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thefirstknife · 3 years ago

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Iron Lord Saladin Forge

Season of the Lost dropped some major lore about Saladin and I love every piece of it so I will make a huge post detailing stuff about and what's important.

The lore is on Iron Banner armour which you can see in-game when you go to the armour section. The lore is the same on each class so it doesn't matter which one you read. It's in the order of how armour is set, so helmet -> arm piece -> chest piece -> leg piece -> class item. There's some extras on Iron banner weapons that I'll add as well.

The rest under the cut due to length and also spoilers!

I'll link to the Hunter gear because I'm a dirty Hunter main and I read it from there and that's what I have open because I couldn't remember the names for other two classes, but the lore is the same on all of them. The set is called Iron Forerunner.

We haven't really had any substantial Saladin lore in D2 besides few lore pieces from Chosen and Splicer. Not nearly enough I think, especially since he wasn't properly introduced in D2 at all and it was kinda assumed that everyone would know about him from the Rise of Iron expansion in D1. He had plenty of voice lines, but with no real context. His voice lines in Season of the Chosen were interesting, but also made a lot of people think he's a bad person and a warmongering coward who sat on his butt during the Red War and was then preaching action for action's sake.

The situation is obviously more complex, but I've always said that it's Bungie fault for not explaining more about him prior to his involvement in the Season of the Chosen. Well, now we got some really interesting information at last!

Anyway, helmet first!

Flavour text:

"Some know the legend. We threw ourselves on the blades of tyranny so others may live free." —Lord Saladin

This is referencing the Iron Lords' fight against the Warlords in the Dark Age. Saladin is heavily influenced by his time in the Dark Age. It seems like some really old Guardians never get over the trauma of living through that (Drifter is another example). Side note: this could also be referencing the battle against SIVA since Rasputin is also known as "The Tyrant." It's not fully relevant tho, as Saladin was equally affected by both periods in his life.

This first entry details something we don't really think about when it comes to Guardians: death. It's a temporary thing with them so it doesn't really matter. But Saladin recounts how he remembers his deaths and how each one felt. Despite the fact that he will be brought back, the pain and struggle of dying are very real. There is also the associated trauma of the realisation that you will go through this over and over and over:

He laughed when his Ghost reassembled him. Then, he cried.

It's not something mentioned often, and definitely wasn't a point raised with Saladin. It gives some context to how seriously he takes combat, training and the lives of his fellow Guardians.

Saladin remembers the day he stopped counting deaths. "Something about you is different," Jolder had said, and put her hand on his.

This explains that his worldview of the role of Lightbearers changed the moment he was invited to become an Iron Lord. It's also important to remember that he loved Lady Jolder very much (in whichever way you want to interpret it) and that watching her make the choice to die a final death has had a heavy impact on him.

Saladin remembers all this and more when he looks at the Crow. He feels rage form a hot pit in his belly when Osiris tells him about the young Lightbearer's suffering at the hands of his fellow Guardians. Osiris asks him if he can keep a secret.

"I don't like secrets," Saladin says, and that's the end of it.

Saladin doesn't really say this during Chosen and his interactions with Crow, but it's evident from this that he cares deeply about the young Light who suffered in ways Saladin only remembers people suffering during the Dark Age. It's also important to note that the Osiris he speaks to here is Savathun. Saladin seems to be uniquely unaffected by Savathun's schemes. This will repeat itself again later.

Second, arms piece.

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"Some know the legend. We were forged in the fires of a burning world." —Lord Saladin

Same thing as before. Referencing the post-Collapse Dark Age. The lore tab details a really tragic story of the Iron Lords burying bodies, including the implication of Saladin burying the body of a child. He recalls that these people were victims of Fallen Raiders.

"It's a vicious circle," Efrideet had said as she tied off a funeral shroud with great care. Saladin remembers the bundle being very small. "One day, I'm going to break it."

Saladin remembers how easily the body fit in his arms, how light it felt as he laid it in the grave. He remembers, with shame, pretending not to hear Efrideet's words so he wouldn't need to respond to them.

He remembers not having anything kind to say.

He obviously regrets not having a stronger stance on this in the past. Where Efrideet seems to have always been keen on ending the cycle of violence, he clearly thought differently and is now ashamed of it. This transitions into more about his relation to Crow:

Saladin remembers all this and more whenever the Crow talks back to him. Sometimes, he bites down on the inside of his cheek. Sometimes, he looks up to find his Ghost focused on him with a knowing look.

He doesn't say anything to his Ghost either.

Because Crow was saying things that reminded him of Efrideet. Breaking the cycles of violence, extending a friendly hand, not treating everyone like an enemy. It's evident that this turmoil is still inside of him as someone who spent most of his time fighting for survival, only to be told by those younger than him that there's a way out of that war. It's a very common struggle of people dealing with trauma and specifically PTSD to not be able to imagine and/or live in a world of peace and to outright reject the possibility of peace ever existing. Saladin is very clearly dealing with that and here, we see it from his own POV: despite sometimes being harsh to Crow, there were times when he chose to say nothing because deep down he knows that Crow is right. Accepting that is a long process though.

Third, chest piece.

Flavour text:

"Some know the legend. We rose from the ashes of a dying world to save humanity from itself." —Lord Saladin

Same again, but this is an interesting way to phrase it. He's talking about humanity being a danger to itself, not about any external threat. Ultimately, the Traveler's gift was the first thing that harmed humanity post-Collapse, despite later being the thing that saved it.

This leads into Saladin's thoughts on the Red War, something we've been sorely missing for a very long time.

Saladin remembers losing his connection to the Light. He remembers thinking that the Traveler must have discovered his most secret doubts; the darkest thoughts he shared with no one—not even his Ghost. He remembers the strange sense of relief that had washed over him until his radio crackled to life just moments later.

His deepest secret? Probably that Light is a burden. When he lost the connection to the Light, he specifically thought it had only happened to him and then felt relief. Freedom from the eternal war he has to keep waging. I'm sure he feels incredible shame for thinking it would be better to just lose the Light and die a final death, but alas, he is bound by duty. Especially a Titan's duty.

He stands there thinking about it for a while before finally deciding to embrace that duty. And now we know what he was doing during the Red War:

"Saladin," his Ghost said again, and Saladin remembers moving. He remembers clutching his radio and rallying survivors—those strong enough to make the journey—to the Iron Temple.

It's been abbreviated as him "sitting out" the Red War because he didn't fight. Of course it was strange that the last remaining active Iron Lord did not show up to the City to fight alongside all the others, both Guardians and ordinary humans. That Lord Saladin, someone who endured so many hardships and fought so many battles since the Dark Age, hasn't come to help humanity in its time of greatest need.

But now this hits different. He didn't fight, yes. He couldn't. Losing the Light wasn't just something that made him scared (like all Lightbearers): it was something that made him scared of how he might actually enjoy dying a glorious final death. To end the trauma and the memories of all the horrors he's been through. So instead of throwing himself into a reckless death, he chose to stay in the Iron Temple and protect survivors.

So yeah, he didn't fight, but he did something equally important. The Iron Temple is an extremely well protected fortress that's very difficult to reach and breach, so any survivor he gathered was perfectly safe there until the Red War ended. Sometimes "sitting out" is more noble than fighting.

Saladin remembers all this and more whenever the Crow challenges him on his cowardice during the Red War. He wants to break the young Guardian's back to teach him a lesson about what it's like to feel helpless, but something stops him.

He remembers hearing stories about the Crow's life on the Shore before he arrived at the Tower, and does not raise a hand against him.

The lore entry ends with telling us that Saladin was clearly very agitated about Crow's teasing. But in the end, he remembered what Crow has been through and realised that Crow already knows what it's like to feel helpless. He did not need a reminder and Saladin decided to take the teasing without a response. It truly frames some of those voice lines in a different light, knowing this background.

Fourth, leg piece!

Flavour text:

"Some know the legend. We crossed a burning world with sword in hand, bringing justice and blood." —Lord Saladin

Once more, we are told that Saladin was mostly forged (eheh) through his experience in the Dark Age.

The lore page details a bittersweet memory Saladin has of him with his fellow Iron Lords and friends enjoying some good time over a meal and song.

He remembers Radegast asking him to sing the song taught to them by the people of the blacksmith's village, but agreeing only when Jolder and Perun promised to join in. Their voices rose like wolves in the night and were so raw by morning that none of them could speak.

This is honestly heartbreaking. Saladin being this happy and free to sing and enjoy himself: compared to how he is now. But even with that, he has retained the need to do it again sometimes, if he ever finds people to be comfortable around.

Saladin remembers all this and more when Zavala tells him Amanda has taken the Crow out to drink in the City's streets. He wonders what song they'll sing, if it's anything like the one he's heard everyone humming lately—even though he hasn't tried it himself.

I love how he projects his past joy onto the two young people and wonders if they'll do the same as he did once. Here we also get another hint about Saladin apparently not being affected by Savathun's viral chant. It might be a point relevant in the future.

Finally, class item!

Flavour text:

"Some know the legend. We crushed the Warlords beneath our heel so that they may never rise again." —Lord Saladin

Nothing new here. Just Saladin recounting how hard they went against the Warlords.

The rest is a very poignant lore page that details the relationship between Saladin and Zavala. Zavala studied under Saladin who was his mentor and it's been repeated often that Saladin has retained a "soft spot" for him.

Saladin remembers the first time he met Zavala. He remembers thinking that the Awoken had regal bearing like the stags he once hunted on the Steppes. His shoulders were broad, and his chin held high. When he moved, he did so with the strength and purposeful deliberation of someone with the power to determine his own place in the world.

"You'll never have a son," his Ghost had said, "but it isn't too late for you to take an apprentice."

I love when non-Awoken describe Awoken, there's always something ethereal about it. But I'm mostly putting this part here because of what Saladin's Ghost says.

First, I am incredibly soft for older Guardians adopting younger ones as kids and teaching them. Easily my favourite dynamic ever. Saladin seeing Zavala as a son makes me cry a thousand tears.

And second, is this finally a full confirmation that Guardians cannot bear children? It's kind of a strange place to put it, but it seems to be the implication. It makes sense they wouldn't be able to, but it's also nice to have some direct lore information about it in case it pops up as a question. I'm sorry if this ruins anyone's fics.

Saladin remembers their sparring matches. He remembers how Zavala always got back on his feet, no matter how many times Saladin put him down. He remembers refusing to offer the younger Lightbearer a hand up. Until the day Zavala finally bested him in combat.

He remembers lying flat on his back, left shoulder dislocated and ribs shattered, a strange pressure on his chest that made it difficult to breathe.

"Finish it," Saladin had commanded because that was the way of things. His Ghost would revive him.

Saying nothing, Zavala hauled him to his feet instead.

I love how this is placed at the end, paralleling the beginning of Saladin remembering his deaths and the pain of dying. But instead of "finishing it," Zavala pulls him back up. It's definitely something Saladin hasn't experienced before, especially not before becoming an Iron Lord, when all of his deaths were just gruesome ends to a struggle. Then seconds after, he'd be back up. He took the revival for granted, until Zavala offered him the alternative. Again, an interesting perspective about something we don't usually think about much. I do wonder how Saladin healed afterwards though.

Saladin remembers all this and more when his former apprentice calls him into his office and tells him about the face behind the Crow's mask. Zavala says he knows that Saladin doesn't like secrets; that it's unfair to ask him to keep one of this magnitude, but there will come a time when the Crow needs someone—the way Zavala needed Saladin.

"You never needed anyone," Saladin insists.

Zavala only smiles.

This page ends with the two bonding again. Despite their differences and disagreements, there's mutual respect between the mentor and the apprentice. The father and the son.

And Saladin thinks Zavala never needed him, but that is obviously not true and Zavala tells him so. He also tells him that Crow, and implied Guardians like him, will need the same guidance.

It gives us a full circle back to Saladin's musings about his purpose as a Guardian and Lightbearer. He may have doubted his place in the world before, but seeing as he's still here with us and actively participating and helping; training us through Iron Banner, helping with the Eliksni, refusing to side against the Vanguard despite the difference in opinion, now serving as Zavala's ambassador for the Cabal and easily bonding with someone he would've considered an enemy not long ago...

I think Saladin knows his place. He's one of the strongest Lightbearers and most principled among them. He is not swayed by lies and deceptions, he does not abide by them and speaks plainly. He has deeply rooted beliefs in justice and he will not compromise himself, even if it means conceding his position to make peace with a former enemy when that enemy proves their worth, honesty and good intentions to him.

He is a Guardian.

He is an Iron Lord.

#destiny 2 #lord saladin #lore vibing #long post #more iron lord lore bungie please?#iron temple as a social space?#please?#anyway i love this new lore about him so much #i wish we had it before people formed some crude opinions about him #but hopefully this can retroactively clear certain things up

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starshipsofstarlord · 4 years ago

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First things First | Jack Kline & Peter Parker

Summary; Peter sees his ex back in town. Last time she was with her brothers, but this time, she has another companion. His name is Jack Kline, and he is her current boyfriend.

Warnings; some angst, jealousy, a bit of trash talk, smidge of violence, one swear word

“You’re back then.” Peter noticed, following you as you walked through the school halls, your head down as you attempted to ignore him. But however, you knew that you couldn’t pretend he wasn’t there forever, and so you softly sighed.

Last time, you hadn’t been in town too long, only a few weeks, cases were sprouting up left right and centre in Queens, and that was enough time for a relationship to briefly brew between the pair of you.

However, when the entourage of hunts came to an end, it had only been fair to cut sweet Peter loose, you hadn’t planned to return in any soon time. And here you were, a year in a half later, back in his hometown.

“You’re eyes are quite inquisitive, Parker, or do you need to ask me to put rock salt on my skin to prove that I’m not a ghost?” You barked back, which earnt yourself a confused frown.

“What?” He asked in reply, confused by your wording.

“Never mind, you wouldn’t get it.” You dismissed, having already had the intel and advice from your brothers that two different worlds didn’t mix.

Peter was but a boy, a smart one, but for all that you were aware, he lived a mundane life. He was bullied at school, but he had a couple of friends, Ned and MJ.

MJ. She had liked Peter before you had disappeared in the impala, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the pair were together now. He had wanted to forget you, for causing him so much pain, he deserved to move on, as you had.

“What I got was that you told me you loved me, and then you went with the wind, and didn’t look back, not once.” He bit back, his statement making your body feel heavy.

It was guilt, a familiar feeling for a hunter. It often came when a life was lost by the life of a monster, and this time, it had been the same. You had taken away the happiness from your own life, you were the beast that ripped out someone’s heart.

“I did, but that doesn’t matter anymore Pete, I’m in love with somebody else. There’s nothing that I am entailed from hiding from him, no secrets, I can be myself with him.” You pursed your lips, relieved that you had got that off your chest.

“You never had to have secrets! Your family business is what dragged us down in the first place, you feel the need to follow your brothers around the world, and for what? To end up alone and unloved?”

“I love her.” Jack entered the hallway, he had been at the front office, asking about the plumbing, he said he heard a noise. It was what the victim had said before he died, and so the spawn of Lucifer was now questioning it.

Sam and Dean were downtown, at some bar, it had been where the victim had been, with a fake id, before his body had been found in the school bathroom. This left the group of you spread out, and operating around the city, wanting to find the creature that had ended the boy’s life.

Jack’s voice had been friendly, as though he were informing Peter of your relationship status. Neither of them knew each other, so he found no harm in letting the public know of your intimate bond.

The nephilim was most often than not a free speaker, he found no foul in letting his mouth run. He was so innocent, so pure, and perfect, you were pleased that you hadn’t tainted him nor gained his spite like you had with Peter.

“Jack, this is Peter. I met him last time I was around here. Peter, this is Jack, my boyfriend.” It was an awkward introduction, you held your hands together, watching as Jack held out his hand for your ex to shake.

Peter hesitantly shook Jack’s hand, lightly glaring at the boy. “It’s nice to meet a friend of y/n’s, not many that she has are her age.”

“Thanks for that Jack.” You laughed lightly, holding sweetly onto his arm, as to ensure him that he had done nothing wrong.

“We’re not friends.” Peter corrected him, squinting at you. “She doesn’t like the idea of any relationship with me, so she can pass on friendship.” He gave you one last look, before he walked away.

“Hi.” Jack saw your ‘friend’ in the hall, whilst you were questioning some other students. Peter reluctantly turned, going face to face with your boyfriend and partner in justifying crime.

“Hey.” His head briefly leant back, curious as to why the new boy was speaking to him. “Jack, right?”

“Yes, that is my name.” Jack nodded with a smile, the adorable gap in his teeth presenting itself clearly. “Have you felt any cold spots here recently, or smelt sulphur by any change?”

His question made Peter frown, he gulped and thought before he decided to answer. “I don’t know why your going around asking questions, but I also do not know why you’re dating y/n. She’ll break your heart, it’s what she does.”

“The two of you don’t sound like very good friends.” He speculated, tilting his head like a puppy dog, his bright eyes filled with curiosity.

“We weren’t just friends Jack, I’m surprised she didn’t tell you about me. Maybe there was a reason for that, you should ask her.” Peter crossed his arms, taking note of how he seemed to have angered the other boy.

The son of Lucifer was inhaling and exhaling through his nostrils, he was attempting to remain calm. But he couldn’t, his eyes seared with their golden pigment, and upon witnessing, Peter’s eyes widened and he was fast to sling webbing towards the mutant.

But it had no affect, not as Jack’s mouth opened, and a scream on another wavelength , which happened to throw the spider man backwards into the row of lockers. This was not normal, and Peter worried for the reason that you had the company of such a creature.

“What the hell are you?” Peter asked, wanting an answer so he could figure out a way to defeat him.

“I’m someone that loves y/n very much. Don’t worry, we won’t be in town much longer.” And with that, the strange and peculiar being walked away, leaving Peter stunned. For once, he wasn’t sure how he would improvise.

“You know the boy’s toilets are for guys, right?” Peter asked later in the day, as he watched you, whom was drenched in water, leave said restroom.

“I am more than aware, thankyou for that reminder Peter.” Each footstep dripped water upon the floor. That ghost had been a bitch to send off, but to your relief, you had done so.

“What are you doing here, really?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to be leaving tonight, I’ll be all out of your hair.” You spoke, trying to remain calm with your previous partner. “Have you seen Jack?”

“About that...” he noticed how you furrowed your brow with his words, and realised it would be better to get straight to the point. “He’s not normal, there’s something different about him. He’s dangerous.”

“I guess you witnessed something... supernatural?” He slowly nodded his head, thinking about how it could be considered as such. “Jack, he’s a nephilim, half angel, half human. That’s why I can’t stick around, my life is messy, and I have a duty to save people, you understand that, right?”

“Why would I understand that?” He hesitated, his voice stepping over his words in a worried stutter. “Angels?!” He repeated.

“Yeah, not every takes lightly to the news, and a bit of information; the majority are dicks.” You laughed, shoving your hands in your soggy pockets. “You really think I didn’t have a clue that I was dating a spiderman? I investigate abnormal occurrences for a living, it was quite easy to notice something was different about you.”

“So you look into things like cold spots and sulphur smells?” He remembered that was what Jack had mentioned earlier. Perhaps the possibility of angels wasn’t half crazy, the universe was expanding. It was certainly out there, but so was a talking, moving tree that enjoyed digital games and was experiencing puberty.

“Exactly.” You smiled, looking into his deep brown eyes, and finding some kind of peace between the pair of you.

“I think I saw Jack in the library.” He scratched the back of his neck, deciding to be a bigger person and give into the planet’s order.

“Thanks, see ya around Parker.” That expression you gave him shouldn’t have made him feel so giddy, he knew that this was another goodbye you were sending him. But the relief on your faces was beautiful.

You walked momentarily backwards, and he raised his hand in a signalled send off. He hoped that one day, he would see you again, maybe even with Blade as he killed vampires. Who knew?

One thing he was aware of was that you were happy with Jack, and that the two of you shared a life. You had an even amount of knowledge between you, and as much as Peter hated to admit it, you weren’t bound to leave the nephilim any time soon.

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chikorithesaiyan · 3 years ago

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FIC;; Chikori's No Good, Very Bad Day

Word Count: 10951

Summary: Today hasn't been off to a very good start. First, there's a reminder of her old life that spawns suddenly in the middle of TokiToki City. Then, some guy named Greg offers to let her blow off some steam by having her fight him-- and lose! On top of that, he expects her to just mosey along with him to do some Parallel Quest that she's nowhere near strong enough for?

It's a very bad day to be a trainee Time Patroller, that's for sure.

Featuring: @roberttheglitcherino's oc Greg, references to this RP with @bounty-hunter-amara's Yaro, canon compliant violence... and then some!, Chikori having PTSD and flashbacks (not the fun kind), Fallafal having a crush, Great Ape Vegeta, and best of all: Ginyu getting to be Ginyu.

Content Warnings: detailed violence, PTSD, terrible attempts at writing country dialect

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It was already a bad day. Things were made worse when Chikori saw that former Saiyan Army commander appear in TokiToki out of nowhere. He claimed to have no idea as to what was going on, and while it seemed to be true, Chikori couldn't help but doubt that those closest to the king could be just as conniving and evil as he was. She had all but caused a scene, one that was hurriedly covered up by the good grace that was Fallafal. Sensing no immediate threat from the Saiyan, she had abruptly turned tail and left, wanting to let off steam somewhere away from them.

What little bit of reason she had thought that leaving Fallafal around him might be regrettable. His kindness could easily be turned against him, and she had no doubt that the commander could do that. Or any Saiyan with a brain cell, for that matter. His safety was also a concern. But between the waves of Patrollers coming and going from the central hub, and her anger, she couldn't be assed to worry. Instead, she did her best to focus on the PQ board, trying to find something she could throw herself into.

That said, trying to find something was difficult when you were too angry to read the unfamiliar language. Scowling, she tried to skim for pictures, numbers of suggested power levels, anything, but her mind was just too pre-occupied by her frustrations that all she did was glare angrily at the board. That was all it took for an older Saiyan named Greg to notice her. He was a few good feet taller than her, but he couldn't ignore the waves of anger heating up below him. He wasn't sure when she would notice him, but he offered a friendly smile as he watched her.

“Yer lookin' a bit too angrily at them boards, little lady. Got a quest that's been kickin' yer ass?”

Chikori pretended not to hear him. It wasn't hard, given how hard she was focusing on picking one out of the list available to her. The damn Majins that were training her and Fallafal had restricted their access to what missions they could do without a senior Time Patroller to help.

The older Saiyan rubbed the back of his head. Something had definitely set her off. He knew that it wasn't like most of his kind to be open to sharing their issues, but that didn't stop him from trying to help where he could. It was that sort of helpfulness, willingness to listen, and his caring demeanor, that had earned Greg the title of “dad friend” in his own squad. He tried again.

“So what quest you need helpin' with?”

Chikori didn't say anything, but merely glanced briefly in his direction, confirming whether or not he was talking to her.

He was.

Fuckin' great.

She let out a short sigh; the last thing she needed was someone else getting in her business. And she couldn't trust anyone yet to believe her, much less be on her side. Everything here was just too... new to her. She couldn't get the vibe of the place, where people allowed those who were on the wrong side of history to train those who sought to protect it. Nothing about it felt right.

It was almost as bad as being on that peaceful planet the Majins left her on for two years.

“Look, I can tell ya's got sumthin' on yer mind, and I'd like to help ya. How's 'bout this. What do you say to a little friendly sparring, Saiyan to Saiyan?”

Chikori quirked an eyebrow. She turned around to get a better look at Greg. He was perhaps as wide as she was tall, muscles on muscles. Perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but she felt dwarfed looking up at him. She might be able to get in a few punches, but the density of the older Saiyan made her feel almost as impotent as she did earlier with the Saiyan Commander. It would have to be a long fight, but whether or not she had the stamina for that anymore...

Greg was rolling up the cuff of his jacket, looking down at her. He cocked a grin.

“Got'cher interest wit' that, did I?”

Her eyes traveled to his waist; there was no tail resting there. Then perhaps....? She tried to nonchalantly look behind him, but wasn't able to see anything. She couldn't tell his ki from the next person's while they were standing in the central hub.

“You're a Saiyan?”

“Yer damn right I am! Hell, I can best e'en the strongest Great Apes these PQs can throw at ya!”

It sounded like an exaggeration to her, but she didn't acknowledge it either which way.

“Where's your tail?” she asked, suspicious of him.

“Eh? Oh, is that what y'were doin' just now, tryna look for that tail-tell sign? Hahaha!” He slapped his knee, laughing at his own joke. Chikori crossed her arms and stared at him, waiting. “You must be one of 'em newer recruits, huh? Don't know yet that it's mighty common for us to cut off our tails here, didja?”

She felt her stomach twist in disgust, and her breakfast threatened to come back up. Saiyans never cut off their own tail; it was a matter of pride and power! She recoiled physically, taking a step back from him in horror.

“What Saiyan in their rightmind--”

“'Ey! Don'cha know it's policy if you wanna go on some of these missions that you ain't got a tail, or you ain't going. We can't have no accidents where you be fighting wit' us one minute, an' the next we gotsta be fightin' YOU.”

She tsked. Of course that would be the case. Maybe that was the real reason why so many of those missions were restricted to her; only her squad leader could unlock them for her, and Nanna had impressed upon her that she wouldn't be able to go on them until they had a 'talk' later about some of the other rules and guidelines that the Time Patrol had. That had been a few weeks ago, and Nanna hadn't brought it up since.

“So we mutilate ourselves, in order to appease some higher power so that we can work for them?” It reminded her a little too much of Frieza.

Greg scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. “Well, w'en you put it like that...” He shook his head. "But that's neither here nor there! I was askin' youwhat ya needed help with. 'Cuz you sure were givin' them machines a mighty hard stare. If looks could kill, why I think Miss Bulma might have to come out here an' fix everything herself!”

Chikori had no idea who that was or what any of that mattered. Instead, she crossed her arms again and stared up defiantly at the taller Saiyan. Sensing that he was about to lose her interest in fighting, much less getting out what was bugging her, Greg tried again.

“So, how's 'bout that spar? If you beat me, I'll drop it an' leave you 'lones, if you wish. But if I beat ya, ya gotta tell me what's eatin' at ya.”

She sized him up again. She didn't need a scouter to tell her that he outclassed her. Survival instincts told her to flee, but her boiling Saiyan blood refused to turn down the challenge. And she still needed a punching bag to let out all of this tension, if she couldn't do any of the PQs. She'd like to not destroy the first one she set eyes upon.

“...Fine. You're on.”

Chikori followed Greg to an unused training arena. She stopped some paces behind him, looking around. It was like a coliseum, but instead of the stone, blood-stained seating that she knew, the seating here was made of metal. The walls that separated the seats from the arena were colorfully decorated with flags and symbols of unfamiliar origins to her. The actual arena itself was a simple, open area. Tiles marked the ground upon which combatants would fight. There was nothing to hide behind or use as an object to throw at someone. Surrounding the ring was grass, upon which some debris was being picked up by the bots that helped keep Toki Toki City clean.

There were hardly any Patrollers in the stadium at the moment. She could see some in the bleachers, spread apart enough that it was clear none of them were interacting with the others that they weren't already talking to. None of them would bat an eye at a couple of Saiyans using it.

Greg turned around to face Chikori. He crushed his hands together, cracking his knuckles as the easy-going, jovial face he wore instantly changed to serious.

“Alright! Now I wants ya to come at me like yer life depends on it!”

Chikori didn't hesitate.

“Haaaaaa!!!!”

She charged at him, aiming a kick at his head. It connected, giving herself a small satisfied smirk... until she realized that he wasn't giving under the force of it.

He didn't even flinch.

“Gahahaha!! That's a nice kick!” He held up a hand to push her away, and immediately she jumps far back, like a cat. Fear is alight in her skin, every sense in her screaming to dodge before he can touch her. She hasn't been this agile in years.

“But didn't I say to come at me like yer life depended onnit?”

He's quick. Quicker than her. Before she can realize where he is, he's already thrown several punches at her. All she can see is the sky spinning. The force of the wall-- no the ground-- that hits the side of her head as she crashes into the tiled floor comes far after she realizes the spinning has stopped. She can feel a deep impression in the ground, and struggles to focus her vision on the line of sky that separates ground level from her depression.

“'Ey! I reckon' you's got more'n that in ya, right?!” She can hear him shouting from somewhere far away, somewhere above her head. It's somewhere far away from this depression in the ground. “What happened to all that anger, lil' lady?”

Well, it sure wasn't beaten out of her in just one blow. Chikori reaches out a hand to pick herself up out of the ground. It travels up the uneven, rough rocky cavern until air tickles her fingers. She lifts her hand up and slaps down on the smooth tile, pulling herself out of the ground. She spits out the dirt and gravel that had managed to find its way into her mouth. Blood trickles down her head from where she hit the ground, and she wipes it out of her eyes. Those green eyes of her glare down Greg with a fiery passion that she hadn't dare show before. One that she hasn't felt in what feels like decades.

“That's a good look in your eyes. Great! Now c'mon, hit me with all ya got!”

With a yell, Chikori launches herself at him again. He easily dodges the flurry of kicks she sends his way, a smile on his face as he closes his eyes. Air breezes past his ears. He ducks to avoid a swinging kick aimed at his head, and sidesteps the incoming punch. He doesn't need his eyes open to read her movements.

“Ha! Yer like an open book.”

With a scream, she throws a punch at his head; it goes sailing past. Without any wasted movements, he's taken ahold of her and thrown her all the way over his shoulder. Chikori crashed into the wall on the far side. Tile falls down around her. Letting out a hiss of pain, she struggles to stand straight on her feet. Move! she yells at her legs, which threaten to buckle under her weight. Move! Get up! Stand!! With each thought she's taken a step forward, out of the ground. Panting, she looks up at him. Glaring.

“Is that....” She gasps, sharp pain taking the air out of her as she forces herself to speak. Chikori grits her teeth, fangs baring. A scream welling up inside her, as she yells, “Is that... All... YOU... GOT!?!?”

He had to hand it to her. He didn't think she'd be getting up so quickly from that one, even if she was struggling to stand, much less breathe. Probably broke a rib or something, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

Now was the time to egg her on. To let that anger out in full force. Now was the time... for a hearty laugh!

“Gahahaha! Well, it's nice ta' see that ya got our indomitable spirit! But where's some of tha' fight?! I'm gettin' kinda bored here just watchin' you buzz 'round me like a fly. Don't wanna pull out the fly swatta just yet.”

Chikori gave Greg a rude gesture. He laughed loudly, a big guffaw.

It wasn't funny to her.

She charges at him again. And once more, he dodges her as easily as one moves around a toddler. He takes ahold of the punch she's thrown, and she twists herself like a cartwheel to throw a kick at his wrist to let herself go.

It's ineffective.

She feels like a toddler, just trying to hit him. Like when Fallafal's nieces would throw a tantrum and wail and bang against him because he wouldn't let them play with the model truck his family kept on a high shelf. She felt... helpless.

And she hated that.

Growling, she charges up ki in her hand and shoots it at his face, causing him to loosen his grip on her and stumble backwards. She floats high into the air, aiming more ki blasts at him. She's trying to keep him on his toes, growling and screaming in frustration as she shoots off the small energy blasts. But he regains his footing from the surprise blast. In no time at all, he's easily swatting them away like it was nothing. Clouds of dust burst from the ground where the scattered blasts landed. It gave her an idea. She changed tactics, shooting at the ground around him to build up a dust cloud.

“'Ey! What're you aimin' at?! ….Ahaha! I git it now. Thinkin' yer can sneak up on ol' Greg with an attack like this? Ain't no trouble for me!” He spins around at an impossible speed, building up a blue tornado that gathers up the dust. He's rising into the air with it as he controls the force. The tornado's still going when he stops spinning, eyes quickly searching for the small Saiyan. Behind him, he senses her ki. He turns around and grabs the outstretched leg, stopping her kick as she now struggled mid-air.

“Gotcha.”

He spins around like a discus thrower, tossing her into the ground.

This was beyond frustrating. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She pushes herself off the ground, stumbling to get her footing. She wasn't going to give up. Focusing, she stretches her arms in front of her, hands close together, palms facing outward. She charges ki into her hands, holding it long enough that when it launches, there's a trail of energy that follows behind. But rather than swat it away, he leaves an afterimage that dissipates the moment her attack touches. She wasn't even able to get a read on his movements.

“Now... lessee if you can take some of what yer tryna dish out.”

He's in her face before she's realized it.

“Boo!”

He claps her on the shoulder, and she's immediately swatted sideways into another wall. This time, he doesn't wait for her to recover. He's coming out her with his own techniques, holding back his true strength so as to not kill her. It was a playfight, after all. Training, if you could call it that. He could tell that Chikori needed some kind of catharsis when he first talked to her. Whatever was upsetting her, he knew that knocking her out before she could achieve it was counterproductive to what he was trying to do.

“Don't'chu go passin' out on me! 'Ere.” He tossed a capsule at her. It fell to the floor with a soft clatter. Worried that he might have knocked her out already, he looked at her more closely. She was staring back defiantly. She spat out what was probably blood and a tooth that he might have knocked loose.

He gave her a disapproving look. “I ain't tryna poison you, if tha's what yer worried 'bout! It's a healin' capsule. Swallow what's inside it an' you'll get yer energy back. Like a Senzu.”

Chikori didn't know what a Senzu was, and she didn't care to find out at the moment. She ignored it, instead getting herself into a new ready position.

“Take it, little lady,” he growled, his voice low with a warning tone. “You'll thank me for it later.”

In response, she stomped the capsule into the ground.

“Don't want the help? Fine, suit yerself. Don't say I din't offer!”

One more beating later, and he had managed to force-feed a nearly-passed out Chikori a Senzu Bean that he had fished out of a shirt pocket. The shorter Saiyan struggled out of his hold like a feral cat when she came to. She scrambled to get away from him, heartbeat still pounding from the excitement of battle. Her tail was puffed out; she was practically hissing at him to stay back, despite the fact that he was more than capable of taking anything she could dish out.

He crossed his arms, and tried to keep his frustration from showing.

“Ya should be thankin' me, ya'know. Us Saiyans git stronger every time we pick ourselves off th' ground.”

“...”

“You don't like to talk, do ya?”

“...”

“Alright, alright, fine. Here's an easier one. My name's Greg. What's yer name?”

“....It's Chikori.”

“Chikori! Why, I ain't heard a Saiyan name like that in a long time-- not too many Saiyans got them traditional names anymore. Ain't nuthin' wrong with that, though! So, 'bout wha'cher upset about earlier...”

There was a tense silence as she leaned away from him. He took the sign and sighed.

“You ain't gotta tell me what's actually goin' on, if you don't wanna. You jus' seemed madder than a wet hen. Well, I'm here ta' tell ya' that a fledgling Saiyan like you ain't got nothin' to worry 'bout, here with tha' Time Patrol. We're good people, doin' good things. Well, as good as you can let 'em be, given that it's 'bout protectin' history. Good, bad, an' ugly.”

“...I'm 25.”

He laughed. “Yer still a fledgling! I ain't callin' you one 'cuz of yer size, it's 'cuz of yer heart!! Ain't nothin' but a youngin' that goes 'round getting' upset an' lettin' strangers fight 'em ta' 'void talkin' 'bout it. C'mon, I'll take ya out on a PQ. We'll kick some apes' asses, an' I'll show you how it's all done in one go.”

The way he said it felt a little patronizing to Chikori. Her tail unfurled from around her waist, swishing angrily in the air with short, curt movements. But more than that...

“Didn't you say earlier--”

“Eh, I could take ya if ya turned Ape.”

“For what it's worth, I don't plan on turning into a Great Ape,” Chikori said when they arrived at their destination. Greg gave her knowing smile.

“Yah, no one plans on it. Doesn't mean accidents don't happen! 'Ere.” He tossed a pair of goggles to her. She caught them, giving him a questioning look. “Moon glasses. Think o' 'em like sunglasses, 'cept they block out the moon an' them whatchamacallit waves that transform ya. I know, I know, they look like goggles an' not glasses, but it's'ta keep it on ya better.”

Chikori looked around, noticing the bright sky and lack of night.

“It's day.”

“Ya, these Great Ape fights are durin' the day! Didn't ya know 'bout the artificial moons? Thought all ya old-fashioned Saiyans knew 'bout 'em...”

She shook her head. Chikori had heard about the technique called a Power Ball, but had never bothered to learn it. It was beyond her skill level, and she was fortunate enough that she had hardly needed it, much less worked with other Saiyans when she was part of the Frieza Force. As part of the scouting and recon ships, they hardly needed the manpower that required Saiyans to turn Great Ape. They hardly needed a Saiyan's power at all, in her experience.

She felt a sharp pain in her head, and clutched at it, letting out a small hiss of pain.

“Woah, woah. You ok there Chikori?” Greg quickly looked up, confirming what he knew. “There ain't e'en a moon made out yet.”

She gritted her teeth, bearing through it. Some echo of a memory threatened to resurface, but she couldn't remember what it was. What the words were. Something... blinking? Black, white lights, several others. Bright, blinding, something her ship's captain was saying.....

“Chikori?!”

She let out a gasp when Greg placed both hands on her shoulders, squeezing her gently.

“I'm... I'm okay.” The pain was beginning to subside. There was just this heavy, dull ache where sharp, blinding pain had been, and soon, the headache was gone as well. Greg handed her a flask, commanding her to drink from it. She eyed it suspiciously.

“It's jus' water.”

She gave the canteen a sniff, wrinkling her nose at the metal smell. But she didn't smell anything acrid, any alcohol---anything that would remind her of him. No, she didn't need that thought right now. She pushed it down, out of sight, and drank. A bit metallic, but it was definitely water. She handed the flask to him. He gave her a concerned look, doubting that she was altogether alright; if it even was a good idea after all to take her on a mission.

“Can you control yerself in yer Great Ape form?”

Chikori frowned. It was a genuine question he had asked. She had little experience with her Great Ape form. Everything would black out, and, she, like most Saiyans, wouldn't remember what happened during that time she was transformed. The thought of not knowing what happened, of what she did, of who she might have killed, was enough to keep her from using that form as much as possible. The night of the last full moon on Planet Tuffle, the night that turned the tide of the war... She hated the memories that the Great Ape forms dredged up.

Asking about it only made her feel even more inadequate.

Greg gave a slow exhale. He took in a deep breath, recollected himself, and decided to bring back the happy spirit by carrying on like usual. He gave her one last stern reminder.

“Well, you better put on 'em glasses if you wanna see o' remember the rest o' the mission.”

Reluctantly, Chikori put them on, adjusting her scouter over it. Greg gave her a grin and a thumbs up.

“Now yer lookin' ready to fight! An' just in time, too, 'cuz here comes one of 'em now.”

The air shook with an intense pressure that greeted the two of them before the Great Ape ever landed. The ground crumbled under the large ape's feet. Even Greg, with his massive size, was like an ant next to the looming giant that glared at the two Saiyans with its red eyes.

Chikori felt her body go weak at the sight of it, but caught herself. She was a Saiyan, she reprimanded herself. Saiyans don't flee from fights. And she wasn't planning on fleeing from any fight, ever. Fists tightening, she charged right in, sending a blast at the Great Ape. It bounced off its armor like a pebble. The Ape laughed, a deep chuckle that sent shivers down her spine. Behind her, she could hear Greg shouting after her.

“'EY! You don't need ta' go chargin' in recklessly like a bull! These damn fledglings...”

With an effortless swat of its hands, Chikori was sent flying into the nearest mountain. Gritting her teeth, she clawed her way out of the depression that it left. She was ready to fly back in there when she heard Greg shouting at the enemy.

“Now look 'ere, Nappa. I knows you ain't too happy to see me beat yer ass again, but that's what it's gonna hafta be. Gotta show these youngsters how to have some Saiyan pride, right? Gahaha! Don't worry, I'll take the real you out for drinks after this!” Greg zoomed past the transformed Saiyan, getting behind the giant beast.

“Chikori! Can ya hear me? Now, to beat these fellas, all's ya gotta do is just... give their tails a great big squeeze--” Greg was big. Big enough that he could wrap his arms all the way around the tail of a Great Ape and lift. “--And lift 'em up into the air like so, and—hup!!” He tossed the Ape into a mountain, the force of which managed to knock it out. “Knock 'em senseless in one hit! Ain't nuthin' else to it!”

And that was it. The fight was over before she had a chance to counterattack. Anti-climatic. Chikori watched him effortlessly toss the Great Ape like a doll, disposing of it before it could ever even fight back against him. Greg was dusting off his hands, looking over at Chikori to see if she had gotten out of that hole that Great Ape Nappa had smacked her into.

“You got all that?”

She nodded slowly. Then... Wait... “...Did you call him Nappa?”

“Yeah?”

“As in, the Saiyan general that works directly under the King's son?”

“Err, yeah, I reckon he did... What's this got to do with anythin', Chikori?”

“I...” Chikori shook her surprise off. No wonder his ki felt intense. No, it wasn't worth worrying about. If he could clear them easily, then it should be fine. After all, these PQs were just little off-shoots of the real timeline. “What-if” scenarios, as Nanna called them. Training material. These weren't the real people, there wasn't any reason to be scared. Nothing to be afraid of. These people wouldn't know that she had dared to raise a hand against them in the real world.

“...No, it's nothing.”

Greg gave her a questioning look, but didn't prod further. “Alrighty, if you say so, little miss. Now, how's 'bout you take on the next one?”

The thought made her body shiver. But she clenched her fists, willing herself to be brave.

“...Sure.”

The next one was a bit of a struggle. Chikori wasn't anywhere near as physically strong as Greg, nor was she was big as him. It was easier for her to grab onto individual strands of the ape's hair than it was for her to grab onto its tail. Greg was doing his best to help subdue the Great Ape long enough for her to lift, only for her toss to be not more than a few yards away.

She was huffing from the exertion it took.

“Well, I reckon' when we git back I oughta help ya build up some muscle...” Greg said, watching the Ape pick itself up. “C'mon now, Chikori! You can do this! I'll give him a good punch in the face, an' you can finish 'im off with another toss!”

Letting out a frustrated growl, she flew behind the Great Ape. Greg flew above, punching hard into the transformed Saiyan's head, knocking him down into the ground. Chikori tugged and pulled at the tail, but the beast recovered before she could lift him off the ground. He moved his tail and grabbed at the tiny Saiyan that was clinging onto it, squeezing her as he picked her up.

Chikori screamed in pain.

“CHIKORI!!” Greg sped down to aim a kick at the Ape's fist, but was backhanded away.

The Ape glared down at Chikori with its red eyes.

“You....” He breathed heavily, ape breath stronger than the pain he was causing her. “You're a Saiyan too. Why not join us in our rampage?”

She gagged, though it wasn't from the offer alone.

“Bite me!”

“Oh, I'll do more than just that. I'll tear you, limb from limb. Should I start from your tail, since you don't want to transform? Or maybe I'll show you some mercy, and tear your head off first?”

There was something... unsettlingly familiar about the threats. About the voice. But she had no way to be certain. She had never met him. Never heard him speak in anything resembling public speaking. She had only heard stories about the self-proclaimed King's son, about the so-called Prince. About how his cruelty rivaled Frieza's... or so the stories said.

She tried to push her way out of his grasp. She couldn't get a single hand free.

He put a claw right in front of her face; it was larger than her head. The threat was not lost on her.

“Well? Have you decided?”

“VEGETA!! A'HM NOT OUTTA THA' FIGHT YET!!!” There was a surge in ki, and before either of them could blink, Greg had kicked through the Great Ape's hand. Blood spewed. In his pain, the Great Ape Vegeta had let go of Chikori, clutching his missing hand and roaring in pain and anger. Greg caught Chikori before she fell, safely transporting her to the ground.

“You okay, lil' miss?”

No. She wasn't okay. Her muscles ached from the tight grip. Perhaps she had even broken a bone or two. She couldn't tell, because her entire body ached. But more than that, her pride was wounded. She absolutely hated the feeling of powerlessness. Of being unable to do anything. Of having to rely on other for help. She needed to get by on her own power.

After all...

Help never came when you needed it.

Groaning, she pushed herself away from Greg. He put her down next to boulder. He leaned her down until her back was resting against it.

“Careful. Yer mighty hurt right now. I reckon this mighta been too high-level a mission for ya, but I thought it mighta been worthwhile for ya to see tha' yer anger ain't gonna git you nowheres if you keep on like you were. Guess I was wrong in thinkin' you might be a decent team player.” He let out a low whistle. “I'd hate ta be in yer trainer's shoes, if yer like this all the time.”

Chikori coughed, her throat scratched to hell and back from the screaming and blood she was hacking up. She looked down. Her armor was cracked and falling apart. She could see the brightly colored clothing that Fallafal's older sister was kind enough to give her when they were back on Earth. Fallafal would have something to say about how it was torn up, and she knew he'd tell it to her while he mended it. The blood though... Heh. He might faint at the sight of it. Her breath caught in her throat as she took a raspy gasp. She covered her mouth with her hand while she choked on her cough. She pulled her hand back and saw something red on it. Blood. Her blood. She tried to move a leg. It felt like a massive weight was sitting on it, something as heavy as the Great Ape that lumbered towards them. She couldn't even feel the pain from it. She coughed again, trying not to think about the blood.

Her blood.

She was losing blood.

Wasn't that bad?

Somewhere, she was faintly aware of thunder. Of the rumbling ground. Pebbles that jumped up and danced around on the ground, while she laid there, struggling to move. That wasn't fair. She wanted—no, needed—to move too. C'mon, body. Move! She was shouting at it, struggling to assess just how badly it was hurt. She wasn't supposed to die like this!

(She wasn't supposed to be here, either.)

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!

Her lips moved, but no sound came out. The thunder was louder now.

Greg fished around in his pocket for a handkerchief. He began to wipe the blood away from Chikori's mouth, and she jerked away like a petulant child. She didn't want the assistance. She could do that on her own when they got back to Tokitoki City. Besides, there was a storm coming. Didn't he need to do something about it? He was supposed to, wasn't he...?

Greg frowned at her. “Hold yer head still, Chikori.”

She whispered something.

“I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear ya on account of all the blood yer coughin' up! Seriously...” He didn't seem bothered by the towering figure that loomed over them now that it had finally stopped howling in pain. Greg was still struggling to wipe the blood away from Chikori's mouth, despite her barely conscious mind jerking her head away from him.

“I...said......Fuck... THIS!”

With what strength she could muster, Chikori pushed Greg away from her. She ripped off her scouter, the stupid damned moon-gogglesthe Time Patrol had invented, and looked above to see the massive figure of the Great Ape blocking out every bit of light. Blood was dripping down his arm, falling in big droplets that splashed when it hit the ground.

“I'm sorry, but that offer to join us has expired. You're going to die now.”

“Like hell it has!” Her eyesight was blurring. Hair was sticking to her face from a mixture of blood and sweat, and she struggled to ignore it. She concentrated a ki blast in her hand, throwing it at one of the Ape's eyes. He snarled, holding a hand up to block it. While he was distracted, Chikori shot out from under his shadow, quickly looking around for that artificial moon that was allowing the Saiyan Prince to maintain his transformation. She could hear Greg shouting something behind her, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of the ape as he turned his attention onto him. Chikori's small size made it easier for her to hide amongst the rocky scene, and it was clear to Vegeta, even in his Great Ape form, that she was no threat to him. Even if she transformed...

There! She could catch the glimpse of something bright. Her heart beat faster. She had never changed intentionally before. It felt like she was crossing a line, one that she didn't realize she had placed so much emphasis on before. But it wasn't to turn on the Saiyan that had invited her here. It was to beat the shit out of the one that mocked and hurt her. To prove that she was capable of great strength, even if she had to go to lengths that... that what? The thoughts stopped there. She couldn't chase that sentence anymore. It had gone on too far ahead of her, and her eyes were closing, struggling to stay open...

The distant roar of the Great Ape rumbled through her. Her eyes snapped open again. Her body ached. She was sure she had broken bones somewhere, but not enough that it would hinder her if she changed. Her Saiyan blood was rushing now with adrenaline, from the anticipation of battle. It had given her a spurt of vigor that she hadn't known she was capable of. It was bleeding from the cut on her head again. It was in patches over her clothes. It pounded with excitement. She had never been pushed like this before; she had always played it safe. Could she, would she--?

Everything blacked out.

Nothing could have prepared Fallafal for what he saw when he walked into the nearby diner in Tokitoki City.

He had only wanted to stop in for some pop, and take some time to wind down from the day's events while seated at the counter. He had called Nanna and Mulla to help him with a person who had mysteriously arrived in the Central Hub. He was someone that he had seen Chikori talking to, albeit with very little excitement. That Saiyan that he saw Chikori talking to out in the Central Hub was identified as a Saiyan Commander, and it sure explained why her mood had suddenly gone sour. They had finished questioning him, with Fallafal taking notes, and now he was on his way to see her. Or, well, he needed to find her first, then see how she was doing.

At the counter, near where he normally sat, was Chikori, slouched over the counter like she was asleep. Her armor was broken in places, the clothing underneath looking torn to shreds. There was a white jacket draped over her backside like a blanket. Next to her was a large man in a blue shirt, itching at his goatee while he talked to someone on his left. The guy had ordered a water for her that was left untouched, and was drinking a strawberry shake for himself.

Fallafal was beside himself. He rushed over, unable to restrain himself as he fretted over her passed out form.

“WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED TO HER?!”

The man next to her took a sip from his drink and calmly answered him.

“Saw a moon.”

“...W-what?”

“She's better now. Ain'cha girl?” He gave her unconscious form a prod. “How're we feelin'?”

They could barely hear the utterances of a groan come from her.

“Yeah, yer fine.”

“I'll be...” Fallafal shook his head, turning to address the stranger more properly. “I'm so sorry, sir, for her... outburst. Do you mind tellin' me what happened?”

“Yeah!” He laughed. “It ain't no problem at all! See, she saw a moon, wen' an' become the Ape, so 'ah had to smack 'er against a mountain a coupla times to get her all incapacitated-like. She'll be fine.”

“WHA-- WHA'S THAT S'POSED TO MEAN?? YER TELLIN' ME SHE'S S'POSED TO BE OK AF'TA THAT???" That was more than enough for his normal dialect to slip out.

“Don't worry, I'm sure no one was recordin' it, if dat's what'cher worried 'bout.” He took another sip from his drink. Seems this younger feller's awfully worried 'bout her, he thought with a smile. He couldn't help it.

"R-recordin'? What th' hell's that got to do with anythin'?! I'm worried 'bout her health!! Got damnit, I ain't got none of those capsules them Majins told us 'bout...." He fumbled about his pockets, trying to find something to wake Chikori up with.

"Don'chu worry yerself none 'bout that. I already used a coupla when she got back t'a normal, she'll jus' need some rest. It ain't my first time wranglin' Great Apes; I know how 'ard to hit 'em to make 'em stop without lastin' damage. Enough to get 'er knocked out, but not to cause lastin' damage. Prolly wake up with a headache, though.”

As though on cue, Chikori let out a groan.

“There's our girl.”

“The hell?! Yer tryna' tell me tha's ok!?” Fallafal turned his full attention to Chikori, helping the Saiyan slowly sit up. “Hey, hey... You ok?”

“Fallafal...?” Blinking awake, she looked around. This wasn't that rocky outcropping where they were fighting the apes. This wasn't... anywhere that she was familiar with! Panic seized her, making her jump up, suddenly alert, ready to fight-- only for the motion to cause a pounding headache to nearly knock her back down. Fallafal kept her steady as she gritted her teeth, trying not to sway. He slowly guided her back down to her seat.

"Ah, there we go, already up'an'attem. Take it slow, Chikori. Yer head's gonna hurt a bit, but I got painkillers on hand."

Greg dug through his shirt pocket for one. Chikori glared at him. Fallafal barely had the water in hand to pass to her when she grabbed the pill out of Greg's hand, swallowing it dry.

"Uh... Ch'ikori? I ain't thinks yer s'posed to take that dry."

Chikori turned her glare on him and Fallafal kept his mouth shut.

Greg slapped his knee, amused at that little event.

“Hah! Thought I was th' only one who took 'em dry too!” He gave them a hearty laugh, but when neither of them join in, he stopped, sobering up for the moment. "Ah... but uh, seriously, don't worry little lady. Yer in good hands. Ah made sure yeh got out of it a-ok."

Bitter thoughts embroiled Chikori. She didn't say anything, too stubborn and prideful to concede her loss. It didn't seem like she often had the traits that Saiyans were known for: hot-headedness, pride, stubbornness. But this time was one of those times. Rather than say thanks, she glared at the Saiyan who had helped her, against her will. And took her on that PQ, against her skill level. Irresponsible of him, really. She had nothing to thank him for.

Fallafal, on the other hand, couldn't stand the lack of manners that she was displaying right now.

"A-ah, Chikori!” Seeing that it was hopeless, he turned towards Greg and bowed. “.... Err, S-sir, thank you for taking care of Chikori!"

"Heh, any time! I always make sure mah team is taken care of! But uh, no need ta be so formal 'round me, ya can relax. I ain't needin' it."

Greg rubbed the back of his neck, not used to such formalities directed towards him.

"Don't think I got y'er name, by the by. Judgin' by your concern, ya must be friends with Chikori. The name's Greg.”

"Haha... Thank you, sir. I mighty appreciate it. Name's Fallafal." Fallafal held out his hand for a handshake, not aware of the incoming squeeze he was about to receive. "If ya don't mind me askin', where're you from, sir? I aint' heard too many people with our kinda accents here... an' it's already hard 'nuff bein' a human round here too."

Greg gave Fallafal a remarkably firm handshake. He made sure not to use his full strength, but he couldn't help giving it a bit of a squeeze nonetheless. Fallafal winced at the grip, but he did his best to give his own right back (with whatever meagre strength he had, compared to so many other fighters, he found himself thinking in the back of his head--)

While they were talking, Chikori took a look around the... bar? cafe? Whatever it is that they're in. All sorts of Patrollers were there, taking a break from their busy lives. Friends were laughing together, others clinking glasses together. The merriment reminded her so much of the bars back home-- and something inside of her ached, unrelated to the physical injuries. She winced, and took a sip from the glass that Fallafal had put back on the counter. It was dry before she was done drink, and, with some regret at its emptiness, she placed it back down on the counter. Someone on the other side of the counter came over and filled it up for her, and she thanked them. It was out of the corner of her eye that she saw it.

Purple skin. Black horns. A height nearly as tall as Greg, and an ego that couldn't be dimishned, even among a crowd. Her skin crawled. Her breathing quickened. Her pulse was pounding in her head worse than any headache could give her. She took her hand off the counter and hid it underneath. She curled it into a fist, squeezing with as much strength as she could at the moment.

That... couldn't be... right... Was this a nightmare? Was she still unconscious, trapped in some haunting memories that were bleeding together to make whatever this could be?

"Heheh, well ah can tell ya I ain't's a human, though guess without th' ol' tail, wouldn't be able to tell a human from a Saiyan!” Greg laughed, and Fallafal joined in nervously.

"Ah, I sees. I heard 'em talkin' 'bout how somes of the Saiyans got'er tails removed, an'--" he stopped, his eyes glancing at Chikori as he remembered the topic when it came up before. Guilt started to gnaw at him. But before he could feel bad about the topic that came up, he noticed that she's more rigid than a right angle. Her tail, which had been lifeless while she was knocked out, is now puffed out to twice its width. It quickly wrapped around her waist instinctively, fur still bristling. He could see beads of sweat forming. A trembling that he hadn't gotten used to seeing in her.

"Chikori? You ok?"

He reached out to touch her, and she jumped in her seat, scowling at him for startling her. Fallafal gave her a sheepish smile, holding his hands up defensively.

Greg was quick to notice the sudden rise in Chikori's ki. The fear that she held was plain on her face as she struggled to keep her composure. It didn't take him long to figure out why, as one look at his drinking buddy explained it all.

"Oh... uh, right then, guess I should uh, 'splain this. Fallafal, this is mah drinkin' buddy, Captain Ginyu."

Captain Ginyu gave the pair a surprisingly welcoming wave. Surprising, considering who he worked for, and the reputation that preceded him.

Fallafal hazard a glance at the Captain.

"A-ah... Pleasure to meet you, Cap'n Ginyu."

His gaze went back to Chikori again, trying to register how okay she was right now, or if he needed to figure out an emergency exit. He tried again to let her know that he was there for her by putting a hand on Chikori's shoulder, giving it a gentle but firm squeeze. Hoping it could help ground her. She jumped in her seat again, instinctively wanting to spin and toss him, before seeing that it was Fallafal, and not an enemy, that had taken hold of her.

"This 'ere's Chikori, sir. We're newer recruits to the Time Patrol."

"A pleasure to meet the both of you two! Glad to see your Saiyan friend has gotten back on her feet! I'll admit, I was concerned when Greg had to cancel our usual drinking night when he mentioned a work incident, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't check in on him?!"

Greg chucked under his breath. He was more concerned about Chikori.

"Eheh, yeah... Guess I can gauge Chikori don't have any good memories with none of Frieza's men, as I think is normal with a lot o' races, I s'pose, 'specially us Saiyans... If it means any sort of comfort, Chikori,” he began, turning towards her. Her wide, green eyes were focused on Captain Ginyu. Greg continued speaking as calmly and clearly to her as he could, “Ginyu is off the clock, an' the Miss Kai of Time's got some pretty strict policies in place so people like 'im can help train some o' the other Patrollers, so yer safety is assured. Ain't he nor no one else s'pose to hurt you while yer in TokiToki."

The more the two men spoke, the more Chikori's nerves felt like nails on a chalkboard. The cheerful laugh, the humor and camadrie... but no, all she could hear was the sound of Captain Ginyu's voice recorded along the halls of the various stations, encouraging everyone to fight for Frieza, long live the Frieza Force! The background noise of the (pub? cafe? eating station? she couldn't tell anymore) bleeded into the sounds of a cafeteria. Of a recorded speech where Ginyu talked about the greatness that is the Frieza Force amongst a Saiyan barracks' cafeteria, the hall lined with silent, fuzzy tension that everyone wanted to break, but none had the power to.

She screamed, lunging past Greg--

--only to fall silent as he hand-chopped the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious. His movements were calm and concise. Her forward momentum allowed him to catch her in his arms, and he lifted her back up by the back of her shirt. With great care, he guided her unconscious body back to her seat, doing his best not to add to her injuries.

A small exhale escapes him after a couple seconds pass.

Fallafal was the first to break the silence. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, sirs!!" He rushed to take Chikori from Greg. “I--”

Greg held up a hand to stop Fallafal midsentence, and the human fell silent.

"...Fallafal, I 'pologize for knocking her out ag'in. If you would, please take 'er to 'er home an' make sure she is settled."

He turned around to address his friend. But before he can say anything, the Captain's already on his feet, hands on his hips as he looked indignantly at the passed out Saiyan.

“What in the world was that for?! I did absolutely nothing to her!”

“Well didn't I say tha' maybe we Saiyains ain't got the best history wit' you an' yer employer?”

“And?! That gives her absolutely no excuse to go attacking me on the street. Of all the nerve... And she didn't even do a battle pose beforehand!”

Greg was quiet for a moment. He let out a long sigh, deciding that it wasn't worth it to explain to his buddy right now why now wasn't the time nor the place for that conversation again.

"Might be in yer best interest for ya t'a git on th' trail. If she wakes up sooner than later an' sees yer still here, she might try to git yeh again."

Which meant nothing to the captain, who merely laughed off Greg's concerns.

“Greg! Buddy of mine!” Ginyu slapped Greg on the back, leaning onto him. He was completely unaware of the glare that Fallafal was giving him, even though the Earthling had no idea who this strange man was. “Do you really think a little Saiyan girl like her could do any harm against someone like me? I'm Captain Ginyu! She couldn't even make a dent in my armor!”

Greg slowly took Ginyu's hand from off his shoulder. He spoke slowly this time, choosing his words carefully, so the captain might glean their meaning.

“It ain't 'bout whether or not she could take ya. It's 'bout whether or not she could live from it. An' don't forgit. We's in TokiToki. Ain't no fightin' allowed on the city streets, but I git you to any sort of trainin' facility...”

Finally getting the hint, Ginyu backed away slowly. “Well then. I think it would be prudent if I head back. The Ginyu Force's Special Pose Training is soon! We're working on a new formation to welcome some special cadets with!” Ginyu looked over at Fallafal, completely unaffected by the human's glare, his composure back to normal. “I wish you two Time Patrol recruits luck!”

And with that, he left.

Fallafal was conflicted on whether or not he should have offered another apology to Ginyu, unsure of how to respond to him after that. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding once the captain had left, and adjusted his hold on Chikori. He was muttering quietly to himself about this being “a pickle of a situation”. Although this wasn't the first time he had seen Chikori lash out suddenly, it was still a time that he had seen it, and he was once again powerless to help her.

It was a good thing that they lived in the countryside, back on Earth....

"I... I'm..." He let out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry I couldn't... help....."

Regardless of whether or not he have done anything to restrainher, he felt bad that he couldn't help her feel safe. But what was done was done.

"Can I tell ya sumthin', Greg?"

"Go ahead, Fallafal. Jus' hope a'h haven't made a bad first impression."

Fallafal shook his head. "No! Not at all, sir! You've..." given him something to hope for? A goal to reach? Ah, but it wasn't possible for him; Greg said he was a Saiyan, and Fallafal... he was just an ordinary Earthling. A human.

"I... I only joined up with th' time patrol 'cuz of Chikori. She didn't ask me or nuthin', hell, I wasn't even part of the equation that our trainers were asked to solve." He looked down at her passed out form. Even then, she hardly looked like she was at peace.

"I jus'.... I wanna see her happy, y'know? Not... having outbursts like that ag'in. I know, I know, it ain't easy, an' I ain't qualified to be no therapist or nothin', but... I wanna be able to help 'er when she gets like that. I wanna be able to calm 'er down, or hold 'er back, or, or... just SUMTHIN'!" He slammed a fist onto the counter. Chikori started to slip, and he quickly adjusted his hold on her again, cursing under his breath.

"....I'm startin' to see that jus' ain't possible for an orn'ary human like me."

Greg nodded thoughtfully as he listened to Fallafal. The more the younger guy talked, the easier it was to see that the human had a crush on the Saiyan he was holding. All the signs you could check for, he could tick the box right off. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, but quickly let out a couch to hide the fact that he found Fallafal's crush charming.

“I think I'm pickin' up what yer puttin' down. I'd rightly say she's lucky to have someone lookin' out for her. I'll let you in on a little secret, just between you an' me. Us Saiyans can be pretty darn stubborn. Many of 'em have a deep sense o' pride, sometimes too much if ya ask me! Makes 'em wanna keep fightin' e'en when the odds are ag'inst 'em. Reckon partly mighta been 'cuz of ol' King Vegeta enforcin' such a brutal lifestyle when he were around, but I couldn't tell you for sure.”

Fallafal rolled his eyes at the “secret”, hearing it from Chikori herself how stubborn Saiyans could be. “You could say that ag'in. Ain't ever met someone so stubborn in my entire life, an' I got two little nieces! Them girls is more spoiled than days old milk!”

Greg laughed, clapping Fallafal on the back.

“Sounds like them girls just got you wrapped right 'round their pretty little fingers.”

“Naw-uh, they just thinkin' they do. Moment they start actin' up, they go tellin' on me to their ma for not lettin' 'em have their way. Reckon my sis just thinks it's even for how I was when we was growin' up.” He let out a wistful sigh; he never knew he could miss his family so much. It almost made him want to go home, but the shifting weight of the Saiyan he held up reminded him of why he stayed.

Greg thought for a moment. Talking about Earth reminded him about how Vegeta—the same one that had thrashed Chikori and threatened to pop her head off-- had heavily mellowed out after making Earth his new home. He always found it interesting, how such a small, remote planet could calm such vicious fighters. He had half a mind to ask Fallafal about what Chikori was like when they met, but decided to save that for another day.

“I'll have you know, not everyone's got that kind of patience with Saiyans as you seem ta with Chikori.” Sounds like you an' her are mighty friendly towards the other if she brought ya along to the Time Patrol.”

Fallafal nodded, though he pretended to not hear the subtle hinting the Saiyan man was getting at. “I been told patience is one o' my virtues, an' I don't e'en feel like it's been tested 'round her that much, 'cuz she's usually more reasonable, but...” There were times. Like earlier today, with that stranger he had seen her speaking to. “Reason goes all out the door when it comes to PTSD. An' sure'n'uff, she's got plenty of it. She ain't told me all the details of her life, but I reckon it's got a lot to do with.... whatever yer 'friend' Ginyu does, judging by what happened... An' it's not like she asked them to bring me along!” Fallafal found his face warming at the memory, much to his dismay. He looked away from the two Saiyans, deciding to fixate his attention on a very interesting part of the wall. Verrrry interesting. But not enough that he couldn't keep himself from talking.

“I asked-- no, demanded that them Majins bring me. Told 'em I wasn't gonna let 'em take Chikori without me.” Nope, the wall was too high up, time to burn a hole in the floor while pretending that he wasn't blushing. Yep, floor. Much safer. Ain't no eye contact down here. He cleared his throat. How the Majins had responded to him was always sobering, and it didn't take long for that embarrassed smile to fade. “....They laughed at me, askin' me how's I was s'pposed to stop 'em from takin' her if I couldn't e'en beat 'em in a fight.”

He let out a long sigh. He didn't like remembering, but the Majins didn't make it easy to forget, with the constant “oh yeah, you're here too” attitude that they gave him. They treated him like an afterthought. Worthless. It made him want to tell them to put a sock in it, but they were kind enough to let him join them afterall. Even take responsibility for him when they got chewed out by the Kai of Time for taking him with. Maybe it was just hazing? Though, they didn't treat Chikori with the same indifference as they gave him.

Greg watched Fallafal fall quiet. The mood was getting sulky again, and he didn't want the two youngings to leave him with a sad smile on their faces, even if one of them was passed out at the moment. He placed a hand on Fallafal's shoulder, getting the young man's attention.

“I will say tha' you shouldn't sell yerself short, though. If yer dead set on tryin' to be able to keep her from getting' hurt or lashin' out on others like that, then use that drive to make yerself stronger! Ya got somethin' you thinks is worth defendin'!”

Fallafal's face was pink again at Greg's words, but he nodded in agreement.

“Yer right. It's not like I did this without havin' somethin' I wanted to protect. It took a lot of courage to be able to just leave my kin; my Ma and Pa, my sister an' nieces. Kami knows I didn't wanna leave 'em behind, an' I miss 'em e'ery day tha' I'm here. E'en writin' letters that I ain't sure how yet to send 'em. But I left, 'cuz I... I figured I might be of more help to her 'ere than if I stayed at home, wonderin' if she were okay 'til the cows came home.”

His face was burning again. He used his free hand to hide his face for a few moments.

"GAH!!! This is so embarrassin'... I prolly sound like a sap to some seasoned warrior like ya."

He couldn't help but make a dorky grin as he realized how much he had spilled his guts out like this.

"Hah! Not really! We all need someone, an' seems like you got your heart out on her! I'd say she's a lucky one!"

“S-Sir, pleaaase....”

If anything, he felt like the lucky one between the two. Even though life on Earth was peaceful compared to what she had lived, her coming into his had somehow livened up and brought new perspectives to what he knew as mundane.It gave him a new appreciation for his life, and everything in it. That included her, and he had told her as much one time.

He doubted that Chikori would ever feel the same towards him, though. She seemed confused at his sentiment, and always spoke with detachment when it came to her life, back then or even before they met. If anything, seeing raw emotion out of her was such a rare, and sometimes ugly, experience. He often didn't know what to do. So maybe that was why he thought coming along with her, he might learn enough about her to figure it out. To be better able to help her.

“C-can we talk 'bout sumthin' else?!”

Greg laughed, patting the human's shoulder. As much as he enjoyed seeing young love, there was still one more topic that he had wanted to address with the young man.

“That all said... if e'er ya wanna know more 'bout us Saiyans, I reckon I could give you a crash course. 'Course, that don't mean the history lesson's gonna be easy. I'm one o' the lucky ones, ain't from the time that I reckon she might be knowin', if her name's anythin' to go by.”

“Her name?” Fallafal blinked. He didn't understand what her name had to do with anything.

“Ah, it ain't much, but some time ago we Saiyans used ta have names that were mighty diff'nt than yours an' mine. They all say mah name's weird, but I think theirs is weird too. But that's neither here nor there. If ya wanna know, I'm more'n free 'nuff to tell ya.”

“I... see...”

Fallafal was thinking about it when Chikori groaned.

“I'll hafta take a raincheck on that, sir. I reckon Chikori's needin' sleep more'n I need answers.”

Greg nodded. “Seems wise. Well, I'll give ya my contact info so ya two can get 'hold of me if ever you need me. Oh! An' I reckon y'all might need some mentors, if you ain't got some yet. They help ya train an' teach ya so you can git yerself outta any scrape. If yer gonna be callin' yerself a Time Patroller, yer gonna wanna partner up with one of 'em. Krillin is usually a safe bet, very friendly an' good with newcomers! He's a human, too! Yeh'd like 'im, I bet! I'm thinkin' Chikori might liken a no-nonsense girl like his wife, 18. She's kinda scary, but yeh'll know she's sweet 'nuff on 'er husband. Heck, maybe e'en Krillin can give ya some pointers!”

Fallafal was listening earnestly to the older Patroller's suggestions, all the way up until that last thing he said. His face turned bright red and he looked far away from Greg, as far as his head would let him turn. “I ain't--”

Greg laughed, clapping his hands. “Boy, you sure are easy to tease. I better lighten up 'fore you pass out from heatstroke!”

“I-wh-but you--” he sputtered, before giving up and hanging his head. “Well, I oughta let you git on with yer evenin', sir. Thank you, for the history lesson. ...An' for helpin' Chikori, I reckon', in what mighta been a way that only you Saiyans would understand."

“Yer welcome. And hey, try not to think too much 'bout what's going on. If she wants ta tell ya, she'll tell ya. I reckon she trusts you well 'nuff, if she didn't push you a way's way from her like she did me!”

Fallafal gave him a doubtful look. He started to pick up Chikori, if only to noticed that the white jacket was still around her. It made the already small Saiyan look even smaller.

“'Ey. This jacket yours, sir?”

“Ah! Yeah, that'd be mine. Y'see...” He lowered his voice, leaning in towards Fallafal. He figured that neither of the two newer recruits would like the embarrassing, yet well-known fact shared aloud. “When a Saiyan turns 'to a Great Ape, they grow mighty big. If they got the right armor on, it'll stretch with 'em. But if what they's wearing ain't 'specially made for it... Well... I figured yer girlie might 'preciate somethin' 'til she's got her armor repaired. Yeh can give that back tomorrow.”

There was a sputtering of words as Fallafal tried to process how to even proceed from there. Now he knew why she had gotten out her old armor when she was leaving Earth. Why she was adamant about wearing it until she could buy something new here-- and maybe that had to do with why she was having such a hard time finding anything to replace it with.

He hadn't taken the time to truly process how bad the damage was to her armor, much less her clothing.

“Issit that bad?” he whispered, now afraid to touch her unless it somehow got misconstrued as inappropriate.

“Nah, son! I jus' figured she didn't wanna be caught dead walkin' round with crumbling armor and holes in her clothes. Not that she wasn't almost dead,” he added quietly. “You know how some women are! They git real mad 'bout their clothes in public.”

“A-ah...ahahaha.....hahaha...... right.........”

#chikori #fallafal #roberttheglitcherino #others' ocs: greg #writing #fic: chikori's no good very bad day #dragonball xenoverse #dragon ball xenoverse #dbxv #db xv

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leavingdathomir · 3 years ago

Text

Legends Never Die Chapter 3:

Change is Constant

Previous / next

Parts of ⚡️ Legends Never Die ⚡️ (Under construction)

Pairing: Rex x Fem!OC

Word count:7907

Rating: Explicit (18+)

Chapter summary: In the wake to a new era, Deep Blue finds herself in a position that leaves her with no choice to adapt to her situation.

Gar don’t ganar at slanar, Cyar’ika - you don”t have to go, love. I ganar orders , kar'taylir darasuum - I have orders, my love

Chapter Warnings: slight sexual content, comfort, fluff.

Let me know if I need any additional tags. Thanks!

Ao3

It almost took half a year for Deep Blue to figure out Hunter’s intention and the feelings he had about her. And he would be lucky to even get to speak to her during his temporary leave on Kamino after a mission. For a brief moment, Hunter knew Deep Blue would still be on Kamino instructing the next batch of clones. At first, it started as a friendly visit to check how she was doing and ask to catch up. In which Deep Blue would happily accept, paying no mind to spending time over in his assigned barracks (she had to get used to the smell) with the other Batchers. She even offered her apartment to Hunter if he needed anything when she’s not working.

The Batchers would tease him for this. Except for Crosshair, they never entered her apartment for whatever reason. Hunter was shocked by this revelation — to be told he was only there for a moment after Deep Blue had noticed his right eye was inflamed.giving him special eye drops for his eye strain. As he would quote, "weird-looking artifacts" were hung as "prizes." Deep inside him, he felt jealous. a little envious even, which piqued his curiosity about what he was talking about.

Deep Blue laughed when Hunter brought it up. She informed him that it came from her home planet, where she grew up. Although Hunter already knew of her deep secret, would it harm him to learn more about her?

He'd learned to hide his admiration for her, and learning more about her life made him wonder about life outside the military.What would life be like when the war starts and ends? When there is no one to fight, What will the clones do when there's peace? Will they know peace? These are questions Hunter would ask himself but he never got the heart to ask her. And it was better that way; because it didn’t matter.

Hunter knew that he would die. He had thousands of close calls. And when Shadow is with them, it gives him something to fight for. Motivation is keeping him going, and he thinks she knows that when she orders him around. And he obeyed without question. Why? because he trusts her. Something Deep Blue and him don’t need to say or give each other any doubt. The task was completed.Afterward, they return to Kamino. And so the cycle begins...

Hunter’s feelings became unbearable after gaining awareness of every little detail about her. He thought she was insane because of the way she smiles at everything — including Crosshair — her laughter when Wrecker makes her laugh, the amount of worry she turns to Crosshair, making sure he took his medicine, and the amount of attention she gives Tech when he over speaks about anything. curious one, he thought.

And he had come to love that about her.

He felt bad for avoiding her to control himself. Not because he felt insecure about having a crush on his boss. It was her actions that drove him crazy. She presented to her brothers, seeing more than just her smile and kindness.The way her ears would twitch to certain emotions, the way she walked, her chuckle, the hint of a mist of fruit and tea scent filling his nose, and the small bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep. And speaking of eyes.

Her eyes were hypnotizing.

eyes, reminding him of the green fields of Naboo. Her blue skin shimmers when water hits her. Making her glow when the skies clear and the sun reflects the droplets of rain on her shoulders.

He couldn’t bear to look her in the eye.

And he hid this by putting on his helmet at the most appropriate times. Even then, Deep Blue noticed.

The next time Hunter returned, he couldn’t bear it anymore.

It happened so quickly that it ended up becoming intimate. Kisses became aggressive and hands roamed each other. Hunter held her by the waist and paced her backward into the apartment, directing her to the couch. He wrapped his arm around her to have a firm grip on her as he lowered her below him. He moved his hand up to her hip where she reacted quickly too.

He pulled away, pausing his kiss, "Did I hurt you?", his lips breezing against hers.

"No.", she gave a reassuring kiss.

Hunter hadn’t noticed before, but the room was dimly lit to his liking. Reminding him of the barracks to keep his senses at bay. He felt at home, relaxed and focused. It's like he’s focused on her right now. When he looked at her in those teal eyes, it made him smile, knowing she knew how he felt about her. And they didn’t need to speak to confess; their touches were convincing enough that they were yearning for each other.

Within the night of dim lighting and rainy weather breezing through the windows of Kamino, Deep Blue could see Hunter’s body from the small fraction of lightning showing the scars on his bare arms and chest. She bared her legs below him as he angled his hips between her. Angling his cock between her folds, swelling for pleasure.

"Hunter.", she whispered to him.

"I’ve got you." he spoke, giving a firm grip on her thigh before slowly rolling his hips into her.

They lost it to each other that night. Not going as well as expected, as one would think, but practice makes perfect. Having their relationship in secret for as long as it lets them. Deep Blue is Shadow. She knows how to keep things from coming out.

"I’m leaving soon."

Hunter would roll over and take her small frame in his arms, saying, "Hopefully on a mission with us." Deep Blue rolled over to face him and rested her head on his outstretched arm underneath her. She lifted her leg to lie on the curve above his hips.

"No.", she pouted playfully, placing her hand on his chest, a finger seaming across one of his scars, " Foxtrot Group."

"Gar don’t ganar at slanar, Cyar’ika.", Hunter leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

"I ganar orders , kar'taylir darasuum.", She responded.

Something about Hunter made him look at her surprised, " You understand me?…ow!"

"My mother is Mandalorian, Hunter.", she deadpanned, tugging down between the line of his nostrils with two of her knuckles.

"Oh. . .right.", Hunter spoke, " Come back to me.", he kissed her lips this time. A thumb circling her hip bone.

Deep Blue aimed to pull away, but Hunter followed. Urging a deep kiss when Deep Blue stopped him by grabbing his jaw to pull him back. Earning a chuckle from him.

Deep Blue rolled her eyes, "I will."

Hunter only smiled, slowly leaning to whisper in her ear, "Good."

There was a pause.

"Because I’ll need you to wake up."

—

She gasped, moving her limbs frantically at the first feeling of herself floating. Taking a deep breath of something that most people cannot hold in; water.She panicked, looking around to see if she recognized anything. Only to see her own reflection.

Her hand was met with a smooth cylinder surface reaching for it. Tapping on it made a small tink noise to confirm that she was in a tank. Bubbles coming from underneath her were evident enough. She needn’t worry about any breathing apparatus.

She didn’t need it.

The gills on her neck opened naturally to allow her to breathe at any time. The clarity of her eyes adjusted to see what was on the other side of the glass. She immediately reacted to seeing a figure looking up towards her. Never giving a second thought if she was in the hands of an enemy or not. How did she get here? She didn’t care.

She can excuse herself quietly.

CRACK.

Sometimes.

The glass tinkled into pieces, marking the glass as pressure formed. The more water squirted out from the big cracks, the more damage the glass took. The next crack triggered the glass to shatter. The body of water moved her with the flow onto the ground. Leaving her exposed as she was. Wearing nothing but a white sleeveless suit.

She coughed, trying to get her bearings. Bringing her body up quickly with her arms, the first she heard alarms being set off. Deep Blue didn't realize she was weak until she stumbled onto her stomach while trying to get up.

"I got you.", The voice grabbed a hold of her arm as she shook it off from their grasp.

"Don’t touch me.", she weakly snapped. pushing away the unwelcomed touch of hands holding her shoulders.

"Don’t be alarmed. It is only me. ", They spoke, "Master Plo Koon."

Deep Blue snapped a look at him to see if her vision wasn’t playing tricks on her. Looking past him, she saw a Kaminoan walking inside the room she was in through a bright light inside a dimly lit room. Her hands reached out for Plo Koon’s shoulder, who reacted by holding her body upward.

"Master?", Deep Blue breathed, "What happened..it’s too loud.", as she mentioned the alarm.

"Turn it off.", Plo Koon ordered the Kaminoan, "Don’t let anyone come in here."

The Kaminoan reached towards the terminal and turned off the alarm. Nodding their head and exiting the room quickly. Plo Koon turned towards Deep Blue to face her, "You’re okay, Blue. You’re safe."

Deep Blue gave Plo Koon one last glance before she went unconscious. Her teal eyes fluttered, her head turning to lean against Plo Koon’s shoulder. Leaving all of her weight on him now. Wherever he might take her next…

—

The sound of white noise was pleasant enough for Deep Blue to wake up without having another incident. Opening her eyes, instinctively moving to grab an arm moving too quickly for her liking.

"I advise you not to do that. I am simply checking your vitals.", the droid spoke, waiting for her release.

" Sorry..", she quickly released. Moving herself to sit up.

" Apology accepted.", the droid spun their body around, " I am glad you made it, Colonel Kandros. I’m AZ-345211896246498721347. You’re assigned medical droid."

Deep Blue didn’t respond, but instead pushed herself to sit on the edge. Feeling physically well enough to move around, but there is one thing that is bothering her; her eye patch. She reached to remove it.

"You sustain damage to your temporal and zygomatic fragments of your visage. After your time in the bacta tank, you are left with a heat scaring. That will heal in a few weeks."

"-and my eye?", Deep Blue asked as she removed the patch on her left eye. Giving herself a few times to blink to see if her eye is still active.

"As you can see, your eye has sustained no damage. You are lucky to keep your eye.", he told her, "But I advise you to keep it to a minimum before you return to active duty."

"I don’t think I have time for that."

"I’m ‘fraid you don’t."

A voice caught their attention. AZ was quick to get in their way by the door, "You are not authorized to be in here besides General Plo Koon."

"Step aside, AZ." said Deep Blue, "He’s a dear friend of mine."

"I was wondering where you were.", he approached.

"Nice to see you too, 99."

99 approached her to get a better look at her. Seeing the faint scarring on the side of her head. He frowned, "They got you bad this time?"

"Does it look disgusting?", Deep Blue moved a piece of her hair to cover it.

"You look stunning as ever, Blue.", he told her.

She huffed happily, smiling, "How did you know I was in here?"

"Like you, I know where everything is.", 99 returned the smile.

Deep Blue chuckled, "Yes you do."

"If I may.", AZ began, cutting in, "General Plo Koon has instructed me to inform him when you are conscious."

"Tell him..", Deep Blue took each small step to stand on her own without any support. ", He knows where he can find me.", she would motion over to 99 to leave with her.

"I don’t recommend - "

"I’m fine, AZ.", Deep Blue paused to look back at him. Standing by the door, staring out into the bright hallway, "I’m sure Plo Koon will send someone out to retrieve me."

"Not that.", stated AZ, "It will take time for your eye to heal."

"Time is something I don’t have.", Deep Blue told him, "Not when it comes to me.", she continued as she waved at him as she was leaving, "Take care."

"You too, Colonel."

Deep Blue let out a sigh of relief as she began walking with 99 at her side. Leading them to the direction of her apartment. The air around her felt confined, as she noticed a line of clones walking past them without giving her the usual bow.

She paused, looking around them and watching the clones continue walking past her without a second glance. This new revelation caused my brow to furrow in confusion and puzzlement.

"Blue, is there a problem?", 99 inquired.

Deep Blue frowned, looking down in thought before turning to face forward. Continuing her walk once again, "I realized the air is different around here. Was there something I missed?"

"The war.", 99 replied, "The war had started recently."

" What?", Deep Blue snapped a look," A war? 99..", she would walk forward to stand in front of him. Bringing him with her to the side so no one else could hear their conversation, "How long ago did this happen?"

99 raised a brow, "Three months ago. I assumed you already knew this in your long absence from Kamino. Thinking you must have been fighting in the first battle of Geonosis."

The look on Deep Blue’s face left her speechless and stunned to her core. That would explain the clones not acknowledging her presence but only stare at her as if they were seeing her for the first time. A scene she hasn’t had since...

She first started training on Kamino.

And if the war started, there was no doubt in mind that

The Republic sent the first generation of clones to their first deployment; Geonosis.

"Blue, did you not know any of this?", 99 spoke again. Catching her from her thoughts.

She blinked a few times. Finally, looking at the clone in front of her, "There... are things that are better left unsaid."

"I understand, my apologies.", 99 bowed his head. Knowing he will never get his answer.

Deep Blue sighed, "Let’s just return to my apartment. I want to give you something."

99’s face lit up, "Really?"

"Uh-hm.", Deep Blue hummed.

99 and Deep Blue soon reached the area where most of the scientists, hired bounty hunters, and stationed Jedi stayed for the majority of the time. For obvious reasons, most clones are not allowed in this area (except a small majority).

And it took her by surprise when two clones were taking a crate out of a specific room who she knew a little too well.

Deep Blue stepped aside when they were walking out of the room with the belongings of Jango Fett. Making Deep Blue glare, "Trooper, why are you taking from this room?"

"We have orders to remove the belongings from this apartment."

Deep Blue held her tongue from speaking more. They were ordered to remove all things from someone who created them—and they didn’t know that. Taking a step forward to look out into the open crates quickly.

"Wait.", she ordered them. Her eyes scanned over the stacked belongings before reaching in to take one from it, " This belongs to me.", before placing it in her white suit. The suit she still wore from her time in the bacta tank.

The clones nodded and went on their way without question. Deep Blue returned to 99, her features wary and confused.

"99, do you know what happened to Jango Fett?"

"From what I overheard from the Kaminoans, Jango Fett died at the start of the war. Therefore, forcing them to stretch his DNA from other clones."

" - and what about Boba? What happened to him?", her tone tense and concerned.

" I . . — "

99 noticed the look on her features. Her brows quivered downwards and her eyes were wide with worry and shined. Just seconds away from letting tears fall. He reacted immediately by reaching out to touch her hand and holding it in between them.

"There was no mention of Boba’s death other than that he disappeared. The Jedi tried looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The Kaminoans reported him as-"

"Dead.", Deep Blue finished. Taking a deep breath, "Better than to focus on getting him back. It’s better that way."

"You really think he’s alive?"

"Knowing Boba - yeah."

Deep Blue gave 99 a quick smile. They resumed by letting her hand go of his grip and turning back to the hall. They walk to her apartment in silence. Only it will be loud again in her mind.

"You’re thinking about them, aren’t you?", 99 spoke first.

"Is it obvious?", Deep Blue huffed.

" Of course I do.", 99 replied with an uplifted tone, "You care about all the clones since you started instructing here. Even if you hated it at first, but you learned to love it."

" - and I will never regret it, 99.", Deep Blue glanced at him, " never."

99 gave her a crooked smile, lifting up his head a little more to look directly at her, " You care for my brothers and I know you’re worried for them."

"How do you do it?", Deep Blue started , " Knowing that you will never see them again?"

The two stopped in front of Deep Blue’s door to look at one another.

"I know there is a chance I will never get the chance to see my brothers again, but at least they died with honor. They may be gone, but their memory lives on within us."

Deep Blue felt a sense of melancholy flow through her. Knowing that is true and she will never know who and who died with all the chaos of the war she will be put through once she is called upon.

She reached over to the touch pad to place in her code and activated the door to open. 99 allowed her to go in first and follow afterwards. Limping over to the first chair he sees. The silence between the two of them was the only thing that comforted them. The silence of the voices of the dead is beyond the stars that died so that others may live.

Deep Blue came out in her usual full armor after finishing her shower in the bathroom. 99 patiently waited for her. Playing around with her small trinkets from Kashyyyk. Deep Blue noticed 99 playing with an old toy, to which she paid no mind. And by the time she reached over to grab something near him, it startled him to a half-jump. Dropping the toy in the process and awkwardly picked it up to put it back.

" uh - I - sorry, I didn’t mean to...", the sound of something dropping made him flinch, "- Do that."

Deep Blue rolled her eyes playfully, "Just turn around."

"Okay.", 99 replied, turning so that her back faced her.

Deep Blue reached over with something long to hook over the start of his chest on his left side all the way to the hump of his back. It made him tense a bit, but he relaxed seeing that it was giving him pressure and support.

"Is this a..." 99 paused.

" A brace.", she confirmed, "My mother gave this to me as a gift after I informed her that I was injured from a previous mission. And I know you don’t like gifts, so I’m giving you something more practical that can help you walk without any pain. If it helped me, then it will certainly help you."

"Thank you, Deep Blue,", 99 touched the brace, "I will embrace it."

She gave him a pat on the shoulder, " You’re welcome. Now let me get ready.", as she would trail her hand off his shoulder as she left to go inside her storage closet.

It’s been three months; my weapons shouldn’t be too bad, she thought as she was checking her two blaster pistols, ammo, camo chargers, her blades, and her lightsabers. Deep Blue stared at them after she opened a small wooden box that was kept in there.

Luckily, she didn’t have them on her when she was attacked. And debated if she should take them with her. I always do, she told herself.

"Blue?"

99’s voice spooked her as she instinctively took the lightsabers in her hand and placed them hidden in one of her larger pockets on her waist.

Leaving the room quickly, she spoke , " I was just..", she paused. Stunned by what 99 was holding in his hand.

"What is this?", she asked, taking it in her hand.

"It’s a beacon. One for whoever you might give this to for when your missions go sour. We don’t want Shadow disappearing on us, do we?"

Deep Blue laughed, "No we don’t. Thank you."

"A practical gift from me."

"More like you stole it.", Deep Blue smirked.

"Hey.", 99 hits her shoulder playfully, "They were just laying around - besides, you know how to keep a secret."

" Ha! You know me too well."

"That I do.", 99 agreed, "… oh, and one more thing.", he reached into his pocket and took out a medallion in the shape of an oval. And within that oval was displayed the symbol of..

"A Kaminoan clone emblem?", she accepted it.

" I know it isn’t much, but if you ever decide to move back to Kashyyyk… Then you will have something to remember me by. All of us.", he shyly looked down, " I know - it’s stupid."

"No.", Deep Blue spoke softly, placing her hand on his cheek, " Kamino will always be my second home and I’m grateful to have made friends like you to make all of this worthwhile.", she continued, "I don’t know what will happen to me with this war, but promise me you’ll take care of yourself?"

"Funny, I was going to say the same to you.", 99 chuckled, "You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not going anywhere."

Deep Blue moved forward closer to him. Placing her forehead against his for a moment. Closing her eyes as she spoke softly, "Good.."

99 returned the gesture. Closing his eyes, enjoying this endearing moment before parting away from her. Giving her one final smile.

"Now go before you make me cry."

" I would be honored to see Shadow cry.", he smirked.

"Don't get too comfortable," she tsked, "Farewell for the time being, dear friend."

"To you as well, Deep Blue."

Deep Blue escorted him out of the room when they were met with a clone in grey and white markings. Catching her and 99 off guard, Deep Blue raised a brow, giving him a second glance before assuming he was a Coruscant Guard.

He wasn’t.

"Wolffe?", she finally spoke.

She was used to his maroon and brown markings from before, but now they were grey with the same wolf design as always. Change is constant.

He only moved his head to look down at 99, obviously hinting at speaking alone. Deep Blue knew this wasn’t going to end well. Letting out a small sigh, she mumbled over to 99 that it was okay to leave her be. 99 gave her one last glance.

One last smile.

Wolffe watched 99 pass him by, finally letting himself in and closing the door behind him. His movements were slow and light. Walking without a purpose Trying to hint that he was in no rush, he walked past Deep Blue and kept his back on her.

The silence built tension, making Deep Blue wary of speaking. Afraid of angering the beast in front of her that stood ready to pounce on her at any sudden movement. Allowing him to make the first move.

He did, facing her and closing the distance between them. He was a man of action, making slow movements to show that he was here not to argue, but was upset and confused.

His gloved hand reached out to gently stroke her scar on her temple. Deep Blue could feel his fingertips barely touching her. Like he was afraid to hurt her.

"Who did this to you?", he finally spoke, his concern hidden behind anger.

"It doesn’t matter." Deep Blue moved away from his touch. She turned to face the window and gently pushed his hand away from her. She was not expecting to hold the same hand, making her step back.

His grip wasn’t firm but gentle. Making her look up at her. She noticed something unusual about him. Their friendship grew from their time together. Knowing well enough Wolffe removes his helmet when he enters her apartment, but he hasn’t. Making her give him a quick squint.

"It doesn't matter?" Wolffe exclaimed, "I was wondering where the hell you were, no matter how worried I was. You never returned my coms, the General refused to look for you, I - we - were starting to believe you were -"

" Wolffe, I could barely make any sense of it myself.", Deep Blue quickly replied.

"Then where the hell were you?", he asked, " Where the hell were you when we needed you most?"

Deep Blue remained silent. Feeling the grip of his hand tense more.

"I needed you..", he trailed off. Lowering his head to look down at their feet. Feeling the weight of his hand release her.

She took a step forward to stand closer to him, slowly lifting her hands to get a hold of Wolffe’s helmet from each side. A hiss is released, lifting the helmet more to expose his face.

Letting out a soft gasp, seeing Wolffe’s scar along with his prosthetic white eye. A surge of anger flowed through her. Who could have done this? What happened when she was gone? These are questions she wished she knew, but that fragment was taken away from her while she was in a coma healing.

"I'm here now," she said, holding the helmet with one hand and cupping his cheek with the other.Her thumb caresses his healing scar. Leaning downward to meet his eyes, "I’m right here.."

His eyes met hers, staring into those same bright teal eyes. The same ones he had always remembered. Looking into his own with care, passion, love even. Now they’re worried - terrified.

" Stop looking at me like that.", he hissed. Tilting his head away from her touch.

Deep Blue refused to let him look away from her, bringing him back to look at her, "No. I’m not going to miss out on what I already had. "

Wolffe quivered his brows, "I have questions.."

" - and I will be happy to tell you, but now we must focus on the war ahead of us. I don’t know what will happen, but whatever happens; I will always be here.", she brought his head down to place a kiss on his forehead and held it there.

Deep Blue felt his arms placed on her hips to hold her out of respect. If she wanted, she could push him for an embrace, but this is appropriate. Finally, Deep Blue handed him back his helmet for him to place back on. Watching him pull out a commlink for her.

He cleared his throat, "General Plo Koon ordered me to retrieve you from your quarters after not finding you in the infirmary."

"— and I assume the commlink is from you?", she guessed, placing it on her right arm and adjusting it with the controls.

"The Wolfpack will be glad to see you return. We shouldn’t keep them waiting."

"I take that as a yes.", Deep Blue took the lead out of her apartment, "Let’s go."

Deep Blue glanced at 99’s gift. She left it right beside the portrait of her and her mother on the coffee stand. Giving one last smile before leaving the apartment with Wolffe at her side.

—

Upon entering the briefing room, they stood with Plo Koon and Shaak Ti along with two other clones. One shiny and one -

Coruscant guard?, she thought. Immediately recognizing the distinctive red fractures on the armor. She approached with Wolffe to her right when Plo Koon’s tendrils twitched. Shaak Ti bowed her head to welcome her back.

"I am pleased to see you alright, Colonel.", Shaak Ti spoke.

Deep Blue tried so hard not to squint at the thought that maybe Shaak Ti knew something about her time away. Also, the thought of Plo Koon ever telling her about their big secret.

"Thank you, Master Shaak Ti."

"Meet Commander Fox...", announced Shaak Ti as she waved a hand towards his direction and to the next, "and Fives, the one who reported the incident and saved you from falling into the abyss."

The two clones removed their helmets to give a proper introduction to Deep Blue, their eyes catching her before nodding their heads once in respect.

"Fives?"

"I was told the two of you are well acquainted.", Shaak Ti spoke.

"We are.", Deep Blue kept her eyes on him and gave him a quick smile before turning over to Shaak Ti and Plo Koon, " What is this about?"

"Fox is the top Commander on Coruscant looking into your attack, which Fives reported three months ago while you were in a coma."Plo Koon began, "Are you briefed on this?"

"Eventually.", she gave Wolffe a side glance.

" - and do you remember what happened that night in front of the 79s?", asked Shaak Ti.

" I . . . ", she paused, thinking, " No . . . I don’t remember . . "

Shaak Ti and Plo Koon looked at each other upon hearing this revelation. Meanwhile, Fox and Fives would give confused glances at one another. Deep Blue could hear Wolffe gripping his helmet, making her feel tense.

"If I may, Generals.", Fives spoke first, "There is no way Colonel Kandros could have remembered who attacked her. With an injury like that, - why would she remember someone who shot her in the face?"

"I was warned this would happen.", Plo Koon stated, " - but we must continue this investigation to prevent the identity of Shadow."

"Shadow?", Fives questioned. Fox stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder and motioned to him by shaking his head no.

"I detest.", Deep Blue spoke, "I refuse to further this investigation."

This drew everyone's attention to her.

"I recommend that we will to-"

Deep Blue stopped Shaak Ti with a wave of her hand, "With all due respect, no matter who my attacker was, is long gone now and I'm sure the war has better things to worry about than me."

"You are the backbone of the Republic who has done great favors for Chancellor Palpatine that he has refused to let you die in the hands of an attacker who has a high chance of being an enemy of the Republic."

"I apologize if I'm of no help to this endeavor," Deep Blue thought as she crossed her hands. She crossed her arms to show her discomfort.

"Fives, according to your report; you were leaving the 79s early when you saw a cloaked figure approaching Kandros and pointing a blaster in her direction," Shaak Ti said as she moved along to Fives.

"Yes ma’am."

"It also states that you did not pursue them to see who they were?"

"It all happened too fast.", Fives continued, "I wasn’t able to see their faces right before I jumped to save the Colonel. I’m sorry if I also can’t be of much help."

Shaak ti hummed, "All of this will be put into thought, but if it’s Kandros’s wish to not pursue this investigation further. Then we must abide by it.", she turned to Fox and Fives, "Fox, you may return to Coursant, and Fives will return to his post on Rishi moon."

"Yes ma’am.", both of them said in unison.

"Thank you, Master Shaak Ti.", Deep Blue nodded.

"All of you are dismissed.", announced Plo Koon.

Deep Blue turned to leave when Plo Koon spoke, "Colonel Kandros and Wolffe stay here."

Oh no..

After Fox and Fives left, Plo Koon began speaking, "There are changes to your assignments, Deep Blue."

Deep Blue huffed, "Putting me back to work after I technically died? Not surprising. You telling me my assignments have changed? Yes."

Her regular assignments are given to her by Chancellor Palpatine himself, or her assignments are given to her by clone commandos, who are just messengers. Though, Plo Koon's telling her this himself surprised her.

"Change is constant."

"Of course.", Deep Blue nodded, "You got his permission?"

" No. .", Plo Koon stated, "Ordered by Chancellor Palpatine, you are to be assigned to the 104th throughout the duration of the war. Until the Chancellor has a private assignment for you, you are with us."

" …", Deep Blue twitched a brow, "Very well. Anything else?"

"When you are ready, meet us on the landing platform. For now, you are allowed to leave, and Wolffe remains here and will direct you after he is done here."

"Yes, sir.", Deep Blue bowed her head once and turned to leave the briefing room. The tension in the room was relieved when she first stepped out into the corridor. Quickly walking away from a great distance to express her distaste for what she had heard.

—

It was impossible to find anything remote to find herself alone besides a few storage rooms, her apartment, the hall outside, and... The base of the cloning chambers.

The walls of the corridors are surrounded by clear glass. Viewing levels and levels of chambers filled with different embryo stages of the cloning process. Deep Blue took a lift down a few levels to enter the interior of the chambers.

There were a few Kaminoans present, but they could care less who was around. They were too focused on their job—as if they had any other better things to do..

Deep Blue approached one of these chambers, entering their last stage of embryo development. She watched with awe, reaching out her hand to place it on the glass. The little tap made it move from within. Making her smile warmly.

"Shadow, huh?"

Her ears twitched once, but she didn't move from her position, "You’re still here."

He cleared his throat, "Commander Fox allowed me to speak to you, and also told me about the deal with Shadow."

"It doesn’t surprise me.", she removed her hand, "You were bound to know.", she turned to Fives. His eyes darted away the first her eyes met his, trailing his eyes to meet hers again.

"I have so many questions..", began Fives.

Deep Blue opened her mouth to detest when he interrupted her.

"Questions I know you aren’t allowed to answer.", he began, " But I’m confused as to why you are so keen on not letting any of us help you get your attacker?"

"I already told you-"

"With all due respect, but are we inclined to believe that some stranger had the chance to kill Shadow by sneaking up on them?", he asked, " C’mon, that can’t be a coincidence."

Deep Blue remained silent.

"Unless you’re lying to protect someone.."

"You have a sharp mind.", she told him.

"If there’s something-"

Deep Blue sighed, "Look—there is a lot going on and I wish to handle this on my own without everyone on my back. You just have to trust me on this when the time is right."

"Should I?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, " Yes. And you must keep focus on what's really important. Always keep your independence at bay, Fives. When the time comes, remember right and wrong." She smiled, "It might save your life."

" I …", Fives sigh, " I’ll keep that in mind."

"Good.", she patted him a few times before pulling back her hand. She then again returned to face the same embryo from before. Quickly returning to her deep thoughts instantly with her hand behind her back.

"You spend a lot of your time here, don’t you?", Fives asked.

"I do... more often than not..", she smiled. Watching the embryo move once again. This time, it moved its thumb to their mouth. Making Deep Blue’s ears fold down. Smiling warmly once again as her eyes became shiny with love and care.

"You ever thought of becoming a mother?", he dared ask. Standing beside her to watch her, noticing the shift in her mood.

"You think I’d not make a good one?"

"I didn’t mean to-"

Deep Blue softly chuckles, " Yes… I thought about it…maybe someday when the war is over.."

" You’d make a great mother."

"Oh that I know..", she looked at him smiling.

"Take care of yourself this time, Colonel?", he asked, giving a faint smug smirk.

" Ha - I’ll try.", turning to him again and giving him a fast pat on the arm, "I hope to work with you again, Trooper.", she winked, " - and try to stay alive? You wouldn’t make it as an Arc Trooper if you’re dead."

Fives’s eyes lit up, "I never told you - How did you - oh, I see what you did there."

Moments later, Fives’s comlink alerted him that Commander Fox was over the line to order him back now. Fives saluted Deep Blue lazily while walking backwards towards the exit. Deep Blue bowed her head, watching him casually depart his way. Disappearing through white doors.

She frowned, coming back to reality. Taking a moment of silence, looking back into the embryo, looking closely at her reflection, she could see the familiar commander in grey approaching her from behind.

Feeling the tension in the air again.

"I knew you would be here.", he told her, "General Plo Koon is expecting us at the platform."

"Of course he is.", she waved her hand in the direction where Fives had just left, "Lead the way."

So much for having the choice when to leave, but it doesn’t take long for Deep Blue to notice that wasn’t the case. Things like this happen all the time. Change in her assignments, change in her deployments, changes in her training schedule, change in her leave; change is something Deep Blue is well adapted to.

Not that she enjoys it.

Commander Wolffe remained silent through the remainder of their walk with Deep Blue towards where they needed to go. The walk was... well, awkward. Not that it has never happened before; she is used to it. Deep Blue knew Wolffe enjoyed her company without saying much when they were together. For obvious reasons, the air is thicker now.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt for not being there for him. For them.

Walking past the troopers down the corridor, their eyes hidden behind buckets; she knew they looked with curiosity. A scene she hasn’t seen since...

She moved here.

"Is there something wrong?", Wolffe asked. Catching Deep Blue's strides became shorter and shorter until he began to walk further ahead.

Deep Blue didn’t shy away from showing she was lost in thought. Even if she lied, Wolffe would pester her about it later. Making her pause completely before speaking once everyone was out of sight.

" Wolffe..",Deep Blue began," When all of this is over.. - I’ll tell you everything. Everything about me-about all of this.", as she trailed her eyes at him and looked around them, "You might not understand now, but it’ll make sense in the end. ."

Wolffe stared down at her, leaning a bit downward towards her, "Blue, is there something going-"

Deep Blue shook her head quickly. Placing a comforting hand on his arm, " No… I want you to trust me as I trust you. I just have a bad feeling all of this will end badly.."

"All we have is each other. ", Wolffe stated in a bold tone, "Out there, with the pack and I, including the General and you. "You have my back, I have yours," he said as he reached for her hand on his shoulder and held it for a second.

Deep Blue smiled faintly, "I always will."

Wolffe nodded once before looking ahead of her, "Come, the pack has been impatient about seeing you again."

Deep Blue chuckled lowly, "I can't imagine why," she said sarcastically.

—

"BLUEY!"

"Is that how you address the General, Wildfire?", Wolffe asked, approaching the group with Deep Blue at his side.

The two were at the bottom of the large platform at the entrance of a Republic Attack cruiser. Where stood the main bucketless troopers waiting for Commander Wolffe and Deep Blue… especially her.

"Sorry, sir.", he replied. Turning to her, "I got excited knowing Colonel Kandros would be joining us."

"I wonder why that is.", asked Sinker.

Deep Blue shrugged, " orders are orders."

"I’m glad you’re with us, Colonel.", told Comet.

"I am as well.", Deep Blue smiled.

"Speaking of orders, we have something for you.", spoke Boost, "Follow us."

Deep Blue stole Wolffe’s quick glance with a smug smirk. Whatever he had under his helmet, it didn’t matter. Deep Blue quickly felt at home, welcomed back like nothing happened. The slight relief in their voices is caught by her. The wolf pack has changed so much since she was here. It took three months to notice their change in appearance, their tone in their voice, and their walk.

They've been through so much.

Lost so much.

They didn’t have to voice how glad they were to know she was alive. She knew that. They know that. All that matters is being together. And for that very moment, she wondered if Hunter wondered where she was. It wasn’t right to wonder about her previous relationship. She ended it for his own good - for her own good. With the war, it made her a bit relieved that he and the others were too busy to even worry about simple pleasures.

And so will she...

Upon entering the Republic Attack Cruiser, Deep Blue is directed by the pack through the corridors of endless hallways that never seem to end. The occasional pass of shines passing through in unison. It was a bit overwhelming knowing that these shines don’t know her from what she's used to. The pack sure - they’re the only few that treat her like family. The closest thing to having brothers.

Wolffe stopped at one of the few assigned barracks and tapped on the touchpad. Turning to her finally, " This is your assigned quarters.", as he motioned his arm inside the room for her to enter.

It wasn’t new to Deep Blue, the usual clear room with the basic needs of one staying in it. She cursed in thought, realizing she hadn’t brought anything from her apartment. Perhaps it wasn’t much use when most of their time would be out in the field.

"Cozy.", as Deep Blue looked around her room while the clones peeked inside. "What is this thing you had for me?" she asked, turning her head and scanning her eyes between everyone's.

Wolffe sighed, moving to remove his helmet from his visage, "Closet door.", he directed.

Deep Blue raised a brow, moving over to the closet door without a word. Taping the keypad to reveal what is behind the door.

"All of you. . .", she looked back, "Did this for me?"

"The boys found out that you were alive and were quick to make you officially one of us.", spoke Wolffe, "After a little convincing from The General, they were quick to get to work on making you feel at home."

"I can tell," Deep Blue said, looking at the small wall graffiti with multiple characters; Clone helmet, Plo Koon's head, and... her. the title " Plo’s Bros’ on the bottom of the characters.

"Well—try it on.", Wildfire told her.

"Don’t you think this is a bit out of my style from what I’m wearing now?", She asked. Waving a hand down her body.

"You really think these clankers care about what you wear?", asked Comet, who realized his tone was demeaning. Quickly clearing his throat, "With respect, Colonel."

" - and with all due respect, your armor isn’t going to protect you from oncoming fire.", informed Sinker, "The quality of our armor is able to withstand damage at any range. You’re used to flanking your enemies, but instead you’re going head-on... most of the time."

Deep Blue glanced towards Wolffe, who only curved a smile, shrugging over to them.

"You’re able to move freely, of course, if you’re worried about-"

"I get it, Sinker.", Deep Blue quickly spoke, "Thank you. All of you for doing this. I know my absence must have been a surprise to all of you. I'm forever grateful to be part of the pack now. "

"You needn’t say that.", Boost commented, "You always were."

Deep Blue smiled.

"Now try on the damn armor already!", Wildfire yelled.

"Wildfire!", Wolffe barked at him.

"Well, first; I need you out of my room.", she ordered them.

"You heard the lady. Get out.", Wolffe pushed them out and closed the door behind him.

This made Deep Blue laugh once the door had closed. Looking down at the armor and robes She was expecting full clone armor, but it wasn’t all full armor. It was made specifically for her. Like Plo Koon’s, hers is similar but more up to date. She can tell the robes have been put through a lot of thought by Plo Koon by not making it too obvious.

Half Jedi - Half Soldier.

It took her some time to place it all together. The armor isn’t what she’s used to and is something she will have to ask about later, but now it’s a test. A test she hopes the pack approves. Tapping on the keypad, she alarmed the pack from their gazes from the floor to her door.

Emerging out of it and giving them a second to look at their work. Some were too stunned to speak, but others were eager to discuss it.

Deep Blue’s ears folded down out of shyness, " So - how do I look? I might need a little help on how to put the armor on, but other than that; it’s-"

"Badass," Wildfire exclaimed.

"Stunning.",Sinker commented.

"A center piece of art.", Boost nods with approval.

Deep Blue looked up at Wolffe, who remained silent. She smiled weakly, giving him a nod, "I like the way you painted the armor."

"How’d you know-"

"No one paints like Commander Wolffe. I’ve seen the way you painted one of the clone transport shuttles before."

The group snorts.

Wolffe grunts, "Sinker, you are to remain here and teach our new addition to the pack how to put on her armor. When you are done, meet us in the briefing room.", he ordered.

" Y- yes, sir.", Sinker affirmed. Approaching Deep Blue while the rest of the pack followed Wolffe.

Giving one last glance at Wolffe before he left, Deep Blue watched him walk down the hall with Sinker adjusting her armor. In thought of what this next adventure will lead. For now; she will have to figure out why this change happened for her to be away from taking orders from the chancellor.

#commander wolffe #deep blue #legends never die #my fanfic #My oc #star wars #star wars the clone wars #fives #99 #hunter #the bad batch

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paper-cloud · 4 years ago

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i. the crushing weight of what happens next

part of "(there will be a) tomorrow"

fandom: prospect (2018) characters: ezra, cee rating: T words count: ~3K context: post-canon general warnings/tags: see series masterlist warnings/tags for this chapter: ezra's pov. angst. not graphic descriptions of wounds, blood and amputated limbs. mentions of minor characters' death. (probably very) inaccurate but anyways vague descriptions of medical treatments and post-anesthesia symptoms. taglist: @ravensmutty @buttercup--bee @thegreenkid (again, thank you all for your interest and encouragement! :3) @krissology @ezrasarm @bonktime (please forgive my nerve, i won't tag you in the next chapters unless you'll explicitly ask me to! just thought about someone else who might be interested and you guys are AMAZINGLY talented and inspiring "prospect"/ezra writers. it's not my intention to waste precious moments of your time! 🤡

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He'd have thought it was almost ironic – opening his eyes to the light only to see nothing. To feel pain.

He'd have laughed about it, most likely. A bit later, he'd have acknowledged it was a reasonably fair compromise; for him and any other wretch that'd ever dared play dice with darkness and miraculously made it out alive.

And in the very end he'd come to laugh at himself, too.

He knows the drill. Someone who trades their own life with the contract of the highest bidder doesn't see the universe in black and white, let alone is in a position to draw the hypothetical line between the two of them.

Must be an even more wicked universe than he's ever cared about, then.

At least, that's where the struggle of opening his eyes made him stumble upon; when a blade of light thrust through that hint of a gap he'd pushed himself to create in the middle, resonating through the dark coils of unconsciousness like a harsh, unforgiving bell.

A skilled mariner over silky rivers of natural redundancy and rapids of professional edges, Ezra is a man who can appreciate a sharp wit when he recognizes one.

That was too much even for him.

Floundering in between a blinding whiteness and a black hole that wasn't even completely black, but permeated by a thick, suffocating haze that filled every ghost haunting his mind with its stench. With the color of diabolically lush leaves.

Forest— spores— poison— death.

It hadn't been enough to let him dangle in apnea above a roaring vortex of lifeless emerald; take him away from the grey flow whose elusiveness he'd come to appreciate more than he'd ever hated to endure its chaos— from the bubble built on the routine series of one last jobs that, in the end, never really were.

There'd been a moment when, from the higher parts of the room, his pupils tumbled down, tripping over a patch of green discreetly lurking in a corner.

He almost threw up.

It had taken him a while to clear out the misty grit clotted in his corneas— focus on white walls, light wood paneling... a harmless seedling in a pot.

He'd breathed heavily, deeply. He sure hadn't got much relief from it. Still, he'd been able to hear its sound, louder than he'd ever heard it before, the musical, cooling mesh of oxygen particles in and out of his lungs almost begging his fingers to be touched.

Oxygen.

Fresh air.

Had he been less sore – less convinced it was just the residual effects of anesthesia pulling pranks on him –, he would have burst out laughing. Even more so if some poor soul of the medical staff nearby would have called for reinforcements from the other side of the space station before storming into his room.

He'd be laughing now, too. The best he can manage is sitting on his bed, leaning his back on the headboard – which is what he's struggling to do right now— and well, sometimes the room lighting still slightly bothers him. Of course, with all the painkillers and antibiotics they've given him, he wouldn't feel like the wound on his stomach is swallowing the entire arsenal of stitches and bandages.

He just wouldn't like her to get the wrong idea.

He blinks several times, like a man who no longer trusts his eyes. How can he, when they're burning like that, in such a different fire from the one from days before – damp and flickering? For reasons he can imagine, she seems to be faltering. Totally beyond his comprehension, he could swear she's smiling at him. Something inside his ribcage creaks oddly, while the curve of his chest arches upward.

"Birdie."

It's just a huff of breath, weak and hoarse, yet scratches his throat all the same, in a way that its walls feel studded with rock spurs. Actually, Ezra doesn't remember talking since they left the Green behind – which, being him, is saying something – and it's like an eternity has passed since their pod docked up there.

The nurse who let her into his room has just left and Cee sinks her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants. She's still smiling— just the faded shadow of a smile, now that he takes a better look at her.

"How's your wound?"

It sounds a lot less plain than he expected.

She hasn't moved towards him any further, and for now she's not showing any hints at wanting to. In her irises, Ezra recognizes thumping stars and cerulean clouds, all clustered in the black circle cut by the large porthole next to his bed. All before catching the thin mist veiling them. As if she did want to reach those stars, let herself get carried away by those streams of bluish dust, but she had no idea how or what to do there.

He looks down, the borders of the bandages over his abdomen slightly raised under his black short-sleeved tee. He clears his throat.

"S'healin' nicely", he says, with a deliberate lightheartedness that costs him a sharp, bizarre inflection in his voice. He closes his eyes soon after, tilting his head condescendingly. "That's how the nurse feels about it, anyway... S'not like I can feel much more right now."

This reminds him of those vacuous moments between brief, chaotic waking states and delirious dreams. When he'd managed to reconnect some essential key points scattered around in the talks of surgeons and nurses; the weariness he felt from simply gathering he was on a space station due to enter the orbit of Mesos in three cycles and something standard hours. All while his only solid reference point – the only indisputable proof he was still alive – was the sequence of beeps chirped by the medical monitor perched nearby. Constant, not monotonous. Friendly, even. Sometimes, he actually comes to miss it.

"A trust fall to the extreme, I'd guess", he snorts, a sly laugh as weak and heavy as the words trudging out of his mouth. As the whole rest of him.

Whatever answer she's considering, Cee freezes it in a quick purse of her lips – maybe a nod, but for his own good he'd rather be doubtful. Then she starts looking around.

There's a chair under the board firmly anchored to the opposite wall – probably a desk or something he's never needed to test, whatsoever. She grabs it and puts it next to his bed. She sits down, bringing her legs to her chest, squeezing them in her arms.

Waiting for what, Ezra has no idea, and he's afraid she doesn't have any, either.

He doesn't speak, though, nor does he encourage her to do the same. Her pearly gaze roams steadily but unhurriedly from him to somewhere beyond him, her nose buried in the gap between her knees. He studies her carefully, two purple crescents above her cheeks, a few hair strands swinging down her face without her wiping them out. The nights she's slept through haven't been any more peaceful than his.

Trust, he recalls in the meantime.

It sure brings an odd taste to his mouth. Something close to sweaty spacesuits, grimy paths and gone-off ration bars. A single word for two human beings forced to share the same air filter for days; that, and the image of a dead body left to rot miles behind and the desperate commitment not to end up in the same way.

His gaze just happens to trip over his right side, taking in the deflated sleeve over the emptiness that saved his life. When he lifts it back to the girl, meeting her eyes just before they can flutter away, he realizes they were both looking at the same spot. And he realizes something else— something he's already understood, yet not quite.

There is no tube binding them now.

"Why d'you do it?", he mumbles a split second later, almost like somehow the thread of his question has immediately knotted to the one of his previous thought.

He huffs. He shouldn't even have asked her, in all honesty. Seeing her like this, at least he should have put it in another way, danced around it, it's not like he’s never been good at stalling, after all—

"Comin' back", Ezra says instead, and when he swallows, he mainly does it to send his heart back down his throat. If he'd died without being given the last chance to be this straightforward on this matter, he would have probably kicked his ass all the way to the other side.

This time, Cee doesn't avoid his gaze. He shouldn't be surprised by how collected she looks, given the calmness she handled his infected arm with and then told him about when she used to slip into Jata Bhalu carcasses. But he can't help it when he thinks she can't be much older now than what she was then.

He watches her breathing in, wobbling her pupils here and there, seemingly considering his words. She's not afraid, not any more than what she seemed to be when she walked into his room. Maybe she's just better than him at playing pretend – but this, he can't tell whether it's more of a good than a bad thing. Especially for her.

One thing he can tell is that she's not the same girl who pointed a trembling gun at him before running away into the woods. He knows she's not afraid.

He knows...

So is it the hunter's instinct he has to blame if he feels she is?

"Guess I've seen too much death on that forsaken moon to just... turn my back on one I can help– one I can do something about."

If he was standing in front of an entire mountain crumbling down into the ocean, he wouldn't hear its sound. ‘Wouldn't even be the worst he deserves. She did hesitate before adding the last few words, but Ezra refuses to believe she did that because she was afraid of hurting him. He may be a wretch, but not a fool.

Kevva, for a man who's always managed to untwist himself from far tougher situations with the tangles of his tongue alone, he's sure having a deal of trouble – and he wishes he could put all the blame on his current physical condition.

There is no word he doesn't have to weigh carefully now, to prevent it from taking too sharp edges once out of his lips. He may float around it forever. But once he's let her go without saying anything, he'll hardly find the courage to look within himself again, more than after any other job that hardened his hands with calluses and tarnished his eyes with blood.

He doesn't know for sure. In fact, everything he was sure to know – about the turning direction of the universe and the one of the wheels in his head – has already collapsed in front of him, tracing a flaming tail. An unforgiving meteor following a trajectory far beyond his grasp.

He just knows silence scares him, in a way that a wrong word will never do again. It terrifies him. More than as a talkative person, as a castaway on a hostile moon for too many cycles to keep their count – with the only company of a mute. Silence is green; the green of the most poisonous pollen, lethal in his brain just like toxic spores enveloped in his lungs. The green of snake scales ready to stand and scratch his flesh until liquid crimson pours out of it.

And at the end of the day, this is the only fucking thing he can tell himself to know without having his guts churning and chest heaving a beat later.

"Stop looking at me like that."

It's more of an exhausted prayer than an annoyed remark. Ezra blinks, stunned by the sudden return from the shapeless stream of his thoughts.

"Like what?"

"Like you're looking for the words to thank me", Cee settles back into her chair and this time she lets one leg touch the floor, "Tell me you owe me, and you– you're sorry about what you did."

Ezra sniffles. "Would it be bad?"

"No, it—". She closes her eyes for a moment, clenching her jaw. "Just no good", she breathes out, calmer.

And the discordant note in those words conjures up ghosts not yet vague enough for Ezra to be able to tolerate them without something twinging inside him— like a violent flutter of wings. Voices groping their way up ravels of compromises. Damon, deep in the forest. Himself, with the mercenaries in the Queen's Lair. Cee, days before that. After he—

She's right— those words she hasn't said yet, but whose shadow he feels looming every time he catches her wetting her lips.

Some things just can't be split evenly.

"This is not the Green", she states, suddenly more confident but no less exhausted. "If you're going to hang around just because you need to, once we reach Mesos¹ you'd better be on your way."

Ezra doesn't interrupt her. A faded echo starts making its way into his ears. A former prospecting partner, many years ago. An easy job on a forgettable Fringe moon.

Gems don't have an expiration date. Deals do. Strike 'em if you need to, get rid of them as soon as you can. Unless you care to dig a quicker way to your grave.

He didn't pay attention to it, then. He'd thought it was just the empty rhetoric prospectors drop absentmindedly to fill the time between an unrewarding digging and the next. All the more so under the rickety advice of a couple too many.

His eyes still wide open, hands shaky, he merely reciprocated the awkward bottle lift of his partner, whom he didn't know more than the meanders of that quarry. A toast to a faceless future – a nothingness still more reassuring than what was all around and behind them. Not to the darkness of the cave, basically unbreakable if only for the red halo thrown by the twinkles of sharp, sinister Prystines². Not even to the two poor bastards that had set out with them, ending up skewered a few hundred paces behind – one by mistake, the other to return the favor of saving him from the clutches of a furious Aiu³.

Like an idiot.

Several contracts later preventing him from missing a beat in front of similar hiccups, the logic of that statement no longer sounds so absurd to Ezra. Luckily for him, Cee understood it long before him.

"I was just lookin' for the words to tell ya you'll be better off without me—"

Half a truth. Half a heartbeat. After all, she isn't the only one of them who knows how to sell it.

He leans his head back against the headboard, eyes half-closed, a sly grin baring a couple of his upper teeth. It would almost be intimidating, except that the glint hitting them doesn't quite match the dying one in his eyes.

"—But you beat me to it", he finishes, and he sounds like he's about to fall asleep.

He slowly turns his head away, looks through the porthole. His gaze clutches to the passing asteroids outside, distant nebulae spraying the sidereal black with hues of purple, blue, red— then green, again. A climbing plant squeezing him from the inside, discomfort starts creeping on him an inch of his body – what's left of it – at a time.

He doesn't want her to think he's angry at her, and it's the only concrete foothold emerging from the fluid, magmatic chaos in his mind.

How could he be, when she came back to get him?

She didn't have to.

She doesn't have to be here, either...

"I'm sorry", she suddenly blurts out.

He meets her eyes again, a mix of bewilderment and disapproval shading his own. He shakes his head.

"Don't."

"I just—". She starts fiddling with the extra fabric created by the folds of her sweatpants. Then she sighs deeply. "I have no idea what I'm gonna do now."

He snorts. "Not that it's s'pposed to make you feel any better, but... neither do I."

He doesn't have a hazy helmet choking the glimmer in his eyes, an air filter breaking some frequencies in his voice— maybe just those making him sound sincere, while saving those trapping him into the swamp of self-loathing.

He was nothing but honest when he told her the rules of the game on the Green. When he openly admitted he was a killer, and when he assured her he wouldn't trade her for the Sater's Aurelac. And she's always seemed to believe him, maybe for that kind of desperate inertia that washes over people when they need something to cling to. Whatever the case, Ezra can only hope she wants to believe him now. But she doesn't speak, and for a moment his fear of not saying enough overcomes that of crossing her boundaries.

"But w—", he immediately bites his tongue, "—you still have three cycles to figure things out. Someone up here will be able to help you. Even so, please know you'll always have my most sincere gratitude."

The effort of lining up all those words and so few pauses to catch his breath casts a thick fog over his ears. His eyes suddenly hurt again and he finds himself squinting.

What happens next, he just records it, hardly managing to follow each cause-effect relationship. A series of events softly raining on him without making a noise, while he can quite imagine them to be way more prolonged in time. Cee leaning towards the lighting panel on the wall, sliding her finger counterclockwise, and the white coating the walls turning less painfully bright; her getting up, walking away, dwelling just before the door. "I'll come to check on you tomorrow", she says, sniffling.

She tilts her head, holding his gaze in her watery one for an agonizingly slow while – Please, don't ask me why.

He blinks once – Of course.

Then, the automatic door is once again engulfed by the wall, closing behind her with a metallic rustle.

Tomorrow.

His heart is taken by a spiraling jolt that leaves an empty cave behind. When it falls back into place, Ezra finds something has tripped in there, shapeless and quivering like the nucleus of a newborn star.

Hope, terror and everything that lies in between.

___________________

NOTES:

1) Mesos — Invented planet. Its only raison d'être is that "mésos" in Greek means "middle" and my intent was to frame this story in a moment of transition (after those of movies) for both Ezra and Cee. 2) Prystines — Invented kind of crystals. They're implied to be huge, red and very sharp, thus endangering the path through the cave. 3) Aiu — Invented predator, ideally a big feline.

A/N:

Yeah, uhm... at this point, if someone was ever to give me any kind of feedback, constructive criticism or random thought, I think I'd just melt into a puddle for the attention alone. And to all those who came all the way down here, your bravery shall not be forgotten. ♥️✨

In my defense, it's (almost) all P**** P*****'s fault & of his habit of taking orphans under his wing from one planet to another.

I know people in the fandom generally tend to make Ezra and Cee go along straight away after the movie, so this will be a slightly different take on things, I guess... But even if I don't know if I'll keep this series going atm (life & maturity exam suck), a final reconciliation is definitely on the way. ;)

Oh, and any beta reader that should feel like helping me out for when I'll have the next chapters ready is warmly welcomed! My DMs are always open and I swear I don't bite! :3

#prospect (2018)#prospect movie #ezra (prospect)#cee (prospect)#pedro pascal #sophie thatcher #my writing ☁️#geez what tf did i write this so long for?#it's all sadness and insecurities and introspections #hopefully i'll fit more dialogues in for the next ones...#which means kevva help me when i'll have to put my hands on that verbose space rascal's dialogues #i already know i'll ruin him but i really don't want to but he's so fucking intimidating but—#*goes hiding in her cave*

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wanderinginksplot · 4 years ago

Text

Warriors in Red Armor

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Chapter Three

Warning: This chapter features a highly sanitized and idealized version of a protest. A protest that would take place in a galaxy far, far away with a functional government and officers held to an incredibly high standard. In short, this is not meant to be a reflection in any way, shape, or form of any of the protests that have taken place over the last few years, especially in regards to racial prejudice in the United States. If you think this could be a trigger for you, please skip this chapter and send me a message! I would be thrilled to summarize the chapter's contents for you.

---

Fox I

"These men fight and die for the sake of a Republic that cares nothing for them!"

Fox winced, dialing down the volume on the channel that connected the audio intake to the interior of his helmet. Whoever had given that woman a device to amplify her voice had never been forced to listen to how loud she was all on her own.

"They were bred to fight in wars they did not create, used to protect a society from which they do not benefit, and given no chance to choose a different life!"

A different life. Fox didn't even know what he would do if he wasn't a soldier. Not that it had ever mattered. The woman had gotten that right, at least: the troopers had been bred for ultimate reflexes and battle efficiency. Using them in any other capacity would be a waste.

"They have no rights, receive no recognition, and barely earn a paycheck!"

"Hey, Commander," a trooper's voice said in his ear. Fox's HUD identified the speaker as Jek.

"What is it, Jek?" Fox asked, on instant alert and scanning the crowd with increased fervor.

"Do you think we could get a pay raise out of this?"

Fox bit back an irritated sigh. It wasn't Jek's fault that he had never experienced a riot. He didn't know the devastating speed at which crowds could turn, that you couldn't take your eyes off them for a moment. He didn't know how dangerous people like Nora Czajak could be.

"Keep your focus, trooper," he admonished. "If this crowd gets out of control, you won't deserve a pay raise anyway."

"Yes, sir," Jek agreed, sounding disappointed.

"We must stand for sake of these men who are forbidden to stand," Czajak was lecturing. "We must speak for them, because their voices have been ignored. Come, my fellow Coruscanti citizens! Lend your legs, lend your voice, lend your time! Help us show the Galactic Senate that we will not rest until these men have received all they deserve!"

"Someone must have kriffed up hard if listening to this is what we deserve," Rhys complained through the inter-HUD comm system.

It was only the second complaint, but that was two too many in Fox's opinion. With a short motion of his eyes, Fox had activated the communications system that connected all trooper helmets. It allowed him to make a sweeping announcement.

"Stay on alert, men," Fox ordered. "They have permission to march for another twenty minutes before we can break this whole thing up. Keep your seals tight."

But it was not to be. Groups of civilians thronged to the demonstration, convinced by Czajak's passionate speech to join the Clone Rights cause. At the exact time Clone Rights was to end their march, the Coruscant Guard stepped up to urge civilians off the street. It didn't matter - Czajak took up her amplifier once more.

"See, citizens? Do you see how the troopers are forced to work counter to their own interests?" Czajak demanded. "We march on their behalf, but their commanding officers order them to silence our voices! They have no choice but to obey."

The murmur of agreement passing through the crowd put tension thrumming through Fox's shoulders. If this demonstration was going to get ugly, it would be now.

"No thinking, feeling being should have their choices removed!" Czajak cried through the amplifier. "No being should be forced to fight for those who would keep him enslaved!"

If given the chance, Fox could have guessed the first act of violence down to the second it happened.

By the time the cry of, "Don't push me!" rang through the crowd, he was well on his way to Czajak.

Before she could lift her amplifier again - to do what, he didn't stop to ask - Fox had taken it from her hand. "Sorry ma'am. I'm placing you in custody."

"Under what charges?" she asked, fixing him with an impish grin that made no sense under the circumstances.

Fox's own reaction made even less sense: the sight of that little mischievous smile set his blood boiling. He had experienced far more disrespect from civilians in the past. There was no reason she should have any effect on him at all.

Still, he had to take a deep breath before he could answer her. "Violating the terms of a special demonstration permit, inciting a riot, disturbing the peace… should I go on?"

"Why not?" Czajak asked. "You seem to be enjoying yourself."

Fox shook his head and held up a pair of regulation magnetic binders. "Are you planning to resist arrest?"

She didn't answer him immediately, instead staring into the darkness of his visor in a way that made Fox feel painfully exposed. Czajak was calm and steady while he - Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard - was off-balance. Somehow, she had gotten him at a disadvantage. Discomfited at the idea, Fox shook the cuffs at her in a rude gesture. "Well?"

"Hold on, I'm trying to decide if resisting arrest would be working for or against my cause," she pondered, still wearing a hint of her ridiculous grin. At last, she sighed and presented her wrists. "I'll go with you."

If Fox put the binders on her wrists a bit more aggressively than necessary, no one dared to ask him why.

Somehow, he ended up being the one to transport Czajak back to the Coruscant Guard precinct - mostly because the other men were busy escorting rioters to the precinct or being looked over by Ink, the Guard's medic.

After he had gotten Czajak in his transport, Fox slid into the front seat and began preparing to pilot it. She watched with interest while he removed his helmet, but it was illegal to drive with one on, so he persevered. Besides, there would be nothing of interest for her under his helmet. Fox kept his appearance strictly within grooming guidelines. His hair was regulation, his face was clean-shaven, and his tattoos were neatly hidden beneath his body glove.

He had glanced at her in the rear-facing mirror of his transport and resolved not to do so again. Still, his determination not to speak to her lasted until she spoke exactly once.

"So you don't see your required enforcement of my demonstration as a conflict of interest?" she asked conversationally despite having stared at him in silence for the first few minutes of their trip. "You don't think it's a violation of your rights? Not that you get many of those…"

"I have rights," Fox ground out before he could stop himself. "You and your group don't help any of us. You just make our lives more difficult."

"But imagine if you weren't being forced into life as a soldier," Czajak pressed. "You and your brothers could do anything you choose to do, live in the way that best pleases you."

"And we would choose to fight and die for the Republic," Fox answered stoically.

Czajak didn't answer immediately. Fox glanced into the mirror to find her staring at him in unsettled silence. When she finally found her voice, she said, "Surely you can't be so arrogant to think that all your brothers feel the same way."

"We're clones. We look the same, act the same, fight the same, and think the same," he said with a conviction he didn't feel. "Being soldiers is what we're good at, what we were made to do. It's in our genes."

Even in his peripheral vision, he could see her perk up slightly at that. "Your genes? Your genes were donated by a man who was a bounty hunter - one of the best the galaxy has ever seen. If every person sharing your genetic profile was made to be a soldier, how did he end up as a bounty hunter?"

It was a good point, Fox resentfully admitted to himself. Czajak was excellent at debate and he found himself drawn into the argument.

"Lack of opportunity," he said, mostly to give himself time to think.

"So, if given the opportunity, you believe Jango Fett would have left a successful bounty-hunting career to be a soldier fighting for the Republic?" She shook her head. "That seems unlikely, to say the least. He was a man who valued freedom and choice."

"Jango Fett was a traitor to the Republic," Fox argued. "He died at the hands of a Jedi because he was in league with the Separatists."

"Are you a traitor to the Republic?" Czajak asked, voice gentle despite the horrendous accusation she was tossing in his direction.

"Of course not!"

"Then genes don't determine personality, preferences, or choices. Your brothers may not all like the life of a soldier, regardless of how you enjoy it." With that, Czajak settled back against the seat and stared peacefully out of the transparisteel window, as if she hadn't turned Fox's idea of the world on its head.

---

Hound III

Public relations assignments were a nightmare for most troopers. Being forced to parade in front of civilians was hard enough, but the GAR wanted their troopers to do the impossible. They had to toe the line between being friendly and non-intimidating, but still remind citizens that the troopers were more than enough to defend the Triple Zero against threats.

Hound was one of the rare troopers who didn't mind PR duty - actually, he enjoyed it. Not only did it play into his love of crowds and people, but he got to spend some time showing off his best friend.

"Now, Grizzer, can you show these good people some tricks?" Hound asked, giving the massiff a subtle signal to go into alert mode.

"Sit." Grizzer sat. "Smile." Grizzer bared his fearsome teeth. "Speak." Grizzer let out a loud, yelping bark. "Good boy!"

Grizzer could not sit still as the crowd applauded his good work. The muscular massiff's body quivered as Grizzer did his best to wag his whole being in excitement.

Non-threatening image: check, Hound thought with some amusement. The sea of younglings surrounding them had wriggled closer to the pair. Okay, so they were here for Grizzer, but Hound received some reflected fame because he got to be friends with the massiff.

"Do any of you have questions for me?" Hound asked, when he saw that their time was almost over.

A young Rodian boy raised his hand and immediately told Hound, "My mama said that massiffs eat bad children who don't listen to their parents. Does Grizzer eat bad children?"

Hound chuckled a bit. This was a common question at PR events. At first, he hadn't been sure how to answer the question, not wanting to accidentally encourage children to disobey their parents. He had ended up taking the problem to his fellow Coruscant Guardsmen and they had come up with a good solution.

Hound leaned down as if he were telling the younglings a secret and all of them wiggled closer as well. Meeting the wide, galaxy-mirroring eyes of the Rodian boy, Hound said, "Grizzer doesn't really like to eat children, but that's a secret. Don't tell your parents! Do you know what he does like to eat?"

The suggestions were wild and varied, but Hound grinned wider. "All of those are right! Grizzer will eat just about anything, even if it isn't good for him. The other night, he stole my dinner…"

And, with that, they had reached the 'Grizzer stealing food' part of the event. It was always an audience favorite, especially with younglings. Hound had vague thoughts about writing a series for young audiences about the massiff's antics. However, he was broken from his reverie by Fang, another ARF trooper, pointing at his chrono.

"That's it for today, everyone! Grizzer and I have to go back to work now."

The children - and some of the adults - made sounds of disappointment while Grizzer whined and gave Hound his most pleading expression.

"Sorry, buddy," Hound apologized to Grizzer. "You know we can't stay here all day."

"Talking to the massiff again, Hound?" Fang asked with a laugh as he approached the pair.

"That's how you become the best," Hound said, shrugging in false modesty.

He was proud of his reputation as the best ARF trooper in the GAR. It had been in every performance review he had gotten in the past few years: If there is a question about massiffs or their training, it goes immediately to Sergeant Hound. He was widely considered the ultimate authority on the subject of massiffs. Even some of the nat-born officers came to ask his advice.

In fact, Fang was at the PR event to shadow Hound. Coruscant wasn't as dangerous as some other assignments, but there was still risk in the job. There was a chance that Hound would meet an unpleasant end any day. It was best to have another qualified ARF ready to take over his work if that happened.

Grizzer, who had been idly watching the crowd with the uncaring nature that only an off-duty massiff should display, brought himself to attention. Early in their partnership, Hound had learned that the massiff had an uncanny knack for spotting trouble. Grizzer's instincts were almost never wrong.

Sure enough, a human woman stumbled out of the crowd when Hound glanced over. The two made eye contact for a moment before her gaze snapped to Grizzer, standing with one leg propped on Hound's foot. Immediate terror crossed her face and she tried to scurry back into the crowd, but she ran into a passing Devaronian. She bounced backward, falling hard on the duracrete ground with a noise that didn't sound entirely like flesh hitting a solid surface.

"Miss?" Hound asked, starting forward with a worried Grizzer hot on his heels. "Are you okay?"

The woman turned to face them, swiping frantically at the blood seeping from a cut above her eyebrow, but her attention was locked on Grizzer. "Get away from me!"

"Please calm down, ma'am, Grizzer isn't going to hurt-"

"Get away!" With that shout, one of the woman's arms lit in crackling blue electricity. Webs of light traced up and down across nodes nested in the wires of an arm he could now see was mostly cybernetic.

Hound towed Grizzer back and away from the woman even as he stared at the display. The hissing buzz of the electricity was as fascinating as it was intimidating, but Hound knew without reading the alerts on his HUD that they were illegal cybernetical alterations. Illegal alterations that she had just activated - accidental or not - in the middle of a group of civilians.

There was no way around it: he was going to have to bring her into the precinct.

"Fang," he ordered, holding Grizzer's lead out to the other ARF. Grizzer was smart and well-trained enough to go to Fang without the lead, but Hound didn't think the woman would be calmed by seeing a massiff moving around uncontrolled by a handler.

Fang, stars bless him, jogged across the small distance. He took the lead and hauled Grizzer away in seconds, ordering fascinated onlookers to go about their business all the while.

Hound's attention was fixed too closely on the woman to worry about things like civilians in the area. Her close-shaved head let him see the fire in her eyes, brighter and more violent than the sparks dripping from her cybernetic arm. If she was going to attack him or the crowd, he would need all the warning he could get. Stopping her in time to keep people from getting hurt would be tricky.

Slowly, he extended a hand, palm-out. "Easy," he breathed, humming a bit when she stared at him without moving. "The massiff is gone and no one wants to hurt you. Everything is okay."

Hound wasn't aware that he was nodding gently until she mirrored the motion, her head bobbing up and down in tense jerks. The rise and fall of her chest was still too rapid for comfort. Hound took a deep breath, exaggerating the sound for her.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths," he told her. "Everything is fine. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just- just keep it away from me," she said, voice a bit hoarse.

"Grizzer is over there and he's going to stay over there," Hound said firmly. "What else?"

She stared at him, her eyes intense and frank. "Let me go home."

Hound shook his head. "We both know I can't do that. Those are illegal alterations on your cybernetic, and you used them in a very public place. I need to take you to the station and file a report."

It was a bold thing to say, especially with the shivering light from her electricity-wreathed arm bouncing around the area, but she only sighed and flexed her fingers. The electricity died with the movement.

"I'll come with you," she stipulated, "but I won't ride with the massiff."

"I understand," Hound agreed, accepting her offer with ease. "Fang?"

"Sir?"

"Can you bring Grizzer back to the precinct?"

Fang took a moment to answer, and Hound glanced back to find the ARF staring at him in shock. "You want me to take Grizzer?"

"Yes, trooper," Hound said, an edge of exasperation entering his voice.

He felt a little bad making the request in the first place. Hound always took Grizzer with him, always. But Fang was a good soldier and a good brother, and he had a solid working relationship with Grizzer. Hound trusted Fang to get the massiff back to the precinct safely, even if he was a little guilty at leaving Grizzer behind.

Sorry, buddy, he mentally apologized to Grizzer. The massiff shook his head, tongue lolling out as if to say it was fine. Hound grinned. He had long thought that Grizzer was a little psychic.

"I'll get him there, sir," Fang agreed immediately, adding a sharp salute. Hound nodded solemnly at him and watched as the ARF and the massiff headed for Fang's cruiser.

When they were gone, Hound stood and extended a hand down to the woman, but she ignored it and stood on her own. When she was upright, she extended her wrists toward him for restraints. Hound pushed them down and gently guided her toward his own cruiser.

"You aren't going to put binders on me?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I wasn't planning on it," Hound said honestly. "Why, are you going to make trouble?"

"I wasn't planning on it," she said with a hint of mockery in her voice. "But for someone who is arresting me for illegal cybernetic enhancements, you don't seem worried I'm going to use them on you."

"If you want binders, we can do binders," Hound said with a long-suffering attitude. "It'll be a lot more trouble on my side, though. Do you really want to make extra work for me?"

"I would never want to inconvenience someone who's arresting me," she responded, expression as dry as her tone.

"Good! No binders, then," Hound decided, steering her into the backseat of his cruiser.

They didn't say another word to each other on the way to the precinct.

---

A/N - I just realized that the chapter cut comes before Hound learns that it's Ransom he's arresting. It's an awkward splice, but that's what happens when you write a story all at once and try to cut it into chapters of similar length afterward!

I'm sorry for the late update, but between the Chauvin sentencing and the death of Ma'Khia Bryant in the last week, I couldn't even think about posting on my usual day without feeling guilty and uncomfortable. I hope the protest described here wasn't too offensive to anyone, but I wanted to get this chapter posted!

#Warriors in Red Armor #star wars #star wars the clone wars #star wars fanfiction #coruscant guard #commander fox #sergeant hound #commander thorn #commander thire #tcw #clone troopers deserve better #more to come

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glimmerglanger · 4 years ago

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Whumptober 2020 - Day 8

Day 8 of Whumptober, part 8 of the oof!au. Not sure how today is going to work because.... tumblr is formatting everything wrong and this is very long. I didn’t want to post over on ao3 until the whole thing was complete, but I might have to for tomorrow (which is over 5k for the “rescue” prompt and that’s SO LONG). ANYWAY, maybe they’ll fix whatever they broke today.

General info: Post Order 66 Vader-Captures-Obi-Wan AU. Past/eventual Codywan. One-sided Vaderwan. Eventual happy(ish) ending. Please read the warnings.

WARNINGS: Mind control trauma, mind controlled into hurting people, references to past torture and past non-con, brain trauma, references to suicide, off-screen loss of a limb.

No 25. I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS

Disorientation | Blurred Vision | Ringing Ears

The Kaminoans bred Cody for war. They’d forged him into a weapon and then they trained him, taught him how to fight and how to win. He’d been stubborn and determined, even among his brothers, and they’d valued those qualities. He learned strategy. How to handle himself. How to handle his men. How to handle a war.

And he’d excelled at it. His men had taken on armies and won. They’d come within a breath of winning a galactic war and had that victory soured. He’d lost a fight he’d never had a chance to prepare for, lost everything, all at once.

He didn’t know, exactly, what had happened on Utapau. One moment his body had listened to him and the next it just… hadn’t. It felt like dreaming, in a way. Or a nightmare. He could see the world. He could feel the things his body touched. He could hear his own voice.

But he couldn’t control any of it, could not stop himself from ordering his General shot down, no matter how he fought and struggled and--

And the most he could do, raging inside his own head, was file a form stating that General Kenobi had died, falling into the waste-water pit. After all, no nat-born would have been able to survive that fall.

Not according to the training he’d received on Kamino.

He’d watched his hand hesitate, on Utapau, watched his fingers twitch a different direction on the pad, and fought. In the end, the report went out that Obi-Wan had died. And Cody, scratching and tearing at the walls inside his own head, counted that as a victory, refusing even to allow himself to consider the alternative, in case the thing that had stolen his body heard the thoughts, somehow.

Nothing much else felt like a victory for years. He lost track of time. Lost track of himself. He couldn’t do anything, couldn’t stop the things his body did. He killed people, people begging for their lives. Children.

Jedi.

People he’d fought beside.

His friends.

He couldn’t stop it.

It was a relief, of a sorts, when Vader - the man who had been Anakin Skywalker - reassigned him to Mustafar. There were no people to kill on Mustafar. In fact, there was little to do. He and his brothers just… lived there. It was strange to see so many members of the 212th.

They’d kept them apart, after they were trapped inside their own heads. Split up battalions and companies. Put them in blank white helmets that made it impossible to know the man standing beside you.

But on Mustafar, he found his men. Not many of them. Nothing close to their full complement. He knew many of them had died in pointless battles and… in other ways. He walked by troopers slumped sideways in their bunks, a blaster still in their hands. Maintenance accidents, the forms said, when they were filed.

He’d watched troopers step into the line of friendly fire, or walk off the edge of tall paths, plunging hundreds of feet with no attempt to stop themselves.

On Mustafar, it jarred something in his mind each time he looked over and recognized one of his men, memories clattering through his head of battles fought together, victories hard won.

It was a constant reminder that he’d failed them. He’d been their Commander. He was supposed to look after them. But-- But he couldn’t. Couldn’t do anything to help them, even as Vader put him into position as supervisor of the base.

Cody’s body ran the base, in Vader’s absence. Designed security and set up duty rosters for his brothers. He wondered, sometimes, why Vader hadn’t put Rex in such a position. He wondered if, perhaps, Rex had not died, when they were all trapped inside their minds, and wished, more than anything, that he’d been that lucky.

He and his brothers slept and ate and trained, for, as near as Cody could determine, no reason.

And then Vader found Obi-Wan.

And Cody, who had gotten too tired to fight, somewhere in the last three years, stirred inside his head and started screaming, again.

The Kaminoans had bred Cody to make war. He warred with the thing that lived in his head, the thing that used his voice and his body, the thing that wasn’t him. He fought every order Skywalker gave him, after the bounty hunters dragged Obi-Wan from their ship and dropped him on the ground.

It felt like throwing himself at the side of a wall, over and over and over again. Trying to break through stone with nothing but his will alone. But he found ways. Little things he could do. Muscle movements, trained into his memory, below whatever level the control operated.

He could twitch a finger, if he focused. The code he’d created with Obi-Wan was as automatic as speech, once upon a time. Wrestling enough control of his body to communicate anything sensible felt almost impossible.

But Cody hadn’t been trained to give up. And he’d never learned how. He managed, watching Skywalker wreak his terrible atrocities across Obi-Wan’s body, to tear and pull at the wall. To haul on it, determined that he should either break it or force it to finally break him utterly, to grant him death, if nothing else.

And, when he wasn’t throwing himself at the wall inside his head, he planned. He couldn’t stop his body from carrying out minor tasks. Couldn’t stop it. But he could turn his thoughts elsewhere. He could turn all his focus onto exactly what he’d do, when he got control of himself back.

Skywalker had set him up as commanding officer. Cody built plans and refined them and waited.

And he managed, at least, to say “no,” when Skywalker made him hurt Obi-Wan, made him--

Cody remembered, in stunning detail, the very first time he’d wanted to kiss Obi-Wan. They’d been standing on the edge of a cliff on Trillol II, looking out across a sea that was, as far as he could see, endless. The wind rising off it had buffeted them both. Purple sea birds spun through the air above them.

There had been Separatist ships out on the water, far away but coming closer. The ships were the reason they were up on that bluff, but Cody had forgotten to care about them, for a moment, looking across at Obi-Wan, his hair tangling in the wind, the water close to the shore the exact color of his eyes, and--

And Cody had wanted to kiss him, then. Suddenly and achingly. He hadn’t. They needed to get back to the lines and - and it wouldn’t have been appropriate, anyway, to kiss his commanding officer. His General. But Obi-Wan had blinked, stopped in the middle of talking, and looked over at him, eyes getting wider, and--

Cody had assumed, really, that Obi-Wan knew exactly how he felt from the time they stood on that cliff. They hadn’t done anything about it. The middle of a war was hardly the place and their ranks stood between them, and--and they just hadn’t. But they’d both known.

And then Skywalker ordered him to - to beat Obi-Wan, to hold him down and rape him and-- Cody wished, more than anything, beating at the inside of his own head, trying to tear himself to pieces, if just to make the nightmare stop - that Obi-Wan would just - just give Skywalker what he wanted, spare himself--

Cody knew he wouldn’t. Even felt a swell of fierce pride that Obi-Wan wouldn’t allow Skywalker to win, but it was a sour, awful kind of resistance. Cody would never be able to unfeel the way Obi-Wan had struggled, the way he’d flinched and tried to get away, shaking all over, shocky. Never be able to unhear the crack in his voice, the way he’d tried to get Cody to stop, and Force, all Cody had wanted to do was stop, make it stop, never--

He used to dream about kissing Obi-Wan, out under a wide-open sky, slow and sweet. He used to imagine Obi-Wan smiling against his mouth, eyes crinkling in the corners with easy joy. He used to imagine what it might be like to do more than that, to press together skin to skin, to find out how their bodies might fit together, all imaginings, because Cody had never touched anyone that way, never wanted to touch anyone but Obi-Wan, and--

Cody was light-headed by the time it was over. That had been happening more and more often. The harder he fought, the worse he felt afterwards. His head hurt, terribly, and his vision swam. He tasted something strange, down the back of his throat. Salty. Too thin to be blood.

Skywalker told him to go get cleaned up and he could not resist the order, but he swayed sideways, in the hall, shoulder bumping into the wall, and for a moment, for just a moment, he managed to reach for his blaster.

He had it halfway to his head - because he’d never do that again, never again, never - before the thing in his head took over again.

It passed, the fleeting taste of control, but it made him redouble his efforts. It could be done. He could talk to Obi-Wan, at least a little. He could make himself move, if he just fought hard enough.

No one had ever accused Cody of not fighting hard enough.

Cody fought, desperately as Skywalker got Obi-Wan to kneel, got him to beg, and-- and Cody knew his General. He’d always known what it would take to break Obi-Wan. Known it would be his brothers on the floor, finding what peace they could in death.

They’d - they’d all hurt Obi-Wan. Sometimes directly. Betrayed him. Tried to kill him. Cody had thrashed inside his head on Utapau, as they tried to murder their General, and he hadn’t been strong enough to fight it.

None of them had. They’d been weak, when Obi-Wan needed them, weak over and over again, and--

And he still fell to his knees for them. Cody had watched him take abuse after abuse, every violation Skywalker could come up with. Watched him bounce back with a smirk and a sharp comment, indomitable.

Obi-Wan only begged for them. For their lives. After they’d failed him and hurt him and--and watched. After Cody had - had taken everything from him, violated him, ruined whatever they might have had, once, and it didn’t matter that Obi-Wan had said it wasn’t him, it--

Cody should have been stronger. Fought harder. He should have been able to stop himself from pulling the trigger, should have been able to turn the blaster on Skywalker, should have never left Obi-Wan in a position where he had to beg, where he had to let Skywalker fist fingers in his hair and abuse him again, making him choke, and--

Something salty ran down Cody’s throat. He could feel hot wetness in his ears, moving down the side of his neck.

They were supposed to look after each other. He was supposed to protect his General, his Obi-Wan, but--

But more of his brothers were pulling Obi-Wan out of the room, Obi-Wan calling out for him, concern in his voice, even still. And, somewhere in Cody’s head, something gave in a hot, dizzying rush.

Cody swayed on his feet and then went to one knee, panting, breath ragged and heart beating off-rhythm. He said, “Ah,” and the shock of hearing something he intended to come out of his mouth slipping free cut through the dizziness in his head like a vibroblade through butter.

Liquid flooded his mouth and he spat it out, because it tasted awful. He expected, vaguely, for it to be blood. It was clear. Mostly. Like saliva, tinged pink. There was blood, too, dripping down from his face. His thoughts were a tangled, confusing jumble. He couldn’t make them stay still.

His head hurt. His vision swam in front of him, the room getting blurry. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and nausea punched up through him. He retched, which only made his head hurt worse, and decided to accept the state of his vision, for the moment.

Something was, obviously, very wrong with him.

He barked a sharp laugh. The sound buzzed in his ears, oddly. Something had been very wrong with him for a long time. Maybe something was right with him, finally. He pushed to his feet, the world reeling around, and almost fell when he took a step.

He gritted his teeth, striking out for the door. He needed to get to Obi-Wan. But that might, he realized, require a trip to the medbay first. If he made it that far. His chest hurt, sudden and sharp, a deep, terrible kind of pain.

He ignored it, pushing past several of his brothers, who were still standing, stock still, expressions frozen, eyes red, blood under their noses and by their ears. “With me,” he ordered them, voice steady and his, grabbing Bones and dragging him into motion, forcing them all to move, taking another step and another.

Obi-Wan had begged, for them. For him. After everything.

Cody dragged in a breath and then another, forcing his brothers onward, his legs holding him up all the way to the medbay, where they tried to fall out from under him. Obi-Wan had begged. For him. Fought for him. After all he’d done. All his failures.

Cody wasn’t going to fail him again. Ever. He grabbed a droid, panting, and slurred, as it blustered in confusion, “Lord Vader. Wants. Me alive. And them.” They had orders to keep him alive, he knew. Skywalker wanted him there to keep hurting Obi-Wan. And they wouldn’t question his orders about the rest of his brothers.

Skywalker had, after all, left him with so many responsibilities.

Maybe, he thought, swaying, he could use that to his advantage. He was going to need every advantage he could get, to bring this entire place down on Skywalker’s head. All of the plans he’d nurtured over the past months were already screaming in his head, one after another.

And then the blackness came up and swallowed him.

Cody woke up staring at the ceiling in the medbay. For a jerking, awful moment he thought he couldn’t move, thought he was trapped in his own head again, and he lurched up. It was shocking to have his body respond to what he wanted it to do.

Chimes started, all around him. Medical sensors. He blinked, disoriented, looking down at the little wires coming off of his body, his head and chest. There was an I.V. in his arm. He shuddered, reaching for the sensors on his head and pulling them off of his skin, even as a droid hurried up.

“You are not recovered,” it said.

He dropped the sensors and stood, reveling in the ability to control his body, to make his legs take his weight, even if he still felt dizzy and unbalanced. He was… in the area of the medbay designated for trooper use. Two of his brothers lay in the beds beside him, similarly wired up. Cody frowned at them. They’d both been in the room when he’d broken the thing in his head. “I’m recovered enough,” he said, looking around for his blacks and his blaster.

He felt… very still, inside. Battlefield calm. He’d taken enemy strongholds before. And, this one, he had played a role in designing. His mouth twitched up in the corners. Skywalker, for whatever reason - to hurt Obi-Wan - had left Cody in charge of ever so much. He was going to pay for that mistake.

“2224,” the droid protested, as Cody took a moment to slide the I.V. free, putting pressure over the puncture. “You do not understand. You suffered a major malfunction, along with several other troopers. You must--”

“What kind of malfunction?” he asked, grabbing a pair of neatly folded blacks and pulling a shirt on. “How many others? These two?”

The droid made a little whirring sound. Cody wondered if it were surprised. Wondered if he’d need to destroy it, before it raised some kind of alarm. He was not, he recognized, acting in an approved manner.

The droid said, after a moment, apparently writing his change in behavior off as some organic nonsense, “A massive aneurysm in your frontal lobe. Six of you were affected.” Cody took that information in, yanking his pants up his legs. Six of his brothers. He’d bet all the credits in the galaxy they’d been in Vader’s little torture chamber. That they’d watched Obi-Wan beg for their lives. That it had… snapped something in them, too. “These two survived.”

Their General was going through hell. And he’d put himself through worse for them. He--

“Only these two?” he asked, and there was his armor, right where he’d known it would be, ready for him to step back into, to make himself a cog in the Empire’s awful machine once more. He was never going to wear it again, once he got Obi-Wan and his brothers out of here.

“Yes,” the droid said, “2224, you are not recovered,” it continued, as Cody buckled his armor into place.

“I’m ready to return to duty,” he said, a phrase he’d heard himself utter against his will, so many times over the last three years. Duty - Skywalker’s twisted idea of duty - had been all that mattered.

He’d never forgotten where his duty actually lay. And he finally - finally - had a chance to do all the things he’d wanted to do for the last three years. He snapped his chest piece into place and gripped his blaster, the grip cool and familiar against his palm, full of sweet promise and potential.

He knew, based on reports read while he’d been trapped in his head, that a blaster bolt was unlikely to kill Skywalker. Not while he was in that suit. It had all kinds of defenses and protections. People had shot him before, apparently. It hadn’t even slowed him down. He’d just carved them to pieces with a red lightsaber.

As much as Cody liked the thought, walking up to him, placing the barrel against his head, and pulling the trigger probably wouldn’t do anything. That was fine. Cody knew how to work around an enemy’s defenses. He’d had time to plan. He’d requisitioned an EMP device weeks ago, managing that much control. He was going to bring this entire base down on Skywalker. Make him pay for everything he’d done.

“Wake them up,” he told the droid, working on his vambraces, the movements close to automatic.

“I’m not sure they’re--”

“Wake them up,” Cody repeated, flat and hard, and the droid made an unhappy little noise, but complied. Cody knew his brothers. Knew they’d want to be awake for what was to come. It was a relief, he found, that Bones had been one of the ones to fight his way free. He shot the droid in its central processor, a moment later, unable to risk the security breach it represented.

He was in charge of reporting all lost materiels and investigating the reasons for their loss. One droid going missing would be very easy to explain.

And Cody was going to need a medic he trusted. He watched his brothers struggle their way awake, watched the horror and disgust roll over their expressions as memory settled and they regained control of their own faces.

Bones curled sideways, got his head over the side of the bed, and retched. Crys jerked to sitting, looked around, and gasped, “Kriffing--Commander? Is this--is this another dream?”

“No,” Cody said, flat and hard, nothing soft left in him. “You’re awake. We’re awake.”

Bone looked up, wiping his mouth, eyes wide and horrified. He asked, “What are we going to do?”

And Cody told them. Told them everything, watching their eyes get wider as determination settled across their features. He looked at Bones when he finished, and said, “Not all of us survived breaking free. And too many of us are still controlled.”

Bones nodded, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “You want full autopsies?” he asked, and Cody could see them falling into their jobs, the tasks in front of them. Grabbing onto something to focus on, the same as he was.

As long as there was something to do, a next step to take, he didn’t have to think about what he’d done. He didn’t have to remember Obi-Wan’s eyes, looking up at him, or the sound of his voice, begging, or--

Something in their brains was controlling them. Somehow. He didn’t know what it was, but he intended to find out. Victory could only be obtained once you knew your enemy, after all. “Start with the brain,” Cody said, gut cold and heart beating steadily. “I want a full report by the time I get back. Crys, you’re with me.”

Crys nodded, swinging off the bed and pulling on armor. It took only moments before they were moving out of the trooper’s area, into the medbay proper and Cody jerked to a halt, because--because Obi-Wan was floating in one of the base’s few bacta tanks. His hair floated in the fluid, longer than he’d ever liked it to be. There were healing wounds, all across his skin. And-- and his left arm ended, abruptly, above the elbow. Skywalker had, had started carving pieces off of him, and--

Cody took a halting step towards the tank, rasping out, “Force.”

“Sir,” Crys said, his voice cracking, and Cody swallowed the bile that rose up into his mouth. They’d laid in the medbay. They’d been so weak, he’d allowed Obi-Wan to be subjected to - to whatever Skywalker had done to him. “Sir, we’re really going to do this, aren’t we? Kill him? Get the General out of here?”

Cody hands curled into fists. He stared at Obi-Wan, floating in the bacta, and he could still hear, in his head, the way Obi-Wan had begged for their lives. His life. He turned away, shoulders a rigid line, and said, “Yes. We are.”

He had some time to implement his plan, evidently. He could not move, not with Obi-Wan floating in the bacta, recovering from injuries that hurt to even imagine. He needed to take stock. To find out how many of his brothers Skywalker had murdered while he’d been unconscious. To learn how Skywalker was making them dance to his whims, and to find a better way to free his brothers than waiting for them to give themselves an aneurysm.

And then he needed to get Obi-Wan out of this place, make him safe. And he needed, so badly he could almost taste it, to put Skywalker out of his misery. He’d die. One way or the other. For everything he’d done.

The Kaminoans had bred Cody for war. He planned to wage it.

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senchoubutter · 4 years ago

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Twisted Wonderland Guys As Kpop Songs I Listen To Too Much + Why

i’ma just say it now, i primarily listen to girl groups since I cover songs and they are in my range and i find them fun to cover most so expect a lot of those.

All songs are linked!!

Scarabia

Jamil

- Lucifer by SHINee || First and foremost I can see him performing this, easily. Aside from that, the song is tasty and classic. Jamil is a smart attractive man that is incredibly talented despite flying under the radar. People know of him but don’t take note until they know him, similarly to this song. It goes hard and you’ve probs heard it mentioned but you haven’t experienced until you played it at 3 am, screaming your heart out. Get to know Jamil and he ain’t just “some guy”

Kalim

- Um Oh Ah Yeh by MAMAMOO || This song reminds me of the 90s/2000s and there’s something about Kalim that also does that for me. Maybe it’s the not a care in the world disposition. I can see and feel in the second verse’s rap, Kalim’s warm smile. I can imagine him grabbing my hand, telling me to chin up. The choruses make me think of simpler times. Finally, Kalim seems like he’s always having a good time just like this song

Ignihyde

Ortho

- Candy Pop by TWICE (yes i know its jp) || This song always puts me in a good mood. It makes me feel warm inside and like everything will work out. When I see Ortho, I feel the need to protect him but also can’t help but feel like everything will be okay. Something about him brings a happy, warm peace to my heart that reminds me to just take a moment and find the good in life. The peppy beat of it just makes me think about how he almost always is smiling!

Idia

- Fairy of Shampoo by TOMORROW X TOGETHER || the song starts an I feel as if I’ve awoken floating in the deep sea, but i’m not scared. I feel at peace and as if I’ve been here before. The song tastes like iced tea and feels like nostalgia. When I look at Idia I see my past self and even present self. I’m afraid, I want to hide. The feelings the verses gives me reminds me of laying in bed, curled up in a jacket that hides my whole body, similarly to Idia’s. The song and Idia’s character call out to a nostalgic but soft side to a distant past I can’t recall. I want to stay with them until I can remember

Savanaclaw

Leona

- gogobebe by MAMAMOO || It’s got a lazy but sexy sound that Leona emboides. When the song picks up in the choruses it’s like it takes over your body, drowning the listener in an ocean of sensuality and playful teasing. It’s got a lil edge though too that caters to the gruff “fuck off” expression he has. I see the noise Hwasa makes at the end as the wanton but confused noise fans make as the man leaves, tail swinging after teasing them

Ruggie

- BAAM by Momoland || BAAM has such a sassy hyped up beat that screams a bitch that gets shit done, owns who they are, and lives life having fun. And it embodies everything I feel upon seeing Ruggie's smug smile. Even the rap bit during the second chorus has the sass and done-ness of “Leona-san! Get up!!”

Jack

- Bomb by AleXa || This song kicks your ass and so does Jack. Don’t for four seconds think he won’t beat the shit outta ya for underestimating him, similarly to AleXa and her music. The energy and the “I’ll show you” vibes remind me of this big dweeb. I would fear this man but turn to love him much like how I felt about this song as it was this artist’s first song. How do I say they just embody each other in my opinion lol

Pomefiore

Vil

- DUN DUN by Everglow || The sass. This song screams THAT BITCH, just like Vil’s everything. The way he carries himself is personified in this song. The power the song holds reminds me of his unique magic and how intense it is. Finally, the slower bridge is mythical and light as if giving the listener a feeling like they are walking on air and plays to the softer and more feminine side of Vil

Rook

- FINGERTIP by GFriend || Everything about this song is exciting. It’s suspenseful and alluring. If this song was a person, I could clear as day see it winking, whispering “chase me.” And that is exactly Rook’s brand of teasing and games. He’s a hunter but he’s got a charming aura to him still. This song wraps both of those things into it. The dance break is Rook’s darker senses personified. Umji’s lil “OW!” is he’s cute lil remarks in french, throwing you off now and then. But by the end of the song, you’re used to them and adore them

Epel

- Crossroads by GFriend || This song feels like a long lost friend that visits you in dreams. You can practically reach out to them but just as you do, you wake up. But you’re determined. That alone reminds me of Epel’s character as a whole. He doesn’t let his cute appearance push aside his wants and needs to be this tough guy. He, like Yuju’s strong vocals at the last chorus, presses on, determined each time he gets knocked down

Diasomnia

Lilia

- Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher || Maybe I’m biased cause I’ve covered this but this song is breathtaking. The melody speaks of a long road and the fight to keep on which I feel rings true for Lilia. We don’t know his true age but it’s clear he’s been around for quite a wild and the pain he’s probably gone through is unspeakable. He has stories galore and so much experience in life. I feel this song encapsulates a lot of what can only be speculated about him

Silver

- Crème Brûlée by GFriend || the soft, sweet song is addictive and cutesy. I feel Silver gets written off or ignored often, similarly to this song on the album. Sure he may not be god or a bad bad bitch, but he has his own warmth to him. Like this song, Silver makes me wanna curl up under a tree on an August evening and just take in life, making sure to breathe for once, releasing unnecessary tension and stress.

Sebek

- Black Dress by CLC || Sebek is very interesting to me and when he blushes, my whole heart stops for a second. It’s similar to how when they build up to the chorus‘s first Black Dress and the music stops for like a split second. Sebek isn’t my favorite but isn’t my least favorite. I like him more than some though, I’d say. I’d say the same goes for this song. I love CLC, this isn’t my top song of theirs but I still like it a lot. There’s something uniform about the beat that resounds with Sebek as getting shit done in mind also. Sometimes a song just makes you think of a character and you can’t perfectly explain it

Malleus

- Pretty Savage by BLACKPINK || Yes i know t’s only recently come out as i post this, but this bad boy on replay. The beat isn’t crazy upbeat but it’s interesting. Malleus intidimates me in general cause of his aura, and while I love this song a lot rn, it was very intimidating at first. It still has some “don’t come near me” energy. The slower bridge bit calls to his stoic expression, melodic and pretty

Heartslabyul

Cater

- ICY by ITZY || I’ll be honest both Cater as well as this song were things I thought at first were just meh, okay. But as time went on both grew on me. Now that’s not the only reason though I associate this with him. The, no pun intended, ice shattering sound of the song gives me friendly popular girl that seems to be buds with 80% of the school. This is the very vibe Cater always gives me. He wants to just have a good, happy life. Also the song is a “so what? I’m hot. Get over it.” vibe like Cater

Ace

- Drama by TOMORROW X TOGETHER || Ace reminds me the guy you fall in love with in high school and you no it’s not going to last but you let yourself get taken away with. Drama feels like a soundtrack of every fun adventure Ace goes on, no matter the trouble that he may get on. It’s fun beat just brings me back to skipping school, running to my car and trying to sneak away without getting caught. The thought of Ace at my side, would shoot my adrenaline through the roof just like the high note of the song

Deuce

- God’s Menu by Stray Kids || Deuce is just ready to go swinging and that’s exactly what this song is. Elbows up and out, head down, swinging without a clue. The intensity and fire of it speaks to that fire in him. Meanwhile the prechoruses are soft and pleasant almost like it’s not the same song, alluding to that cute lil smile he has got

Trey

- REALLY REALLY by WINNER || Similarly to Ace, this song reminds me of a guy you fall for, but in college rather than high school. Everything about the song and Trey just feels right. The choruses hold your hand and fits perfectly in yours. They know what to say to make everything okay. It may not last, but you sure hope it does and will love them like it will. And while Trey isn’t my number one boy, those are the exact feelings I have about him too. Finally, the rap part reminds me of Trey’s more sadistic side, it bites and you may not think it fits entirely but the more familiar you get with them, the more both fit and you don’t mind it entirely

Riddle

- Wonderland by ATEEZ || The demanding nature of the song makes me think of Riddle immediately. It’s intense and doesn’t mess around; it wants what it wants. Riddle is a rule based person and this song is rather militaristic aesthetically. The bridge though, is so regal and breathtaking. It could stop time. Riddle, despite the kind of guy he is, is the same way. The power he holds is impressive and admirable. This description may seem kinda like I’m shitting on him and see him solely as a rule boy, but like this song, I have made respect for him and wouldn’t want to cross him

Octavinelle

Azul

- Love Battery by Hong Jin Young but performed by LOONA on Immortal Songs || This arrangement of the song has a certain magic to it that I melt in. At the very beginning as the build up singing ‘dangsineun’ i feel like I’m being submerged in a wave, reaching to shake Azul’s hand, signing a contract. The choruses remind me of his smile, how distant but inviting it is. Daring me to fall for him. The dance break bridge reminds me of the intense eyes behind those glasses

Jade

- Love Shot by EXO || This song and Jade are both things I am fearful of but greatly intrigued by. They share a scary beat and energy that says I fear you more when you’re smiling. Please stop slowly walking towards me, you’re scaring me. But at the very same time, the choruses keep me around like how pretty I find this twin. The combo of put together, intellectual friend but could kill easily and without remorse sends shivers down my spine if I think about it for too long. The chorus of this song make me shake my shoulders that suppress a shiver each time

Floyd

- WEE WOO by Pristin || I love both Floyd and WEE WOO. The song is the feeling you get going 85 down the highway. Both song and Floyd, get me excited. They feel like the weekend. That feeling of coming home Friday during high school, tossing your bookbag down, and getting ready to hang out with your best friend. It’s a relieving and exciting feeling. It’s a peppy beat that bites during the harmonies a bit. Just like Floyd. Peppy, fun, but ain’t afraid to take a lil nibble

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sxveme-2 · 4 years ago

Text

blueberry pancakes // bucky barnes

MASTERLIST

Description: A single mother. Juggling being a mom, a full time pediatrician, and a difficult ex who believed now would be the best time to finally be a father. A soldier ripped out of time. Ex-assassin turned superhero. Learning how to balance a new domestic life with handling demons of his past, while facing the trials of the future. a love story began over something as simple as chocolate chip pancakes with hidden blueberries.

Disclaimer: I do not own any original Marvel characters! All canon plots and canon characters belong to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. This is an original work. You may not publish it anywhere else

Status: Edited

Note: Takes place after endgame. I have elected to ignore Tony's death and Steve's leaving. Did not happen. Quick Reminder! My works are only published here, AO3 and on Wattpad, thank you.

Chapter Fifteen: The One Where There Might be a Future

Warnings: N/A

Word Count: 3247

Lily didn't like the effect Bucky had on her sometimes. She wasn't sure if it was the way he was so good with Hunter, or how he was always so gentle with her. Or maybe it's whenever the two were alone he looked at her like she was the only girl in the world. Or perhaps it was the way his hands always lingered places for a second too long to go unnoticed. She couldn't place it. But if anyone asked how she felt about the boy, she brushed it off. They were simply friends. Nothing more. The kiss they shared in the kitchen didn't get spoken about, and the two never felt a shred of awkwardness over the following few weeks.

But it didn't help that his lingering looks and her soft touches didn't go unnoticed by those around them for very long. Lily had found herself living every teenage girl’s dream. She became friends with the freaking Avengers. It didn't help that her sister had begun to get all friendly with Mr. Sam Wilson, either. She wasn't sure if it was because of her lack of love from her ex, or the need for a rebound. But Lily would be there to support her along the way, no matter what form her heartbreak and hormones took.

And although things were great in Lily's social department, the legality of her divorce had become messy. It had been a month since the incident where Cedar supposedly attempted to break into her ex-husband’s house, leaving Lily with the entire month of October being filled with legal battles and a complete rewrite of the separation agreement. All while the police continued to question her younger brother. She wanted to keep that part of the issue secret from Hunter, for the little boy looked up to his uncle as though he were one of the superheroes on the boy’s wall. And Lily did truly believe her brother was not behind this, that something must have happened to him. She knew Cedar, he wouldn't have done this.

However, to distract herself, Lily decided to hand-make her and Hunter's costume for the holiday quickly approaching. As well as busying herself with shopping for Hunter's birthday, which was just a week after Halloween. however, in proper Rose and Gen fashion, they had other plans for the candy-filled day.

"I am not going to a Halloween party with the Avengers!" Lily exclaimed as she spun around from her sewing machine, arms crossed, "And I am not matching with Bucky."

"Come on Lily!" Rose whined, grabbing her sister’s hand, "You've been stressed to the high heavens all month! With finally being granted full custody, as well as this Cedar thing? You deserve to go out and have some fun."

"And Bucky tells us he's had to make you dinner every night when he comes over. And don't act surprised that we know- you send Rose out every Thursday and Saturday. We're not stupid." Gen countered, raising her finger to Lily.

"He talks too much," Lily mumbled, "But I wouldn't be able to anyway! Hunter and I have traditions to keep up. We match costumes, then go out trick or treating, then come home, watch Halloweentown and then go to bed." she stated, stealing her hand back from her sister, "plus Rose, you're pregnant!"

Lily furrowed her eyebrows as she watched her sister and best friend share a look. One that the mother knew all too well. They had planned something. And what that was? Well, Lily didn't know. All she knew is that she wouldn't like it. She never enjoyed their plans. The last time she went through with one, she ended up racing home and having to take her husband to court because of the neglect of their child. Plus, she'd much prefer to stay home and spend time with her son. After the month she had, she just wanted a night in with the two of them.

"We figured you'd say no..." Rose began, flicking her hazel eyes to Gen.

"...So we came up with a backup plan. That was actually, Hunter's idea." Gen smiled softly, offering her hand to her best friend, "Come with us and he'll explain."

Lily cocked her eyebrow at the two of them. Standing, the blonde laced her hand into Gen's and was soon led out into her own living room where Hunter sat on the floor with Joey watching national geographic. Lily smiled softly at the boy before she was essentially forced into sitting on their sofa, with both Rose and Gen coaxing Hunter to explain whatever they had decided to try and convince Lily on.

"Mum, what if Mr. Barnes joined us for Halloween this year?" the boy commented, turning off the television and turning towards his mother.

Lily was taken aback by her son’s bold offer. Glancing back and forth at the two women on either side of her, only to be greeted with raised hands of innocence. Moving onto the floor, Lily took her son’s hands into her own, searching his face for any sort of blackmail being used by the two girls behind her. But he seemed genuine. She knew this because there was a rosy hue to his cheeks, meaning he was even embarrassed to ask her something like that.

"Are you sure, Hunt? It's always just been us on Halloween." Lily hummed, running a thumb across the boy’s cheek.

"Mum if I didn't want to I wouldn't have asked. I like Mr. Barnes. He's fun." Hunter stated simply, tilting his head into his mother’s touch.

"If that's what you want buddy, then sure. We can have Bucky here for Halloween." Lily agreed, ruffling the boy’s hair before standing up and turning towards her sister and best friend, "I'm guessing you already asked him?"

When the two gave energetic nods, the young mother shook her head with a laugh, making her way back out towards her office to finish the costumes.

-----

Lily still lived in the real world. And held a full-time job. As did Rose and Gen. Which meant, there was no one to watch Hunter on the actual day of Halloween while Lily worked. well, that's what she thought at first. But of course, who were Rose and Gen to let anything peaceful happen in the life of their best friend and sister. Though Lily was far from bold enough to make such a request, she didn't have much of a choice. Plus, he was already spending the evening with them. Lily still hadn't enough trust in babysitters, despite having a plethora of neighbours whom she did trust...she just trusted him a bit more.

"Thank you for coming on short notice." the blonde sighed softly as she opened up the door to her house, "Gen has a meeting today and Rose is in upper manhattan, so neither were available."

"It's no issue, Lily," Bucky's gruff morning tone cooed as he took a step into the house, "I like the kid, no stress. Sam and Steve may swing by around noon, mind if I bring Hunt with us out for some lunch?"

"That would be amazing, Buck." she hummed, not even giving the nickname a second thought, though her cheeks did subconsciously heat up, "Here." the blonde smiled, digging her hands into her purse, only to have his flesh hand rest on the arm of her thin white cardigan.

"No need. It's my treat." the man smiled, his hand lingering across her wrist before he pulled it away.

The way that he looked at her made Lily's heart skip a beat. His steel-blue eyes pouring into the mossy green of her own. All of the air in the foyer seemed to be sucked out, as though the world paused around her. Neither moved, and the world melted away. It was Hunter who had managed to snap the two out of it. The sound of a glass breaking against hardwood made Lily jump, her hand resting above the pale purple scrubs she wore, gripping her name tag.

Glancing at her watch, Lily sighed, dropping her bag, "I'll go clean that up then head to wo- "

"Let me." Bucky hummed, picking the woman's bag back up, "You head into work. I'll take care of the kid and the mess, I promise."

With one more glance towards the kitchen, Lily nodded slowly before bidding her goodbyes. When she got into the car in her driveway, the blonde let out a deep sigh. Her eyes glanced up to the door of the place she called home for a few years now. She spotted Bucky and Hunter standing in the doorframe, Hunter still in his pyjamas with a new cup of orange juice in his hand. Bucky's hand placed securely on the boy’s shoulder. The picture warmed Lily's heart, and she found her mind wandering ever so slightly.

The same scene, but with Lily standing there. A baby in her arms as Bucky placed a kiss on her temple. Hunter, aged up a few years with Joey by his side. But this image found itself framed, upon the wall of a different home.

Chiding herself, Lily shook her head, reversing from out front of the home. Away from the moment that made her heart swell.

-----

Another day, Another pay. Don't be mistaken, Lily loved her job. She adored being able to spend the day with children and make them feel better. But today was a rough one. Lily had a patient come in with severe symptoms. It broke Lily's heart. He looked around the same age as her son, and that was what she always found most difficult. Seeing the children that were experiencing the same sort of year as her son. Just turning twelve or not even quite there yet. It broke her heart, really.

Pushing the door open to her quaint home, Lily perked an eyebrow up at the smell of something sweet. That of a certain morning breakfast that seemed to be a reoccurring theme in the most recent months of Lily's life. A small smile spread across her lips as she placed her work bag down onto the front bench, kicking off her shoes before passing the stairs and through the hall back to the kitchen where she ducked around the corner, leaning on the wall.

"Well now what do we have here?" she chuckled, catching the two boy's attention.

Sliding her phone from her pocket, the blonde snapped a photo of the mess of a kitchen the two had made. Both had flour on their face, and the mother of the younger boy giggled. The number of blueberries that were on the floor, or should she say, making their way into Joey's stomach, was more than she saw in the bit of batter the two had made.

"We wanted to surprise you." Hunter grinned brightly, lifting his hands in a stance of innocence, "It was Bucky's idea!"

"Hey-! Way to through me under the bus buddy." the taller man laughed, hands dropping to tickle at the blonde boy's sides.

Lily shook her head with a hearty chuckle escaping her lips. Running a hand through her golden strands, the young mom sauntered forward and pressed a kiss to Hunter's head, before giving Bucky a soft glance. Shrugging off her cardigan, the doctor sent a teasing eyebrow raise to the two boys. Tossing the piece of fabric across one of the chairs at the table, the blonde shooed both away from the counter.

"Before you blow up my kitchen," she quipped, "Allow me to take over."

One brand new batch of batter and a new pack of blueberries later, Lily placed a large stack of fluffy pancakes atop the refurnished birch table that Bucky and Hunter sat at. Placing her hands on her waist, Lily merely smirked and shrugged the entire event off as though it were nothing. The main thing that made her happy on the inside, however, was watching the two dig into the golden brown delicacies she had made moments ago.

"Sit and eat, Lil. They're amazing," said Bucky, a mouthful of blueberry pancake muffling most of his words.

"Alright alright. Then we have to get ready to go out. don't want it to be too dark." Lily chuckled, pulling out a chair next to Bucky.

With dishes and the kitchen cleaned, the trio found themselves all dressed and ready to go for the Halloween festivities taking place outside of the home. Kids were already knocking on doors and stuffing their faces with candy. While Hunter was still trying to get the bandana we wore to properly stay on his head, or actually tie it. Hunter and Lily had already planned on taking on Halloween dressed as pirates, and Bucky just happened to have the proper rugged look for it.

Lily herself, well she wore quite the getup. The ripped fabric of white, burgundy, and plaid making up a skirt that hugged her waist. A white peasant blouse that hugged off of her shoulders sat underneath a black leather corset vest that dipped just below her chest. A pirate hat with gold trim and a peacock feather sat atop gentle blonde curls. Suede boots hit just below her knee with fishnet tights underneath. Bucky wore a fairly standard get-up, simple black pants with a loose cream-coloured top underneath a suede vest and taller boots.

"Mum I can't get my bandana tied!" Hunter sighed, dropping his hands against his own dark pants, "Can you do it?"

Lily grinned and made her way over to the boy, doing up the piece of fabric before handing him a pillowcase for the candy he'd be collecting. Turning to glance over her shoulder, the blonde caught the eyes of Bucky. His eyes were already glued to her, and the way they moved up and down her made a bright red flush fill the girl’s pale cheeks. She pursed her lips and let her hands fall to Hunter's shoulders, her eyes unwavering from those cool blue ones of Buckys.

"If you two are done staring into each other’s eyes," Hunter quipped, "I have candy to collect."

"Hunter!" Lily exclaimed, looking down at her boy.

"Yeah doll," Bucky winked, "Keep focused. The kid's gotta get his candy."

Lily watched in shock as the two walked out the door, leaving the blonde dumbfounded as she hooked Joey's leash onto his collar. Rolling her eyes, the blonde followed behind, shaking her head until she caught up to the two.

-----

"I didn't mean to make the kid freak out!" Bucky laughed as the three re-entered the house, "It's not like I'm in a mask! Plus the arm doesn't help give away who I am."

"Oh, please you totally knew he recognized you!" Lily retorted, unhooking Joey, "You kept rolling your sleeve up whenever we saw him!"

"I'm with mom on this one." Hunter commented, dumping the large stash of candy he had collected into the middle of the living room floor, "I think you liked seeing Kellin dressed as you, Bucky." he chuckled, sorting through the pile.

"Well obviously!" the man chuckled, sliding his vest off, "I think what shocked me most was the number of people dressed up like Sam. We can keep the information here. It'll only make his head inflate even more."

The trio continued the night, laughing, eating candy, and watching the iconic Halloweentown. At around ten-thirty, Lily put the young boy to bed, leaving her alone with the ex-assassin that was sitting in her living room. Which she didn't mind, she'd begun to see yet another new side to Bucky. One that made her realize just how much the man yearned for the security and domesticity of a family. And how Lily wished to give that to him. To lay that troubled mind of his to rest at last, and allow him the peace and tranquillity of a modern day family. And for a while, she believed the two had that. That night. He now changed into a t-shirt and sweats he had left at the house last time, Lily in a pair of baby blue plaid pyjama pants and an oversized white sweater. Both sipping lightly on coffee while they sat across from one another, legs touching.

"You've got something good going here, doll." the man hummed, eyes averting towards the fire at the other side of the room, "Back in the ‘40s this is something I believed I'd have one day."

Lily watched the man with a soft expression. The way his eyes seemed to cloud with troubles when he began talking. It broke her heart, knowing that this sweet and gentle man had been through more than Lily could ever fathom. He had murders attached to his name, yet he petted Joey like he would break the dog, and acted as though Hunter was the most precious thing in the world. And when he would touch Lily, her hand, her wrist, it was though she were made of glass. He was sensitive, and Lily's heart grew ten sizes whenever she saw him allow his guard down, even for a split second. Allowing her to peak into that complex mind of his.

"Why can't you have it now?" Lily questioned, "Find a nice girl. Settle down somewhere quiet. Have a family. Why is it so different now?"

The man turned his attention back to that of the woman sat beside him, "That wouldn't be fair to them. The kids...if I had them. The past I have would follow them everywhere, they'd learn about what I did in class. I was a monster, Lily."

Setting her mug to the side, Lily moved a bit closer to the taller man. She took his coffee from his hands and placed it to the side. She wasn't sure what came over her. Her mind believed it to be that of her having such a lovely night with him. Watching him with Hunter. Seeing the way he would look at her. She wasn't sure. She just knew he felt something back towards her. Maybe the kiss they shared was what drove her, but she just knew this was her window.

So she took his face in her hands, "Buck you had no choice. And now? You're one of the most loved heroes. You beat the darkness. I give stickers out of you at work now!" she chuckled, running a careful thumb across his jawline, "I know if I was the girl you settled with, there would be no fear of having a family."

Bucky looked at the girl with a tender look in his steel eyes. His hand reached up and tucked a stray hair of blonde hair behind her ear, moving forward. The air in the room grew thick and a sense of anxiety washed over Lily. She watched intently as he continued his advance forward. Before she could comprehend it, the two shared their second kiss. This one was different though. There was something new behind it. Lily couldn't put her finger on it. But they didn't break apart, no, they moulded together and paused for air every so often. Lily tangled her fingers in the man’s long brown hair, tugging gently.

But a knock at the door interrupted them.

"We'll talk about what you said tomorrow, okay doll?" Bucky cooed, running a thumb across the girl’s cheekbone, "You stay here. I'll grab the door."

Well, that was how Bucky Barnes met Lily Osborne's parents.

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greennightspider · 5 years ago

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Hearts Entwined (Dwalin Oneshot)

Author’s Note: First time writing for the LOTR/HOBBIT fandom so be gentle! Just a bit of Dwalin fluff because he’s mah boy.

Summary: Joining a company of Dwarves you thought that your hair would be the least of your worries. But as it turns out, it matters more than you thought.

Dwalin x Reader

The sun had just crawled over the mountains when Thorin decided it was time to make camp. At his words you and some of the other company fell to your knees in exhaustion, you rolling on your back as you steadied your breathing.

“I feel like my legs are gonna fall off.” Ori whined, as he lay collapsed on the ground beside you, to which you chuckled.

“Don’t you live in mountains?” You turned your head.

“Emphasis on the ‘in’. Its not like we climb up and down these every day.” Bofur groaned.

You could tell who the more battle hardy members were, as more of the older men of the troop stood unfazed. One dwarf in particular looking like he had just gone for a morning jog.

“Aw come on you whippersnappers, you’re fifty years too old to let a leisurely walk like this defeat ya.” Dwalin grinned, poking at your leg with his boot.

“Lesiurely??!” Ori panted.

“Walk??!” You cried.

Your dramatics caused many in the troupe to laugh heartily, which was a much needed mood-lifter after such a long day. Even Thorin the Serious smiled as he passed you by.

“Come on, we’ll make for camp.”

You lay on the ground for a moment more, letting your eyes cover your gaze as you enjoyed the view of a certain dwarf, sweat glistening his muscles and brow in the waning sunlight.

Perhaps climbing mountains did have their perks.

Even though it had only been two weeks, it felt as though you had been a part of this rag-tag troupe for years. You were an unexpected surprise, not unlike Bilbo, however your meeting was far from peaceful. They had found you tied up as a troll trio’s appetizer, and after they had rescued you, Gandalf offered that you travel with them.

At first there were objections to having a stranger join, but with you promising to prove your worth to Thorin they obliged. In all honesty you had no idea what to expect in a quest of Blue Mountain dwarves. But you had felt the times changing, work as a bounty hunter becoming more dangerous for a lone wolf. So, it made sense to travel with a group of warriors, peculiar though their quest may be.

Over time you had become accustomed to the Dwarven band, and they you. You liked sparring with Dwalin, listening to Bilbo’s packing tips, and even getting into trouble with Fili and Kili, but unconsciously you found yourself always looking out for Ori.

He reminded you of your younger siblings, and so you tried to make sure he was never left behind. Dori had also noticed your kindness, and had taken it upon himself to be your guide if ever you had questions about the trip, dwarves, and anything in between.

Sure Fili and Kili were friendly enough, but you could never be sure if their answers were serious or offered as a wick to a flame. Which wouldn’t help your case if they knew of your more romantic curiosities about a certain rugged dwarf.

As soon as camp was set up you dug into your bowl almost as heftily as Bombur did, your mighty excursions leaving your body depleted. Sighing as you patted your full belly, you enjoyed the warmth of the fire while propped up against a hefty log, one that Dwalin happened to be sitting on.

“Good to see you’ve revived lass.”

You tried not to let the blush creep into your cheeks as he spoke your nickname with such a warmth that pulled at your heart strings. “Good to see you’re still kicking too.” You shot back, Dwalin smirking at your response.

You remembered the first time you saw him burst out of the trees with a mighty roar. Even hanging upside down, you saw the sheer strength and courage he launched himself at a foe five times his size. Yet his gentleness surprised you as he cut you down and carried you in his arms like you weighed nothing.

I mean, how could you not fall for him?

As everyone cleared off their bowls for the night you tried to stretch your muscles as best you could. The strain on your shoulders was beginning to ache, however it was a familiar pain now, and one that you would try your best not to let show.

You rolled your pack out close to the face of the mountain, since once before Dwalin had to drag you back from almost toppling over the edge in your sleep.

“No more sleeping near the cliffsides you wriggly worm.” He had growled sternly, to which you could only nod, having woken up to being carried by your saviour once again wondering if it was another dream. You’d had to bury your cheeks under the blanket so he couldn’t see your satisfied smile.

“Glad to see you learned your lesson.” Dwalin teased as he watched you from the fire.

“Well I’m sure if I had gone over the edge you could’ve used your beard as rope.” You teased back.

Dwalin and the others roared around the fire, as he looked at you with a mischievous grin.

“You tease this fine work of art missy, but from the looks of it your hair is gonna look worse than mine within a week.”

You brought your hand up to the back of your head and realised that it was, indeed, becoming a matted mess. You kept your thick hair in braids for the practicality, but on this journey you had not found the time to manage the upkeep. Which was important, as your curls answered to no one but a tooth comb and plenty of oil.

You huffed and started to unbind your hair, working your way behind before you felt yourself stuck. Seems one of your more intricate braids had become an intricate knot.

“You might as well just shave it off lassy, we can have matching hairstyles.” Dwalin roared with laughter. You tried your best to give him a grumpy look but you soon found yourself in fits of laughter too.

“You can help me braid my hair then you big ol’ grump.” You grinned, walking purposely around the fire and plonking yourself on the ground between his legs cross legged.

“How about that?” You puffed triumphantly.

But instead of more banter, you instantly you felt those around the fire freeze, Bofur dropping his spoon back into his bowl.

“You didn’t tell her?” Kili hissed at Dori.

“Well its not like I expected it to come up!” Dori argued defensively.

“Am I…. missing something?” You turned your head to look up at Dwalin wondering why he was silent too. However, you didn’t expect to find the most ferocious man you had ever met as red as a beet!

“Um,” Fili chuckled nervously. “Y/N, you-“

“Dwarves have very particular customs when it comes to our hair, or braiding other’s.” Thorin spoke decisively from his place as lookout, arms folded. “Customs that usually amount to offers of courtship.”

Your jaw dropped, realizing that you may or may not have in no small way proposed to Dwalin. “Oh.” You struggled to get words out. “Oh no, I didn’t know, I-I am sorry if I have caused offence!”

“It looks like you’ve caused a heart attack sweetie.” Bofur replied before being elbowed in the ribs by Kili.

You looked at everyone around the fire trying to look for some indication of how to proceed, finding that all of them were looking behind you. “Dwalin?”

“Its okay lass, you didn’t know.” Dwalin replied, the tepidness in his voice almost breaking you.

This really wasn’t how anything was supposed to go! Yes you liked Dwalin, you liked Dwalin a LOT. But you never thought the day would come when you would be ousted by your own foolish actions, and in front of half of your companions too.

“It was an honest mistake.” You heard Dwalin try to joke.

You scrunched the dirt underneath your hands into your fists. You were Y/N. You were bold. You were daring. And while your actions may have been a mistake your feelings certainly weren’t. Could you pretend it all away? Could you live with yourself now if you lied and hid your heart away? No. You had never run away from anything in your life. And you weren’t about to start now.

“If its all the same to you Dwalin, I still would like your help to braid my hair.”

You winced as you heard Ori gasp dramatically. When you peeked up you found Fili and Kili staring at you while simultaneously kicking each other, Bofur almost letting his bowl slip from his hands. Even Thorin raised his eyebrows at your boldness.

You felt the dwarf behind you exhale. “Are you sure lass?”

“Yes.” You tried not to twiddle your fingers, somehow transforming more and more into a shy milkmaid by the second. “Unless you would like me to ask someone else to braid it.” You insinuated daringly, even with fear he would say yes and offer your heart to someone else.

But no sooner were the words out of your mouth then you felt his hands brush against your back, taking the first of your plaits in his hands and unweaving it slowly.

“Well look at that I think its time for bed!” Bofur sprung up and yawned purposefully. At this the remaining troop instantly scattered, leaving you both alone with each other by the fire. Even Thorin had moved so that he was perched around the side of the mountain out of respect for his loyal warrior.

“I’m sorry if my hair is hard to handle.” You offered shyly. “It’s hard to do the plaits on my own.”

“No need for sorrys.” The rugged dwarf answered quietly, cursing his hands for not being nimble, or delicate. His hands were leathery, worn from his early years in the forges. But he had never thought his hands would be weaving in your hair as they did now. “Am I hurting ya?”

“Are you kidding me?” You laughed at his concern. “My mother would have me and my siblings crying after a braiding session when we were younger, this is….” You then paused. “This is much better.”

Dwalin’s own heart swelled at your contentment, fit to burst from his chest. Ever since the day he had cut you down and carried you in his arms, he couldn’t deny that you were the most beautiful cocoon he had ever seen.

He thought it was just the normal jitters when one saw a pretty face, but as you travelled as companions and then as friends, he fell in love with your character. The way you laughed, the way you fought, the way you would look out for Ori. You had proven your worth to the company as you had promised, but along the way you had won Dwalin’s heart.

Of course, he never thought in a thousand years though that a strong, strapping youngling would ever fall for him. You were human, and he considered the fact that maybe you wouldn’t feel attachment like dwarves did. He had thought for sure you would have become interested in one of the princes, anyone younger than himself.

Obviously, Dwalin was wrong.

The fierce warrior reluctantly finished the last plait, the process of taming your hair long but pleasant, as both of you swapped small stories of memories and times long past, even content to sit in silence.

You stretched and then turned to sit facing him. “Thank you.” The warmth in your smile more than Dwalin could take.

Before he could even think the dwarf had taken both of your hands in his, letting his thumbs slide gingerly across your small hands.

“Yes Dwalin?” You looked up at him with pools of dark hazel that glinted in the firelight, taking his breath away with the way you looked at him so keenly. He had never seen you like this before. Then again he mused, you had probably never seen him look like such a blushing fool before either.

“I’ll help you with your hair whenever you need Y/N, if that’s okay with you.”

You smiled at took the chance to hold his face in your hands, planting a small kiss on his forehead. “Its more than okay with me.”

Your own Dwarven Hero.

————————————————————————————————–

“Told you she’d be the one to do it.” Fili chuckled, kicking the bundle next to him that was his brother, gaining him a grunt. “You owe me a pint.”

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