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bittydragon · 3 years ago

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The Ant King

Note: Huge thanks to Bittydragon for inspiring me to write this. I’ll be honest, this is the first fic I've ever actually written, as well as the only piece of creative fiction I've written in like two years so… fingers crossed it goes well hahaha.

TW: tight spaces, darkness, uh,,, bugs i guess. Near death experience

There are things you have to know about ants when you get an ant farm. Basic fundamentals. What to feed them, how to keep them alive, what type of ants you have, etcetera. Even if your intentions were… torturous. After all, you need to know what makes something tick in order to make it stop.

One of the more common facts about ants is that every colony has a queen. She orders her ants to keep her alive so she can make more ants. Simple biology, the continuation of a species. Every nest has a queen, or it dies.

Apparently, this colony didn’t get the memo.

These thoughts buzzed in grumpy circles around Wilbur's’ head as he followed his ant companion, Tommy, deeper into the ant-farm. They had been wandering these tunnels for what felt like days now, in the center of the farm so there were no glass barriers to show the outside world. They were deep too. Almost at the bottom of the compound. Wilbur was not one to show fear, but even he was beginning to get claustrophobic.

Tommy, who up until now had been jabbering like a toddler the whole trip through the ant-farm had also gone uncharacteristically silent. The whole trip Wilbur had wanted nothing more than a few seconds of quiet from him, but now he missed the carefree noise.

They were on their way to see the ant King. A type of ant that, as far as Wilbur knew, didn’t exist. So either they were on a wild goose chase, or Will was way out of his depth.

The further they went, the more he was convinced it was the latter.

“Tommy do you-” Wilbur paused, his echoing voice in the tunnel almost felt like a taboo. An affront to the maddening silence that stalked them. He lowered his voice.

“Do you think… Will I ever get back to normal? Will the ant king change me back?” He hated that little quiver in his voice. He hated the uncertainty. The waiting.

Tommy continued to march forward silently, pondering the question.

“I dunno big man, I think you’ve changed heaps since you got here.” He turned his head to flash Wilbur a grin “Then you’ll be out there and all nice n shit. It’ll be poggers.”

The tunnel was dark, but not dark enough to hide the flash of uncertainty in Tommy’s eyes.

Wilbur's heart sank. “Thanks mate.” He mumbled, and they trekked on, once more in silence.

By the time they saw light, it felt like they had been walking for days. Wilbur was almost glad he was about to meet possibly one of the most powerful ants in this colony. They rounded one last bend, and they were there.

Before them stood a huge double door set in the wall. Two vines with some kind of glowing fruit framed the door, shedding light on the small space. In front of the door, leaning on a spear made from a twig was another ant with a pair of large white rimmed goggles.

“Well… This is it I guess.” Wilbur muttered. He cleared his throat “Hey, um. I-i’m here to have an audience with the King? If that's alright.”

The guard ant didn’t respond, continuing to stare at them with no discernible expression.

“H-hello?” Wilbur glanced at Tommy, who shrugged.

“Excuse me? Anyone home?” Wilbur snapped his fingers in front of the ant's face.

He seemed to startle slightly, before slumping down a bit and letting out a loud snore.

“What the fuck” Tommy said.

Before anyone could do much of anything, one of the massive double doors creaked open and a voice came through.

“George, I swear if you fell asleep again, I'm going to rip off your antenna and use them as- oh.”

Another ant entered the room, this one also carried a twig-spear and had a strip of white cloth tied around his forehead. As soon as his gaze landed on Wilbur, his expression soured.

If looks could kill… Wilbur thought nervously

“It’s you” The new ant spat “Took your sweet time getting here Soot. Earthquake slow you down? Didja get a taste of your own medicine from your big pals out there?”

Wilbur pursed his lips, and the ant snorted. “Yeah. Thought so.” He walked forward and gave George a hard shove, sending the other ant sprawling with a startled yelp.

“Sapnap what the hell?!” He snapped, before spotting Wilbur and Tommy. “Oh hey. That guy is here.”

“Yeah he’s here, idiot.” Sapnap smacked George over the head with his spear “And we would have known a lot sooner if you hadn't fallen asleep on duty again!”

“OW! Sapnap stop! Get off me!”

Wilbur cleared his throat, drawing their attention “Sorry to interrupt, but me and my friend have been walking for a long, long time, so could we please have an audience with the King?”

Subpoena glared “Yeah. He’s waiting for you. Against my advice, he wants to see you.”

Oh. That… didn’t sound great.

Wilbur tried not to think about the implications of that statement as he approached the double doors. Tommy moved to follow, but was stopped by the guards.

“Hey!” He groused “Let me through dickheads!”

“I'm afraid the King only wants an audience with the great and powerful Wilbur Soot” Sapnap said with a smirk.

“But I want to go too! Let me in! You stupid ugly bitch ill fight you! You may have a fancy stick but just wait until I pull out my knife-gun!”

“Tommy its fine.” Wilbur interrupted “I’ll be fine mate, promise. Just wait here. I wont leave without saying goodbye.”

The last thing he saw was Tommy’s antenna drooping sadly, before the doors swung closed behind him.

If Wilbur thought the tunnel was dark before, that was nothing compared to the room he was in now. The darkness was so thick, so absolute, that it made no difference if his eyes were open or closed.

“Hello?” Wilbur called “Uh… your majesty? I was told that you wanted to see me.”

His voice echoed slightly in the huge space, but there was no reply.

Wait. What was that? Something rasped ever so slowly across the opposite wall. Something big. As it moved, the moss where it had been standing glowed a dull green.

Bio-luminescence Wilbur reasoned. Trying to distract himself from the fear creeping up his spine. Touch activated, it seems.

He swallowed dryly “L-look, just tell me what you want. I’m not here to cause trouble”

The thing moved again, its raspy scuttle reverberated through the chamber.

“Wilbur Soot, not here to cause any trouble” A thoughtful voice hummed from the dark “Now that’s a first.”

The bio-luminescent moss was lighting up more of the room. If he squinted, Wilbur could make out a... leg. Probably.

Wilbur inches slowly to the side, the moss lighting up his own path. “Okay, I get it, I've done morally questionable things in the past, but I've learned a lot from my time here. I’m sorry.”

“For now” The voice replied. The thing was moving on the other side, matching him step for step. “What's to say you aren't faking remorse to get out of here? And maybe you really are sorry. How can I be sure you wont change your mind the second you're back to normal? It's too much of a risk.”

Wilbur continued to back away nervously “Your majesty-”

“Please, call me Dream. Everyone else does.”

“Right… Dream. I can say with 100% certainty that won't happen. I've seen people die in front of me. That’s enough to change anyone's stance on something.”

“And yet I'm still not convinced.” It was moving faster now, scuttling across the floor, walls and even across the ceiling. Wilbur's head spun with the motion. “And since we’re talking in hypotheticals, riddle me this: Whoever said I was going to let you out anyway? What if I just like to play with my food?”

Dream stopped suddenly, rearing over Wilbur, and with all of the lit up moss, he got his first proper look.

This ant was huge. Twice- no, at least three times the size of Wilbur himself. He looked a bit like a centaur, with a human torso connected to a pure white and thorax and abdomen.He also wore a strange white mask with a blank eyed smiley face drawn on.

Two huge claw arms- similar to those of a praying mantis- extended from Dreams waist and slammed into the dirt either side of Wilbur, startling him enough that he fell onto his ass. The king leaned forward with that lifeless grin, and Will closed his eyes, preparing for the end.

“But…” Dream said thoughtfully “A proper experiment should account and test for all variables, shouldn't it?”

“Y-yeah generally” Wilbur stuttered

“Oh good.” Dream hoisted him roughly to his feet. “I’m glad I asked you. After all, you know all about experiments, don’t you?”

Wilbur chose not to answer, glowering at Dream as the eyes on his mask briefly glowed a dull green.

A moment later, Sapnap and George marched in, dragging a cussing and struggling Tommy behind them.

“YOU STUPID MOTHEFUCKERS!!! Let me go or ill get married in rage!! Fuck you and-! Oh. wow that is a big fella.” Tommy stopped and stared in awe at Dream

“Sapnap, give Wilbur your spear.” Dream ordered.

A flicker of doubt crossed Sapnaps face but he obediently shoved the spear into Wilbur's hands.

“I’ll make you a deal, Wilbur Soot.” Dream purred, circling him. “I will let you go to your old life. You can do whatever you like; kill us, torment us, throw us away… it doesn't matter. All you have to do is kill one ant.” He gestured to Tommy.

“What?” Wilbur whispered.

“WHAT?!” Tommy roared “fuck you! I'm not your dumb-ass pawn, I'm going to kill you! Rrrrrrrrrrr!” he writhed, attempting to bite George who did a surprisingly good job of holding him still.

“Go on.” Dream cooed “It's just one insignificant ant standing between you and freedom. You've killed hundreds. What's one more?”

Spear in hand, Wilbur took a hesitant step forward.

Tommy's gaze snapped up “Wilby?” He asked, his struggling pausing for a moment.

Their eyes met, fear clashing with sorrow. Tommy seemed to see something in Wilbur's expression and hung his head in defeat. As if he had expected Wilbur to betray him.

Oh hell no. Fuck that. Wilbur angrily tossed the spear aside.

“No. I won't.”

“What?” Dream spat

Wilbur rounded on him “No! I won't kill him! Keep me here, kill me, hunt me for sport, whatever! Just leave him out of this! Tommy has been nothing but nice to me since I met him, even though it don't deserve it!” He rubbed his arm. “God knows I don't deserve it.”

“Hmm…” Dream hummed “Are you sure, even if it costs you your life?” One of Dream's massive claw arms grazed his side, a subtle threat.

Wilbur looked over at Tommy, who had a look of hope on his face.

“Yeah.” Will smiled, “I'm sure.”

I probably could have written more, but i wont. I hope you like this fic bitty! Thanks for reading :)

Edit: Fortune, this is amazing! Like, I hadn't really thought about this encounter in a lot of detail, but I honestly like this a lot! And Dream being a big boy since he's the king ant. Just yes. Thank you so much for this.

#submission #fan work #tiny!tommy #tiny!wilbur #tiny!dream #tiny!sapnap #tiny!george #giant!dream?#maybe?#mcyt gt #thank you again!#betmyfortune

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squishneedsahero · 3 years ago

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Jordskjelv

The Earth Shaker

Part 1 of ?

Word Count: 1885

Loki x Reader

Just a 2012 style avengers fanfic that is Loki x Reader. Sometime you just need cute fluff that is absolutely nothing more than self indulgence.

It had been a normal day, you going to work at the little cafe, serving people coffee and sandwiches, just living your normal life. Then things had shown up on the news, an attack in New York City. Aliens coming down from the sky and wreaking havoc on the city, and then you saw him and your heart stopped. The customers were all distracted so you called out on your break then and there, pulling out your phone and looking up the fight in NYC, you kept looking for any glimpse of the man with a red cape flying around with a hammer in hand.

"Thor," it comes out as a breathless whisper.

You don't care that you're in the middle of a shift, you shout to your coworkers that you have to leave and walk out the door. You needed to get to NYC, you needed to find Thor, you couldn't get there fast enough. Surely the fight would have ended by the time you even make it to the outside of the city, but hopefully you could make it on time to find Thor. Thor was the only chance you had for getting your old life back and you had missed him the last time he'd been anywhere close by.

As you get in your car and take off driving at a reckless pace you let your mind fill with memories. You'd grown up with Thor in Asgard, your name was actually Faylwyn even if here in Midgard you went by y/n. You'd run and played and trained alongside him and Sif and the Warriors Three. Then once you were a bit older you had gotten in trouble, gotten on Odin's bad side, and he had banished you to Midgard. Thor had to have not known that you were alive, else he would have come looking for you.

But it isn't Thor you care about here. You glance at the bracelet around your wrist, beads strung on a strand of black hair, intertwined with a strand of your own hair. It was all you had left of your life on Asgard, you'd been friends with Thor sure, but he was just Loki's dumb older brother. You and Loki had been inseparable, hell you'd even given each other love locks, thats what this bracelet was, you'd had to cut it out of your hair, but you couldn't just give it up. You'd put some beads on it to hide what it truly was but it was your most prized possession.

The lovelocks had been hidden, hidden under layers of your hair so that no one knew besides the two of you. You and Loki had had wonderful plans, plans to run away together, to explore the universe together, to get married once you were old enough and to spend the eons with one another. No one had known this, no one but the two of you, Odin was unlikely to allow it, Frigga had to listen to her husband, and Thor had a big mouth. No one had known the full extent of the love both of you shared for the other, but now you had a chance, a chance to find him again after 700 years of being in Midgard alone.

You had never stopped loving him in all that time, you had longed to be by his side once again, you could only imagine the pain he had felt with whatever story Odin had decided to tell of your disappearance. Now you had that chance to find him again and you weren't going to miss it for the second time. Your one and only fear was that, he might not love you anymore, after all this time that he had moved on while you hadn't.

You drive all day, the fight is long over when you reach the city, it's the middle of the night and the streets are packed with people and rubble along with alien bodies. There wasn't anyway you could continue to drive, so you got out of your car, leaving it running in your hurry, you don't care you don't need it. You look up on your phone directions to the Stark Tower, it was your best chance of finding Thor, and you begin running. You aren't fast like Captain America but you have stamina, able to run for hours and hours, going for miles and days on end.

No, you weren't Asgardian royalty, but here at least much like Thor was considered the god of thunder in ancient mythology, you were considered the goddess of earth. No, not like Earth the planet, but earth, the dirt, minerals, the ground beneath your very feet. Thor was able to fly, like the lightning and thunder, rushing through the air. You were able to run, moving with ease, being one with the ground beneath you, never faltering calm and steady.

You round a corner and the tower becomes visible, tall and graceful, pointing into the sky with lights illuminating its massive form. It's when you get close that you notice the many agents and people swarming the scene, there was no way you'd be able to get inside unnoticed. And none of these people knew who you were so they'd never let you in, you sigh, time to do something stupid, or at the very least a plan which Thor could have come up with. You slowed your pace, finding your way into an alley, then to a side door. "Here goes nothing," you say softly to yourself as you pry the locked door open and step inside.

Instantly alarms begin wailing and SHIELD agents begin to swarm towards your position. That was fine, you didn't want to hurt any of them but causing a scene would get the attention you needed. You needed to pose yourself as a big enough threat to need the attention of the heroes who had fought the aliens, any less and they'd ignore you, thinking you're some crazy from off the street. The agents surround you and you don't make a move, letting them go first. You don't want to hurt them, so you need to judge their skill first, you'd been fighting for nearly a thousand years, you'd easily be able to take them down.

The first to approach you with their gun, telling you to surrender since you weren't supposed to be here, you punch in the nose and knock them out. Seeing the ease with which you did that, leads to them calling for backup. Perfect. From there you focus, feeling a heavy sensation in your stomach as you do, slowly the ground opens up enough to sink their feet in and trap them, and one small, earthquake later their guns are on the floor.

You approach the one who had called for backup, and look them over briefly before speaking. "I need to talk to Thor, can you make that happen?"

They seem confused with your sudden loss of aggression, but nod, placing a finger to their ear as they reached out through their coms, "Director Fury, the infiltrator on the ground level wishes to speak with Thor. They have disarmed us and and have us all trapped my our feet in the floor but they do not seem to pose a threat as long as they see Thor."

You nod once and confirm, "I just wish to speak with him, I'm an old friend." With that you step back and place the door back in place, as you step outside once again, "I'll be in the park. Tell him I'm waiting."

With that you leave, and close the door behind you. Only releasing the agents from the ground once you've made it safely away. It was short and fortunately went better than planned. Now all you had to do was wait, and wait you did. It did not matter to you that it took hours for anything to happen. It didn't mater that you'd slept in the grass that night, and that the sun was rising when someone approached you. You had a chance to see your Loki again and that was all you needed to be happy.

You're awoken by someone speaking softly, "sir, I have eyes on the target." It's a woman's voice, you don't move, and continue to lay there, eyes closed.

It's when you hear the slightest sound of the grass moving that you finally do so as well, sitting up and moving to face her. It's the redheaded woman who was fighting alongside Thor the day previous. You offer a slight smile and a, "hello."

When you move Natasha removers her hand from the earpiece she was wearing, and asks, "you're the one that broke in last night asking for Thor?" It's posed as a question but you feel it's more of a statement.

"That is me, I'd just like to speak with him, I'm an old friend. My name is y/n l/n, at least that is the one you will find me under in all government records. Look me up, I don't care, just let me see Thor before he returns to Asgard," you come to a standing position and hold out your hand, "tell him Faylwyn wishes to see him, he'll know what you mean." With that you turn to walk away.

"Sorry, no can do, you're coming with me, you broke into a secure facility and took out multiple agents. You don't get to walk off right like that," she says and reaches for her hip.

You turn back to face her as she speaks, glancing at her hand before meeting her eyes again, "I'm willing to come peacefully. You don't have to tase me," you hold out your empty hands to her, "see, you can even handcuff me, just so I can speak with Thor."

Natasha looks at you, you're being genuine on this one thing, though she still doesn't trust you. She had seen the door you'd pried open, the imprints of your fingers in the metal around the latch, there was no way handcuffs would hold you if you wanted to leave. "No need, come on," she nods her head towards the tower and keeps her hand on the taser as she leads the way. You were a threat if you wanted to be, and obviously you were smart. You hadn't caused more damage that a broken door and a broken nose, and from what she had heard and seen on the cameras you could have done a lot more had you wished to do so.

You follow Natasha to the tower and in the doors, around some corners up an elevator and through the hallways to a more private and secure room.

"Wait here," she says as she opens the door for you, letting you in before closing it behind you. Once again, you wait. This is still your best chance, you had no other way to contact Thor, thanks to Odin's being pissed at you even after 700 years. The All-Father could All-ways hold a grudge.

Eventually the door handle jiggles before opening, and you look up, meeting the eyes of the tall blond, the Asgardian armor covering his body and the red cape over his shoulders. He looks at you in shock and says, "Faylwyn?"

#loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki fandom #loki x you #loki x y/n #loki fluff #loki fanfic #MCU #mcu fanfic #MCU fanfiction #mcu x reader #mcu x you #loki friggason #loki odinson #loki layfeyson x reader #loki friggadottir #loki laufeysdottir #genderfluid loki

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dccomicsimagines · 4 years ago

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What’s Lost is Found - Batfamily Imagine - Part Nine

Warning - Depressive Thoughts, Angst Content

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Six.Five Part Seven Part Eight Part Ten Part Eleven

Requested by Anon - I really love the batdad concept,it's so cute! I was just wondering,are we going to have some flashbacks of Bruce being a dad to (y/n) in What's Lost is Found?

***

“We’re here,” Jon whispered as he dropped out of the clouds to fly low. Your heart skipped a beat when you took your face out of his neck to see the manor again. A wave of joy and relief washed over you. Home.

“You know the secret entrance to the cave, right?” You pointed down at a rock by the lake.

Jon hummed, flying toward it. “Yeah, it’s how I met Damian back when we used to hang out.” You tightened your arms around his neck as he hit the rock at full speed. The two of you went through it and flew down a dark tunnel. “I remember when Damian first told me about the holographic rock. I didn’t believe him.”

“Oh, I know.” You laughed despite everything. “We made fun of you through the camera as you poked at it before you toppled down the tunnel.”

Jon smiled for the first time since you left prom. “I figured.” He sobered once he got to the end of the tunnel and flew into the cave. Much to your surprise, the lights were on. The batcomputer running data. Someone sat in the batcomputer’s chair. Your heart went into your throat, thinking it was your dad for a moment before you told yourself it wasn’t.

The person in the chair turned when Jon landed behind them. “Oh, Mx. Wayne,” Lucius said, blinking in surprise. He frowned at Jon. You tried to get out of Jon’s arms, but he wouldn’t let you go.

“Jon, it’s Lucius. It’s fine,” you whispered in his ear. He relaxed and set you on your feet. “Hi, Lucius. What’s happening?” You went over to the computer, frowning at the footage from across the city.

Lucius turned back to the computer. “Well, the city is under siege.” He brought up security video from Wayne Tower. A figure you knew led in a group of mercenaries. Your heart stopped at the sight.

“Is that Bane?” Jon caught you before your knees gave out.

“We’re not sure. Batgirl is working to get a confirmation.” Lucius gave you a look of concern. “I was under the impression you were retired, Mx. Wayne.”

“Not now.” You swallowed hard. “Did you call in the Justice League?”

Lucius pursed his lips. “No, there appears to be a number of disasters around the world. The Justice League has their hands full.” You pulled away from Jon and went to the computer.

“This was set up.” You frowned, accessing the second keyboard on the batcomputer. “There is no way all this could happen at once.”

Jon pressed close to your back, hovering rather protectively. “You don’t know that.”

You glared at him to back off, but he stayed where he was. “There was a breakout at Stryker's Island and Blackgate. An earthquake in Peru and Japan. Plus there is a terrorist attack in Atlantis. All this on top of Gotham under siege. This is not a coincidence.”

Lucius hummed. “You are very much like your father, Mx. Wayne.” He frowned at the computer, bringing up footage of Gotham General Hospital. A tank-like batmobile crashed through the soldiers’ blockade around the hospital. Damian jumped out of one of the hospital’s windows and glided down into the batmobile. You relaxed, knowing he was safe.

“Your design?” You pointed at the batmobile.

“Yes, your father requested it before...well.” Lucius folded his hands, smiling as Damian drove off. Jon breathed down your neck. His arm wrapped around your waist. Irritation build up inside, but you ignored it.

“I’m surprised you’re here in the cave, Lucius. We closed it up.” You flipped through the other footage, trying to get a better view of Bane-looking figure. Jon’s arm tightened enough to hurt. You put your hand on his. He relaxed.

“I was evacuated here along with some of our...more sensitive projects when we received intelligence about the siege.” Lucius frowned, bringing up the police scanner. “Oh dear.”

“We got 10-71 on 45th and 3rd. Gotham Gazette is on fire.” The police scanner beeped as another voice cut off the first. “10-72. Firefighters are trapped in the building by a 10-32.”

You pulled away from Jon. “Is anyone able to help them?”

Lucius shook his head. “No, Batman, Red Hood, and Batwoman are on the docks stopping more soldiers from entering the city. Red Robin and Spoiler are defending the police station. Batgirl is trailing the Bane lookalike. Orphan, Bluebird, and Signal are preventing Two Face’s bank robberies. Huntress, Batwing, Starfire, and Nightwing are MIA.”

“What?” Your blood ran cold. Jon’s arm tightened around your waist again. “Dick and Kori are here?!”

Lucius nodded. “Yes, we lost track of them two hours ago after they went to stop the Penguin’s gun smuggling ring.” He got to his feet.

“We have to go.” You turned to look at Jon. Jon’s eyes were wide. He shook his head. “Jon, we have to go. They need us.”

“No, this is too dangerous. We know this is all because of you. They’re doing this to get you.” Jon cupped your cheek, looking you in the eye. He was more serious than you ever seen him before. For the first time, you couldn’t see the puppy dog elements that you loved about him.

You shook your head, pulling away from him. “So what? People need help.” You headed over to the display case that held Jason’s Robin suit. “I’ll use this since my suit doesn’t fit anymore.”

“You won’t have to do that, Mx. Wayne,” Lucius said. You looked back at him in surprise. He smiled and gestured over to a huge case next to the batcomputer. The Wayne Tech logo made your heart skip a beat. “I have something for you. Consider it a graduation gift if you will.”

“(Y/N).” Jon grabbed your arm as you headed over to the case. “Please. We have to stay out of this.”

“Do you know something I don’t?” You spun to him. Rage sparked in your heart again. “Because my family is out there in danger! We have to help them!”

Jon sighed deeply. “Fine.” He closed his eyes. You pulled your arm away from him, wondering if your relationship with Jon will ever be the same again. Tears burned your eyes, but you focused on what was important. You pressed your hand against the bioreader of the case. It beeped, registering your name and opening to reveal a brand new high tech Robin suit.

It took your breath away. “Oh my.”

Lucius chuckled. “Get ready, Mx. Wayne. We need you out there.” You timidly took the suit out, feeling the armor and tech. It was the suit you always dreamed of. You turned to go to the changing area, brushing against Jon as you past him.

“(Y/N).” Jon followed you into the changing room. You sighed, undressing even though he was there. He fell silent, blushing and turning his back to you. He took off his shirt, revealing his Superboy suit underneath.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about anything of this,” you hissed, slipping on the suit. It was like a second skin. The tech turned on at your biological signature. You put the mask on, finding it suddenly connected to the batcomputer.

Jon groaned, spinning to face you in his full Superboy suit. “I couldn’t. This is so much bigger than we thought. I didn’t even know about all this until just before prom and that’s only because it was decided you would stay with us longer.”

Your hands clenched into fists. Rage ate you alive along with the worry for your family. Dick and Kori were MIA. You knew they could take care of themselves, but why did you have to cause all this? Why did you kill Bane? Why did your father have to die? “I can’t talk about this now. We have to go. Those firefighters need our help.” You marched out of the changing room.

“As you can tell, the suit is connected to the batcomputer. It also increases your strength and agility.” Lucius smiled at you in the suit with pride. “I would give you more detailed instructions, but we need you to learn as you go.”

You nodded. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” You turned to Jon. He pursed his lips and picked you up in his arms.

“Keep your comlink on, Mx. Wayne.” A trace of concern crossed Lucius’ face. “We can’t lose contact with anyone else.”

“They won’t,” Jon answered for you as he flew into the air. You stayed tense in his arms, wondering if you should have trusted Jon. A lump formed in your throat. You pushed that aside. Jon flew out of the cave and straight toward the war-torn city.

***

You helped the firefighter to his feet. “Robin, where have you been?” he gasped as flames ate up the floor below you.

“Around.” You half-carried him to the window. Jon appeared, taking the firefighter from you.

“Get out of the building. It’s not stable.” Lucius’ voice filled your ear. Jon floated the firefighter down after giving you a warning look.

“Can’t. One more inside.” You looked up, seeing the heartbeat through your mask’s bio-vision. The suit was amazing. You felt more alive than you had in a long time.

Rolling out of the way of falling debris, you flipped your way up through the hole in the ceiling. “Help.” A weak voice came from the stairwell. You wandered over, putting in your rebreather to help with the smoke. It was thicker up here.

You opened the door to the stairwell only to see a blast of flames hurling toward you. Jumping out of the way, you heard a chilling laugh. “Come on out, Robin,” a male voice shouted. Your mask identified the voice as the Human Flame. “Let me burn you up. Give me that million.” You took out a freeze grenade and threw it around the corner.

“Don’t you hate Martian Manhunter? Why are you even in Gotham?” You smiled when you heard him howl. Moving so fast to the point where you thought you were flying, you ran around the corner and kicked him hard in the face. He grunted. The ice that formed around him shattered. He slammed into the wall. “Woah.” You laughed, flexing your arm in the suit. “This is so cool.”

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around your waist and you really were flying. “The building is coming down and you are just hanging out in here?” Jon grumbled in your ear. He picked up the Human Flame by the scruff of his costume and carried you both outside. He dropped the Human Flame by one of the cop cars.

“I thought it was another firefighter.” You wrapped your arms around his neck. “That was exhilarating.”

“Mx. Wayne, we lost contact with Batman. His last location was at northeast end of the docks,” Lucius said. Your blood ran cold.

“Are you sure we’re ready to let Damian know we’re here?” Jon looked nervous as he flew toward the docks when you pointed in the right direction.

You snorted, pretending your hands weren’t shaking. “He probably already knows we’re here.” A high pitch whistle filled the air. You looked over Jon’s shoulder to see a missile coming toward you. “Jon!”

Jon dropped you, taking the hit. The explosion sent you soaring to the ground. You pulled out your grapple gun, flipping through the air before firing it at a nearby roof. It took the impact as you rolled into your landing. Jon went flying, crashing into the street a block away.

You sprinted down the street toward Jon only for bright headlights to suddenly beam from behind you. Going off instinct, you rolled into an alleyway as brakes squealed to a stop. You blinked at the tank-like batmoblie. Batman hopped out. You felt sick, reminding yourself that wasn’t your father.

“TT.” He marched to you. “This is not the time for some simpleton to dress like Robin.”

“I’m not a simpleton and I can’t believe you talk like that when you’re Batman. Who will be scared of you?” you retorted, smiling at the shock on his face.

“(Y/N), go home.” He grabbed your arm. “This is a big enough disaster without you making it worse.”

You yanked your arm out of his grasp. “Shut up.” He narrowed his eyes at you. “I made this mess, so I have to help clean it up.”

“Ouch,” Jon groaned, appearing at the opening of the alleyway with a limp. “You okay, Robin?” He came to your side. Damian eyed him.

“You brought them here, Superboy?” Damian snarled. It was almost like they were never friends in the first place. Jon bit his lip nervously, keeping his eyes on you. “You idiot, don’t you understand?! This is what they want! You think that missile was a mistake!”

You swallowed hard. “Why was your comlink off?” You crossed your arms, pushing aside your anger and frustration. “We were sent to look for you.”

“Fox.” Damian growled. “He gave you that suit too, didn’t he?” Damian tried to grab your arm again. You stepped out of his reach.

“He said Nightwing and Starfire are MIA.” Jon wrapped an arm around your waist. Damian stared at Jon’s arm before glaring darkly at Jon. To his credit, Jon scowled right back at him.

“Yes, I was about to investigate before you dropped in front of my car.” Damian yanked you away from Jon. “Keep your hands to yourself, Superboy.”

Jon growled. “Robin and I have been dating for quite some time. I have a right to touch them if they want me to.”

The pure fury on Damian’s face was priceless. If this wasn’t happening in the middle of a war-zone, you would have enjoyed it more. “Nightwing and Starfire,” you said, stepping between the two men. “We have to go find them now.”

“Fine.” Damian’s grip tightened on your arm. He pulled you toward the tank-like batmobile. “You’re coming with me and you’re going to stay in the batmobile. Do you understand?”

Jon trailed behind you before flying into the air. You hopped into the batmobile. “I’m not staying in here. You need backup, Damian.” The comlink button was off. You switched it back on.

“Oh good, Mr. Wayne. Welcome back into the fold,” Lucius said sarcastically. Damian hopped in beside you.

“TT, some people don’t need your sarcasm, Fox.” Damian glared at you as the batmobile sealed and took off toward the Iceberg lounge.

Lucius hummed. “Mr. Pennyworth called. He is in Smallville and discovered Mx. Wayne and Mr. Kent have disappeared from their prom. I informed him that they were here.”

Damian’s eyes shot to you at the word ‘prom’. You did your best not to look at him. “Tell him we’re sorry, but this is something I have to do,” you said, pursing your lips. You glanced up to see Jon flying above the batmobile.

“Of course.” Lucius’ voice clicked off.

“Prom? You went to prom with him?” Damian glanced at you. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Are you dating him?”

“Yes, if you must know.” You crossed your arms.

Damian frowned. “Has he...have you and him....?”

You snorted. “Why do you care? I’m just the one who tarnished our father’s legacy.”

Damian slammed on the batmobile’s brakes, sliding to a stop. “You did.” He glared at you. “I will let you back me up, but you have to do everything I say and you are to go home with Grayson once we find him.”

You nodded, not trusting yourself to answer out loud. A tear slipped out of your mask. You quickly wiped it away with your hand. Damian noticed. He grunted, hopping out of the batmobile.

Jon landed beside the car, offering you a hand. “You okay?” Jon whispered, eyeing Damian.

“It’s fine.” You let Jon take your hand as you both trailed after Damian. Damian glared up at the Iceberg Lounge.

“Why is (Y/N) here?” Tim demanded, landing next to Damian with Steph behind him.

“It’s going to be like this all night, isn’t it?” you said to Jon. Jon nodded, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. Steph raised an eyebrow at the sight. Tim just frowned.

Someone landed behind you. “All I know is that Dick is going to kill us all, and Superboy is going to get castrated for sure,” Jason chuckled, walking up to join the others.

Jon shifted uncomfortably. “Stop it.” You glared at the others. “Can we just focus on saving Nightwing and Starfire please?”

“Huntress and Batwing escaped and reported in. Apparently, the Penguin hired Deathstroke.” Tim worked on his wrist computer. “And they’re waiting for us to take the bait.”

“Then we go.” You started toward the building, but Jon held you back.

“No, you don’t.” Damian gripped your shoulder, pulling you away from Jon. “This is a trap for you. I bet they’re trying to collect the bounty on your head.”

You narrowed your eyes, swallowing the rock in your throat. “That’s Dick in there, Damian.”

Damian glared back at you. “No, you’re not going in,” Tim said, stepping up to glower at you too. “You caused this mess. Stay out of it and let us fix it.” Your heart ached when you saw the strain Tim was under. Guilt dropped your stomach to your feet. He never used to be this stressed or mean.

“(Y/N) stays.” Jason stepped between you and Tim. “They have to do this.”

“Jason, I know you’re the reason they’re here. You texted them that you left, knowing they would follow.” Tim leaned in close, staring straight into the lenses of Jason’s helmet. “I hacked your phone, because I knew you’d pull some shit like this.”

“Watch it, Timbo.” Jason’s hands clenched into fists. “I can still beat you within a inch of your life.”

You were going to push your way between them, but Steph beat you to it. “Enough. Oh my god, stop this stupid pissing contest. We got family in danger in there.” She scowled at Jason then Tim. Tim blushed, looking away. Jason snorted. “Let’s shape up. Make a plan. Get them out alive and then we’ll argue.” Steph looked at you and Jon. Damian’s hand tightened on your shoulder. “Robin and Superboy come with us.” Steph looked at each of your brothers. “Is that understood?”

All three grumbled. “Wow,” Jon mumbled, sneaking back to your side when Damian wasn’t looking. “She’s tough.”

“She was Robin once too, you know.” You tensed as Tim went into a plan to rescue Dick and Kori.

***

“Irresponsible,” Tim grumbled as he crawled in the vent ahead of you. “Dumb. Childish.” You wished Steph had been sent with you to shut him up. However, it was just you and Tim.

Jason and Jon were going through the front door, creating a distraction and taking down whatever goons the Penguin had ready. Damian and Steph were coming up from under the Iceberg Lounge. You and Tim got stuck with the vents. Your worry for Dick and Kori plus Tim’s verbal abuse made you want to scream and break a few bones. However, you decided to be the bigger person your father would want you to be.

“This is all Dick’s fault. His stupid hardheadedness had to rub off on you. He refused to put you into stasis like I told him.” Tim kept mumbling. You froze at the stasis part. He was an completely different person than the Tim you remembered. Did you really force him to change that much?

“Wow, thanks Tim. I didn’t realize how much you and Damian were alike.” Tim flinched at your words. You smiled sadly, missing the brother who showed you cartoons and always listened to you. Your heart broke at the fact you did this. By killing Bane, you made Tim into this malicious man.

Tim slipped out of the vent into a store room. He held his arms up to help you down, but you ignore him, dropping down on your own. Tim sighed. “You don’t understand,” Tim said, guilt flashed in his eyes. “(Y/N), you started a war. You broke Batman’s code and it started a chain reaction. I mean we would have had some conflict due to Batman’s...” He swallowed hard, unable to say death. You wondered if Tim hadn’t processed your father’s death yet. Poor Tim, maybe he didn’t have a chance to grieve yet because of the mess you made. “But we wouldn’t have had this if you didn’t kill Bane.”

“But Bane might still be alive. I saw him in the cameras.” You brought up the footage on your wrist computer. Tim blinked at the footage.

“That’s not him.” Tim turned away. He hooked up his wrist computer to the computer panel next to the door and hacked it.

“How do you know? Mr. Fox said Batgirl was investigating it.” You followed, taking in everything he did. A boom sounded somewhere in the building. You flinched, hoping that it was just part of Jon and Jason’s distraction.

Tim fixed you with a icy glare. “I’ve been gathering intel for almost a year. I know who it is.” You nodded for him to keep talking, but he fell silent.

“Seriously?” You punched his arm.

“What?” Tim hacked away on his wrist computer.

“Who is it?” Your voice became dangerously low. Tim looked back at you.

“You don’t need to know.” He caught your fist before you could hit him again. “You’re only here to help us rescue Nightwing and Starfire, then you’re out of this. I’ll put you in stasis if I have to. I don’t care what Dick says.”

A frown pulled at your lips. Your eyes filled with tears. You quickly turned away from him, so he wouldn’t see. Curse your emotions, probably another thing that Dick rubbed off on you. A stony silence fell between you and Tim as he hacked away.

“I should have known I’d find you two here,” Dick’s voice said from behind you. You and Tim jumped in surprise. Tim grabbed your arm and stepped in front of you protectively.

Your heart skipped a beat as you studied Dick in his Nightwing costume. Tim tensed. “I thought you were being held in the Penguin's office?” Tim asked, squeezing your arm in a secret signal your father had taught you. ‘Danger.’

“Escaped. It’s what I do best.” Dick leaned over to peek at you. “Hey Robbie, nice to see you.” It felt wrong. A shiver ran up your spine.

“Right, I forgot.” Tim forced a smile on his face. He squeezed your arm again, another signal. ‘Dodge and run.’ “Hey, just so I know, when did we first meet?”

The wrong Dick frowned. “Why are you asking me that? Don’t you know me, Red?”

“No reason.” In one quick motion, you dived out of the way as Tim threw a electrified batarang at the wrong Dick. Dick screamed before dissolving into a pile of clay on the floor. Clayface emerged into his true form. You dashed out of the room, barely avoiding Clayface’s arm that tried to grab at you.

You sprinted down the hall, sliding to trip a guard when he burst out of one of the doors. Clayface and Tim crashed out into the hallway. “Robin, run,” Tim ordered, dodging Clayface’s foot.

“Going.” You kept running, bursting through the door onto the main stage of the iceberg lounge. It was dark. Your mask switched to night vision. You avoided the instruments. Suddenly, a spotlight clicked on and you were blinded. Something hit you from behind. You fell to the ground, all the breath forced out of you.

“There you are.” Your mask rebooted itself and identified the voice as Deathstroke. A foot pressed on your back, holding you down. “So easy. Your father would be disappointed.”

A ice cold shiver went down your spine. Hot, blistering rage filled you. “Shut up.” You used your suit’s increased strength to throw his foot off your back and rolled to your feet.

Deathstroke grunted in surprise before pulling out his sword. “Let’s see how much of a disappointment you are.”

You narrowed your eyes. Taking a deep breath, you relaxed into a fighting stance. Deathstroke zoomed toward you.

It was a long, hard fight. He got you several times with his sword, but you got a few hits in to startle him away before the sword could sink into you. You knew you wouldn’t last long.

Deathstroke kicked you off the stage. You landed hard on your arm. The bone snapped. You screamed, rolling away as Deathstroke jumped to stab you. The sword missed you by inches.

“You’re good, but not good enough.” Deathstroke laughed, suddenly kneeling on your chest. You gasped, crushed beneath him. Your good arm smacked at him, but he didn’t react. “I could use you. Train you to be better.” He reached down to run a hand through your hair. “Like I did to Terra.”

“Fuck you.” You choked. Deathstroke snarled, slapping your face hard. Blood filled your mouth.

You prepared yourself for the worse, remembering everything your father told you about Deathstroke.

A sharp cry of rage echoed through the room. Deathstroke was slammed off your chest by a black and blue blur. You took a deep breath, wincing at the pain in your ribs. Some of them were broken.

You forced yourself up to see Nightwing punching Deathstroke over and over again. “Never ever touch my kid! You hear me!”

“Di...Nightwing, stop,” you whispered, unable to breathe enough air. “You’re going to kill him.”

Dick stopped. Deathstroke laid on the floor limply. Dick got to his feet and ran to your side. “Hush, baby. I’m here.” His hand ran through your hair, inspecting you. “I don’t know how you’re here and why you are in a Robin suit, but we’ll talk about that later.” You tried to relax, but you were in too much pain. “Your arm’s broken. God, those cuts are going to need stitches.”

A wave of suspicious came over you. Clayface’s version of Dick flashed before your eyes. “When did I first taste popcorn?”

He frowned slightly. “Honey, how hard did you hit your head?”

“Answer me.” You growled.

Dick sighed, glancing around. “It was the first time you went to the movies. I took you.” He smiled. “You were so cute, licking it first before finally putting it in your mouth.”

You relaxed. “Oh, it’s you for real this time.” Dick helped you to your feet. “Where’s Kori?”

Dick frowned. “I don’t know. I was looking for her when I heard you scream.” He wrapped his arm around your shoulders. You held your arm, hissing from the pain. “This was a setup. The whole thing.”

“It’s all my fault.” You shivered. Dick led you out of the main lounge.

“No, it’s not. Let’s just get you out of here.” Dick threw a batarang at a goon that came around the corner. “Are you alone here?”

Almost on cue, the wall in front of the two of you exploded. Dick knocked you down as Jon flew past you and crashed back into the main lounge. You groaned, black swarmed your vision as you struggled to breathe. Your ribs and arm were on fire from Dick’s weight.

“Of course, Superboy brought you. I’ll kill him,” Dick grumbled, getting off you quickly. “Sorry, honey. Just hold on for me.”

“(Y/N).” Jon crawled to your side. Blood ran down his face from a cut on his forehead.

“What happened to you?” You forgot about your own pain, reaching up to wipe some of the blood out of his eyes.

Jon winced. “Metallo.”

Dick glared at Jon. “Get Robin out of here.” He looked you in the eye. “Stay at the cave with Jon. We’ll see you soon.” Dick kissed your forehead before going to join the fight. Jon picked you up.

“We can’t go. Kori.” You panted. Jon’s arms put painful pressure on your broken ribs. “Damn it.”

“Sorry.” Jon set you on your feet. “(Y/N), you’re in no shape to stay.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Neither are you.”

He sighed. His shoulders slumped. “I can never win against you, can I?”

A weak smile pulled on your lips. “No.”

Jon snorted. “Come on, my x-ray vision picked up some activity in the basement.” You nodded, holding your arm to your chest as you led Jon to the staircase.

***

The two of you found a metal freezer in the basement. There was a lot of damage outside of the freezer along with unconscious soldiers. “Batman and Spoiler came through here,” you said, eyeing the wounds on the soldiers.

Jon stared at the freezer for a long moment. “Oh no.” He quickly ripped off the door and Kori fell to the floor. You gasped, rushing to her side. Your ribs and arm throbbed, but you ignored it.

She was cold as death. Her orange skin tinted blue. “Please be okay.” You checked for a pulse. It was faint, but still there. You glanced at Kori’s baby bump nervously. “Jon, you have to warm her up now.”

“How?” Jon glanced around in a panic.

You pointed at your eyes. “Heat vision.”

“But I’d burn through her.” Jon shook his head. His eyes were on Kori’s baby bump too.

“You can control it. Warm up the floor around her.” You moved away. Jon nodded. His eyes glowed red as the beams shot out of his eyes and into the floor. The heat soaked into your feet. Your suit sent you a warning, and immediately started cooling you off.

Slowly, Kori’s skin lost the blue tint. She stirred, but didn’t wake up. “Kori,” you whispered. Jon turned off his heat vision. You approached, kneeling down beside her. “Please wake up.” Your eyes filled with tears. “Please.”

Jon’s hand touched your shoulder, making you flinch. Pain racked through your body at the sudden movement. “We have to get her help.”

“Take her to the cave.” You nodded to Kori, getting up. Your broken arm burned in agony. Every breath hurt.

“I’m not leaving you here.” Jon shook his head.

“Jon, we can’t leave Kori here. She’ll be defenseless.” You glared at him. “Take her to the cave.”

Jon sighed. “They’ll kill me for leaving you here. I mean they’re already going to kill me for bringing you here and for not taking you home.”

You grabbed his arm with your good arm. “Please.” Jon looked into your eyes.

“Okay.” He bent down to pick up Kori with some difficulty. “You better be here when I get back.”

“I can’t really move that fast to not be.” You waved for him to fly off. Jon gave you one last look before bursting up through the ceiling until he was out of the building and in the open air.

Alone, you glanced around at the unconscious soldiers. You studied their uniforms. They were mercenaries, but you recognized some of them. Some of them were League of Assassins, others were military trained soldiers. Whoever was wearing the Bane mask pulled a lot of weight. You swallowed hard. Why did you have to cause all this?

The hallway’s temperature dropped suddenly. You heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall. Kneeling behind the freezer, you held your breath. Your mask identified the footsteps as Mr. Freeze.

Staying quiet, you heard him wander around the room. Stupid Deathstroke for breaking your arm. You could take him if you had your arm and ribs intact.

When it finally sounded like he was leaving, you took a deep breath. You hissed in pain at your lungs expanding into your ribs. Suddenly, Mr. Freeze��s footsteps stopped. You cursed yourself. The freezer you hid behind was pushed aside and you came face to face with Mr. Freeze’s freeze gun.

“Robin,” Mr. Freeze said in his robotic voice. He looked at you with a curious expression. You frowned, ready to dodge. “I did not expect you to be here.”

“Where else would I be?” You stayed where you were, waiting.

Mr. Freeze hummed. He glanced over his shoulder. “Freeze them and we’ll split the reward,” the Penguin said, waddling into the room with his bodyguards behind him.

Dick was going to be so upset. You hoped Jon wouldn’t feel guilty for leaving you here. Closing your eyes, you let go. The end would come. At least you would be with your father. Tears filled your eyes. He’d be so mad you joined him so soon.

The freeze gun went off. However, you didn’t feel the ice overtake you. You opened your eyes to see the Penguin and his bodyguards frozen in a block of ice. “I never did like you,” Mr. Freeze said to the Penguin before turning to you. “I never liked Bane either.” He walked out of the room. You stayed where you were, shocked.

After a few long minutes, you forced yourself to your feet and went upstairs to find the others. The battle had been won. You found the others in the main lounge, handcuffing people and tending to the wounded. Dick frowned when he saw you.

“You’re supposed to be at the cave.” He hurried over to you, taking the first aid kit from Tim and started to splint your arm.

“We found Kori.” Dick froze. “Jon took her back to the cave. She needed help.” You swallowed past a rock in your throat. “I’m so sorry.”

“None of this is your fault, okay?” Dick’s voice trembled. His hands shook.

Tim came over to take over as Dick couldn’t finish the splint. “This is a mess.” He studied you. “I heard you took on Deathstroke.”

“It wasn’t my choice. He jumped me.” You shivered. Tim finished the splint. Sun peeked through the holes of the building. It was already morning.

“The police and National Guard should be here soon. We need to go,” Tim said.

Dick nodded, shaken. “I need to get to Kori.”

“We’ll all regroup at the cave,” Damian said, taking your good arm to pull you with him. “Nightwing, come along.”

You stumbled on debris, falling against Damian. He growled, jerking you upright. Your arm and ribs burned at the movement. Dick followed. He reached over to remove Damian’s hand from your arm. “Stop it.”

“TT.” Damian called the batmobile to him. It drove and stopped in front of him. He hopped in the driver’s seat. Dick helped you into the backseat before taking the passenger’s seat.

“Hang on. I’ll ride with you,” Jason said, running over. He crawled over Dick like a little kid, which was an hilarious sight given that Jason was taller and broader than him. Jason sat down beside you. Tim called over his bike and him and Steph climbed on.

Damian grumbled, driving off. The sunrise was beautiful, but the city was damaged. No people were around. Buildings crumbled, holes in the street, streets signs knocked over, street lights blown up. It was a combat zone. You leaned your head against Jason’s arm. Jason hummed. You closed your eyes, hating that you destroyed everything your father cared about with one choice that you couldn’t even remember making.

***

You laid next to Jon in your old bed at the manor. Alfred had arrived, reopening bedrooms for everyone get to a few hours of rest. Jon wasn’t supposed to be in here, but he slipped in when everyone else was asleep. Now he snored softly with his hand on your arm. There was a bandage on his forehead for the cut he gotten during the fight.

Your body ached. Every breath still hurt even with the pain pills Alfred had forced you to take. Your arm, now in a cast, throbbed away. The cuts from Deathstroke’s sword were stitched up, stinging.

Dick was still in the cave with Kori. He went silent when he saw her under the sun lamp in the cave. She hadn’t woken up yet. No one would tell you if the baby was okay or not.

Unable to stand it any longer, you rolled to your feet. The pain intensified, but you pushed through. You wandered out of your room. A rock formed in your throat when you reached your father’s room. Slowly, you pushed open the door, frowning at it’s lifeless quiet state. Alfred had covered everything in sheets, but that’s it. Your father’s belongings hadn’t been moved.

You pulled off the sheet on the dresser and opened the top drawer. His shirts were neatly folded inside. You picked up a dark blue one and pressed your face into it. It still smelled like him. You relaxed, letting yourself float back into your memories if only for a moment.

***

You were packing your suitcase, knowing the flight back to Gotham was in the morning. Currently, you were in the Wayne Tech’s penthouse located in Paris. Your father and you had traced Magpie there where she had attempted to steal the Regent Diamond from the Louvre. Using the excuse of a business trip, Batman and Robin stopped Magpie while Bruce and (Y/N) supposedly attended business meetings.

“(Y/N)?” Your father appeared in the doorway of your bedroom. He was wearing sweatpants and t-shirt. You remembered he got a phone call from Alfred, who had stayed behind in Gotham. From the tension in your father’s shoulders, Alfred must have scolded him about something.

“Yeah?” You sat down on your bed, swinging your legs playfully.

He sighed. “I forgot again, didn’t I?” He sat down beside you on the bed.

You eyed him, shrugging. “It’s not a big deal, Dad.”

“Yes, it is. Fathers aren’t supposed to forget their kids’ birthday.” Bruce shifted uncomfortably. “Alfred made a suggestion.”

“What? I don’t need anything, Dad. Being in Paris was a nice enough birthday for me.” You smiled, looking out the window at the beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower.

Bruce cleared his throat. “Well, then you’ll be happy to know we’ll be spending an extra two days here then.” Your jaw dropped in shock. Bruce chuckled at the sight. “No patrol, no Batman or Robin. Just you and me and whatever you want to do.”

“Are you serious?” Your heart skipped a beat in excitement. You thought about going to the Louvre and actually getting to look around this time instead of just stopping Magpie. All the food you could try. You licked your lips before hugging Bruce tightly. “Thank you, Dad. This is going to be great!”

“You’re welcome. Happy birthday, (Y/N).” He hugged you back in his strong arms. You felt so loved, so safe.

***

You sobbed, burying your face into the shirt as you sank to your knees. Your body ached, but the pain in your heart was too great for you to stop. Deep down, you knew you would never get to feel that loved and safe again.

Thin, strong arms suddenly hugged you from behind. You tensed as a sharp chin rested on the top of your head. It took you a moment to catch your breath. “Cass?”

She hummed, hugging you tighter. You didn’t know she had come to the manor too. More sobs racked out of your body, hurting your ribs. Cass held you for a long time. Eventually, you stopped crying, exhaustion soaking into your bones. Your father’s shirt was soaked with your tears and snot. Cass guided you to your feet and led you back to your room. She clucked her tongue at Jon in your bed, but ignored him to tuck you in. Your father’s shirt stayed in your hands.

“Sleep.” She patted your cheek before silently leaving the room. Jon’s arm wrapped around your waist to pull you close. His body heat permeated you like sunlight. Your pain faded as you let yourself fall into the blissfulness of sleep.

***

“This is only going to get worst!” Tim’s voice echoed throughout the cave. He, Damian, Jason, Barbara, Steph, Cass, and Duke were in the meeting area. Their debate grew more heated by the second. You shivered on the medbed as Alfred changed the bandages on your cuts.

Alfred frowned. You sighed, wincing when it hurt your ribs. Jon and Lois were having a very tense discussion in the corner. You felt bad for him, but you didn’t regret coming here.

“Mx. (Y/N), take it easy. You are not going out tonight,” Alfred said firmly once he finished.

“Yes, Alfred.” You swallowed hard, getting off the medbed to wander over to the ICU area. Kori was still unconscious and under the sun lamp. Dick sat as close to her as he dared, staring at her with an empty expression. The monitors showed a steady heartbeat. A faint smile crossed your lips when you noticed two heartbeats on the monitors.

You came to Dick’s side. He blinked, wrapped an arm around you. “Hey kiddo,” he whispered. His hand rubbed your side gently. It hurt your ribs, but you didn’t want to say anything.

“Is she okay?” You trembled.

“Her vitals and the baby’s are good, but she hasn’t woken up.” Dick ran his free hand through his hair only to wince from the movement. He had been hurt too. Your stomach twisted, threatening to lose the little food you managed to eat. “This isn’t your fault, honey. I don’t want to hear that from you.” You pursed your lips, tears threatening to fall. Dick kissed your cheek. “I didn’t want you to be part of this.” You wanted to scream. If you hadn’t come, you would be hearing about Kori’s injury about now if not more terrible news. It was three in the afternoon. You probably would have had fun at prom, fell asleep only to wake up to this horror that you caused. How could he be so dumb to try to keep you out of this?

“Shouldn’t you be with the others?” you asked. Dick pulled you to sit in his lap, hugging you tightly. You let him.

“No.” Dick squeezed you, hurting you. You bit your lip to keep from gasping. “We’re not going to be here for much longer.”

“What?” Your jaw dropped, heart skipping a beat.

Dick sighed. “We’re leaving, going home.” He frowned when you pulled away from him. “Don’t fight me on this, sweetheart.”

“We can’t leave.” You choked. The guilt ate you alive. “I caused this. I can’t leave them to deal with this. Tim already hates me, Damian too. I can’t do this to them.”

“I’m not arguing with you on this.” Dick snarled in a way he never had to you before. “We’re going home.” His tone softened. “I have more to lose now.” He patted your arm, but you jerked away from him. “(Y/N).” You left the room, shocked beyond belief. Dick wasn’t who you thought he was.

You stopped outside of the meeting room, listening in. “They said they will stop the siege if we turn Robin over to them,” Barbara said sharply. “Obviously, we’re not going to do that, but maybe we can set up a decoy.”

“TT, no one is small enough to be convincing,” Damian said. A fist slammed into the table.

“Don’t even think about saying we just hand them over! Damn it!” Jason’s voice echoed throughout the cave. You quickly walked away. Your mind swirled, trying to think of a way to fix this.

“You are grounded for life, you hear me,” Lois snapped at Jon as you passed them. Jon looked at the ground, not noticing you.

Going upstairs to the manor, you exited into your father’s study only to be taken back by his giant self portrait on the wall. He hated it, but it was all part of the Brucie image.

“Daddy, I broke everything.” You looked at his eyes, imaging the disappointment that would be there. “I know you said it wasn’t my fault, but everything is going to hell.” You took a deep breath. Your ribs on fire. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I killed Bane because Bane killed you.”

Silence followed. You kept staring into his eyes. “What would you do?” Your heart broke. Deep down in your soul, you knew what he would do. Your father was selfless to the upmost degree. Closing your eyes, you let out the breath you didn’t know you were holding. “Okay. It’s time anyway.” You opened your eyes to meet your father’s painted ones. “I have to fix this.” You went over to the desk and got out some paper to write notes for everyone. A final goodbye.

***

It was easy to slip out of the manor. You wore civvies and a plain domino mask, not wanting the high tech suit to fall into the wrong hands. No one noticed you left.

You rode a motorcycle into the city, zipping along. Everything was brighter, more clear than it ever been. You enjoyed everything for the last time.

The Bane lookalike’s headquarters was at Wayne Tower. You parked your bike outside, looking up at it. It took several long moments before the Bane lookalike came out and stood in front of you. Up close, you knew instantly this wasn’t the Bane you killed. He was not tall enough and he didn’t have the grace of a street fighter that Bane had.

“Welcome Robin.” The Bane lookalike smiled. “Finally.”

“Is the deal on?” You narrowed your eyes at him, getting off the bike. Entering the code, you rigged it to explode in two minutes. “If I hand myself over, you’ll leave Gotham alone?”

The Bane lookalike studied you carefully. “Yes.” He gestured for you to come to him. You took a deep breath, your ribs burning. Slowly, you walked over to him. “Good child.” A sharp prick in your neck left you dizzy. You turned to see a ninja with a needle. Your legs gave out. The Bane lookalike caught you. “Now you will pay for what you’ve done.” The last thing you heard was his laughter.

#batfamily #batfamily imagine #batfamily x reader #dc comics imagines #dc reader insert #dick grayson #dick grayson imagine #jon kent #jon kent x reader #jon kent imagine #superboy #superboy x reader #superboy imagine #nightwing #nightwing imagine #starfire #starfire imagine #kori anders #kori anders imagine

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gumnut-logic · 3 years ago

Photo

Warnings: Pure and simple Virgil hurt/comfort with a dash of an unrequited longing to hear John sing.

-o-o-o-

He had fallen, he knew that much.

The lights in his helmet blinded him and a fumbling hand found the switch that turned them off.

He closed his eyes.

“Virgil!” John’s voice was sharp in his ear and it sparked sluggish neurons into activity.

Wha-?

“Virgil, respond!”

He managed a grunt and forced his eyes open.

His world was blue ice.

It was beautiful. He stared. Sculptured arcs, white through to deep blues in the dim light. Water was running somewhere, trickling like tinkling bells. He was lying on a narrow ledge in a narrow crevice. This was probably bad, but the fog in his mind was fixated by beauty.

“Virgil! Status!”

John was upset. Why was John upset? This is a wondrous place.

“Virgil, Scott and Gordon are on their way. Please respond.” Johnny was pleading.

“J-John? ‘S beautiful.”

“Virgil!”

“S-sto’ yelling.”

There was silence for a moment and Virgil let his eyes close again. His head was so foggy he needed to sleep it off. He drifted.

Only to be yelled awake again. “Virgil, please!”

“Huh?”

“Oh, thank god.” John sounded worried.

“Wha’ss wrong?”

“Virgil, you fell down an ice crevice.”

He did? He forced his eyes open again. So beautiful. “‘S beautiful.”

“Virgil, medical status?”

Medical status? Uh? Flat on his belly, he couldn’t see anything but the blue of his fingertips. Fingerless gloves were a mistake. Useful, but a vulnerability. He really needed to remove them from the uniform pattern assembly. He had been meaning to do that for some time, but...time. God, he was tired.

“Virgil?”

“Wha-?”

“I’m reading some injury. What is your status?” Gentle. Johnny was being gentle now. Why was that a worry?

“You ‘kay?”

“I’m fine, Virgil. How are you?”

“Tired.” He let his eyes close again.

“Virgil.” It was almost sung, like Gordon at his most annoying. But this was Johnny. Johnny was kind and smart and always there.

“Mmmhmm.”

“You need to stay awake, Virgil. Scott is coming.”

Scott. Scott knew what to do. Always did.

“Virgil?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you in pain?”

Pain?

That prompted him to move.

His chest and left leg screamed at him. His breath vanished. He must have said something because John was calling his name again.

Oh, god, ow.

“Virgil, are you there?”

“’m there.” It was more a whimper than anything else.

Another exhaled breath of relief drifted over comms. John must have a shit of a time up in space just watching and being unable to do anything. The thought pushed a few neurons into more rational thinking. He had to do what John said because he didn’t want him to worry. “Sorry, John.”

Sorry.

Damn, he was tired.

He closed his eyes again.

Only to be shaken awake.

What?

“Virgil.” There was fear in John’s voice.

What was scaring his brother?

The ice beneath his fingers shivered. Huh?

“Virgil, you need to get out of there. Scott’s not going to make it in time.”

What? Scott was always on time.

“Virgil?”

Focus. John needed him. John was scared. Little brothers shouldn’t be scared.

“’m here.” He spat something out and red splattered on the inside of his helmet. Shit. That can’t be good. The medic in him activated, listing off causes.

Shit.

“Virgil, can you move?”

“Uh, not without pain. May…may h-have busted a rib or two.”

The ice under him shivered again. What was doing that?

“Virgil, you’re going to have to climb out. The glacier is unstable and the area is still experiencing tremors.”

Tremors. The thought sparked more thoughts. He had been fishing a climber out of a glacier after an earthquake. New Zealand.

“Climber safe?”

“He’s on Thunderbird Two. You were retrieving equipment when a tremor collapsed the ice you were standing on.”

“Tha’ sounds stupid.”

“It wasn’t, trust me. Do you have your ice pick?”

Ice pick? Moving sucked. He didn’t want to move.

“Virgil, do you have your ice pick?”

God, John knew how to nag. But John was worried. John shouldn’t be worried.

He moved his arm and felt around, hissing between his teeth when his ribs complained. But his hand landed on the cold metal of the tool he had been holding when he fell. He forced his cold fingers to curl around the implement and pull it close.

His eyes closed again without permission.

“Virgil?”

He forced his eyes open again. “John?”

“Do you have your ice pick?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Repeat.”

Sigh. “Yes, John.”

“You had your crampons deployed before you fell. Do you have your grapple gun?”

Grapple gun?

He clung to the ice pick and felt around again. Ice. Cold. Crumbled fragments. Sharp slivers that hurt when his fingers encountered them.

“No grapple gun.” It was a pain-filled exhale.

John didn’t respond immediately and Virgil took the opportunity to drift into a painless oblivion.

The ice beneath him shook and groaned. He startled as the movement triggered whatever the hell was wrong with his left leg. His gasp must have hit orbit because John started calling his name again.

“Virgil, you have to get out of there. Climb!”

Climb? Are you kidding?!

He could barely move!

But his decision was forced as the ice beneath him suddenly cracked and began sliding downwards.

Not good. Not good! He gripped his ice pick as training and reflexes were shoved to the fore.

He moved without thinking and his whole body screamed as the ledge fell away beneath him. One arm whipped out and dug the pick into the crevasse wall. It bit hard as his body fell and impacted with the ice.

Everything whited out.

“Virgil! Respond! Virgil!”

His little brother’s voice drew him back.

God.

Oh, god.

He forced clarity and found himself on a sharp slope of ice, once again on his belly, but this time gravity was attempting to drag him into the dark depths below. The soft glow of ice was no longer beautiful. It was more of a maw desperate to swallow him.

“Virgil! Answer me!” John sounded terrified.

“J-hn.”

Everything hurt so much.

“You have to climb, Virgil. Climb, please, big brother.” Such pleading couldn’t be ignored. He…he…had to…had to…oh, god…John, I can’t…hurts. He squeezed his eyes shut and moisture leaked out the cracks. But he was aware of his choices. Climb or die. The maw below gaped at him.

He couldn’t do that to John.

Couldn’t.

“Scott’s nearly there. Gordon’s with him. You just need to climb a little, Virgil, please.”

Climb.

He forced his right leg up. The crampon on his boot dug into the ice and took some of the weight off his arm. His ribcage complained at every movement. His left leg hung useless. He had no idea what was going on down there other than a few smears of red on the white blue which he wasn’t acknowledging. Scott would fix it.

Scott fixed everything.

Gordon.

The thought of his little brother seeing him like this was enough to bring his left hand in contact with the ice searching for a handhold. The cold burnt, but at least it wasn’t quite numb yet.

Yet.

Fingernails bit into frozen water and with a grunt Virgil inched himself up a little.

He wriggled the ice pick out of its purchase and, trying not to scream, whacked it back into the slope higher up.

A strangled whimper escaped anyway.

“I’m here, Virgil. You can do this.”

John believed in him.

He wanted to cry. He honestly didn’t know if he could do this. But John was his little brother, he couldn’t fail his little brother.

Couldn’t.

He dragged himself up again, grunting. All those workouts, all that training, and it came down to this.

The will to make it happen.

The slope trembled under him.

No. Please, no.

He dug his boot into the ice again and pushed up.

Up.

Fingernails in ice.

Pick out and digging in.

Pull up and try not to scream.

He failed that last almost every time. His ribs whited out his vision and he almost lost it.

Almost.

But John was there. His little brother urging him on. Only a voice, but so much more. John’s voice was always a soothing presence. He loved talking to John. Late at night when his brother couldn’t sleep so far up above Tracy Island. Virgil used the excuse to check up on him, but in reality, he just wanted to talk to John. He missed him.

John was made for the stars. They were his home and Virgil would never not encourage him to pursue his dreams, but he missed his brother. His quiet, gentle brother with the voice that should be singing. They were five, but there was always one missing and Virgil ached sometimes for his little brother’s absence.

“Love you, J-hn.”

“Virgil?! Talk to me! Scott’s on approach!”

Such alarm in that beautiful voice.

Virgil let his helmet contact the ice and just clung to the cliff face.

Breathing hurt.

He spat red.

That was not good.

As if to urge him on, the ice shook again.

He had to move, but he didn’t know if he could. “John, I-“

“Virgil Tracy, you move your ass now!”

The anger and fear in his brother’s voice startled him.

“I’m not losing you, big brother, not this close. You move and you move now!”

Virgil blinked and realised the ice was lighter here. He looked up and was surprised to see a patch of blue sky above. A roar swelled from beyond that patch. A familiar roar.

Scott.

Gordon.

He pulled the ice pick out and reaching up, sunk it in again. It bit in strong.

His whimper trembled in tune with the vibration of the ice beneath him as the glacier shook again.

Snow fell over the lip of the crevasse and dusted his helmet.

“That’s it, Virgil. Not far to go now.” There was hope in his little brother’s voice.

Can’t disappoint a little brother.

He pulled himself higher.

And again.

A shadow blotted out the light and a deeper, authoritive voice joined John’s.

Scott.

Oh, god, Scott.

He almost fell limp with relief.

That shadow became his big brother, became arms that held him, a safety line, an emergency upward ascent as the cliff face finally cracked beneath his finger tips and began to slide, threatening to take him with it.

Everything hurt.

Everything screamed.

John’s voice.

Scott’s voice.

Gordon pleading with him as he drifted away.

-o-o-o-

“’Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don’t look like mutton again tomorrer,’ said one of the trolls.

“’Never a blinking bit of man flesh have we had for long enough,’ said a second. ‘What the ‘ell William was a-thinkin’ of to bring us into these parts at all, beats me – and the drink runnin’ short, what’s more,’ he said jogging the elbow of William, who was taking a pull at his jug.”

Virgil frowned. The three trolls. Bilbo was watching the three trolls.

“William choked. ‘Shut yer mouth!’ he said as soon as he could. ‘Yer can’t expect folk to stop here for ever just to be et by you and Bert. You’ve et a village and a half between yer, since we come down from the mountains. How much more d’yer want? And some time’s been up our way, when yer’d have said ‘thank yer Bill’ for a nice bit o’ fat valley mutton like what this is.’”

John’s accent was perfect. The familiar words sculpted out the scene in his head and he anticipated the drama that he knew was going to happen next.

His little brother’s voice sketched out the action of Bilbo and the dwarves being captured and Virgil just enjoyed it. It was a long moment before the question of why John was reading to him actually occurred.

It stopped him in his tracks.

He was lying in a bed. Most of his body was numb and his head was foggy.

John had such a musical voice. He could listen to it for hours. He really wished his brother would sing more often. Their mother used to sing and John had inherited that from her, but he refused most of the time. Virgil thought it was a travesty, a wasted talent. But it was John’s choice.

The trolls turned to stone as Virgil began to realise a few important facts.

The bed wasn’t his.

It smelt like hospital.

He tried to draw on his most recent memories and came up blank. This was disconcerting and increased his heart rate. A rapid electronic beep was the result.

John stopped reading. “Virgil?”

“Mmmhmm.”

A scuffle off to his left. “Can you open your eyes?”

Could he?

A slow blink and light flooded in. He squinted. Ugh.

“Hey, there you are.” There was a smile in his brother’s voice and Virgil forced his eyes to open again to confirm it.

John was standing over him, complexion pale and drawn, but smiling. There were dark smudges under those turquoise eyes.

Virgil frowned. “Are you okay?”

John’s half-hysterical laugh at those words had Virgil widening his eyes. His brother touched his arm and squeezed gently as his other hand reached for his collar. God, that shirt still sucked. “Scott, Virgil’s awake.” There was a mutter of acknowledgement and John’s gaze fell back to Virgil. “It’s good to see you.”

Virgil blinked. “What happened?” Something had obviously happened. John looked like death warmed up.

His brother didn’t get a chance to answer as the door flew open and a mess of an eldest brother tore into the room. “Virgil!”

Virgil stared at Scott. He looked awful. His usually perfect hair was askew. He had canyons under his eyes and their blue was dulled by exhaustion.

“What the hell happened?!” Virgil tried to sit up.

And failed spectacularly. Both Scott and John reached out to hold him down, but they needn’t have bothered, his body wasn’t working. That alarmed him even more.

“Hey, Virgil, look at me.” And John was holding his gaze. “Take a breath in.”

Virgil blinked, his heart beating a mile a minute, but did as he was told. His body responded like a creaky and numb old machine.

“Now let it go.”

He did and melted into the bed, suddenly exhausted.

His eyes darted back to his wreck of an eldest brother. “What happened?”

“You fell into an ice crevasse during a rescue. Broke a few ribs and mangled your left knee. There was some bleeding.”

His medic brain filled in the gaps. “Bad?”

Scott’s eyes dipped a moment and Virgil’s heart sank. His brother looked like he had been through hell and back. “I’m sorry.”

That did it. “Are you kidding me?!”

“What?”

A pale hand reached across the bed and touched his big brother’s arm. “Scott.”

The man visibly deflated. “Not your fault, Virg.”

Virgil’s eyes searched his brother’s face. What the hell had happened?

“Virgil.” John’s soft voice drew his gaze to the other side of the bed. “You’re going to be okay. It’s going to take some time, but you’re going to be okay.”

“Okay.”

Scott dropped heavily into the chair beside the bed, his head dropping into one hand.

“Scott?”

His big brother reached out and grabbed his bandaged fingers and squeezed tight. Scott refused to look at him, his face hidden by his hand.

Virgil’s heart clenched.

It had been bad.

The need to apologise rose to his lips again, but a tug on his other arm drew his attention back to John. A subtle shake of his head and Virgil remained silent.

Another glance at Scott sitting beside him and he squeezed those fingers gently.

John dragged over his chair and sat down again, not once letting go of Virgil’s arm. He picked up his tablet and a moment later, resumed reading ‘The Hobbit’. Virgil stared at him a moment as he let the words wash over him.

He still didn’t remember much, but there was something about his little brother’s voice, something leading him on, pushing him forward, making him do what needed to be done.

He watched those turquoise eyes track text and those lips translate it.

And speak with that musical voice.

-o-o-o-

FIN.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Virgil Tracy #John Tracy #Scott Tracy #nuttyfic reblog

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daisybeewrites · 3 years ago

Text

Academy Blues — Prologue

word count: 1.8k

warnings: not any for this chapter

ship: Dousy, background Fitzsimmons and Philinda

okay y’all.. here it is. the first installment of my first LONG TERM SERIES!!!!!! ahhhh i’m so excited. literally i cant wait to continue this and see where it takes me. i have an idea and a few different planning sheets, but honestly i have no idea where exactly this will end up. i love each and single one of you <3 thank you for reading!! this is also posted on Ao3, and linked in the masterlist.

Daisy hated the sound of the bells at The Academy. Screeching, awful, way too loud, the bells were the bane of her existence. They all wore standard-issue watches from the lab that monitored vitals and gave them reminders, and also told the time, for god’s sake! Fitz had even modified hers so that she could play snake on the tiny watch face! There was no need for the bells to be so excruciatingly disruptive. Though, Daisy guessed, there were many things more tortuous than bells ringing every hour and fifteen minutes.

Daisy slowed to a jog, cutting her morning run short. The bright side to being a third-year was that you chose your schedule, for the most part, and that meant Daisy had a free first period for four out of five days of classes. She usually spent this free period getting an extra hour in at the gym, boxing or sparring with Mack or Bobbi, two fourth years that had reluctantly taken her under their wings, or sleeping in. She reserved sleeping in for especially rough nights where visions of ashes and earthquakes and lightning returned time and time again, no matter how many deep breaths she took or sheep she counted.

But this morning was not one of those mornings. She had been up before sunrise, a little before her usual alarm and silently headed out of her dorm for a run. It was humid this time of year on most Virginia mornings, but never so hot that it made Daisy feel as if she was being smothered. The cooler air chilled her sweaty skin, her chest rising and falling as she jogged up the three flights of steps to the second years’ dorms. Down one long hallway, and she arrived at her room.

Daisy had been given her own room at the start of last year, complete with poly-adaptic-proto-whatever panels, which she had painted a pastel shade of purple, to compliment the greens of her cacti and the dark purples and blacks of everything else in her room. Even May had agreed that the stark white was too ”psych wing” for a bedroom. Daisy was grateful for the space, but considering the panels and the private room were only necessary since...

She shuddered. Grabbing her shower caddy, Daisy set off to the bathroom at the opposite end of the hall, hoping no one else was spending a free first period at the dorms.

Her shoulder-length waves were wet from bouncing against her neck, and starting to become annoying now that the sweat had dried and was starting to itch. Picking the white tiled shower furthest away from the door, Daisy quickly turned the water on, checked the temperature, pulled her sports bra and shorts off and hopped into the shower. Shampoo, condition, soap body, rinse. Checking her watch, Daisy found that she had showered in record time, less than three minutes. After spending another five just enjoying the hot water, she hopped out and changed into her class clothes.

Dark purple leggings, Coulson’s grey vintage SHIELD tee and a pair of white running sneakers she had “borrowed” from Jemma completed her look. Passing the mirrors, Daisy tried not to glance at herself. If her hair was messy or her undereye bags a bit too dark, she didn’t want to know. Instead, she headed back to her room to pack her bag for the day.

SHIELD-issued laptop, extra hard drives and a charger, Advanced CS 3: Ethical Hacking: Theory and Application, Advanced CS 4: Secrets of The Coding Languages, Physics notebook, an essay that was three days late on some boring book about international laws, and her sparring gear were all thrown into the black bag. She gave a second glance at the Russian notebooks Bobbi had loaned to her, promising that she’d learn without taking the class. Oh well, she still had all of this term to start. Plus, would she ever really need more than the dirty words?

One look at the alarm clock that sat on her dark hardwood night table showed that she still had almost forty-five minutes before she had to be in the computer lab. Sitting down on her bed, Daisy ran a hand over the grey blanket May had given her.

Daisy’s relationship with May and Coulson had been something of a problem with other students when she first got here. Some had been okay with the obvious paternal love Coulson showed for Daisy, showing her around and checking up on her, scheduling lunch dates and reminding her of tests. May was more subtle, texting her links to tai chi videos when she noticed Daisy getting too stressed or letting Daisy do her own thing if she saw that she was overwhelmed. Of course, none of the other students knew her family history, what she had gone through just to realize that May and Coulson were more her parents than her biological father and mother could ever be. She would see them later today—May during field training and Coulson in between lectures in the canteen.

Daisy walked over to her window to open her blinds, staring out at the campus she had grown to love. The large brick buildings scattered around acres of the Virginia countryside; green fields meant for physical activities like sparring or obstacle courses, or simply basking in the weather to study or chat; the dorms—red brick and concrete melded together to upgrade and expand the charming style of previously-built homes.

Grabbing a protein bar, Daisy headed to the canteen to make a green smoothie (and maybe snatch a cup of joe before she had to listen to an hour-long lecture on the reason SHIELD must cooperate with the UN’s stupid rules at 7:30 in the morning). Smelling the pines and morning dew surrounding her, she smiled slightly. Maybe this term wouldn’t be so bad.

———————————————————————

Daniel Sousa was a man of honor. He was a man of great strength. Agent Daniel Sousa, previously Officer Daniel Sousa in the US Army, was a man who could fix his damn alarm clock on his own.

Just, not today. Or the day before.

So, Agent Daniel Sousa was now hurrying his way to class at The SHIELD Academy, books in hand and gym bag slung over his shoulders. Catching a glance at himself in the shiny glass doors of the bio-chem building, he groaned. He hadn’t even brushed his hair. And, looking down, he discovered he was wearing two different shoes.

This is the college experience everyone raves about, he thought bitterly. You see, Daniel Sousa had enlisted to the army straight out of high school, forgoing university. He climbed the ranks impressively quickly, earning his place as second-in-command and reconnaissance scout in the 28th Infantry Regiment. Unfortunately, after only four years in the army, Sousa was injured in the field, losing his leg and almost his life.

He came back to the US a war hero, and yet, he felt he wasn't finished. So, when a recruiter named Peggy Carter knocked on his door claiming to be from SHIELD (“Wow, you guys are still a thing?”), he leapt at the chance to continue fighti-...doing good. The Academy wasn’t exactly what he had bargained for, though. Trying to earn his B.A. and training to be an agent at the same time was grueling, but nothing he couldn’t deal with.

No, six different one hour and fifteen minute long classes plus mandatory physical therapy every day wasn’t going to break him. Learning how to be a communications agent and re-starting field training and catching up on general college education was no problem. Pressuring himself to be the best, to break the limits, to get past all his weaknesses was just another miniscule feather to add to the pile.

Unless his stupid alarm clock broke. Then yes, Agent Daniel Sousa would fail, buckle under the weight and be left on the floor to die.

Maybe he was being a bit dramatic.

One bunny-slippered right foot and a sneakered left leg carried him forward, propelled by a quickly chugged orange Celsius and his sheer will not to be late.

Daniel heard the late bell ring out, understanding that, on his first day of class, he would be counted late. It wasn’t like him, not at all. Especially when his first class was a refresher course on field tactics and covert strategy, something in which he was already aces.

He let out a sigh, slowing as he rounded the corner into the comms building. At the Academy, most buildings were grouped into categories: the cafeteria, gym and pool, and student resource building all to the south; the gun range, obstacle course, and specialized gym to the east; bio-chem labs, tech labs, and smaller rooms for lectures to the west; the computer labs and comms buildings right smack in the middle; and dorms to the north.

He swiped a key card with his driver’s license picture and student ID, unlocking the sliding doors that led to the computer labs. It was quicker to short cut through them than to walk around the building to the entrance closest to communications classrooms.

It wasn’t because he knew a certain broody brunette spent her mornings in the lab.

No, it wasn’t, because she wasn’t in her usual seat in the corner, typing away.

He slowly walked through the rows of computers, searching for a familiar black backpack. Nothing was there.

“Hey, Sousa,” an accented female voice called behind him. He whipped around to see who it was, feeling just a twinge of disappointment when Elena, or, as most people knew her, Yo-Yo, was leaning against the door frame. Yo-Yo, a fourth year operations trainee, who was very close with Daisy.

“Hey, Yo-Yo. Good morning,” he called, “I’m running a bit late.”

Elena checked her nails casually, “Way to state the obvious. You were running faster than I could trying to get here before the bell.”

Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and blushed. “Yeah…”

“Daisy’s running late today, too.”

Daniel looked around, pretending that hearing Daisy’s name didn’t make him want to smile. “Oh, of course. She’s usually here early.”

Elena nodded, chuckling a little at his response. She couldn’t tell if he was oblivious or just a bad liar. It was charming, really. “Right. See ya ‘round, Sousa!”

“See ya,” He replied. He thought he heard a quiet ‘Lovable nerds’ coming from the direction she left, but he couldn’t be sure.

And so, with a last look around the computer lab, Daniel set off to arrive late to May’s lecture.

———————————————————————

okay okay,,, what do y’all think?? like/reblog and let me know! it’s the best way to support writers and it only takes a second! stay tuned for more chapters!!

#academy blues #daisy johnson #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.#dousy #daisy johnson x daniel sousa #timequake #daniel sousa #jemma simmons #leo fitz #fitzsimmons #philinda #philindaisy #ashby’s fics #marvels aos #au!

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cheeriecherry · 4 years ago

Text

Space Between [8/9] [Aizawa Shouta x Reader x Yamada Hizashi]

EraserMic x f!Reader

Part 8/9

Warnings: mentions of panic attacks, some fluff, no beta we die like men

It’s dark. So dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, or your breath in the air as it heaves from your lungs. The cold is all encompassing, and the damp chills your bones and makes them ache.

Where are you?

Water drips from a leaking pipe somewhere off to the side. You feel like you should know the place, but the name escapes you. A basement? A warehouse?

Where are you?

“Tell me who you work for boy, and who you brought with you.”

You whip towards the sound of the voice, a shiver crawling down your spine. You’d know that cruel, grating lilt anywhere...but if she was here, did that mean you were…? No, you couldn’t be back there. It was too dark, too silent, to empty…

“I’m not working for anyone! I’m loyal to-”

A slap cracks in the quiet, cutting sharp into your ears. You take a hesitant step towards the flurry of sound, then another, and soon you’re sprinting through the darkness.

A little piece of you knows you’re not getting anywhere.

“I’ll give you one more chance, hero scum. Give me the name of your partner, and I’ll let you live.”

Your foot catches on something unseen, and you topple forwards, colliding heavy with the wet ground. Your palms sting against the grainy floor, and your breathing is thick and laboured.

You look up to try and something, anything, in the pitch black.

“I...don’t...have one…”

You gasp and fling yourself away from the sudden and intrusive gurgling voice in your ear. So close, but so broken and distorted. You squeeze your eyes shut and fold your hands over your ears in preparation. You know what happens next. You know, and you don’t want to see, don’t want to hear it. Not again.

Just give her my name, you beg silently, wishing more than anything that the outcome of the situation would be different this time. Just give her my name!

A gun cocks, loud and violating, despite your covered ears.

A cold, violent laugh.

“Then you die alone.”

You gasp awake to the sound of a gunshot ringing in your mind. You’re covered in a cool sheen of sweat, trembling like an earthquake. You glance frantically around the room, looking for any signs of danger, and only when you find none does your heart begin to slow. You sit up.

Outside the window, the sky is lightening. The sun hasn’t risen yet, leaving the dawn greenish and undisturbed.

Shouta appears in the doorway, and you regard each other silently. He clearly hadn’t expected you to be awake at this hour, but everything in your panicked expression tells him why you are. He takes a seat on the edge of the bed, half-dressed.

“Nightmare?” he asks, though he already knows the answer. Still, you nod weakly.

“You were talking in your sleep,” he says quietly, as unthreatening as he can manage, “in English. Something about your name.”

That’s all it takes for you to burst out crying, tears exploding forth and pained wails breaking from your chest. Shouta moves towards you slowly and wraps his arms around you in a tight hug.

“My name,” you weep, leaning heavily against him, “why didn’t the stupid kid just give her my name?!”

Your boyfriend rubs soothing circles into your back, not truly knowing how to answer you.

“She made him give everything else! Why wouldn’t he give my name?! I was right there! I could have helped! I could have fought! He’d still be alive-”

You cry harder into his shirt, and remain tucked in Shouta’s embrace for several minutes. Your sobs eventually turn to snotty sniffles, though neither of you pay any mind to the mess you’re making on his shirt.

“He...he didn’t even give me the option to try and save him. If my cover had been blown, then I…”

“Would probably be dead, too.” Shouta’s voice is low and pained, as if merely speaking the words caused him distress.

You peek up at him through wet lashes. “You don’t know that.”

“I do,” he says, “Up until a few days ago, you were in no shape to fight Akuma and win. If you’d stood up back then, your partner would still be dead, and you’d be beside him, and every bastard you’ve put behind bars would still be out there.”

“But how do you know?” your voice crackles, fresh tears springing up. “How do you know I couldn’t have saved him?”

“How do you know you could have?”

You’re both quiet for several beats, before you sigh deeply and set your head back on his shoulder.

“I...don’t.”

You stay like that for another couple minutes, listening closely to the beat of his heart and the steady thrum of his breathing. And once your anxiety begins to settle, you start to squirm.

“You’re gonna be late for work, Sho.”

He pushes the hair off your face, and lays a tender kiss on your forehead. “The kids will understand.”

You grumble a little, and offer him a tired smile. “Thank you. But really, I think I’m okay now. It’s easier getting through this when you or Hizashi are around.”

Shouta looks like he doesn’t quite believe you, but he knows coddling you will only make you mad. You’ve come far enough, trusting him to see you during a vulnerable moment. He wasn’t going to push it further.

“Promise you’ll call me if you start feeling less okay.”

You roll your eyes lightheartedly. “Yes, dad.”

“I’m serious, Y/N. Me or Hizashi. We’ll talk with you through whatever’s causing you problems.”

You avert your gaze from his, inklings of guilt creeping into your heart. “You’re not my therapists,” you tell him softly, “You shouldn’t have to talk me through anything. It’s not your job to deal with all my fucked up shit.”

“But we do love you.” He reaches down and takes your face in his hands, thumbs gently stroking over your damp cheeks. “We’ll support you however you need, no matter what. We want to be there for you, okay?”

You lean into his touch for a couple seconds, letting your eyes fall shut.

“Alright,” you relent, “if something happens, I’ll call one of you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

He leans forward and kisses you, then stands to continue dressing. You watch him as he moves around the room, collecting his various accessories and pouches, pointing things out to him whenever he can’t find it.

He’s out of the house a few minutes later, leaving you with a warm goodbye and a tight hug. Hizashi had gone even earlier, which now left you completely alone in the house.

It seemed more spacious than it usually did, now that you’re on your own. No background din of partners moving around, no sounds of quiet conversation, or television music. Your chest dully aches as you flop back onto the bed and pull the blankets over your body.

You didn’t particularly want to go back to sleep, but you could feel the tiredness still in your limbs, and the heaviness behind your eyes. On top of that, your therapist had suggested you try some breathing exercises when trying to fall asleep, and you’d yet to try them out. Even if you didn’t pass back out, it might still be enough to allow you to lay there with your eyes shut.

Lo and behold, not thirty seconds after you start measuring your breaths, you begin to drift off.

----

The next time you wake, it’s nearly one in the afternoon. You feel surprisingly rested with the extra couple of hours, but you’re even more amazed with the lack of recurring nightmares. Plain, decent rests were few and far between.

Feeling revived, you’re able to look at your earlier dream more logically. It’s obvious now that your past is still haunting you, and that you’re even further stressed about the events to come. Your confrontation with Akuma is less than a week away, and you can finally see how much it’s weighing on you.

You’ve been trying your best to remain optimistic, to prepare yourself mentally for the oncoming fight, but you’re just so...tired. All the time. Exhausted down to your very core. You know that therapy will help you in the long run, and that’s what you’re planning for, but you know it’ll be months until you start feeling the affects.

You might not even have months left to live.

You sigh deeply, wishing your negative thoughts would leave you alone. Your phone sits on the bedside table beside you, silently taunting you. You could call one of your boyfriends...but did this count as a stressful time; dealing with the very hard truth?

Probably not.

And you don’t want to feel like a burden, like you need help with every tiny thing.

You could get through this on your own, you decide. You had an appointment in three hours, so if you could make it that long, you’d be okay.

But...maybe you’d leave a little earlier than usual. Getting out of the house would probably be good for you, so maybe you’d stop to get a coffee before your session...

Your heart warms at the thought of a warm drink and a snack, so you roll out of bed and start going about your day. No more moping around, you tell yourself. You were going to hold your head high, and hope your mood gets the memo.

----

It’s a nice afternoon for a walk. Not too hot, not too cold, sunny with white fluffy clouds dotted around, and a light breeze. You sip at the drink in your hand, letting the sweet taste soothe you from the inside out. You weren’t entirely sure whereabouts you were, having been wandering the city aimlessly for the past half hour.

Oddly enough, it didn’t bother you. Most often, you liked to know your exact location, to know which way you could run if you needed to. But today, despite your earlier panic, you feel...good. Light. You can’t describe the sudden onslaught of positivity, but you know it’s there. Maybe because Shouta and Hizashi are just a phonecall away, maybe it’s because you’re taking the time to care for yourself, maybe it’s-

You nearly jump out of your skin when a car alarm starts blaring beside you. Anyone around you would probably chuckle at your actions, and you take a second to smile at yourself.

A shop owner must have seen your distress, because he nods apologetically at you as he rushes out of his store to turn the alarm off. He looks tired and spread thin, not unlike your own reflection, and you pause momentarily to watch him walk back into the shop.

You glance over the flyers pasted to the windows, and an odd tremor crawls up your spine.

You try for a moment to chalk it up to your regular anxiety returning, flaring up from your spook a few moments ago...but something in the back of your mind tells you otherwise, some intricately honed survival sense that you’d obtained from years of being under threat.

You look a little closer at the papers in the window.

Most of them are outdated; old advertisements for food deals and community events, images of a couple lost pets. But there’s one sheet at the very center of the mess that catches your eye.

The paper is so pink it’s nearly blinding in the sunlight, but you’re still able to read the details. A charity event at the shop where it’s posted, one day only, when proceeds from every order will be donated to local food banks.

Usually something like that would have you scribbling the date down to participate...but this one freezes your heart to ice and sends another peculiar tremble through your body.

It’s dated for next week. The very day Akuma is meant to attack.

You skitter back a few steps and look up at the store’s sign, fear beginning to roil around in your gut.

Chicken shop. Cartoon chicken mascot.

This is wrong, you think. She’s not meant to attack until next week.

You hurry along from the shop, nearly running as you try to get out of the immediate area. You cut and dive around various slower-paced people, paying them no mind as they scold you for your rudeness.

But no matter how quickly you run, you can’t shake the feeling of impending danger.

You duck into a small nook beside a larger building, a building you’re fairly certain is the radio station from Oracle’s vision, and pull out your phone.

You feel so stupid, while the phone rings and you wait for Shouta to pick up. Oracle has said they couldn’t confirm the date for sure, but you’d pitted everything on them being right. They’d even warned you to be careful about where you go, until the event happened, but you hadn’t listened.

“Shit,” your curse, when you get put through to your boyfriend’s voicemail, bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other.

“Shouta, listen to me,” you tell the recording, “We got the date wrong. I was stupid. I wasn’t careful enough, and I’m downtown. I don’t think this is my mind playing tricks on me, not this time. It feels different. I think Akuma-”

Your breath freezes in your lungs when something cold and pliable wraps around your throat, and a warm body presses against your back. You try to squirm away, but more icy tar wraps around your extremities, holding you in place.

“Hello, little mouse,” Akuma coos, sickly sweet in your ear, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Your phone falls out of your hand, landing on the sidewalk with a wet splat. It feels disgusting as Akuma’s tendrils wire and snake around your body, soaking through your clothes and into your skin. Your vision is already beginning to fade, and your breath is laboured as the air is choked out of your lungs.

“Your little partner resisted his death, but I have a feeling you won’t make the same mistake.”

The final thought you have is one of Shouta and Hizashi, holding you close with warmth and affection.

Then the world goes black.

#aizawa x reader #aizawa shouta x reader #yamada hizashi x reader #present mic x reader #erasermic x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #Space Between

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bleachanimefan1 · 3 years ago

Text

Turtles Forever Part 74

Same As It Never Was

Donnie was sitting in his chair talking with April while looking over some schematics. "Donnie its hard to believe that you actually traveled through time like that," she commented.

"I know, April. It's wild, isn't it?" Donnie replied. "But it really was the year 1406 and we were there, all because of the time scepter."

"Well, anything's possible," April replied. "I think Uncle Augie's artifact taught me that."

"I know," Donnie answered. "I was going through some of your uncles' calculations and-" Suddenly, the lair began to shake. "I think we're having an earthquake!"

"Nothing's happen over-" Then April's feed was cut off. In the middle of the lair from the pool, a portal rose out from the water.

"Master Splinter, what's going on?" Leo questioned, as Donnie rushed in.

"We've seen that kind of energy before," he pointed out, and as soon as he did, the ultimate ninja emerged from the portal.

"Drako!" Splinter exclaimed.

"And the Daimyo's son," Leo finished. "This is what we've told you about, Master Splinter. They've merged somehow, combined together."

"All into one ugly package," Raph commented as he walked into the room, squinting his eyes from the bright light. Mona had rushed in along with him, after putting Elizabeth down for a nap when she heard the commotion as well.

"We told you we would return," the Ultimate ninja declared. "We told you we would have our revenge!"

"Revenge this, whack bag!" Raph yelled running to them, spinning his sais. The Ultimate ninja used the time scepter freezing Raph in midair as he jumped to kick. He grabbed Raph with his tail, throwing him into the pillar.

"As if you could simply fight us! We control time and space with Lord Simultaneous time scepter! We are unbeatable," the ultimate ninja declared.

"Someone quick!" Donnie called as everyone jumped at the ultimate ninja to stop him. "Grab the-" He shoots out another blast of energy freezing everyone.

"Now we will have our vengeance," Drako said. The Daimyo's son glared, looking at Leo.

"Leonardo, destroy him first!"

"No, we agreed. The rat first then the Daimyo, your father," Drako answered, looking at Splinter.

"Then Leonardo." The Daimyo's son replied.

"They will pay, all of them." Drako declared.

"Yes, all of them will learn the meaning of suffering across time and space!" All Donnie saw was a bright blinding light. Then he found himself falling as he landed on the ground. Donnie quickly got back up ready to fight the Ultimate ninja. But, he saw that the lair was empty, and not only that, completely destroyed and in ruins.

"Huh? Master Splinter?" Donnie called out. He received no response as his voice echoed in the lair. "Venus? Yuuki? Leo? Raph? Mikey? Anybody?"

Donnie knocked down the door to the elevator, leading up to the garage. "The entire lair is trashed, even the warehouse. Huh?" he stopped in front of the Tunneler as he saw it. "The Tunneler looks like it's still in one piece. But, this place feels like it's been abandoned for a long time. None of this makes any sense."

Donnie walked outside from the warehouse. He heard helicopters hovering above him then spotlights shined on Donnie, blinding him. He squinted his eyes trying to see who it was.

"Attention citizen! Place your hands in the air and drop your weapons!" a voice called out. "Repeat, hands up and drop your weapons." Hesitantly, Donnie did as he was told and raised his hands up. As a couple of the men began approaching him, Donnie spotted an Foot insignia on one of the soldier's arm. His eyes widen, glaring at it. Quickly, Donnie pulled out his staff, ready to fight them.

Suddenly, Donnie felt a rush of air, as a shuriken flew past him. It landed in front of Donnie and the Foot soldiers feet. They look up to see a shadowy figure on the roof of the warehouse.

"On the roof! Get a light on him! Open fire, open fire!" The soldiers immediately open fire on the assailant as they jumped down from the roof, rushing past the soldiers. Donnie couldn't see who it was as they stayed to the shadows. They quickly took cover behind a car and the Foot soldiers fired at it, demolishing it. One of the soldiers walked over, to check, when the hood of the car quickly opens, smacking him in the face sending the soldier crashing into another.

The person jumps up, dodging the lasers, as the soldiers fired at them. Donnie saw them pull out a nunchuck, as it swung, attacking the soldiers, taking every single one of them out.

"Mikey?"

They tossed the Foot soldiers into the car, closing the hood on them. Then the helicopter shined it's light on the shadow, revealing a turtle, wearing an orange mask, that looked like Mikey. The helicopter fired at him as he cartwheeled over to a gun lying on the ground. They picked it up and shot at the soldiers cars blowing them up, then quickly fired at the helicopter, blowing it up, sending it crashing to the ground. The turtle dropped the gun as Donnie ran up to him.

"Mikey, I am so glad to see you!" Donnie smiled, hugging him. The turtle chuckled.

"I thought that you was the smart one, uncle Donnie." Donnie froze. Uncle? He stepped back from the turtle that looked like Mikey. His eyes widened as he looked closer. This turtle was a little taller in height but smaller build than Mikey. However, he did have Mikey's freckles on his cheeks and light blue eyes.

"I-I I'm sorry. I thought you were-" Donnie stammered still in shock.

"Someone else?" the turtle laughed. He looked at Donnie and introduced himself. "My name's Kitaro, but Kit for short. I've heard all lot of stories from my dad about you."

"Your father?" Donnie questioned.

"You are in a lot of trouble." the two of them heard a familiar voice call out. Kitaro flinched while Donnie's eyes widened, realizing Mikey's voice. However, his voice sounded older, more deeper. Then Kitaro was suddenly smacked on the back of his head by a hand.

"Oww!" He yelped in pain. "Why?!" Mikey stood over him with an angry look.

"Dad, what the shell?!" Kitaro whined. "That hurt!"

"What are you doing out of the hideout?" Mikey demanded. Kitaro cringed at his harsh tone. "You know that it's dangerous! What you did was reckless! What if you died?!"

"I was bored. Besides, I can handle myself," Kit argued.

"Kitaro," Mikey warned.

"And I'm glad I did!" Kit shouted, and pointed at Donnie. "Look at who I've found!"

"Mikey?!" Donnie exclaimed. Mikey turned around, seeing Donnie in front of him.

"So it's really you. You came back." Donnie's eyes widen in shock seeing how different his brother looked. He looked older, his mask covered his head, and body was covered completely in scars.

Then Donnie noticed that Mikey's left arm was missing. "Mikey, y-your arm! What happened to your arm?"

"You're the one that's got some questions to answer. Where the shell have you've been all these years?" Mikey demanded.

"All these years?" Donnie asked, confused.

"You've been gone over 30 years, Donatello." Mikey said. Donnie's eyes widen in shock. 30 years?! That can't be...

"30 years?" Donnie asked in surprise. "It' can't be!"

"It can be and it is," Mikey answered. "We thought that you were dead. How the shell could you just abandon us like that?"

"I didn't!" Donnie insisted, shaking his head. "I've never abandoned you guys. One minute, we were all in the lair together, the next minute, I woke up here. I don't know how."

"So, the turtle with the big brain, doesn't have all the answers," Mikey retorted. "Who'd have thunk it? But, we can't talk here." He grabbed Kitaro by his mask, dragging him along, and stepped into the shadows, walking away. "Come on." Donnie followed after him.

Deep in the depths of the city, Foot soldiers ran across the roofs as well as scouring the streets. A giant blimp flew above with Karai's face.

"Always serve the Shredder. He is your lord and master. Serve the Shredder and live."

Donnie, Mikey, and Kitaro, dodged the soldiers and ran into an alley. Mikey pulled open a sewer grate.

"Where are we going, Mikey?" Donnie asked.

"I'm taking you to Master Splinter," Mikey explained.

"Are Leo and Raph with him?" Donnie questioned. Mikey turned, looking at him with disbelief.

"You kiddin'? Leo and Raph aren't with anybody anymore..." He jumped down into the grate, Kitaro jumped in after him. Donnie stood in shock, wondering what he meant then jumped down with them.

"Beware what you do." Karai's voice warned over the city. "The Shredder is watching, always watching."

The three stopped at a sewage plant, with overgrown trees.

"Where are all the people?" Donnie wondered.

"You mean the one's that survived?" Mikey responded as they ran. "They're forced to work 18 hour days in the Shredder's labor camps. No one's allowed out at night." He stopped pulling back a branch, blocking the way.

"What happened between Leo and Raph?" Donnie asked.

"Let's just say they got into a big fight a long time ago." Mikey answered, continuing on. As they ran, Donnie started to phase and stopped.

"What the shell?" he asked to himself, confused. He shook his head, brushing it off, and quickly ran after Mikey and Kitaro, catching up to them.

"When you never came back, Donnie, well...everything just fell apart. We were a team. Without you, it just didn't work." Mikey turned to him. "Guess we really needed that level head of yours."

"How is that possible?" Donnie asked in disbelief. "What about Yuuki? Mona? Why didn't they stop them? What about Master Splinter, where is he?"

Mikey pointed to a wooden pillar. "He's over there."

Donnie looked closer to the pillar to see that it was a grave. It had Splinter's name and his walking staff leaning against it. Donnie eyes widen in shock.

"No..." he walked over to the the grave, kneeling down. "Master Splinter is...no!" Donnie slammed his fist, hard on the ground, in despair.

"Master Yoshi used to bring him here in the park, back in the day..." Mikey said, sadly. "It's not the safest place, but it's were Sensei wanted to be buried."

Donnie turned to him sadly. "H-How?!"

"A couple years, after you disappeared, Master Splinter gave his life protecting us." Mikey told him. Donnie shut his eyes. This has to be a dream. This can not be real!

"I can't believe this place. It's all...so horrible."

"You'll get used to it." Mikey answered. "Besides, what can you do? It's the way it is." Donnie stood up, looking at Mikey.

"It's not the way it is!" Donnie insisted, determinedly. "Maybe I can't change the past, but that doesn't mean there isn't a way to change the present. We've got to face the Shredder and take him down!"

Mikey chuckled. "We've tried...too many times."

"We're going to try again, Mikey." Donnie said.

"You got a plan?" Mikey asked.

"I'm working on it." Donnie walked up to him. "but we're going to need the others."

"That's a tall order, Donnie." Mikey murmured. "But, I think I know somebody that can help."

"Resistance team 7, this is Ops. Proceed to target."

An older looking April was looking over some blueprints. She had grey hair and wrinkles on her face. She turned to one of her soldiers. "Take this to Angel, her commandos will have to destroy that fuel dump before it gets moved on Friday." She handed her a piece of paper with plans on it. The soldier saluted her.

"Yes, sir!"

"Yo, rebel leader!" Mikey called out. April turned to look at him and was surprised seeing Donnie. "Look what the cat dragged in." She walked over to the three.

"April?" Donnie asked, happily.

"Donatello, you came back!" April exclaimed, overjoyed, immediately hugging him. "Splinter always said you would! Casey and the others too!"

"Where are Casey and the others? That bonehead," Donnie asked. April and Mikey had solemn looks on their faces as a picture of Casey, Yuuki, Mona and Alopex was hanging on a wall. Mikey turned to Kitaro.

"Kit, I want you to go and find your sisters," he told him. "Stay with them for a while."

"But, dad, I want to-" Kit tried to argue but Mikey cut him off.

"Now." he warned. Kit whined and skulked away, leaving the room.

"Mikey, where's Alopex?" Donnie asked. "I'm surprised not to see her here with you. I'm more surprised that you have kids. How many do you have?"

"Three," Mikey told him. "Two girls, twins, Luna and Una and you've already met Kit."

"And Alopex?" Donnie wondered. Mikey sighed sadly. "When Kit was born, there were complications. She didn't make it. Maybe, if you were there at the time, she might have had a chance. I-I don't know, let's drop this, please."

"Mikey, I-I'm sorry, I didn't-" Mikey shook his head. "I don't blame you, Donnie. It just happens sometimes. That's why I told Kit to leave, I didn't want him to hear this."

"Well, well, well..." Stockman's voice was heard. Donnie's eyes widen. "Donatello."

"What the?" Donnie quickly pulled out his staff when he saw Hun in a wheelchair coming over to him.

"Looking younger than ever." Hun had Stockman's brain in a jar, attached to his shoulder. Both of them looked old was well, Hun was losing his hair and was white, while Stockman's brain looked shriveled up and wrinkled. "And how do we look? Just another one of the Shredder's punishments. Don't be impolite, Hun, say hello."

"Greetings Donatello." Hun greeted him. April held Donnie back.

"Relax, Donnie." she told him. "They're on our side. We've saved them from being executed about five years back."

"Donnie?" Donnie's eyes widen hearing Venus voice. He turned around to see her standing by the doorway.

"V-Venus?" Her skin had a paler color to it. However, she looked exactly like she did when he saw her. Guess, being an alien means slower aging process? He deducted to himself as she walked over to him. Venus wrapped her arms around him, hugging Donnie tightly.

"I can't believe it! It's really you!" she cried. "You came back!" Donnie hugged her back, still in shock but happy to see her.

"It's great to see you, V," Donnie said. He looked around, but didn't see Donna anywhere. "Where's Donna?" he asked.

"She's with the other kids and Elizabeth," Venus told him. "But, there's something that you should know about her."

"What is it?" Donnie asked.

"Donna is our daughter." Venus explained, calmly, to him. "Your daughter." Donnie's eyes widen in shock.

"Are you sure? H-How do you know that?" he stammered nervously, still in shock.

"She has my eyes. And I'm the only turtleoid that I know who has them. She also has magic that only my people have," Venus told him. "And she has your smarts." Donnie was at a lost for thought. Donna was his daughter?! A daughter from the future!

Hun wheeled his chair over to the two.

"This life is worse," Hun commented. "I'd wish I'd been put out of my misery."

"And I wish that you have been put out of MY misery, you miserable misanthrope," Stockman retorted. Donnie walked over to the wall looking at the pictures. This shouldn't have been this way. How did this happen? He was going to put an end to this nightmare of a future, no matter what.

"April, there's got to be a way to end all this," Donnie insisted. "Can you get Leonardo and Raphael to meet me?"

"I can try." she answered.

Karai, now grey haired as well, walked over to the Shredder, kneeling down to him. "My lord, I bring news."

"Speak Karai." Shredder was in his room as his large shadow cast over Karai.

"Our enforcers were in a skirmish near the turtle's old lair. Sensors have identified the attacker. It is the turtle, Donatello." she reported.

"So, the prodigal son have returned. Excellent. I want Donatello's head brought here before me with or without his body." Shredder smirked, evilly. "Better yet, I will send out my most loyal assassin to go after him. I know she'll finish the job." A slim figure of a woman walked up to Karai as she came out from the shadows.

Karai's eyes widen, seeing who it was...she turned back to the Shredder and bowed her head slightly.

"Yes master," the woman told him. "I will do as you command."

It was in the middle of the night as one of Shredder's blimps flew over the city. A figure in a black coat appeared in front of a old museum and ran inside of it, it was Leo. He was heavily scarred and was now blind as he wore black glasses. He heard someone jumped down behind him and pulled out his weapon turning around to face them. It was Raph.

His left eye was missing, and was wearing a familiar brown jacket and fingerless gloves.

"What the shell are you doing here?" he asked.

"Raph?" Leo asked, surprised. "April's guys didn't say anything about you being here."

"Oh, what's the matter, Leo? Need I remind you how you made us abandoned Master Splinter and Yuuki when they needed us most!" Raph glared angrily, pushing Leo. "Mona would still be here right now."

"It's what he wanted Raph! To save us!" Leo shouted. "If we had gone back there, we would have all been destroyed! How dare you bring Yuuki into this!"

"How dare I?!" Raph argued. "We could have saved them!"

"You know we couldn't!" Leo explained, angrily. "It was their choice!"

"No!" Raph growled, pushing him away.

"Alright, Raph, I'm through talking! Let's settle this once and for all!" The two brothers were about to strike each other when a staff swung out, knocking them both down to the ground. Raph sat up, his eyes going wide in disbelief, seeing Donnie.

"What?" He gasped in still shock.

"Leo, Raph, we need to talk," Donnie put away his bo staff and held out to hands, helping the two up.

"Donnie? No way!" Raph hugged him. Donnie's eyes widen in surprise. Raph wasn't exactly the type of person to hug someone. This was a shocker for him.

"Donatello! You're back! I don't believe it!" Leo commented happily.

"Believe it," Mikey said, walking up to them along with April and Venus. "And brainiac here wants to go up against the Shredder."

"We've already tried it Donnie. How do you think we lost Casey and the others?" Leo explained.

"The Shredder's palace is surround by an army of Foot police," Raph added.

"And Utrominators," Leo continued.

"And Karai Legions." Raph finished.

"You can't even get inside to fight him," Leo replied.

"And if you could, you couldn't beat him," Everyone turned to see Hun and Stockman as they wheeled up. "The Shredder's new exosuit is stronger than ever. I should know, I designed it."

"It's impossible," Leo explained.

"It can't be done, Donnie," Raph said, solemnly. "It's hopeless."

"I don't know what happened to you guys, but the turtles that I knew believe that nothing's ever hopeless." Donnie clenches his fist, placing his hands on Leo and Raph's shoulder. "Please, we can do this."

Leo and Raph looked at each other. Raph held out his hand, for Leo to shake it and he did.

"Alright, Donnie," Leo spoke. "We'll do this one more time, but please, tell me that we have a fighting chance."

"I've been working up a plan," Donnie explained. "Do we have any hardware? Exosuits? Anything?"

"Well, we've captured a Karai Legion bot that Dr. Stockman has been modifying," Venus answered, jerking her thumb at Hun and Stockman.

"Good, that's a start," Donnie replied. "But, there's something we'll need from the lair."

"The lair?" Raph asked, surprised. "It got wasted years ago."

"Not all of it." Donnie told him.

As everyone walked away leaving the museum. Leo suddenly stopped. Donnie and the others turned to him.

"Is there something wrong?" Donnie asked.

"Yeah, what's the hold up?" Raph questioned.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." Leo told them. "We're being watched."

"That's impossible. I carefully made sure that we could met discretely," April answered. Suddenly, a couple of shurikens flew out heading towards Donnie, as well as Leo. Donnie dodged as he jumped out of the way from the projectiles, while Leo deflected some with his sword.

"Assassin!" Mikey called out. Pointing to the roof tops, seeing a shadowy figure up top. Raph and Leo chased after them. Donnie turned April and Venus.

"Wait, here with Hun and Stockman," he told them. Then Mikey and him went after Leo and Raph, following them.

Raph and Leo, along with Mikey and Donnie landed on the roof tops. They searched around, looking for the assailant, but saw no one. Suddenly, someone lunged out from the shadows, heading towards Donnie. Donnie held them back with his staff as he blocked their knife with it. His eyes widen and he gasped in shock, Mikey, Leo, and Raph, as well.

"Yuuki?!" Donnie shouted.

She looked older as well. Her long hair was chopped, reaching down to her neck, with some small grey hairs here and there. She was wearing a fishnet garment, with a pink shirt over it, a long red scarf wrapped around her neck, worn out blue jeans.

"Yuuki?" Leo called out. She didn't even turn to look at him. Her sights were dead set on Donnie.

"How did she even survive?" Raph asked surprised to see her as well.

"Ask questions later," Mikey told them. "Right now, we need to stop her."

Donnie noticed a strange device attached to Yuuki's head with a foot symbol on it.

"Sorry about this, Yuuki," Donnie apologized and then he kicked her away from him. Leo charged at her, trying to disarm her.

"Guys, she's being controlled!" Donnie called out. "There's a device on the side of her head. If we destroy it, she should be able to snap out of it!"

"Smash it? You're talking my language," Raph smirked. He and Mikey charged, running towards Yuuki and Leo. Leo tried to hold her where she was till Raph and Mikey got there, but was knocked away. She turned to Donnie and ran towards him. She was fast and more than agile than Donnie remembered. This was going to be difficult.

"Snap of it, kiddo!" Raph shouted. Yuuki spun around and kicked Raph knocking him back while Mikey jumped and swung his nunchuck at her, hoping to hit the device.

Yuuki rolled out of the way, then sweeped her leg underneath Mikey, knocking him to the ground. Leo jumped at her bring his sword down.

"I'm sorry, Yuuki," Leo replied. "But this is for you own good!" He managed to slice the device off, breaking it.

Yuuki stopped with her knife raised in the air and blinked. She looked down to see Donnie underneath her.

"Donnie?" she asked confused, but happy to see him. "Y-You're back!"

"I've been getting that a lot lately," Donnie replied, sighing in relief. Yuuki got off of him then froze and turned to the other three brothers. "Raph? Mikey?" she paused when she saw Leo. "Leo?"

"You don't know how happy I am to see you," Raph replied. Yuuki noticed that Raph was wearing her brown jacket, now looking worn and weathered.

"Is that my jacket?" she asked.

"I found it after you disappeared," he told her. Raph was about to take it off when Yuuki stopped him.

"Keep it. It looks good on you," she told him. Leo walked over to her.

"We thought that you were dead," Leo replied. "How did you make it out?"

"I was captured," Yuuki explained. "The only the I remembered was telling you to leave me and to save Raph and Mikey after Splinter was struck down. Then the next thing, here I am."

"You've been under the Shredder's control," Donnie explained to her. "But, not anymore. I putting an end to this."

"How?" she asked.

"I'll explain on the way," Donnie told her. Leo stepped over to her.

"By the way, I think you'll be need this back," he handed Yuuki her tessen. She smiled took it from him.

"It's great to see you again, Leo,"

"Wish I could say the same," Leo replied. Yuuki frowned until they widen when she noticed scars near Leo's eyes, realizing that he was blind. She reached out and pulled the strap that held Leo's katana pulling her closer to him.

"Yuuki, what are you-" Leo felt a pair of lips brush across his as Yuuki kissed him.

Utrom slaves flew over the Shredder's lair, while Karai walked into the room, bowing in front of Shredder. "Master, the Utrom slaves have finished building the transmat. It will be operational in two hours."

"Excellent," he told her. Then the Tunneler bursted out from the ground. The door opened. "Who dares?" Mikey jumped out then Leo, Yuuki, Venus and Raph. Donnie stepped out wearing an exosuit from a Karai legion bot standing in front of them.

"Can the Shredder come out and play?" he called out, teasing.

"So," Karai moved out of the way as the doors open. "The turtles have been reunited." The Shredder stepped out, wearing an massive heavily armored exosuit covered in blades. The evil Utrom was wrinkly, from age, and color was a slightly lighter tone. "It is 30 years over due and I will finally end your pathetic lives!" He stated.

"Shredder!" Donnie growled. Your reign of terror is over!"

"Legions!" Karai called out. "Attack!" The Karai legion bots ran around Donnie and the others surrounding them. "Destroy them all!" They deployed their weapons and attacked.

"For Master Splinter!" Donnie shouted, firing from the weapons of his suit. April stepped out with a mini rocket gun in hand, firing at the bots, fighting them as well. Hun wheeled out of the Tunneler.

"Hun, stop!" ?Stockman protested in fear and in anger as well. "What are you doing?! We're suppose to stay in the Tunneler!"

"Master, please!" Hun begged as he stopped at the Shredder. "Take me back!"

"What?" Stockman asked surprised.

"I'll serve you! Please!" Hun insisted.

"Hun, what are you doing?" Stockman argued.

"Exterminating you two traitors will be an added bonus for today's great victory," Shredder declared, raising his foot over Hun and Stockman.

"Aw, crud." Shredder crushes them with his foot, smiling evilly. Leo, Yuuki, Raph, Mikey are surround by Karai bots.

"Come on! We gotta buy Donnie a little more time. Keep the bots busy!" Mikey told them. He ran up to a bot and started to attack it with his nunchuck. Mikey ducked as the bot striked with it's sword then he wrapped his nunchuck around it and threw the bot over his shoulder. He dodges out of the way as a silver bot attacked him. Mikey landed on the floor but was soon surrounded as well. "Donnie! Donnie! I'm-"

Slices were heard as Mikey screamed.

"Mikey! No!" Donnie shouted. The bots moved out of the way revealing Mikey lying on the floor dead. The bots turned their attention to Donnie and ran at him while Donnie knocked them away.

"You'll pay for this Shredder!" he exclaimed rushing to the Shredder. "If it's the last thing I do, you will pay!" Donnie fired multiple laser at the Shredder in rage. He stopped raising an cautious eyebrow when a hand suddenly emerged from the smoke, grabbing him, lifting Donnie up.

"Thirty years and this is all you have? Truly pathetic," Shredder spatted out, ripping the arms off from Donnie's exosuit. Donnie screamed as he landed on the floor. "Disgusting creature." He kicked Donnie away from him.

"Donnie!" Leo and Yuuki called out.

Shredder was about to grab Donnie but he was kicked back. Venus stood in front of Donnie standing between the Shredder and him.

"Don't you touch him!" she shouted.

"Venus, get out of here!" Donnie called out, trying to get his suit back online.

"No!" Venus argued. "I'm going to lose you again!" Donnie's eyes widen when he saw the Shredder inching closer to Venus.

"Venus, watch out!" he tried to warn her. She turned around, but the Shredder grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up. She tried to break free from his hold. Shredder laughed. Venus gasped as the Shredder began to squeeze her throat tighter.

"Leave her alone," Donnie shouted. "I'm the one you want!" Donnie heard a snap and Venus went limp. He felt his heart stop as he saw Shredder toss her and she fell to the floor, dead.

"Shredder!" Donnie roared in rage. "You are going to pay for this."

Two Karai bots attacked Leo and Yuuki. The two took them out, when Karai ran towards them, sword drawn.

"I beg you," she pleaded. "Leave this place or you will force me to do that which my duty commands."

Leo knocked her back while Yuuki kicked her away but Karai grabbed Yuuki by her leg and swung her, causing her to smack into Leo, sending them crashing into an display case.

"Not this time, Karai," Leo shook his head. "This time you have to make a choice! Once and for all!" He and Yuuki jumped at Karai, attacking her. Leo picked up a severed bot arm and swung it at her. Karai kicked Yuuki knocking her down while Leo managed to grab Karai and threw her over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Karai," he murmured. "I never wanted it to be this way." He raised his sword over his head but a bot approached at him from behind. Leo turned around and slices it, severing the bot. Karai picked up her sword. Yuuki's eyes widen and she ran, realizing what Karai was going to do. Leo felt a heavy weight against his shell. Karai stared in shock with wide eyes as she stepped back. Leo's eyes widen when he heard Yuuki groan and turned around. He felt a long extension coming from Yuuki's stomach, and gasped realizing that she had been impaled with Karai's sword. Karai pulled it out in shock. Yuuki fell back, falling into his arms as Leo caught her.

"No, no, no, no," Leo panicked, as he applied pressure to Yuuki's stomach to stop the bleeding. "Stay with me!" Leo felt her place a hand on his cheek and he grabbed it holding it.

"Leo, I love y-" Leo felt Yuuki's hand slip from his as it fell. Her eyes glazed over, dead. Leo cried as he held Yuuki closer to him. Then Karai slashed at Leo, slicing him across his back. He gasped.

"Forgive me, Leonardo." Karai murmured. Leo fell to the floor, dropping Yuuki as he fell beside her, dead.

"Leo! Yuuki! NO!" Raph yelled in rage. He tackled Karai, who kicked into an display case. Raph tossed shards of glass at her, but she slices it. Then Raph kicks Karai down, knocking her to the floor. He leaps into the air to kick at her again. But, Karai slices Raph on his stomach, knocking him over to Leo and Yuuki.

"Leo...Yuuki..." he crawled over to them, before falling on top of them, dead. Karai sadly looked down at the three.

"Karai!" she looked over at April who had a missile launcher over her shoulder. "End of the line." Karai charged at her only for April to fire a missile back, hitting her. April narrowed her eyes at Karai as she tried to get up.

"Master...I am finished." she falls to the floor, dead. Shredder laughed as Donnie stood up.

"You are the last of your kind Donatello," Shredder told him. He grabs Donnie, lifting up. "And now, I will crush you like the insignificant worm you are!"

"You always did claim victory before you actually won," Donnie spatted out. "This whole attack was to get you into position to do this!" He pressed a button from the exosuit and chains shot out from the Tunneler, wrapping around him and Shredder.

"What?! What is happening?" Shredder demanded. The Tunneler's drill came on, now pulling the two closer to it. "No! I am the Shredder!" Donnie slipped out of the suit just in time as the drill slashed Shredder to bits, destroying him.

"It's done."

April dropped her missile launcher as Donnie walked past her. "My brothers, my sister, my poor siblings. This world, this future, it's a nightmare."

"It was a nightmare, Don." April replied.

"But, you, Leo, Raph, Mikey, Yuuki and Venus," Donnie squeezed his eyes, remembering everyone that had fell. "You gave us back our future."

Just as Donnie was about to say something, he started to phase shift again. "April! It's happening again! Somethings pulling me away! It's stronger this time!"

"Donnie! Remember! There's always hope! No matter what!" April called out. He disappears and she spoke softly. "And thank you."

The sun began to rise on the city of New York, starting a new day, free from the Shredder's reign.

#tmnt 2003 #tmnt raphael #tmnt mikey #tmnt au #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt oc #tmnt fanfiction #fanfiction #sainw

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browniefox · 4 years ago

Text

The Spectral Turnabout 2/?

Chapter 2! Last chapter was about Phoenix when he got introduced to the spectral world, this one is about Miles :D

oOo

Miles passed out in the elevator with a scream ringing through the air, one that will haunt his dreams, haunt his footsteps, haunt his every moment for the next fifteen years.

When he woke up, his world had been turned on its head.

When he’s a little older, Miles goes through the events over and over and over until the story makes sense, until he knows the events forwards and backwards. It goes like this:

Miles got into the elevator with his dad and Yanni Yogi. There was an earthquake. The elevator became stuck. The oxygen ran low. Yanni Yogi started attacking his dad. Miles threw the gun. A shot rang through the elevator, and the scream chased Miles in darkness as he passed out. And Miles goes crazy.

The days after The Event are a blur, are foggy, and they tell him it’s from the trauma mixed with the lack of oxygen. What Miles does know is that when he’s capable of forming memories again, he sees things that aren’t really there. Creatures, monsters that lurk in the corners, brightly colored mist coming off of them. An energy that Miles could see coming off of himself in muted purple waves.

They said Yanni Yogi’s lawyer had him plead insanity. Brain damage due to the lack of oxygen. There was a precedent for it.

Miles was an orphan for six months before Manfred von Karma adopted him. Miles’ used those six months to perfect ignoring what he could see. He didn’t want to think about how he’d be treated, how people would look at him, if they knew something had snapped in his head from The Event. Even more so once he was under Von Karma’s roof. Imperfection was not tolerated. So Miles would be perfect. He was perfect.

He was a perfect child, who most certainly didn’t see things that weren’t there.

oOo

Pess was the first spirit to ever speak to Miles.

It’d been an entire year since the accident. It wasn’t always easy to act completely normal. When the figments of his imagination actually come into contact with him, he felt phantom pressure, and a time or two they’d run into him with enough force to bowl him completely over. No, that was wrong, they didn’t run him over. Miles tripped or something, and for some reason his brain had decided to place a make-believe monster as the reason.

Pess had slipped into Miles bedroom in the evening, straight through the walls. She had landed on the floor, curling up into a tight little ball in the corner. Miles hadn’t thought much of her at first, aside from allowing himself to openly track her movement. He was in the safety of his room, he’d allow himself to look.

This one imaginary monster was shaped like a very curly-furred greyhound, if greyhounds had tails longer than their bodies, three pairs of legs, and wings instead of ears. The back two pairs were bird feet instead of paws, and there was another set of wings tightly closed onto the monster’s back.The colored mist coming off of her matched Miles’ own to a ‘T’, but something looked off about it.

Miles shot a look to his door, making sure it was still closed, and then for extra good measure he locked it and pulled the curtains shut over the window. Then, he got a little closer to the creature that wasn’t real, staring. The mist usually came off of things like steam off of warm water, but for this creature it was also coming from spots that closely resembled would. She had gouges in her sides and bite marks on her legs, long scratches down her snout.

The hallucination opened one of her eyes and then flinched back at how close he was. Miles responded in kind, head whipping around to check the door once more. He felt like he’s standing at the precipice of something dangerous here, of showing so much acknowledgement to something that isn’t really there, but his curiosity still has a hold on him.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t realize a spectral lived here, I-I’ll, um, I’ll…” The thing got to her feet, all six of them, and shook her coat.

“Wait…!” Miles whispered, and then slapped a hand over his mouth, going bright red and shame filling him. This was too much, talking to her was a step too far. But then, she actually stopped, and turned her big and warm brown eyes on him. “Wh… what did you call me?”

“A spectral? You are one, right? In fact, we match.” She said. Miles couldn’t deny that.

“I don’t know what that is.” He admitted, sitting back. Why would a hallucination use a word he doesn’t know?

“It means you can see us.” She explained.

“‘Us’?”

“Spirits.”

Miles looked at the door again and raised a hand to bite one of his nails before yanking the hand down.

“Come on,” He said and crawled underneath his bed and the hallucination - the spirit? - followed after him, “Tell me more about spirits.”

The spirit introduced herself as Pess, and she explained how spirits weren’t ghosts, really, but more like the conglomerations of leftover energy from dead things. Spectrals were people who were still alive but could see them. There were very few of them, to the point that Miles was the first one Pess had ever met.

It seemed like far too convenient an explanation. Oh, yes, Miles wasn’t crazy, he was just special, like a character out of a book his teacher’s used to read out loud to the class before he switched schools.

“I don’t believe you.” Miles told her right to her face. “Ghosts don’t exist.”

“Oh.” Pess rested her head on her front paws, looking over at him sadly. “Well, why can’t they?”

“If they did, then…” Miles trailed off. He opened his mouth and closed it, unable to form the words. He didn’t like thinking about The Incident, and definitely not talking about it. But… but if spirits were real, if ghosts were real, then why did Yanni Yogi get proven innocent? Why would Misty Fey claim to have channeled his dad, and his dad to have said it was Yanni Yogi.

No, Miles needed to remember to focus on what was real, what was physical, what he had evidence for.

Pess seemed to understand anyway. The wings on her head closed up tight and her tail swept over to rest on Miles’ hand. It felt soft and warm. No, it was the heater kicking on somewhere, a gust of warm air, and the broken part of his mind had decided to make the hallucination align with it just so.

“I need to go to bed.” Miles said out loud. He did not say it to Pess, because Pess wasn’t real.

“Okay,” Pess asid, and while Miles crawled out from under the bed, she simply phased right through it to sit on his bed and then settled on top of the blanket. She didn’t so much as rumble the comforter, because of course she didn’t. “Uh, Spectral, I don’t want to bother you, but…?”

Miles knew he should set himself straight again. He’d been working on ignoring what wasn’t there for a year now, he should be better than this. And yet, Miles found himself sighing and looking at her.

“But?”

“Spirits can heal on their own, but they heal faster around a spectral with a color that matches their own. C-could…? Could I stay here? Until I’m better?” She begged. She had the puppy-dog eyes down pat.

Miles cast another look to the door, clenching his hands into fists until his fingernails were embedded into his palms.

“Okay. Yeah, okay. Just until you’re better.”

oOo

Pess didn’t leave after she was healed up.

Sometime between that night and the time wounds had closed up, Miles had become used to her presence. One would think that having a figment of his imagination that he did acknowledge at time would make things worse, and that was what Miles had feared at first, but he’d found he didn’t deny the comfort of cuddling close to her at night, and she never complained if he ever hugged her too tight when he had nightmares. She followed him everywhere, at first so she might heal up quicker, but Miles found himself enjoying her constant presence at his side.

It certainly made him feel a little less lonely at school. He hadn’t had much luck yet making friends. Manfred von Karma insisted that Miles didn’t need to think about things like that. Miles nodded to that in perfect agreement.

Pess was very soft, very nice, and very excitable. She always seemed able to pick up on when Miles was starting to get anxious and would come over and rub her face against his hand. He couldn’t say anything to her, or look at her, or purposefully try to touch her. At least, not out in public. He only allowed himself to indulge in that sort of thing when he was sure nobody else could see him, and even then he only ever talked to her in low and quiet whispers both he and pess could barely hear, let alone anybody who might try to listen in.

He asked her, once, if she’d ever wanted to leave. She must’ve done something before being here, being with him. She’d stopped chasing a smaller ‘spirit’ around his room and looked over him, cocking her head, a doggish grin on her face.

“Why would I leave? I have you now.”

He wondered if she’d been alone before she’d met him. He didn’t ask. He felt he knew the answer.

He tried to convince himself over the years that he was passed needing her there for him. She was nothing more than an imaginary friend. He got older, he shouldn’t need it her, he shouldn’t like having her there. A couple times he’d even managed to find somewhere far and secluded and yell at her to go away, to leave, to let him finally be closer to perfect.

Both times, Pess did leave, tail between her legs.

Both times, it hadn’t sat well with Miles and he’d gone out late at night searching the city and calling her name until he found her.

The older he got, the more he realized he didn’t ‘leak’ spectral energy constantly. It surged particularly when he had intense emotions. He seeked that out, stifling his emotions, burying them so he came off self-assured. He asked if there was a big reason for the energy, telling himself he was just curious of what his mind would come up with to explain it, and pess told him she wasn’t really sure. She knew spirits were made of it, and she’d heard rumors of spectrals being able to do something about that, but again, he was the first spectral she’d ever met.

The habit of her accompanying him to court came about naturally. Where he went, Pess went, and where did he need her more than during a case?

Miles found a balance of almost-nearly perfect that he told himself was Perfection.

It had to do.

#paranatural #pnat #ace attorney #miles edgeworth #pess #au #browniefox writes #the spectral turnabout

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pastelwitchling · 4 years ago

Text

Inspired by Shadowhunters.

***

“Show of hands for who thinks this is a bad idea?” Isobel said.

Everyone but Michael and Maria raised their hands.

“Mr. Jones’s last known coordinates were here,” Michael said with a roll of his eyes, and tried not to glance at Alex who had raised his hand along with everyone else. “Private, you said your little scan caught his heat signature here.”

“Yeah, Guerin,” Alex sighed, sidestepping another dead branch protruding from the cave floor. “But when you told me you had a plan, I didn’t think it meant facing this guy head-on. Isn’t he supposed to be a total psycho?”

“With powers,” Isobel added with mock enthusiasm as she and Liz clung to the cave walls for leverage.

Alex almost tripped as his prosthetic caught a large rock, but before Michael could catch him, Max grabbed his arm from behind. Once Alex was steady, he nodded to Max in thanks and Max clapped his shoulder. Michael felt stupid for being jealous, but Alex allowed Max to touch him in a way he hadn’t allowed Michael to do in months.

“It’s not a bad plan,” Maria said reasonably. “It’s all of us against him, and more than half of us have powers. What can he possibly do?”

Michael could tell Maria was trying to catch his eye, but he couldn’t help but look to Alex who looked over his shoulder at Maria with a raised brow.

“Is that an actual question?” Alex asked. “Or are you being rhetorical? Because I can’t tell.”

“He could cave the walls in,” Max suggested.

“Light the place on fire,” Liz offered.

“Pick us off one by one in the dark like some Victorian serial killer,” Isobel said spookily into the cave and Alex laughed.

Again, not something Michael had been able to do.

“Buddy system?” Alex offered.

“I get Alex!” Isobel jumped to his side and hooked her arm around his. “Let’s be honest, powers or no powers, I’m safest with him.”

“I’m flattered,” Alex chuckled, and Michael watched the way Isobel cozied up to his side as they walked. It should’ve been scary, much scarier than the others were making it out to be, but Michael knew Alex enough to know that he was trying hard to ignore that.

Alex may have humored Liz and smiled at Isobel, but Michael caught the way he continuously scanned the area, his hand hovering on the gun in his belt, ready for any attack. His first priority, Michael knew, would be to make sure that no one else freaked out, that everyone was as calm as could be. Protection was his job.

“Hey,” Maria whispered, pulling Michael out of his thoughts as she slipped her hand in his. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Michael said, closing his fingers around hers. He wondered how warm Alex’s hand was as Isobel clung to it, how comforting it must’ve been to stand at his side. Alex was limping more these days, and the rough cave wall wasn’t helping him now, but he gave no indication that he was in pain or worried. Michael knew that wasn’t true.

“It was a good idea,” Maria said, and Michael’s attention was dragged away again.

“Was it?” Michael said, smirking and feeling like the furthest thing from it. “What if Alex was right? We don’t know when my brother’s clone can do, what if he causes more damage?” He shook his head. “I should’ve listened to the Private, I shouldn’t have called anyone else here.”

“What’s that?” Alex blinked innocently from where he walked ahead.

Michael smiled, suddenly trying not to laugh. What was wrong with him? “I’m not saying it again.” Alex shrugged, and Michael’s smile dimmed. He didn’t know why it mattered so much to him that Alex approve of his plan, but it did. “If you think we’re goners, Private, why’d you come?”

“I told him to,” Isobel said matter-of-factly, as if it was obvious she wouldn’t go into a life-or-death situation without Alex.

“So did I,” Max raised his hand.

“Yeah, and, uh,” Liz held up a finger, “I’m not walking into a cave being the only human, thank you very much.”

“Fair,” Maria shrugged a shoulder.

“Too bad Kyle isn’t here though,” Alex said. “I’d feel a lot better if he was.”

Michael’s eye twitched.

“And Jenna,” Liz said. “I want to see the famous Team Human that Kyle keeps telling me about in action.”

Alex laughed, and something in Michael’s chest fluttered at the sound. “He didn’t actually call us that, did he?”

“Jenna did,” Liz amended, “but he approved it.”

The laughter stopped as quickly as it started as the cave floor suddenly began to shake. Isobel clung to Alex desperately who seemed to have no trouble staying steady despite his prosthetic.

“What was that?” Maria asked as she held on to Michael’s waist.

“Earthquake?” Michael muttered.

“Guys,” Max pointed, “look!”

And there, at the end of the cave, was a bright light. The others looked at each other, then ventured towards it, Alex slowly taking out his gun, Liz with a serum in hand, and the others holding their hands up, ready to attack whoever showed their face. They walked slowly toward the light, and soon found themselves in a large opening, the cave ceiling so high that it was almost invisible in the darkness. In the center, there was a large pod, emitting a bright light.

From the shadows in the corner, a voice spoke out, “Well, well, looks like the whole gang is here.”

They watched as a man that looked exactly like Max, save for an untrimmed beard and hair, came staggering out. He was wearing flannel and jeans, and Michael might’ve mistaken him for his brother if not for the wild grin on his face and the wicked gleam in his dark eyes. His arms were crossed, and he looked absolutely unperterbed to see them all there, as if he’d personally invited them.

Max kept a hand up. “We have some questions for you, Mr. Jones.”

“Cute name, that there,” Mr. Jones said and settled in what looked like a lawn chair against the wall. “I like it. Makes me sound mysterious.”

“No, you?” Michael said with a humorless smirk, standing beside his brother.

“Michael, Michael,” Mr. Jones’s smile widened. “You’ve been an interesting one, I’ll admit.” He scratched the back of his head with one hand and reached for a bottle of beer from a case on the ground next to him. “Your whole love story with the pretty soldier.”

Then, to Michael’s horror, his eyes flitted to Alex, “Manes, isn’t it? I remember your grandparents. Evil sons of bitches. ‘Cept one. You’re a lot like he was. Annoyingly heroic.”

“Don’t talk about my great uncle, you freak,” Alex said coldly.

Mr. Jones cackled and slapped his knee. He looked to Michael again, pointing his bottle at Alex. “Feisty little firecracker, isn’t he? No wonder you love him. Oh no, wait, you’re with her now, aren’t you?” He gestured to Maria and sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Awkward.”

“Enough of your stupid game,” Isobel said, stepping forward. “We came here for a reason, and you’re going to listen.”

Already, Michael could feel a slight breeze. Isobel had gotten much stronger, he could tell, and for a second, he thought she might be able to get through to the clone, but then he tilted his head, flicked his wrist as if there was an irritating fly at his ear, and suddenly, Isobel went flying into the cave wall, plastered against it with an expression of shock as if an invisible force were holding her there.

Alex held up his gun higher, and Michael tried to levitate Mr. Jones from where he sat, but he wouldn’t be moved.

“You’re trying your little mind tricks on me, girl?” Mr. Jones barked, but the smile never left his face. “Who exactly do you think you’re dealing with here?”

With another flick of his wrist, Liz was suddenly shot back into a wall as well.

“LET THEM GO!” Max demanded.

“I don’t like needles,” Mr. Jones said with an uncomfortable shudder.

He stared Max down, tapping his finger against the armrest. “Now, now, no need to get all upset. I’ll let them go… soon enough.”

“Let them go now,” Max grit out, and Mr. Jones’s expression twitched.

When he spoke, he was still smiling, but his voice was cold and quiet. “Brother… I have other plans for you.” He shrugged, and huffed. “Another day. Lucky for y’all,” he stood with a groan, “I was thinking of moving. But not without a fun little parting gift, eh?” He spread his arms out and laughed joyously. “What do y’all say? Sound good?”

He suddenly gestured roughly at Max who went flying into the wall beside Isobel and Liz, and Michael noticed he’d been handled a lot rougher than the others.

“Today, I think I’ll have fun with my brother,” he said. “What do you say, Michael?”

“I’m not your brother,” Michael said, his muscles straining as he struggled to levitate so much as a pebble at Mr. Jones. The clone pouted.

“Aw, now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings,” he said, standing. “Come on, I promise you’ll have a great time.”

And he gestured up with both arms. Suddenly, Alex and Maria both went flying as well, both pinned several feet apart.

“NO!” Michael yelled as he alone remained untouched.

Mr. Jones shushed him softly, making his way across the cave to stand beside Alex. “You know, Michael, I have to say, your love life has been… somewhat of a treat in the time I was imprisoned. Guy’s gotta have something to keep him entertained and sane, right? Seeing into your mind, it’s a pretty romantic place. Who knew, huh?” he chuckled, slapping a pinned Isobel against the shoulder. Isobel looked like she wanted to throttle him.

“And of all the nameless, faceless bodies you’ve been with,” Mr. Jones shrugged. “One, just one, stands out.” He pointed at Alex whose expression was furious, his jaw clenched. “Him.”

“Don’t touch him,” Michael said, hearing the fear in his own voice.

“I’m not finished yet,” Mr. Jones said, his expression slipping to something more insane, clutching Alex’s face so tightly that the airman winced. Michael clamped his mouth shut.

“Anyway,” Mr. Jones went on with the air of someone so rudely interrupted. “I watched you love Alex the way I’d never seen another being love before.” He sighed longingly, resting his head on Alex’s shoulder. “It was so romantic. So beautiful.” He looked up, staring fondly into his face while Alex seemed to be trying his best to turn away from him. “And such a beautiful man, too.” He huffed, indignant. “I mean, I would’ve written fanfiction about y’all if I’d had any pen and paper.”

Mr. Jones then made a face as if he’d realized something, and turned to Max. “Hey, I could’ve been a writer, too! Think that’s inherit?”

“Please,” Michael said now. “Let them go.”

Mr. Jones smiled widely. It seemed to tear at his face. “See, that’s the fun bit. I’m not keeping them pinned anymore; you are.”

Michael frowned. “What?”

“I tied the forcefield around them to your emotions – oh yeah,” he nodded at Isobel’s wide eyes. “Once you get good enough, you can control any feelings or thoughts that you want to. I’ll show you how, if you’d like. It’s a great little trick for parties.”

He pointed over his shoulder at Alex and Maria. “They will all be released once you kiss the person your heart most desires,” he said with false sympathy.

Silence. Then, Michael’s brows furrowed, “You’re lying. This is some stupid trick.”

“Oh come on, brother, I’m making it so easy for you! All you have to do is kiss the person you most want to kiss!” Mr. Jones said joyously. “And, to show you I’m not lying, I’ll leave! You could try to stop me, but you’ll fail, I promise you that much. And by then, they’d all die from behind suffocated anyway.”

Michael wondered what he possibly could’ve meant, but then he realized that the forcefield keeping the other pinned was now crushing their bodies into the stone. Michael’s heart hammered. They were going to die.

“Why?” he demanded. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Because,” Mr. Jones said darkly, all trace of humor gone. “I was stuck in here while you all had life and love and all that good human stuff up there. And I’ll be damned if I don’t tear all of that apart. Starting with you.”

“Golly gee,” Mr. Jones then sighed sadly. “This’ll be an awkward moment for everyone, huh?” He nodded solemnly to himself a moment, then jumped slightly, smiling. “Welp! That’s it for me! I’m off. See y’all again soon, I hope.” He picked up a bottle of beer, finished it, said, “Crazy weather though, right?” and turned to leave the way the others had come, raising his hand in farewell. “Happy kissing!”

As soon as he was gone, Michael thought the forcefields would fall, but they continued to crush his friends into the stone.

“No, no, no,” Michael breathed, holding his hand up against Maria’s chest to force her free. It didn’t work. He tried with Max, it didn’t work either. “Come on,” he strained, the heat rising in his neck and up to his ears as he gave it everything he had. “COME ON!”

“Michael, it’s tied to you!” Isobel tried to say.

“Yeah, Michael,” Maria said, her own face turning red as she tried to breathe. “Can you please just kiss me so we can go home?”

Michael clenched his jaw and swallowed heavily. He hurried to Maria’s side. Maria’s my girlfriend, he thought. I love her, he thought over and over. I want to kiss her more than anyone.

So Michael took Maria’s face in his hands and kissed her. He kissed her just like he kissed her the first time, the time they slept together in the desert, the time outside the Wild Pony. When he pulled back, she was still suffocating, as were the others.

“No,” Michael shook his head. “Why didn’t it work?”

“Michael!” Isobel grit out. “We don’t have time to pretend right now!”

“Just kiss Alex!” Max snapped, his face turning an alarming shade of purple.

Gritting his teeth, and avoiding Maria’s eyes, Michael went to stand in front of Alex and put his hands on his shoulders. He caught Alex’s eyes, now full of tears as he lost more and more breath.

He rested their foreheads against one another only for a split second before pressing their lips together. He felt Alex’s soft lips against his, warm and beautiful and reminding him of everything they shared in that first kiss when they were seventeen. He tried to think, but all he could come up with was Alex, Alex, Alex. He tilted his head, deepening the kiss. A faint moan escaped the back of Alex’s throat, and Michael was sure no one else could hear it, but it ignited a fire in his stomach.

His hands slid from Alex’s shoulders to his hair as he fitted their mouths together again and again and again, their tongues sleek and hot. Michael felt Alex’s fingers grip his jacket, pulling him closer. Michael brought an arm around Alex’s waist, pulling him in against him, desperate to taste more of him….

Then he realized Alex was not pulling him in, but trying to push him away.

Michael pulled back, breathing heavily. Alex was free and in his arms, panting and shocked. His eyes met Michael’s for what felt like hours before Alex forced his gaze away and towards Isobel who had fallen free, along with the others. Alex helped her stand even while he trembled himself.

“There you go,” he was saying softly, avoiding Michael’s eyes. “Lean against me.”

Michael dragged his eyes away from Alex and towards Maria who was standing there, staring at him with wide, glassy eyes. Michael opened his mouth to say something, though he didn’t know what.

It didn’t matter because before he could try to utter a word, Maria straightened and turned to leave. Michael watched her go, then the others followed. Max looked between him and where Maria had been standing, and held out an arm to Michael. Michael followed, unable to help but look to Alex who was once again walking ahead with Isobel and Liz.

Michael realized it was probably a good thing Maria hadn’t waited for him to speak.

It’s him, he would’ve said, and been unable to regret it. It’ll always be him.

#alex manes #michael guerin #malex #malex one shot #malex fanfic #malex fic #malex fanfiction #roswell new mexico #roswell nm #malex angst #malex fluff #tyler blackburn #michael vlamis

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drreporting · 4 years ago

Text

Infections of A Different Kind of Human

2. Gentle Earthquakes

“Did you talk to Arizona as yet?”

Amelia sighed, trying to mask her irritation as she scrubbed her nails. “I sent her a text earlier, Owen. It’s only been a half hour.”

“I know, I know. I’m just asking because I’m worried about you,” he relented, taking his place next to her as he grabbed a sponge to scrub. Within two hours of her telling him the news, her condition had progressively worsened. “You mentioned to me that you were feeling crampy earlier, you’re nauseous, and you just told me your shoulder was hurting you.”

“For your information, I meant crampy in mood,” she quipped, although she was stretching the truth a bit. In all honesty, she did feel very uncomfortable, but couldn’t pinpoint where exactly the feeling was originating. “Although I do feel like I might shit myself soon, so we better hurry up with the surgery before it ends up on you.”

Owen shook his head and smiled. “That’s too much information, and you know it.” She winked back at him and smiled, turning on the water to rinse her hands. Owen observed her washing her hands, seeing on her face that there was something she wasn’t telling him.

---

Screw everyone, she thought as she walked to the parking lot. They were all watching her like she’d lost her marbles and she was tired of it. Maybe doing the surgery at Hopkins was better, that way, no one would even know she was sick. But how was she going to take a vacation?

“Rosie, what’s wrong?” Ryan exclaimed to his sister, “Why are you being so quiet?” Normally, the little girl would answer him, but she was in a mood so sour that she barely even recognised that he’d told her something to begin. She just gazed up at her mother with a look of betrayed trust.

They came up to the car and Amelia unlocked the door, saying, “Why don’t you help your sister in the car, instead of provoking her, hmm?” Ryan blushed a little and nodded, opening the car door, and helping Rosie in, before getting in himself. “Do you need anything in the trunk?” Both kids shook their heads. Amelia closed the door and walked to the back of the vehicle. Once she opened the trunk, she began offloading the various school bags and lunch kits she’d been carrying and, as she closed the trunk, she felt an odd presence behind her, almost as if the wind expelled from the trunk gave away the person’s location.

“Don’t turn around,” a voice suddenly said, as though he knew Amelia had spotted him in the reflection of the windscreen glass the second he appeared. An object poked the middle of her back as the voice said, “Everything. Now.” For a moment she stood there, in a bit of shock, as she began to process the situation. But she didn’t want things to escalate, so she complied. She took off her two rings, and she unlatched the gold around her neck, a necklace Owen had gifted her last year. She rested them on the hood of the trunk in front of her, resting her handbag next to the jewellery as she awaited his response. Slowly but surely, a hand crept forward, grabbing the jewellery. The hand then came back, digging in her bag. She watched as it fished around in it, taking out her purse. He opened the thing, stripped her of all her cash and cards, but not before asking, “Where are the keys?” Her eyes darted up from their previous position, looking through the back glass of the car and at her kids sitting quietly, staring back at her. It was the one thing she was hoping not to hear. She couldn’t answer him, because she had them, and she was hoping he’d have been satisfied with the other possessions. But no, now he wanted her car too, and she couldn’t let him have it; her kids were in there.

His hand closed around her upper arm as he forcefully spun her around, pushing her against the adjacent car. Grabbing her by her throat, he asked once more, “Where are the keys?” His breath was shaky, and his eyes were crazed as they bore into her, almost as if he was strung out on drugs. He dug the gun deep into her stomach now, and she wondered if he’d noticed the other people in the car, if he would have mercy on them. She doubted it.

“So you’re not going to tell me?” Keeping the hand around her neck, he used the gun to caress her body, poking it into her jacket, grazing it across her blouse, searching for the keys himself. She could see the look of pure ecstasy on his face as he revelled in the power he had, mixed in with a bit of lust as he let the gun hook around the collar of her blouse, pulling it down a bit. “Is it in here?” She averted her gaze in disgust as tears began to brim in her eyes. “Or maybe I should ask your kids where they are?” he taunted her, pointing the gun in the direction of her car now. “Hmm?”

It was that final gesture that had made her snap, had shifted her brain into something she could only describe as her ‘fight or flight’ response. This was the only opportunity she would likely have, a moment of weakness that she could take advantage of and hopefully succeed. With every nerve on fire in her body, Amelia jumped at the man, her right hand outstretched for the gun.

---

Muffled voices, complete chaos, and the high-pitched sound ringing through Owen’s ears from the sound of the gunshot, were all he could focus on. That, and the fervent cries of his children, whom that man had just blatantly shot at, without hesitation. Uncurling from his previous position, Owen sat up with the twins still in his arms, droplets of blood splattered across Finn’s face as he bawled his eyes out. At first, his immediate reaction was to search the boy for any injuries, but the second Owen lifted his left arm, a searing pain shot through his entire body.

“Hunt, don’t move!” Meredith yelled at him, rushing to his side, “You’re hurt!” Derek followed too, taking the twins out of his arms, and rushing them to the nearest available bed, while Meredith began to assess the wound.

“What about Finn and Isabella?” the worried father asked as he rose to his feet, aided by Meredith.

“They’re okay,” Derek called from across the ER. That was a relief, he thought. But just as quickly as the relief washed over him, dread took over. Amelia.

“Meredith, I need a gurney, IV fluids, and you need to call the blood bank,” Owen said as he began backing out of the ER. “A positive blood.”

“Blood? What are you talking about?” she inquired, still not getting the point.

“It’s not for me,” he replied as the automatic doors opened. He turned, sprinting out of the ER, leaving Meredith to wonder who all those things were for, if not for him.

“Mer, can you come over here for a second?” Derek asked. She walked over to him, smiling at the two babies in front of her, who were still recovering from shock. “Has anyone called or checked on Amelia?”

It was then that it clicked in her head. “No, but I think Owen just went to do that. He told me to order up a bunch of stuff, almost as if…oh no…”

“Let’s not assume anything as yet,” he answered, a calm response compared to how he was truly feeling. He hoped to god that his little sister was okay. “Order up the stuff, just in case. And we need to call the police and report the stolen car. Probably cash and cards too.”

The more time Owen had to think, the more he was convinced that something terrible had happened to Amelia. It was funny, that after everything that had happened today, after the way she’d been treating him the past four months, after catching her with someone else, he was running for his life down the ambulance bay, to the parking lot. And maybe he still cared, and maybe he didn’t, but he couldn’t stand the thought of something bad happening to her again, leaving their children motherless, and destroying their family. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have had a family anyways, even if she was okay. He was conflicted by all these thoughts, wondering which were true and which were just bitter responses. That was when he saw the small, 4-foot-high figure of their eldest, running towards him.

“Ryan?!” Owen yelled at the little boy. He ended up crashing right into him, and his hands wrapped around his shoulders as he looked down at the boy. There was blood all over his clothes, on his shoes, his pants, and it was beginning to stain into his white shirt and blue jacket. “What happened, are you hurt?”

The young boy shook his head. “It’s mommy.” And just like that, Owen began to feel a chill run down his spine. He gave the boy another once over, noting that he was, without a doubt, covered in more of his mother’s blood than she probably had left.

“Okay, go into the ER and tell Uncle Derek and Aunty Mer what happened. Tell them where she got shot. And tell them you need 8 or more pints of A positive blood. Can you remember all that?” Ryan nodded emotionlessly, as though all life had been drained from his face. Without prompting, he began running again, straight for the ER doors. Owen stared at where he had just been holding the boy; his hands were bloodied and shaking like two rattle snakes. He could feel it in his bones that this time would not be like all the other times Amelia had been hurt. No, this time…this time she could die. And just the bare thought of that happening flipped a switch in his head, and he couldn’t stop running, he wouldn’t. Not until he found her.

The second Ryan stepped into the busy ER, everyone stopped what they were doing and became silent. They all stared, eyes agape, as their brains began processing the information it was being fed.

“Ryan,” Derek was the first to say, walking towards his young nephew slowly, “What…what happened? Are you hurt?” Seeing the young boy drenched in blood from head to toe was a horrifying view, one he would never forget.

Remembering what Owen had said to him, Ryan’s first words were, “Mommy got shot.” He brought his fingers to the lower right quadrant of his torso. “Right here.” He dropped his hands. “Owen said you need 8 pints of A positive blood.” Everybody heard clearly what Ryan had said, and yet no one moved.

“Meredith,” Derek muttered amidst the silence, looking at his wife with a face that, for once, she couldn’t read, “Where is April?”

“I think she and Jackson have left for the evening already,” she calmly responded as she pulled out her phone, “But I can page them and see if she hasn’t gone too far.”

“Thank you,” he responded as he lifted both twins, “I’m gonna take these two to day care, just in case.”

“Ryan, let’s get you cleaned up,” Meredith called, beckoning the boy, “Where is your sister?”

“She’s with Dr. Kepner and Dr. Avery,” Ryan responded as he followed her, “She was holding the wound before they came.” They entered a supply closet and she turned around, furrowing her eyes at the little boy before going to the back to seek a new outfit for him.

“Why didn’t you help her?” she inquired, finding a jacket and loose fitted joggers. When she turned back around, she was surprised to find tears in the boy’s eyes.

“I was afraid,” he whispered, averting his eyes to the ground, “I have never seen so much blood, not even at the hospital.” He closed his eyes in shame, letting the tears fall as he confessed, “Rosie wasn’t scared, I don’t know why.” He stuck his hands out for the clothes, and Meredith gave it to him, her heart aching for the poor boy. “What if she dies because I was afraid to help her?” he asked, his face showing all of his devastation, “What if…”

“Ryan, everything is going to be okay,” Meredith told the boy, pulling him in for a hug, even though he was still soaked in the blood, “Everything will work out how it’s supposed to.” And for the life of her, Meredith sure hoped that was true.

---

BANG.

April heard the sound, clear as day, pulling her son behind the nearest car as she shielded him. She heard a body dropping, and then the jingle of keys.

“Get out!” a voice yelled; one she couldn’t determine. Taking the risk to peek out the front of the bonnet, April was just in time to see Amelia’s car reversing haphazardly out of its space, before screeching off, leaving Ryan and Rosie to stand in front of someone she could only assume was Amelia.

“Jackson!” she yelled, running towards them, Samuel’s hand still in hers, “Jackson!” Once she was near enough, she noticed Ryan was frozen still, staring down at his mother, while Rosie appeared to be helping Amelia to stop the bleeding. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t freeze too, just out of pure shock. And, to make matters worse, she heard another shot ring off in the direction that the man had driven.

“April?” Jackson called, nearing, “What in the world is going on? Wait…is that…” He looked down at the body and noticed that it was, in fact, Amelia.

“Hold Samuel,” she said, abandoning the boy to get on the ground, “Hey, Ryan?” The young Shepherd looked at April, a lost gaze in his eyes. “I bet you would be great help at telling the hospital what happened?” He stared at her for a moment before nodding and running to the ER entrance.

Now that Ryan was out of the way, April scooted to Amelia’s side and pressed her hands over Rosie’s. “I think I can handle it from here, but you’ve been great help, Rosie.”

“Yeah?” the girl asked, looking into her eyes for validation. April nodded, and Rosie released her pressure, pulling her hands out from under their bigger counterparts.

“Go wait over there with Dr. Avery,” she instructed. As soon as the girl was out of earshot, Amelia began to groan and whine, gripping at the area where she had been shot. “Amelia relax, relax. You’ve just been shot-,”

“I fucking know April,” she managed to moan out bitterly. Tears came to her eyes as she began to feel fluid rising in her throat.

“Jackson, we need a first aid kit or something to stop this bleeding,” April exclaimed. Despite her steady pressure, she could feel the blood pumping out of Amelia with each rapid beat of her heart, and the increasing size of the surrounding pool only served to emphasize how much she was really losing. It had to be her aorta that was damaged, she was almost certain.

“April, I go for that kit, I won’t make it back in time,” he worded carefully, and she knew exactly what he was insinuating. Amelia wouldn’t make it in time. They would be wasting time by prolonging the condition; she needed immediate attention. So now the question was, what to do?

“We need to get her in the ER,” she voiced, “The gauze applicator will stop the bleeding and give us time. Can you carry her?”

“My shoulder is still healing, I can try,” he said, “But who’s going to hold Harriet?”

April unwrapped the scarf around her neck and placed it over Amelia’s wound. “Amelia, can you hold this here?”

The neurosurgeon shook her head, coughing up blood. “Can’t feel.” Can’t feel?

“What can’t you feel?” April prodded her for more information, but she could see her eyes fluttering and fighting to stay open, “Amelia?”

“April….” Jackson called, pointing behind her. Turning around, she noticed Owen standing behind them, a few feet away, and staring. Everybody seemed to be frozen today.

“Amelia,” Owen called, suddenly finding his motion once more. He crashed onto the ground, next to April, as he tried to assess the situation. “No, no, no, no, no…” he kept mumbling the word as he covered one hand over the scarf and cradled her.

“Owen, we need to take her into the ER,” April advised the man, but Owen was more concerned with waking her up. Tears were streaming down his face like two waterfalls, and Rosie had honestly never seen her father so devastated and so confused. Especially considering what she saw earlier this evening, the last thing she expected him to do was cry over her.

“Amelia, wake up,” he begged. When her eyes opened slowly, tears came into them as he watched her constricted blues stare back at him.

“Owen?” she whispered hoarsely, lifting her arm to hold his bicep. Using nearly all of her strength, she moved the hand to cup his cheek, smearing the entire side of his face in her blood as tears came to her eyes. “Can you forgive me?” The calmness in her voice sent shivers down his spine, and his gut was giving him all the worst feelings right now. “Because I think I’m dying, and I don’t want-”

“Amelia, you are not dying,” he sternly told her, his voice cracking at the end.

“I am, I can feel it,” she insisted, a weak, broken smile on her face. “Are you bleeding?” Lifting his hand off the wound, April noticed the bleeding had slowed, and she and Jackson exchanged a look of worry.

“I am,” Owen confirmed, “But I’m okay, and you will be too.” Her fingers ended up grabbing at the edge of his collar, before slowly slipping down and falling limp.

“Owen, we are wasting precious time,” April fussed, and she was right. He was wasting her last moments on a goodbye when he should’ve been trying to save her. So he did the only thing he could think to do; he lifted her up. And he began jogging back to the ER.

---

“Amelia!” Owen shouted, reaching to her side just in time to catch her fall, and unfortunately breaking scrub, “Amelia, can you hear me?” When he received no response, he looked to the scrub nurse and said, “Page trauma, page Robbins.” The nurse obeyed his orders and, looking to their current chief resident, he added, “Find me a replacement trauma and neurosurgeon.” Pulling Amelia into his arms, he yelled out, “And somebody get me a gurney!” He disconnected the headlight from her head and began pulling her out of scrub. It was only as he got deeper below her garments, he began to notice blood, soaking everything from her waist down. A cold chill zoomed down his spine as he feared the worst, the words of this morning bitterly replaying in his head. “Imagine if it’s twins again.”

---

Owen barged into the ER, pushing past anyone in his way to get Amelia to a gurney. Seeing his colleagues all surrounded by one specific bed, he chose to lay her down there and, the second he did, he began initiating CPR, while April applied the pressurized gauze to the wound, temporarily plugging the hole and stopping the bleeding, at least until they could get into surgery. Meredith attached the monitors to her, while Jo attached a central line. Isaac check her pupils, notifying them that her eyes were dilated, but no one seemed to care, especially not Owen. They were far more concerned about bring her back to life; brain death was unimportant. Once Meredith got the monitor on, the ER was suddenly filled with the gruelling noise of an unsteady rhythm, which would likely lead to a flatline if they didn’t hurry.

“He can’t be here,” Meredith voiced to Isaac, “Someone needs to take over for him.” Isaac looked at his chief, and then at Owen.

Walking over to his side, Isaac placed a hand on Owen’s shoulder, offering softly, “Hunt, let me take over. You can’t work on family.”

“Don’t you dare touch me you homewrecker,” Owen growled through his gritted teeth, continuing his effort to resuscitate. After what transpired this evening, Isaac could understand the hatred Owen probably had for him, but that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was Amelia, and an objective decisions needed to be made, and Owen couldn’t do that in his state. Plus, he was contaminating her with all the blood flowing from his shoulder wound.

“I can take over, she will be safe,” Isaac fought, trying to get him to listen, “Dr. Hunt, I need you to step back.” He tugged on Owen’s shoulder once more, which was his biggest mistake. As he felt Isaac’s hand on his shoulder again, Owen thought of what he saw happened today between Amelia and him. He thought of all the times he’d seen them together in that stupid scan room, over the last couple months. He thought of when they weren’t together, and Isaac had taken advantage of her, their home, and their children. He thought of everything in one second, and in one second, he’d managed to throttle him in the face with his closed fist. Within that same second, he felt two hands grab onto his shoulders, holding him back now as he tried to reach across the ER to hit Isaac again, while also wanting to resume his resuscitative efforts. “Let me go!” Owen yelled, “I have to save her.”

“Owen, calm down,” both Jackson and Derek urged, having been the two to hold him back.

“Charging to 250,” April announced, rubbing the gel between the two pads, “Everybody, clear!” Everyone stepped away, raising their hands, before she attempted to deliver the lifesaving jolt to her system. Pressing down on her chest with the pads, April watched as Amelia’s body tensed upwards, before dropping back lifelessly to the bed, her rhythm still abnormal. “Resuming CPR.

“I think she’s in hypovolemic shock,” April muttered as she pushed on Amelia’s chest once more, while Jo began to tube her. Once the tube was in, and she was providing mechanical ventilation, April went to try once more. “Charging to 300.” She rubbed the pads together, while Owen watched helplessly, trying to get to her. “CLEAR.” Another shock, no response. “Restarting compressions...”

“April…” Jo murmured, gesturing to the monitor. The trauma surgeon turned to look at the screen, seeing the flatline appear.

Looking back at Jo, she shook her head and said, “We can’t stop.”

“But-,”

“Keep the blood coming!” April yelled to the nurse, “She’s not dead until she’s full of blood and dead!” After 5 more minutes of compressions, and 5 bags of blood later, she finally said, “Charge to 300.” As the paddles began to charge up again, everyone watched with an anticipation like never before. Owen refused to remain calm, consistently trying to break free of Jackson and Derek’s grip on him, while Jo tried her best to get the blood to go faster into her stream. Meredith stood with Rosie and Ryan, who’d seen far more than their little minds could handle, and the rest of the ER was just plain silent; the most silence they’d ever heard.

April grabbed the paddles. “Everyone, CLEAR!” She pressed the paddles to her chest, and once again, her body arched and then dropped lifelessly on the bed. She began chest compressions again, but they all knew it was too late. For ten seconds, no one said anything and then, finally, April stopped.

“Don’t call it,” Owen begged April, tears streaming down his face and making trails in their wake against the blood Amelia had smeared on his face earlier, “April, please.”

Wearily, April responded, “Owen, I have to.” She looked at the watch on her wrist and, just as she was about to say the time of death, there was a beep. And then another. And then another.

“I think we have a rhythm,” Jo yelled excitedly, the shock evident in her eyes, “Oh my god!” But just as the celebration was about to begin, Amelia arched her back, and began having a seizure. It was then Isaac’s turn to come back in, and thankfully he got the seizure under control in a short space of time.

“Is she okay?” Owen asked, finally calming down.

“She’s okay, Owen,” Jo confirmed for him. As the words left her mouth, Owen finally collapsed to the floor, passing out.

“I think we need another gurney,” Jackson said, wiping blood off of his face from his earlier restraint over Owen causing blood to squirt out of his wound and onto him, “His shoulder is bleeding pretty badly.”

“We need to get a CT scan,” Isaac voiced once Amelia had reached some sort of stability.

“We don’t have time,” April insisted, “We need to get her to the OR now. When she’s stable, we’ll do the scan.” Isaac nodded and allowed them to wheel her away, while Derek and Jackson tended to Owen, who was pale and unconscious, drenched in a mixture of his own blood, and Amelia’s.

When Owen finally awoke, he was in a bed in a patient room, his shoulder bandaged and his arm in a sling. The only occupant of the room was Derek, and he sat across from him with a look Owen could only describe as grim and exhausted.

“How are you feeling?” Derek asked, standing up to pour him a glass of water. Owen watched as he walked across the room to the small table near his bed, reaching for the glass and pouring from the mug into it.

“I feel weak,” he mused, trying to stretch his shoulder. The pain that shot through, though, was enough for him to not do it another time. “Where is Amelia?”

Derek handed him the glass. “5 hours of surgery. They should be closing right now.” Owen took the glass and took a sip of the water as he processed the information. “She lost a lot of blood. They had to replace almost more than half of her blood volume. With that much lost blood…”

“She should’ve died,” Owen finished for him. And yet, by fate, at least for now, Amelia was alive and okay.

“We need to talk about Ryan and Rosie,” Derek said, switching the topic instantly, “I think you should consider a psych check for both of them.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” he agreed, taking another sip of water. He could probably use a psych session too, after what he’d been through, far less the kids.

“Ryan seems pretty shaken up, but Rosie…” the neurosurgeon divulged, “Rosie seems…fine. Which is weird.”

“Not entirely weird,” Owen told, “She has shown signs of someone who bottles things up. Maybe that’s what she’s doing now.”

“Still,” Derek enthusiastically encouraged, “You should talk to them and see for yourself.” Owen looked up at the Shepherd and nodded. “There’s two other things we need to talk about,” the Shepherd added quickly, “Firstly, the police are waiting here for you to make a report and perhaps a description of the man and Amelia’s license plates and registration for the vehicle.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Owen submitted, “What’s the other thing?”

“You and Amelia never remarried,” he said uncomfortably, wringing his hands, “So you are not her next of kin.”

“Well, then who is the proxy?” Owen asked, completely confused. He thought that Amelia would’ve changed something like that, whether they were married or not.

“It’s uh…” Derek scratched the back of his neck, “It’s under Ryan’s name. It reverted to him after the divorce…”

“Why would she have him as her medical proxy?” Owen wondered aloud.

Derek shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Amelia is much too complicated for my understanding. That’s for you to figure out.”

“Who is the successor?” the trauma surgeon further prodded.

“It’s Addison.” Derek sighed, combing his fingers through his hair. “Look, Owen, I know this is an impossible situation, and that this is only making it even harder, but-,”

“Derek is that you?” a familiar voice called. Looking to the door, Owen and Derek came face to face with a man, dressed in a long coat, holding a suitcase. He appeared pretty old, his hair was almost completely grey, and his eyes held wrinkles at their corners.

“Tom?” the neurosurgeon named the man, “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” the man replied, “I thought you’d have been in DC. I figured that’s why I was called.”

“Wait, who called you?” Owen asked, looking at the Hopkins’ neurosurgeon.

“Shepherd called me,” he explained, “The other Shepherd, I mean. She said she had a patient she needed help with.”

“Why didn’t she ask me for help?” Derek pondered aloud, feeling a bit offended.

Tom shrugged. “So where is my star pupil?” Owen and Derek looked at each other, wondering how to break the untimely news to the new person in the room.

#omelia #amelia shepherd #owen hunt #derek shepherd #meredith grey #april kepner #jackson avery #jo wilson #ryan shepherd #rosie shepherd-hunt #au #owen and amelia

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