#leaving antidotes in mission packs

[whotookmysenbon]

so… do you always take care of kakashi when he’s feeling a bit.. not well? I want some examples of what you do for him since you’re such a mother hen

Sweet Sage! I’ve told you little cretins before: mother henning doesn’t just apply to Hatake. I do it to everyone. Hatake just tends to be the one who needs it the most at any given time.

[tiffthemarvelnerd]

Fitzsimmons entire relationship recap to showcase just how crazy their storyline was.

Okay so, beginning season one, these two, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, have been friend for forever, both really smart scientists and they join a team of agents, because they work for shield. So they are doing their thing for a while slaying the day with these missions, when suddenly, omg simmons is sick, she touched some guy and if she does not do anything about it she is going to explode and take their entire plane, because their base is a plane, with her. Fitz and her are in the lab trying to find a cure, but it isnt working so she smashes him in the head and locks him in the lab, from the lab he can see the hanger door opening as she stands there and jumps out so the explosion would not take the plane with her. So Fitz is understandably freaking out, he is like omg my best friend and secret crush just jumped out of a plane what the fuck do I do, that is when he notices, the antidote did work, but now Simmons has already jumped. So he grabs a backpack parachute thing and is about to go save her when Ward shows up and saves her instead. 

She lives and they go some more episodes, when oh my god shield has been taken over by hydra and their friend ward is one of them. They go to escape but end up in the containment pod, when Ward opens the hanger doors and chucks them into the ocean. Down there they only have a little bit of oxegyn, so they have a cute convo about what death will be like, because at this point the two of them have accepted, like we are going to die here. That is when they suddenly come up with a plan to break the pod mirror and use the oxegyn mask to get enough air to reach the surface. But here is the twist! They only have one mask! She does not want to go without him but he keeps persisting she should take it, so she says “Why would you do this to me you are my best friend in the world!” and he replies “Yeah and you are more than that Jemma.” Basically confessing his love for her. Now she does not even have time to process this new information as he presses the button opening the door and water is rushes in. She takes the oxegyn mask and drags him up, they get found my a helicopter. Season 1 ends.

Now season 2, Jemma is gone, she is undercover at hydra, but because Fitz was in a coma for 9 days after the incident and he suffered serious brain damage, he keeps seeing a version of her kind of as his concious almost. Anyways, she returns and it is just angst between them. She still thinks of him as a friend, and he blames her for just leaving him when he really needed her. She will be running the lab at their new base, and he says he will go work somewhere else. Then in the next mission it turns out they still are a really good team just like before, angst is gone a bit. Fitz keeps getting better and eventually has to go on a mission with the rest to go fight bad guys, just as he is about to leave, Jemma looks at my other favorite ship from the show, huntingbird, and realises “Wait maybe I do love him”. So she goes to visit him as he is packing up his stuff and she is like “Hey Fitz, we never really spoke about what you sai to me at the bottom of the ocean.” Fitz is all suprised because she never braught this up before and that is also a bit of a bad moment to do this, so he says “You want to do this now?” And follows that up with saying that there is nothing to discuss. He is about to walk out as she grabs his hand and says “Maybe there is.” He is absolutaly stunned, not prepared for this at all as he looks at her, but then immediatly gets called to the plane to leave. Leaving Jemma crying alone in the locker room. He returns, asks her out to dinner as they are standing by this rock that can turn into liquid, he leans on it trying to be cool, she says yes but as he leans he accidentaly opened the door of the liquid rock, so she walks across the room to put some stuff away, and gets gobbled up by the rock, the rock turns solid again and the season 2 credits roll.

Now season 3, it has been six months and we first see Fitz in morocco, he has tracked down every lead there is on what that rock could have possibly done to Simmons, and in the meantime has gotten really cool, quite the transformation. So he is in this bad place and does a carchase and it truely is a 180 of the fitz we saw before. After doing so much to get this scroll that is supposed to tell him what happened to Simmons, the scroll is just one hebrew word, death. So he loses it and busts open where the rock is being held and screams at it to ���do something’ with truely spinechilling acting from the amazing Iain de Caestecker. He gets pulled away, but as he does he notices, sand. Sand which predates the world by a bilion years. So he is like ‘omg a portal’. So they contact this guy who brings them to this castle, which has a special room to activate the portal. They do one time and shoot a lightflare through. Then the machine breaks, they manage to do it again, this time wanting to send a probe lense through, but Fitz is like ‘nah fuck that’ and jumpes through himself. On the other side he is screaming for Jemma and manages to find her and grab her hand, every tense moment. Then the rock explodes, because it did I guess. And for a moment it look like Fitz came back alone as he lies on the pile of small rocks, but no under there is Simmons too and they are together again. Simmons has to adjust to normal life, he takes her to a restaurant and she cries when she sees wine, but we do not hear what happens to her, we only see that she wants to open up the portal again. Fitz is understandably confused by this, but then she finally tells him what happened.

Jemma was alone on that planet for 4,722 hours, or around 6 months. The first months were hard recording things on her phone for Fitz and constantly talking to ‘him’. Then she falls thorugh a hole and meets another human. His name is Will, he got sacrificed in a ritual to the demonic entity also living on that planet they are both trying to avoid, and now they are the only two stuck there. She does calculations to preedict where the portal is going to open, using the last of her phones battery, they try to send a message in a bottle, but it fails and she loses all hope of ever getting back. That is when she kisses Will and they get together. Now she calculates some things to see the sunrise, because the sun usually does not appear on this planet, so they go sit romantically together, when she sees a lightflare. The one Fitz send. So she goes there with Will, but sees the demonic entity and is like “Will it is one of yours”. Will knows it is the demonic entity and sends her to Fitz to go fight it. He does not come with her through the portal and that is why she wants to open it back up again.

During research they are alone in a lab and arguing. When Fitz just cannot take it anymore, he presses her up against a desk and kisses her, she kisses him back. He says “We are cursed”, as she just before they kissed admitted that she does love Will too, but Fitz literally dove through a hole in the universe for her and so it is all a bit complicated. Now Hydra also wants to open up the portal to free the entity, so they do and whilst she is kept on earth. Fitz goes through to get Will, but it is not actually Will, because Will died saving Jemma. They all make it back, and Jemma is obviously dissapointed and cries in his arms. A couple episodes go by, they hold hands in the ashes because she asked him if they could take things slow. But then when they are researching sitting on the floor leaning against one of their beds, she lays her head on his shoulder and slowly moves so they kiss again. He realises after a bit that she asked to take things slow so pulls away, but she assures him that it is okay, he teases her for a bit and they kiss again. 

Next episode they go be a powercouple trying to find a scientist together, whilst he is nervous about sleeping with her because if things go wrong then he thinks they cannot ever go back to being just friends. But they do sleep together at the end of this episode so all is well and he was nervous but got through it. They remain a very cute couple going into season 4.

Season 4 starts and everything has changed, new director and Jemma is basically running the place now. She has daily lie detector tests and so when he helps a mad scientist build a crazy robot, he cannot tell her at first but finally does. The start of this season also mentiones that they are looking to live somewhere together, which is just the absolute cutest thing. Thir robot he helped created reads the darkhold, and this is where things just get wild. Because when this robot reads the darkhold it makes an evil alternate reality where everybodys biggest regret is erased and it just ends up this absolute hellscape. She (robot) traps everybody in this reality, ereases their memories from what actually reality is, so they just believe this is the truth, and she replaces their real versions of them with decoy robots. Fitzsimmons are the only two left they believe, until they pass a door with a detector of one of these decoys. One of them is a decoy. But they both do not know who it is. 

Simmons believes she is not the decoy and says that.

“It’s not me Jemma”

“Well it’s one of us!”

Heartbreaking moment truely. So she stabs Fitz in the wrist, which would have killed him if he was not the decoy, she gets shocked because there is blood coming out, but then turns out she did kill the decoy Fitz. Now she goes into this world, retaining her memories, but turns out, Fitz his biggest regret was not staying with his father, which has now made him the hydra overlord, dating madame hydra, this realitys version of the robot he created. He does not remember Jemma and as they are trying to get out of this world he shoots her in the kneecap. “And you mean nothing to me.” But they do get back. The thing about the framework is that they retain that alternate version of them, with all the memories, like having lived a completely different life. He has struggled with schizofrenia before and now even more so, hearing he doctor in all he does. He cries, Jemma cries and the entire team goes for pancakes.

That is when everybody but Fitz gets teleported to the future and the season 4 credits roll.

Now Fitz gets arrested, because the team was still fugetives and going out for pancakes was perhaps not the smartest thing they could have done. He spends six months in prison, gets rescued and freezes himself to also end up in the future. Remember this because it will be very important. Now in the future the earth has been split apart and everybody lives in space ruled by aliens. Simmons has now been made a slave by one of these said aliens, and her hearing was turned of when he finally got to her and proposed to her. Fitz asks to buy Jemma, but the master does not agree and at the end of the episode they escape, she can hear again and this time proposes to him, to which he awnsers “absolutaly”. They get married in a beautiful forest surrounded by all their friends and it is truelly magical. They struggle some more after that though, because the powers of one of their friends got turned of, but they need to be turned back on. Now Fitz is still scizofrenic and his alternate universe bad guy self operates on one of their best friend, ending with him in a cell but this time put in there by his friend. It is simulatiously a weird guy they met in space and accidentally came with them confesses to Jemma that he is in fact their grandson, which she combats by, no joke, throwing up. 

Fitz can go on missions again because since Jemma thought since she has not had a daughet yet and the future cannot be changed and their grandson, Deke, exists, she gets him out by playing a trick on their other guard friend, basically acting like she drunk poison, without warning Fitz first. But they got him out so it was all fine. Now there is a hefty season finally fight, were the building where Fitz is in gets crushed, he gets impaled by a plate. He thinks just his legs are broken but then he goes ahead and dies. Season 5 ends.

Season 6, Jemma is certain of the fact that Fitz is still out there, because he froze himself the frozen version of him must still be out there. Sis cut herself some depression bangs and end up accidentally high in a club where he is too, because his freezing thingie broke and is looking for money to replace it, together with his not quite android friend, a chronicom called Enoch. So they are both in that club, but just as they see oneanother and reunite, they get stolen by evil chronicoms and put in another mind place room. The room is basically controlled by there minds and it is here they have their reuinion. They manage to get out by imagening their friends to come help them and powercouple their way to the finally, in which they invent timetravel to sace all their friends. Season 6 is half the episodes of previous seasons, so this is the end of that. 

Season 7, they are timetravelling non stop, exept Fitz is away somewhere, Jemma does not even know where because she has something in her brain prohibiting her from accessing the memories. They timetravel a lot and when her memory inhibitor thing gets removed, she does not remember anything. Fitz? Who is Fitz? But then suddenly, she remembers everything, even them taking five years away before they actually timetravelled back. And it turns out they had a kid! They names her Alya and moved away for a bit before going back in. Fitz takes everybody back to the original timeline, and th next time we see them it has been a year. A year of living in the cottage she deemed ‘so lovely’ when she was a little girl and just caring for Alya with Fitz. He really thrives in being a dad and we see them having a picknick in the garden whilst Fitz is playing with Alya. The two of them finally got their happily ever after. It makes me cry everytime.

[psychospore]

Someone Special

A/N: Hello Tumblr Friends! Sorry for the unexpected hiatus but I'm back with a new fic for y'all

If you like this, you might wanna check out my Masterlist for more fics – smutty and fluffy and sometimes a bit angsty

@twhxhck tagging you on my new one :D

Pairing: Avenger!Loki x Y/N

Word count: 1400+

Warnings: mentions of torture, violence, death, fluff, mutual pining etc.

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

Tony and Steve rescued Y/N from an underwater HYDRA experimentation facility that conducted Human-Animal Splicing Experiments. With a low chance of survival, HYDRA successfully spliced Y/N with a Peacock Mantis Shrimp with the intention of creating advanced weaponry to conquer the world.

The two Avengers rescued Y/N and shut down the system to prevent HYDRA from continuing the program. During Y/N’s rehabilitation in the Avenger’s tower, she has found an expected companion in the form of Loki – who she met while sneaking one night to grab a bite. With her enhanced vision, she was able to surprise Loki that she was able to see him despite his invisibility.

Months of constant interaction made Loki grow fond of Y/N, he is in denial of these growing feelings towards Y/N – thinking it was not a good idea for her to be closer to him given his track record. He grew distant, Y/N noticing this wanted to confront him but had to push it back due to a mission back to the HYDRA laboratory where they found her. Stark gifted Y/N with a full white nano-suit, a long white overcoat, and heavy gauntlets resembling a Peacock Mantis Shrimp’s dactyl limbs.

The Avengers were caught in a pinch when super soldiers cornered them, they were not aware before their mission that HYDRA has developed a serum to temporarily enhance these soldiers with the powers of a cockroach – nasty but freaking resilient despite losing limbs.

Y/N had to fight one of her comrades spliced with the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle, a perfect defense against her, during the mission. Her barrage of power-packed punches destroyed most of the room but barely had any effects on the spliced enemy in front of her. He deflected her attacks and knocked her out with a blow to the stomach, making her cough up blood as she noticed a hole in her caved-in torso.

After being captured, tortured, and injected with the triggering serum to activate her dormant powers – partially transforming into a Peacock Mantis Shrimp as she convulsed in inexplicable pain – red antennae grew from her head, her long brown hair, tainted green with red tips, eyes turned red – to fully activate vision able to see both UV and polarizing light, her whole suit and overcoat turned to fully resemble her spliced animal – gauntlets turning green with gloves turning red, overcoat turning into the green hue with the lower part turning into fan-like segmented carapace-like disks with red edges. Chest and facial plates grew that resemble carapaces partly with the help of the nanobots from the suit.

Unlike her other comrades, Y/N retained a part of her humanity, she ordered the rest of the Avengers – Nat, Steve, Bruce, Thor, and Loki to head back to the ship to assist Tony and Clint who were already busy fending off the 2 Leviathan attacking the Submarine. Loki was hesitant to get back and wanted Y/N to go back with them – their first interaction after Loki decided to avoid her. Y/N assured him that she can handle it so hesitantly Loki followed, fully trusting Y/N’s decision.

Y/N fought her comrade, leaving him immobile before destroying the control panels and drowning the whole laboratory along with the rest HYDRA soldiers. As she escaped, she grabbed a few vials of the Triggering Serum and Antidote to bring back with her but before she could go out, her comrade decided to have one last fight – trapping them both under the rubble of what was left of the facility under the sea.

With the monsters dead after the fight with the rest of the Avengers, Loki hurriedly went to the destroyed building to retrieve Y/N, his biggest fear lingering – the possibility that she might be dead. He saw Y/N’s unconscious body – the lower half trapped underneath the rubble and the upper half submerged in the water. With all his strength, he removed the large rocks and recovered Y/N’s body, and brought it back to the ship.

He feared she might have drowned – he never left her side as she lay on the table, praying that she comes back. And come back she did – she coughed hard, as she comes back to her senses, exhausted from the fight. She smiled at Loki saying that thank goodness she was able to breathe underwater now or else she would have been a goner before passing out again.

Back at the infirmary at the Avenger’s tower, doctors were running around, hooking her up to the many devices to monitor her condition. Loki was worried the whole time as he felt helpless, his healing magic could only do so much. Thor assured him that Y/N will be fine and he needs to believe in her.

The whole week, Y/N was out, and Loki never left her side. The doctors have decided not to inject her with the antidote just yet, thinking her current state would be optimal for her survival – her human form would not be able to take the damage done to her.

 Slowly, Y/N’s eyes fluttered slowly to see a sleeping Loki, sitting by her hospital bed. She brushed Loki’s locks which woke the god.

“How are you feeling now, Y/N?” Loki worriedly asked.

Y/N’s antennae twitched, “Feeling better, but I feel a bit different” she weakly responded.

“I am deeply sorry for not being much help throughout your whole ordeal, you shouldn’t have faced it alone” Loki rubbed her fingers looking dejected.

“That’s alright, it was something that I need to do sooner or later,” she answered.

Soon, the rest of the Avengers poured inside the hospital after being notified by the nurses that Y/N has come to – bringing flowers and well-wishes.

“Your white suit looked good, but your current one looked better,” Tony commented.

“Looking more like a shrimp now?” Y/N joked.

“Can’t say it’s a bad thing,” he responded.

“You need more training when you get released from here. Despite your powers, you got us all worried about you with what you did with the facility,” Steve said, arms crossed.

“Especially my dearest brother, Loki. He hasn’t left you even for a second!” Thor exclaimed.

“You don’t have to tell her that,” Loki crossed, furrowing his brows.

“Nothing to be ashamed of brother – I know you hold Y/N dear so we understand,” Thor responded.

Before Thor and Loki could continue with their banter, Nat interjected, “Okay everyone, let’s let Y/N rest for now so she could recover quick.”

After a few more weeks in the hospital, the doctors cleared Y/N to be discharged.

Loki was reading a book in the lounge when Y/N popped in – now back to her usual form after being injected with the antidote. “Do you mind if I join?” before Loki could answer, Y/N sat beside him.

“How are you feeling now?” Loki asked.

“Much better, I feel like I could fight another freak like me,” Y/N joked.

“You are not a freak Y/N, you know that.”

“Hey, that’s a badge of honor for me now – not everyone gets to survive the whole shit show, now that I realized it,” Y/N responded.

“You didn’t deserve what you went through. Still, a part of me is glad that you’re here with us now,” Loki felt his heart hurt, while he was there at the facility, he saw the manuscripts documenting the harrowing experiments conducted.

“ Yeah, I’m glad to be here too,” Y/N eyes glimmered with hope as she looks outside the floor-to-ceiling window, not noticing Loki was looking at her with much admiration. Vowing to himself he wouldn’t let the same thing happen to her again.

“Y/N…” Loki moved closer to her, cupping her chin with his fingers, and gazing directly into her eyes.

Her heart fluttered with this gesture and before she could respond, Loki to her in a sweet and beautiful kiss that felt like heaven and lasted forever.

Loki broke the kiss to continue, “I couldn’t imagine myself being without you anymore.” Y/N’s face turned beet-red and before she could say anything, Steve walked in. Y/N jumped away covering her face with a throw pillow. She didn’t know how to react.

“Ready for your training, Y/N?” Steve naively asked.

“Perfect timing captain, you couldn’t have walked in a perfect time,” Loki sarcastically answered, leaving Steve confused.

“See in 5 Agent, training room,” Steve responded which Y/N answered with a squeak and a nod.

“Loki… I…” Y/N said.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up. Go with the captain now,” Loki smugly smiled at Y/N.

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Mikan (pt. 11)

Last post, we discussed Natsume's wishy-washy backtracking on his hatred of Mikan and her subsequent confusion. He is certainly not making her crush easy on her! Today, we'll talk about Mikan and Natsume's conflict as they pursue Z, as well as her strange reluctance to be vulnerable with her feelings about him, both out loud and to herself.

The Z Arc from a narrative perspective is probably the best written of all the arcs, in my personal opinion. There's a lot to analyze here. But there's also a lot of lore and worldbuilding, as well as focus on their quest, which I will be skipping over if it's not relevant to the characters/relationships. I don't want this to be a summary, but an analysis, so I sometimes I skip around. Thanks for understanding!

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Chapter Thirty-Six

They’re in the thick of it now, in the woods after having gone through a tunnel. They’re on their own now and have to fend for themselves if they’re gonna get Hotaru’s antidote and Yuu’s alice and make it back on time. Step one is to eat, and Mikan is proud of herself for having had the foresight to pack food for this occasion! But instead, Pengy comes out, having gorged itself on all her snacks.

Mikan and Pengy have been established to get each other, so Mikan “translates” Pengy’s pweens and pehhs to say that Hotaru sent it to be useful. But she can’t actually understand it, so Natsume tells her to leave it behind.

I always begin this arc siding with Natsume and then completely switching sides by the end. It goes like this every single time.

Mikan defends Pengy and they argue. Natsume seems rather heartless from her perspective, willing to leave behind a potential ally just because it’s not useful quite yet! So she claims responsibility for Pengy, promising to look after it. The others are bringing up good points about leaving it behind: it’s already been a hindrance and it’s only going to be in danger if they take it with them. But Mikan, even if she can’t really understand its pweens and pehhs, has the feeling that Pengy is a good-luck charm from Hotaru, so she can’t leave it behind, even if she wanted to.

Additionally, we've already established that Pengy and Mikan are like souls. She sees herself in the robot, a useless burden that bites off more than it can chew, pursuing adventure without fully understanding the consequences, endlessly messing up. She wants to give Pengy the chance to prove itself, because she wants that for herself too. If she sends Pengy home, she might as well go home too. But she wants to believe that they are both worth something, that they can contribute to this mission, so she defends it and will continue to do so for the entirety of their excursion.

But Pengy gets itself in trouble right away, causing a ruckus that causes harm to all of them and that Natsume ultimately saves them from. Mikan claimed she’d take responsibility, but so far she hasn’t. So Natsume says one more time to leave it behind. Mikan tries to defend Pengy, accusing Natsume of overreacting, but he hits her and that’s that.

He keeps walking.

Mikan understands, though. 

It’s not an overreaction.

Pengy caused a dilemma where Ruka got hurt, where Natsume and Tsubasa got attacked. It has eaten all their food already. It is a hindrance and Mikan understands why Natsume is saying all this. She knows from the Reo incident that Natsume isn’t a normal kid, that he’s seen things in the DA class that the rest of them aren’t prepared to face. He said he’d come along to make sure things go smoothly, and his presence is what gave her idea credibility in the first place. It’s unpleasant to admit, but he knows what he’s talking about. And she remembers that Ruka told her Natsume is secretly selfless, that he’s always thinking of protecting people, even to his own detriment. So Mikan gets that he’s right, that this is just another instance of Natsume doing what he has to to protect people--namely, the rest of the group. 

So she apologizes to each of them, but most importantly to Natsume. She starts to say sorry and trails off, only thinking “...for making you worry.” 

It's especially hard to apologize to him.

Mikan doesn’t do well with conflict. She can argue and bicker, sure, but the deeper stuff is harder because she doesn’t have a lot of experience with negative emotions and situations. Natsume always brings out genuine, deep conflict. He’s the serious, dark character after all, the one bringing a shadow to her typically sunshine world. He’s a tragedy, she’s a comedy, and she doesn’t know how to adapt. He’s challenging to deal with. So she holds back. She doesn’t say all of what she means to say, because it’s scary. She said before “ignoring people,” because she was trying to protect herself. Now she refrains from saying what exactly she’s sorry for because it’s hard.

Natsume is difficult, but he challenges her, putting her in situations that are uncomfortable. He’s definitely not doing it on purpose, to drag some development out of her, but it is pushing her to face situations that she isn’t used to.

Things get serious again when they realize they’ve wandered into a dangerous area with trees embedded with the medusa alice. Ruka puts himself in danger trying to save Pengy and just as he’s about to get struck by the medusa alice and turned to stone, Mikan throws herself into the lurch and saves him with her nullification alice.

Her alice seems to work best with tackling, or at least some proximity...

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Mikan’s protection is always so personal. It’s not about saving somebody. It’s about saving this specific person. This is consistent, which is why I put emphasis before on Mikan saying “Not Natsume” before (though I will admit now after talking to Crim that I was off-base with the particular translation--sorry). Regardless, Mikan isn’t the kind of person who thinks in terms of universals and generalizations. Everything is specific and particular and personal when it comes to her. 

Mikan once saw Natsume walk into the classroom covered in bruises and wounds and although she was surprised, she wasn’t particularly concerned for him on a personal level because she didn’t like him. Then she found out, after she started growing feelings for him, that he was frequently hospitalized, her reaction was much different. It was particular. Personal. She doesn’t want Natsume to have the fourth alice shape. Previously, she’s saved both Noda and Natsume with her alice, and it was particular then too. It wasn’t about saving somebody, but saving this particular person, her partner or her teacher.

And now, when she uses her alice, it’s not about saving a person, it’s about making sure that her friend Ruka doesn’t turn to stone. It’s personal, specific.

It works so well because of how much she cares for him. <3

I don’t think Mikan’s alice would work as well if it was general. She’s a kind person, sure, but love makes the protection personal. If she cares about somebody, her power becomes more potent.

But her friendship with Ruka isn’t the only reason her alice is working so well here. She has Tono’s alice stone, which is amplifying her alice, and making her feel the sensation of his alice amplifying her own alice, like she’s being protected.

(Which makes me wonder if everyone protected by nullification feels similarly, like they're protected. Mikan feels like her alice is useless, but the people who have felt that protection would know better. Thus Ruka and Natsume would understand that feeling, like they mattered enough to be protected in this way, and would appreciate her alice in a way she can't.)

Tsubasa uses the stone too to make the trees still. Only Ruka’s boots were turned to stone (which will give him blisters for sure because they have a lot of walking to do). 

1 Mikan and Tono are on a similar wavelength. 2. Their alices complement each other on account of being opposites. 3. Mikan felt so strongly about saving Ruka that she was able to activate the stone.

Tsubasa explains how alice stones work, how they’re typically hard to use, especially for beginners, because it’s a foreign alice. But Mikan and Tono are similar, in alice and apparently in terms of wavelength, so she was able to use it, especially when she had such a clear intention (SAVE RUKA-PYON!), because strong feelings help the alice stone work. 

Mikan is also impressed with Tsubasa’s success as a leader so far. He might have a reputation as a slacker, but he’s bright and has enough talent to be a triple, in Tono’s words. Tsubasa is competent, so he’s of good use on a mission like this. Ruka’s proven himself because it was only due to his alice that they’ve managed to find food and get directions this far. Natsume’s experience in black ops missions and his alice have both been incredibly useful. And Tono has helped from afar by giving Mikan his alice stone.

She still doesn’t feel like she’s contributed much. Even saving Ruka feels like something Tono inadvertently accomplished rather than something she did.

So when she and Pengy are by the lake at the end of a long day, fetching water for the rest of them, she comforts it about Natsume’s resentment. She knows how it feels. She also feels useless, and people are always making fun of her being stupid and making mistakes. Natsume might hate that Pengy is still with them, but she’s not, because Pengy is a gift from Hotaru. They can be failures together and do what they can to help. 

It's really hard for me to read Pengy scenes without crying. Yes, I'm crying right now. I cry a lot, actually.

Again, Mikan feels kinship with Pengy because she feels they are the same. People underestimate them and she feels useless all the time, like all she ever does is mess up. Seeing Pengy do the same doesn't annoy her because she just sees somebody else struggling the same way she does. It only helps more that Pengy was sent by Hotaru, which means that her best friend must have seen some value in it. Mikan values Hotaru's opinion more than anything, so if Hotaru sent Pengy, then Pengy has to be valuable.

When Ruka comes by, Pengy runs away, frightened, so the two of them have the chance to talk by themselves. They marvel at the moon, at how pretty it is from this view. Ruka thanks her for helping him, and Mikan is surprised to see he’s sparkling as much as the moon. It’s a pleasant moment where they can appreciate each other. He thanks her, so she thanks him right back, pointing out all the help he’s been all day (and signaling to him that not only Natsume thinks he’s worth something; he genuinely does have something of value to contribute and Mikan can see that too). 

Being around Ruka is easy; he’s kind and sweet and conversations are never tense or hostile. They have a very sweet relationship.

Ruka is probably the nicest person she knows, next to Yuu. He has a heart of pure gold, and more patience than anybody.

Ruka tells her a little more about alice stones, how they’ll be able to make them when they grow older. He then promises to give his to her, if she’ll accept it. Mikan might not understand all the romantic connotations of such a promise, but she can tell that Ruka cares about her, that this is a big thing he’s offering. And because she cares about him too, she eagerly accepts and promises that she’ll give him an alice stone too, that they can trade. She has only platonic intentions, but that doesn’t make it any less important. She’s planning on making a few of them, for the people she cares about most, and it’s a big deal that Ruka is on that list. 

Mikan gets swept away by this powerful future of hers, wondering what color her own stone will be, when Ruka randomly runs away, saying he wants Natsume to see the view. Mikan, surprised, wonders why he’s not fetching Tsubasa too. 

But then she notices something: Natsume is already by the lake, hidden by the bushes.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ruka ran off to get Natsume, but he’s been here the whole time! She can put together that he’s here because she took too long to get water, since he’s drinking really loudly on purpose to get to her. He shuts her down with a hateful comment. She then tries a different approach, suddenly musing on Ruka, and how he randomly ran off just to bring Natsume back, which must mean he really likes him. The scenery is beautiful, after all, so it makes sense that someone would want to share that with somebody they care for. Mikan wishes she could share it with Hotaru. She shares what she and Ruka had discussed before, that their friendships were similar. 

She’s trying to connect. She and Ruka bonded by talking about their best friends, so maybe the same topic could get her closer to Natsume too? She wants to connect with him after all (“I hate everything about you,” seems so long ago, now) and has for a while. She likes him, despite everything, and thinks they could be friends.

He shuts her down with another hateful comment.

Mikan notices that the moon looks different now (very obvious metaphor incoming). With Ruka, it seemed to sparkle and glow, but with Natsume, it looks all blurry and terrible. It doesn’t resemble the gorgeous view she was looking at a moment ago at all. 

I love that the text is sideways for no reason.

He asks her if she knows anything about the meaning behind trading alice stones. She didn’t know there was a meaning at all, so no. She asks what it means but he doesn’t reply. Back to being ignored.

The silence prompts Mikan to go on an internal journey. She starts by wondering when Ruka will return. She’s waiting for him, after all, so they can all look at the moon together. Eventually, Ruka will realize he can’t find his friend, give up, and head back, right? She considers going back to Tsubasa and leaving Natsume behind.

Say what you want about her early discomfort with Natsume, but none of the other characters get her as introspective or thoughtful as he does (unbeknownst to him, of course)!

Because being with Natsume is difficult. The conversation’s not that titillating. He’s a jerk like always, if he talks at all. We know (from the other essay) that Natsume mentioned the alice stone tradition because he wanted to check if Mikan knew the meaning already. But Mikan doesn’t know that. According to her, Natsume randomly brought up a topic for no reason and then didn’t explain anything. He’s exhausting. 

Then her internal mind journey moves along, and we get yet another taste of her self-esteem when it comes to her alice and how little she thinks of it. Though she can imagine that Ruka’s alice stone would be super cool to have, she doesn’t think hers would be as impressive. She can admit now that her alice has potential, but it’s still not good enough because her power is too weak. Even the impressive accomplishment of saving Ruka was mostly due to Tono’s alice stone helping her. She thinks of two more instances when her alice was useful: the first time she used it with Natsume in the Northern Woods and when she saved Natsume’s life during the Reo arc. 

Then she asks herself an important question: how come her alice works best with Natsume? 

Hmm... Mysterious!

Natsume doesn’t want his alice. He hates it. She remembers that it had seemed like he’d wanted to die, too, and the only thing that stopped him from killing himself was her alice. She muses now about him, about how Natsume’s life would’ve been easier if he didn’t have such a powerful alice. Natsume only knows the things he knows now because he’s part of the DA class, and he’s only part of the DA class because of his alice. If he didn’t have it, he wouldn’t have to be in such dangerous situations all the time. He wouldn't have been kidnapped, he wouldn't hate the teachers as much, he wouldn't know things from repeated negative experience. Natsume isn’t like the other kids, Mikan realizes, because his alice isn’t precious to him, or some part of him he’d hate to part from. The other kids feel like their alices are as much a part of them as their sense of humor or hobbies or heartbeat. But Natsume doesn’t want it. He feels no attachment to it, only resentment. 

Narumi told her that there might be someone out there who needs her alice, and Mikan realizes now that the person he was talking about is Natsume. Natsume has a dangerous alice that he hates, one that has made his life a living hell. Mikan has the ability to nullify it. It’s only around her that his alice isn’t a part of him at all. And he’s the only person in the whole world who would actually appreciate that, who would consider that a blessing instead of a curse. Nonoko and her classmates might hate to lose their alices, but Natsume is different.

So she tells him that when she grows up and becomes more powerful, and makes an amazing alice stone, “Natsume, I’ll give you my…” 

I asked Crim and those last two bubbles would better translate to something like, "That stone, to Natsume, I'll..." which is very aborted! And very relevant!

I think ellipses are VERY different from dashes. Those are different types of pauses. A dash means there’s an interruption. She doesn’t start to say something and then gets interrupted. There’s an ellipsis, instead, meaning that she’s trailing off. She is choosing not to complete the thought.

She has a series of aborted thoughts that are all pretty much the same. She’s trying to say it, but she can’t. “Maybe the person who needs my alice most…” “Natsume, I’ll give my stone to…” All aborted. By her. It’s obvious what she’s trying to say, even though she’s not completing her sentence, but she still can’t say it. She can't even admit it in her own thoughts.

Natsume is challenging. Talking to him is hard. Not just because he can be a jerk, or because he sometimes doesn’t talk back. He always brings out the most difficult thoughts in her. He’s always challenging her. She finds it difficult to say vulnerable things to him. It’s not easy to tell him that his ignoring her hurts her feelings, or that she wants to give her alice stone to him specifically so he can have her protection. She finds it hard to apologize to him at the afterparty dance or after Pengy gets them in trouble. All the most vulnerable things she has to say are hard to force out of her mouth (this is important now and will be more important later). 

Natsume has a similar issue, where he can’t say the things he feels to her, but it’s not really the same. He can’t say it because he’s not allowed. He stops himself at every turn because he wants to protect her from his shadowy, dark life. If he hints at all that he has fondness for her, it could all come crumbling down. He holds back on purpose.

Mikan holds back because he makes her nervous. She could say sorry to Ruka or Tsubasa without an issue, but apologizing to Natsume is hard. She could whine to Hotaru about how she hurt her feelings, but confronting Natsume with something serious is hard. She could easily agree to trade alice stones with Ruka, but telling Natsume she wants him to have her stone is hard. Why is this? Why is Natsume different from literally everyone else?

She looks so surprised... She cannot finish her thought. It's too scary!

It’s not just because he’s mean to her, because Hotaru can be just as cold. It could be fear of rejection: Ruka mentioned trading alice stones first, so she was only accepting his offer, rather than making one of her own. It could be a question of pride: apologizing to Natsume means admitting he was right, which is hard to do after she’d argued with him so much. I think it’s an amalgamation of a bunch of confusing stuff, because he makes her feel confused. She has feelings for him (that I strongly believe are romantic, even this early on) despite their relationship being so shaky. She wants to connect so badly, and in a specific way (though she doesn’t realize it), so there’s a risk of being rejected, of facing the fact that she cares about him and he might not really care about her back. 

And this realization she’s having now isn’t just about offering an alice stone to a guy she likes. It’s more than that. She wants Natsume (specifically!!!) to have her alice stone, to have her protection. He’s been a jerk to her for a while, but she wants to protect him, to keep him safe. She doesn’t like that he’s led such a life that made him accustomed to danger. She wants to offer something to him that she can only offer to him. There’s another side to this: Natsume is who needs her alice the most, which means she needs him the most too. 

Mikan is deeply insecure about her alice and self-worth. He’s the only person, as discussed, who would only benefit from her alice. Ruka and Hotaru have non-offensive alices that nullification wouldn’t affect. Mikan is already great at nullifying pheromones. It’s Natsume’s specific offensive alice that makes the most of hers. A whole lock and key thing. If he doesn’t need her, nobody does. And that means that she needs Natsume to need her. 

That’s why she can’t blurt it out here. Asking him to accept her alice stone is hard, because it’s not just about accepting any alice stone, it’s about accepting her specific nullification alice stone. And if he doesn’t find any value in it, then who could?

But he says he doesn’t want it. She protests that she hadn’t even finished what she was going to say yet, and he points out that she’d already promised her stone to Ruka. 

Why would she need her own alice stone? That is so funny to me.

Mikan obviously doesn’t really understand how alice stones work quite yet. They’re yet another quirky little addition to the bizarre world of alices, something that seems crazy now but will be normal and effortless later. She imagines she can become powerful with enough practice and crank out a bunch of them for all the people she cares about (and Natsume is on that list! Amazing!), but Natsume argues that her alice isn’t that powerful, so she probably wouldn’t be able to make two alice stones with ease. 

His rejection is (on his end) actually very careful. It’s about her not being able to make two alice stones, about giving her stone to Ruka, not to him. It’s not about not wanting her specific alice stone.

Finding out that making alice stones is actually a challenging endeavor is a surprise, so Mikan starts to fret. She’d had a list: Ruka, Hotaru, herself, now Natsume (though why would she want her own alice stone? She already has her alice so a stone wouldn’t do anything.), but now her plans are in shreds. She has to give a stone to her bestie, but she promised one to Ruka, but Natsume would benefit the most from it--what is she to do?

Natsume makes it simple: “Only give your stone to Ruka.”

And then he splashes her. 

That distracts her from their conversation because now they’re fighting and splashing each other, throwing out every stupid, childish insult they can think of. 

They’re both cold, soaking wet, and Mikan starts to wring out her hair. Then Natsume comes out of left field, again, as he’s prone to doing.

“In five years, wear your hair down.”

He touches her hair too, and that’s important, because Natsume makes it a point to avoid touching her. He’s so wishy-washy, insulting her one second, touching her hair the next. It’s a very soft moment, and seemingly out of character. 

Sure, it's just her hair he's touching, but he's still touching it! WTH IS GOING ON??

She’s startled and embarrassed, so she tries to argue, saying she wouldn’t listen to anything he has to say, but he doesn’t argue back like she expects him to. Instead, he repeats himself and adds, “It looks better that way.”

And Mikan blushes because he’s giving her a compliment. He started a stupid water-fight, but he immediately followed it up with tenderness. I’ve said this a thousand times, but this boy makes absolutely no sense to her.

He has no idea what kind of affect he has on her. Very irresponsible.

She’s even more embarrassed now, and because Mikan always struggles to communicate vulnerable feelings with Natsume, she keeps arguing instead of saying “thanks for the compliment” or asking him what he’s talking about. 

And when she sees the moon again, it’s sparkling again.

The moon is an obvious metaphor for her mood, since she was so happy with Ruka (thus, sparkling, just like he did) versus so frustrated with Natsume (thus blurry and gloomy). But he complimented her and touched her hair. She is sparkling now, happy again. Natsume thinks he is only capable of hurting her, of dragging her into darkness and screwing up her life, even putting her in danger. The most he lets himself do is indulge in selfish little moments where he does something kind or sweet in a roundabout way so she doesn’t catch on. But the thing is that she does catch on. And not only does she catch on to the sweeter parts of him that he’d rather keep secret, but he is capable of making her happy. He might not get that out of this conversation because she just replied with more yelling (which is why Natsume thinks she merely tolerates him for a while), but he made her incredibly happy. 

There's always a reason! Everything has deeper meaning. The curtains are NEVER "just blue."

There’s a lot of reasons to be happy: he complimented her, he thinks she looks better with her hair down (almost like saying he likes how she looks. almost), he was sweet with her. He obviously doesn’t hate her, even if he said so. 

Mikan will still be nervous and insecure around him (because he’s different), will still struggle with sharing her feelings with him (because he’s different), will still argue in his presence over the smallest things (because he’s different). But from now on, being around Natsume will make her happy. They will argue and it will make her happy. She understands now that this is what friendship with Natsume looks like, like bickering and then getting gobsmacked whenever he gets the whim to say something sweet, and that’s good enough for her.

Like I’d said, once Mikan understands somebody, she’s willing to tolerate all the more challenging personality traits because she knows what she’s sticking around for. She hadn’t been sure before why she kept looking for connection with Natsume, why he was able to hurt her feelings by ignoring her, or why she liked him anyway. But she gets it now, what secret little glow he has that makes all the shadow worth it. 

Hotaru is secretly kind. Sumire sticks up for people. Ruka hides his animal-loving side. 

Natsume makes her happy.

They make it back to their camp, where Pengy has managed to get Tsubasa and Ruka wasted off grapes. Though Ruka is able to accidentally assault Tsubasa back to sobriety, nobody would ever dare raise a hand against delicate Ruka, who rushes to embrace Mikan and then leans in, seemingly to kiss her!

Mikan is very embarrassed because Ruka is usually so restrained and polite, like a prince, and this is so sudden and abrupt. She’s also almost kissed Ruka before for the play, and having the experience almost happen here is also very startling! Natsume is able to stop Ruka, to usher him to sleep. The rest of them follow suit, because there’s a big day tomorrow, with the exception of Tsubasa, who decides to keep watch. And Mikan falls asleep thinking of her senpai, who is only fourteen but has decided to take on the role of an adult anyway.

The academy churns out prematurely adult (traumatized) children.

And how sad is that? He's just a teenager, but he is far more responsible, caring, and considerate towards the kids than any of the teachers. He takes care of them, but who's taking care of him?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Ruka and Mikan’s dynamic has more chance to shine as Tsubasa and Natsume start bickering way more than usual. There seems to be a hostility and reluctant closeness all of a sudden that definitely wasn’t there before. And Ruka and Mikan can only watch, confused and surprised, which leads to sharing confounded looks with each other. 

I'm pointing it out because it means a lot to me, okay? They're really good friends, I love them.

They’re now closer than ever, having gone through a crack in a rock and appearing again in the mouth of a volcano, where the Z members are headed. Mikan starts to hallucinate, which signals to Tsubasa that the smoke they’re inhaling must be a hallucinogen meant to ward off intruders--which means they’re close. So they keep going, until they find themselves in a tiled room, with one large door.

Natsume and Tsubasa bicker over their next move as the room starts to shake, so everyone’s a bit distracted when the floor opens up and Mikan starts to fall.

She gets pulled down by a skeleton grabbing at her hair and the only person she calls out for before she’s swallowed by the ground is Natsume.

Wow! 

Always an aborted thought, though this time she was interrupted!

On Natsume’s end, this was a huge development because Mikan was finally relying on him, but unfortunately it was the one time he couldn’t actually help her. On Mikan’s end, this is just as important! They shared a nice little moment last night and she knows now that Natsume doesn’t hate her and also that being around him feels nice. Yesterday, he saved the day a few times with his alice and showed off just how reliable he could be. He’s also closest to her when she falls.

There’s a lot of reasons why she would call out to him. But Mikan usually feels nervous being vulnerable with Natsume. What gives?

First: he called out to her first, making this the second (technically third, but you get me) time he’s said her name, and also making it natural to respond. He’s not the only person who cries out to her, but he looks worried and frightened for her, which is probably both touching and surprising.

Second: she’s more scared of falling right now than she is of Natsume, so her typical inhibitions aren’t there.

She doesn't have a lot of time to call out to everyone, but it's sweet that she calls out to him, that when the situation is most dire, he's the first one she thinks of. She’s in danger, so she calls out to Natsume, who is reliable and can make her feel safe. But he can’t save her.

Conclusion

Mikan and her friends have finally arrived at Z's hideout, but they had to go through a lot to get here. In particular, we have explored Mikan's insecurities with her alice, how it functions best, and how that all relates to Natsume, specifically how he needs it more than anybody else. Furthermore, we see more evidence of Natsume's positive impact on Mikan, how he actually makes her very happy despite (or probably more accurately because of) the bickering that always takes place between them.

In the next part, we'll see Mikan meet her mom (again) and our group will face off against Z in order to save Yuu's alice and Hotaru's life!

Special thanks to @crimsoncitrus, who has been helping me a lot with the translations and making my essay as accurate as possible!

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[world-cinema-research]

"INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM", Steven Spielberg, 1984.

Nicole Daniels

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom starts much like a modern-day Michael Bay movie might, with instant theatrics matched with drama and beautiful women. The opening scene showcases Indiana Jone’s soon-to-be Love interest Willie Scott, (played by Kate Kapshaw.) Willie Scott is later stated to be a famous American vocalist but plays the part of “damsel in distress” a typical portrayal of women in conventional films. Hofstede's model of masculine vs. feminine dimensions, in which the roles are very distinct and assigned is very apparent in this film, with Willie the extreme feminine stereotype, leaving Indiana as the typical "masculine mold." Indiana Jones meets with Lao Che, a Chinese man of apparent power to discuss the exchanging of a relic, the “Nurhachi”. We learn that the relic contains the remains of China's first Manchu dynasty emperor.

Lao Che’s son sits to his right with a missing finger, Indiana Jones bravely explains that he spared Lao’s son's life. Indiana’s payment was not given as promised, leading us to believe that Indiana took his finger in return. This shows the viewer the ruthlessness of Indiana and immediately tells us, this is no ordinary archeologist with mere excavation and science on his agenda. Indiana's friend disguised as a waiter bears a gun toward Lao, but his friend is shot before he can fire. Indiana holds him and his friend, Wu Han says to him "...into this great unknown mystery I go first, indy." I found this quote deep, showing a glimpse of philosophy in this action-packed introduction. Though the movie will continue we are reminded that the afterlife is the true "unknown".

Jump to chaos, violence, Che's antidote, and the large diamond that Indiana was promised by Lao Che both rolling on the floor. The scene confusingly shows "Indy" intensely looking for the antidote and Willie Scott crazily looking for the diamond. This scene can be seen as a metaphor for the portrayal of men and women in conventional films. The portrayal of women chasing wealth while the man is chasing life, or something more important or of more substance. Below is a clip of this scene.

Willie and Indy escape, jumping into his getaway car with a young boy, whom Indy refers to as "Shorty," (played by Ke Huy Quan). Ke Huy Quan recently won his first Oscar this year. Shorty drives Willie and Indie to a plane, thinking they are escaping, they mistakenly have fallen into another trap of Lao Che. Not only is this plane Che's plane equip with pilots who later parachute out, leaving the plane to crash with Willie, Indy, and Shorty on the plane. This seemingly fatal mistake is what inadvertently leads Indy and his crew to their main adventure after another flashy crash landing. Below is the landing in which they all jump in an inflatable device, this shows the conventional aspect of unrealistic, yet visually alluring characteristics.

Indie, Willie, and Shorty land near a small village in what Indiana has surmised is India. Guided by a man into the village they are told that a sacred stone called the Sivalinga has been stolen from their village, along with their children. Another quote that stood out to me was when the villagers serve Indy and Willie a dish of food. Willie turns her nose at the dish in disgust. I found this compelling because this could be an unfortunate and realistic portrayal of Westernized worldviews toward foreign cultures. Indie looks at Willie and says "That's more food than these people eat in a week, they are starving." This could be looked at as another misogynistic jab at Willie or showing the empathy and holistic views that Indiana has, potentially because of his archeological experience.

The villagers lead Indy and crew to the Pankot Palace on a mission to return their sacred stone. While at the palace a very overly dramatic portrayal of cultural cuisine took me by surprise. After meeting the Maharajah of Pankot, who is a mere child Jones, Scott, and Shorty are led to a feast. The feast contains snakes, live eels, bugs, and eyeball-infested soup. I found this to be largely misrepresentative of Indian cuisine and arguably racist. The movie blog also found this scene, among other parts of the film to have "not aged well" so, I wasnt alone in this theory. "Actor Roshan Seth described the film’s infamous banquet scene as “a joke that went wrong”, which was intended to parody racist attitudes and assumptions about what Indians eat. Instead, it ends up just regurgitating those tropes and playing into them. The film’s joke is simply a repeat of those old clichés about Indians." (movie blog, 2021). Below is their full critique of the film.

The banquet leads to cliche and conventional intimate tension between Indiana and Willie, more dungeons and thrills, and spiked rooms. This all eventually leads Indy and the group to a ritual of an "ancient" cult called the Thuggies performing a human sacrifice. In the film, they are a cult, but interestingly the Thuggies were in fact an actual group in India from the 13th- 19th centuries. They were more of a "mafia" of assassins in reality, not a cult, although brutal they worked mostly for profit, not some malevolent force. Below is an article on some historical points of the actual Thuggies of India.

Indiana is put into a trance-like state by the leader of the Thuggies, joining in on the near scarification of Willie. Shorty is put to work as a slave with the other children. Only after Shorty escapes his shackles and burns Indy with a torch is Indy released from his trance. Fire is often associated with cleansing, so I found this notable. I loved that it was the child that in this case saved the day. The ending shows the stone and children being returned to the village. I noticed that the colors were vibrant in this scene as opposed to the first dismal scene of the villagers. The ending scene of the film shows Indy "charmingly" and literally lassoing Willie into coming with him to Dehli, to which she smiles and kisses him. Again showing the conventional aspect of this film.

[freedombeginsathome]

Mass Effect The "Series" S02 | Ep.05 Plague

Mordin's presence is a whirlwind of perpetual motion, as if he's caught in a perpetual "fast-forward" mode. Following a conversation with Shepard, he rapidly formulates a compelling theory: the plague virus is potentially the handiwork of the elusive Collectors. Regardless of its origin, Mordin possesses a cure that demands urgent deployment through the environment control center, allowing the antidote to saturate the entire district. Without hesitation, Shepard steps forward to undertake the critical mission. However, the district teems with Vorcha, rendering Mordin unable to leave his patients unattended, especially with his assistant still unaccounted for. Shepards' initial task involves rescuing Mordin's assistant from danger's grip, a mission accomplished swiftly and decisively. The subsequent dash to the environment control center proves a harrowing ordeal. Waves of Blood Pack mercenaries surge forth, requiring Shepard and the team to fend off each successive assault. Against formidable odds, Shepard presses on, surmounting the opposition to finally reach the control center. There, the cure is successfully integrated into the system amidst a climactic confrontation that sees the mercenaries vanquished. Mordin gladly joins the Normandy's crew. His expertise swiftly transitions to tackling the imminent threat posed by the Collectors' seeker swarms, an assignment he tackles with characteristic zeal.

[isabellafoster13]

WARNING: NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE!

Chapter Forty-One: Equuleus

Freed looked at the berries that Lucy had crouched in front of to examine. He glanced back at Rufus and Midnight, who were both still packing up the group's campsite for Virgo to take back to the Spirit World. He turned back to the berries. The shrub wasn't small, but not large either. The leaves were a striking, dark green color and the flowers were a lovely purple color, bell-shaped in a way that reminded him of those bell-shaped flowers that Evergreen had taken to growing in her Fairy Hill's residence. The berries were round and shiny, with a purplish-black color to them. 

He looked over at Lucy and asked, "do you know what these are?" 

Lucy gave him a teasing smile. "The all-knowing Freed doesn't know instantly know what berries these are?" She then gave him a light jab to the side. 

Freed chuckled, feeling his cheeks heat up a little and a fluttering feeling beginning to fill his gut. He then responded, "I'm afraid my knowledge of the many species of berries is quite limited." 

Lucy gave a light laugh. Freed smiled at the sound. When was the last time he heard a genuine laugh pass through her lovely lips? He had forgotten how much he loved the sound and he felt a growing urge to make her laugh more. Or, to at least make her forget their mission and the heavy weight that was placed upon her shoulders, if only for a few peaceful moments. 

Lucy's sweet voice brought him out of his thoughts, "they're called Atropa Belladonna, also known as Deadly Nightshade. There are several highly toxic and potent psychoactive tropane alkaloids in the belladonna berries. All parts of the plant are poisonous. Symptoms of poisoning include rapid heartbeat, dilated pupils, delirium, vomiting, hallucinations, and death due to respiratory failure. Even handling the plants can cause absorption through the skin and cause severe dermatitis. Belladonna has many uses, both medicinal and in warfare. For example, they can be used to poison an enemy army's food reserve. Atropine, which is found in belladonna, is used to dilate pupils for eye exams and surgery. It's also used as an antidote for opium and chloroform poisoning, and as pain relief from sciatica, gout, and cardiac palpitations." 

Freed raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you know all of that?" He would be worried about her knowledge of the poisonous berries if he didn't know better. 

Lucy smiled at him. "Before I ran away from home, I would read the books in my Dad's massive library. At some point, I went through a phase in which I was weirdly obsessed with learning about all sorts of poisonous plants. I don't know why." 

"You probably worried most of the staff." 

Lucy almost barked out a laugh at that. "Yeah! Yeah, I probably did!" 

Freed listened as she laughed a bit more. His smile grew and his cheeks warmed as the fluttering feeling in his gut became more prominent and his heartbeat became just a little bit faster. He watched as Lucy continued to observe the berries. As the morning sun shined down upon them, he couldn't help but notice how her blonde hair glowed an almost golden color in the sunlight. The slightly chilly breeze rustled her hair just a little. Her brown eyes sparkled in the sunlight, a sight he hadn't seen in a while. Not since all of this started. He hated to think about it, how the ever-present sparkle in Lucy's eyes was put out by this crushing mission. 

His eyes rested on her lips. They were plump and had a bit of a pink tint to them. Before this mission, he's had an almost constant temptation to press his lips against hers, to find out what her lips feel like. Now, he was tempted again, for the first time in weeks, to find out what it feels like to kiss her. Of course, he doesn't give in to temptation. That would be very rude and improper. Now also wasn't anywhere near the right time to even try to tell her of his feelings for her. It would be better to wait for the success of this mission. 

Instead, he looked back at the berries and asked, "Erik is a Poison Dragon Slayer, correct? Would he be able to eat these? In a similar manner to Natsu and the other dragon sayers eating their respective elements?" 

Lucy gave a short hum. "Probably. I would assume so, but I've never thought to ask him." 

"He can." 

Freed and Lucy turned around to find Midnight standing behind them, no particular mention showing on his face. Lucy asked, "what was that, Midnight?" 

Midnight repeated, "he can." After a short pause, he clarified, "Erik can gain power by eating poisonous plants, like how the Salamander can do the same by eating fire, or Makarov's grandson-"

"Lasxu." Freed interrupted. He never did like when people referred to Laxus as simply "Makarov's grandson." He may not be obsessed like he used to be, but Laxus was still his best friend. 

Midnight continued, "right. Laxus can by eating lightning. I've seen Erik eat a whole bush of belladonna berries before taking out a bunch of enemies." 

Rufus then spoke up from where he stood by the packed-up camping supplies, "we should probably get a move on." 

Freed stood up with Lucy as the celestial wizard responded, "yeah, we probably should." 

After Lucy summoned Virgo and sent their camping equipment with her, the small group began walking further into the forest. Lucy took up the front, while Freed walked slightly behind to the side, and Rufus and Midnight walked on the opposite side of her. 

As they walked, Midnight asked, "where did that scroll of yours say the key was?" 

Lucy promptly answered, her eyes not moving from where they stared ahead of herself, "Arnoss Peak. It's a cliff on the outside of this forest. We're not too far. Getting there shouldn't take us long." 

Rufus glanced over at her. "A cliff? That sounds rather dangerous?" 

"Where would it even be on the cliff?" Midnight muttered, probably partly to himself and partly to the rest of the group. 

Lucy shrugged. "We'll find out when we get there." 

Silence then descended upon the group. Freed placed a hand on the hilt of his rapier, readying himself for an attack. Since getting Rufus back, he couldn't shake an ever-present feeling that something was going to happen. Normally, he would call himself paranoid. Now, however, he simply called it being rational. They've been attacked by their enemy too many times for him to even consider that they were 100% safe. And, looking at the other three mages with him, he knew that they were thinking the same thing, judging by their tense body language and observant eyes. 

True to Lucy's word, they arrived at the end of the forest rather quickly. They stepped out into the open to find a cliff. The top of the cliff was covered in green grass and jutting out over the side was a large, lopsided tree, its branches reaching out. 

Freed observed the area quietly, momentarily taken by the beautiful view. He absentmindedly spoke, "this would be a lovely place for a picnic." 

Midnight chuckled. "Yeah. I'm sure any woman would want a picnic date here." 

Freed responded, "I know a few who wouldn't." 

Midnight looked at him. "Really?" 

Freed nodded. "Evergreen wouldn't like a picnic date here very much. She would be too hesitant about the edge. Kind of strange when you can consider that her magic allows her to fly." 

Midnight only chuckled at that. Their attention was dragged away from their short conversation when Rufus spoke, his voice cautious, "Lucy? What are you doing?" 

Freed and Midnight looked over at Rufus, seeing that he was staring at something with wide eyes, and his body was tense, as if he was ready to fight at any second. The two other men looked to where the blonde was staring. 

"Lucy! Stop!" Freed called out, raising his hand as though he would be able to grab her from where he stood. 

Lucy stopped in her tracks and turned around, smiling at the men calmly as she spoke, her tone just as calm as her smile, "it's okay." She then turned around and continue walking toward the tree. 

Freed took a step toward her. "What are you doing?" Worry swirled within him and he wanted to grab Lucy, to pull her away from the edge that she was approaching, to hold her in his arms and never release her. 

Lucy answered, "there's a key on that branch." 

Freed looked at the tree, narrowing his eyes at it. It didn't take more than a minute for him to spot the glittering of the silver key in the sunlight. It was hanging off of the end of one of the branches, dangerously far from the edge. 

Midnight called from where he stood next to Freed, "someone else should get the key. Do any of your spirits have the ability to fly?" 

Freed nodded his agreement. "I can create wings for myself. I can get the key. Lucy, you shouldn't get so close to the edge!" 

Much to the men's horror, however, Lucy ignored them. Just as she climbed up the tree and made her way onto the branch, Freed ran forward. He looked up at Lucy, his eyes wide and panic in his voice, "Lucy! You probably shouldn't be doing that!" 

Lucy only answered with a simple, "I'll be fine. Trust me." 

Rufus stepped up beside Freed. "Lucy, you should come down from there. You'll fall." He was clearly just as worried and fearful as Freed. 

Midnight was more forceful as he stood on the other side of the tree. "Lucy! Get back down here now! Don't make any of us force you down ourselves!" His brow was furrowed, making him look angry. His voice was stern, reminding Freed of that time Master Makarov scolded Laxus for some dangerous and stupid stunt while in his teenage years. 

Freed looked back up at Lucy as she responded, "go ahead and try." 

She sounded confident. Freed couldn't ignore the worry and fear that enveloped him. His heartbeat picked up its speed and he felt almost sick to his stomach. However, he also knew that he had witnessed Lucy doing more dangerous things. Not to mention the dangerous things that he hasn't seen. 

When Midnight made a move to climb after the woman, Freed's hand shot out and grabbed his arm tightly, keeping him on the ground. Freed looked over at him, finding that the other man was giving him a looked that was a strange mixture of confusion and threatening. Freed simply said, "if she can take on demons, then she can get that key." 

Midnight opened his mouth, most likely to argue, but was stopped by Rufus, "let's just wait. She might be able to get it." 

The three of them ended up watching with bated breath as Lucy climbed toward the silver key. Freed kept his eyes locked onto the space between her hand and the key, watching as she struggled to reach it before inching a little bit closer to try again. The branch bent underneath her weight, causing his stomach to twist and turn and his heartbeat to become faster with fear. He tightened his grip on Midnight's arm, nails digging in. He might have drawn blood, or at least left fingernail marks, if the other man wasn't wearing a coat. 

All too soon, the branch bent too far, and a cracking sound was heard. Rufus was the first to yell, "Lucy! Get down!" 

Freed released Midnight and leaned further over the edge of the cliff, keeping his hand on the trunk of the tree. "We can get the key in a safer manner! Get back down here before the branch breaks!" 

When their calls were ignored, Midnight muttered what were probably curse words under his breath and began climbing the tree. Freed looked at him, saying, "I don't think that's a good idea." 

"Why?" Midnight barked at him. 

Freed didn't even flinch at the harsh tone. "Because, if your body weight will only add to hers and make the branch break faster. You could also make her fall in your haste to grab her." 

Before Midnight could say anything in response, the sound of the branch continuing the break was heard. Freed looked up at the breaking point of the branch and placed his hand on the hilt of his rapier. "Lucy, get down! Right now!" He demanded one last time. When Lucy didn't obey, and instead continued to reach for the key, Freed unsheathed his rapier and raised it to write an enchantment that would catch Lucy in her fall. 

Just as he began writing, the branch snapped and Lucy screamed as she plunged to the rocky ground below. 

Rufus yelled her name before backing away from the edge, his eyes wide and hands covering his mouth. Midnight stared wide-eyed at where the branch was. 

Freed could only watch the two men's reactions, his eyes going from one to the other before settling on his feet, his arm still raised and his rapier still held tightly in his hand. His stomach had dropped and his heart has hammering against his chest. His mouth was slightly agape and his wide eyes were unblinking. 

His mind raced with questions. What were they going to do now? How were they going to tell Fairy Tail? What were they going to tell Fairy Tail? What did this mean for the celestial spirits and their world? The questions and other thoughts filled Freed's mind until his head began to ache. He dropped his rapier and placed a hand on his forehead. He took a few steps back, willing his brain to think properly, while also knowing that it wouldn't be able to. 

"Lucy..." He mumbled, tears burning his eyes. He never got to tell her how he felt. He never got to hold her hand or finally kiss her. He never got to see the look on Lucy's face when she completed her mission. He never got to see Lucy recover and move on from what she had been put through. 

"Lucy..." He mumbled again, a bit louder this time. His shaking legs gave way underneath him and he fell to his knees. Tears slipped down his cheeks as he became unaware of what was happening around him. 

Then, like a popular character returning to a battle after a fake-out death, someone spoke from below the edge of the cliff, "'please tell me you three aren't thinking that I'm dead', she says in exasperation." 

Freed startles before blinking a few times. Did...did he hear that? Did he actually hear someone? He looked at Rufus. The blonde man was staring back at him in a mixture of surprise and confusion. Freed then looked at Midnight, who was staring down at the mystery person with wide eyes, a grin spreading across his face. 

Freed, alongside Rufus, scrambled to the edge and looked over. They found a living, grandfather clock standing on a ledge several feet below them. Inside the glass case was Lucy, who was smiling and waving her new key for them to see. 

Freed heaved a sigh of relief as that same feeling washed over him like a large wave. He called down to Lucy, "are you alright?" 

Lucy spoke, but her voice was silent. Instead of hearing her, they heard the voice of the living clock speak in her stead, "'I'm fine', she says calmly. 'This is Horologium, one of my spirits. He can summon himself when he senses that someone near me, or myself, is in serious danger and protect them', she explains." 

Rufus kneeled beside Freed. "Do you want us to come down to you, or can you come up here yourself?" 

"'I can use Pegasus to get up there', she responds." 

Freed and Rufus both nodded and stepped away from the edge of the cliff. Within minutes, Lucy was standing in front of her three friends, having used Pegasus to fly back up to them, and then dismissed the celestial spirit. 

Freed walked over to Lucy and scolded, "that was very dangerous, Lucy! You could have died!" 

Lucy smiled at him, as if she had not a care in the world. "I appreciate that you guys were worried, but there wasn't a need to be. I've faced literal demons, a dragon, and multiple powerful dark guilds. Do you really think that a simple fall would kill me?" 

Freed looked down at the ground, his brow furrowed. She was right. He knew that she had been through more life-threatening situations. After all, he had said as much just a few minutes ago. But, he couldn't help but be worried for her, nor could he be just a little upset that she ignored their protests to her continuing to get the key when there were other options. He sighed, "just...don't risk your life when there are other alternatives, okay?" 

Lucy gave him a comforting smile. "Okay. I'm sorry for scaring all three of you so badly." 

The pair then turned to Rufus and Midnight when the former asked, "what key did you get?" 

Freed looked back at Lucy, watching as she held up the new silver key for them to see. The blade was typical for a regular key, while the bow was circular and had the shape of a white, miniature pony. 

Lucy announced, "it's the key of the Little Horse, Equuleus!" 

Midnight questioned, "where are we going next?" 

Lucy lowered her arm and answered, "I'll need to look at the scroll. Let's get out of the open so I can make my new contract. After that, we can go looking for the next key." 

She then walked back into the forest, Freed, Rufus, and Midnight following behind her. 

[statticscribbles]

War is Over

Summary:  Natasha Romanoff/Reader; Song 9, Happy Christmas (War is Over)

It was easy for her to track everyone down, she knows the Widows would listen to her, and none of them were really concerned with anyone specific, they hadn’t been aware enough to form bonds with the ones that completed training. When she takes the coordinates of one, when Yelena watches her it is with awareness that the others don’t possess.

“It’s almost Christmas.” Yelena comments as she tosses one of the gas antidotes to Natasha as she packs up.

The trip to find you isn’t long, the safehouse you're using is a tiny cramped apartment, but most of the Widows would be holed up in groups, you’re alone.

“Why are you here?” You speak before you can see who’s hovering outside. Dreykov wouldn’t send his pet project, but then you’d been alone for an awfully long time without instructions. Only the basics, only the ability to work on autopilot, doing your daily drills and hunting for food, never leave an impression; was what hammered through your head as the blood dies down when you take a breath to calm yourself. It must be another widow. They don’t announce themselves the way Dreykov has forced so you tentatively peer around the doorway.

“Y/N. It’s over. He’s gone.” You recognise the voice but it also forces your hand to move, attempting to blow some fuse, to bring the defector down with you. You stumble from the caving structure and before you can react there’s a burst of red in your eyes, suddenly you can feel the control returning back to you and you sigh relaxing for the first time since you were brought to the room.

”Natasha?” You peer from the rubble. There’s no noise and you’re almost convinced she wasn’t actually there and whoever sprayed the serum was trying to get you to hallucinate.

“Happy Christmas.” She mumbles nudging you and you just sort of stare at her until you manage to offer a hand out.

“Y/N?” You can hear she’s worried and you’re not sure why everything is spinning, you reach for her blindly and find yourself bumping into rocks.

“Must’ve gotten hit pretty bad then.” You try to play it off, she scowls. You don’t see her look relieved when you collapse.

“Bringing Y/N back.”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?” Natasha seems a little confused at how surprised Melina is to hear your name.

”So that’s what we’ve been up to.” Natasha has managed to fill you in on the trip back to Melina’s house.

“So everyone is safe?”

“Mhm, any other questions?”

“What do I do now?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Want.” You roll the word over in your mouth.

“It’s close to Christmas, Melina was planning on having as many as want to come back here.”

“Will you be here?”

“No, I’m celebrating Christmas with my dad’s family.” She smiles playfully, and Alexei laughs at some private joke.

“Tell your uncle Steve I say hello. And Y/N?” You shuffle a little when he smiles, you know he’s trying to assure you he remembers the missions you’d gone on with him.

“Yes.” 

“Watch out for mistletoe.” He laughs and you dart your eyes up, before you can register the mistletoe is there; Natasha’s lips are on yours.

“Merry Christmas.”

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[dancingintheraindreamingonday]

The greatest miracle is love - Chapter 8

Author’s note: Just one more chapter and the story will end (like the series 😰). Thanks again for everyone who’s reading my story. And don’t forget: English is not my mother tongue 😛

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

As you left the plane in Latvia you are greeted by none other than Bruce Banner himself. „What are you doing here?“, your eyes are widened by surprise. 

„Well…“, he grins with his huge mouth. „I got a call from Pepper who got a call from him.“ He points to Bucky. „Heard what they did. How are you feeling?“

„I’m good. No worries. The serum didn’t effect me that much.“, you look intensively at Banner.

„Thats good but I can’t remember you having a degree in medicine. Oh and I’ve got another surprise for you.“ Bruce steps aside and what you see makes your heart jump. 

You let Bucky’s hand go and make weak steps forward. Bucky watches you worriedly, afraid that you might just collapse. And you do. You fall on your knees but not because of your strength but to be on the same high as the boy who runs into your outstretched arms. „My baby.“, you coo as you cradle your son in your arms. 

Zemo observes this scene carefully as he steps next to Bucky. „Ah…family, something so special and yet so fragile.“ Bucky doesn’t respond but Zemo can see how tightly he clenches his jaw. Smirking because he knew that he got under Bucky’s skin he says. „We really need to go. Cant waste our time with this.“

Bucky walks to you and Alex and lays his right hand on your shoulder. „I’ve got to go.“

You turn around and get up from the ground. „Be careful.“

„I’ll come back to you…to you both. I promise.“

„Don’t make promises you cant keep.“ And with that you take Alex’ hand and leave the airport with Banner. And Bucky leaves the airport as well. 

~*~*~

„I didn’t know you had a lab in Latvia.“ You ask Banner. 

„I don’t.“ He chuckles. „But they can’t deny a request I made. I think they are a bit scared of me.“ He laughs loudly. 

You lay down. A doctor took a blood sample to check how the serum affected you. Alex sits next to you on a chair reading or rather looking at the pictures of a small book. 

„So. I’ve got the results and no worries all is fine.“ Banner walks into the room with several papers in his hands. „The antidote I’ve given you when you were pregnant with Alex is still in your system. It’s part of your DNA, so you are immune to the super soldier serum.“ 

You remember how difficult the pregnancy with Alex was. He was a super soldier baby but you were just normal and almost unable to survive. But Bruce and Tony developed an antidote for the serum and because of that Alex is a normal healthy boy. 

„And there’s something else and I think congratulations are in order. The baby is all healthy. So don’t worry about it.“

You look away from Alex and into Banners big eyes. „NO! I’m not pregnant. I lost the baby. I felt it. On the morning I got abducted I bled. I…thought I lost it.“

Bruce’s eyes soften. „Don’t know. But the results are clear. You are pregnant.“

„Again? I really need to attend a sex education class. Seems like I need to learn more about protection.“ You smirk but in the inside you’re screaming. „Thanks Bruce. For being such a great doctor.“ You thanked him and he leaves you to maybe enjoy the news.

James promised to come back to you and Alex but not to another kid. Your current feelings resemble the feelings 5 years ago. The happiness and the sadness. You will be alone in this but that’s okay. Tony taught you how to be a mother, he taught you to be a strong woman. 

„Is there a baby in your tummy?“ Alex’ soft voice interrupts the dark thoughts you had. 

„Yes. There is a baby in my tummy.“ You answer, lifting the blanket so that Alex can crawl into your bed. You caress his dark hair mindlessly. „You’re gonna be a big brother.“ 

„Will dad come home?“ You gulp not really knowing what so say. „You know that your dad is a superhero. He rescues people all the time. Thats not an easy job so he can’t be with us as much as he wants to. But he loves you. More than you can imagine.“

„And the baby? Does he love it too?“

„Of course my love. He loves it but for now this will be our little secret, okay?“

~*~*~

Bucky keeps his promise and comes back to you and Alex. But it is a strange situation and yet so comforting. Bucky didn’t talk much and so does Alex. Sometimes they just lay on the couch reading a book or in case of Alex doodling.They enjoy the presence of the other without the need of talking. 

„I need to visit Sam and bring him the suitcase.“, says James one night as you both lay on the hard floor. „Okay.“, you trail small circles on his stomach while looking at the ceiling. „You can join me. You and Alex.“

„A road trip? That sounds interesting.“ Bucky doesn’t know how to feel. He’s with you but you seem so distant which irritates him. Isn’t that what you wanted? Did your feelings for him change? But he doesn’t know what else to say.

The next day you, James and Alex are on their way to Sam’s home.

„Is Miss Atomic bomb still your favorite song?“, Bucky asks you softly. „Yeah. It always make me cry. I get so sentimental about this.“, you chuckle.

„Why didn’t you give Sam the money for his boat?“, you ask James as stretch your arms outside the window. „What money?“, he asks surprisedly. „The money in our bank account?“, you laugh. „It’s yours and not mine. I don’t spend money that isn’t mine“, he mumbles. „Well it’s not mine either. It’s Tony’s. A fair split between Morgan, Pepper, me and maybe even the kid Peter.“

„Have you read the letter yet?“. On Tony’s funeral Pepper gave you a letter. The answer of the question whether you are his child or not. But you were scared to open it. „No, not yet. Pepper told me that he never read the test results but he was like a father to me. And I like the idea of that. But what if he isn’t my father. All the problems and pain I caused him…for nothing. I will open the letter one day but not  now.“ Bucky caress your leg while driving. „Giving Sam the money he need is a really good idea.“, he smiles.

„Tell me about the argument you had with Steve.“ Bucky asks you after a while. The silence in the car makes him rather uncomfortable because it seems so unlike you. Road trips in Wakanda always resulted in you singing along to every song on the radio. You are surprised that he knows about it.

„Sharon told me.“

„Of course she did. Do you really wanna know? I was horrible to Steve.“ But you remember the fight like it happened yesterday:

You were packing your things to join Clint on his mission. Alex who was a small baby slept silently on your bed. „Why are you so angry with me?  I just want to help you. I promised Bucky to take care of you.“ Steve stormed into your room not understanding why you want to leave the compound. You stopped with packing as you turned around. „What about me? What about the promise you gave me? You promised me that you make sure he survives but he didn’t. You are here and he is not. You failed, Steve. But that’s what you do, isn’t it? When it comes to my husband you always fail. You failed him when he fell off the train, you failed him in Bucharest and you failed him in Wakanda.“ Steve looked like he just got slapped. „I’m deeply sorry, (y/f/n). I know how you feel. When I lost Peggy..“ You interrupted him. „Don’t you dare to compare my marriage with James with your crush on Peggy. Never. What I had with James was real. With its ups and downs and love, and tears, and sex and laughs. Don’t pretend that you know how I feel because you fucking don’t know how it feels when your heart gets ripped out and there’s nothing you can do about it.“ You screamed in anger. „I hate you. I hate the universe for choosing you over him.“, You took off your wedding ring and threw it to Steve. You take your backpack and a crying Alex in your arm and leave the room. Steve stood there for awhile not able to move. Eventually he kneeled down to pick up the small and golden wedding ring and read the engraving. „The greatest miracle is love.“

„Wow. That was tough.“, Bucky grins taking his eyes from the street. 

„Yeah. I was awful at this time.“ You hide your face behind your hands and giggle. „Luckily, Steve is such a nice guy and after I got the courage I apologized and now I’m a better person.“ The drive to Delacroix is relaxing. 

As you both arrive the city is milling with people. „Is this okay for you?“, Bucky asks which surprises you. „Yeah of course. Why wouldn’t it be?“

„You got abducted and you have nightmares. I’m worried.“ He looks into (y/e/c) eyes and caress your left cheek. „I’m fine. No worries.“ You fake a smile and instead of kissing Bucky you take a step back. „I think we should look for Sam. Does he even know we’re visiting?“ You hold Alex in your arms as Bucky takes the suitcase from Wakanda. 

~*~*~

You and Bucky sit in Sarah’s and Sam’s family garden enjoying the bonfire. „No wine for me.“ Sam knows that something is off. The test he saw in your house, the distance and the rejection of alcohol indicate only one thing. So he takes the chance when you went inside to freshen up. „You’re pregnant.“ It wasn’t a question. You nodded not knowing what else to say. „You need to tell him. The sooner the better.“

„It’s not that easy.“

„He loves you. Trust him.“, Sam comforts you. As you both walk outside he yells „Lets call it quits for tonight, Sarah. Lets leave the lovebirds alone for a sec.“ He winks at Bucky and before the leave the garden he turns around: “And no sex on my couch, understand?“

Lost in thought, you stare in the flames, knowing that the time to reveal comes closer. „Whats on your mind, my love?“ James’ voice is just a whisper. You look him into his beautiful eyes that mirror the flames. He looks vulnerable and almost scared. 

„There is something I need to tell you and I get scared shitless.“ You say after you took a deep breath. Your heart is hammering against your chest and you have difficulties to keep a steady voice.

„Are you breaking up with me?“

„No! Of course not but I want to give you an exit.“

„Is that a metaphor from this one series we watched?“ Bucky remembers a show where relationships are compared to freeways. „Tell me what’s going on.“

Like removing a bandaid: fast and with no hesitation, you whisper:

„I’m pregnant. I’m sorry. I didn’t plan this. You have to believe me. I know how you feel about it and I want to let you know that you can take the exit right now. You don’t have to be in this.“

Silence. Bucky doesn’t answer for a long time.

„Since when do you know?“

„I… uhm… a day before the kidnapping.“

„You knew all this time and you didn’t tell me earlier?“ You hear his disappointment in his voice. 

„Thats why they didn’t took Alex, right? You wanted to sacrificed yourself and the baby for Alex.

„I thought I lost the baby. They wanted to take Alex. They wanted to experiment with a super soldier boy. So I offered me.“ Silence again just the crackling of the bonfire.

„You not answering me tells me anything I need to know. It’s okay, James. I did it once by myself and I will do it again.“ And with that you turn around suppressing the tears when you realize you’re going to raise two kids by yourself. 

As you walk closer to the Wilson’s house a hand grabs you and turns you around. „I’m not letting you go again. I love you, (y/f/n). You can’t imagine how much I do. I’ll figure it out… how to be a dad. I want you. And I want this. I’m scared and nervous. But my love for you is greater than my fear.“

He kisses you passionately.

„But we really need to attend a sex education class.“, He chuckles as he hugs you tighter. 

Chapter 9

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[the-single-element]

On Palm Sunday, we heard about Jesus's Passover supper. But we heard it from the Synoptic Gospels - the good news of Matthew, Mark, and Luke - which tend to cover the topic... somewhat briefly. After all, it was Passover; you'd think that most of what happened there would be according to ritual and custom. All they tell us is a few moments sprinkled in between: a few lines of conversation about his impending betrayal, a warning to prepare for future persecutions... and the original template of the Eucharist, where Jesus took the Seder's Bread of Affliction and Cup of Redemption and made them his own flesh and blood.

But John – who says more than once that he has left much out of his Good News for the sake of brevity and to focus on what's most important – John reports pages and pages of conversation from that Last Supper. A full five chapters – nearly a quarter of John's testimony – is about that specific night, and what was said around that table (or, perhaps, soon after, on their walk to the garden).

And what we hear from John, over those five chapters, is an image of Jesus trying to cram as much explanation and encouragement as he can into these last few moments before his arrest.

By now, it shouldn't be surprising that Jesus was in some distress that night. Even putting aside the moment when John straight-up notices it, you can tell it by how Jesus is talking. He's trying to give his friends words of comfort, yes, but he's also repeating himself, making the same point two or three times during the conversation as though he'd forgotten if he'd said it yet. This isn't mere dread of the "cup" from which he's about to drink. It's distress about how few have been able to even understand what he's been trying to say. It's worry that, once he's gone, even these friends of his will forget what they've learned, and lose sight of the little they've understood. After all, he can only send the Spirit – his main chance to teach what he's had no time to teach – to those who've gotten at least that far... and if Peter will deny Jesus now, while they're still together, the what might happen once Jesus departs?

Jesus's life on Earth was far too short.

He had to pack such big, complicated, counterintuitive ideas into such a small space.

So what was his last word to his friends, his inner circle? What did he leave them with, before going to the Cross?

He tried to leave them with peace. With peace that this world's logic can't give: that his death would not be the end. Neither of him, nor of their mission.

And he tried to leave them with this instruction, this "new commandment" (after which the old Catholic name for today, "Maundy Thursday", was coined), so important that he visited the topic three separate times that night:

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

And then, a while later...

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

And later still, once they'd already gotten up from the table...

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

And this was the instruction, and the hope, that he gave them as tools with which to face the persecution they'd no doubt suffer in the years to come. Standing against this world's logic, which would soon argue, forcefully, that remaining connected to the Kingdom of Heaven was suicide, he tried to give them "peace that the world can't give" as antidote and inoculation.

And having said all of that, and having prayed that it would be enough... they soon arrived in Gethsemane.

[chaifootsteps]

Apparently school of dragons has an alternate ending to HTTYD 3 where everyone keeps their dragons and you can explore the hidden world...? So much for making it mysterious and heart breaking.. which it wasn't anyway

OH MY GOD, okay, I’m glad you sent me this, because here's a list of things School of Dragons -- a buggy pay-to-win game for babies -- did better than The Hidden World.

Grimmel is dangerous and competent. He tells Hiccup he doesn’t believe his ideology is a good one, but by all means, do whatever -- Grimmel’s only interested in the Night Fury. He tells Hiccup that this all ends the moment he hands over Toothless and isn’t that what a good leader does, sacrifices for the good of everyone?

Hiccup has to try and combat this problem through careful diplomacy with other people in the archipelago, not all of whom he likes or agrees with.

Cloudjumper ends up mind-controlled by Grimmel, so the stakes are high because we love Cloudjumper.

The Light Fury doesn’t try to murder anyone, and while she's skeptical of humans, she guides you to an ingredient in the Hidden World you need for an antidote to Grimmel’s mind control sauce.

This carries over long after the expansion pack ends. She’ll never have a rider or be a Berkian dragon, but she’ll allow the occasional head pat and the entire Fury family happily lives with a foot in each world.

Toothless is an active participant in all this and in defending the dragons.

You accidentally hit a Deathgripper with the antidote and free it and it decides to stay with you.

The Hidden World pack ends with a victory, but a hard fought one, and the acknowledgement that Grimmel is still out there and that someday Toothless’s duties as king will mean he has to leave them (not all the dragons, just Toothless) but that day isn’t today -- today, they’re going to fight for this world.

And then they do, they make it their mission to protect the entrance to the Hidden World and the dragons stay right where they are and everyone’s happy and it’s wonderful.

[scarlettwitcher]

Baby Girl Chapter Six

Summary: Y/n tried to avoid her past with a certain Statesmen but when they’re partnered back up for a mission that could cost millions their lives, Y/n must make the right choice. (This is the Kingsman: The Golden Circle movie basically in writing with reader insert. I recommend watching the movie, it’s amazing! It’s on Amazon Prime Video.)

Characters: Agent Whiskey x Agent Gin(Y/n), Tequila, Ginger Ale, Eggsy, Merlin, Champ, Harry, mentions of Poppy, Charlie, and Clara

Word Count: 4,361

Warnings: angst angssst aaaaaangggsssttttt, descriptions of canonical violence, canon death, cursing, flashback is in italics

Author’s Note: It’s been a long time coming but we’re close to the end my lovelies. I hope you all like this update. Thank you for reading and feedback is always welcome/needed.

Previous...

“So I suggest you find out who he is. Come on.” Eggsy watched Harry walk off as he shook his head. He was upset at Harry’s actions, more so, at hurting you. He looked back over at the cabin and watched as you had moved Whiskey’s head onto your lap. You hoped Whiskey would be okay after everything. Eggsy slowly walked over and grabbed the rest of yours and Whiskey’s things. He heard you sniff and stopped. He wanted to comfort you but he didn’t know what to say. He leaned down next to you, putting a light hand on your shoulder. Your body shook as another wave of tears surged through you.

“Let me help you love.” You reluctantly agreed to Eggsy’s help. He grabbed Whiskey as best as he could, throwing him over his shoulder. You stood up, grabbing his whip, and in heavy silence, you followed him back to the jet. The ride back was tense. You had every right to go and put a bullet into Harry’s head but he was right. You had to work together to get the antidote before more people died. You wondered why Harry didn’t suspect you. You were with Whiskey, you were ever as much a suspect as he was. You didn’t want to think how it would be if you were the one shot and Whiskey found you instead.

Next...

Arriving at the agency, you quickly helped Ginger set Whiskey up in her machine, letting the nanites do their job. “He looks great.” Ginger was standing next to you as you watched Whiskey sleeping. 

Merlin nodded. “Good.” He moved towards his team to let them know of the good news.

“Ginger, I should’ve protected him harder. I should’ve shot Harry the first time I had the gun to his head.” You felt your eyes water, feeling so useless. Ginger reached over, holding your hand in hers in comfort. 

“We both know you wouldn’t have Gin. He’s going to be okay. I suggest you focus on the mission. We can deal with this after.” You nodded quietly. You couldn’t tear your eyes away from him, holding Whiskey’s hand in yours. You brought it up to your lips, kissing his knuckles softly.

“I’ll be back baby. I’ll make this right.” You looked up at the closed door where the three Kingsman were. You clenched your jaw walking towards the door. The doors slid open and you caught the end of their conversation. With the way Harry’s eyes landed guiltily on you, you knew they were talking about Whiskey, specifically, how he was working against the agency. You narrowed your eyes at him. Your fingers twitched, ready to grab your gun and put several bullets in his head. 

“My favorite singer?”

“I don't bloody know. How would I know that?”

“It's John Denver.” 

Eggsy walked back towards the group in a rush. “Merlin! Have you got eyes on that location yet?” 

“Soon. The reconnaissance drone's about an hour away. Which gives us time to sort out-”

Eggsy walked towards the elevator, stepping in as he looked at the three of you. “Bollocks, we haven't time for anything. I'm leaving now. With or without you.” Merlin looked to Harry in silent agreement before the three of them looked to you. You swore you never felt so small under their gazes but you refused to back down. You were going to finish this mission for Whiskey and after, Harry was going to suffer for his actions. You kept your chin up, passing both men, stepping into the elevator. Eggsy nodded his appreciation towards you as the other men stepped inside. 

You all made your way to the plane, getting comfortable. Getting so caught up on the situation, you forgot to change. You walked towards your room, You pulled the snowsuit off and stripped bare, stepping into the shower. You washed away the blood and dirt from before. Thoughts of your lover filled your head. You closed your eyes and tried to forget. You tried to erase the memories of watching Whiskey get shot over and over out of your head but every time you closed your eyes, you were forced to relive it. You let the steaming water burn your skin, feeling like you still had Whiskey's blood on your hands. You scrubbed your skin raw, seeing the small red streaks across your skin. You know if Whiskey saw you, he'd lecture you about taking care of yourself better and then he would kiss your skin. The thought brought a soft smile to your face. 

Quickly finishing your shower, you stepped out. Thanks to the awesome gadgets the Statesman had, you used a small machine that dried and styled your hair in seconds. The machine opted for giving you lazy curls, your signature look. You slipped on a pair of really tight dark washed jeans, slipping your black boots on after, pairing it with a nice thick belt, the large Statesmen belt buckle shining brightly. You grabbed a silky red tank top with spaghetti straps, throwing your jean jacket over it. Lastly, you slipped on your thigh holsters for your guns. Standing in front of the mirror, you noticed the marks Whiskey left on your skin and you felt your throat tighten. You willed your emotions away, knowing you needed to be composed. You looked over at Whiskey’s hat that was laying on your bed. You took it with you after leaving him with Ginger. You knew if he saw you, you wouldn’t leave the bedroom for days. You blushed at the thought, swiping the hat and plopping it gently on your head. It fit you big but you liked it. 

“Don't be. Just know that having something to lose is what makes life worth living. Now, let's go and save your girl.”

“I missed you, Harry. “Stepping out of the room, Harry and Eggsy were in the main room talking. You really didn’t want to be near the senior agent and he knew. You tensed in his presence but luckily, Merlin interrupted them. “Gentlemen, milady, I hate to break up a party. We're nearly there, so I suggest we get ready. Follow me.”

Merlin walked towards the back, into what was Tequila's room, pushing a button that revealed a hidden dresser. “Oh, yes.” You smiled weakly at Eggsy’s reaction.

The machine slowly opened up, moving Whiskey to a sitting position as he gasped awake. He looked around before his eyes settled on Ginger. He smirked, his first instinct was to hit on her but there was a nagging feeling telling him that he shouldn’t. He decided to ignore the little voice. “Hello, gorgeous. I'm Jack. What's your name? How would you like to ride home on a real cowboy?” Whiskey had stood up, walking after Ginger as she walked back away from him, irritation painting her features. “I got a six-pack of cold ones on ice and my roomie's out all night. So you can scream my name as loud as you need to, sugar.”

“Jack, stop it.” Ginger held up his phone, showing him the picture he had of you as your contact, his favorite picture. He grabbed the phone, furrowing his brows as he focused on your features. He saw himself in the photo, looking down at your soft form.

“Who's this pretty lady?”

“That’s your girlfriend. You told her you loved her for the first time a few days ago.” Whiskey frowned as he looked at the picture and didn’t take long for his memories to flood through his head, images of you surrounding him and all of his senses. He remembered the first time he met you, your sweet laugh echoing in his head. Flashes of missions you two had been on, and memories of you underneath him, moaning his name had him blushing. The last thing he remembered was the mission and Harry shooting him paired with your screams of agony. Whiskey came to his senses and looked down at his phone, kissing the picture he had of you. He looked to Ginger, rage fueling his actions. 

“Ginger. Goddamn butterfly guy shot me in the fucking head.”

“I know. Gin told me.”

“Gin?" Whiskey looked around desperately hoping to see you in the room. When he came back with nothing, he clenched his jaw and frowned as he looked back at Ginger. "Where is she?”

“She's on her way to Cambodia with Eggsy, Merlin, and,” Ginger hesitated to finish speaking. She took a deep breath preparing for how Whiskey would react. “ Agent Galahad. That's where Poppy’s base is.”

“Ginger, what the fuck?! You let her go by herself?” Whiskey growled out as he stared at the screen with your location. “Prepare the Silver Pony. I’m not leaving her alone with that fucking traitor.” Before Ginger could say anymore, Whiskey ran off in full speed towards his jet, intent on getting back to you as soon as he could. He pulled up his watch, clicking a few buttons before a faint beep was heard. He looked at the map and sighed, at least feeling secure that he had a visual on you. When you slept together, he put on a tracker and put one on you just as a piece of mind for himself. He knew you'd kill him if you ever found out but he needed that security. Ever since they found Harry and brought him back to the agency, he had a nagging feeling. He never liked your friendship with him and now, he feared for your safety. If Harry was willing to shoot him in the head, what would he be willing to do to you? 

Merlin entered the main room and everyone turned to look at him. You smiled as you heard Eggsy compliment him. “Hey, hey. Looking good, Merlin.”

“Feeling good, Eggsy.” Merlin chuckled as he watched Eggsy nod his head in approval. Merlin looked at you for a second, seeing the same expression on your face as his. You held your hand up, giving him a soft thumbs up of approval. “Right. This is yours.” Merlin turned towards Harry, handing him an umbrella before turning towards Eggsy, handing him a briefcase. You recognized the weapons. They were hardly ever used. Most Statesmen agents considered them too fancy. “That's for you.” 

“I feel naked.”

“Whiskey, it’s not that bad. You don’t need your whip.”

“Easy for you to say. You can just hide yours under your dress. I have to carry this stupid briefcase. Who even brings a suitcase to a gala?” You giggled as you watched the older man complain. He looked at you, furrowing his brows in confusion as you laughed. “Now you’re laughing?”

You shrugged as you wrapped your arm around Whiskey’s, oblivious to the way he tensed slightly at your touch. You had been partnered for some time but you were only friends. “You’re cute, that’s all.” 

Whiskey laughed as he shook his head. “Got me feeling as pretty as a peach, darlin.” 

Whiskey’s laugh echoed through your head as the memory faded away. You felt your throat tighten and you willed your tears away for the billionth time that day. The boys had opened the weapon vault under the pool table as Merlin handed Harry a bat. “Press the "S". Minesweeper. Courtesy of Statesman.” Merlin nodded your way and you gave him a weak smile, tipping your hat in a silent ‘You’re welcome’. Eggsy looked at all the gadgets in the little vault. It was catered especially for you, Whiskey, and Tequila. On the top wall, there were Tequila’s shotguns as well as his bulletproof suit. There was an array of guns surrounding it, your specialty guns. You walked over, slipping the gun vest around yourself. You checked every gun to make sure it was loaded, slipping them both into their holsters, as well as slipping two more into your thigh holsters. Guns were your thing. You looked over at Whiskey’s whip and lasso. You remember when he taught you to use them and how happy he was when you became an expert in just a few short months. The added skill made for great teamwork on missions. 

“And what about these?” Eggsy grabbed a baseball, turning it in his hand.

“Careful. Those are hand grenades.”

“Don’t blow yourself up, sugar.” You mumbled as you reached over grabbing your whip that was placed next to Whiskeys. When you mastered it, as a gift, Whiskey had one custom made for you with your initials at the end, the handle made in your favorite color. He said it was to distinguish which was which. At the time, you let yourself believe it was because he felt something and you were right, but Whiskey played it off like it was nothing. “As discussed, this is for the endgame.” Merlin grabbed a glasses case, handing it over to Eggsy. Eggsy opened the case, revealing a small syringe filled with a golden liquid. You raised your eyebrows in question but you didn’t comment. “I'm entrusting it to you. And I'm entrusting this,” You smirked as Merlin grabbed a large machete. It was one of Tequilas. “To me.”

Soon the plane started its auto-piloted landing, leaving you a few miles away from Poppy’s location. Leaving the plane, the four of you went on your way through the jungle. Merlin led the way, cutting at leaves in your path. When you spotted the first landmine, you quickly switched places, letting Eggsy lead the way with the minesweeper. You walked between him and Merlin, keeping your distance from Harry. As you got close, you all huddled close, staring at the entrance to the facility. "Right. This is where we split up. Pincer movement. Merlin, you're with me. Gin, Eggsy, you signal when we're in position."

You all nodded your understanding and as you moved to walk away, you heard the soft sound of something being stepped on and activated. You all froze, no one daring to move. After a few tense seconds, everyone's head slowly looked down to see Eggsy's foot firmly planted on top of a mine. His eyes fell wide in shock. 

"Don't move. You move, we die." Eggsy nodded his understanding slowly as Merlin stepped back, taking the suitcase from Eggsy. He opened it up and pulled out a can. "Luckily, I have this." Merlin bent down next to Eggsy's foot, pushing away the dirt surrounding the mine. He shook the can and sprayed it all around the mine, getting just a bit on Eggsy's foot. You kept a lookout for any guards that could've spotted you, your heart beating frantically. "This spray will freeze the trigger mechanism, give us a split second. So on the count of three, what I want you to-" Before anyone could think clearly, Merlin pushed Eggsy off of the mine, standing on it instead. 

"Merlin!" Eggsy panted quietly as he slowly turned around looking to his old friend in shock. You watched with wide eyes, knowing what Merlin was going to do and it pained you. You were the least close to him but in the short time you knew him, he treated you with nothing but kindness, even when they had first arrived, you were the one to pull Tequila off of them, offering them comfort. Merlin appreciated you in his own way, watching out for you just as he would for Eggsy. "Merlin, what the fuck have you done?"

Merlin’s expression never changed as he took a deep breath. “Our journey together began many years ago, when your father did the same thing for us.” He motioned between himself and Harry.

“Our journey began with a mistake I made. Give me the can. That's an order.” Harry moved towards Merlin, holding his hand out towards him. 

Merlin handed the can over with no regret. “Can's empty. Split second's over. You three need to get going.”

“No, no, no. There's got to be another way.” Your heart clenched for Eggsy as you watched the whole ordeal. You swallowed thickly agreeing with him.

“He's right. The mission comes first.”

“Bollocks, mission comes firs-”

“Eggsy! This is no time for emotion. Remember your training. Or we all die. Now get on with it.” Eggsy looked at Merlin with disbelief as he tried to argue. You could see it in his stance, in the way his lip quivered, and in the way his eyes glossed over. This was it for your friend and Eggsy was on the brink of breaking down. 

“Do as you're told. Move it!” Eggsy looked between the two men before glancing at you, a large battle behind his eyes. You knew you would agree with him and suggest there was another way but you knew, it was a battle neither of you would win. You wanted to strangle Harry for being so insensitive.

“Go.” Eggsy slowly grabbed his suitcase as he turned, walking off towards his mark. You knew you needed to be in position with him. You inhaled shakily, trying to keep your own emotions in check. You couldn’t risk making any wrong move. You walked over to Merlin, straightening his tie, staring at it before looking up at him in his eyes. You hadn’t noticed the tears you had shed but he did and he smiled softly. “Looking very good Merlin, very handsome.” You mumbled quietly. He smirked as he nodded his silent ‘Thank you’ to you.

“Feeling good Gin.” You let a broken laugh escape your lips as you stepped back watching him. You turned around before you’d break down and made your way to Eggsy. He noticed the red blotches on your skin and he knew you were the first to break over Merlin. You knew it was ridiculous to feel so hurt about someone who you had known for a few days but you were already so on edge over Whiskey and Tequila that you were a bit off your game. You swallowed your emotions, cloaking them with something darker as it took over. You needed to complete the mission and you weren’t going to risk the lives of millions because you were sad. 

“It's been an honor.” You heard Harry finish his goodbyes as he made his way to his own position.

“Good luck.” Merlin made an ok sign before you slowly heard his baritone voice fill the air. “Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.” He sliced at the trees in his way, giving the guards a clear view of Merlin as he stood there singing. You laughed quietly as you recognized the song almost immediately after the first two words.

“Poppy, come in.” You heard the guard call into his walkie-talkie, Poppy responding quickly.

“Roger.”

“Life is old there.”

“Are you expecting another lawyer?” You heard the guard say as Merlin kept singing. 

“Older than the trees.”

“There's a guy here singing.”

“Younger than the mountains.” You couldn’t help yourself as you sang the song quietly with Merlin. Eggsy gave you a sad smile before you cleared your throat. 

“Sorry... I just- My dad used to sing it to me when I was a baby to put me to sleep.” Eggsy genuinely smiled as he imagined what you told him. You didn’t know why you said it. You just knew he needed some type of comfort. Eggsy looked back at Merlin and nodded quietly as he whispered, scared his voice would break. 

“Merlin was right. Country music is the best.” You reached out, placing your hand on his shoulder. He exhaled heavily and watched as the guard walked closer to Merlin, holding his radio towards Merlin so Poppy could hear him singing.

“Blowin' like a breeze, Country roads, Take me home, To the place I belong.”

“Bring him to me.”

“West Virginia, Mountain momma, Take me home, Country Road.” As soon as the guard was less than a few feet away, Merlin removed his glasses, headbutting him so hard, he knocked out. The rest of the guards jumped, making their way over to Merlin as they kept their guns trained on him. Merlin swiftly placed his glasses back on. 

“Poppy, we got a situation here.”

“Country roads, Take me home,” Merlin looked over at Harry, nodding at him before he turned towards you and Eggsy. He turned towards you and you blew a kiss. He smirked, turning back to face the guards that were so close to him as he sang. “To the place I belong, West Virginia, Mountain momma, Take me home, Country Roads.” You knew it was coming but when the explosion rang through the air, shaking the earth. You shook in your place. You closed your eyes tightly, feeling overwhelmed. You took a deep breath, calming down. When you opened your eyes, they were overtook with rage. 

“Ooh. He stepped on a landmine. Can we get somebody out there to clean that up? Hello?” Poppy’s voice echoed out in the open from one of the abandoned radios. You watched as the same emotions washed over Eggsy. You clenched your jaw, rocking your head side to side, cracking it. Eggsy gripped the briefcase against him as the three of you slowly approached the large gate door. 

The loud ringing of gunfire set the center on alarm as everyone geared up to face the intruders, you. You all stood at the ends of the gate, staying away from the view of the guards. The door started to close as Eggsy pulled out the baseball grenade. He tossed it towards Harry who hit it with the bat he had, sending the ball flying, landing on a roof of one of the buildings. Harry opened his umbrella moving into the compound first, deflecting all of the bullets. Eggsy followed behind with you behind him. You moved towards the back, wanting to catch some guards from their blind spots. 

The donut on top of the donut shop exploded, rolling off in front of Eggsy and Harry. You used this to your advantage as you used your whip to pick off guard after guard, pulling them into the bushes and shooting them in the head, clean kills. You watched as Eggsy mowed down the guards with his briefcase as the donut rolled across the street. Although your personal preference was to execute the cleanest kills, you respected Eggsy’s. A scrawny man ran in with a bazooka and just as you were about to use your whip against him, Eggsy flipped his briefcase, sending a small missile at him, causing a huge explosion. You waited for the fumes to calm down before poking your head out from the bushes, flashing a small thumbs up to Eggsy. He noticed you, a large grin painting his features before reloading his case and flipping it over and nodding at you before gunning the men down again. You smirked walking out of your spot, with your guns held high. Several guards noticed you but you were quicker. You walked through getting head shot after head shot. You really didn't give any of them a chance. You always wanted to make your parents proud. Since you we're young, you had made sure before to train countless hours, day after day, getting the shot perfect. It took you years of practice to get your aim and skills to the level they were but you prided yourself on it. You weren't one of the best agents in the entire agency for no reason. 

Eggsy quickly turned his briefcase into a shield, shooting each man with only a precision you knew. You smirked, using your whip on a few other guards, pulling them towards you to get clean shots. You felt adventurous, turning it on, the electricity burning through their necks, beheading them. You even threw a few guards towards Eggsy, watching him shoot them with perfect head shots. The whole scene was gnarly but you didn’t care anymore. Before you knew it, you had finished off your guards and you watched with awe as Eggsy flipped around a guard, shooting another, before using his legs to propel himself forward shooting the other one running towards him. You whistled in respect, noticing the robot approaching you with a grenade gun. You motioned for them to go after Poppy as you ran towards the robot with your whip. You swung it forward, grabbing the gun and pulling it towards you, before swiftly shooting a few grenades at the robot. The robot looked down at her feet where the grenades were but before she could react, she was blown to bits. You raised your hand, making a handgun with your fingers and blowing the tip of your finger as if it was the actual gun. You felt on top of the world. Of course, before you could continue being your bad ass self, one of the robot’s motors fell hard on your head, knocking you completely unconscious. Eggsy saw this but they couldn’t compromise the mission as he ran into the diner. He, however, ran a diagnostic on your body from afar and was satisfied with seeing you were okay. 

What felt like years was only a few minutes. You woke up slowly with a loud pounding in your head. You groaned reaching up, feeling a large lump on top. Pulling your hand back, you noticed there was some blood but you couldn't focus on that. Eggsy was fighting, who you could only assume was Charlie at this point. He had hacked into his hand and now left him hanging on the tree. You tried to sit up but you felt the wind being knocked out of you. You fell back into your back, the sounds of growling and fighting become more distant by the second. You fell unconscious once more with a heavy exhale of breath. 

Eggsy and Harry had killed everyone on location except Poppy. They cornered her into her diner. You laid on the floor with some blood falling from your head. From anyone else’s perspective, you looked dead. Whiskey had made it to the location, making his way towards the three of you. Walking in, he saw the mess of dead bodies. It didn’t matter to him, he was a man on a mission, intent of getting to you. Whiskey would’ve missed your body, hadn’t it been for his hat that he spotted on the floor. He furrowed his brows, slowly walking towards it when he saw your whip, laying on the floor next to it. He looked up and there you were. He fell to his knees next to you, quickly pulling you into his lap as he searched your body for any life-threatening injuries. He cupped your head gently but felt the blood drain from his face and his heart skip a beat when he pulled his hand back, seeing it coated in your blood. He checked you quickly for a pulse, finding one after a few minutes of struggle. Relief washed over him like a cold shower. He slowly looked up, clenching his jaw in anger. They were going to leave you there to die. “I’m going to make this right baby girl. I’m going to make this right.” He kissed your head gently before standing up and stalking towards the diner with a predatory glint in his eyes.

“Did I? You know, I really don't have as much experience with all this drug stuff as people think. Better be the right code.” Whiskey watched as Eggsy slid the case over to Harry to input the code. He took a deep breath, slowly unhooking his whip. 

"Viva las..."

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[howlingday]

Setting: After an unfortunate dust accident, as all things start, Jaune becomes feral and violent, hiding out in the wilderness. He's been gone for months, but has been spotted near a remote location in Vale: the Emerald Forest. He's been spotted killing Grimm, attacking Huntsman that get too close, and throwing rude hand gestures at Bullheads flying overhead. Team RWBY and ORPN are now setting up camp outside what is determined to be his "territory." Once set up, the team begins making plans for capturing their fiendishly feral friend.

---------------------------------------------------

Oscar: The tents are pitched!

Weiss: The fire-pit has been made!

Blake: Are we missing anything?

Nora: Ren just came back with a bunch of twigs, while I brought the REAL firewood!

Blake: I guess we can start planning, then.

Yang: Sounds good to me! Anyone got anything?

Penny: I could set the forest on fire to flush him out. He would escape the blaze towards us, where we will capture him.

Yang: Or he beats the tar out of us for burning his home down.

Blake: We could track him down, see where in this forest he calls home.

Oscar: That could take days, or even weeks. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can use Weiss' dust antidote.

Nora: Even though it was her dust that turned him into this the first place?

Weiss: Hey!

Ren: What if he baited him? (Everyone looks at him) Jaune might be our friend, but he's more or less an animal right now, and animals just need traps and the right bait.

Blake: That could work, but we'd need the right bait first.

Ruby: It should be something he can't say no to. I'd say dinosaur chicken nuggets, but we didn't pack any. (Chuckles) Does anyone have any ideas on what to use as bait? (Everyone stares at her) What?

Yang: W-Well, you and Jaune are pretty close.

Weiss: You both attended leadership seminars together at Beacon.

Nora: You both stayed pretty close together when we traveled to Haven.

Ren: And you have a crush on him. (Everyone looks at him) Was it not obvious?

Ruby: W-What?! No! W-We're just really good friends! Like Blake and Yang! (The two look at each other, then deadpan at Ruby) What?

Nora: So it's decided!

Ruby: What's decided?!

Nora: We use you as bait, and Jaune comes for you, we'll jump out and hit him with a tranquilizer round!

Ruby: B-But wouldn't it be better to have Weiss bait him, slow him down with her glyphs, and then I shoot him with the round?

Weiss: (Shakes her head) It's too risky. With so many Grimm, plus the possibility of Jaune remembering my semblance, he wouldn't try to attack me out in the open where you could be distracted by a rogue Beowolf.

Ruby: But-

Nora: Plus, we already bought your outfit.

Ruby: What?!

THE NEXT DAY, AT DAWN

Yang: (Into her earpiece) Is everyone in position?

Ren: Ren, in position at the north exit.

Nora: I'm at the south exit, over!

Blake: I'm at the east exit with Weiss.

Yang: And I'm at the west exit with Oscar. Does everyone see Ruby?

Ruby: This is bull!

Yang: Ruby, don't shout, or you'll scare away Jaune!

Ruby: Okay, then, let me say it like this. (Clears her throat) THIS IS SUCH A LOAD OF BULL! (Nevermore scatter away)

Oscar: This might actually bring him closer.

Yang: (Whispering) I know.

Blake: We see him! He's entering from east!

Blake and Weiss watch from their position, high in the trees, as Jaune passes underneath. He's dirty, covered in mud and grime, and growing a small goatee. His shirt and armor is gone, leaving only his torn and cut up jeans covering himself. He scans the area and finds Ruby in what appears to be her normal attire, except her collar is cut a little lower, revealing more skin, and the thighs of her pants have been cut out. He approaches her and Ruby takes a step back, causing Jaune to approach more quickly. He stands over her as she shivers, then he walks past her.

Ruby: Phew! He passed me! Maybe I can get out of this.

Yang: (Over comms) Where are you going?! Chase after him!

Ruby: He's not bothering me, so I say let him go and get him from behind!

Blake: Uh, guys-

Yang: Ruby, we can't tranquilize him from here. He's out of range!

Blake: Guys-

Ruby: Out of range?! He should have been in range when he was right in front of me! If I had Crescent Rose, I could have shot him from here!

Blake: Guys, Jaune is-

Yang: I told you why you couldn't bring her! As soon as he saw her, he would have ran!

Ruby: Yeah, I could have got him right in his-!

Weiss: RUBY! WATCH YOUR BACK!

Ruby: Huh? (Turns around, Sees Jaune right behind her) Meep!

Jaune raises his hand up to her, his fingers calloused and fingernails dirty from what she hoped was dirt, and Ruby jumped away. This spooked Jaune and he got defensive. Ruby raised her hands slowly to show she was unarmed. Jaune cautiously approached after a few moments.

Ruby: Easy, big guy! It's just me! It's me, Ruby. (Jaune got closer and put his hand up to hers, then his other hand to hers) See? It's okay. I'm not going to-

Yang: NOW!

Yang leaps from her tree as Nora and Blake do the same from theirs, while Ren, Weiss, and Oscar stay behind to guard their exits. Weiss summons a glyph beneath Jaune and Ruby, but Jaune leaps away, trapping Ruby inside.

Ruby: Dammit, Weiss!

Weiss: You should have jumped out of the way! The animal did!

Jaune turns to run, but is cut off by Nora, who swings Magnhild at him. He steps back, dodging every swing, but is sideswiped by a hook from Yang. He falls to the ground, and Blake wraps his legs in her ribbon. He struggles, but is otherwise immobilized.

Ruby: (Free from her glyph) Tranquilize him now!

Yang: On it! (Reaches into her back pouch) Just gotta... Um, just gotta... Uh, I don't have it.

Nora: I don't have it, either.

Blake: N-Neither do I, but I'm, rgh, also kinda busy here!

Ren: (Into his earpiece) I have it, but I can't shoot it from here. Should I go over there?

Yang: Yes, get over here now before- (Jaune yanks on the ribbon, pulling Blake off balance and freeing himself) that happens.

Ren leaps down, loading Storm Flower with the tranquilizer. Jaune and Yang crash, but Jaune uses his momentum to push her at an angle, then pull in the opposite direction, and swing her into Nora. Nora catches Yang, but falls backwards. Ruby runs out of the way, but Jaune gets behind her, grabs her and uses her as a human shield as Ren fires at him from behind.

Ruby: (Is hit, Slurs before passing out) Oh, you sonova-

Jaune runs away, holding Ruby over his shoulder. He turns and sees Ren pointing at him again, so he turns around and holds Ruby in front of him. He then darts right into the treeline before returning to a beeline for deeper into the forest.

Yang: (Watches as Ruby's carried off) Damn it! (Rips off her pouch and throws it to the ground) Oh, there are the tranquilizers! Everyone group up! This capture mission just became a rescue mission, specifically rescuing our team leader and friend. Everybody split up and find out where Wild Child took my sister! If we don't find her, we go with Penny's plan, and burn this forest to the ground! But until she's found, nobody is going back to camp!

BACK AT CAMP

Penny: Campsite is secure, Patrol number 347 is complete! Now performing campsite Patrol number 348! (Walks around the campsite, Sees rustling in a tent) Unusual activity in Ruby's tent. Investigating.

Penny opens the tent and finds Ruby and Jaune currently fighting each other. She assumed their clothes were removed to make it an even fight between the unarmed combatants. Jaune has Ruby pinned, but it quickly shifts to Ruby somehow pinning him with her smaller form. Due to constant shift, Penny can't intervene, and shuts the tent as she exits.

Penny: Oh, I know! I will cheer on Ruby with some intense music for battle! Now searching data library for fitting battle music. Hmm, since we are in a forest, I will filter for songs with forest-like biomes. It should also feature fierce animals in the lyrics. But it should also be sentimental, since Jaune Arc is Ruby's "cru-friend," as she puts it. Ooh! I think this song fits perfectly!

Penny's speaker extends from her mouth, blasting a yodeling howl that alerts the Grimm to veer away from interrupting this contest of strength, agility, and stamina. It worked, as all Grimm with a hundred kilometers move in the opposite direction.

Penny: (Speaker) Yee-dee-dee-dee, Yee-dee-dee-dee, A-wee-bum-buh-weh~!

Suddenly, the tent starts shaking more wildly, and two combatants grunt and pant louder than before.

Penny: (Thinking) It's working! Ruby is really putting up a fight, if her activity increase by 33 percent is a trusted indication.

[foreverfamilyforevervongola]

Caim with Fran and Xanxus/the Varia please!

The first time Fran has to go back to France, he is, understandably, shaken.

And it infuriates him, because he shouldn’t be stressed. She means nothing to him. He knows if he encounters her, he’ll be able to kill her in less than a second. She couldn’t put her hands on him even if she wanted to, and he doubted she would. She never liked touching him.

She creeps back into his thoughts like poison. Fran grits his teeth as he packs, hating the way his fingers tremble. A slew of traumatic memories flash before his eyes and he grimaces.

The anxiety stirs in his chest and he ignores it. He snaps the lid shut on his suitcase and whirls around--only to see Mammon inches away from him.

Fran recoils. “Creeper, much?”

“You’re in a real state if you can’t even detect someone coming up behind you,” says Mammon flatly.

“I’m not in a state,” Fran says tightly, even as the anxiety curls into a knot and settles heavy in his chest.

He grabs the handle of his suitcase and shifts out of the room. He drops the bag by the front door with more force than necessary.

He’s fifteen. He has a home and family and friends. He’s not scared anymore. He’s not.

I hate her I hate her I hate her I hate her

Thwap!

The smack catches him across the back of the head and he stumbles forward. He turns around, gingerly rubbing the aching spot and staring at Xanxus, who is regarding him with a blank expression.

Fran registers the agitation and stress coursing through him. He starts to hate himself. “Sor--”

“Shut up,” interrupts Xanxus. He points in the direction of the living room. “Go.”

Fran obeys. He enters the plush-carpeted space, where Lussuria, Squalo and the rest are waiting, and he sits beside Belphegor on the couch. His hands instinctively start to fold together, fingers squeezing, but Belphegor spots the anxious tic and swats his wrists. Fran reluctantly pulls them apart, giving the blonde a half-hearted glower.

“Are you able to handle this mission or not?” asks Xanxus bluntly.

Fran’s chin jerks up. “I already told you I could.”

“Then stop effing thinking about the Cagna.”

Fran’s lips pinch together, a dull heat rising in his cheeks. The self-hatred inflated and Lussuria firmly squeezes his ear. “None of that.”

“Look, brat, if you’re not ready to visit your home country, fine,” says Squalo. “But you need to figure that out here and not in the middle of this mission.”

“Do you seriously think you’re going to run into her?” Belphegor wonders with a raised brow.

No, Fran doesn’t. He’s pretty sure the second she dumped him she took off, leaving France and her child far behind. “It’s not just that,” Fran says, frustration leaking into his tone, not knowing how to explain himself. But they wait, watching him, no judgement in their eyes, and Xanxus’ crimson gaze pierces through him. Fran lets out a slow breath. “France holds nothing but crappy, horrible memories. Not a single good thing happened to me while I was there. And I guess...I guess I’m anticipating the second I step foot over the border, it’s going to be the same.”

Mammon’s eyebrow shoots up. “You think I’m going to leave you there?”

“No!” says Fran quickly. “No. I just can’t imagine anything going right. Because nothing did go right.” He shakes his head, as if the motion will dispel his cloudy, troubled thoughts. “But I want to go. I want to do this mission. I can do it.”

His eyes blaze with determination. Levi pushes his shoulder. “We’re not saying you can’t, runt.”

Xanxus studies Fran intently. “All I want to know is that you can guarantee you’re not going to have a breakdown.”

“I won’t.”

There’s confidence in his voice and Xanxus believes him. But the anxiety still lingers and Xanxus approaches him. Fran eyes him uncertainly, and confusion floods his expression as Xanxus moves his hands around him in a circular motion. When he finishes, Xanxus knocks his knuckles against Fran’s forehead, his face unreadable.

“Remember that, small trash.”

He twists on his heel and briskly walks out of the room. Fran blinks after him. “What the hell was that?”

“Caim,” says Lussuria cheerfully.

“And that means...?”

“Figure it out,” says Levi, standing up and stretching his arms. “And don’t screw up the mission.”

Fran scowls. “Please. I’ll do a better job than you’ve ever done.”

“Like that’s going to be hard,” Belphegor snickers and ducks by Levi, dodging the punch.

“We leave in an hour,” Mammon informs. “Forget your ticket and I’ll kill you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’ll make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, Fran-chan,” Lussuria chirps.

Squalo threads his fingers through Fran’s teal strands and gives a tug. “And seriously, kid, relax.”

Fran nods and they file out of the room, going their separate ways. Fran pulls his phone out of his pocket and searches the strange term Lussuria had given.

Caim (Scottish, Gaelic) | Casting a caim, a ring of protection...

As Fran read through the definition, warmth flooded his chest. He wonders where Xanxus had picked up that technique, if it had been a fixture in his childhood with Timteo. But he knows better than to ask, and it doesn’t matter.

He lowers his phone with a grin. A circle of protection, an invisible ring, to remind him that he is safe and loved.

He is loved.

And that chases away the darkness, is an antidote to the poison that is his biological mother. His family was always there for him, at his highest points and lowest points.

They were his circle.

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Natsume (pt. 9)

Previously we talked about how Natsume gave up on trying to make Mikan hate him in order to support her on her mission to retrieve Iinchou's alice and an antidote for Hotaru's wound. We also discussed his feelings of insecurity and contrasting surrender with not being relied upon by Mikan. He simultaneously accepts that she shouldn't get close and also hates that she doesn't call out to him when she's in trouble.

Today we'll talk about the cementing information about Natsume' life-span, as it has consequences on his relationship with Mikan, as well as the harsh differences between Natsume and the others on this mission.

Chapter Thirty-Six

This arc reveals several things, but this chapter specifically addresses Natsume’s differences from the rest of them. This isn’t his first life-or-death mission, and he has experience with this that the rest of them lack.

When they wake up in the mountains, Natsume and Ruka are quick to try and find information about their surroundings, and Tsubasa establishes that eating should be a priority as well.

Mikan wanted to be useful in this way, having packed food for this occasion. Unfortunately, Pengy is in her backpack instead, having eaten everything she prepared. Natsume is adamant that Pengy be discarded, as it’s already proven itself to be a hindrance. Mikan sticks up for it, saying that it was a gift from Hotaru, but Natsume argues that that’s nonsense.

This is a great example of the difference between them. For Mikan, this may be a noble adventure where she will go on a journey and save Iinchou and Hotaru, but for Natsume, this is his second life. He knows how this sort of thing goes. This isn’t a game, it’s a deadly mission where they might get killed. They could starve. They could get injured. Hindrances like Pengy only increase the chance of that happening, as it’s already shown.

Natsume came along to help the journey be smooth and as safe as possible, so really he's just doing what he came to do.

Mikan promises to take responsibility for it, so Natsume begrudgingly allows it, but there’s tension between them now. Pengy’s behavior needs to be in line, or Natsume will have been proven right.

And then almost immediately, Natsume is proven right.

Pengy gets itself trapped by a flesh-eating plant, and Mikan and Ruka rush to save it. The enchanted trees nearby are awakened and irritated, so they start spitting sap and acorns at each other, with the kids in the crossfire.

Natsume is covered with sap and leaves and, although he is annoyed, doesn’t really react until Ruka is attacked by a swinging branch and crashes against another tree trunk. Because Ruka has been hurt, Natsume goes berserk once again, setting all the trees in the area on fire for what they did to his friend. This is an example of how going berserk can actually be useful, as Natsume is able to take out the threat and keep them all safe.

The tension is even worse now. Natsume had to clean up after Pengy’s mess, even after Mikan said she would take responsibility. Mikan gets defensive and argues, even attempting to downplay the role Pengy played, but Natsume is in no mood to listen. He has a point, after all, because this situation is much more dangerous than any of the rest of them fully comprehend.

The DA class was going to dispatch experts (children, but still experts) to take out Z, and now he's going in blind with very little intel and a group of unexperienced kids who have no idea how dangerous this really is. Natsume comes close to death on a regular basis, and even as readers we have no idea if that regular basis means weekly or even sometimes daily. From what we’ve seen in the Reo arc, we’re aware that Natsume is always prepared to die, but will do what it takes to survive and accomplish the objective. This time, in order to accomplish the objective, they can’t lose their food or get attacked by trees and flesh-eating plants. In order to survive and do what they came for, Pengy should be discarded.

What’s more is that Natsume is angry because Pengy caused Ruka to be hurt, and he’s still upset about it. The damage could have been worse, and Pengy would have been responsible. He doesn’t want something like that to happen again, especially because two of the people on this mission with him are people he cares very much about and doesn’t want to see hurt.

Natsume isn’t usually one to get distracted by tense conversations either. He immediately jumps back into action to alert the others that something isn’t right--they’re in the territory of an embedded medusa alice and are in danger yet again.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Once again, Ruka is put in danger because of Pengy, whom he attempts to save from the medusa alice. This time, Mikan is able to take responsibility, and uses her nullification, amplified by Tono’s alice stone, to protect the both of them from the embedded alice.

This event brings some information about alice stones, but it’s just a taste of what we will later learn. If anything, it’s just an appetizer before the meal that we will have later on.

Natsume, ever observant on missions and always analytical, has been noticing a lack of fruit trees in the area and realizes that the animals that have been sharing the fruits have been traveling through warp zones. Natsume has so far been planning and strategizing, and Ruka, being so eager to prove himself, has been trying to be just as useful. As soon as they woke up, Ruka started communicating with animals to get info, and now that Natsume has brought up another possibility, Ruka instantly goes to work again.

Natsume can see how much Ruka is trying, and because of that, he insists that they all rest, because Ruka has overworked himself. Natsume wants his best friend to feel as important as he is, that he can be relied on. He specifically wants Ruka to know that he relies on him and trusts him, and that he is valuable on this mission.

They are winding down for the night, and Natsume has decided that since Mikan is taking too long getting the water, he’ll go get some himself. In the process, he ends up overhearing the conversation Mikan had with Ruka about alice stones.

Ruka doesn’t reveal much more about alice stones, just says that as they get stronger, they can all make alice stones. Then he promises to give Mikan his stone when he makes one someday, attaching all the romantic intent there with it. He’s content that Mikan swears the same, despite the fact that she doesn’t know what such a promise entails.

Ruka feels guilty for this, and runs to get Natsume.

But Natsume was listening the whole time, and revealing himself would embarrass Ruka, or make him feel even guiltier, so he keeps himself hidden. Even something as small as this is a selfless act.

But he can’t help it that Mikan finds him.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Mikan starts blabbering, but he responds unkindly at every new topic. His biggest concern is that Mikan doesn’t actually know what she just promised to do with Ruka. Natsume and Ruka both know: it’s more or less like a proposal of commitment, like dating or even marriage. She has no idea that there’s a romantic meaning with exchanging alice stones, but he can’t tell her either, because it would embarrass Ruka and put him on the spot. So when Mikan asks what it means, he elects not to say anything and ignores her instead. She has the right to know, of course, but Natsume won’t say it when doing so would throw Ruka under the bus like that.

As a result, there is a long, awkward silence that Mikan doesn’t enjoy, but Natsume can’t break.

Eventually, she breaks it, just to randomly say that one day, when she grows up, if she can make an excellent alice stone, she will give it to Natsume.

You know when you really want something, and suddenly it seems like the stars have aligned in all the wrong ways--you CAN have this thing, but you really shouldn't take it? Yeah, that's what this is. For me, this usually happens with food, but with some people I guess it's more meaningful.

It’s the last thing he expects, and he’s taken aback. He has done nothing obvious enough to deserve an alice stone from Mikan. He’s mean to her all the time, has even argued with her on this very mission, and told her he hated her only a couple days ago. There was so much anger between them because of Pengy, and yet she still promises that she will give him her alice stone. Natsume has a low self-esteem, and thinks the only thing that should be noticed by anyone is what he wants them to notice. His secret kindness doesn’t make up for anything else he does. He should ultimately still be the last of anyone’s priorities. He doesn’t think he’s worth an alice stone, because for years he’s been told that he isn’t even worth his own life.

Persona made it clear to him that the only thing he was good for was his performance on missions. If he cannot service the school, then he is no longer valuable. He should die. And because he does these missions to protect Aoi and Ruka, then ultimately he is only so valuable as long as he is protecting others, sacrificing himself for them. Even before that, Natsume has been self-sacrificing, but to have it drilled into you that your value is conditional--there’s no way something like that wouldn’t have grave consequences on a child’s self esteem.

To be told by the girl he likes that she wants to give him an alice stone… It’s unimaginable.

And he shuts it down.

He reminds her she already promised hers to Ruka, and tells her she couldn’t make more than one with ease. She only needs to make one for Ruka. He doesn’t want it.

Natsume could easily take advantage of the fact that Mikan has no idea what the alice stones mean and accept it. He could tell her what she’s promising. He could ignore her.

Instead, he rejects it, adamantly.

This is just so silly!

They end up bickering and splashing each other with water, acting like little kids (which they are) and getting entirely soaked.

Natsume looks at her, his memory focusing on when she said, “when I grow up.”

"When I grow up..." Damn, Mikan, don't rub it in. That's the thing he's sensitive about!

Natsume rejected her for many reasons. He will put Ruka’s happiness before his own. He doesn’t want to trick Mikan into anything. He doesn’t think he deserves it. It wouldn’t mean the same thing to her that it would to him. And, most tragically, he’s not going to grow up to be able to receive it.

By the time Mikan is able to make a fabulous alice stone worthy to give to someone, Natsume will certainly not be the one to receive it, because he will probably be long dead. Why would he allow her to make a promise that would be impossible for her to keep?

No, he has no choice but to reject her here, stomp out any chance that she would ever consider him again.

They’re both soaking wet, and she’s tugging at her hair, trying to wring it out, and all he can do is look at her.

And then he tells her that her pigtail hairstyle doesn’t suit her. In five years, she should wear her hair down. He thinks she looks better that way.

Might as well tell her now because he won't be around in five years, and wouldn't it be a travesty if nobody let her know?

Natsume has been selfless for most of the conversation, choosing Ruka’s feelings over everything else whenever he could. This comment of his is the first selfish thing to come out of his mouth this whole day.

They were all aged up before, because of the Gulliver candy, and Mikan’s hair had been in her customary pigtail style. We already have the feeling that Natsume likes her with her hair down, since he was so vehement that she didn’t put it up back during the musical. Now we (and Mikan) get verbal confirmation.

He tells her now, because in five years' time, he won't be alive to say it.

He must not think much of this, in terms of how it will affect her. Maybe it felt safe to say something insignificant, like “your hair’s nicer down”, after all the rejecting he’s had to do so far. He had to tell her he hated her, rejected her stone, and argued with her all day. It must be tiresome to lie all the time, especially when his real feelings are the opposite of what he’s letting on. He just wants to let a little of the affection he has for her out, especially when he’s looking at her like this. It’s not a love confession, or a promise to exchange alice stones. If he ever shows any affection, it should be small and almost imperceptible, nothing grand and obvious like Ruka’s. Natsume would never try to purposefully undermine Ruka’s wooing.

It’s not his fault that the smallest comment like that has such a huge impact on her.

They return to camp and find Tsubasa and Ruka absolutely wasted on grapes that Pengy has found. Yet another con on Natsume’s endless list of Pengy cons. Tsubasa sobers up, but Ruka embraces Mikan. In his drunken stupor, it almost seems like he might try to kiss Mikan. Although Natsume might be willing to put his best friend’s happiness before his, that doesn’t mean he’ll allow a wasted Ruka to kiss her. There’s plenty of reasons that could go wrong, after all, and there’s no doubt Ruka would be horrified come morning. So he pulls Ruka off Mikan and together they sleep, with Ruka nestled in the fur of a bear, snuggled up among animals. Natsume is uncomfortable, but he won’t tear his hand away from Ruka’s grip because it’s meant to comfort his friend.

He only separates from him a little later, when he starts coughing uncontrollably and we’re faced with yet another realization about Natsume.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The chapter opens with Tsubasa watching in concern as Natsume coughs, until he coughs up blood. Once he’s coughed out his blood, Natsume catches his breath and reaches for the healing alice stone he keeps around his neck. For all of Tsubasa’s concern about it, Natsume almost seems nonchalant. He’s not shocked or disturbed at all to see blood in his palm. His biggest concern is that Tsubasa keep it down because he’s being too loud and it might wake up the others.

Because even when Natsume’s life is nearing its end and his body is quickly decaying, all he is concerned with is Ruka. He coughed up blood. So what? All he cares about is that he isn’t worrying anybody. Natsume’s crippling martyr complex manifests here as a complete disregard for his own health, as long as everyone else is ignorant and happy. No matter how concerned Tsubasa is about him, Natsume is never on his own list of priorities.

Natsume is the least important person in his own life.

But he still informs Tsubasa that he’s been in this shape for a year, as a result of going on frequent missions for the school. Natsume has never told anybody this, but Tsubasa already knows one damning thing, so might as well just tell him everything. It must be a relief to him, to be able to confess it, after keeping it to himself this whole time.

Tsubasa is adamant that this is a big deal, and that he wouldn't feel right, letting Natsume continue on the mission while he's in this state.

So Natsume must once again point out that he’s different from the rest of them. His alice isn’t intended for use as a parlor trick or fun little hobby. His is to destroy and hurt, and not just the school’s enemies, but himself as well. His alice is incredibly powerful, a consequence of the life-shortening ability type, and at only ten years old he has an excellent, almost prodigal, grasp on controlling and utilizing it. Natsume can make an alice stone with ease, ignite or put out a fire no problem. And because of his position in the DA class, he’s also tactically and strategically advanced, so missions like the one they’re currently on are nothing he isn’t used to. He’s their ace, and that’s what Natsume is trying to stress to Tsubasa. He’s a great player to have on the team because of his experience and ability.

So don’t fucking spill about it, okay?

Because he’s capable and willing to retaliate, and if he does, it won’t be pleasant.

But what sticks in Tsubasa’s mind (and probably the reader’s) is that all that experience and ability comes at a steep cost, one that isn’t really worth it, not that Natsume has a choice in the matter.

Natsume leaves the conversation, going right back to Ruka and cuddling up with him again. He hadn’t wanted to leave Ruka’s side to begin with, understandably concerned that Ruka should get plenty of rest after a long day of using his alice and then getting drunk. Natsume is more than willing to help Ruka and fret over him, but he never gives Ruka the same opportunity, because he doesn’t want to put anybody, least of all his close friends, in that position. Natsume should be the one caring about people. He should be the last priority to everyone else, just like he is to himself.

And the next morning when Ruka wakes up, confused over what happened as he doesn’t remember anything, Natsume gets right back into the mission. Just like last night with the alice stones, he doesn’t want to embarrass Ruka.

As they continue their journey, Tsubasa continuously tries to voice concern for Natsume while not letting Mikan or Ruka know, as had been requested of him. Natsume responds with insults, because of course he does. Tsubasa then mutters, “And here I was, worrying about you!” but that’s exactly the effect Natsume was trying to have in the first place.

Natsume is really funny though, I think we can all agree.

Natsume has several go-to moves for his selflessness, and though they vary depending on the person and situation, most of them involve him being a jerk. In this case, he is being a jerk on purpose so that Tsubasa won’t worry about him. It’s hard to be overly concerned about a person when they’re bugging the shit out of you, after all. This is absolutely intentional, a technique Natsume uses often.

It backfires on him though, because Tsubasa is frequently surrounded by bratty kids with too much of a mouth on them. As they head up the mountain, Tsubasa keeps his eye on Natsume, who is obviously struggling physically with the trek. So Tsubasa picks him up and throws him over his shoulder to carry him part of the way. Natsume’s annoying attitude only further frustrates Tsubasa to this point. He even threatens to tell the others if he doesn’t comply and allow himself to be carried. Naturally, Natsume fights and kicks and scratches and even bites his way out of Tsubasa’s grasp as Ruka and Mikan watch, dumbfounded, but this exchange shows us two things:

Tsubasa and Natsume’s relationship is slowly evolving. They’re connected now and have a tie beyond Mikan. Tsubasa knows information about Natsume that nobody else does. It forces Tsubasa to see Natsume as more than just a little brat, and forces Natsume to put his trust in this person he’d hated with his whole chest before.

Natsume is extremely uncomfortable when he is being cared for. He’s used to being in the caretaker role, as I’ve mentioned previously in the Reo Arc. Even then, when Mikan carried and protected him, he was quick to encourage her to leave him behind. Now, with Tsubasa, Natsume cannot stand it. It’s not just that he isn’t quite as fond of Tsubasa, it’s also just the knowledge that someone is worrying about him, slowing themselves down and inconveniencing themselves for his sake. He goes out of his way to seem rude and unpleasant to avoid this exact kind of situation, so Tsubasa putting in the effort despite Natsume’s best efforts is distressing to him.

It only makes things worse that all the care Tsubasa is suddenly giving him might give things away to Ruka or Mikan, and Natsume will do anything to avoid that.

Natsume gets his chance for revenge when he kicks Tsubasa down a warpzone with full force, flinging Mikan in right after for good measure. They reemerge near the mouth of a volcano and discern that they must be in the right place when they discover that there's hallucinogenic smoke coming from the mouth. They fall through the crater and end up in a strange room.

Natsume and Tsubasa’s bickering over the large and suspicious door distracts them from the shaky ground which crumbles under Mikan’s feet.

She falls, pulled down by a skeleton. The boys all look on, horrified. Tsubasa holds Ruka back and Natsume reaches desperately for Mikan, calling for her by name, but it’s too late. She’s gone.

The last thing she does is begin to call for Natsume, but she’s lost now. Finally, Mikan is calling for him, wanting to rely on him, but he’s not able to protect her.

The one time she calls out for him, he can't help her.

Natsume has been trying to keep up appearances and the charade of disliking Mikan, but reaching for her with desperation is something he has to do, even if it reveals that he cares. They have absolutely no way of knowing what Mikan will find in that hole, or if she’ll even come back out in one piece.

Chapter 40

The ground closed back up as soon as Mikan fell through. As Tsubasa and Ruka discuss what could have happened, and Pengy cries, Natsume sits and contemplates. He remembers that Mikan is Yuka’s daughter and comforts himself with that knowledge. He will put faith in the fact that Yuka probably won’t let any harm come to her own child and steels himself. Although Mikan has just been forcibly separated from the group, knowing that she’s not in immediate danger is important to be able to keep going on with the mission. That’s Natsume’s specialty after all, and because of him, they can stay focused on where to go moving forward instead of panicking about the ground opening and swallowing their friend.

But his newfound composure doesn’t change the fact that he had acted in desperation already, calling and reaching out for Mikan in front of both Ruka and Tsubasa. As they make their way through the door that suspiciously opened for them, Tsubasa teases him. First he earnestly tells Natsume that getting angry won’t help anything, least of all with bringing Mikan back, but then he continues to prod. He tells Natsume not to blame himself, even though it must be hard for him to deal with not being able to save Mikan after all of his big talk. This sets Natsume off.

It's almost like Tsubasa wants to be blown up.

It hits too close to home because Natsume is blaming himself. He came onto the mission specifically to use his experience to keep them all focused and safe, so that they could be efficient and effective and make it back in time. Despite all his strategy and quick thinking, he wasn’t able to do anything about the sand trap. In fact, he’d been distracted when it first happened. He may be a child soldier, but the crucial part of that is that he’s still a child, so it makes sense that he would occasionally make mistakes. Still, in his line of expertise, mistakes get you or the people around you killed.

Natsume thinks about his new discovery of the stealing alice as he keeps going, having just blasted Tsubasa away from him. He’d never heard of such an alice, but to him, someone with such complicated feelings of hatred towards his ability and what it has always represented, it’s enticing. One touch and he’d be free forever. Maybe he could get what he’d always thought was impossible, what he’d never dared to imagine: an actual future he’d get to see.

Natsume, Ruka, and Tsubasa get led out of the tunnel by lasers into a vast room, where Shiki and a group of other Z members are waiting for them.

Conclusion

We see further proof of what we'd already known: that Natsume has a fundamentally different life than the rest of them do. His arguing with Mikan over Pengy might seem needlessly cruel, but he does have a point and he's motivated by keeping the group as safe as possible. We also talked about Natsume's imminent death, and how his knowledge of it affects his relationships, particularly with Mikan. Most importantly, we can see that Natsume has failed in his primary goal: he was unable to keep Mikan safe.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about how all these conflicts come to a head in the Z Arc, and what the lasting repercussions might be.

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[badchoicesposts]

In a Land of Myth...

Chapter 15

Summary: When Selene, a young sorceress, arrived in Stormholt she had every intention of remaining anonymous. King Constantine Rys had strict rules on sorcery. The act itself was punishable by death, and she had no desire to be burnt at the stake for her “crimes”. However, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to remain unseen when she becomes Prince Liam’s personal maidservant, and it seems that it’s her job to protect him from everyone that wants to kill him.

Disclaimer: This AU is a cross between TRR, The Crown and The Flame, and BBC’s Merlin. Merlin follows the tale of King Arthur and the sorcerer Merlin. Merlin comes to Camelot where magic is outlawed and is made Prince Arthur’s servant. You do not have to watch the show to understand this fic, but it is based on the BBC show Merlin so the story line will be similar. I don’t own the plot to Merlin or any of the TRR characters.

Word Count: 3,157

Pairing: Liam x MC (Selene), Drake x MC, Platonic!Bastien x MC

Author’s Note: This chapter is a bit different since it won’t be taking place from Selene’s POV. This one takes place from multiple POV’s and we get to see Bas, Drake, and Liam’s perspective

Taglist: @flowerpowell, @bobasheebaby, @alexintheskyy, @slytherincursebreaker, @kingliam2019, @furiousherringoperatortoad, @goldenbirdcrystalcage, @burnsoslow​, @zilch3, @desireepow-1986​, @sanchita012

Let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the taglist!

Catch Up: Masterlist

Time seemed to stand still for Bastien as he watched Selene fall to the ground. His heart shattered in his chest as he allowed himself to picture the rest of his life without the young woman who had become a daughter to him over the past few months. She had turned his life upside down. He could honestly say that he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he had decided to take in the twenty-one year old. Selene was every bit her mother’s daughter. She was strong, witty, and a force to be reckoned with. She had a big heart, one that was completely full of love for everyone she met. She was also more powerful than he had ever realized she could be. He had never seen magic so extraordinary before, but she was still young. She still needed guidance, and with it he knew she had the power to make the world a better place. But, now, in just a matter of seconds the world was about to lose her. 

He pushed Liam and Leo aside and gathered her body into his arms. Her body was completely limp against his as he began following Xinghai and Hana back to the physician’s quarters, barely registering the sound of the old man instructing someone to grab the poisoned goblet so he could figure out how to cure her. He lay her down onto the cot in the physician’s quarters gently, as if she were made of glass and pushed one of her curls out of her face. 

“She’s burning up,” he said, feeling the heat of her skin against his hand. 

Hana gave him a sympathetic smile and pushed her way past him to lay a damp cloth on Selene’s forehead. The door burst open a moment later and Drake, Leo, and Liam all crashed into the room. 

“I have the goblet,” Leo said, handing the offending item to Xinghai.

The three men crowded around Selene’s cot, and Bastien could see the pain written clearly on all of their faces. 

“Can you save her?” Liam asked the physician, his brow furrowed as he looked down at her. 

If it wasn’t for the thin layer of sweat that was covering her body, and the way she was shivering, they could almost pretend she was sleeping. Xinghai didn’t answer. He was too busy examining something on the inside of the goblet. 

“What is it?” Bastien asked, his voice thick with emotion as he finally turned away from the young girl’s body. 

Xinghai removed a flower petal from inside the goblet with a pair of forceps and examined it closely before turning to one of his books.

“A petal from the mortaeus flower,” he said. “According to this, someone poisoned by it can only be saved by a potion made from the leaf of the flower. It grows on the root of the mortaeus tree, that lies in the caves past the Blackspine Mountains.”

Bastien’s mind began to move a mile a minute. The Blackspine mountains. He knew the area well. However, it was dangerous to travel into the caves.

“The caves they’re protected by a creature, a cockatrice,” he finished. 

Xinghai nodded solemnly in his direction, before turning back to his book. “Even a single drop of the venom is deadly. Few, if any, who have travelled there have made it back alive.”

“I’ll go,” Bastien said, casting one last look to where Selene lay dying. “I’ll get the leaf.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Xinghai said, looking at him as if he were crazy.

“I refuse to let her die,” Bastien insisted as both men turned to see Hana dip her cloth into a bucket of water before resting it on Selene’s forehead once again. “I’d risk my own life before allowing hers to end without a fight.” 

“No, I’ll go,” Liam said, causing everyone to look up at him in surprise.

“Liam, I know you want to help, but you’re the heir to the throne. My life lost over this is nothing compared to yours,” Bastien said. 

“No. She did this for me. I have to be the one to make it right. She said that you were like a father to her. You should stay with her. She needs you here with her,” Liam insisted. “How much time does she have?

“The poison is slow acting and causes a long painful death. Four maybe five days at most,” Xinghai said.

~~~

“No,” Constantine said, his voice leaving no room for discussion. “She drank the poison to save your life and you want to end it anyway on a pointless rescue mission? This is why we have servants and royal tasters in the first place.”

Liam was disgusted with his father’s response. There were days when he admired the strength of the man, how fearless he always seemed to be. However, there were times when he couldn’t imagine how cruel he had become. 

“I won’t fail. I’ll get the antidote and returned unharmed,” Liam insisted. He needed to do this. He needed to do this for her.

“You are the heir to the throne. I can’t risk losing you for some serving girl,” Constantine argued.

“Why? Don’t you think that’s the least she deserves after saving my life, twice now?” he asked.

“No.”

“Her life is worth something. To me, to Leo, to Bastien, your most trusted knight.”

“Her life is worth less than yours,” Constantine argued, causing Liam to recoil at his words.

It was almost disturbing to hear his father care so little for the lives of the people he considered below them. He had made passing remarks about this topic before, but none had chilled Liam as much as hearing him say outright that they didn’t matter. He had no idea how much Selene mattered. 

“I won’t stand by and watch her die. Not for me,” Liam said.

“Then don’t look,” his father responded, his voice cold. “She’s not the first to die on your behalf, and she won’t be the last.”

“I’m going and you can’t stop me,” he said, turning away from his father and stalking down the hall. 

Liam could hear Constantine calling after him, but he paid him no mind. He was going to save her, consequences be damned. He went back to his chambers and grabbed his sword, packing a bag of a few essentials.

“I hear father forbade you from leaving the castle,” Leo’s called from behind him. 

Liam turned to see his brother standing there, dressed in his full armor and carrying a bag as well. Drake was standing next to him and both men had a look of determination on their faces.

“I’ve never been the rebellious type, but sometimes our father is wrong. Her life isn’t worth less than mine because she’s a servant,” he said.

Leo smirked at him and stalked into the room. 

“We’re coming with you,” he said.

“No, I’m going alone. It’s too dangerous. I won’t risk anymore lives,” Liam insisted.

“I’m not afraid of a little danger,” Leo said. “Are you, Drake?”

“Not at all,” Drake responded. 

Liam looked over to his best friend and sighed. 

“I can’t control either one of you, but you should stay here. He would have you executed if he knew you helped me defy him,” Liam insisted. 

Drake opened his mouth to protest, but Liam held his hand up to stop him. 

“Stay with her. Stay with Bastien. He needs you now too. I’ve never seen him so upset,” he instructed. 

Liam turned to his brother to try convincing him to stay once again, but Leo interrupted him. 

“I’m going with you. Besides, if our father wanted to have me executed he would have done it a long time ago,” he said, causing Liam to smile.

“Stay safe and come back soon,” Drake said, clapping him on the shoulder and nodding his head towards Leo before leaving them alone. 

The two brothers did their best to keep attention away from themselves as they exited the castle and made their way to the stables. After making sure their horses were prepared, they both mounted before Liam looked over to the other man nervously. 

“He’s not going to make it easy for us to leave,” he said. 

“Easy is boring. Let’s go!” Leo said, urging his horse forward. 

Liam repeated his actions and chased after his brother. As the two prepared to leave the castle courtyard, they noticed that their exit was blocked by two guards.

“Stop. By order of the king you are not permitted to leave these grounds!” one of them shouted. 

The Princes shared a look and instead of slowing down, they urged their horses to go faster, causing the two guards to jump out of the way to avoid being trampled. They had just managed to make it past one hurdle, but as the moved forward into the knight, Liam couldn’t help but feel that the battle had only just begun.

~~~

Drake sighed tiredly as the sun began to come up. He had been pacing the floor in front of Selene’s cot all night, not being able to get to sleep. Bastien was sitting in a chair next to her, falling in and out of a fitful sleep, but refusing to leave her side. He dipped the cloth from her forehead into the bucket of water before placing it back onto her skin. Hana had informed him that doing this would help keep the fever under control, but as her body continued to shiver and shake, he couldn’t help feeling that it was pointless. 

He felt useless as he looked down at her, his chest tightening at the sight that greeted him. He should be out there with Liam and Leo, helping them find the flower. He should be doing something. His mind wandered back over to the kiss they had shared. Pulling away from her that night had been one of the hardest things that he had ever done, but he told himself that it was what he needed to do. He dropped down onto the floor beside the cot and grabbed her hand in his. 

“Damn it, you need to come back. I need you to come back,” he whispered, squeezing her much smaller hand in his. 

He moved to pull his hand away from her when he noticed something strange on her forearm. He pushed her sleeve up just enough to reveal a small rash on her soft skin. 

“Xinghai!” he called over his shoulder to the man who had been dozing at his worktable. “There’s a rash on her arm.”

“What?” Xinghai called, slightly disoriented. 

He moved over to examine the newly discovered symptom as Bastien began to wake as well.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, moving towards them.

“The rash isn’t supposed to appear until the last stage of the disease. Hand me that book,” Xinghai said, pointing in the direction of worktable.

Drake grabbed the book from the table and handed it to the physician. He watched with anxiety rolling over him as he read over the page on the mortaeus flower. 

“This says the effects of the poison can be accelerated if an enchantment is used with it,” Xinghai read. 

“But, Eirik isn’t a sorcerer. He may be annoying and self righteous, but he’s not smart enough to pull off an assassination attempt with sorcerery,” Drake mused.

“Did you see who it was? The person who told her the goblet was poisoned?” Bastien asked urgently. 

“I only saw her from across the room, but she was dressed as a servant. She had red hair, looked kind of old,” Drake said, straining to remember anything about the woman. “What? What is it?” 

“I can’t believe she would come here,” Bastien muttered to himself. 

“Who?” Drake pressed, frustrated that he wasn’t getting an answer. 

“How much longer does she have?” Bastien asked, instead of answering his questions. “Now that the progression has sped up?”

“Two days at most,” Xinghai answered. 

~~~

“What are you thinking about, brother?” Leo asked.

He turned his head to look at Liam, whose face had been screwed up in concentration since they had left Stormholt the night before. They were almost to the caves behind the Blackspine Mountains, having already made the bulk of the journey.

“Something father said about Selene’s life being worth less than mine. It didn’t sit well with me,” Liam confessed, causing Leo to smirk at him. 

“I’m sure her life means quite a bit to you,” he teased, relishing in the blush that appeared on his brother’s cheeks.

“No- I mean yes, but that’s not what I mean,” he stumbled over his words. “He’s always said things like that. He believes the lives of anyone not born of noble blood is worth less and that isn’t right. A king should be able to acknowledge that people of a lower station are just as important as people born with a title.”

“The fact that you believe that already makes you a better leader than our father,” Leo said simply. 

It was no secret that he and Constantine didn’t have the best relationship. But, if the king wanted to view him as a disappointment, so be it. He was done fighting with him. He had done so all his life, but Constantine liked to believe that anyone who disagreed with him was wrong. There was no reasoning with a man like that. However, instead of being comforted by these words Liam seemed more troubled than he was before. 

“For so long I’ve viewed him as a strong leader, as a man who I should aspire to be like. But, I don’t want to become someone so hateful,” Liam mused, and Leo could tell that it pained him to speak ill of their father.

“It’s okay to disagree with him, you know. It’s not the end of the world,” he said, trying to ease his mind.

Instead of responding, Liam simply nodded his head, still looking troubled as they continued to ride on. It didn’t take long for them to make the rest of the journey and entrance to the caves were soon within sight. 

“Be on guard. Xinghai said the cockatrice guarded the caves,” Leo instructed as the two dismounted their horses, intent on making the rest of the journey on foot. 

Both men moved forward, but stopped only a few moments later when they heard a soft rustling up ahead of them. They each reached for their swords, Leo motioning for his brother to go left as he went right. They both inched forward slowly, but when they closed in on the sound, instead of finding a monster they found a woman lying on the ground. There was a large scratch on her arm, and she was whimpering softly. Her brown eyes were filled with tears, and her red hair was matted and in knots. Leo thought there was something familiar about her, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

“Are you alright?” Liam asked, placing his sword back into his scabbard and approaching her. 

The woman flinched as he came closer, and Leo kept his distance, looking over his shoulder nervously. He had a bad feeling about this, he had a bad feeling about all of it, and none of it had anything to do with getting the flower. 

“What happened to you?” Liam asked, in a gentle voice. 

The woman looked up at him and began to answer. However, before any words were able to leave her mouth, she let out a loud scream. Leo turned to see the large beast they were worried about slowly approaching them, it’s teeth bared. The cockatrice was an almost lizard like creature with four dragon-like legs, and a rooster shaped head. A low growling was coming from deep in its throat, and the sound was chilling.

Leo took a deep breath and bounced a few times on the balls of his feet, psyching himself up for the fight that was about to take place. The cockatrice began to bound towards him, and he ran to the left, dodging the attack. The creature let out a loud roar and ran towards him once again.

“Damn it, the things I do for these people,” he grumbled to himself, knowing full well that as annoyed as he was right now there was no way he would let an innocent girl die. “A little help here, brother!” 

Suddenly, the cockatrice let out a shriek of pain before falling to the ground, Liam’s sword plunged deeply into it’s back. Leo scoffed while his brother smirked at him, moving forward to retrieve the weapon from the creature’s body. 

“You wouldn’t have been able to do that if I hadn’t been distracting it,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.

“Whatever you say, Leo,” the man responded, moving back over to the woman’s side and kneeling down in front of her.

“What happened to you?” Liam asked her once again. 

“My master is a cruel man. I was running from him when the creature lunged at me. I fell to the ground and scraped my arm. I kept waiting for it to attack, but it never did,” she said, her voice full of fear. “Can you help me? Can you get me out of here?”

The two brothers shared a look. 

“We can, but there’s something we must do first,” Liam said. 

“What is it? Perhaps I can help,” the woman said. 

“We’re searching for something in the caves. A flower,” Leo answered hesitantly.

“The mortaeus flower?” 

“Yes,” he said, slightly suspicious. 

“I can help you. I’m from this area. I know where it grows,” she said. 

Leo grabbed onto Leo’s arm and pulled him away. 

“I have a bad feeling about this. It isn’t a good idea,” he said, glancing back over at the woman. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. 

“If she can help us get to the flower faster then we should bring her along. Selene doesn’t have much time left.”

Leo sighed and glanced back over to the woman. 

“Okay.”

The woman began to lead them into the caves, stopping momentarily to grab a torch. Leo wondered silently how the item was light, but didn’t voice this as he followed closely behind his brother. They walked through the caves for a while until they came to a narrow ledge. 

“There,” the woman said, pointing to the stone wall across the ledge. 

There was a small gap between the ledge and the wall, but other than that the only way to get to the flower was to climb up the wall. The caves extended for miles both up and down, and it wouldn’t be an easy climb. If a person fell there was no way they were going to survive. 

“So, you or me?” Leo turned to his brother with a half smile.