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liebgotts-lovergirl · 2 years ago

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Fire On Fire: Chapter 15

(Ch. 14) ... (Ch. 1)

II Gallery II Tag List Application II Symbol Guide II

Summary: Tackling a mission meant for a team all by herself, Alix goes head-to-head with her most dangerous opponent yet. But perhaps this time, she's bitten off more than she can chew.

WARNINGS: VIOLENCE, ANGST, SEVERE INJURIES, Implied Substance Abuse, Death, the usual espionage stuff

A/N: Sorry this took so long, y'all! I've been on a trip! Here, have a holiday cliffhanger before I disappear again🤭💖

Taglist: @softguarnere @latibvles @mccall-muffin @lieutenant-speirs @brassknucklespeirs @parajumpboots @vibing-away @emmythespacecowgirl @hxad-ovxr-hxart @holdingforgeneralhugs @bellewintersroe @wwhatev3r @ax-elcfucker-blog

Contemporary: September 20th, 1944. Oosterbeek, Netherlands.

As soon as Lieutenant Kruger exited the Hendriksen Hotel, Alix was ready for him.

Opening her issue of Modes de Paris to a random page once more, she began to study the page on upcoming winter clothing trends, gradually increasing her pace until she "accidentally" collided with the young SS officer, causing him to stumble.

Most targets would apologize for knocking her and check to see if she was alright, but when the Lieutenant recovered his footing, something in him snapped.

Whirling around in a fit of fury, Kruger seized the spy by the throat, swearing in German as he slammed her against the wall of the Hendriksen hard enough to elicit a choking cough as the air was punched from her lungs.

Alix knew she couldn't put up true resistance or she would risk blowing her cover so she struggled weakly, one hand gripping his wrist and the other pushing him away from her as she fought for air.

The urge to break his arm was growing stronger with every second but Alix had committed herself to the civilian role and she would have to play it, even to her own peril.

Horrified townspeople saw the confrontation but scurried by, hastily avoiding the scene so as not to catch the SS officer's eye.

No one wanted to be next.

Tears involuntarily sprang to the spy's eyes as Kruger's hold tightened. When he lifted her off the ground, her ears began to buzz loudly as her vision began to blur and narrow.

Desperately fighting to remain conscious, Alix began to claw his hand and Kruger finally released her, yelling in pain, his voice seeming far away.

Gasping for breath like a fish out of water, Alix sank to her knees, the magazine slipping from her hand and falling limply to the cobblestones below.

The world seemed to be spinning like a children's top and Alix sat dazed. Kruger looked like he might come at her a second time but before he could, she saw another pair of boots approaching with the sharp clip-clip-clip that meant business.

As she coughed, leaning against the wall for support, the young woman could hear voices arguing above her in German. Blinking blearily upward, she could see a dignified-looking older man also in an SS uniform with the name “Schwarzkopf” emblazoned on the breast pocket.

A panoply of medals sat proudly on the opposite side of his chest, including what Alix recognized to be the Iron Cross.

This must be SS Captain Schwarzkopf then, she surmised through the haze. Werner Schwarzkopf.

She vaguely remembered his file.

Schwarzkopf was engrossed in a near-shouting match with the short-tempered Lieutenant, waving his hands as he gestured to Alix, to the street, and then jabbed an accusatory finger back into Kruger's chest.

All the fight seemed to have left the younger officer now and his body seemed to sag as he hung his head guiltily like a child being scolded by the schoolmaster.

After a few more minutes of back-and-forth, the row seemed to come to an end and the older officer knelt to pick up Alix's magazine before extending a hand politely down to her which she accepted.

Once she had gotten to her feet, Alix let the tears run down her cheeks and sniffled, hoping to seem more sympathetic.

It worked.

The older officer glanced over the title of the fashion catalog with a fond smile.

"Modes de Paris," he read out loud, his German-accent almost disappearing, making his French surprisingly comprehensible. "My wife is subscribed to this. Lisette has a weakness for capes."

"Well she's in luck because they appear to be all the rage this coming winter," Alix assured, returning the smile weakly as she rubbed her sore neck in with a gentle hand.

"I should hope so, with all of the money we’ve spent on them!"

The man let out a booming belly laugh that set Alix's ears ringing again and she winced, clinging to the wall of the bookshop with her left hand in a bid for balance as she slowly straightened up.

"I am truly sorry for my carelessness," she uttered softly, keeping her head lowered as a sign of her deference. "I sometimes get too immersed in my reading."

"No need to apologize, Mademoiselle, no harm done," the older man stated broadly but Lieutenant Kruger huffed like a spoiled child before shooting a suspicious glare in Alix’s direction for less than a second.

Strangely, the youthful SS officer couldn’t maintain eye contact to save his life.

Alix couldn’t even tell what color his irises were because they were dwarfed by his dinner-plate pupils and darting every which way as though distracted by a million different things that only he could see.

Lieutenant Kruger was muttering under his breath, seemingly speaking more to himself than anyone else as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

The agent glanced over to the older man with concern, lowering her voice to avoid triggering Kruger’s ire again.

“Is he… alright?”

The graying man grimaced.

“He is functional. Mostly.”

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, making sure to keep her body language open and non-defensive to emphasize her earnestness.

The key was seeming politely concerned, not overly curious.

Schwarzkopf shook his head, seemingly mystified.

“Overwork perhaps? Who’s to say?”

“S-She’s a spy!” Kruger burst out suddenly, extending a shaking finger toward the agent.

Alix’s eyebrows shot skyward with a bemused laugh but the older man beside her merely frowned, his forehead creasing.

“You said the same thing earlier about 4 men in the bakers regiment, Klemens." Captain Schwarzkopf's voice was rising. "Is this your idea of a joke?"

Kruger was completely ignoring him, seemingly too immersed in his own paranoia to notice.

This was not a joke, Alix thought as she watched the troubled young man begin pacing anxiously back and forth along the same path.

Something was seriously wrong with her target and it wasn't trench fever.

"So many spies," the young man mumbled, his movements becoming more jerky in his distress. "So many…So many."

The lieutenant was becoming more and more agitated by the second, scratching frantically at his neck and face like a dog with fleas, raking his fingernails up and down the pockmarked skin feverishly as if trying to dig his way down to the bone.

Kruger's erratic behavior was causing Alix some serious trepidation.

The young SS officer was sweating excessively but there were no other symptoms, meaning the Intel she was acting on was incorrect. Whatever his affliction, it was most certainly not trench fever and Alix wondered if it might be better to take him out from a distance instead.

She might risk losing the chance to nab vital documents he was carrying but if his affliction was contagious, she didn't want to risk any more exposure because she could potentially infect others she came into contact with after.

Deciding to try one last ruse, Alix turned glanced over at Kruger, whose hands appeared to be twitching as he shifted restlessly from foot to foot.

"I really should get going," she excused herself breathily.

"Papa will be expecting me after Monsieur Pètain has gone, I'm sure."

With all the practiced coyness of an actress delivering a throwaway line over her shoulder, Alix turned to leave when she was stopped, as she knew she would be.

Kruger was slack-jawed, his huge pupils boring into her like black holes.

“Your father knows The Marshal Pètain? The Lion of Verdun? But how-”

"Papa was his roommate at Saint-Cyr," Alix lied effortlessly, cutting the babbling young man off. "And when they left the military academy, they served together in Artois. As you can imagine, they are quite close."

“What did you say your father’s name was?” the older man asked, a hint of skepticism in his gravelly voice and Alix forced her expression to remain neutral, hoping to God that her cover had been properly backstopped.

“Antoine Duchamps,” she replied, keeping her tone even, and Kruger’s ghostly face brightened immediately.

“I know that name!” He piped up eagerly and Alix resolved to thank Nixon later for properly planting her cover when Kruger began chattering twice as fast to the man next to him, leaving Alix blinking as she struggled to follow along.

The Lieutenant's French wasn't bad for a German but the faster he spoke, the more his words began to slur, running together in a muddled mess and on top of it, he hardly seemed to breathe!

"Philippe Pètain! My God, can you believe it? Do you think he would meet with us? Perhaps-"

But the older officer held up a hand to silence Kruger, who was starting to pace again in his excitement.

"I'm sure the Marshal is a busy man, Klemens," Captain Schwarzkopf began but Alix shook her head, tossing her curls airily like the airheaded socialite she was supposed to be.

"Don't be silly!” she chirped brightly, her tone syrupy-sweet. “He'd be honored to meet with some of our valiant German allies! If one of you could escort me to the nearest phone, I'm sure I could ring Papa and arrange it!"

The young agent paused for a moment, watching as Lieutenant Kruger began scratching vigorously at his neck and cheek again, angry red lines beginning to trail down the irritated skin.

"It can't be a party line though," Alix hinted, twirling a strand of her raven hair around her finger flirtatiously.

"The Marshal is very particular about who has access to him, I'm sure you understand. One can never be too careful these days. It should be somewhere…private.”

Kruger had ceased his clawing now, too distracted by the sight of Alix’s fluttering eyelashes and suggestive tone to focus.

“I know the perfect place,” the young man blurted out, seizing her by the arm rather suddenly and practically yanking her towards him in a sudden burst of virility.

Good, Alix thought as the notorious ladies' man led her back inside the hotel, leaving a confused Captain Schwarzkopf behind them. This should be quick.

But it wasn't.

∆∆━━━━∆∆━━━∆∆━━━∆∆

An impromptu SS Headquarters on one floor and a rented love nest on the other, it seemed the Hendriksen made good money from collaborating with Nazis because the place was crawling with them.

As the pair made their way through the lobby into the elevator, Alix kept her head dipped low, making sure that her thick, Veronica Lake-style waves were obscuring at least half her face from passersby.

Beside her, Lieutenant Kruger was still trembling like a leaf; his short, shallow breaths coming out in pants as though he’d just run a marathon.

A part of her wanted to ask if he was alright but she thought better of it; Alix knew if she set him off again, she wouldn’t be able to hold back from killing him and she was fairly certain that the noise would attract unwanted attention from the multiple Nazis milling about downstairs.

In the elevator, the young SS officer pressed a shaky hand to his chest, the feeling of his racing heart starting him rocking on his heels once again and Kruger’s anxiety coupled with the groaning of the rusted cables made Alix grit her teeth.

He better not drop dead before we get to the room, she thought bitterly. Because I’m not dragging him there myself.

Fortunately, the ding of the elevator signaled their arrival and the young spy allowed herself a quiet exhale of relief as they exited onto the plush, patterned carpeting of the hall.

It was showtime.

∆∆━━━━∆∆━━━∆∆━━━∆∆

Common courtesy dictated that a gentleman should offer a lady a drink upon inviting her in but Lieutenant Kruger was certainly no gentleman.

Alix had barely sat down by the bedside telephone when the young officer plopped down beside her, his leg bouncing vigorously, practically shaking the whole mattress with it.

"My, my,” he marveled and Alix could feel his bony fingers boldly caressing her upper arm. “Aren’t you a stunning creature?”

It took all of her strength not to break his hand.

“Thank you, sir,” she simpered but when she reached for the phone, Kruger’s other arm shot out like lightning to stop her, clutching her wrist painfully tight.

“What’s your hurry, Fraulein?” he inquired and Alix felt a chill run through at the sight of his crocodile grin. “I’m sure the Marshal can wait until we’re through.”

The agent played dumb, wincing at his vise-like grip.

“U-Until we’re through…?”

“Until I’ve had time to properly enjoy…your presence.”

Good luck with that, Alix wanted to remark but she lowered her eyes to the carpet instead, feigning shyness.

"Forgive me, sir,” she murmured breathily, doing her best impression of a bashful ingenue. “But being alone with a man as…” She swallowed her disgust. “As handsome and well-respected as yourself…”

Beside her, the Lieutenant dropped her wrist and straightened up at her words, puffing his chest out like a strutting rooster and Alix bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud.

“You needn't be coy, Fraulein," he assured her with a pompous wave of his hand. "We're finally alone."

With that, he made a daring swoop toward her, attempting to hook an arm around her waist but Alix shied away, scooting closer toward the phone instead.

"Perhaps a drink first?” she insisted quickly, followed by a tight-lipped smile. "For both of us, to calm the nerves."

"I'm not thirsty," he countered, continuing to lean in and Alix kept her expression neutral, tolerating his advances as her mind raced through possibilities.

She needed him to ingest the cyanide somehow but she knew she couldn't push the subject or she'd risk blowing her cover.

So she played hard to get, ducking away from his arms again and hoping desperately that her attempts at coyness would pay off but they didn't.

The SS Lieutenant was like a machine.

He didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep; he seemed to run on desire alone and he was vibrating as though there was lightning coursing through his veins.

She tried several times to engage him in conversation but the Lieutenant wasn’t interested in talking. Once he’d reached out and groped her breast, Alix decided she’d had enough.

Swallowing her pride, the spy leaned in, keeping her lips just inches away from Kruger's as she slowly eased the F-S fighting knife from the waistband of her skirt. He was so near that she could smell his putrid breath and as soon as his eyes closed, she seized her opportunity and thrust the blade deep into his abdomen.

The force of the stab alone would probably have killed the average soldier but it seemed almost as though the SS officer was superhuman.

He let out a single, strangled noise and looked down at the knife embedded in his torso before his eyes shifted up, black with unspeakable rage as he leapt to his feet and took a swing.

Alix blocked his first strike with one hand while yanking the knife from his bloody ribs with the other, eliciting another bloodcurdling scream from her opponent.

Heart racing, Alix swiped at him with the blade like Nix had taught her but the Lieutenant was faster, catching her wrist and clamping down between the tendons, forcing her to drop the knife like a hot coal.

She hissed in pain and managed to land a blow to the side of his face before he struck back, his fist flying over her head as she dropped to the floor. Panting, she managed to sweep his legs out from under him and he came crashing to the floor with a loud thud.

But just as she straightened up, reaching again for her knife, the bastard latched onto her leg and dragged her back down onto the carpet with him, bellowing the only word in German that Alix recognized at the top of his lungs:

“Spionin! Spionin!”

Spy.

Rolling over, Alix rushed to clap a hand over his mouth but the damage had already been done.

She could hear the clamor of approaching footsteps, the squealing hinges of doors swinging open, panicked voices shouting in French and German.

The officer caught her dominant wrist before it reached him, bending it backwards with such force that Alix swore she heard a sickening crack and a hot pain shot up her arm just as he swung again with his opposite hand, this time connecting squarely with her jaw in a stunning uppercut that sent her head snapping back like a flipping switch.

Reeling from the dull throbbing in her skull and spitting blood, Alix managed to tug her pistol from its hidden holster and fired two shots, one after the other, into the man’s head, dropping him instantly.

The sudden cacophony of German coming from just outside the door spurred the agent to struggle to her feet.

Cradling her injured wrist, Alix was seeing double but she managed to stagger her way to the window overlooking the hotel’s back. The deafening jingling of room keys set her ears ringing and she leaned against the windowsill for support as the world seemed to spin.

Her heart thundered in her chest, her racing pulse causing blood to gush steadily from her split lip, dribbling down her chin in a warm stream.

Despite the pain, the young agent still managed to shove the window open and shakily clamber onto the sill. Staring down into the shadows of the alleyway, Alix felt nausea creeping in, her fear of heights making her stomach churn as her vision blurred.

The ground below seemed to undulate like an ocean tide and Alix had to lean against the wall, each time she blinked in the streaming sunlight feeling like a hammer slamming down onto her skull.

Hearing the deafening click of the door unlocking, the OSS operative swayed unsteadily for a moment as the world slowed to a crawl.

Standing on the ledge, Alix found herself in a fog, wondering thickly how long it would take for her case officer to be informed of her death.

It wasn't your fault, Nix, she wanted to tell him. You were a great handler. I wasn't a good enough agent.

"Too many risks, kid." Alix could hear him now, scolding her like he had during training. "You take too many risks."

Suddenly, several uniformed men burst into the room, interrupting her hazy contemplation. The resulting commotion sounded so far away, as though it was all happening underwater.

Holding a hand to her pounding head, Alix squeezed her eyes shut.

I'm sorry, Joey, she thought groggily, her aching head beginning to loll. I love you.

Then with a last shaky breath, she leapt from the ledge, sending herself plummeting downward onto the unforgiving bricks below.

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someone-elses-star · 5 years ago

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The 100 6x10: Matryoshka Personal Narrative

Here we go again! I hope this week went by as quick for you as it did for me! I’m super excited to see this episode--but nervous because I heard that there might be a major character death? I mean....we just lost Kane next week? Why would they do that to us again?! Any speculations? I’ve been hearing that it might be Raven (though that seems off-plot from this season) and I’ve also been hearing Octavia (but she’s in the next episode so maybe later this season, but definitely not tonight). Also, BOB DIRECTS NEXT EPISODE!!! I’m so jazzed for that!

Love you Eliza! They can’t kill you off if you’re the only one who introduces the upcoming episodes! Lmao

Haha the reminders showing us yesterday about Bellamy being super in love with Clarke and her return. Like we need that reminder. We have been replaying that scene all week!

Love Clarke on the motorcycle.

Uh oh! Who’s on the other motorcycles?

Our head? Our head?

You tell her Clarke!

Damn Josephine knows her away around no matter how many years she’s been gone.

Anybody reminded of the bunker on Earth from season 1 to this one? You know the one where we all started shipping Bellarke? Lol

Ohhh....bringing up the Josephine/Gabriel relationship.

Wow. Josephine actually seems human when talking about him.

Damn.....Clarke is seizing. Damn, she is sorta worried about Clarke, but....still mostly worried about saving her own ass. Not surprised.

Ope! Here is where Raven and Abby find out Clarke is “dead.”

Russell is out for their heads. His own doing, really.

Yeah, Raven. Look guilty and mournful for Clarke!

So Simone said that to hurt them for hurting her?

Yes, Russell, you’re fault. But not for letting them in. For trying to kill Clarke.

Awwww....calling Madi Clarke’s daughter always gets to me!

Wow. Simone is out for BLOOD!

Just like them? You are worse than them!

Oh god?! Who are they going to kill?!?!

Oh. Telling people the truth! Good for him!

Do I hear the sounds of rebellion?

Gaia and Echo teamwork! We are getting almost all the spoiler scenes in the first ten minutes, are we? Damn.

REBELLION! REBELLION!

Rebellion is never really peaceful, though, is it?

You tell him Echo! Haha

Wow. Make them choose who dies? Extra cruel.

Plan B. Always have a Plan B.

I love Echo. I do. I may not like her and Bellamy together romantically, but I really, really LOVE her!

Wow Gaia. Put on the pressure.

That’s easy....Murphy. Yup.

You tell him Madi!

Ohh....The truth is coming out!

Abby is going to kill him!

Eventually.....lol. Emori.

Abby totally giving him the slap.

You tell him, Abby!

Commercial Break #1 Thoughts: Honestly, I haven’t liked Abby this season, or most seasons, but it’s nice to see her acting like a real mother again. And also, I love Murphy, but he gets off wayyyyy too easy most time. Do I want him dead? NO! Do I agree that he would be the one to choose....don’t hate me!....but probably so. He did betray them and all. He did the right thing in the end. Sure. But mostly through a lot of outside pressure, and he probably would have gone through with it if Josephine didn’t stab him in the leg and shit. He’s very into saving his own ass.

Is Josephine really singing....that song? Lol

Ohhh....back in the mind stuff! And it is MESSY and falling apart!

Ohhh their memories are mixing now! That is definitely not good! Way to really push the point that Clarke’s brain is deteriorating.

Not much. Yes, I would definitely concur.

Ohhh. Her second body really didn’t want to be taken!

Josephine is actually scared. Good.

I love Clarke with a plan!

Hmmm....I hope those memories aren’t important....

Our brain, now Clarke? This is scaring me that she keeps saying “our.”

Leave it to Raven to put Clarke through hell and then give Murphy an easy talk.

So did Gaia purposely get taken?

Madi is ANGRY!

The only person dying tonight is Russell. How come I don’t agree?

Wow. Very tense lunchtime.

Is Ty good....or bad?

Ohhhhh is Ty going to get himself killed because he can’t wait for the rebellion?

OH....is Simone going to die? Good riddance? I suppose....? Yup. Dead.

No wonder Russell is going to be out for blood this episode. His poor choices are leading to his whole family’s demise.

Commercial Break #2 Thoughts: Is anyone actually feeling bad for the Primes? I mean, I’m not, but I want to know if there is anyone out there still thinking they are good when their whole brainwashing shit is coming out. Bring on the rebellion! And seriously, already halfway through the episode? I feel, like usual, that we’ve got a lot, but still not enough. I really hope the last few episodes are not rushed because of this. That would suck. I know we’ll get a cliffhanger-ish thing like we usually do, but I hope it is after some real plot growth. Also, so we are probs not going to see Bellamy this episode? Is that what’s happening? Because next to episodes descriptions are all Bellamy/Octavia descriptions which makes me worry also about Clarke’s health. I see Eliza’s name in the cast section of both, but....still worried.

Ope. Josephine and Gabriel memories in different bodies!

Aww.....that’s so cute. I still hate her. And this is so the start of Gabriel’s hate for the Prime system.

Clarke is so sympathizing. She needs to stop being so nice.

Wow. They’re bonding. Damn. Fuck. Fine. Save them both, but give Clarke back her body. And let her live, of course.

And here is Josephine with an ax. That’s not good. Definitely can’t not trust the psychopath.

And....there goes Josephine. But...Clarke is still inside? How? Is Josephine gone completely now? Or is she awake in Clarke’s body?

And uh oh! Killer vines!

Commercial Break #3 Thoughts: Don’t have many thoughts because that was not a lot before the next set of commercials. But I think we’re somehow seeing Josephine awake somehow? Like, why was it her who regained control when her memories were wiped? And what does this mean for Clarke’s survival? Especially when I’m convinced Josephine was going to use that ax against Clarke? Meaning she can STILL definitely NOT be trusted to keep any sort of deal in keeping them both alive. Josephine is definitely the female Murphy--a little more psycho, yes, but still valid.

At least those commercials didn’t last.

And here is the body being choked! And Gabriel and Octavia to the rescue!

Nope....Josephine. Not Clarke.

Oh. He does still love her. That’s not good.

Yeah, Octavia. Ask about Clarke! Save Clarke!

Wow. This is such a mess!

Damn. You guys didn’t honestly think that she was to be trusted.

You go Bellamy!

“Because of course it is!” What sass!

Blake reunion!

You tell her Bellamy! Protect Clarke, Octavia, and your people. In that order if you don’t mind!

Gaia and Madi confrontation!

Wow Madi is really going bad! Save her!

Yes! Abby is talking sense!

That’s what you get for letting a child become Heda!

Damn. Shedheda was horrible!

Wow Abby is really going full on mother hen now!

Raven asking the right questions! Good girl!

And this is where we are going to get Madi’s exorcism scene next week!

Ohh....the child is spared, but all the others are burned?

Very witch trials.

Commercial Break #4 Thoughts: Madi is fully gone now. Gotta get that exorcism done. Which is totally next week in Bob’s directorial debut episode next week! SO EXCITED! Which from the behind the scenes pics seems to have Jackson in it, so if he survives the burning at the stake thing, I’m thinking everyone else will, too. Just a theory, but Echo has got to come through in some aspect. And also, with some help from the rebellious people who have already been told the truth? Well. here comes the last fifteen minutes. The last five minutes of all this season’s episodes have been intense, so I wonder what the last five will bring this episode. I’m nervous. And excited. But mostly nervous as always. This show is totally going to make me go prematurely grey!

Russell giving his dictatorship speech. Gotta have it.

Echo is totally ready.

You tell them Emori!

Very witch trials.

Damn it, Riker! What the hell?!? Can’t trust any of these bastards.

The chick on the motorcycle is going to save them last moment. Calling it.

Or.....Murphy will save them?

Hmmmm....he’s considering it.

And....now they’re safe? Again?

Ohhh....and Raven is going to use the computer to erase Madi’s bad side.

But they are still going to burn the guy who killed Simone. Typical.

I could see that coming a mile away. Gotta keep everyone in fear of the Primes.

Commercial Break #5 Thoughts: Fear is what keeps the people under control. Biggest sign of a dictatorship. And further proof that the Primes are the real bad guys here. Even Russell in his best moments has always been a brainwashing dictator playing himself off as a god. Also, last five minutes are coming up! Always the most intense! Does anyone else believe this is when we will find if Clarke is going to live or die. I really would stop watching if she died. She’s the show for me.

SAVE CLARKE Gabriel!

Stop with the heart eyes! Only Bellamy and Clarke can have heart eyes!

She was right to depend on you.

Gabriel making hard decisions.

He better still save Clarke!

Either that, or the Blake’s will probably kill him.

Bellamy is seriously pissed. Save his Clarke!

Damn right, Gabriel! The only one who can be trusted I think. Maybe.

Death is life. Very poetic.

And Clarke is now seeing her mind breaking apart.

Okay. Save her! Save her now! I’m scared! Restart her heart!

Why is she still here!?

WHAT?!?!?!?!

IS she really killing Clarke?

Oh God.

Heart and the head. Hear and the head!

Save her Bellamy! This is love!

Is that the only kiss we are only ever going to see?

Damn....are we really losing Clarke?

Oh my god. My heart seriously was stopping and racing!

The head and the heart! This is so a love confession!

THAT WAS A LOVE CONFESSION!!!!!

My hands are still shaking from thinking that they were really killing off Clarke!

#The 100 #the 100 spoilers #bob morely #eliza tayor #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #octavia blake #bellarke #john murphy #emori #echo #raven reyes #abby griffin #jackson #madi griffin #matryoshka #6x10

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whittynovels · 7 years ago

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restore me predictions 2

*"It made me wish I’d had a sister. Or a mother. Someone to learn from and lean on. A woman to teach me how to be brave in this body, among these men" -Juliette gets friends!!!!! -I want juliette to get a makeover and people who give her boy advice and talk with her about girl stuff and ugh girls -She was never this way with the twins it always felt so awkward *Will Kenji get a love interest? -“he tries” -kenji totes flirts with international people -is the ex-girlfriend his????? -tahereh said kenji doesn’t get anyone in this book but thats ok we'll have a slow burn over a 3 book arc it's what he deserves -T said it’s someone we don’t already know which is fair bc everyone we already know he said is too much like a sister to him so it would be weird *Juliette’s favorite color is black? Sounds fake but ok *JAMES AND WARNER JAMES AND WARNER JAMES AND WA -“were you CRYING?” ummmm just fucking punch me in the lung next time -honestly is every character in this book just gonna witness a warner breakdown why we gotta do him so dirty like that -james is gonna be so mad when they find out they’re brothers because in unravel me he gets pissed about not being told stuff/getting left out -I don’t think it’ll happen this soon *WARNER’S EMO POWERS IN HIS POV -THIS IS THE NUMBER ONE THING I’M EXCITED FOR AND SHE HASN’T SHOWN IT YET IN THE SAMPLER SO I WAS WORRIED BUT YIPPEE I CANT WAIT TO GET CUTE WARNETTE SCENES WHERE WARNER IS AWARE OF JULIETTE'S FEELINGS AND ASKS HER ABOUT IT AND WANTS TO VALIDATE THAT SHE FEELS OKAY ASFUGHJKL;; *JULIETTE DRINKING ADFSGUHDIJ’K -I always wanted to write this but idk -Juliette is happy drunk / warner is emo drunk -Warner super concerned taking care of her *More people with powers? [we been knew reaction pic] -I honestly couldn’t guess any of the powers without just reciting powers from twilight or something lol *Kenji calling warner a dick and warner wanting to punch him -ME -Tahereh is teasing so much kenji & warner dialogue that it makes me wonder about them. Why are they together so much. Why does warner trust kenji. What. Help. Slow down *THE KIND OF MUSIC WARNER LISTENS TO -Either smooth jazz or beyonce, there’s no in between *What warner did to be leader of sector 45 -Pressure waves dude??? -No other predictions. no clue. help. *A cliffhanger?? -I honestly can’t tell you what state my anxiety will be in if there’s a cliffhanger -I think it’ll mirror other books where there’s certainly stuff unsolved but it’s not like someone dies then it’s like “aight, see ya next year” *She keeps hinting about deaths but tbh I don’t think anything will happen until book 6 -She did this with ignite me thinking big deaths would happen but it was nothing -I think she teases to create angst and fear but we’ll be fine -I trust her (t don’t let me down) *Another chapter 55 (◕‿◕✿) *lgbt characters !!!!!!!!! kenji, Brendan, Winston, whatever mans kenji gets *nO ADAM AND KENJI BRO MOMENTS HAHAHAHA -Kenji roasts adam at every opportunity *wARNER SPEAKING SEVERAL LANGUAGES UUGHGHHHHH WHAT A MAN!!!!!! WHAT A MAN, MY DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!! -Seven languages? Oh my lORDDT -I’m not even gonna predict what they are but hooooleeeee mollleeeeeey -We get to see him speak “a couple” ugghhhh I can’t wait to see juliette hear him break into Arabic or something and she’s just like !!!!!!!!!!!! *When asked about juliette and adam’s friendship growing, tahereh said “he’s a part of the story and there’s more left to come” and im just like noooooooo -At the same time, juliette is so forgiving I don’t doubt they’ll finally talk *PPL ROAST ME ABOUT AN ADAM REDEMPTION ARC BUT JUST THINK ABOUT WARNER AND ADAM’S FRIENDSHIP AND ADAM BEING SOMEONE WHO CAN SAVE THEM ALL IF HE PROJECTS HIS POWER AND DISABLES OTHERS’. I’M JUST SAYIN G *WARNER NAKED CRYING ON THE GROUND -WARNER HAS ANXIETY??? PLS LET WARNER HAVE ANXIETY I WANT ANXIETY REP -But at the same time I don’t because #tooreal -I feel like she posted this quote so out of context and it could be nothing but I leapt to the worst conclusions -Why isn’t juliette there? Did they have a fight? Did something happen to her? Did he read his dad’s journals? -DOES KENJI SEE HIS SCARS? -Is warner completely naked?? I’m so confused. I’M SO CONFUSED *Kenji calling warner cute constantly mY HEArt *WHY IS JULIETTE’S POV SPOILERY -Is she kidnapped??? Is she miserable??? Is a character with mind control powers harming her??? Is she separated from warner? Like WHAT??? It’s so spoilery that she can’t even find one quote to give us? *THE VALENTINES DAY SNIPPET -JULIETTE’S CONFIDENCE -THE TOWEL -WARNER’S POV SEXYTIMES -FWUJAOIFPKOIOBLHEIJKMF -SLIHBFLABKVLEAJFGFYOUDLHIJF -I was legit sobbing I was so happy for the first warnette kiss in 4 years -(lowkey wish there was more dialogue and description but that feels almost gluttonous at this point because we are so fortunate for having it at all) *Tahereh said she “likes” the ending of restore me -I don’t think we’ll have a cliffhanger, like I said. -She said “I don’t think it’s sad” so I hope it’s empowering like previous books -T said juliette is her favorite, ever, by the end of RM, so I think she’s fine and she doesn’t die clearly lol *AN EX-GIRLFRIEND COMES INTO PLAY -WHOSE??? WHAT IS THE TRUTH?????? -WHO IS GONNA CLAIM THIS WOMAN -Warner? Is it one of the overseas people? MY MANS IS A HOE!!!!! He out here saying “I didn’t have friends” but he actually meant “I had friends with benefits” -Kenji? Adam? Castle? I literally wish it were anyone else lol I’m solid on my theory of juliette being warner’s first everything but the internet and the author say otherwise *It’s confirmed that juliette MEETS her parents!!!!!! Oufhaouhilvgudyahisjkop;pzfx;ia I’MS O EXCITED SHE’S GONNA ROAST THEM I’M REA DY FOR HER TO ROOOAST THEM!! -Also warner said in unravel me he wants to kill whoever made her miserable as a kid so I want warner to threaten them or pull a gun or something and im just ready for there to be tea -The biggest question I have—more than what warner did to be leader of sector 45—is what her parents are like. Not even just physically and with their personalities. I’m so split on wondering if they’re sorry or if they still hate her. Are they happy without her? Do they regret it? Will they accept her as she is now? Will they learn to trust her? *New novellas??!!?!! -I was shocked we didn’t get one before this book. -Whose POV? We get a kenji short story so maybe from him. Since we get warner POV in the book, it’s not as important anymore as a separate novella. So it’s gotta be kenji, adam, castle, Anderson, someone, idk. james? new characters? -Maybe it’ll have bonus content from previous books in the trilogy (LS PS LP PL SP L S PL SPL S PLS PLS PL SPL S PLS PL S PLS) *The bird symbolism comes back I’m emo -Juliette flying (ie. Airplanes, she becomes the bird herself? Idk) -I always thought it was so weird that the “the bird I imagined is the bird on adam’s chest” conflict/coincidence was just randomly dropped. -Does juliette become adam’s bird? -DOES MY GIRL FINALLY GET TO SEE A BIRD???? AHHHHHHH --i used to want ignite me to end with her seeing a bird so maybe i can finally have my dream come true and one of these books has her seeing a bird in it *Juliette’s powers are still growing -Unless it has to do with killing people and not physically moving stuff like castle then idk. I’m conflicted about this one. *More about warner’s mom, it’s ok I’m just gonna cry over here *Warner’s virginity better not be a hot topic in this book because I am tired and I’m so happy not knowing -Same how I feel with sex scenes like ty for having them but I don’t need to be ~too~ well-acquainted with their anatomy, ya know? pls no sarah j maas porn in these woods, thank you *Juliette and warner get to travel!!!!!!! -Now that warner knows how to drive a helicopter I just imagine them being like “hey Barbie wanna go for a ride” “sure ken” “hop in” then I don’t wanna live forever starts playing because wasn’t there a helicopter scene in fifty shades *Warner and his 5 o’clock shadow sounds fake bc in unravel me when he was being held captive there was no beard [angery frog meme] -Why my mans so stressed he aint shavin????????? He needs a hug and 3 advil *SHE EITHER GETS A HAIRCUT OR A TATTOO IN THIS BOOK -I’m 50/50. On one hand, she mentioned in ignite me that she needs a haircut, but I really really reall yreally hate haircuts in books so I’m salty -Also Ive always wished she’d get a tattoo bc it’s so empowering and she has a lot of mantras she lives by and warner is such a cheerleader for them and he would love it too *WARNER IS LITERALLY THE EMBODIMENT OF CAR RADIO ABOUT OUTRUNNING SILENCE OAUHOSJIKO;DI;FSLDGYHIJ MY MANS IS EMO AND I LOVE AND SUPPORT HIM UNCONDITIONALLY -I’m concerned that he and juliette aren’t together more in this book. She’s in a meeting he’s not invited to??? Aaron warner? More like aaron burr, not being in the room where it happened

#ignore this #i'm linking it for goodreads lol

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imsarabum · 8 years ago

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Responses to {Part 15} I Won’t Stop You // Jeon Jungkook, Vampire!AU Asks~

Please ‘Keep Reading’ to find my response to your ask ^^ As always, I have copied and pasted all asks into this post in regards to last night’s chapter to avoid clogging up people’s dashboards and to avoid spoilers for those who may still wish to read the chapter. Thank you ^^

ALSO I have included asks I received to do with IWSY in the hours leading up to before I posted it because there was a few! So if you sent in an ask to do with IWSY and I didn’t post it - it will be in this post!

@kpopppimagines said: *Looks at clock, notices time, starts to dance strangely and do weird jazz hand motions* Wooooooooo yeahhhhhhhh! So excited! Xx 🙌🏼🙌🏼💕

Ahhh I really hope you liked the chapter love!

Anonymous said: Hope the new chapter will be as great as the rest!! Really looking forward to what direction the story will go in❤️❤️

I hope it lived up to your expectations :D

@mocking-butts said: I'm probably way too excited for this chapter because holy moly i need more!!! Honestly one of my favorite fanfics i love it <3

I really hope you enjoyed it my dear ^^ Thank you very much!

@audreymv said: I wanna kill Yoongi like mate I UGH I CANT. Like why and now Jungkook cant tell her his secret just omg everything os crashing down. I love this so mich but Yoongi he is ooooo on my list in this fanfic. Loving it so far 😘😘😘

Just when he was about to tell her :c How can he tell her now?! heh ^^ Thank you so much for reading it!

Anonymous said: Wow, new chapter of IWSY was really good! I'm so glad to finally get some backstory on the reader, but I kind of feel bad for Jungkook now.. Because how will the reader react when he tells her? And Yoongi's going to the ball so she'll recognise him.. Ahhh! Well, I suppose there's nothing to do but patiently wait. Stay healthy and keep up the hard work! Thanks

I’m so happy you thought it was good! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how she will react when/if he tells her ^^ lol Thank you so much for reading and I hope you stay healthy too!

@loverofotome said: 😱😱 IT'S THEIR FATE TO BE TOGETHER 😱😱 I was definitely not expecting that. Yoongi seems to think there's something special about her and I can't help but wonder what that is. Ahhh! I love your writing and it's so good, as always. I can't wait until next week!

IT WAS DESTINY~~ hehe ^^ I wonder what’s so special about her? I guess we will have to wait to find out :D Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an awesome day :)

@doubletroublesince1994 said: NOPE. NEVER EXPECTED THIS. BUT THIS. HOW DARE YOU. OMGGGG WHY DO I FEEL LIKE YOU LEFT ME WITH A CLIFFHANGER EVEN IF IT ISN'T ONE?????? UGH I LOVE YOU.

I am very very sorry c: hehe~ I love you too and thank you very much for reading the chapter!!

Anonymous said: oh my gosh, yoongi.. what he did was so cruel. and that's why he's looking for y/n... i'm really curious about when and what's going to happen when y/n finds out jungkook is a vampire

Why did he do it though? And what’s the reason he is looking for her? Is it to just dimply finish what he began? If so - is he going to go looking for Sid, too? ;o SO many questions! haha ^^ Thank you for reading the chapter!

@omelys-space said: IT ALL CONNECTS GOD DAMN! Like how amazing is this update 😍 I am honestly excited for every update you post and they never let me down Thank you ❤

I’m so happy that you can see it all connecting and beginning to come together to make a bigger picture! There is still much more to come :D hehe Thank you very much and it makes me happy that you said I never let you down. Thank you!

Anonymous said: Honestly this fan fiction is one of the best things I've ever read. I hate reading, but this story has changed my perspective about it! IWSY is also the first long fanfic that I've read heh~ I just want you to know that I think you are a really good writer and the stories that you make are amazing! I am in love with this story!❤️❤️ -Ro (you don't know me but I'm gonna put my name anyway☺️)

Hi Ro! :D Ahhh thank you so much for your wonderful words, I’m smiling so much! And thank you also for reading my series and I’m so happy that you’re enjoying it ^^

@deangetoutofmyspleen said: IM S C R E A M I NG I DIDNT EXPECT THAT AT ALLLLLL FUCJSKSKKFMFMGMDMAMZMXMXKSK I LOVE

YAAAAAY I’m glad I could surprise you! I think a lot of people thought it was either going to be Yoongi or Jungkook that had something to do with her parents death. But in a way - they both did, I guess :D Thank you so much for reading the update!!

@im-so-scared-aaaa said: Ok, I'm suppose to be studying, but now I'm shooked ^^ Thank you😿

I hope you managed to get back to studying you naughty child! c: Haha thank you so much for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it too!

Anonymous said: That curveball thoooooooo I don't want jungkook to be hurt :"( how is he ever going to tell reader about his secret like this 😰😰😰😰

I know :( How could you ever tell someone that after what they just told you? :(

Anonymous said: OMG This chapter give me chills!!! It's amazing, I am loving how the plot starts to thicken ... things are about to get a while lot more intense and complicated isn't it ?!😏 I honestly can't wait for the update , thank you so much for updating every week. I Love you and you writing so much❤

I’m so happy I could give you chills c: And...it may possibly get more complicated and intense from this moment on...yes c: Thank you so much for reading and I love you too! Have an awesome day :D

Anonymous said: Ah this chapter was so angsty... I never read angst but You did so well!! Ta! x U.K. Anon :)

I do enjoy writing angst a lot :) It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written something very angsty since my Who Are You? series! Thank you so much fellow U.K anon!

@moonlighthollow said: I somehow new that her parents were killed by a vampire But Holy shit it's yoongi He's scary af 😐 Poor brother😭 Poor girl😭 And poor jungkookie😭 It was good as always tho😅😊

Idk about you but evil Yoongi gives me such a sexy vibe isfskdgksjng lol Thank you for reading the update and I hope you have a wonderful day babe!

Anonymous said: I don't know if I'm shivering because it's cold in my room, or because of ch 15 of IWSY... Oh my fxxking god!!!! I mean, there were hints, so the plot doesn't come as much as a surprise, but the writing style had me sucked into the story completely! Loved it! 👏🏻💕

I am also shivering but my reason is that it is DEFINITELY cold right now TT I want it to be summer already I’m so DONE with the cold lol Thank you very much for reading the update and I hope you’ll enjoy the future chapters too!

Anonymous said: I LOVE YOU AND WRITING SOOO MUCH!!! ❤❤❤

I LOVE YOU TOO THANK YOU BABE! :D

Anonymous said: Hi Sara!! I'm the anon that had that super late 7:45 class, so I couldn't read IWSY a couple weeks ago when it updated. ANYWAYS, I usually post some kind of ask to you every update you have, but the past couple weeks I haven't been able to because of school T.T SO, I wanted to finally message you again and tell you how WONDERFUL IWSY is! Not gonna lie, it is my ALL TIME FAVORITE FIC that I have ever found on Tumblr! Like the last couple chapters with the smut.. WOO DAMN GIRL. (cont.) Usually I read the smut for the smut (lol), BUT when I read those chapters, I was so engrossed in the story that I wanted to know what was going to happen next more than reading more smut X3. AND THEN YOU HAD TO COME OUT WITH THIS NEXT CHAPTER AND HOT DAMN. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. IVE BEEN TRYING TO GET MY FRIENDS TO READ IWSY SO THAT I CAN TALK TO THEM ABOUT IT BUT NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO ME >.< Anyways, keep up the good work! You keep throwing curve balls my way gah damn. (2/2) - 7:45 anon

Hello 7:45 anon! That’s okay, I completely understand and you don’t have to apologise or explain yourself because school/work is important and I’m glad you’re focused on your studies! But thank you so much for reading and catching up with the series, and I’m really happy that you’re liking it ^^ Awwww I hope once of your friends reads it too so you guys can talk about it with each other! That’s so cute haha c: Thank you so much and I hope you have a great week :D

Anonymous said: BRRROOOOOOOOOHMYGOD WHAT THE FUCK HWAT THE FUCK WHAT THE F U C K OOOHHHH MY GOD!!!! pls tell me the next chapter is the charity ball I'm READY for the action the drama GIRL PLS I cannot wAIT GIRL!!! That chapter had me yelling at the top of my lungs 😱😱😱

*giggles* thank you so much for reading! The ball will come soon - I promise! Just hold on tight a bit longer :D I hope you enjoyed it my dear!

@fashionkilla124 said: I love you. That I won't stop you story just stopped my heart. I honestly knew yoongi had something to do with but when I found out yoongi killed her parents I was like NOOOOI NOT MY BABY YOONGI AWWW LAWD TAKE THE WHEEL PLEASE. I cant wait for next week I'll probs have a heart attack next chapter

Awh I love you too :D hehe~ Evil baby Yoongi what is he doing :c lol thank you so much for reading the update and I really hope you’ll look forward to next week too!!

Anonymous said: Omg poor Sid 😞 he was only four...DAMMIT Yoongi

I know :( Poor Sid indeed - but I wonder why Yoongi did it...;)

Anonymous said: Damn in the span of like four days (not including the hours they're at work) they've managed to christen every room the house, didn't you say there were like 13 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, not to mention the kitchen, living room etc.?? Damn they got busy 😏

LOLOLOL they got busy indeed c: Haha it was more so meant as a sexually comedic idiom, but if it’s possible it’s possible! lol I hope you enjoyed the chapter my dear :D

Anonymous said: BISH. I'm jungshook rn. I can't. I love you. But why you play with my emotions like this? I love this story. I love you. I love Jungkook. I love the way chapter 15 snatched my edges and left them at a bus stop in Miami. You're the best. ~With love, New Kookie Anon

Hello new kookie anon! lol Jungshook~ I think everyone becomes a little Jungshook from time to time c: I love you too my dear!! I hope you got home safely from the bus stop in Miami xD thank you so much for reading the update!

Anonymous said: OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK AHHHHHH SARA OMG I CANT FUCKING EVEN OF COURSE YOONGI KILL ED Y/NS PARENTS AND NOW WANTS HER BLOOD. OMG OF FUCKING COURSE. I NEED TUESDAY TO COME BACK HOLY SHIT I'M SCREAMING SARA. Y DO YOU DO THIS TO ME. I CANT EVEN THINK CLEARLY THIS FUCKED ME UP THIS MADE MY DAY 10000X BETTER BECAUSE I HAD A SHITTY DAY. SO THANK YOU I LOVE YOU BUT FUCK OMG I AM SHOOK

OOOOOH BUT WHY DOES HE WANT HER BLOOD?! That’s the most important question ;D lolol I’m so glad I could make your day a little less shitter though c: I love you too and thank you so much for reading the new chapter my dear!

Anonymous said: OMG MY HEART! THIS WHOLE CHAPTER WAS JUST SO HAJSKCLZPAVAVAFUCABAKDLXLXNAL(ノﾟДﾟ)

AHHHHH I HOPE THAT’S A GOOD THING! I hope you enjoyed it ^^

Anonymous said: Oh mai gawdddd!!! Sara you're such a good writer! Part 15 of IWSY gave me the major feels!!!! Poor kookie... Halfway through part 15, I already knew what was going to happen before I read it, but you're so skilled that you still managed to make it sad T-T. I can't wait for part 16!!!

Ahhh thank you so much my darling :) You’re too kind to me! Thank you very much for reading the update and I hope you enjoy the next chapter as well!

Anonymous said: I cant believe Vampire evil yoongi was looking for y/n since back then ONG GET A LIFE LMAO love your serie💜

But remember that he has been locked up for the past 13 years! So he has had a lot of time to plan c: Thank you so much for reading and enjoying it my love ^^

Anonymous said: 😭😭 I wish it's a happy ending for Jungkook and Y/N, in the "I Won't Stop You" series. I love you Author-nim!

I wish for that too my dear! I love you too and thank you for reading my series *hugs* Have a wonderful day!

@jynxy24 said: SARA SARA SARA SARA SARA!!!! WHEN WILL JUNGKOOK TELL Y/N?! ARGHHHH YOU ARE PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS! LIKE JUST WHEN HE WAS ABOUT TO TELL? COME ON!!! This is just like when I found out Who Are You was a dream. T.T But i still love your writing Sara! Great chapter today, stay awesome! 👅👅

But how can he tell her straight away now right after she just dropped that bombshell on him?! So many questions hehe :P I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway my dear ^^ I hope you have a wonderful week and thank you so much for reading!

@lostheretics said: i thought they were going to the fundraising ball in part 15 but they had a deep talk instead asdfghjkl kill me rn bc y/n's secrets omg😭😭 iM STILL CONFUSED WHAT's THE SPECIAL THING THAT YOONGI WANTS FROM HER

Deep, heart to heart pillow talks are my fav thing in the world *feels very soft at this thought* ahhhh :c lolol And I guess you’ll just have to wait to find out why he wants her so badly! Hopefully, someone will be able to tell Jungkook too, before it’s too late...heh ^^ Thank you for reading my love and I hope you’re enjoying the story!

Anonymous said: oh my fucking god :( i hope y/n wont abandon jungkook once she found out he a whole dracula :(( oh my god no but then ill love that because I LOVE PAIN but no dont do it LMAO WAIT WILL Y/N RECOGNIZE YOONGI AT THE BALL HOLY FUCKING SHIT

I hope she won’t either :c He deserves to be loved since he is so capable of loving now! You masochist hehe (fucking same tho) c: Thank you so much for reading my dear!

Anonymous said: SO YOONGI HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR Y/N FOR YEARS NOW??? IT SEEMS LIKE Y/N'S PARENTS PROTECTED HERSMJWHFJD WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT ABT HER IS SHE SOME TYPE OF VAMPIRE GOD LIKE SOMEONE EVEN MORE SUPERIOR THAN JUNGKOOKS FAMILY?? IS THAT WHY YOONGI WANTS HER SO MUCH???

Well if you remember, Yoongi has been locked up for 13 years but has now only escaped with the help of Namjoon, Hoseok and Seokjin! Hehe I hope you enjoy how the story unfolds c: Thank you so much for reading!

Anonymous said: OMG THE BACK STORY I'M CRYING how will y/n react if jungkook tell her the truth bruh I can't take the suspense AND ALSO IS THE BALL NEXT WEEK???? I WANNA SEE HER DRESS OMG

In the story, Y/N and Jungkook are currently talking when it is Friday night - so the ball is on the Saturday; which is the next day! c: And yessssss! I wonder what type of dress Taehyung and Jimin are creating...I think it will be a masterpiece~ Thank you for reading my series! :D

@semisweetsuga said: MY HEART. SARA MY LOVE YOU HAVE HURT ME BUT I'M OKAY WITH IT BECAUSE THAT UPDATE WAS BEAUTIFUL. I LOVED IT SM GOOD JOB!!

I’m sorry for hurting your heart Koto :c Please forgive me ahhhhh. I love you a lot and thank you for always being so fucking awesome ^=^

@manibbunny said: i am sure that Y/N will be understanding of jungkook when he tells her about him being a vampire. she will get sad but she loves him and she knows he's different and won't do something like that ever again. loved the new chapter btw!

I hope she is understanding of Jungkook too! I think if you really love someone and have feelings for them like that - love can always find a way and triumph. So I hope that’s the case for Jungkook and Y/N too! Thank you for reading the update my love and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series too!

Anonymous said: Oh yoongi's been after OC since she was young.. Loved the chapter. I'm even more excited to find out what's special abt the OC. I wonder also why jungkook (and taehyung) dont know what's special if yoongi knows? (You dont need to answer that ofc. just me voicing my thoughts while reading). Looking forward to next tuesday~

Don’t worry - I always love to read people’s thoughts so think and say all you want! But yeah, you’re right - I won’t ever say whether is someone is wrong or right :3 Jungkook and Y/N will be talking with Taehyung and Jimin before the ball when they go to get her dress (which is the next day in the story if you remember ^^) So I wonder if something will happen then?! c: Thank you for reading and enjoying my series dear ^^ It means a lot to me!

@animeimmortal said: wow. Just wow. Like I am so curious as to how this is going to turn out but right now I'm just amazed omg

I hope you’ll enjoy how the story unfolds and pans out in time! Thank you for reading the update beautiful ^=^

@taekookiesandcream said: Sara, my love, part 15 was amazing! You keep out-doing yourself!! You're so so talented and I want you to know your very appreciated! Also, I feel really bad for only speaking to you when you update lol, I'll try and speak to you more often, pinky promise 🙋🏼💕

Ach, thank you so much my little flower ^^ And no oh my goodness don’t feel bad about doing that! You can always talk to me whenever you wish - my DMs are always open! (although I may not be able ot reply straight away due to work and Uni etc~ I will reply eventually lol!) Thank you so much dear :D

Anonymous said: SHIT JUST GOT REAL

YOU BET YOUR DAMN ASS IT GOT REAL HOHOHOHO

#queue #I Won't Stop You #Asks #Responses #IWSY #imsarabum

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bforbookslut · 7 years ago

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Spartacus Reimagined as a Thracian Swordsmaiden in C. V. Wyk’s Blood and Sand – An ARC Review

I have given Blood and Sand by C. V. Wyk a ☆☆☆☆ rating. It is Book 1 of an untitled series. It belongs to the Young Adult Historical Fiction genre with some Fantasy. It is also a Retelling. Tor Teen publishes it. It will be published January 16, 2018.

The blurb reads:

The action-packed tale of a 17-year-old warrior princess and a handsome gladiator who dared take on the Roman Republic―and gave rise to the legend of Spartacus...

For teens who love strong female protagonists in their fantasy and historical fiction, Blood and Sand is a stirring, yet poignant tale of two slaves who dared take on an empire by talented debut author C. V. Wyk.

Roma Victrix. The Republic of Rome is on a relentless march to create an empire―an empire built on the backs of the conquered, brought back to Rome as slaves.

Attia was once destined to rule as the queen and swordmaiden of Thrace, the greatest warrior kingdom the world had seen since Sparta. Now she is a slave, given to Xanthus, the Champion of Rome, as a sign of his master’s favor. Enslaved as a child, Xanthus is the preeminent gladiator of his generation.

Against all odds, Attia and Xanthus form a tentative bond. A bond that will spark a rebellion. A rebellion that threatens to bring the Roman Republic to its end―and gives rise to the legend of Spartacus...

The story continues in Fire and Ash, coming in 2019 from Tor Teen.

Add to Your Shelf | Amazon

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Happy book birthday to Blood and Sand by C. V. Wyk! I don’t usually publish my reviews on release day but I’ve had a rough couple of days, plus, I started a new internship and was unable to schedule the review accordingly. Nevertheless, here it is! As always, my reviews may contain spoilers. I say may because what’s a spoiler to you may not be a spoiler for me.

Despite what I’ve seen reviews says about Blood and Sand being a story written by someone who has watched the 300 movies and played too many war games, I liked it. Was I completely blown away? No. But did it excite me at every turn? Hell yeah, it did! It deserves four stars from me because it was very well-written with every scene flowing seamlessly into the next. I really loved that we know that Mount Vesuvius was going to erupt and every moment was just leading up to that.

Fair warning that I’m not familiar with the stories and legends of Spartacus and I went into Blood and Sand completely blind. So, I’ve reading this with very fresh eyes and have no complaints at all about the plot. Of course, I have not been called a bitch for absolutely no reason and as always, I have my complaints (coughwheresmytriggerwarningcoughs).

But first, let me tell you why I loved Blood and Sand.

It started off on such a high! I think everyone and their grandparents know that Spartacus was a slave. Blood and Sand wastes no plot time by jumping straight into the slave auction and the momentum builds with every turn of the page. It doesn’t stop. It just rises and rises and rises. I also really loved that Blood and Sand does not make it a story of the Chosen one. While to us readers, Spartacus is a chosen one and they lead the rebellion and all that jazz, Blood and Sand is the story of Attia, the Thracian slave girl. There are no prophecies and no legends to accompany her story.

And god, I’m so done with the Chosen one tropes that this was such a lovely breath of fresh air!

I was a little bit bothered by how quickly Attia and Xanthus fell in love. Don’t get me wrong, there was still some build-up and it was pretty logical but it happened all too fast. And soon, the story focused quite a bit on their romance, however fleeting it was.

“What would the Maedi warrior know about smiling?” he said against her lips as he pulled her closer.

“Not enough,” she murmured.

Wyk’s writing is also incredibly beautiful and poetic. I haven’t had so much pleasure in highlighting all the quotable material in my kindle in such a long time. And even though quoting from an ARC is ill-advised, I’m going to do it anyway because I loved it all.

“Xanthus had known strong women in his life, but not like her. Even if she hadn’t been one of the legendary Maedi, there was a brightness inside her, a core of fire that burned steadily beneath her scarred bronze skin.”

Character-wise, Attia is my favourite. She was such a badass and a take-no-shit kind of girl that I couldn’t help but root for her along the way. I loved that she’s not a character with a girly or feminine side, something that so many leading ladies fall into once they find the man of their dreams. War and revenge thrum in her veins and she’d rather hear the clang of swords that pretty music. Not one bit of that changes; not even when she meets Xanthus and falls madly in love with him. What also made Attia so great was she created her family when she didn’t have one, drawing people around her in and I find that so relatable cause that’s me. I’ll be like “oh my sweet summer child come here”.

Although, she’s a little bit of a special snowflake.

“She could see the anger etched into his soul as permanently as the scars on his skin.”

Xanthus, on the other hand, felt like he was a little all over the place. I loved that he didn’t want to kill but was so good at it solely because he needed to survive. But I couldn’t get more out of his personality. He loves Attia, he’s protective of the people he deems his family, but I couldn’t get more. That doesn’t mean I hate him though. He’s a perfect YA hero, romantic and brooding but also very respectful of Attia. Also, he’s very, very sexy.

“He didn’t even have a helmet, and the tips of his dark hair seemed to turn gold in the sun.”

And now, to the negatives:

I have to address the elephant in the room. WHERE ARE MY TRIGGER WARNINGS??? Blood and Sand was full of trigger material and I think we’ve gotten to a point where YA literature should always come with a warning whether on the book, on the website, anywhere for fuck’s sake! The official press release would be perfect.

Some trigger warnings for Blood and Sand are: rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, self-harm

Yeah, I get that it’s a book set in those heinous times but???? I would love to not have to read uncomfortable scenes, please and thank you.

One thing that really got me about Blood and Sand was the sex, or rather, the lack of it. And even the lack of a fade to black! I find that the sex in YA fantasy novels is exactly like their genre, a fantasy. Exactly like the Rowan/Aelin love scene in Empire of Storms. Jeez. It’s always so magical and pretty and full of fancy language or like Blood and Sand, straight up imaginary. Where’s the clumsy? Where’s the fumbling? (And this is coming from a virgin lol whatdoiknow?)

Like come on, I think we can do something a little more realistic.

Blood and Sand is an amazing read, especially if you’re a fan of Roman history and retellings featuring a strong heroine. It was perfectly wrapped up in anticipation for the second instalment which we have to wait an entire year for without the typical annoying cliffhanger. Attia and Xanthus are well-written and you can’t help but want to root for them. Plus, you’ll want to read it because C. V. Wyk has a way with words that just draws you in to Attia’s world and makes you want to never leave.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This review edition may differ from the final edition.

#book review #booklr #blood and sand #c. v. wyk #young adult #ya lit #historical fiction #fantasy #retelling #arc review #fourstars #2018 publications

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liebgotts-lovergirl · 2 years ago

Text

Fire On Fire: Chapter 8

(Ch. 7), (Ch. 6), (Ch. 5) (Ch. 4), (Ch. 3), (Ch. 2), (Ch. 1)

Gallery II Taglist Application II Symbol Guide

Summary: Alix (Codename: Juliette) and Nixon (Codename: Édouard) hunt for a Gestapo informer masquerading as a Resistance fighter. Will they sniff out the rat in time or will the collaborator complete their objective of seeing the Carentan faction eliminated? WARNINGS: The usual war + espionage stuff Taglist: @latibvles @softguarnere

Contemporary: June 10th, 1944. Saint-Hilaire-Petitville, France.

Alix had seriously underestimated the amount of waiting around that came with being an OSS operative.

“Thérèse, this is Juliette,” she stated for the third time into the handheld transceiver, doing her best to enunciate clearly so her French wouldn’t be scrambled by the radio. “Do you read me? Verify status. Over.”

Silence.

Alix chewed on her bottom lip nervously. It didn’t usually take this long to clear a dead drop and lateness in espionage never boded well.

The Resistance fighter in question, codenamed Thérèse, was a new trigger but she had been trained well by the group, especially on such short notice. After a string of recent arrests, she was the only member of the on-the-ground surveillance team left.

Fortunately, the trigger position wasn’t too difficult: scope out potential sabotage locations, report on potential targets, and pick up any info that was dropped off in locations near her designated watch zone. Thérèse was a “pavement artist”– it was her job to blend in with the scenery and she was damn good at it.

While she waited for their contact to answer, Alix took the opportunity to subtly survey the flat and its occupants from the cluttered desk. Resting an elbow on top of one of Henri's many medical textbooks, she leaned her head on her hand as she quietly took note of the scene.

Everyone was spread out across the small bedroom, each of the Resistance members staking an unspoken claim to their particular section.

Their 20 year old courier, codenamed Camille, was stretched out on the far side of the bed, dozing off after 48 hours straight of helping Alix organize supplies for the front lines. For someone perpetually in motion, seeing her nearly still was as jarring and unnatural as a blizzard in the middle of summer.

Pacing by the boarded-up window like a restless ghost was Henri who had been thrust into the position of impromptu leader out of necessity. The quick work of the informer– whoever he or she was– had resulted in the recent capture and arrest of four founding members just the week before Alix's arrival, crippling the faction's leadership and momentarily disrupting their operations.

After the arrest of the former leader, a Jewish teenager from Coutances codenamed Toulouse, Henri had seniority so despite his initial reluctance to take the spotlight, he did eventually assume the role.

He was a pre-med student who had just turned 21 but carried himself with the solemnity of a man twice his age. He never complained but the ever-present dark circles under his eyes had become so deep as of late that they had begun to look like bruises.

Their resident bombmaker (or “Bang-Bang Boy” as the guys at HQ jokingly referred to them) was a schoolboy of about 16, codenamed Edgar, who was sitting in the chair opposite Alix, leafing through the latest issue of Défense de la France, a popular underground newspaper the Resistance had been distributing.

Gaunt with a lank flap of ash-blond hair and a sickly, almost anemic pallor, it was easy to see why no one would suspect him of being a saboteur for the Resistance– he looked as though a sudden breeze might strike him dead.

Jean-Pierre, their bagman, sat cross-legged on the closest side of the bed, lazily whistling the best part of "Sing Sing Sing" as he checked his watch again for the millionth time.

A fisherman’s son from Calais who had fled to Carentan at 19 after his family were killed, he was one of the newer Resistance members but also one of the most effective. Jean-Pierre had a sort of breezy charm about him which was a necessity for a bag-man. It allowed him to quickly ingratiate himself with the local authorities, bribing them for information and in many cases, for their silence as well.

Despite his generally easy-going nature, JP could be brash at times; he and Alix had quickly bonded over their shared tendency toward recklessness and a passion for Benny Goodman records.

Like her, he also wanted to be as involved in every mission he could. If he wasn't in the field bribing officials, he was helping to plan operations, forge documents, mark maps, whatever was needed. Having been rejected by the French army for having severe asthma, JP told her he was sick of feeling helpless, a feeling Alix knew all too well.

Sitting around, waiting for her targets to arrive in the Kill Zone made her feel helpless too. It’d already been almost a week since D-Day and she had yet to go on a single assassination operation.

Instead, she was relegated to planning acts of sabotage and organizing supplies for the front lines, a fact that was eating away at her like a poison.

All the smatterings of gunfire in the distance, the explosions and the roar of tanks nearby, all the screaming and crying and bleeding and dying, and she wasn’t doing a damn thing to stop it.

Her boyfriend, her best friends, and thousands of others were out there risking their lives and she was stuck inside with a radio and a map. It was beyond maddening.

In selling out four founding members of the Carentan Resistance just a week shy of Alix's arrival, the Gestapo's mole --whoever he or she was-- had essentially upended every pre-planned operation in the OSS playbook and made it virtually impossible for her to do her job as planned.

She couldn't complete her assassination ops without Resistance support and her contact -- who she'd spent months building a cover and rapport with through correspondence-- had already been arrested and was most likely enduring unimaginable horrors at the hands of the Gestapo. He was French, Jewish, and a Resistance leader: there was no way the Nazis would interrogate him without employing incomprehensible methods of torture designed to maximize his pain, regardless of what he said or did.

Alix felt her throat beginning to burn at the thought of her ally's suffering and she squeezed her eyes shut before any tears could surface.

Whenever I find the mole who sold him out, she vowed silently as she clenched her fist and tried to steady her breathing. I'm going to rip them limb from limb.

Suddenly, the transceiver on the desk crackled to life again and her eyes shot open.

“Juliette, this is Thérèse. Drop cleared. Dry-cleaning now. Out.”

From the window, Henri exhaled audibly, his shoulders relaxing in his relief.

One part complete.

"Took her long enough," Camille mumbled without even opening her eyes.

"See, what did I tell you?" Jean-Pierre prodded as he fiddled with the much-larger radio set Alix had brought them earlier in the week. "Thérèse was being followed. Why else would she be trying to evade a tail after the pick-up?"

“Gee, I don’t know,” Camille muttered bitterly, sitting up with her back against the wooden headboard. “Maybe because she’s lying?”

"Here we go again," Alix grumbled and Henri just sighed.

Camille's outbursts didn't usually end well.

"And why would she be lying, Camille?" Jean-Pierre asked in a monotonous voice of exaggerated tolerance, his expression pinched. “Do remind us. I don't think you've said it in the last 30 minutes."

"Don't patronize me, JP, you know why!" Camille's voice rose to a fever pitch. "It's because she's the fucking mole!"

Alix's eyebrows shot up to the ceiling and in front of her, Edgar slammed his newspaper shut so quickly that the front page ripped.

“She’s my sister," he retorted incredulously. "She's not the mole!”

“And how would you know, little one?” Camille shot back, her green eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Perhaps it’s you!”

“We’re twins!” Edgar burst out with a surprising amount of aggression given his frail appearance, his French coming out so quickly that Alix could barely understand him. “We share everything! I would know if she was!”

“Camille,” Alix said measuredly, trying her best to be diplomatic. “We know how much Toulouse meant to you, but-”

"You don't know anything, Juliette," Camille snapped, rounding on her. "You have barely been here a week! How do we even know we can trust you?! Toulouse trusted you and now he's-"

The words died in her throat.

Alix clenched her jaw, forcing down her rising rage.

Camille's running on 48 hours of no sleep, she reminded herself, lighting a cigarette to help cool her down.

And her boyfriend is probably being brutalized right now, if he's not already dead, because he was betrayed by someone he knew. She's just looking for someone to blame. How would you feel if you lost Joe like that?

"You've seen my bona fides," she stated tersely after taking a long drag. "You've seen every document. You've spoken to my case officer. You've read the letters-- seen the code. You know I'm clean."

"Jules has no reason to lie," JP chimed in, aiming a nod of support to Alix. "She has no motive."

"Thank you-" Alix said with a small huff of irritation and a There-You-Have-It gesture but JP wasn't done.

"But you know who does…?"

He swiveled his head toward Henri with an accusatory glare.

It was an allegation so audacious that it took a second for it to fully set in.

"Me?" Henri took a step back, brown eyes wide. "You must be joking!"

But no one was laughing.

"You did say your parents were Party members once…" Edgar mused, suddenly eyeing their leader with a newfound suspicion.

"I've never hidden that," the older boy replied evenly, meeting his gaze with a calm defiance. "I despise them and everything they stand for. That’s no secret.”

“Why're you always shortchanging me then?” Jean-Pierre demanded as he got to his feet.

Henri’s brows furrowed in confusion.

"What on Earth are you on about?"

"Oh don't play stupid, Henri," Jean-Pierre scoffed, crossing his arms contemptuously. "It doesn't suit you."

"If you have something to say, then say it," Henri challenged, nearly bellowing. It was the loudest Alix had ever heard him speak and she jumped at the sound.

"Very well," Jean-Pierre sighed, sounding almost reluctant as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets.

"I've tried to cover for you this long because I like you, Henri, but you leave me no choice. You barely give me enough money for me to do my job! How am I supposed to bribe officials for valuable intel with barely enough money to feed a rat?"

"If there's not much, it's because we don't have a lot left after expenses," Henri contested angrily. "Sabotage materials aren't cheap, you know!"

"Or you're skimming off the top," Jean-Pierre prodded, giving his nose a quick scratch.

"My God," Henri marveled with a hollow laugh. "All my money goes to the Resistance or to my studies! If I was stealing from our funds, do you honestly think I would still be living in a place like this?"

He gestured to the tiny run-down flat they were in and Alix certainly saw his point.

With its yellowing wallpaper already dog-eared and peeling, the ever-present drip…drip…drip of the faucet, and the faint smell of mildew, she couldn't imagine living in a place like that unless it was an absolute necessity but Jean-Pierre clearly wasn't convinced.

"Perhaps it's not even about the money," he posited, his startlingly gray eyes blazing. "Perhaps it's just about sabotaging us so you can help out your degenerate parents!"

"You take that back," Henri growled but with a shout of "Traitor", Jean-Pierre swung at the older boy, leading to an immediate scuffle on the carpet.

Alix swore in French and stubbed her cigarette out quickly before springing into action.

Apparently today, "aiding the Resistance" meant keeping the members from killing each other.

Edgar didn't move from his chair, busying himself with a homemade pencil fuse instead, while Alix and Camille rushed to separate the two boys.

Camille grabbed a panting Henri by the back of his heavy wool sweater and hauled him off of his assailant just as Alix managed to drag JP to his feet and wrench his arms behind his back, effectively restraining him despite his irate protestations.

The agent was about to cuss them both soundly for engaging in such idiocy without a speck of proof, when a loud clatter down the hall quieted her instantly.

Instinct took over and before she knew it, she was standing in the bedroom doorway, revolver at the ready with Jean-Pierre behind her, his own handgun loaded as well.

While the pair waited with bated breath, Henri scrambled to disassemble the larger clandestine radio, Camille raced to stash the smaller handheld one, and Edgar began shoving as many contraband newspapers under the chair cushion and mattress as he could.

With a silent signal to JP, Alix crept soundlessly out the door and he followed in her footsteps down the hall, when they both lowered their weapons with a collective sigh of relief.

It was Thérèse, still clad in her school clothes: a rumpled wool sweater too large for her frame, loafers, and a gingham skirt, making her look even younger than her 16 years.

She never gets to be a child, Alix thought sadly as the girl gave them a small wave. Now she’s a soldier.

“Good to see you, Thérèse,” Jean-Pierre proclaimed with a wide smile as the three headed back into the cramped bedroom of Henri’s tiny flat.

Once they entered again and locked the door, Edgar rushed to embrace his twin sister, the two chattering back and forth in rapid-fire French.

“You had us worried,” Henri chided the girl gently as she took a seat. “Was there something wrong with the initial drop?”

Thérèse shook her head emphatically, causing the black ribbon to slowly slip out of her hair.

“Not at all,” she replied as she turned the ribbon over in her hand. “The drop itself was fine but there was a point when I suspected I was being tailed. So I dry-cleaned for a little bit. You know, to keep from being spotted.”

She and Alix exchanged furtive giggles.

It was a common joke in the intelligence community because trying to lose someone following you was known as “dry-cleaning”.

Lewis Nixon had taught the joke to Alix during her training as a way to remember the term and when Alix first arrived at the Resistance, she had taught it to Thérèse as well because she was on the main surveillance team.

“Who did you think was tailing you?” Alix asked, sobering quickly.

Enemy intelligence already had one mole in the Carentan faction of the Resistance. If they were starting to pick out Resistance members on the street too, their jobs had just become a lot more dangerous.

Thérèse shrugged before delicately nudging her wire-rimmed spectacles further up her nose.

“I’m not sure exactly,” she divulged as she began to gingerly remove a lengthy strip of paper that had been carefully concealed inside the ribbon. “Perhaps it was just me being paranoid but I felt as though I was being watched so I took precautions, just to be sure.”

Once she had removed the hidden note, she passed it over to Alix who squinted at it. It was badly crumpled, the creases so deep that she had to iron it out on her leg to be able to make out the writing on it, which was in script so cramped that it took her multiple tries to figure out what it said.

Goddamn it, Nix, she scolded him in her head, making a mental note to repeat it later over the radio when they next had contact. Your handwriting is atrocious. Didn’t they ever teach you to write legibly at Yale?

She skipped to the postscript first. He had promised to keep her updated...

“DJS all accounted for. You’re welcome.”

Don, Joe, and Skip were safe. Thank God.

“It’s from Édouard,” she announced to the rest of the group as she scanned the document for the actual contents.

Nixon’s codename was the French version of Edward, a not-so-subtle reference to the famous Edward Teach also known as Blackbeard.

Very clever, Lieutenant, she thought, inwardly rolling her eyes.

“It looks like the Oberleutnant is arriving early,” she summarized.

“He’ll be passing through here in the next couple days on the way to Carentan. We should be able to catch him by nightfall the night after next, if all goes according to plan."

But of course, things never did.

∆∆━━━━∆∆━━━∆∆━━━∆∆

Contemporary: June 12th, 1944. Saint-Hilaire-Petitville, France.

“Édouard, this is Juliette. We have a visual. Requesting permission to engage. Over.”

Alix drummed her fingers impatiently against her thigh as she awaited her handler’s response.

Any day now, Nix.

Peering through the stained curtains, she had a perfect view of her target: Oberleutnant Walter Hahn, who was chatting idly to a couple soldiers across the way, blissfully unaware that he was being watched by a team of Resistance assassins.

All Alix had to do was slip out the door, "accidentally" bump into Hahn as he made his exit, flirt a little bit, get him alone, and then it was going to be auf wiedersehen and good riddance to the Nazi bastard.

Technically, Hahn wasn't supposed to be her problem until that night but it appeared that he and his men had arrived even further ahead of schedule than planned.

And who was Alix to question fate?

It would be dangerous, no doubt. They would be in broad daylight and Alix’s training specified that she was to wait until nightfall, when her identity was easier to conceal.

But she was restless, growing more and more frustrated with her own inaction as the days went by. She was tired of planning, of smuggling supplies, of being safe while her loved ones were out there somewhere, fighting and dying. Like a tiger trapped in a cage, she wanted out. She wanted to do something. She wanted to help.

But she also knew that it only took one person in the immediate area remembering her face or clothing to have the entire Gestapo out looking for her. But she wanted to help! And besides, such a risky mission might take the mole, whoever he or she was, by surprise.

“Édouard, this is Juliette,” she repeated, overenunciating her French to be sure she’d be understood. “We have a visual. Repeat: We have a visual. Requesting permission to engage. Over.”

She didn’t have to wait long that time.

Nixon’s response was swift and predictable.

“Negative, Jules. Too risky. Over.”

Alix sighed in frustration, the crackles echoing across the line.

"Apologies," Henri said with a sympathetic shrug. "But you heard the man."

By the mirror, Camille stopped brushing her short-cropped brown hair to check her watch.

"It won't be that much longer," she assured Alix. "Only a couple more hours."

"By then it could be too late," Jean-Pierre countered, echoing Alix's own thoughts. "They could've moved on to Carentan. She should go now."

Henri balked at the suggestion.

"And risk exposing the whole operation, are you mad?!"

"It is a gamble," Jean-Pierre conceded. "But it could pay off."

"Or, most likely, it could blow up in our faces and get us all killed." Camille shook her head.

"I vote no, and I know Edgar and Thérèse would say the same if they were not blowing up bridges right now.”

“If Toulouse were here-” JP countered but Camille cut him off instantly.

“Well he isn’t!” Her voice quavered and Alix instantly averted her gaze.

Her stomach flip-flopped with anxiety; she felt like she was intruding on a private moment of grief. She’d never been fortunate enough to meet Toulouse personally before his arrest but from their written correspondence in the weeks before her arrival, he’d seemed like an unusually bright and courageous person and she had looked forward to working with him.

It felt strange in a way, to grieve the loss of a person she’d never officially met. A part of her felt like she didn’t have a right to feel sorrow over it. After all, she didn’t even know his real name and he hadn’t known hers.

Toulouse was to be her main contact in France; they had been tasked by the OSS to establish a trail of fake correspondence before her arrival, knowing without a doubt that all postcards and letters would be monitored by the Nazi authorities. Since the Nazi takeover, identification and alibis were meticulously investigated so every cover had to be a deep one.

“Dear Jules,” one of her favorite letters read.

“Mother is pleased to hear you may come to visit us! She's already planning a party of sorts– you know how she is. My girlfriend is very much looking forward to your arrival too! She's been very curious to meet my favourite cousin! Also, she's quite the musician and is dying to hear you play something when you arrive! Perhaps some Rachmaninoff– I’ve always been partial to Piano Concerto No. 2, myself. We are in desperate need of some music here. Regardless, I’m certain you two will get along wonderfully. I hope to propose to her soon, whenever this damn war (and more importantly, her father) will let me. I had hoped her little brother Gilles would be able to meet you as planned but he and some of his schoolmates have recently fallen ill and some are already in hospital. Hopefully it doesn't come to that for him or I fear we all may catch it. Anyway, I’ve got to be off now. Shabbos preparations wait for no one!

All the best,

Your favourite (and only) cousin,

Toulouse

PS. Enclosed is a photograph of Voltaire, who also sends his best (and a hairball, for good measure)."

A seemingly innocuous letter, just two cousins conversing about an upcoming family get-together.

Certainly not an OSS agent and her Resistance contact discussing an upcoming sabotage attempt, the arrest of a Resistance member, a request for a clandestine radio to send further reports, and that the leader suspected more arrests might follow.

But despite every line being coded, Toulouse had still managed to slip some of his sunny personality in-between. He reminded Alix a lot of Skip in that way: ever an optimist, even in the darkest of times. She wished she could've had the chance to introduce the two. She knew they would've been good friends.

The best covers were made of partial truths and their faked correspondences had been no different. The photo of Voltaire, Toulouse's pensive-looking Persian cat, had been real as were his feelings for Camille.

According to Thérèse, when Pascal's flat was raided and the arrests had been made, Toulouse had actually been carrying the engagement ring he'd hoped to give Camille in his pocket.

Alix couldn't even begin to fathom the agony that Camille must live with every day knowing how close the pair of them had been to happiness. If God forbid that ever happened to her and Joe, Alix knew she would lose her mind.

“Toulouse isn’t here,” Camille repeated, clasping her trembling hands in her lap in a futile attempt to still them. “The Gestapo have him. So it doesn’t matter what he would’ve done.”

No one spoke for a moment, her words hanging in the air like a death knell, before Henri broke the silence in his usual understated way.

"Well as leader, my say is final and I say you’re waiting until nightfall. Sorry, Jules."

With that, he turned back to his work, manning the larger radio and quickly tapping out signals as Camille scribbled down codes via headset, monitoring the progress of nearby skirmishes.

“You don’t have to listen to them, you know,” Jean-Pierre whispered out of the corner of his mouth as he began measuring out the coordinates on his end of the map spread out in front of them. “You work with us, not for us, yes? You don’t take orders from them.”

Alix checked her notes before stretching an arm out halfway on her side of the map and deftly marking the coordinates of another supply drop zone.

“I know," she acknowledged as she returned to her notes.

"But I'm required to take orders from my handler and he said to wait too.”

Jean-Pierre barked a low laugh.

“Perhaps it is different with you Americans but in France, we do not need nursemaids to look after our operatives. We have common sense."

“Oh fuck off," Alix quipped as she reached around him to steal a pushpin from his pile. “Maybe Édouard is right in this case, okay?”

Jean-Pierre made a skeptical noise in the back of his throat.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

It took all of Alix’s self-control not to elbow him in the ribcage.

∆∆━━━━∆∆━━━∆∆━━━∆∆

About thirty minutes went by uneventfully before JP set his pencil down.

"Finally," he remarked with a dramatic wipe of his brow. "All finished."

He took a surreptitious glance at his watch which Alix thought was unusual but she dismissed it.

"Now if you all will excuse me, I'm going to grab a glass of water. I'm parched."

Henri nodded in the direction of the kitchen, hardly looking up from his work.

"You know where everything is."

"Don't get lost," Alix joked and JP flashed her a quick grin.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Gesturing to a sheet of paper by his side of the map, he noted, "By the way, Jules, could you be a lamb and double-check my coordinates while I'm gone? The notes are over there. Wouldn't want any supplies getting misplaced on my account."

After the door closed behind him, Alix reached over to pick up the sheet of paper, a frown appearing on her face as she tried in vain to make out the slightly-smudged numbering.

She squinted, held it up to the light, and even turned it upside down for a new angle but to no avail. It still looked like chicken-scratch. It wasn’t worse than Nixon’s cramped script, which nearly had letters written on top of each other at some points, but it certainly came close.

After a final, futile attempt, Alix resignedly glanced over to the desk in the corner where Camille and Henri were hunched, still working with the larger radio.

There was nothing she hated more than admitting she couldn’t do something but she had work to do.

"Camille, can you come look at this real quick?" she asked, swallowing her pride and holding up the paper for her to inspect. "I can't make heads or tails of this line."

The French girl let out a reluctant sigh, as though helping Alix was the world’s biggest inconvenience, but she still put down the headset and got up, with the air of a martyr. Just as she reached the table, Alix passed the paper over to her, accidentally knocking a pen to the floor with her sleeve.

This is why they should let me wear civvies in my off-time too, she thought in annoyance as she rolled up the sleeves of her uniform. These uniforms are just too damn big.

She had just crouched to retrieve the pen when all of a sudden, the window shattered and Camille came crashing down onto the carpet beside her, green eyes wide with shock.

Clutching a hand to her chest, scarlet was starting to stain her shirt, pouring like paint through her fingers and Alix felt her own blood run cold. Leaping into action, she began to stifle the bleeding as best she could with her hands as a scream of warning ripped from her throat to the others:

"Sniper!"

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