buckets of water and a cup to pour it on her body was a nightmare. 

"How could you forget?" Hange seemed less stressed about the shower situation, either because they had fewer steps in their routine or because they were less ashamed. 

"I got used to it, and I usually don't share bathrooms, so no one can see me naked," she explained, searching among her personal hygiene items for the next step in her routine. "I forgot how impractical communal showers were." 

"Ah, yes, because you and your hubby have all the space for yourselves," the brunette joked, making kissing sounds to annoy her further. 

"You're just jealous that my love life is very active," she retorted. 

"Don't point those fingers at me, save those assumptions for Erwin," Hange teased. 

Their banter made her laugh and nod slightly in agreement. "Speaking of which, did he send you here to help with something?" 

"Supervise a bit of the situation for him and fill out reports for the MPs and the military board," Y/N explained casually as she started to put on comfy clothes. 

"So, basically... a conjugal visit so Levi doesn't get blue balls," They quipped. 

Coughing loudly as the foam from the toothpaste made her choke in shock, she spat into the sink before looking up, blushing deeply. "HANGE!" 

The squad leader chuckled, unfazed by the outburst. "Your marks tell me I'm right. You arrived last night, and he jumped on you like a beast in heat." 

She scoffed, not saying a word as her mouth was still full of toothpaste. Frowning slightly at the squad leader and shooting them an askance look, but Hange didn't seem offended, taking the conversation lightheartedly. 

As they finished their dental routines, Y/N was surprised by Hange's efficiency. They clearly had different notions of after-shower routines. 

"Don't be so hard on him," Y/N defended her boyfriend tenderly as she rinsed the toothpaste residue. "He's stressed about the whole Titan boy situation. He needed to unwind." 

Both walked out of the room lethargically, as if neither had anywhere urgent to be. "That's the excuse Shorty gave you? But if Eren is so meek around Levi..." Hange argued back between chuckles. 

The empty corridors of the former HQ made her shiver, quickly losing the warmth of the shower as they strolled. When the name of the new cadet in Levi's squad was dropped, Y/N couldn't help but grimace and bite her bottom lip to hold back a chuckle. 

"What's so funny?" Hange asked. 

"Nothing," she replied. 

"Come on, just tell me!" 

"Fine..." she relented, "but this stays between us." 

"You know I can't promise that," Hange joked, indicating that juicy information wouldn't stay secret for long. "Just spit it out." 

"I met Eren earlier today..." she began. 

"Yeah, and?" Hange prompted. 

Y/N's subtle, almost innocent blush didn't match her sassy chuckles. "He's hella cute." 

Hange's loud gasp echoed in the empty hallways, prompting Y/N to hush them intensely. "You're a taken woman, Y/N!" the brunette argued, albeit without seriousness. "And... He's a kid. Have some decency, you creep." 

"Hey!" Y/N quickly protested. "I never said I was going to sleep with him or something like that! Can't a girl admit when a boy is cute? I mean, did you see his eyes? He's going to be turning heads around here before you know it." 

Hange chuckled, "If he survives..." 

"What a depressing thought, Hange, for Sheena's sake," both continued walking. "Mark my words, he's going to be handsome and will have girls swooning over him." 

"Including you?" Hange teased. 

Y/N shook her head softly, regretting telling the squad leader about it. "I could teach him a thing or two," she joked back, earning a shallow laugh from her companion. 

"Don't let Shorty hear you say that," Hange warned. 

"I'm joking, I'm joking," she assured. 

The heavy stone walls seemed to catch every little molecule of dust between the bricks as she swung the door open to the basement kitchen, probably designed to keep the cold temperature for food storage. Or perhaps it was an old castle, and the staff was secluded to the forgotten and unpleasant part of the architecture. Once inside, Petra and Eren were cutting potatoes while sitting on big, chipped wooden boxes. 

"Hey," Y/N greeted, rubbing her arms over her clothes as the humidity and coldness of the place seemed to penetrate every piece of clothing. "The bathroom is free if you want to take a shower." 

Y/N chuckled softly at her own words. "Well, 'shower' is a bold word for sitting down and throwing buckets of water on yourself," she clarified, jokingly. 

Petra seemed to understand, smiled at Eren, and stood up to clean her hands before leaving. They were taking turns for showers, mostly because the former HQ lacked a water pumping system, so they had to fetch water early in the day. For showers, the water had to be warmed up by the stove and then carried to one of the rooms they had chosen as a bathroom. Neither room was ideal because of the wooden floors, but they made do. 

She noticed the big, almost innocent eyes of the cadet looking up at her, both seemingly waiting for the other to make the next move. Eren continued with his task silently until she cleared her throat. 

"So... have you taken a shower yet, Eren?" 

"No, ma'am," Eren replied stiffly, making her scoff. 

"You can call me Y/N," she said, taking a spot next to him on the box. "Here, let me help you, or we'll be having potatoes for dinner the day after tomorrow." 

Her hands began to peel the potatoes with expertise. "You're good at this," he commented, looking down at his own pile and noticing a good part of the peel had taken the potato with it. 

She chuckled, "Ugh, you know how many potatoes I peeled before I was promoted," she joked. "You're showering after dinner? Make sure to rinse the water out of your hair if you're going straight to bed; you might catch a cold otherwise." 

Eren seemed surprised by the comment, or perhaps by the interaction overall. "Yes, ma'am," he replied with less self-assurance. "Captain Levi said the rest should go ahead, and then we'll go... I feel bad that he had to wait to take his turn because of me." 

"You're showering with Levi?" she asked, entertained, cutting off a bit of the self-hate speech that the cadet was about to embark on. "You're not planning on stealing my man, are you?" 

Oh, how quickly the blood rushed to his cheeks. It was priceless. "N-NO! I-I, no. I'll n-never," the poor boy began to stutter. She playfully patted his back while having a blast. 

"Relax, Eren. I'm messing with you," she said between chuckles. "It's just a silly shower, sweetie. Levi goes to bed very late, so showering last doesn't affect him." 

"But Oluo said–" 

"Ohhh, please," she interrupted him again, rolling her eyes as she returned to her task of peeling potatoes. Momentarily pointing at him with the knife, as if to emphasize her point, she continued, "Do not listen to him. Oluo is like one of those very tiny little dogs. They bark and bark and may even bite more than a regular-sized dog, but they actually hold no power." 

It was time for the cadet to have a short chuckle at her comparison. "Mr. Oluo isn't going to like that." 

"Well, I'm higher in command than him so." 

There was a brief calm silence as both of them continued to prepare dinner. "You're too nice to me, Squad Leader," Eren murmured, slightly ashamed. "The rest of Captain Levi's squad is nice too, but I can feel their fear..." 

Y/N couldn't help but find it endearing, the little pout on his face. "Oh sweetie, I'm the one who brings the first paperwork of the day to Erwin, and sometimes I even have to wake him up. There's nothing you could do that could scare me after that," she said while reaching forward to pinch his right cheek while wrinkling her nose. "You're a cutie." 

The side smile mixed with a not subtle blush that extended to his ears and the subtle shame in his eyes. Everything in his attitude screamed 'I'm not a girl or a kid, don't call me that.' 

But that was exactly what he was in her eyes: a kid. 

Clicking his tongue, cursing under his breath, he moved the shaking candle around, trying to find a good lighting spot against the old mirror while passing the razor close to his skin. The flame shook under the little insulation of the old rooms, and the humidity of the showers didn’t help as it rained little drops of condensation too close to it. Unlike Eren, who had finished showering and looked around ashamed, unsure how to even begin to dress up for bed without looking awkward (he could start by not standing still in the middle of the room), Levi seemed rather relaxed. Apparently, his only problem was shaving under that type of light. 

The Captain looked over his shoulder, found the cadet looking as if he wished the earth could swallow him. “Come on, brat. We don’t have all night. Get dressed so I can take you to the basement,” Levi spoke up. “Don't be so tense. I cleaned the place myself.” 

‘The cleanliness is not my problem,’ Eren thought to himself as he tried to carry on. But keeping the towel around his hips while trying to put clothes on that stuck to his humid body, nothing was going according to plan. 

“I bet you shared showers in worse conditions at the training camps,” Levi kept his usual stoic face as he cleaned the residues of shaving cream from his face and carried on unaffected by the situation. 

But Eren couldn’t unglue his eyes as soon as he noticed them. Yes, them. The red striking scratches down the back of his superior. Well-marked, five on each side decorating his shoulder blades. Eren swore he was trying not to pay them any mind, trying to remember to breathe or even to stop the saliva as his mouth hung open looking at them. 

Levi mentioning the shared showers at the training camps didn't help. Because all he could hear repeating endlessly in his mind were the stupid conversations Reiner and Jean would have about the hypothetical chicks they were planning to lay with. How they throw their heads back as they moan your name. Their nails sinking in your back as you pounded into them. 

‘Think of something else, Eren. Think of something else,’ 

“S-sorry,” he stuttered out a reply as the object he was picking up slipped from his clumsy hands, gathering his superior's attention, who was now staring at him as he kneeled to pick it up with his face as red as a tomato and nervous eyes. 

Levi raised a silent eyebrow for a split second before slightly shaking his head, not giving it much thought. ‘Teenagers,’ he thought to himself while sighing. 

Eren wished he could stop his own mind because it wasn’t just Reiner’s voice playing in his head but the created mental images of what he thought, in his inexperience, it looked like: his superior—no—his hero, fucking the sweet, caring woman who had just been peeling potatoes with him. Her hands that pinching his cheeks, sinking its nails into his squad leader’s back while moaning his name. Wrinkling his eyes closed, trying to erase the mental images as he could feel the blood pumping. ‘You’re not planning on stealing my man, are you?’ her voice echoing in the walls of his head, pumped lips and sultry eyes as she looked back at him playfully. 

‘Think of something else!’ 

“What could you probably be thinking of?” Levi’s voice echoed as his worst nightmare. Had he said that out loud? This time Levi had turned around to face him, left hand resting on the sink as he had his trousers on but hanging loosely on his hips as he was halfway getting dressed. He didn’t seem friendly, and his dead glance demanded an explanation. 

“Ehm- I,” Eren began to stutter, trying to find a logical explanation. His mind was racing miles per hour, how to explain. He was peeling potatoes, she made a joke, now he knows they are dating, Levi had his back scratched by her. She, her nails, her joke, her pretty lips— 

“Y-Y/N,” 

Ah- He shouldn’t have said that, but it was the first word that came to his mind. 

“What?” Levi’s voice seemed to source from hell itself. 

Heavy steps again on the floor, as he rushed back to his room. “Oi, where are you going so angry, shorty?” Hange rested against the wood frame while drinking a cup of tea. They had heavy under-eye circles and despite the dose of caffeine from their drinks, they seemed very lethargic. 

“Tch, to talk to my girlfriend about not messing around with my subordinates,” Levi had a heavy frown on his face as his hair still leaked little drops of water. “I just had the most uncomfortable conversation with Eren,” Levi said between clenched teeth, barely modulating. 

Hange chuckled while raising an eyebrow, blinking a couple of times. “Y/N told you she thinks Eren is a cutie? I’m surprised...” 

Levi, who had never stopped facing down the hall to his room, not even when he began his conversation with the other squad leader, slowly turned around to face the brunette as he heard that with a clearly confused face that turned into a frown as the information sank in. “What?” he spat out. 

Hange began to chuckle as they feared that they had misunderstood, “Ha ha... didn’t you say you had an uncomfortable conversation about Eren?” 

“Clean up your filthy ears or go to sleep already, four eyes,” the captain said calmly before clarifying, “I said a fucking uncomfortable conversation WITH Eren.” 

“Now, tell me what the hell you meant by that and make it quick because I already stood in a leaky bathroom for easily half an hour hearing Eren stutter apologize after he said my girlfriend’s name with a fucking hard on.” 

Observing out of the window as she admired how calm the deep forest was at the former HQ. It was rather cold, but she had only her nightgown on, a sheer translucent piece of cloth. The door of the room swung open, revealing an extremely angry Levi. He shut his door close and walked up to her. 

“What's gotten into you?” She questioned, confused. But before she could even reply, he was grabbing her face, pressing her cheeks together, and slightly raising her face to have it inches away from his. 

“You’ve forgotten your manners. I’ve been too soft with you,” Levi groaned, “First of all, you don’t go around playing cheeky with my subordinates.” 

She could feel the tug from his grip, pressing her closer as her hands touched his arm. Breathing heavily, humming a moan at his words. “Second, you truly think you could have a brat like him when I can already tell you’re dropping with the idea of me teaching you your place again?” 

“Lev-” 

“Your next words should be ‘Yes, sir’ if you know what's good for you,” he let go of her face just to slap her ass, “Go to bed and ass up, baby girl.” 

She moved excitedly in the direction he indicated but turned around as she bit her bottom lip, watching as he grabbed a belt from his uniform, “and that?” she asked curiously. 

“To make sure I’m the only one who leaves marks behind.” 

Link to my masterlist and my other works if you feel like checking them out.

Tags!: @nube55 @justkon @notgoodforlife @nmlkys @humanitys-strongest-bamf @quillinhand @thoreeo @darkstarlight82 @angelofthorr @aomi04 @levisbrat25 @l3visthighs @hum4n-wr3ckag3 @hannieslovebot @starrylevi @rithty @mariaace @ackrmntea @emilyyyy-08 @levisfavoriteteashop @katestrophes @levistealeaf @an-ever-angry-bi @youre-ackermine @fxnnyackerman @secretmoneybearvoid @trashblackrainbow @flxrartsstuff @katharinasdiaryy @kikarouflames @levisecretgfblog @searriously @blackdxggr @ackermanswifee Wanna join my tag list? Here!

[4ngeldusstt]

“M I N E”

A/N: this is not how i originally wrote this, but i tried my best to rewrite it as close as it was before tumblr fking deleted it, anyway this was supposed to be a “just a thought” but it’s too long so here’s a short fic that’s actually just a scenario (?. I really hate the title tbh but that’s all i could come out with rn.

Warnings: alcohol effects, drinking, slight mentions of soft smut but nothing happens, swearing

Word count: 858

The last mission was a success, meaning there was a party going on that same night in order to relieve some stress among us, the soldiers. Levi recently introduced you to alcohol not so long ago, so you didn’t quite know how to handle it nor what your limit was just yet. You decided to have some wine and you started feeling the effects of it, warm blushed cheeks, everything made you laugh, your introvert self becoming more outgoing with every sip.

You were quite popular amongst the male soldiers in the scouts, some of them already were head over heels in love with you, so they took this opportunity and took advantage of your state in the way of sitting next to you, encouraging you to rest your head on their shoulder, they even had fights over who would fill up your cup.

Meanwhile your lover, Levi, was observing from afar his gaze telling everything words couldn’t, the desire to kill all of those fucking bastards if he could was written all over his face, his expression alone was enough to make them shit their pants in fear if they dared to look at him. You both decided that keeping your relationship private was the best decision but he wished, that in this moment, he could let everyone know how your heart belonged to him.

Even in your state you noticed when Levi stood up and left, to his office, you already knew that. Following his steps soon after, not even bothering to knock on the door you made your way to the comfortable looking leather couch, looking at him with half lidded eyes and a smile, he didn’t even bother to look your way ever since you came in but your stare was piercing enough to make him finally notice you. “How are you feeling?” He eyed you before going back to the paperwork in front of him.

He was upset, not at you but to them, he couldn’t blame you for being so perfect every soldier in the scouts dreamed of marrying you. “Mhm, how can wine taste so bad but make me feel so warm and fuzzy huh?” You said closing your eyes leaning back into the cushions. “I damn the day I let you try out alcohol for the first time, you clearly don’t know how to handle it.” He scoffed, furrowing your brows for a second before it hit you, he was jealous. A smirk creeped into your lips as you slowly got up and made your way to his chair, taking a seat on his lap.

Your lips lingering near his ear whispering “are you perhaps… jealous?” Smiling as you noticed his grip on your hip get tighter. “What if I am? I hated seeing them all over you and not being able to do anything about it, you are mine and mine only.” His voice lowering an octave, causing you to clench your thighs together, he was well aware of the effects his voice had on you and he wanted to tease you a little bit. “Hmm you might have to remind me who I belong to.” You were so needy for him, the alcohol in your system making you more sensitive causing the ache between your thighs to worsen, he chuckled softly in response of your actions, “oh and I will, don’t worry. But not today, I’m sorry.” You whined and pouted at him, disagreeing with his decision.

Even though your were conscious enough and aware he was not going to do anything with you if he was sober and you were not, it wouldn’t feel right. “Come on, let’s take you to bed.” He said as soon as he realized it was taking everything in you not to fall asleep on him, due to the effects of the wine wearing off. He carried you bridal style and gently placed you onto the mattess of the bed you both shared. He helped you out of your clothes and placed one of his shirts covering your bare body that was a little too baggy for you, eyes closed not fully asleep yet, “mhm, thank you.” You said, “Anytime” he smiled softly even though you could not see him, soon after your head was placed on his chest as you started feeling his fingers slowly combing through your hair, leaving feathery kisses on your forehead every now and then as he read a book, you knew Levi barely slept, and today was no exception.

Prior to you passing out, you heard a faint whisper saying “I love you” into your hair followed by the soft touch of his lips pressing against your forehead lingering there a little longer than usual, it was such an intimate and loving act from a Levi that he, with time, managed to grow more comfortable in showing you, tightening your grip around his torso in response as you managed to mumble a weakly “I love you, thank you for loving me back.” before finally giving up and allowing yourself to succumb into a deep slumber, who knew humanity’s strongest soldier could be this gentle?

You did.

[merlinfromberlin]

A Little Left of Right - Chapter 2

A decacycle has passed and Bee is still on the run from the Autobots. Or: angsty introspection because that's what I'm most comfortable with writing.

First Chapter: here. New Warnings: Discussions of Starvation, Starvation, starting Sleep Deprivation, lots of angsty introspection; Chronology: Somewhere smack dab in the middle of TFP Season 2 - after Operation: Bumblebee but before Smokescreen shows up. Chapter: 2/? Wordcount: 2235 words

Written for @angstober - Day 16: No one else to turn to. Prompt list can be found here: X

Story below the cut or on AO3.

[Running automated system diagnosis.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Energy level: 25%.]

[Recharge cycle recommended.]

[(!) Fuellevel: 10%. (!)]

[Fuel level has reached critical level.]

[Refuel as soon as possible.]

[(!) Warning: Stasis lock due to starvation imminent. (!)]

[Initiating Hunger Protocols (Bas#B-127).]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Automated query dismissed ~ Emergency Pain Suppressant Protocols (SpOp_Sc#B-127).]

A whole decacycle had passed since Bumblebee's encounter with the sinister mirror version of Team Prime. He had been on the run from them ever since. If he was quite honest with himself, he had no clue how he had managed to avoid capture for this long—especially after they had almost caught him on the second cycle. That evening they had snuck up on him as soon as he had powered down into a light recharge. Only Bulkhead's clumsiness, a trait that apparently prevailed even through otherwise drastic shifts in personality, had saved him then, the clanky sounds of the large Wrecker dragging him out of recharge and giving him enough of a headstart to just outrun his not-teammates.

Ever since then Bee had been driving, continuously, wherever his wheels would take him, never stopping in one place for longer than it took to sent an encrypted message out to his Optimus and his Ratchet. Nevertheless, the menacing forms of fake Arcee, Bulkhead and Cliffjumper kept creeping up in his rear-view mirror time and time again. He was not sure how much longer he would be able to avoid them by simply dashing away furiously. It seemed to be working well enough at the moment, but soon he would run out of energon reserves and then it would only be a matter of time until they found his stasis-locked frame and took him.

At this point, Bumblebee's specialised scouting subroutines for energon preservation were the only reason he was still up and running at all. But even they were about to hit their limits—had been for a cycle or two now, actually. The protocols had been written to help scouts like him to survive for prolonged periods of time in enemy territory where options for safe recharge or refueling were sparse. As Bee was figuring out fast, however, they had not been designed to sustain a bot for several cycle without any energon and little breaks. Especially so if said bot had already been low on both when the protocols were first initiated. If he was quite honest with himself, it was borderline miraculous that his frame had not yet caved to the sweet, sweet call of stasis.

But what made his situation even worse was that Bee was still none the wiser about supposedly simple questions like what was going on or where exactly he was or how he had ended up there in the first place. The only thing the scout was certain of at this point was the fact that he had to be unattainably far away from home and anyone he knew. Otherwise, Optimus, Ratchet and the rest of Team Prime would have already found a way contact, if not even bring him back, by now. They would not just abandon him like this. He was sure of that at least.

[Relevant memory file detected: β-11107f#B-127.θ (1.03 decacycle ago).]

[Play now?]

[Yes ( ) No (X)]

The longer Bee thought about his encounter with his family's sinister doppelgängers, the more likely it seemed to him that they had something to do with his current predicament. They had, after all, already been there when he woke up, monitoring his every move as their Ratchet examined him. 

They had also been privy to incredibly private information.

[Playing relevant memory file: β-11107f_0012#B-127.θ (1.03 decacycle ago).]

["He is a truer Prime than your pathetic pacifist archivist wannabe ever could be, little sparkbyte."]

["Wouldn't you like to know, little one?"]

[Spark temperature mildly elevated.]

[Engaging fans (secondary ventilation system).]

[...]

[Spark temperature readings have returned to acceptable range.]

If Bee turned out to be correct and these evil Autobots were truly responsible for his situation, that did probably not bode particularly well for his ability to return home anytime soon.

Still, Bumblebee would do his best to try and get back to the real Team Prime—the real Optimus and the real Ratchet and Raf and even the old missile silo that was maybe just the latest in a long row of military bases Bee had learned to call home, but none the less treasured for it. They were all that was left of his whole world, after all.

[Running automated system diagnosis.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Energy level: 21%.]

[Recharge cycle recommended.]

[(!) Fuellevel: 8%. (!)]

[Fuel level has reached critical level.]

[Refuel as soon as possible.]

[(!) Warning: Stasis lock due to starvation imminent. (!)]

[Initiating Hunger Protocols (Bas#B-127).]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Automated query dismissed ~ Emergency Pain Suppressant Protocols (SpOp_Sc#B-127).]

With how little he knew about this world, Bumblebee dared not to try and return to Autobot Outpost Omega One. He could not risk showing up to the silo just to learn that these sinister Autobots also used it as their base of operations. 

He had not dared not to contact any of their human allies, either. He had no way of knowing whether Raf, Agent Fowler or the others were connected to these twisted Autobots like they were in Bee's world. And even if they were not, he could not pull them into his species' War all over again. They deserved better than that.

At this point, he also no longer dared to send covert messages to his caregivers. Not since the mean Ratchet had tried to contact him via a private comm link a few decicycle ago. Bumblebee had almost fallen for it, too. If he had been a little less paranoid or a little more desperate, he might have missed the inconsistencies in the medic's tone and the disdain in his voice. He did not want to think about what might have happened then.

In the end, knowing that he had not been tricked had been his only, albeit weak, consolation as he saw himself forced to scrub his comm link clean, deleting anything that might be used by the doppelgängers to contact or locate him. He could not risk sentimentality to expose him to his perpetrators—even though destroying the only evidence he had left of the connections shared with fallen comrades and lost family members threatened to tear Bee apart. However, if Ratchet was no longer safe, no one was. 

Still, deleting the last messages he had ever received from the real Cliffjumper—a screen capture of Sokka from Avatar followed by a slew of emojis—had been especially hard. Cliff's death was still so recent that the wound his loss had ripped into Bumblebee's war-pained spark had barely yet started to heal. In that moment Bee had been grateful to be confined to his alt mode as he raced down a nightly highway somewhere south of Boston. Like this, he could speed however fast he needed to go in order to ignore the suspicious little hiccups in his engine’s usually smooth rumble. He did not need anyone, not even himself, to witness what would have been desperate, unstoppable sobs otherwise.

[Running automated system diagnosis.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Energy level: 20%.]

[Recharge cycle recommended.]

[(!) Fuellevel: 8%. (!)]

[Fuel level has reached critical level.]

[Refuel as soon as possible.]

[(!) Warning: Stasis lock due to starvation imminent. (!)]

[Initiating Hunger Protocols (Bas#B-127).]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Automated query dismissed ~ Emergency Pain Suppressant Protocols (SpOp_Sc#B-127).]

He was staring numbly at his comm link's empty HUD. No more comfort was to be found in re-living old conversations with fallen friends. There was no more rejoicing in the bytes of wisdom his caregivers and family members had bestowed upon him. All the little interactions with and lessons from not only Optimus or Ratchet, but all those in Autobot High command who had had a servo in raising or teaching him before the destruction of the Ark, were gone now.

He felt utterly alone in this twisted nightmare that Primus refused to wake him from.

[Running automated system diagnosis.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Energy level: 18%.]

[Recharge cycle recommended.]

[(!) Fuellevel: 7%. (!)]

[Fuel level has reached critical level.]

[Refuel as soon as possible.]

[(!) Warning: Stasis lock due to starvation imminent. (!)]

[Initiating Hunger Protocols (Bas#B-127).]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Automated query dismissed ~ Emergency Pain Suppressant Protocols (SpOp_Sc#B-127).]

[(!) T-Cog (Bas#B-127) temperature elevated above acceptable range. (!)]

[Downtime recommended to avoid possible damage to transformation systems.]

Bumblebee left the highway with the next exit he came by. Then he drove some more until he finally found the abandoned ruin of a barn a few hundred metres down a dirt track. It seemed as good as any place to shelter until he could continue his aimless trek across the country. So he approached it to do just that. 

He was lucky. The rotting door of the barn was opened wide enough that he could slip in in alt mode. 

Bee transformed as soon as he was out of sight, transformation seams aching uncomfortably as he stood up for the first time in a few cycle. He hissed static as he limped away from the doors and sat down in the darkest corner of the stuffy shadows, pedes drawn up close to his spark chamber. His joints were stiff from disuse. His doorwings creaked softly whenever he moved them. The sensory clusters arranged all over their surface were even more sensitive than usual now that they were once again exposed to his surroundings. 

The youngling found his helm sinking to his knees as he prepared to weather the assault the dust and hay were waging on his senses. The small particles itched and tickled wherever they landed on his quivering winglets. 

Curled up like this, his audials lay close to his chassis, allowing him to hear the indignant squelches of his empty fuel tanks. Their empty rotations seemed impossibly loud as they tried to process energon that simply was not there and grinded on his internals instead. A faded imprint of hungry torment seemed to distort it all.

Most of the time, Bee was only able to vaguely remember his time as a sparkling before the Autobots had taken him in. In moments like these it became easier to recall singular details of his life after the Fall of Praxus. Right now, he knew that everything had hurt back then, not only from the broken sparkbond with his first caregivers who had just returned to the Well of Allsparks, but also because of the hunger that had been his ever-present if not at all pleasant companion.

He probably should have been glad that his scouting protocols provided him with at least some form of relief from the pain. All he could think about instead was the backlog of agony he would have to face once his emergency routines were de-activated again. It almost made him wish that he would never have to turn off his pain suppression protocols again. But then there was only one way to avoid that and he did not wish for death. An unthought yet hung in the air uncomfortably prominently.

Instead of acknowledging it, Bumblebee sighed softly and forced his thoughts away, to the near future. It would be a long few decicycle until he could continue onwards. He should at least try to make some plans until then.

[Message failed.]

[Error: No Optimus Prime found in list of connections.]

After a while, Bee found himself staring at his empty comm link again. At this point, he had to admit that he was running out of options. He shivered softly as a stream of cold air caressed his doorwings and let his thoughts be carried off again by the wind.

[ Alert: (!) Possible Enemy Activity Detected. (!)]

He flinched as the unmistakable sound of a jet engine passed by overhead, his gaze shooting up at the ceiling of the barn. Within less than a millicycle the sound faded into the distant, gone again as fast as it had come. It took him much more than a millicycle to calm down.

Of course, there was still one more option he had not yet dared to consider. The violet Optimus had talked about the Decepticons as if they were still the Autobots' enemies. And given how different these Bots were from the ones Bee know, the same might be true for the Cons. Because if Team Prime were the bad guys, and they had to be, here in this weird place, that might just mean that Megatron and his goons were the good guys, did it not? He hoped that it was more than the desperate hope of a starving sparkling. It certainly sounded like a child's wishful thinking. 

But then again, who else had he left to turn to? He was, quite simply, running out of time and options.

[Broadcasting distress signal now.]

In the end, Bumblebee just sent his message out into Earth's atmosphere—encrypted to all Autobot frequencies he knew but otherwise directionless. He had figured that, if these Autobots still had Ratchet as their medic and Optimus as their leader, if this Bulkhead was still clumsy despite everything else that had changed that there was at least a chance that this place's Decpeticons still had a Soundwave as their head of communications and espionage. And if this doppelgänger's skillset was anything like that of the one he knew and feared back home, the Con would pick up on the scout's cry for help soon enough.

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Surprise Guest

Author's note: More mermay, some world building with Poor Unfortunate Souls AU, and a dash of Space Marines Sentient Husbandry. Oh boy, I wrote a little over 1K words for this one.

Summary: Hura finds a stranger in his den, it's a wounded Loyalist Scout, so he calls for back up, as well as teases some of his younger cousins, because he finds them Hilarious.

Warnings: Mentions of injuries, light bullying? Or is it intimidation. Hura's being a bit of a lil' shit head. Let me know if I need to add more.

Tagged: @sleepyfan-blog, @egrets-not-regrets, @barn-anon, @bleedingichorhearts, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @kit-williams

Tagged again, just in case: @kit-williams, @whorety-k

Catius Past

Hura Past

Hura had finished with some tasks he’d been meaning to do, helped out some of his fellow Chaos Mer-Astartes, he’s swimming back to his underwater cave system, when he smells something off about the waters immediately around and inside is caves. He huffs, as he readies himself, whether for a fight, or to scare whoever it is thought they could so foolishly take over his cave. He pauses as he swims deeper into his cave system when he smells the scent of blood. Astartes blood.

Ah- perhaps someone had tried to come to his cave seeking treatment… Unusually bold, or more likely desperate. He retracts his claws and spines mostly as he shifts his gear, wondering who his newest patient is going to be. And if they had friends with them. What he comes across gives him pause. By the coloration, that deep, vivid blue and spots, that eel-like tale that flows like a long ribbon in the wind, this is an Ultramarine, or one of their successor chapters, before their scales shed and into their pod’s hues.

As Hura carefully approaches the other mer-astartes, he notices, he’s large for a normal Son of the 13th Primarch. Hura’s face breaks into a grin as his eyes sparkle. Oh- oh he’s heard of this! A Primaris! Oh- those youngsters from the farthest in the future that near enough any of them can determine. And, so far, none have yet to fall to Chaos or to turn Renegade. But that is most likely because they are all brainwashed Scout-lings who haven’t had much life experience out of the drudgery of basic training and have yet to really sink their teeth into the poisonous, wonderous horrors of the wider galaxy.

Hm… he’s not heard of a new Primaris Marine, of any chapter coming into any of the local pods. Perhaps he’s new? Poor thing, arrived upon Ancient Terra, and unknowing of where and when he is. Likely caught in a vicious battle as Hura continues to silently approach the Scout-ling. While his wounds are stitching up, due to his Astartes constitution he notices how the poor thing was almost pulled apart by Warp Predators. Ouch. Likely the sole survivor of his Primaris Pod, unless he was the only one strong enough to survive ancient Terra’s waters and collapsed into the nearest place where he’d be able to sleep off the worst of his injuries.

Poor little scout, unknowing of the dangers and beauties of this new world and time. He does send a message on his vox through to his fellow Apothecaries, of the Alliance of Loyalist, Renegade, and Chaos factions, the youngster is not going to react well to him at all, and as, while he’s recovering, is still badly wounded and will react with far more hostility. Those Primaris Space Marine Scout-lings can be ever so vicious and suspicious of the Chaos-embracing brothers and cousins. Its likely part of their training to be so, which is a pity, as he’d so dearly love to meet with a Primaris and be able to observe their mannerisms and behaviors up close, as well as teach any who’d have the capacity, skill, and heart for being an Apothecary. He’s been one for a very long time.

Not a few moments later he’d gotten a response and an Imperial Fist Apothecary, as well as a couple of younger Apothecaries would come to his cove to gently scoop up the wounded, sleeping youngster, and hopefully get to him before the youngster woke up and then panicked at the Sight of Hura watching him from the entrance of the cave. Little brothers and cousins could be so adorable at times, and he’s slow to anger and understanding of… youthful misadventures and shenanigans.

The young Primaris Ultramarine is starting to wake, his face scrunching up and snuffling at the currents as his fins flare and curl as his senses start to inform him of the Danger that’s nearby. Hura does back off, no need to scare the poor thing absolutely silly for unknowingly entering the nest of someone else when he was so wounded and unknowing of everything that was going on around him. He waves to the Imperial Fist and other assorted Loyalists and the young Black Templar Apothecary, who doesn’t have armor, but really should get some at time hisses and growls at him, flaring his fins and his scales rucking up.

“What a wonderful threat display,” Hura coos to the youngster who thinks he’s So Scary.

Hura has seen things that would drive lesser beings mad or commit suicide. He was on one of the ships that were trapped within the warp, unable to die, unable to help his brothers and they suffered, grew sick, yet didn’t die as they were trapped in the Warp for an eternity or two until their Gene-father cracked and gave in and begged for Grandfather’s blessing, who’d happily given it to all who’d joined him. He blocks out Unpleasant memories, the past was the past and thinking about Before was… well.

No. Not a good idea. Youngsters to playfully tease. The young Primaris Ultramarine has woken up, and is skittish and an anxious youngling, but perks right up when he spots the young black Templar. He sure does think he’s scary as well, growling at Hura like he is, poor dear, his fins are torn and he can’t do a proper threat display, although he tries. It’s interesting how the Primaris Space Marines, despite being from, or at least assigned to different chapters seem to know one another, or at least of each other enough to perk up when the spot each other. Or at least, that’s what he’s heard from those that have met some of the youngest of their cousins. It’s such a terribly fascinating little puzzle that he wants to solve, but alas he can’t get near because they Really Don’t Like Chaos Space Marines.

“Hura,” One of the older Apothecaries say with a sigh.

“Yes, Kordito?” He trills out amused.

“Stop scaring the Scouts,” Kordito says with another sigh.

“But I’m not doing anything!” He protests with a pout, “I’m just floating here, near my nest.”

[itsohh]

Little Mouse

A/N: Female reader, ehhh not the greatest of my works, lowkey half assed proof reading this. Not the happiest with the way it turned out but I didn’t have any alternative ideas to redo it.

Word count: 2916  

Warnings: NSFT, smut

AO3

Reclined on the couch your focus was on your phone. Furiously typing away while Tina's replies came back just as fast. A small group of your division had been taken to a large training ground in the middle of nowhere. Courtesy of Sam. There were four main locations on the grounds. The living quarters, where you currently were, the clearing, the abandoned village and the grounds forest. The forest surrounded the grounds and took up a decent chunk of the land. A clear red fence ran around the entire place to let you know where the boundary was.

Across from you, Collinn was in a similar position but with a book in hand. "Having fun?" His southern drawl was aimed at you you while you quietly giggled away. At the question, your head snapped up and turned your phone around to show him the picture of the gift she has been given. It was an actual welcome mat. It had a print of her welcome mats on it and on top of it stood Sanaa with wide eyes.

Collinn's laugh joined you as he leaned forward to look at it. "That's good." The door flung open and the pair of your heads snapped toward it. In came a rather tired-looking Liu Tze with a grimace on his face. Nøkk however, practically bounced in behind him. She certainly was in a good mood.

"How was training?" While Taina wasn't with you, Sam was in charge and he had the group of you practising your one-on-one situations.

"I need a shower." He groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"It was a good warm-up." Nøkks voice was light and Liu Tze waved her off as he stalked away.

"I missed all his mines in the forest and he had to go pick them all up after we were done. I found his little hiding spot."

"Got lucky did we?" Your phone turned off and you leaned back into the couch while Collinn retreated to his book.

"Luck had nothing to do with it." She took a step forward, her voice light and her hand made contact with the couch for support.

"Sounds like luck to me and I'll prove it. Unless you're too afraid of demonstrating again. A good survey doesn't have any use without a decent sample size." Her head tilted.

"Mm weren't you scheduled to go against Collinn?"

"Oh take all the time in the word ladies but keep me out of this. I got quiiiite the book here." He waved her off and your eyes narrowed in your challenge.

"Who am I to refuse then? Hope you're ready to hobble back." She pushed off the couch and you swung your legs off and jumped up behind her.

"Ah big talk, let's see if you can back it up."

-

The area which you had been given was the abandoned village. In all reality, it was a bunch of concrete husks of builds. Secure enough for entry and combat but nothing for comfort. Without an announcer, it was up to the pair of you to run everything. It was just an honesty system but no one would gain anything by breaking it.

In the end, you were there to train and improve.

Due to the large area, she gave you five minutes in prep time. To scout out the area and set up.

Without cameras, you had come with a decent amount of proximity mines. While she could easily avoid them, you had planned to use them as a funnel, that way if she came too near you could prioritise an escape route or else get the element of surprise. Nearby to you were the flash traps you had set up, a small gadget to your own design. Small little devices almost impossible to see, attached to the doorways of your funnel and the odd one near your proximity mines. A small alcove is where you set yourself up. With decent cover and a hole to escape down, it was the perfect set-up. As your five minutes finished, all you needed to do was wait.

Time ticked by as your keen hearing listened for any new sound. Birds and the natural life of the forest around you kept from silence. That sound was peaceful, steady. Until it was distributed. A single beep went off which alerted you to her presence. It promptly stopped and you continued your scan of the room. You hadn't heard her break it. Despite her interruption, things went back to the way they were. Yet you didn't get off your high alert state. There were only two entrances to the room you were in. Only one of them allowed for silent entry and you had your eyes aimed towards it.  

"Found you." Her voice came as she suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"You have to catch me first, Nøkk." You taunted at the end of the hallway. She stepped into the room and your flash trap went off. The short cry of her voice let you know she had been affected by the flash. It would only capacitate her for a few moments. In those split seconds you had to make a decision. Either use your advantage to escape through the hole to the lower floor next to you or use the time to your advantage and try to take her down. With a deep breath, you chose the latter.

Out of your position, you slid. Without vision and hearing you were able to sweep her feet out from under her with ease. But Nøkk wasn’t one to be completely helpless. She grabbed onto your arm as she fell and brought you to the concrete floor with her. You rolled away from her and gathered yourself to your knees in a crouch but in the time you took to do so, she had recovered from the flash. Her arms were in a defensive position, negating the damage from your fists. Your legs were mounted over her waist in an attempt to restrain her. You managed to clip the side of her head electing a hiss from her stained lips. Not one to be taken out lightly her leg flicked up, and her ankle managed to catch you in the neck. With the hook around your neck, you fell backward with a choked gasp, a signal of your paused assault.

Nøkk used the window to her advantage and pushed you back. The coldness of the concrete made contact with your back and she jumped up on top of you in the exact same position you had been in moments earlier. Taking one out of Caverias book a knife slipped out from her side and was positioned directly next to your throat. She had you.

While you couldn’t see her face, you could tell she was in a somewhat playful mood by the way her head tilted from side to side. Whatever the mood had been prior, it had now shifted.

“I always did prefer teamwork.” You mumbled out much to her pleasure. A small laugh bubbled from her but she didn’t give up the knife.

“I got to ask, why the challenge little mouse?”

“Thought I’d at least avenge Lesion.” Your eyes flickered to the side for a second and she used the knife to direct your eyes back on her.

“Still think I got lucky?”

“No.” She leaned back at your response, pleased with it but there was also something else that she was searching for.

“Hmm, you know your squirming a lot.” She picked up the way your fingers itched at your side and the way your body was tense.

“There's a knife to my throat Nøkk.” She tilted her head at your comment.

“Ah but you know I won’t hurt you. Much.” Your eyes rolled in response and once again you looked away from her mask. There was something so imposing about it, like she could see directly into your soul.

“Right well, you won Nøkk. You can put away the knife now.”

“What’s my prize?”

“Pardon?”

“My prize for winning. I want one.” Her head tilted and she continued on. “How about you tell me a secret? Nothing too serious of course.” The knife drew down your shirt a little. “A little birdy told me some interesting things they had observed.” At her words, your pulse raced and your skin became cold. “I want to hear from your little lips if they're true or not.”

“You're going to need to be more specific.” The words were a little quieter and timider than you had originally intended.

“You're smart. You work well with others and in a team but we both know that in a one versus one situation, I would win. I think you just wanted an excuse to be under me.” At her words, your eyes widened and your lips parted.

“I- you, that's..”

“Go on little mouse, tell me how you feel. Tell me if I’m wrong.” She leaned in ever closer and you could feel the light fabric of her mask brush against your chin. “Confess.”

“Okay! Fine I… like more than I professionally should.” Your voice quietened with each word and she tapped the knife against your throat.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t quite hear that.”

“Yes, you did Nøkk. Don’t be mean.” Your eyes looked away from her teasing form and she leaned back with a laugh.

“Aww, hun don’t be upset. I assure you I wouldn’t put you into this situation if I didn’t feel the same.” The pair of you stared at each other at the news of her recuperated feelings. “You know it's quite flattering that you think of me in such a way without ever seeing my face. Makes me feel like you're a fan of my personality.” She teased and a breath of air hissed between your teeth. “You know I think you deserve well not a prize but a little gift for being so honest with me.” Slowly Nøkk put away the knife and one hand went toward your face. Her head leaned forward and just as she neared she lifted the bottom of her mask up. Just enough for her lips to show.

For only a second you caught the black colouring of her lips and then they were on yours. Sweet. So sweet. That was the only thing that could describe how she tasted on your lips. The fabric of her mask brushed against your face and soon your hands found their place on her steady hips. The kiss was slow, sensual. She tested the waters as she leaned down against you.

Her lips surprisingly didn't stain against yours, the liquid lipstick keeping them as perfect as could be. Only when she pulled away a little did you open your eyes. "So who told you?"

"I'll never tell my sources."

"Was it Liu Tze? Did you interrogate it out of him?" You continued to ask against her lips. She giggled, full-on giggled at the comment. A sound you swore you had never heard before. Her humour normally said with such a deadpan voice, the sound had you sucking in a deep breath of air while your face heated up.

"No. Don't bother asking hun, their secret identity is locked away." Once against her lips were pressed against yours and you couldn't help but melt against her. The hand that hand kept her mask at of the way found your face and brushed against your cheek until it reached the back of your neck where she found a steady grip to rest on.

Uncaring about the world around you, you wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against you, hard. With ease, you rolled the pair of you so that you were on top. Slowly with your face partially under the fabric of her mask, you started to trail kisses on her face down onto her neck. "I want a name Nøkk." You growled playing with a bite on the crook of her neck.

"Never."

"Nøkk." You warned but her legs wrapped around you and in that action, you soon discovered even though you were on top, she was in charge. Your face is still in her neck your eyes shut while her hips grind up against her. Despite the tactical gear the pair of you both wore, it was just thing enough for decent friction to form between the pair of you. It was enough for you to groan out, her hand forcing your head against her harder.

"Needy little mouse aren't you?" Her honey voice whispered and you felt a sudden tug at the fly of your pants.

"What are-" your voice was choked off as her clothed hand dipped into your pants.

"Soaking wet already? Good thing Grace made it waterproof." Her hips rest against the cement floor to give her a little more room to work. Her index finger swiped long in between your folds and parted your labia's with the two fingers on each side. The index finger swiped up to your clit where she started to make small circles.

"Nøkk…" Your mumbles were muffled into her while her lips curved upward at the sound. Yet her finger didn't work you for long. Nøkk retreated her hand from your body to your much displeasure electing a long sound of protest from your lips.

"Now honey don't be like that." Her legs unhooked from your body. "Besides I think it's going to be rather hard for you to take off your pants with me fingering you."

"..."

"Come sit on my face." She giggled and gave your thigh a small slap. "Up you get." In your slightly dazed state, you pulled yourself from her. On your feet, you looked down at the woman. Her elbows proper her up slightly and her mask shows off just the lower of her face. The black lipstick and her chin.

"Don't keep me waiting." Her voice snapped you back down to earth and you went to the boot in hand. Unlacing them was quick and you promptly slipped out of them before your pants and underwear. Nøkk didn't seem to mind the wait, rather happy with the show.

A shiver ran across your body as you stood there half-naked. "What about the mask?" You asked as you came to kneel on each side of her head. Her elbows dropped and soon the bottom of the mask was bunched up against the top of your pelvis.

"Oooooooh." Her lips pressed against your clit and she kissed it. Then you felt the soft drag of them as she opened met mouth only for her tongue to drag across your entire slit.

"You know when Tina told me that your gaze lingered on me more than anyone else I didn't believe her." Your eyes snapped open.

"Tina, that traitor."

"Did I say Tina? Whoops. I guess you taste that good." She smiled against your cunt before she resumed her action of tasting the slick that had started to run down the inside of your thighs.

"Oh, when we get back she's so dead." Your voice tried to sound intimidating but as she so kindly licked at your clit you couldn't help the shiver that ran down your body. Your hands went to grab at her head but where should have been you make contact with the fabric of her mask. "Careful." She warned and there was a serious warning undertone to it. She didn't want you to take it off, not yet.

The grip loosened and she went back at it, her hands on your ass as you slowly rolled your hips against your face. "When we get back to base, I have a blindfold. I'll take it off then." The implication was clear. "If you don't mind of course."

"Please please please keep eating me out oh my god Nøkk." The small interruptions of her speaking had started to get to you as your core started to swell with a raging storm.

The flat of her hand slipped slightly under your shirt while her other one grabbed at your ass, guiding the speed of your movements.

"Feels so fucking good." She gave your ass a light slap and you were practically riding her face at that point. Your hands left her mask in preference for the cement floor where your nails scraped against the white dust. Moans left your lips, incomprehensible while you came. The storm was released inside of you as pleasure struck through your body. Legs shivering against her, Nøkk continued to work you through your high until a choked sound came from your voice.

Leaning forward on the pavement you gasped out while Nøkk slipped from under you. The gentle touch of her hands helped you up to your feet while she passed you your pants. Breath still heaving you followed the silent instructions and redressed yourself. When you looked up she had that smug smile on her face before it was soon hidden once again by the fabric that flowed back into place. "I think I'd like that Nøkk. Your room blindfolded. But first dinner perhaps?"

"You have somewhere in mind?" In all reality, Nøkk wasn't one for fancy restaurants.

"Yeah, I know a place that makes a solid burger." While you couldn't see her smile anymore, her mask in the way as you looked up at her, lacing up your boots, you could tell she had a smile on her face.

"Sounds good."

[eventiderpg]

Eventideevent05: The Aftermath

The night of day sixty soon turns into day sixty-seven of the rebellion. A week flies by quickly. Rebel forces were able to make their way through the tribute center with minimal casualties, saving each captive as well as Calista Hearting, Natalia Morrissey, Sarah Kline, and Tiberius Germaine. Most of the list freely roam District Thirteen now.

Wind of the security breech has also made its way around The Capitol. It's broadcasted that the insurgence has kidnapped tributes, victors, and elites to suffer the same fate that Thea Ellis had previously warned Panem about. This has shaken many, especially those who reside in The Capitol. Nobody other than those on the ground truly know what happened the night of day sixty.

Roles:

Plutarch Heavensbee - Command: Plutarch will be in constant contact with those in The Capitol as well as relaying information directly to President Coin.

Beetee Latier - Hacker: Well-versed in technology, the hackers will terminate the prison hall’s security system and target the CCTV control room. The hackers will warn the soldiers of any approaching danger.

Cressida Astor - Filming: The buildup of the flight to The Capitol as well as the return to District Thirteen had been recorded for propos.

Brutus Steele & Cadence Kentwell - Sniper: On the rooftop of a neighboring building, the snipers will act as lookout and alert the soldiers if Peacekeepers arrive or if any other suspicious activity occurs.

Effie Trinket & Haymitch Abernathy - Communication: Working from District Thirteen, communication will work as a step between Command and the higher-ups of District Thirteen to relay information.

Ezra Klair & Juniper - Soldiers: Using the information gained by the scouts, they will tread forth afterwards and take down any Capitol troops that stand between them and the captives. Secondary to this, they can also lead captives to the pro-rebel hovercraft.

Johanna Mason & Sterling Whitvale - Assists: These are soldiers whose primary objective will be to take captives and navigate them to the pro-rebel hovercraft.

There is potential for additional muses and roles to be added.

OCCURANCES:

Following the bombing of District Thirteen and The Mockingjay's frustrations, President Coin decided it was time for the rescue mission. The rescue would take place during the night of Day Sixty at approximately 2130.

Prior to the rescue, several individuals had been lead to the tribute center. Natalia Morrissey and Tiberius Germaine had been directed by Constantinus Snow to meet at the location. Sarah Kline had been made to visit Annie Cresta on the fourth floor. And last but not least, Calista Hearting had been escorted there after a sizzling interview with Caesar Flickerman. All would find themselves on the rescue hovercraft.

While infiltrating the center, Finnick Odair shot a live propo regarding secrets well kept from Panem, but not exactly within The Capitol.

Rebels found relatively easy access within the center. This was hardly luck as it was made known that Coriolanus Snow had his eyes on it. Threat was laid bare to Katniss Everdeen that all had been intentional.

Peeta Mellark had been found in his torture chamber. Though he endured a hijacking session less than an hour prior, the man was heavily sedated at President Snow's request.

Amara Silverhorn was found next door in chamber 21. She appeared catatonic even as rebels turned off the device she was forced to watch.

From the fourth floor of the building, both Annie Cresta and Sarah Kline had been retrieved. Annie was nervous that she had somehow failed a test and was being lead to her own slaughter.

Thea Ellis, Cecelia Whitvale, and Enobaria Ismene were found in the cellblock. Thea had been rescued by Ezra Klair. Enobaria had been rescued by Brutus Steele. The sniper would soon perish due to his selfless act.

In total, thirteen rebels passed due to this mission. Twelve were considered honorable. The hovercraft landed in District Thirteen on Day 61 at 0012.

Of the ten rescued, two were imprisoned. Due to their families Calista Hearting and Sarah Kline are being held as collateral. Their official reason for captivity is spreading slanderous information about the rebellion.

Of the remaining eight, seven were warmly greeted. Enobaria Ismene faced a bomb squad instantaneously due to her electric collar being unable to be previously taken off in The Capitol.

Though he was greeted warmly, within 10 minutes time of reaching District Thirteen, Peeta Mellark's sedative had worn off. Almost like it was deliberate. It had been. Katniss Everdeen did not receive a warm welcome.

Those rescued from The Capitol were kept on a psych hold in the medical ward. Those who weren't kept in the cells were only observed for twenty-four hours. Those that had been in the cells received four days. Some captives have since been released, other had not.

All individuals rescued were interrogated. Those who had previously aired pro-Capitol thoughts during The Rebellion were interrogated more intensely.

More information is likely to be added.

A new era has officially begun! Although this event begins on December 2nd, it does not have a definitive end date yet and will be decided through the consensus of all members. However, the event will be the longest one yet as wars tend to take years before any peace and order is reached. Please tag any posts relating to this event with #eventideevent05. In the roleplay, this event officially begins at the point when all muses have had a chance to have a breather after the rescue. Specifically, it will be seven days from the mission. It is highly encouraged to plot and thread what happened over the past week. Anything that happened prior to that however should be tagged #eventidepast!

The Capitol and District Thirteen info channels have been updated to reflect the new survey information. If you haven't filled it out and you wish for your character information to be there, please feel free to still answer that survey or send info via your designated plotting channel in the discord. Additionally, your muse can still be added to the rescue mission by request as more information will be continued to be determined and posted.

In a few days, EVENTIDERPG will be hitting its seventh month mark. Thank you for sticking it out with us! As always, happy roleplaying!

[providenceriskofrain-bigthighs]

A Silent Observer (Chapter 1/2: Sands of Time)

Originally posted: December 25, 2022 Rating: Mature Relationship: N/A Warnings: Body horror, suicidal themes Tags can be found on AO3. source

Gentle blankets of snow pelted the landscape. Two pairs of metal feet crunched against the icy powder, belonging to none other than the two V-model prototypes—V1 and V2. V2’s joints hissed as his heating systems ran on overdrive to keep his body warm, while V1 tolerated the cold, as it was what their chilled components functioned better in. It was uncomfortable—painful, even—because their interior and exterior inconveniently depended on opposite conditions, but they managed. The red one—carried a box he’d recently obtained from one of his human allies. Eventually, he set it down on the snowy ground and sat down, legs crossing as V1 stood behind him, almost motionlessly.

“Ever seen anything like that before?” V2 asked, gesturing at the tall, decorated pine tree in the distance. 

While it had been there for a long while—decades, in fact—V1 hadn’t seen it before. It was located right over the hill that separated their classified holding facility from wherever V2 lived, and only now were they allowed to leave that place and explore. Well, ‘allowed’ was a stretch, because V2 managed to sneak them out of there while the guards were busy. 

Regardless, V1 shook their head ‘no’ in response.

“It’s a common human tradition around this time of the year,” V2 explained. “Not everyone celebrates Christmas—they might celebrate something else due to their uh… religion or culture—but our creators do, and I picked that up from them.” He leaned back, supporting his body with his palms against the ground as he spoke. “Oh, I’m breaking a lot of rules just to do this, by the way. Told our creators that I was gonna go scout the general area for anything that threatened peace, but look at me now—showing you the outside world and all.” He chuckled. “Y’know what, though? I prefer this over standing guard by a huge margin.”

While they were listening, V2’s blue sibling stomped around in the snow; jumping around, grabbing at it, and sometimes gazing closely and intently at the flakes that fell from the thick, cloudy sky. They dropped down onto their knees and balled it up, chirping happily and excitedly as they entertained themself. V1 was listening, even if they didn’t seem like it; they were just excited to see something like this during a time of peace for once.

“Hm—“ V2 took a moment before realizing part of his interface was warning him of the potential that the environment might cause damage to him. “—oh. That’s right. You run at cold temperatures, meanwhile I’ll probably have to head inside soon, as… good as this feels.” He reached out, catching snow in his palm and watching it sadly melt as soon as it made contact with his heated metal. 

V1 stood back up and poked the box, tilting their head and chirping as they looked at V2.

“Not now. You’ll see what’s in there later.”

The war machine hissed and crossed their arms in a disappointed manner before bending down to put another snowball together, and lifted it in order to show it to V2 whilst flapping their free hand excitedly. 

“Nice work,” V2 complimented his sibling’s creation just as they began to take aim at a tree in the distance.

V1 swiftly threw the snowball at the tree, pelting its branches with unforgiving powdered ice before they energetically started to jump up and down. Had V2 had a mouth, he would be smiling at V1’s expressed happiness. The war-machine bent down and butted their brother’s arm, catching him off-guard and prompting him to gently nudge them away.

“Slow down—I know you’re waiting ever-so-patiently to open the box, but like I said. We’ll get to that later,” the second replied, patting V1—who looked disappointed—on the head as compensation for pushing them. V1 sat down next to V2 and began to purr, the displayed golden-yellow eye in their visor closing partially as they relaxed physically and mentally.

V2 gave in. The robotic siblings sat there together, wordless and silent as they looked upon the intensifying snowfall upon the cityscape beneath them with peace on their minds. 

A lone grain of sand fell upon V1’s arm. They tensed up at the feeling. A mysterious dread filled their mechanical heart before swiftly being broken by the sound of their brother’s soothing voice. 

“Let’s head back, then,” V2 said, looking over to his side at V1. “I’ve got something to show you.”

In response, V1 nodded their head and chirped to express their interest as they stood up.

V2 held the door to his apartment open as V1 slowly entered, taking a long moment to look around at the… surprisingly nice place. Had humans really left them out of so much? They felt the fabric of a nearby couch, squeezing it with great interest; they’d never seen—well, felt—anything like it before. The click of the door behind them caused them to flinch, nearly panicking thanks to the sudden loud noise, but they quickly calmed down—knowing that they were safe in the presence of their brother. V1 batted at the blinds covering the window, to which V2 responded by opening the blinds and allowing the war-machine to peek through and watch as the snow continued to fall. 

It looked awfully like white sand as it piled up.

The feeling of dread returned, but faded once more when V1 turned around to see a smaller, undecorated (and fake) variation of the pine tree that V2 had pointed out earlier. V1 began to approach it, wondering if they’d get to put lights on it as well. 

V2 walked over and set the box down nearby, then turned to face V1 again. “Got the fake tree from one of our engineers. I’ll have to return it once the holidays are over, though,” V2 spoke, tapping his knuckle against the plastic branches pridefully. He always acted as if he was above everything else because of how frequently he was practically spoiled. 

V1 was still focused on the box; they kneeled down and tapped its lid, flicking their finger at the bow upon it. Shaking his head disapprovingly, V2 gently pulled V1 away from it by the shoulder. 

“Not yet,” he said. He walked off, trusting that V1 wouldn’t try to peek inside of the box, and soon came back with a larger cardboard box full of all kinds of decorations. A mechanical, strained grunt set itself loose from his vocal processor as he set the box down on the floor with a thud from the heavy container and a click from his joints as they popped back into their proper places. “I’ll show you how to decorate a tree. You haven’t done that before, have you?”

The blue machine shook their head ‘no’ in response, then chirped in excitement and bent their knees as they dropped down into a sort of frog-like position next to the cardboard box. 

“Thought so. Alright then, we’ll take out the lights first,” V2 stated as he pulled on a long cable of lights, listening closely as ornaments clinked together. 

V1 stood back up and helped their brother hold the string of lights as they were guided along coiling them around the tree, carefully nestling parts of it between the various branches of the plastic plant before finally plugging the cable into the wall. 

“Now onto the tinsel. You can do that; it’s similar to the lights, but… not electrical, nor does it have lights,” V2 stated. If he had a proper face, he’d be smiling. 

With a nod, V1 grabbed the silver tinsel out of the box and carefully figured out where to start, then began to wrap it in the same direction as the lights, trying to set it at just slightly different levels for variety. They put their hands on their hips pridefully afterwards, tilting their head back as their wings rose and twitched energetically.

V2 gave a little example by taking some ornaments out and hanging them upon the tree. V1 took note of that and continued V2’s work as the red machine headed back into the closet in order to grab some hanging lights, which he added to the windows by raising the blinds to give himself more room to do so. He flicked the switch, turning on the icicle blue-and-white lights before going back to V1, who was hanging up the last ornament—which looked like a panel with a stony red, almost expressionless face on it. It was oddly familiar to V1. 

They froze for a moment at the feeling of deja vu.

They shrugged it off, though. 

It didn’t matter much.

“There. I’d say we did pretty good,” V2 commented, patting V1 on the back—which unfortunately startled them and prompted him to pull his gentle hand away. V1 butted their brother in the chest, purring against him and folding their brightly glowing wings together. “Aww.”

For a killing machine, V1 could be quite cute. They ran back over to the box and chirped, holding it up and tilting their head, nonverbally asking if they could open it.

“Go for it,” the red one responded. 

Before opening their gift, though, V1 had something to give V2. They materialized a notebook from one of their wings—their personal notebook—and flipped through it until they found what they were looking for, ripping the paper out and handing it to their brother, who looked over it with a feeling of happiness welling up within him.

It was a drawing of the two standing together, consisting entirely of pencil and crayon. Each line seemed a bit shaky—unstable, as a result of the creator’s anxiety—but V1 was proud, and V2 really appreciated the work that went into it. “Thank you.”

V1 jumped up and down before finally taking the lid off of the box, reaching into it and finding a strange pendant of some kind. It looked like a crescent moon, and it seemed to pulsate with a strange energy. It also felt like it was covered in tiny grains of sand—the same sand that fell from the roof. 

…Wait. Sand falling from the roof?

They rushed to the window and looked outside, only to find a seemingly infinite wasteland with a towering pyramid that seemed to pierce even the heavens. The sky was a bright, piercing blue with no clouds in the sky as the sun beat down upon the literally golden desert.

Wasn’t that a city mere moments ago?

They looked over to V2, who seemed unalarmed by anything except for V1’s fear. He watched cluelessly, unaware of what the blue machine was experiencing. “Are you okay?” he asked.

V1’s gaze bolted back over to the window. Cracks spread from its center like a web, reaching the previously stable walls with no effort at all. Timidly, the machine backed up. The notebook paper rustled in a sourceless breeze, landing near V1 and sliding across the smooth ground. They lifted the drawing up, only to find that it had changed from a message of connection—of care—to a message of death. It now depicted a vivid image of V1 pointing their gun to a mangled, dying V2, blood staining the both of them like war paint. 

Their pulse rose sharply.

“Don’t you remember?”

V1 looked at V2, then at the paper and the moon pendant again.

“You killed me.”

When they landed their eye upon V2 again, he stood there like a zombie of some kind than the individual that stood there before. His left arm was completely gone, replaced with wires and flesh that dangled from the hole that should’ve otherwise been a limb. Blood leaked from a wound in his chest and light flickered underneath his shattered visor. The apartment began to crumble. 

V1 ran to the tree, only for it to turn to golden dust at the simple touch of their guilty hands.

The walls disintegrated. V1 looked at the floor; it was made of dented sandstone, stained in blood and covered in a mural that was probably important even if it only depicted the same stone face as that one ornament. They tried to lift the moon pendant, only to find a paper in its place that read:

“You killed him.”

The same text suddenly spread across their body like a rash, repeating the same simple, accusatory phrase over and over. 

Their hands were coated evenly in blood.

V2’s corpse was unrecognizable. His whiplash arm laid near V1’s feet, scarlet staining the ground near the exposed shoulder joint. He was nothing more than a bloody paste with occasional pieces of scrap that scattered the sandstone.

V1 dropped the papers and pulled out their piercer revolver, turning off their optics as they moved their shoulders and chest in mimicry of someone taking a deep breath in. They hesitated for a moment, hands trembling as they pressed the tip of the gun against the side of their head—where all of their major computing components and their artificial brain were. 

Was this real?

Was this a nightmare?

They couldn’t tell anymore, but they had to escape at any cost. They had nothing to lose.

They pulled the trigger.

The last thing they heard was a loud bang followed by the sound of metal and gel striking the ground.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (4 of 7)

Episode 13: Gravity

Plot (as given by me):

Tom Paris, Tuvok and the Doctor crash-land on an alien planet; while Tuvok scouts the area, an alien woman steals supplies from the shuttle.  She is then attacked by another group of aliens, who Tuvok saves her from before taking her back to the shuttle.

 The planet is part of a star-system contained within some kind of distortion in sub-space, a gravity anomaly pulling ships through from normal space and stranding them on the planet.  Unbeknownst to the stranded away team, there is also a time difference at play; months for them are only days in normal space.  When Voyager arrives at the anomaly, they begin to learn the situation and prepare for a rescue.  However, an alien salvage team is bent on collapsing the distortion to prevent more ships being lost.  Janeway and her crew also learn that this “sinkhole in space” is on the verge of collapse anyway, and if their people are trapped inside, they will be killed along with anyone else.

 On the sinkhole planet, Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor form a friendship with the alien woman, Noss, who becomes enamoured on Tuvok.  However, Tuvok pushes her away, stating he cannot return her feelings.  When Paris tackles him about this, Tuvok explains how as a young man, he almost lost control over his volatile Vulcan emotions out of love, and studied with a Vulcan master to regain his control.

 Eventually (by the away team’s reckoning of time), Voyager beams them back along with Noss.  While Paris is disappointed by B’Elanna not missing him as much as he did her due to the time differential, Tuvok mind-melds with a departing Noss so she can understand his actions and how he feels.

Review:

This episode is meant to be something of a character exploration episode, mainly looking at Tuvok and how he got to be the typically emotion-repressing, logic-centric Vulcan we already know him to be. Frankly, it’s not that good an episode because not only do we not spend much time with Tuvok’s past, but to be fair, all Vulcans would have to go through an education of emotion control anyway. Tuvok’s backstory here is more about him having to go for a refresher course because he rejected his original training, and to my mind, it would have been more interesting to see the original training.

 Otherwise, the episode is just a load of technobabble rubbish and hollow action, and overall it amounts to a waste of a character episode.  I give this one only 4 out of 10.

Episode 14: Bliss

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Crewmembers Seven of Nine and Ensign Tom Paris return to Voyager from an away mission with young Naomi Wildman. They soon learn that the crew believes they have found a wormhole leading directly back to Earth. Seven is immediately suspicious, and secretly reviews Captain Janeway's logs. Janeway's earlier logs indicate finding a possible wormhole that was giving off deceptive readings; the later logs appear to dismiss those concerns, with Janeway directing the ship towards it without concern, believing to have obtained communications from Starfleet directing them through it.

 Seven continues investigating the wormhole, but finds the crew blocking her efforts: the Astrometrics Lab is taken offline, supposedly to conserve power, and her communications with an alien named Qatai, warning them away from the anomaly, are cut short. Seven realizes she and Naomi are the only ones unenthusiastic about returning to Earth—Seven has no memory of Earth and Naomi has never seen it. The crew report continually receiving unbelievably upbeat and happy messages from Earth; Janeway's former fiancée has ended his engagement to another woman, Neelix is being made an ambassador and Paris is offered a dream job. The Doctor agrees with Seven's assessment that the crew is being manipulated. The crew take The Doctor offline and attempt to place Seven into stasis, telling her it will prevent attracting the Borg with their passage. Seven evades them and erects a force field in engineering while attempting to halt the ship, but the crew knock Seven out.

 Seven wakes to find that Voyager has entered the anomaly that appears to be a massive bio-organism digesting the ship's hull. The remaining crew have been knocked unconscious. Seven makes contact with Qatai, whose ship is also trapped inside the anomaly. Qatai reveals that they are inside a creature that telepathically tricks crews to enter it in order to consume their starships. He has been trying to destroy the creature for years since it killed his wife and family. After reactivating The Doctor, Seven and Qatai are able to force the creature to eject both ships by igniting some of Voyager's antimatter with Qatai's weapons. The plan appears to be effective, both ships free of the creature, but Qatai asserts they are still inside the creature, and that their escape is what Seven desired and the creature is influencing her mind. They repeat the procedure, and are successfully ejected.

 As Voyager's crew returns to consciousness and sets course to the Alpha Quadrant, first releasing a line of beacons to warn other vessels away from the creature. Qatai is seen sighing and returning to the creature to continue fighting it.

Review:

Another Seven-centric episode, and by this point I’m starting to see why a lot of cast and crew felt the show was getting a bit too Seven-Janeway centric in this season.  The fact that the following episode is feature-length and focuses on Seven as well makes this one badly timed if anyone had any hopes of counter-balancing this at the time, but that’s beside the point for now.  For this episode, we’re getting another return home bait-and-switch mixed in with Seven’s customary anxiety over going to Earth, only made anywhere near decent by the telepathic ship-swallowing alien. Throw in the Ahab-like Qatai, and this story has an interesting “Moby Dick meets the Odyssey” kind of feel.

 Beyond this, we get Naomi Wildman used to good effect, but the episode doesn’t really delve into Seven’s character or anyone else’s, and there’s no issue to explore.  It’s literally just hollow action partly supported by an interesting twist on previously used plot devices, all to show off the newer main cast member.  Frankly, this mid-point of season 5 is quite a low point in Trek story-telling.  On this occasion, I’m only doling out 6 out of 10.

Episode 15-16: Dark Frontier

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

After Voyager manages to destroy a Borg vessel by beaming a photon torpedo aboard, Seven of Nine finds data nodes filled with tactical information among the debris. With it they locate a heavily damaged sphere nearby, and Captain Janeway decides to plan a "heist"; invade the Borg vessel while its defences are down and take its transwarp coil, which will shave about 20 years off Voyager's journey. The crew will create a diversion, then send an away team in to steal the technology. Hoping to find information that will give them a tactical edge, Janeway assigns Seven to study her parents' field notes that Voyager recovered from the Raven.

 Once she begins studying her parents' logs, Seven remembers their encounters with the Borg. She was only a small girl at the time, but she vividly recalls their fascination with the mysterious Collective. Meanwhile, Voyager catches up with the sphere. The sphere's shields and transwarp drive will be off-line for the next 72 hours, allowing the crew only a short time to plan and execute the mission.

 During a holographic simulation, Janeway and the others practice their mission down to the second. They have only two minutes to find and extract the transwarp coil after the sensor grid aboard the Borg sphere is disabled. Their simulated mission fails when Janeway and her team take too long and the Borg regenerate their sensor grid and detect the intrusion. After leaving the holodeck, Seven is unsettled by her close proximity to the Borg, even if it was not real. During a dream where Naomi Wildman begins asking her questions about the Collective before being assimilated, Seven learns that the Borg have accessed her neural transceiver and know about Janeway's plan.

 Further research of her parents' mission lead Seven to conclude her parents underestimated the Borg, which eventually led to their assimilation. It was during this research that Seven discovered the Hansens' description of a bio-damper in their notes, which they used to move around undetected in a Borg vessel while conducting their field research. The Voyager team replicates the technology for use in their raid on the Borg sphere. Asserting that she is willing to risk her own well-being for the sake of the crew, Seven persuades Janeway to assign her to the away team despite the Captain's reservations.

 The mission goes as planned until Seven once again hears the voice of the Collective calling her back to the hive. In a sudden change of heart, she refuses to transport back to Voyager with the others, and Janeway is forced to leave her before she is assimilated herself. The sphere returns to Borg space with Seven on board, and the Borg Queen welcomes her back to the Collective.

 The Borg Queen informs Seven that the Borg "allowed" Voyager to liberate her from the Collective, but she will not be turned back into a drone because they want to study her memories. With her individuality intact, the Borg can look through her eyes to help them assimilate humanity. Meanwhile, Janeway discovers that Borg signals were being sent to Seven in her cargo bay alcove. Determined to rescue Seven, Janeway leads an away team in the Delta Flyer to find the Borg sphere that took Seven away. They use the stolen transwarp coil to take the shuttle into transwarp space, and incorporate multi-adaptive shielding based on the Hansens' field notes from the Raven to go undetected by the Borg.

 As Seven is given her first assignment to assist in the assimilation of a species, she secretly helps four of the individuals escape. The Borg Queen scolds her, saying that her human emotions of compassion and guilt are weaknesses that are causing her pain. However, when Seven pleads with her to let the getaway ship escape, the Queen grants her request.

 After the away team follows the sphere into Borg space, Janeway prepares to send a message to Seven through her Borg interplexing beacon. The Queen gives Seven a new assignment, to assist in the programming of a nanoprobe virus that will assimilate humans. The Borg plan is to detonate a biogenic charge in Earth's atmosphere, and Seven will be turned into a drone if she does not comply. Taunting her, the Queen reveals that one of the drones standing next to her is Seven's father. Suddenly, Janeway's signal comes through, and the Queen discovers it.

 As the Borg adapt to the Delta Flyer's shielding, Janeway is forced to beam to the vessel and deactivate the shield matrix around the Queen's chamber. While Paris eludes the other ships, Janeway confronts the Queen and orders Seven to leave with her. A dispersal field is formed around the chamber to block the Delta Flyer's transporter beam, but Seven tells the Captain to target the power node above the chamber. This disrupts the Queen's command interface, and Janeway and Seven are beamed to the shuttle. They quickly enter a transwarp conduit, but not before a Borg vessel sneaks in behind them. On Voyager, Chakotay orders Torres to fire a full spread of photon torpedoes at the conduit threshold, collapsing it just as the shuttle bursts through. The Borg ship is destroyed, and Seven is home again. Voyager uses the coil and gets 15 years closer to home before it burns out and is rendered useless.

Review:

This time instead of being a mid-season two-parter, we get a full feature-length episode that’s broken into two parts only during TV repeats.  It’s another Seven episode, albeit with Janeway also playing a major part, and while at first you get the benefit of fleshing out Seven’s backstory, that only lasts for most of part 1.  After that it’s the whole “individual versus drone”, “can you take the drone out of the collective?” drama getting repeated ad nauseum with typical Voyager action beats. In other words, the sort of mindless popcorn-action spectacle that can work well in an original film or TV show, but falls flat in Trek.  In Trek, you have to develop characters or explore issues to really justify the Roddenberry rule that each episode is about something. Expanding on a past established backstory element is not really development of a character because there’s nothing truly new for us to learn, and there’s not an issue in sight.  In short, this is a wasted double-length episode by Trek standards, and I can only give it 4 out of 10.

[sleepinginks]

About us/boundaries

Please read before leaving any asks

General blog trigger warnings:

religious trauma/sa/csa/mental health abuse/disabled abuse/growing up repressed lgbtq+ related trauma/familial\parental estrangement/ and related topics.

-!This blog will have a certain amount of personal info about who we are and some of the trauma we have delt with. Please remember that we are a person who has actually experienced these things and that this first and foremost a way for us to write our thoughts down and out of our head.!-

-Introdutions-

We are someone who has been diagnosed with DID aka dissociative identity disorder. For context this is a disorder that is caused by repeated severe childhood trauma by a caregiver (or close adult) before the age of 8/9 and fundamentally changes how the brain process trauma. (Colin A. Ross, MD who was the first and still is the leading researcher on DID for over thirty years is a great resource if you would like to read/watch more of the topic. He has a few of his lectures on youtube (link is one of said lecture) for free.)

At last count we have roughly 40+ alters in our system and about a dozen that front on a regular basis.

The alters that will be posting the most on here are

Roy: he/they/ze, non-human, biblically accurate angels vibes :tag: roy ramble

Tilo: she/they/ze, non-human, used to be part of Roy :tag: tilo loitering

Grey: they/them/ze, non-human, nickname-goatman, used to be part of Roy :tag: grey the goatman

Ariana: she/they, human, nickname-Ari, 19 :tag: ari ginja ninja

Lunar: she/they, literally the moon :tag: lunar low hours

Wander: they/them, dragon, mouth piece for littles :tag: wander the dragon and wander mouth piece

Mr Jace: he/him, vampire (vibes of alucard from hellsing), vamp may feel eye roll worthy but its because of trauma related to blood :tag: Jace vamp corner

Other info: body is 22, POC, we are intersex but raised as female by force, we will not be posting pictures our body physically here but we are an "accountant" by trade that can be found in other places. This is due to our physical disabilities that lead to us not being able to have a more traditional job anymore, fun fact: before our body basically imploded we worked as an EMT and before that a semi professional dancer (never associated with a particular company but had been scouted by them and did freelance)

If we do not answer as ask, know its for a good reason and not related to who may be asking it.

Thank you for reading and we hope that you can vibe with us in our little corner.

[twdbegins]

The Cold Truth

Simon x Fem! Reader

Warnings: Language. Near hypothermia. 

A/N: This originally was going to be lighthearted and fluffy, idk where the angst came from. 

Word Count: 3.1k

“You can’t control what happened. And you’re only making yourself guilty for something that isn’t your fault.”

The sound of your chattering teeth was unmistakable as you struggled to keep a steady grip on the steering wheel of the vehicle due to your shivering limbs.

The truck seemed to be moving in slow motion as you approached the place that you loosely referred to as home. The Sanctuary was just within eyesight, and never in your life had you been more relieved to be returning to the large structure that was once a fully functioning factory.

At this point, you didn’t even care about all the resources and goods that you and Arat had found on your scouting mission. The only thing that you could even begin to think about was getting warm. 

You weren’t sure when or how winter months in the south became so brutally cold. It seemed like all of a sudden the season changed from fall to winter and it was like it was handcrafted by Jack Frost himself. Now every year was a frigid winter, and it had brought some major challenges. 

The main one: staying warm when exposed to the outside elements. On top of keeping walkers at bay, you now had to prevent hypothermia and/or frostbite. 

And if you thought enduring the freezing temperatures was difficult while dry, now you were experiencing it while soaking wet.

Taking an unintentional dip in an unmarked river had not been part of your plan for the day. It was quite hidden, and you hadn’t realized that it was there until you were literally in it. You had lost your footing at the top of a steep slope, which had been an unpleasant and uncontrollable ride down. While the body of water broke your fall, it presented an entirely new problem. 

The water was colder than anything you had ever felt hit your skin. It was nearly painful when it made contact, as if you had been pierced with billions of needles simultaneously. The initial sting of the water had forced air into your lungs, which caused you to thrash around and scramble to your feet.

The water hadn’t seemed to miss an inch of you because you were drenched from head to toe with icy water. It was quite the task to wring as much water out of your outer clothes as possible because the shakes and shivers came on very quickly. Little clouds of mist surrounded you as the chilled water leaked from everywhere off of your frame. 

Arat had been lucky that she avoided the same fate, but she was fast to join you at the bottom of the hill to assist you in getting up. The trek back to the truck had been a long one it seemed like. The squishing in your boots was a constant the whole way back, which was just another reminder of how cold you were.

The ride home had been miserable to say the least. Of course you had been graced with the one vehicle that didn’t have a proper heating/AC system, so there was no chance of any temporary relief. It didn’t help that the sun was beginning to set, so the outside temperature would only be dropping.

Arat had helped you load all of the newly found goodies into the back as rapidly as possible, while also helping you strip as much outer clothing as you could afford to. Simon had snuck one of his flannels into your spare backpack that you kept in the truck in case of emergencies, and this had definitely been classified as an emergency. 

His flannel returned some heat back into your body, but it wasn’t nearly enough. While you were driving, Arat rummaged through the entire truck looking for any kind of clothing that a previous savior had left behind. Your shivering grew worse by the minute, and you had begun to seriously worry that hypothermia was going to get the best of you. Coming up on The Sanctuary had been a blessing to see, and it was a sight that you’d never take for granted again.

Once you were in range, Arat had used her walkie-talkie to relay to Negan to round up anybody who was available to lend a hand with getting everything unloaded so you could go straight inside to get properly warmed up. 

By the time you had entered The Sanctuary and parked the truck in the courtyard, you were hardly able to control any of the muscles in your arms or legs. The sun had gone down completely, and the lack of sunlight had not helped your case. Your skin had gone clammy and frozen long ago, to the point where there was hardly much feeling there at all.

The tailgate of the truck was lowered as soon as you arrived, and several of the men began hauling the items from the back. They all clamored with excitement over the new resources to use and some restocked valuables that The Sanctuary had desperately needed. Negan had been watching from afar, and he himself seemed pleased. However, you nor Arat could bask in the glory. 

It was far more work than it should’ve been to open the driver’s side door, and Arat was at your side as soon as your feet hit the pavement. Simon had been standing next to Negan off in the distance, a proud smirk plastered on his face at your fruitful return. His smile didn’t last long because he immediately noticed something was wrong when he watched you exit the truck. 

“We need to get you to see the doctor. You’re cold all over.” Arat’s hands felt heavy on your arms as she held you steady, but you couldn’t feel any heat coming off of them.

“I’m f-fine.” You stuttered, the intense shivering causing a slur and stutter to your words.

Water was only dripping from your hair now, but the remainder of your clothes were damp with moisture. Every step felt weighted, and you were beginning to think that you wouldn’t be able to make it inside without having to be helped. 

“You’re shaking,” Arat stated, horrified by the violent trembling of your body. “We need to get you inside.”

Before you could agree nor protest, there was a tall figure stabilizing your other side, with just as much concern as your dear friend.

“What happened to you?” Simon questioned, his eyes going wide when he felt the state of your current predicament. “Shit. You’re freezing.”

The answer to his question came to mind, but computing it into words didn’t happen. There was too much going on in your mind right now for a simple sentence to be formed.

“She fell into a river. She got completely wet.” Arat explained, using her free hand to rub some friction over your arm that was closest to her.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Simon asked you, and he could tell just by looking in your face that you were struggling to even comprehend what he was saying.

“N-no,” You shook your head. “Inside. P-please.” 

Simon nodded in agreement, wrapping his arm around your waist to get you into motion. He was not going to let you freeze to death. That would be a bad way to go. 

“I’ve got her. Thanks, Arat.” Simon said to her with genuine gratitude.

Arat felt better knowing that you were in Simon’s hands because he knew how to take care of you better than anyone. Simon ushered you through the crowd of bystanding saviors who were curious to know what sort of things you and Arat had turned up. In a pre-apocalyptic world, a gradual warm shower would’ve been ideal and heavenly. In the post world, you weren’t sure exactly how this was going to work. It wasn’t like The Sanctuary had real showers. The water system was touchy as it was, so getting a legit shower was part of a lottery system. You hoped that luck would be on your side because a warm shower was going to be a huge advantage for you.

Once you were out of the crowd and inside of The Sanctuary, Simon’s voice rumbled in your ear.

“You alright?” He lovingly ran his thumb across your hip. “Baby, you’re so cold.” 

“I know. I-I just need to g-get warm.” You sputtered, sticking as close to him as you could.

“How did this happen?” Simon questioned, rounding a corner to get to the main staircase. “It’s not like you to slip up like that.”

“Just lost m-my footing,” You answered. “That water was cold.”

“Clearly,” He snorted. “We’ll get you fixed up. Just hang in there.”

Simon was planning on rolling the dice with a decent shower as well. He escorted you to his room, which was more defined than yours and included a bathroom. His room was warmer than the rest of the building, which would play in your favor. You began undressing the rest of your clothes as soon as you entered the bathroom, slipping off Simon’s borrowed flannel first.

“S-sorry about your shirt.” You apologized, referring to its damp state.

He took the shirt from you and tossed it on the floor. 

“It’ll dry.” He stated with a grin.

Your fingers fumbled and struggled to get the buttons undone of your shirt underneath. Your shivers hadn’t ceased, and it was getting the best of your motor functions. Simon noticed your fruitless attempt, and stepped in to help.

“I got you. We need to get you warmed up.” He effortlessly unbuttoned the column of buttons, pushing the shirt off of your shoulders to let it fall to the floor.

The water was running smoothly (which you were grateful for) and the steam coming from it was an indicator that it was indeed going to be a warm one. Simon stepped out of the bathroom to give you privacy, but kept a listening ear out in case you needed him. 

The shower wasn’t pleasant at first. Warm water on cold skin wasn’t comfortable. It was both painful, yet relieving at the same time. You made noises of strain and discomfort as you fought through the initial shock because you knew this was the only way you’d be able to get your core temperature back to normal. The goosebumps on your body were so stiff that the hairs on your arms were immovable as you ran your hands over them. Despite the first couple minutes of struggle, the burn in your fingers and toes faded and the rest of your body began to relax. Your shivering slowly came to more of a dull shake, and your mind fog began to clear.

In the adjacent bedroom, Simon picked a pair of his sweats and a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt for you to wear. He planned on bundling you up as much as he could. He knew that you wouldn’t be happy with abandoning your usual sleep attire, but he was more focused on keeping you alive. Just as he plucked a pair of socks from his top drawer, the bathroom door opened to reveal you were dried off and wrapped in a towel with a tremendous improvement to your complexion. He noted that your legs were still wobbly, which put him into motion.

“Come here, lovebug. Put this on.” He extended the clothes in his hands to you once you were standing in front of him.

“Is this really necessary?” You griped, just as he had expected. 

“Yes. Please?” He pressed politely. “It would make me feel a lot better knowing that you’re not going to freeze in your sleep.”

The look on his face was hard to say no to, but he didn’t even wait for an answer before he began dressing you himself. It was obvious that he was panic stricken because he hardly even paid any attention to the fact that your naked body was at his disposal….and he always took advantage of that situation. 

“I’m not going to die,” You giggled, but he hardly seemed to find any humor in it. “I’m fine, honey.”

He didn’t respond until you were fully dressed and clothed as much as possible without completely overdoing it. His hands carefully rested on your triceps as he pulled you closer to press another kiss to your forehead.

“I know,” He mumbled. “How about we get some sleep?”

Slipping into Simon’s bed was the best thing that had happened to you all day. Simon kept his bed well layered (which hadn’t always been the case because before you came into the picture, he was a singular sheet kind of guy), and it brought that final push of warmth that you needed. It was beyond heavenly, and you were grateful for it. Simon wasn’t far behind, only taking the time to set his alarm clock for the next morning as he always did. He already had the intention of snoozing it and going into Negan’s morning briefing late, but at least now he could say he made an effort to be on time.

He didn’t even wait for you to get comfortable before he had pulled you in as close as possible, and even entwined his legs with yours to keep you from going too far. You were so close, in fact, that you could hear his heartbeat in his chest – and how it was nearly about to pound out of his chest. 

“You’re still shaking a little,” He stated when he noticed the last of your shivering in your muscles. “Are you warm enough?”

“Mmhm. I’m plenty warm. Thanks.” You kissed him, soft and slow.

He was usually a chatterbox before going to bed for the night. He liked to ask about your day if he didn’t happen to run into you, or tell you about his if something interesting or out of the ordinary happened. He was oddly mellow, and it was obvious that something was up.

“What’s wrong?” You cooed to him, your head falling against his chest while you stared up at him.

Your knuckles dragged across his jaw with a feather-like touch, the stubble from his unattended facial hair tickling at your fingers. His general expression remained neutral, but his eyes had anxiety reflecting off of them. He wasn’t acting like himself.

“Ah. It’s nothing,” He shifted in place, the way he always did when he was lying. “I’m alright.”

“Don’t do that. Talk to me. That’s what we do.” You asked again, a bit more assertive this time. 

He couldn’t help but chuckle. He could never get anything past you. He knew better than to try to slip the truth past you, and he knew that wasn’t fair.

“I hate it when Negan sends you out on your own without me,” Simon shuddered. “It worries me sick.”

This wasn’t the first time that you and Simon had talked about this. This was a recurring conversation that always seemed to come back up one way or the other. Negan and Simon had actually had a falling out over it once or twice, which really only irritated Negan and didn’t result in any kind of a solution.

“I’m a grown woman, Si. I can look after myself,” You replied. “Besides, I had Arat with me – so it wasn’t exactly a solo mission.”

“I trust Arat as a partner more than half of the men here, but…I guess if I always had a say in it, I’d always choose myself to go instead.” He swallowed hard.

“You can’t go every time. You already have so much to do here on a daily basis,” You went on. “I have to do my fair share just like everybody else.”

“I know…I know,” He sighed. “I know you can take care of yourself. I’ve never doubted that. I just can’t help but worry about you.” 

Simon hadn’t ever outright said it, but over time you had put the pieces together that he felt the need to protect you. If something were to happen to you, he’d feel guilty that he wasn’t there to prevent it. He didn’t want anything to happen to you because at this point, none of this was worth it without you.

“I feel like there’s not much I can say to ease your concerns. It’s…just a risk that we have to take.” You said.

“I know that, baby. In any situation we’d have to. I just…”He trailed off, struggling to find the right words.

“Wish that things were different?” You offered.

He went quiet again, and you knew that you had hit a nerve. You weren’t shy to admit that you had shared that same thought once or twice. Of course you missed the pre-apocalyptic world. Everybody did.

The world now was far harder to thrive in than it needed to be. There was so much bad in a place where there used to be so much good. His feelings were relatable, and you understood completely.

But at the end of the day, you couldn’t do a thing to change it.

“But would we have ever met if the world hadn’t turned?” You questioned him, and he raised a brow and settled it.

“I’ve thought about that before. It’s about the only reason that I’m glad the world went to shit,” Simon exhaled. “I wish I could’ve given you a better life.”

“I’m happy now. Isn’t that enough?” You replied back.

“Not when I know that I could’ve given you so much more.” 

“You can’t control what happened. And you’re only making yourself guilty for something that isn’t your fault.” 

The truth was cold. And it seemed that every time it was served to him, it got colder each time. He knew you were right, and he knew that there wasn’t a thing he could do. All he could do was love you, and do what he could now to show you that.

“I love you.” He almost blurted, but in the most honest way.

“I love you, and I really am happy with you. No matter what.” You assured him, and it seemed to offer him some consolation.

You didn’t like ending the day on such a bittersweet moment. If you could have it your way, you’d want to end every night with the two of you giggling about something funny that happened during the day or falling asleep hardly even dressed for bed because you were so tired from working all day. Every once in a while, you had a day where things just didn’t go well, and it was a cruel reminder of the position you were in. 

Despite that, you both tried to stay positive. The sun still rose and set every day, and the two of you were well off for the most part. You had several advantages in your corner, and that was something you tried to focus on. You had a great person to navigate this hell of a world with, and that was something you were blessed to have.

For however long you had left.

[berthemorisot14]

Chapter 2. The world is not what you think, Levi.

I believe that the chapter “Ilse's Notebook” is a very important piece not only to understand Levi-Han relationship but to follow the whole story afterwards. 

The manga chapter was first released as the special edition between chapter 18 and 19 (year 2011). In the manga, Hange and Levi happens to discover a fallen soldier(Ilse)’s jacket and notebook in the forest. A year ago, Ilse encountered a Titan who spoke to her, and she wrote about the Titan until the moment she was eaten to death. Hange warns that the area may be dangerous so they should leave, while Levi was absorbed in the notebook.

This is slightly different from the OVA, which was released 2 years later, in which Hange is portrayed as a reckless mad scientist.  Overall, in the manga, Hange is much more composed than in the ani. In the OVA, Hange begs Erwin, Levi and Mike to help her capture the Titan, only to be declined.

She goes on her own, and she spots a Titan, with whom she tries to communicate.  Oruo interrupts and while Hange tries to stop him, he is caught by the Titan.  Levi arrives and kills the Titan and gets furious at Hange for putting Oruo’s life at risk. When he grabs Hange by the collar and says “I don’t mind you (being eaten by the Titan and) becoming Titan shit”, she replies “Titans don’t defecate. They don’t have digestive systems.”

Later, Ilse’s notebook is found with her body. It surprised everyone. Not all Titans are the same. Hange studies Ilse’s records, and visits her family to return her jacket and pay due respect. 

Levi and his squad follow her along. Levi obviously realized that the weirdo Hange might actually be better poised than him to save the humanity. Oruo steps ahead and apologizes to Hange(on bahalf of Levi), that for the sake of his worthless life, she lost her chance to get precious material to save humankind. Hange grabs and lifts him, the second time during this OVA, and says, “I put your life at risk. It’s me that should apologize. BUT never say that your life is worthless.”

I was so moved by this scene that I fell in love with Hange. While walking along, Levi tells Hange, that Erwin finally approved the plan for capturing the Titan. Hange jumps with joy.  

Levi now perceives that regarding life as simply Titans vs humankind battle may be too naive, 2-dimensional way of understating this world.

PS. About the hair grab scene, if it was after ‘Ilse’s notebook’, Levi’s attitude towards Hange might have softened somewhat. In the OVA, the events of the scouting mission are set in the year 850. However, in the AOT Guidebook, these events are placed a year earlier in the year 849, which means that the hair grabbing scene happened after the discovery of Ilse’s notebook.

[treesnutsandleaveswrites]

What Cannot Change

Pairing: The Bad Batch x Reader (Polyam)

Summary: You return to a part of your old life with Hunter and things take a turn

Warning: angst, violence, bye-bye Kamino :(, TBB spoilers i guess, Crosshair being an ass but what’s new?

Word Count: 5581

A/N: SEASON FINALE, sorry this is mostly episode dialogue based and I combined the last two episodes

pt xxi pt xxiii

XXXXXXX

Crosshair stalked through the forest, scanning every inch for you. Deep within him, Crosshair can feel anguish and worry for your well-being. He just got you back… he didn’t want to lose you again. He looked over the trodden soil and cursed to himself. Hunter was always the better tracker, enhancements or not.

“Sir, we’ve scanned the area, there are signs of a lifeform just north of here.” One of his troopers informed.

“Let’s move.” He ordered, walking towards the direction the trooper pointed. The others with him followed, scouting the terrain around them just in case the Batch came back for a surprise attack. After a bit of trekking, Crosshair flicked down his spy glass and scanned for you. Behind some trees, his system spotted your heat signature and he rushed over. You were helmetless, a small cut formed above your brow, but from what he saw you were fine. He looked around you and noticed the broken branches, which signified that the trees must have broken your fall enough for you to not break your whole body from the height you fell. He felt a sense of relief at the bottom of his heart, but he couldn’t show any sign of vulnerability. He eyed your helmet and walked over to it as the troopers placed you on a stretcher.

“What should we do with her?” His squad member asked.

“Bring her to our ship and have a medical droid tend to her. She’s coming to Kamino with us.” He instructed while looking at his reflection in the visor of your helmet. He didn’t recognize the person looking back at him...

“Yes, Commander.”

After a moment, he headed back to the shuttle to go visit the prisoner already waiting for him.

*******

He followed the trooper leading him to the detention level and once the doors slid open, he spoke, “Leave me. I’ll go alone from here.”

“Yes, commander. He’s just at the end.”

He gave the trooper a curt nod before stepping into the vast corridor and making sure the doors slid fully closed behind him. He strutted all the way to the end and eyed his older brother through his helmet before taking it off.

“I was hoping for the whole squad… but you’ll do just fine.”

“Lodestar,” Hunter finally spoke, “Did you find her?”

“She’s fine, already loaded onto the ship. Sedated. But she’ll wake up by the time we land.”

“What do you mean ‘by the time we land’?”

“You didn’t think I would keep you here in a cell, did you?”

Hunter said nothing while glaring at his vod. Crosshair pressed a button to lower the shield of the cell and tossed cuffs at Hunter.

“Put them on, then follow me.”

Hunter knew not to resist, so he did as ordered.

“Finally following orders.” Crosshair placed his helmet back on, “How… humorous.”

Hunter stood as the cuffs were secured, which caused Crosshair to walk in, grab his brother’s helmet, then pull out his blaster.

“Move.”

*******

Hunter was escorted into the storage part of the shuttle by two of Crosshair’s troopers and you were already there: unconscious and laid in a stretcher with your hands cuffed together. What concerned him most was the oxygen mask covering the bottom half of your face.

“Lodestar…” He rushed to you and pushed your hair back with his own cuffed hands. He looked to the troopers, “Is she gonna be alright?”

The troopers said nothing, looking to the durasteel wall across from them, which did something to Hunter’s nerves.

“Answer me!” He ordered as he pushed one of the troopers against the wall. The other held up their blaster.

“I suggest you settle down… our Commander doesn’t want you dead but maybe he’ll make an exception for the girl if you don’t obey us.” The trooper threatened. Hunter surrendered and backed into the wall, trying to be as close to you as possible. He knew Crosshair wouldn’t hesitate to kill him first before any harm came to you, but he couldn’t risk it. After minutes of waiting, the shuttle finally began to take off and leave Daro’s atmosphere, and to his sheer luck, Crosshair had decided to come visit him again. The durasteel doors slid open and his vod strutted in, helmetless.

“Where are we going?” Hunter asked simply.

Crosshair crouched down and grabbed the communicator in one of the utility pockets on his brother’s belt, “You’ll find out soon enough,” He hissed while activating the device, “And so will your squad.”

“Using my comm won’t work. They’ll know it’s a trap.”

“They’ll still come for you.” Crosshair stated as the doors opened again, but hesitated as he glanced your way. However, he shook off the desire to check on you and headed back to the ship’s cockpit.

He entered and turned to the pilot, “Did the medical droid make a report on the girl’s condition?”

“Yes, commander. He inputted it into the computer.”

Crosshair nodded shortly before turning to a small panel and accessing the ship’s files. He found the most recent medical file and looked over it meticulously. Oddly enough, it had your birth name on it, which confused him. He looked for any files on medical history and found one with Nala Se’s signature on it. He knew he had to open it. While reading through the files, he came to a shocking discovery. The sniper took a moment to make sure no one was watching him before inputting a small device into the panel and downloading the file then deleting it from the computer’s database.

“Did you find it, sir?”

“Yes.” He answered plainly before leaving the cockpit and holding onto the small handle above him due to the main hull not having any seats. How is he going to approach you about this?

It wasn’t long until the shuttle landed in Kamino. The sudden jolts from the ship woke you up leading you to groan softly. You tried to reach for your head with one hand, but raised your wrists to look and see the cuffs around them. You huffed and pushed the mask off your face before sitting up and seeing one of Crosshair’s troopers standing over you with their blaster at hand.

“Up. Now.” She ordered, which you complied to. As you stood, Hunter was standing with another trooper.

“Hunter.” You gasped.

He looked at you with a hint of relief in his eyes. You moved past the soldier and went to him, cupping his face gently.

“Are you alright?” You looked over him worriedly.

“I’m alright…” He whispered, “Are you?”

You nodded before looking over his soldier and seeing Crosshair himself standing there. You moved with one of the troopers’ rough assistance and took your place next to Hunter. Crosshair said nothing as he led you all off the shuttle to Kamino’s main hangar. You looked around, seeing multiple troopers and soldiers loading the shuttles residing on the platform.

“Move it.” A trooper nudged you with their blaster so you could follow.

The group continued to walk before stopping while a man with a few troopers stood in front of you.

“Where are the rest of them?” He wondered while examining you and Hunter.

“They’ll be here.” Crosshair stated, “We’ll intercept upon arrival.”

The man turned to look at Hunter and smirked, “So you’re the one they call “Hunter.” The destruction your squad caused on Ryloth caught my attention.” Then he looked at you, “and you’re the liberator… What's your name again? Ah, yes, Lodestar. You’ve been causing a lot of trouble even before the Empire began. Some of our Outer Rim allies have talked of you before. You cost them a lot of credits for the slaves you freed.”

You said nothing, giving him a hard stare.

“I leave this to you, Commander. Stay on schedule.” He insisted before you were led away.

You walked down the bright corridors. It almost hurt your eyes, but that didn’t bother you as much as the memories starting to flood back to you. It’s been a year since you’ve stepped foot on Kamino, and it didn’t feel welcoming at all.

“Where are all the regs?” Hunter asked.

“When did you start caring about them?”

“No Kaminoans either.” Hunter continued, “This facility is being decommissioned. You don’t seem too concerned.”

“Why would I be?” Crosshair wondered.

“Because the Empire will be phasing out clones next.” Hunter turned to his brother with urgency.

“Not the ones that matter.” Crosshair jabbed him with the blaster he was holding.

“If they could assign people numbers like they’re nothing, then why do you think you matter?” You instigated, “Clones used to choose names for themselves because they didn’t just want to be a number… a lifeless digit. Now people are signing up for them like droids in a factory. The Empire is gonna learn that they can’t chip people they didn’t make.”

Crosshair turned to you, “Who are you to say anything? They gave up their lives to fight for a cause. You gave yours up out of fear!”

You stayed silent while looking at his emerald visor, wishing you could see his eyes. All of you kept walking down the corridor until you arrived at a room with large holomaps displayed on the walls. You’ve only been in a room like this one time, and it was when you were first starting on Kamino as an educational aid. You remember standing before Nala Se, Prime Minister Lama Suu, and Jedi Master Shaak Ti as they asked you multiple questions. Your heart raced the same as when you first stepped into that room, but you don’t know if it was the nerves or the rising pain in your body.

“A ship was detected entering the system, but we lost them below scanner range.” The trooper already waiting there announced.

“It’s them.” Crosshair said, taking a seat in one of the chairs.

“I’ll notify the scouts.” The other trooper stated, but Crosshair interrupted.

“Don’t bother. They’ll come to us. They don’t leave their own behind, most of the time.” The sniper sneered.

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice.” Hunter insisted.

“And I did?”

You looked at Hunter, “Hunter…”

“There was nothing we could do, cyare.”

You examined your metamour and knew he was being genuine. At the time, there must’ve truly been nothing he could do to save his brother.

“Crosshair, I’ve seen what the Empire’s doing,” Hunter started, “Occupying planets and silencing anyone who stands against them. You know it’s not right.”

Crosshair stood to loom over his vod, “You still don’t see the bigger picture, but you will…”

“Can’t you see they’re using you? Because of that damn chip in your head?” You shook your head, “I’ve seen it. Been on the inside. People-people are dying! Dying for a cause they don’t even know about! If the Empire is so great, then why don’t they share with their people? That’s what caused the downfall of the Republic, is that what the Empire wants?” You winced, stumbling back slightly.

“Cyare.” Hunter grabbed a hold of your arms, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I’m okay.” You murmured, “It’s okay.”

“The fall. You’re not fully healed-”

An alarm started to go off.

“We have an unauthorized entry on platform 5.” One of the troopers announced.

“Right on schedule.” He sighed, “Time to go.”

You were pulled away from Hunter before being led to the training room. You could feel the burn in your legs as you arrived onto the fighting ground and Crosshair held your cuffs while holding a blaster to Hunter’s back. A small noise came from in front of you and the boys were raised into the room, surrounded by Crosshair’s troopers.

“And here we all are, together again.” He tossed Hunter’s comm, “You won’t be needing your weapons.”

They hesitated before Hunter gave them a curt nod before tossing their weapons in front of them.

“See? Following orders isn’t so difficult.” He looked around, “Where’s your little sidekick?”

“You think we’d bring her here?” Wrecker pawned, “We’re smarter than that!”

“Lying was never your strength, Wrecker.” Crosshair retorted, “Find the kid.”

“No-” You tried to pull away from him, “Don’t touch her!”

The trooper left and you looked at him, “Cross-”

“That’s enough.” He tugged you back to him, “Hold your positions.” He ordered the troopers.

“So this was your grand plan? Bring us here, and kill us?”

“If I wanted you dead, you would be. Not that it wouldn’t be justified. You betrayed everything we stood for. And for what? The Republic?”

“We’re loyal to each other. Not some Empire.” Hunter argued.

“You weren’t loyal to me.” Crosshair hissed, “I was one of you. You may have forgotten, but I haven’t. And it’s why I’m going to give you what you never gave me: a chance.”

You looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. He then raised his hand as his communicator beeped.

“Sir, I’ve found the girl.”

“Send her on a shuttle off-world.”

“Crosshair, don’t.” Hunter ordered.

“It’s for her own good. And yours.”

“Omega belongs with us.”

“Living amongst fugitives where she’s in constant danger?” He scoffed, “You want to protect the kid, then let her go. Stop pretending to be something you’re not, Hunter. We’re not like the regs. We never have been. We’re superior. The Empire can’t protect the galaxy without strength. This is what we were made for. Think of all we could do… together.” He used Hunter’s knife to take off his cuffs, “We were brothers once… we can be again.” He pushed Hunter towards the others.

“Why would we trust you?” Hunter asked.

Crosshair held up his blaster and looked to his troopers, “Stand down.”

“Negative, commander.” One of the troopers said, but then Crosshair shot and it deflected, killing all the troopers. Crosshair undid your cuffs and let you go before taking off his helmet and walking towards Hunter.

“Does that answer your question? You all are meant for more than drifting through the galaxy. It’s time to stop running. Join the Empire, and you will have purpose again.”

You had fallen to your knees due to most of the energy having left your body from the pain, but you still watched him and the others.

“You really don’t get who we are, do you?” Hunter shook his head.

“Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t become my enemy.”

“Crosshair… We never were.”

An alarm went off, and the training droids started to rise into the training room. Hunter lunged at Crosshair, trying to get his blaster. You rushed towards the others, trying to ignore the pain. Tech pulled you with him so you both would have some cover.

“Why’d you activate the droids?” Wrecker called out to Tech.

“This was not my doing.” Tech stated. You grabbed one of the dead troopers blasters and started to shoot at the droids approaching. As you all fought, you eyed one of Crosshair’s troopers at the doors. She shot one of the droids before backing away and you tried to stop her with a non lethal shot, but it was no use. You continued to fight until everything died down and the Batch gathered, Omega rushing towards. They all glared at Crosshair and you watched their movements. Hunter raised his blaster and you immediately took action.

“Hunter, no!” You moved in front of Crosshair, “Stop!”

“Cyare…”

“Hunter, please.” You whispered, tears gathering in your eyes as you raised your blaster, “It’s his chip…”

“Sarad… put it down…” Crosshair muttered. You looked back at him, shaking your head, but he placed his hand on your arm to push it down.

“My chip was taken out a long time ago.”

Hunter spoke, “When?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“Cross, please.” You begged as Echo pulled you to him.

“This is who I am…” Crosshair stated.

Hunter took a moment, but before Crosshair could use his rifle to shoot any of you a stun blast came from another gun. The other turned to see you holding out a blaster while tears streamed down your face. You let out a small sob while Echo held you close, trying to comfort you.

Omega hugged Hunter, who looked down shameful, “Sorry, Omega. I know I promised you’d never have to come back here.”

“It’s okay.” She smiled.

“Hunter, three Venators are approaching the city, we need to leave now!” Tech informed. He nodded then took off Crosshair’s pack and rifle.

“Wrecker, grab Crosshair. He’s coming with us.” He went to you and grabbed your face, “Does it still hurt?”

“I can manage.” You whispered.

You all followed him quickly through the halls. The building started to shake and you all hesitated.

“Cmon!” Hunter ordered.

You arrived just outside, but everything was being destroyed.

“Back inside!” Hunter ordered. You urged Omega in and followed them.

“This way!”

You all rushed through Kamino, but then the building started to collapse.

“We need to find cover!” Hunter cried, but then there was a blast that threw you all back and made your ears ring. Suddenly, everything tilted and everyone was sliding while debris started to fall around you. You were stopped by some debris along with Omega, AZI, and Crosshair. Your vision was hazy and your ears were still ringing, before you knew it, the doors slid closed whcu separated you four from the others. You must have blacked out because a light was shining into your face, which made you open your eyes.

“Lodestar!” Omega cried.

“Omega.” You sat up, pushing the debris off of you with her help. Water was surrounding you all, which caused your instincts to kick in.

“You okay?” You cupped her face.

She nodded, “Yeah, but Crosshair is stuck!” She pointed her torch in his direction, “I’ve already told Hunter. I think he’s gonna get the door unstuck!”

You nodded, rushing over the Crosshair and trying to lift the debris off of him. He started to wake up and looked around.

“Greetings CT-9904, you survived the aerial bombardment but are now moments away from drowning.”

Crosshair groaned, “Get this off me!”

“AZI! Help!” Omega pleaded while trying to get the debris off.

The water started to rise while you were still trying to get unstuck.

“Omega, come here get to higher ground! I’m gonna try to get it off him from under the water!”

She nodded, trudging to take your place while you dove under the water. She must have ordered AZI to help you because he arrived by your side.

“Omega will try to break it with her weapon!” AZI said, the water muffling his voice slightly. You nodded, using your strength to move it. A few blasts entered the water which helped get the debris off Crosshair. You resurfaced, gasping for breath while Omega helped Crosshair out of the water.

“C’mon! We have to get the door open!” Omega announced, which caused you all to follow her towards the doors. You pulled against it, seeing it slightly open with Wreckers knife. Suddenly, it started to open and sucked you all out of the room. You were caught by one of them and coughed up some water while leaning against them. Crosshair stood and looked at his brothers.

“What have you done?”

“The Empire opened fire on the city. We weren’t gonna leave you behind.” Hunter explained.

“We don’t have time for this. We have to get topside before the whole structure submerges.” Tech interfered.

“If you want to stay here and die, that’s your call.” Hunter retorted before leading you all down the dark corridor. You rushed through one of the bridges that overlooked the production tubes. Omega had stopped to look over it, which caused you all to stop.

“Omega, come on. We have to go!” Wrecker insisted, which caused her to nod.

You all kept going until there was another explosion and the corridor started to tilt.

“Hold on to something!” Hunter called out as everyone started to slide. He just so happened to be next to you, so he grabbed your waist tightly and held you while you started to hang. After a moment or two, the building came to a thud and you were all back on the durasteel floor.

“I believe we have landed on the ocean floor. There is no way to accurately calculate the damage. Most of the facility must be-” Tech reeled off, but then the building started to jolt and water came from the top, “compromised.”

“We need to get to a space that’s more secure.” Hunter said.

“Follow me.” Tech insisted.

You all rushed before you all arrived to the most familiar thing to you in Kamino.

“Ironically, our old barracks is one of the few compartments habitable, albeit temporarily.”

“This is our room?” Wrecker groaned, “What happened to it?”

“At least the smell’s gone.” Echo commented.

“Check it out. Our board’s still here!”

Crosshair glanced at it, “All those missions together, and you threw it away.”

“We made a choice, and so did you.” Hunter remarked.

“Soldiers follow orders.”

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad.”

As they squabbled, you collapsed against one of the bunks, which just so happened to be Crosshair’s.

“Lodestar!” Echo rushed to you, “What is it? Are you injured?”

You couldn’t find the words as you leaned into him.

“AZI! Do a scan!” Omega ordered as she went to you.

AZI took a moment before speaking, “There are multiple contusions and two broken ribs. It seems like they were already tended to, but daily medicinal doses are needed to help the healing process.”

“It’s from her fall.” Omega realized.

“We have to get out of here.” Echo looked to Hunter, who nodded.

“We landed on the underwater tunnel!” Omega pointed it out, “If we use it to reach the base post, we could get back to the Marauder!”

“Accessing the tube will be… challenging.” Tech stated.

“Better than staying here.” Echo helped you up.

“We better try!” Omega insisted.

Crosshair sneered, “She’s calling the shots now?”

“You have a better idea?” Hunter nudged him while leading you all out of the barracks.

“My scans indicate the tunnel is right below this maintenance deck. AZI says, with a precise weld to maintain an airtight seal, this might work.”

“What do you mean, might?”

You leaned against the wall, holding your side. Hunter went to you, lifting your helmet off your head.

“Hey…” He whispered, cupping your face gently, “We’re almost there.”

“I know…” You smiled weakly, “If anything, you could leave me.”

He shook his head, “Don’t joke like that.”

You hummed before hearing a thud and looking to see AZI hovering over the whole he’s made. After a bit of observing, he called out.

“The tunnel is clear!”

You all looked at each other before entering. Hunter helped you down while Wrecker caught you gently.

“Got you, ad’ika.”

He set you down gently as everyone else made their way into the tunnel. You all walked carefully along the tunnel, but Crosshair said something which caused Wrecker to snap.

“Y’know, if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Something on your tiny mind, Wrecker?”

“All that time, you didn’t even try to come back.” He sighed, “We still would’ve taken you…”

“Let it go, Wrecker. Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding. It is his nature. You cannot change that. He cannot change that.” Tech explained.

“Why are you defending me?”

“I am not. Understanding you does not mean that I agree with you.” Tech stated simply.

Wrecker had made his way to you as you leaned against the transparisteel, “Let’s get you off your feet.” He said gently before lifting you into his arms.

“Let’s keep moving.” Hunter muttered.

You all tried to move on, but then there was some distant roaring.

“AZI, these tunnels are protected, right?” Omega wondered.

“Only when the power is operational, which it is not.”

Suddenly, a large creature approached the tunnel.

“Run!”

Wrecker rushed with you still in his arms.

“Restoring the power should deter the creature! Try to stay alive!” AZI called as he went ahead. As you all rushed up the tube, the creature started to bite at the transparisteel, making it shake slightly. Suddenly, some lights came on and the creature retreated. Water started to fill the tunnel, but then it was blocked off by some durasteel doors. You all jumped down, panting as AZI looked you all over. After a bit of rest, you made your way up the end of the tunnel and arrived to a large room. Hunter took his helmet off and shined his torch.

“What is this place?”

“Nala Se’s private lab,” Tech started, “Omega said this is where our mutations were manipulated and enhanced.”

Crosshair asked, “How does she know?”

“Because she was there. Omega was created before us. Technically, she is older than we are.”

Hunter and Crosshair looked slightly shocked, but you simply caressed her hair back with a smile. You all moved further into the lab, then Wrecker spoke.

“That’s gonna be a problem.”

You all looked to see the tunnel had collapsed completely.

“That was our only way to the Marauder.” Omega whimpered.

You all decided to sit back and take some time to relax. You tried to rest and ignore the pain in your body.

“Aha!” AZI exclaimed before hovering over to you, “A small dosage of pain medication. This will dampen the pain for an hour or so, Ms. Lodestar.”

“Thanks, AZI.” You whispered before he injected you, causing you to gasp slightly.

“Careful, droid.” Crosshair sneered as he made his way to you.

“Apologies. I will heed a warning next time.” AZI said before going to Omega.

You looked up at him as he crouched down and held out a small device.

“There’s something you should see.”

You nodded, gesturing for him to sit beside you. He hesitated before sitting next to you and bringing you closer to him. You laid your head on his shoulder as he opened a file on a datapad he must’ve found lying around. You saw it had your birth name on it and furrowed your brows.

“What is this?”

“A personal file from Nala Se.”

You shook your head, “This should’ve been transferred to the Republic’s database, where I had deleted all files on me.”

“This is different… just read it.” He insisted.

You nodded and looked at it, then you started to read outloud.

“Our newest educational aid, now assigned as Subject #9910, has requested a birth control implant. After running multiple tests, we will grant her request, but have concluded that she is the perfect subject for our new project.”

“Project?” Echo wondered as everyone listened in.

You went on, “Our trials for the natural reproduction of enhanced clones will start when Subject #9910 is assigned to a clone squadron…”

“Natural reproduction?” Omega asked.

“Subject #9910 has been assigned as a communications officer to Clone Force 99, our enhanced clone unit. When the time is right, we will remove her birth control and let the trials commence…” You looked at Crosshair, who gestured for you to go on, “Subject #9910 has been injured, which has delayed the chip removal…” YOu read on to find some shocking records, “Subject #9910 has initiated intimacy with CT-9904… CT-9901… CT-9903…”

“That’s all when we were on Kamino.” Tech remarked, “They were watching you…”

“I-” You tried to say something, but shook your head.

“After Nala Se believed you were terminated, she ended the Natural Reproduction project.” AZI announced, “She stopped looking for any further candidates.”

You got up, backing away from them.

“Cyare…” Hunter whispered.

“I-I thought I would be safe from the Kaminoans… from their tubes and their tests…”

“Darling-”

“What were they gonna do if I did get pregnant? Were they… were they gonna take the baby and then run tests on it?”

“Sh…” Crosshair stopped you as he noticed your breathing quicken. You leaned into him, trying to fight back tears.

“We really need to get out of here.” Echo groaned.

The Batch started to devise a plan while you sat alone with your thoughts. You eyed Hunter and Crosshair bickering again before Crosshair walked away while Omega followed. After a few minutes, a hand was placed on your shoulder, which made you look to see Omega. She smiled gently before briefing you on the plan. Then leading you to the others. She went off with AZI to set some charges as you all prepared the capsules.

“Ugh, I can barely fit in this thing?” Wrecker groaned.

“Quit complaining. At least you’re not doubled up.” Echo retorted. You rubbed his shoulder gently.

“We’ll be in and out.” You reassured him. He gave you a small nod before bumping his helmet against yours endearingly. You made your way into a capsule, waiting for Omega.

“The explosives are set.” Omega said, getting into the capsule.

“Alright, seal them up.” Hunter ordered.

You all closed the capsules and prepared for the charges to set off. You nodded to Omega for her to push the button, which she did. Water came flooding into the room and caused your capsules to move with the current it created. You looked around, seeing that you were out of the lab and floating to the surface. AZI moved meticulously to assist your capsules.

“You’re doing great, AZI.” Omega said, shining her torch around. Then a piece of debris fell onto your capsule, pushing you down. AZI rushed to your aid and you could see his lights flickering.

“AZI?” You called. He hesitated before using his laser torch to cut the debris. You watched as the debris floated away and then AZI pushed the capsule.

“Omega! Lodestar! What’s happening?” Hunter asked on comms.

“Got caught on some debris. It’s okay, AZI’s got us.” Omega answered, looking back at the droid, “Don’t give up, we’re nearly there!”

“Your path is clear.I have completed my objective.” AZI said before shutting down.

“No!”

You watched before looking at her, about to tell her you have to keep going, but then you thought of D-5. You cupped her face and nodded your head in approval.

“We’re going after AZI!” Omega insisted before opening the capsule. You both swam down, but then some debris got in your way and took you up to the surface. You took off your helmet and gasped once you surfaced.

“OMEGA!” You called frantically, but Wrecker grabbed ahold of your arm, “No! I have to go back for her!” You argued as he lifted you into his capsule. Crosshair stood with his rifle and loomed over Hunter before shooting into the water. Omega was lifted out of the water with AZI and Hunter helped her into their capsule. The others had pulled out their blasters and pointed it towards Crosshair, who tossed Wrecker his rifle. You watched as he sat down before helping Wrecker paddle the capsule. You all arrived at the platform and watched as Tipoca City burned down.

“It's… all gone.” Omega murmured sadly.

“We should leave before the Empire’s scouts show up.” Tech insisted.

“You coming with us?” Wrecker turned to Crosshair.

“None of this changes anything.” Crosshair said simply, which hurt your heart slightly.

“You offered us a chance, Crosshair. This is yours.” Hunter explained.

“I made my decision.”

“We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn’t mean that we have to be enemies.”

Crosshair turned away, which caused the others to head towards the ship. You stayed back, waiting for Omega as she looked over the city.

You reached for her shoulder, “C’mon…”

She looked at you before nodding and heading towards the ship, then she stopped, “Thank you for saving AZI.”

“Consider us even.” Crosshair responded.

“You know… you’re still they’re brother. You’re my brother too…”

Crosshair stayed silent as Omega went to the ship. He turned to look at you as you stood there.

“I never said it back…” You started, which caused him to furrow his brows. You looked down, “In the hotel room, before I left with Rex… you told me you loved me. I never got to say it back.” Tears started to pool in your eyes, “And… and I hope you know that I didn’t leave because I didn’t love you, Cross. I didn’t leave because I didn’t love any of you. I… I was selfish. That’s why I left. The kaminoans wanted me dead and after what I had said to the Chancellor… I knew I would be an enemy to the Republic… and the Empire.” You hesitated, looking back up at him, “I know it's too late, but I don’t want you to forget that I love you. I love you… and I know you won’t change your mind because of it and I’m not going to force you onto that damn ship.” Tears spilled wildly, “I-” You stepped towards him and cupped his face cautiously, but he melted into your touch, shutting his eyes. You couldn’t say anymore and he knew that. You moved and placed your lips against the corner of his, not wanting to feel the heartbreak of your lips touching for the first time in a long time but also for the last time once again. You pulled away and rushed into the ship, being caught into an embrace by Hunter, who looked back at his brother as the hatch closed and the Marauder took off.

XXXXXXX

Taglist:

@darkangel4121 @lightning-wolffe @alucas528 @rintheemolion @shadowfoxey @butch-medusae @gabile18 @incandescentlywarm @echo-is-worth-more-than-2000 @spidercrush3

[pi-cat000]

BNHA: Kakashi dimension hops crossover (3)

Summary: Kakashi gets dumbed into the My Hero Academia universe through random plot devise.

Characters:  Kakashi Hatake

Fandoms: My Hero Academia and Naruto

WARNINGS: Mentions of violence/injury

START  / PREV  /  NEXT

...

There was no latent natural chakra here. The air and environment were dry as a bone, meaning the only chakra he had access to was the stuff produced on his own. Kakashi is not entirely sure what impact this will have on the 1000 or so ninjutsu he has memorised. He suspects it might increase the chakra cost of external and area affecting ninjutsu. Any jutsu that relied on there being natural chakra present in the environment to supplement the user’s own chakra would be harder.  So, no large destructive or transformative ninjutsu. No earthquakes or earth walls, no freezing large bodies of water or creating whirlpools, most wind techniques would be out. Fireballs should be okay as they relied primarily on the shinobi’s chakra pool, but controlling large quantities of fire would be tricker. The same reasoning applied to lighting techniques, chidori would work fine but anything bigger might cause some strain. As long as he wasn’t aiming to wipe out a Division’s worth of enemies, he probably wouldn’t notice the limitation. Large-scale destructive ninjutsu had never been a specialty of his anyway. And he still has chakra to reinforce his body alongside genjutsu, taijutsu and the sharingan.

Well, he is pretty sure he still has the sharingan …

The only way to confirm his theories was to do some field testing.

Thus, Kakashi waits for Iori to do her final rounds and, just before the night shift starts, he ducks out of his room. It is at this time that the nurses would be at their most unobservant, tired out by ten hours of work. It is late in the evening, meaning most of the hospital staff  have left the building. It makes it ridiculously easy to steal down the halls, unnoticeable even in spaces lit by bight florescence.

After discovering that a Quirk Registry was a literal list of bloodline abilities stored on a digital database accessible to any medical professional, Kakashi has decided to stop applying Konoha’s information security standards to the hospital.  He is still a little weirded out by his execution of what was probably the easiest heist of medical information he had ever carried out. 

A few days of stalking Doctor Wada around the hospital at opportune intervals led to him discovering the man’s office. After that Kakashi hides in a corner and watches the man work. Because no one here had any sense of environment/spatial awareness, he has no trouble keeping in the man’s blind spot even with a limp. Thus, he can memories how the doctor goes about updating his patient information, which is all digital and stored on the computer, involving a passcode, a name and navigating through several screens worth of readouts and icons; all of which were infinity easier to understand when compared with the readouts produced by the computers in Konoha’s research division, encoded as they all were.  Three days later and he has access to all his medical files and the files of every one of Wada’s other patients.

Tonight, Kakashi has the time to properly read them. Hopefully, there would be no complications with his eye, and he could clear himself for experimentation. His chakra levels were good enough for it.

‘Name: ‘Kakashi [no surname]’/ Address: ‘[n/a]’ / Sex: ‘M’ / Blood type: ‘O’ / DOB: [n/a] /

No family or medical proxy located. Hospital billing to be covered under City of Hosu Villain/Hero Collateral Damage Register.

Quirk Factor: ‘Sharingan’ [Primary Effect: n/a]; [Activation: n/a] [Type: emitter] [Secondary Effect: passive regeneration]’

Kakashi scrolls through his report, committing the information to memory, eyeing the many notes on his physical and mental wellbeing, listing his various broken bones, sprains, and other injuries, most of which Kakashi is aware of, all of which were well on their way to recovery.

'...Early concerns expressed over collapse of right lung and damage to respiratory system are being reassessed due to passive accelerated regeneration....'

Ah yes, he vaguely remembers something going straight through his chest during the fight. He examines the surgeon's notes which recommend close monitoring and an extended hospital stay alongside various medications.

'...Additional concerns over potential complications due to prior injuries/scarring (see attached report)....’

Hmm, he skims over a note describing older scaring around his chest. The report has flagged quite a few of his past scars and bone breaks as concerning and evidence of past physical stress involving combat. Not too far off the truth. Something to keep in mind if they ever asked him about his past. Honestly, he is somewhat impressed by the thoroughness of the report and the efforts gone through to keep him healthy. Linked is to medical notes are details of the two surgeries he had undergone while unconscious alongside various other actions the hospital had taken in their bid to keep him alive.

‘Primary quirk factor confirmed by the patient as single-ocular quirk ‘sharingan’ located in the left eye. Quirk most likely to be a passive emitter type with line of sight or eye contact as an activation requirement. Quirk effect is unknown. ‘Sharingun’ was restored during surgy under the supervision of Sueno Manzo and predicted to retain its function upon recovery barring further complication.’

‘Patient exhibits the symptoms of memory loss, apathy, and confusion suggesting a case of post-traumatic amnesia. If quirk has a memory storage function as is typical of ocular quirks then there may be a link between the quirk effect, damage to eye, and memory loss symptoms. Diagnosis requires a second opinion. Requested consolation with Neurologist and Ocular-Quirk Specialist still pending.'

‘Secondary quirk or mutation factor ‘regeneration’ increases patient’s metabolism and bodily functions, resulting in increased cell repair and recovery. Without a baseline for recovery speed predicted recovery timeframe is unknown.’ 

Well, ‘predicted to retain its function’ was good enough. All the major concerns raised by the doctor were linked to memory loss that didn’t exist. Kakashi ducks out of the office, heading back to his room. It was interesting to know that his recovery rate was considered abnormally fast. Fast enough to be considered a ‘quirk’ in its own right. No doubt a side effect of chakra use. It was a well-known fact that shinobi with developed coils recovered from injuries faster than civilians.

He would have to keep this in mind when engaging the locals in combat. The people here would have slower recovery rates when compared with Konoha’s civilians, who still had chakra even if their coils were underdeveloped. He wouldn’t want to accidentally kill someone misjudging their ability to heal from an injury.

…

...

With patience born from his many years of field experience, Kakashi waits for the next shift change before sneaking out once more. His destination is the hospital’s roof. Guarded by one solitary security camera- which he had disabled two days ago and had yet to be fixed- it is the only place he can go and be reasonably sure not to be disturbed for any length of time. Generally, cameras were pretty useless against any shinobi who could pull off an academy level transformation or a basic genjutsu. Even when the cameras were hidden, most shinobi moved too fast to be reliably picked up on film. He is not sure if that reasoning applied here, seeing as the technology was significantly more advanced.  Regardless, as he was recovering and conserving both energy and chakra, avoiding them is his best bet. Most of the cameras he notes are on the outside of the building, placed in plain sight with no care taken to keep them hidden. He wonders if there is a purpose to that. Enforcement of compliance through a display of observation? Are they decoys and there is additional security hidden somewhere he wouldn’t think to look? Is he falling into some sort of trap sneaking around so obviously and gathering information? It was hard to answer these questions when he has no baseline to draw from. As he had yet to see evidence of extensive security or traps in the building he is proceeding with his plan.  

It is early morning when he ducks out onto an empty roof, having stolen the key from what he thinks are the hospital's maintenance lockers the day prior. The air outside is cool, devoid of the stench of disinfectant that had been clogging his nose for the last few weeks. He hated how smell played havoc on his sensitive nose, blocking his sinuses.

Shielded on one side by a taller, windowless section of the building he has a good view of a wide two-lane road where the occasional vehicle would enter or exit the building. At night the area is quiet save for the hum of a distant activity, probably more of the engine-run vehicles, which were irritatingly noisy and commonly used by the people here.

The sky above him begins to lighten. Soon the sun would peak between the tall glass-covered buildings opposite the hospital. The artificial structures shimmer, reflecting the whitening sky. A trip into the busier sections of the ‘city’ is still impending, all his attention being focused on scouting the hospital and absorbing as much information about the place as possible first.

The first test he does is an attempt at summoning his nin-dogs. He has a few ideas on how he might reverse summon himself between worlds or, at the very least, send a message to let people know he was still alive.

Quickly, he bites his thumb, crouches, touching the roof with his palm and pumping in the required amount of chakra. For a second, he thinks it might work. Lines of inked fuinjutsu characters blossom under his palm, spiralling outward, absorbing the chakra. However, instead of activating in a puff of summoning smoke, the energy disperses, sinking into the dead, chakra-less concrete, the seal failing. Frowning, he uses the remaining blood on his thump to sketch out a simple storage array. It activates, sealing in a loose piece of brick without a problem. No, it wasn’t the fuinjutsu that had failed but the nin-dog summoning specifically. There went that plan.

Somewhat disheartened, he begins unbandaging the left side of his head. Just as the sunlight begins to peak between the buildings opposite, he opens the sharingan.

The chakra drain creeps up as the world around him snaps into sharp focus. Every crack in the brick, every mote of dust, every wisp of cloud, is clearly outlined even as colour is dulled to increase contrast.  Kakashi glances around and waits, letting the image of the foreign skyline burn into his brain to be forever stored and remembered in crisp detail.

After a few seconds without significant pain, he lets out a long breath and prepares for the mental strain of activating the Kamui Sharingan. The process brings with it flashes of memory, Obito’s scared face twisted with hate, and a blurry battle. The memories were all faint and far off despite having the Sharingan active at the time. He rubs his chest in discomfort. He thinks he knows who might have stabbed him now. Obito…He releases a tired breath and shoves all the uncomfortable revelations off to the side where they wouldn’t bother him. There would be plenty of time to ruminate at a later.  

Kakashi lets the first stage of Kamui activate, making sure there is nothing in his eyeline. He doesn’t want to accidentally destroy the stairway that led back into the hospital by sucking it into a different dimension. After confirming that the technique is stable and the charka drain is manageable, be prepares to pull himself through, ignoring the beginnings of a faint headache. Despite it being a brand new technique, Kakashi is nothing if not a master at reverse engineering ninjutsu on the fly to suit his own needs. The world warps and shimmers, his chakra levels take a nosedive, and his eye aches.

 A field of unmarked stone appears in place of the hospital roof, displacing tall buildings with uniform blocks of grey, white and black. An eternal, unchanging landscape, dimly lit despite there being no light source, stretches out in all directions. The Kamui no Jikūkan, time–space dimension. There is no signs of destruction or the battle he now vaguely remembers occurring before he had been ripped away from the Elemental Nations altogether. He wishes he could recall how it had ended. Had Obito re-joined the fight with Madara? He hopes not. He hopes he at least managed to take Obito out and give his allies a better chance. Obito was his burden to shoulder after all.

As he tries to dig up something useful from his patchwork of memories relating to his battle with Obito, a faint secondary chakra source catches his attention. The thread of chakra is distance, connecting to something very far off. Obito’s eye? A lingering connection between the two eyes was the only thing that made any sort of sense. He vaguely remembers how he had been in the process of activating the Kamui no Jikūkan when the area had been flooded with demonic chakra.

This is good…If it is Obito, and Obito is still in the Elemental Nations, then he might be able to reverse the collection and pull himself back. The only problem with this plan was that he would need the same amount of chakra to return or risk killing himself. In other words, he needs a lot of chakra. Far more than he has or will ever have access to naturally. As he is the only being with chakra here, this is a problem.

Kakashi lets out another tried breath, “Always a problem…” the area around him remains silent. He knows the theory behind chakra draining and collecting seals. With a bit of patience and self-discipline, he would be able to slowly build up and store the chakra needed to return.

Well, he would definitely be breaking his record for lateness by a long shot. He runs calculations and comes up with a depressing year-long wait time. And that was if he dumped every ounce of his chakra into the seal the moment he got it. Obviously, that would turn him into a comatose vegetable and, as nice as he thinks these people are, he doesn’t trust them to look after his unconscious body for a year. So, it would be double, maybe even triple, that time.

Three years of waiting in this weird unknown word unless someone on the other end of the connection figured out how to bring him back. He had seen Naruto pull of miracles before so…maybe there was hope? Though, everyone might just think he had died given how badly injured he had been just before his disappearance. If that were the case, then no one was coming for him and he would be on his own for the foreseeable future.

“Mah, what a pain.”

He crouches examining one of the plain blocks, massaging the area around his eye. It stings and he is beginning to feel chakra fatigued. He can almost imagine the familiar names of the memorial stone etched into its surface. By the time he returned, the fourth great war would be well and truly over, assuming time moved at a similar speed between here and there. He supposed it was fitting. He wouldn’t be Kakashi if he didn’t let the people he cared about down one last time.

He lets out a long sigh and reverses the Kamui technique, letting himself fade back to his new world and reality. 

The chakra exhaustion hits him like a landslide and he stumbles onto one knee. His eye, which had been aching since he initiated the Kamui no Jikūkan, is now wet. The wetness turns out to be blood, which is pooling like tears and running down the left side of his face.

Maybe he had been pushing it, using the full Kamui after wasting a bunch of chakra on summoning when he had barely been at half his capacity to start. That, and he was obviously still healing.

Blearily, Kakashi wipes his face with the back of his hand heaving himself back upright. He has dealt with way worse. With one last glance at the sun now shining brightly from between the strange buildings of his new temporary home, he heads back inside to find something sterile to clean his eye with.

He collapses back into his hospital bed where he causes a stir as the nurse checking in on him notices the blood soaking through his hastily applied bandages. He lets them fuss in contemplative silence.

NEXT

[calcifermovesthecastle]

hi hi!! can u do a scenario with gyro x preg/fem!reader? if you’re not comfortable with this request, feel free to ignore! <3

Sorry if you wanted nsfw, this is kind of angsty and sfw and from my self insert document on Google drive dsjdsjdsj

Warnings: getting sick, slapping, swearing, arguing, obviously mentions of pregnancy, fluff ending

You were jerked awake by two hands grabbing you and shaking you roughly.

"Hey, hey, hey!! Please wake up." Gyro's angry, worried face came into view. You coughed, looking at him confused.

"Water?"

"Here." he lifted a canteen to your mouth, and you gulped the entire thing down, gasping for breath. "Are you okay?" 

You nodded, pressing a hand to your stomach. "Yeah. And they are too. I can feel them kicking." You coughed, swaying a little bit, yelling out when Gyro slapped you hard. 

"We've been searching for two days!" He stood, anger radiating off of him. You fell back, unable to stop your fall due to the handcuffs. "You had me worried fucking sick. When Orion came back without you-" 

"Gyro-" Johnny raised his voice. "Later!" 

"No, I will not talk about this later!" Gyro crouched, helping you sit and then stand. Your cheek stung, and you fixed him with a withering look. He gripped your shoulders too hard, the anger on his face apparent. "You were supposed to come back after scouting out the area! Instead, we find you on the edge of a fucking minefield, unconsious, and handcuffed!" 

"I'll tell you what I told the president, Gyro." You stumbled, dizzy from not eating. Worry flickered on his face. "My horse, My child, and my Child's father are my only concerns. I will go to any lengths to protect them."

"Gyro, she needs to eat something." 

"I need to eat something." 

Gyro cursed, letting go of you and turning away, his hands clenched into fists. Your legs gave out from under you, and the only thing that stopped you from collapsing was Johnny grabbing onto your collar. 

"Would one of you be so kind as to remove these handcuffs? The baby is okay, but I really need to eat or-" 

"Shut Up!" Gyro swiveled around, pointing at you. "Just shut up, okay? Give me a minute to process this." 

You stared blankly at him until he turned away. 

"Orion." 

Your horse walked over to you, nudging you with his nose. You grabbed onto him, struggling to pull yourself up. When you finally made it, you looked down at Gyro, no emotion on your face. 

"Gyro." 

He looked up at you, his expression a million things at once. 

"Please undo my handcuffs." 

He reached up, his hands shaking as he picked the lock on the cuffs. You didn't say a word while he worked, yearning for him to just hold you and tell you it was okay. That wasn't the case, though. 

When your hands were free, you thanked him, cueing Orion to move. Johnny caught up, handing you some bread. You thanked him, wolfing it down, slumping against Orion's neck and passing out. 

Three days passed where Gyro didn't speak to you. He and Johnny spoke, you and Johnny spoke, and you tried to talk to him, but he would pointedly ignore you. 

The first night was the hardest. You woke up from a nightmare, albeit, not one as vivid as usual. Sitting alone for a minute, you watched both of them sleep, before bursting into tears. You buried your face in your hands, crying until you had nothing left, falling back into a fitful sleep. 

When Johnny shook you awake a few hours later, you sat up holding your pounding head. Johnny pressed a hot mug into your hands, and you turned to look at Gyro. When he caught your eye, he clenched his jaw and turned away, getting up to go get Valkyrie ready. More tears filled your eyes, and you choked back a sob with a little "ngh," curling in on yourself. Johnny wrapped an arm around you, and you buried your face into his shoulder, only pulling away when Gyro snapped at Johnny to start getting ready. 

The second night, you fell ill again, spending the entire night vomiting into the river next to you. Your baby didn't like whatever you had for dinner, and made it known by kicking in protest and causing your stomach to flush it out of your system.

"Gyro, I need your help," You croaked, getting sick again. He glanced over at you quickly, turning away, his fists clenched. "Please!"  

He ignored you again, and angry, hurt tears filled your eyes. 

"It's not my fault that the President captured me, and I did what I had to to survive. I need you, and you're failing me." You gagged again, and he just walked away. "You have every right to be angry with me, but you don't get to abandon me!" 

No response. Before you got sick again, you told him to go fuck himself.

You didn't sleep at all that night. Johnny eventually came over and sat with you, squeezing your hand and rubbing your back while you were incapacitated. Gyro glanced over, like he wanted to come help, but just set out his bedroll and sleeping bag and turned his back. 

The next day, he looked over at you, his brow furrowed, his lips parted as if to speak, and you turned away, more tears in your eyes.

The rest of the day went by without incident, other than when you'd have to stop and get sick on the side of the road. 

That night, you took matters into my own hands, and instead of asking him for help, you forced it, hunkering down in his lap while he was eating dinner, wrapping your arms around his neck and bawling into his shoulder. He stiffened, sighed, and set his plate aside, running his hands up and down your back to soothe you. You just clung to him and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, until all you could do was cry, and then sniffle, and then just breath unevenly and keep your cheek pressed against his shoulder. He didn't stop his ministrations, not saying a word, but not letting you go, either. He rested his chin on your head, giving you a comforting squeeze. You fell asleep on him like that. When you woke up, you were rested on the couch alone.   

He caved first, but at this point, You were angry now. Not at him, but at the way he was handling things. So you continued to remain silent, no matter what he said to you, instead talking to Johnny, or leaving the room all together.  

Tasks were becoming more and more difficult for you as time passed. You did your best, but being pregnant was no picnic.

"Hey, do you want coffee?" Gyro called over to you. You stared at him, expressionless, before turning your attention back to your book, not saying a word. You winced when your child kicked your spleen, and glared at Gyro when he snatched the book out of your hands. 

"We need to talk about this." He swallowed, looking annoyed. You raised an eyebrow, crossing your arms. "It's been seven days. Are you still angry?" 

Your expression darkened. He nodded, his irritation visibly growing. 

"I was so scared that you were dead. When I saw Orion run up without you, only the worst situations played out in my head. When we saw the destruction in the area, we thought maybe you had been caught in a Stand Attack."

A smirk ghosted your lips, causing him to pause. He tilted his head back, his eyes narrowed, searching your face.

"What?" 

You laughed, waving him off. It wasn't a cold laugh, but it wasn't exactly friendly either. He scowled, shoving his hands in his pockets, continuing.

"Finding you unconscious, tucked away like that, scared the shit out of me. It took me ten minutes to get you to come to. Ten minutes. I've never been worried like that. I let the anger and fear I felt get the best of me, and I'm really sorry." He crossed his arms, glaring at you while you smirked at him. "For fucks sake, what is so god damn funny?" 

"The destruction was from my stand." 

"It what?! You couldn't tell me that sooner?! This is what-" His angry words dropped off when you took his hand and placed it on your stomach, right above where the kicking was. The irritation on his face gave way to wonder, and he just stood there, slack jawed, placing his other hand on your stomach. When he spoke, his voice was no more than a whisper. 

"That's my baby." His eyes met yours, glistening, and you smiled kindly at him before looking over at Johnny.

"Hey Johnny, do you want to feel the baby kick?" 

"Hey, Fuck off Johnny." Gyro stepped closer to you, glaring at Johnny over his shoulder. "This is mine. I'll kill you if you come any closer." 

"Gyro, let Johnny feel the baby kick." You laughed, and Gyro grumbled, stepping aside. Johnny placed a hand on your tummy, smiling softly when the baby kicked it.

"Alright, that's enough. Back off." Gyro loomed over you, glowering at Johnny. You sighed, sitting down on the edge of the table, exhausted. Gyro slipped a cup of coffee into your hands, and you smiled at him, laughing when he pressed his hands back against your stomach. 

That night, Gyro insisted that you sleep with him again. When you settled down, he snaked his arms around you, rubbing your belly, pressing his lips into the back of your neck. 

"Promise me that you'll never scare me like that again." 

"Only if you promise to never leave me to deal with it alone again." 

"Deal." 

You melted into his warm embrace and soft words, falling asleep shortly after. 

[alyss01]

|[It's a family business]|

Comfy cartel x F!reader

Part 1

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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4]

Genre: Mafia AU/ action

Word count: 1.7K

Requested: no

To request: it is possible to request a comfy cartel fanfic, requests are open!

Synopsis: Corpse joins the cartel, and soon you accompany him, together with Rae, Lily, Sykunno and Toast to a new opening casino to deal with some unpaid debt.

Warnings: talk about murder, crimes, blood

A/n: I really wanted to make this and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! It started as a one shot and then quickly progressed to what will most likely be 4 parts. I could've posted them as one but this was easier with writing it and managing to space out things. It will update weekly most likely, and it's possible to request one shots for the comfy cartel!

Masterlist

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You sat across from Toast on the table, his dark glasses covering his eyes as he patiently waited, a map in front of him. He pulled an identical map from underneath the wooden table you sat at and replaced the one that had previously laid on the table.

His face was neutral, he didn't fight the silence that hung in the air. He looked at you as you leant back in your chair, fingers impatiently tapping the table in front of you.

"You don't have to be here you know." He spoke up, his voice carrying practiced authority that could silence an entire meeting full of arguing. Yet as he spoke to you, it had a tone of kindness to it. After all the time you spent together and the situations you had been in with one another he saw you more as his younger sister than anything else. It was a position you had acquired for most of the cartel.

As the sister of Scarra you had a lot of authority in the cartel, although it wasn't as if you needed it. Everyone, no matter how recently the cartel had taken them under it's wing, viewed you as their little sister in the hierarchy of the family.

"Don't worry about it. I want to see the new blood." Toast nodded his head a few times as if to ponder.

Today the new person Toast had scouted out would be arriving at the cartel for his first job, he'd be monitored by Sykunno.

"Are you sure Sykunno would be the best fit?" You had seen his information, they seemed far from compatible.

Toast offered you a small smile, brushing his hair back as he repositioned his glasses. His voice was confident as he spoke, a small hint of his smile could be heard in his voice, "I'm sure."

The male in front of you had always had a scarily good intuition about people, which was how he had recruited most in the cartel.

You nodded in return, but before you had the chance to even consider getting bored again, a stern knock on the door pulled your attention to it.

Toast gave a signal for the person on the other side to come in. You locked eyes with him, he was largely build, carefully dressed in a white blouse with a black vest, tie and dress pants, with white gloves covering his hands. A purple mask covered most of his face, but black curly hair framed the small piece of exposed skin he showed.

His eyes were sharp as he locked them with yours. Your eyebrow raised curiously as he returned his attention back to the male in front of him, "Corpse."

"Disguised Toast." He spoke back, his voice deep and serious as you looked him over. If you hadn't known better you probably wouldn't have been aware of the true nature of the man, despite the intimidating aura that hung around him.

"It's a bad habit to be late." You spoke up as you calmly leant back in your chair, usually when you accompanied Toast to these kinds of things you stayed silent in the background as you observed.

Toast gave you a curious look for that, it was largely hidden by the glasses on his face but it was obvious for you after all the years.

Corpse stayed silent to your remark as you narrowed your eyes, "you'd do good to change the habit before doing something you'll regret." The message in your words was clear, don't pull this again if you want to keep your spot in the cartel.

He gave you a silent nod as Toast returned to the topic, "to start off, you'll be disposing of someone. Sykunno will accompany you as your guardian." He pushed the document to the end of the table where Corpse grabbed it and opened it briefly.

"You'll be reporting back to me, in three days. I want it done before then." Once more Corpse nodded his head as Toast dismissed him.

He walked out of the room, being met by a calm face with a gentle smile displayed. He offered his hand to Corpse, "I'm Sykunno, happy to meet you."

"That was unlike you." Toast remarked as he turned to you, you simple leant back in your chair as you met his eyes, "he needs to know his place."

Toast nodded as he grabbed the document from underneath the table that displayed Corpse's information. He stood up as he walked to the door, closing it behind him as he left you alone in the room.

•••••••••

Sykunno was crouching in front of the body, turning to his companion with a small smile on his face, "jesus, you actually killed him." His voice was calm as he grabbed the dead man's cheek with his gloved hand.

Corpse still held the gun in his hand, he had considered pointing it at the male in front of him but something about it made him unable to actually commit to the deed.

Sykunno tilted the corpse's head around, before releasing and sliding his gloves fingers through the blood that had formed a puddle on the ground and spreading it between his finger tips.

His clean hand grabbed his phone as Corpse stood silently against the wall watching the scene in front of him. Not a single drop of blood had reached him.

"Yvonne? Yes, I'll text you the address." He stayed silent as Corpse could hear a female voice on the other side of the call, "hmh, yes that should be fine. Take it to my garden, it'll make for fine fertilizer."

Corpse curiously listened along, he had known there was more to Sykunno than the sly, calm, gentle and happy mask he wore.

Sykunno stepped away, turning back to Corpse with a gentle smile on his face as he clicked the call away and returned his phone to the pocket it originated from.

"Let's go, Toast will be happy to hear the results."

They calmly walked out of the building as a small van stopped in front of it. Corpse's hand automatically moved to the gun in it's holster at his side.

The movement from Sykunno's hand made him stop as the back doors of the van opened, he started walking past it as a female with blonde hair and pink ends carried out a small trolley with cleaning supplies displayed.

Sykunno offered her a small nod of his head which she returned. Corpse could distantly hear her speak to the front door man, "I'm the cleaning service that was ordered for today."

"There was no such thing."

"I've been send here by Y/n, ask the front desk, they'll know." The man left his position for a second as he leant inside, his voice muffled, before turning back "please, come in."

He followed Sykunno as they fled the scene.

•••••••••••

Lily granted you a smile as you entered the room, beside her sat Toast and at the head of the table sat your brother, Don Scarra.

"Brother." You greeted him first as you moved to the table. A fond smile formed on his face, "sister, how have you been?"

You returned the genuine smile as you sat down, "The days have been interesting with our newest member." Scarra nodded his head thoughtfully.

It had been a few weeks since Corpse had accomplished his first task. Sykunno still watched over him but they were more akin to companions than a guardian. They had gone of a few other tasks, and for now Corpse had the trust of the cartel.

The other two greeted you as well as Toast slid a file over the table towards you. "What do you think?"

You had started in the cartel innocently enough, despite your older brothers desperate attempts to keep you out. Your contacts were simply unparalleled.

Besides that you were an important person, both in and out of the cartel, and eventually Scarra had decided it was safest for you to become part of the cartel, seeing as there was no safer place for you to be.

Your eyes scanned the pages, nodding your head as you read. A large celebration party for the opening of a new casino, the owner however refused to repay the cartel according to Ludwig who was in charge of the cartels money flow. He was divine in covering up the hardest of situations to the government and cheating the system.

The price had apparently build up to the amount where only his life would suffice, although as you looked at the mans information you doubted if even that was enough.

"I'll be able to get some people in, but for that I will have to attend myself as well." You shot a glance at Scarra, who had always been seriously opposed to you working in the field.

"Then we'll find another moment." Scarra spoke up as you had expected him to do, this wasn't the first time and you had a hunch it wouldn't be the last either.

Toast spoke up, "with all due respect, Don Scarra, but the target has been in hiding for months. This may be the only shot we have until he disappears again."

Lily repositioned her hat, the white flower on it changing position with the movement as she turned to the Don, "this would be a low risk mission, the guest list has been screened by Micheal, so the only obstacle will be the security. I've made him download the building plans and he'll be on comms to guide us through."

Scarra however still didn't seem convinced as Toast continued on Lily's reasoning, "beside that, we can send enough people to accompany her. We'll need her reputations to get into the VIP areas where he'll most likely stay hidden. Y/n will be kept out of danger at all costs."

Scarra seemed convinced as you turned to him, knowing you wouldn't have a say in the matter, "so who will accompany me?"