#imperial cid au

[badbatchsprincess]

Heated ~ pt.21

Pt.1 ~ Pt.2 ~ Pt.3 ~ Pt.4 ~ Pt.5 ~ Pt.6 ~ Pt.7 ~ Pt.8 ~ Pt.9 ~ Pt.10 ~Pt.11 ~ Pt.12 ~ Pt.13 ~ Pt.14 ~ Pt.15 ~ Pt.16 ~ Pt.17 ~ Pt.18 ~ Pt.19 ~ Pt.20 ~ Pt.21 ~ Pt.22 ~ Pt.23 ~ Pt.24 ~ Pt.25

Masterlist

Summary: This is an ABO Bad batch!Poly x Omega Reader smut with a plot. This takes place as an AU before order 66. Y/N previously served under the 501st before being transferred to Special Forces 99. This is her adventure with these rowdy Alphas in a quickly changing universe.

THIS IS AN ABO AU ABOUT THE BAD BATCH (NO CANON OMEGA!) Due to the unfortunate situation of her name being Omega… Omega the child from the canon series is not going to be apart of this fanfic/porn with a plot. I feel obligated to put this warning in because it makes my skin crawl thinking anyone could make that mistake. 

Warnings: Smut! Short chapter my b.

IM NOT DEAD!!! woooo! Sorry there's been such a big break from my posting but I'm going to get back into finishing up this story and getting our precious pip back to her pack. Don't worry! And thanks to everyone sending messages and commenting you make my day and really help me stay encouraged to write. So thank you!

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

You stared at your reflection in the mirror, gazing at the somewhat hollow figure of yourself. 

The monstrous silver collar weighed heavily on your spirit and collarbones. 

You traced your fingers over the indents where you had used a butter knife in a futile attempt to pry it off. Stolen from the mess, of course—it had been confiscated immediately. (Imperials are no fun.)

This followed the explosive outburst after that dreadful meeting in Tarkin’s office. 

The fight you put up required multiple troopers to pin you down, with the help of Crosshair to calm you as they forced this constricting collar onto you. Your screams had echoed throughout the entire base like the roar of a Zillo beast.

That was two days ago.

You didn’t even have the strength to get out of bed. It was so dehumanizing to be reduced to this… breeding stock? 

You didn’t know. 

You couldn’t think about it without feeling sick to your stomach. It made you itch with rage. The fantasies of murdering Tarkin were becoming more gruesome by the hour.

The 104th tried to visit, but you just curled up in bed, trying not to cry. Their voices and concern only reminded you of the 501st. You did your best to stifle your grief. They left with forlorn expressions and a curt shrug from Crosshair when they asked when you’d come out again.

Crosshair tried to nudge you out of bed, but you just burrowed deeper into the blankets, determined to remain in solitude. He sighed and left you be, feeling your despair through the bond.

Now, here you stood in your apartment bathroom, wearing Crosshair’s clothing, poking at the reminder of your purpose here. 

Your neck was raw from tugging at the collar; Crosshair had smeared bacta on the open sores that morning, and you looked at the red healing lines. 

You were suddenly overcome with the need for your other alphas. You craved the security they provided. Even when you were on the run, doing strange jobs for Cid, you felt secure with them. 

You missed their warmth, their hands, their pleasure… your home. You just wanted to scent them again, curl up in your nest, and never leave.

You looked back in the mirror and ran your fingers over the Aurebesh engraved in the metal:

“Property of CT-9904.”

You stared into your own empty eyes and decided enough was enough. The Imperials were winning if they could break you.

Fascist fucks. 

You took a deep breath and steadied yourself, willing your spirit to lift. 

Enough moping. 

It’s time to fight.

Grabbing the leather tie belt from the counter, you wrapped it around the large shirt, tying it at the waist to resemble Jedi robes. Then you pushed yourself away from the sink and turned toward the main living space. You grabbed a pair of slippers, hit the door lock, and stepped out into the hallway, making your way to the training center.

Crosshair had been ordered to track down your pack and had to pretend nothing was different. His new team of stormtroopers were inexperienced and desperately needed Crosshair’s knowledge if they were going after the Bad Batch. He had been working with them for the past few days, preparing them for this high-risk mission.

It wasn’t long before the security detail filed in behind you, following Tarkin’s orders. Two 104th infantry men flanked both sides, keeping a respectful distance but serving as a reminder that you couldn’t run far without being caught. You chose to ignore that last detail, but whatever.

Omegas and Alphas pressed themselves against the walls to let you pass. This was the one change you noticed drastically since your little show in the cafeteria and your grand escape from the facility. You were not an omega to be trifled with. You noticed the other omegas didn’t dare meet your gaze. Good. Stay away.

You had a reputation to uphold.

Descending the metal stairs, you floated down the corridor to the training rooms. Inside were endless rows of workout equipment for the regs, but more importantly, the open training mat where Crosshair was running drills with his new squadron. He sensed you immediately and gave you a discerning glance before turning his attention back to his men. However, you scented the alpha you were looking for. On the viewing platform, Wolffe sat watching Crosshair in silence. You filed in next to him, sitting down in acknowledgment.

“It’s good you’re up,” he said, keeping his gaze fixed ahead.

You sighed. “Can’t let them win. Not even the small things.”

He nodded. “You’re right.”

You nodded in return. “Did it work?” he asked.

You nodded again. “Light turned green. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Good.” He smirked. “I heard all about it from my men.”

You stifled a laugh.

“You would have made a remarkable Republic spy,” Wolffe joked. “Missed opportunity.”

You hummed.

“So, you really had a thing with a reg?” Wolffe asked, turning to face you and leaning back on the bench.

“It was a long time ago,” you said, giving him a sidelong glance.

“Didn’t think regs were your type,” he gestured toward Crosshair with his chin.

“It wasn’t a relationship. Just an… understanding,” you explained.

“I get it.” Wolffe smirked, clearly remembering something fondly. “We may be clones, but we’re still men. Alphas at that… The Republic had a pretty big budget for bunker bunnies.”

You whipped your head around, wide-eyed.

“What?” he laughed. “Your boys didn’t tell you?”

You gawked. “No!”

He snorted. “Yeah, every permanent base, and sometimes they’d bring in a ship for extended encampments.”

You were floored. You had no idea. Then you looked at Crosshair, trying to picture shiny Cross, Hunter, Wrek, Tech, and Echo experiencing that for the first time. You giggled, knowing there was probably some trauma related to that topic.

“What?” Wolffe was amused with your musing. 

“I’m just thinking about my pack. Oh god. I can’t believe all of the 501st was getting down like that and I had no idea.” You buried your face in your hands and laughed. 

Wolffe laughed too, “You really didn’t know?” 

“No!” You shook your head, “I thought quarterlies was like random people!” 

Wolffe snorted, “No darling, there was a special sector just for the girls back in Coruscant. They had the whole floor to themselves. Hundreds of omegas.” 

You squealed, “Oh my god.” 

“Ya know, I recall seeing Echo and Crosshair there a lot now that I think about it. Even your Sergeant a few times I think.” 

If your jaw could hit the floor it would. 

“Yeah. They liked to pop the shinys early. Get them accustomed to being around omegas at an early stage. Nothing worse than the first rut ya know?” 

“And Kamino?” You scrunched your brows. 

“Yeah thats where the first ruts happen.” Wolffe said like it was obvious. 

“Maker.” You shook your head. Images of your pack loosing their virginity flooded your mind. You felt Crosshair’s curiosity spike the bond. He was probably wondering what had you feeling like that. You could feel his eyes on you from across the room.

“Is that not common for nat borns?” He asked curiously. 

“No Commander, it’s not.” You shook your head, “You usually just have it happen naturally, most go through the first heat alone. Then when you’re an adult you might find a partner.” 

“Hmm.” He pondered. 

You were overcome with images of a young Tech trying to understand his alpha instincts. Probably fumbling around confused… poor baby. You shook your head. 

Oh god… Hunter… poor thing with his hyperdrive senses. That must have been so overwhelming the first few times. 

Then you thought of Crosshair. There was no way young Crosshair was ever awkward. He probably knew exactly what to do from the start… that man was too cocky to be anything else. 

You knew he was a whore from the get go… you giggled to yourself.

You’ll never forget that time on one of your first missions with the batch, you saw the way he finessed an omega into banging in a bar bathroom with such ease. It had your mind reeling for days after that. 

You remembered having to rub one out in the marauder fresher to take the edge off after imagining him with that omega for hours. He had come back looking throughly fucked. His hair was mused, his skin glowing from sweat, and the strong alpha scent radiating off of him made the whole ship reek of Crosshair. The others carried on with dinner as usual but you couldn’t help but let your mind wander. That’s when your thoughts about your squad had started, actually. 

The thought made your body suddenly warm. 

Wolffe must have sensed your smell change as he peered at you softly. 

“Excuse me.” You said standing and walking towards the mat directly at your mate. Your guards stayed behind with their Commander while Crosshair ordered his squad to keep practicing their drills while he tailed after you. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked as you lead him over between a row of punching bags. 

You just grabbed this hand and slapped the door panel dragging him into the nearest supply closet and shutting the door behind you. 

The lights fluttered on as he peered down at you, confused by your sudden behavior. 

You felt your heart quicken seeing him in his all matte black imperial amor. It felt so wrong to be turned on by it but, damn did he look good. So tall, so masculine. So… Alpha. 

“What, omega?” His voice dropped an octave sensing your becoming flustered through the bond.

You looked up at him meeting his steely gaze. You felt your core pulse, “Echo said you all had developed feelings for me when I first transferred, but I never told you when it happened for me.” You felt your chest starting to heave trying to keep up with your sudden rush of arousal. 

His smell was crowding you in a delicious way, like a warm embrace. 

He narrowed his eyes at you and backed you slowly into the near by shelves feeling your pulsing through the bond. He could feel your desperation to cum. He could almost smell it. 

He raised a brow playfully. 

“Remember when we were on Nal Hutta picking up that weapons supply from that shady dealer?” You recounted feeling the steel shelving pressing up against your spine. 

“And you had tripped and fell into the baby sarlac hole?” His memory clearly differs from yours. 

You nodded, “My shoe had been chewed up and the others left you and me in that bar while they hunted down a pair of new boots for me?” 

“Always loosing your shoes huh ad’ika?” He smirked and joked.

“You picked up that omega at the bar.” 

He narrowed his eyes not sure where this was going but listened regardless. 

You panted feeling the heat radiating through the bond and the wetness growing in your panties, “When you finally found your way back to the marauder, I had finished up dinner with the others… You smelled so good and you looked so different. And after knowing what you were doing…”  You remembered the rush of heat that had flooded your cheeks that night. 

Crosshair ran a finger lightly along your jaw making you shudder against the shelves. 

“What about it, omega?” He trailed his fingers to your cheek where he rubbed your skin softly. He could feel the heat in your cheeks now. It made his trousers tighten. 

“Something had changed. I couldn’t get your scent out of my mind. I had to finger myself in the fresher just to get to sleep.” You admitted with a whisper. 

He flashed you his teeth in a wicked smile, “That wasn’t even two weeks after you transferred.” 

“I know.” You sighed as his hands ran down your sides spreading their strong warmth making you purr and flex into his touch. 

“You’ve been imagining me fucking you for all that time?” He asked reaching around to squeeze your bum. You mewled and reached for his breast plate. He slotted his leg between yours pinning your hips to the shelf. 

You nodded. 

“Poor thing.” He whispered. 

“I didn’t ever take advantage of quarterlies because I didn’t want anyone else.” You sighed into his lips. 

“You already knew you belonged to us ad’ika.” He claimed. 

You nodded pathetically. 

“Every mission. Every time you’d come back covered in mud or blaster residue.” You whimpered grinding yourself down onto his leg, “I felt bad hoping you’d need me to patch you up. I just liked being able to scent you.” 

He guided your hips up and down his thigh. You bit your bottom lip holding back your moans. 

“Why did you tell me this now?” He asked adding more pressure to your core watching your face scrunch up as the pleasure was bleeding into your system. 

“I just remembered.” You whimpered, “Then it made me horny again.” 

He chuckled, “It’s your heat coming love.” 

You groaned as a particularly nice ridge rubbed up against you, “Fuck.” Your head slumped against his shoulder. He used a hand to grab your hip helping to guide you along his thigh. 

“Why do you have to look so good in that?” You mumbled. 

“In what, love?” 

“The armor.” You whimpered leaning up to look at him with bleary eyes. 

He smiled and leaned down to kiss you. You moaned deepening the kiss desperately feeling your orgasm starting to approach. 

“You like it, huh?” He smirked pressing kisses to your forehead while he pushed your hips down harder against him. He loved the way you twitched and squirmed under his hands.

You nodded suddenly feel the crest of your orgasm. 

Then it all stopped. You whined as Crosshair pulled away only for a moment before flipping you around harshly and bending you over a stack of near by shipping crates. You gripped onto the cool steel as he flipped up the bottom of his shirt you were wearing and yanked your panties to the side before shoving his joggers down and pulling out his leaking cock. 

You bucked up against him feeling his tip rub through your folds. You let out a pathetic whimper as he continued to gather your slick… too slow for your liking. 

“Alp-“ you were cut off as he surged forwards filling you to the absolute brim. 

You both sighed feeling each other so closely and you tried your best to grind back against him but he continued on pinning you to the crates to create a steady rhythm with his hips. 

“You were always such a good little medic, cyar’ika.” He praised, “I also would be a little reckless sometimes just so I could feel your hands on me.” He ran his hand up your spine to your neck where he fisted the hair at your nape, “We all did.” 

He chuckled thrusting a little harder making you yelp, “Our little omega.” 

“Cross.” You whined pushing back against him. The need to come was all consuming and he, like the good alpha he is, could seem to feel it through the bond. He reached down between your legs and starting making circles against your clit making you jump from the pleasure. 

“Fuck.” You moaned barking down feeling the crest approaching. You also felt Crosshair start to tense up letting you know he was close. His energy was thrumming through the bond intensifying your own sensations making it nearly unbearable. 

Then finally, with a pinched yelp, you bit your lip harshly as you came. 

“Good girl.” He praised into your ear. 

You slumped against the shelves, letting him hold you up as you regained your footing. With the urge to mate now abated, you began to return to normal.

“It’s coming soon,” you said, looking up at Crosshair with worried eyes.

“I’d be lying if I said I wished we had more time,” he sighed, nuzzling your head. “My brothers will need enough time to make a plan.”

“They can do it, though, right?” You wondered, suddenly feeling skeptical.

“They can do it,” he said confidently. “I just don’t know how we can be ready.”

You nodded, understanding his concern. It was frustrating being on the inside and having no idea what was going on.

A ping broke the silence, making both you and Crosshair look down at his com.

“Nala Se wants you in her lab,” Crosshair said, sounding resigned.

You took a deep breath. This couldn’t be good.

“Try not to fight her,” Crosshair sighed, petting your hair and tucking it behind your ear.

“You’re not coming?” you asked, suddenly filled with anxiety.

“Only if you want me to.”

“I do.”

He nodded and then tilted his head toward the door.

You exited first, grabbing onto Crosshair’s arm as he walked the two of you to the lab. Fortunately, the walk was quick and short. Nala Se’s office was just inside the infirmary, where a few regs were getting their check-ups. A couple of mating bites were being cleaned and treated, while others had come in for deep scratches down their backs. Clearly, the regs had been busy.

It didn’t escape your notice that every single one of them turned to look as you passed by. Crosshair’s presence was intimidating enough, but they couldn’t help but be curious about his mate. You could smell their scents spike as you walked past, clearly intrigued by your unique smell. Some even tipped their noses up to get a better whiff.

Crosshair approached the private lab and opened the door, allowing you to step inside and leave the room of wandering eyes behind you.

“Y/N,” Nala Se’s floating voice made you tense.

You stared at her, keeping your grip on Crosshair.

Crosshair looked down at you before addressing Nala Se. “What did you need my mate for?”

“She’s been ordered to have her remaining birth control dissolved in anticipation of her upcoming heat.”

You couldn’t help but lean a little closer to your mate, feeling your anxiety increase.

“Shouldn’t it just dissolve on its own?” Crosshair questioned. “I’d like to avoid putting her through more stress than she’s already had.”

“While I would normally agree, these orders have come from the Admiral,” Nala Se explained. “He wants to be certain she’s fertile.”

Crosshair looked down at you again. Knowing you both had to go through with this, he gently nudged you forward, and you climbed up onto the exam table. Crosshair stayed close, while Nala Se prepared the injector.

You nuzzled into Crosshair’s chest, and he soothed you with gentle back rubs. You felt Nala Se approach and press the injector to the implant site. With a quick jab, the dissolver was administered, and you felt the cooling medication spread under your skin. You flinched slightly when she pulled away, and Crosshair quickly nuzzled your cheek to keep you still. A small badge was applied, and then you were effectively dismissed.

“Once her heat begins, we will need to be informed,” Nala Se reminded you as you practically yanked Crosshair out of the lab.

In mere seconds, your scenting abilities came to life. Everything around you seemed to brighten. Crosshair’s heady scent enveloped you, followed by the unmistakable smell of regs. It was overstimulating.

You winced as you entered the infirmary. Crosshair noticed and knelt down to get a good look at your wild eyes, sensing your panic through the bond.

“Is it happening?” he asked, looking worried.

You shook your head. “No, no. I just… I can smell everything.”

“Let’s get you back,” Crosshair said, standing.

“Actually, I require your mate for one other test,” Nala Se said, appearing with her holo pad.

“It can’t wait?” Crosshair snarled.

You patted him gently on the shoulder, reminding him to stay calm and that you were okay.

You followed the long-necked alien back into her office, letting Crosshair remain at the door like a glorified bodyguard.

“I require a sample of your DNA,” Nala Se explained, leaving you to stand in the middle of the sterile white office.

“Blood?” you asked.

“Yes,” she blinked before grabbing her tool.

You held out your hand, letting her draw blood from your palm.

“Why are you doing this, Nala Se?” you questioned, watching her take your sample and not the sequencer. “Why would you help these people?”

“The Empire destroyed my home, and they’re threatening my loved ones,” she deadpanned. “I’m not here of my own volition.”

You were shocked she answered at all. You had always thought she agreed to help because of the money promised to the Kaminoans by the Republic. You had no idea they had destroyed everything. You didn’t know she was a prisoner herself.

You nodded. “Then that makes two of us.”

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Sorry this chapter is so short. I'm getting back into the swing of writing with my schedule, and according to my outline this was going to be a short/filler chapter anyways. Buttttt don't worry I'll be posting more regularly again.

Taglist: @substantial-exposure

@rains-on-kamino

@minimissmoo

@z-and-the-batboys

@aynavaano

@9902sgirl

@sideofhorny

@sxftiebee

@booksandtitts-blog

@subbing-for-clones

[starrysnowdrop]

FFXIVWrite 2024 #21: Shade (#29 Make-up)

Noun: a specter or ghost. Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology; one of the spirits of the dead inhabiting Hades.

During the events of 6.0; While the Ilsabard Contingent struggles with helping the surviving Garlean people, a strange woman is seen roaming the city ruins.

Brief mentions of @traveler-of-light’s WoLs Astrid and Arslan

As Hali continued to follow Jullus around the desolate ruins of the Garlean capital city, all the while shivering in the harsh, unforgiving cold, the lalafell struggled in vain to keep warm, despite wearing multiple layers of clothing, including the fluffy, white fur-lined pink coat Tataru had made for her. Hali thought she had been accustomed to the cold by now after all of her time spent in the endless winter of Ishgard, but as Cid had explained to her all those years ago, even the coldest Coerthan blizzard could not have prepared anyone for the utter inhospitable cold of Garlemald. She didn’t believe him then, as she chalked it up to mere exaggeration. But oh how right he was.

As the blistering winds blew around her, almost blowing the tiny lalafellin woman right off her feet and into the snow, she saw a black shrouded figure moving in the distance, slowly walking through the debris of fallen concrete walls and broken steel beams.

“Wait, is that a survivor over there?” Hali asked Jullus as she stared at the person, who looked like an Auri woman from her perspective. Upon further examination, their scales were nearly as black as their cloak, a Xaela… and so far from the Steppe. The only Xaela that should be in the area are her friends Astrid and Arslan, and also all of those of the Ilsabard Contingent, and they should all be back at Camp Broken Glass. It was such an odd sight that Hali had to do a double take.

“Hmm? Where?” Jullus looked up from the broken down Magitek armor he was inspecting.

“Over there!” Hali pointed towards the figure, who had glanced back at them with a blank stare. All that Hali could see was two piercing eyes whose green limbal rings shined brightly in the surrounding darkness.

“Could it be…?” Jullus inquired under his breath, but Hali didn’t pay attention to the Garlean’s reaction as Hali walked towards the woman.

“Hello there! Do you need help?” Before she could catch up to her, the woman turned and began to quickly walk away. “Hey, wait a minute!”

The lalafell ran to the woman, but when she rounded a pile of steel beams, the Xaela seemed to completely vanish from sight in an instant.

With confusion clear on her face, Hali turned around and saw absolutely nothing. “Huh? But they were right here! Where did they go?” She looked down and didn’t even see any footprints in the snow indicating where the woman would have retreated to. The lalafell looked back at Jullus, who was just as confused as she was, but he didn’t seem as spooked by it as she was either.

Jullus shrugged his shoulders as he replied, “Heh, seems she disappeared once again.”

“She who?”

With a sigh, Jullus looked down at Hali and began to explain. “Several of us have spotted a strange woman in a black cloak wondering around the streets, and as soon as she is spotted, she will disappear right where she stood.”

“Huh? So this has happened multiple times already? But do you have any idea who it might be?”

“Well, I know it sounds absolutely preposterous, but the same sight has been reported by about a dozen soldiers and civilians alike. And that’s not the strangest part.”

Jullus glanced over at the large, imposing, otherworldly tower where the Imperial Palace once stood proud and strong as he continued, “Some have given the exact same details of a figure like the one we just saw: a young woman with features of a Xaela, an Au Ra from the Far East with scales as black as night, and eyes that shine with a bright green glow. The exact same features as the woman whose been rumored to be Emperor Varis’ mistress.”

As soon as Jullus mentioned the Emperor’s name, it all came into focus. She was the Xaela woman who had accompanied Emperor Varis to the meeting with the Eorzean Alliance before the Battle of Ghimlyt Dark, who had spouted the exact same rhetoric as His Radiance had spoken of, and then the name finally came to her conscious mind.

“Persephone?!” Hali asked with a alarmed expression.

“Oh, so you have heard of her then.”

“I have met her once before… but I had no idea that she had survived the civil war.”

Jullus shook his head and shrugged his shoulders once more. “That’s what is so strange about it though. It was reported to Lord Quintus himself that the Lady Persephone had died in the palace shortly before the fighting broke out in the capital. So what is it that we’re all seeing? A frightened survivor? A woman turned monster? Or even a shade?”

With a shiver that Hali couldn’t distinguish as a result of the cold or of fright, Hali pulled in her coat closer to her, and decided to lighten the mood a bit as the two begun to walk back to find Alphinaud and Alisaie. “A ghost floating about the ruins? Well, I’ll be sure to warn Alphy. Heh, I can’t wait to see the look on his face!”

Persephone’s Blog: Coming Soon!

[skyekitsuneart]

so ive come up with a new au idea,,,,,

FF7 x The Witcher

because we can all see cloud as geralt right???!!!?? like, clouds wolf emblem in ac??

this au isnt gonna be 1 to 1, its gonna have its own original plot, but there will def be a lot of parallels

so heres my assignments so far:

cloud - wolf school witcher (geralt)

zack - wolf school witcher, has gone missing

angeal - oldest wolf school witcher (vesimir)

aerith - elven bard (jaskier/dandelion)

tifa - sorceress (triss)

nanaki - monster cloud was paid to kill but instead saves, feels indebted to cloud and has no home so he becomes clouds traveling companion

shinra - imperial empire (nilfgard)

barret - shinra resistance leader

yuffie - runaway princess after her father willingly lets shinra take over their kingdom (somewhat like ciri, but not a child of destiny)

vincent - 'retired' viper school witcher, cursed by a monster to slowly turn into one

reeve/cait - reeve is the mage advisor for rufus, cait sith is a fae cat creature he is soul bonded with

cid - dwarf blacksmith

sephiroth - powerful mage from another sphere, wants to avenge his mother being killed by humans after the conjunction of the spheres

jenova - replaces lara dorren???

anyways im having sm fun with this, i have a bunch more written down but this is the basics of it all

and yes, there will be clerith in this bcuz i love them and the witcher/bard dynamic is too fun >:3

[assassinshadowgirl]

Final Fantasy 16 AU Draft

Same as the Prologue; Annabelle the bitch betrayed her Nation, slewed her husband and offered Clive to the Holy Empire of Sanbreque.

Dion came to learn about what happened at the Phoenix Gate from his Dragoons and strongly despised Annabelle for her actions. He later became devastated when his Father announced his marriage to her and Annabelle will be Dion's stepmother from now on.

Dion refused to acknowledge her. Furthermore noticed that his Father Sylvestre Lesage, Emperor of the Holy Empire began to act distant towards him ever since that woman stepped into their homeland.

Feeling lonely and neglected, Dion wandered into the basement where he met Clive now a Branded, sitting alone at a fireplace. Both recognized each other. Soon they were sitting together, chatting.

With Clive's mother married to Dion's father, the young blonde Prince joked that they are considered half siblings. He then went ahead to tell Clive about his father's cold treatment and Annabelle's disdain towards him. Clive understands how Dion feels as he's also the same as him. They grew close immediately.

Dion visits Clive everyday. To protect his brother from mistreatment as a Branded, Dion proposed a plan; He asked if Clive is willing to be his bodyguard so both can watch each other's back. Clive agreed.

Thirteen years later, Clive served as Dion's bodyguard, and assisted the Prince in the war against Waloed Kingdom and its Dominant Odin.

During rest, Dion admitted honestly that he's growing weary of this war and much more concerned for his people's safety instead. Both Clive and Dion knew the Emperor was getting more cold hearted due to someone who was clearly being the one responsible for all these happenings. It got even worse ever since Olivier was born.

For the past years, Sylvestre had treated Dion more of a war weapon than a son. He only showed his affection towards Annabelle's child making Dion feel even more lonelier. However Clive was always by his side as a brother and only friend.

Suddenly a group of Imperial Soldiers under Annabelle's rule barged into the camp, issued an arrest warrant on Dion for his treachery against the Holy Empire. The Prince was utterly confused by this sudden accusation that he never committed. Before the guards could take him away, Clive attacked and with help from a few Dragoons, Clive and Dion escaped.

They were later rescued by Cid. Clive was reunited with his trusty hound, Torgal. And both were warmly welcomed into the hideaway.

From Cid, they learnt about the Ice Dominant Shiva being used by the Iron Kingdom for war and agreed to work together with Cid to rescue her.

Clive was later shocked to find out that Shiva was actually Jill, his long lost childhood friend whom he introduced her to Dion and they instantly got along with. Jill was grateful to Dion for taking care of Clive for 13 years.

Dion, now a fugitive as well as an exiled Prince, along with Clive, Jill and Torgal decided to work alongside with Cid as Outlaws to make a better world for the Branded and others.

The following will be them encountering Benedikta, Hugo, learning about Ultima's existence, Clive being the Mythos that possesses an unique ability to absorb other Eikons' abilities, reuniting with Joshua, fighting against Barbanas and Harbard etc.

During their journeys and hardships, they evaded Annabelle's Imperial guards who were tasked to hunt Dion and bring him back to Sanbrequec against his will while Clive was being hunted by Ultima to become his vessel.

Clive, Dion, Joshua, Jill and Torgal protect each other's back as they journeyed together.

That's that. If there are people out there who want to use this idea for their fanfics, are welcome to go ahead but pls do give credits lol. 😂

[aaaaawolfquarters]

Tech and Omega Swap AU : EPISODE 10

s1ep10 notes/changes

Tech is excited to know what their next mission will be, but Omega reminds him that there are still two bounty hunters after him. Hunter agrees that there is a lot of heat on them at the moment

When Cid tells them about the mission on Raxus, Tech tries to helpfully detail the information he knows about Raxus, that it was the former center of the Sepratist government, etc. Cid says she doesn't take history lessons from children. Tech is offended, as technically, all of his information was correct, regardless of his age

Hunter still originally refuses the job, as he doesn't want to take Tech to a planet "swarming with imperials". Cid takes a long moment to consider before replying that he can leave the kid with her

When Hunter tells Tech he has to stay with Cid, Tech protests that they are a a squad, and they shouldn't split up :( Omega suggests he works on his goggles while they're gone (since he has been wearing his heavily damaged glasses for a while). When Cid tosses Tech the sponge, he takes a moment to flick his hands and readjust his grip so he's not touching the slimy side of the sponge

Tech is a bit more problematic than Omega was in the show, Cid has to shoo him away from, as Tech would put it, "repurposing unnecessary or redundant technologies to upgrade his goggles." He also fixes Crosshair's old comm that got destroyed by Cad Bane. After he finishes, he fidgets and sulks at the counter. When Cid tells him he is bringing the mood down, he replies, "there are only two patrons currently in the store, and they seem unbothered." Cid is annoyed, and asks if he is just upset he got left behind. Tech agrees, stating that the squad hasn't even contacted him. Cid says, "maybe if you weren't so helpless, those four laser brains wouldn't have left you here with me" the rest of the conversation is similar to cannon, with Tech storming off and Cid following, but not helping at all

On Raxus, Echo is the one hacking into the security feed, but most everything else happens like in the show (Omega goes with Hunter, notices the empire person triggered an alert, pilots the walker, etc)

Tech can't help himself but butt in and correct Cid's play, saying "that is not the ideal move for that scenario." After Cid eventually listens to Tech's advice, Cid asks how he knew how to do that. Tech responds, "It is a strategy game with a set number of options, from what I've seen, easy enough to pick up on"

When the Batch return to Cid's, there is a quiet crowd gathered, watching in awe as Tech wins yet another match. However, unlike the show, Tech is actively moving away from Cid's attempts to pat him on the back, rest her hand on his shoulder, etc.

[omgfloofy]

The Insurgent King

Hey, look. My second fic in two days?! Also with a title that's the same as the rest of the series.

This is the second (of ten, based on my current plan) stories for this series. It's an AU with Noctis who has to become kind of a Batman/Robin Hood/Cid the Outlaw type figure in an Imperial occupied Insomnia, as he is maneuvering his way to be able to take over the throne again.

This won't be entirely sequentially told. There are mysteries setup that are to be revealed over these stories that are, for the most part, episodic.

I hope you enjoy this series!

[aesadraws]

please please please tell me abt tangled au 👀

WIP File Game

About: PFK Tangled AU

Oooooh boy. This one was born from rewatching Tangled awhile back and my brain making a connection between Eugene's persona of the criminal Flynn Rider and that popular idea of Joshua actively fighting back against the empire of Sanbreque under the moniker Margrace. Plus I found it so funny to imagine Terence chasing after Joshua the outlaw only to eventually come to care for him. It's not a shot-for-shot re-telling of the disney film but there are plenty of elements I'm planning to incorporate, mostly because they're fun.

Our cast:

Dion as our Rapunzel, granted the blessing of Bahamut as a child. After Sanbreque was "attacked" by Rosarian forces Sylvestre sought to protect his most valuable asset and had Dion locked away in a tower, to be tended to solely by his stepmother Anabella. He still takes to the battlefield as Bahamut (though I'm imaging just semi-primed for this fic) but he knows to return straight to the castle after just in case someone were to try and assassinate him.

Joshua as the aforementioned outlaw Margrace, his true identity unknown. Believed to have died when Sanbreque "righteously" attacked the ducal family at Phoenix Gate. Only the Undying he works with knows that he was also granted a blessing of one of the EIkons, saving him from being stillborn at birth.

Terence is essentially Maximus, but not a horse (he's no Sleipnir lmao). He's a loyal imperial soldier that has kept up a clandestine relationship with Dion, climbing the tower through its secret entrance. He also wholeheartedly believes in the imperial propaganda that Rosaria's insurgents need to be put down, at least until he eventually learns Joshua's side of the story.

There's not a whole lot of secondary cast beyond Sylvestre, Anabella, and Clive making key appearances. There's implications that Joshua is working with Cid as well as the Undying, which becomes helpful when Joshua tries to free his brother from having been stuck as a gladiator in Oriflamme.

I have the vast majority of this fic outlined except for the climax and ending, hence why it's still low down in my priorities until I get that banged out. But I know I'll enjoy a few scenes in particular when I get to it, including: fun banter between Joshua and Terence while the one chases after the other, Joshua being incredibly bitter upon seeing his mother again, and quite a few moments of heavy angst (with a happy ending, because c'mooon this is me we're talking about).

[laqualassiel]

Trying to decide in the Spark!Ardyn au where Ardyn goes after getting Blessed by Ifrit, because there’s no way on the Pyre he’s sticking around in Niflheim now that he knows Besithia is insane enough to try daemonifying an Astral.

Now the only question is: where does he go?

There’s Tenebrae, the closest and easiest to reach when Ardyn has no identification or money and hardly any knowledge of the modern world. Get Tenebrae world building and politics, stuff on the Oracle family, and eventual interactions with a younger Sylva, who might not even be the Oracle yet depending how old Sylva’s mom is. The threat of Niflheim discovering Ardyn (again) is highest in Tenebrae, given Tenebrae’s proximity and vassalage. The people of Tenebrae would likely be more religious than other countries, so we can build on the established Cosmogony and how that ties into the official religious doctrine. Ardyn’s grief for Aera would be more raw here, with Aera’s family as constant reminders. There’s also the possible conflict of the Oracles potentially knowing about Ardyn’s new Blessing, and if Bahamut had made known to the Oracles of his mandate that no other Blessings are permitted, that could put the Oracles in a position of having to choose between Ardyn and the will of the gods (or at least the only one whose actually awake). Depending on how far the canon historical timeline gets yeeted, Ardyn would be present when Noctis is brought to Tenebrae for healing and would promptly derail Niflheim’s whole invasion.

Next closest location is Accordo. Harder to get to because of the necessity of traveling by boat, but it is part of the Empire so there’s less travel restrictions to worry about there. Here we’d get Altissia world building and politics, meeting young Claudia Claustra and her movement to free Accordo from Imperial rule. No daemons in Accordo, so Ardyn’s magic would stay under the radar longer, and therefore less risk of Niflheim and Besithia finding him. Ardyn would integrate more into city life here, rather than living as a hermit. Dunno what Ardyn would do to make a living, but he’d pick up some sort of quiet career. In addition to meeting young Claudia, we’d eventually meet Prince Regis and his Retinue when they come to Altissia and get tangled in the politics there. There’s also the chance of Leviathan waking up and being Not Pleased to find the former Accursed and now one of Ifrit’s Sparks living on her front lawn. In this location Ardyn would probably get involved with Claudia’s underground resistance movement, and would probably interact quite a bit with Weskham after he stays in Altissia.

There’s Galahd, which has less world building needed (bless @secret-engima) but I could play around with the Clan politics of the time and their oaths to the Crown. Galahd would fold Ardyn in no problem, and without havens and only a scattering of temples Ardyn would put his magic to use the quickest of all locations. He’d be safest from Niflheim here, and pretty safe from Mors sending assassins too. Dig deeper into the differences between Galahdian religion and the official doctrine. Meet some of the baby glaives. Meet Prince Regis when he comes to Galahd briefly. Help fight the Niflheim occupying forces after Mors pulls the wall, which adds the risk of discovery from Niflheim.

Lastly, we’ve got Lucis. Farthest from Niflheim and hardest to get to, but the easiest to disappear in the Lucian Outlands. Would probably set up shop as the og ‘Witch’ of Malmalam Thicket, and meet young Kimya when she shows up demanding to learn from him. Highest threat from Mors’ assassins. Would likely meet Regis and co at least once. Offers the chance for Ardyn to rescue Cor from the Tempering Grounds, including a long overdue meeting between Ardyn and Gilgamesh. After Mors pulls the Wall, would have the threat from Niflheim’s invading forces. Ardyn would be more involved with the Hunters in this, if only tangentially, and might have more interactions with Cid and Cor as time goes on. Of course, being in Lucis means he’s faced with reminders of his brother’s family, and could even make the pilgrimage to Somnus’ tomb if he’s feeling particularly self-destructive.

So, any thoughts or ideas on where Ardyn ends up after running from Niflheim?

[cryptictongues]

wip tag game rules :

post the names of all the files in ur wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send u an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! tag as many people as you have wips!

Thank you for tagging me @pinkkittysaw for allowing me to share my ideas publicly LMAO

Would like to note that I don't usually create titles until I finish something!

Tagging whoever wants to partake!

Joshua Rosfield x Leviathan!Reader (Chaptered): Reader and Joshua were betrothed to one another at a young age until the fall of Phoenix Gate. 18 years pass and Reader is the ruler of Aquaos, a safe haven kingdom for war refugees and bearers. 

Barnabas Tharmr x Leviathan!Reader (Chaptered): A love story that turns sour (Thanks Ultima boooo)

Clive Rosfield x Flower!Reader: Throwback to when Clive had his brand removed and reader took care of him. 

Modern AU: Reader and Clive are actors, and don't know what's real and what's not on set. NSFW

The Waloedian Witch: Witch!Reader finds Clive washed along the shores of Waloed. She takes care of him so he is strong enough to get back home. Unrequited Love AU

Gav x Reader Friends to Lovers AU: Everyone in the Hideaway knows you and Gav like each other… well except for you and Gav.

Clive Rosfield x Flower!Reader: Clive comes back to the Hideaway after Origin to find out you left. He stops at nothing to find you. (I'm writing this one now YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!)

Ignis Scientia x Rockstar!Reader: Ignis never thought a woman like you could fall for the likes of him. You could say the same about him. 

Cidolfus Telamon x Reader: You are Cid's second in command at the Hideaway. The both of you tend to butt heads and it all comes to a head when Cid comes back from the one place you both swore never to return to… Waloed. NSFW

Barnabas Tharmr x Reader: you and Barnabas commence a marriage through a blood oath. Things get horny. NSFW

Clive Rosfield x Flower!Reader: Clive teaches you how to wield a sword. NSFW

Barnabas Tharmr x Reader: Barnabas decides to punish you the only way he knows: strap you down and make you cum until you are a mess. NSFW

Clive Rosfield x Reader: Clive avoids you like the plague and you have no idea why… that is until you see him locked down in the dungeon: Ifrit Rut fic NSFW

Cidolfus Telamon x Reader: Cid accidentally invents a vibrator. He wants to test it out. NSFW Crack fic

Clive Rosfield x Reader: Clive and Reader get heated in an argument, with the reader telling Clive how much she hates him. Clive decides to how true that statement is. NSFW

Moulin Rouge Roxanne inspo: Reader and Cid are in love, but Cid has to watch her entertain Barnabas.

Clive meets an older woman who would end up being an important figure in his life. Mother Figure!AU

Barnabas Tharmr x Reader: A fic based on the lyric “Always an Angel, Never a God” from the song "Not Strong Enough" by boygenius

Clive Rosfield x Reader Office AU: Clive is the CEO of Hide, Hideaway industries, and while visiting his brother's building, he sees Joshua has the most beautiful woman he has ever laid eyes on as his secretary. NSFW

Clive x Princess AU: During Clive’s time in the Imperial Army, he is given the task to escort you, a princess from the Northern Territories, to the Holy Empire of Sanbreque where you will wed Prince Dion. NSFW

Beware the Eikon of Death: You, the immortal Eikon, are put in charge of guiding Dominants to their peace for their life after death. 

FFVII Remake x FFXV Crossover with Ignis Scientia x Reader relationship: Reader runs away from her past after the incident in Altissia only to find herself on the other side of the world in Midgar. Years have passed and she is now part of the splinter cell of Avalanche, but still has dreams about her past and her lover, which comes back to haunt her.

[violetjedisylveon]

Amnesia Chapter 13 - Home

Bad batch Omega centric au

Summary: Freyu returns home and finally accepts that Omega is part of her life. Tech discusses a lead he has with Echo.

Word count: 2.7k

Warnings: 🛑sleep deprivation, stress🛑

A/N: Hunter is stressed, sleep deprived and angry and has been for about 3 months at this point, his prefrontal cortex, the critical thinking part of the brain, is not working, at all. And good person/boss Cid is my fav headcanon.

Enjoy!

Bad Batch Amnesia AU Masterpost

________________________________________________________________________________

Freyu angrily stormed off the Mlikix hover station. The Empire hadn't had any issue with using a shuttle to get her to the capital, but when she had asked how she was going to get back, they just told her to take the hovertrain. It took her the entire night and most of the morning to get back.

That on top of everything else really pissed her off.

She really wanted to break something or someone for the stupid bullshit they just put her through for absolutely no reason, but that would only put a target on her back and she wasn't trying to get caught.

Her vehement refusal to the blood draw might have just put her in a worse position. That creepy doctor, he was smart, she could tell he was smarter than Rampart, than a lot of the Empire. He might figure it out if she wasn't careful.

Even if the Empire said they were done with her, she had a gut feeling she was going to be watched from now on. Her instincts had never been wrong before, she had been wrong.

Now she had to be extra careful with what she did in public, and even at home. Though it wasn't like they could get close enough to her home to see anything.

She still had a feeling of unease as she thought about that creepy doctor, she knew him from somewhere, she was sure of that, she just couldn't place it.

I'll have to check Maat's list. Her brother has given her a very long, extensive list of now Imperial personnel to avoid and why. The top three were all Palpatine. She had never really liked that old man so it made enough sense, something felt off about him the one time she met him.

A loud whiny roused her from her thoughts.

She glanced up to see Asichi standing in the middle of the road. Of course she'd been followed.

"Hey girl, see you've been waiting for me." She called out loudly, weary of being watched.

Asichi caught on and trotted over to her. If the doctor had questions, he could ask a Massii that could stomach his vile presence. Asichi's velvety soft muzzle nuzzled her forehead, she closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her thick mane.

"I'm tired." She whispered.

It was late, it would take her an hour to get back home from here. She could just head home, it wasn't too late yet, and she had promised Omega she'd be back by tonight, but she didn't want to be around anyone right now. Not for a while, she needed to process everything before she went back home.

Asichi neighed and nudged her cheek, bringing her attention to the saddle on her back. The saddle bags were full.

"Alask packed you up for me?" She mused.

Asichi nodded and wrapped a tendril around her wrist.

Alask's too good to me.

Freyu pulled herself up onto Asichi's back and rode out of Mlikix, heading for the forest near her home.

She needed to be among the Mother Forest for a few hours. She was safe there, she always had and always would be safe there.

"Let's go see our mother, shall we?" Sje prompted Asichi.

With a giddy neigh and jump, Asichi took off, taking her far away from the Empire.

XXX

Freyu arrived at Alask's house late at night. Just barely within the time limit she had given Omega. She was cutting it close, but she had still made it.

She set Asichi up in the conveniently left open stall for the night. The mare gleefully chowed down on the food she offered. Freyu patted Asichi's neck as she ate.

"I'll give you a good grooming tomorrow, hows that sound?" She prompted.

Asichi neighed in agreement, then nudged her towards Alask's house. She had a feeling she would find a certain someone still awake.

She entered with the key she still had, and made sure the house was fully locked once she was finally inside.

She took off her shoes and coat and quietly moved into the living room.

Knowing Alask, something had been set up for her to crash on for the night. She found the lamp near the couch still on low, and the couch's bed was pulled out. Alask's couch bed was unfairly comfortable.

Sheets and blankets were laid out nicely for her. Alask was truly too good to her.

She quietly made her way to the refresher to change with the clothes she'd brought in. She briefly debated taking a shower, but decided against it, she could get one later and Alask's sheets could be cleaned. It wasn't like she was covered in blood this time.

She put her dirty clothes in her bag and made her way back to the living room. A soft noise caught her attention, she glanced in its direction and saw a very sleepy Omega walking out of her room, rubbing her eyes.

Her hunch had been correct. She wasn't exactly happy about Omega staying up waiting for her, but she certainly wasn't going to complain, she had missed her vod'ika.

Omega squinted at her for a second then blinked.

"Freyu?" She whispered.

"Yep. I'm back, Meg'ika." Freyu whispered back.

Omega threw herself down the hall and slammed into her, almost knocking her off balance. The girl almost started crying as Freyu patted her head and ran her fingers through her curly hair.

"I'm back, just like I told you I'd be." She whispered reassuringly.

Omega held onto her for a little bit longer until her need to use the fresher overtook her.

"I'm on the couch, goodnight Meg'ika." Freyu whispered.

Omega muttered an "mhm", and Freyu left her ward to tend to her business.

She settled into Alask's incredibly comfortable couch bed and was prepared to knock out for a solid day. She was so exhausted.

In the back of her mind she knew she wouldn't get nearly as much sleep as she wanted, she had orders to catch up on, ingredients to process since she had been smart enough to do a bit of foraging while she was out and a bunch of inventory to do, maybe she could ask Tesi to help out with that. And she needed to carve some time out to give Asichi a proper grooming.

However, all of that was hours away from being her problem. She sighed and finally released the tension that had been building inside of her since that clone approached her yesterday.

She wasn't at all surprised when the bed creaked as she was joined by Omega. She let Omega snuggle up close to her and get herself comfortable before wrapping her arms around her sister and pulling her close. She breathed in the warm, comforting scent of Alask's cleaner, the soft, sweet scents she had come to associate with Omega, and the dozens of other smells that symbolized home and safety to her.

Nothing else in the galaxy mattered but this sense of safety she had right now.

"I missed you." Omega whispered quietly.

Freyu nuzzled her forehead, relieved when Omega eagerly leaned into her soft touch.

"I missed you too, vod'ika." She whispered back.

Omega hummed contentedly, her mind was completely peaceful and quiet. Screw whatever had happened to Omega before she found her, even what she did remember wasn't good, she was much happier and safer here. She liked it better here, and she liked being with her.

Freyu felt something she hadn't in a long time. The warm, fuzzy feeling of loving and being loved slowly spread through her body. After all of this time, three months of caring for and loving Omega, she could accept what she had initially refuted.

Omega was her sister, and Mother Forests take pity on the poor souls who thought they were going to take her sister again.

Omega was her Vod'ika, and she was Omega's Ori'vod.

She was going to protect her like one.

XXX

Echo walked into Cid's to see Tech furiously typing away on his datapad.

Hunter was nowhere to be scene, he vaguely recalled Wrecker saying something about distracting him before going to his therapy appointment.

"Is something up?" He prompted his younger brother as he got himself a drink.

He had started working at the bar since Cid wasn't sending them out so much. At the moment it was just Viserric working, the Mikkian nodded to him and moved aside to let him come behind the counter.

"Your idiot brother has been ordering energy drinks every twenty minutes." They muttered to him.

He glanced over and yep, there were several empty glasses around his little brother. He recognized that intensely focused look in his eyes.

"Tech?" He tapped his little brother's shoulder.

Tech jolted away and reached for his blaster before recognizing him.

"You alright?" He asked.

Tech adjusted his goggles and cleared his throat.

"Yes I-I was not expecting that." He explained.

Echo just patted his shoulder and slid him a large glass of water. He gathered up Tech's used glasses and started to wash them.

"You looked pretty focused there, find something interesting?" He asked.

"I believe I have." Tech said.

He took a breath, about to spill literally everything he had just learned, whether it was important to their operations of just something Tech found particularly fascinating today. Echo truly didn't mind his little brother's info dumps, but given the amount of glasses, Tech hadn't done anything but research and binge caffine for hours.

"Drink some water and eat something before you tell me." Echo instructed before Tech could start his rant.

Tech grumbled under his breath, but didn't argue. Echo had his headset play some relaxing music in the background as he took care of the dishes, his cybernetics had been waterproofed by Tech back when he first joined them.

Viserric quickly tossed together whatever Tech had ordered. Cid's food wasn't always the healthiest, but it was a good price for a decent quality.

"If you want to eat something you should get it before the evening rush." Viserric advised him.

He acknowledged their words with a nod and did a few more odd jobs while he waited for Wrecker to come back from whatever distraction he had dragged Hunter off too.

"Echo, there's something I'd like to discuss with you before the others come back." Tech said once he finished his plate.

Echo glanced to Viserric, the Mikkian was somewhat aware of their situation, they didn't say anything about it, it wasn't their problem. They rolled their eyes and grabbed Tech's empty plate.

"Get going, Weshu and Aevnass will be here before the rush starts." They told him.

He followed Tech to the employee rooms in the back of Cid's, not all of Cid's employees used them, but there were enough for most of a full staff.

Viserric lived here, which was why they were more aware of the situation than the others. Echo spent more nights in the moderately sized room than he did on the marauder, he almost never slept there any more. His brothers had stopped asking about it two months ago.

Tech sat at the small desk, Echo sat on his bed.

"Well?" He prompted.

"I think I've finally got something." Tech said with a hopeful excitement in his voice.

"You do, huh?"

Tech nodded and pulled something up on his data pad.

"I was checking Imperial activity in sectors with refugee programs in the outer rim, I thought I would find something of use to us, and I was correct." Tech said.

"You think you've got a lead?" Echo hummed thoughtfully.

"I believe I do. Yes." Tech handed his datapad over.

Echo glanced over the image on the screen. It was taken from a surveillance drone, the focus was two Pantorans going about their day in a market. The younger of the two was holding the older girl's hand as she talked with a vendor.

"It's just a pair of Pantorans. I don't see how that could help us." Echo said, passing the device back to his brother.

"The young girl is Omega." Tech stated.

Echo blinked at the bold statement

"Really?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yes, do you not see it? I thought it was obvious." Tech said.

Echo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Tech, that is clearly a Pantoran child, she just happens to look somewhat similar to Omega from that angle." He said.

"I did a facial analysis of her in all the images I could find, it matches Omega almost perfectly, I suspect the error is due to the face mask she is wearing to get the blue color." Tech said.

"Or, that error is because they are two different people." Echo argued.

"They are too similar for that to be the case." Tech argued back.

Echo did not have it in him to fight Tech on this issue. He sighed and conceded defeat.

"Okay, so you think that's Omega, what do you plan to do about it?" He asked.

"We'll go to this planet and find her, it's quite simple actually." Tech said.

"And if it's not Omega and we just harassed some random Pantorans for no reason?" Echo challenged.

"Then we keep looking." Tech said.

"Assuming they don't call the local authorities or the Empire on us for harassing them." Echo scoffed.

Tech fixed him with a glare.

"I did not know you cared so little." He said.

Echo scowled at him.

"You know it's not that. We lost Omega three months ago and haven't heard anything of her since, I'm just a little skeptical that we'll ever find her by now." He explained.

"What if this is it? What if we've finally found her? Isn't it worth the risk?" Tech prompted.

Echo sighed and glanced at the images on the datapad. He wouldn't admit it, but the little girl's smile did remind him of Omega, only she was happier than he'd ever seen her. She looked happier, healthier and better fed than ever.

Even if it was Omega, and he was very sure it wasn't, taking her from a place where she was clearly well cared for didn't feel right.

"She looks pretty happy there." He pointed out.

Tech gave him a side glance.

"Even if that is Omega, are you sure we should take her?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Just look at her, Tech, that kid is someone who has a home where she's being taken care of, she isn't risking her life to earn a living, she's safe." He paused for a moment, debating whether or not to say what he had been thinking for months.

"Omega wasn't safe with us, not like that kid is. Maybe, if it is her, it would be in her best interest to leave her alone." He suggested.

Tech was silent for a few minutes.

"You have a good point, though I'm not so sure Hunter would agree." He said cautiously.

"Do you?" He questioned.

"I want what is best for Omega, if that means leaving her to someone else's care, then that is what will happen." Tech said firmly.

At least I have one brother on my side. Echo thought.

His eyes flicked over to the pair of Pantorans.

"Why's the Empire interested in these two anyway?" He asked.

"I'm not sure yet, though the older one is their focus. The reason is classified." Tech answered.

"What's classified?"

Echo jumped at Hunter's voice.

"Kriff Hunter! You can't just barge in like that!" He scolded.

Hunter gave him an apologetic shrug.

"What are you two looking at?" He asked.

"I've found a lead." Tech stated before Echo could stop him.

"What?!" Hunter pushed past Echo and snatched up Tech's datapad.

"Did you find 'er?!" Wrecker asked excitedly.

"Tech found someone who looks like her." Echo said.

Hunter immediately glared at him and opened his mouth to say something Echo didn't care to hear.

"Save it. I've already had this talk with Tech." He growled.

Hunter still glared, but at least he shut up. They weren't on the best of terms at the moment.

"Where is this? We need to get there now." Hunter said.

Echo reached over and took the datapad from his brother. He wanted to stop him from getting any unrealistic ideas.

"How about we go talk with Cid about this first, she might have some useful information." He said, folding his arms over the datapad.

Hunter looked pissed, well he would have if he wasn't so sleep deprived.

"Fine." He grumbled.

Echo quickly left his room to go find Cid and drag her into this mess.

________________________________________________________________________________

Sillies:

Freyu: *adopts Omega*

Hunter: damn it! how are we gonna get Omega back now?!

Echo, tired: how about we just adopt the person who adopted her?

Hunter, sleep deprived (and stupid): that'll never work!

Echo: wanna bet?

Freyu has finally accepted that Omega is her sister! Yay! It only took her three months to get there, by Massanii laws Freyu's been her legal guardian since week two.

Good luck trying to get Omega away from her now.

Ngl the boys are gonna have a very interesting situation on their hands soon. Omega doesn't remember or know them, and she's with Freyu now, who actually knows how to take care of and raise a child, and it's been over three months, do they really have any right to intervene in something so good for her?

Expect lots of arguments + Hunter's prefrontal cortex still not working(that's the nice way of saying he's gonna do something(s) stupid)

Also Cid has housing for her employees, they don't have to pay for it and it isn't taken out of their salary. It's a policy enforced by the person who actually owns the building Cid uses, but Cid doesn't really mind cause it really doesn't take that much out of the bottom line. She's a business person but she's not heartless, not here at least 🙃

I hope you all have a good day, whatever that is for you!

VJS Out!

[wirewitchviolet]

The Entire Plot of Final Fantasy 14, with all the expansions, and some serious analysis of how good it actually is. (Part 8 - Post-Shadowbringers)

Last time, we covered Shadowbringers, the more or less universally agreed upon best expansion. Nicely self-contained, well-structured, focused, and not bogged down with any poorly done morally grey stuff. Bad news is, this interlude before the next expansion has a lot of stuff that’s bad and dumb and ill-fitting to the established setting, but at least there’s not a lot of it, and the exceptions are pretty great stuff.

First thing’s first, since everything is all perfect and settled here in the First, and you’re actually able to do so, unlike everyone else, everyone suggests you maybe slip back home to check on how things are going with the whole final war against the empire and all that. Estinein really stepped up to the plate as stupidly powerful protagonist putting out fires everywhere and popping back to talk with Tataru and Krile. He really recovered nicely from his whole previous life-quest wrapping up weird and being possessed and covers stuff pretty well. He has been hanging out with freaking redemption-arc-Gaius though, and he has good news and bad news about what’s up with the empire. The good news is, the whole plan to avert the everyone-gets-killed-by-biological-weapons future by taking pressure off the empire seems to have worked out. The bad news is they’re getting back into the weird giant robot approach. One of these is just a rebuilt Ultima Weapon that Estinein gets to deal with in a bit where you play as him in full ridiculous-dragon-powers mode, the rest of this you have to deal with in Werlyt, one of those new break-aways from the empire that isn’t important enough to bother putting on the map somewhere that isn’t covered in clouds. Cid’s there though, and wow has he been busy. Also it struck me earlier that the one and only time he got a new outfit back in Heavensward it came out really like, 1970s, heading to the disco?

Like remember Bones’ look from the first Star Trek movie?

We start out with the first new model, Ruby Weapon, and yeah, we’ve got a whole set of gemstones here. It looks pretty Evangelion. And then partway through the fight it gets... decidedly more Evangelion when in defeat the “oversoul” system in it activates and... it’s probably better to show than tell here. Skip to about 5:40 for the important bit.

But I guess I also have to explain what is hands down just the stupidest, most badly written sidequest chain in FF14. So... Gaius. The “creeping mendacity” guy. Big ol’ nazi, hates all us primitive savages, strong should rule the weak, main villain of the base game? We’re retconning that he has like 7 or so beloved au ra orphan children he raised to keep them safe from all the evils of growing up in the empire, and already that’s just a hard no from me. That absolutely goes completely against everything about his established character. But we’re running with that retcon. We’re also, for some reason, retconning that the one female general under him in the base game, who incidentally had this whole speech before you fight her about how obsessively in love with him she is, was one of these children. I have no idea WHY we’re retconning that, beyond this all being just the worst, it adds nothing to this dumb thing except one of these other kids is jealous or whatever.

Anyway because they all love their dad so very much, after he uh... defected from the empire to start killing Ascians as a whole thing, they all decided to follow in his footsteps with this whole Weapon project, making a whole bunch of giant robots, that they all pilot, and which have this whole “oversoul” thing built in which... A- completely overwrites the pilots mind with that of some bigshot imperial general or other (in this first case, Nael, the big bad of 1.0 who does not appear in the game as it stands AT ALL besides here, kind of, and in the Bahamut raid 98% of players just completely skip, followed by in no particular order Gaius himself, Zenos, and uh... ones that don’t really come up). Not satisfied with killing the pilot by completely overtaking their mind like that, it also kinda melts their body into goo to power it up. With Ruby this doesn’t quite work right and you get this cool back-splits-open-goo-girl thing but that’s a defect the rest just get a boring second phase. And their big plan is to use these suicide-robots that destroy their minds to take down the empire that has oppressed them for their whole lives and honor the new path their dad is on, after first proving their combat readiness by... trying to kill their dead, and also the resistance to the empire, but, mostly you. It’s kinda just the absolute worst plan ever?

Meanwhile Cid just got super bored having to sit things out for a whole expansion and decided to kill time by... also building a giant robot. Something something found it in some Allagan ruins, made some modifications. In particular it originally came with big rending claws and he modified it to hold a lightsaber because he’s just a big ol’ nerd like that. I want to state for the record that this is still completely stupid and we really probably shouldn’t have two giant robots swinging lightsabers at each other and activating forcefields while fighting over the ocean that were both built by random nerds in a world where people still use maps that are half covered in clouds and we had a whole big thing about impoverished rice farmers trying to scrape up enough resources to like, charge at some people with spears, but... you can go to the hanger Cid keeps it in and pose on its shoulder and my heart is not made of stone.

Sadly you only get to use this thing for literally one fight. It’s surprisingly hard too, you have this whole mode-shifting system where you can toggle a damage boost and a shield on and off that need careful managing and a big laser cannon that needs to be precisely aimed. After that it “took too much damage and needs repairs” although it is reconfigured later to fly around and provide a big platform to stand on while fighting another weapon.

Another baffling layer to all of this is the commander officially heading up the suicide robot division. He’s introduced in this cutscene where he’s just shot from the neck down getting all sweaty from doing pushups and gulping down a big glass of milk, and like... I can’t see any sort of world in which you introduce a character in this way if you aren’t trying to bait people into getting all horny for the sexy new villain, but every other time you see him he’s just... literally the Sewer King from that one episode of Batman? With the orphans?

I swear it’s an intentional reference. Right down to him also having a giant pile of orphans (on top of Gaius’ kids) he makes poke each other with hot brands when they misbehave. All he needs are the glasses. I feel like the sexy scene had to have been a tease at the end of one patch and then they radically shifted direction or something. So anyway all of these idiot children take turns getting in big robots and exploding themselves and you punch the robots, while this too cartoonish to be intimidatng jerk keeps whipping them and sacrificing random people to test more of this oversoul stuff. Eventually we’re down to just two kids left alive, and one of them has enough sense to sneak off and tell you she realizes that this really is just the stupidest plan anyone has ever had and wants you to intervene, but her brother’s already been dragged off to be turned into the core/brain of Diamond Weapon, which rather than having the combat data or whatever from some old general just has an idiot uh... mashed into goo with his brain preserved permanently stuck in the robot. Which is already what they were doing with all their pilots, and he doesn’t really have any particular combat expertise so, this is dumb.

Girl with a smidgen of sense has to get in the actual pilot seat though... and she does have the sense to remember that the whole point of this in theory was to get the best possible giant robot and start attacking the empire, so she tries to just gun down everyone in the lab, but they just cut the power while she’s charging her laser. Then they’re about to kill her but the Overmind, as opposed to oversoul system kicks in and Big Brother restarts the whole thing and gets her to safety. And then... still doesn’t attack the empire, despite this clearly being the last chance to do so. Instead we go right ahead with the standard boss fight. You win, Sewer King shows up to taunt you, Big Brother vaporizes him, and then, the path finally cleared to take his new death robot body and start smashing up the empire, the dream he and basically his whole family literally sacrificed their lives for, exactly according to the plan he personally came up with... does the whole “I can’t live like this, as a cool robot, please put me out of my misery.” So Gaius does, and then we just kinda... pretend this whole sidequest chain never happened and never bring it up again. Not even Cid’s giant robot which would really trivialize a lot of problems and is in full working order with cool upgrades at the end of this. You can go visit it in the hangar all you want, but, that’s it. Oh and your only reward for any of this is some guy makes a gunpla of every robot and you can decorate your house with them if you have one.

Once you’ve finished or completely ignored the stupidest sidequest chain ever, the biggest news from back home is that being in a coma for some unspecifed amount of time is kind of bad for you, and it might be worth maybe considering putting everyone’s souls back where they belong before their bodies die. As is everyone’s kinda just staying alive because Krile has given up sleep to spam heals. Having some actual time pressure, everyone does some brainstorming and realizes that hey, you can go back and forth all you want, and you drag your whole inventory along with you. Why not just like shove everyone’s soul into a magic crystal of some sort and keep them in your pocket? Ultimately this works, but there’s a few complications involved since everyone’s souls have been manifested as physical bodies for a few years eating snacks and such so they’re kind of heavy and none of you really knowing how to do any of this, but G’raha has an in with the local equivalent of Matoya, a nu mou named Beq Lugg (no offense to “Master Matoya” Y’shtola). There’s a whole lot of technobabble about needing to keep memories along with souls and special crystal vessels G’raha needs to infuse with his blood... and the slight hiccup that he kinda doesn’t have blood anymore being all crystalized but he makes due, and I don’t want to get into most of it, except it involves porxies.

I didn’t really have time to get into this, but on top of all the other flavors of fairy, there’s these things called porxies which are basically piglets with dumbo ears. There’s a random bit of background NPC frollicking where a pixie turns another pixie into one for fun, but mostly they’re familiars made by no mou out of clay. One does the whole nightmare eating tapir thing as part of the pixie tribe quests too. In this case though, the idea is to make a specialized one to suck out elemental imbalances from people, which will be of some use in getting everyone turned into a crystalized soul you will presumably take back home and... cram into the mouths of their unconscious bodies or something. This still takes most of this interlude to finish setting up though. The important point for now is that Beq Lugg mentors Alisaie in how to make her own specialized soul-cleansing porxie she names Angelo. And she’s a terrible sculptor.

As an added bonus, to test this, they try sucking some of the light taint out of some of the people in the slowly-dying-of-turning-into-a-monster-angel hospice, and specifically pull the emotionless kid who wandered out into the desert from that one cut scene I linked last time back from the brink enough to talk and mourn people some. Hey, Alisaie’s arc and a really horrific death scene get a nice payoff!

The next bit of major unfinished business before clearing out is dealing with Eulmore, because you kinda killed the guy who was in charge, and was personally providing food for everybody, and was keeping everyone in a magically induced chill malaise. They decided to make Chai-Nuzz, the middle-aged cat boy who hired Alphinaud to paint his surprisingly nice wife and then also oversaw the construction of the mountain sized golem that’s still quite visible anywhere nearby clutching that still-hovering mountain, and yeah, that seems like nice qualifications, but then he vanished. Turns out it’s not responsibility jitters though so much as knowing he’s not really qualified and looking for an advisor who is. He finds a former bureaucrat, who does the whole test of character thing, and you end up teaching him how to ambush a berserk talos or three so they can be disabled, repaired, and put to work as farming equipment. While you’re in the area you also dip back to the bottom of the ocean which kinda still has that big magic air bubble that’s still messing with the nice fish people, and help them out a bit with the problems that lead to, like their queen being ready to lay a huge clutch of eggs and having problems from not being submerged. Did you know what a birthing rope was? Because you bring her one.

The other thing going on in the vicinity of Eulmore is a couple of the local dwarves playing around with explosives and blowing a hole into Nier: Automata. This is the setup for our big party raid, and I have very mixed feelings. It’s a decidedly less elegant handling of a crossover than “would you like to help me research my new play, Final Fantasy Tactics?” in that we literally just have this whole absolutely huge crashed space station with like transforming fighter jets and city sized industrial robots from a decidedly more high tech game right on the other side of these silly dwarven mines. Plus we’re in a dimension that only exists because one god punched another really hard and that theoretically should only effect your home planet.

On the other hand, while it fits in really awkwardly for FF14, so far as I can tell this is weirdly well integrated into the canon of the Nier games? I still need to play the whole series, but I’ve picked up a bit from osmosis. The most interesting thing here is that while the actual major characters from Nier Automata are here, the first character we introduce is 2P. The palette inverted version of protagonist 2B who only exists because 2B was a crossover character in SoulCalibur 6 and the decided to get cute with the player 2 variation. And now we’re taking that sorta joke fighting game cameo-born character and actually fleshing her out a bit in this crossover with an MMO. I can’t really speak much on the plot past that because it’s really tied in with the source-game’s plot and I lack familiarity. Things do go pretty bad for this pair of dwarves making the discovery of these high tech android ruins though. There’s an air strike on their village that leaves it in ruins for the duration of all this, and personally end up dead and/or replaced by android duplicates and/or stuck in another dimension. Once you’ve wrapped the whole thing up though there’s this oddly drawn out prologue where you have this real-world weekly task of walking back through one of the now enemy-free dungeons seeking out items of interest for the dwarves to study as they rebuild, and get messages from one of the missing pair. After a month or two of these there’s a proper epilogue where the two lost dwarves find eachother and head off to... somewhere for a happy ending. It’s all a bit odd.

And of course mechanically it’s full of the sort of full-on bullet hell mechanics the Nier games are known for and an otherwise very noticeable difficulty spike from how these things tend to go, because the director of those games had a say in it. Also you get a replica of 2B’s outfit for your trouble and a good number of people are delighted that the leg piece is a thong that noticeably gives your character a bigger butt. That’s a thing.

Speaking of raids, the real big piece of unfinished business before you all really focus on going home is that Ryne has been feeling particularly ambitious and dragging her dad Thancred and what I’m still pretty sure is his dad’s on the downlow love interest I’m wary to commit to a pronoun for Urianger along to search the world spanning desert beyond the wall of life-destruction in this very Star Wars Landspeeder sort of vehicle, trying to find some sort of way to maybe fix most of the world being lifeless white sand, and they found... a thing, which they decide to call Eden.

It’s kinda like... half-spaceship, half- two semi-abstract angelic women fused together, and between the nerds you have looking into it, the general speculation is that way back a century or so ago when Ardbert and friends kinda defeated evil a little too hard, the big fancy final boss defeat light show with too much light element gave rise to this thing, which promptly started sucking all aether out of the planet, which just kinda glassed the place for the most part and caused all life to die with a few exceptions that became the first sin eaters. It’s mostly inert, besides the boss fight waiting when you step inside... which I probably shouldn’t downplay so much because I mean it gets one of these attacks.

But you smack that inner core down and then you have access to a nice little ship control room, and the surreal realization that nobody’s all that shocked because really between some of the stuff in Imperial bases, Ayz Lla, and Omega’s whole deal, this is far from the first time you’ve seen this sort of setup. Anyway Ryne figures since she has the whole Oracle of Light thing going from kinda absorbing the weird Minfilia/avatar of Hydaelyn deal she was possessed by for a good chunk of her life, she should be able to just kinda take control of the whole thing and maybe get it to spit all that aether back out. Once you get it airborne though you have this confusing fight where this goth disaster with the sort of extreme platform heels I’ve only seen in fetishy specialty stores shows up carried by a sin eater and starts casting spells on a weird time delay. She’s unconscious after, and when she wakes up she’s kind of a rude jerk but more important has really severe memory issues, and wants to just kinda hang out while you check this out because she doesn’t know why she’s there either.

She’s not super clear on her name either but the voice in her head that tells her to do things calls her Gaia. She slowly warms up over the course of things as troubled goth weirdos with mysterious pasts tend to do in this game, but mostly you’re still focused on getting all that aether out of the big weird pinata. In a moment that really suggests your character just should not be left without supervision from people more responsible than Thancred and Urianger, you come to the conclusion that the most efficient way to get crystalized aether properly dispersed back out into the world is for someone to summon a god and for you to kill it. Kinda seems like a terrible idea to introduce that concept into a world that doesn’t have it, but you’re good at killing them and Ryne’s got plot armor against the whole Tempering thing that leaves you mind controlled thanks to her whole deal, so you pick a god for each element, do your best to describe them to her, she summons them, you kill’em, and sure enough, a bit of the matching element spills back into the local environment each time.

The details of all the gods come out a bit wrong thanks to the telephone game, which is what justifies these as a new set of boss fights. Leviathan has two heads. Titan’s kind of a robot. You don’t really have a dark god on file so you go with the Cloud of Darkness who’s decidedly less green and more full-bodied. After the first couple you start getting real needlessly reckless about it. Ifrit and Garuda you summon at the same time because hey those were total speed bump fights, right? And of course when you’re describing Shiva Ryne gets all excited about the tragic romance angle and Ysayle doing the personal possession thing instead of a standard summon. So despite everything going fine she insists on doing it that way and gets way too into character and ends up with this mini-Hraesvelgr all entwined around her and freezes you so Gaia has to step up and smack her with a giant hammer to knock her out of it. Otherwise things go pretty well, but I really have to wonder how it is you describe Ramuh as this pretty human looking guy with a big beard or confusing lightning orb collection mechanics (all of these give you a dialog choice between describing their appearance and getting all 4th wall breaky about the fight mechanics) and then Ryne goes and summons this.

That’s not even close Ryne. That’s way too neat of a beard, and for the rest of this you seem to have just been thinking about that poster on the Avatar’s wall in the intro to Ultima 6. Teenagers and their horny furry-adjecent phases, I swear.

Absolutely terrible segue, but speaking of Ryne being horny, her and Gaia absolutely 100% start dating during all of this. It really kinda sneaks up on you because FF14 is terribly addicted to doing a plausible deniability will-they-or-won’t-they/is this just a one-sided crush thing every single time they go there, with the exception of one minor side quest in this expansion where you help some woman work out how to propose to her girlfriend, but they go all in here. They’re going on little coffee dates and Ryne makes a necklace out of a leftover magic ice crystal after the Shiva bit for Gaia to wear and stuff. It’s pretty darn cute and wholesome.

Obviously this is setting up a big tragic turn where the voice in Gaia’s head actually belongs to Eden, which is also actually an Ascian, kind of. See the last boss Aldbert and friends fought was this pair of Ascians who did the whole Dragon Ball/Steven Universe fusion deal, which I may have mentioned a couple others doing in Azys Lla or I might not have bothered because everything involving Ascians not called Emet-Selch is incredibly boring and forgetable. He killed’em too hard with some sort of light-overload thing. One of them died in the pretty standard way everyone does where you go to the great aether flow/lightstream for a bit then get reincarnated as some person, but the fused bodies of both of them turned into this weird Eden thing and the other’s soul has just been stuck in it all lonely and hopelessly romantic and looking for the other’s reincarnated self. This isn’t a longwinded way of saying “so turns out Gaia’s an Ascian” because like, technically the way this works is that literally everyone everywhere is and that’s not a big deal, the losers who suck just never died and have been around forever, and this one’s obsessed with Ryne’s new girlfriend.

So the final dungeon capping all this off is her getting absorbed in by her jerk past-life ex who’s systematically destroying all her memories of cute dates with Ryne kinda like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and you have to charge in there mounting a defense against big shimmery memories of like going to this one place with good coffee and chocolate chip cookies and defending it from memory trashing monsters, and her forgetting everything and then it coming back to her while she’s pondering why she has such a dorky necklace and Ryne’s screaming from across a void at her. It is absolute peak power-of-love-and-friendship JRPG BS and I am totally here for it. And then of course if the whole thing wasn’t already super gay we make it really overt by just having this little paradisical private grotto with a giant rainbow crystal in it at the end.

I am as usual skipping around a bit. There’s a mandatory break in the Eden stuff until just before the next expansion properly starts, so Thancred and Urianger are no longer around to see all the drama at the end, but I legitimately keep having to remind myself that anything else even happens in this interlude. Hildy and friends don’t actually show up despite the clear setup for it, as Covid lead to a bit of cut content. The only other things we really have to deal with are a dungeon that doesn’t really bother having a proper setup, wherein you go investigate something in the basement of the Crystal Tower and it turns out there’s a little mini version of Alexander down there, with Cid’s personal branding stamped all over it, followed by a recording of Biggs from the averted dark future talking about building it from what they learned studying the original in the hopes of avoiding this stuff. I don’t think we really needed an explanation for how G’raha went back in time along with going to another dimension, but it was bothering Emet-Selch since it’s not something Allagans ever worked out, so, quick closure on that. Also the music is very good and there’s some running gag about people dancing to it.

So that’s pretty fun. And yeah. That’s it. That’s the whole free patch interlude. Everyone goes off and says their goodbyes to all the people they’ve been hanging out with for the past several years and you wrangle them up to go home. Oh wait, right, right. There’s some dumb Ascian garbage first. And like, extra dumb at that.

So as part of your “let’s leave this place as nice as we can tour” you give a big public speech to set the record straight that Ardbert and friends were not in fact just a bunch of huge jerks who set off the apocalypse, but were good proper adventurers helping people and clearing their map of sidequests and all that, and everyone should stop using “warrior of light” to invoke like the worst possible person. And then Ardbert himself stands up out of the crowd to talk about how great you are too, and everyone cheers, and then you get a bit worried because wait, no, only you ever get to see him, and also you like permanently absorbed his soul into yours to cure the whole turning into a final boss disease thing. Having dealt with this before, everyone concludes that this is yet another instance of some Ascian jerk digging up someone’s corpse to run around in. Specifically Elidibus since he’s the only one who isn’t dead and got kicked out of running around in Zenos’ corpse.

He’s got this whole thing where like I get it, but it’s dumb, and it doesn’t actually go anywhere. Running with the assumption that you are in fact still the same protagonist from 1.0 who had a vision of this, or at least that you watched the original opening cutscene where it happens, you saw a big fire-y apocalyptic meteor shower, which triggered some sort of like ancient soul memory of one of those happening when the Ascians had their apocalypse that made them summon Zodiark way back when, and that in turn ignited your whole psychic Echo powers, and those let you pick up on Hydaelyn saying that whole “Hear, feel, think” thing from the start of the game, which according to this jerk she just kinda has running as a constant public broadcast to anyone who can pick it up, and they all get psychic visions and run around being level 1 adventurers from there on.

And he proves it by just running all around the First putting on illusiory meteor storm shows and giving huge swaths of the population the same call to adventure. Partially to taunt you about not really being all that special, and partially to get the ball rolling on that whole light overflow for the whole world deal. That part of it never really goes anywhere though. There’s also this thing about him having personally been the one to originally summon Zodiark all Shiva-style serving as his heart and it not making sense that he gets to be running around if so which... is a weird thing to even bring up when it just gets kinda lazily hand-waved away in the end. There’s also a bit with “lesser Ascians” who know the new body trick and on the team but are really kinda just otherwise normal human mooks are showing up everywhere that also goes nowhere.

Like I said, this patch wave suffered from some serious cut content thanks to Covid so they might have been planning more with this and never paid it off. As is, it’s just propaganda with this guy siccing would-be hero types on you and summoning some in from other dimensions and such. It would potentially be neat if the “in this world the forces of light are bad so you have to play villain” thing were a theme Shadowbringers actually committed to in a real way, as is it’s just kinda dumb and pointless. Like everything with Ascians. It does however cap off with my favorite sort of dungeon, where you have to just kinda book it with the help of some weird magic shortcuts through every overworld map to get from Eulmore to the Crystarium to hole up, and while you’re running and getting attacked from all angles, like literally every single friend you’ve made over the course of the expansion shows up to fend off big waves of mooks so you don’t lose your momentum. There was one of these setting up Shadowbringers too, and there’s ANOTHER at the end of this patch set, but like, keep’em coming. I love these.

Then you fight what’shisface and he takes on the form of “the original Warrior of light” which is like, the depiction of the collective main character from FF1 as per Dissidia’s interpretation. And like the rest of this total BS because in the process of this whole plot arc you basically work out that the Ascians had this whole fancy council called the Convocation of 14 (which has nothing to do with the 14 pieces the world was broken into or with the 12 gods plus the two Ascian gods, it’s just a number we keep using because it’s FF14), and basically the only member of it who didn’t suck was strongly implied to have been you, pre-shattering, AKA Azem, and Emet-Selch’s dead boyfriend’s accidentally made conscious ghost hands you the matching badge of office which is used from here out as the go-to hand wave for where you’re getting other party members from for boss fights where it wouldn’t make sense for anyone else to be there. Anyway you smack him around, he banishes you to the shadow realm, Emet-Selch’s ghost is hanging out and unbanishes you because aside from all the evil empire founding he really is a nice guy who likes you, G’raha pulls a weird trick kinda like Moenbryda to suck his soul out and trap it in the crystal tower itself, and then it’s finally time to head back.

Well, again, after everyone takes a goodbye tour. And people are starting to pass out because their bodies are dying from not having souls in them. But yeah, Y’shtola has to say goodbye to the cat man (as opposed to catboy) who she has clearly been either sleeping with for the past few years or waiting for to grow enough of a spine to offer her more than soup, Alphinaud has to say goodbye to his adopted catgirl mom, you have to go bring Ardbert’s old warrior of light crystal to his old amaro pal and let them know his soul’s just kinda in your body now, Alisae’s mourning her (girl?)friend who died horrifically and checking in on the kid she fixed with her porxie that she died to save, Urianger has books to pack and maybe some off-camera pixie thanking for helping work the whole trans thing out, and Thancred has to say goodbye to Ryne. That one sucks, since she’s kinda the whole party’s adopted daughter, but she doesn’t have a comatose body on the otherside to jam a soul in, and she’s got her new goth disaster girlfriend to spoil, so, she’ll be fine.

G’raha’s in kind of a weird spot because he’s totally coming with you but his physical body is here, and also he’s kinda been pushing himself too hard with various big heroic sacrifice things and is kind of like 90% crystal 10% super old cat boy now. But, he’s got a crazy idea about how TECHNICALLY he totally does have a body back there. His past self, still in that version of the tower, not having gone through the whole dark future he averted by forcing you to take a break, and he’s pretty sure he can just kinda crystalize himself, you pass that off to young him, they just kinda merge since they’re the same person and have the same memories up until the point you do that, and tada, just a normal 20 something catboy with however many hundreds of years of extra memories. Which works out just fine somehow.

Back home there’s a big ol’ teary reunion with the two ultra short Scions who didn’t get to come along, and Tataru is nice enough to sew up recreations of everyone’s cool new goth phase looks and host a  tea party, during which Alisaie is talking to Alphinaud and frankly just breaks the 4th wall to gripe about how everyone else gets cool new outfits and class changes and they’re still looking like they have since Heavensward, to which Alphinaud says they’ll get their turn and the rest needed it more. Which is totally referencing how they were still all using their release models before this expansion whichwere a few years out of date posability wise.

We’re still not quite done though! Gotta set things up for the next expansion after all. So getting right back into that, when last we checked on the empire outside of visions of doom from G’raha’s now averted timeline, Zenos had come back from the dead in a pretty convoluted way, and killed the emperor. Which WOULD make him the new emperor except you know that’s a pretty huge crime and also not even a country full of nazis are stupid enough to want this guy in charge. Hell, he doesn’t even want to be in charge. He just killed his father because if he didn’t he’d just go poison the whole population and kill a bunch of people without any big climactic duels, most importantly with you. Instead they’re just kinda having a civil war now while he hangs out in the throneroom as an official enemy of the state after killing everyone who tried to take him out before someone had the idea to just legislate that hey, none of us our with this guy.

Also hanging out in there is the hands down worst villain ever in the whole game, another Ascian, which doesn’t make sense because by my count they’re all dead. He’s just one of those “lesser” ones though, where someone found the reincarnated version of someone on their big evil council, taught him annoying immortality tricks, and gave him the badge of office. Since then he’s gone and found the single-most punchable face in the world to wear, that of Yatsuyu’s somehow even worse brother, with the whole dumb fake peace treaty plan. He’s very theatrical and dancing around and talking about his big evil plan and Zenos basically just tells him “hey do whatever the hell you want as long as it ends with me getting to have another date/duel with the protagonist,” and goes back to watching the empire just kinda burn down in a really devastating civil war.

Meanwhile Alisaie has the bright idea that if her magical big-eared suck-pig (which she named Angelo if I didn’t mention it, games past the SNES get only the weirdest name drops) can cure being on one’s way to turning into a sin eater, maybe with some tweaking it can also fix the whole Tempering thing. So, quick field trip to Azys Lla with G’raha so he can use his bloodline security clearance to get info on what they worked out on this, and short verson yeah. The info dump is on a failing hard drive so they need to get Cid to help fix it, but it’s the same principle, should work on anyone who’s not like, turned into a horrible fish-monster levels of god corrupted. Only problem is setting up the porxie with the right magic tricks is pretty time and magic consuming. Alisaie basically runs to make a test case of that traumatized to hell kobold kid who like I keep saying is the core of her whole character and yeah, pulls him back to just normal, functioning levels of traumatized. Also he’s voice acted and it’s not just shrieking sounds like in the kobold tribe quests and it bugs me.

So, cool. We have worked out a cure for religion. Only problem is scale. Quick visit to Matoya to pick her brain on that. She’s both flattered and really annoyed to find out that Y’shtola’s been impersonating her, and that frankly nobody ever comes to visit her when they don’t need a favor, but she has the bright idea to just make one giant horrible “mother porxie” that constantly spits out pre-templated ones that just need a competent magic user to de-religion anyone who isn’t too far gone. She has a super whimsical giant golem kiln in one of her many ridiculous back rooms, you just have to smack around some elementals and hop on buttons to get it working, fight a berserk giant flying pig with a little crown, and you’re good.

Anyway, hey! You know who we haven’t really checked in on since literally before the start of Heavensward when there was that awkward incident at the party, other than the peace talks with the emperor which went badly? Merlwyb, the admiral of Limsa Lominsa and first likeable character in the game! Since the problem of the big nazi empire is kinda resolving itself, she’s been turning her attention to the other big consistent narrative theme, and looking to solve racism. Or at least to get a formal treaty going with the local kobolds and sahaguin. This isn’t going over with a bigshot pirate captain (’s second in command running things while he’s sick), who kinda thinks it’s total BS that they’re this whole pirate nation and they’ve kinda stopped killing people and taking their stuff entirely, and has been particularly avid on screwing with monster folk because see they’re not really people, is his logic. Merlwyb has no patience for that, and just kinda goes, look, pirate rules, you don’t like how I run things, you challenge me to a duel, none of this sneaking around behind my back crap. Kid’s an idiot and accepts this, she shoots the gun out of his hand, the actual captain of his ship gets out of bed to ask hey what the hell about him being such an idiot and apologize.

Then right after that, she’s like, right, cool, now we have all these stolen crystals from the other locals, and this religion cure, let’s make a peace offering of these, I’ll personally walk in with enough crystals they’ll definitely have a priest try and summon Titan to kill me, Alisaie does her thing, actual peace talk time. That’s pretty much how things play out, except, you know, he has a lot of reasons to hate humanity besides the whole religious zealotry thing. Merlwyb goes yeah, fair point. When we first settled here we totally made a peace agreement on how to share things and totally screwed you over in a colonialist fashion rather than stick to the spirit of it. Here’s the gun I used to kill my father, who signed that and later got turned by Leviathan, if it’ll sweaten the deal here, feel free to kill me with it. He doesn’t obviousl, and hey, peace achieved.

So Alisaie, for real, I think you owe the nice cool pirate lady an apology for implying she was a bloodthirsty racist way back with the faction picking speech commentary at the start of the game. Things broadly get patched up with the other four races off camera, but all this gets interrupted because there’s suddenly big ominous imperial looking towers all over the world. This bugs the heck out of me because up until now a huge deal has always been made about territorial control and transportation logistics and such and just teleporting big buildings in all over does not fly with that at all. Everyone goes to Ala Mhigo to talk about it because frankly they just have the nicest meeting hall out of anyone. Ul’dah’s might be close but the last big meeting everyone had there ended pretty badly. Anyway Fandaniel, whose name sucks almost as much as his personalty and his plan, shows up with “Lunar Bahamut” because you can’t be a terrible villain without recycling better ideas, and explains his terrible plan. Roughly, “I don’t care about that whole restoring the world thing the proper Ascians were all into, I wasn’t there for any of that. I just want to kill everyone in the world and then myself.” SUCH a downgrade after this last expansion. Hell he’s a downgrade from freaking Lahabrea.

Anyway Thancred shows up for the after-meeting meeting at Scion HQ to share our other reveal. What’s up with the towers is the new unbearable jerk here worked out a plan where the citizens of the empire started worshipping the empire itself as a god and did the summoning thing. Just, religion-ified hyper-nationalism. So on top of getting set on fire along with other horrible things thanks to a civil war, almost the whole population of the empire is now all zombie-like with religious compulsion, and the imperial palace is this sort of nightmare tower that I guess is just like popping out sub-towers all over the world, also putting out that worship us field.

So naturally, we have a small little strike force going in to check one of these towers out consisting of... not you for once! Rauban has access to Fordola who’s still all in on suicide missions to repent, and Arenvald who... I swear is totally an established character I just haven’t mentioned him. There’s a bunch of minor background people who hang out at Scion HQ, he’s one of them, he went off to have a more major role in Stormblood but doesn’t really do anything specifically worth calling out, has an interesting little backstory about his mom slicing his head open because he was maybe growing that “third eye” the imperials have, he just kinda randomly has the whole Echo thing because some people do, involved in a lot of Fordola stuff. Anyway they sneak in, set off an alarm, get jumped by “Lunar Ifrit” he’s stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. They do find out though that the towards have hundreds of people embedded in the walls just like in Bahamut’s prison to summon whichever god they worship constantly, on demand.

Time to run around a bit and gather info. Tiamat summoned actual Bahamut forever ago, so Estinein’s off to pay her a visit and see if she has any insight here. The Scions are looking for Estinein because... frankly he’s cool and it’s nice to keep him in the loop on these things. You bump into him, he’s all “wow you look so much more mature and manly Alphinaud!” ... to Alisaie. She has no clue but is mad about someone making a fake version of her dead boyfriend/god and wants to help but, you know, she summoned the actual one and reminds you she might just end up doing that again what with the whole Tempering thing. Tiamat’s weird like that. But, you know, we’ve got a cure for religion now. No more excuse for just standing around Azys Lla in the weird bondage gear, come help with stuff. Specifically that other cool all-your-friends-show-up-to-help dungeon I mentioned, when Fandaniel and his pathetic fake Bahamut are terrorizing the cool lizard people by Ul’dah. Kind of a speedbump fight, the whole “lunar” gods thing is just kinda here for a little boss filler without needing new designs really.

Anyway, the liberated lizard pals are now onboard, getting their religion cures distributed. Ditto for all the others. For real, Alisaie and Merlwyb just kinda ended religion and racism between them, everyone’s cool with everyone now. Unless you’re still grinding out those tribe quests, then there’s still jerks around I guess. You shouldn’t be though, best content in the game.

Krile figures hey, why don’t I go back to Nerd Town (aka Sharlayan, aka Old Sharlayan... the ruins from Heavensward were kind of an expansion site, they still have a turbo nerd college town off on an island) and ask the neutral-in-every-war scholarly jerks there if they maybe want to help because the empire really shouldn’t qualify as a side anymore when not taking sides, it’s just kind of hell on earth and full of zombies. OK I shouldn’t say zombies for this sort of thing because actual zombies are a thing and they’re actually all very nice and polite, but you know what I mean. Anyway, she’s taking off, and figure’s hey, seat’s open, let’s maybe officially make Estinein part of the team? Welcome aboard you super helpful idiot.

It’s seriously just boardroom meeting season. You have another one to officially welcome everyone who didn’t count as human to your grand old alliance and also formally quit it with that don’t count as human thing because really what the hell with that. Anyway I don’t think that meeting’s even over when Nerd Town sends a representative over to answer Krile’s inquiry formally. Turns out it’s the twins’ father, and he is just a gigantic asshole. His response is basically, “no, screw you, it’s not actually ‘the end of the world’ just because some jerk says he wants to kill everyone, and hey while I’m here, screw my father, he sucked, and screw my kids, you suck, and you know what, I’m officially disowning you when I get home.”

Krile calls on the phone after (I’ve mentioned that’s a thing right? Technically they’re called linkpearls and it’s like some kind of quantum entangled clam and pearl thing or something? In-game rationalization for chat functionality that gets used pretty constantly in the plot to just... make phone calls, rings and everything). Anyway she says everyone in Nerd Town’s hiding something, ASAP people should come check it out. First though we need to have a proper gameplay endcap. The deal with the towers is they’re sucking all the aether out of the world to redirect it somewhere (turns out the moon, eventually, which I don’t think the characters really clue into until a bit later, but we get villain cutaways, but it needs storing somewhere first). Anyway, we have a big showdown in Carteneau, which is where the big end of 1.0 battle was happening when the apocalypse happened and I think is where the PvP stuff nobody cares about happens and I couldn’t point it out to you on a map to save my life. Between Thanalan (country Ul’dah’s the capital of) and Mor Dhona apparently, as I check a wiki. Anyway, big ol’ fight against all these lame Lunar gods with the whole party, and by that I mean control actually rotates around and you play as if not all I think at least most of your NPC pals for different bits.

We get a cutaway to Fandaniel doing the whole evil advisor thing, “oh they’ve stopped us from gathering party there, we’ll just have to redirect to an area we still control, heh heh heh” sort of crap but... honestly Zenos doesn’t actually care in the slightest what this guy does, it’s not his evil plan, he’s literally JUST here to kill/bang/be-killed-by you and has kinda just spent this whole patch series looking through his pile of absurd weapons for one that seems cool enough to bring for the rematch, settling on a big ridiculous switchblade-y scythe.

Meanwhile, yeah, time to see what’s up in Nerd Town. Before leaving you get a weird vision/brief glimpse of some woman with one of those lame Ascian masks  all warning you you’re the only one who can stop the forthcoming apocalypse. But of course actually hopping the boat has to wait until next time.

Oof, I could have sworm MOST of this was in the next expansion proper, but this patch set really is just super heavy on foreshadowing the next expansion. I believe part of that is there was apparently some sort of writers room issues with the next expansion where basically, they had two ideas for what to do next, couldn’t decide which to do first, and kinda ended up just cramming both into a single expansion which among otherthings caused a BUNCH of setup to leak out over here.

I’m planning to finish this write up by the end of the month or close to it, hopefully people throw enough money at my Patreon that I can continue to survive past there. Meanwhile a couple quick last thoughts I probably should have squeezed in before now:

I don’t know if I mentioned this but all through Shadowbringers G’raha is constantly casting all the spells that were “grey magic” in FF6 (mute, float, invis, exit, etc.) which otherwise don’t exist in FF14, and I just think that’s a fun little gimmick to work in. Also I think I mentioned the bunny girl dancer that’s his captain of the guard? She’s not a super important character but there’s an interesting dynamic where she’s got a huge crush on him and is broken up about him leaving, but totally gets that she never had an actual chance, because he has a super obvious dorky crush on you to the point he’s oblivious.

Also, role quests. Shadowbringers had these instead of job quests. 4 for combat classes, 5 for crafters/gatherers. Pretty simple plot progression. The crafting ones are all about doing stuff around the Crystarium like helping the local vet and a girl who restores antiques, but then one has you help a cryptozoologist prove invisible brontosauruses are real, that’s kinda neat. The combat ones are all about the backstory for the rest of Ardbert’s old party. But there’s this whole thing where after you’ve done all of them, the woman running the bar who’s coordinating all the bountyhunters confesses to you in a pretty overly dramatic way that she was ALSO in Ardbert’s party, and before that she was one of the heroes in the Thirteenth, AKA The Void, or if you’re me just hell.

Turns out when things got screwed up there, the Ascians made basically the same deal with her they did with Ardbert. Hey, go to this other dimension, try and fix the cosmic balance by pushing things the other way. So she did and feels real bad about it. You forgive her because whatever, things worked out. But also, hey, she’s lonely, and while I think I forgot to mention it at the time, there’s also some kid who showed up back during that whole “Warriors of Darkness” setup who was also from the Thirteenth, doing the same sort of world hopping deal, who gives you a bunch of exposition on that. So you end up smuggling him over to the First in G’raha’s soul transfer crystal, presumably after rinsing it out first, they get to hang out. Nothing super important about this yet but I want to have mention of it here for sometime later.

Next up is Endwalker, which really sells itself here as being the actual ending of FF14′s story for real, flat out, and promises a trip to the moon.

[themyscrian]

hi i went through all the ffxiv cgi trailers basically frame by frame to try and total the amount of unique character models. i tried to only count unique faces, not just pre-existing models dressed in new clothes. my working's under the cut.

GRAND TOTALS, including NPCs:

Hyur: 30 unique models

Elezen: 15 unique models

Miqo'te: 12 unique models

Roegadyn: 6 unique models

Lalafell: 6 unique models

Au Ra: 1 unique model

Viera: 1 unique model

1.0 Trailer:

Blonde Female Elezen

Dark-haired Male Hyur

Nyelbert

Renda-Rae

Bobcut Female Miqo’te (tan)

Ponytail Male Elezen

Dark-haired Male Elezen

Scary Roe Man

Bobcut Female Miqo’te (white)

Zero’s here! (Default Female Hyur)

Blonde male Lalafell

Dark-haired female Lalafell

Thaumaturge guild female Lalafell

Dark-haired Roe Man

Ardbert

Glynard!

Blonde female hyur bartender

Lamitt!

Branden

Sylva!!!!

1.0 Totals: Hyur: 4 Elezen: 5 Miqo’te: 3 Roegadyn: 4 Lalafell: 4

2.0 Trailer:

Blonde male Hyur (with hat)

Female hyur with brown hair

Male hyur child

Female Hyur child

Garlean soldier (brown hair)

Garlean soldier (blonde)

Garlean soldier (imperial)

Female miqo’te (short hair)

Kan-E-Senna

Raubahn

Merlwyb

Gaius

Blonde male elezen

Ugh, Cid.

Louisoux

Papalymo

Yda

Thancred

Y’shtola

Blonde Maelstrom soldier guy with beard

Dark-haired male hyur (tan)

Female Hyur child (blonde)

2.0 Totals: Hyur: 16 Elezen: 2 Miqo’te: 2 Roegadyn: 1 Lalafell: 0

3.0 Trailer:

Nanamo :(

Lolorito >:(

Temple Knight (elezen)

Dragoon (hyur. for some reason)

3.0 Totals: Hyur: 1 Elezen: 1 Miqo’te: 0 Roegadyn: 0 Lalafell: 2

4.0 Trailer:

Lyse

Ala Mhigan man

Silver-haired Hyur Man

Blonde Hyur woman

Garlean imperial

Gosetsu!

Yugiri!!

4.0 Totals: Hyur: 5 Elezen: 0 Miqo’te: 0 Roegadyn: 1 Lalafell: 0 Au Ra: 1

5.0 Trailer:

Zenos

Urianger

Eulmore Miqo’te Male (Clean Shaven)

Eulmore Miqo’te Male (Goatee)

Eulmore Miqo’te Male (Blonde)

Eulmore Miqo’te Female (Blonde)

Eulmore Miqo’te Female (Brunette)

Ryne

Old Hyur Man

Crystarium Guard (Elezen)

Lyna

Male elezen (tanned)

Exarch (counted as miqo'te)

5.0 Totals: Hyur: 3 Elezen: 3 Miqo’te: 6 Roegadyn: 0 Lalafell: 0 Au Ra: 0 Viera: 1

6.0 Trailer:

Alisaie

Alphinaud

Estinien

Fandaniel

G’raha (he got a new arm it counts)

Fourchenault

6.0 Totals: Hyur: 1 Elezen: 4 Miqo’te: 1 Roegadyn: 0 Lalafell: 0 Au Ra: 0 Viera: 0

[writingforfun0714]

Older Sister Chapter 6–Bad Batch Fanfic

Hi everyone, thank you all for being so patient with me, I just haven’t had the time to write but here is the 6th chapter for Older Sister. Part of the reason why this took so long is because I combined both parts of the S1 finale into this one chapter.

Warnings—Spoilers, slight au, takes place during S1 E15/26 Return to Kamino and Kamino Lost, respectively. Different POVs. LONG POST. Lemme know if I need to add more

LINK FOR ALL CHAPTERS

3rd POV

Hunter and Maisy sit on the floor of the ship. 2 Imperial troopers guard them, despite the two already being cuffed.

“Omega and the others will come rescue us…right?” Maisy whispers to Hunter. Hunter sighs as a few thoughts flash through the sergeant’s mind. Even though he ordered them to go, Hunter has a sneaking suspicion that the others are already planning a rescue. He’s worried about both girls. He obviously wants to get Maisy out of here but he’s also worried about Omega. He knows Tech, Wrecker and Echo wouldn’t leave her behind with Cid. Hunter knows that when they come back, Omega will be with them.

“Right?” Maisy repeats, nudging Hunter when he didn’t answer, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah…they’ll rescue us,” Hunter confirms and Maisy relaxes a bit. That’s when the door opens and Crosshair walks back in, without his helmet on. Hunter steels himself and Maisy keeps her eyes trained on the sniper.

“Where are we going?” Hunter asks.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Crosshair responds, kneeling down to him, pulling out Hunter’s commlink and activating it.

“And so will your squad,” the sniper adds.

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

“They’ll still come for you,” Crosshair says icily before glaring at the girl. She’s unfazed and in fact, has a bit of a puzzled look on her face, as if she’s trying to figure something out. Crosshair makes a face of confusion and annoyance.

“What?” He asks her.

“I thought clones stuck together…aren’t you brothers?” Maisy asks. Seeing a look flash across Crosshair’s face causes Hunter unease. He nudges the girl with his leg and shakes his head.

“Don’t,” Hunter warns her in a deadly quiet tone. Maisy gulps and nods, knowing she crossed some sort of boundary.

“I’ll find out who you are ‘Maisy’…one way or another,” Crosshair tells the girl, emphasizing her name to let Hunter know he means business, before walking out. Realization and slight relief washes over him in that moment. Crosshair doesn’t know who Maisy is. He doesn’t know she’s a Jedi. He opens his mouth to tell her when he remembers the 2 troopers guarding them.

“Do as I say and stay close to me at all times, no questions. Understood?” Hunter orders. Maisy looks at him and she nods obediently.

Meanwhile…

Echo’s POV

Tech, Wrecker and I fixing the Marauder as fast as we can while Omega paces back and forth nervously.

“Spanner wrench-“ I say to the girl and she groans.

“Ugh! This is taking too long!” Omega says frustratedly.

“Omega, focus,” I tell her, looking at her.

“I can’t! We have to get back to Daro to rescue Hunter and Maisy!” She says urgently.

“We will, but we can’t go anywhere until the ship’s fixed,” I tell her rationally, “hand me the spanner,” I repeat. She hurries to Gonky, who has our toolbox and grabs it for me, She hands it over and I finish up.

“That should do it,” I tell her, motioning inside.

Inside…

Tech’s POV

I’m working under the dash as Echo and Omega walk in.

“The hull’s patched,” Echo tells me.

“And I’m finished getting the systems back online,” I tell him as Wrecker walks in as well.

“Left Gregor with Cid. She wasn’t too happy about it,” Wrecker says as I manage to restore power. The dash lights flicker on.

“What else is new?” Echo asks sarcastically.

“We are up and running,” I announce.

“Let’s go get them,” Omega tells me and I nod, when a beeping on the dash alerts me.

“His communication device has just been activated,” I say with surprise.

“It appears he is no longer on Daro,” I say.

“What do you mean? Where are they?” Omega asks me. She is not going to like the answer.

3rd POV

Crosshair’s ship comes out of hyperspace near the stormy atmosphere of Kamino, the clones home world. They fly down through the lightning storm and reach Tipoca City, landing in a hangar. Hunter and Maisy have an armed escort out of the ship towards Admiral Rampart with Crosshair greeting him.

“Where are the rest of them? Who is that?” Rampart asks, staring at Maisy. Hunter glares back at him and Maisy cowers behind him, her wrists cuffed like the sergeant’s.

“They’ll be here. We’ll intercept upon arrival,” Crosshair says, not answering Rampart’s second question. Rampart looks at the girl before meeting Hunter’s eyes.

“So you’re the one they call Hunter,” Rampart says, approaching the sergeant.

“The destruction your squad caused on Ryloth got my attention,” he says. Hunter remains still as Maisy looks up at the men.

“I’ll leave this to you Commander. Stay on schedule,” Rampart says as a warning. Crosshair nods and they continue on, shoving Hunter with a blaster to get him to move. Maisy glares at them, but says nothing.

Most walk on, but one Imperial trooper stays behind to talk with the Admiral. She approaches and he looks at her.

“I question the clone’s motives with his old squad. I don’t trust any of them,” she warns.

“If his plan fails, none of them will be a problem any longer,” Rampart responds, “keep an eye on things,” he orders. She nods.

“Yes Admiral,” she says and walks off.

Back on the Marauder, flying through hyperspace…

3rd POV

Tech is piloting with Echo in the copilot seat.

“Activating Hunter’s comm was intentional. The Empire wants us to come to Kamino, I’m uncertain as to why,” Tech warns.

“No turning back now,” Wrecker says.

“Are you sure about these coordinates?” Tech asks Omega.

“Yes. I told you, they’re to a landing pad we can use in Tipoca City,” Omega says.

“Every platform down there will be swarming with troopers,” Echo argues.

“Not this one, trust me,” Omega insists as they exit hyperspace just outside of Kamino.

“I’m only seeing 3 cruisers,” Echo warns, “where’s the rest of the fleet?” He asks.

“Who cares? It’s a good thing,” Wrecker argues.

“Locking onto the coordinates,” Tech announces and Omega looks at him.

Tech flies through the storm as lightning flashes and a clap of thunder rings out.

“Hang on. This is going to get bumpy,” Tech warns. He angles the ship down before approaching the outskirts of the city. Tech stops and has the ship hover, seemingly above an endless ocean.

“We are at the given coordinates Omega. There is nothing here,” Tech says.

“You have to get lower,” Omega instructs. Tech slowly lowers the Marauder closer to the choppy waters.

“Lower,” Omega insists and Tech looks at her, but does as she says. The wingtips nearly touch the water.

“If I go any lower we will be in the water,” Tech warns.

“It’s the only way to activate the platform,” Omega insists with a knowing calm, looking to Echo.

“Hold on,” Echo says as a beeping gets his attention.

“Scanners are picking up a large structure directly beneath us,” Echo announces. A submerged platform raises and Tech lowers the ship onto the metal platform. The four of them walk out into the storm.

“Hah! Never doubted you for a second, kid,” Wrecker tells Omega.

“Landing was only one problem. How are we going to get into the city?” Tech asks.

“We’ll take the tube system,” Omega yells over the harsh pouring rain.

“The what?” Echo asks, clearly confused. The soldiers follow Omega as she approaches the hatch. Once she’s close enough, it opens and a transportation pod arrives.

“Come on!” Omega calls to the others, waving them over. Wrecker laughs.

“Nice!” The demolitions expert awes before getting in the pod with the others. Omega programs the pod to take them inside. It shuts and starts its descent, finally giving the team cover from Kamino’s storm.

After descending into the depths of the ocean, the pod seamlessly slows and moves forward.

“This type of underwater transport system is not documented on any schematics,” Tech says after checking his datapad.

“Kaminoans keep a lot of secrets,” Echo replies factually.

“Indeed,” Tech agrees before turning to Omega.

“Omega, how did you know this existed?” Tech asks the girl.

“Nala Se. This tunnel leads to her private research lab,” Omega explains, “the others run throughout Kamino.” Understanding Omega’s tone of voice, Echo kneels down.

“You, uh, ok?” He asks.

“It doesn’t matter. Saving Hunter and Maisy is what matters,” Omega insists. Echo and Wrecker share a look but say nothing as the pod keeps moving.

Speaking of the two, back inside Tipoca City…

Hunter’s POV

Maisy and I are being escorted through the halls and seeing the harsh white sterile walls makes me remember one of the many reason why we hate it here. Maisy, however seems fascinated.

“Where are all the regs?” I ask, noticing that the troopers are Imps.

“When did you start caring about them?” Crosshair asks. Hunter glances down at Maisy and Crosshair notices.

“No Kaminoans either,” I realize.

“This facility’s being decommissioned,” Crosshair says and I hear Maisy gasp.

“You don’t seem too concerned,” I tell the sniper.

“Why would I be?” Crosshair asks.

“Because the Empire will be phasing out clones next,” I warn him. After rescuing Gregor…I’ve realized our fate…is uncertain.

“Not the ones that matter,” Crosshair replies coldly, pointing his blaster pistol at me. I want to reply, but I glance at the trooper beside him and decide to keep moving.

We get to the command center.

“A ship was detected entering the system, but we lost them below the scanner range,” a trooper alerts.

“It’s them,” Crosshair confirms.

“I’ll notify the scouts,” the trooper, ES-02, replies.

“Don’t bother. They’ll come to us. They don’t leave their own behind, most of the time,” Crosshair explains, clearly still hurt. Maisy’s eyes widen and she glances up at me.

“Huh?” She asks quietly, wondering what happened.

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice,” I tell him.

“Hmm, and I did?” Crosshair asks, taking the toothpick out of his mouth. I frown.

3rd POV

The pod finally starts going upwards and the boys stand at the ready as the lights turn on, illuminating the empty room. Omega looks around. She’s not exactly happy to be back.

“That looks like every other Kaminoan lab to me,” Wrecker says, looking around.

“Not exactly,” Omega tells him, “Most in Tipoca City don’t know about it,” she explains.

“Hunter’s comm is still active. I’ll pinpoint his location,” Tech says, using his datapad to trace the signal.

“I’ll tap into the system,” Echo says and heads over to the control panel.

“I don’t get it. What’s so special about this lab?” Wrecker asks.

“It’s where I was created,” Omega reveals.

“Here?”

“You all were here too,” Omega tells them.

“What do you mean?” Tech asks. Omega walks up to a testing chamber.

“Your mutations were enhanced in this room. Experimental Unit 99 began right here. I was there,” Omega says.

“Wha-?” Wrecker stammers in disbelief and shock.

“Is that true?” Wrecker asks Tech.

“How could I possibly know that?” Tech asks back.

“It was only for a short time, before you were sent to be with the other clones,” Omega tells them.

“Something’s not right,” Echo announces, “all the central files have been wiped. There’s nothing in the system.”

“Anyone else think that’s weird?” Wrecker asks when a sudden metal squeak gets everyone’s attention. They all draw their weapons, even Omega with her electrobow and eye where the source of the noise came from.

“Do not shoot! I am AZI-345211–“ the medical droid pleads, revealing himself.

“AZI?!” Omega asks, clearly surprised to see her old droid pal.

“Omega, I am relieved it is you,” he says, floating over to her.

“What are you doing down here?” Omega asks.

“I am in hiding. Soldiers were deactivating droids and forcing key Kaminoan medical personnel onto transports. Those who resisted were eliminated,” AZI explains.

“The clones did that?” Echo asks.

“No, these were other soldiers. All clone troopers were reassigned and transferred off-world, with the exception of CT-9904,” AZI says.

“Crosshair’s here? Should’ve known,” Wrecker groans.

“It is not safe here, Omega. You must leave,” AZI insists.

“We can’t. Not without Hunter and Maisy,” Omega tells the droid.

“Found him. His comm is pinging from the central cloning platform,” Tech announces.

“Come on, AZI. You’re with us,” Omega tells her droid friend, grabbing his hand and pulling him out with them.

Hunter’s POV

“Hmm..and I did?” Crosshair asks. I can feel Maisy’s eyes on me, but now’s not the time to explain, though my thoughts flash back to when we came back here to rescue Omega. We were separated in prison and we have no idea what they did to Crosshair. I sigh.

“Crosshair, I’ve seen what the Empire’s doing, occupying planets and silencing anyone who stands against them. You know it’s not right,” I insist. Sure Crosshair was always a bit…blunt and severe, but never like this.

“You still don’t see the bigger picture, but you will,” Crosshair says, approaching me. As he says that last part, he glances down at Maisy. I make sure to keep the girl behind me for protection.

“Can’t you see they’re using you?” I ask.

“It’s that inhibitor chip in your head. It’s making you follow—“ I try telling him but that’s when the alarm blares, interrupting me. Maisy looks around before eyeing the trooper next to Crosshair.

“We have an unauthorized entry on platform 5,” she alerts.

“Right on schedule,” Crosshair replies before sighing, “time to go.” Maisy steps closer to me and I can feel the nervousness and fear radiating off her.

Wrecker’s POV

We race down the hall as the alarm continues. We finally make it outside and run across the platform. We get inside and Echo motions for us to stop. He makes sure the hall is clear before motioning for us to follow. We suddenly hear approaching footsteps and take cover behind the wall. We see a group of troopers pushing cargo.

“AZI, you said all the clone troopers were gone,” Omega whispers to the droid.

“Correct. Those are not clone troopers,” the droid replies.

“They’re TK troopers, like on Daro,” Echo explains before we move out.

We hurry down the hall, keeping our eyes peeled for any other enemies. Tech’s datapad beeps and he motions for us to stop.

“Wait. Hunter’s on the move. This way,” Tech points to the left, down another white sterile hall and we follow him. I glance down and see Omega beside me and she looks…determined.

I enter the room Tech points to first and see it’s empty. We look around. I see droid charging ports but that’s it. Tech holds up his datapad and it beeps.

“According to the comm signal, Hunter is directly above us,” Tech tells us.

“The training room? That’s open ground,” Echo says, “If Crosshair’s waiting, he’ll pick us off.”

“Oh, he’s waiting,” I confirm.

“Precisely why we will not be going in through the main entrance, like he would expect. We’ll enter through the lift. That should give us a slight advantage,” Tech tells us. Echo and I share a look.

“Omega, wait here,” Echo tells her as we get on the lift platform.

“No, we should stick together,” Omega argues.

“No, Echo’s right. Crosshair’s after us, not you,” I agree with Echo.

“Stay out of sight. If things go south, we’ll send you a signal,” Echo tells the kid.

“Get back to the ship and contact Rex,” Echo instructs. That’s when the platform powers up and lifts us. We draw our weapons my eyes widen when I see we’re surrounded!

“Well, guess you were wrong about that,” I reply sarcastically.

“And here we all are, together again,” Crosshair says, pointing his blaster pistol at Hunter and Maisy, who are handcuffed. Hunter’s holding his helmet and Maisy’s clinging to his leg. Crosshair tosses the comm over to us. It clatters on the floor.

“You won’t be needing your weapons,” Crosshair tells us as troopers in black armor move closer to us. We look and see Hunter give us a small nod, telling us to do as he says. I toss my weapon down first and Tech and Echo quickly follow, tossing everything we have to the ground including my blaster, the pistols, vibroknife and grenades we have.

“See? Following orders isn’t so difficult,” Crosshair replies sarcastically. Tech and I exchange a look.

“Where’s your little sidekick?” Crosshair asks.

“You think we’d bring her here?” I chuckle, lifting my helmet up, “We’re smarter than that.”

“Lying was never your strength, Wrecker,” Crosshair tells me.

“Find the kid,” Crosshair orders. I see Echo press a button on his scomp and I realize it’s to signal Omega.

3rd POV

The comm device Omega has beeps.

“It’s the signal,” Omega says.

“Per CT-1409’s instructions, we should flee to the research lab,” AZI instructs, floating over to the door.

“No. Something went wrong. We have to help them,” Omega insists, causing the droid to look at her.

“But that means we will also be in danger,” AZI says.

“Focus, AZI,” Omega tries calming the droid before looking at the droid charging chambers.

“I have an idea,” Omega says and runs over to one of the many identical stations and presses a button. It opens, revealing a bunch of training droids.

Back in the training room…

“Now, who are you?” Crosshair says, pointing his blaster pistol at Maisy! Everyone tenses and takes a step towards the sniper.

“Ah-ah-ah…not another step-“ he says and suddenly fires at the girl’s feet, causing her to yelp in fright and fall backwards. A warning shot. Hunter glares at him.

“Last chance. Who is she?” Crosshair asks icily, his pistol trained on Maisy’s head even though he’s facing Tech, Echo and Wrecker. They all look to Hunter.

“We’re running out of time Commander,” one of the troopers tells Crosshair.

“Hold your positions,” Crosshair orders.

“This was your grand plan? Bring us here and kill us?” Hunter asks the sniper. Crosshair glances down at Maisy then back at Hunter.

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

“We’re loyal to each other, not some Empire,” Hunter argues.

“You weren’t loyal to me,” Crosshair argues back icily. Hunter’s eyes widen at the sniper’s words.

“I was one of you. You may have forgotten, but I haven’t. And that’s why I’m going to give you what you never gave me: a chance,” Crosshair says. Crosshair’s imperial squad looks at him in shock, though their helmets hide their reactions. Even Wrecker, Tech and Echo look taken aback. That’s when a bit of realization washes over Hunter. Crosshair is right.

Underneath the training room, Omega and AZI work to activate the training droids, unaware of the approaching trooper Crosshair sent to look for her.

“I think I’ve almost got it-“ Omega tells her droid pal, unknowingly being spied upon. That’s when the trooper hurries out and points her blaster at Omega, who gasps and holds her hands up.

“Uuhhh-hello-“ Omega stammers, waving her hand slightly.

“Sir, I found the girl,” she tells Crosshair.

Hunter’s POV

“Sir, I found the girl,” I hear over Crosshair’s comms.

“Send her on a shuttle off-world,” Crosshair orders.

“No!!! Leave her alone!” Maisy yells at him, but silences when troopers and Crosshair himself positions their blasters at her head.

“And you’re going with her,” Crosshair tells Maisy. Her eyes widen.

“Crosshair don’t,” I plead.

“It’s for their own good, and yours,” Crosshair tells me.

“Omega and Maisy belong with us,” I insist.

“Living among fugitives where they’re in constant danger?” Crosshair scoffs.

“You want to protect the kids, then let them go. Stop pretending to be something you’re not Hunter. We’re not like the regs. We never have been. We’re superior. The Empire can’t protect the galaxy without strength. This is what we were made for. Think of all we could do, together,” Crosshair says, cutting the cuffs off me with a vibroknife.

“We were brothers once,” Crosshair says, turning and pushing me forward roughly.

“We can be again,” Crosshair tells me. I look at Maisy and see the worry and fear in her eyes.

3rd POV

Before Hunter can say anything about Maisy, Tech glances over to his left and spots a small reflective circle and nudges Wrecker, getting his attention.

“Why would we trust you?” Hunter asks, glancing at the Youngling before staring hard at Crosshair.

Crosshair changes his aim and points his pistol at Hunter instead of Maisy before turning to the surrounding troopers.

“Stand down,” the sniper orders. A tense moment passes before the troopers in dark armor reposition their blasters at CF99.

“Negative Commander,” one trooper argues. Knowing they wouldn’t listen to him, Crosshair looks over at the reflective disc and fires one shot. Maisy’s eyes widen in shock when the blaster bullet hits the reflective surface and ricochets around CF99, striking the surrounding Imperial troopers, causing all of them to drop to the ground. Everyone stares in shock as Hunter turns to Crosshair. The sniper removes his helmet and takes a step towards the sergeant.

“Does that answer your question?” Crosshair asks.

Down below in the droid charging room, the remaining Imperial trooper tries contacting the others, only to hear static through the comms.

“I said move it!” She orders.

“Uuhh—I-I’m kind of in the middle of something-“ Omega stalls. AZI peeks out and sees the trooper pointing her blaster at Omega. She looks over and sees AZI float over to a charging dock, but the trooper notices as well. AZI quickly opens the port and the shelf comes flying at the trooper, knocking her out.

“I did it,” AZI says with a bit of excitement.

“Nice work AZI!” Omega compliments, “now let’s hurry,” she says, programming the last open charging port to release the droids.

In the training room, Crosshair keeps his pistol trained on the Youngling.

“Who is she?” Crosshair asks Hunter again, now that they are alone.

“We found her…she’s with us,” Hunter tells Crosshair.

“You all were meant for more than drifting through the galaxy, being babysitters,” Crosshair sneers, glancing down at Maisy, who stares in fear before making eye contact with Hunter.

“It’s time to stop running. Join the Empire, and you will have purpose again,” Crosshair offers, approaching Hunter.

Wrecker glances to both Echo and Tech on either side of him. Maisy shakes her head slightly.

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

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

“Crosshair, we never were,” Hunter tells him. Before Crosshair can reply, an alarm blares and everyone looks around. Lights turn on around the room and 2 towers rise up as training droids appear on lifts. Seeing Crosshair caught off guard, Hunter immediately charges forward and tackles the sniper to the floor. Maisy sees her opening and runs towards Tech, Wrecker and Echo.

Tech manages to grab the vibroknife on the floor from earlier and cut Maisy free as they they duck for cover behind 2 barricades.

“Hey, why did you activate the droids?!” Wrecker asks Tech as he takes cover.

“This was not my doing,” Tech informs him, unaware Omega and AZI are up on a tower watching them.

Omega watches and sees Echo force Maisy down after the Youngling nearly gets shot before looking over and seeing Hunter and Crosshair on the floor, fighting and wrestling.

“I believe you may have activated a few too many droids,” AZI tells Omega.

“I can see that, AZI,” Omega replies before drawing her electrobow and firing. She hits a droid that was nearing Hunter and Crosshair before changing her aim to shoot one that’s nearly on top of Maisy and Echo.

Hunter takes a couple of hits before he’s able to get his foot up and under Crosshair so he can flip the sniper. The two get to their feet and trade blows back and forth until Hunter leans in with his shoulder and tosses Crosshair to the floor before using his blaster pistol to hit 2 droids. That’s when another set of droids appear on a lift nearby. Crosshair notices and realizes that Hunter needs help. He grabs his sniper rifle and quickly aims before firing immediately. Hunter glances back and sees Crosshair continuing to shoot and, for a moment, wonders if the sniper has changed his mind. If he’s back on their side. Even Wrecker and Tech seem surprised before Wrecker yells, jamming his vibroknife into an approaching droid.

CF99 seems to all be working together again, if only to fight off the training droids. Maisy also stands up to help fight, but Hunter pushes her back down.

“Stay down!” He orders before firing off 2 shots. Maisy watches the squad before crawling behind the barricade and peeking out behind them to see Omega and her droid friend up in the tower behind them.

“Omega-“ Maisy whispers excitedly as relief washes over her. She knew the older girl would come back for her.

As CF99 fights off the droids and Maisy is taking cover behind a barricade, the last Imperial trooper that remains hides in the shadows, taking in the situation. She sees the clones fighting together as a unit while the members of her squad lie dead on the floor and betrayal hits the female trooper. A droid spots her and she shoots back, hitting it, allowing her to back out of the room and shut the door, locking it.

“Admiral, the Commander lost control of the situation,” she alerts Rampart.

“Pull our remaining forces out. Let the clones die together,” Rampart orders as the trooper flees.

Back inside Hunter turns and charges a droid with his vibroknife, leaping at it and stabs the droid in the neck area as Crosshair shoots it right in the center of its head, allowing Hunter to jump off. The two share a look before blaster fire gets both of their attention.

Outside, the fleeing trooper manages to make it to a hangar and onto a waiting ship. The door closes behind her and begins taking off into the storm.

“All essential personnel have been removed from Kamino,” Rampart tells Tarkin over the hologram.

“And the chief scientist?” Tarkin asks.

“Secured. The cloning technology is now firmly under Imperial control,” Rampart assures his superior.

“Very good Admiral. You may fire when ready,” Tarkin instructs before the hologram shuts off. Admiral Rampart walks up to the window, looking out at the storm.

“Move into position,” he instructs and the 3 star destroyers move into position over Tipoca City.

Back in the training room, CF99 are still fighting the droids Omega and AZI activated. Maisy’s been moving from one barricade to another, trying to stick close to Hunter. She watches as Crosshair and Hunter take out the last of the droids. Maisy sees Hunter looking at Crosshair, who has his back turned to the sergeant. Crosshair touches his head before glancing back behind him, realizing. He turns around to see Hunter pointing his blaster pistol at him.

A tense moment passes as Crosshair looks down at his own weapon and the others approach. Even Wrecker has his blaster pointed at the sniper. Omega and AZI have climbed down from the tower and Maisy spots them first, running to the older girl.

“You came back for us,” Maisy leaps at Omega and squeezes as hard as she can. Omega smiles and gives the Youngling a firm hug back before the two turn and watch Hunter and Crosshair.

“Crosshair,” Hunter says, getting his attention.

“Forget the Empire. This isn’t you! It’s your inhibitor chip. We can help you,” Hunter pleads. Crosshair looks at him.

“Wrong,” Crosshair replies, shaking his head, “I had my chip removed a long time ago,” he says, causing Hunter’s eyes to widen.

“Since when?” Hunter asks.

“Does it matter?” Crosshair asks back.

“Yes!” Hunter insists.

“This is who I am,” Crosshair tells Hunter. They share a look and when Crosshair tries raising his blaster at Hunter, the sergeant suddenly fires, stunning the sniper! Crosshair falls to his knees and blacks out.

The girls run up to Hunter and hug him. He nods at Maisy before turning to Omega.

“I’m sorry Omega. I know I promised you’d never have to come back here,” Hunter apologizes. Maisy looks to the older girl.

“You did the same for me,” she replies before Hunter puts his pistol away and approaches Crosshair. He kneels down and turns the sniper’s head to get a better look at the scarring on the side of Crosshair’s head.

“Be careful,” Maisy warns, clinging to Omega.

“Hunter, 3 Venators are descending on the city. We need to leave now!” Tech warns. Hunter’s eyes widen and he grabs Crosshair’s rifle and pack.

“Wrecker, grab Crosshair. He’s coming with us,” Hunter says turning to look at Omega. Wrecker reaches down and picks up the sniper as Omega nods at Hunter.

The group runs out the front door. Omega and AZI make sure Maisy keeps up as they run down the white sterile, but empty hallways. In fact, the whole city’s been abandoned. No one remains but CF99.

Up in the center ship, Admiral Rampart looks down on the city.

“Sir, we’re in position,” a clone tells him.

“Open fire,” Admiral Rampart orders. The 3 venator-class ships power up and fire on the Kaminoan city. With no shields, their blasts hit the domed city’s structures, causing explosions

Inside, the force from the assault causes the building to shake and CF99 feels the force of the attack, causing the group to stop and look around.

“What’s going on?” Maisy asks, stumbling into Omega, who catches her.

“Hurry! Get to the lift!” Hunter orders and the group runs outside. Everyone stares in shock as blaster fire rains down on the platforms, destroying the one they needed to cross in a huge, fiery explosion. Maisy gasps and Omega’s eyes widen.

“Back inside! Go! GO!” Hunter orders and the soldiers race back inside. Maisy and AZI tug on Omega to get the girl to run back inside as the assault doesn’t stop. Platforms collapse, support columns are broken and the outer domes of the city have been destroyed. One of the dome structures starts collapsing to the right and falls into the sea as the barrage continues.

3rd POV

Up in the center venator-class ship, Admiral Rampart stares out the window to watch the destruction of Tipoca City. Even if he didn’t like Crosshair, Rampart knows that the sniper is skilled. Though, judging from the assault, Rampart is confident Crosshair wouldn’t be able to survive this destruction.

Inside, CF99 takes cover as the blasts start penetrating through. Omega pulls Maisy out of the way just as the ground explodes behind them. Some of the blasts outside hit the support pillars just as the hall in front of them explodes. Everyone has a harsh ringing from the blast and Maisy and Omega cough a bit as they manage to get to their feet.

“Are you ok?” Omega asks Maisy.

“I’m ok-“ the Youngling assures her but that’s when the structure shifts and another explosion from the outside assault causes the dome to start falling. Having been knocked to the floor, CF99 all starts sliding down the hall as it tilts.

Crosshair hits some debris. Maisy slides into a pile of metal and manages to reach out and grab hold of Omega’s hand as the older girl slides by. Maisy groans a bit with effort as she pulls Omega to safety. Once Omega braces herself, Maisy gasps and Omega suddenly realizes the others are still going.

“Hunter!” Omega calls out. Hunter manages to slow himself to a stop but that’s when there’s a circuit short and the hallway doors suddenly activate and shut!

“Omega!” Hunter calls out as the older girl has to shield herself from falling debris.

After what appeared to be an endless assault, the 3 star ships finally stop attacking, leaving the city a ruined, fiery mess. A clone trooper approaches Admiral Rampart on the bridge.

“Status report?” Rampart asks.

“The city has been destroyed sir. All…Kaminoan facilities have…collapsed into the sea,” the trooper reports, clearly conflicted about what happened.

“Very good. Rendezvous with the fleet,” Rampart orders.

“Yes sir,” the clone trooper replies before walking off to leave Rampart alone to view what he’s done before the ship suddenly turns to rejoin the fleet.

Back inside, Omega was knocked out and the droid was hit protecting Maisy.

“O-Omega? Omega! Get up-please!” Maisy pleads. AZI powers back on hearing Maisy’s pleading voice and floats over.

“Omega wake up!” AZI says as the 2 gently shake the girl’s shoulder. The older girl groans and her eyes flutter open.

“Ugh-A-AZI?” Omega asks groggily.

“I do not wish to alarm you, but if you do not vacate this compartment, you will soon perish and I will be left here on my own,” AZI warns worriedly. Maisy blinks and glances at Omega. That was one of her fears. They must be really close, Maisy thinks to herself.

Omega shines her flashlight over to the rising water and closed door.

“Omega!” Maisy suddenly calls. Omega looks over and sees the girl looking at Crosshair, who’s trapped under some metal debris!

“Crosshair!” Omega exclaims and hurries over and the two kneel down.

“On 3—1-2-3!” Omega instructs and the two girls try as hard as they can to move the heavy piece of metal. They grunt with effort, but the debris barely moves. Omega grabs the commlink Hunter and the others had given her.

“Hunter! Do you copy?! Tech!? Echo!! Is anyone there!? Wrecker!!!” Omega pleads.

“Yeah kid, are you ok?” Hunter replies.

“Not really-the room is flooding and Crosshair is stuck-“ Omega’s voice is a bit panicked.

“Get the door open Tech,” Hunter orders.

“All compromised compartments are sealed to contain the flooding. I cannot override the protocols from here,” Tech explains.

“I can,” Wrecker responds confidently, pulling out his vibroknife.

Wrecker jams the blade in between the seal of the two doors and pries it open, just a bit and water leaks through.

Crosshair groans and Maisy gasps as the sniper starts to come to. Maisy and Omega try again to move the debris but the rising water is making it difficult. Crosshair also starts trying to free himself.

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

“Get this off of me!” Crosshair growls at the droid.

“AZI! Help!” Omega tells the droid as the water gets to be up to Crosshair’s chest, Omega’s stomach and Maisy’s chin.

“Omega-“ Maisy warns, starting to tiptoe.

On the other side of the door, Wrecker presses as hard as he can against the knife hilt to pry the doors open. Tech gets on Wrecker’s right side and jams his fingers in the small space to help try and pry the doors open.

Maisy is forced to start kicking her legs and moving her arms to float above the water and Crosshair has to tilt his head back. Omega’s eyes widen and she takes a breath to go underwater.

“Omega!” Maisy exclaims.

The older girl yanks the debris as hard as she can underwater, trying to free Crosshair. Needing to go up for air, Omega resurfaces and coughs a bit.

“Omega!” Maisy exclaims.

“He’s still stuck!” Omega tells the Youngling before looking at the droid. Crosshair starts struggling and coughs a bit after accidentally inhaling water.

“AZI! Go under and use your boosters! I’ll try to break him free!” Omega orders as she climbs out onto a debris pile. AZI and Maisy dive underwater. AZI grabs hold of the debris and Maisy closes her eyes, reaches her hand out and focuses on Crosshair and the piece of heavy metal debris on top of him. Crosshair sees the Youngling underwater, her eyes closed and hand out and his eyes widen in realization. Jedi! Meanwhile, Tech and Wrecker continue trying to pry the door open, causing a bit more water to spray out.

Omega draws her electrobow and fires into the water and hits the debris. Maisy’s eyes widen and she uses both hands to push Crosshair up to the surface. He coughs a bit as Omega grabs hold of him. He jerks a bit to the side and supports himself.

“C’mon! We have to get the door open!” Omega says, diving back under. She sees Maisy looking at the door and swims over to see the tip of Wrecker’s vibroknife. The girls try pulling the doors, but when Omega sees Maisy starting to get weaker, she forces the Youngling up to the surface to get air.

The two cough a bit and take a few breaths, starting to panic as the dome structure they’re all in begins to sink below the water.

“Almost—got it!!!” Wrecker says, slowly prying the doors open with Tech. The doors open, causing the water to pour out, pulling Omega, AZI, Crosshair and Maisy down under and out through the door. Wrecker catches the girls and hands them over to Echo as he and Tech shut the doors so it doesn’t flood in there as well.

Hunter gets Crosshair and the sniper gets to his feet.

“What have you done?” Crosshair snarls, blaming the group.

“The Empire open fired on the city. We weren’t going to leave you behind,” Hunter explains.

“We don’t have time for this. We need to get topside before this whole structure submerges,” Tech warns.

“If you wanna stay here and die, that’s your call,” Hunter says and the others start running. Crosshair glances to the side before deciding to move.

They run through one of the corridors lined with windows, the structure shaking every so often as it sinks into the ocean. They run up the hall when Omega stumbles, stopping in front of a window. She looks and sees the clone tubes. They’re all empty and destroyed. Maisy stops with her and looks.

“I’m…sorry,” Maisy tells Omega, knowing what it’s like to see the destruction of your home. Maisy gently grabs hold of Omega’s hand. Tech glances behind and sees the girls stopped, looking out the window, causing the others to stop and look back as well. Hunter and Wrecker join the girls to see what they are looking at and also spot the tubes.

“Omega, we have to go,” Wrecker insists. Omega squeezes Maisy’s hand and they continue running. Maisy can feel the hurt, pain and anger radiating off Omega, but what she feels the most is sadness. Something she’s familiar with, after seeing the clones destroy the Jedi Temple and kill everyone.

The group continues running as the structure falls deeper and deeper into the ocean. Sparks shoot out when the structure shifts and shakes. That’s when the structure starts tilting even more, causing Omega to gasp and Maisy to slip.

“Hold onto something!” Wrecker warns. It turns so much they start to fall. Omega hits a metal pipe and grabs onto it, looking up to see Maisy falling as well. She reaches out and catches the Youngling, grabbing Maisy’s hand.

“Gotchya!!” Omega assures the younger girl. Tech and Crosshair manage to grab hold of some debris but Hunter and Wrecker fall a bit further. Maisy manages to pull herself up a bit with Omega’s help and grab onto the debris Omega is holding onto.

The dome structure suddenly hits the hidden transport tube system, causing Echo to slip, but Hunter grabs onto him. Some debris is knocked loose and falls, hitting AZI. Both Omega and Maisy reach out and grab hold of both of the droid’s arms, to catch him.

The structure starts tilting back and finally settles, knocking the group down. Omega and Maisy shake off the daze and Omega shakes AZI a bit. His eyes power back on.

“O-Omega watch out!” AZI exclaims, “Oh…we’re ok,” he realizes.

“I believe we have landed on the ocean floor,” Tech explains as everyone gets to their feet, “though there is no way to accurately calculate the damage. Most of the facility must be-“ Tech explains when suddenly the structure shakes again and water rushes in from the top.

“Compromised,” Tech finishes.

“We need to get to a space that’s more secure,” Hunter tells him.

“Follow me,” Tech responds and the group follows him down the corridor.

Realizing Crosshair isn’t following, Omega stops and turns around to look at him. Maisy stops as well. Crosshair looks at the 2 girls before focusing on the younger one. A Jedi…no…not a Jedi—not yet. A Youngling. Crosshair is clearly conflicted but once the girls run off back to the group, Crosshair chooses to follow, seeing no other choice and is for pure survival and nothing more.

The group manages to get to a relatively safe room.

“Well, ironically, our old barracks seem to be one of the few compartments inhabitable, albeit temporarily,” Tech says. Maisy looks around. A lot like the Jedi quarters, Maisy realizes.

“This is our room? W-What happened to it?” Wrecker asks.

“At least the smell’s gone,” Echo comments as the group look around with their flashlights.

“Hey-look, our board’s still here,” Wrecker says, lighting the wall. Maisy sees a bunch of hash marks in groups of 5.

“All those missions together and you threw it away,” Crosshair says, glaring at Hunter.

Hunter’s POV

“All those missions together and you threw it away,” Crosshair says. I turn and see he’s glaring at me.

“We made a choice! So did you!” I argue.

“Soldiers follow orders,” Crosshair says.

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad,” I argue back.

“Look where that’s gotten you. They’re all going to die here, because of your failed leadership,” Crosshair growls at me.

“No we’re not—look! We landed on the underwater tunnel!” Omega exclaims happily, pointing out the window.

“If we use it to reach the base post, we could get back to the Marauder,” Omega explains.

“Accessing the tube will be…challenging,” Tech warns.

“Better than staying here,” Echo argues in favor.

“We have to try!” Maisy agrees.

“She’s calling the shots now?” Crosshair asks, eyeing Omega.

“You have a better idea?” I ask, intentionally shoving shoulders with the sniper as I walk by.

We follow Tech until we get to the lowest spot possible that should be over the tube. AZI, the medical droid, cuts a circle through the floor.

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

“What do you mean ‘might’?” Wrecker asks just as AZI manages to cut through. AZI sticks his head through and floats down into the tunnel to see if it’s ok.

“The tunnel is clear!” AZI announces. I go down first before Wrecker lowers the girls down to me and the others follow.

We carefully walk down the tunnel. Crosshair stops when he hears a cracking sound. he looks up and spots a crack forming!

“We need to go back-there must be another way-“ Crosshair insists. Before I can reply, the droid turns around to face the sniper.

“That would be unwise. I’m afraid this is our best option,” AZI argues logically.

“You done complaining? You know if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Wrecker snaps.

“Something on your tiny mind Wrecker?” Crosshair growls back, causing everyone to stop and look at the 2.

“All that time…you didn’t even try to come back,” Wrecker argues, causing Echo, Tech and I to share a look and Maisy looks at Omega. Having only met the sniper, she doesn’t really know what happened…exactly. Wrecker sighs quietly.

“We still would’ve taken ya,” Wrecker tells him as Tech approaches.

“Let it go Wrecker,” Tech says, placing a hand on the demolition expert’s shoulder, “Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding. It is his nature. You cannot change that. He cannot change that,” Tech says, glancing at Crosshair as Wrecker continues to walk.

“Why are you defending me?” Crosshair asks.

“I am not. Understanding you does not mean I agree with you,” Tech says as I have the girls keep walking. Omega keeps a hold of Maisy’s hand as she shines the light around the tube. I hadn’t realized just how damaged this tunnel really is.

“AZI, this doesn’t look very safe,” Omega says.

“Barring any further complications, this enclosure remains a viable means of transport,” the droid explains.

“Let’s keep moving,” I tell the group and we keep walking, careful as we do.

That’s when we hear a noise. I sigh.

“I think we’ve got a problem,” I say and we look into the dark depths of the water.

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

“Only when the power is operational, which it is not,” the droid informs. I shine my light to get a better look when I suddenly see some sort of huge sea creature swim towards us!

“Run!” I exclaim, forcing the girls to start running and we hurry as fast as we can.

3rd POV

The group runs through the tunnel as a giant sea creature chases after them, hitting the tunnel. Maisy and Omega slip and fall onto the cracked part of the tunnel. The girls gasp.

“Restoring power should deter the creature!” AZI exclaims, “try to stay alive!” Omega helps Maisy up and they continue running down the tunnel. AZI gets to an upward curve in the tunnel and floats up to the tunnel hatch scomp and plugs in as the rest of the group follows. They get to the curve and have to go one at a time up the ladder. The creature bites a portion of tunnel ahead of them, piercing it, allowing water to spray and leak in. The creature continues trying to bite through the tunnel, but that’s when AZI suddenly restores power in their section of tunnel, shocking the beast and opening the hatch doors so the others can climb up. Water starts flooding and Hunter shuts the door just as AZI floats by. They all jump down and rest for a moment.

“It appears I have caused the structure’s remaining power to short out. But you have survived the transit. This outcome is satisfactory,” the droid says.

They continue to climb up the ladder and up through the 2nd hatch and back into Nala Se’s private research lab. They look around and see that it isn’t damaged like the rest of Tipoca City. They look around as Hunter takes off his helmet to look.

“What is this place?” The sergeant asks.

“Nala Se’s private lab,” Tech explains, causing Hunter, Maisy, and Crosshair to look at him.

“Omega says this is where our mutations were manipulated and enhanced,” Tech explains.

“How would she know?” Crosshair asks skeptically.

“Because she was there. Omega was created before us. Technically she’s older than we are,” Tech explains. Maisy looks at Omega in surprise while Crosshair glances at her. They walk around to the other side of the lab.

“Uh-oh. That’s gonna be a problem,” Wrecker says, spotting the destroyed tube that leads to the Marauder.

“That tunnel was the only way to the Marauder,” Omega says sadly.

“It would seem that, once again, we are trapped,” AZI adds unhelpfully. Luckily, however, the Marauder sits unharmed on the platform Echo, Omega, Wrecker and Tech arrived on.

Everyone looks around with their flashlights for any sort of solution. Maisy is sitting with AZI when his head droops slightly and his eyes flicker. Maisy’s eyes widen and she gasps, getting Omega’s attention.

“AZI? What’s wrong?” Omega asks.

“My battery cells are depleting. I apologize for the inconvenience,” he explains.

“Long-range comms are down. And our oxygen levels will be critical in a few hours,” Echo reports.

“This is what happens when you let a kid call the shots,” Crosshair growls, glaring at Omega. Maisy stands and takes a protective step towards Omega.

“That kid saved your life, unlike the Empire who left you for dead,” Hunter says.

“That’s your problem Hunter, you take things too personally,” Crosshair says, walking up to Hunter.

“They destroyed an entire city-“ Hunter argues.

“They did what needed to be done,” Crosshair argues back, “Kamino, regs, the Republic, that time is over. The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I am going to be a part of it. Hunter, you made the wrong choice,” Crosshair says and walks off.

“Don’t fool yourself. All you’ll ever be to them, is a number,” Hunter says as Crosshair walks off to sit alone by the window.

Maisy sees Omega walk towards Crosshair and is going to say something, but Hunter places a hand on the Youngling’s shoulder, stopping her.

Omega approaches and sits next to the sniper. She looks at him and he looks away.

“You never liked it on Kamino, did you?” Omega asks.

“Go away,” Crosshair growls at her.

“I understand. I spent most of my life in this lab. I was alone down here, until you 4 were created,” Omega explains.

“That’s why I was determined to find you all again,” she tells him.

“Being a clone doesn’t make you one of them,” Crosshair says, motioning to Hunter and the others. Omega’s eyes drift over to Maisy at Crosshair’s words.

“I know,” she whispers, though Crosshair still hears her. He follows her gaze.

“I wanted to believe it was the inhibitor chip that made you like this, but…I was wrong,” Omega says before walking off to join the others, leaving Crosshair alone.

Wrecker stands a medical capsule up and they gather around it.

“These medical capsules are our way out of here,” Echo says.

“If our mass is evenly distributed, the buoyancy of these chambers will bring us to the surface,” Tech adds.

“Medical capsules have not been tested for such capabilities,” AZI warns.

“We won’t have directional control,” Hunter says, “how do we avoid the debris field out there?” He asks.

“The droid,” Crosshair says, getting everyone’s attention.

“He can do it,” Crosshair says.

“AZI, can you guide us to the surface?” Hunter asks.

“Barring any other strenuous complications, I should be able to complete the task,” AZI confirms.

“Won’t that be dangerous?” Omega asks.

“And your battery-“ Maisy adds.

“Your safety and wellbeing is my primary mission objective,” AZI argues. Hunter thinks on the plan and honestly, doesn’t see any other way out besides this.

Hunter has the girls and AZI place detonators on the window as Echo, Tech, Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair get the capsules ready. Wrecker gets in a capsule and groans.

“Ugh, I barely fit in this thing!” Wrecker complains.

“Quit complaining, at least you’re not doubled up,” Echo says.

Maisy places the last explosive as AZI flutters slightly.

“How’s your charge holding up?” Omega asks.

“I have accessed my reserve power. We must hurry,” the droid says and the girls hurry into a capsule.

“The explosives are set,” Omega says as they hurry in.

“Alright, seal ‘em up,” Hunter says, shutting the capsule he and Crosshair are in.

Tech and Wrecker shut their capsules and AZI shuts the girls’ capsule. AZI moves away from the window and gives a thumbs up. Hunter nods and looks to Omega. She also nods and pushes the detonation button, causing an explosion and instant flooding. The capsules get knocked into each other and AZI gets hit with a piece of debris. He shakes it off and dives in to get everyone’s capsule.

AZI sees the capsules and gets to Hunter and Crosshair’s and pushes the capsules out of the destroyed lab. The capsules float up once out of the room and AZI has to keep track of all 4.

“I can’t see anything-“ Wrecker warns. That’s when a piece of debris hits Echo and Tech’s capsule, cracking the side a bit.

“That is a good thing,” Tech answers as AZI pushes Wrecker out of the way of some debris. AZI watches the metal fall and spots the capsule Omega and Maisy are in. He swims down and gets to them before debris can hit them and guides the capsule out of the way.

“Doing great AZI-“ Omega says before gasping. Maisy’s eyes widen and just as the droid turns to look, 2 heavy pieces of debris hits the capsule and drags the girls down!

“Omega!” AZI exclaims as one of his eyes flickers. AZI looks and sees the other 3 capsules are almost at the surface and dives down to the girls.

AZI tries lifting some of the debris, but his motor starts sputtering, indicating his low power. Knowing he’s low on power, AZI uses what little he has left to light his welder to cut through the metal.

Meanwhile, the other 3 capsules breach the surface and float. The doors open and Wrecker gasps for air as Hunter looks around for the 4th capsule.

“Omega-“ Hunter says on the comms.

“Omega, what’s happening?” Hunter’s voice comes in through the commlink as AZI frees the capsule.

“We got caught on some debris. It’s ok-AZI’s got us,” Omega responds but that’s when the girls see his eyes flickering in and out. AZI looks down as his motor dies.

“He’s powering down!” Maisy warns, pressing the glass.

“Don’t give up—we’re nearly there!” Omega pleads.

“Your path is clear. I have completed my objective—“ AZI says, powering off.

“No!!!” Omega pleads, tears in her eyes. Maisy looks at the droid, falling slowly back down and her mind flashes back to seeing Hunter fall off the ship on Daro. Maisy reaches out and focuses on the medical droid.

“Maisy?” Omega asks, but the Youngling has her eyes closed and is too focused on the droid to respond. Maisy feels a slight warm feeling wash over her and feeling a slight tug. She breathes and starts pulling AZI up with the tube.

“Omega! What’s going on!?” Hunter calls through the commlink.

Maisy lifts the droid up so he’s level with Omega but the Youngling is starting to strain and sweat with effort.

“Maisy! Hold on! We’re almost there! You’re doing great!” Omega encourages but gasps when she sees the girl’s nose starting to bleed.

“Maisy? Maisy!?” Omega starts to panic.

Their capsule finally resurfaces and Hunter paddles over to them. Maisy practically collapses and Omega catches hold of AZI’s arm.

“Hunter!” Omega calls.

“Hold on Omega!” He calls back. Once he’s close enough, Hunter grabs hold of the droid and pulls him out of the water before stepping into the girls’ capsule.

“C-Cold…I’m cold,” Maisy complains weakly.

“It’s ok, you’re ok,” Omega tells her before looking up at Hunter.

“Hunter-Maisy—she-she saved AZI-“ Omega says, holding the girl in her lap. Hunter sees Maisy’s bloody nose and picks her up off Omega as Tech, Echo and Wrecker paddle over. Hunter offers the girl to Wrecker, who takes her.

“She’s a Jedi,” Crosshair says and Hunter looks at him. A tense moment passes between them.

“She’s a Youngling,” Echo argues. Crosshair looks at Echo. Not that they didn’t get along, but Crosshair and Echo obviously have contradicting views when it comes to relationships with the Jedi.

“A Jedi youngling,” Crosshair says.

“She’s with us. She’s not a clone, but she needs us,” Echo argues.

“The Jedi are traitors,” Crosshair argues.

“She helped save your life,” Omega argues and Crosshair glares at the older girl.

“She’s part of our family,” Omega insists.

“Fine, consider ourselves even,” Crosshair says glaring at Hunter, who nods in understanding and Crosshair’s features soften just a bit. Crosshair lowers his blaster and sits back down.

“I have a visual on the Marauder,” Tech announces, “I suggest we start paddling.”

They paddle all through the night and the longer they paddle, the more the storm clears up and by daybreak, the sky is bright.

They finally reach the platform and get to the ladder and start climbing. Still a bit weak, Hunter carries Maisy up the ladder while Wrecker gets AZI. They get to the top of the platform and Omega looks back out to where Tipoca City used to be. Now all that remains is a destroyed ruin trail of black pluming smoke that billows into the sky. The others take off their helmets to look.

“It’s..all gone,” Omega sighs sadly.

“We should leave before the Empire’s scouts show up,” Tech suggests. Wrecker turns to Crosshair.

“You…comin’ with us?” Wrecker asks, clearly hopeful.

“None of this changes anything,” Crosshair says.

“You offered us a chance, Crosshair. This is yours,” Hunter tells the sniper.

“I made my decision,” Crosshair assures him.

“We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn’t mean we have to be enemies,” Hunter tells him. Crosshair looks at him and turns, avoiding eye contact.

Hunter walks up to Omega with Maisy in his arms and she looks up at him, then at the Youngling.

“She’ll be alright,” Hunter assures Omega, who nods and turns towards the Marauder.

Tech, Echo and Wrecker all walk onto the ship with Hunter following but he stops and turns around to see Omega still standing there. She takes a moment before turning and hurrying back to the ship, but stops short and turns back to face Crosshair.

“What?” He asks turning over his shoulder to look at her.

“Thank you for sparing Maisy,” Omega tells him.

“Consider us even,” Crosshair says, looking at Hunter before turning away. Omega turns but stops and says one last thing.

“You’re still their brother Crosshair. You’re my brother too,” Omega tells him before walking back to the ship. Crosshair thinks on her words with a look on his face. The ship roars to life and starts ascending before the wings unfold. The Havoc Marauder flies off, leaving Crosshair behind on the platform with his only hope of rescue now lying on the Empire.

In the Mid Rim…

A mountainous forest planet called Weyland has been seeing an increase in Imperial presence, specifically around Mount Tantiss, an Empire cloning facility.

A ship flies in and lands in the hangar. Nala Se, the chief scientist is escorted out by clone commandos and is met by an Imperial scientist.

“Mistress Nala Se, welcome,” she greets formally.

“We are all admirers of your scientific talents,” she compliments the Kaminoan, “the Empire has big things planned for you.”

Having been close with Lama Su, Nala Se knows to tread lightly with the Empire and if they needed someone of her skill, then it’s a big project. The Imperial scientist escorts Nala Se inside to her new research facility.

End (End of S1)

[famuran]

oblivion au.  ffamran is an imperial-born youth,  caught up in the oblivion crisis.  cid is a mad mage bent on mastering necromancy  &  follows the teachings of mannimarco.  is wholly obsessed with knowledge and thinks HERMAEUS MORA is speaking to him — it’s actually sheogorath,  he’s just a bored daedric prince at this specific moment  &  is messing with high mage cidolfus just bc.  ffamran is an imperial soldier,  following a knighthood at the time.  once word about the emperor’s death spreads  &  cid is discovered doing some,  pretty fucking weird experimental shit with the undead,  ffamran abandons post in cyrodiil.

he does stay around for some time,  travelling between towns to make ends meet.  he gets in with the thieves guild  &  well,  that’s it then.  his path drops further down until he claims ownership of dunbarrow cave,  forming his own small pirate’s guild that operates out of the cave.

after a while,  mostly out of boredom - he makes his seafaring journey to skyrim,  land of the nords and the unrelenting cold.  he’s got to tough it out if he wants to make any coin under the overbearing altmer rule.

[taleswritten]

@riotseas gets a an au fire/storm starter

Being thrown into the army is one thing but being passed around, sold to the highest bidder among the soldiers in the army like it's some kind of game is an entirely different hell all together.

At first, Clive had fought like hell. Again and again and again until he realized there was no escape and he'd be better off submitting to the sadistic and deviant needs of others. This was his life now. It has been his life for years.

Yet another auction but this time, someone else takes interest in him, someone that Clive has yet to see around. A man in the army or someone posing as such? Clive's never been sold to anyone outside of the imperial army but here this man is, offering a surprising amount of Gil for him that simply cannot be refused.

This is how he ends up with this man, a man who carries himself like a soldier, taken into his home where Clive immediately finds a place on the floor to kneel down in front of Cid. Head bent down so that his gaze is on the floor, his hands on his lap.

He doesn't even take in the content of the surroundings or the view of Cid's home. He has no need to, nothing in this house is for him, the only thing for him is what his new Master allows him.

Clive doesn't understand it. This man hasn't been cruel nor has he jumped him. Usually, men don't hesitate to have their hands all over him. After all, that is what he's sold for.

Is this some kind of mind game? Surely he bought him for the same reason. Clive is no stranger to cruel whims and desires of cruel men, some of them like playing games. They like making it seem like they don't want him, only to pounce in the next second leaving his mind reeling.

But this has yet to happen.

He leans forward, testing the waters by pressing his face against Cid's thigh, tilting his head to look up at the man. The voice in the back of his head tells him that he hasn't been given permission to look at him so he shouldn't but he ignores it.

"Well? What now, Master? Do you want my mouth? Do you want me bare? Tell me, please. I'm yours to do with as you please." And I know you want to use me, all the men always do.

[charlottedabookworm]

@raven-6-10

….i’d forgotten about that one lol

nah this is similar in that it’s probably a no ultima au but basically the fight at phoenix gate happens a bit further outside of the settlement the brothers wake up in the forest with the knowledge that clive is a dominant but when they get back to phoenix gate they see their mother commanding the imperial forces and uh- basically go on the run with clive passing a year or so older than he is and joshua as a year or two younger

eventually they end up basically adopted by cid who i’m gonna say has already picked up jill cos jill also deserves better

Speaking of angst, do you have anything planned for ffxv? Or are muses in hiding?

just trying to plot out this years somnusson fic atm really

I’m struggling a little cos i love the au but eh- yknow?

otherwise no the muses for most things are hiding, like there’s a ff16 fic i’ve been trying and failing to write for months and i’ve been trying to get the energy for the next virtus chapter since feb